Audrey Medina

Exploring new places is my passion, along with biking, birding, and writing about my experiences. Cycling’s slow pace gives me access to neighborhoods often passed by, and locals eager to share stories. My favorite trips include cycling across Iowa, meeting bears in Yosemite, trekking in Nepal, and spotting endangered birds in Hawaiian rainforests.

My outdoor articles and essays have been featured in TravelWorld International, Northwest Travel, Oakland, Alameda, Style, the San Francisco Chronicle, BirdWatching, WestJet’s up!, Adventure Cyclist, and The Literary Traveler. Adventures at home have appeared in The Christian Science Monitor, Orion, The Sacramento News & Review, American Bungalow, Old-House Journal, and Country Journal.

• Adventure Patrol guide at BoomerTravelPatrol.com.

I live in Placerville, California, a small town in the Sierra foothills. I’ve been a cowgirl, a geologist, and a technical editor.  There are still plenty of adventures out there for me, and I’m finding them as a freelance journalist.

Edward Abbey Desert Solitaire in the Pinacate Biosphere Reserve
Literary Traveler: Somewhere out there, coyotes are yapping. God’s dogs, Edward Abbey called them. They remind me of him, and that wildness still exists, out here and everywhere, even in cities and suburbs, everywhere that coyotes hunt.

Touring the Commute
Adventure Cycling: You know spring has finally arrived in Northern California when the cyclotourists begin to appear along the American River Parkway. “Where are you going with all that stuff?” I ask them.

American Dippers
Birdwatcher’s Digest: A small gray blur zips across the water just upstream. Trying to cross the snowmelt of Illilouette Creek, I nearly lose my balance when the gray blur distracts me. It lights on a moss-covered rock, bobs up and down a few times, and disappears beneath the ice-cold waves.

Cooking Up a Sense of Home
The Christian Science Monitor: An old stove inspires a reluctant cook to try her hand in the kitchen.