“Pursuit of wildlife photography and backpacking took me around the world from well above the Arctic to Tierra del Fuego in South America. Take the journey along with me. See what I saw, feel what I felt. It’s all here in my books.”

At the age of 11, while playing with friends in the woods near his home, Kern saw an unusual and beautiful bird he had not seen before. With the help of his elementary school principal, he identified the bird as a rose-breasted grosbeak. The event launched a lifetime interest in nature and the outdoors. By age 15 Kern had achieved the rank of Eagle Scout, the first evidence that he was serious about his outdoor pursuits.

A moment of truth came in 1956 when Yale’s yearbook committee asked in a form: “Future occupation?” read more 

Jim Kern writes: “In the fall of 1958 I was adrift in the Sunda Sea in a 30’ handmade boat. The sails were so thin I could have poked a finger through them. We had no motor. The goat we had killed and had on board as dragon meat spread a stench by the second day. Late on the third day we gained the island and got the first color photographs of the Komodo dragon, eventually visiting the island two more times, a record for a wildlife photographer.” read more 

The founder of the Florida Trail, the American Hiking Society and Big City Mountaineers takes you on a hiking and backpacking journey around the world in search of remote scenic splendor, from the 9,000-foot granite cones of Torres del Paine National Park in southern Chile and the roof of the world in the Langtang Range of northern Nepal, to hikes in the shadow of Mont Blanc, France, and on the Milford Trackon South Island, New Zealand. read more