BIPOCS & Battlefields & Bears
This is the first travelogue in a 3-part series. Read part 2, “Gentrification of Wilderness.” Read part 3, “Chasing Liberty on the Nez Perce Trail” It finally dawned on us after we walked into the La Tinga restaurant in downtown Billings, Montana. There, we met...
An American Journey
For as long as I can remember, I have struggled with fitting my identity into the complex puzzle of race and ethnicity in this country. My mother is from Japan, and I was also born there, though my family moved to the U.S. when I...
Japanese American Activation
After a sometimes rousing, mostly solemn, and often tear-filled memorial ceremony brimming with Japanese and Japanese American influences, a scene unfurled that, to common understanding, may have seemed very un-Japanese. It happened beside an old jail nested in a much larger prison, the Tule Lake...
Chinese Americans in Yosemite
Bill in California Legislature Will Honor Roles Like Tie Sing’s Contributions by yet another community of color—Chinese Americans—to Yosemite National Park and the Sierra Nevada are proposed to be honored by a bill introduced in the California state legislature. Assembly Concurrent Resolution (ACR) 262 was...
Long Trails with Liz Thomas
by Liz Thomas for Backpacker Magazine328 pages, paperback: $24.95 Falcon Guides, 2017 We both have Japanese mothers, a love of the outdoors and Ivy League educations. But when I first met Liz “Snorkel” Thomas, I discovered one major difference between us, besides, er, gender: She...
Urban Thru-Hiking Trail Blazer
With the sun about to kiss the horizon, Liz Thomas (trail name: Snorkel) needs the last rays to illuminate her path. She is ascending and descending steps during an urban thru-hike in Seattle, one of the hilliest and most public-staircased cities in the country. This...