Okay, we are alive. Hi, this is William Ramsey. Welcome to William Ramsey Investigates on today's show.

I have a very special guest. His name is Ted Alvarez, A-L-V-A-R-E-Z. He's just published a book in September, 2024.

Full title is Hiking, Hidden Gems, and America's National Parks.

If you're watching this on Rumble, Rockvin, or X-Tw or X Twitter to see the picture from the intro pages

Beautiful picture of the Aurora Borealis and it really is a beautiful book

It's really well put together and the fit and finish is really nice it's a great book you get a lot of insights into these different

places that people can hike.

But Mr. Alvarez is, just put this out.

I'm going to read his bio here at the end of the book if I can get to it.

There's places in all 50 states, too, that you can see.

I've done some of them.

I'm a hiker for people who don't know.

I worked in you as somebody as a, I was literally a bike renter, one of the bike things at the Curry Company.

Really exciting job. But it's, it gave me a lot of free time to hike and be around the park. I was

there for four months. But Ted Alvarez's Backpacker Magazine's Northwest editor and was the National

Magazine Award finalist in 2014. Whether chasing grizzly bears in the North Cascades,

fording an icy Alaska River, or drinking his own urine in the desert, he regularly goes to

extreme lengths in pursuit of a good story. He lives in Seattle, Washington, where he survives

on heroic doses of strong

coffee. So really interesting book. I'm glad to have him. So Ted Alvarez, welcome to the show.

Thank you so much for having me, William. For people that may not have heard your name,

may not have heard your work as an editor at Backpacker Magazine, maybe you can talk a little

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