By the age of 14, more than 25 years ago, Steve Sears was undertaking solo, multi-day backpacking trips into the remote wilderness areas of California...

...In the years since, Steve has had a number of fantastic wilderness experiences; He has quietly watched a three-legged coyote and a Golden Eagle argue over a meal, a young fawn nurse, a Bobcat hunt the edge of a grassy field, a small ground squirrel summon the courage to drive off a hawk, and a beautiful Gray Fox who, blinded by the light from Steve's headlamp and unable to catch his scent, loitered just feet away. He has shadowed herds of wild horses, moved among waves of migrating Monarch Butterflies and studied rattlesnakes locked in the combat dance. A Ring-Tailed Cat has nosed around Steve's backpack, a Long-Tailed Weasel has nosed around his camera bag and a scorpion has nosed around his sleeping bag...while he was in it! He has had a bat circle close enough to strike his head with its wingtips, disturbed both hornets nest's AND beehives and surprised several young bears, an angry Moose, a slumbering coyote and (unfortunately) a Striped Skunk...

...Steve has also enjoyed some wonderful physical challenges and adventures: a solo climb to 18,700 feet on a heavily glaciated volcano, a one day walk across the Grand Canyon, rim-to-rim and back (44 miles), a one day climb of Mount Whitney from the street light in Lone Pine (34 miles), several overnight 40-plus mile blitz's across the San Gabriel Mountains, annual thirty-mile hikes through Death Valley in July temperatures of nearly 130 degrees, snow-camping journeys, explorations of fantastic caves, mines & lava tubes, searches for Native American archaeological sites, horseback, kayak & four-wheel drive journeys, and more.

As wonderful as all of these experiences are, however, they would all be meaningless without the presence of Jesus, who entered into and so beautifully disrupted his life.

Steve and his wife, Lesley, currently reside in Missouri where Lesley is attending graduate school and Steve is building a nature photography business & working on a book about rites of passage. They plan to be back in the west in 2007, but are waiting to hear from God exactly where that may be.