50 Best Short Hikes: Yosemite National Park and Vicinity. Elizabeth Wenk

      Acknowledgments

      The offer to write this book arrived from Wilderness Press at a perfect time: I had 6-month-old and 21⁄2-year-old daughters and was increasingly having fun exploring and reexploring the shorter trails in the Sierra. My husband, Douglas, and daughters, Eleanor and Sophia, supported me throughout the research for the hikes, obligingly following me down the trails or patiently waiting for me by a river play spot or pullout. Eleanor, just 5 now, has walked more than half the trails described here, and Sophia has accompanied me on nearly all of them, albeit in a backpack. Thanks as well to my sisters, Rebecca and Evelyn Wenk, and friends Louise Berben, Alisa Ellsworth, Cadie Hall, Charlotte Helvie, Candace and Eric Renger, Steven Thaw, John Williams, and others who also accompanied me on Yosemite walks over the last few years.

      I acknowledge the many park service interpretive rangers and park scientists with whom I have spoken while writing this book. Each conversation has expanded my knowledge about Yosemite and the preservation of its natural resources. I also acknowledge the many people who have written books about Yosemite natural history and human history, for the more I learn, the more I appreciate Yosemite and see its secrets as I walk down the trail. The most important author to acknowledge is the grandfather of Yosemite, John Muir; I reread several of his books as I began writing, for in them is buried an incredible richness of natural history and a conservation ethic that was far ahead of its time.

      The staff at Wilderness Press have been helpful and supportive throughout. As always I appreciate their flexibility in how I write the manuscript.