For more than 40 years, outdoor enthusiasts have turned to Tom Stienstra for guidance on the best waterfalls, unforgettable campsites, and hidden wild places. A longtime outdoors writer and editor for the San Francisco Chronicle and KCBS-FM, Stienstra is also the bestselling author of essential guidebooks like Moon’s California Camping and 52 Weekend Adventures in Northern California.

His adventures have taken him deep into the wilderness—hiking, camping, boating, canoeing, kayaking, flying, trekking, hunting, and exploring some of the most remote corners of the West. As longtime Sunset magazine travel editor Peter Fish put it, “Tom Stienstra is the Yoda of the outdoors. He literally has been everywhere and knows everything.”

In his new book Heaven Delayed: One Man’s Survival of 16 Near-Death Encounters, Stienstra reflects on a lifetime of close calls: surviving a hatchet attack to the back of his head, being charged by a wild cow, and multiple near-drownings—including one rescue by his brother in an icy lake and another by his best friend in a flooding river. Then came cancer and six brain surgeries. All are brought to life in his new book, one compact volume of heartfelt writing from a man who has lived enough adventure for several lifetimes.

Come hear Stienstra discuss his new memoir, his extraordinary life outdoors, and his tips for summer adventures in the Bay Area and beyond.

Stienstra photo courtesy the speaker; the image on the book cover was created by artist John Blanchard of the San Francisco Chronicle—it shows the author in two phases, before and after treatment for cancer.

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