After having spent more than 20 years as a university researcher and professor, Valerie Askren traded the ivory towers of academia for the hardwood forests and sandstone arches of Kentucky. The proverbial outdoorswoman, she has swum in Africa’s Lake Malawi, climbed China’s Mount Tai, sailed the coast of southern France, biked Nova Scotia, backpacked across Canada, and survived the biting cold of farm life in Ukraine. She spent her honeymoon kayaking the Grand Canyon with her husband, Ben.

Valerie’s background in natural-resource economics and her love of the wilderness translated into a second career writing guides to the outdoors, including Hike the Bluegrass and Beyond, Fly Fishing Kentucky, Backpacking Kentucky, and Backcountry Cuisine.

Valerie lives in Lexington, Kentucky, where a peaceful wooded path, beautiful public garden, or historical walking trail is always close at hand.