Steve Henry grew up on a farm in the rolling hills of central Kansas, spending much of his youth working under the blue skies of the plains. After earning bachelor's degrees in marketing and agricultural economics at Kansas State University, he served a sentence of seven years in the offices of a large insurance company. Missing the outdoor life, he left the corporate world in 1985 to cycle across the continent twice, including one trek from Alaska to Key West. Since then he has led bicycle and backpack tours, contributed articles to outdoor publications and Web sites, and written Mountain Bike! The Ozarks and The Best in Tent Camping: Missouri & the Ozarks. He heads for the mountain and desert West whenever he can shake himself loose from the Midwest, and he enjoys fall and winter camping and hiking in the Ozarks. When not roaming the outdoors on foot or by bike, Steve sees the country from the driver's seat of a Peterbilt 379.