James Mckew

James McKew is an American outdoorsman and writer who lives in Colorado. Born in Covina, California, he was transplanted to Northern Nevada in 1974 and remained there until 2013. During his time in Nevada, he worked in a missile factory, was an EMT on a volunteer ambulance, a land surveyor, and laid sprinkler pipe with undocumented lawn specialists. James focuses on the human experience, digging deeper into why people spend time outdoors. His stories are formed around true-life experiences, sometimes deeply personal, sometimes whimsical, but always honest and true.

For the Love of the Truck: Turkeys, Angels, and The Wild Sierra

AI image pickup truck under oak tree with turkey

“Nothing better than a long beard in a sack.” Martha Washington, 1762 The Chevy Silverado’s air conditioning had stopped working, so the windows were down, and warm October air gushed through the cab at sixty miles per hour. I had the grill pointed north on Highway 395. Out my left side window, I passed the … Read more

Suffering for Adventure

Lessons Form the Trail – A Tale by James Mckew With the legs of a pack mule and the brain of an ant, I marched boldly into the wild Sierra. I had convinced myself that a trip into the backcountry to photograph “nature” was a good idea. I was at the time, an aspiring photographer: … Read more

Lost in Time Buckeye Creek

James-Mckew and Brian-Mcdonald buckeye creek camping

We weren’t exactly Romulus and Remus—that is to say, we weren’t raised by a she-wolf— but close. Transplant two boys from the concrete subdivisions of Southern California into the strange, hot, dry sage covered desert of the Eastern Sierras with minimal parental supervision and see what happens. My grandparents brought my brother and me here … Read more