Stienstra’s new book debuts at No. 1 on Amazon travel bestseller list

In its first week, Tom Stienstra’s new book “52 Weekend Adventures in Northern California” debuted at No. 1 on Amazon’s top 50 for Pacific West United States Travel Books.

“As former manager of one of the more successful Borders in America, I bought, sold, read and used all of Tom Stienstra’s books,” said Tom Hedtke, a store manager in Sacramento. “This is his best.”

The book features Stienstra’s favorite getaways from Mount Shasta to Mount Whitney, from the Pacific coast to the Sierra Crest. It includes hiking, biking, camping, cabins, fishing, boating, wildlife watching, mountaineering and wilderness expeditions, with hundreds of color photos, plus campfire tales, insights and his favorite out-of-the-way restaurants.

The work is published by Moon Books, a division of Hachette Publishing based in New York and Paris.

“I know this is kind of like being the best second baseman in Iceland, but it sure is a nice way to start out with a new book,” Stienstra said.

“I wrote the book while teaching a night class over winter at College of the Siskiyous,” Stienstra said. “I figured if I was helping people trying to write their own books, I would write one at the same time to show that it could be done, share the same experiences, 1,800 to 2000 words per session, three or four times per week, for 15 weeks.”

Stienstra is a long-time north state resident and member of Mt. Shasta Rotary who has helped lead projects to benefit the community and jump-start youth involvement in the outdoors, such as the Lake Siskiyou Trout Pens. He was recently voted in as president-elect for Mt. Shasta Rotary.

Regional destinations in the book include climbing Mount Shasta and Mount Eddy, exploring the McCloud River watershed, flyfishing and tent cabin camping at Lewiston Lake, fishing and camping at Shasta Lake, and tracking and stalking the wild horses of Devil’s Garden in Modoc National Forest.

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Many north state residents and restaurants are featured in the book. Chris Carr of Shasta Mountain Guides is credited with two photos of the Shasta summit, for instance, and Denese Stienstra has dozens of photo credits. Restaurant mentions include Bistro 107 and Cooper’s in Mt. Shasta, the Sage and White Mountain Café in McCloud.

When the book was formally announced two weeks ago, pre-published sales ranked it No. 1 in the world in three travel categories at Amazon.

It is Stienstra’s fourth No. 1 bestseller. His book, Moon California Camping, was twice ranked as the No. 1 outdoors book in the world in separate years by Amazon, and Moon Pacific Northwest Camping previously hit No. 1 on the Portland Oregonian’s best-seller list.

In a career as an outdoors writer, Stienstra’s travels have taken him across the Western U.S. in search of every trail, campground, lake and river. He was the 4th living member voted into the California Outdoors Hall of Fame. In 2018, the National Academy of Television awarded him the Emmy for “Health, Science and Environment Special” as co-executive producer, writer and host for the national PBS special, “The Mighty T, from Glacier to Golden Gate.”