Journalism

My writing has appeared in the LA Times, Outside, Patagonia’s Cleanest Line, Earth and Planetary Sciences and many other publications. Below are a few favorites.

Patagonia – Amidst the Mustard (Print and online)

Outside Magazine – Getting engaged in trail work

LA Times – Caldor Fire & legislative advocacy

Adventure Journal – New Ways on Old Ground (print)

Freehub Magazine – Restoring old trails (Sespe)

The Radavist – Sharing Home

Freehub Magazine – Special Substrate & Challenger Deep (print)

Rouleur – Understanding Storied Roads on California’s Longest Road Climb (print)

National Park Service – Mountain Pine Beetle

Earth and Planetary Sciences – Climate Change

Outdoor Alliance – Wildfire and Recreation in the West

TRAIL WORK: A Memoir of Public Lands, Loss, and the Hidden History Beneath Our Feet

By Dillon Osleger
Heyday • Spring 2026

Early Praise

“Our public lands—now under constant attack from Washington—are one of America’s greatest legacies. This powerful book makes clear that they are places for more than recreation—they are our history, and our best possible future.”
—Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature

“Dillon Osleger is a new voice in the wilderness, and what a voice it is. Trail Work is meditative, instructive and surprising at every switchback.”
—Jason Roberts, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Every Living Thing

“Both elegiac and optimistic, Trail Work reveals how wilderness trails—whether visible or vestigial—embody the complex history of public lands in the United States. Following old pathways is, in fact, a kind of time travel.”
—Marcia Bjornerud, author of Timefulness (a New York Times and New Yorker Editors’ Choice)

“Both a sweeping historical palimpsest, a cartographic detective story, and an inspiring memoir of a life spent working outdoors, this book will enliven and enlighten any lover of wild landscapes. “

-Robert Moor, best-selling author of On Trails: An Exploration (National Outdoor Book Award & Saroyan Prize winner)

“Trail Work is a detective story revealing how trails and maps connect us not only to landscape, but to stories, to history, to each other, and most importantly, to ourselves.”

–Rick Ridgeway, author of Life Lived Wild (National Outdoor Book Award)