NORMAN CLYDE

This 20th-century mountaineer (1885-1972) achieved more than 130 first ascents, many in California's high Sierra and Yosemite. He set a speed climbing record on Mount Shasta in 1923, where he climbed from Horse Camp (at 8,000 feet) to the summit (14,179 feet) in 3 hours and 17 minutes. In 1925, he completed 53 climbs in the Sierra Nevada. Clyde has 1,467 articles archived at the Bancroft Library at the UC-Berkeley. He was a guide, naturalist and author.

"In my 80s, I still prefer to sleep outside at my ranch house, in my sleeping bag, not a bed," said Clyde, according to the Bancroft Library.

In 2018, Tapon returned to his California home after a series of expeditions in which he hiked 10,000 miles, including 2,000 miles across Madagascar, and climbed 50 of 54 of Africa’s highest peaks. Tapon has traveled to more than 100 countries and has written two books, “Hike Your Own Hike,” from 2006, and “The Hidden Europe: What Europeans Can Teach Us,” in 2012.

“The whole five years in Africa, it cost me $110,000,” he said. “It’s a lot of money, it’s true, but a lot of people could afford to do this if they wanted to. I camp, I live simply, buy street food. My biggest expense was a reliable 4x4 pick-up truck to get around Africa.”

DICK POOL

Dick Pool started as a tackle inventor with innovative underwater film techniques and then advanced as a leader for the conservation of California salmon and steelhead for more than 30 years. He developed an underwater system to film and watch salmon lures being trolled, and with the information then invented the Salmon Rotary Killer and helped open up the world of downrigger trolling on the California coast.

Pool has served on numerous state and federal salmon advisory committees and has testified as an expert witness on salmon issues before the California Legislature and the U.S. House of Representatives. His appointments include the California Fish and Game Upper Sacramento Salmon and Steelhead Advisory Committee; the advisory committee on winter-run salmon for the National Marine Fisheries Service; and the Board of Directors for the American Sportfishing Association.

“When we figured out how to film trolled lures and then watched a big salmon make 17 passes at a lure without getting hooked, it was like watching the greatest secret show on Earth,” Pool said.

JOHN POIMIROO

A publicist of public lands and promoter of all things Californian, this El Dorado Hills resident is California’s ambassador to the outdoors. As editor of CaliforniaFallColor.com John Poimiroo chronicled fall color across the state introducing hundreds of thousands to California's most colorful season. As state tourism director in the '90s and an outdoor and travel writer/photographer thereafter, he has promoted every corner of California.  

The son of a Yosemite ski patroller, he followed in his father's tracks as Director of the Olympic Valley Ski Patrol where he oversaw patrolling at the last ski jump held on the Olympic jumping hill. He now directs the American River Bike Patrol (the nation’s best bike patrol) and is a ski patroller at Donner Ski Ranch. He has skied across the Sierra, bicycled the length of California, fished many of its streams and lakes, and trekked throughout Yosemite National Park and countless California State Parks. 

He's directed communications at Squaw Valley (now Palisades at Tahoe) and at operations serving Yosemite NP, Redwoods Nat'l and State Parks, Angel Island SP,  Lassen Volcanic NP, and Ski Lake Tahoe. Poimiroo was a founder of the California Roundtable on Recreation, Parks and Tourism, the Western States Tourism Policy Council, the National Parks Promotion Council and was a principal in establishing the California Children’s Outdoor Bill of Rights.

Among his over 70 lifetime awards for writing and photography, he was twice named Writer of the Year by the Outdoor Writers Association of California, received an SATW Bill Muster Award for travel photography and an SATW Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Award for his website, CaliforniaFallColor.com (the nation’s highest awards in travel and outdoor photography and writing).

He explains his passion for California's outdoors by saying, “I travel California’s byways and back roads, photographing and documenting glory previously unimagined in a journey to inform others about California’s wonders.”

MAXINE MCCORMICK

Mover & Shaker

The San Francisco native became, at age 12, the youngest world champion in fly-casting history during the championships in Estonia in 2016. She was the first child to win a gold medal at a world-class event since 13-year-old American diver Marjorie Gestring won gold in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. In 2018, McCormick followed that up by winning another gold medal at the world championships, this time in England, for Trout Accuracy and Salmon Distance. Her success, personality and eloquence have captured the imagination of media and the public in the U.S. and Europe.

"The No. 1 question people ask is, 'How did I get into casting?' " McCormick said. "I tell them how my dad fly fishes, and one day, I was like 9, he took me to the casting ponds (at Golden Gate Park) and I tried it. I liked it right off."

FRANCIS TAPON

One of the world’s greatest hikers and wilderness heroes, Francis Tapon is one of a handful of Americans to have hiked the Triple Crown: the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail, the 2,168-mile Appalachian Trail, and the 5,600-mile Continental Divide Trail. He has walked across the United States four times via its three mountain ranges, and across Spain twice. He climbed to the highest point in 50 of 54 African countries between 2013 and 2018 and has written Hike Your Own Hike and The Hidden Europe: What Eastern Europeans Can Teach Us.