Miles Howard grew up in Massachusetts, where he and his family headed north to the mountains every summer. As a young hiker and later, a live-in caretaker and staff manager for the Appalachian Mountain Club's wilderness hut system, he honed his love for the great outdoors. Any given day on the job as a professional mountain man could have involved dispensing trail advice, cooking a five-course meal for 60 people, or immobilizing a broken leg. In his spare time, he would toss a few Snickers bars in a bag and explore the landscape by foot.

He eventually traded his hiking boots for hi-tops and moved to Boston, where he wrote for the Boston Phoenix and eventually launched a freelance career. Along the way, he also researched and wrote his first book: a study of Millennial-aged adults in America, their political beliefs, and their thoughts on the 2016 US election.

Miles still lives in Boston today, but takes every chance he gets to return to the New England wilderness he calls home.

Kelsey Perrett grew up in north central Massachusetts, in the shadows of Mount Wachusett and Mount Watatic. It was there that she developed an admiration for New England's steep rugged trails and bald granite faces, and a passion for backpacking, trail running, and wilderness medicine. She eventually traveled across the country (and others!) to bag peaks and seek out scenic vistas, but returned to where she felt most at home: performing trail work with the Appalachian Mountain Club in the Berkshires and White Mountains.

She honed her writing career at New England's Yankee Magazine, and wrote for publications like [...] and [...], where she is still a contributing editor. Kelsey holds a Wilderness First Responder certification and a trainer certification from the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics, among other environmental credentials. She lives in Boston.