Switzerland-born, Manhattan-based artist Philippe Lardy felt liberated when he illustrated Vaughn's skating story. His work usually accompanies the kind of topical journalism that appears on the pages of the New York Times, Newsweek, and The Village Voice. In contrast, says Lardy, Vaughn's personal memoir allowed the art to "take on a logic all its own."

Longtime Outside correspondent Elizabeth Royte has had a busy two years: First she spent six months marooned on an island research station in the Panama Canal for her forthcoming book on tropical science, due from Houghton-Mifflin in the fall. Then she got married, had a baby, and wrote her book. Royte eulogizes the accomplishments of revered wilderness educator Paul Petzoldt ("Leaving a Trace," page 28), who died in October at age 91..

Wild File reporter Jim Collins is himself a wild guy (page 31). The lifelong New Hampshire resident lived alone in an island cabin for four years without plumbing or electricity while commuting to work at Yankee magazine by canoe and ice skates. Now married and the father of an 18-month-old girl, Collins recently settled into a converted summer camp. "We still rely on composting toilets and vegetable gardens," he says. "But life is certainly more comfortable."

"I'm paranoid about getting sick," confesses Tish Hamilton. "But when it happens, I usually train through it." An entertainment editor at the New York Daily News who's prepping for her second ultramarathon, Hamilton investigated when—and how much—to exercise when you're ill. "Take a 10K Run and Call Me in the Morning" begins on page 89.