James Randle is an artist. He does hyper realistic oil paintings. He speaks about colors, trails, empathy and perspective.

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Sofia Garcia sings. "Because I'm happy," she tells me. She sings at the trails too. Excessive desert heat doesn't seem to bother her. "¡Hola, hija!" We stop for a bit, chat, and during these fleeting breaks I got to know Sofia and learn what her songs are about.

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Leah Howlett is one of the fastest on the mountains. I'd heard about her races long before I met her. But this is not a story about endurance and achievements trained human body can attain. It is a story of life, love and humility.

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Kevyn Rene Calvo Miranda is from Mexico. We first met a couple of years back, by the Piestewa Peak Summit trailhead. He lost nearly two hundred pounds walking the trails regularly, he shared. It spiked my interest in his story at first but... something happened later and entirely altered our conversation.

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Moving up the career ladder is normally celebrated in our society. Yet some of us lose a lot along the way; lose slowly and invisibly for others. And, sometimes, one needs to wipe the slate clean to regain the lost aspects of... themselves. This is David Metzler's story.

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Sheridan Correa and I met through Lee Thomason, our friend in common and a fellow hiker. Sheridan strikes with the type of joy that is rare in humans to exhibit in day-to-day regular settings: vibrant, radiating, contagious joy and an immense love for life.

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Announcing a new limited-run series.