The TRAVELER'S JOURNAL: October eleventh, previewing 50 places/wild places.

As listeners know, the magazine National Geographic Traveler is among this program's supporters. Two years ago, its editors produced a collectors edition, "50 Places of a Lifetime." This month's magazine is a red-white-and-blue version of that idea, fifty American places you should check out before you hang up your traveling shoes.

One section highlights ten wilderness sanctuaries that offer an antidote to civilization and remind us how remarkable the Earth can be, each profile lovingly written by someone who holds that place dear.

Former president Jimmy Carter writes about Arctic Alaska, which he calls one of Earth's last large areas still just the way God made it. Author Doug Peacock takes readers down a river of no return in the Frank Church Wilderness in Idaho, and Rick Bass explores the Bob Marshall Wilderness in Montana. Jim Whittaker, the first American to climb Mount Everest, waxes poetic in western Washington's North Cascades. Jerry Dennis camps out on Isle Royal National Park in Lake Superior. Tim Cahill gets into Death Valley, America's hottest, lowest, driest place. Novelist and former ranger Nevada Barr wanders the rocky crags of Guadalupe Mountain National Park.

On the east coast, John Gould gets into Maine's Baxter State Park, nature writer Jan DeBlieu hikes the beaches of Cape Lookout National Seashore on North Carolina's Outer Banks, and Janisse Ray paddles through Okefenokee Swamp.

Television viewers can also tune in to "50 Places" segments running this week on the National Geographic Channel.

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