J. Andrew Walsh grew up in Massachusetts and has worked as an environmental consultant, ecologist, freelance photographer, and, most recently, as a biologist with the State of Maine. He retired in 2024.

After thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail in 1978, he walked 1,800 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail in 1980. Long-distance hiking and cross-country biking trips, along with other extended treks out West, prolonged his pursuit of academic degrees in Earth Science and Geology. After a 45-year gap, he finished the PCT in 2025 during a two-month-long hike south through Northern California to the High Sierras.

Hiking, photography, writing, ecology, and the American West have long been his passions. He and his wife, Becky, live in central Maine on eight acres with a trail, native plant gardens, and sometimes one or two of their kids. His first book, Northbounder: An Appalachian Trail Memoir, was published in 2026.