Tom Stienstra (born 1954)[1] is an American author, outdoorsman and Outdoors Writer Emeritus for the San Francisco Chronicle.

[2][3] He produces a radio feature for KCBS in San Francisco, and hosted and co-produced a television special for PBS on the Tuolumne River.

According to Stienstra, he was working a job at a gas station on the San Francisco Peninsula to pay his college expenses when a convicted felon split the back of his head open with a hatchet while trying to commit a robbery.

Treatment at Stanford Medical Center restored him to health but the brain injury left him with the persistent perception that he belonged in the wilderness of the 1830s instead of in the modern era.

He adopted a dog he named Rebel and spent 17 years frequently hiking into wilderness areas of California, visiting remote lakes together as he began his career as an outdoor writer.

[7] Stienstra published his first story at age 8, "Searching for a Lost Friend", in the Palo Alto Times,[8] which hired him as sports reporter after his graduation.

[15] Stienstra's film on the Tuolumne won the 2017 Northern California Area Emmy Award for Health / Science / Environmental Special.

Dr. Sunil Reddy, a cutaneous oncology specialist, then directed and scheduled immunology infusions for Stienstra over the past two years.