The Story of a Life Wrapped Around a Love Story

Born in Santa Barbara and raised on cattle ranches in California and Oregon, Mark Flint struggled with ADHD as a child, but found comfort in the embrace of Nature. After college, he served as a US Navy Photojournalist in Vietnam, and returned to ranch work, where horses and the outdoors helped keep his PTS reined in. He resumed his career in journalism, but found a passion for trail design and construction after moving to the Sonoran Desert in 1997. He met the love of his life in high school, got engaged five years later, but broke up before he left for Vietnam,. They reconnected 10 years later, and their loved continued to blossom until cancer took her in 2023.

This is a story of passion, adventure and love. It is about a life lived by following one’s heart regardless of the cost.

Mark Flint, a former award-wining newspaper journalist, spends time between his home in Tucson and in the south of France. Nature was his refuge and therapist after his return from Vietnam, and he switched to his third career, as a trail designer/builder in 2004. Trail work helped him as he adjusted to the loss of a woman he had loved for 60 years. He enjoys hiking, backpacking and volunteering on trail maintenance projects.