Rachael Pecore-Valdez

145018b4fd44de0a4e0f6a7067009ca8.jpg

In this March 2013 photo provided by Jaimes Valdez, Rachael Pecore-Valdez stands in front of a mural at a skate park in Reykjavik, Iceland. An expedition is gearing up to hike and bike the 1,200-mile trail of wandering wolf OR-7 as he trekked across Oregon into Northern California, looking for a mate in territory that hasn’t seen his like in nearly a century. The expedition is the brainchild of Portland storyteller Pecore-Valdez. She was in Berlin, where her husband was studying renewable energy, when she talked to a South African friend about a trek he had done to raise awareness for endangered rhinos. She decided to do something similar for OR-7. (AP Photo/Jaimes Valdez)