Another Dose of Wilderness

While backpacking deep in Montana's Bob Marshall Wilderness, my brother Bruce and I found ourselves working our way through miles of blown down trees to exit the wilderness before we ran out of food. It seemed every time we found hikeable stretches of trail we also found bear and wolf tracks. Unfortunately, I complicated everything when I slipped scrambling across downed logs, snagging my left calf on a branch. I felt my flesh tear and knew this wasn't going to help our situation. When I managed to get off of the log pile and onto solid ground I found I had a 4-inch long tear deep in my calf muscle. We had to administer wilderness first aid ...

We began backpacking as a family in the 1960s when we lived in Montana near the Bob Marshall Wilderness and continued into the 1980s during family vacations. As retired men we've resumed backpacking with a vengeance post-covid. We come by it honestly. William Wallace Wylie, champion of Yellowstone National Park in its early years, was our Grandpa Harry Wylie's uncle.

The stories in this book recount our hiking trips in Yellowstone National Park and the Wind River Range in Wyoming, the Gila Wilderness in New Mexico, Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, Sawtooth Wilderness in Idaho and Big Bend National Park in Texas. As well as our adventures with extreme weather and elevations, encounters with wildlife including deer, elk, fox, mountain goat, coyotes, rattlesnakes, and bears, and other human hikers. If you like adventure we think you'll really like our book.