4/4/2023 0 Comments Pbs into the wilderness![]() ![]() I worked two jobs and went back to college. I was a single mom now with no child support and in and out of court constantly against him. and away from him.įast forward a couple years (leaving the bulk of the story out), but finally I was divorced. I felt alive for the first time in my entire life when I was climbing mountains and sitting by Stanley Lake. I bought disposable cameras and documented my adventures. I had lived most of my life in the South Central area and basically knew what sagebrush-covered Idaho looked like. Over the next few months I explored the Stanley Basin and Wood River area and got my first taste of appreciating where I lived. On my way to the house the company provided, I crossed over Galena Summit for the first time in my life. In 2003 I was hired on with a contract fire crew working out of Stanley, Idaho. He was not happy here and that made it very hard for anyone else to be happy. We moved constantly and everywhere, from Salt Lake City, Utah to Ontario, Oregon and half of Idaho in-between. I met and married a man and ended up in Utah. I left as quickly as I could and went to college in Oregon. I, like so many of us, had a rough childhood filled with bullies and fighting parents. I have not, however, loved Idaho for very long. Out here, unplugged from the grid, the only available social network are other folks mostly doing the same thing I am. Some might say it's a calling back to a simpler way of life. I have even retraced my steps of those first fifty mile hikes with my own family. ![]() Now, thirty years later I spend the majority of my "Wilderness" time in the Sawtooth Wilderness, with the occasional return to the Frank. However, I made that same trip two years later and I realized then the value of wide open spaces where man is just a visitor. And after over fifty miles of slogging with an overloaded pack and boots that were too big, I never wanted to again. I didn't even know what "wilderness" was, I had never experienced any thing like that. Growing up I had visited the mountains of Idaho, Utah, and Colorado, and that was fine and all, but my first real taste of wild land far away from any machine, let alone anything that remotely resembled civilization was as a Boy Scout on a long hike, out in the Frank. You see, for me, I am young enough in my early forties to say that designated wilderness has always existed, at least from my perspective. And to be quite honest, I have drawn a blank. I've been contemplating the concept of wilderness since I was asked to write a short essay about the subject. Where the iPhone does not work and the internet does not intrude. I know that I am not alone in this need to escape the modern world and stumble around in wilderness. It repressed that primal need to wander in wild places full of crags, snowbanks that give life to mighty rivers, alpine lakes, wild animals and roadless landscapes where it is possible to feel completely alone and very free. At times in life I found myself far from wilderness where fences and "Keep Out" signs dominate the landscape. It all started with my selfish want of a special boat for floating the Middle Fork of the Salmon. This love of wilderness ultimately helped shape every aspect of my life, including my business designing and marketing river boats. He was on his way to report for guide duty on the Middle Fork of the Salmon river in the heart of the Frank Church Wilderness. Recently my son Conner and I shared an early summer ski trek to the top of Alpine Peak in the Sawtooth Wilderness. They both spend their college summer breaks as whitewater guides on the wild rivers of Idaho. I have passed this love of wild places on to my own kids. The call of wilderness haunts me and I must answer. His passion for wilderness never ended and it shaped me. Wild places drew him west at a young age from his home near Lake Minnetonka in Minnesota. That old home-made pack hangs on the wall in our living room to this day. The place was on the South Fork of the Flathead River where he was a guide and outfitter in a vast wild area now known as the Bob Marshall Wilderness. I appear in a hand-sewn pack that was roped on to a standard issue Army Pack Board. My first connection with wilderness is documented by an old black and white photograph of my father toting me along on his back while fishing. ![]()
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