In March, I like to review some books for you. At least there is lots of snow to play in this year, but if you are tired of it, you can retreat to a comfy chair and some good reads.
I’ve always loved adventure books. In fact, one of the few installment-type purchases I ever completed was called the “Adventure Library.” Remember those gimmicks? You’d get the first two or three whatever-it-was for $2.99, and then you just had to agree to buy one every month for the rest of your life unless you remembered to cancel the subscription. There were 27 adventure volumes, each a great tale as selected by their committee. The only problem is that in about half the books, at least some of the members of the expedition die. After a while I had to go hunting for books where everybody lives. Not that I’m squeamish, but it did begin to weigh on me a bit.
Fast forward to the year I first entered the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) of Minnesota, 2003. This is the most remote area anywhere on the North Country Trail, best known for canoeing, but there are some hiking trails. In an attempt to be prepared to hike that section of the NCT, I participated in a Volunteer Vacation there to see for myself how wild it is. I’m sure you’ve figured right out that it was not too wild for me to eventually take on. However, I did want to be sure I was prepared.
A good description of the entire region—over 2 million acres in the BWCAW and adjoining Quetico in Canada—is as follows. See a beautiful blue lake surrounded by dense black spruce and dark rocks. Cross the ridge. See a beautiful blue lake surrounded by dense black spruce and dark rocks. Cross the ridge. See a bog. Cross the ridge. Repeat indefinitely. It is without a doubt an infinitely disorienting experience.
So before I finally led a group of four hikers into the area in 2009, I required each of us to read Lost in the Wild by Cary J. Griffith. Griffith is the author of several riveting books about the Minnesota Arrowhead.
Lost in the Wild alternates between the stories of two young men, keeping the suspense at gut-wrenching levels. Dan Stephens was the leader of a Scout canoe expedition in the Quetico in 1998. Jason Rasmussen was out for a weekend hike on the Pow Wow loop trail in the BWCAW in 2001.
Dan went ahead of his group to locate an elusive portage. He tried to jump between two large rocks but fell between them and was knocked unconscious. The Scouts could not find him, and he wasn’t responding to verbal calls or emergency whistles. Meanwhile the rest of the group located the short portage and continued to the next lake, setting up camp, expecting to see Dan at any minute. The emergency radio was not working. A day later, they decided they had to go get help.
When Dan came to, he had a lump the size of a loon egg on his head. He could not remember where he was or what he was doing there. In a concussed daze, he began to walk, moving farther and farther from his group.
Jason was hiking alone. He managed to walk off the Pow Wow Trail onto a very old logging road that looked more like a trail than the real trail. Then he made a whole series of bad decisions.
Both young men survived, but their stories are completely different.
Earlier this year, I went hunting for another survival story and found Lost on a Mountain in Maine. This is the true memoir of twelve-year-old Donn Fendler who went hiking with his father and some other boys on Mount Katahdin in 1939. The landscape of this area is very similar to the BWCAW.
He became separated from the group in heavy fog and then fell down an embankment. His wet clothes were rubbing his skin raw, and the next day he stripped to his undershorts, but tried to carry his clothes. Eventually they were lost. He wandered for nine days, always moving downhill, until he was rescued. The book is told from his perspective as a boy.
This story has been made into a movie by Angel Studios, and the trailer is free on YouTube. There you can also see clips from the original documentary made of the story with actual footage of his rescue and of talks Fendler gave as an adult.
It’s always heartening when lost people are found alive. Stories like this make me ever vigilant to try to make good decisions, know where I am in the landscape, and have a basic understanding of survival skills. Contact me at jhyshark@gmail.com
