"Indian Creek Chronicles" by Pete Fromm

I found this week's book at Cozy Corner Books and Coffee in Bellingham. If you live nearby, I'll be returning it for credit on future book purchases.

Indian Creek Chronicles: A Winter Alone in the Wilderness in a memoir by Pete Fromm (St. Martin's Press, 1993). The story begins with Pete in college at the University of Montana studying wildlife biology. Swimming was his passion, but during his second year he got a new roommate, Jeff Rader, a hunter. Rader's philosophy was that a difficult outdoor adventure "always makes the best stories afterwards."  Nineteen year old Pete wanted a life experience worth telling about.

Like me, Pete came from a camping family. Unlike me, he aspired to become "a mountain man." It began with reading mountain man stories. Then it morphed into camping adventures around Missoula. Then the opportunity arose to work eight months from mid-October to mid-June in the Bitterroot Wilderness living in a tent forty miles from the nearest plowed road tending half a million salmon eggs.

After the wardens dropped Pete off at his tent and gave him some cursory instructions, he was on his own. Fortunately, Pete did have enough outdoor experience to survive, even thrive.  Through Pete's story I traveled snowbound trails and roads, listened to the silence, saw the wildlife, and dreamed of outdoor adventures of my own. I highly recommend you put on your snowshoes and come along for the trek.

Check your local used bookstore or you can purchase it online at Amazon.com. If you have a Kindle, it's available with the title Indian Creek Chronicles: A Winter Alone in the Bitterroot Wilderness. -- Margy

Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

While Wayne and I were visiting Tucson, we used one of the sunny says to drive up to the Saguaro National Park West and Tucson Mountain Park. While we were there, we stopped at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.

The entrance fee isn't cheap, but the natural displays are well done and very informative.  The trails are a mixture of paved walkways and well-pack desert gravel.  The terrain is mostly level, and ramadas made with natural desert materials give shaded rest spots along the way.

Different desert habitats are depicted including the desert, mountain woodlands, desert grasslands, and pollination gardens.

Displays include typical desert animals including mountain lions, bears, wolves, coyotes, squirrels, prairie dogs, javelinas, lots of birds, and other creatures great and small.

While the animal habitats were clean and natural, it was a bit sad to see these proud animals on display.  I guess there's a fine line between needing specimens to study and allowing animals to remain in their home environments. -- Margy