The Broken Lands (Review)

I actually finished this book several months ago.
The Broken Lands is a fictionalized account of what may have happened to the members of the doomed Arctic Expedition of Sir John Franklin. All in all it was an interesting book, if you are the type of person who likes the History channel or PBS documentaries.

Some may find the book to move intolerably slow
(I myself utilized it as a bedtime read and as such it took several months to digest) however there can be little doubt that the author Robert Edric did his research when writing this book. He provides excellent descriptions of the two ships, the HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror, as well as detailed descriptions of daily life and duty of crewmen on board 19th century British naval vessels.

Told in story form, it was necessary to not only advance the storyline through speculation but ultimately it was also necessary to develop the characters in a similar fashion, attributing sometimes less than auspicious personality traits to the names of men who no doubt retain traceable and living descendants to this day. That is to say that in order for Edric to advance the story, he was forced to speculate on the consequences of decisions that (may or may not) were made by officers who experienced varying levels of breakdown as isolation, starvation and the elements took their toll upon both the leadership and the crew.

Personally I was able to suspend my disbelief and indulge in Edric's speculations. In spite of what I wrote above and given that I am not a descendant of any of these men with the honor of an ancestor to protect, the speculations presented in the book regarding the fate of the crew seemed entirely plausible.

In the end it is an attempt to tell the tale of dead men.
And as we know, dead men tell no tales.

Lost in the Wild (Review)

The "It won't ever happen to me" attitude is a prevelant concern with modern 'Outdoorsmen.' Too many people go into the woods with a false sense of security, dependant on gizmos and overconfident regarding their own skills. A majority of the time these people come out fine, and the dependency and the overconfidence grows. You can't help but ask yourself what would happen to these people if they were dumped in the middle of the woods, deprived of both.

Lost in the Wild: Danger and Survival in the North Woods by Cary J Griffith addresses both scenarios.
A moderately skilled hiker takes a series of wrong turns and is not only lost but seperated from his gear as an early autumn snowstorm and freezing temperatures pummel the area. An experienced Boundary waters guide bushwacks in search of a portage with no gear and inadequate clothing, bumps his head, becomes disoriented and wanders for hours before regaining his senses.

Each story is revealed a chapter at a time in alternating chapters. Many online reviews that I have read criticized the book format for this, but personally I enjoyed the alternating breaks from one story to resume the other, as at times each was like watching a slow motion train crash. You say that you can't watch and put your hands over your face and end up peeking through your fingers. Because you know that there but for the grace of God go you.

The book largely is just telling the story of what happened to each person, as well as providing the perspective of the respective families and S&R teams involved in each incident. What each individual did wrong to get into their predicaments is revealed and what they could have done to avoid them is alluded to. But don't read this book thinking that you are going to improve on your woodsmanship skills. No, this book reads as the 'black box' of two failed wilderness excursions and reminds us that even the best laid plans can go sideways in a hurry when you're out in the woods.

For those of us who like to travel in the woods on foot, instead of saying that emergencies like these could never happen to us, we should be asking ourselves, given our equipment and skills, how could it happen to us anyway and what would we do then? The misfortune of these two people serves as a reminder to the woodsman to continuously prioritize the three unspoken primary objectives of any wilderness experience: Stay Found, Stay Dry and Stay Warm.

Lost in the Wild may not teach you how to do that, but it will get you in the mood to want to.

You Got That Right

I am a Barnes & Noble freeloader.

I have not purchased a book in quite some time; between my wife and I one of our ideas of a date is to go to a Borders or a Barnes & Noble, grab some reading material, buy a coffee and kill some time. Technically I am not a freeloader as I do purchase a beverage and periodically purchase magazines such as the Boundary Waters Journal (Horrible web site, great magazine). I also buy my notebooks there.

This hit and run approach to reading means that I get books in short concentrated doses. My latest is "Paradise Below Zero" by Calvin Rutstrum. Although he is not quite as engaging as Sigurd Olson his writing is nevertheless food for the souls of people like me and a wonderful discovery. I hope to get a review of this book written eventually, and to continue on to some of his other titles.

Anyway in my reading last night I encountered a quote that really struck a chord in me, that Rutstrum attributed to Henry David Thoreau:

"No one but a fool ever sold more of his time than he had to."

Right on, man.