Indian Creek Chronicles, A Winter Alone in the Wilderness, by Pete Fromm (pp 183). This is a wonderful book about the seven months the author spent alone and snowbound in backcountry Idaho tending to a Park Service fish breeding pond. He went in thoroughly green, the Park Service having been hard pressed to find anyone willing to do the $200 a month job. It’s the story of his adjusting to a semi-solitary existence, his interactions with bear and mountain lion hunters, his own subsistence hunting, and other adventures. It’s a book that either confirms one’s total disinterest in camping alone for months on end, or excites the imagination for doing something similar. Fromm is a remarkable young man, especially considering his then lack of backcountry experience. I found his story thoroughly enchanting and wishing for a similar adventure. (But don’t tell my wife!) ( )

This is an excellent true story of Fromm taking a year off college to spend the long Idaho winter alone, guarding salmon eggs. Mostly alone, although a lot of the narrative is actually about lots of visits from snowmobiling hunters, and others. It's pretty fascinating, and crazy. Lots of good stories, with some narrative arc.

I think there's a lot that isn't on the page because he didn't want to wrestle with it. About his family, his dog, the environment… Some restraint is good, and thought provoking. But if Fromm had pushed himself a little bit harder, this could have been great. ( )

passionnant récit sur l’hivernage d’un jeune homme (auteur) chargé de surveiller un bassin de saumons en devenir, et qui va découvrir la dure vie des trappeurs par -40° entre Idaho et Montana. ( )

This autobiographical tale is a bit like Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild, except unlike Chris McCandless's case, this author clearly knew up front how much he didn't know. Plus, I would argue that going into this wilderness adventure, the author was nowhere near as solitary a personality as McCandless was. It also makes a difference in reading this that it is in the first-person, while Krakauer was obviously reporting on another person. But imagine if Chris McCandless had survived and later became a gifted writer and told his tale of his adventures. This may be something like that writing. Certainly, there are personality, family, friend, job differences that give a different slant, but I don't think there would be much difference on how a person reacts to living such an isolated life for a long time. It is that reaction that is at the very heart of this book. I encourage anyone wanting to read this book to get a copy that has an Afterword by the author. It does a fine job of explaining, extending, and enhancing the book, giving an otherwise fine book even more resonance. ( )

Gauging by the author's early responses to shooting the head off a grouse
followed by the horrible death of a terrified raccoon in his trap,
there was an expectation that Pete Fromm would somehow teach us how to survive
a Montana "Winter Alone in the Wilderness" without glorifying hunting.

Alas, not only does the book turn out to be a great story for hunters,
with a stomach-wrenching horrendous killing of a mountain lion,
but the author spends very little time alone.

Not only that but Boone, the dog who faithfully accompanied him on this trek,
is simply given away to people Fromm does not know anything about,
nor does he even bother to get their names and address to contact them to learn
anything about the dog's fate.

Mostly he exists in his tent feeling sorry for himself,
telling us little about his daily life with Boone (does he ever train him or just "cuff"?),
and trying to get away from the job
of caring for salmon that he signed on for...so he can get drunker and drunker.

Geez. Very disappointing and misleading. ( )