Book Review: It's A Wonderful Wilderness Life

By CHRIS PETERSON

Hungry Horse News

Floating in cheap rafts in an “impassable” canyon. Snorkeling for native cutthroat trout. Traveling more than 40 miles through the woods in a day. And a heartfelt tribute to a friend who died in a plane crash.

Those are just a few of the tales told in Kalispell author John Fraley’s new book, “My Wilderness Life, One Man’s Search for Meaning in Montana’s Backcountry.”

Previous books by Fraley have a focused on historical figures and events in the Flathead Valley and adjacent woods.

In “My Wilderness Life” Fraley tells often deeply personal stories of his adventures in the woods over the past 50 years.

The book begins and ends with the story of his friend Terry McCoy. McCoy was a fellow classmate and aspiring biologist when the two both attended the University of Montana in the early 1970s.

McCoy would die tragically in 1974 while charting elk locations when the plane he was in over the Sapphire Mountains crashed.

The incident deeply affected Fraley and he would visit the crash site and years later would eventually interview the smokejumpers who found McCoy’s body.

Fraley’s books often have a common theme in where the author makes it a point to make sure people aren’t forgotten in death and “A Wilderness Life” takes the same tack, as Fraley finds and revisits the plane crash site decades later, looking for closure.

The woods for Fraley are a very spiritual and sometimes haunted place.

But beyond the ghosts there are some real fun stories in this book and you have to wonder, how the heck he managed to come out in one piece without drowning or freezing to death, or both.

In the “Impassable Canyon” for example, Fraley and friends go up the Middle Fork of the Salmon in what is now the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness, not by following the trail, but the river. The water is relatively low (but plenty hairy enough) as they shuttle their gear and themselves around cliffs using a cheap raft and some fishing line.

But Fraley is no ordinary hiker, either.

In one adventure, he does a 42-mile day hike through the Bob Marshall Wilderness, starting early in the morning at Holland Lake and finishing at the Meadow Creek Gorge Trailhead on the South Fork just before dark.

He comes out a little wobbly, but no worse for the wear.

Long distance hikes are nothing new for the author. He did the 42-miler at age 38 and 30 years later, he still does 30-mile day hikes into Schafer Meadows and back in the Great Bear Wilderness.

For us regular hikers, that’s at minimum, a two-day hike, and typically a three or four day adventure. Hike 20 miles sometime and tell me how you feel the next day.

But there’s more adventures ahead, he said in a recent interview.

While the Middle Fork is near and dear to his heart, he said there are still places in the Bob Marshall he still needs to explore, most notably the Brushy Park and Pagoda Pass areas.

“I’ve always wanted (to hike that area),” he said. “I hope to do it this year.”

He said he also plans to climb Great Northern Mountain this summer. John Schurr, a subject of a previous book who spent the winter in the Middle Fork, died and Fraley, with the blessing of the family, will spread Schurr’s ashes from the top of the iconic peak.

These stories are the engine that motivate Fraley on a very personal level.

The families, he said, are gratified.

“People just love to be remembered,” Fraley said.

“My Wilderness Life” is published by Farcountry Press. It is available in local bookstores and at Farcountry Press’s website: https://www.farcountrypress.com