Customer Reviews

The Lost Grizzlies: A Search for Survivors in the Wilderness of Colorado

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I'm not a voracious reader, but I'm reasonably well-read and have spent A LOT of time in grizzly bear territory in B.C. It was intriguing for me to read of the descriptions of the terrain around the San Juan mountains in Colorado - terrain that must be very different than that of the rainforests of western Canada. Bass paints a fairly good picture of the landscape, but as one who has never spent time in the San Juan mountains, I still was left to wonder about the vegetation, the color of the soil, the type of rocks.

Bass weaves an interesting tale, presenting to the reader what seems to be a slightly embellished factual account. It took me quite awhile to settle into the book due to his present tense writing style: "I walk up the trail" rather than "I walked up the trail" (past tense). He portrays his encounters with wildlife with less caution and wariness than he depicts the people in the story. I relate to his notion of peace when in nature, unsettled feelings around people. His outlook on life seems minutely cynical (or at least skeptical) but I like that in a person. I remember smiling and/or nodding at some of his observations about the world, thoughts and realizations that can come into the mind when one's perspective is annointed with the serenity, beauty, and perfection of nature. He does an effective job of recounting the experience of the several searches of which he was part. He gives what seems to be an honest account of the troubles, successes, injuries, meals, frustrations, jokes, and other events that combined into the whole experience. So authentic and genuine were his descriptions that I could see clearly the scenes he described.

I am somewhat curious about how Doug Peacock felt about Bass' portrayal of him in the book. I think I've figured out that Peacock is a real person, not a fictitious character. The Peacock character comes off as kind of unstable, very savvy in the wilderness, and more than a little quirky. Many real people might fit that description, but few might find themselves cited and depicted in a best-selling author's book. It struck me as I read that Peacock seemed unique enough to be real, but individual enough to eschew the attention brought upon him by this written account.

I have no idea if the climax of the book is fact or fiction, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. I recommend it to devotees of the magificent grizzly bear and lovers of the outdoors.

Lost Grizzlies is a superb read! Rick Bass is fast becoming (may already be) our premier writer of the american wilderness. Bass' descriptions of the books characters and the wilds of the San Juan Mountains of Colorado are vivid. I enjoyed Bass' descriptions of Doug Peacock's brilliance and brutishness. I enjoyed reading ABOUT Peacock almost as much as I enjoyed reading Peacock's book (Grizzly Years).

This book is a beautiful exploration of sense of place, married with a urgent discussion of the disappearance of wild places in the West. Bass' characters are vibrant and humorous. This is one of the best nonfiction 'green' books I have ever read.

Rick Bass challenges us to reconsider the question of whether there are grizzlies left in the wilderness of the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado. It is a question that is not easy to answer with a "yes" or "no". So what if he or someone else finds evidence as in traces of grizzly hair in scat, or sizes of footprints in the mud, or claw marks on the trunks of aspen trees, or better yet, has a brief encounter with what looks or sounds like a grizzly bear? This may well be the last survivor(s) of a population that is doomed for extinction, which many people have prepared themselves to accept or acknowledge. Besides, documenting their existence may bring more intruders (hunters, outfitters, biologists included) to this fragile wilderness, thus accelerating the demise of this once-mighty population. The real issue here is not whether they are still there, but whether knowing that they may still be there is enough for us to respect their right to be left alone, to leave their domain untrammeled, and lessen our own ruination by ensuring a greater natural legacy to future generations.

Bass embarked on two separate off-trail adventures into the wilds of the San Juans with the hunch that the great bear might still exist. On the first trip, which was early fall, he seemed to idolize Doug Peacock, who was schooled in the wilderness philosophy of the late Edward Abbey from both friendship and experience traveling together. On the second trip, which was early summer, Bass, although traveling with a larger group, pushed further into the wilds by himself at one point and experienced an epiphany. In both trips, Bass shares with his readers his deep appreciation of the wilderness, recalling the insights of nature writers as Aldo Leopold, Barry Lopez, and Wallace Stegner. The temptation to go willy-nilly in personal introspection, however, recalls the negative aspects of Jon Krakauer. His occasional rambling about ions and mutations makes him a scientific dilettante that can mar the reading experience. He mistakenly refers to "Adirondack National Park" (Adirondack Park) in comparing the San Juans to other wilderness areas. Influenced by Peacock, Bass detests the conventional methods wildlife biologists use to study the distribution of wildlife populations and recommends a more sensitive methodology that does not rely on direct documentation or technological gadgets.

What good is a wilderness--and why call it as such--if the elements that have beheld mankind and have captured our imagination and instilled dread for so long, such as its fiercest predators, are gone? When people like Bass and Peacock tread quietly in wilderness and finds evidence of a remaining wildness in places like the San Juan Mountains, there is reason for optimism. The natural world is all the more interesting when we find, in addition to scenery and natural splendors, an enduring ecosystem that should be left alone for others to see, wonder, and experience.

This book is a unique combination of comedy, real-life adventure and a luminous testimony to one of America's most endangered and mythical beasts. Bass is at his best here, capturing the hearts of his readers through an alternately hilarious and spine tingling account of his journey into the Colorado mountains in search of grizzly bears.

The problem facing Bass and his two friends is that the grizzly bear is believed to be extinct in Colorado. However, several undocumented sightings and signs have convinced them that the bears exist in the remotest regions of the mountain range. Thus they are out to do all they can to locate bears and document their findings.

In the resulting adventures we find the three companions trapsing through woods, sliding down canyon walls, confronting bureaucrats and tracking down bear sign. Things are complicated, and given a distinctly uneasy quality, by the behavior of Doug Peacock. Peacock, himself a well-known author and champion of the grizzly bear, is plagued by frequent and dramatic mood swings. His alarmingly volatile temper, moments of intense introspection and frequent outbursts of graphic profanity have the reader feeling like he/she is walking on eggshells. Because Bass has done such a good job of describing his friend, and how he came to be the way he is, it's easy to forgive Peacock his peculiar behavior. However, it is not easy or pleasant to read.

As the story unfolds, and the three men get closer to their goal, the tension becomes almost unbearable. When Bass finally sees a bear, after months of exhausting effort and disappointment, the scene unfolds in classic Bass technicolor with heart racing clarity and insight. "When I am ten yards from that fallen tree - which I am all but ignoring, focusing on the deer - a creature leaps up from behind it, seemingly right in my face, a brown creature with great hunched shoulders. It's a bear with a big head, and for the smallest fraction of time our eyes meet. The bear's round brown eyes are wild in alarm, and mine the same or larger, I'm sure. The bear's rich chocolate color, like a moose and nearly as big, an animal of such immense size that indeed my first thought, the one right before fear, is: That bear's as big as a moose!"

I won't ruin the suspense by telling you what happens next. It should be enough to know that Bass neither disappoints nor fails to find deeper currents of truth running beneath his experience. This is another book that shouldn't be missed. Just don't expect it to reveal its gifts easily.

I thoroughly enjoyed this tale of the trail, but as science it dosen't bother to include any. Only the fact that standard conservation biology principles are ridiculed. Unfortunately this population of Ursus arctos horribilus is all but gone. They are at California Condor levels if present at all. They see one bear, but what of the DNA analysis? Bass does not tell us here. Bass's bear is more a vision than a reality.

The crowd of Earth First!ers from Tuscon and points north represented by the volatile-tempered Doug Peacock, that has allowed Rick Bass to join is a select band of outlaw literary types, that worship the wild and lament its demise. I share this sadness and want to prevent it myself, but my twelve years working as a fish and wildlife biologist did little to encourage me that this is possible. By aligning himself only with outlaw radicals whose personal behavior screams "left-wing enviro-nut" these noble ideas will be hard to sell by these messengers. Only with mainstream acceptance will change occur.

In Bass's home territory of Yaak, Montana this will be a hard sell. Libby is a devastated lumber town where I once worked for the U.S. Forest Service. I was so discouraged that I quit early and left town never to return. Bass runs with a select clique who live in Livingston, Montana a sort of "Hollywood North" of rich and famous actors and artists the likes of Peter Fonda, Tom McGuane, Dennis Quaid, the brothers Bridges, an endless list. But it's the outlaws like Dave Forman the founder of Earth First!that run the underground sects of the environmental movement, and they have a terrorist thesis; "Monkeywrenchers" as Ed Abby envisioned. Peacock is the model although he does not actually commit vandalism acts himself. They don't accept newcomers into their ranks easily; particularly impoverished writers from the "sticks."

I wrote Mr. Bass once of my efforts chronicled in my first book "Against A Strong Current," on these conservation matters and received no reply. Acceptance by this group is not my goal but credit is difficult to get, even if one has extensive credentials and a government work record that takes place on scene as part of the in house system working for the same change. It is easy to be upstaged by amateurs. Bass seeks to sell romance sans the "Guzzi" consumerish trappings. This work is a success at that, but it is not in any sense, biology.

Rick Bass does it again! This book, as much a character desription of grizzly expert Doug Peacock as it is a search for supposedly extinct grizzly bears in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado, is a great triumph. The story is compelling, the language is beautiful, and the search itself is important. Truly, our attitude toward grizzly bears must be a direct reflection of our attitude toward ourselves. Although sometimes Bass gets a little heavy-handed with his metaphors--we probably could figure out that Doug Peacock has many grizzly-like traits without his coming out and telling us--his plea for the protection and defense of grizzlies is compelling, believeable, and genuine. A wonderful read.

This is a very unique book written by an author that has a wonderful way with words. Its kind of a book about discovery and people with different ideas but one common goal, to see a grizzly bear.

Rick Bass tells this book in three parts. Each describes a trip that he takes out to the San Juan Mountains in Colorado to determine if there are still Grizzly Bears in the area. They are thought to be hunted out, but more and more evidence points to the fact that they may still be roaming the mountains, just infinitely more solitary then they ever once were. Each trip takes place a year apart and has some reoccurring people that join him. Most noticeably is Doug Peacock, a wilderness guy who could arguably be called the heart of the operation. He leads the expeditions and seems to organize things while being somewhat solitary himself. Once in awhile the mission for bears will be sidetracked by the discovery of chantrelles and the subsequent eating of them.

As a narrator Bass presents himself pretty well, although I found it a bit disconcerting the he mentions medical problems but never really says whats going on exactly. It makes you worry about him and distracts from the actual telling of the book since he never really goes any further with it. His descriptions of the other people are fair, but I think he does tend to over-characterize them a bit. At times, Peacock does not even seem like a real person.

I liked the premise of the novel although it does go somewhat slow at times. Bass gets caught up in his tale and he starts focusing on trivialities when he could be moving the story along. But his writing is beautiful and it does make up for that. He is very descriptive and you can almost feel his emotions through reading his words. And his description of the mushrooms they fixed during the book absolutely made my mouth water. And I do think he did a favor for the bears of San Juan Mountains; he makes them mysterious which in turn makes them more special and could even help their cause as people fall in love with their story.

Definitely an interesting book. If you're into non-fiction this is one to read.

The Lost Grizzlies
Copyright 1995
240 pages

Review by M. Reynard 2011

Asking, "...how important are our lives....Do we have any more import than a mushroom or a spruce cone?... The fact that we can even ask that..."... with these observations/questions Bass leads us through the Colorado wilderness, alerting us to the fact that it is our OWN wilderness we just BEGIN to see, IF we can free our senses, as he and friend, Doug Peacock, seem to be able to do (not without pain). Were I only able to be there, too, but that would clutter the already "cluttered" world of the infringed upon bear. In this book is a fresh taste of that which we MUST preserve, for the sake of the wild, and, then, for our "selves".

Rick Bass gave us hope that these grizzlies are still out there in the San Juan mountains. The narrative gave us an insightful look into a place that grizzlies may safely be hidden away from man.