WINNER, 2004 NATIONAL OUTDOOR BOOK AWARD! (Outdoor Literature) Who hasnt wanted to get away from cell phones, e-mail, roads, and traffic? And what better place to escape our wired world than the far northwestern corner of Canadas Northwest Territories and a river that flows through uninhabited country, 400 miles to the Arctic Ocean. But what if your canoeing partner brings along a satellite phone to use in case of an emergency? And, struck by the novelty of anywhere-on-earth communication, he proceeds to use the phone to check in with his law office, his wife, kids, sisters, father, and friends? Noted wilderness traveler and author Ted Kerasote deals with just such a situation as he journeys along the Horton River through the largest ice-free, roadless area left on Earth, a stunning wilderness of grizzly bears, caribou, and migrating birds. Between navigating rapids, slipping around musk ox and grizzlies, and being pinned down by Arctic storms, the two friends prod each other into a finer understanding of love, marriage, parenting, and the meaning of solitude in an increasingly wired world. Contrasting his own experiences with those of the regions earliest explorers--Sir John Franklin and Vilhjalmur Stefansson--Kerasote provides a compelling and humorous take on how travelers from any age adjust to being away from their civilizations and how getting "out there" has inevitably changed but has also remained the same--especially if you shut off the phone.
Ted Kerasote is the author of many books, including the national bestseller "Merle's Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog" and "Out There: In The Wild in a Wired Age", which won the National Outdoor Book Award. His essays and photographs have appeared in Audubon, Geo, Outside, Science, The New York Times, and more than sixty other periodicals. Focusing on the interrelationship between people and nature, Ted's writing continues to take him from the Arctic to Africa and many places in between. His home, and the place he finds his peace and inspiration, remains Jackson Hole, the high valley that lies between the Teton and Gros Ventre mountains in northwestern Wyoming.
