Customer Reviews

Walking the Big Wild: From Yellowstone to the Yukon on the Grizzle Bears' Trail

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

An easy, entertaining read and a nice snapshot of the good and bad elements currently effecting the Yellowstone to Yukon region. Through a personal story Karsten makes both his huge trek and the region's biological challenges seem relatively easy to face. This is an important feat conssidering he and others hope to engage and mobilize thousands in a pioneering international conservation initiative.

As a PS, I was surprised to learn the Canadians were doing as much, if not more, damage to the environment then we 'mericans. And I thought they were so innocent up there.

This book first caught my attention as I was searching for books on grizzly bears. It drew my interest first of all because the author had a border collie named Webster who did most of this hike with him. Several years ago my son was looking in the dictionary for a name for his new border collie puppy. Not finding a name he liked inside, he closed the dictionary, and "Bingo," he saw the title "Webster's." That became the puppy's name, and he was so smart he probably could have read the dictionary if someone had turned the pages for him!

When I saw that the book was about a plan to walk from Yellowstone to the Yukon to do research to help establish a connecting corridor for wildlife from the lower 48 states north, I was excited to read it.

The book is very informative, though a little slow at times. It was a courageous, sometimes dangerous journey for someone to take, but hopefully, it gave a lot of people who had a negative attitude about bears and the preservation of habitat for all wildlife a different view of how man can learn to live with nature, prosper in their livelihoods, and still preserve the habitat and wildlife that cannot be replaced if we loose it.

I've been blessed to live in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem for the last 10 summers. Having lived near a large city in the South for the first 45 years of my life, the peace and magnificence of this area has completely captured me. I've traveled all over the country, and this is almost the only place in the lower 48 states where you can experience unspoiled beauty, nature, and animals in their natural habitat very close to the way it was long ago. Bears have always been a particular favorite. They are one of the most unique, fascinating creatures on the planet.

I'm not a total "tree hugger." I realize there are times when an animal may have to be destroyed for the safety of people or property, but only in extreme circumstances. An open-minded understanding and cooperation between conservationist, ranchers, farmers and the general public can lead to new attitudes and ideas of how to coexist with nature and preserve our national treasure. I believe the ideas found in "Walking the Big Wild" can educate us on how this can be accomplished before it's too late. I recommend that anyone who is interested in preserving our wild spaces and animals read this book. We can always build another ranch, farm, ski resort, etc., but when it comes to our wilderness and it's inhabitants, once they're gone, they're GONE!

This is a great book for nature lovers or anybody interested in preserving whats left of the american wilderness and its inhabitants. It is a fun read. It really put me in the mood for hiking and camping, though i have yet to attempt anything like the journey in this book. I highly reccommend it.

I first found out about this book from a dog magazine, but the story isn't focused around the dog, but rather a journey to make anyone envious. Despite the fact it may make your own life sound boring and dull it is a well-written fascinating story. If you really like the outdoors you will love this book.

Y2Y, if you're not eco-minded, is "Yellowstone to Yukon." The idea behind is that large animals, above all grizzlies, need a lot of room to roam -- and this room needs to be adequately networked and connected, with as few human-disturbed chokepoints as possible.

Well, Karsten Heuer, a native of Canmore, Alberta, and a former Parks Canada ranger at Banff, decided to hike all the way from Yellowstone National Park to the British Columbia-Yukon border -- more than 2,000 kilometers/1,200 miles, and involving skiing and canoeing, not just hiking. Breaks in the trip were jam-packed with PR work on both sies of the border.

This book is about his trip. It's also about some of the problems the development of Y2Y corridor would face.

Surprising for many from the American side of the border (and contrary to one brief reviewer, this is about preserving ALL the Rockies, not just the American portion of those mountains) overall, more of the problems are probably on the Canadian side of the border. And that's in spite of the often anti-environmental leadership that currently resides in Washington, D.C.

Both exploratory oil drilling and coal mining crowd closer to the heart of the Rockies north of the border. Logging in the north involves more rapacious cutting, often clear-cutting in places it wouldn't be allowed in the U.S.

What's driving this is Canada's governmental structure, which is even more "provincial rights" in *reality*, in many ways, than the U.S.'s is "states rights" in *hyperbole.* And the Alberta and B.C. provincial governments have generally been as knee-jerk pro-development as California's anti-environmental Congressman Richard Pombo -- and in a position to do more with that.

Read this book, complete with stunning photos, to show why Y2Y needs preserving.

I love the way that this book flowed. The author did a perfect job of informing the reader as to why he undertook this journey, while never losing track of placing nature as as the center star in his narrative. His short and terrifying experiences confronting some of the wild life had me at the edge of my seat. Heuer even included a small bit of romance without letting it detract or distract from the main story. Easier said than done. These small details make this book a no brainer in my opinion for anyone who is interested in reading about hiking these distant and somewhat exotic locales. Definitely two thumbs way up.

I bought this book thinking it was the journals of someone who, with his dog and girlfriend, hiked the wild places from Yellowstone to the Yukon where the grizzly bear roams. At first I was put off by the un-relenting attack on human development and the frequent message of "save the wilderness". There are millions of acres of national parks within the United States and Canada, and many more acres of private preserves and state and local parks. I get weary of reading how awful humans are and having to apologize for breathing air and taking up space on this planet. Heuer's purpose in taking this journey was to promote the Y2Y movement - connecting parks from Yellowstone the the Yukon with wildlife friendly corridors. The title and back cover didn't give me any indication of this subject.

But upon reading more, I learned that many animals are suffering from inbreeding due to being isolated in parks too far from others of their species in other parks. Some animals, like the wolverine, are just not breeding at all if crowded by humans and limited in their preference for true wilderness. Many animals who would naturally migrate hundreds or thousands of miles are stopped by development, or killed trying to cross highways. And I think most people feel the same way about the intrusion of ATVs into the wilderness - they are loud, destructive and take all the "natural" out of hunting and camping.

I'm not sure I agree with Heuer on the subject of logging. Logging companies are careful to replant areas after harvesting, if for no other reason than to give them something to harvest in future years. I've personally hiked along old logging trails in Missouri and don't see any long term damage from the roads and even clear cut areas. Forest fires naturally clear large areas of land, which for millenia hasn't affected wildlife populations. Within a few years of a logging company pulling out (or a wildfire), wildlife, trees and bushes return and flourish. Deer and bear use the most accessible routes through the wilderness, which is sometimes a logging trail. Heuer himself commented on how the game trails were always the easiest traveling routes.

I enjoyed the journal entries and daily details of Heuer's adventure, especially his descriptions of animal encounters and the beauty of the areas he traversed. I also enjoyed reading about Webster, his dog.

After finishing the book, I agree that North America should set aside areas to act as corridors between parks, so wildlife can migrate naturally and add diversity to their genes.

Overall this is a well written, informative and interesting book on a subject I hadn't considered fully before. I hope that the Y2Y movement continues to grow, to preserve not only the wilderness areas for the future, but also the many animals who live in them. I just hope that while we limit development in wildlife areas, we don't make areas off limits to man.

I've read a lot of non-fiction wilderness books and this is in the top 10 of my list. It's written very well and entertaining. I never heard of the Y2Y project until I read this book. Fascinating! I have driven through the Yukon, been to Yellowstone and BC. I think it's a great project and I hope that it continues to receive a more positive response. I highly recommend this book.

Most stories of trail adventures and sponsored trips are full of bravado and ego boosting exagerations or inane details of equipment and techinque. Heuer, however, is a modest writer relating exciting stories without downplaying or overplaying his acomplishments. Best of all he is always relating them to a bigger picture that we can all identify with. Bravo.

This is a great book. A must read if you care about the wilderness,wildlife & people you will enjoy reading this. If you don't know how you feel about the wilderness,wildlife & humans, you must read this. It was wonderful to see how he got people to pay attention that thought they knew how they felt.