This small book is Candy Peterson’s memoir. For forty years she has accompanied her
husband Rolf Peterson to Isle Royale, the magnificent rugged and wilderness
island complex in Lake Superior that is one of our least visited and most
natural National Parks.
Through those forty years she has gone from supportive wife,
to research assistant, to young wilderness mother, back to research, and
finally as an equal partner in island life.
Candy shares insights about the wolves, stories of living in the old
fishing shack with mice underneath, a gartersnake falling on her shoulders as
she left the house and wind blowing behind the boards.
It is a story of simple living, adapting to the wilderness
as observers and recorders who were careful not to have an impact on the land
and animals they studied. You learn about their social life and the simple
isolation that comes without the accoutrements of today’s urban lifestyle.
Through all of this I get the feeling of a great solo adventure
and solos in the outdoor education community were always a means of self-discovery. There is loneliness in some of the passages
and a quest to find a spiritual base through Candy’s philosophical and
religious musings. The book is very
personal.
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