Listening for Coyote: A Walk Across Oregon's Wilderness
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By William L. Sullivan
With a new preface by the author
2000. 6 x 9 inches. 256 pages. Illus. Appendix of food and gear lists.
ISBN 0-87071-526-7. Paperback, $18.95.
Table of Contents
Preface
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The spirit of the wilderness is an elusive quarry. William Sullivan's quest for
it took him on a 1,361-mile solo backpacking trek across his native Oregon. His
remarkable route traversed four mountain ranges and eighteen designated Wilderness
Areas. It led through fogbound rain forests, windswept glacial cirques, and sunbaked
desert canyons--from Oregon's western shore at Cape Blanco to the state's easternmost
point at the bottom of Hells Canyon.
Listening for Coyote is Sullivan's classic account of his two-month journey. Along the way he encountered blizzards, poisonous mushrooms, and marauding bears, but Sullivan's book is more than just an outdoor adventure story. He spices his journal with the observations of a talented naturalist, notes on history and geology, demonstrations of survival skills, and encounters with some unforgettable people.
These last include a political scientist who leaves his classrooms to protect
Bald Mountain from the Forest Service, a braided and ear ringed forest ranger
who takes up chewing tobacco as a political move, a camouflaged elk hunter who
uses only a bow and hopes to be reincarnated as a stag elk, and an ancient widow
who farms alone from a remote and rickety miner's cabin.
What all of these people share, and what the whole book illustrates, is a deep connection to the wilderness itself, that place we must preserve where humans still do not control things. Written in a soft-spoken but powerful style, Sullivan's book illustrates with living examples just why we are right to work to save such places.
"An endearing, engaging writer . . . [His work has] the energy, the wonder and sometimes the humor of Mark Twain's Roughing It."--The New York Times
"This is a wonderful story of the search for a new Oregon Trail. Nature lovers, active and passive, will find Sullivan's walk a vicarious pleasure." --Publishers Weekly
"This fascinating account of a contemporary wilderness journey should become an American classic." --Alison Lurie
About the Author
William L. Sullivan is the author of eight books about Oregon, including
Hiking Oregon's History, Exploring Oregon's Wild Areas, and four detailed guidebooks in his popular
100 Hikes series. His most recent book,
A Deeper Wild, is a historical novel based on the life of Joaquin Miller, the
"Poet of the Sierras." He lives in Eugene, Oregon.
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