In 2001 Steve Edwards won a writing contest. The prize was seven
months of “unparalleled solitude” as the caretaker of a
ninety-two-acre backcountry homestead along the Rogue National Wild
and Scenic River in southwestern Oregon. Young, recently divorced,
and humbled by the prospect of so much time alone, he left behind
his job as a college English teacher in Indiana and headed west for
a remote but comfortable cabin in the rugged Klamath Mountains.
Well aware of what could go wrong living two hours from town
with no electricity and no neighbors, Edwards was surprised by what
could go right. In prose that is by turns lyrical, introspective,
and funny, Breaking into the Backcountry is the story of what he
discovered: that alone, in a wild place, each day is a challenge
and a gift. Whether chronicling the pleasures of a day-long fishing
trip, his first encounter with a black bear, a lightning storm and
the threat of fire, the beauty of a steelhead, the attacks of
9/11, or a silence so profound that a black-tailed deer chewing
grass outside his window could wake him from sleep, Edwards’s
careful evocation of the river canyon and its effect on him
testifies to the enduring power of wilderness to transform a life.