Review
Review of Crossing the Divide: Discovering a Wilderness Ethic in Canada’s Northern Rockies
Who wouldn’t want a chance to sit around a campfire with Wayne Sawchuk, and listen to him tell stories? Horses munch grass in the background, his faithful dog, Chancey, curls at his feet as the fire crackles and darkness surrounds you. You have been riding all day through and over mountain passes, beside clear lakes, spotting all kinds of wildlife. You’ve helped cook dinner over the fire. You’re ready for some stories.
And Wayne has so many great stories to tell, stories of wilderness survival in harsh and bitter weather, stories of trailing a pack train through country that only Indigenous people knew, where wildlife: grizzlies, caribou, wolves, elk, beaver, mountain goats, are abundant. And stories of the long effort to save this part of the world from exploitation by resource-grabbing corporations.
The book is told in a series of linked stories, and the lovely thing is the unpretentious, aural quality that Wayne has preserved in the tone of the writing.