Backtracking By Foot, Canoe, and Subaru Along the Lewis and Clark Trail

by Long, Benjamin; Nichols, Karen

• ISBN13: 9781570614026
• ISBN10: 1570614024
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-06-28
• Publisher: Sasquatch Books

Summary

Two centuries after Lewis and Clark set off to explore the unknown land between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean, a micro-Corps of Discovery -- the author and his wife with their beat-up Subaru and a canoe -- retraces the historic trail. Although the original wilderness no longer exists, there are still adventures to be had: the author traps and tags grizzlies with wildlife biologists; ponders herds of buffalo, back from the brink of extinction; and witnesses the ancient mating dance of the sharptail grouse. This account relates a uniquely Western experience: To consider the trek of Lewis and Clark is to yearn for the land as they experienced it. To find it today, backtracking is required. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Benjamin Long has written about natural history, wildlife, and environmental issues of the West. He lives in Kalispell, Montana, with his wife, Karen Nichols

Table of Contents

Reasonable and Prudent: An introduction	p. 1
A Precious Pestilence: Black-tailed prairie dog	p. 13
Grizzlies for the Twenty-First Century: Grizzly bear	p. 39
The Land Wore One Robe: American bison	p. 67
Darkness and Luck: Missouri River beaver	p. 91
Fishing with the Ghost of Silas Goodrich: Westslope cutthroat trout	p. 111
The Last Dancing Prairie: Columbia sharptail grouse	p. 129
Bitterroot Ghost Forests: Whitebark pine and Clark's nutcracker	p. 143
Playing God with God's Dog: Wolf and coyote	p. 171
The Fish Most Skookum: White sturgeon	p. 193
Downriver: Great Plains cottonwood	p. 217
Notes on Sources	p. 239
Acknowledgments	p. 241
Index	p. 243
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