Wildfire in the Wilderness

This latest book from Chris Czajkowski's spectacular corner of the world is another engrossing account of life in her wilderness. She regales the reader with stories of shimmering mountain peaks, roaring snow-fed creeks, bears, eagles and monstrous storms; and tales of her dogs--Bucky (short for Buckethead), who chases everything; Max, who tussles with wolves and a porcupine; and Raffi, a large, happy animal who thinks he's a lapdog. The book culminates in a white-knuckle account of the all-too-close Lonesome Lake fire of 2004, from its infancy as a lightning strike reported in nearby Tweedsmuir Provincial Park, to Czajkowski's realization that her first wilderness cabin had been consumed by fire, and the dreaded moment when she was ordered by radiophone to evacuate everyone from the area.

Czajkowski became well known to Canadians through her correspondence with Peter Gzowski on CBC's Morningside, where she described her initial foray into the wilderness near Lonesome Lake. The letters were expanded into the bestselling Cabin at Singing River. From there she moved to virgin ground at Nuk Tessli, where she has lived for nearly 20 years. Wildfire in the Wilderness, describes recent visitors to her world--filmmakers, media people, pilots, friends and paying guests--and a technician, who flew in to connect her cabin to the Internet, despite the vagaries of a homemade power system and winds that can make short work of a satellite dish. Her stories of the many people she meets are as engaging as her meditations on the solitude she loves.