I'm a Nature Journal Teacher/ Nature Connection Mentor on a path of relearning how to be a human in reciprocal relationship with the interconnected web of life! Come along and geek out about all our nonhuman kin with me! :) ๐ธ๐ ๐ฆ๐ป๐ฆ๐ฆ๐๐๐ข๐ท๐ธ๐๐๐๐ฆ๐ฆจ๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ณ โญ(After you subscribe, make sure to go to your email to confirm your subscription! Otherwise you won't actually get my letters. ๐)
Book Review: "Lonesome for Wilderness: Tracking and Trailing in Forest, Desert, or Your Own Back Yard"
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Nature Connection with Rebecca: Letters of Wonder from My Ecosystem to Yours ๐ October 10, 02026 ๐ New Moon Dear friends, Today I have a Book Review to share with you. Lonesome for Wilderness: Tracking and Trailing in Forest, Desert, or Your Own Back Yard by Linda Jo Hunter A while ago I got curious about animal tracking, so I ordered a bunch of books on the topic from the library. Most of them were field guides, stuffed full of technical information and images of tracks, sorted by species. Those books will make invaluable references, but Lonesome for Wilderness: Tracking and Trailing in Forest, Desert, or Your Own Back Yard by Linda Jo Hunter (2024) was quite a bit different, and probably my favorite of the lot. Certainly, itโs the only one I read cover-to-cover. In this book, Hunter (who is not a hunter as far as I can tell, but a keenly observant tracker, wilderness guide, naturalist, and search-and-rescue volunteer) shares stories from her own adventures and all the knowledge she has gained along the way. The order of the chapters feels a bit random to me, and I wonder if the book couldโve had a clearer arc as a whole, but that didnโt bother me much. Reading her essays made me feel like I was privileged to go on a series of walks with her and learn from her deep expertise and wisdom. Her writing has a distinct voice that is friendly yet firm. She is very down to earth (which is fitting for a tracker, who literally spends a lot of time kneeling down close to the earth). Hunter offers a refreshing perspective thatโs different from many wilderness books (which are often written by men, with a theme of being macho and toughing it out). Right off the bat in Chapter Two, โRoughing It,โ she takes on these myths and misconceptions that fill western outdoors stories. A theme throughout the book is that tracking adventures are most successful when you take care of yourself and you are comfortable -- especially if you are leading others. But this does not at all dampen the excitement of the โwild streakโ in the stories she shares about tracking and trailing bears, mountain lions, and other animals; specific encounters sheโs had; and the way sheโs gotten to know individuals over time through their scats and sign in an area. She also talks about safety considerations, especially for solo female hikers, which I found very useful. She encourages readers to find their โwild streakโ and the โtrue magicโ of learning more about nature, which as she emphasizes, is a never-ending and ever-expanding process. Many of her adventures sound like they would be beyond the capabilities of my own physical stamina, but thatโs why I thank her and other nature writers for bringing their wilderness stories back to share with us, so I can experience the adventure that way. And the concepts that she teaches through the stories apply to the closer-to-home adventures and mysteries that I do intend to explore. Two ideas from the book are sticking with me the most, and they apply to life in general even outside of tracking. The first is โWhat is not looked for will not be found,โ which she learned from one of her favorite instructors, Joel Hardin. She describes an instance where he found her contact lens that had fallen out in a field of tall grass. She writes, โWhere my first thought was that I would never find it, his was to look for it.โ The second concept is having โthat cup of tea.โ She likes to bring a little stove with her so she can make tea on her outings (going back to that theme of comfort). When she finds herself in a difficult or dangerous situation or emergency, she pauses to make a cup of tea so she can have a clear mind before deciding how to proceed. โ โ What have you been reading? -Rebecca ๐ P.S.
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Rebecca Rolnick Writer, Naturalist, Educator โwww.rebeccarolnick.comโ โhttps://www.instagram.com/habitat_restoryation/โ Land Acknowledgement: This letter is sent from Syracuse NY, which is in the unceded ancestral lands of the Onondaga Nation of the Haudeonsaunee Confederacy. โฌโฌ๐ฒโฌโฌ This is a 100% human-created newsletter. No AI was used in the outlining, writing, or editing of this letter. |
Nature Connection with Rebecca
I'm a Nature Journal Teacher/ Nature Connection Mentor on a path of relearning how to be a human in reciprocal relationship with the interconnected web of life! Come along and geek out about all our nonhuman kin with me! :) ๐ธ๐ ๐ฆ๐ป๐ฆ๐ฆ๐๐๐ข๐ท๐ธ๐๐๐๐ฆ๐ฆจ๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ณ โญ(After you subscribe, make sure to go to your email to confirm your subscription! Otherwise you won't actually get my letters. ๐)
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