Wilderness Dreams

Monika Rohlmann is an environmental consultant in Victoria, B.C.

Boudreau, a retired Forest Services worker grew up in Penny, British
Columbia. The wild and mountainous terrain of northern B.C. has been the
subject of three previous books. Wilderness Dreams focuses on the
extraordinary lives of a couple who spent more than half a century
building a family life in an isolated region of the Cariboo Mountains.

Ted and Clara Bowden have lived a ranching and guiding life near
Quesnel, in northern B.C., since 1951. Committed to making a living from
the land, they became seasoned hunting guides, ranchers, logging and
mill operators, log cabin builders, gold prospectors, and, in their
golden years, aircraft builders and pilots. There were also some years
they spent off the west coast of Vancouver Island trawling for fish.
Each chapter alternates chronologically through the life of Ted, then
Clara, with each major shift in pioneering activity warranting its own
chapter. Small black-and-white photos scattered throughout the text are
proof-positive the stories are real; they really did accomplish all this
while raising two boys and mentoring six grandchildren.

The pioneering generation that carved its existence in the backwoods of
Canada is full of stories of fascinating and remarkable people. The
Bowden story demonstrates their physical endurance, emotional tolerance,
and mental determination. Do such people still exist today? One should
read a chapter or two from this book every time the small things in
modern life go wrong. We have endured nothing that compares to clearing
seven downed trees while trying to drive our child to school, or
winching our car out of a washout while on our way to the grocery store.
Wilderness Dreams is medicine for our time-stressed, technologically
tortured souls.