Guy Grieve seemed to have it all – a wonderful wife and two kids, a home and a steady job at a newspaper in Scotland. Yet he was miserable. The job felt like a prison he couldn’t escape, and he spent all his waking hours searching for a way out.
His search led to Alaska, and Guy began dreaming about building a cabin in the wilderness and living alone off the land. With the family on board with this seemingly crazy scheme, Guy quit his job, convinced his newspaper editor to pay him to write a weekly column, found a few sponsors, and began preparing for Alaska.
He made contact with a family in the Yukon River village of Galena, accessible only by air, and arranged for them to help him get started. With a great deal of enthusiasm, some gear and supplies, and little else (including virtually no experience in the bush) he got on a plane in Scotland and went.
Every year numerous adventurers like Guy Grieve come from all over the world to little bush villages in similar attempts to find happiness, and most fail miserably. Guy was lucky. He was befriended by Don Lowe and family, a kind and generous bunch who were the key to his success. Don imparted wisdom, lent Guy all of the tools he needed, and helped him both morally and physically pretty much every step of the way.
With help from Don, his family and many others in Galena, Guy found a place in the bush and built his cabin over a couple of long, grueling months. He spent the winter there too, eventually borrowing a dog team and using them for transport. When spring came, he returned home to his family in Scotland, in many ways a changed man.
“Call of the American Wild: A Tenderfoot’s Escape to Alaska” is Guy Grieve’s story of his year in the Alaska wilderness. As someone who has long had a similar dream, I found it interesting to follow along with Guy as he went through this journey. His learning curve and cultural acclimation to the lifestyle was probably more extreme than most, as he had zero experience prior to Alaska. The one thing he did have that allowed for his success was humility and a willingness to learn from those around him who knew how to survive.
So, did living in isolation in the wild allow Guy to find happiness that year? It’s hard to tell. He seemed to be miserable much of the time, digging into menial tasks and constantly bemoaning the hard work and dangers associated with the place. Much of the narrative seemed overly dramatic and left little room for the few moments of peace and happiness that shined through in the story. Guy was obviously not built for that land, and wasn’t destined to stay there. But one thing is for certain, it changed him.
“Call of the American Wild” is available in paperback and all other formats. I listened to it as an audiobook while making circles around fields on a tractor.
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