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Indian Creek Chronicles: A Winter Alone in the Wilderness | 
 enlarge | Author: Pete Fromm
Publisher: Picador
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
Buy New: $7.91
You Save: $6.09 (44%)
New (29) Used (23) from $6.48
Avg. Customer Rating:  37 reviews
Sales Rank: 189972
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 208
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.7
ISBN: 0312422725
Dewey Decimal Number: 508
EAN: 9780312422721
ASIN: 0312422725
Publication Date: October 1, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new item. Over 3.5 million customers served. Order now. Selling online since 1995. Order with confidence. Code: B20080820212438T
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Product Description
Winner of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Book Award, Indian Creek Chronicles is Pete Fromm’s account of seven winter months spent alone in a tent in Idaho guarding salmon eggs and coming face to face with the blunt realities of life as a contemporary mountain man. A gripping story of adventure and a modern-day Walden, this contemporary classic established Fromm as one of the West’s premier voices.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 32 more reviews...
 Indian Creek Chronicles July 23, 2008
Some friends of mine are certainly going to get "Indian Creek Chronicles" for Christmas this year. A wide variety of interests will enjoy this book.
Pete Fromm is justly known as an excellent writer. This memoir is some of his early material and describes some of his earliest wilderness experiences. He was a tenderfoot in an alien environment. Thus this becomes a true story written on a clean slate. A person must believe that the experience had a profound influence on him and on his writings that we enjoy as they reach publication today.
Fromm makes it sound as if it were almost an accident that he ended up deep in Idaho's Selway wilderness while he was still a teen. However, it is never truly an accident that a person strikes out on an adventure. When the adventure works out well, it is usually because the circumstances match a certain makeup in the person's being. Fromm was searching his way through a program at the University of Montana when an opportunity appeared to spend the winter far from civilization watching over a bunch of salmon eggs too small to see. Without really thinking about what it meant to spend months without human contact or access to help if he needed it, he postpones his education and accepts the job. That the job required only a few minutes each day added to the loneliness but provided time to learn from the wilderness.
He lands in a wall tent without much instruction on what supplies he should have brought or how he should survive the challenges he might face. The winter weather in that part of the country is renowned for deep snow, severe temperatures, and long duration. Fortuitously, he brought a young dog that proves to be a good companion and a focus during times of loneliness. He also brought a pioneering spirit without which the adventure would have been a disaster.
The book relates a self-taught crash course in survival skills, learning about one's self, and discovering the ways of nature in the wilderness. There was something unexpected around every corner, and the corners were close together.
One expects the unexpected in such a situation. The phone hanging on a nearby tree doesn't work - this is before wireless - adding to the isolation, and also the risk. On the other hand, snowmobiles unexpectedly appear occasionally with outfitters, hunters, or forest rangers. An attempt by Fromm's brother and father to ski in on a visit ends unsuccessfully, and Fromm's concern over the possible consequences causes him to put himself at risk.
There is some superlative nature writing here, such as the emotions aroused by an eclipse of the sun. Human interaction with the changing seasons and the animals of the wilderness receive a fresh look through the eyes of someone just learning about such things. There is an "Afterword" chapter that brought tears to my voice as I was reading the book aloud.
Regardless of whether your interest turns to the outdoors or to the enjoyment of human nature, you will enjoy this book. It is the kind of book you will refer to frequently in conversations with your friends.
 I hope you like snow June 13, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Hard to find many faults with this book. It had about everything a guy could want. Life in the Bitterroot mountains, a good dog, a little hunting and trapping and fishing, and lots of snow. This is a well told story of the romantic and somewhat serendipitous transition of a Midwest college kid from the life of a dorm rat to the life of a mountain goat. He has a friend, Rader, who pops in from time to time, and his faithful dog Boone, but otherwise is pretty much a hermit. The author does a great job of describing both the beauty and hardship of solitary mountain life without over dramatizing either. It is an easy read, but not without some depth, but mostly it is just good "escapist non-fiction". Even though he admits the book came from an expansion of a series he had written for an outdoor magazine, it never has the feel of being "padded".
Just as an aside, even though there is a bit of hunting and trapping, it's hardly a blood fest. Outside of his grouse hunting he took it pretty easy on the wildlife population of Idaho. That aside, I think you'll enjoy the read.
Enjoyable reading... November 8, 2007
I really enjoyed the tale of living it out in the wilds for a newbie outdoorsman. Very well written and really takes you into the backcountry to see how he adapted and strived to enjoy the atmosphere. Great job.
A great adventure painted vividly & honestly........... August 29, 2007
Started this absorbing adventure when I arrived home from my work day (in the office) & finished 3 hours later. What a thrilling few hours it was too!.
The story starts as a young, immature college guy rather niavely (& foolishly) takes on a 7 month job in the wilds with no experience, knowledge, or realistic idea of how he will cope out of his comfort zone & what it takes to survive on his own during the harsh winter weather living in a tent.
It's surprisingly honest & revealing - most adventurers only recount the highlights & thrills (without exposing their fears & weaknesses).
Pete Fromm writes vividly & from the heart - it takes a courageous man to expose his inner thoughts & anxieties to his readers.
I found some of his descriptions of hunting/killing the wildlife a little graphic (so vegetarians beware), but towards the end of the book his growing maturity & awareness of nature & the lives of creatures in the wild, give me reason to believe he learnt to love & respect the wildlife (even if he still needed to hunt & trap to survive).
By the end of the book, his words come across as skillful as any seasoned writer & it was not surprising that he now has several books published.
I hope all who read this book enjoy it as much as I did....................
Good Stuff!!! June 3, 2007
What outdoorsman has not dreamed of walking into the woods and living off the land? Fromm does a nice job in explaining what needs to be done to make my dream a reality...he also does a GREAT job in detailing the fact that I belong at home (in the city).
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