When the enigmatic Jedediah Smith, greatest of the mountain men, puts together a brigade of trappers for an expedition into the unknown territory of Mexican California , Sam Morgan joyfully joins up. With his Crow Indian wife Meadowlark and his coyote pup at his side, Sam sees the expedition as a chance for adventure -- and wealth. Captain Smith leads the group south in search of the the Buenaventura, a great river believed to connect the Great Salt Lake to California, but when the river proves to be a myth, the trek toward the Pacific becomes a nightmare. Like ghosts they struggle into the San Gabriel Mission in southern California and there recuperate, but the Mexican government eyes them with suspicion and Sam and his companions are forced to flee back into the Mojave. When Meadowlark falls ill, Sam learns the poignant meaning of the words of his mentor, Hannibal McKye: "Life is like a golden bear. It's magnificent, it's beautiful, and it bites." "Win Blevins has long since won his place among the West's very best." -- Tony Hillerman "His gritty fiction brings to mind the the fur-trading novels of Frederick Manfred(Lord Grizzly, 1954) and Vardis Fisher(Mountain Man)." --Kirkus Reviews on Beauty for Ashes "[An] entertaining, vivid portrait of frontier America as seen through the eyes of an impressionable youth."--Booklist on So Wild A Dream "So Wild a Dream is a fabulous beginning of what promises to become a classic series that will be on college reading lists in history classes studying the fur trade era." --Roundup Magazine "Blevins possesses a rare skill in masterfully telling a story-to-paper. He is a true storyteller in the tradition of Native people." -- Lee Francis, Associate Prof. Of Native American Studies, University of New Mexico "One of the finest novels to come out of the American West in a long time...an amazing book, grandly conceived, beautifully written..."-- Dallas Morning News on Stone Song Win Blevins, an authority on the Plains Indians and fur-trade era of the West, is author of Give Your Heart to the Hawks, Stone Song, his prize-winning novel of Crazy Horse and many others including his Rendevous series that began with So Wild a Dream. He lives in Utah with his wife Meredith, also a novelist. Dancing With the Golden Bear Part OneINTO THE UNKNOWNOne We Los DosCAPTAIN JEDEDIAH SMITH sniffed the steam rising off his black coffee. Sam and Flat Dog passed the jug back and forth. Though Diah didn't drink, he was accustomed to being the only man who didn't.Meadowlark touched her twenty-two-year-old husband's white-blond hair. He looked into her face, lit by the last embers of the fire. The eyes of the two honeymooners made promises. "Soon," he murmured. He handed Flat Dog the jug and said, "Kill it."As though the whiskey had loosened his tongue, Jedediah said, "Sometimes I wonder what it all means.""What?" Sam tossed back, grinning."Life.""Means?" asked Flat Dog, hoisting the jug, also grinning."Yes.""That's what I thought, Captain," said Sam. "Sometimes you're funny."Jedediah gave him a peculiar look. "Funny?"Flat Dog gurgled long on the whiskey. Meadowlark watched it run down her brother's neck. He lifted the jug high, and the last few drops plopped into his mouth. "There!" he said, and slammed the jug down, as though he'd had his say.After the brigade left camp tomorrow, whiskey and coffee would be only memories until next summer and next rendezvous."Isn't it worth asking?" said Jedediah."My father taught me," Sam said, "that when a bird is on the wing, all that's on its mind is flying. And he does best to keep it that way."Flat Dog slapped his brother-in-law on the back. "Coy sees it like that too." Coy was Sam's pet coyote, which lay as always at his feet."When we're about to head out," Diah said, "I get thoughtful."Sam shrugged. "What's on my mind is, there's a new place to go, and my heart is big to see it.""Where are we going?" asked Flat Dog.The captain had told all his men that the brigade was headed south and west looking for new beaver country. But he'd told Sam and Meadowlark more."I think you know," Diah said."California," said Flat Dog."Don't spread it around," said Diah.The Crow nodded. The word "California" hardly meant a thing to him. Adventure meant something. Whiskey did too."I want to see the ocean," said Meadowlark.Sam grinned at her. His bride, who had spent her entire life in the Yellowstone country, was clear about that one thing. She wanted to go to the big-water-everywhere. Sam wondered what was between here, on the shore of a creek in the northern Rocky Mountains, and the Pacific shores. He remembered what Diah had said. When the mapmakers didn't know what was in a big empty space, they sometimes filled in, MONSTERS THERE BE HERE."California," said Jedediah.Sam smiled, stood up, and offered Meadowlark a hand. "Bedtime," he said. Her eyes softened, and she took his hand.    "WE'LL CAMP HERE," said Jedediah.The place looked good to Sam. It was in