A wildlife biologist's journey of discovery through Montana's wilderness As young men, John Fraley and Terry McCoy were kindred spirits, drawn to Montana’s most remote, rugged, wild places. Tragically, one of them died young, his wilderness dreams cut short. The other went on to a forty-year career studying fish and furbearers in the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex. My Wilderness Life chronicles John Fraley’s lifelong love of all places wild and his obsession with uncovering what happened on the August 1974 morning when Terry McCoy’s airplane crashed in what would become the Welcome Creek Wilderness. Join Fraley on a frantic search to find his friend, and also on epic treks to traverse an impassable river canyon, snorkel with pure westslope cutthroat trout, retrace the footsteps of conservation icon Bud Moore, track lynx and mountain lions across the Great Bear Wilderness in winter, hike 42 miles through the Bob in a single day, and much more. At turns hilarious and heartbreaking, My Wilderness Life reveals how one man’s unfulfilled dreams can inspire another’s adventures. Wilderness risks and rewards come alive in first-hand accounts of daring escapades, solo treks, and a few foolhardy misadventures. - An inside glimpse of the life of a fisheries biologist in the backcountry. - Amply illustrated with 100 black-and-white photographs. Inspired by a spirit elk, John Fraley has been able to live the dream of many a Montana boy confronted by ever-encroaching civilization—devoting his life to wilderness, or what's left of it. The wilderness can be glorious and it can be unforgiving, as his account of the loss of a friend confirms: the friendship was glorious, the loss brutal. Fortunately for us, he takes us along in a readable account of his many decades in the field as scientist, hunter, trapper, fisherman, and devotee of the backcountry. The underlying message is that the struggle to preserve the wild is a never-ending and necessary one, for the spirit as well as the land. -- John N. Maclean , author of Home Waters: A Chronicle of Family and a River and other books John Fraley came to Montana as a teenager and received fish and wildlife management degrees from both Montana Universities. He retired after a forty-year career with Montana’s wildlife agency, mostly spent in northwest Montana’s Flathead country. John writes regularly for Montana Outdoors , and he has written articles on the Flathead’s history and other topics for True West, Montana The Magazine of Western History, Western Wildlands, Wild Outdoor World , and other magazines. John’s other books include Wild River Pioneers; Rangers, Trappers, and Trailblazers; A Woman’s Way West ; and Heroes of the Bob Marshall Wilderness . He lives with his wife, Dana, in Kalispell, MT.