Ranger Steve

The year was 2015 and the month was August. I was called to the land and called to never leave. I did not know what i was supposed to do here but when you are called you listen.

I felt that my most important first task was to know the land. I needed to see as much as I could see and get as comfortable as I could with this wilderness. I wanted to be able to eventually walk free off trail with no fear of getting lost (and with no fear in general). I gave myself a year to do this. Now I know could not have accomplished this without the security and the innate wisdom I felt being with Inook.

Inook, part Canadian Eskimo dog, is 100 lbs of wolf-like apex predator - with prey instinct fully intact. So we became the age-old power team of man and beast in the wild.

With Inook at my side I achieved my goal that first year. I became more in tune with this wilderness than anywhere else. I came to know the major land formations - six peaks, two rivers/wetlands, the great Quyon valley and its headwaters. I was so comfortable with the land that I could walk anywhere with no map, no device, and no fear of getting lost (or of anything else, for that matter). I was home on my range. And this was the beginning. (RIP InookSHKSHK beloved magic beast i would not have made it through those first years. Thanks you for saving my life more than once 2011-2023)

The first few years here were pretty extreme. I was really just barely holding on. Off grid living through Canadian winters, all alone with no internet or cell service, was both punishing and life-affirming. I put together this video about three years in when things started to get a bit easier: