Dense forests, wild waters Diary

A journey through the wilds of nature and the vicissitudes of daily life accompanied by an icon of the Nordic forests - now available in paperback. “Wait,” says Little Douglas's grandfather as the buoy moves on the surface of Little Lake. “Be patient.” Thus begins a journey with the wonder and promise of nature, a journey that will last a lifetime. Deep Woods, Wild Waters traces the winding path that carried Douglas Wood from one natural wonder to another, across landscapes of rocks, forests, and water, with stops along the way for wonder and contemplation, connecting human nature to the great mysteries of the natural world. Just like life itself, a writer does not walk in a straight line. While a prominent teacher leads him to a favorite campsite, another prompts him to contemplate the “wisdom of rocks,” and a third sets out into the wilderness beyond the stars, contemplating time and space and man’s place in them. The author of thirty-four books, including the classic Old Tortoise, and an expert on forest arts and wilderness rafting guides, Wood employs all his storytelling and bushcraft skills to take us on a thrilling journey across rapids, across turbulent lakes, or simply, through the treacherous currents and winding paths of everyday life. A warm, generous and knowledgeable guide, Wood charts a journey that, as he says, “anyone can take, across a landscape that anyone can know.” As he turns pages, walks waterways, traverses rapids, or surveys the wilderness from a high promontory, he invites us to say, in a soul-satisfying moment of realization, “I know this place.”