A Year in the Wilderness: Bearing Witness in the Boundary Waters

Named One of Twenty Big Indie Books of Fall 2017 by Publishers Weekly
Featured in the Wall Street Journal

For 365 days in 2015 and 2016, the Freemans lived in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, paddling a canoe or towing a toboggan from campsite to campsite. They fell through the ice. They were trailed by wolves. They drank from the lakes. Mostly, they bore witness. Minneapolis Star Tribune

Gorgeous . . . [the Freemans'] words are complemented by an outstanding selection of photographs that immerse the reader in the watery landscape, making an indelible impact. Canoe & Kayak

Through evocative personal narrative and nature photography, the Freemans . . . speak with a single attentive and amiable voice that centers the joys and challenges of navigating the land and water. . . . Gorgeous color photographs focus on the human experience of being in wilderness and augment a novel work that should draw attention to the plight of the Boundary Waters. Publishers Weekly

The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is among our nation's great natural treasures. It is also fragile, and increasingly threatened by the prospect of sulfide-ore copper mining. At this moment in our history, when calls are growing to privatize public lands and weaken national parks, adventurers Amy and Dave Freeman spent a year in the Boundary Waters, experiencing its singular beauty and advocating for its preservation. In this extraordinary book, they have done us all an invaluable service, offering a wonderfully compelling testimony for the value of wild places and the creatures who inhabit them. I urge you to read it, and then to join the Freemans in advocating for the preservation of the Boundary Waters. Vice President Walter Mondale

Recounting their adventure in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, Amy and Dave Freeman offer a compelling tale about the beauty as well as the brutal challenges of living a year in this northern wilderness one of our nation's very first areas protected by the Wilderness Act of 1964. Their first-hand observations about the wild, the land ethic, and threats to this natural heritage build on a long tradition. Exemplifying a new generation of outdoors writer-adventurers, the Freemans infuse excitement and energy into the wilderness canon crafted by Mardy and Olaus Murie, Sigurd Olson, and other champions in earlier generations who have done so much to protect our wild places by describing them with a keen eye and a passionate heart. Jamie Williams, President, The Wilderness Society

Here's the story of a great adventure in one of the planet's most gorgeous wildernesses and with high stakes at risk in a fight to stave off a truly gross assault on its integrity. So many reasons to read this book! Bill McKibben, author of Wandering Home

Although my adventures have taken me to both ends of the earth, I share with Amy and Dave Freeman the same life-affirming natural centerpoint for physical and spiritual sustenance: Minnesota's Boundary Waters wilderness. While I occasionally get to taste the wonders of this pristine place, they got to live and breathe it for a full year. The depth of their insights in this remarkable book reflects the intensity of their extraordinary experience and their love for this amazing national treasure. Ann Bancroft

All-in-all this is a fantastic narrative, with something for every outdoor-loving reader. The descriptions of the wilderness in four seasons will make nature-lovers happy. Stories of the gear, sled dogs and camping's constant problem-solving will please experienced trekkers. And there is a note of nostalgia in the effort, proof that a man and a woman can leave the city behind and make a difference in the world. Amy and Dave Freeman understand something very significant that an iconic object such as a canoe can make a strong political statement, in this case in opposition to sulfide-ore mining in a pristine wilderness much like an earlier American hero, Woody Guthrie, used his guitar to fight fascism. This land, they all say, is your land. Mark Neuzil, coauthor of Canoes: A Natural History in North America