• Age: 14
• Grade: 9

This latest book from Chris Czajkowski's spectacular corner of the world is another engrossing account of life in her wilderness. She regales the reader with stories of shimmering mountain peaks, roaring snow-fed creeks, bears, eagles and monstrous storms; and tales of her dogs--Bucky (short for Buckethead), who chases everything; Max, who tussles with wolves and a porcupine; and Raffi, a large, happy animal who thinks he's a lapdog. The book culminates in a white-knuckle account of the all-too-close Lonesome Lake fire of 2004, from its infancy as a lightning strike reported in nearby Tweedsmuir Provincial Park, to Czajkowski's realization that her first wilderness cabin had been consumed by fire, and the dreaded moment when she was ordered by radiophone to evacuate everyone from the area.

Czajkowski became well known to Canadians through her correspondence with Peter Gzowski on CBC's Morningside, where she described her initial foray into the wilderness near Lonesome Lake. The letters were expanded into the bestselling Cabin at Singing River. From there she moved to virgin ground at Nuk Tessli, where she has lived for nearly 20 years. Wildfire in the Wilderness, describes recent visitors to her world--filmmakers, media people, pilots, friends and paying guests--and a technician, who flew in to connect her cabin to the Internet, despite the vagaries of a homemade power system and winds that can make short work of a satellite dish. Her stories of the many people she meets are as engaging as her meditations on the solitude she loves.

Chris Czajkowski was born and raised in the north of England. She lived and worked in Uganda, New Zealand, the South Pacific and South America before settling in the remote reaches of British Columbia's Coast Range mountains, 480 kilometres north of Vancouver, where she created the Nuk Tessli Alpine Experience, an ecotourism business catering to hikers and naturalists. She has written ten books about her nearly thirty years of wilderness living, including Snowshoes and Spotted Dick: Letters from a Wilderness Dweller, A Mountain Year: Nature Diary of a Wilderness Dweller, A Wilderness Dweller's Cookbook: The Best Bread in the World and Other Recipes and most recently, Ginty's Ghost: A Wilderness Dweller's Dream.

Chris Czajkowski's profile page

Wildfire in the Wilderness

In this passionate account of wilderness living, Czajkowski, environmentalist and naturalist, tells of the adventures and hardships of living on Spinster Lake, located in the remote West Chilcotin area of northern BC. She describes a life of self-sufficiency and isolation, twenty kilometers from the nearest road, relying on only the few supplies that the occasional floatplane can carry in. She built three cabins without the help of heavy machinery and set up and operated a tourist business for like-minded environmentalists. Her fond memories of summers spent with her canine companions and are starkly contrasted to her recollections of the devastating effects of the forest fires of 2004.

Czajkowski has published several bestsellers, including Diary of a Wilderness Dweller.