[.ca] Lost in My Own Backyard: A Walk in Yellowstone National Park (ISBN 140004622X)

"Lost, but not begotten. . .":
Lost in My Own Backyard amalgamates renowned and perpetually witty author Tim Cahill with one of his favorite haunts: Yellowstone National Park. "Part of the joy of walking in Yellowstone is that it is still, for the most part, a wilderness, which means that it is untamed, which in turn means that it is not impossible to get hurt, even if you follow all the rules. Thus the wilderness that is Yellowstone Park affirms our mortality. That is why walking its trails makes us feel so damn alive" (16). Cahill, in Lost in My Own Backyard, cleverly and humbly connects with the reader by admitting that he is neither a biologist nor a geologist. Instead, he confesses, "I am more interested in suggesting ways to think about the park and its significance. I'm especially interested in the exhilaration anyone with a heart feels while walking Yellowstone Park" (138). He encounters wiki-ups, "deliciously creepy nights" in the Goblin Labyrinth, bugling elk, lovelorn bull moose attempting to "shag" the frigid females, two-minute-old grizzly tracks, among other adventures. The book is written in three parts-"The Trails: Day Hikes," which are fun, informative, and often hilarious; "In the Backcountry: Three Good Backcountry Trails," where Cahill admits to his "hopeless sense of direction." He is hired by National Geographic Adventure magazine along with his longtime friend, Tom Murphy, to write up backcountry trips; finally, Cahill conspicuously chides The Guide to Yellowstone Waterfalls and Their Discovery, listed in the last part of the book, "A Selected Yellowstone Bookshelf," where he lists a selection of books that he uses and some that he's clearly not particularly fond of: One in particular presents Cahill with "certain philosophical problems" (128). Lost in My Own Backyard is written from a madcap adventurers perspective. Cahill unleashes yet another humdinger of a book.