Chasing Clayoquot: A Wilderness Almanac

247 Pages·2010·3.75 MB·English

by  David Pitt-Brooke

Table of Contents

Praise
Title Page
Dedication
AUTHOR’S NOTE TO THIS EDITION
Foreword
Prologue

January - WIYAQHAML
CHASING THE TEMPEST: Who Has Seen the Wind?

February - AXHÅML
CLEAR AND COLD: A Break in the Storm

March - AIYAKÅMIL
NATURE’S PLENTY: Herring Time

April - H’UKÅMIL
THAR SHE BLOWS!: - The Springtime Migration of Gray Whales

May - INIHITCKMIL
WIND BIRDS: Mudflats and Shorebird Migration

June - QAWCÅMIL
HANGING ON FOR DEAR LIFE: The Intertidal Zone

July - TA’ATKÁMIL
THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY: - A (Very) Brief Voyage of Oceanic
Discovery

August - SATSÅMIL
IN THE SHADOW OF THE PACIFIC: - The Mountains of Clayoquot
Sound

September - HNIQOÅSÅMIL
WASTE NOT, WANT NAUGHT: - Coastal Temperate Rainforest

October - ETSOSIMIL
RING OF BRIGHT WATER: - Bears, Salmon and Wild Rivers

November - MA’MIQSU
DAY OF THE DEAD: Seeking Y’aq-wii-itq-quu?as (Those Who Were
Here Before)

December - QAI̴ATIK
A MEASURE OF HISTORY: - In Search of the Recent Past

Epilogue
Acknowledgements
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Copyright Page
Praise for CHASING CLAYOQUOT
A Globe and Mail Top 100 Book
“A Thoreau for Clayoquot … Pitt-Brooke wins the reader over with the integrity
of his voice … it is the depth of his compassion and unwillingness to default to
simple conclusions that bears the narrative into the reader’s trust … Like the best
of Canada’s naturalist authors, [he] possesses a lyric voice that rises distinctively
from the Nearctic encounter with big landscapes, big water and big weather.”
— The Globe and Mail

“Pitt-Brooke … has penned a hymn to his surroundings. And, perhaps a prayer
as well.”
— Toronto Star

“Pitt-Brooke has written a paean to…a wondrous place.”
— Canadian Geographic

“Chasing Clayoquot is wilderness veneration in the tradition of Thoreau, but
Pitt-Brooke rewards the reader with beguiling facts of nature and history … In
the most moving passages, beyond ‘the edge of the human domain,’ Pitt-Brooke
witnesses an alien world, ‘out of my depth,’ unnerved and awed by what he calls
the ‘scary and powerful’ magic of nature. Chasing Clayoquot is education,
inspiration and adventure in one of the world’s most dramatic environments.”
— Dragonfly magazine

“Pitt-Brooke’s greatest talent is for teasing out the fascinating details of an
ecosystem and then assembling them in a way that leaves you gobsmacked by
the amazing interconnectedness of life.”
— Winnipeg Free Press

“Poetic and heartfelt ... He makes the mosses, berries and organisms of decay as
interesting as the whales and bears … Pitt-Brooke finds not God but a sense of
peace and meaning. And by telling us these stories he hopes to prompt our sense
of wonder.”
— Victoria Times-Colonist

“Pitt-Brooke is a most able guide, and Chasing Clayoquot is an admirable
achievement — he’s created a book that not only sings the praises of our area’s
natural surroundings, but is also praiseworthy in itself as a polished and elegant
piece of contemporary nonfiction … One third outdoorsman’s personal history,
one third naturalist ethics text and one third Linnaean guidebook, Pitt-Brooke’s
book is a wonderfully effective exploration of the natural processes of the sound
… Pitt-Brooke places himself in the tradition of A.Y. Jackson and the Group of
Seven — the revelling in and revealing of the Canadian landscape for the
Canadian people. And what they did in the last century in oils, he has succeeded
in doing now with words.”
— The Westerly News

“Pitt-Brooke’s thoughtful observation, scientific knowledge and love for his
subject infuse his luminous prose … Chasing Clayoquot is a book to read and
then read again. And to think about for a long time”
— Vernon Morning Star

“With eloquence and a sense of joy, David Pitt-Brooke takes you there, in a way
that will make you want to follow in his footsteps.”
— artist and naturalist Robert Bateman

To my parents Tena and Doug

Earth’s crammed with heaven and every common bush afire with God
— Elizabeth Barrett Browning