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The Last Season

3.97 of 5 stars 3.97 · rating details · 2,017 ratings · 305 reviews

To pick up The Last Season is to lose oneself in a mesmerizing story about a place few could survive in and even fewer have visited -- the unforgiving backcountry of the Sierra Nevadas. Blehm narrates this true account of the disappearance and search for Randy Morgenson, a National Park Service ranger who, one morning after 28 seasons on the job, failed to answer his radio...more

Paperback, 384 pages

Published January 30th 2007 by Harper Perennial (first published 2006)

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Oct 28, 2008 Billy rated it 4 of 5 stars

I liked this book a lot. At first, I was skeptical. It seemed too ghoulish, and too unoriginal – too much like Into The Wild or The Perfect Storm. Gradually, I found myself transfixed, and looking forward to getting a little more time with the book..

It’s the story of a long term (28 years) seasonal backcountry ranger in the Eastern Sierra, Randy Mortenson, who one day goes out on patrol and never returns. The book shifts back and forth from the search (which was extremely extensive) and Mortenes...more

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Jul 12, 2007 Rebecca rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'm a sucker for biographies and suspense novels -- and this one delivers both. The story is fascinating and includes Yosemite National Park as a key character. The book tracks the life and disappearance of Randy Morgenson, a long-time back woods ranger in Yosemite. Morgenson literally grew up in Yosemite ... his father worked in the administrative offices and the family had a home in Yosemite Valley. The story of the family is well developed and includes accounts of their unlikely friendships w...more

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Nov 08, 2007 Melanie rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Outdoor adrenaline junkies

Somehow, true stories always have such a pull for me. Although many of us will know how the book ends (the primary events described are from 1996) prior to reading the first page, the author keeps us interested. Suspense builds, and at times I found myself wanting to shout through the walls of time, to tell the rescuers the clues. I docked a star because I feel towards the last third of the book it becomes unnecessarily detailed. Every action of every search team is logged. I was so excited to g...more

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May 05, 2008 Ellen rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book was a true wilderness mystery; an experienced backcountry NPS ranger goes missing in his assigned territory of the Sequoia/Kings National Park. The Last Season documents the life of Ranger Randy Morgenson and the massive search and rescue operation his disappearance triggered. Mr. Blehm had me turning the pages eagerly, swept up in the story, eager to learn more about Ranger Randy and anxious to piece together how he went missing.

What Mr. Blehm, and Ranger Randy through his own journal...more

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Jan 29, 2008 Jeter rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: finished

What a great, great book. Tells the story of Randy Morganson who is a back-country ranger in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. This is a man who has lived the majority of his life in the mountains and is clearly one of the finest in his rare and seriously neglected profession. In 1996 (it's been a month since I read it, so I may have the dates off) he disappears early in the season. Because of the turbulence in his life that lead up to the hiking season, there is plenty of speculation as to what real...more

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Nov 09, 2007 Sundry rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone interested in hiking, backpacking, mountains and/or a real American hero.

Shelves: nonfiction

This book was recommended to me by some very enthusiastic park rangers at Death Valley. I am so glad I picked up a copy.

Upon finishing it this morning and reading through all the extra materials at the end of the book, I went straight to my notebook to write about the ideas that it provoked.

On the surface, it's a story about the life and disappearance of Randy Morgenson, who spent 28 summers as a ranger in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. But it's also about what it takes to be a back...more

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Jul 01, 2011 Preeti rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: wardens-rangers-guides, nature

Wow. Amazing, amazing book. The writing was superb and I learned a LOT. I picked this book up prior to my first trip to Yosemite National Park in California (US) - even though it mainly takes place in Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks, it involves Yosemite as well.

The book is about a backcountry ranger, Randy Morgenson, who went missing in 1996 but it's about so much more than that. It's about nature and wilderness, being free, about the parks... It talks about his family, who knew Ansel A...more

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May 28, 2008 Crocker rated it 4 of 5 stars

If you liked "Into the Wild", you'll love this book. Randy Morgenson is a backcountry ranger in the Sierra Nevada and Kings Canyon national parks.

Randy never really got people, but he really understood nature and being isolated in it. Growing up with family friends like Ansel Adams set the tone for his view on the world.

In much the same vein as "Into the Wild", Randy goes missing early in the book and the author takes you on a recount of his life and what might have happened to him via intervie...more

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Jul 22, 2010 Benjamin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, national, parks, mystery, hiking, marriage, 2009-read, first-edition, edition

An enjoyable true-life missing person story from the King's Canyon National Parks region. I believe the story first showed up as a magazine piece in Outside. The first 100 pages or so took me a bit to get into. Eric Blehm's writing style at first seemed a little over the top in regards to how he described some of the wilderness areas the story is set in. It seemed at times that he was writing for an audience that never visited a national park, much less hiked on an overnight trip. Sentences like...more An enjoyable true-life missing person story from the King's Canyon National Parks region. I believe the story first showed up as a magazine piece in Outside. The first 100 pages or so took me a bit to get into. Eric Blehm's writing style at first seemed a little over the top in regards to how he described some of the wilderness areas the story is set in. It seemed at times that he was writing for an audience that never visited a national park, much less hiked on an overnight trip. Sentences like these, describing Randy� s spartan conditions, got on my nerves:[return]� Hardly the log cabin vision that the words � ranger station� evoke, the primitive residence was little more than a 12-by15-foot canvas tent set up on a plywood platform.� (page 6)[return]Well, yes, that� s what rangers in the field usually stay in. It� s called a wall tent. I go hiking maybe twice a season, so I am no weekend warrior, but everyone has seen these in the parks. Perhaps I� m being picky, but I do feel that it is more likely that the people who are going to read this book might be more wilderness oriented folks. I could be wrong. But over the last month, I have mentioned this book to students and co workers and all of the ones who have read it are avid hikers and backpackers. Regardless, it� s an entertaining book that did appeal to this fan of the wilderness. After I got to page 100, the remaining 250 pages went by fast. [return]Some thoughts on the story (spoilers below): [return]Randy Morgenson is our main character, a back country ranger of some 28 consecutive seasons working in the national park. A bonafide mountain man. Blehm weaves Morgenson's upbringing and life into chapters that cover the 60's to 90's with other chapters which focus on the Search and Rescue operation to find him in 1996. The background chapters provide context for the SAR chapters. The main background themes for Randy include his love for the wilderness, his untraditional marriage with his wife Judi, and his somewhat selfish and uncompromising sense of environmentalism. Blehm does a pretty good job of taking the materials available to him (journals, ranger log books, anecdotes, ect) and creating a character for us to feel anxious for. [return]The SAR chapters were interesting to me because I felt I was learning about all the particular details that go into managing such a huge search and rescue operation in a wilderness area famous for swallowing bodies and never giving them up. It was a little like CSI in a national park. [return]Both sets of chapters gave a sense of how divided and splintered the NPS bureaucracy has become. Particularly on ways that seasonal staff and "lifers" are treated differently. The book does paint a picture that is 15 years old, so perhaps things have changed.[return]Much of the tension in the book is built upon what actually happened to Randy. Is he dead? Did he meet a terrible accident? Is he alive but can't be found? Did he commit suicide? Was there foul play? Did he simply leave the park and go to Mexico? Fortunately, this is not one of those books that leaves the question unanswered. The book ends with a fairly clear answer. This however, is where I became a little disappointed. Randy's body is found and the evidence provided is clear that is was merely an accident. Blehm, in my opinion, though gives a little too much credence to some of the fanciful supernatural anecdotes that pop up throughout this story. For instance, a hiker has a vision of Randy floating in a pool of water. Judi has a dream about Randy in the bottom of a lake? Randy is eventually found in a creek after probably falling into a frozen lake further up stream. Coincidence or were some people being alerted via psychic powers? Come on, seriously? I think it� s safe to say that there were probably lots of people involved in the SAR that were having nightmares about all sorts of scenarios: cliffs, avalanches, foul play? It's a stressful operation and it wouldn't surprise me of lots of hunches were being mentioned. It just so happens that Randy did fall in a frozen lake and there happened to be a hiker who had a vision about a man trapped underwater and/or Judi having a dream about Randy at the bottom of a lake. However, it seems that Blehm is just searching for evidence that fits this one fanciful theory instead of the other way around, aka the scientific method. [return]You could say that Blehm is just merely telling the story that people told him. But think of it this way, Blehm was also told about an alien abduction theory, which is also ludicrous, and he only gives that theory 2 sentences. Why give page upon page to these other ludicrous theories? Hmm, perhaps to satisfy the paranormal fan? Fine, but paranormal fan I am not, and giving it fair weight with the more rational theories weakens the book in my opinion. [return]Skeptical criticism aside, the human drama played out on these pages does satisfy. I could go on about the bad taste that Randy's particular sense of ecological balance left in my mouth, but I'll save that for an Edward Abbey review. The memory of Randy get� s enough flak from the marital problems hung out to dry in this book. Overall though, still a good read with some good sleuthing, psychological profiling, all set in a backcountry wilderness. If you love hanging out in the woods, going hiking, or just like true mysteries, this book is for you.(less)

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Oct 07, 2012 Smoky Zeidel rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: i-own-it

The Last Season is the story of National Park Ranger Randy Morgenson, who went missing in the back country of my favorite place in the Sierras: Kings Canyon National Park. An experienced back country ranger, Randy seemed to vanish into thin air in July, 1996. This is the story of the harrowing search and rescue (SAR) mission undertaken by the National Park Service to try to find one of their own.

But was Randy truly missing, or did he slip out of the park undetected and run away to begin a new li

...more

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Apr 25, 2012 Kathy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I thought this was a great book and very well-written. I loved the descriptions of the Sierra Nevada backcountry. However the book was about a missing backcountry ranger whom I found to be a deeply flawed human being. While we're all flawed to some degree (no one is perfect), the more I read about Randy's behavior towards his wife, friends, and colleagues, the more I grew to dislike him as a person. He had a privileged childhood but could not live up to his potential as an adult. He could not ac...more

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Apr 14, 2012 Dayna rated it 4 of 5 stars

If you are familiar with SEKI backcountry you will thoroughly enjoy this book. It is a fascinating portrayal of a man who loved the High Sierra so much it consumed him. It also delves into larger philosophical issues, like what is wilderness for and how should it be managed? The writing was a bit portentous at times - deleting a sentence or paragraph here & there would have made it less overwrought. Also, I think the author should have put the more detailed map in the back. Having said this,...more

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Feb 04, 2012 Marlene French rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: true-life-adventure

I bought this book, appropriately, in the visitor's center in Sequoia/King's Canyon. The Ranger who sold it to me said it was a great book. The fact that in happened here, high in the back country made it even better! It is the story of Randy Mortensen, a long time back country ranger who is rather a different soul and loves the solace of the back country ranger life. He is involved in the usual ranger duties and has performed many search and rescue operations until that fateful day when he him...more

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Nov 08, 2011 Levi rated it 3 of 5 stars

Nobody Remembers The Mountain Man

Growing up in Denver, Colorado I have been around the Rocky Mountains my whole life. The Last Session tells a true story of a park ranger named Randy. Randy was a veteran ranger who was very well know, suddenly he went missing. The whole community around was out searching for him. He was known to go off for a few weeks and randomly show up again. But this time was different. He had no radio communication for the past four days before being reported missing. The...more Nobody Remembers The Mountain Man

Growing up in Denver, Colorado I have been around the Rocky Mountains my whole life. The Last Session tells a true story of a park ranger named Randy. Randy was a veteran ranger who was very well know, suddenly he went missing. The whole community around was out searching for him. He was known to go off for a few weeks and randomly show up again. But this time was different. He had no radio communication for the past four days before being reported missing. The whole town was in a great amount of stress and was scared of what might have happened to the renowned park ranger. This part of the story made me stop and think of a dear friend of mine who went missing. He was only missing for a day before he turned up…. Dead. No one wanted to think of the worst while he was gone. I could really connect with the emotions of the people who cared for Randy. Their own friend, partner, college, or even family member was gone without a trace. Like my friend Brad had disappeared. Death is the worst possible outcome that could come from this situation. Everyone in my little town of Littleton was worried for Brad, as everyone was for Randy.
Loosing someone is a hard thing to undergo, especially when you don’t know what happened to them. The author, Eric Blehm, did a fantastic job at illustrating the pain and worry in your head. Randy’s story is told from a third person view of what is happening. This gives the reader the opportunity to feel the emotion from many different points of view. To better understand each step in Randy’s life and the hunt to find him, Eric organized the book into detailed chapters that specifically explain each journey along the way. Each piece of information is vital to understanding the story and to really seeing the whole picture.
Eric displays a very intriguing story that can only be understood if connections are made to the book. Living near the mountains it gave me a huge connection to the area Randy was lost in. I cannot completely know what tests he was put through but from the illustrations that were painted we as readers can deeply feel what might have happened.
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Jan 01, 2011 Smith rated it 5 of 5 stars

The Last Season is about the life and death (in 1996) of Randy Morgenson, a backcountry ranger in the Sierra Nevada's for 25+ years. The author, Eric Blehm, did an outstanding job researching, and writing, this book. The descriptions of the mountains was really interesting and his descriptions of Morgenson and how he became what he was were well done.

The book reads like fiction but isn't. Morgenson was a truly unique individual, he was absolutely dedicated to the wilderness, was friends with som...more

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Nov 28, 2010 Jenifer rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is a story about a park ranger, Randy Morgenstern...The one they always turn to for help with search and rescue when someone is lost or hurt. Everyone considers him one of the best. An expert on the land and an expert in wilderness survival. And then he goes missing himself. I couldn't believe how the author kept me on the edge of my seat! Reading detailed descriptions of Morgenstern's life and personality had me wondering if he could have made a fatal error in judgement that cost him his l...more This is a story about a park ranger, Randy Morgenstern...The one they always turn to for help with search and rescue when someone is lost or hurt. Everyone considers him one of the best. An expert on the land and an expert in wilderness survival. And then he goes missing himself. I couldn't believe how the author kept me on the edge of my seat! Reading detailed descriptions of Morgenstern's life and personality had me wondering if he could have made a fatal error in judgement that cost him his life? Could he have finally gotten so "done" with society and his own personal problems that he could have ended his life? Could he have been cruel enough to disappear in to the wilderness? He was a somewhat sympathetic character, I couldn't help but admire his philosophy; "Be quiet and still and the mountains will reveal their secrets", however I spent much of my time reading about him alternately not trusting him or really disliking him.

I save five stars for life-changing books. This one hit close enough to home to give me nightmares. Five stars for that.
I liked the part where he and Judi were able to reconcile their individual needs and come up with a lifestyle that suited them both, but it seemed to me that as the years went on, Randy became more and more unable and unwilling to compromise his own ideals for her. If he had left her for the mountains forever, that would have been one thing; finally choosing his one true love. But his affair with Lo seems unforgivable to me. He keeps wanting Judi to join him in the mountains, becoming more and more hermit-like as the years go by. He seems selfish and unbalanced and those things scare me.

I loved the way that these characters love their country. Having spent some time in the Sierra-Nevadas, I had a good mental picture of the granite mountains, the meadows and the foliage described in the book. From journals of several of the people involved came some of the most heartbreakingly beautiful place descriptions that I have ever read. The people who live there and care for them really capture the magic and the mystery of the mountains. (less)

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Dec 28, 2009 Jan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

Blehm's book is a loving examination of the life of Randy Morgenson, an ace seasonal park ranger and emergency rescuer in the Sierra Nevada, who went missing in July 1996.

Blehm does a masterful job in this book - telling the story of Randy's life from his birth onward, explaining his job and his passion (which were basically one and the same), describing the wilderness that Randy loved so well, and detailing the frantic but well-executed search that his fellow rangers pursued for a week before f...more

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Dec 17, 2009 Mike rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: those who enjoy Jon Krakauer

This is the true story of the life and disappearance of a backcountry ranger in the Sierra. Randy Morgenson loved the high country, sacrificed many things in his life to spend as much time there as possible, had an encyclopedic knowledge of his mountains, and was not shy about sharing this love with others, whether to correct or inspire.

Yet, in the last couple of years before his disappearance, Morgenson found little solace in his mountains, and felt under appreciated in his job that he had love...more

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Jul 14, 2009 Mazola1 rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Last Season recounts the search for a missing back country ranger. At least, that's the surface story. As a search in the wilderness mystery story, it's well written and suspenseful. But there are many more layers to this book. It's a meditation on the place of the wilderness in modern technological society. It's an essay on priorities in life. And it's a look at the strong role that the unconscious plays in our lives.

The Last Season is the story of Randy Morgenson, a back country ranger in...more The Last Season recounts the search for a missing back country ranger. At least, that's the surface story. As a search in the wilderness mystery story, it's well written and suspenseful. But there are many more layers to this book. It's a meditation on the place of the wilderness in modern technological society. It's an essay on priorities in life. And it's a look at the strong role that the unconscious plays in our lives.

The Last Season is the story of Randy Morgenson, a back country ranger in the High Sierra for almost thirty years. Blehm skillfully sketches Randy's upbringing, his love of the mountains, and all their creatures and plants, his respect for the wilderness, and his troubled marriage. Randy was the ultimate back country ranger, more at home back in the mountains than with people, but still able to interact with park visitors in a special and respectful way, sharing his love of the wilderness with him. He was also particularly skilled in search and rescue, having an uncanny ability to figure out where lost hikers could be found.

Then one summer, Randy himself disappeared, after leaving a note on his cabin that he was out "on patrol," and then failing to respond to radio check ins. A massive search is mounted. The search is complicated by the fact that Randy's marriage was on the rocks, and he was apparently very depressed. Searchers, including those who knew Randy well, disagreed on whether he would have committed suicide. One remembered him saying at one point that he "owed" the mountains a body. Was that just a way of saying he felt at one with the mountains, or was there something more significant about that remark?

The initial search was unsuccessful. Then, five years later his body was found in a area close to one which had been searched. The condition and location of his body left it ambiguous as to whether his death was an accident or suicide. Many of Randy's friends found it impossible to believe he would have disappeared into the wilderness to commit suicide, knowing that he was well aware of the hazards search and rescue efforts caused to the searchers. But Randy was agonized over the breakup of his marriage, a breakup perhaps triggered in large part by the fact that he seemed to place the mountains above his wife. It is tempting to believe that Randy's unconscious exercised a powerful pull on him, bringing him to a place in he wilderness where he could be at peace.

The Last Season is that best of books, one that works on many levels. It is a good mystery story, and a though provoking look at humans' relationships with nature and with others.

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May 21, 2009 Lance Gideon rated it 4 of 5 stars

If you enjoyed Into the Wild, you'll love this book! If you haven't read Into the Wild, you'll still love this book! Eric Blehm has done a fantastic job with his research, and has the reader almost convinced by the end that they actually knew Randy Morgenson. My only complaint would be that I found myself wanting to skip some of the more intimate details of his marriage and family life, so that I might make it to the end sooner, and learn of Randy's fate. In the end, the intimate details give th...more

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Mar 21, 2013 Terry Koressel rated it 2 of 5 stars

I read this book because of two converging events: 1) I read another Eric Blehm book, Fearless; and 2) the Discovery Channel produced a documentary about the life, disappearance and search for Randy Morgenson....which was partially filmed at the company for which I work in Fresno and using one of our employees as an actor. The Last Season could not compare to Fearless, however. Adam Brown, the subject of Fearless, overcame such incredible odds with such determination that his story could not hel...more

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Dec 25, 2012 Jeff Jellets rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: outdoor, disaster, non-fiction

An incredible book that works on so many levels. Randy Morgenson is the best of the best – an experienced back country ranger who patrols some of the most remote and deceptively dangerous country in America. His sudden and unexplained disappearance triggers a massive search-and-rescue effort that is as compelling as any thriller. But The Last Season is more than a real-life mystery. Pulling from Morgenson’s own logbooks, author Eric Blehm also shares Randy’s evocative views on nature and man’s r...more

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Sep 10, 2009 Diane Samdahl rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is true story about risk and danger in the wilderness, recounted by Blehm after researching the mysterious disapearance of Randy Mortenson, a veteran wilderness ranger in the Sierra Nevada mountains. What is particularly engaging is how Blehm unravels the multiple facets of Mortenson's life and honors the conflicting and changing truths reported by Mortenson's family and friends. What we know up front is simply that Mortenson disappeared while patrolling the high Sierras. AS Blehm relates t...more

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Dec 21, 2011 Kerry rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adventure, favorites, nonfiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The Last Season is about the disappearance of and subsequent Search and Rescue operation for Randy Morgenson, a backcountry ranger that had worked 28 seasons for the National Park Service, mostly in the Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Park in California. The incident itself is at best an investigative piece in a newspaper or magazine. What’s amazing, however, is that the author, Eric Blehm, weaves that perfectly with other aspects of his life: childhood, parents, friends, marriage and affair...more The Last Season is about the disappearance of and subsequent Search and Rescue operation for Randy Morgenson, a backcountry ranger that had worked 28 seasons for the National Park Service, mostly in the Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Park in California. The incident itself is at best an investigative piece in a newspaper or magazine. What’s amazing, however, is that the author, Eric Blehm, weaves that perfectly with other aspects of his life: childhood, parents, friends, marriage and affair, adventures, work at the NPS, his writings and thoughts, and events that happened after his disappearance, and a “biography/mystery” is born (his body wasn’t found until five years later and even today, there is no absolute certainty why or how he died).

What’s truly great about this book, is how Randy is presented, and how you can’t but be captivated by him and his stories, and can’t stop reading until the end. Randy was a complicated man. He was a hero to many park visitors, a role model for many rangers, an excellent employee to supervisors that appreciated his dedication, a headache to NPS (the bureaucracy that didn’t recognize his contribution or heed his suggestions), a passionate protector of the backcountry, a devoted son to his parents, a reliable friend, a romantic lover, and a lousy husband. He was both an idealistic dreamer and a cynical misanthrope. He was both selfless and self-absorbed, good with people and yet an ultimate loner, a philosopher and a hypocrite. Throughout his life he suffered from his inability to “reconcile his life in the mountains with ordinary life outside that world”, and therefore hurting his wife.

Despite the apparent similarities between Season and Wild, the two characters couldn’t be more different: Randy came from an intact and almost perfect family, he was a seasoned backcountry ranger, he died of an accident (although this is still debatable) instead of stupidity. Was Randy a tragic hero, or just a tragedy, like McCandless? A little bit of both. He was… human, albeit maladjusted. I wish he had dealt with his emotional issues earlier, and apparently, escaping into the mountains didn’t actually heal him.

My emotions were all over the place as I was reading this book: I was intrigued by his early life, impressed by his achievements, admired his love for the mountains and his vision for the backcountry, enjoyed his writing (no matter how “vague” it is), respected him for being an exemplary ranger, happy about his courtship with Judi, angry at his betrayal, sad about his death, and relieved that he finally got the recognition that he deserved (like such things in life, it always comes too late). Blehm brought out the whole person, the flawed but real person. Underneath it all, however, I cared about him, flaws and all, and wondered about his fate. Making the readers care about the character — that is the true proof of a book’s success.(less)

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Nov 10, 2011 Bob Schmitz rated it 3 of 5 stars

My friend Burt Kornegay, a camping and canoe guide (http://www.slickrockexpeditions.com/) suggested this book. It's the story of the life and mysterious disappearance of Randy Morgenson a back country ranger in the Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks in California. It mixes a lot of descriptions of the rough beauty of the Sierras with the history of Yosemite and the national parks and the tough, lonely, dangerous life of the back country ranger. I discussed the training, rescue missions, and...more

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Apr 21, 2013 Joyce rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book was a treasure to me! However, it's not a book for everyone. I probably would not recommend it to most people. But if you love being in the great outdoors, appreciate nature's beauty and serenity and love to hike, like I do, you will absolutely love this book! It's the story of Randy Morgenson, a National Park Service backcountry ranger in Sequoia/King's Canyon National Park in the Sierras. The book is mainly about the search and rescue missions(SAR) to find Randy after he was reported...more

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Aug 05, 2009 Roy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is certainly a story of a ranger lost in the backcountry. However, it is also a story of someone who appreciated wilderness for what it was, recognized the value of unspoiled country, and the complexities of living with people and alone where there are none.
The blurb for this book compares it to Jon Krakauer's writing and that is unfair to author Blehm. While Krakauer can tell a reasonably good story and has been a commercial success, Blehm has lived the story he tells. Blehm did th...more

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Oct 03, 2007 Topher rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: outdoors interested people

Shelves: non-fiction

I hiked the AT in 2001. I miss being outside...its really rare for there to be more than 2 or 3 days when I don't think about it. When I decided to leave Cisco and go back to school, I originally thought I was going to get a degree in forestry, and try to get a job as a forest ranger.

I could see me ending the same way as this story. It just left me feeling sad.

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Sep 26, 2007 Jesse rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Hikers. Divorcees. Story tellers.

This book is the story of a park ranger who went missing and ended up dying, but it's also the story of reflections on a failed marriage, of reflections on what it means to be "in the wild" these days, and of reflections on what it means to search and search for something and not immediately find it. I would definitely recommend this one.

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Jul 30, 2010 Curtis Butturff rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

It does remind one of Into The Wild to some extent as the publisher claims but it's a totally different situation. This fellow was raised in the Yosemite Valley as a child and climbed in the Himalayas as a young man before spending 30+ seasons in the back country working as a park ranger for the National Park Service. This guy knew what he was doing and did not go out unprepared.

The real question is how a person such as this with such wisdom and value to our society might be put in a situation w...more It does remind one of Into The Wild to some extent as the publisher claims but it's a totally different situation. This fellow was raised in the Yosemite Valley as a child and climbed in the Himalayas as a young man before spending 30+ seasons in the back country working as a park ranger for the National Park Service. This guy knew what he was doing and did not go out unprepared.

The real question is how a person such as this with such wisdom and value to our society might be put in a situation where his only recompense for a life of service was payable only in the event of his dieing in the line of duty. This is the story of a guy who not only knew Ansel Adams, Adams gave him one of his cameras and the two used to go out together doing photography. That's just one example but I think it is one of the understated things in this book. Randy Morgenson was more than just a back country ranger he was link to history to the likes of Adams, Muir, Stegner, and others.

I'll not tip off the ending of the book or write a spoiler but the circumstances of his sudden disappearance really do raise a question of whether he met with an accident or chose a method of suicide that could not be conclusively proven to be suicide in order see his wife awarded his $100,000 death benefit. This is perhaps one of the areas where he shared a commonality with Supertramp from Into The Wild in that he had an affair which had hurt his wife of many years deeply and this legitimately drove him to despair as well. The two men shared a certain moral certitude that led them to some extent turn their backs on cities and on people.

For Randy Morgenson the dissolution of his marriage due to his own admitted actions might well have led to him doing a last noble thing in trying to make amends to his wife. His salary was insubstantial and he had no benefits from his decades of service except in death. Some people who knew are sure he didn't kill himself some are not.

You be the judge and if you happened to hike and camp in the back country of Kings Canyon prior to 1996 and ran into a tall bearded ranger who talk a lot about wild flowers and the importance of undisturbed meadows it might just have been this guy.

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“In any case, perhaps the quest for data to support our actions gets overemphasized. After all, our emotions distinguish us. Art and poetry and music are from and to the human heart, as is, for many, our relationship with the land.' ~ Randy Morgenson” — 3 people liked it

“The least I owe these mountains is a body. - Randy Morgenson” — 3 people liked it

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