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Book by Holland, Andy
156 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 9, 2021
You won’t be sorry you picked this book.
Reading about Andy’s work and adventures is like being with him. Beginning in 1931, when trails were much longer than they are today as a result of roads, Andy paints a great picture of the hard life the trail builders, forest fire fighters and fire lookouts had; the food they ate, the various ways they communicated across the miles, the navigation tools they used, and plain old gumption and guts.
There is warm humor throughout the book, and more than once I audibly laughed or uttered a sound of surprise when reading this book on the bus. The last chapter pulls at the heart strings, as Andy describes how he felt when he saw Circle Peak after all those years; and the first switchback on the Downey Creek trail (same as he remembers it from back in the day), then sits on a log at the end of the Suiattle Road, mentally walking up to the lookout on Miner’s Ridge and hoping for a good future for the stewardship of wilderness.
Without books by the old timers, we would have lost all sense of what came before us.
I feel like a total wuss in the mountains, compared to how Mr. Holland lived and worked.
Reading about Andy’s work and adventures is like being with him. Beginning in 1931, when trails were much longer than they are today as a result of roads, Andy paints a great picture of the hard life the trail builders, forest fire fighters and fire lookouts had; the food they ate, the various ways they communicated across the miles, the navigation tools they used, and plain old gumption and guts.
There is warm humor throughout the book, and more than once I audibly laughed or uttered a sound of surprise when reading this book on the bus. The last chapter pulls at the heart strings, as Andy describes how he felt when he saw Circle Peak after all those years; and the first switchback on the Downey Creek trail (same as he remembers it from back in the day), then sits on a log at the end of the Suiattle Road, mentally walking up to the lookout on Miner’s Ridge and hoping for a good future for the stewardship of wilderness.
Without books by the old timers, we would have lost all sense of what came before us.
I feel like a total wuss in the mountains, compared to how Mr. Holland lived and worked.
March 27, 2022
This book has a story for me. In October 2021, we stayed at a rental house on the far end of Lopez Island, in Washington’s San Juans. The house had clearly been owned by an elderly person and was being rented out “as is” as an Airbnb. In the house were numerous copies of this book (3? 4?). The description caught my eye. A little research when we got to the mainland unearthed that the home’s owner had been a beloved teacher at the local school. I have to assume that she was friends with Andy, the author, who was also a teacher and had retired to Lopez Island.
Anyhow, as this book hit several of my interests (history, memoirs, outdoor adventure stories), I found a copy of my own on ThriftBooks. It was a delightful little read. The hand-sketched pictures, the description of Forest Service work in the 20s (and beyond), the life of a fire lookout in the early days - it was a time capsule! It’s not a rousing adventure by best-seller standards: the writing felt too stoic by contemporary measure for that. But it reminded me of my Grandpa. ♥️
A couple minor take-aways: this really paints a picture of how fire management practices have changed, both in terms of tools and approaches (every fire must be put out). It shows the “death” of the manned lookout program. It also makes me laugh a little at what we consider “ultra” or “extreme” today. These folks thought nothing of a 10-25 mile hike with 6,000 ft of elevation just a retrieve a letter.
Anyhow, as this book hit several of my interests (history, memoirs, outdoor adventure stories), I found a copy of my own on ThriftBooks. It was a delightful little read. The hand-sketched pictures, the description of Forest Service work in the 20s (and beyond), the life of a fire lookout in the early days - it was a time capsule! It’s not a rousing adventure by best-seller standards: the writing felt too stoic by contemporary measure for that. But it reminded me of my Grandpa. ♥️
A couple minor take-aways: this really paints a picture of how fire management practices have changed, both in terms of tools and approaches (every fire must be put out). It shows the “death” of the manned lookout program. It also makes me laugh a little at what we consider “ultra” or “extreme” today. These folks thought nothing of a 10-25 mile hike with 6,000 ft of elevation just a retrieve a letter.
March 13, 2015
Good stories; Wasington Cascades nostalgia. Author died in 2008 at 97.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews