Grass Beyond The Mountains

The first in a trilogy, Grass Beyond the Mountains is a story of discovery and endurance on North America's western frontier by three good old-fashioned cowboys. With laconic cowboy humor and the ease of a born writer, Richmond Hobson describes the life-and-death escapades, the funny and tragic incidents peopled with extraordinary frontier characters, in a true adventure that surpasses the most thrilling Wild West fiction. In the fall of 1934, three cowhands with a dream of owning a cattle ranch made their way from peaceful Wyoming to the harsh, uncharted territory of the British Columbian interior. In conditions as challenging as any encountered by the western frontier pioneers of a hundred years earlier, the three men and their equipment-laden horses conquered the tortuous miles over narrow passes and mountain summits, hewed their first cabin from virgin timber, and attempted to carve out a space for themselves on the unforgiving landscape. Gritty, fun, and endlessly entertaining, Hobson's story is sure to entertain country- and city-dwellers alike.

Presents a colourful view of cattle ranching in central B.C.

A true adventure story of a man who built a four-million acre cattle empire in the remote ranges of the British Columbia Interior.

ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND TRAVELERS had crossed the Oregon Trail during the gold rush of 1849. Even the most backwoods warrior understood what that meant: disease, death, and conflict with the whites. As a result of the Treaty of 1851, some Indians were convinced that the country to the north—called Absaraka—might be a better option for a home range. At the very least, it held the promise of less trouble from the whites. The danger from other tribes was another matter.

Diana Phillips, daughter of Canadian folk legend Pan Phillips, shares more extraordinary tales about her life on the ranch in the remote British Columbian backcountry. Two years after publishing Beyond the Chilcotin, her remarkable memoir about growing up on her famous father's pioneer ranch in the Chilcotin, Diana Phillips continues her story. Discouraged by a huge loss of cattle to grizzlies on killing sprees, Pan sells the Home Ranch and decides to set up a fishing and guiding venture on nearby Tsetzi Lake. Diana spends a couple of seasons working with her father at the very rustic lodge, now catering to the needs of guests paying for a wilderness experience, rather than a cattle operation, but soon follows the call of ranch life back to the Home Ranch, until she marries and gets a cabin and land of her own nearby. Working her ranch and raising her young family, as well as helping out a series of owners at Home Ranch, Diana survives lean times and becomes a masterful rancher in her own right--driving cattle along rugged trails to and from Nazko, leading hunts in the Ilgachuz Mountains and midwifing stubborn calves, not to mention fending off grizzlies and mounting rescue missions for all manner of strays. Diana's incredible memory for detail--from the taste of strawberry jam and bannock, and the beauty of a poplar grove in fall, to the time she taught a rude drunk a lesson by hitting him repeatedly in the head with her boot--makes her account of a near-pioneer life in the Blackwater country an inspiring and entertaining read.

Told with wit and wisdom, this is Hobson's tale of bringing his city-bred interior-decorator bride to the harsh life of the British Columbia Interior.

No one is better suited to convey the flavor of the Old West than this authentic American original. At age 13, in the 1930s, Hyde ran away from home in Michigan to his uncle's ranch in eastern Oregon. Yamsi was one of the last great cattle ranches of the West. Soon the boy won the cowboys' respect. A natural bronco buster, he eventually became a rodeo rider, bull fighter, clown, and photographer, working all over the West with the likes of Slim Pickens, Rex Allen, and Mel Lambert. After the war, he took Yamsi over, ensuring its survival in changing times. Now, half a century later, he gives us his valedictory to that last great period of the Old West. Full of humor, rollicking stories, and love of the land, he pays homage to the cowboys, Indians, and great horses who made the West the legend it is.--From publisher description.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER WINNER OF THE RBC TAYLOR PRIZE WINNER OF THE EDNA STAEBLER AWARD FOR CREATIVE NON-FICTION "Every day on a bike trip is like the one before--but it is also completely different, or perhaps you are different, woken up in new ways by the mile." As a teenager, Kate Harris realized that the career she most craved--that of a generalist explorer, equal parts swashbuckler and philosopher--had gone extinct. From her small-town home in Ontario, it seemed as if Marco Polo, Magellan and their like had long ago mapped the whole earth. So she vowed to become a scientist and go to Mars. To pass the time before she could launch into outer space, Kate set off by bicycle down a short section of the fabled Silk Road with her childhood friend Mel Yule, then settled down to study at Oxford and MIT. Eventually the truth dawned on her: an explorer, in any day and age, is by definition the kind of person who refuses to live between the lines. And Harris had soared most fully out of bounds right here on Earth, travelling a bygone trading route on her bicycle. So she quit the laboratory and hit the Silk Road again with Mel, this time determined to bike it from the beginning to end. Like Rebecca Solnit and Pico Iyer before her, Kate Harris offers a travel narrative at once exuberant and meditative, wry and rapturous. Weaving adventure and deep reflection with the history of science and exploration, Lands of Lost Borders explores the nature of limits and the wildness of a world that, like the self and like the stars, can never be fully mapped.