Over a whole bunch of decades, Ted “Chilco” Choate has spun a full quota of trail guide yarns. Along the way he also learned to fabricate a line or two that would help get him out of a jam. With that in mind it seems fitting that Chilco offers his autobiography as “being more than 90 percent true.”

A seasoned big-game guide and outfitter, Chilco is equally well known as a conservationist. He has stood up to loggers, bureaucrats, politicians, and range lords at the biggest ranch in North America.

Chilco wanted wilderness from the time he was eight. John Taylor says, “So-called civilization and Choate could never mix without dire consequences.” His outlook on life was shaped by parents and teachers and to a great extent by the Hasler brothers, trappers from the north country who shared a shack down the road from his family home.

When Chilco did head for the hills, he took with him an innate talent that has blossomed with time. Here he pens stories about a boy who still lives at the heart of the wild country.