Born to a life of private schools, cricket games and society balls, Bob Henderson abandoned it all when he was 18 for the challenges found in the mountains of northern British Columbia. It was early summer 1963 when he landed a job with guide-outfitter Tommy Walker in the heart of what is now BC's Spatsizi Plateau Wilderness Park.

Often referred to as the Serengeti of the North, the Spatsizi is rugged and sometimes dangerous country, especially for a boy unaccustomed to the ways of bears, contrary packhorses, wild rivers and temperamental weather. Bob was adopted by the Tlogoti'ne First Nations people who worked as guides, wranglers and cooks for Walker. They broke him in and kept him safe during his early years in the territory. After five seasons with the Walker outfit Bob joined Love Bros. & Lee, legendary guide-outfitters from the Kispiox Valley. They honed his bush craft and made him a partner.

During more than four decades in the North, Bob was charged by grizzlies, fought forest fires, learned to fly - and crash-land - planes, ran a five-ton snow machine up the Stikine River as the ice melted around him, babied a fully-loaded truck with no brakes down a 10-mile longhill, and survived the northward advance of bureaucrats, politicians and miners. All of these stories and more he tells in this captivating book of a hard life chosen and lived with enthusiasm and courage.