Life, love and the backcountry

Sadness meanders like a meadow creek through Jack DeShazer’s love letter to Montana’s wild backcountry.

Yet abundant joy, self-deprecating humor and exhilarating adventure also course through DeShazer’s recently self-published book, “The Land Beyond All Roads.”

DeShazer, 70, is a Libby native who co-owns DeShazer Ryan Realty. A self-described dyslexic, he discloses in the preface that writing the book was “the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”

He started work on the book seven years ago. It took five years to learn how to write, he said.

In the foreword to “The Land Beyond All Roads,” DeShazer writes, “The words in this book do not come from a great literary mind; instead, they come from a place deep down in the heart that loves wild country.”

He taps the same internal spring when describing embarrassing moments and potentially deadly mishaps in unforgiving landscapes and treacherous weather. DeShazer’s candor gives the book an aura of authenticity.

Something else meanders through its 310 pages — a bittersweet ode to unrequited love. It becomes clear DeShazer laments that a female hunting partner with whom he shared many adventures in the Bob Marshall Wilderness and a deep affinity for hunting and horses eventually slipped away.

Other regrets surface throughout “The Land Beyond All Roads.” That would seem inevitable given the tangible risks of riding horses or mules and leading pack trains deep into wilderness with close friends, business acquaintances or greenhorn outfitting clients with high expectations and a low tolerance for discomfort.

DeShazer writes, “…if I were more cautious, I wouldn’t have many backcountry experiences worth writing about.”

Each chapter describes different adventures experienced by DeShazer during some 40 years when the lure of untrammeled wilderness and big game unaccustomed to hunting pressure took him again and again into the backcountry.

One chapter, titled “Todd, the Mare, the Bear, and the Wolf,” is a tribute to the late Todd Byington, whom DeShazer describes in the book as a hunting partner, cousin and best friend.

Byington and DeShazer were stalking elk in the vicinity of the North Fork of the Sun River during what turned out to be their last bow hunting trip together. Byington said something that seemed innocuous in the moment.

“I’d sure like my brothers to experience this kind of hunting,” he told DeShazer. “Promise me you’ll bring them here next year.”

DeShazer writes, “I naturally assumed he’d be hunting with us. I now know Todd knew he wouldn’t be. Two weeks later, he was dead.”

After Byington’s suicide, DeShazer felt he had failed his friend by not recognizing the pain he was in — a reaction common to survivors of a friend or family member’s suicide.

“I loved Todd Byington,” DeShazer writes.

The book’s contents suggest DeShazer is a man of deep feeling. He describes a special affection for the horses and mules that made his pack trips possible into the Bob Marshall and other wilderness areas. That affection wasn’t dampened by emergency room visits after getting kicked by animals he was attempting to break. His face bears a horseshoe-shaped scar on his left cheek from being kicked by a horse named Diesel.

DeShazer dedicates the book “to all of the horses and mules that have made it possible for me to experience the romance of the backcountry for over 40 years.”

He writes candidly about mortifying moments many people would reluctantly disclose. There was the time when his wife was out of town when DeShazer believed he’d gotten a great deal on canned tuna fish at the old Fewkes General Store in Rexford. He happily ate numerous tuna fish sandwiches during his wife’s absence. After her return, his wife discovered Jack had been eating cat food.

And then there was the elk hunting trip with his brother David and a friend. DeShazer kept telling his companions that he smelled elk. The men repeatedly dismounted from horses to hunt and found nothing. Finally, DeShazer discovered the decidedly musky odor was emanating from his own clothes for reasons revealed in the book.

“The Land Beyond All Roads,” like all human endeavors, has flaws. The book could have benefitted from one last read by an eagle-eyed editor before publication. For example, when DeShazer notes in a photo caption that he once served as an outfitter for Jack Nicklaus, he spells the famous golfer’s last name “Nicholas.” The book’s many references to the Bob Marshall Wilderness occasionally spell Marshall with one “l.” There are other typos the author plans to correct before a second printing.

Otherwise, DeShazer’s writing is clear, straightforward and engaging. “The Land Beyond All Roads” has no literary pretensions. Yet many chapters build suspense as various calamities beset the author and his companions and the reader wonders whether they will suffer grievous injury or worse.

The author said during an interview Jan. 28 that he believes “The Land Beyond All Roads” is about love.

“I’m more emotional than many,” DeShazer said. “I had a strong feeling for everything I wrote about in the book — the horses and mules, my hunting partners, my dogs and even the animals I hunted.”

He describes in the book a special affinity for being alone in the backcountry.

“After four or five days of being miles away from any other people and civilization, something happens to me that I really like…All my senses come to life. I smell, hear, taste, touch, and even emotionally feel the world around me with incredible intensity. I don’t become closer to nature; I become part of nature.”

‘The Land Beyond All Roads” is available locally at Libby Sports Center. The price is $16.95. The book, which includes black and white photos, can also be ordered from Amazon.com.