NOTES FROM OUT WEST

A memoir brings readers along step by step on a man’s hiking adventures through the trails of western Canada’s National Park System.

With two months of free time between assignments—Obasohan worked in the field of protection for workers in nuclear power plants—the author decided to make use of his closet full of unused hiking and camping equipment. In his book, he describes himself as an adventurer rather than a hiker. Even after trekking by foot over 212 km (131 miles), he maintains that he is not a hiker. Nonetheless, in July 2021, Obasohan set out by car from Ontario, heading west toward Saskatchewan. His first solo backcountry trip was in Grasslands National Park, where he set up his tent in the Valley of a Thousand Devils, a name that inspired his persistently active imagination. He writes of hours spent walking in the intense heat with no shade in sight: “It was as hot as hell. I couldn’t see them, but I must have been close to a devil’s lair, several lairs possibly for every degree the temperature rose.” There were other dangers, some fanciful, others real. Bears—and, later, cougars—were constantly roaming in almost all the parks he visited. Yet he chose to remain “bear aware” rather than carry bear spray. Next up was Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta, a six-hour drive from those tricky devils, continuing his journey driving and hiking, moving westward on his way to the trails in British Columbia. With a peppering of acerbic commentary—“I could see his canister of bear spray in a holster on his hip. This is the Canadian version of open carry firearms”—Obasohan maintains an articulate, conversational banter throughout the narrative. His descriptions of scenery, topography, and activities are vivid and visceral, albeit sometimes exhaustingly detailed. Readers accompany him as he jumps from stone to stone across streams, traipses through cool forests (with too many spiderwebs), sinks into swampy patches of mud, and climbs up and down hills and mountains, compulsively pushing his body to its limits. It is a reading experience that is best appreciated in intermittent bites.

An informative, if overstuffed, hiking account that’s brimming with captivating high energy.