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Although this book helped one to understand who Randy was and what might have happened to him, it went on for quite sometime stressing how much Randy loved the wilderness.longer than was necessary. Half way through the book, I skipped to the end.
Would Randy Morgenson have approved of Eric Blehm's chronicle of his life and the portrait conveyed of him. He would let the front lawn of his home grow and grow, leave it to its natural state, while the neighbors would be up in arms about this "transgression." The lawn didn't get cut until Randy's wife finally did it. Randy knew this and he knew nature's teachings in an intimate way that others might only dream of.
Blehm does a commendable job of piecing together the life of a complex man who lived according to his own ideals, the love/respect for nature being among the highest. He carved out a deeply human story while living season after season in the grand Sierra mountain range. Those who knew him personally and wrote reviews on this site can answer that much better than I, but somehow my intuition tells me he would.
It is sad and ironic that a man who harbored his own writing ambitions didn't live to tell his story, but I see Randy as one of those living artists whose canvass is reality itself. Like anyone, Randy's life was not without its blemishes and complications, but in many ways he was a self-made man, educated by one of the grandest and most reliable and trustworthy of teachers--nature herself. Unfortunately, such a teacher is greatly undervalued, if it is even given any passing respect or credibility today.
His life (while far, far from perfect) was a kind of high art whenever he put on his ranger uniform and followed his calling.I liked one simple antecdote Blehm gave that captures much of Randy's philosophy that often put him at odds with greater society. There are a great many things to explore and discover in this book.
I'm not an outdoors person, nor a hiker, nor a lover of the mountains, but this book quickly changed my perspective. This story is well written, well researched and an overall great read. I really loved it and I'm not exactly sure why but the story of Randy Morgansen is going to haunt me for some time.Highly recommended and the pictures were an added plus.
Randy Morgenson had one love in his life, and he enjoyed it every summer - the High Sierras. Unfortunately, a tricky snowfield and a dead radio led to his death in 1996.Eric Blehn does "flashback" style well, alternating chapters between the hunt for Morgenson after a missing person alert was officially declared, and chapters beginning with Eric's childhood through his years in Kings Canyon National Park.Having gone a little way into the backcountry there, the last time this May, when a bone-dry California already had many of the peaks of the Sierras almost bare, I loved this book.
Only in retrospect would his friends question his actions before going off. The chronicle of the life and death of park ranger Randy Morgenson is told in the pages of Eric Blehm's "The Last Season." Randy, who grew up beneath the granite peaks of Yosemite, works as a seasonal park ranger in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park for nearly three decades. However, his real knack is the skills he employed as a seasonal back country park ranger. When Randy went into the hills for the 1996 season, few knew he was carrying divorce papers from his wife in his pack. I would recommend this book for lovers of the genre. Randy knew, almost by instinct, the location of missing hikers and his encyclopedic knowledge of the back country was a resource for the backpackers he came across as well as his fellow park employees.However, after thirty years in the woods, all was not well in the wild.
"The Last Season" tells his story: his youth, his love of the mountains, the desperate search for his remains, and the theories as to what actually happened.Enjoyable and quickly readable is the narrative prose of Blehm, who winds the tale of Randy's life together with his tenure as park ranger in a non-chronological manner. With the help of his father, who himself was a famed naturalist leading tours in Yosemite, and several other illustrious nature lovers such as Ansel Adams, Morgenson develops a deep love for the wilderness and works hard developing his photography and writings skills to capture it. Randy told one friend, "With all that they have given me, a body is the least I owe these mountains." Despite his years of wilderness experience, Randy left his ranger station for patrol and disappeared. Randy, having been married for most of his adult life, began having an affair with a fellow ranger. After successfully hiding the transgression for a short while, his wife was devastated when she found out. Long quotes from Morgenson's journals, while not breath-taking writing, provide a glimpse into his intense relationship with nature as well as his disdain for those who abuse it.
For others, it is worth a shot, but there is a possibility of getting bogged down before the real suspense of the search.
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