In the fall of 1978, Ray Ordorica packed everything he thought he would need into his Toyota LandCruiser and drove north to Alaska. He came to a land he had never seen, to find something he wasn't even sure existed: a wilderness cabin he could use for a year or more to live, think, relax, read, and write. Ordorica found his cabin, fixed it up, and, although it was just an un-insulated 12- by 16-foot one-room log structure, he spent three winters in it in relative comfort.

Ordorica's life in that cabin fulfilled a dream he had had for more than 10 years. During his long winters in Alaska, it occurred to him that there must be many others who have put off an extended wilderness visit out of ignorance or fear. They have as many questions about Alaska as he had before he arrived: How do you cope with 40 below? How do you get water? Is it totally dark in mid-winter? These questions and many more gave Ordorica the idea to write the Alaskan Retreater's Notebook, an epic memoir about one man's journey into the Alaskan wilderness. With his wisdom, you will learn how to live with the country, and not against it.