The Lure of the Chilcotin

In 1967, Christine and Mark leave New York State and drive out to British Columbia, looking for a remote place to disappear from civilization. Christine teaches in a one-room school in the Chilcotin, where ranchers and Indians still live the old-time way.

Then they venture up the coast of B.C. in March in an unseaworthy boat, only to get shipwrecked and go ten days without food or warmth. When their son is born, they return to the Chlcotin and stake land. They have a misadventure of getting lost in hostile country, and spend two nights sitting by a fire.

Mark finds the lakeshore too confining, so they travel by horseback and develop two homesteads in remote places. They hunt, fish, cut hay with scythe, store food up in a cache, build cabins, and spend three winters living in a tent pitched on logs.

Christine falls in love with Sage, and walks forty miles to the trapline where he is wintering. Over the next eight years, they homebirth two boys, trap, and build their homestead, including goats and gardens.

Once again she breaks up her relationship, and over the next ten years, gives birth to another son, raises her boys on her own, motivates them to be creative outdoor kids, and asks Jesus to be Lord of her life.

She meets and marries George, and the family moves to 100 Mile. George hits the bottle and goes berserk, so Christine moves back to her cabin in the Chilcotin.

Simon re-enters her life and she moves to Quesnel with him. That relationship falls apart, and she moves back to her cabin at Tatia Lake in 2004. The four boys are grown up, Christine is 59 years old and a grandmother of five, and finally has time to write this unusual autobiography.