To Touch a Dream: A Wilderness Adventure

by Sunny Wright

This warm-hearted memoir tells the story a dream held by many North Americans: to leave a dull job and journey into the wilderness to live off the land. Sunny Wright does exactly that when she decides at age twenty-eight to quit working at a "man-sized job for a female wage" in a Vancouver sawmill. With her young daughter Lisa and friend Betty, they sell off everything from their urban existence and outfit themselves with two trucks full of goods for the journey to northern BC in search of a place to live. After much searching they find land near Vanderhoof and begin the hard but joy-filled labour of constructing their own house, their own barn and setting up as subsistence farmers. Eventually they learn how to run a bootleg still for extra money and become famous in the area for the dogs they raise and the winter trips they take by dogsled. This is a book that readers can enjoy as they live alongside Sunny, Betty and Lisa in the bush, watching them learn to build log houses, make friends with the fiercely individualistic people of the back country, survive the desperately cold winters and enjoy the independence of rural life. The volume includes many black-and-white photos of their life in the bush.

190 pages, Paperback

First published March 15, 2006

Reviews

[Elinor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this would be a book about two women bumbling around in the wilderness, but the author learned fast and had some hair-raising adventures. Making and selling moonshine, running her own trapline, falling through the ice on a lake complete with her entire dog team . . . these are just a few of the anecdotes that made her seem foolhardy in the extreme. Nevertheless, she writes about her life in an engaging way. I enjoy personal memoirs and this was quite an interesting read. I am curious to know what her daughter, who was only five years old when they moved to a remote area near Vanderhoof, British Columbia in 1969, thinks about her childhood.

[Nina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I fell in love with this book, the places it took me and the characters. I read this at age 23 and it touched me so much I just had to write to the author. And she wrote back! She still emails from time to time and is a true kindred spirit. Shout out to Sunny! I still remember the magic that book brought to my life.

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was quite interesting. Not particularly riveting writing but Ms. Wright got her story across.