What is it about the wilderness? The winter? America?

This morning I finished Through Howling Wilderness, a historical narrative of Benedict Arnold's winter trek up Maine's Kennebec River with a regiment of colonial militia. Scores died in the cold, inhospitable wilderness before they even entered Canada. It's hard to imagine any part of modern day America in which three weeks of walking would yield no traces of civilization; try a few hours.

It must have been the time I spent in the mountainous wilderness of Lesotho that made me appreciate these stories of geographical desolation. Since returning home in December I've been exciting myself with the prospect of a cross-country rail journey, a future journey up the Appalachian Trail, or a road trip up to Maine to visit some of the places Benedict Arnold's expedition passed through. After returning my library book I picked up Henry Knox: Visionary General of the American Revolution. Knox is famous for leading a grueling overland journey from Fort Ticonderoga to Dorchester Heights, Massachusetts in which his colonial forces dragged heavy cannons to aid the Siege of Boston.

From one adventure to the next, another story of the challenges of America's incredible geography and those who toiled across it.