Thomas Curwen: Reporting from the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, — When Gary Ferguson closed his eyes, he could still hear the roar of the river and see the torrent of water as it crashed through boulders and fallen trees. Jane was in the bow, he was in the stern, and the rapids surrounded them.
"Paddle hard!" he remembered yelling, as if paddling might have helped.
They slammed into a rock; the canoe capsized, and on that late spring morning in 2005, Jane Ferguson disappeared.
Gary tried to ease the images from his mind. He got counseling, read self-help books and Eastern philosophy and threw himself into work.
But he couldn't shake his grief. He had lost not only Jane — their love and marriage of 25 years — but also part of himself. He was a respected nature writer and essayist, and believed that in the wilderness there were lessons for guiding and renewing one's life, but he was unable to draw upon them anymore.
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