This Ten Year Anniversary Edition includes over 20 images from the adventure, plus three new journal entries by the author.




There is a passage to happiness. It’s through an unmarked pathway in the dark forest. Tangled like your dreams. It waits for you with open eyes…




“Today I am an unemployed writer living as a recluse in the great Northwoods.” So begins this North Country journal from the author of THIS SIDE OF A WILDERNESS, and the founding publisher of Riverfeet Press. In the spring of 2011, Rice resigned from his post with the U.S. Geological Survey in Wyoming, and moved alone into a tent deep in the forests of northern Minnesota. THE UNPEOPLED SEASON is his daily record of the four months in wilderness isolation. But it is more than a catalog of events. It is a compassionate and introspective quest into mankind’s connection to wild places. He writes with humor about his follies and foibles, shares technical know-how about setting up camp, ruminates on fishing, introduces wild animals, and discusses the often invigorating, occasionally disconcerting, task of confronting solitude.




This book has been quoted by "The Dyrt" magazine as one of the top 33 all time best outdoor adventure quotes. Plus, numerous excerpts have been quoted in Trail Mix: Wit and Wisdom for the Outdoors (Falcon Guides) alongside Thich Nhat Hahn, Jack Kerouac, Jon Krakauer, Edward Abbey, and more, as well as quoted in the book You Are Here: Best Camping Destinations in the World, (Chronicle Books, New Zealand) alongside Walt Whitman, John Muir, John Burroughs, and more.