Audiobooks by Cary J. Griffith

Gunflint Falling: Blowdown in the Boundary Waters

On July 4, 1999, in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, a bizarre confluence of meteorological events resulted in the most damaging blowdown in the region's history. Gunflint Falling tells the story of this devastating storm from the perspectives of those who were on the ground before, during, and after the catastrophic event. The forecasts in Duluth predicted the day would be 'warm and humid. Partly sunny with a 30% chance of thunderstorms.' But as the evening settled, the first eyewitness accounts began to tell a terrifying story. Friends camping on Lake Polly watched in wonder as the sky turned green and the winds began to whip. They scrambled to pull canoes on shore when a tree snapped and struck one of them in the head, rendering her unconscious. Three women enjoying their last day of a camping trip took shelter in their tent as winds increased. Water drenched the nylon walls as trees crashed around them, one flattening the tent and pinning a woman beneath it. A family vacationing at their cabin dodged falling trees and strained against straight-line winds as they sprinted from the cabin to the safest place they knew: a crawl space underneath it. They watched as trees snapped, their twisted root balls torn out of the earth. By the time the storm began to subside, falling trees had injured approximately sixty people, but amazingly, no one died.

Cary J. Griffith (Author), Jonathan Yen (Narrator)

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Gunflint Burning: Fire in the Boundary Waters

The story of the Ham Lake fire, at the time the most destructive wildfire in modern Minnesota history-the blaze, the firefighters' battle, the human toll Gunflint Burning is a comprehensive account of the dramatic events around the Ham Lake fire of 2007, one of the largest wildfires in Minnesota history. In sharp detail, Cary J. Griffith describes the key events of the fire as they unfold, transporting listeners to the front lines of an epic struggle that was at times heroic, tragic, and sublime.

Cary J. Griffith (Author), Jonathan Yen (Narrator)

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Lost in the Wild: Danger and Survival in the North Woods

In the wilderness, one false step can make the difference between a delightful respite and a brush with death. On a beautiful summer afternoon in 1998, Dan Stephens, a twenty-two-year-old canoeist, was leading a trip deep into Ontario's Quetico Provincial Park. He stepped into a gap among cedar trees to look for the next portage-and did not return. More than four hours later, Dan awakened from a fall with a lump on his head and stumbled deeper into the woods, confused. Three years later, Jason Rasmussen, a third-year medical student who loved the forest's solitude, walked alone into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness on a crisp fall day. After a two-day trek into a remote area of the woods, he stepped away from his campsite and made a series of seemingly trivial mistakes that left him separated from his supplies, wet, and lost, as cold darkness fell. Enduring days without food or shelter, these men faced the full harsh force of wilderness, the place that they had sought out for tranquil refuge from city life. Lost in the Wild takes listeners with them as they enter realms of pain, fear, and courage, as they suffer dizzying confusion and unending frustration, and as they overcome seemingly insurmountable hurdles in a race to survive.

Cary J. Griffith (Author), Roger Wayne (Narrator)

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