"Becoming Wild" by Nikki Van Schyndel

When I learned an author I've read was going to be on the History Channel Alone: The Arctic TV series, I went to my personal library and got her book out for a second read.

The book is Becoming Wild and the author is Nikki Van Schyndel (Caitlin Press, 2014). I knew it would be a book I would enjoy and wasn't disappointed either time. It's a memoir, it's by a woman who challenged herself to live in a remote location, it's about a region fairly close to where I live in Coastal BC, and includes detailed descriptions of "experiments" and "learnings from Coastal First Nations people" she used to survive.

Nikki, Micah (a man she met during survival school), and her feral cat Scout planned and lived a survivalist lifestyle that spanned two island locations and more than a year in the coastal rainforest of the Broughton Archipelago. When a dilapidated trailer at Native Anchorage on Village Island turn out to be uninhabitable, they erected their own primitive shelter. It was a struggle to find enough food that first winter.

A typical Coastal BC rocky shoreline.

Nikki and Micah had a rowboat they used for transportation, fishing, and to get to Echo Bay on Gilford Island once every month or two to get mail and reconnect with family by phone. After meeting Billy Proctor, a well know resident, they took his suggestion and left Native Anchorage to set up a rustic cabin structure in Booker Lagoon on Broughton Island. Life wasn't easy, but Nikki was able absorb the natural spirituality of the land and sea, ultimately transforming herself into a better person.

Coastal BC has lots of private places to explore.

When the adventure was done, Nikki and Micah parted ways. Nikki and Scout returned to the city, but life there was so foreign after living in nature. She returned to remote Echo Bay, bought property from Billy Proctor and built a log cabin of her own. Billy is a prominent figure in many of the books written about the region such as Full Moon, Flood Tide by Bill Proctor and Yvonne Maximchuk and Heart of the Raincoast by Alexandra Morton and Bill Proctor.

Becoming Wild is available in both print and e-book formats at Amazon and other online booksellers.

For your information, Season 6 of Alone: The Arctic on the History Channel premiers on June 6. Nikki, another Canadian woman named Michelle Wohlberg, and eight other contestants will test their solo survival skills near Great Slave Lake in Canada's Northwest Territories.

You can see more of the The Arctic trailers on YouTube by clicking here. Then check your local television listing to watch it live. Click here for Canadian History Channel information and here for the States.

Also check out her website The Magic, Master and Madness of Wilderness Living where she uses the moniker Daisy Crockett and her YouTube Channel Becoming Wild.

Do you have any off-the-grid or women's survival memoirs to recommend? I'm always looking for a good read. -- Margy