Muir had written of the Sierra Nevada as a vast range of light, and this was exactly what Roberts was looking for. Her story of a month in the backcountry confronting bears, snowy passes, broken equipment, injuries, and strange men is as much about finding a woman's way into outdoor experience as it is about the natural world she so eloquently describes. A whimsical coming-of-age story of a young woman ill-prepared for a month in the mountains-- but also the reflection of a distinctly feminine view of nature.