David Bird Thomson was living in Denver at the end of the 70s when he decided to hop on his mule, buy some flour and head to the mountains, in search of a plot of a land to build his cabin. Sound familiar? Thomson’s account of his quest, In The Shining Mountains, is more tongue-in-cheek than Proenneke (his “mule” was his car and the “trail” was I-70) but the sentiment hits closer to home than One Man’s Wilderness or The Big Sky. Ed Abbey called Thomson ” the Thoreau of the 80’s,” a statement that I wouldn’t quite agree with, because Thomson’s book attacks the “enemies” and truthfully chronicles the trials and tribulations of a guy who wants to live like a mountain man in the modern age. Long story short, it’s hard. And if it’s that hard in the late 70s, 2010 can’t be much easier.

The more interesting story surrounding this book is that Thomson has been missing since July 1st, 1979, just around the time In The Shining Mountains came out. He was last seen in Minnetonka, MN wearing a flannel shirt, jeans and a yin yang necklace.

I hope he found his plot of land.

MP3: Michael Hurley and Betsy Nichols – River In The Rain (thx BTBN)