Biography:

Linda Jo Hunter (1947-2024) is well-known in the animal tracking community for her unique tracking and trailing methods, her teaching skills, and as the author of Lonesome for Bears: A Woman’s Journey in the Tracks of the Wilderness (Lyons Press, 2008). Her second nonfiction book, Lonesome for Wilderness: Tracking and Trailing in Forest, Desert, or Your Own Back Yard (Jolibro Publishing, 2024) has already won wide praise from the international tracking community, along with a rare and coveted "Starred Review" from Library Journal, found here.

Sadly, Linda succumbed when a rare form of breast cancer returned in early November, 2024, exactly five months after the release of Lonesome for Wilderness, which has proven highly popular among both librarians and the global tracking community. Her younger sister, author Lianne Downey, wrote about the sudden loss of her sister in a post on the Jolibro blog, here.

Linda co-founded the International Society of Professional Trackers (ISPT), and studied with human tracking schools, an international tracking certification group, and biologists in both Alaska and Yellowstone National Park. She worked as a brown-bear viewing guide in Alaska for four seasons, and as a private yacht captain on the West Coast, one of the first women to obtain a 100-ton ocean Master’s License. Her 30 years of first-hand observation, her experience in search and rescue, and many solo adventures enhanced her knowledge of natural history and her skills in the wild.

Linda described her books like this:

Lonesome for Bears: A Woman’s Journey in the Tracks of the Wilderness by Linda Jo Hunter (Lyons Press, 2008, with photos by Amy Shapira)

"Are bears dangerous?" This was the question that started the quest for the author, which ended with her being a guide at a bear viewing lodge in Alaska for four summer seasons. Her first book, Lonesome for Bears, is the story of facing fears and diving into learning about bears, including how to track them.  The book describes a population of brown/grizzly and black bears who frequent a salmon stream in summer year after year. Bears, moose, wolves, eagles, foxes, and every other Alaskan animal also live where the salmon thrive. The question that started the quest is answered, along with some startling new ways to think about all bears and their interactions and behaviors.
 
Lonesome for Wilderness: Tracking and Trailing in Forest, Desert, or Your Own Back Yard (Jolibro Publishing, 2024, illustrated by the author)

Lonesome for Wilderness was born out of a discovery that the really valuable things in life can be gained by being comfortable and engaged in the wild. The author dared to "step out alone" and find the natural world. After years in Search and Rescue and traveling the backcountry on her own, I want to share a way of learning, enjoying, and being comfortable in the wild.  

Linda's Blog Posts from 2024:

Bear Tracks
April 29, 2024


On rainy days in spring, while the rain is washing any tracks away as soon as they are made, the place to look is in puddles! These bear tracks indicated that the bear walked right down the middle of a fairly deep puddle in the rain. We back-tracked the animal into the forest and found that this bear was pretty relaxed before we got there, following smells and meandering around sniffing.

Bears
May 6, 2024

Trailing bears in the spring is an education in procuring food. Bears eat a huge variety of things, many different things in the same day, until they find a prolific food source. The bear we trail this time of year is very fond of Hawkweed, and this plant is just coming up in some of the lower elevations. It seems like they don't eat things until they are in prime shape and they like Hawkweed to be about four inches high. In the meantime, the bear we followed yesterday demolished the top of an ant hill after he dug up some roots to eat. A few days ago, he was messing about in a new patch of false Helebore, which is a toxic plant, but then it looks like bears also chase after rough skinned newts, also toxic.  They only seem to do this in the spring. The study of what bears eat is a huge one. Because each habitat is completely different, each bear needs to learn, not only what to eat, but when it's best to eat that particular thing. Just like your own garden, a bear knows his or her area well enough to be where the good things are when they are ready.

Salmonberry flower
June 21, 2024
 

Solstice, the time of the most sun, is when the animals move to higher elevations to take advantage of the fresh new, nutritious growth. Yesterday we visited a forest that has been burned twice; once in 2020 and again in 2021. The recovery of plants is vibrant and intense, but the whole habitat will take time to return. While sitting quietly near the twice-burned trees, we could hear a low murmuring like water.  As we concentrated on the sound, it became something else. Jane says she's heard it before. It was new to me: the sound of thousands of beetles eating the dead trees.  It was mesmerizing. The human caused fires are recovering, but we need to leave it alone and be patient.

Linda's Art:

Two things stood out about Linda’s prolific paintings, (a) her animal portraits conveyed so much personality, whether a feisty peacock, an elephant, or a cow in Baja, and (b) she wasn’t afraid to paint the details of trees in the deep, dark woods of the Pacific Northwest. One of her paintings of the Columbia River Gorge became the cover of Lonesome for Wilderness.

Here are some others she originally shared on her website, with the note, "My paintings are reflective of my experiences in the wild areas where I live."