This is a story of roads and places without them. Not just the roads you drive your car on, but the roads that wind through our lives and careers. 

When I decided that I was going to go out and find this massive group of forest service lands called the Inventoried Roadless Areas, I knew almost nothing about what I was getting myself into. I wanted to escape a career that had gone badly off track and loose myself in the wilderness. I imagined myself spending months in little known wild places far away from roads and people. I had no idea that I would end up driving tens of thousands of miles, talking with lumber company presidents, ranchers and preachers, and delving into nearly all of the conflicts that revolve around our public land and how we use them. I also didn’t know that my search for these places would land me briefly in the US Senate Building in DC and set the stage for a massive change in my own life. All I knew for certain was that I needed to start somewhere, and I needed a map.