Tracking Jack

Bob Dylan said reading Jack Kerouac's famed Beat Generation masterpiece On the Road changed his life. Some say it also changed America, from an uptight post war society obsessed with conformity to the swinging sixties that spawned the hippies, an interest in eastern philosophy and the 'back to the land' movement. But the summer before On the Road made Kerouac world famous, Kerouac spent months in solitude as a fire lookout atop Desolation Peak (upper left of photo), the inspiration for what became The Dharma Bums. Half a century later, Kerouac's tiny cabin in the remote Cascades Wilderness has become a place of pilgrimage for followers of his work, those capable of making the trek.In Tracking Jack, Following Kerouac to Desolation Peak travel writer Michael McCarthy makes the long journey to this remote wilderness, across two mighty dams and two alpine lakes, via rustic barge, and then finally on foot up the trail to 6,000-foot Desolation Peak. Along the arduous path he wonders: "Why has Kerouac's legend endured so long? What did he say that was so important that - half a century later - his work is more popular than ever? What did he learn here atop his lonely mountain?"