This is the story of June Hamilton Mickle, a pioneering woman who grew up in the Turner Valley / Millarville area of southern Alberta, Canada, in the early part of the century (1920-60) and her later work as outfitter and guide in the mountains of Banff and Yoho national parks. June's strength of character was forged by living in the wilderness west of Turner Valley as a young girl with her mother and her stepfather, Tip Johnson, a renowned cowboy and horse trainer. She learned early to live in harmony with her environment and became a strongly determined woman capable of meeting the challenges of being an artist, horse-guide, businesswoman, wife and mother. As an only child of a single mother, June's early years were marked by loneliness, but also by close family ties that defined how she charted her adult life. As well, it lead to a love of horses that played an essential part of her life right up until her death at the age of 91. Her life with Bert Mickle, the son of an old established ranching family, was unconventional. It is a love story of two people coping with family struggles and a precarious existence that had tremendous rewards and hardships. June's strength of character held her family together despite unforeseen tragedies. The book gives a glimpse into the kind of life long gone from the Alberta landscape, now defined more by urbanity and modern technology. June left her family a colorful history and strong ties to the land that continues today.
