Solitude describes a way of life for the back-country musterers and hunters. With your dogs and horse for company, it was possible to spend weeks, even months on end without ever hearing another human being, with neither laughter nor complaint – just the sound of the wind pulling dust through long grasses, the creaking of trees outside, and the rain on tin roofs that leaked (sometimes poured) in heavy weather. In the winter, the crunches of footfalls on loose-packed snow was all one could hear for miles around, and should you crack your knuckles before throwing the saddlebags back over the horse, it could sometimes seem cast a call as if to echo…