Backtrack is one of the short stories in the series by author Paul Doiron about Maine Game Warden, Mike Bowditch. Like many of the short stories attached to this series, it gives background to one of the peripheral characters, retired Maine Game Warden and pilot Charley Stevens.

Back in the day, when Charley was a young Game Warden just starting a family, he was called out one night on a search for a missing hunter. Dr. Phil Stoddard had come from Massachusetts with friends to hunt in the Maine woods and hadn’t returned to the cabin. His friends assure Charley that Phil knew what he was doing in the woods and wasn’t just a city boy with unreasonable expectations.

Charley tracks the man through the snowy woods. It becomes apparent that Phil didn’t want to be found, but Charley finds him anyway. In his youth and naivete, he thinks more about being a hero than the possible reasons someone might want to disappear in the woods. With the perspective of many years later, Charley thinks he did wrong by the man, and it haunts him.

There is good food for thought here. We debate the question of the right to die on one’s own terms. Charley doesn’t understand why the doctor would choose to freeze in the woods, rather than be surrounded by friends and family. He doesn’t have the life experience to appreciate Phil’s perspective. Charley was more worried about how it would look to the other wardens if he were unable to bring him back. He’s telling this story as a much older man who looks back on these events much differently.

Once Charley learns how Phil’s life ended, he has remorse for not having left him in the woods to die on his own terms. Charley can understand things he didn’t understand when he was younger and change his mind. Too many people refuse to change their opinions when presented with contradicting evidence. Charley can admit he might not have done the right thing, even when society would tell him that, yes, he did.

Backtrack is a good short story addition to the Mike Bowditch series and also serves as a discussion point for the question of assisted suicide and the right to die. It makes it clear why Charley is such a good mentor to Mike, who is still young like Charley was in this story.