Mountain Man

The Life of a Guide Outfitter

The remarkable adventures of legendary mountain man Cody Tegart, owner of one of the most successful guide and outfitting businesses in BC, who left his mark on a disappearing way of life.

Hiram Cody Tegart

Hiram Cody Tegart (Cody) was born in 1950 to a pioneering family in the Columbia Valley of British Columbia. He grew up on a ranch near Brisco where he learned to ride, shoot and work hard at a young age. Some of his earliest memories were of watching men ride off to his dad’s hunting territory and wanting so badly to join them. He learned to pack a horse and throw a diamond hitch and spent many of his summers in the hills. After high school, Cody tried his hand at being a carpenter in Calgary but the mountains called him back. Eventually he purchased the guiding business from his father in 1979 and ran it successfully before selling it in 1993. He continued to guide for others and, and in the off-season he logged and ran heavy equipment. He retired in 2017 and moved to Winfield, Alberta. Cody passed away in the spring of 2018.

Andrew Bruce Richards

Andrew Bruce Richards (Andy) was born in Hudson Bay, Saskatchewan, in 1953. He lived on a small farm there, then moved to Flin Flon, Manitoba, where he developed his love of the outdoors. At age thirteen he moved with his mother to the Columbia Valley in British Columbia. He met Hiram Cody Tegart (Cody) in high school, where they developed a close friendship that would last ten years and rekindle twenty years later. After guiding one season for Cody’s father, Andy married his high school sweetheart and went to work in the forestry industry. Eventually deciding his career didn’t lie in the bush, he enrolled in the Journalism Arts Advertising Program at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology. Starting in 1980, he worked at weekly newspapers in Quesnel, Salmon Arm and Victoria before joining the Times Colonist Daily. With small-town life calling, Andy and his wife moved to Summerland in 2001. After sixteen years with the Penticton Herald, he retired in 2016 and now spends his time doing the things he loves in the great outdoors.

Marketing & Publicity
  • Excerpts in national outdoor magazines (print and online), including BC Outdoors, Outdoor Canada, Canadian Outdoorsman, etc.
  • Written by two avid outdoorsmen and friends, the book captures the romanticized nostalgia of celebrating the outdoors, learning survival skills and living off the land