B. M. Bower 
Lure of the Dim Trails 

This is an interesting twist on a Western, where an author returns to the land where he was born to get some "local flavor" for his novels. He gets much more than he expected, going on long trail rides and nearly freezing the end of his nose off in the winter shacks. Something-it couldn’t possibly be the beautiful Mona-could it?-keeps him on the range all year. (Goodreads)