At play where the midnight sun holds court
I wrote this article for the May 2018 edition of Alaska Magazine about the evolution of the town of Wiseman, Alaska over the past 100 years. Here is the full version. Sixty-three miles north of the Arctic Circle lies a cluster of log cabins that form the town of Wiseman. The town sits beneath towering … Read more
Last week I returned to Wiseman for the first time in three years, only the second time since I left indefinitely when I moved south to Fairbanks. I was driven out primarily by loneliness, a lacking sense of community and a lacking of meaning in my day to day life. The experience started out with … Read more
I push past the cottonwood and willow shoots. It’s been about three years since I’ve been here. A little over four since I had cleared the area. When I first moved into the cabin, it was hidden amidst a jungle of both willows and cottonwoods after years of neglect. Trash was strewn across the lawn … Read more
During my time living in the Brooks Range, I spent a lot of time staring at maps of the surrounding area and dreaming up routes and places that I wanted to go. One of those places was a packraft loop involving the North Fork of the Chandalar and the Bettles River via Geroe Creek. The … Read more
After scratching during last year’s Ski Classic, I made it my mission to return and finish. This year I would be attempting to ski the route through the Arctic Refuge, from Atigun Gorge to Wiseman, via a checkpoint on the Wind River. In 2017, the going had proved to be slow for those on the … Read more
I kicked steps into the wind blasted slopes, each one sending tufts of floor down to the valley below. The snow was shallow, my steps often punched right through to the rocks inches below. Without an ice axe, I traversed towards the pass with some trepidation. There were large rocks scattered below, not enough reason … Read more
Clack, clack, clack, clack. The sound of the metal points hitting the ice broke the silence. On either side of the river valley rose sharp, limestone mountains covered with high cliffs and pinnacles. It was mid-April. Although the days were long, night still fell over the land. And with the sun dipping behind the mountains … Read more
The term sourdough is one flung around in Alaskan literature when talking about the history of the state or people of its past. For the unfamiliar, the name brings to mind that of the bread, that trusty companion out on the trail or away from town. Upon hearing it is a term applied to people, … Read more
It is considered to be one of the most elusive animals of the north. Quietly and stealthily moving throughout the forest, it often goes undetected by human eyes. So it is no surprise that when the animal is sighted, it is a special experience. I speak of the lynx. The northernmost member of the cat … Read more
“Sik rik.” The noise is something anyone will encounter who treks through rocky terrain of Northern Alaska. It is the call of the Arctic Ground Squirrel, or the sikrik as named by the Inupiat after its call. The ground squirrel is a small mammal, often no more than two pounds in mass. Despite their small … Read more