At play where the midnight sun holds court
I was interviewed by my friend Tyler, for his podcast Advanced Retroadaptics. Check out the link below to listen or go to Spotify, Apple etc. Many thanks to Tyler for asking me to be on his podcast and for the fun conversation. I recommend checking out his blog for experiments in living and tales of … Read more
Living in Alaska for many people means living in a place that is very far from any kind of family due to the many that originate from elsewhere in Alaska’s urban areas. For me that holds true as well. I was raised outside Chicago, IL and almost all of my family and friends are still … Read more
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
As I made my way into the headwaters, the snow became deeper and deeper. With mountains engulfing the valley, the area’s snow was not impacted by winds. The deep, sugar-like snow required tremendous exertion to move forward with each stride. A ski slides forward atop the snow. I transfer my weight and then sink a … 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
In 1925, the first airplane to land above the Arctic Circle set down on the gravel bar along the Middle Fork of the Koyukuk River near Wiseman. Residents had anticipated the plane’s arrival and a young boy was the first to spot it far off in the distance. As the plane rolled to a stop, … Read more
Wood lays haphazardly stacked next to the woodstove, ready to provide service in the battle against winter’s cold. Inside the stove, the fire burns. A bed of hot coals sit beneath the logs radiating their warmth to the exterior surfaces. I have run a fire continuously since the beginning of October, when the cold settled … Read more
The frigid temperatures of winter prevent many from living in the area on a permanent basis, even with all the modern conveniences found in today’s world. But the Arctic environment is not without its multitude of benefits, one of those being the ease of storing food in the winter season. Once the mercury drops below … 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