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
I began learning how to hunt in the spring of 2016 at 23 years old. Hunting was not a common activity for anyone in my family or that of anyone in the community I grew up in. Over the years I have learned a lot from others and through my own experiences. From those experiences, … Read more
The wind blew the rain against the tent. The constant, loud pitter pattering of the windblown drizzle against the nylon amplified our perception of the storm’s intensity, making it seem torrential. During the night, the wind had upended two of the stakes, pinching the sides of the outer shell against the inner. As a result, … 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
Clouds rolled over the ridges and made their way down the valley. Visibility fluctuated with them, and by the time we set down on our sleeping bags the clouds had enveloped the valley. We were about a mile and a half off the road, camping out for the opening of the craziness that is the … Read more
Last week, Alana and I set off to complete the 40th edition of the Alaska Mountain Wilderness Classic. The event was in it’s third year of the course starting from the Jack River Trailhead on the Denali Highway and ending at Sheep Mt Lodge on the Glenn Highway. I had not participated in any of … Read more
This past weekend, my friend Chris and I took a trip to the White Mountains. The plan was to bike the 29 miles out to the Caribou Bluff cabin and spend the night. From there, our plans would likely diverge. He was going to head back to Wickersham Dome the long way, 71 miles up … Read more
This is my most recent article for Alaska Magazine, printed in their September 2020 issue. Here is an excerpt from the essay: “ Growing up in suburbanChicago, I had few opportunities for hunting. The metropolitan area is filled with human activity and development. Even though there are small parcels of forest, those are off limits to … Read more
Alana had some extended time off from work and we decided to take a trip south to the Coal Mine No.5 cabin near the Alaska Range. I was borrowing skis from a friend as I had recently broken my bindings on another trip. Alas, at the trailhead I discovered that their bindings were incompatible with … Read more