83-year-old Paula Krebs refuses to let life’s setbacks keep her out of the wilderness, which she now explores from a boat.
The Junjik River runs south under Burnt Hill, bright with fall colors. Photo by Keely O’Connell We woke in the tent, dazzled by the morning sunlight fracturing in the frost on the dry fireweed stalks and the tundra moss. With the door unzipped and pegged open—there were no mosquitoes so far north in September—we could look east, out over our feet in sleeping bags, clear across the Junjik River. The Junjik is a clear, shallow river with its entire length in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It flows into the Chandalar just north of Arctic Village. That afternoon we wanted to see, just for the fun of it, how far we could get before bottoming out. In my freight canoe, Lyra, we hugged cutbanks, keeping just enough water under the hull to feed the prop. Blueberries on the bank hung limp on their stems, fragile, but syrupy sweet after the…
A loon’s cry is the anthem of wild places.
[by Tom Walker]
Explore glacial lakes and towering peaks Getting to Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, a roadless wilderness of 3 million acres accessible only by boat or plane, is a camera-worthy adventure. Located in the southern portion of the Alaska Range to the west of Cook Inlet, the park features tumbling glaciers and towering peaks. It’s a short hop, flying 100 miles southwest from Anchorage over forbidding terrain before dropping into the small town of Port Alsworth within the park. From there, you can take a bush plane to get you wherever you want to go, with pick up and drop off itineraries that are easy and reliable to schedule on your own or with a reputable guide or outfitter. Along the way, you’ll have a birds-eye view of the Chigmit Mountains, a range created by centuries of geological chaos where volcanoes like Iliamna and Redoubt vent regularly, as well as…
Alaska Wakeboarding Teaser from Catchin’ Air Tv Show from UpDown Productions on Vimeo.
