Heather Lende
Alaskan author Heather Lende is best known for her New York Times bestseller, If You Lived Here, I’d Know Your Name. Her latest book, Of Bears and Ballots, dives into small-town politics with humor and candor.
Where do you live? Haines. I came to Alaska after marrying my Middlebury College sweetheart. We are still on our honeymoon. Chip and I own Lutak Lumber & Supply in Haines, and have five children and 11 grandchildren. My favorite place in the whole world is our backyard where the Chilkat River meets the sea. We’ve been in Alaska for 38 years.
Place to send visitors: Haines! I mean, we have the Hammer Museum, bears at Chilkoot River, river rafting from the epic Tatshenshini and Alsek floats to the gentler and much shorter Chilkat River, world class road cycling on the Haines Highway and in the Chilkat Pass, a great playground for little ones, beaches, trails, and a library to hang out in on rainy afternoons. You can get good coffee, beer, and gin here, too. As well as local produce in season at the summer farmer’s market.
Film about Alaska: White Fang. It’s not the best movie, but since it was filmed in Haines, and so many locals are in it, it’s fun to spot them, and the places that were sets, and the places that are real. Also, I did get to play softball with the star, Ethan Hawke, when he was just a kid, so that’s a good story to tell.
Restaurant: I have never eaten any food better than at a summer wedding potluck.
Brewery or distillery: The Haines Brewing Company on a Friday night, a sunny summer day on the deck out back, and especially in December after the annual holiday parade when you can sip a stout and watch the fireworks.
Town for shopping: I shop local, and that means Haines, basically. I figure if we don’t have it here, then I probably don’t need it anyway. When I visit my daughters in Juneau, I love to peek in and buy gifts at Kindred Post and Annie Kaill’s.
Wild Alaskan food: That’s pretty much our diet. Sockeye and king salmon, steelhead, halibut, shrimp, Sitka black tail deer, moose, mountain goat enchiladas, blueberries, strawberries, salmon berries, and soapberries.
Mountain to climb: Mount Ripinski in Haines.
Way to meet locals: Go to the Southeast Alaska State Fair, or any First Friday gallery and shop walk. Attend a worship service if you are inclined that way; visit the library, local galleries or a bookstore, or join an open-mic night.
Flightseeing route: Haines to Glacier Bay or Yakutat and back.
Piece of outdoor gear: XTRATUF boots (I wear them every day to walk my dogs). But also, good raingear, my bicycles, and MSR snowshoes.
Type of boat: For personal use: a sailboat, a skiff, and a leaky canoe on a small pond. I love a pretty old wooden troller, a working gillnetter, and the classic well-kept seiners in Petersburg. For transportation, nothing beats a ferry ride between Haines and Juneau.
Sound of nature: Waves meeting the shore. Wind in the trees. A varied thrush.
Book about Alaska: There are so many, many good books. A baseline knowledge should include Mardy Murie’s Two in the Far North, Ernestine Hayes’ Blonde Indian and The Tao of Raven, Seth Kantner’s Ordinary Wolves, Roy Hudson’s Moments Rightly Placed and Lynn Schooler’s The Blue Bear. And while I am at it—there’s the new biography of Richard Nelson by Hank Lentfer, Raven’s Witness. And Richard Nelson’s books, too. And Caroline Van Hemert’s epic adventure The Sun is a Compass. There isn’t one Alaska book, any more than there is one Alaska.
Museum: The Klukwan village has an incredible collection of Tlingit and Northwest Coast Art at the Jilkaat Kwaan Heritage Center. The Whale House carvings are among the most significant examples of this art and culture in the world. Every time I’m in Anchorage, I go to the Anchorage Museum and learn something new about our state’s past and see new pieces from contemporary artists. There are as many visual artists in Alaska today as writers. It’s really a creative, artsy state.
Mosquito repellent: A head net and anything with citronella. But in the Yukon? Give me DEET.
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