On the Edge of Ice, by Monica Devine
Monicad | January 21, 2012
ON THE EDGE OF ICE As far north as one can travel in Alaska, a good 300 miles above the Arctic Circle, a string of small coastal villages speckle the landscape on a vast backdrop of snow and sea and ice. The villages, spanning an area of about 500 miles east to west, starve for [...]
Sketches from the Western Arctic
Dan Ritzman | December 10, 2010
Reprinted with permission from Cindy Hunt- Ritzman I’ve always wondered why my husband Dan loves guiding for Arctic Wild. Every year since I’ve known him, he usually disappears for a few weeks in Alaska, returning sunburned, disheveled, yet also happy and more ‘centered’. This year I had the opportunity to travel with him, on a trip [...]
Happy Birthday Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Dan Ritzman | December 7, 2010
Reprinted with permission from author Dan Ritzman, Arctic Wild Guide and Northwest Director for the Sierra Club. Initially published December 7, 2009, www.arcticwild.com. The Arctic Refuge turns 49 today, and it is time to think about the many dedicated people who have protected the refuge for the past 50 years. Back in the 1950s two stellar [...]
A scientist at work in Arctic Alaska
Shannon Huffman Polson | August 3, 2010
Enjoy the ongoing posts by Steve Zack as he recounts his journeys in the Arctic along the Utokok River.
Wolverine on the Utokok
Josh Ferris | May 15, 2010
Lying in northwestern Alaska, the Utukok River twists 200 miles through sharply folded green hills with rocky ridges that stretched east and west in long rows – Archimedes Ridge, Meat Mountain, Eskimo Hill. Once you’re on a ridge the hiking is easy. One night I turned from Richard and Sharon, saying I would take another [...]
Angels in the Mist
Jeff Fair | May 6, 2010
Angels in the Mist, by Jeff Fair. From Arctic Wings: Birds of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge “The Wild Geese,” from The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry Geese appear high over us, pass, and the sky closes. Abandon, as in love or sleep, holds them to their way, clear, in the ancient faith: what we [...]
The Killik
RKahn | May 1, 2010
July 26 It is hot and sunny. There is the relentless sound of the river flowing green and white as it moves north. The sunrise was pink and grey with the river shinning white and blue. The sky was filled with soft pink clouds and the mountains glowed pink in the east. Hidden within the [...]
Colville III- Alaskan Arctic River
RKahn | March 5, 2010
The gravel bar is a jumble of jagged clay rock; there are fossils everywhere, worms and seashells, fragments of petrified wood, fern leaves, an ancient world frozen in stone. I imagine myself walking in an ancient arctic rain forest. We climb up the cliff above our tents following game trails and eating blueberries. There are [...]
Colville II- Alaskan Arctic River
RKahn | March 5, 2010
The owl flies silently over my head, white and brown wings making no sound…over the river into the tundra, the owl drops out of sight and then emerges from a fold in the land a small creature tucked in its talons…Screeching peregrine chicks hidden somewhere on the cliff face, strident calls, chaotic screaming…pleading, hidden from [...]
“Wilderness Music” an excerpt from Bill Sherwonit’s new book
Bill Sherwonit | February 18, 2010
Wilderness Music, excerpted from Changing Paths: Travels and Meditations in Alaska’s Arctic Wilderness ©2010 by Bill Sherwonit At age 50, nature writer and wilderness advocate Bill Sherwonit went on the longest backpack of his life: fifty miles in two weeks, across mostly untrailed wilderness in America’s remotest and arguably wildest parkland, Gates of the Arctic [...]