Get Me Outta Here!

Bushwhacking in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

When is this going to end?!? This sucks! Dammit, why are we doing this? Is this really the best way? This is stupid. Can’t we just go around? I’m so sick of this crap. We’ve been suffering through this so long, it feels like forever. Are you absolutely sure this is the right way? I can’t even see two feet in front of my face. I can’t even see the sky. And I’m pretty sure I haven’t even touched the ground since we started. How much longer? Please tell me that we never have to do this again. SHWAK!!! Owwwww, that freaking hurt. Right in the f-ing face. Plaaahhh, cough, cough, spit. Guess I need to cover my mouth.

Wait, I think I see light. Holy cow I think I see light!!! Is that the end? Can that really be the end?!? Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, it is the end. Yes, yes, YES!!! Whew, we finally made it. Wow, that was the absolute WORST thing that I have ever experienced. How long did that last, like three months? Oh, it was only 40 minutes. Well it felt like an eternity. How far did we go? A quarter mile, that’s it?!? Felt like seventeen miles. I never thought we would make it. I never, ever want to do that again.

Although that may sound oddly similar to how many of us are feeling during the COVID-19 pandemic, this is actually a very accurate portrayal of what it’s like to bushwhack in Alaska. I assure you that my words are not an exaggeration.

Anyone who has ever experienced a Grade 5 Bushwhack in Alaska will back me up. It’s no joke. The brush is so thick it is nearly impossible to move at times. The willows are so closely spaced that you can’t even touch the ground. You just kind of have to push your body over them and roll, fall or leap forward. The air is suffocating because there is barely room for light to enter your space much less allow anything but brushy bits into your mouth while breathing. Your clothes and backpack get stuck in the branches with every step and you’re constantly getting whacked in the face. It’s difficult, it’s painful and it’s definitely not fun.

Even if you begin your shwak with optimistic determination, within about five minutes you are over it. All you want is to be done with it but you are quickly reminded that Alaska doesn’t care what you want. You just have to keep pushing through knowing that it will eventually end. And you will be a stronger and better person for it.

So this whole pandemic has got me thinking about bushwhacking all of a sudden. Normally I try to avoid it at all costs unless it is absolutely necessary. But now I have a whole new attitude about shwakking. When I finally get up to Alaska again this summer I am going to seek out the brushiest, nastiest place I can find and dive right in. Why would I do such a thing? Well, it’s simple. Knowing what I know about Alaska, I’m confident that a good dose of shwakking gnar will make me look back at this pandemic and think, “Things can always be worse!”

Alaska 01: Solitude

Click, Like, Tweet, #Hashtag, Post, Follow, Stream, Comment, Meme, Selfie, Selfie, Selfie, Hustle, Hustle, HUSTLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whoa there, Slow Down. STOP. Breathe. Relax.

Imagine a place where there is no Social Media, no Influencers, no mobs of people taking Selfies, no Internet, no 4G. In fact, your phone just won’t work outside of airplane mode. Sounds like a fantasy world, right?

I assure you this place is very real. It DOES exist. This is Alaska. It is a land so big, so vast, so wild, so remote, that most of it is undeveloped wilderness. We live in an age of constant chatter and noise. Our smartphones are always on, the internet is consuming much of our daily lives and we’re seeing more and more of the world through a digital lens in a maddening hustle to maintain our online presence.

One of my favorite things about Alaska is that I have the opportunity to disconnect from my phone. My digital self if forced to take a break when I am exploring the mountains and glaciers in America’s Last Frontier. Don’t worry, there is internet and you can use your phone in Alaska! Nearly all of the most popular tourist destinations have a cellular signal of some sort that allows you to navigate, search for lodging or restaurants and, yes, even post your latest and greatest masterpiece on social media. However, many of the most sought after recreational areas have limited or no online access. You can hike on a glacier, backpack through the mountains, float a river or take a scenic flight through scenes that look otherworldly. In fact, you have probably only seen places like this in movies, while flipping through the pages of National Geographic or while surfing through your favorite social media platform. But here’s the catch. You may not be able to take a photo and post it to social media immediately. Sorry Influencers!!! You may even have to wait several days depending on where you are or what you are doing. But that’s ok. I’ll bet you won’t even care. You will be so thrilled to simply be there and enjoy this impressive landscape that you will actually be relieved to have no pressure to do anything but smile.

Alaska is one of the few truly wild places left on this Earth. As the world population continues to climb and urban sprawl extends further and further, we are losing more and more of our wilderness areas every year. Fortunately, we still do have places of natural beauty that force us to disconnect from the digital world and reconnect with the earthly one. We are animals, not digital avatars. We need to step on a 2000 foot deep block of ice, hop across giant car-sized boulders, walk barefoot on the sandy shores of a river or hike miles through a kaleidoscope of brilliantly colored wildflowers. And we need to watch a thousand pound grizzly bear chomping on wild berries (from a distance!), walk among a herd of dall sheep grazing high in the mountains or witness the magical grace of a herd of caribou prancing through the tundra.

Solitude is becoming a rare thing in the ever increasing hustle and bustle of our everyday lives. Sure, we are social animals and need to connect with other members of our tribe. But we need to step off the grid once in awhile to reconnect with our planet. Reconnect with ourselves. We’re spending more time looking down at our phones than looking out at the real world around us. We’re investing more time in our digital lives than actually exploring the riches of our natural world around us. And simply put, this is stressing us out and making us less happy humans.

Go to Alaska just once in your lifetime. I promise it will change your outlook on life. It will change your life!

There's a Place for Wild Spaces

Taking a break while backpacking through Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

I’m back!!! The past two months have been so busy that I haven’t been able to pick up my camera much or even get outside and enjoy the mountains as I normally do. But now the smoke is finally clearing and I am gearing up for Spring and Summer travels. As my excitement is brewing I thought I would start by spotlighting Alaska since it has been such an integral part of my life for the last decade.

As I am planning my next Alaska adventure I realized I have only revealed a handful of my photos from last summer. So I am going to start finally showing off the many reasons why I think that 1) Alaska is one of the most special and incredible places on planet Earth and 2) why I think that you should visit Alaska at least once in your lifetime.

To accomplish this task I will be publishing new photos every week and highlighting different yet unique features of Alaska. It is truly one of the most wild places you could imagine. Although it’s becoming more and more difficult to find “true wilderness” for various reasons, mighty Alaska is a bastion of freedom in the form of places so remote that you can go for days or weeks without seeing another person. These places are so beautiful and hostile that they will take your breath away and force you to confront the thoughts and feelings stirring in the deepest confines of your primitive brain. Simply put, Alaska is the place where you WILL lose yourself and find yourself at the same time.

We as human beings need wild places like this to exist. Join me over the next several weeks as I guide you through America’s Last Frontier and hopefully inspire you to finally buy that plane ticket to Alaska!!!

“Sunset” behind Mt. Blackburn as viewed from the Kennicott Glacier, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

Where Do You Want to Go?

Backpackers on a glacier in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska (Summer 2019).

Where do you want to go? Where have you always dreamed of traveling? What are those things and places that you have seen in books, photos, movies, etc. and always wanted to see?

I know that you all have an answer to those questions. We all have that dream vacation that we’ve been wanting to take. Well, we are at the very beginning of a whole new decade: 2020. I hope to encourage you to travel this year and start the new 20’s off with a bang. Make it epic. Make it that once-in-a-lifetime trip. Make it that trip that makes you want to quit your job!

I’m going to do my part in helping you to make that dream trip come true. I have been fortunate to have traveled to a lot of other-worldly places that most people have probably only seen in the pages of National Geographic. I quit my job a long time ago so that I could see all of the epic places on my list and I have even been a mountain guide in Alaska for ten years. So I am going to use my travel knowledge to help you plan your adventures by writing weekly blog posts about various topics.

I will start things off by highlighting my favorite place on this planet: Alaska. Join me for the next several weeks as I guide you on a tour of America’s Last Frontier!