It is the last day of 2020, and I find myself on a long and desolate dirt road in Grand Staircase – Escalante down in Southern Utah. It’s an epic sunrise as I make my way through the snow covered hills and onto the open desert landscape, searching for the slot canyons known as PeekaBoo…
Tag: solo
Don’t forget Winona
Yes, just like the lyrics to the song. The small and most likely forgotten town of Winona, just a few miles outside of Flagstaff, is where I’m heading to lay my head for the night after a day out at Edge of the World. I’ve no doubt that the few people that live here are…
Dead Horse Ranch
“I need to slow down for awhile.” This has become increasingly clear over the past year. After more than a decade of jet setting around the country weekend after weekend, my body and mind are spent. I thought it would be very difficult to give up that lifestyle, but to the contrary, my body has…
Wire Pass
Deja Vu hits me once again as I walk towards the Wire Pass trailhead, but I ignore the feeling as my focus is on the excessive morning heat. I check my water levels and then hit the trail. The soothing red sandstone formations quiet the soul as I hike along, looking for snakes and scorpions….
Shipcreek
It feels like a Sunday, but I’m not quite sure what day of the week it is. I do know that I have a few hours left before I fly home, as my time back in Alaska has come to an end. I head down to Shipcreek, the river that runs through downtown Anchorage and…
The return to the cabins
The bus quietly pulls in front of the Denali cabins, I unload my gear and say my final good bye to the driver. Soon I am left standing all alone. It is too early to check in, so I head over to the restaurant to catch up on some work and warm my bones with…
The Covid Wild Alaska Adventure – Leaving Denali (otherwise known as bear spray incident #2)
My time at the backcountry lodge has sadly come to an end. Breakfast is served earlier than usual, at 6:00 a.m. due to the fact we need to be loaded onto the bus for our long drive back out on the Denali Park road so that people can make their connections on time. The rain…
The Covid Wild Alaska Adventure – Alone atop Eagles Point
The clouds are closing in on the valley this morning, swirling in misty circles over the mountains. Imagine if you will the Lonely Mountain from the Hobbit or the Led Zeppelin song. I walk along the creek looking upward, then head over to the main lodge to see if any of the guides are around….
The Covid Wild Alaska adventure – Enter Denali
We are eight miles from the entrance to Denali National Park as I settle into my comfortable bus seat, along with five other people. We have plenty of space for social distancing, peace and quiet. Our driver and guide only has two rules for us : No talking about politics or religion. My kind of…
The Denali cabins
My body is still floating on cloud nine as I walk off the plane from Denali Air. The afternoon is fading quickly into evening as I get checked into my cabin for night at Denali cabins. Alaska feels isolated and estranged from the continental United States in any normal year, but being compounded with Covid…
The Covid Wild Alaska adventure – Denali Air
I received the first voice mail while in Seward……”Denali Air here….break in the weather…if you are around….good time now…”, but I was kayaking and couldn’t return the call. The next morning as I was a couple of hours into my journey towards Denali I receive another voicemail from Denali Air….but I’m stuck in a torrential…
Surprises along the Russian river
I find a small pub that is open as long as one is socially distant. Sitting outside in the Alaskan sun, I enjoy a beer and some grub while pondering where to go hiking this afternoon. The internet is spotty out here in Kenai, and so I decide to just follow the road signs I…