I’ve just returned from a guiding a five day trip to the coast of Katmai National Park. While it is an amazing place (and I’ll be leading another trip there next year if anyone want to join me), where it…
On Storytelling Images
Poetry and the River
“There are strange things done in the midnight sun, by the men who moil for gold…” So starts the first verse of Robert Service’s classic poem The Cremation of Sam McGee. There is a great story woven into the rhyme…
Absurdity
5:30am on an Arctic morning and I was barefoot, standing in three inches of wet snow, wearing just my boxer shorts and holding a 12-gauge shotgun in my hand. That was the moment I realized the absurdity of what I…
The Chilkoot Trail
In 1896 a fellow by the name of George Carmacks and his companions discovered gold in the headwaters of what was then known as Rabbit Creek, a tributary to the Klondike in the Yukon territory. Their discovery caused and uproar…
Backpacking the Sheenjek
Storm over the mountains of the upper Sheenjek Valley I just finished my first trip of the season guiding for Arctic Wild, and it was a great way to start the summer. Like many early season trips the days…
Photography and the Art of the Story
If you are at all involved in the the artistic world online or elsewhere, you’ve likely heard the refrain: “Tell stories, tell stories, tell stories.” And it’s good advice too. Successful images, successful writing, even successful marketing campaigns tell compelling…
Howling with Wolves
A group of clients and I descended a steep gravel slope of a mountain we’d just summited. There was hardly any vegetation, just a long field of fine gravel interspersed with copper-colored boulders. The Kelly River Valley below was sweeping…
Delirium
During my artist residency in Gates of the Arctic National Park this summer, I covered about 70 miles on foot and by packraft over 10 days. There were a lot of memorable days, but there was one, nearing the…