A-Z, Alaska

1/25/2023 

I’ve never been to Alaska. I’m sure I’d love it but going there is not a big dream for either Len or me.

However, this. When our son was around 12 he developed a crush on all things Alaskan. Kid who lives in a ranch house on a Midwestern cul-de-sac wants to get lost in tundra and mountains with moose and wolves. Yup.

At first he just talked, dreamed, read books, and watched shows about Alaska. Then, at 14 he got a part-time job as a janitor at a vet clinic and he kept that job until he went to college. It was a good fit for a kid not drawn to homework.

Wilderness gear catalogs started appearing in our house and this kid, with his own money, started occasionally buying expensive high-tech gear. I think he still has some of it.

Then he wanted a kayak. Oh boy. He lobbied Len to drive him to Madison’s Canoecopia which is a huge paddle-sports show in March. They went. Now they were both talking canoes and kayaks. Canoecopia  

We bought an inexpensive canoe and that’s when Racine’s Root River became our local Alaska. Sitting here now, I see the bends and turns in that river. The wide sandbar where geese hung out. Herons stalking fish along the riverbank. Turtles sunbathing on logs. Flag iris and cattails. The splash of otters if one was very lucky. Sigh. I miss it. I’ll link a newspaper column I wrote back then, at the bottom of this.

Our kid saved his money until he had enough, and then he bought a Wilderness systems 17’ touring kayak. I’ll link that column, too. That kayak is in our garage right now.

We were already friends with M and D because the four of us are readers, eaters, and talkers. But the thing is, they also were and still are wilderness-comfy humans. So sometimes they took their boys and my boy on adventurous camping and river trips. One summer our two families paddled five days down the Green River in Utah. When they were still in high school, their son and ours joined a wilderness class in the Teton Mountains.  (NOLS offers wonderful, and pricey, adventures.)

A year ago when our family gave Christmas present lists to each other our daughter texted all of us, “We say our family is unathletic readers and cooks – but look at this list!” Gym clothes, hiking equipment, bike accessories, weights.

It’s powerful what can happen when a kid starts dreaming and no one shuts him down. It’s powerful what happens when we want a good thing and we go towards it, and we somehow bring others along on our quest.

Click here to read Seventeen Minutes of Joy 

Click here to read Dark River