Way back in 1978, I wanted
to be a teacher. I wanted to do something big. I wanted to go to Alaska.
.
I applied to every school in that sprawling state. But
I didn't get one job. Apparently, New Yorkers had a reputation for making very
bad Alaskans.
.
But I knew Alaska was waiting for me, and I had the strangest feeling that if I didn't go there, my life
would never feel complete. What, I wondered, besides teaching, did I do well enough to get me north?
.
Then I had it. I understood about being a student. So instead of being a teacher, I became a student again and headed
to the University of Alaska where they had an advanced degree program for teachers.
.
With my one
way ticket, I arrived in Fairbanks, the Golden Heart of Alaska. I saw cabbages as big as dishwashers, and the sun glowing
at midnight like an egg yolk smatered across the horizon. And on a chance trip to the arctic Brooks Range, I found fossils
that had never been discovered there that proved the soaring mountains had once been under the sea.
.
I was hooked. Forget about teaching; I
was going to become an arctic geological explorer! After all, if at first you don't succeed, try something that's harder.
.
I embraced the harsh life of an exploration field mapper, and
Alaska continued to surprise me at every turn, with sunsets on the blood red tundra that looked like Martian landscapes. But
not all of those surprises were good. In this land of raw and dangerous beauty, we paid a high price for life at the top of
the world, beyond the edge of mankind. There were bears, rock cliffs that gave way,
and even Wild West shoot-outs. Not all of us survived.
.
Let me tell you about my Alaska, my mysterious friend that whispered its secrets as I climbed on its
rocks and proud peaks. Its a story of life lived to extremes, surrounded by the people bold and outrageous enough to thrive
there. Come with me to my world of Alaska, to the
warm heart of the world's final frontier.
