About the Books
ACROSS WILD ALASKA: LOVE ADVENTURE
Across Wild Alaska is Bob’s memoir about a two-year Alaska wilderness journey, circa 1996-98. He planned a solo adventure, but that was before Sarah Michael dropped into his life. After an Alaska sea kayak trip and a backpack around a high Canadian mountain together, Bob revealed his dream. Sarah said, Let’s do it now!” That reply caught Bob by surprise, but not for long. Alaska had been a siren he’d answered for 30 years. “Yes, YES!”, he said. “We’ll link country I already know with new trails, stay in the wild for two years. Trek across all the geographies of America’s most magnificent wild.”
Across Wild Alaska is about the adventure Sarah and Bob love. How Wild Nature’s beauty, power, wonder and mystery defines and gives meaning to wilderness adventure. In Alaska, it was figuring out grizzlies or whales when they were in their face. Surviving sudden storms at sea and on land. Or, in equally stunning moments, Bob, dropping to his knees, sobbing before a single aster blossom near the summit of a glacier-bound peak while traversing an ice age world on skis. Or, after the hunt, savoring fresh moose roasted over a campfire, the aurora’s visual symphony playing in the heavens. Times, Bob says, “when you wolf howl because you feel so alive, so connected, so thankful!” Wild Nature is the love that feeds Bob and Sarah’s spirit. How the Alaska wilderness odyssey shaped their romance into a lifetime partnership is the other love adventure the book portrays. Between them, they’d been down the marriage path three times, grist for their camp conversations when they tried to figure out how to forge a lasting partnership. Bob was 54 at the Alaska trailhead, Sarah 50.
Tentative Table of Contents:
Chap 1 – Wild Connections
Chap 2 – Do It Now!
Chap 3 – Dropping Out for Two Years
Chap 4 – Southeast Alaska: Sea Kayak Paradise
Chap 5 – Gulf of Alaska Backpack: Grizzly Roulette
Chap 6 – St. Elias Icefields: Skiing an Ice-Age World
Chap 7 – First Winter: Wilderness Homestead in America’s largest National Park
Chap 8 – Interior Alaska: Skijoring and Dog Sledding the Yukon River Country
Chap 9 – Arctic Slope: Bitter Spring/Sarah leaves
Chap 10- Brooks Range Backpack: Buck (the dog) & Bob’s Survival Tour
Chap 11 – Recuperation
Chap 12 – Arrigetch Peaks Backpack: Unity?
Chap 13 – Kayaking Interior Alaska: Moose and Mammoths
Chap 14 – Second Winter: Wilderness Homestead II/Lake Minchumina Dog Sledding
Chap 15 – Denali: Bitter Spring II/Blown-off America’s Biggest Mountain
Chap 16 - Kenai Icefields and Fjords: Beast & Beauty
Chap 17 – Alaska Peninsula Backpack: Ten Thousand Smokes and Tame Grizzlies
Chap 18 – Shuyak Island Sea Kayak
Epilogue
Across Wild Alaska is Bob’s memoir about a two-year Alaska wilderness journey, circa 1996-98. He planned a solo adventure, but that was before Sarah Michael dropped into his life. After an Alaska sea kayak trip and a backpack around a high Canadian mountain together, Bob revealed his dream. Sarah said, Let’s do it now!” That reply caught Bob by surprise, but not for long. Alaska had been a siren he’d answered for 30 years. “Yes, YES!”, he said. “We’ll link country I already know with new trails, stay in the wild for two years. Trek across all the geographies of America’s most magnificent wild.”
Across Wild Alaska is about the adventure Sarah and Bob love. How Wild Nature’s beauty, power, wonder and mystery defines and gives meaning to wilderness adventure. In Alaska, it was figuring out grizzlies or whales when they were in their face. Surviving sudden storms at sea and on land. Or, in equally stunning moments, Bob, dropping to his knees, sobbing before a single aster blossom near the summit of a glacier-bound peak while traversing an ice age world on skis. Or, after the hunt, savoring fresh moose roasted over a campfire, the aurora’s visual symphony playing in the heavens. Times, Bob says, “when you wolf howl because you feel so alive, so connected, so thankful!” Wild Nature is the love that feeds Bob and Sarah’s spirit. How the Alaska wilderness odyssey shaped their romance into a lifetime partnership is the other love adventure the book portrays. Between them, they’d been down the marriage path three times, grist for their camp conversations when they tried to figure out how to forge a lasting partnership. Bob was 54 at the Alaska trailhead, Sarah 50.
Tentative Table of Contents:
Chap 1 – Wild Connections
Chap 2 – Do It Now!
Chap 3 – Dropping Out for Two Years
Chap 4 – Southeast Alaska: Sea Kayak Paradise
Chap 5 – Gulf of Alaska Backpack: Grizzly Roulette
Chap 6 – St. Elias Icefields: Skiing an Ice-Age World
Chap 7 – First Winter: Wilderness Homestead in America’s largest National Park
Chap 8 – Interior Alaska: Skijoring and Dog Sledding the Yukon River Country
Chap 9 – Arctic Slope: Bitter Spring/Sarah leaves
Chap 10- Brooks Range Backpack: Buck (the dog) & Bob’s Survival Tour
Chap 11 – Recuperation
Chap 12 – Arrigetch Peaks Backpack: Unity?
Chap 13 – Kayaking Interior Alaska: Moose and Mammoths
Chap 14 – Second Winter: Wilderness Homestead II/Lake Minchumina Dog Sledding
Chap 15 – Denali: Bitter Spring II/Blown-off America’s Biggest Mountain
Chap 16 - Kenai Icefields and Fjords: Beast & Beauty
Chap 17 – Alaska Peninsula Backpack: Ten Thousand Smokes and Tame Grizzlies
Chap 18 – Shuyak Island Sea Kayak
Epilogue
AROUND THE HEART OF WILD IDAHO
Fast forward 20 years to the summer of 2016, another ‘long trail’ calls Bob. His and Sarah’s home country, Idaho’s Wood River Valley where Bob was raised. North, out the back door of the ‘Valley’, is the central Idaho wilderness complex of the Sawtooth, River of No Return, White Cloud, Boulder and Jerry Peak Mountains, the largest chunk of congressionally designated wilderness in America outside of Alaska. East and West, the unroaded Pioneer and Smoky Mountains rear above the Valley. South, the Snake River Plain and its Craters of the Moon National Monument and Great Rift Wilderness, a volcanic wildness only 2,000 years old. The watersheds of this country are the Salmon and Snake Rivers. Sarah and Bob will loop through these mountains on foot for three months, starting and ending on the Snake Plain. It’s all about their pact to keep doin’ love adventures - celebrate the wild nature of their home country, Bob’s 75th birthday and their 20th year of wild partnership.
The prep for this three-month adventure according to Bob and Sarah is a ‘”helluva’ lot easier than a 2-year Alaska trek.” Yet, like Alaska, the trek is rife with challenges and the nagging questions of being able to do it. What’s really different from Alaska is the impact of time. Issues of aging. At 75, Bob’s body is starting to bark. Sarah, at 71, is still the ‘Energizer Bunny’ Bob has always known. So, how will this work-out? For Bob, that means going slow. “Look,” he has said to Sarah, “just keep goin’ up the trail and find our night’s camp. If I’m not there two hours after dark, then come look for me.” Fact is, Bob is going to relish going slow, observe Nature in a way he has not done since he was a feral child.
And Bob and Sarah will have four-legged buddies carry ALL the pack weight. The summer of 2016, they tested goats, llamas, and young bucks and does (20’s something guy and gal athletes) to carry their load. Back in 2000, Bob had already done a 40-day mule pack around the Middle Fork of the Salmon River country and discarded that prospect. Check the 2016 blog entries to find-out why lamas won the test hands-down. How Bob and Sarah have physically trained for their newest love adventure.
Learn more about Bob & Sarah’s 2017 Home Country 'Walk About' here.
Fast forward 20 years to the summer of 2016, another ‘long trail’ calls Bob. His and Sarah’s home country, Idaho’s Wood River Valley where Bob was raised. North, out the back door of the ‘Valley’, is the central Idaho wilderness complex of the Sawtooth, River of No Return, White Cloud, Boulder and Jerry Peak Mountains, the largest chunk of congressionally designated wilderness in America outside of Alaska. East and West, the unroaded Pioneer and Smoky Mountains rear above the Valley. South, the Snake River Plain and its Craters of the Moon National Monument and Great Rift Wilderness, a volcanic wildness only 2,000 years old. The watersheds of this country are the Salmon and Snake Rivers. Sarah and Bob will loop through these mountains on foot for three months, starting and ending on the Snake Plain. It’s all about their pact to keep doin’ love adventures - celebrate the wild nature of their home country, Bob’s 75th birthday and their 20th year of wild partnership.
The prep for this three-month adventure according to Bob and Sarah is a ‘”helluva’ lot easier than a 2-year Alaska trek.” Yet, like Alaska, the trek is rife with challenges and the nagging questions of being able to do it. What’s really different from Alaska is the impact of time. Issues of aging. At 75, Bob’s body is starting to bark. Sarah, at 71, is still the ‘Energizer Bunny’ Bob has always known. So, how will this work-out? For Bob, that means going slow. “Look,” he has said to Sarah, “just keep goin’ up the trail and find our night’s camp. If I’m not there two hours after dark, then come look for me.” Fact is, Bob is going to relish going slow, observe Nature in a way he has not done since he was a feral child.
And Bob and Sarah will have four-legged buddies carry ALL the pack weight. The summer of 2016, they tested goats, llamas, and young bucks and does (20’s something guy and gal athletes) to carry their load. Back in 2000, Bob had already done a 40-day mule pack around the Middle Fork of the Salmon River country and discarded that prospect. Check the 2016 blog entries to find-out why lamas won the test hands-down. How Bob and Sarah have physically trained for their newest love adventure.
Learn more about Bob & Sarah’s 2017 Home Country 'Walk About' here.