Just getting to Alaska is an adventure- especially if you are driving in a VW bug.  Two college friends, Bob and Jerry, wanted a short summer road trip so they agreed to drive to Prince Rupert where we would all get on the Alaska ferry and proceed furthur north.

It was about 2,000 miles from Santa Barbara to the British Colombia port town of Prince Rupert but we decided to make it even longer by driving eastward through the Banff and Jaspar Park areas.  Then we continued to Rupert where we boarded the ferry Matanuska for the short ride to Ketchikan for our first day in Alaska.

Our planning was pretty lame so as we exited the Ferry we had no idea where we would camp that first night.  Ketchikan is in very steep terrain and about the only flat ground we could find was a cemetary.  Walking back through town Jerry suggested we just walk up to a house and ask the residents if we could camp in their back yard.  I thought Jerry was crazy and that we'd probably get rousted by the cops but we decided to give it a try .

We looked at the rows of small houses along the residential street and picked one that had kind of long, uncut grass figuring they wouldn't care if we trampled the lawn.  When we knocked on the front door a four year old girl answered.  Is your mom or dad home we asked.  "No," she answered.  "But my babysitter will be back pretty soon.  Why?  What do you want?"  We looked at each other for a few seconds until finally Jerry said "We're camping tonight and wanted to know if we could put our tents up in your yard."    "Oh, the little girl," replied.  "I think that will be alright."  Just then the babysitter walked over from the house next door.

Oh God, I thought.  The cops will be here next...

"Alaska, why would you want to go to Alaska?"  

That was the most common question I heard when I first announced to friends and family that I planned to travel north for a summer break from college.

When my boss at Pancho Villa's Mexican restaurant asked the question I was for some reason stumped.  I just wanted to travel and see some more of the world.  I'd been to Europe, Mexico, Central America and North Africa already.  They were all too crowded, too expensive, too foreign, too weird.  I wanted to see some unspoiled country and enjoy the outdoors- not just study it and talk about it in Environmental studies classes.  I wanted to get away from the confining atmosphere of southern California.  The rush of constant hubbub.  I wanted to drop all this career planning bullshit and just go start having a life.

My boss could see I was struggling for an answer so he succinctly answered it for me.   "Adventure", he asked.

We had a saying amongst my friends there at UC Santa Barbara- "nothing to it but to do it."  By which we meant that at some point you have to call a halt to all the research, overcome the analysis paralysis and just get on with your project the best you can.  So, in 1974 I accepted a resort job at Mt. Mckinley National Park and hit the road north with two friends in a VW bug.  It was the start of what would turn into a life-long adventure.

This blog is an attempt to recall and recount some of those times along Alaska's Rivers and Trails...