Sunday, March 31, 2013

This comment came in and is worth posting. It broke me out of my workaholic, nose-to-the white-board teaching schedule this Fall:

 "Roman, Imagine you must spend the rest of your life alone, recreating within the rectangular bounds of just one page of the Alaska Gazetteer. You can never leave. You have unlimited money, food, gear, and shelter, but no motorized craft or vehicles. The villages, towns and cities of Alaska are erased. Which page do you choose?
 Mike in Fairbanks"


 Since I only get one page, it better cover a lot of terrain.

It's unfortunate I have to spend my life alone, but I'll pick a place where there'll be memories of my wife and children, where our son was conceived and Peggy and I continue to return.

A region where like-minded people might cross paths with me and there're not so many people that I ignore them (like I do downtown), but few enough that when I see them and they see me they are willing to stop and share time with me.

The Page is the one with the central Brooks Range bounded by the Koyukuk and Colville, page 136. It looks bad in the Alaska Atlas and Gazetteer, but includes my favorite USGS 1:250,000 quad for the last 35 years, Survey Pass.

Great question Mike.

I like questions.

Any others?
Posted by at

9 comments:

  1. Martin RyeApril 1, 2013 at 12:41 AM

    What are your two most memorable bear encounters? Part one

    What have you learnt from them in terms of bear safety? Part two

    I hope your busy work load eases up and you can get outdoors packrafting and hiking soon. We do miss your reports.

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    Replies
    1. Roman DialApril 14, 2013 at 11:19 AM

      Ah yes, Martin, busy workload keeping me indoors. Hopefully the meter of snow in our yard will melt soon and I can get back on the water.

      Thanks for the kind response. The only work I seem to get into the blog these days is weeding all the spam and weird "comments" about things I'd rather not mention here.

      Delete
  2. MCApril 4, 2013 at 6:10 PM

    If, on that one page, there could only be one flavor of ice cream...

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  3. Chris FriesenApril 5, 2013 at 8:42 AM

    If you were going to take your young children on a trip again, would it be overseas or would you spend that time having an adventure in your own country?

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    Replies
    1. Roman DialApril 14, 2013 at 11:33 AM

      That's an excellent question that I often ask myself, Chris.

      Peggy and I wanted to travel the world with our kids and we did visit several continents when they were under 12. We thought that their own country would be a place they could explore on their own, when they were old enough to travel. Our parents had traveled with us all over the USA and we had enjoyed that as they went places with us they had not been. So we wanted to share new experiences with our own kids -- that is, a first time trip to Australia for all of us would be more exciting than taking them to a place we had gone as children.

      Seeing wild kangaroos and emus for the first time together, climbing an equatorial mountain at dawn, watching a basilisk lizard run across a central American stream, or witnessing eastern Europe while car camping -- these were more exciting for Peggy and me than when we took them to Bush Gardens, Boston, Yosemite, or Hawaii.

      We have left Yellowstone for them, and the Grand Canyon, redwoods and sequoias, and I hope they find those on their own.

      But sometimes I wonder if we didn't rob them of the some of the exploration they might do without us, worldwide. Doing things on your own gives a great deal of satisfaction and confidence, so I hope that they can still get that from their own travels without us.

      They seem to get around on their own, today, at 24 and 26, like lots of young people. The world seems a lot easier to travel today than even 10 years ago.

      Delete
  4. JHypersMay 12, 2013 at 9:53 AM

    To extend the initial question asked by Mike in Fairbanks...

    Specifically, what would you DO within the Survey Pass quad that you have not yet done in all your time spent there?

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  5. JHypersMay 12, 2013 at 9:57 AM

    To extend the initial question from Mike in Fairbanks...

    Specifically, what would you DO within the Survey Pass quad that you have not yet done in all your time spent there?

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    Replies
    1. Roman DialMay 12, 2013 at 10:05 AM

      Connect the Killey and the Alatna. Check out the Nigu. Climb Igikpak. Paddle (not portage) the Nahtuk canyon. Climb the Maidens. Stand on top of Whichman's Tower. Climb the Grayling Wall on Xanadu. walk out on the ledge of Melting Tower's melting glacier. Climb Xanadu's west ridge. Climb the prominant peak north of Nahtuk that I thought was Nahtuk until Clif Wilson pointed out that the prominant peak is actually 6220. And more. There's easily a lifetime in there with arctic and boreal and granite and schist, caribou and moose.

      Delete

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