Charting the Great Land- From Ketchikan And Beyond
Alaska
Where Wilderness Is Therapy
The wilderness makes me want to wrap myself in tinfoil and walk on the moon.
Mother Nature always delivers.
"Alaska is a lot like pizza. When it's good, it's really good. When it's bad, it's still pretty good; and like the Pizza Guy, Alaska always delivers."
The adventure begins in Seattle - "The Flannel Manner." I have my reservations, but the call of the Last Frontier beckons. This is where different ships converge, but we're all embarking on the same boat - Mother Nature's.
Cruising through the Inside Passage, where "The grass is greener where you water it." The vivid blues of Tracy Arm Fjord create nature's living mirror. Not everybody trusts paintings, but people believe videos - yet water, whether still or in motion, remains nature's most honest canvas.
In Ketchikan, following the "Path of Moist Resistance," where the Happy-go-Locals don't tan, they rust, and if they smoke, they smoke salmon. This is where active rain meets the Tongass Rainforest, creating a symphony of precipitation and life.
The Pacific Northwestern salmon embark on their incredible journey - hundreds of miles upstream against the current, driven by the urge to merge. Any fish can achieve failure and get caught, but a salmon fiasco is a disaster of epic proportions.
To make matters worse for the salmon, young bears bulk up for their long winter's sleep, turning these waters into nature's buffet.
Juneau - the enlightened land where digital narcissism reduces to zero. Here, analog eyes don't see our digital world. The rain, cold, and glaciers together take every bit of conceit out of me. This is therapy in its purest form.
In Glacier Bay, I witness the river of ice slowly moving its way into the bay, breaking off chunks the size of SUVs. This is my second week in a row here - enough time to be under and within the influence of this majestic force of nature.
Skagway tells the story of the Chilkoot Trail - "Miner for a Heart of Gold." This historic town echoes with the dreams and struggles of prospectors who came seeking fortune in the Last Frontier.
Peak Experiences are those moments, gone in 60 seconds to a few minutes, where I feel my highest levels of happiness, synchronicity, and promise. It's real magic where consciousness becomes storyteller.
Beauty is Unity in Variety. When I rowed on the Charles River, the state of flow was often triggered - that place where action and awareness merge, with tremendous self-control and focus.
I worry, I throw my fear around
But this morning, there's a calm I can't explain
The rock candy's melted, only diamonds now remain"
Wash your spirit clean.
"Keep close to Nature's heart... and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean." - John Muir