2 comments about Travellers' Wildlife Guides Alaska (Travellers' Wildlife Guides).

1. I found the book to be very informative and well organized. The photos were a tremendous aid to the text, which is easy to read and fun. This will be a wonderful addition to my reference library and I will be going back to it again and again.



2. The guide goes well beyond simple identification information and truly provides a condensed naturalist study of each animal or group of animals. I particularly enjoyed reading the "Lores and Notes" sections as they provided additional information into the animals' significance and connection with the local and native human populations. I also found the notes on region and habitat particularly useful... it really helped me differentiate between similar looking species and understand what I might encounter in different circumstances.
   
   I was pleasantly surprised to find that this was one of the few guides that contained information about the local insects... and there are an amazing amount of insects in Alaska, especially considering the harsh climate! I'm not normally a bug-hunter, but it was nice to be able to identify the HUGE butterflies and dragonflies we encountered on our hikes.
   
   Buyer beware! There is a strong naturalist, eco-conscious tone to this reference. If you aren't the sort who is particularly concerned about the interconnection of species and preservation/conservation of our wild brethren and their natural habitat... this book may not be for you regardless of the wonderful information it contains.

1 comments about Islands of the Seals: The Pribilofs (Alaska Geographic).

1. Do You Know Where the Pribilofs Are?

   If you don't, then you should! The Pribilof Islands are two small isles in the Bearing Sea. They are known as the Islands of the Seals because of the large population of seals which congregate there. Many parts of the Island are wildlife sanctuaries for seals. But a modern Western/Aleut community thrives (relatively speaking) in these Islands roughly halway between Alaska and Russia.

   For years these islands were used as dumping areas for furtive captains who would abandon oil barrels- mostly empty- and other industrial container garbage when nobody was looking. Fortunately recent years have seen far more stringent monitoring of the environment and the beginnings of very effective clean-up efforts.

   But while the Pribilofs have their masses of seals and has a grim history of this ugly pollution, it is entering the 21st century as a cleaner, more cherished area with a robust local community who pride themselves on their special islands and their clean-up efforts. And these islands are very special indeed...

   In this unique Alaska Geographic release one can see many pictures and read about the beautiful coastal boroughs and abundant sea life of the Pribilofs. While most people get on a plane and fly off to some impossible to spell foreign region for adventure travel, the Aleutian Islands and the Pribilofs continue to exist mostly off the beaten path, and are some of the most exotic, diverse, and richly rewarding islands imaginable, right here in the USA. It's just a matter of perspective and where you look.

   This book is usually available through Amazon, but may take a few weeks to ship. If you like seals or unusual coastal areas, take a look!

   And for those of you who surf... here's another zone with some potential. If you look at the excellent maps of the islands you'll find in this book, you will see a great deal of potential for decent conditions on any swell, tide, and wind. If its onshore on one side of the island, a few minutes later you can find yourself in offshore conditions on the other side. Road access and lodging looks to be quite available! There is a picture or two of possible surf zones! But this is rugged territory dominated by the seals! Just look at the cover- did you think that man invented surfing... Ha! (*The cover pictures a number of seals frolicking about in a glassy green left-hander!)

1 comments about Two Dianas in Alaska (Sisters of the Hunt).

1. I thought this book would be a bit boring. But what agnes and cecily did really is beyound belief! Going into the remote areas of Alaska, living under primitive conditions and giving the whole adventure a positive flavour! I loved it.

1 comments about Alaska from the Air.

1. I have always been disappointed in the usual albums that attempt to capture the pristine splender and overwhelming viceral expierence that Alaska presents. In this book, it is impossible to put it down before absorbing the entire book, not once, but two or three times! It makes it crystal clear that there is no other part of the world that comes close to matching Alaska's mystery, wilderness, and unbelievable panoramas of seemingly endless spectaclar mountain ranges that collectively make the final frontier a truely "once in a lifetime" experience! To say less would not do it Justice!

2 comments about Insiders' Guide to Anchorage and Southcentral Alaska: Including the Kenai Peninsula, Prince William Sound, and Denali National Park (Insiders' Guide Series).

1. I was very disappointed when I received this book. It has a beautiful cover, and I was expecting some photos of the area. There are none. In reality, it is a very small paperback with thin paper and not enough substance. In addition, the book is sort of a tourist guide to where to eat, where to stay. I was hoping for more content.



2. The recomended food places were not as described. Atmosphere descriptions were also not that accurate. Museums were greatly overrated. Driving directions could have been a lot clearer. But the referenced tours and phone numbers were very helpful. The recomended places to stay sometimes were great (ones they referenced in Denali) and sometimes really bad (ones referenced in Seward). This may be used as a second or back-up book, but don't let it be the only guide you take with you to the Anchorage area.

No comments about Alaska Off the Beaten Path, 6th (Off the Beaten Path Series).

3 comments about Denali: The Complete Guide.

1. The first things Denali travelers usually want to know are: where do I hike? How do I use the bus system? Do I need to worry about bears? What other animals will I see? Where and how can I camp? Sherwonit answers all those questions accurately and authoritatively. But what I love about this book is all the comprehensive info -- and engaging writing -- beyond the basics, which few editors require but which travelers and readers appreciate. I've scoured other Alaska guidebooks without finding the same level of info about: geology, first peoples, the history of the park's creation, early mountaineering, safe and responsible hiking, plants, photography, winter travel, and more. Then there are sidebars, checklists, maps and photos -- all well-arranged. On top of all this, the book is easy to read and enjoy, thanks to the author's pleasant voice. A few first-person sections (for example, a sidebar on the author's own ascent of Mount McKinley) add character and passion without being obtrusive. It's clear Sherwonit loves Denali National Park and put years of effort into making this a guidebook anyone can use with confidence.



2. This guide covers every aspect of visiting the Denali National Park area. It covers history, natural history, visitors information, hiking, wildlife, Denali State Park, climbing McKinley.... In fact if you want an complete introduction to the park for your first visit, this is the book to get.
   
   The one trade off to having everything in one book is that the depth of information is not overwhelming in anyone area. Each section is sufficient, but if you are focusing your trip on any one area, you might want to get a more directed guide. Life for Hiking you might be better off getting Denali Guidebook by Ikes. But if you are taking your once in a life time trip to Denali and you want to read ahead to appreciate as much as you can in a day or two, get this book to get yourself up to speed with the park and it's history.
   
   If you like literary background to your destinations, consider this author's literary anthology named Denali. It has a great selection of writings about the park.



3. Awesome book containing moe than what we hope for. I would recommend it to everyone! It will make you want to go to Alaska and explore Denali and all it has to offer your sences.

5 comments about The Same River Twice: A Boatman's Journey Home.

1. I read this book almost in one sitting. Micheal Burke tells a good story and gives the reader the feeling of being on the river and experiencing the beauty of situation while taking us along on his own personal journey. Very good read!



2. I guess I am lucky to be attending Univeristy of Maine at Farmington, where a lot of non fiction writing has come from recently (Gretchen Legler AND Michael Burke).
   I went to Professor Burkes reading last night and it was so fun. His book is full of humor, at least, the passages he read were. I haven't read the whole book (yet).
   But from what I heard, I am buying it and I would recommend it!



3. There is often a schism between our everyday life and our dreams of someday. Someday often stays out reach of us like an carrot on a stick until circumstances that would have allowed the dream no longer exist. Michael Burke gently opens the someday window and steps through. He takes you with him. He gives a balanced and real look at what is on the other side. He speaks with a fine voice that puts you in the raft, in his head, till you smell the wet stuff and feel the angst. He makes a case for making someday happen while you can. He tells a tale that made me look forward to the quiet part of the evening, after the kids were in bed, so I could be back on the river again. The Same River Twice is fertile ground to plant you own someday seeds in. I found it an inspriation.



4. What happens to white-water guides when they leave the rivers? Michael Burke gives us one answer: they never leave the rivers, and the rivers never leave them. Burke's story is part memoir, part "road trip," and part love story about the wild places that "can't be improved by changes." His tale of a 1991 trip down the wildest of British Columbia's rivers is one hundred percent enjoyment.
   
   Having guided seasonally since he was a college student, Burke at thirty-eight was married, a professor at a college in Maine, with a baby on the way. This ambitiously planned trip was a three-week-long pilgrimage to the places where a distant relative, Sid Barrington, had lived a life of legend on the wild rivers of long ago. Burke, along with a stranger named Max whose only qualification was availability, set out with an ancient rubber raft, a heavy load of gear, a rifle in case of bears, and jury-rigged arrangements with bush pilots. From this unpromising start, Mike and Max had a soul-stirring experience in this "humbling land."
   
   Putting in by plane to breathtaking Chutine Lake, they worked their way down glacier-fed rivers with wild names: the Chutine, the Stikine, the Sheslay, the Taku. Along the way they encountered black bears, grizzlies, moose, and on one memorable evening a wolf with two pups. Burke's deep love of the challenging terrain is evident throughout the book.
   
   Stories of the old river runner, Sid, are woven in, along with some hair-raising stories of Burke's younger days as a guide; a wild, adrenaline-saturated life that he remembers with affection at this settling-down time of life. Thoughts of his pregnant wife are with him always but he was unable to resist the pull of the river.
   
   Why do this crazy, dangerous thing? Burke writes about the meaning of memory as a defining concept; about freedom and control. But mostly it's because he loves the rivers. "Rivers," he writes, "are an experience of time. The river is more human than the ocean, limited like humans are, yet sweeping forward in its implacable way, like time itself sweeping past. We are proportioned to rivers..."
   
   Have you ever stood on the slope of a mountain and felt its age and power? Looked up into the weird blue ice of a glacier and heard its deep voice? Or even felt the edge of a river on your ankles and known that it flowed according to forces older than time? Then you should read this book. The geography is bewildering but just put in at the beginning and let the current take you to the end, rapids and all. You're sure to feel the awe and beauty of the planet's wild places. Go there, even if it's just in a book.
   
   Linda Bulger, 2008



5. This work is a delightful memoir that is a pleasure reading, starting from the first page, right along to the last word of the last page. This is the story of a man; a middle aged man at the time the story takes place, and at the same time is a history lesson, a journey of enlightenment, and a tour into one of the truly wild areas left in North America. It is also, and most importantly, a very insightful look at human nature.
   
   The author, Michael Burke, dropped out of the University of California-Berkeley, and became, through faking his lack of experience, a white water river guide. Burke has apparently been guiding now for over thirty five years. The author obviously continued his education, as he now teaches at a University, and beyond a doubt, the guy can certainly write. In 1991, when the author was 38, he found himself with a pregnant wife, two step-children, an academic career, living in Maine and driving a station wagon. Now, although the author does not admit to the fact, it is pretty obvious he is probably losing some of his hair, getting less muscle tone than he had when he was twenty, and, most importantly,(again, not really stated)is feeling rather trapped. Gosh, it does not take much of a creative leap to figure out that a gigantic mid-life crises is about to descend on this poor guy. This is okay though, at least Burke faced his crises with class, like a man, and did not go the route of gold chains around his neck, a little sports car, a poor comb-over and chase twenty year old undergrads around campus; something we see all too frequently. Rather, he returned to the roots of his youth, the river!
   
   The Same River Twice is the story of Michael Burke's journey down three rivers in the Canadian Wilderness of British Columbia. Using his old river raft, a left over from his youth, and in the company of a relative stranger, a fellow adventurer, who was chasing his own demons, the author starts on a very poorly planned adventure. The premise of the trip is to find and trace the territory traveled by distant relative of the author's, who himself was a famous river man during the Klondike glory days at the turn of the century. The author feels a connection with this long dead river man and wants to strengthen this connection with information. The story Michael tells of his trip is interwoven with stories of this old river man mixed with tales of the author's own glory days as a professional guide on some of the most famous white water rivers in North America. This three section story is wonderfully intertwined and the author has the ability to make you feel you are in all three eras with him, as he physically and mentally journeys through them.
   
   Burke's ability as a descriptive writer is truly wonderful. His true love for the wilderness, for the wild places in our planet, for wildlife, solitude and yes, danger, comes shinning through on every page. You can actually squint in your mind's eye, as you read his prose and picture what he is seeing as he writes. The author makes a point that this sort of thing, once experienced, never quite leaves your blood. Great bodies of water have been apart of our souls throughout time...once you are hooked, you are hooked for life.
   
   This work is truly a satisfying read, one of the better reads I have had in sometime now. I will quite likely give this one a second going over down the road. I must admit that I would love for this author to give us another book, telling of his adventures on the other rivers that he ran while learning his trade. The author can be quite humorous at times and I suspect was and is quite good at camp fire stories. It would be a delight to read some of them. NOTE: There seems to be a great deal of nonfiction writing coming out of Maine right now, and has been over the past few years. To be quite frank, the only thing I really knew about Maine was that they had Moose, potatoes, had a good store to order clothes from, and made good canoes...now I find the place is full of good writers...go figure.

2 comments about Mount McKinley: The Conquest of Denali.

1. This book is an absolute must for mountain and photography enthusiasts. Washburns photographs of Mt. Mckinley are beyond word description. This is the perfect coffee table book that you will look at hundreds of times. When people look at my copy they can't put it down. The mountain is viewed from every angle from high altitude to on the peak itself. Even though these photos were taken many years ago mountain climbers still use this book to get details for new routes. Washburn squeezes in the climbing history of Mckinley (Of which he and his wife are a big part of), between the incredible full page photos. I love this book. I tell friends that they can look at but don't ask to borrow it!



2. Well written and encyclopedic in its range, this book is also full of amazing photographs.

No comments about Looking Far North: The Harriman Expedition to Alaska, 1899 (Princeton Paperbacks).