|
from Away.com
Related Guides
Popular Cities in Alaska
|
COMMUNITY
GORP Guest
Macgill Adams and
Carol Kasza
Arctic Adventurers
GORP Guests from February 15 to March 8, 1999,
Guest Introduction by Bill Greer
Macgill Adams
Carol Kasza (right) and son.
|
As I sat across the table from Macgill Adams and Carol Kasza, I wondered why, on my second trip to Alaska in as many years, I was there in the middle of winter for less than a week.
Don't misunderstand me. Alaska in winter is fascinating. In Fairbanks, I've watched a musher walk down his line of yipping and bouncing sled dogs, encouraging them for the run they were about to take in the North American sprint races. In Anchorage, my skis crossed tracks with more than one moose. And the meetings of the Alaska Wilderness Recreation and Tourism Association (AWRTA), the official purpose of my trips, opened windows for me on how to balance the needs of tourism and preservation.
But Macgill was regaling us with tales of facing down bears in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge, and Carol, with her husband Jim, told of hiking in the midnight light of the Brooks Range. Hmmmm, I thought. The Arctic. The 24 hour day. Limitless wilderness. Oh, to be here in the summer.
The stories of that evening led us to invite Macgill and Carol to join us as GORP Guests. Each has spent 20 years guiding in the Alaskan Arctic—Macgill with his business Wilderness Alaska, Carol with her and Jim's company Arctic Treks. Both have also served as board members of AWRTA, playing active roles in shaping Alaska's tourism industry into a sustainable enterprise that will protect this magnificent land.
In our guest forum, ask Macgill and Carol about travel in the Arctic. Ask about the natural world, wildlife, and photography; and about the environmental issues tourism poses. If you need inspiration, consider these riveting descriptions of the Alaskan wilderness sent to us by Macgill's traveling companion, John Balzar:
 Those first moments in the Brooks Range, you stand on a sandbar along a river that flows north into the Arctic Ocean. You have landed in a tundra valley with jagged, gunmetal peaks vaulting high on both sides. The small bush plane that brought you here roars again and bounces down the gravel. You watch the winged shape grow small, then disappear and you listen as the last buzz of the engine is carried off on the Arctic breeze. Silence. In the vast country, you never felt so small. You walk down to the edge of the icy clear stream. You look down. Inches from your boot are the clawed, pigeon-toed tracks of a grizzly, so fresh you can see the water still oozing into the impression."Opening day," says Macgill, grinning. Walking over a glacial flood plain, we sight a cinnamon-colored grizzly on a slope ahead. We stop to glass it. Another bear appears, following the first. It is larger and darker. We wonder if it's a male and the cinnamon a female. Someone points to our left. On a puny tundra hillock a third bear is rooting for lunch, throwing huge divots of tussock and mud into the air. On another slope, a fourth bear materializes. Someone has the presence to look behind us, and yes, a fifth bear is wandering the flood plain. We can move nowhere without intersecting a grizzly. How long do we watch? Who knows. Who cares. Five grizzly bears render the clock inconsequential.
Return to  Top
|
|
Related Pacific Coast Trips
Road Trip Guides
National Park Guides
Hiking Guides
Today's Gear Guy
Gear Guides
[from Outside magazine]
|
advertisement
Sign up for our Travel Deals Newsletter
|
