Bill Sherwonit

Short story experiences of aspects of Alaska culture by insiders and Outsiders on visits or quests (for nature, danger, selves, adventures, transcendence.) All good stories, some memorable. “The Flyboys of Talkeetna,”Jon Krakauer’s tale of crazy-good glacier pilots stood out — do not try this at home (or in Talkeetna); “Camping at Walmart,” Ellen Bielawski’s not-so-flattering account of outsiders with RVS helps you understand the very real differences between Outsiders (stop pestering me with your questions); chichakos (newcomers who haven’t yet wintered over), residents and rooted Alaskans. The wildness and the laws of survival rule here. Everyone wants to Go - few want to stay. Pam Houston’s “The Blood of Fine and Wild Animals”- a story by a hunting guide who never killed an animal - gets right at the moral war between love of the wild and survival of the fittest. David Robert’s “Shot Tower” gives you the adrenalin rush of the Brooks Range danger-climb. My first book on Alaska, I came away realizing how different I am from Alaskans, and people like Chris McCandless, who seek their elemental selves. I smelled and feared bears, caught and ate salmon and halibut and grayling, and got just an inkling of how very different it is to be a post-chichako Alaskan.I like this way of introducing places. “Surrounded by Bears” -a bear-guide’s view of stupid humans and the laws of the food chain, was instructive in a deep way. Kathleen Deen Moore’s “The Only Place Like This,” a fly in fishing town with a closing cannery and a developer-in-waiting, provokes a thought about hard choices… (más)

Bill Sherwonit is about my age, and this book is about a solo backpacking trip he took into the Brooks Range in Alaska. Since I am taking a long solo hike this summer, I was interested in Bill's reflections. But mostly I just laughed as Bill struggled with his 80 pound pack containing nearly everything a person could want, including three full-size books! That's the way I used to backpack, too. But these days it is possible to go a lot lighter. I'll be out for a month with a 25 pound pack. After Bill got home and thought about it, I'm pretty sure he will have a 25 pound pack next time, too.

There is some pretty good stuff here, but mostly you see a free-lance writer who spent a lot of money going on a trip where it rained a hell of a lot of the time trying to figure out how to make a book out of it and recoup some of his expenses. I did learn some interesting new facts about Bob Marshall.… (más)