Denali National Park

Position: 63°40’16.3″N 149°34’45.1″W Today William McKinley is mostly famous for getting assassinated and having a mountain named (and renamed) after him. He was a noted booster of protective tariffs and believed protectionism would bring prosperity. Thus, he was as far …

Car Camping

Position: 48°54’09.4″N 121°54’43.0″W Car camping is distinct among other styles of camping. Backpacking, rightly, has shifted from a 1970s question of how much weight can I carry, to, how much money can I afford to spend on ultralightweight gear? Car …

Wrangell and Victoria

Position: 48°34’04.8″N 123°28’11.3″W There were two last stops on our Alaska inside passage itinerary. The first stop was Wrangell. Founded by the Russians in 1811 and later named for Ferdinand von Wrangel, chief manager and governor of the Russian-American Company …

Icy Strait Point and Sitka

Position: 57°03’09.4″N 135°20’13.8″W Icy Strait Point survives on cruise ships. The little hamlet sits at the crossroads of salmon migration in and out of Icy Strait. For years its economy was built around a salmon cannery. When that finally closed, …

Glaciers and Bays

Position: 60°00’22.3″N 139°31’32.6″W From Juneau Captain Ward turned the ship back towards the ocean for a couple of “days at sea”. Days at sea is cruise-speak for periods that do not include tying up and allowing the punters time on …

Cruising the Inside Passage

Position: 58°25’37.8″N 134°32’14.8″W Our feet had fully dried out, and an excess of lubberliness filled in around our waistlines. Our respective conditions had grown serious enough that only a spell at sea would ameliorate our symptoms, if not the underlying …

Hugs for Humanity

Position: In a clinch This post will come as something of a non-sequitur. But we’re not above that on this blog, now, are we? Having been back in North America for the past six months, I can’t help but notice …

Age, Exercise and Boredom

Position: 45°49’54.6″N 122°23’19.9″W There comes a point in the aging process when you might feel you’re running short on time. The time when the endless future of your 20s gives way to the inevitability of destiny. This feeling is underpinned …