Journey on the Wild Coast

The Book: A Long Trek Home: 4,000 miles by boot, raft, and ski  from Mountaineers Books!

From the Puget Sound to the Bering Sea: Four thousand miles along the edge of the Pacific, by foot, packraft, and skis. Working to communicate the broad environmental issues facing this region.

Now available as a book:  A Long Trek Home and a movie!

What have we done?

From June 2007 to June 2008, we traveled 4000 miles from Seattle to the Aleutian Islands - solely by human power. This unprecedented expedition took us along the northern edge of the Pacific Ocean - through some of the most rugged terrain in the world - by foot, packraft, and skis. This year-long journey took us through summer, fall, winter, and spring - from the Puget Sound to the Bering Sea.

Why did we do it?

This was a journey to raise awareness of natural resource and conservation issues along our route by learning about them in the broadest and most intimate way possible: 4000 miles - step by step.

In these last wild corners of the world, the fate of much of the land is still being decided. The mission of our journey was to explore, study, and communicate the key environmental issues facing this coast; clearcut logging in the rainforests, the wild salmon populations and other fisheries, mineral resources like metals, coal, and oil, and global climate change.

In four thousand miles of coastline, we visited areas well explored by suburban commuters and areas rarely visited by a modern human being. Parts of this coast are as wild and remote as anywhere on earth. We saw places where development has been done well, and places where it has been done badly. We walked through places far from the public eye, but in the center of environmental battlegrounds - and everywhere we went, we talked to people.

What are we doing now?

Our Wild Coast expedition was neither the beginning nor the end of our adventuring ways.  Check out the latest plans/expeditions on the Journeys page, and see the blog for regular updates on our exploits.

Other Essays from "A Long Trek Home:

Skiing the Chuitna coal prospect

Into the Storms

Date Created: 13th May 2010