Ground Truth Trekking: Expeditions to explore environmental issues.
Route Map - Click for larger version
This took us from the streets of urban Seattle, through the towering forests of the Pacific Northwest and Southeast Alaska, along the glacier-strewn Gulf of Alaska, to the salmon-rich rivers of Bristol Bay, down the windswept Alaska Peninsula, to the storm-tossed Aleutian Islands.
Read all about our journey and continuing updates on the blog
We started at our old Seattle apartment in June 2007, after a brief few weeks in Washington, we spent most of the summer making our way through through British Columbia's Great Bear Rainforest. After crossing the border into Alaska, we spent the fall in the Tongass National Forest and on the Gulf of Alaska coast. Winter hit us near the Copper River Delta, and we paddled into Prince William Sound near winter solstice. Then we picked up skis in Valdez, and headed inland through the Chugach Mountains. We passed through Anchorage, failed to paddle across Knik Arm, skied around instead, and headed southwest towards the Alaska Peninsula. After visiting the proposed Chuitna Coal Mine site, we skied through the pass to Lake Clark. Then we skied down into the Bristol Bay watershed, through the site of the proposed Pebble Mine. Following the windy Alaska Peninsula through the return of spring, we hit Unimak Island, the first of the Aleutians, in June of 2008 - one year after the journey's beginning. Unimak Island is 12 miles from the next island in the chain. The end of the range of caribou, bears, and packrafts - we couldn't safely go farther.
Interactive Map (Beta)
This is the route as envisioned before the trip started, in Seattle. In some places, it may bear little resemblance to what we really did. We're working on getting something much better up in Google Maps format - be patient.
Click on a state or province to see a clickable route map, and read about the landmarks along our path.
Seattle to Vancouver, B.C. - 15 days, 250 miles, June 2007.
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Vancouver to Prince Rupert - 72 days, 850 miles, July and August 2007.
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Prince Rupert B.C. to King Salmon - 139 days, 2200 miles, September 2007 through April 2008.
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King Salmon to Unimak Island - 37 days, 800 miles, April through June 2008.
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Click here to find all our previous crazy Alaska expeditons