The Last Wild Place

People ask why I go to Alaska. It's so far they say. Aren't there plenty of places to fish in WA.?

Well, when I was a boy my Dad drove from southern California to SE Idaho for family vacations. We stopped to see family, but I remember seeing him come alive in the high deserts of northern Nevada and southern Idaho - no people, just wild. I remember 4:00 am trips to remote creeks to stalk fish.

I learned to fish in those small creeks where fish had no pressure from fisherman, just the pressure to survive amid the harshness of nature.

It seems these wild places are vanishing. There are very few remaining in the lower 48. (the Upper Queets and Olympic Peninsula rivers being remaining exceptions)

I love Alaska not because there are a lot of fish for me, there are. I love it because this is the place where my sons may find the wildness for themselves and their sons.

I come alive here because I find it to be the last of the wild places. It is my high desert. My prayer is that it will remain so for my children and their children.

I want my Dad to see this place.