Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Hotel in Homer, AK. Check.

Reservation on Halibut and Salmon charter boat? Check.

Canoeing long days with maximum daylight in the Kenai Refuge? Check.

Most of my wilderness adventures have been in Wisconsin, Minnesota or Michigan – the Midwest at the very least. My impending June trip to Alaska has me remembering that almost every time I head to the woods I bring along my dogged copy of Hemingway’s complete short stories. It has only seldom been accurate, but reading about Nick Adams and looking around at the streams and birches surrounding me makes it believable that I am right where he wrote those stories about 100 years ago. The countryside would have easily looked the same. I did visit the two hearted river last summer in the UP and while it was just as beautiful and similar to all of the north woods I’ve seen in my lifetime, it also added a bit extra for the Hemingway nerd. But, Hemingway never set foot in Alaska. It seems odd that it never came to happen in his life of travel and adventure, but it eluded him. I’ll still drag along the short stories on my canoe trip but it might not be the same. Maybe it’s time to bring along the complete works of Jack London and read beyond the main novels and more famous short stories…

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

If you want something to read while you're out in the wilderness of Alaska, you should check out Larry Kaniut's books (www.kaniut.com). I heard the original "Bear Tales" is the best. Maybe I'll pick one up for you before you arrive.

cicadashell said...

a canoe, the wilderness and a book sounds like almost everything one could want. as a self-styled hemingway nerd you may already know that he was writing about the fox river, using the name of the nearby two hearted to 1) add some lyric grace and b) keep people the hell off his favorite trout stream. to be sure, if i were brought blindfolded to either of those rivers i wouldn't be able to say which one it was. i know the mouth of the two hearted pretty well, at lake superior.

enjoy all that daylight.

Chris said...

Yeah, I am well aware of the Fox/ Two Hearted River switcharoo. I have only been to the Fox and didn't catch any fish. Having read the story so many times I have trouble with the names even though I always see the Fox on the map in Seney whenever I hear "two hearted river" spoken.