Two in the Far North

In Margaret Murie’s classic story, Two in the Far North, she begins her journey to Alaska on a steamship, traveling north from Seattle to Skagway. Once in Skagway, she and her mother transfer to a train to cross the imposing coastal mountains, finally, taking a boat down river from Whitehorse to her new home in Fairbanks, Alaska. Along the way, she describes her passion for the adventure of setting out to a new and wild place and her growing love of the landscape that she would ultimately make her home for many years and the preservation of which would be her life’s work.

Many years later, we follow a very similar route as we set off on a journey, perhaps not quite equal to hers in adventure (no dog sleds sadly), but to seek out new adventures and lives in the far north. While almost 100 years separated our two journeys, our route was not that much different from that of Mrs. Murie. With excitement and trepidation, we boarded the Alaska Marine Highway in mid-January in Bellingham, Washington, and sailed north through the inside passage. Crossing the the coastal mountains by car, we drove through the interior, past the same landscape Mrs. Murie saw on her first trip north, and soon arrived in Anchorage, our new home.

As part of this move, we are now almost a continent away from many of the friends and family we love, many of whom have never been to Alaska and have asked a million questions about what our lives will be like here. I promised that I would keep up my defunct blog to help share pictures and stories of our adventures, a promise that I have not kept so far in our first two months here. I will blame it on moving. But, better late than never I guess! This will hopefully be the first of many blog posts for folks Outside, providing a glimpse into our world here in Anchorage. So much has already changed since we first arrived in January, but hopefully I can keep things up to date from here on out!