Changing Paths: Travels and Meditations in Alaska's Arctic Wilderness |  | Author: Bill Sherwonit
Publisher: University of Alaska Press
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Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 1021323
Media: Paperback
Pages: 220
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.1 x 0.5
ISBN: 1602230609
Dewey Decimal Number: 917.9870452
EAN: 9781602230606
ASIN: 1602230609
Publication Date: September 15, 2009
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Product Description
"Changing Paths in Alaska's Arctic Wilderness" is an autobiographical exploration of author Bill Sherwonit's relationship to the Alaska wilderness. Written in three parts, it first describes Sherwonit's introduction to the Brooks Range and his years as an exploration geologist. Part two takes the author deeper into the past, to explore his childhood roots in rural Connecticut and his recognition of wild nature as refuge, while part three follows the author as he becomes a nature writer and wilderness advocate. This book makes an extraordinary contribution to the literature of place from one of Alaska's most accomplished writers.
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A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR October 1, 2009
Bill Sherwonit (Anchorage)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
CHANGING PATHS has been many years in the making - 35 years, if you consider its roots to be my first summer in Alaska's Brooks Range; a little less than a decade since the solo journey that more directly inspired the book. Written in three parts, the narrative explores my long-running and life-changing relationship with the Central Brooks Range , which also deeply inspired explorer, scientist, and wilderness advocate Robert Marshall decades earlier.
As I note in the book's opening chapter, the Brooks is Alaska's northernmost mountain chain. It is also one of North America's grandest ranges, stretching more than 700 miles and acting as great divide that separates the state's vast Interior region from the North Slope. Some have called the Brooks Range America's "ultimate mountains," with good reason. Largely because of their remote, far north location, these mountains are among the most lightly touched by humans. For most of their history they've been beyond the reach of most people, except for the hardiest of explorers and treasure seekers and even hardier indigenous tribes. And since 1980, the mountains' wild character has been protected by a string of parks, preserves, and refuges that encompass many millions of acres of wilderness lands and waters.
Though I've explored its eastern and western portions, I feel most closely connected to the Central Brooks Range, made famous by Marshall's writings (most notably in his classic Alaska Wilderness) and wilderness advocacy. This is where I first entered the range and where I fell in love with northern landscapes, with Alaska. In a way, this landscape turned my life around, set me on a new and unexpected path, while crystallizing for me the importance - and power - of raw, immense wilderness. Over the past 35 years it has remained a source of hope, inspiration, and challenge.
Changing Paths is framed by the two-week solo trek that I took at age 50 through Gates of the Arctic National Park, one of our nation's largest and most magnificent wildlands, in the heart of Marshall's "Koyukuk country." That journey was both a celebration of the Brooks Range's place in my life and a quest for greater understanding. My wish was to better comprehend why wilderness matters so much to me and other like-minded (and hearted) souls. And, immersed in wilderness, I realized I would learn more about my own wild nature.
Within that solo backpacking framework, I move across space and time to explore both my own and our culture's evolving relationship with wilderness and, more generally, wild nature. Part I describes my introduction to the Brooks Range, my years as an exploration geologist, and the narrative's key scene or transforming moment: a discovery I made in the Ambler River Valley. Part 2 takes me deeper into the past, to explore my childhood roots in rural Connecticut and my recognition of wild nature as refuge. Part 3 follows my evolution to nature writer and wilderness advocate, while moving steadily deeper into the wilderness, both physically and spiritually. Here the narrative "opens up" to include reflections on the larger importance of wilderness to humans and the essential value of wild nature, in and of itself. The book also touches upon Robert Marshall's wilderness legacy; the steps leading to the creation of Gates of the Arctic National Park; the region's indigenous residents, the Nunamiut Eskimos; the importance of solitude; and lots more, while passing through the range's immense, wild landscape.
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