In the wilds of Tongass, a love of wilderness unites a father and son for the last time
Dark berry bushes shimmer. Leaves rustle—not a wind chime, the day is still, but a rain chime, the pulse of water. Far overhead, a raven looks at us, says “,” as if we’ll know what he’s saying. Then, like a magician’s very best trick, the branches and late salmonberry fruit turn into a wet snout. And then into a bear attached to the snout.Southeast AlaskaAbout then is when I realize we—me, my dad, my old friend John Verhey—are on a trail between the bear and the river full of its salmon lunch.
Dawn breaks near the Waterfall Resort on Alaska’s Prince of Wales Island. The resort is known for the number of king and silver salmon, halibut, lingcod, and other sport fish reeled in by guests here.So maybe we should take our cue from the black bears and run. That grizzly could be anywhere. But against all instinct, we stand very still. Rule one in this rain forest is: Don’t run. Food runs.
Black bears fish for salmon in the rapids of Anan Creek, seen here from the prime viewing location of the Anan Wildlife Observatory.Grow up in this bear-scented world, grow up forgetting mountains have tops because around here they’re always covered in rainclouds, and you’re haunted forever. No matter where you go, it looks wrong, because it’s not forest running straight down into the ocean.
Protected by a water channel too narrow for big cruise ships, Wrangell has been left to be what it wants to be: a place where the hardware stores have better hours than the restaurants, where most dogs seem to have their very own trucks to guard on the slow main street. And where, when I lived here, I woke every morning to a raven alarm clock, smiling that this was my life.
Draining more than 20,000 square miles of forest and glacier, the last great un-dammed river on the continent rises 400 miles away, deep in British Columbia . Flowing fast and wild, the Stikine carries so much silt that the current makes scraping sounds against boats’ hulls, like whispers of welcome.
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