Walking Home: A Journey in the Alaskan Wilderness (edition 2010)

50-something bloke facing the break-up of his marriage goes for long walk in Alaska. I found it difficult to get into at the beginning, but then got hooked. Liked the way the story of the hike is interwoven with Alaskan history/geology, of which I knew pretty much nothing. The description of the July 9, 1958 earthquake/tsunami in Lituya Bay is gripping. Schooler describes it as 'the largest mega-tsunami ever recorded on the planet'. Other highlights include the story of the hermit Jim Huscroft who lived on Cenotaph Island, a turn-of-the century outback murder mystery, and a frantic escape from a grizzly bear.

This memoir is about a recent wilderness journey along the coastline of Alaska. Experienced outback guide, Lynn Schooler is overly focused on his advancing age and corresponding loss of physical strength and abilities plus stressed out from working to construct a rural house. What was once planned to be he and his recent bride's retreat, the home that would last past their lifetimes, has now become a physical drain. Schooler recognizes his wife's increased distraction and loss of interest as she concentrates more on her career in the city. A long-time neighbor and close friend suffers through cancer and dies. He and his wife drift further apart and find less and less in common.

Schooler halts his building work, and takes off on a long-planned hazardous journey, traveling solo first by boat and then hiking as Springtime arrives. The trip reconnects him to wonders of Alaska coastal landforms and nature. He encounters a half-starved, crazed grizzly bear that stalks his trail and threatens. He endures freezing surf and water, days of rain, reduced food rations, and physical aches and pain as he adjusts to lost relationships. Momentarily he is able to make the bear retreat using up his flare gun charges and resorts to yelling and throwing rocks. Temporarily this does run the bear away, but the brute relentlessly returns. Schooler comes to a flooded stream, rushing with snowmelt waters that has to be crossed. He needs to figure out a way to escape. This true story does a great job of connecting nature with Alaskan history interwoven with the author's personal journey. (lj) ( )