The Quiet World_ Saving Alaska's Wilderness Kingdom, 1879-1960 - Douglas Brinkley [290]
The highlight of my summer was camping in the Arctic NWR with two buddies: Tom Campion (owner of Zumiez) and the Fairbanks outfitter Jim Campbell. Our Arctic trek started out in Fairbanks. Tom, Jim, and I flew first to the village of Coldfoot. This was the territory of Bob Marshall, cofounder of The Wilderness Society. After studying local history for an afternoon we joined up with Dirk Nickisch, a North Dakotan who owns and operates Coyote Air. Dirk, an amazing bush pilot, would swoop down low so I could get 360-degree views of the vast landscape. Across the Brooks Range, across the Philip Smith Mountains, on to Camden Bay and the Arctic Ocean—it was a flight that is gratifying to look back upon. A walk along the beach. A large herd of caribou nearby, their curiosity encompassing us. The memorable summer light that turns soft at midnight. Our campsite was along the serene Hulahula River. The sky was like another ocean. The nearby mountains were like ruins left over from the ice age. One afternoon in the Arctic NWR we saw a grizzly climbing up a hill, running at tremendous speed. What an awesome sight! Never had I experienced such an uplifting feeling as hiking along the Arctic Ocean in Eisenhower’s great wildlife refuge. Tom, Jim, and I regularly took off our hiking boots to put on rubber waders and walk across the coastal plain streams. The tundra was always wet, even in June, because the permafrost had stopped any underground drainage.
After the trip to the Arctic NWR I was better able to understand both the geography and the politics of the area. Jim’s wife, Carol Karza, helped me track down all sorts of information about the North Slope. My alter ego on this Alaskan journey, however, was the brilliant, engaging, multitalented Rachel Sibley of Alpine, Texas. A 2009 graduate of the Plan Two Honors Program at the University of Texas—Austin (with an emphasis on foreign languages and cultural studies), the twenty-four-year-old Sibley glowed with enthusiasm throughout the writing of The Quiet World. Working at my home office, we would blast out music from Merle Haggard to John Coltrane to Jimmy Webb and get to work. A skillful modern dancer, Rachel also taught me new songs for the guitar—such as “Wagon Wheel” by Old Crow Medicine Show and “Anchorage” by Michelle Shocked—during breaks from work. We had fun. I’m a technologically challenged person. I like my books tangible. Anything electronic rattles me to no end. Rachel, by contrast, is an Internet wizard, able to access a rare document or an elusive fact with lightning quickness. An old friend of mine, the indispensable Emma Juniper of Sedona, Arizona, first introduced me to Rachel in 2009. Emma helped us from time to time on the book, but Rachel was the driving force on this one. My wife and children consider both Rachel and Emma family.
Which brings me to Anne. It would be impossible to explain how supportive my wife is of my history projects. Our marriage is my greatest accomplishment in life. Our entire house has become filled with books, manuscripts, and historical objects. But Anne never complains. Together we’re raising three splendid kids—Benton, Cassady, and Johnny—in the hills of Austin not far from Barton Springs. I feel very blessed. One reason I decided to write the Wilderness Cycle is so my children can visit all of America’s great parklands before they leave for college. The summer of 2010 was the Kenai Peninsula for the Brinkleys. Our 2011 trip will be three of the national parks that Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall had President Lyndon B. Johnson sign into law following congressional authorization: North Cascades