Alaska

After I graduate college I hope to have a few months off before I start my career. Many graduates take this time prepare themselves for 35 years of mundane office life, full of Excel spreadsheets, memos and TPS reports. With my last summer vacation I intend to go into the Alaskan wilderness to prospect gold for a month. I've been thinking about this for a couple of years, but didn't decide to really do it until a few months ago.

The first thing people usually ask me when I tell them is "Why?". Well, I guess it's because I want a challenge. I want to be self-reliant. I want to prove to myself that I can survive. I image it is for many of the same reasons that Throueau went to Walden, Christopher McCandless went into the wild, and John Muir decided to leave his ranch to climb Mount Rainer. When I come to die, I don't want to discover that I had not lived. One of my fears is that I won't have any experiences that will truly define my life. I think that's why people join the Army or backpack across Europe, or skydive, so that they can have something to define their lives. Perhaps the core of man's spirit truly is through new experiences.

I read Into the Wild as a sophomore in High School. When I saw a piece on tv about Christopher McCandless there was a park ranger that tried to explain that if he had only brought a map he would have been able to hike out and save himself. I think the park ranger completely missed the point of why he was there in the first place, to live without the map.

But I don't just want to hangout in Alaska for a month. I have things that I want to do, mostly prospect gold. Gold prices are at an all time high and the idea of finding gold completely tantalizes me. Every night I think about standing in an Alaskan stream in the warm June sun, with the mountains around me as I pan for gold. Even if I don't find any, I think the experience will be well worth it.

So over the past few months I have been reading books about gold prospecting, gold rushes, wilderness survival and Alaska. I have been looking up placer gold deposits, making lists of supplies I will need and scouting where I want to go. Although I'm not quite sure of what I exactly plan to do, I do have an idea. My general plan is to fly into Anchorage and take the Trans-Alaskian Railroad to its terminus at Seward, AK.


From there I will hike into the Kenai Pennesula and set up camp somewhere along one of the many rivers that flow out of the Kenai Fjords. I will hunt, fish, trap, forage and scavenge for supplementary food. I will prospect for gold during the day and build fires at night. I will stay until I decide to hike out. Then I will sell my gold, if I have any, and return home.

I have already started to think about what to bring, namely how much whiskey will be required, and how I will be able to transport all those bags of Franzia. I do worry about bears being attracted to the sweet aroma of the Chablis. This is one of the reasons I intend to purchase an AR-15 assault rifle. It should be light out nearly 24 hours a day while I am there so I don't have to worry about things going bump in the night. I have held off reading Into the Wild and Call of the Wild, so I can bring them with me. I also need to decide which American Flag to bring, but I think I will go with the eagle.

This is my chance to get off the grid and live without reservation and without responsibility. A month without cell phones, Facebook, Ipod's, and blogs. Hopefully I will be able to find a job that allows my pipe dream to become a reality. I believe that everyone looks for an adventure in their life, but some are too afraid to find it. This will be my adventure.