This one is a slow read but well worth the effort. I read it once before and have only made it through the first of three chapters/books this time around.
So much detail here, it’s hard to choose a favorite paragraph. From bush pilots getting lost to grizzly bears that can be shooed to this bit about trees:
“The forest around us, to the extent that it could be called forest, consisted of bands of spruce and cottonwood. Occasionally, it made sallies up the hillsides onto protected slopes or into dry ravines, but mainly it pointed north like an arrow, and gradually it widened as we moved downstream. Close to the river edge, much of the way, were clumps of willow and alder, backed by the taller trees, which in turn had bands of alder backing them, before the woods gave way altogether to open, rising ground–to the lichens, the sedges and mosses of the high tundra. The leaves of alder chewed to break out the sap, relieve itching when rubbed on mosquito bites. The forest Eskimos make red dyes from alder bark–American green alder, the only species that grows so far north. Willow, as a genus, is hardier. The Sitka spruce is the state tree, in recognition of its commercial distinction, for Sitka spruce is the most negotiable thing that grows from roots in Alaska. It grows only in the south, however, and while the Sitka spruce goes off to the sawmill, the willow vegetates the state. There are only a hundred and thirty-three species of trees and shrubs in all Alaska, and thirty-three of those are willows. . . “
Amazing how much there is to learn in this half, yes, half a paragraph: there are only 133 species of trees in Alaska; Sitka spruce is the state tree; and you can chew on alder leaves and apply the paste to relieve the itching from mosquito bites–that’s the one that caught my eye. I have yet to meet my first mosquito in Alaska and have my cortisone cream in my suitcase, but now I know.
