#‎TBT‬: Alaska Sunrise-

This picture, taken back in 1996, was at the beginning of an extraordinary day of fishing in the Katmai Region. I see this picture and I can still remember how I felt as I watched the sun rise over the float plane in Southern Alaska: Exhilarated, blessed, in awe, grateful to be alive, overwhelmed with excitement.We were right by Gilbraltar Lake, near Lake Iliamna. 

Winter Wonderland. Forest Walk in the Olympics

Winter brings us an intricate web of geometric shapes. Like an MC Escher painting, each little ice crystal and snowflake is connected to another. The flowers, the trees, the water that forms the ice, everything flows together, essentially part of life regenerating and preparing to grow again in Spring.

Blood Root Blades

If you are obsessed with quality and enjoy superior knives, check out Blood Root Blades.

This blade was made from an old Chevy spring. The handle is spalted pecan and walnut sawyer.

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Larches: A Deciduous Conifer

A deciduous conifer, “People who see western larch for the first time are immediately impressed by its tall, ramrod-straight form and narrow, pyramidal crown made up of fine, bright-green needles that contrast with the somber dark green of most conifers. In autumn, larch foliage transforms to a stunning gold yellow that seems to light whole mountainsides. Then a few weeks later the needles fall, making newcomers think these barren conifers are dead.” --From Stephen Amo's canonical Northwest Trees: Identifying and Understanding the Region's Native Trees

Autumn in the North Country: The Wilderness Experience

“The wilderness experience positions the great questions we face in life within the context of our utter smallness. Only our acceptance, our willingness to go where we are small and where we need to respect the power and objectivity of nature makes it possible for us to experience a hero’s journey.” Ann Bancroft, Arctic and Antarctic explorer and co-author of No Horizon is So Far

The Deep Crevasses on the Cougar Divide leading to Mount Baker.

Table Mountain in the foreground and Mt. Shuksan in clouds behind it.

Glaciers and Crevasses

Rocks along the walk to Cougar Divide

“There is a cleanliness, a breadth and sweep and strength in the north, a purifying realization that one is living close to the fundamental elements of life. Yes, the north has a spell.” Canoeing with the Cree

Filson is about doers doing things

Filson is about doers doing things. It’s about quality. It's about durability. It's about classic style. It's about lasting generations. It’s about being Made in the USA. 

This is my new work cape jacket designed by Nigel Cabourn for Filson. Inspired by a vintage 1930s Filson Cruiser that Nigel found while digging around in Japan, the work cape jacket features a corduroy collar for added comfort, snap clip buttons which are easier to maneuver with gloved hands, just in case you're on an Arctic expedition, and the classic plaid-patterned wool from the mills of Pendelton, an American heritage company older than Filson. 

Filson's heritage is the cruiser, the work shirt that timber cruisers wear. When Filson hits the mark with a product, it starts with the cruiser as the inspiration. Cruisers were meant for timber cruising—gauging, observing, recording a forest’s characteristics. I’m not a professional timber cruiser, but a recreational forest cruiser, a writer and storyteller. The writer sees, he walks, travels, taking down notes.He cruises. A cruiser could be cruising a few weeks at a time seeing country few other humans have and then he might pull back a branch and stand face to face with a moose. Not fear but a tranquil calm engulfs the cruiser.

The cruiser, scoping the land is like the fisherman reading the waters. There is no deeper connection to the land or water. That's how I aim to be when I walk with my dogs through the forest. Here Marcos is wearing a Filson dog coat with the classic shelter cloth on the outside and mackinaw wool underneath. This was the first Filson product I purchased."Might as well have the best," which is especially true for a dog like Marcos, a retired therapy dog and hero of my book Pick-Up Dogs: How Two Rescue Dogs Save the West from Being Won. 

Underneath my work cape jacket, I'm wearing a Filson Jac shirt, which I have coined the "Brown Bear Hug." Brown Bear is one of Marcos's many nicknames and wearing the shirt is comfortable. Like hugging Marcos. All in all, I'm very pleased with my Filson gear and will do stories on other Filson items. Though known for their cruisers, I really love my Filson pants, which unfortunately I'm not wearing in these pictures.  

Filson Work Cape Jacket designed by Nigel Cabourn

"Might As Well Have the Best." C.C. Filson

Sitka Spruce Forest in Southeast Alaska

 

Teeming with life, Indian River running right through the town of Sitka is full of salmon returning to their birthplaces to spawn. 

 

 Lots more info on ecological implications of the forest, salmon, and Sitka spruce here. 

The Maestrini Garden

The mural: perfect image of Father and Son mushroom hunting

Nonu riding his bike

Fernando with his father before leaving Italy

Anthony tending the garden.