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321 pages, ebook
First published March 19, 2019
“We wanted to experience the landscape as the birds and caribou did: entirely under the power of our own muscles, without using motors, roads or established trails. Our dream was simple, the scale completely outrageous. We would cross 4000 miles of roadless, trailless terrain through a landscape where glaciers are larger than entire countries.”
“Today’s rare sighting validates the many late-night computer sessions, the endless hours of packing and planning, every instance of my not feeling smart enough to be scientist or strong enough to be a real adventurer. Here, right now there is only me, Pat and a family of tiny gray-headed chickadees above us ... all the answers I need are here in front of me. The sky as big as we are small, our forms dwarfed by mountains and rivers and wide-open spaces. The way Pat and I stop in unison to watch a bear trundle across the valley, each of us reverent and wordless. The scientist in me, having shed the degrees and statistics, once again filled with wonder. The realization that if we weren’t doing this, now, we would always be missing something”
“I feel like we owe it to ourselves to acknowledge the major change that is just a day or two away. And we owe it to ourselves to celebrate a goal that once seemed impossible. I want us to revel even if just briefly in the satisfaction that comes with success. But now that we’ve almost pulled it off the accomplishment seems only tangential”
“I knew that a baby would change our lives. What I hadn’t realized was that it doesn’t mean we have to let go of what we love. Only now do I see that my worries about losing myself, or us, or our desire for adventure, were misplaced”