Richard Dick Proenneke retired at age 50 in 1967 and decided to build his own cabin on the shore of Twin Lakes in Alaska. The first summer he scouted for the best cabin site, and cut and peeled the logs he would need for his cabin. He returned the next summer to build the cabin by hand. He lived there for over 30 years, but returned to civilization in 1999. He left his cabin to the parks service and it remains today as a popular visitor attraction in the still-remote Twin Lakes region. During his stay in the wilderness, he filmed his adventures. Bob Swerer later turned the film into a video, “Alone in the wilderness”. “Alaska Silence & Solitude” and “The Frozen North” are the follow up to “Alone in the Wilderness”, filmed 20 years later. I saw just “Alone in the wilderness”, and I can’t recommend it strongly enough. What a man, what a life.

ps: I couldn’t sleep this night, so I just finished watching “Alaska Silence & Solitude” too. Pure meditation. Lovely.

I still don’t believe that The Mad Trapper is not Sigvald from Volda in Norway. Even after watching the documentary ‘The Hunt for The Mad Trapper’ I can not believe that Albert Johnson’s identity will remain a mistery in future. There is something with Canada and unsolved mysteries. You’ll find more unsolved mysteries from Canada on this link.

PS:

Here is a radio program from CBC radio on same issue:

Today we’re going to consider a mystery: who was the Mad Trapper? His name may be known but there’s little else on record about the man who became a legend in the north. There’s a new documentary called “Hunt for the Mad Trapper” that sets out to change all that. Host Aamer Haleem spoke with filmmaker Carrie Gour.

This is a picture of Lillian Alling, the Russian woman who hiked all the way from New York to Alaska via Canada and to her homeland in 1927. Lillan Alling was “The Woman Who Walked to Russia” from British Columbia according to the legend and to Australian writer and historian Cassandra Pybus who wrote  a book with same title, only that the woman of the title in her book was nowhere to be found.  Namely, I bought this book because I wanted to find out more about Lillan Alling and her travel back in 1927, but instead of a travel book and an adventure story I got a relationship story between writer Cassandra and her Australian friend Gerry. The title of the book is misleading, but I still will recommend the first 50 pages of it. After that you can stop ’cause ten minutes searching on the Internet will give you more information about Lillian Alling. I really don’t get it why Cassandra titled this book ‘The woman who walked to Russia’ when she could title it ‘Cassandra Pybus drove to Alaska’. Really disappointing!

Some days ago I finished reading “Along inland’s border of Norway” by Lars Monsen and Trond Strømdahl. This book tells the story of norwegian adventurer Lars Monsens first long expedition together with his friend Trond Strømdahl in year 1992 - 1993. They went for a hike in the norwegian wilderness and stayed for a year. The trip was more strenuous than they predicted, so the book is really exciting, well written and well illustrated with photos.

What is so ‘larsmonsenism’? Read more » »