Larry's Travel Memories: Alaska

Alaska!!! It’s quite a place.  It really started to capture my imagination when I was in college and dreaming of bigger mountains and more out of the way places.  Several summers removed from college, I decided to pack my life in my car and drive to Alaska to live for the summer. I had been feeling a restlessness to get out and travel again so a couple days after wrapping up another winter ski patrolling at Copper Mountain, I got in my car and drove North looking for an adventure.  

Everything in Alaska is an adventure and an undertaking.  Want to go get groceries? Road trip! Want to go to the next town? Road trip! Want to go backpacking?  In Alaska, I really learned to embrace the challenges of everything seemingly being a little more work than I was used to.  I did get to a place of missing the easy access to outdoor activities that I’m spoiled with in Colorado, but doing the extra work became all part of the fun while I was living in Alaska.  I really loved the attitude of, “If I don’t know how to do it, I’ll learn how to do it.” In Alaska resourcefulness is a skill that develops out of necessity. That mindset sticks with you.