This is not a column about that guy who stole your wallet in Madrid. Nor is it about an escaped con on the run from Panamanian authorities. It is, however, the passion project and creative outlet of a 30-something criminal defence lawyer who hopes to share his out-of-court adventures with Precedent’s loyal readers. Looking for a way to decompress after a six-week homicide trial? Try cave diving in the Mayan Riviera. Need to inject a little pizzazz into your life after three straight months in a data room? Strap on a helmet and splash down the frothing white waters of Costa Rica’s Pacuare River.
Each month, I will encourage readers to trade their prospectuses for paddles, keyboards for kayaks and BlackBerries for bathing suits as I guide you through world-class adventures in locations all across the globe. Give yourself the opportunity to step just a little outside of your traditional travel comfort zone and you’ll be the envy of the boardroom water cooler when you get back to spin the tales. Our first stop? Summer in Alaska.
Gloves. Toque. Fleece. Rain pants. It’s difficult to describe the gaze my wife gave me as I packed our gear for our July vacation. My wife (who now enjoys the groan-inducing title of The Crime Traveller’s Wife) sees summer vacation as synonymous with bikinis and sunscreen. She wasn’t taking it well as I stuffed a second set of long johns into the bowels of her backpack, but it was too late for recriminations and second thoughts. The kids were safely with the grandmothers, our reservations were made and my trial calendar was clear for 12 blissful days.
After landing in Anchorage and grabbing our rental car, we immediately set out on the picturesque highway to Seward. Sandwiched between the ocean and rocky cliffs, the drive is dotted with bright purple fireweed flowers and serves as an excellent opportunity to become immediately acquainted with some of Alaska’s wildlife. Dall sheep appear to defy gravity as they cling to shale on the cliffside, bald eagles rest elegantly on passing birch trees and the occasional whale can be spotted spouting only several hundred feet from the road. Along our drive, we enjoyed a chance to stretch our legs at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. Alaska’s answer to Ontario’s African Lion Safari, this wilderness preserve made me a photographic hero upon my return, dishing up easy pictures of moose, caribou, musk ox and bears wandering out in their natural habitat.
Upon arrival in Seward, we quickly joined a boat charter out onto the frigid waters of the Kenai Fjords around Resurrection Bay and past Cape Ailik. The fjords teem with wildlife. In a typical day on the bay, humpbacks, orcas, sea otters, seals, sea lions and puffins all make an appearance against a backdrop of rolling glacier-fed waterfalls. My highlight was the opportunity to sidle up within 100 metres of the monstrous Ailik glacier. Our captain cut the engines and let the ship drift while my wife tugged at her hood against the cold breeze filtering down off the tidewater glacier. The silence was periodically interrupted by unmistakable cracks and booms from the glacier as the warmer sea water lapping against the glacial ice caused sections to tear away, dropping chunks of ice the size of houses hundreds of feet into the water.
My appetite for glaciers now suitably whetted, we drove north to the town of Whittier and joined a day-long kayak trip on the waters of Prince William Sound. Here, kayaking takes place in fjords too narrow for large ships, affording an unparalleled opportunity to paddle through mirror-smooth waters past icebergs the size of buses as we glided from one tidewater glacier to another. A juvenile porpoise frolicked for over half an hour in the light wake of my kayak while a pair of curious seals watched from a distance.
The jewel in Alaska’s crown is Denali National Park — six million acres of pristine wilderness with few rivals anywhere on earth. Denali is home to an extraordinary range of animal life and was the perfect staging ground for my efforts to view moose, grizzlies and caribou in the wild. There is no better home base in Denali than the legendary Camp Denali Wilderness Lodge, with rustic but entirely comfortable cottages lying in the shadow of North American’s highest peak, Mt. McKinley (commonly called, simply, Denali).
Waking one chilly August morning, I looked at the clear sky and knew it was the perfect opportunity to take advantage of our proximity to “Kantishna International” — a generous description for a dirt clearing that serves as the park’s only air strip. I strapped myself into the co-pilot’s chair of our Cessna 206 as my Kantishna Air Taxi pilot prepared for takeoff. During the one-hour flight we were treated to uninterrupted views of the park’s vast tundra below, flying directly through the craggy fingertips of the Alaska Mountain range. All the while, Mt. McKinley herself stared down at me from the summit at 20,320 feet (6194 metres). Snow and ice mixed with the unmistakeable electric blue of glacial pools creating a staggering landscape.
While my trips are rarely complete without a few hours of white water rafting, the Nenana River’s icy waters gave me my first opportunity to don a dry suit. With water temperatures in July and August rising to a balmy 3°C, unprotected survival time is estimated at two to four minutes. My dry suit expanded that window before death to a more comfortable 20 minutes — plenty of time for a quick dip between class IV rapids just to feel the sensation of having my soul leached from my body. It tingles.
No matter how much time you spend in Alaska, the lure of the wild will call you back. Alaska is a land where it is more incongruous to view an American flag than it is to watch a grizzly bear foraging for ground squirrels. The U.S. post box outside your lodge appears more out of place than the moose slurping noisily from the pond in front of your cabin. It is this very dichotomy that makes Alaska so appealing. Where wilderness is the norm, escape from the pressures of our daily legal lives becomes effortless, automatic, and savoured.
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Crime Traveller’s Guide: Alaska
At over 1.7 million square kilometres, Alaska is more than twice the size of Texas, the next largest state. It is so vast, and has so much to offer, that it is impossible to keep your job and still see it all on one trip, so plan to target your high-priority activities and be aware of the geographic constraints of a land where bush planes are more ubiquitous than taxis.
Limiting your Alaskan vacation to what you can see from a cruise ship is the equivalent of writing a 30-page research memo on a case after reading only the first line of the headnote. Get off the boat and get into the wild.
When to go: Between June and September, you can leave the parka at home. Early summer means mosquitoes, though that is the best time to observe infant wildlife. If you can stand the cold, pushing your trip into late September or even early October may reward you with nights dark enough to take in the planet’s most spectacular light show: the aurora borealis, or Northern Lights.
What to bring: It’s all about packing in layers. Light dry wicking undergarments over a mid layer keep you comfortable most days. A waterproof outer shell is a must. Whatever your usual gigabyte limit is for your camera, double that and you should just barely squeeze in all your shots.
What to see: Denali National Park, Kenai Fjords, glaciers and icebergs, wildlife galore
Where to stay: Alyeska Ski Resort and Spa in Girdwood; the Copper Whale Inn in Anchorage, Denali Grizzly Bear Resort outside of Denali Park, and Camp Denali inside Denali Park.
When not jetting around the world as his alter ego, The Crime Traveller, Edward Prutschi is a Toronto-based criminal defence lawyer. Follow Ed’s criminal law commentary (@prutschi) and The Crime Traveller’s adventures (@crimetraveller) on Twitter, or email ed@thecrimetraveller.com.