Not just wildlife & scenery, but friends…some, long lost

Ask someone in the lower 48 about Alaska and they’ll tell you two things: It has incredible mountain scenery and substantially more wildlife than people. Scenery and wildlife are the main reasons we made the trip, and I could try to wax poetic about it, but I could never do it justice. 

I surprise myself, however, at how important it has become to reconnect with old friends. I've always considered myself a wilderness-first kind of guy. Heck, I moved to Saranac in 1972 for the mountains, lakes, and forests, barely knowing a soul. I figured the scent of balsam and the call of the loon were all the company I needed. Yet these days, the sound of familiar laughter and stories rehashed dozens of times has become just as nourishing. I suppose that's one of the signs of growing older.

We’ve had three encounters with old friends on this trip, only one planned. They have made the trip a success, even if we’d never seen a mountain or a moose (We’ve seen seven moose so far).

The planned encounter was with Don Potter. I met Don in 1973. He was on the first course I taught at NCCC - a one-week canoe trip from Blue Mountain Lake to Saranac Lake. 

Don, although serving in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War era, had fortunately avoided Southeast Asia. After discharge he took advantage of the GI Bill and enrolled in NCCC’s Crafts Management Program at the Malone Campus. He had a long ponytail, and was an accomplished leather worker. That’s all I knew about him, but then he impressed me for one simple reason. When I suggested he try to find some wool pants for the trip he arrived in his Marine dress blues, the perfect pants for wilderness travel in 1973. He was a delight to have on the trip.

He took one or two more courses from me and then we lost contact for a decade or more. We crossed paths occasionally and I heard he had become a state trooper, but learned little else. As I was planning our road trip to Alaska Joe Dadey, a mutual friend told me, “If you are planning on driving to Alaska, you should check with Don Potter. He's driven up there lots of times.” Thinking that lots of times might be half a dozen I was stunned to learn he’s done it many more than that. He’s driven by car, truck (with a variety of trailer configurations), motorcycle, and he’s even done most of the Alcan Highway on a bicycle.

Phyliss and I had lunch with him at the Adirondack Hotel about a month before our trip and picked his brain. He said, “You gotta visit McCarthy. It’s at the dead end of a sixty mile long dirt road. My son Eli spends much of the year there. I’m heading up in about a week.” That sounded intriguing so we made a plan to visit McCarthy, an old copper mining town that hasn’t mined copper since 1938. 

McCarthy’s at the foot of the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park/Preserve, a staggering 13 million acres of wilderness. More than twice the size of the Adirondack Park. and combined with surrounding parks in the U.S. and Canada creates a 20 million acre internationally protected wilderness. Probably the largest on the planet. (That’s the equivalent to the state of South Carolina being all wilderness.)

Two weeks ago we pulled into the dead end of the McCarthy Road and as we found a place along the Kennicott River to camp Don met us on his 4-wheeler. He spent much of last winter building what he calls his Alaska Mobile Base Camp. Built on a 20 foot flatbed trailer the AMBC’s an 18 X 7 foot mobile home with all the creature comforts. He drove it up from the Adirondacks arriving about a month ago. It’s set up on his son’s property and will be his summer home for the foreseeable future.

Don and his Alaska Moil Basecamp on his way to Alaska

I never know what impact I had on students, but I sure know what impact Don had on his son Eli. Eli‘s an adventurer extraordinaire. He specializes in guiding in Alaska, Nepal, and Antarctica. He’s guided groups up Denali numerous times, as well as Mount Vinson in Antarctica. And although not an 8,000 meter peak bagger his career has allowed him to climb a number of the seven summits (The highest mountains on each of the seven continents) including Everest. It wouldn’t surprise me if someday he will have climbed them all.

Adventure appears to be a family business, as does working construction. While Eli is building his beautiful log home in McCarthy, Don has spent his retirement working a number of construction jobs, from under the shadow of the Arctic Circle, to the Antarctic. He worked construction for three seasons at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station (Situated exactly at the geographic South Pole). He also spent one season at McMurdo Station (the largest science and logistics facility in Antarctica), building an airfield as a member of the heavy equipment crew. His work in Alaska ranges from being winter caretaker at a fly-in fishing resort, to building an amazing wall at the ferry dock in Valdez. What makes the wall amazing is that he pattern-imprinted the concrete with the different salmon found in the state. 

Don nearly lost his hands and feet to frostbite. Ironically not in the Arctic and not in the Antarctic, but in the Adirondacks. He credits my good friend and fellow adventurer Ed Hixson with saving them.

There’s a Mark Twain quote, "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

Don has certainly lived that life and I’m glad to call him a friend.

Don, Eli, Phyliss, Jack Don and Jack