Alaska Adventure 55 Ways: Southcentral Wilderness Exploratio

Alaska's most beloved guidebook, now wholly revised and reimagined. Features hiking, skiing, paddling, biking, and more New and substantially revised trips with all new full-color photos and maps throughout Emphasis on traverses and loop trips for both summer and winter, always with simpler and shorter options Originally published in 1972, the classic guide known as 55 Ways to the Wilderness in Southcentral Alaska has been fully updated and reinvented as Alaska Adventure 55 Ways. This robust reboot covers a diverse range of activities for year-round fun, from quick day trips to adventures that could extend to a week or longer, including canoe trails, wilderness cabins, easy summits, forest walks, cross-country ski routes, summer mountain biking and winter fat bike trails, wild skating, and more. John Wolfe Jr. and Rebecca Wolfe, a father-daughter team, describe activities spanning the broad swath of Southcentral Alaska, 300 miles north to south and 350 miles east to west. The guide features activities on the lakes and peaks of the Kenai Peninsula, the Anchorage front range, the Matanuska and Susitna Valleys, and the Copper River basin, taking in Chugach and Denali State Parks, Chugach National Forest, Kenai Fjords and Wrangell St. Elias National Parks, several wildlife refuges, and portions of the Iditarod National Historic Trail. With an emphasis on adventures regular people can enjoy and destinations that don't require highly technical skills, expensive flights to remote locations, or demanding levels of athletic fitness, this guide appeals to all ages, with family-friendly shorter options and trip extensions adding up to more than a hundred ways to adventure. Lifelong Anchorage resident John Wolfe Jr. studied at Middlebury College in Vermont and then returned to Alaska and founded the nonprofit Alaska Huts Association. He and his wife, Gretchen Nelson, included their daughters in outdoor excursions as they grew up. John became coauthor of this guide with his mother, Helen Nienhueser, in 1994. Although he has guided on Denali, John loves the simple peak scrambles of the Chugach Mountains best of all. Rebecca Wolfe has been hiking in Southcentral Alaska since childhood. She earned a bachelor's degree from Smith College and a master's of architecture from Montana State University. Becca enjoys finding new ways to experience the Alaska backcountry on skis and by bike, though backpacking in the mountains is when she feels most at home. She splits her time between Mojave, California, and Anchorage, Alaska.