Alaskan Sketchbook is very cool

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January 20, 2012

Anonymous Daily Star The Daily Star Fri Jan 20, 2012, 02:24 AM EST

I borrowed a wonderful book the other day.

When I first glanced at it, I thought, "Wow, this is interesting." It was Doug Lindstrand's Alaskan Sketchbook.

The cover features a drawing of a weathered Alaskan pioneer with two Malamutes and their pups, and the subtitle says it all: "An artist/photographer's guide to the people & wildlife of America's last frontier."

I have been intrigued with Alaska for as long as I can remember. Maybe it was from reading Jack London's "The Call of the Wild" when I was quite young or hearing stories of giant moose, ferocious bears and endless herds of wandering caribou. But Alaska was calling to me for many, many years.

When I graduated from college in 1968, I was determined to move to Alaska. I looked into teaching positions there and made a few contacts. I was offered a teaching job in the little Adirondack town of Wells, but I was torn. The deep inner-pull of the far north beckoned me. I decided to take the job in Wells for a couple of years, save a little money and then head north. Well, it took me nearly 30 more years to get there.

As I thumbed through the many pages of Alaska's people and wildlife, I was intrigued by the detail of his drawings and the many interesting photographs, but the best part of the book began on page 164. It was Lindstrand's journal.

He quit his job in Minnesota in June of 1970, traded in his Corvette for a Ford Bronco and changed his life forever.

The 30 or so pages included from his journals highlight some of the interesting happenings in his quest to fulfill his dream of being a wildlife artist. It starts with his first encounter with a mother moose and her two calves. With camera in hand, Lindstrand found that a good birch tree is a haven when you get too close for comfort.

The journal tells of bears and wolves and trumpeter swans, the northern lights and the brutal cold of the far Arctic north. He spent days climbing with sheep, experienced the ancient tradition of Eskimo seal hunting and roasted snow-white ptarmigan over an open fire for lunch. But those somewhat limited pages of his Alaskan experience rekindled something inside me.

I thought about the choices I have made in life. What would be different if I had followed my dream? I guess we can't look back. You can't say, "What if?" There is no good answer.

A few lines of a Robert Frost poem come to mind, "Two roads diverge in a yellow wood, and I _ I took the one less traveled by ..." Doug Lindstrand did that, "And it has made all the difference."

Books, photographs and artist's prints of Alaska by Doug Lindstrand are available from the Sourdough Studio in Anchorage, Alaska. All are available online at douglindstrand.com. Each of his books is autographed and available from Amazon.

The Sketchbook that I have for a few more days is out of print, but others are available. So if you're as intrigued as I am with animals, nature and Alaska, go to his website and indulge yourself in the wonder and magnificence of The Last Frontier. You won't regret it.

Rick Brockway writes a weekly outdoors column for The Daily Star. Email him at robrockway@hotmail.com.