In Harriman’s Wake
Executive summary by darmansjah
THE 100-passenger ship Caledonian Sky retraces part of railroad magnate Edward Harriman’s landmark scientific expedition in 1800, including lands on the Pribilof and Aleutian Islands. Watch for walruses and arctic foxes on St. Matthew Island, and explore Little Diomede-its Russian sister, Big Diomede, is only three nautical miles away-whose Aleutian inhabitants still rely on subsistence hunting and gathering. Zegrahm Expeditions: “Wild Alsaka and the Bering Sea,” 15 days; $11,980
INSPIRED by the life and work of naturalist Dick Proenneke, who live alone in a cabin he built in Alaska’s Twin Lakes region some 40 years ago, this hiking/kayaking/fly-fishing expedition in Lake Clark National Park shows off an Alaska few experience. A tour of Proenneke's homestead resonated with traveler Butch Roebuck: “The ranger allowed us to pick up and examine everything in Dicks’s cabin. It is more real when you can touch and feel.” But the high point was an evening spent with a herd of Dall Sleep. “They were all around us. We just ate our dinner, watched these magnificent animals feed all around us, and dozed off to sleep in our bags.” Arctic Odysseys/Alaskan Ventures: “Alaska’s Twin Lakes: In the Footsteps of Dick Proenneke,” 8 days; $4,695