{"product_id":"the-accidental-explorer-wayfinding-in-alaska-9781570615375","title":"The Accidental Explorer: Wayfinding in Alaska","description":"\u003cp\u003eAlaska is a place of great adventure and exploration. After having lived in the Great Land for nearly all of her life  Sherry Simpson realized that she had not scaled mountains  trekked across wild tundra  or blazed trails through virgin forests. Did that fact make her less of an Alaskan? In the series of essays that comprise The Accidental Explorer  Sherry Simpson recounts the experiences of an ordinary woman confronting the great expanses of water and untracked land in Alaska  as she makes her best efforts to map her sense of place and her sense of self in a land that seems to require exploration of its inhabitants. While undertaking arduous treks into the backcountry  she falls into a glacial river and nearly drowns. On an archetypal epic solo hike  she ruminates constantly on when and whether she should abandon that folly. She writes with both humor and humility  harnessing great powers of observation of the natural world. In a downright scary encounter with a mildly aggressive bear  Simpson shrinks from any supposed Alaskan larger-than-life persona to assume her place on the food chain: an urbanized human who is appropriately afraid of big bears. Simpson also offers up the (less reverent) Alaskan view of Chris McCandles  the wanderer who perished in an abandoned bus near Denali  subject of Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. Can an ordinary  not especially heroic  person be an adventurer? If she sets out  in a wild place like Alaska  what will she find out there  and what will she learn about the place back home? Throughout this compelling and probing book  Sherry Simpson illuminates the act of exploration as both a feat of extraordinary effort and as an everyday experience.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45280439795765,"sku":"ByrdShop_1570615373","price":46.77,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9781570615375.jpg?v=1780636223","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-accidental-explorer-wayfinding-in-alaska-9781570615375","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}