Anchorage Daily News

Of the hundreds of wildlife encounters they have had over the years, it was the menacing brown bear with feet the size of a turkey-roasting pan that finally unnerved trekkers Erin McKittrick and Bretwood "Hig" Higman.

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Walking along the north side of the Alaska Peninsula on the final third of a 4,000-mile walk, ski and paddle that took them from Seattle to Unimak Island, the couple saw a furry face pop up from the brush. They were near a remote spot called Mother Goose Lake on a cold spring morning.

But this encounter would be like no other the couple has had since they took up trekking in 1999 to some of the most remote land in North America. Most times, a bear sees them; they yell "Go away!" and the bear runs off.

Somehow having the wherewithal to keep his camera rolling, Higman, who grew up in Seldovia, filmed the bear as it strode toward him and his wife. McKittrick, a Seattle native who met Higman while the two were in college, began the usual routine of standing her ground, yelling the bear off, joining side by side with Higman to make themselves appear larger.

And waiting.

"This one was just sort of different with us," Higman said last week from Seldovia, where he and McKittrick have been living since completing their trek earlier this summer. "It didn't just bolt when it saw us like they usually do. It was like it was thinking. You had the feeling that it was thinking about whether it wanted to kill us or not."

On film, the encounter lasts just 2 minutes and 30 seconds (check it out at www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iinv_5e_QGg, "We're Not Food").

But to McKittrick, 28, and Higman, 31, it seemed an eternity.

"Usually they'll run away immediately, or as they approach and get your scent they'll run," McKittrick said. "This one first did an approach, then it circled around us and it was drooling, which really didn't seem like a good sign. It was unusual behavior, but it was probably right out of its den, too."

Later, Higman said they measured the bear's footprints. After talking to bear hunters in the area, they estimated it to be about 11 1/2 feet tall.

That was just one day during the couple's 385-day trek, thought to be the first human-powered navigation ever along the edge of the Pacific and up the Gulf of Alaska.

On June 9, 2007, McKittrick and Higman left Seattle, walking with full packs toward Unimak Island in the Aleutians. Their goal: Learn more about the environmental issues affecting the Pacific Northwest and Alaska.

MANY MEMORIES

Other days were equally memorable:

• Gorgeous evenings along the Gulf coast as winter set in and they huddled in tents and thick sleeping bags to stay warm.

• The day they happened upon a Southeast fisherman as they paddled their pack rafts. After introductions, the man said, "Oh, I've been reading your blog and following your trip." Then he handed them $40 cash to help fund their efforts.

• Watching river otters hunt in clear water in Misty Fjords National Monument in Southeast.

• Being caught in an intense but "thrilling" sandstorm on the Gulf coast.

• Skiing with the wind across Lake Clark and getting Moose's Tooth pizza air-dropped to them from the folks at Lake and Pen Air of Port Alsworth.

Listing such moments, Higman and McKittrick have discovered, is an infinite task.

While the good far outweighs the bad, there were scary moments like the bear encounter.

Once they ran into such bad weather along the Copper River Delta they were stranded on a sandbar with only a bag of peanuts between them. The next day, the weather cleared enough for them to paddle farther up the Delta, and the day after they walked 34 miles in driving rain to Cordova to restock their provisions at the first place they reached -- an airport vending machine.

Another time, on the south end of Unimak Island, a bear sneaked into their camp while they made dinner by the beach, ripped into their tent, sleeping pads and raft and left the couple (and a friend who came along for the last leg) to figure out field repairs. About 50 feet of dental floss and 30-plus hours of sewing later, the raft and sleeping pads were patched.

"That's one of the things about this type of trip," McKittrick said. "You have your stuff in your backpack and you have to figure it out (when things happen)."

"It's amazing really, when you set yourself to it," Higman added. "It really is possible to have the tools in hand and know you can figure it out."

Their self-named "Wild Coast Journey" was the vehicle through which Higman and McKittrick relayed information about the environment in their Ground Truth Trekking organization. Their blog, updated whenever they could reach areas with access to the Internet, chronicled their discoveries, challenges and thrills along the way.

The journey turned out to be a lesson in ingenuity. Each day was an adventure, sometimes requiring a walk through dense vegetation along trail-less coastlines or blowing up inflatable pack rafts and paddling near the coastline, lakes or rivers.

When winter set in, they swapped to skis, hauling their gear behind them, using their rafts as pulks.

Once, for a 15-mile leg from King Salmon, they rode borrowed bicycles to reach Naknek.

Another time -- breaking their self-imposed rule of using only human-powered modes of transportation -- they rode in a truck in British Columbia. But that was because they had unwittingly trespassed on private logging territory and when discovered, were escorted off by security.

"I certainly didn't appreciate what we were in for until we were in the middle of it," said Higman. "Each day had new challenges, but it kept it really fresh."

CROSSING THE ARM

Higman and McKittrick passed through Anchorage in early February, by then nearly 2,700 miles and eight months into their trek.

The longest the couple had traveled before was a two-month Alaska trip in 2001, before their marriage. That trip seemed tiny by comparison -- after Anchorage, four more months of travel loomed.

While in town, the couple gave a presentation at UAA and took a couple weeks to resupply and rest, pondering a way to cross Knik Arm in their pack rafts.

"We never managed to get across Knik Arm," Higman said. "We tried but in the end we had to go around."

They skied nearly to Eklutna and the head of the Arm, crossed the ice on their skis and worked their way southwest again, eventually passing through Lake Clark, the Pebble Mine prospect area, along Lake Iliamna to the Alaska Peninsula.

It was some of the most beautiful country they'd ever seen. McKittrick counts "watching and listening as each new bird returned to the Alaska Peninsula in the spring" and "walking past enormous volcanoes" as some of her favorite parts of the journey. Each day brought something new to love about the land.

Their journey was as educational as it was inspiring. They used the platform of their Ground Truth Trekking organization as a way to examine the challenges facing the environment today -- from clear-cutting to salmon habitat destruction to global warming to mining.

Passing through such places as the Pebble Mine area gave them a first-hand look at how such activities can affect the natural landscape.

"It's hard to understand on any map the scale of what they are proposing until you realize, 'Wow, this takes me all day to get across this,' " McKittrick said.

"For those of us who really see wild places as having value, it's a large area of untouched land. It's an incredible place, and you're so blown away by what this project would be like on this vast landscape."

Higman said they avoided becoming environmental missionaries, focusing instead on taking in information, sharing what they know and absorbing the issues facing communities along the coast.

"We would talk in the slide shows and share what we knew, but we learned from people in the communities, too," McKittrick said. "We did a lot of listening."

Now, nearly three months since the journey ended, the couple is on to its next adventure. They've settled in Seldovia and are building a 24-foot yurt on property Higman's mother owns. McKittrick has a book contract with Mountaineers Books and is working on a draft account of the Wild Coast Journey.

While they have other trips in mind -- specifically trips that can help them explore the idea of using coal as an energy source -- they may be more abbreviated ones. McKittrick is expecting a baby in mid-February and acknowledges that in itself will be an adventure. Instead of being gone months at a time, they may have to settle for trips of just a few days or weeks.

"I figured if we just managed to pull off this expedition that no one's ever done before, I think I can pull off this (parenting) thing that millions of people have," McKittrick said. "It's going to be interesting, I feel pretty comfortable with it."

BACKGROUND

• Bretwood "Hig" Higman grew up in Seldovia, where he and McKittrick now live. Higman has a Ph.D. in geology from the University of Washington, studying tsunamis and the geologic records they leave behind.

In addition to working as part of Ground Truth Trekking, he is doing some geology consulting and working for a local environmental consulting firm.

• Erin McKittrick is a Seattle native who grew up hiking with her family in the Cascade Mountains. She and Higman met at Carleton College, and have been married since 2003.

She has a master's degree in molecular and cellular biology, and is currently working on a book about this Wild Coast Journey for Mountaineers Books.

The couple also runs a small jewelry crafting business, Sundrop Jewelry, with two friends in Minnesota.

• Ground Truth Trekking: McKittrick and Higman run this small environmental education nonprofit. Their biggest project is assembling information from their Wild Coast Journey, including assembling a searchable, map-linked database of images. Web site: www.groundtruthtrekking.org

WATCH A PRESENTATION

Erin McKittrick and Bretwood Higman will give presentations on their Wild Coast Journey on Oct. 23 and Oct. 25 at the University of Alaska Anchorage Fine Arts building, Room 150, beginning at 7 p.m. each night. For more info, go to www.groundtruthtrekking.org.

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