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Tip of the Iceberg
Tip of the Iceberg: My 3,000-Mile Journey Around Wild Alaska, the Last Great American Frontier | Mark Adams
5 posts | 1 read | 1 reading | 8 to read
From the acclaimed, bestselling author of Turn Right at Machu Picchu, a fascinating and funny journey into Alaska, America's last frontier, retracing the historic 1899 Harriman Expedition. In 1899, railroad magnate Edward H. Harriman organized a most unusual summer voyage to the wilds of Alaska: He converted a steamship into a luxury "floating university," populated by some of America's best and brightest scientists and writers, including the anti-capitalist eco-prophet John Muir. Those aboard encountered a land of immeasurable beauty and impending environmental calamity. More than a hundred years later, Alaska is still America's most sublime wilderness, both the lure that draws a million tourists annually on Inside Passage cruises and a natural resources larder waiting to be raided. As ever, it remains a magnet for weirdos and dreamers. Armed with Dramamine and an industrial-strength mosquito net, Mark Adams sets out to retrace the 1899 expedition. Using the state's intricate public ferry system, the Alaska Marine Highway System, Adams travels three thousand miles, following the George W. Elder's itinerary north through Wrangell, Juneau, and Glacier Bay, then continuing west into the colder and stranger regions of the Aleutians and the Arctic Circle. Along the way, he encounters dozens of unusual characters (and a couple of very hungry bears) and investigates how lessons learned in 1899 might relate to Alaska's current struggles in adapting to climate change.
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swishandflick
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Accurate! It's always just the tip of the iceberg 😂

(#BOTM has really been on their graphics A-game!)

marleed I started this thing where any book I read that gets less than a B- rating from me (3.75*) goes to my auto-donate shelf. It‘s helping pull that line a little south for me! 4y
swishandflick @marleed I love that this graphic can be used a few different ways - when I originally saw it my interpretation was that the select books I choose to recommend to friends barely scratches the surface of all of the books I read, not necessarily that most of my library aren't books I enjoyed. Bust most of my friends aren't big readers so that's probably why my mind went there first 😄 (edited) 4y
90 likes2 comments
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smilingshelves
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danibel

“The ravenous midges had been joined by swarms of Alaska‘s state bird, the mosquito, and both swirled around my head like commas and periods in the sort of bad punctuation nightmare a grammarian might have after eating hallucinogenic rye grass.”

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danibel
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Currently reading (in preparation for trip to Alaska!)

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AllenTStClair
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Had to TBR this book by Mark Adams that‘s mentioned in the latest issue of National Geographic. Sounds interesting! And you can see Jolene off to the right there....