Living Alaska, Welcome to the Jungle

Lions, tigers, and bears, oh my!

Photograph by Author, Ketchikan, Alaska

Lions, Tigers and Bears, oh My

I came to Alaska in July of 2021 on a bicycle. It was to satisfy a bucket list item; it was my 50th State. I have been to all fifty states now. Every state is different, every state has its own beauty and its ugly stepchild. It is the same across the world. When I was eighteen, I spent a couple of months in Ecuador and lived in the jungle for a month. Southeast Alaska is more like the Amazon jungle than you might think.

I lived in a concrete jungle before I came to Alaska. You will find the most dangerous animals in the world there. You might think there are no wild animals in the City of San Francisco, but if you take a stroll through the Tenderloin at night, you will think otherwise. There are wild animals everywhere in the world. When I moved to Alaska I exchanged the world's most deadly animal, for a chance to commune with nature.

I decided to stay in Alaska after I rode 1,720 miles. I had to take a ferry ride the last 600 miles to get to Ketchikan, Alaska. Ketchikan is on an island and there are no roads there. The nice people who worked on the ferry offered me a job. I took the job and stayed in Alaska.

I have a new jungle now. My backyard has a river that runs through it. I have birds…