Upstream: In the Alaska Wilderness

by Eric Wade

Print (softcover): $17.95
 

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Upstream is a continuation of Eric Wade's wilderness story begun in his earlier book, Cabin. For many years, Wade has traveled twice a year to his cabin on a river for an extended stay in the Alaska boreal forest. There he and his wife, Doylanne, built a rewarding life among bear, moose, owls, grouse, and fish. But their recent trips carry a different feeling as they face the challenges that come with aging. Wade gives us a look at his pain and frustration as he needs to adjust his behaviors to suit his physical changes, having reached the point in life when he transitions from building and growing to slowing down and letting go. Beautifully written, Upstream is a meditation on a life spent in the wilderness and the realization that one's dream doesn't fade as the years go by, but one must be prepared to make some changes.

BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY/ Personal Memoirs
NATURE / Ecosystems & Habitats / Wilderness

ISBN: 978-1-956056-20-4 (print; softcover; perfect bound)
ISBN: 978-1-956056-21-1 (ebook)

LCCN: 2022930151

Released February 2022 | Copyright 2022

156 pages; 34 black-and-white images

Author Biography

Eric Wade is a writer, teacher, musician, naturalist, and outdoorsman. He earned a bachelors in English Education at Southern Oregon University and a masters in Journalism from the University of Oregon. He served as a public-school teacher, principal, and director of nonprofit corporations for more than forty years. He often journeys into the Alaska interior wilderness where he roams the woods looking for wildlife—flora and fauna—as it’s always been. He is the author of Cabin: An Alaska Wilderness Dream, published in 2019.

Eric's wife, Doylanne Wade, features prominently in Upstream. She can dash for a camera with lightning speed, a skill she honed chasing four sons. When wild animals appear or sunsets morph to mesmerizing beauty, there’s often little time to respond, an aspect of photography she loves. For more than thirty years, she has captured stories in the Alaska wilderness. She uses a DSLR camera with 150-600mm and 18-270 lenses.

Endorsements

“More than a wilderness memoir, Upstream: In the Alaska Wilderness is a love letter, first to the author’s wife, Doylanne, and the life they’ve built in their ‘second home’; and to the place itself and the abundant life forms with whom they share their wilderness neighborhood. It’s also a kind of meditation: on aging, change, being present in the world (whether in the city or remote wilderness), the process of getting to know a place well, being open to amazement.”
—Bill Sherwonit, author of Living with Wildness: An Alaskan Odyssey and Animal Stories: Encounters with Alaska’s Wildlife 

“Eric Wade lets us feel his pain and frustration at growing old, but at the same time, he lets us see what he sees when he slows down and rests. . . Not just another homesteader saga, Upstream takes us to a place we are all going.”
—Dan L. Walker, author of Secondhand Summer and Back Home

“What a voyage into the reality of two sixty-somethings feeling their age, two hundred miles up river from the boat trailer, as they try to keep themselves comfortable in a very wild place.” 
—Jeff Fair, author of In Wild Trust and The Great American Bear

“So many wilderness narratives are about the struggle to establish and build something. Eric Wade writes movingly about the struggle to begin letting go of what he’s built.” 
—Tom Kizzia, author of Pilgrim’s Wilderness and Cold Mountain Path

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