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my mind the images of hungry grayling taking a caddis off the surface, king salmon on the Nushagak reflecting the sunlight as they come grudgingly to the net, and the explosive strikes of the northerns at Lake Clark. Without question, the trip of a lifetime. n singlehandedly built his cabin on the upper Twin with tools of his own making and lived there some 30 years, enduring winters when the temperature fell to 45 below. As we fly through the mountain passes and over the glistening lakes and rivers, I replay in but I cannot. After several long runs and spectacular jumps, he burrows deep into the weeds, and I can't move him. Guide Levi Wilson brings the boat over, grasps my line, and pulls gingerly upward, bringing a bale of aquatic vegetation to the surface with a big pike buried within. From his vantage point he can see the fish, but we cannot, and before the net can be put in play, the line parts. Heartbreaking, but it happens this way sometimes. Levi claims the fish would stretch well over three feet and would have made a great picture. T here is beauty and enrichment in the wilds of Alaska, much of it accessible solely by bush or float plane. Alaskan cities are okay too, I guess, but, well, they're cities. My wife, Christine, and I did enjoy our days in Anchorage, visiting the zoo with a good friend who lives in Wasilla and taking the Alaska Railroad to Seward. On our way back to Anchorage from Stonewood Lodge, Christine and I make a fascinating side trip to a cabin built by a fellow named Dick Proenneke. In May of 1968, seeking solitude and fulfillment, Proenneke landed at spectacularly beautiful Twin Lakes, about 40 miles northeast of Lake Clark. He was 51 years old. His pilot was his close friend Babe Alsworth who, with his wife Mary, founded Port Alsworth, today an active airstrip and community on Lake Clark. Proenneke S P O R T I N G C L A S S I C S • 125 iF yoU WanT To Go Contact Preston and Stacie Cavner at Stonewood Expeditions and Lodge: (904) 444-3892 or email: info@adventureinalaska.com. Preston Cavner and Stonewood Expeditions also offer hunts for grizzly and brown bear, caribou and moose, wolf and world-class rainbow trout combinations, Dall's sheep in Alaska, and Marco Polo sheep and ibex in Kyrgyzstan.