Ne Mook Na Na's Alaskan Odyssey

Join Dick Gilliand's nineteen-year odyssey in Alaska as Ne Mook Na Na, his friend-given name for "man who loves his dogs." From his jumping-off place at Little Lake Louise in the Copper Basin, Gilliand is on hand for the 1964 earth-shaking as well as free-wheeling adventures from the Alcan through old-time Anchorage to the mouth of the Kuskokwim. In these compelling stories, Gilliand revels in iconic seasonal jobs and activities: logsmith, commercial fisherman, hunter, musher, welder and driller, camp cook, homesteader, horse wrangler. He takes on all challenges he is offered, accompanied by a large cast of two- and four-footed friends, all drawn with affection (well, except for a certain skipper, a throttle-happy boat driver, and a boss who strands Gilliand in Bethel). Drama is breath-taking, as Gilliand and a string of pack horses step over their heads in the cold, racing Copper River. With a voice both earnest and comic, the narrator puts a charging moose on "Pause" to describe just how big a moose can get. On Prince William Sound, the reader joins Gilliand in his skiff for a lyrical vision of the sea: "Just past the island was a long line of breakers, where deep water butted into the shallows of the delta. The crashing waves did all they could to block your path, like so many bullies on a watery playground." Fun, danger, and beauty abound in these stories – Gilliand's generous sharing of a "glimpse into the best part of my life."

Dick Gilliand was born in 1937 and raised in Michigan. As a very young boy, he was enthralled by his great grandfather's stories of sailing the seven seas on square-rigged ships, and knew he wanted his own life of adventure. While he was still wet behind the ears, his mother Katherine Marie gave Dick the freedom he desired to pursue outdoor interests. He and his young companions roamed the woods near home for days on end, living off the land and eating freshly-caught fish and turtle eggs, while continually gaining outdoor prowess. As Katherine Marie's trust grew in her young son's abilities, Dick's confidence and self-reliance grew toward the day he could cast his lot farther from home. After two years in college and three years in the 82nd Airborne, he built a canoe and headed northwest to a life he'd always wanted to live in the bush of Alaska. A jack of all trades, an artist and craftsman, he spent nineteen years captivated by the people, the awesome beauty, the extreme cold and natural power of the great land.