Ne Mook Na Na's Alaskan Odyssey

By Dick Gilliand

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."

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1098310667
• ISBN13: 9781098310660
• Release Date: August 2020
• Publisher: Bookbaby
• Length: 232 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 8.9"