Alone in Alaska

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”

– Henry David Thoreau

Famous for his living experiment at Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts, Henry David
Thoreau built a dwelling and lived in it for 2 years and 2 months. He was only a mile from town and visited the real world often. Hate to say it, but old Henry had nothing on Dick Proenneke.

At the age of 51, Richard “Dick” Proenneke decided to build his own cabin up in a remote area of Alaska called Twin Lakes. The nearest
town was 40 miles away by float plane. No walks to town. No neighbors to visit with. He truly was alone in the wilderness.

Dick set out to live at Twin Lakes for twelve months. He ended up staying 30 years.

Can you imagine living everyday without conveniences like: electricity, heat, and plumbing? What about having no grocery stores to get your food from? Dick had no restaurants to go to, no sporting events to attend, no anything but nature all day, every day. I don’t know how he did it.

Dick was self reliant. He had to be to survive. He had to plan ahead for everything. He had to have enough food and water. He had to be very careful not to capsize his canoe when he was on the lake and to be patient and wait out bad weather. He simply could not afford an accident with
no one around to help him.

He had to be in tune with his surroundings and know weather conditions and forecasts at all times. In the winter, temperatures would sometimes drop to 50 below zero. Dick had to make sure his water hole in the lake never froze too thick to cut off his water supply. He had to store his
food high enough so that bears and other creatures could not get to it.

He had to cut enough fire wood to warm his cabin throughout the winter. And speaking of his cabin, he built it by himself before his first winter at Twin Lakes. The place had to be sound enough to keep animals and Mother Nature out and keep the warmth from the fireplace in.

He had to be vigilant each day to properly store his food and make sure everything was in tip top shape. There was no room for carelessness or forgetfulness. I guess when your life depends on it, depends on you, you become more responsible.

Now Dick did get mail and some supplies dropped off to him by float plane every 6 weeks or so. He also had a radio for weather and
emergency communications as well. But from what I’ve read about other people’s experiences of living separated from society, the isolation sometimes is more than most people can bear. I hear that the silence drives them mad.

Personally, the thought of being that alone with things that go bump in the night would scare the crap out of me. Dick wasn’t completely numb to fear though. I saw a picture once of the inside of his cabin and saw that there was a gun holster strapped to his bed post, just in case.