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Dear Bob and Sue: A National Parks Podcast

#21: One Man’s Wilderness: Lake Clark National Park

Dear Bob and Sue: A National Parks Podcast

Matt and Karen Smith

Society & Culture, Nature, Personal Journals, Places & Travel, Science

5.01.2K Ratings

🗓️ 19 November 2020

⏱️ 69 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

No state in the Union has more public space than Alaska; nearly 90% of the land is owned by the state or federal government, and amongst the vast, untamed lands are eight national parks. Lake Clark National Park, about 120 miles southwest of Anchorage, is one of the most remote. It’s also where one man spent three-plus decades living as one with the wilderness in a small log cabin he built himself on the shore of a magnificent mountain lake. In this episode we talk about our experience in the park and visiting Dick Proenneke’s cabin; the man who documented his wilderness experience and became an advocate for preserving Alaska’s pristine natural places. Some of the topics we discuss in this episode: Where Lake Clark National Park is located How to get to the park Where we stayed when we visited the park How we got to Twin Lakes, the site of Dick’s cabin What it was like to see the cabin in its restored condition Meeting the volunteer rangers who now care for Dick’s cabin Links to more information: To see photos from our travels, visit our Instagram account, or TikTok account One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey book on Amazon Alone in the Wilderness video on Amazon NPS site about Dick Proenneke One Man’s Alaska documentary No Place Like Twin Lakes video Where to learn more about our books and travels Join the conversation on Facebook Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

No, but you can imagine what it was like there in the winter.

0:02.7

I keep picturing that movie, The Shining, where Jack Nicholson has to live in that hotel slowly

0:09.3

as the months go by and the darkness and the isolation and the snow.

0:13.3

He goes insane.

0:15.6

And I think that would pretty much be me.

0:18.0

Oh, yeah, but that would be you by October 15th.

0:21.4

It would still be summer out.

0:24.2

I'd be, I'd be signaling babe with, uh, with a signal fire.

0:29.3

Come and get me. Yeah, the second day we're out there.

0:46.8

This is the Dear Bob and Sue podcast, our stories of adventures and misadventures as we

0:51.2

travel to all the US National Parks and other public lands.

0:55.0

I'm Matt Smith and I'm Karen Smith.

0:57.0

We are the authors of the Dear Bob and Sue series of books.

1:00.4

Today we're talking about our visit to Dick Prennickie's cabin in the wilderness of

1:05.3

Lake Clark National Park in Alaska.

1:08.6

You may not have heard of Dick Prennickie before, but don't worry.

1:11.6

In this episode, we'll tell you all about him and why we were so excited to visit his cabin.

1:16.4

He built my hand and lived in for 30 years.

1:19.6

Hopefully after you've listened, you'll be inspired to read his books or watch one of the many

1:24.2

documentaries about this amazing naturalist, conservationist, writer and wildlife

1:29.7

photographer or maybe you'll even take a float plane to Twin Lakes and see the cabin

1:34.4

for yourself to kick things off.

...

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