Survivor

Bigfork trekker logs final leg of Alaskan journey

He came back alive.

Marty Zajanc of Bigfork hiked the final trek of his cross-Alaska journey earlier this summer, once again to the disbelief of Alaskan natives. The latest trip took him roughly 500 miles over the Brooks Range to Point Lay, then to Barrow, the state's northernmost town.

Though he was bluff-charged by a couple of grizzlies and tangled with some moose, Zajanc, 53, said one of the worst encounters occurred when he sat down to order a hamburger at a tiny restaurant in Wainwright. An elderly Eskimo woman stared at him for 10 minutes or longer, then predicted his demise.

"The last few days before Wainwright I was pushing hard through ice, fog, wind. My emotions were raw. I'd been dodging icebergs in the fog when I finally got to Wainwright," he recalled. "This old Eskimo woman came up to me and asked me what I was doing."

When he explained he planned to reach Barrow on foot, the woman asked him whether he was crazy.

"She sat down and watched me and told me all these gruesome ways I was going to die," he said. "That was the scariest. If all the locals think you're crazy, you start to wonder. You want to be wise and listen to the locals, and they were valid fears to some extent."

ZAJANC is used to naysayers. Plenty of bush pilots and Alaskan natives have written him off as a goner during travails that have taken him about 3,000 miles on foot during the past eight years. He hikes alone, without rescue equipment or a calculated route. This time, he took food provisions with him, but he lived off the land during several earlier excursions.

"I try to live in the moment," he said. "To look too far ahead is to paint the eye of chaos."

Zajanc battled the weather this time more than he'd expected to.

"I was dropped off on a gorgeous day; it was absolute ecstasy," he said.

Before he knew it, though, the July weather turned unseasonably cold and he had to keep moving.

"When it's that cold you don't have a tendency to lay around in the good spots and savor things," he said. "I averaged about 20 miles a day."

Zajanc followed an enormous caribou herd over the Brooks Range to ancient hunting grounds where he discovered a few native spearheads. He paddled 75 miles down the Kokolik River, then trekked another 30 miles to the Kukpowruk River and paddled 75 miles to Point Lay along the Arctic Ocean.

He was 13 days into the trip at that point.

Temperatures hovered between 30 and 40 degrees Fahrenheit as he walked the frozen coast to Wainwright. Under those conditions, it took every ounce of concentration to stay alive.

"You couldn't make any mistakes," he said. "It's dangerous anytime you're in the water. You have only a couple minutes to stay alive."

Earlier in the trip, Zajanc came dangerously close to being hit by what he estimated was a 500-pound ice chunk that was concealed underneath a bank.

"I just managed to miss it," he said. "Wading through swift rapids, if an ice chunk hits you, it could rip apart a leg."

The beauty of the frozen land was all around him, though. He recalled four caribou cows standing broadside on a ridge, each with a calf tucked underneath.

Another time he saw a pair of tundra swans swoop down, their wings beating in complete synchronization as the sun came out for just a moment.

"It took my breath away," he said. "It was as if they had practiced their whole life for that moment.

"There were some precious moments. It's a land of extremes."

Zajanc plans to spend the winter months working on a book about his travels in Alaska.

Is he finished with Alaska?

Probably not.

"Alaska is too big for one lifetime, and I think the question would have to be, 'Is Alaska finished with me?'" he said. "Judging by how hard it has been to adjust since I've returned, I would say no. It still feels like I haven't left. Part of me will always be there, walking."

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com