The figure of three thousand miles in this book’s subtitle was calculated on paper with a pencil and ruler, and includes water, air, and ground travel. In other words, it could be off by a little, or by a lot. “My 3,286.4 Mile Journey Around Wild Alaska, Roughly Half of Which Occurred on the Sea and Should Therefore Probably Be Tallied as Nautical Miles” might be more accurate, but it wouldn’t fit on this book’s spine. Any young Scouts working on cartography badges may notice that if you count all the sea miles from Bellingham, Washington, to Dutch Harbor, Alaska, that number is also, coincidentally, about three thousand.
Also, a few minor identifying details in this story, including some names, have been changed because not everyone I’ve written about knew they were going to be characters in a book.