KANABEAR ENTERPRISES

Below is a brief segment taken from the prologue to 'Ballad of the Northland'. The bulk of the story itself is presented in three distinct parts, the first of which is 'River Rat'. River Rat introduces you to the hero of the story, The Boy. Eight  years have passed since the tragic accident that took place on Norton Sound, just outside of Koyuk, Alaska, the one which took his immediate family away and forever changed the course of his life. This part of the story not only introduces you to the 'hero' of the narrative, but it also introduces you to the Alaskan bush, where this 12 year old boy learns to hunt and trap, and live in a modern day Great Depression primarily caused by his adoptive families own ignorance and poverty. It draws heavily upon the experiences of my two brothers and me, when we, too, grew up as dirt poor river rats on the Yentna River, about thirty-five miles south of Skwentna. My brothers and I grew up without any formal education whatsoever-we lived many miles from any civilized habitation, so school was out of the question, and our parents literally expected us to learn through osmosis; we grew up skinny, and dirty, and hard; we grew up knowing how to hunt and trap, and by a very early age, had a near military proficiency with any number of guns, rifles, and assorted shotguns, and an utter lack of compunction about using them. To us, the sight of blood simply meant that we were going to get to eat today; we grew up understanding that no one would ever, ever, ever help us, and that if we were going to survive and make a place in the world for ourselves, then it would totally be on our heads to see this through; we grew up in awe of sleddogs who were intrinsic to our survival, and the majestic grandeur of the Northland. While Ballad is not meant to be a 'biography' by any means, there is not one part of the story of which I am not intimately familiar; not one ounce of the blood, nor any of the tears; not one step of The Boy's trapline team, nor his eventual ascent to compete in the Last Great Race; not the madness, obsession, or the primitive drive to break any and all barriers placed in his way by lack of education, social status, or economic opportunity.

The Boy's story is a painful one, full of hard lessons and much harder truths. It is a story about standing tall, no matter the odds, no matter the outcome, about following one's dreams, and even, at times, one's nightmares. Over and above it all, looms the awesome shadow of the Northand.

I chose to tell The Boy's story, because I could not bear to tell my own.