week 5

In this reading mike travels through Alaska to Russia. it is now summer in the arctic so it is a whole different type of travel for mike. much of the snow and ice and melted and he traded out his sled for a kayak and all his other winter material for summer material. some obstacles mike was forced to overcome on this new part of his trip were walking though and climbing over bear infested cliffs. He found himself face to face with a mom grizzly bear and her two cubs which is a very dangerous situation. Mike lived because of both luck and experience. He had learned from dealing with polar bears to keep walking a straight path and waving his hands to make himself look as big as possible. Mikes next obstacle was kayaking, since the ice had melted he could no longer walk over frozen oceans he had to kayak him. Other then his arms being a little out of shape kayaking worked well for mike. But i one day when he was gonna land mike discovered there were large icebergs blocking his path to the shore. He was thrown against these icebergs by the waves over and over again until finally he got back into open water and was forced to pitch his tent on a piece of pack ice. As mike traveled into Russia he had issues with being able to travel on the land and he was not aloud to have any guns or global positioning systems. He ends up smuggling his contraband in but it was a close call.

My over all reaction to my week five reading is very good! I have very much enjoyed this whole book and think that it is very exciting to hear about all of mikes experiences. It would take a great amount of fitness, skill, wisdom, and experience to even attempt to do what mike is doing in this book. It is weird to think that anyone would want to walk around the Arctic Circle by yourself but finishing it would be one of the greatest accomplishments ever. In his many stops at different Inuit villages along his trip Mike meets a bunch of nice exceptionally generous people. To me it is amazing how the need to survive brings people together so much. Up in the far north everyone is more than happy to give up rooms in their homes for mike and his family at times to stay in, give mike free food whenever he needs it and teach him their ways and special techniques he can use to survive. In his whole trip he has only met two people that weren’t more than willing to help him and that was mostly due to laws. In my opinion it is amazing that mike just sets out everyday not knowing whether he will drowned or freeze or get mauled by a bear at any moment.