Book Review: Walking Home

Author: Lynn Schooler

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Reviewed by Stephen Keim

When the Blokes’ Book Club was offered the chance to read Lynn Schooler’s tale of walking across a sizeable portion of Alaska as a means of addressing an upper mid-life crisis, two other books were offered as alternatives. I do not now remember what the other two offerings were but the decision was unanimous.

I suspect that a book club of even more elderly men, who had distinguished themselves by discussing books while climbing Mt. Warning, felt collectively that they could emulate Mr. Schooler’s heroics and empathise with the challenges he met along the way.

The journey which forms the raison d’etre of Walking Home takes place in the spring of 2007. Mr. Schooler spent the next couple of years completing the manuscript. Walking Home was published in 2010.

At the time he embarked on the journey, Schooler lived on the outskirts of Juneau , the capital of Alaska. He was building a house that was a work of art. It was also a massive project and an exhausting physical challenge.

Schooler, for a long time, a confirmed bachelor had, in recent times, fallen in love and married at the age of fifty-two. His new wife soon found new work and had little time available to spend with the man who was building her the house of his dreams if not hers.

The physical strain of building wore Schooler down. The signs of later middle age thus brought to his attention comprised unwelcome news.

So Schooler did what every man with nearly forty years of tramping and guiding people through the Alaskan wilderness under his belt would do. He chose to embark upon a 170 mile sea journey in a small boat further south along the panhandle coast line of Alaska to the dangerous entrance to the anchorage of Lituya Bay . Once, having negotiated the sea journey, Schooler would tramp fifty miles north from Lituya Bay to Dry Bay, the almost lake which forms the mouth of the Alsek River . And back again. And, having regained the boat, he would, of course, have to safely exit Lituya Bay and redo the sea journey.

The solo nature of the journey multiplied the risks. On a tough trek, a twisted ankle or a slip and fall can be a great inconvenience. On a tough, solo trek, such a relatively minor mishap can have much greater ramifications. The considerations are particularly acute where the constraints and terrain are as severe as those found in the Alaskan wilderness.

Solo adventuring also adds to the logistical difficulties. One person has to carry all the weight needed to survive in the conditions. Necessities as basic as shelter, stove and fuel can be shared in a small group but must still be carried by a solo participant. Schooler spent many days calculating what he could leave and what was essential. After many changes of mind, notwithstanding the undoubted presence of bears on most parts of the foot journey, Schooler decided that a gun, heavy thing that it is, was not needed.

The friends whose opinions Schooler trusted told him that the undertaking was foolish even for a person of his experience and skills. And Schooler knew that they were correct. But humans have psychological as well as physical needs and this journey was what Schooler needed more than anything at this time of his life.

Walking Home , as a result, runs on three tracks. Lynn Schooler’s experiencing of the extreme conditions, and the failures and successes along the way, against the perceived crisis in his life, provides one important focus.

Schooler is an experienced observer of nature. A major source of pleasure for the reader is the description of birds, animals and plants against the backdrop of a unique geology and geography. Schooler understands and describes nature very well.

The third major element of Walking Home is the human history of the landscape through which he travels. Cenotaph Island in Lituya Bay, for many years in the early decades of the twentieth century, sheltered a kind hearted recluse, Jim Huscroft.

In 1786, Captain Jean-Francoise La Perouse , a French navigator, whose ships later visited Botany Bay before perishing on Vanikoro Island in the Solomons, lost to drowning 21 sailors whose longboats came too close to the breakers at the dangerous entrance to Lituya Bay.

On the walk towards Dry Bay, Schooler stops to cook a meal of spaghetti at Justice Creek . This ominously named location had been the site, at the turn of the twentieth century, of most unusual events. Five small time gold miners were looking to flag down a ship and return to Juneau before the onset of winter. After dinner, one night, one of their number entered their shelter firing a gun. The gunman, Martin Severts, killed one of his companions and injured another before being overpowered by husband and wife team, Hans and Hannah Nelson.

The disarmed murderer tied to a bunk. No ships came and winter descended. Hans and Hannah were forced to guard one of their companions and nurse another which made survival in the harsh conditions even more difficult.

Mr. Severts was as unhappy with the status quo as were his captors. He urged them to kill him. Hans and Hannah, however, would not allow themselves to engage in mob justice.

All four people, including Severts, voted to constitute themselves a local assembly. Hannah was appointed judge. Hans was appointed prosecutor. Severts was interrogated and confessed to his crimes including his intention to make off with their gold and to blame the killings on local Indians.

A trial was held. Judge Hannah found the prisoner guilty and sentenced him to die. The sentence was carried out.

Eventually, a ship named the Excelsior found the survivors and carried them to safety at Juneau where Hannah handed over the detailed notes she had taken of all the events.

A federal judge who presided over the then District of Alaska reviewed the notes and endorsed the lawfulness of the justice that had been handed out in the vicinity of the eponymous creek.

Walking Home tells in interesting detail these human stories. No doubt, as he relates, he reflected, on the trail, upon the fate of those who went before him. But the years of research, subsequent to the trip, have allowed Schooler to deepen his knowledge and share it with the reader.

In doing this, Schooler is living a common experience of the traveller. How often does the traveller return from the latest trip only to spend the ensuing months exploring the history and the culture of the lands that she has visited?

Importantly, Schooler’s decision to embark on a high risk and arduous journey as a means of dealing with life’s psychological challenges pays off. He survives with his life and finds resolution of sorts. No bear managed to eat him.

The resolution reflects a well worked meme. As did the shepherd boy in Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist , Lynn Schooler finds that the treasure lies at home. We often need to go away to discover that fact.

The significance and value of the web of ordinary things that surround us can be so easily overlooked.

Stephen Keim