The Editor’s Note: Experiencing Alaska for the first time and wanting more

There are two angler experiences I had abroad that I so would love to do again: catching delicious snapper o New Zealand’s Bay of Islands, and shore fishing amid the beauty of Lake Bled in Slovenia’s Julian Alps.

Will I ever get back to either? I’d like to say yes, but there are so many places in the world to visit and only so much time and means; so you never know, right?

But based on my conversation with Aaron Kindle, National Wildlife Federation Outdoors director of sporting advocacy, you can bet his recent first trip to Alaska won’t be his last. And how could you blame him?

Kindle and Mandela van Eeden, NWF Outdoors sporting communications coordinator, headed to Southeast Alaska to discuss with locals the e ects climate change will have on hunters and anglers (page 18) in the future. Kindle, who’s based in Colorado, talked to me about the impact the Last Frontier’s panhandle had on him – “Kind of a combination of awe and fulfilling some of what you think you know and what you didn’t know” – from the scenery to the people’s passion for preserving their lands to how damn good the local delicacies were. Sportswoman and Artemis ambassador Jodee Dixon, a guest on Kindle’s and van Eeden’s podcast, fed her guests a plethora of game meat and other local foods, including huckleberries, blueberries, watermelon berries and salmonberries found along hiking trails.

“It’s interesting that one thing that’s a little di erent from down here, all the best food is in people’s houses. People are so careful and into bringing home wild foods. Some people have fish and some have big game,” Kindle told me. “I thought it was pretty funny how hard it was to find a restaurant to get seafood up there. It was easier in Colorado to find a nice piece of seafood than it was up there.”

His short stay only satisfied Kindle’s appetite – literally and figuratively – so much. He’ll be back.

“There are so many things up there to do and we just touched a tiny little slice of it. I really want to see the Interior and want to see more of the ocean, and up more to the north I want to see the Brooks Range. The possibilities are endless.”

For me, this fall’s vacation days will take me back to one of my favorite previous destinations – Prague, in the country now known as Czechia (it was still the Czech Republic way back in 2010). But I won’t feel truly reunited until I’m once again in New Zealand and/or Slovenia fulfilling the destiny to catch those fish I missed the first time around. -Chris Cocoles

Aaron Kindle (right) and Mandela van Eeden (left) of National Wildlife Federation Outdoors were impressed on their August trip to the Last Frontier, particularly when connecting with locals like Matt Jackson of Southeast Alaska Conservation Council.