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    Welcome to my PATh!

     

    "The path is the goal." - Chogyam Trungpa

     

    Hi! Thanks for stopping by! I have served the amazing Inupiaq and Yupik communities of the Arctic for 40 years, and humbly include some of my experiences in this website.

    I recognize that I have traveled anlived throughout the unceded te

    I am most excited to present

    The C.S. Holmes Project

    Seattle

     

     

     

    Captain Backland's Pier 5 in yellow, center.

    His office building once stood where

    the skyscraper on the far left now stands.

    Smith Tower, far right

    The Sea

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Aboard the schooner Zodiac

    Qikiqtagruk (Kotzebue)

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Percy Ipalook Jr. and his wife, Beulah

    Utqiagvik (Barrow)

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    I spent a day at the bowhead whale counting station on the Arctic Ocean. The crack on the right is the edge of shore-fast ice.

  • Introduction

    "We are always in the right place at the right time. The trick is recognizing and accepting that we are in the right place at the right time, and then taking advantage of the gift."

    Paraphrased from Warren Sitka, the Sourdough Journalist

     

    The Last Ice Dancer

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    An ethnohistorical dramatization

    based on the C.S. Holmes' 1936

    expedition to Arctic Alaska

    A book centered around the wooden windjammer C.S. Holmes got underway while I was at sea. In July of 2016, my daughter Mallory and I were using an Alaska Marine Highway ferry called the Columbia as a base camp for a three-day voyage through the Inside Passage from Juneau to Bellingham, Washington. We duct-taped our tent to the aft deck and spent a considerable amount of time sitting in the ship's white plastic chairs. From there, we witnessed breath-taking wildlife and scenery, observed the complexities of weather change, and smiled at fellow passengers as they walked about the boat.  

     

    On the second day, we invited a man named Brad Barker from the state of Washington to join us in conversation. Brad presented a wonderful story about his Uncle Clark, who had signed on as a crew member aboard the C.S. Holmes in 1936. This four-masted schooner traveled annually from Seattle, Washington to Barrow, Alaska, in the early 1900s, helping to supply remote coastal Arctic villages. Young Clark Runyan kept a diary and produced a photo album about his unique adventure.

     

    Brad told me about Captain John Backland Jr., the reputable Seattle-based merchant who ran the Midnight Sun Trading Company and owned the C.S. Holmes. He was a master navigator who piloted his craft though the hazardous and unforgiving arctic ice each summer. All other supply ships north of the Arctic Circle had installed engines decades before the 1930s. The C.S. Holmes was the only trading vessel going to Barrow without inboard mechanical propulsion. It was the "Last Ice Dancer."

     

    Brad expressed his desire to have a story written about his uncle's experiences aboard the C.S. Holmes. I enthusiastically volunteered. Narrative opportunities like this don't come around often.  

     

    Brad's initial thought was the creation of a historical novel. I embraced the idea of creating a book that told a story rather than one that presented academic-style non-fiction. But, the saying "The truth is stranger than fiction" certainly applied in this situation. There was no need for fabricated plot generation, so I moved toward the genre of "Ethnohistorical Dramatization." The liberties taken in this book are centered around the encorporation of true events from several previous cruises. All conversations created are based on; diary entries; personal correspendeces; biographical and autobiographical accounts; present day and historical interviews; newspaper and magazine articles; ethnographic and scholarly research publications; or widely known historic events.

     

    During my 30-year public school teaching career, I found a lack of authentic factual-based stories portraying northern and Arctic Alaska. I hope to fill part of that void by writing this book. I am honored and humbled to be in this position.

     

    Photo, upper right: The C.S Holmes courtesy Bainbridge Island Historical Museum.

     

    Photo, right: I took this picture on a walrus hunting trip with my in-laws. This was actually day two of my "honeymoon."

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    Research Details...

    My research highlights the interactions between the crew of the motorless wooden boat the C.S. Holmes and the resilient people of the remote Arctic during the late 1920s to the mid-1930s. It is full of Alaska Far North history.

     

    A philosophical belief that I have adopted is "the path is the goal." I'm finding such satisfaction researching this project, and I'm meeting the most amazing people along the way. I've gotten to know family members of the crew, including Captain Backland's children John and Nellie, Clark Runyan's son Pat and Grenville Broom's son George.  

     

    I've had the pleasure to "itangniyaq" (visit) with many Alaska Natives whose relatives knew Captain Backland. I got together with Perry Okpeaha Sr. at his Barrow home in August of 2017. Perry is the grandson of Claire Okpeaha. He told me his grandfather witnessed the Wiley Post/Will Rogers crash in 1935 near his seal hunting camp and ran to get help. Despite battling shore ice, soft sand, flowing creeks, and marshy tundra, the fifty-something-year-old Claire traveled over 12 miles from Walukpa Lagoon to Barrow in less than three hours. That act of physical prowess and bravery led to the world being alerted about the tragedy. The C.S. Holmes carried the plane's engine back to Seattle the next summer. I reenacted Claire's trek in August of 2017 (see photo below).

     

    I've met with relatives of Louis Tungwenuk, James Nilima, and Waldo (Kusiq) Bodfish Sr. - men who were reindeer herders in 1936. I've located the original trading posts of Charles Brower, James Allen, Tom Berryman, and Charlie Lockhardt. And, I've stood in the same church buildings Captain Backland once did.

     

    I've talked with family members of cultural trailblazers such as Percy Ipalook and Howard Rock, who were young men in 1936.  Both Percy and Howard would one day help shape the future of their Native people.

     

    The archives and museums have been fascinating places to visit. Nicolette Bromberg, a special collections curator at the University of Washington, provided the lead for a "second story" that propelled the project in its current direction. The furthest I've traveled was New Bedford, Massachusetts, where I met with renowned northwestern Arctic historian and author John Bockstoce.

     

    I've located first-hand accounts from four different crew members, three of Captain Backland's logs, and the 1936 pilot log of the Bureau of Indian Affair's North Star. Among my discoveries are a 21-minute, silent movie of the C.S. Holmes in action, lots of significant newspaper clippings, stacks of personal correspondences, and quite an assortment of old pictures. I've also acquired an extensive array of reference books. My digital collection contains over 40,000 items.

     

    In the summer of 2019, I honed my sailing skills by joining a ten-day cruise aboard the schooner Zodiac, which ventured from Bellingham, Washington to Desolation Sound in British Columbia. I worked on navigation skills using a sextant. I helped determine sea depth using a lead line and worked to assess boat speed using a chip log. But the most enjoyable aspect of the voyage was helping to sweat lines.

     

     

    Photo, right: In August of 2017 (the 82nd anniversary of the Wiley Post/Will Rogers plane crash) I retraced Claire Okpeaha's steps by running from the Memorial at Walukpa Lagoon back to Barrow. I used lightweight synthetic clothing, and sleek running shoes, and still couldn't match Claire's time, even though he ran in animal skin mukluks!

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    Lastly...

    I'm thankful for the help and support of my wife, Annie. She is Inupiaq and was born and raised on the shores of Port Clarence, a body of water the C.S. Holmes often visited on its yearly trip north. Annie has an Elementary Education degree and is a certified teacher. She most recently worked to revive her language by teaching a group of first graders in the Inupiaq Immersion Program. Her grandfather Otitituk was a herder at Teller Reindeer Station during the time the Backlands sailed north.

     

    An especially pleasing benefit of this endeavor has been developing an expanded knowledge of the region I have called home for nearly my entire adult life. During my four decades in the Far North, I have visited most of the places the C.S. Holmes supplied . Unfortunately, the trip I had planned to Point Hope in April 2020 was postponed. My wife and I are planning a trip there soon.

     

    I believe my collection of life experiences has prepared me well for this project. Every day I discover new information and come across fresh leads.

     

    This book is intended to support Inupiaq and Yupik cultural revitalization and language preservation.

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    Photo, right: I am hanging out on top of our home in Brevig Mission with my wife Annie and our son Emerson. Each year, our house would be nearly buried by drifting snow. The village of Brevig Mission sits on the site of the original Teller Reindeer Station.

     

    Photo, lower right: During the summer of 2018, my daughter Mallory and I walked nearly 70 miles from Teller Reindeer Station (now known as Brevig Mission) to Wales, Alaska, which lies at the westernmost tip of North America. When we arrived, the Ontowasruk family was corraling their reindeer herd. Along the way, we came across the Olanna reindeer men and women from Brevig Mission and saw two separate groups of deer in the mountains. On the last day of hiking, we stood on the summit of the 2300-foot Cape Mountain and looked out across the Bering Strait to the United States' Little Diomede Island and Russia's Big Diomede Island. We also spotted mainland Russian some 55 miles away, and Alaska's King Island to the southwest. From the top, I imagined the C.S. Holmes sailing past on her way to Barrow.. My daugher imagined what life might have been like for her ancestors on King and Little Diomede Islands.

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    A story about the C.S. Holmes published in the Summer 2020 issue of The Sea Chest, the journal of Puget Sound Maritime, can be found in MORE PUBLISHED WRITING SAMPLES below.

     

    If you would like to learn more about the project, or know of things I could add to the research, please email me at...

     

    Keith Conger - congo6@gci.net

  • Published Writing Samples

    Examples of my published work....

    "Perfection is a road, not a destination." - Burk Hudson

    Late Wednesday evening, reindeer herder Leonard "Sulook" Olanna sat waiting in his white-walled,...
    Read more...
    Esther Kimoktoak has the perfect name for an Iditarod sled dog race fan. "My name means 'pulling,...
    Read more...
    From the edge of the school gym in Wales, Alaska - sometime between late Sunday night and very...
    Read more...
  • PAST VOCATIONS

    "To Serve, to Strive, and not to Yield."

    The Outward Bound School motto.

    Adapted from the poem "Ulysses" by Alfred Lord Tennyson.

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    Public School Teacher

    1984 - 2014

    I have devoted nearly my entire adult life to serving the people of the Seward Peninsula as an educator. I spent my first teaching years in the remote Inupiaq village of Brevig Mission, Alaska. There I met my wife, Annie. We left the region for five years while she completed an Elementary Education program. She became the first person from her village to earn a college degree in five years and recently retired after teaching for 31 years. Her last position was as a kindergarte/first grade teacher in an Inupiaq language immersion setting at Nome Elementary School. We taught together in Brevig Mission for seven years before moving to Nome.

     

    Teachers must be versatile in Alaska's bush. I have worked with students of every grade level and in every subject, ranging from kindergarten to high school algebra, geometry, and biology. My favorite position, however, was being a first-grade teacher.

     

    During my career, I coached cross-country skiing, cross-country running, wrestling, basketball, and volleyball. I guided three co-ed volleyball teams from Brevig Mission to district titles and helped the Nome girls claim the 123A West State Volleyball Championship in 1999.

     

    I retired in 2014, thus concluding a teaching career in rural Alaska that spanned 30 years.

     

    (Photo: Three-week Experiential Learning Block. The high school students of Brevig Mission built two traditional replica King Island kayaks with Marc Daniels and me in 1995. The entire student population was involved in the project, and came out to celebrate the finished products.)

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    Emergency Medical Technician (EMT)

    2010 - 2014

    While with the Nome Volunteer Ambulance Department, I attained Alaska's EMT-2 certification. I also obtained National Certification as an EMT 1. During my tenure with the NVAD, I responded to a variety of emergency calls.

     

    [Photo: Annual Christmas Eve present delivery to needy children. EMT Santa Keith with one of his reindeer (Mallory Conger) and an elf (Annie Conger), 2012]

  • SKI and biathlon coach

    "A pair of skis are the ultimate transportation to freedom"  - Warren Miller

     

     

     

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    Nome Nordic - 2005 to present

    Visit Nome Nordic website at www.nomenordic.mystrikingly.com

    Nome Nordic provides healthy winter activities for young people in Nome. Our club raises 100% of our funds. Our coaches are all volunteers. We use the sports of skiing and biathlon to encourage lifelong access to the outdoors. Nome Nordic has been a proud member of the Western Interior Ski Association (WISA), which coordinates the rural state ski and biathlon championships.

     

    Our competitive racers have had success at many levels. We have had nine athletes win WISA Skimeister Awards, and our squads have taken home 18 WISA Team Trophies. Our athletes have competed in the United States Youth/Junior Team Trials for the World Championships in 2008, 2015, 2016. 2017, 2018, and 2019. Nine of our members have participated in the Arctic Winter Games. Their travels have included: Nuuk, Greenland; Yellowknife, Northwest Territories; Grand Prairie, Alberta; Whitehorse, Yukon Territories: and Fairbanks, Alaska.

     

    (Photo: Members of Nome Ski and Biathlon at the 2014 United States Youth/Junior Team Biathlon Trials for the World Championships

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Journalist/Newspaper Photographer

    "Journalism is literature in a hurry."   -  Matthew Arnold

     

     

     

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    The Nome Nugget Newspaper

    June 2014 - April 2017

    The Nome Nugget newspaper is an independently owned newspaper based in Nome, Alaska. While working for "the oldest newspaper in the state," I covered local, regional, and some state-wide sports, as well as other events around the Bering Strait region. I was a member of the Nugget staff for nearly three years before embarking on the C.S. Holmes Project.
     
    I was proud to write for longtime owner and editor Nancy McGuire. The late Ms. McGuire also had me process Nugget photos, and produce some of the weekly layouts (see below). Ms. McGuire paid me one of the greatest compliments a writer can get when she stated, "you write clean copy."
     
    I owe special thanks to the Nome Nugget's lead reporter Diana Haecker (now the owner and editor) for encouraging me to become a journalist. Diana helped me get comfortable with producing high-quality stories and layout under the pressures of weekly deadlines. Both Ms. McGuire and Ms. Haecker carried a passion for, and understood the importance of, running a small, independently-owned paper in rural Alaska.
     
    (Photo: I did anything to cover a story - like shooting the Nome River Raft Race up close from a kayak using my small, waterproof camera.)
     
    To read some of my articles, Go to MORE PUBLISHED WRITING SAMPLES above. To see samples of layouts I produced, see LAYOUT EXAMPLES below. To see a few of my favorite pictures, go to PHOTO PORTFOLIO below.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Alaska Press Club Awards

     

    “Winning isn’t getting ahead of others. It’s getting ahead of yourself."

    Roger Staubach.

     

     

     

     

     

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    Backcountry Travel Educator

    "Life is a great adventure, or nothing." - Helen Keller

    I recognize that I have traveled and lived throughout the unceded territories of the Indigenous Peoples of North America. I acknowledge the ancestral & present land stewardship and place-based knowledge of the peoples of these territories. I have purchased an App from Native Land Digital in order to better understand the history of places I have been bessed to visit.

     

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    1977 - Present

     

     

    My greatest passion in life is spending time in the less polluted and crowded areas of the world. I have been seeking "the Road Less Traveled" for over four decades. My first self-guided adventure was a solo, 300-mile, six-day bike tour from Wisconsin to Michigan (utilizing the Lake Michigan Ferry) at the age of 16.

     

    I have worked as a ski instructor at Smuggler's Notch Resort in Vermont, as a tour guide for Vermont Bicycle Tours, as a whitewater canoe instructor in Maine for Hurricane Island Outward Bound School, and as a sea kayak guide in Glacier Bay National Park for Alaska Discovery.

     

    For 15 years, I owned and operated Bearing C Bikes, a local bicycle repair, and sales shop. Also, for several summers, I was the proprietor of INUA Expedition Company of Nome (see below), an outfit that utilized local Inupiaq guides to bring small groups through the Seward Peninsula's Imuruk Basin via sea kayak.

     

    I love to get out into the backcountry with friends and share adventures with my daughter Mallory.

     

    (Inset Photo: Members of the 2017 Imuruk Basin Expedition on a seven-mile crossing from the Agiapuk River to Canyon Creek, where the 1933 Hollywood movie production "Eskimo" was filmed.)

     

     

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    YouTube Video:

    a Circumnavigation of the Kigluaik Mountain Range

    Skush Puppy Productions presents...

    A multi-event, multi-element, human (and dog) powered adventure story.

    Spring/Summer 2020

     

     

     

     

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    Youtube Video

    Skush Puppy Productions presents....

     

     

     

     

    Inupiaq Kayaker in North Carolina

    My daughter Mallory is a descendant of the Ugiuvakmiut. The people of King Island were noted for their rough water kayaking skills. Mallory loves to paddle the craft that was once essential to the Inupiaq of the Far North. She currently works as a sea kayak tour guide for Southeast Exposure in Ketchikan.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Life Experience Resume

    "Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning." 

    Thomas Edison

    Keith William Conger

    PO Box 1333

    Nome, Alaska

    (907) 434-2268 (Text and Cell)

    congo6@gci.net

     

    EMPLOYMENT

    • The C.S. Holmes Project: The Last Ice Dancer, Freelance Writer, 2016 - present
    • Nome Nugget Newspaper – Writer for the Nome Nugget Newspaper. June 2014 - April 2017
    • Nome Public Schools, Nome, AK - Duties have included setting up, and teaching in, a charter school, teaching High School Math, teaching first, as well as fifth – eighth grades. 1998-2014
    • Bering Strait School District, Brevig Mission, AK - Duties: High School Science, including Biology; all subjects in the Middle School, and K-2, plus coaching duties. 1984-86, 1991-98
    • HS Volleyball Coach – Brevig Mission (Co-ed), 1984, 1991-1995; Nome (Girls), 1999-2001, 2003-2004, AK State Champions 1999, ASAA Region I Co-ed Volleyball Coach of the Year. 1992, 1994

     

    COLLEGE DEGREE PROGRAMS

    • Johnson State College, Johnson, VT - BS Biology, Summa Cum Laude. Graduation, May 1991
    • University of Wisconsin, Madison. BS Elementary Education (Area of Concentration - Math). Graduation – Dec 1983

     

    OUTDOOR EMPLOYMENT AND EXPERIENCE

    • Bering C Bikes, Nome, Alaska - Owner and operator of a bike shop that specialized in repair, retail sales, and bike tours. 1994-2008
    • Nome Community Center – Outdoor consultant and kayak tour guide. Summers 2005 – 2006
    • Norton Sound Health Corporation, Passage Project, Nome, AK – Lead guide, and equipment specialist for a youth kayaking program. Summers 1996, 1997
    • INUA Expedition Company of Nome - Owner and operator of a sea kayak tour business that specialized in 8-day trips exploring the Imuruk basin.  Summers 1994-1996
    • Alaska Discovery Inc., Juneau, AK - Guide, and Assistant Guide on 5-8 day, wilderness adventure sea kayak trips around Admiralty Island and Glacier Bay National Park. Summers 1992, 1993
    • Smuggler’s Notch Ski Area and Resort, Jeffersonville, Vermont - Duties included: Head Ski Instructor for the children’s program (ages 3-12), and adult ski instructor. Winter 1988, 1989
    • Vermont Bicycle Touring, Bristol, VT - Duties included leading 3-day, and 5-day van supported Inn-to-Inn bike trips throughout the state of Vermont. Fall 1988
    • Hurricane Island Outward Bound School, Rockland, Maine - Assistant instructor on 2, month-long, multi-element, expedition-style courses (team building, backpacking, map/compass, flat and whitewater canoeing, rock climbing, ropes course). Summer 1988
    • City of Sheboygan, Sheboygan, WisconsinLifeguard. Summers 1979-1983

     

    VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE

    • Arctic Winter Games, Board of Directors, October, 2022 - July 2923; Wood Buffalo, Mission Staff, January/February, 2023; Hay River, Northwest Territories, Canada, Ski Biathlon Team Head Coach; Whitehorse, Yukon Territories, Canada, Snowshoe Racing Team Assistant Coach, March 2012; Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada,voluntter helper at biathlon range, March 2008
    • Nome Public Schools, Nome, AK. School Board member. Elected October 2015 - April 2017.
    • Nome Volunteer Ambulance Department, on-call volunteer. 2010 – 2014
    • Western Interior Ski/Biathlon Association. President of a group that promotes rural Alaskan skiing and biathlon, including the rural state championships. Winter 2008 - Spring 2024.
    • Nome Ski and Biathlon Club, Nome, AK. Volunteer, Cross Country Ski and Biathlon Club Head Coach, ages 6 – 18. 2005 – Present
    • Nome Sportsman’s Association, Nome, AK. Board Member of a group that helped establish and maintain Nome’s shooting range. 2008 – Present
    • Boy Scouts of America, Nome, AK. Started and maintained a boy scout troop, acted as Scoutmaster, 2004 -2006
    • Special Olympics Alaska, Nome, AK – Ski coach for a Special Needs Girl. Winters 2002 - 2005
    • Sadler’s Ultra-Challenge, Parks Highway, AK – 5-day, 250-mile wheelchair-race. Support driver for a racer. July 2004
    • Brevig Mission Kayak Club. Brevig Mission, AK. Suicide Prevention Project Coordinator. Building and paddling plywood and traditional Eskimo kayaks with Brevig Mission youth. 1994-1997
    • Ski-For-Light Program, Madison, WI – Cross Country Skiing with visually handicapped individual. Winter 1988

     

    EXPERIENTIAL EDUCATION TRAINING

    • National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians (NREMT), EMT -Basic, Initial certification 2012, recert. March 2014.
    • Norton Sound Regional Hospital, Nome, AK, Emergency Medical Technician 2. Dec. 2010, recert. February 2012.
    • Norton Sound Regional Hospital, Nome, AK, Emergency Medical Technician 1. February 2010
    • United Bicycle Institute, Ashland, Oregon, two-week bicycle maintenance course. June 1994
    • George Gronseth’s Sea Kayak Academy, Seattle, Washington - Advanced Skills. June 1994
    • Professional Ski Instructors of America, Vermont. (PSIA-East) Registration Clinic, Associate Certification Clinic, Children’s Instructor Seminar. Winters 1988, 1989
    • National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), Lander, Wyoming. Two-week Wind River Rock Climbing Course, with instruction and practice in lead climbing. July 1987
    • National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), Palmer, AK. 30-day Mountaineering Course, with ice climbing, glacier travel, and peak ascents. June 1985

     

    VARIOUS PERSONAL EXPEDITION EXPERIENCES

    • Imuruk Basin, Eleventh pilgrimage by kayak from Kougarok Road to Teller Road, July 2020
    • Nome to Teller, "Door-to Door." Packraft Sinuk River, then fat-tire bike to Teller. Used Teller Highway as access. 180 miles, July 2013
    • Salmon Lake Derby, Nome, AK. 150-mile, 3-day dog sled race. Winter 2005
    • Nome - White Mountain and back – 4-day, Hut-to-hut, 150-mile skijor expedition. Winter 2002
    • Mount McKinley, AK - Muldrow Glacier Route. Organizer of food, equipment logistics. June 1989
    • Bike Tour. Leader of 2-person, Wisconsin to Boston trip. (WI to VT in the first five days – Avg. 170 miles per day) . June/July 1986
    • Solo Bike Tours. WI to Michigan; three 6-day, 300-mile bike tours. (starting at age 16). 1977 - 1981

     

    NATIONAL PUBLICATIONS

    • Cross Country Skier Magazine. “The Western Interior Ski Association,” October 2009
    • Mushing Magazine. “A Ski Coach Sees His Team Go to the Dogs,” June 2006
    • Mushing Magazine. “Crosskates: Skatejoring in the North,” Sept/Oct. 2003
    • Mushing Magazine. “Innovation on the Bering Sea Coast,” March/April 2003
    • Sea Kayaker Magazine. “Alaska’s Imuruk Basin,” Dec. 1995

     

    GRANT WRITING

    • NRA Foundation. Biathlon Grants, in the range of $3100 - $10,500. Spring 2013, 2016, 2017, 2018
    • The state of Alaska, the Department of Alcohol and Drug Abuse. Suicide Prevention Grant, averaging $10,000 per year. 1994-1997
  • Favorite Quotes and Short excerpts

    "Temet Nosce"

    (Know Thyself)

     

    "Nothing really matters unless you have a code."

    Brian O'Connor, Fast and Furious

     

    The Goal (unknown author)

    Set a goal so big you can't achieve it until you grow into the person who can.

    Three Kings (movie)

    Archie: You're scared, right?

    Conrad: Maybe.

    Archie: The way it works is, you do the thing you're scared shitless of, and you get the courage AFTER you do it, not before you do it.

    Conrad: That's a dumbass way to work. It should be the other way around.

    Archie: I know. But that's the way it works.

    Gemini Man (line by Will Smith)

    This thing you are struggling with is fear.

    Embrace it! And then overcome it.

    Willie Davis (Green Bay Packer Hall of Famer)

    The road to success runs uphill.

    John Holt (studied the "unschooling" approach to education)

    At one point a girl said that one of the things she did was to make candles, but that the only part of this she really likes was taking the finished product out of the mold - everything else leading up to this final step seemed only time-wasting, dull drudgery. In other words, "Disagreeable Hard Work." I said, " but why do you divide up in your mind in this strange way, your experiences of making candles? I should think it would be more natural to see the experience as one whole, and that if you like making candles, everything that you have to do to make them is also part of the experience, and therefore entitled to share in the pleasure of it."

    George Pocock (master rowing shell builder)

    And when you are rowing well, why it's nearing perfection. And when you near perfection, you're touching the Devine.

    Mahatma Gandhi (non-violent civil disobeyer)

    When I was growing up, in our temple the priest used to read from the Muslim Koran and the Hindu Gita, moving from one to the other as if it mattered not which book was being read, as long as god was being worshipped.

    The Lord's Prayer

    ..... Give us this day, our daily bread,

    and forgive us our trespasses

    as we forgive those, who trespass against us......

    Sixteenth Karmapa (spiritual leader, Karma Kagyu lineage, Tibetan Buddhism)

    You are going to die. And you're not going to take anything with you except your state of mind. You die, but your state of mind continues. (paraphrased by Pema Chodron)

    MI-5 (movie)

    If I'd given up the fight the moment I realized I was on the losing side, my career would have been a short one.

    Zorba the Greek (a book by Nikos Kazantzakis)

    It is better to be a lean moorhen on a pond,

    than a well-fed sparrow in a cage.

    Pema Chodron (Gampo Abby, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia)

    When we're not caught in the trap of hope and fear, we intuitively know what's the right thing to do. If we're not obscuring our intelligence with anger, self-pity, or craving, we know what will help and what will make things worse. Our well-perfected emotional reactions cause us to do and say a lot of crazy things. We desire to be happy and at peace, but when our emotions are aroused, somehow the methods we use to achieve this happiness only make us more miserable. Our wishes and our actions are, all too frequently, not in sync. Nevertheless, we all have access to a fundamental intelligence that can help to solve our problems rather than making them worse.

    Will Rogers (humorous social commentator)

    Don't let yesterday use up too much of today.

    From Laurel's Kitchen (Laurel Robertson, Carol Flinders and Bronwen Godfrey)

    I remember reading a story once about a woman who was a terrible housekeeper. Someone gave her a beautiful lily which she brought home and put in a vase in her parlor. The lily, though, showed up the vase for being all tarnished and dusty. She took the vase and polished it, only to see the table it sat on now looked terrible and had to be cleaned as well. At last, she stood back and contemplated the gleaming table and white lily in satisfaction - but then the parlor itself was dim and murky by comparison. Before she knew what had happened, she was scrubbing down the whole house, washing curtains, throwing open windows, letting air and light pour into every dark corner.

    Metaphor from glade skiing (learned this in Smuggler's Notch, Vermont)

    Look at tree, hit tree.

    Vince Pierce (the catfish)

    They used to tank cod from Alaska all the way to China. They'd keep them in vats in the ship. By the time the codfish reached China, the flesh was mushy and tasteless. So this guy came up with the idea that if you put these cods in these big vats, put some catfish in with them and the catfish will keep the cod agile. And there are those people who are catfish in life. And they keep you on your toes. They keep you guessing, they keep you thinking, they keep you fresh. And I thank god for the catfish because we would be droll, boring and dull if we didn't have somebody nipping at our fin.

    Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (civil rights activist)

    Cowardice asks the question, is it safe?

    Expediency asks the question, is it politic?

    Vanity asks the question, is it popular?

    But conscience asks the question, is it right?

    And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular,

    but one must take it because it is right.

    Benjamin Franklin (writer, philosopher, politician, scientist, inventor, civic activist)

    Sell not liberty to purchase power.

    Martin Luther King (brave man)

    Never, never be afraid to do what’s right... Society’s punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.”

    KW Belunker (philosopher)

    I cannot control the weather.

    I can only control my preparation for, and thus, my response to, the weather.

    Lao-Tsu (founder of philosophical Taoism)

    Respond intelligently, even to unintelligent treatment.

    Pema Chodron (philosopher)

    Use others poisonious treatment as your medicine.

    Russel Crowe (as Robin Hood)

    We can't repay our good fortune,

    with bad grace.

    It invites darkness.

    John F. Kennedy 

    (paraphrasing a Charles Frederic Aked quote)

    The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

    Steve Biko (Anti-apartheid Activist)

    It is better to die for an idea that will live, than to live for an idea that will die.

    Pema Chodron (Tonglen Practitioner)

    There's a Zen story in which a man is enjoying himself on a river at dusk. He sees another boat coming down a river toward him. At first, it seems so nice to him that someone else is also enjoying the river on a nice summer evening. Then he realizes that the boat is coming right toward him, faster and faster. He begins to yell, "Hey, hey, watch out! For Pete's sake, turn aside!" But the boat just comes right at him, faster and faster. By that time he's standing up in his boat, screaming and shaking his fist. Then the craft smashes right into him and he learns that it's an empty boat.

    Pema Chodron (Tonglen Practitioner)

    The Wolf that Wins - There was a story that was widely circulated a few days after the attacks of September 11, 2001, that illustrates our dilemma. A Native American grandfather was speaking to his grandson about violence and cruelty in the world and how it comes about. He said it was as if two wolves were fighting in his heart. One wolf was vengeful and angry, and the other wolf was understanding and kind. The young man asked his grandfather which wolf would win the fight in his heart. And the grandfather answered, “The one that wins will be the one I choose to feed.”

    I.G. Edmonds (multi-subject author)

    There is a famous Zen story about a man who went to a Zen master. He wanted to be taught Zen. The Zen master said nothing but began to pour a cup of tea for his visitor, using a cup that was already full. The extra tea overflowed and ran across the table to drip on the rice-mat covered floor. Still, the Zen master kept pouring until the pot was empty. Then he spoke at last. "You are like this cup," he said. "You are full. How can I pour Zen into you? Empty yourself and come back."

    Benjamin Franklin Gates

    (National Treasure, quoting the Declaration of Independence)

    ... if there's something wrong, those who have the ability to take action have the responsibility to take action.

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    Keith Conger
    Nome, Alaska