For seventeen weeks, Miles Nolte used his laptop and a satellite connection to log his semi-daily account of what it's really like to be a fly fishing guide on a remote Alaskan river. Sitting in his tent above a river packed with migrating salmon and gluttonous trout, he wrote about anglers that he enjoyed guiding and others that he couldn't wait to get rid of. He described epic fishing days and days of bitter disappointment. He typed about wolves and eagles and beavers and bears. Lots of bears. The result was his book The Alaska Chronicles (Departure Publishing, 216 pages), which came out to lots of praise earlier this year.
This week on MidCurrent we publish the chapter "Characters" -- just a small sample of Nolte's equitable but unsparing take on guides, clients, and his own foibles.
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