Riding the Wild Side of Denali

By Julie Collins and Miki Collins

Book Overview

Identical twins Miki and Julie Collins trap, hunt, fish, and garden in Alaska's wilderness just north of Denali National Park in Alaska's vast interior. Their closest companions are loyal sled dogs and Icelandic horses, which eat fish and can withstand northern extremes. Whether taking a 1,900-mile excursion around Alaska by dog sled, defending their huskies from a charging grizzly, or dealing with a panicked horse in an airborne plane, the Collins sisters offer a new perspective on life in the northland. Theirs is an unusual lifestyle even by Alaska standards.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 094539764X
• ISBN13: 9780945397649
• Release Date: April 1998
• Publisher: Epicenter Press
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Interesting book about Alaska and Icelandic Horses

I really enjoyed this book about the Collins sisters and their Icelandic horses in the wilds of Alaska. Since we have a cabin near Homer, Alaska, and I have an Icelandic horse--this book had lots of material of interest to me. Fascinating, interesting book--even if you don't have an Icelandic or a cabin in Alaska!

Excellent

What can you say?? AS always the Collins sisters give a humble yet riveting approach to bush life in Alaska. Unlike so many of the yuppies that take a two week trip somewhere and hurry back to suburbia to write about how they challenged the extremes of nature the Collins sisters simply live it. There is no bravado - just a matter of fact - this is what has to be done so we did it approach - that's what makes their writing so interesting to the common folk like me - it's not about them its about whatever they are doing - and therein lies the big difference between the yuppie on vacation and someone who lives what they are writing about.

Alaska wild and pure!

I read Miki Collins' Riding the Wild Side of Denali in one sitting on a cold November Yukon morning and dreamt about it for many days to follow. If you'd like to taste real adventure and feel the cold crispness of life on the Alaskan trail, grab this one! Here, Miki relates the empassioned tales, sometimes hair-raising, sometimes hilarious, that she shares with her twin sister Julie as they embark on their wildest dream (or folly!!), yet : that of utilizing Icelandic Fjord Horses on their remote trapline at the base of Mt. Denali, AK. If you'd like to find out what it takes to convince a bush pilot to fly a horse that would like to join him in the cockpit of his small plane, or want to read true tales of a modern day trapline, ran by two women, huskies and Icelandic Fjord horses, this is the book for you. Humour, respect for the animals, images of human determination and the natural beauty of the alaskan wilderness are the gifts Miki Collins will leave you with. Whether you are a wilderness, adventure or horse lover or dream of the North as the last frontier, you'll love it. It would also make a great gift for teenage girls: the Collins are true models of women becoming all they can be.