Mudflats and Fish Camps: 800 Miles Around Alaska's Cook Inlet

by Erin McKittrick

Mudflats and Fish Camps chronicles McKittrick's journey, along with her family, as they set out to hike and paddle the entire coastline of Cook Inlet, a distance of 800 miles. This is unconventional parenting in the extreme, bringing kids not just into the woods, but into quicksand, snow, and the realm of grizzlies! And while their story includes all the stubbornness, excitement, and sleet-in-the-eyes awfulness that comes from walking their way through the world, it also provides an intimate history of a wild and fascinating place and the people who call it home.

Genres: Nonfiction, Adventure, Memoir, Biography Memoir

224 pages, Paperback

Published February 23, 2017

About the author

Erin McKittrick grew up in Seattle, exploring the nearby Cascade Mountains with her family. She met her husband Hig at Carleton College, where she graduated with a BA in Biology in 2001. That summer, they took off on their first major Alaskan adventure together, and haven't looked back since then. Erin has a master's degree in Molecular Biology. In addition to writing, she works as a photographer, a jewelry manufacturer, for an environmental consulting firm, and runs a small environmental non-profit, Ground Truth Trekking, along with her husband. Ground Truth Trekking (www.GroundTruthTrekking.org) uses journeys like A Long Trek Home to explore the complexities of natural resource issues. She lives with her husband and son in Seldovia, Alaska, a 300 person village just off the end of the road system.

Reviews

[Steve Tompkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

What can I say? I’m an Alaskan, and I will always buy whatever Erin McKittrick writes, read it, and hoard it like a favorite seashell. Erin and Hig brought their pack raft into the Unalaska library and gave a talk, after paddling it across Umnak Pass. Probably no one reading this review knows what that means, but most of the people in the library that evening did. They are quiet, unassuming, rock stars, and I thank them for getting out there and ground truthing where most of us can’t. I walked out of the library feeling like I’d spent the evening with Shackleton. Rock. Stars.

[Steven Scribner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this story of a family that goes on an “expedition” around Alaska’s Cook Inlet by human power (on foot and in boats) alone. Each chapter highlights a different stage of the journey, and includes fascinating bits of history and beautifully-written descriptions of beaches, forests, mud flats, isolated villages, a couple of perilous moments, sea arches, and fields of fossils. At times I could almost feel the cold fresh breeze and smell the salt air. The children, ages two and four, add delightful commentary in the way that they see everything through different eyes than the adults (and to the four-year-old, everything is a dinosaur). One complaint is that some of the paragraphs seem tacked on to previous ones in a haphazard manner; it’s sometimes difficult to tell when the author has changed the subject until you’re lost in seemingly unrelated sentences. This, however, only happened a few times (maybe once every two chapters) and so it didn’t affect my general delight of the book. Worth a read if (or not) you’re interested in “extreme” outdoor adventures.

--Steven E. Scribner, author of the "Tond" series (fantasy) https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

[Melinda M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mudflats and Fish Camps: 800 Miles Around Alaska's Cook Inlet by Erin Mckittrickis an interesting story about the family's visits to the Alaska's Cook Inlet and the wilderness there. It is an interesting read with scientific and historical facts without the stories. It is well written. I enoyed learning about the Cook Inlet . Alaska is a unique place.

I received a copy thru a Goodreads Giveaway.

[Lea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Erin Mckittrick's Mudflats and Fish Camps is a sort of travelogue of a family trek travelling the shore of Cook Inlet with a toddler and four year old, interspersed with relevant scientific and historical tidbits, some specific to the locations through which they are travelling and some linked at more of a thematic level. This book is a quick and interesting read.

[Loretta Griffin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this idea (walking/kayaking around Cook Inlet with a 2 and 4 yr old) pretty unbelievable. Not that I didn’t believe they did it, but why would anyone do this? Then I went to Alaska and saw the area they traveled through. The idea came alive and more understandable as the family progressed and Erin shared more of her reasoning for taking this trip with her family.

[Loren · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this. I have the privilege of living in the Cook Inlet and i think it would be impossible to truly comprehend how fantastic of a journey this would be for anyone let alone a family. The writing is calm and quiet and understated in a way that many other adventure books are not despite this being a wildly more adventurous undertaking than most others I’ve read.

[L.C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great one from Erin! Reading to live vicariously.

[Paula Schumm · Rating 5 out of 5]

This memoir of a young family’s hiking/boating adventure around Cook Inlet in Alaska is fascinating. Recommended.

[Ana Zitzow · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. It is very well written and I love the adventures this family completes together. it's inspiring.