Try free for 30 days
-
The Call of the Last Frontier
- The True Story of a Woman's 20-Year Alaska Adventure
- Narrated by: Melissa L. Cook
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from Wish List failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy Now for $28.00
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also picked
-
Two Old Women
- An Alaska Legend of Betrayal, Courage, and Survival
- By: Velma Wallis
- Narrated by: Megan Tooley
- Length: 2 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Based on an Athabascan Indian legend passed along for many generations from mothers to daughters of the upper Yukon River Valley in Alaska, this is the suspenseful, shocking, ultimately inspirational tale of two old women abandoned by their tribe during a brutal winter famine.
-
The Trail
- A Novel
- By: Ethan Gallogly
- Narrated by: Jake Hunsbusher
- Length: 16 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Trail is a moving story of how nature helps us find what’s missing in our lives. The tale begins with Gil, who in the wake of his father’s death and recently fired from his job, agrees to accompany his father’s old hiking partner Syd on a month-long trek on the John Muir Trail. There’s just one problem: Gil hates camping and is woefully unprepared for the rigors of the journey. Moreover, he soon learns Syd may not survive the hike.
-
The Twenty-Ninth Day
- Surviving a Grizzly Attack in the Canadian Tundra
- By: Alex Messenger
- Narrated by: Alex Messenger
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This true-life wilderness survival epic recounts 17-year-old Alex Messenger's near-lethal encounter with a grizzly bear during a canoe trip in the Canadian tundra. The story follows Alex and his five companions as they paddle north through harrowing rapids and stunning terrain. Twenty-nine days into the trip, while out hiking alone, Alex is attacked by a barren-ground grizzly. Left for dead, he wakes to find that his summer adventure has become a struggle to stay alive.
-
-
I couldn’t finish this one
- By Anonymous User on 04-10-2023
-
Alaskan Retreater's Notebook
- One Man's Journey into the Alaskan Wilderness
- By: Ray Ordorica
- Narrated by: Stephen Bel Davies
- Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the fall of 1978, Ray Ordorica packed everything he thought he would need into his Toyota LandCruiser and drove north to Alaska. He came to a land he had never seen, to find something he wasn't even sure existed: a wilderness cabin he could use for a year or more to live, think, relax, read, and write. Ordorica found his cabin, fixed it up, and, although it was just an un-insulated 12- by 16-foot one-room log structure, he spent three winters in it in relative comfort.
-
-
thoroughly enjoyable
- By Josh van der vlugt on 16-06-2016
-
Island of the Lost
- Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World
- By: Joan Druett
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Auckland Island is a godforsaken place in the middle of the Southern Ocean, 285 miles south of New Zealand. With year-round freezing rain and howling winds, it is one of the most forbidding places in the world. To be shipwrecked there means almost certain death. In 1864, Captain Thomas Musgrave and his crew of four aboard the schooner Grafton wreck on the southern end of the island. Utterly alone in a dense coastal forest, plagued by stinging blowflies and relentless rain, Captain Musgrave inspires his men to take action.
-
-
excellent!
- By Nicola Carson on 21-01-2019
-
The Only Kayak
- A Journey into the Heart of Alaska
- By: Kim Heacox
- Narrated by: Matthew Josdal
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this coming-of-middle-age memoir, Kim Heacox, writing in the tradition of Abbey, McPhee, and Thoreau, discovers an Alaska reborn from beneath a massive glacier, where flowers emerge from boulders, moose swim fjords, and bears cross crevasses with Homeric resolve. In such a place Heacox finds that people are reborn too, and their lives begin anew with incredible journeys, epiphanies, and successes. All in an America free of crass commercialism and overdevelopment.
-
Two Old Women
- An Alaska Legend of Betrayal, Courage, and Survival
- By: Velma Wallis
- Narrated by: Megan Tooley
- Length: 2 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Based on an Athabascan Indian legend passed along for many generations from mothers to daughters of the upper Yukon River Valley in Alaska, this is the suspenseful, shocking, ultimately inspirational tale of two old women abandoned by their tribe during a brutal winter famine.
-
The Trail
- A Novel
- By: Ethan Gallogly
- Narrated by: Jake Hunsbusher
- Length: 16 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Trail is a moving story of how nature helps us find what’s missing in our lives. The tale begins with Gil, who in the wake of his father’s death and recently fired from his job, agrees to accompany his father’s old hiking partner Syd on a month-long trek on the John Muir Trail. There’s just one problem: Gil hates camping and is woefully unprepared for the rigors of the journey. Moreover, he soon learns Syd may not survive the hike.
-
The Twenty-Ninth Day
- Surviving a Grizzly Attack in the Canadian Tundra
- By: Alex Messenger
- Narrated by: Alex Messenger
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This true-life wilderness survival epic recounts 17-year-old Alex Messenger's near-lethal encounter with a grizzly bear during a canoe trip in the Canadian tundra. The story follows Alex and his five companions as they paddle north through harrowing rapids and stunning terrain. Twenty-nine days into the trip, while out hiking alone, Alex is attacked by a barren-ground grizzly. Left for dead, he wakes to find that his summer adventure has become a struggle to stay alive.
-
-
I couldn’t finish this one
- By Anonymous User on 04-10-2023
-
Alaskan Retreater's Notebook
- One Man's Journey into the Alaskan Wilderness
- By: Ray Ordorica
- Narrated by: Stephen Bel Davies
- Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the fall of 1978, Ray Ordorica packed everything he thought he would need into his Toyota LandCruiser and drove north to Alaska. He came to a land he had never seen, to find something he wasn't even sure existed: a wilderness cabin he could use for a year or more to live, think, relax, read, and write. Ordorica found his cabin, fixed it up, and, although it was just an un-insulated 12- by 16-foot one-room log structure, he spent three winters in it in relative comfort.
-
-
thoroughly enjoyable
- By Josh van der vlugt on 16-06-2016
-
Island of the Lost
- Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World
- By: Joan Druett
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Auckland Island is a godforsaken place in the middle of the Southern Ocean, 285 miles south of New Zealand. With year-round freezing rain and howling winds, it is one of the most forbidding places in the world. To be shipwrecked there means almost certain death. In 1864, Captain Thomas Musgrave and his crew of four aboard the schooner Grafton wreck on the southern end of the island. Utterly alone in a dense coastal forest, plagued by stinging blowflies and relentless rain, Captain Musgrave inspires his men to take action.
-
-
excellent!
- By Nicola Carson on 21-01-2019
-
The Only Kayak
- A Journey into the Heart of Alaska
- By: Kim Heacox
- Narrated by: Matthew Josdal
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this coming-of-middle-age memoir, Kim Heacox, writing in the tradition of Abbey, McPhee, and Thoreau, discovers an Alaska reborn from beneath a massive glacier, where flowers emerge from boulders, moose swim fjords, and bears cross crevasses with Homeric resolve. In such a place Heacox finds that people are reborn too, and their lives begin anew with incredible journeys, epiphanies, and successes. All in an America free of crass commercialism and overdevelopment.
Publisher's Summary
"I went to Alaska for a job and found a 20-year adventure!"
In 1995, schoolteacher Melissa Cook and her young family spent two years in the isolated Aleut village of Nelson Lagoon on the edge of the Bering Sea. They later settled in the Tongass National Forest on Prince of Wales Island, where they measured rain in feet. With humor, vivid detail, and heart-pounding excitement, Melissa recounts her family's daily joys, struggles, and captivating adventures.
Throughout the book, Cook weaves in historical information about Alaska's past, including the Aleut internment camps during WWII, old logging camps in southeast Alaska, and the sinking of the S.S. Princess Sophia in 1918.
For those seeking inspiration to chase their dreams and push beyond their limits, Cook's memoir is a must-listen. Her story is a testament to the resilience required to overcome adversity and the power of adventure to transform lives. This tale will surely delight Alaska adventure fans and anyone who has ever dreamed of traveling or living in the Last Frontier.
Critic Reviews
Western Horizon Award winner 2022
High Plains Book Award finalist 2022
"This book helped me live adventures I'll never have but desperately want." (Aaron Linsdau, polar explorer, best-selling author of Antarctic Tears)
"It's all here—living in bush Alaska, fighting off men, packing a pistol for bear protection, suffering the ravages of weather, flying with white-knuckled fear, facing down hundred-mile an hour winds as well as fearing erupting volcanoes. And that's only part of their journey. You had to be there. Oh, wait. Melissa's book takes you there." (Larry Kaniut, best-selling author of the Alaska Bear Tales Series)
"An inspiring story of strength and grit." (Ann Parker, best-selling author of Follow Me to Alaska)