Muskegger: of or pertaining to muskeg.
About me: I am a journalist and a grad student in Fairbanks and became fascinated by muskeg the moment I stepped on my first forested Alaskan trail. It was unlike any other environment I’d experienced, with its layers of grass and soil and roots nearly impossible at times to wade through. No doubt a perfect metaphor for the way most brains work and the random nature of this Alaska blog.
I’m still a newbie to the Last Frontier, moving here from northern California in September 2006.
I grew up in Colorado Springs, Colo. and spent four years at Barnard College studying history and traveling to faraway places like Nepal, Kenya and Happy Camp, Calif. I’ve spent the better part of the past four years as a reporter and love all aspects of the community news business. I have a passion for unlikely and unusual occupations, quirky people, crime stories, politics, rushing rivers and environmental issues. I also secretly love spending hours in libraries reading ancient travelogues and hatching plans about where to go next.
Right now, it is the North that beckons and am very pleased to be here. I share a dry cabin surrounded by black spruce forest with a sweet brindle dog named Sadie. She doubles as my self-appointed body guard.
Oh, and I have the luxury of traipsing through muskeg every time I head to the outhouse.
-Brittany Retherford
