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Alaska
Alaska is enormous. More than 586,400 square miles in size, it has over 3,000 rivers, 29 volcanoes, 100,000 glaciers, 33,000 miles of coastline, and over three million lakes, mostly unnamed.
So when I was asked to find one specific unnamed lake I knew I had my work cut out for me.
The dark-haired, middle-aged man looking for this unnamed Alaskan lake knew its approximate location but little else. And we carried over 100 detailed maps covering the state.
The map store brought in many visitors looking for Alaska maps. Because most people had a specific destination or location in mind, I could usually find what they were looking for. I knew how to conduct a routine search but this promised to be anything but routine. So I decided to find out what was so important about this particular lake.
“Are you planning a fishing trip to the area?”
“No, I am not planning a vacation trip.” A cloud of sadness passed over his face.
“Many years ago, when I was in graduate school, my professor took a small group of his students to this lake to camp and spend a week studying the evolutionary biology of large North American mammals—grizzly, black bear, wolves, and moose.
“We had to fly in to the lake, but all of us and our gear would not fit on one plane. So our professor sent us ahead with some of our gear. He was to follow on the next plane with the remaining bulk of the gear.
“We flew to this absolutely beautiful remote lake, unloaded our gear, and the plane turned around and flew back to pick up our professor. We set up camp at the edge of the lake and waited.
But the plane with our professor didn’t come.