A Dream Runs Through It | A YETI Dispatch Story on Kate Crump's Alaskan Fishing Lodge in Bristol Bay

Ambassador Kate Crump and Justin Crump were looking for a sense of purpose. They found one in the middle of nowhere.

The Naknek River’s blue-green waters flow in smooth sheets as the sun’s reflection winks up at our lodge’s upper deck. It’s early, but the sun has already tracked up and over the hills on the opposite bank: a quintessential Alaska summer sun. From here I can see the tops of the guest cabins peeking through dense greenery as they cling to the side of the bluff. Our lodge, The Lodge at 58° North, is perched on an inside bend upriver from Bristol Bay, just outside of Katmai National Park. These waters hold ocean-bright salmon, arctic char, grayling and trophy rainbow trout, while the land hosts brown bears, moose, caribou, foxes, and countless other wild species. Looking over our bluff, knowing what it took to get here, I never take these views for granted.

I began guiding in Bristol Bay back in 2008, and I learned then how this place is like a mirror into the past, an image of what North America used to be. Up here, the inland riverbanks are more or less the same as they were 100 years ago. Populations have increased minimally, and industrialization is held at bay by protected lands, national parks, and natural barriers. Even with changing ocean conditions, protected headwaters have allowed salmon populations to flourish. Each year we get to watch the runs bring the bounty of the sea inland. When you walk the banks of the Naknek at the end of a run, the river looks like a sockeye graveyard. But every carcass is rich with nutrients the land needs. The salmon runs are ingrained in the history, the culture, the industry, and the very soil of this place. Without the salmon, this area won’t survive.

During a salmon run, you can feel the wildness of nature and its seasonal revolutions — you’re fully in it. I think that’s the main reason why The Lodge at 58° North actually came to be. I was guiding, driving the jet boat up the winding Naknek, when I spotted the patch of land where the lodge would eventually stand. Something about that bend in the river just drew me in. It was as if the old-growth trees and salmon-rich waters were inviting me to stay a while. How could I argue? Minutes from the rainbow fishing grounds, smack dab in the middle of salmon fishing grounds, and just above the tidewater. In the middle of all that abundance, I remember thinking to myself, “Wow, this is the best spot on the river.”

Everyone has defining moments in their life. For me, those moments arrive in a visceral experience of a warm light, like a beacon in my soul is letting me know I’m on the right path. I might feel utterly lost, but then something unexpected happens, and if that beacon lights up, I know I’m where I’m supposed to be.

The first time I experienced this light was after years of listlessly pursuing a life that wasn’t mine...read the full Dispatch Story Here: https://www.yeti.com/stories/lp-a-dre...

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