Author Description

Janette Riehle grew up in a world that most people cannot even imagine-it's a world that we "old-timers" up here sometimes call either "the old Alaska" or "the real Alaska." And it's a world that we will unfortunately never see again. Sled dogs, moose meat, fresh trout, log cabins and 7-year-old girls trapping beaver are all part of this delightful, hard-scrabble romp through the wilds of Alaska in the 1940s and 1950s. Ron Dalby, former editor of Alaska Magazine and author of Guide to the Alaska Highway. Born in Anchorage, Alaska, as the oldest of four children, Janette Riehle writes about the world in which she grew up. In 1945, her family began fishing for salmon on Cook Inlet. During Janette's next seven years, they lived on their fish site during the summers and on their remote trapline for the rest of the year, except for three winters which were spent in Palmer. Those unforgettable days were a time of enjoying childhood games and adventures, escaping dangerous close calls, living in a tent or a cabin, harvesting game, traveling by foot, boat, and plane, and learning to depend on their own resources and on one another in order to survive the sometimes harsh Alaskan wilderness. Janette is an ordained minister and a retired professional counselor. She and her husband, Wallace, have been married for 50 years and have three grown children and eight grandchildren.