Back in Business!!

After a nine month hiatus, the Factual Dog has officially reopened its doors.

As some of you may recall, we promised that the re-launching of this blog would be accompanied by a new moniker. Upon many hours of deep reflection and deliberation, we decided to retain The Factual Dog on our masthead. True, the Dog does not live with us anymore. She is happily ensconced in a new dog house about 75 miles away. She is being well taken care of and is feisty as ever. Yet, the fact that she is no longer here has no material bearing on our ability to produce a quality product.

You see, the Dog never actually talked to us. Simply put, she was – and is – an animal: a furry, constantly shedding, tail wagging pooch. This may come as a shock to our readers; but we were merely using her as a cheap literary device to represent our own alter-ego in an allegorical dialogue between two imaginary parties.

Now that we have that off our chests, some further disclosure is in order. A few weeks ago, we posted a topographic map under the heading “Into the Wild”. No explanation was given. The significance of this map is that it shows the route that we will be hiking in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park on August 15-19. We are very much looking forward to this adventure. As a special treat to our readers, we will be keeping a log of this trip, which will be posted in its entirety along with plenty of photos upon our return.

In the meantime, we will be very busy with preparations for the trip. We have wanted to do something like this for our entire lives, and now is the opportunity. Still, there is a fine line between an exhilarating outdoors experience and disaster. The best way to keep on the safe side of that line is to be prepared for every possible contingency. Dangers include hypothermia, disorientation, injury from a fall or rock slide, stream crossings, and encounters with aggressive moose or bears. We take these risks extremely seriously, and are taking every measure to ensure our safety. No corners are being cut.

We have had an exceptionally rough year, and need a break. We urge you to not misunderstand us – we do not want to “escape” from anything or put ourselves at unnecessary risk. We want – we need - fresh air, open spaces, complete solitude and a truly unique physical and mental challenge.

We read Into the Wild, which described the ultimately deadly journey of a troubled man into the woods in Alaska. We also saw “Grizzly Man”, which was also about an end-of-the-roader who rejected society in favor of living with bears in the Alaskan bush. He eventually became their meal. We understand, to an extent, some of the motivation and even pathology of these men. But they were completely off balance, and did not care whether they lived or died. The complete opposite is the case with us. Those men saw Alaska as the end of the road. For us, Alaska is just another place that the long road passes through.
Keep checking in, and we’ll post all the details as soon as we get back