Community Corner

Bloomingdale Grad Recounts Year Alone On Alaskan Island

Chuck Baird completes his year on a remote island in Prince William Sound. How he lived, what he saw and his thoughts on the experience have been well-documented on Facebook.

It's been a year since Bloomingdale High School graduate Chuck Baird signed up for wilderness living on a remote island in Alaska, a journey he documented in words, photographs and videos, as seen on Chuck Baird's Alaskan Pioneer Facebook page.

The page is about "a modern-day adventurer," who "spends a full year alone on the uninhabited Latouche Island for an Alaskan winter of extremes."

"This was a dream he'd had for nearly two decades," writes Tampa Tribune reporter Yvette Hammett, in an Aug. 27, 2013 article posted on TBO.com. "He wondered how far he'd go before realizing he just couldn't do it. As it turns out, though, it never came to that."


According to the report, Baird, a 1990 Bloomingdale High graduate, now lives in Anchorage, Alaska, and recently arrived home after spending a year on the island in Prince William Sound, his dog, Wilson, his constant companion throughout the year-long adventure.

On July 21 at Alaskan Pioneer, Baird posted, "Day 365: Final Island Vlog," in which he recounts his thoughts on June 30, the day he expected to be his last on the island. "Taking a year off is a lot of time, so it's a pretty serious thing," he says. "It's not a bad way to spend you life."

Baird notes that there were very few things he missed out in the wilderness. "Really, people only, that's about it," he says. "But otherwise it’s very content, very happy."

His hopes were to back to a "regular life" and to "actually appreciate the things that are available more."

"Or maybe I just won’t care, he adds. "I can’t really miss them here, so what’s the difference, really. I don’t know. I’ll have to kind of process this whole experience for awhile and see what I think, what I’ve learned."

Overall, Baird notes, "It’s kind of good to take some time off sometimes and  just kind of relax and think things through, kind of when you’re not rushed all the time."

As Baird puts it: "You can’t hurry up and relax. You need some quiet."

Read more about Baird's upcoming projects and time on the island at Chuck Baird's Alaskan Pioneer Facebook page.


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