“I first started coming here across Cook Inlet from Ship Creek in Anchorage, visiting friends that were out here in about ‘76. My partner and I, he had been here a number of times before, and knew a number of people here, so we started spending more and more time coming over here.”

“My name is Wrangel Jensen. I’m 31 years old. I was born and raised here in Anchorage, and I pretty much grew up flying around the area with my dad, a lot of it in the West Susitna valley area.

When I started learning to fly, I was 16. I spent pretty much most of my building time (building hours to get a pilot’s license) in the airplanes in the Susitna Valley exploring the area and finding cool places.

I started flying for Trail Ridge Air in 2012, and I’ve spent the last 10, 11 years just servicing the area.”

“I'm Mike Mason, and I’m a lifelong Alaskan. I lived up in the Mat-Su Valley for most of my life and then I moved to Alexander Creek here in 1999, because I had this dream about living in the bush. I just figured it would be a weekend type thing. And within three months I moved here. I learned the way of life around here, and started boating. All the fishing back then was really good.”

"Almost 100% of my motivation for being out here in the West Susitna area is for my children. I want them to have a place to be kids and get away from town, and experience Alaska for what it really is. I think if projects like this continue, there won't be as many easily accessible spaces for people to get their children out and experience the same things.”

“I have a cabin in Deshka Landing, on the Susitna River. Originally it was my parents’. They bought the property when I was 10 or 11, but even before then, we would go up there all the time to do a lot of salmon fishing, and go camping there.“

“I graduated from college with a nursing degree, and I came to Alaska to pay off my scholarship. I wanted to go to New York, to a busy emergency room situation. But I went to Anchorage, and worked at the Alaska Native Medical Center in the ICU. There, I met my husband Carl, who was an audiologist. “

“I grew up in Colorado, and my family exposed us to fishing, and camping. As I got older, I spent more time in the woods, and I was 14 when I started really getting into fly fishing. The moment I did it I was hooked — pardon the pun.”