32 Weeks Pregnant & Stranded in the Alaskan Wilderness

It’s taken me five years to write this. Maybe longer to fully process it.

I was hired to photograph a remote lodge deep in Wrangell–St. Elias, the largest designated wilderness in the United States—nearly 10 million acres of backcountry, mountains, and nothingness. Yosemite, by comparison, is a sliver. The lodge, grandfathered into a forgotten edge of this protected area, sits at the end of a bush plane flight with no road in, no road out.

The plan was to stay three weeks. I’d photograph guests fishing and hiking, flying in and out of glacier valleys. Lindsey—32 weeks pregnant at the time—and our two-year-old daughter came with me. It felt like a dream assignment: wild beauty, a rare photographic opportunity, and a last adventure before our family grew by one.

That changed on day three.

One of the three bush planes crashed while trying to land on a remote island beach—no one was hurt, but we were suddenly short a plane. With only two aircraft remaining, there was no way to extract everyone. So three of us stayed back to secure the downed plane from the incoming tide and wait six hours for a pickup.

I volunteered. I was eager for the adventure, eager to be useful. Lindsey and Norah stayed behind at basecamp, completely unaware.

Hours later, a red Piper Super Cub came in low—six hours too early. It touched down fast, barely braking. The pilot leaned out and shouted before the wheels even stopped:
“Get in! Get in! Go, go, go!”

No explanation. Just urgency. The four of us crammed into a three-seat plane and took off over the icy Pacific, dodging driftwood and cliffs. Back on the mainland, we regrouped. A fast-moving storm was coming in, and the pilot—going against protocol—decided to evacuate everyone before weather shut us in completely. We loaded two planes and flew over sharp ridgelines and glacial expanses just before visibility disappeared.

They wouldn’t get back to Kayak Island for ten more days to retrieve the downed plane.

The lodge had no guests now. Weather had spooked them all off. And with no one to subsidize my work, we were quietly stranded—tucked into a beautifully isolated, increasingly strange paradise. After a couple weeks pacing the same trails, the crew offered us a chance: a 24-hour drop-off at a trapper cabin even deeper in the wilderness.

I said yes.

The cabin sat on a slope between a glacial river and a near-vertical mountain. A shack, really—one window, no insulation, no running water. As soon as the plane lifted off, we were alone on a scale that’s hard to describe. Beautiful. Silent. Utterly detached from the rest of the world.

Until the weather turned again.

At first it was fog—creeping, then surrounding. We woke the next morning to a whiteout. No plane could land. At 9:00 AM we heard one circling overhead, unable to touch down. Our food supplies were minimal. We hadn’t packed to get stuck. No electricity, no heat. Lindsey was nearly eight months pregnant, and our toddler didn’t understand why we couldn’t go home.

The following morning was the same. And the day after that. The fog thickened. The satellite phone blinked with a single bar of battery. We rationed food. I watched Lindsey start to have light contractions. We had no trail out—only a theoretical four-day trek with no real gear to do it. No animals. No birds. No sound but the glacier groaning in the valley.

That kind of silence shifts something in you.

By day four, I walked to the edge of the clearing and saw it—a tear in the white. A narrow slit of blue down the valley. I sprinted to the sat phone. One call. One chance. The pilot had been camped out below, waiting for exactly this moment.

Minutes later, the plane emerged. Again, shouting before he stopped:
“Get in! Now! Go, go, go!”

Lindsey, carrying our daughter, ran uphill to meet him. We all piled in, took off from the wet grass, and threaded through the only break in the weather.

The shack disappeared behind us.

The emotions didn’t.

I will never forget the resilience of my wife or the quiet strength of my daughter. I’ve seen hunger and hardship before—in refugee camps, in places where food insecurity is systemic. But this was different. It was personal. I learned what it means to carry the weight of not being able to provide. To fear for the people you love with no backup plan.

It wasn’t the adventure I thought I was signing up for. But it was the one that changed me.

A man and a young girl standing outdoors on a mountain trail with a scenic mountain range in the background. The man is smiling and wearing outdoor gear, and the girl is dressed in a bright blue raincoat.
View from inside a small aircraft flying over a body of water with a distant shoreline, showing the pilot wearing yellow hearing protection and a red jacket.
A red and yellow seaplane parked on a gravel airstrip with children and adults nearby, a log cabin in the background, green trees, and blue sky with clouds.
A landscape with a field of dandelions in the foreground, a lake and green trees in the middle, and snow-capped mountains under a partly cloudy sky in the background.
Small vintage-style airplane with red and yellow coloring taking off from a wet runway
Photo taken from inside a helicopter cockpit, showing the view of a small island and water below, with the pilot partially visible on the right side.
View from inside a small airplane cockpit flying over a body of water with land in the distance.
A person's foot wearing a red and black sandal stepping in wet sand, leaving a footprint on the beach with seaweed and wet sand around.
Downed yellow airplane on rocky beach with two people standing nearby, mountains in the distance under a blue sky.
Two men in outdoor gear inspecting an upside-down yellow racing boat on rocky terrain with a body of water in the background.
An overturned yellow and red small aircraft on a barren beach with two people nearby, one holding a rope and the other walking away.
A yellow hovercraft with red accents and the registration L060N lies upside down on a rocky beach. Four people, some observing and some working, are around it. The beach is adjacent to a body of water with a forested hillside in the background under
Beach with two small seaplanes, one landing gear up and one on the ground, with several people preparing the planes on a clear day with a blue sky and green hills in the background.
A group of people working together to push a small yellow seaplane with a red stripe, which is grounded on a beach with scattered driftwood, against a background of lush green forest and a bright blue sky.
A small airplane flying low over a grassy, driftwood-strewn shoreline with snow-capped mountains in the background.
Small red and yellow propeller airplane on a rocky beach with driftwood and the ocean in the background.
The view from the cockpit of a small aircraft flying over snowy mountains with another aircraft visible in the distance.
Snow-covered mountain landscape with rugged rocky slopes and glacier.
Aerial view of snow-capped mountains and lush green valleys with a winding river.
A red and yellow small aircraft flying over green mountainous landscape with patches of snow.
A small red and yellow airplane with registration N1879A on a grassy field surrounded by mountains with snow-capped peaks, under a cloudy sky. Three people are near the airplane, one holding a camera.
Group of hikers walking on a mountain trail with snow-capped mountains in the distance under a blue sky.
Snow-capped mountain partially covered by clouds over dark hills in the foreground.
Two hikers with backpacks walking on a mountain trail with snow-capped peaks in the background.
Person relaxing on a mountain with snow patches, viewing distant snow-capped mountains, and a cloudy sky.
A man hiking outdoors with a young girl on his back, surrounded by grassy and rocky terrain.
A person wearing a blue sleeve writing on a map with a blue and white pen.
A person in a blue jacket and black cap walking through a lush forest trail with two dogs, surrounded by green trees and purple wildflowers, near a body of water in the background.
A young girl is playing with a husky dog on a grassy yard in front of a cabin with mountain scenery and snow-covered peaks in the background.
A beige vase containing a variety of colorful flowers, including white, purple, and pink blooms, placed on a dark textured surface with soft natural light highlighting the arrangement.
Snow-capped mountain range partially covered by clouds with a cloudy sky overhead.
Snow-capped mountains under a partly cloudy sky, with green valleys in the foreground.
A mountain landscape with snow-capped peaks in the distance and rolling hills in the foreground under a partly cloudy sky.
Helicopter on a mountain with snow-capped peaks and green rolling hills in the background under a cloudy sky.
A helicopter on a mountain ridge with snow patches, overlooking a range of snow-capped mountains and a cloudy sky.
Aerial view of a forested landscape with a river flowing through it, distant mountains in the background, and small buildings near the river's edge.
A vast landscape with multiple winding rivers flowing across dry, sandy terrain, with patches of green vegetation and a mountain range in the background under a cloudy sky.
A vast landscape of a river delta with winding waterways, forested areas, and mountains in the background under cloudy skies.
A man standing near a rustic wooden cabin in a forest, with camping gear and supplies around him.
Cloud-covered mountain with patches of snow and lush green vegetation.
A rustic wooden cabin with a red metal roof in a forest, with two children standing outside, one girl in purple watching and one person with a red jacket and backpack leaning over a chair near the cabin.
A woman holding a child on her back stands on a grassy hill with a mountainous landscape and cloudy sky in the background.
A woman and a child in rain jackets hiking on a rocky trail in a mountainous landscape with a glacier and cloudy sky in the background.