Hodges, Jack

(About Above & Beyond) This book ushers the reader through unparalleled adventures in Alaska, Siberia and beyond. The author spent the first ten years of his career as a biologist, protecting bald eagle nests in Alaska. When New York asked Alaska for eaglets to repopulate their state, he led the capture effort. For the next 24 years, he was a pilot for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and flew low level wildlife surveys across Alaska, Canada and Russia. No other American pilot has flown a float plane over thousands of miles of Siberian tundra counting waterfowl and caribou. The Russian authorities accused him of stealing mastodon tusks. Tragedy stuck when his children were young. He shares his efforts to cope, becoming the first person to pedal a watercraft from Seattle to Alaska. These and many other adventures fill this memoir.