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Outdoor and Adventure travel in Alaska
Melissa DeVaughn is author of "The Unofficial Guide to Adventure Travel in Alaska," "Off the Beaten Path Alaska" and contributing writer to the Frommers destination book, "Dream Vacations".
She also writes a weekly outdoors column for the state's largest newspaper, the Anchorage Daily News. Her freelance work has appeared in numerous magazines and guidebooks, including Alaska, Canoe & Kayak, Backpacker, Alaska Airlines, Audubon, Women's Adventure and Mother Earth News. Her work has earned honors from Landmark Newspapers, Society of Professional Journalism and the Alaska Press Club.
Melissa is a former outdoors writer at the Anchorage Daily News and now spends her time freelancing full time. She has also worked as a features reporter, copy editor and news beat reporter over her 18-year journalism career.
Melissa graduated with a degree in English from Virginia Tech, in 1990, and fulfilled the requirements for a biology degree a year later. In 1993, she hiked the 2,100-mile Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. After that six-month long-distance hike, she moved to Alaska in search of new trails and tales to tell. She has lived here ever since.
Today, Melissa enjoys dog mushing and has a small team of huskies she runs from her Chugiak/Eagle River home. In the summer, she competes in road cycling races and goes camping wherever and whenever she can. Her writing ranges from accessible outdoor adventure such as camping with her children to off-the-beaten path treks such as dog mushing through wilderness to the west side of Denali.
The Unofficial Guide to Adventure Travel in Alaska
Second edition now in print: Read here for details
Guidebook-writing is tedious, technical and detail-specific. But pull off a good guidebook and it can be the best friend a traveler ever had.
That's the mindset I tried to have when organizing "The Unofficial Guide to Adventure Travel in Alaska." Broken into chapters by sport rather than region, this book allows the outdoor adventurer to easily pinpoint their activity to plan a trip accordingly, rather than wade through extraneous information to get to their goals.
The first edition of the book was released in 2006. The second, updated edition, came out in the spring of 2008. The plan is to update the book every other year. And suggestions are always welcome. Send me an e-mail with your favorite adventure destination in Alaska. It may just end up in print!
Happy trails! -- Melissa
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