PETERSBURG, AK Southeast Alaska sees nearly a million visitors each year. A small fraction paddle their way through the Panhandle under their own power but not many have logged as many human powered miles as one man who’s making his way through the region this summer.
Forty-nine-year-old Bill Nedderman of Iowa is kayaking from Olympia Washington to Skagway. He’s been on the go since he was 21 years old, biking 63,000 miles on three different continents, canoeing and kayaking another 21,000 in North America and Europe and hiking 33,000 miles on four different continents. He has three times completed what’s known in the long distance hiking community as the triple crown, hiking the Appalachian Trail from Maine to Georgia, the Continental Divide Trail from Montana to New Mexico and the Pacific Crest Trail from Washington to California. Nedderman stopped by the studios of KFSK in Petersburg this month and spoke with reporter Joe Viechnicki about his adventures.