Dan Strickland came north to Alaska in 1971 from California, hitchhiking his first day after graduating high school when he was 17. He found work in a small salmon processor on the Kenai Peninsula, wild characters which enthralled and challenged him, and a wilder country which immediately felt like home.He crewed on fishing boats for a couple of summers, spent a year in the woods alone, and then attended the University of Fairbanks. There he met the most special partner a man could ever find in Pamela, a woman strong-willed, and tougher-than-nails. They had both worked extensively in Alaskan bush villages by this time, spent a year in the wilderness together, then ultimately bought their own fishing permit. In the course of raising four boys they fished all over Alaska, both setnetting and drifting, harvesting herring and salmon. Their boys continue the fishing tradition now in Bristol Bay, while Dan and Pam have established a small organic coffee roastery in Palmer, Alaska.
