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NatParkStories's podcast


The Nat Park Stories podcast follows one girl as she falls back in love with America through stories in the National Parks.

Join Summer as she travels in her home van to all the US National Parks over the next two years, telling the stories of the people she meets along the way.

Each month, you can access interviews from one park in the journey.

Feb 5, 2019

“I’m from Tennessee where in the winter time, it can get to mid-80s... and I love the heat and I will sacrifice all that just to be here because it’s so impressively cool.”
-Mikey Martin
 
Mikey Martin is a Safari Guide that I met on the boat ride to the Kenai Fjords National Park.
 
In his two summers in Alaska, he has done that boat ride about 80 times. And as hard as it is to believe, each time provides a new and unique experience. 
 
And it would have to… What else would bring a Nashville boy who loves the warmth all the way up to the icy glaciers of Alaska two years in a row?
 
This conversation starts off a little slow, but it really picks up speed 4 minutes in when you hear Mikey talk about what draws him to the parks and to Alaska and what his favorite memories of the park are. 
 
And at 8 minutes into the interview, you get to actually hear the glacier lose a massive chunk of ice, and the crowd ooohs and awes.
It still gives me chills to hear that part of the interview. 
 
You can feel like you’re right on the boat, listening to the chunks of ice hit the metal, with the wind blowing, and the ranger talking just a little bit over the interview.
 
You can hear Mikeys excitement really build after the glacier calves, and you hear how extremely knowledgeable and passionate he is about this part of the world. Twenty minutes into the interview, Mikey describes the ice burgs (or car size burgees) that our boat literally hits as it backs away from the glaciers. 
 
As he mentions in the interview, he planned on returning to Alaska this winter and because we’re became friends during the interview, I saw that he just a couple of weeks ago, he did in fact head back up to Alaska to tough it in the winter. 
 
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