Excerpt from Tip of the Iceberg by Mark Adams, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

There was another option. Alaska has its own coastal transportation network, the Alaska Marine Highway System, created to deal with its unique needs. Most of the state's residents live near the sea. The Marine Highway's purpose is to move people and vehicles long distances to remote places for a reasonable price. Alaska's ferries have as much in common with Greyhound buses as with anything offered by Norwegian Cruise Line, but what they lack in amenities they make up for in flexibility. With a little patience, Dramamine, and maybe a few time-saving shortcuts, it appeared to be possible to ride the three thousand miles from Washington State to Dutch Harbor, in the Aleutians, in about two months, the same time the Harriman Expedition took.

Not just a vacation, I told myself, pulling Muir's Travels in Alaska off the shelf, but an expedition. It could even, as Muir's pal Hart Merriam might say, be the event of a lifetime.

Excerpted from the book Tip of the Iceberg: My 3,000 Mile Journey Around Wild Alaska, America's Last Great American Frontier by Mark Adams. Copyright © 2018 by Mark Adams. Published by arrangement with Dutton, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.