Jason Katz-Brown doesn’t own a car. But that hasn’t stopped him from exploring the state he’s called home for three years.
He recently could be seen with a large backpack and yellow helmet roller skating along the Sterling Highway on the Kenai Peninsula. In April, he journeyed over 130 miles from Tern Lake, where the Sterling and Seward Highways intersect, to Homer. He says the four day trip gave him a chance to visit communities he hadn’t been to yet.
“The small towns out on the peninsula are pretty lovely, pretty great," Katz-Brown said. "And like, skating is the right speed to enjoy them, because you can kind of take it all in.”
This wasn’t Katz-Brown’s first long distance skating trip. He once skated across Japan’s mainland.
He’s also skated from Anchorage to Seward, Haines and to Prudhoe Bay, on the North Slope. Katz-Brown skated a portion of that trip in weekend segments, riding the Alaska Railroad or hitchhiking back to Anchorage for work at a polling firm on Monday morning. He spent the last two weeks of that trip on the Dalton Highway, averaging about 50 miles a day.
Katz-Brown says some sections of that road were dicey, especially when skating between gravel and passing trucks.
“Even looking back, it felt really dangerous, and luckily that didn't happen too much," Katz-Brown said. "Otherwise, the only danger I felt was somebody threw a half-eaten orange at me from the side of their car. That was a surprise.”
But Katz-Brown says most motorists are friendly. Some stop to chat with him, while others film him from their cars. He says construction workers have even shouted words of encouragement.
Most of Katz-Brown’s skating trips are in the summer. But he says the weather during his April Kenai Peninsula skate was pleasant. And it was before the tourist season, which he says meant secluded camping spots.
“A nice thing about going around this time of year, in April, was like, nobody else is out," Katz-Brown said. "And so I kind of had the whole beautiful view of Volcano Iliamna to myself.”
Katz-Brown says one of the most daunting sections of the trip was toward the end. That’s when he made his descent down the highway into Homer. He’s glad the mountains across Kachemak Bay weren’t visible that day to distract him from skating safely.
A highlight of the trip for Katz-Brown was trying new Thai restaurants on the Kenai Peninsula. But he says his number one highlight was something a bit more surprising.
“In Diamond Gulch I saw a bunny," he said. "Usually, bunnies are so evasive as soon as they're aware of of me, but the bunny just kind of sat there for a full minute, and let me just appreciate him.”
Katz-Brown also leads a weekly Wednesday night skate group in Anchorage. He says he’s looking forward to more long distance Alaska skating trips in the future.
