Patrick Hanson

The lakes, rivers, and seasons of Minnesota are what formed Patrick's relationship to the natural world as a child. A fondness for water and a curiosity of mountains led him to Washington State in 2010 where he helped restore salmon habitat with Washington Conservation Corps and became entranced with the native flora of the Pacific Northwest.

 

Through connections and curiosity, he wound up in Gustavus, Alaska in the summer of 2012 completing an immersive 24-day wilderness sea-kayaking course in Glacier Bay National Park. It rained nearly every day on that trip, but the magic of coastal Alaska had cast its spell, and he came up the next summer to lead sea-kayaking trips out of Haines, Alaska and in Glacier Bay National Park.

 

After a brief stint in Bellingham, Washington and the San Juan Islands, Patrick moved full time to Gustavus in 2016 and continued to lead multi-day sea-kayaking trips for Spirit Walker Expeditions in some of the most remote wilderness areas of Southeast Alaska. His passion is connecting people with the natural world through his love of plants, cooking, and foraging. Outside of guiding he has worked as a gardener, a baker, a coffee roaster, a newspaper editor, a painter, a coordinator for the National Park Service, and as an expert in craft beer at an independent wine shop. Currently he is based in Tucson, Arizona (a UNESCO City of Gastronomy) where he is continuing to feed his curiosity of wild plants and embrace the uniqueness of the Sonoran Desert.