Off the grid

game, but he’s heading into the adventure well-armed.

“I may see some hunters and fishermen come by but otherwise I will be on my own, just me and my dog,” he said.

Latouche Island is a narrow strip of land (19km long, 5km wide) located about 160km southwest of the port city of Valdez. Like many islands in Prince William Sound, people digging into the beach there can still find oil from the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill.

The now abandoned Latouche city site once was home to 4 000 people, thanks to copper mining. The mine closed in 1930, and now the island is dotted with occasional seasonal cabins and not much else. It is mostly used for subsistence hunting.

Kate and Andy Mclaughlin live in Chenega Bay, a village 10km away on Evans Island, and own a cabin on Latouche.

Kate Mclaughlin doesn’t know Baird, but has heard his story many times. In fact, she’s written a book about people coming to Alaska to live the remote lifestyle and is in the process of trying to find a publisher.

“We’ve seen several people of his ilk try to come out and say, ‘We’re going to build a cabin, we’re going to live out here and do it’,” she said. “It’s tough.”

Some abandoned supplies from those people making earlier attempts can still be found strewn on the beach.

The challenges of Latouche Island are numerous, and foremost is the weather.

“You’re fighting the cold or the mould,” Mclaughlin said of the seemingly constant precipitation, snow and rain.

Baird said the island has anywhere from 200-300cm of snow in a typical winter, along with 175cm of rain a year.

The Mclaughlins’ two-storey cabin on the beach had snow up to the roof this winter.

“It’s wet, things don’t dry out,” said Dave Janka, who owns Auklet Charter Services in Cordova. “You get lots of snow.”

Much like Cordova, he called Latouche Island “paradise with rain”.

There are building restrictions on the uninhabited island, Baird said, so he will have to construct his makeshift cabin without digging into the ground for a foundation.

He plans to have lumber delivered to build his cabin, which will be located about half-akilometre from the beach, about 45m up a hill.

He’ll have plentiful fishing opportunities. “The nice thing about the ocean is twice a day you’ve got a dinner table set out for you,” Janka said.

The challenges don’t faze Baird, who is ex-military, except perhaps for one. “Probably the biggest challenge is the isolation,” he said, adding it was an issue for some of his classmates in an Air Force Academy survival training course.

Some “did experience hallucinations and even group delusions, just minor things. But it is kind of a concern, being alone that long”, he said.

He said he’s worked with psychologists at Harvard and the University of Chicago, talking through the things he can expect, like nightmares.

“I think I’ll be OK, I’ve done a lot of work on my own, and I’ll also have a dog, which probably will help keep things stabilised,” he said.

Baird is planning to keep a diary, which could be turned into a book. He’s also thinking of writing an instructional book of how to live in the remote wilderness.

Then there’s also the filming, day in and day out, of his experiences alone on the Alaska island.

Once he returns to civilisation, he’ll try to sell the video as a documentary series. – Sapa-ap