Q&A with Eagle River author Chris Lundgren about her new book, ‘Accidental Adventures: Alaska, True Tales of Ordinary People Facing Danger in the Wilderness’

WASILLA — Eagle River author Chris Lundgren’s third published book, “Accidental Adventures: Alaska, True Tales of Ordinary People Facing Danger in the Wilderness” is set to release June 1.

Lundgren participated in a question and answer interview to discuss her new book filled with interviews with Alaskans sharing their stories about close calls during outdoor excursions, “whose bad luck or bad choices sent them on adventures no one would ever ask.”

There are 20 chapters filled with uniquely Alaskan scenarios like fishing trips and hiking treks gone awry. The stories come from across the state, and there’s several Valley locations like Willow and Talkeetna featured in the book.

The first chapter of the book is a story from a Palmer woman, Ashlee Werner Bowman, who got lost while hiking the Chugach Mountains.

Below is Lundgren’s interview:

Q: How did this come about?

“I used to write for the Alaskan Star. I wrote this one article back in 2016 about this family who took their kids, two parents and two kids, and they took a saling tour halfway around the world and they were on the boat for two and a half years; and they just had these incredible adventures.

I had so much fun writing that story, I just started thinking about it, you know. What else could I write adventure-wise; and then I thought, ‘well wait, we here adventure stories everyday in Alaska.”

Q: How did you find the people to get these stories?

“I kind of researched through newspapers… A lot of them were friends of friends or acquaintances who heard I was doing this… So, word of mouth was really big.”

Q: What were some of the more interesting or surprising stories that you dug up?

“One of them that was really surprising, really different, was ‘Chapter 12 Hellhole.’ It was these two mountaineers, they were coming back on their own, climbing a mountain in the Chugach. And, they tried to put away their map… unbeknownst to them, they walked over a stream that came out of this lake that was buried by snow but the snow was unstable. So, one guy fell through and fell down a waterfall and was trapped basically in a snow cave with all this water coming down on him. So I think that was kind of a surprising, unexpected one.”

Lundgren has no intention of slowing down her writing fever. She said that she enjoyed writing this particular book so much, she wants to get going on the sequel.

“Accidental Adventures: Alaska, True Tales of Ordinary People Facing Danger in the Wilderness” will be available online at sites like Amazon by June 1. Lundgren said it will only be available for purchase online for the first couple weeks due to COVID-19, but she plans to work with local bookstores like Fireside Books and Titlewave Books. She said there will also be an electronic version of the book available as well.

For more information, search the book title which can be pre-ordered from various websites.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reporter Jacob Mann at jacob.mann@frontiersman.com