Fernie & Elk Valley Culture Guide Issue 2 Fall 2016 | Page 19

FEATURE AUTHOR

Jon Turk

Explorer. Gardener. Adventure
Paddler. Scientist. Backcountry Skier.
Storyteller. Many words are needed
to describe Jon Turk, the 70-yearold National Geographic nominee for
Adventurer of the year (2012) who
claims to have retired 50 years ago
by simply stopping what he didn’t like
to do. As a professional adventurer,
Jon sustains himself on his books and
public speaking, two income sources
so tentative that he has learned to live
without a five year plan.
The same year Jon received his Ph.D. in
Organic Chemistry from the University
of Colorado, he co-authored Ecology,
Pollution, and the Environment that went
on to sell over 100,000 copies. More
than 30 science textbooks followed
before his first creative non-fiction
work: Cold Oceans, Adventures in Kayak,
Rowboat, and Dogsled, published in
1998. In the Wake of the Jomon: Stone
Age Mariners and a Voyage across the
Pacific followed in 2005; the book
recalls the author’s 2-year successful
voyage across the Pacific. The voyage
was named one of the ten greatest sea

kayak expeditions of all time by Paddler
Magazine.
After Jomon, Jon’s focus changed to
a search for inner healing, returning
to Siberia to commune with the
100-year-old shaman he first met on
his Pacific voyage. ‘Moolynaut’ had told
him to: Come back. It will be good if you
do, and he says that doing that changed
his life. The result was The Raven’s
Gift: A Scientist, a Shaman, and their
Remarkable Journey through the Siberian
Wilderness.
Conrad Anker, North
Face Extreme Alpinist,
calls Jon’s latest book:
An important read as our
society collides headlong
into an over-subscribed
world. Available from
Oolichan Books in
September, Crocodiles and Ice, A
Journey into Deep Wild, will be launched
at the Fernie Heritage Library on
September 15th at the first event of
the Booked! 2016-2017 season.
jonturk.net

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