Nicely written story of discovering wilderness and life and people. The author consciously chose to study liberal arts in graduate school. Yes, he quotes Thoreau, but he is not harkening to good old days, this is a story of living deliberately in the first decade of the new century.
There's adventure and hardship and learning involved. Some great descriptions of the Brooks Range in Alaska and some philosophizing:

"Sometimes, we can't help but assume the nature of the landscape we inhabit. Just as the farm fosters industry; the desert, frugality; the mountains, hardiness; and a rocky coastline, a romantic restlessness; so does the suburb foster boredom, conventionality, and conformity."

" As much as I was a disciplined voyageur, an intrepid hitchhiker, and a stalwart ranger, dwelling in me also was an unmotivated suburbanite, a lazy couch potato, a pitiful, sometimes alcoholic loser."