I was raised on a cattle ranch 15 miles outside the small SE-Oregon. I spent much of my childhood in the outdoors of the Oregon High Desert. Summers were spent on the ranch, while we bought a house in town when my sister and I started kindergarten. I graduated from Lakeview High School in 1975. Afterwards I spent the next few years traveling. I lived and worked in New Zealand, Australia, Asia and Europe, eventually circumnavigating the globe. Upon returning to the United States, I lived in South Lake Tahoe, California, for 4 years pursuing my passion for skiing and the outdoors. In 1982 I went to Alaska to work for the summer, and stayed for nearly two decades. I worked in varied seasonal industries such as construction, heavy equipment and truck operation; as a delivery driver for UPS, DHL and Airborne Express; and taxi driving. While attending college in my 30s, I began working as a computer technician caring for the statewide ATM network at the data center for First National Bank of Alaska. Along the way I caught many fish, hiked, skied and mountain biked some of the most pristine wilderness on the continent, and had the occasional bear or moose encounter and bit of frostbite. When my bank position was due to be eliminated due to shift from ATM cards to debit cards, after some consideration I decided to attend Law School, choosing to return to my native Pacific Northwest