My name is Ryan Kedzie I am a 25 year old native of Elkhorn, WI and I grew up hiking, fishing, hunting, and adventuring all over Wisconsin with my father and brother.  After receiving an Associates degree in Graphic Design from Western Technical College in La Crosse, WI I attended the University of Minnesota Duluth and earned a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design. This is also where I learned a lot about film, and began planning, and preparing for my adventure filming a documentary about my travels of hitchhiking to Alaska.

I have spent three summers working in Alaska at the Russian River in Cooper Landing, Alaska on the Kenai Peninsula. It was during my time here I learned that hitchhiking would be the best way to get around on my days off, so I began catching rides anytime I had a few days off to get to my next adventure.  After many hitchhiking experiences I felt that these encounters with complete strangers were so intriguing it was a disservice to not share what my new travel companions had to say. These people helped prove their is still a lot of good in the world and encouraged me even more to make this documentary.

During my travels I will be catching rides by way of thumb, and occasionally a destination sign.  I will be sleeping in a one-man tent wherever I am allowed too, or if invited, I’d like to be invited in the homes of these strangers for a place to rest, but I will not be staying in any hotels along the way. I have also prepared food caches to send along the way so I always will have a back up food source while on the road.

My goal is to make it to Alaska within three to four weeks, and then begin my quest of searching for a job within the commercial fishing industry. I have tried to arrange for a job before I get up there, but nothing has panned out so I will document the struggles of finding a job in the present economy even for a college graduate.