A 25-year-old backcountry wanderer, a man happiest exploring wild places with his dog, Dan Bigley woke up one midsummer morning to a day full of promise. Before it was over, after a stellar day of salmon fishing along Alaska's Kenai and Russian rivers, a.

Dan Bigley, who earned a master's degree in social work after losing his sight, is now the director of therapeutic foster care services at Denali Family Services in Anchorage and was awarded a 2008 Alaskan of the Year Award by the Governor's Committee on Employment and Rehabilitation for People with Disabilities. Debra McKinney is a freelance writer who was part of a team that won journalism's highest honor, the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, for the Anchorage Daily News.