Hello, I’m Teague Whalen, a local Ketchikan, Alaska resident who is here to guide you on a hikes through the our world-renown rain forest. As a grad-school graduate with a newly minted M.F.A. in creative writing, I moved from Marquette, Michigan in the Upper Peninsula to Ketchikan, Alaska in the summer of 2009 in order to teach English and communication at the University of Alaska Southeast’s Ketchikan campus as a tenure-track assistant professor and later as a tenured associate professor. In the late spring of 2022, Teague resigned from academia in order to pursue building his guiding business full time.

I first experienced Ketchikan in the late 90s when I visited my younger sister who had moved out here, and I immediately jumped on the opportunity to hike the trails. There’s nothing more exciting than discovering a new trail, a new place. I grew up with two younger sisters and parents who were both teachers, so this meant we had the summers off to travel. We caravanned all over the United States with other families and bicycled toured, canoe camped, and backpacked into the wilderness. I’ve hiked the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee multiple times and many of the trails around the Great Lakes in Michigan and Canada—Pictured Rocks, Porcupine Mountains, the Bruce Trail, the North Country Pathway, Lake Superior Coastal Trail, and Agawa Canyon to name a few. I’ve also guided Northern Michigan University students on hikes as an English instructor in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula as well as University of Michigan students in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and upstate Maine as part of the New England Literature Program. And now I’ve started a summer-season hiking and driving tours here in Ketchikan: Tongass Teague LLC’s Mindfulness Rainforest Treks. So, if there is one thing I know about, it’s hiking and how to do it safely.

Please welcome Chad Dieska to the 2025 Tongass Teague team! Chad comes to us from Chicago, Illinois, and will be guiding the Ketchikan Magical Old-Growth Creek Trek this summer. You won’t be able to miss him as he stands out in a crowd, literally heads and shoulders above others. Chad has previous field experience in Alaska, having participated in the Alaska Wrangell Mountains Summer Field Studies program through Evergreen State College, when he studied Natural History of Alaska, People and Protected Areas, and Applied Field Research on Dynamic Landscapes. He received a BSLAS in Geology with a concentration in Earth and Environmental Science rom the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has sales experience working for Recreational Equipment Incorporated (REI) and has been a Team Leader in the backcountry of Maine while working for the Maine Conservation Corps and collaborating with the National Park Service to service the Katahdin Woods & Water National Monument. Chad is a knowledgeable and accomplished outdoorsman and is excited to return to Alaska and begin guiding tours.