Tim Redington, owner of Camp Redington, is a lifelong Alaskan who loves sharing his home and childhood stories about growing up on a Knik homestead. Born on the family homestead in 1949, he spent his childhood mushing, fishing, trapping and living off the land. His intimate knowledge of Alaskan forests, rivers and lakes is a delight to passing visitors.
Tim is the third eldest son of Joe Redington Sr. and his wife, Violet Redington, both passed on now.
All of the photos in the header rotation at this site are from the family collection preserved by photographer Jeff Schultz. Tim's "Sittin' with the Sourdough's Tours" will feature slides from this collection. Some of the family photographs depict scenes most people have never seen before, and many of the camps, cabins and boats in the pictures no longer exist. The Redingtons homesteaded in Alaska for almost thirty years before Joe Sr. rose to international fame as the "Father of the Iditarod." Tim's stories about who's doing what in the family pictures are a memorable event.
As young boys, they all helped their father to clear parts of the old Iditarod Trail. Tim was not an Iditarod musher, he prefers going fast and made a name for himself in the Sprint Racing Circuit. In later years he travelled to Indian villages teaching the youngsters to mush. (Both Tim's brothers raced in the Iditarod, placing very high in the results. Joee, the one who took their dad's place in the first Iditarod, had to live off the trail until supplies could be flown in and dropped on his head! The whole family owns kennels across Alaska, from Knik to Manley Hot Springs. Tim's nephews, Ray Jr. and Ramie, are competing in the Iditarod again this year.)
Tim relocated to Kenny Lake in the 1990s. He is a full time trapper in the wintertime; this is a lifelong vocation and it makes him somewhat of an expert to newcomers. It's not unusual to see Cheechako men stopping by to ask Tim to show them how to skin buffalo hides and bears. But, as all Alaskans are continually learning new things, Tim can often be seen seeking advice from Dean Wilson Sr., his friend and neighbor, whose book "The Alaskan Trapper's Guide" Tim plans to use as a textbook for his trapping seminars.
An avid photographer, Tim has a lovely collection of close-ups of baby animals in the wild. He also collects artifacts and Alaskana: his house is now officially the camp's "museum." Tim is also single and enjoys getting email from single women who might want to share his lifestyle with him. He's not a sap anymore though, so if you're a scammer, don't waste your time.
Tim is a natural with children, because in many ways he's never lost his childlike wonder for the natural universe. He can have stacks of dead beavers ready to be skinned at the same time he's feeding the ermine family that lives under his woodshop, out of his hand. His relationship with animals is complex, and after 50 years of hunting and trapping, he says now he'd rather take pictures of them, he wants to use the skills that used to guarantee a good bullet to get a good snapshot. His close-up bald eagle pictures are amazing.
Building a campground in Kenny Lake has been a dream of Tims for many years. He built it slowly, thinking he'd have it up and going by the time he was ready to retire. He's not much into marketing or making a big deal about himself, and it took a while to convince him tours of his home would be something people would want to do while they're here. While Tim does everything he can to have modern contraptions, more and more people seek him out for advice about old practical knowledge he grew up on. He's not so sure he has anything to "teach" anybody, but he says he'd be happy to take them on tours of his property and maybe a few want to go on a picture expedition. He's fairly new to computers, but for someone born in the bush he's amazingly adept at figuring it out quick enough (if it's something he wants to know). He's learning to keep a blog about his daily expeditions into the wild.
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Camp Redington's Staff
Manager
Niki Raapana (aka Alaskan Tent Lady). Niki first came to Alaska in 1974, selling magazines door-to-door. She spent many years in Fairbanks and Anchorage working as an entertainer, bartender and waiter. An author and self-publisher who'd never been to this part of the state, she came out here in the summer of 2006 for a vacation from writing and worked as a trainer/consultant for Gilpatricks's Hotel Chitina and as a cook at Tonsina River Lodge.
When it came time to go back to Anchorage and finish her writing project, she realized she had her wall tent so all she needed was electric in order to finish the last draft of "2020: Our Common Destiny." She rented a space in the Redington RV Park in August of 2006. She began helping Tim's wife, Lorayne Redington to design a website, but then Lorayne left a month later, and the project ended.
Tim hired Niki as his dog handler (before she knew what that meant!) when he went to work flagging during the big October flood and Niki spent her first winter camping in a wall tent in Alaska. Tim thought she was crazy, but he didn't try to stop her.
In January 2007, Niki moved to the old gift shop over at the Kenny Lake Mercantile and designed a new website for kennylake.com. In the spring of 2007, Tim hired her to feed the dogs again while he was working on Nadine and Jack's cabin up at Tangle Lakes. He built the first full size gertee frame to repay Niki for all her help. In the summer of 2007 Niki leased a back parcel on Tim's property, rebuilt gertee into a winter home and lived there until the following sping when Tim decided maybe he "oughta get something going" at the campground. Niki began working on Camp Redington's development and website in spring of 2008.
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Art and Technical Staff
Nordica and Fred Friedrich. Nordica was born in Anchorage in 1985. Her father is a carpenter, fisherman, artist who lives on the Kenai Penninsula. She spent her summers in Alaska but attended schools outside, travelling and living in Seattle during her teenage years. She returned home to Alaska in 2004.
Nordica painted all the artwork and lettering on the signs around the camp in 2008. Nordica did all the graphics and design for kennylake.com and campredington.com, and she made all the art contributions to the Alaskan Homesteader Museum (including gathering items from local dead heros). Alaskan Webwriters and primitivwerks are both Nordica and Niki' s creations. Fred was born in Gerteeville in 2007.
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Carpenter
Daniel and his wife Sharon moved to Kenny Lake in 2007. He is a fine carpenter who learned his trade from his father back home.
He's made beautiful contributions to Tim's home interior and was instrumental in finishing the hostel and showers in 2008. He built the gertee museum platform with Tim, and many other projects. He's worked for several local famers since his arrival, has a small wood cutting business, and he joyfully added to the local population when his daughter was born in 2008. Kenny Lake is fortunate to attract such hard working, ethical young families willing to work hard in order to enjoy the freedom of self-sufficient living.
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Make your Alaskan vacation into an Alaskan experience.
Tim Redington, owner of Camp Redington, is a lifelong Alaskan who loves sharing his home and childhood stories about growing up on a Knik homestead. Born on the family homestead in 1949, he spent his childhood mushing, fishing, trapping and living off the land. His intimate knowledge of Alaskan forests, rivers and lakes is a delight to passing visitors. 
Tim is the third eldest son of Joe Redington Sr. and his wife, Violet Redington, both passed on now. 
As young boys, they all helped their father to clear parts of the old Iditarod Trail. Tim was not an Iditarod musher, he prefers going fast and made a name for himself in the Sprint Racing Circuit. In later years he travelled to Indian villages teaching the youngsters to mush. (Both Tim's brothers raced in the Iditarod, placing very high in the results. Joee, the one who took their dad's place in the first Iditarod, had to live off the trail until supplies could be flown in and dropped on his head! The whole family owns kennels across Alaska, from Knik to Manley Hot Springs. Tim's nephews, Ray Jr. and Ramie, are competing in the Iditarod again this year.) 
Tim relocated to Kenny Lake in the 1990s. He is a full time trapper in the wintertime; this is a lifelong vocation and it makes him somewhat of an expert to newcomers. It's not unusual to see Cheechako men stopping by to ask Tim to show them how to skin buffalo hides and bears. But, as all Alaskans are continually learning new things, Tim can often be seen seeking advice from Dean Wilson Sr., his friend and neighbor, whose book "The Alaskan Trapper's Guide" Tim plans to use as a textbook for his trapping seminars.
Building a campground in Kenny Lake has been a dream of Tims for many years. He built it slowly, thinking he'd have it up and going by the time he was ready to retire. He's not much into marketing or making a big deal about himself, and it took a while to convince him tours of his home would be something people would want to do while they're here. While Tim does everything he can to have modern contraptions, more and more people seek him out for advice about old practical knowledge he grew up on. He's not so sure he has anything to "teach" anybody, but he says he'd be happy to take them on tours of his property and maybe a few want to go on a picture expedition. He's fairly new to computers, but for someone born in the bush he's amazingly adept at figuring it out quick enough (if it's something he wants to know). He's learning to keep a blog about his daily expeditions into the wild.
Tim hired Niki as his dog handler (before she knew what that meant!) when he went to work flagging during the big October flood and Niki spent her first winter camping in a wall tent in Alaska. Tim thought she was crazy, but he didn't try to stop her.