Mark was born to loving parents in 1961 and from a very early age began spending as much time as possible outdoors. By his earliest teen years, he spent every day after school and summer vacations hunting for snakes, turtles and lizards in the wilder places around the family home in Virginia Beach. Along with his paper rout some extra money was made selling snakes and turtles to area pet stores. Every minute not spent hunting for snakes and turtles was spent fishing, trapping and crabbing at area lakes and the nearby Elizabeth River.

In 1979 he moved with his mother and brothers to Sebeka in central Minnesota where a whole new world of deer and upland game hunting and fishing opened up to him. Work, sleep, hunt or fish and repeat. Every nonsleeping hour not at work was spent in the pursuit of fish, game and adventure. There was always something to do outside; spearfishing, angling, pheasant or duck hunting and deer hunting.

In July of 1984, at the age of 24, he moved to Alaska to make dreams of becoming a big game guide, professional trapper and commercial fisherman a reality. Mark began work as a packer and his training to become a big game guide with Joe Want, a notable brown bear and Dall sheep guide. The annual routine of spring brown bear hunting, summers commercial fishing, guiding for sheep, moose, caribou and brown bear in the fall and trapping through the winter months became his life.

In 1999 after spending his time mostly alone in the wilderness and at guide and fishing camps Marks memory and photo albums were full of adventures and pictures but he had little more to show for it, and no one to share it with. He was still driving the two-wheel drive Ford pick-up he drove to Alaska 15 years earlier. He decided to spend a little more time in town, make some money to buy some land and maybe meet someone nice to spend the rest of his life with. He took a summer job at The Riverboat Discovery where he worked for seven summers and met his greatest discovery of all, Angel. They were married in the year 2000 and started The Cutting Edge, a tool sharpening and machine shop. The shop soon morphed into a full-time custom knife shop, “Mark Knapp Custom Knives” and in 2020 “The Edge of the Arctic Trading Post”, an art gallery and custom knife shop had its grand opening.

Mark continues to spend all his non-working hours in the field pursuing fish, game and adventure in all the far-flung corners of Alaska.

The purpose of this website and associated blogs is to chronicle these adventures and to help other outdoor enthusiasts become more successful chasing adventures of their own.