aksportingjournal.com | AUGUST 2019 ALASKA SPORTING JOURNAL 21
BY CHRIS COCOLES
A
fter what she’d been through,
how low she’d gotten and how
empty she felt, there was no
way Gwen Grimes was going anywhere.
Never mind that she was suffering
through triple-digit Mexican heat coming
from her snow-covered Alaska home-
stead, being ravaged by bugs and bitten
by a tarantula. In other words, a miserable
place to spend 21 days with no clothes and
just a few tools to help you get through.
ALASKAN’S ROAD
TO RECOVERY RUNS
THROUGH MEXICO
HER LAW ENFORCEMENT CAREER ENDED BY INJURY, NAKED AND AFRAID
COMPETITOR GWEN GRIMES HAS FOUND PEACE, NEW PURPOSE IN LIFE
Four years ago, Gwen Grimes’ law
enforcement career as a patrol officer in
Wasilla all but ended due to injury, but
after appearing on Discovery Channel’s
Naked and Afraid, she was revitalized.
(DISCOVERY CHANNEL/GWEN GRIMES)Grimes, just a few years removed from
having her law enforcement career ruined
in a car accident caused by a reckless driv-
er, agreed to participate on the Discovery
Channel series Naked and Afraid when the
show contacted her with an invitation. It
was one of two phone calls that have giv-
en Grimes a second chance.
“That was one of the questions pro-
duction had asked before they even
sent me out into the field. ‘What would
be one thing that would make you tap
(out)?’” Grimes, 48, says. “I said noth-ing’s going to make me tap. I don’t care
what you throw at me.”
Fate threw Grimes an unwanted
changeup four years ago. In an instant,
that car that smashed into the rear of her
patrol car while she was on duty with the
Wasilla Police Department. Injuries suf-
fered in the wreck effectively ended her
career as an active-duty police officer.
“Everything’s gone. Completely gone,”
was how she describes the aftermath.
So maybe this was an opportunity to
get something back.