Alaska residents PLEASE READ BUT DO NOT RESPOND IN THREAD

[Rick P]

Long and short, Alaska is meaner and bigger than your mind or mine can comprehend. If you want to live on the edge this is the place! But underestimate the great land for one second and you'll "go missing" without so much as a pause!

[Bilder]

Best to take the advice you have received from those who live up here.  If you want to live in the bush, do it in stages.

Come to Anchorage or Fairbanks, get a job, start to build up some cash while you learn what the state has to offer and the areas you like and dislike. Living in the interior is nothing like living in southeast.  Both have distinct climates and ways of living. As an electrician, you should be able to find a job that takes you around the state.  Would be a great opportunity to check out the different areas and meet the people.  Hate to say it, but some areas are not too friendly to white folks.  Would not be good to move into an area and then find out that no one in the area likes you.

As you adventure around the state, you will find that spot that is dear to your heart and then you can start to work on getting there.

[Archie]

There is a reason that birds fly south for the winter, and north for the summer.  Alaska receives less energy from the sun per square mile than the equator does, and the sun is what keeps this whole world going.  

The closer to the equator you go, the more critters you see, and the more there is for them to EAT.  Ducks go north to raise their young because there are fewer predators and they are more spread out.  The predators have to cover more ground in Alaska to find food than they would in Louisiana.  Therefore, the odds are better that a flock of ducklings would avoid detection the further north they go.  

This all means that it takes a lot more work to stay alive because you have to cover more country and take longer shots and plant more vegetables and burn more wood than you would in other places.  

I lived in Point Lay, Alaska for about 6 months.  It's a little point where the eskimo people have hunted beluga whales for generations.  Long ago, someone discovered that when the tide goes out, those whales get landlocked and can be easily killed.  I was there for the annual whale harvest, and saw them kill the food that has kept them alive in that one place for generations.  Why haven't their people gone somewhere else?  Because once they leave that little point, they don't have enough food to stay alive.  Caribou come through from time-to-time as well, which provides the other part of their subsistence.  [Of course, this is different now, because they have most of their food flown in from the Fairbanks Wal-Mart nowadays!]

This is super-extreme example, and this is one of the hardest places to live in the state.  But that bush life is hard, hard work, and the margin of error is very small and unforgiving.

[celticknot]

well thank you all for thouroghly discouraging me i appreciate it. I will move to alaska and if i die its my own fault and apparently the way god wanted it to be. I do not fear death not even a painfull one anymore. I dont plan on going into tis half cocked. But will "not" check this thread anymore, because all i asked for was suggestions on how to survive and not only all the ways i can die and how unforgiving the terrain is i know it will be brutally hard. I dont know how many tims i posted that i planned on coming up for "atleast" 2 years and working before i even consideredd moving anywhere remote. So thank you for the discouragement once again and if anyone has any "good suggestions or even a good outlook and would like to contact me please do it by email or pm. THANK YOU.

[Whump]

Whump sez; I wouldn't call what they told you discouraging-----just factual. You would do well to write down what the people that already live up there say and make a check list and go by it. They are offering you good info that comes not from a fairy tale but from experience. A dream and reality are 2 totally different things and what they have told you comes from the school of hard knocks. We all wish you well in your adventure and be sure and let us know how it goes.  Hunt safe  

[KSdan]

celtic- you have already made your first MAJOR mistake. . . you are 25. . . you refer to God- listen to Him!  Wisdom is found in those who are older and lived life.  That is what the living God says in the Scriptures.  He isn't lying!  

The collective wisdom here is not to discourage you but to give you an honest appraisal that you DO NOT HAVE YET!  Your dreams, eagerness, and desire is wonderful- just take the collective wisdom and do it one step at a time.  In about ten years you will have a much better sense of what it will take and if you can do it.  

At 25 you have not come to realize that your body and mind are not invincable!  My back was destroyed by 32 and I have a disabling illness by 39.  Some anxiety and depression by 42.  All of that and I was collegiate athlete and rugged as the other guy.  Even at 47 I look pretty fit at 6' 4" 215# with a 35" waist and 50" shoulders/chest.  I also know and teach the Scriptures to pro athletes and others.  So I would like to think that I know truth and live with my heart set in the right direction. Our bodies, wills, and minds are not as tough as we think.

Have you ever even went out to the remote Rockies for a month completely by yourself?  No one to help and all alone??  It can be brutal.  A week was enough for me- especially laying there at night in pain barely able to walk- let alone pack an elk out.  

You are not a whimp if you find out that it just does not fit you.

I would be wise and listen to the elders here- they KNOW what they are talking about and no one is trying to discourage a young man's dream.  It seems guys are telling you things you just have not learned yet.

My 2c
Dan

[cmh]

......... or you could be a almost fourty year old pipefitter wishing you would of done this or that years ago but now you cannot    Listen to all of these guys who are in the know. But allow yourself the freedom to find out for yourself. Whether right or wrong at least you can say you tried it     Craig

[Jedimaster]

Do what you like.  I only have one thing to add and this has already been touched on.  One of my best buds spent a little time up there fishing.  He was very remote for the summer.  He liked the summer weather and the fishing was out of this world but he doesn't think he can go back.  After a couple of days of isolation he began talking to airplanes as that was the only thing remotely resembling another intelligent being.  Also, he only saw critter sign, but no critters.  Again, do what you like.  Just a suggestion for that soon coming day though - do an extended trip out in the warmer months and see how you get along with yourself.  Good luck, wish I was 25 again.  Also wish I knew then what I do now.

[Kevin Bahr]

celtic, I believe you are starting off with the wrong attitude.  Yes, it's good to ask lots of questions.  But don't bash the guys for answering you honestly.  I don't for a second believe they are trying to "discourage" you.  They are just giving you a reality check.  If it is your "dream" then by all means go for it.  But please heed the advice you have been given.  None of them told you not to do it.  You asked and they responded.  You ought to be thankful for their candor.  How would you feel if they all told you, "Yeah, Alaska is a blast! Come on up!" and then you ended up regretting it?  All they are saying is, do your homework, take the advice YOU asked for, and then proceed with caution.

[Ray Hammond]

Well I'm going to go against the grain here and say that in reading your descriptions about yourself I think you WON'T be satisfied until you try it...so TAKE THE ADVICE about how tough it is and use that for planning your time there. GO, GO, before you're too old to try.

Steve says get a job..that sounds like your plan anyway....work hard, save your money, get the right gear..and try it in stages.

If you were moving to Atlanta you wouldnt just drive down and walk into 3 or 4 houses and buy one.

You'd rent an apartment, find a job, get used to teh city, THEN make up your mind. That sounds like the advice you are being given here as well.

You DON'T have to move to Alaska to get away from cell phones and mortgages..there's plenty of folks living in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and the other sparsely populated states who are not "on the grid" but who do have access to other humans, grocery stores, and hospitals when they have to get to one.  You might consider that first-that's up to you.

I think folks are trying to tell you its tough..but they're up there doing it...they're just telling you to do it smart and I think that's great advice.

I couldn't go without friends or family..and spending 7 months of the year cooped up inside or dressed like the Michelin man and HAVING to use a gun or starve...that's not my dream but if its yours, friend...go for it.