Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska WHERE in Alaska best place to live.

Just talked to some folks who left Fairbanks for the KP. Their taxes were $5000 a year for a small house and garage.

Way too much taxes, for a dark, nasty, smokey sht hole. Best sign I see after a run to town for supplies: "You are Leaving the Fairbanks North Star Borough"

Resource wise, and less wildland fire smoke:
Copper center and slightly south.

You get:
Good dog mushing
Subsistence caribou,
Allowed to run a fish wheel on a federal permit,
Good sport fishing,
Somewhat close to Valdez for getting yer ocean fix
Large birch and spruce
Good farming soil
Little to no wildland fire smoke
No constant sonic booms, fighter jet traffic, helicopter noise, oversized mining trucks or crashed military convoys strewn all over the fkn place.

BUT:
Long ways from a costco.

Freezebanks in da winter
Firebanks in da summer

Fartstanks all other times .... except
Fu ckskanks when ya go hogging in bars

It is interesting to hear the opinions, that's for sure. I can barely stand to visit Kenai in the summer. Think I might lose it if i lived there. Can't imagine Valdez aa my only saltwater option, but I guess if you're retired you could make that work.

I had largley written off southeast, but there are several good options there. You just have to be willing/able to travel by boat or plane and then sometimes by road to chase opportunities.

Lot of Alaskans retire in Haines. But don't mention it to a local. It's kind of a secret.

I spent a week in Haines in May. Don't think it's a town for me

Mulled it over a bit. While I like the idea of living in SE or Kodiak where I can take a skiff out for an evening and get into fish, I don't think all and all I could handle the small town and limitations. That being said, if retired I'll take the boat out for 2-3 days in the middle of the week. So, I'm leaning towards sticking to our place in Anchorage. The views don't suck, I can access enough fishing and hunting and I have hiking, skiing, rock climbing etc. 1/2 hour from the house.

With about one tenth of a percent of the total AK population they sure are keeping it quiet...

There is much more to the Kenai Peninsula then the dying "Kenai River". There are rivers that "no one" fishes that are choked with salmon. There are small hidden pockets of Dall Sheep, that is a (in&out) one-day hunt.

Makes the short list of my least-favorite AK towns.

Fifty years ago, Wasilla was a paradise. You know what turned it into the second worse place in Alaska?

People moving in.

That is what is so-so-so wonderful about living in a majestic eleven-mile-long Alaskan valley with only (8) Eight neighbors, in the center of a (7) Seven-MILLION-acre National Forest. With your own (30' Foot) CASCADING WATERFALLS entirely on your property.

Yeah, Hope is out of range for the yuppie class who need to show up to work in Anchorage.........and I'll venture a guess that you probably don't have another 50 years to see how the place might change.

I live in the Valley, and I'm disappointed that the growth went so out-of-control, but I've got a few acres and a bit of privacy while still enjoying a great, clean view. While still healthy, I'm glad that we have health care at our doorstep. My most important anchor are my wife, children, and grandchildren. I raised my kids in the Valley, and they're all still there or in Anchorage. For me, family is everything.

You really are living in the past. Lucky I suppose. Or dementia is setting in.

Did your mother have any children that lived?

SE is nice but the logistics of getting to interior Alaska suck.

How long is a string?

I think about one rope length Butch.

Calvin, yeah.... That's a tough one, especially as far south as you are. You sorta have to live with your priority I guess.

I've visited a handful of times. I always liked Eagle River as close enough to medical and shopping, but a little ways away.

Was hired to drive a 1970's landcruiser from Juneau to Hillside Anchorage October 2015. Fk that trip!

Flew into Juneau, located the supposedly drivable fj 55.
It was sunken into the salty ground. Ate some nasty pelmini Russian dumplings for breakfast.

Had to pay a tow truck driver to leverage the landcruiser out with his articulating flat bed . Couldn't even get a bottle jack under it.

He sold me an old 1980's set of weather cracked tractor tread mud terrains.

Beat the rust out of the front calipers and rear cylinders.

Floor boards were rusted to [bleep]. Was afraid that the seat would fall out right from under me, if I hit a pot hole. I dove into a dumpster at a construction site and fashioned roofing metal scraps into make-shift floor boards held in with sheet metal screws.

Took carburetor apart and soaked overnight in berrymans chemdip. Drained some rusty mollases out of fuel tank. Drove to Oreileys, the crew there was a big help. No landcruiser guys thought it would even start. Fired right up.

Went to catch the ferry, did not realize was way out town! Down pouring, dark, no winshield wipers. Brakes stopped working. They said it wasn't safe to go down ramp onto the malaspina ferry. Had to beg to drive it onto the malaspina ferry. Told them all the sht I'd gone through. Went down ramp and slammed it into reverse, right near a new pickup truck. Disconnected battery and assured them it wouldn't cause a fire.

Got to haines, wipers started working. Canadian boarder workers said there was heavy snow up in the pass. Finally got up into I think was chilkat pass? Treeless, heaviest fkn slushy snow I've ever seen. Reminded me of king cove snow. All these gigantic spiders started falling out of the headliner. Guess they died in the cold.

Alternator seized up and smoked the belt, also shared by the waterpump. A giant splurge of foamy, overheated coolant blew the radiator cap and covered the windshield. Veered right, as left side was a shear cliff. Hit a rock and broke the entire exhaust system off.

Sideways snow, getting dim out, got the alternator bearing free spinning with some penetrating lubricant. Bunch of rust poured out the alternator. Reset the raditor cap lever, topped her off with coolant, headgasket still intact!

Found a spare belt in my oreileys care package. Loud as fck with no exauhst I drove 20-30 mph to Haines Junction and overnighted as i had a bad head ache from carbon monoxide. Overslept a bit and took my time.

Kept driving, Died again 8-10 miles out of beaver creek near the border. Same deal, smoked another belt. Hiked into town, bought a bunch of various sized belts. Caught a ride back to the land cruiser and fixed it. Kept driving,crossed the border. Boarder agent was a Landcruiser owner. He had heard that I was broke down from the Canadian guys.

Kept driving, pitch black I blew another belt near mentasta. This time, I took a rachet strap and ratcheted the alternator outwards tightly as I could get the belt tension as the belt tension bolt snapped. Sprayed the alternator bearing every hour after that. Some drunk mentasta guys stopped, couldn't believe I was driving that piece of sht.

That last repair held up all the way to Anchorage. The overheating burnt the rings. Could only make the eagle river hill at about 40 mph., no power.

Parked it up in hillside got paid, I guess it never started again after I shut it off.

Never did that trip since.......

At least you earned your $5,000.00 FEE ....