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Being on my third or fourth visit to Alaska (sitting between GlennAllen and Tok right now), I suspect that most people from outside don't understand the time and expense necessary to access the terrific hunting and fishing up here. You simply don't walk out your back door and hunt moose, caribou, deer sheep and all the rest. Moose hunting might be 100 miles away in one direction and you might need a boat or four wheeler when you get there. Salmon fishing might be 100 miles in another direction, and deer twice as far.
Just an outsiders thoughts.

Fred

Good one!

I reckon I probably would have if we hadn't finally gone to camp to put up a few chums......this after finally giving up on waiting for my wife to be called to work locally. She has been going to school at UAF this past year and wanted to drive truck this summer on a local road revision project. They needed drivers who are clean and have CDLs so she stayed a couple of extra weeks (in Fairbanks) to get the documentation. Turns out they don't seem to want to hire her though even though they indicated her licensing is exactly what they wanted and better than some. It's a local hire preference type job and tribal enrolled people have even more preference. She is both tribally enrolled and a local shareholder. Oh, there's a political element as well which seems to be the stumbling block.

The long and short of which is to say that there are considerations to be aware of in working in the smaller communities in Alaska. It may and can work out well for you. If you 'sunburn' you may find yourself feeling slighted from time to time; doesn't mean you can't toughen your skin a bit and forge ahead. A**H**** tend to seem bigger and larger in number than they are generally.

2L2Q's comments about the terminal nature of my employment is true; the rest is total BluuSiht but might be overlooked (through a beer glass ). I spent 29 years working in two villages in the same school district and have no regrets. Lots of challenges; even more rewards. I have to admit though that the time I have spent in Fairbanks sure seems like a vacation to me. (The stores actually have a selection of things - and food is cheap! ) And you can buy beer there too!!!

Let me add this perspective from the past week: our toilet has never really worked right. On the bright side we do have toilets; that beats the buckets that we used for many years - and some still do. The system used in this town is a vacuum system. IT sucks - in more ways than the obvious. You can't go down to Home Depot and buy a different toilet if your's doesn't work right. You have to use a system approved type. They are complicated and expensive. We decided to upgrade and get new guts for the toilet we have: $400 for that - but at least we have a reason to pay the $190/mo sewer/water bill.

Second deal for the week: washing machine ....HE front loader...couple years since purchase but installed and put into service 7 months ago. It decided to puke its electronics in mid-cycle. Maytag was supposed to be a good name so I wasn't worried calling their service line. Grabbed my cell phone - (I arrived the same year that phones: land lines- became available to anyone with a wall on which to attach a phone jack). I called Maytag and got dropped after about 15 minutes on hold. Called back and waited another 20 minutes; talked to a nice lady who wanted to set up an appointment for a service call. I said I wanted to talk to a tech. She said - "No- they'll have to come and look at it". I said "so you're telling me I have to buy a new machine?" She says "No- you set up an appointment; we'll send out a tech; what is your address?"

"Okay" say I and we went through the whole deal. Then I told her to have the guy fly with RavnAlaska since that is the cheapest way from Anchorage at only $630 RT. I said "It looks like this is going to cost me $1000 easily; I should just buy a new machine like I first said." She says "It looks like we can't really help you out there. Is there any thing else?" I said "Yeah give me the name of someone who can help me....someone who isn't a Maytag person." So she wanted to give me a name of someone closer. She ended up using the yellow pages I am quite sure - in Anchorage.

Be aware that this is how things work out here. The nice thing is that dealers in Alaska tend to be very helpful over the phone and patient in walking people through problems with various stuff. (They do like it if you are talking about an item you purchased from them however. ) (I have earned the equivalent of a second collegiate degree in the knowledge I have acquired through phone calls with Alaska dealers BTW.)

Bush Alaska is not some place easily defined by some romanticized notions but it is a great place in so many ways. If you welcome challenges, like alternatives to the usual rat-race, and enjoy rewards that can't be easily quantified in financial terms, then a bush situation might be for you. Do some homework. There are plenty of opportunities and if one doesn't pan out for you, there are going to be others.

Thanks a lot most helpful. I admit I have been spoiled here with Home Depot right next door but in the past we didn't have any hardware stores and getting supplies was tough. For some reason things back then either where made better or we where to broke to have the nicer things that seem more fragile. I didn't know what a dishwasher was until my early twenties. I seem to thrive in a challenging environment. When we came to NC I took a job as an installer at a granite company. Within two years I was the Ops Manager and had added two divisions and tapped us into a whole new market with no construction experience. I then remodeled my whole house pretty much solo. Then I joined a Solar company as a tech with no electrical engineering experience and am now the Man. Ops Manager and also the Quality/Change Control PM. I always tell people right place at the right time. I could grow with my company but to be honest get sick of the rat race and everyone believing they don't own enough stuff. I am sure it exists everywhere but I want to raise my kids someplace with different hardships like I grew up with.

I don't mean any disrespect to those living in the bush, but to give someone from the lower 48 a perspective, it is more akin to living in remote parts of the developing world than any part of the lower 48, but with a very high cost of living due to the remote nature and expense of shipping in everything via small plane or seasonally on a barge.

It's hard to say what part of the state is best because there are so many pluses and minuses of each location. If you're on the road system you'll be able to get pretty much anything you can in the lower 48 and by Alaskan standards reasonably priced. You'll be able to access a vast portion of the state, but so can everyone else on the road system and those visiting in their RV's.

If you're off the road system in an area not visited by cruise ships you'll have a totally different experience and life style. There are good and bad things about small communities. It will take years before you'll be considered anything other than a visitor and you will never be truly accepted as a local.

As far as a hunting and fishing paradise, if you have the time and the money it can be incredible. If you lack one or the other or both then it's nothing like what you read about in hunting magazines. Fishing can still be outstanding, but our game densities are very low and there is a lot of competition for what game there is. Odds are you'll have to put a fair bit of time to connect with big game.

What you get out of an Alaskan experience is exactly what you put into it. IMHO Anchorage or the Mat-su can be an excellent place to plant roots as you'll have the broadest opportunity for employment, and Alaska can be right outside your door, or a short drive away. The downside is you can fall into the rat race and wonder how all these people have $100+k tied up in "toys" aka boats, 4 wheelers and snowmachines to access hunting and fishing. The answer is a combination of some people make really high salaries, some get into crazy debt for their toys, and some have been accumulating them for 20+ years.

You can have some uniquely Alaskan experiences with your kids amongst the hoards



Wilderness experiences just at the fringe of the cities



Or with a boat access areas where you can really get away from it all



If you do take the plunge, wherever you land make sure you and your wife will give it two years before you assess whether or not its for you. It'll take at least that long to give any place a fair shake.

I have been thinking the same thing lately 458. I am thinking in the remote areas we won't make enough to enjoy the area like we want. If we land some where we can make more we can be close for taking trips. I didn't realize it was that hard to hunt in the bush areas to be honest. Where I am from you can hunt bears in your front yard or deer for that matter. I put a lot of effort in here since my hunting spots are an hour from me and the season is 4 months long but baiting is legal and most do bait. Which means you need to bait as well or have the game leave your land. I am really missing when things where simpler though. I am starting to think Anchorage or similar will give me the best of both worlds. Depending on the next few months we may come up for a visit for a few weeks. I usually move somewhere for 5-6 years before moving somewhere else and in doing so have realized it takes time to discover what an area can offer.

Anchorage is a great jumping off area for more remote areas of Alaska if you find that's what you're after. Actually there is some good hunting right outside of Anchorage, but it's in non motorized areas. If you're willing to hump it into the mountains you can go after moose and bears or sheep if you draw a tag.

We've been here 17 years and I feel I'm still just scratching the surface. Four weeks of vacation a year isn't nearly enough.

We visited twice before moving up. I wanted to move before the plane touched down on the first trip, took us three years to make it happen.

There is a world of difference between visiting and living in a place, but if the trip grabs your heart, you'll find a way to make it work.

There are many places you can hunt out your back door, but many of those hunts equate to armed hikes. You simply have to put your time in to connect with game, and coordinating your free time with hunting season can be tough.

I have been lucky in that regard timing has been good for hunting. I know when we where in Ketchikan last year the fishing guide said Hunting season and Fishing season where at the same time and he hadn't hunted in years because he was only a captain when they needed him and they needed him during that time of year. It would be terrible to be in a beautiful place like AK and be to broke to enjoy it.

Excellent summary thoughts ........

I call Bullchit on that. Sure if your an azzhole maybe. Funny I have heard these very words from people when I lived in Hawaii, Louisiana, and Alabama. Never was the case in any of the places.

In my opinion you will have better chances at making it work in Southeast AK. Unless you want a 9 to 5 job. If you make it two or three years deckhanding you should be able to get a permit and boat no problem. It isn't rocket science just hard work.

I would certainly stand by what Paul stated as being spot on in a great many parts of rural Alaska (and often outstates as well). That doesn't make it a hard fast rule in every small place but even the nicest folks - heck, even relatives- are sometimes reminded that they "aren't from here" in some of the many remote parts of the state. That doesn't mean that you can't fit in but there will always be situations....

Village's and Natives sure. But AK as a whole not even close. The majority of people living in Alaska are from someplace else.

My comment was specific to those smaller communities, and if you'd quoted the entire paragraph it should have been clear that was my intent.

It is a fact one best not ignore that it can take a long time to be accepted in small communities, and in some areas you will never be fully accepted by the community. You can be the nicest person in the world and it still isn't going to happen. Even if you're not an a-hole, you might be in a location filled with a-holes.

How I quoted you doesn't change anything. Not all AK communities are native. Sure some are harder to manage then others but that blanket statement is BS. But you are entitled to your own opinion.

To the OP If your wife is a teacher she shouldn't have a hard time at all finding a Job in SE Alaska. The pay is good for the area. If you want to find a 9 to 5 job then you better stick to the cities. If you really want to live in Alaska it is very easily doable. Hunting and fishing in SE AK is great. Plenty of deer, black bear, brown bear, goats, and small game. All the fresh and saltwater fishing you want. Depending on the area trapping is anywhere from good to great. In my opinion a boat is mandatory at a minimum a 18' to 20' skiff.

Alaska as a whole has fewer than 30 census communities with populations greater than 1000 - over 100 with less than that. I guess it depends on what your definition of "Alaska" is. If Anchorage, Juneau, and Fairbanks cover that definition, then you could be right....perhaps.

You might be the "guy from 'there' " for a very long time.

Can't be any worse than being a yankee in the south. It took some time but my friends mom told him se was thinking of putting me in the will and taking him out and she would if he called me a damn yankee again.I have big shoulders and can get along with about anyone even the #$&holes:)

I lived in Alaska for about 35 years before we moved out about 15 months ago.
Our son was born there and I couldn't think of a better place to raise children.
But, and this is a huge but, it is very very expensive to live there and buy the toys to enjoy the hunting and fishing. Just the general cost of living around Anchorage is about 30-40% higher than what it is in Colorado. Housing and utilities are off the charts. The bush is even worse. I tell you this only so you can have an idea of the money required to make the move and enjoy what Alaska has to offer.

Try the on-line job sites for specific communities you might be interested in moving to. There are a surprising number of jobs available in rural communities if you are a warm body, reliable, and have a work ethic. Northwest Arctic and North Slope have a lot of them- just maybe not "premium" jobs. and some specific-skill jobs, as well.

My wife un-retired herself (she bores easily) for the second time and took a School District Admin job here in Kotzebue, moving up from our permanent home on the Kenai in June 2010.. So I retired, and came up in August for the hunting and fishing ops (which so far in my opinion have been very sadly neglected - I'm only giving away about 75% of my catches,,, if I had more time available, I'd shoot for plus 90... ). For an anti-social SOB, I have way too many relatives and friends who like free/ almost free (to hem) wild meat and fish...

But she insisted I find a job. I applied for a dozen or so, landed one at the local liquor store @ $20/hr but she convinced me I was to have no part of that- much of which effects she has to deal with in her job, Still, 20% off on employee purchases.....

I was shortly thereafter accepted for a 20 hour per week job with Alaska Airlines @ $15/hr. starting. And bennies. Perfect. In theory. ( I'm up to $20/hr now. Not great. Barely livable for one person here if it is one person's sole income. But there are bennies...)

I moved here in mid August after tying up loose ends, spent part of every day on the computer and filling out forms, walking the dog, bullshitting with locals, picked blueberries, slept in, killed a moose in late September up the Noatak, but was unfortunately employed by mid-October... It's been downhill from there.....

They lied about the hours.. For the next 2 years I worked 40 to 80 hours a week what with call outs for "called in sick" - often from camp , vacations, short staffing, and arranged work trades, sometimes for 6 weeks at a time without a day off. FINALLY I got on full time at 40 hrs per week... That is still hard on the hunting and fishing time... But I am getting more sleep.

We came here with a plan to stay 1 to 3 years, on my wife's year-at-a-time contract (they tried to get her to sign a 3 year contract last year. NFW!) We are now going into our 5th year. We might have psychological issues... Our house down on the Kenai is feeling ( and showing) a bit neglected... even with working visits every few weeks. (If you think you own a house, you have it bass-ackwards!). I'm gonna re- retire there sometime in the next few years...

5 months after jumping thru all the hoops for Homeland Security ("you are done, we'll call you"....) when I was job-applying in Kotzebue, they FINALLY contacted me to ask me if I was still interested in a TSA job at the OTZ terminal... UH, NO - I have a much better deal going with the airline...

Not that I mind searching through women's under wear....

TSA is still looking for locals, or not, to staff here - all dozen or so of our TSA agents are 90-day contract imports from elsewhere. Some last as much as 3 years, others are gone after the initial 3 months.

Just a sample of out-of-the-box/ not-in-my-field opportunities if you ain't picky and maybe riding the wife's coattails... Or vice versa. Kotzebue is a hub for a dozen other, smaller villages, most of whom are advertising for homecare, custodial, teacher's aides, and other not so premium jobs on a regular basis. If one of you has a survivalist-level job say as a teacher, these lesser paying jobs are do-able.

You ain't gonna get rich in anything but life-experience.

This is my third multi-year byway into the Arctic since 1973. It's addicting. Wouldn't have missed it for the world.