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I think you'd have been well off to say that Anchorage has a certain element living there that neither realizes where they live, nor wants to live in Alaska. In that regard Anchorage is much like some other places. Nothing else makes Anchorage an even trade for anything else - and I don't even like Anchorage, I just like most other cities even less. Fairbanks I can tolerate. Juneau is too close to both Washingtons (w/apologies to the Washingtonians who may feel slighted by the width of the brush. )

Sitka Deer:

I copied the following fom Wikipedia.

"Anchorage (officially called the Municipality of Anchorage [MOA]) is a consolidated city-borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. With an estimated 279,243 municipal residents in 2008[1] (359,180 residents within the Metropolitan Statistical Area),[2] it is Alaska's largest city and constitutes more than 40 percent of the state's total population;"

The numbers I stated are wrong. Sorry. But I still stand by the intent of the post.

KC

One of the biggest differences between Anchorage and any other city is that this photo...



Was taken about 400 yards from this one:


We parked the truck in Anchorage.

Couldn't be Anchorage. Only subsistence hunters leave the antlers.

And it certainly wasn't part of Anchorage 30 years ago...

Second trip, to collect antlers and most of the meat (although I was wondering if it might be a little diseased after the first trip).

No doubt on your second point!

We could see my house from where we parked and started walking. From the ridge we could almost see Eagle River proper before dropping down. But Eagle River, the watercourse, ran right below us and it is the river that dumps right in downtown Anchorage... The one they have a king salmon derby on every year... Where a friend caught and killed almost two hundred silver salmon one season... Literally in downtown.

Just one of several salmon streams in the municipality where one may catch and keep salmon of some or all five Alaska species.



Yup, exactly like every other city in the US.

KC
There are damn few statements in your post that are correct.

1) Populations are wrong across the board.
2) None of the cities you named are served by any other major airline as stated.
3) "...which are operated like municipal bus systems between the hub communities and the bush communities." Never saw a municipal bus get chartered... Mail planes serve a major function unrelated to anything you posted and unique to AK, as far as I know.
4) Every good sheep in an open area probably gets seen at least a few times every fall and a lot of guys spend scads of dollars flying the ranges for great sheep. Undisturbed is not my definition of their existence...
5) The Anchorage boat thing I already mentioned...

Aside from those things, yeah I guess you pegged it...
art

Friends of mine in Fairbanks claim they have the best access to hunting and fishing. Friends in SE have claimed the same, and I've argued with each.

If you are tied to saltwater, Fairbanks will be a little tough. If you are mainly a river guy though, there are plenty of places, and less competition than the Kenai Peninsula. Anchorage has road access to lots of saltwater - Whittier, Seward, Homer, and a few stops in between. Lots of freshwater as well, both north and south. I can't really comment on the fishing out of Juneau.

Hunting is probably even a closer race.

Sitka Deer:

1. Yes the numbers were wrong. I already acknowledged that.
2. Alaska Airlines serves all of those cities. I can fly from Denver to Kotzebue on Alaska Air. Or to several West coast cities, or Cabo San Lucas, or Washiington D.C. It seems that makes it a major airlines. Maybe you don't consider it so. That's your perogative. US Airways and Frontier Airlines used to serve some of them but I guess thay don't any longer.
3. You ought to check out one transportation opportunity that's available to you from Anchorage. Penn Air (Penninsula Airlines) has hubs in Anchorage, King Salmon and Dillingham. It also serves a bunch of small bush communities in the Bristol Bay area and some inland communities. Bering Air has hubs in Kotzebue and Nome. It too serves many small bush communities. Noatak is a small bush community on the Noatak River, North of Kotzebue. It has a population of 450 and Bering Air operates two flights per day to Noatak. I suppose that some people call them mail planes, but you can also fly as passengers and cheaper than on Alaska Airlines. Hageland is another regional airlines. I suppose that there are others but these are the ones that I'm familiar with.
4. In '07, I hunted caribou North of the Noatak River and I saw thousands of caribou. Some were very curious about us and walked to within 50 yards when we were field dressing animals that we had just shot. I suspect that those caribou see other people when they migrate past Kotzebue. But they seemed undisturbed to me. In Colorado, if an elk or deer sees me from half a mile away, they move out immediately. So by comparison to animals in the lower fourty-eight, the animals in Alaska are undisturbed. You seem to think that maybe your state does not have undisturbed land. Well maybe undisturbed is not the right terminology. But by comparison to the back country in the lower fourty-eight, the Alaska bush is undisturbed. And much of the land is pristine, almost primevel.
5. It seems that your previous comment regarding boating from Anchorage confirms my premise that it's better to live elsewhere in Alaska.

It was not my intent to start a controversy when I made that original post and I apologize if I have hit a nerve among some Anchorage residents. I dream of living in Alaska and enjoying the vast wilderness that you have available to you. I have enjoyed what we in the lower fourty-eight call wilderness for over half a century, seen much of it, and gone on maybe 300 trips into that wilderness. But it's just not the same as the wilderness in Alaska. There's almost no place in Colorado from which I can't walk out of and to civilization in a couple of days. That's not true in Alaska, where the vast wilderness is overpowering.

KC

It generally sucks, but has its moments . . .

Sandbagger.

Anyplace you are likely to find employment, will have limited options to just drive to access big game hunting, unless you count driving to an airport. Love it or hate it, Anchorage is centrally located in the state, hence your access to various species of big game and fishing is overall the best in the state.

If you were most interested in moose and caribou, you'd likely find Fairbanks a good choice, but as mentioned your saltwater fishing would be limited.

For blacktail deer and salt/freshwater fishing, SE is hard to beat.

There is good hunting and fishing around the state, the real question is which job provides enough $ and time off to go out after the game. That is by far the biggest factor in hunting, not where you are located.

KC-

The reason that many Alaskans get upset with people from the outside(KC-You don't know why we go nuts on this) is that unlike Colorado or any other state in the Union more than 40% of our state is closed off because of federal land specifications that were largely made by people from outside Alaska that wanted to save it from Alaskans.

The time of going out to the complete boonies and living the Richard Proeneke lifestyle is near passed. You can do it but not on a shoe-string. Now, you need to know how to get USFW DNR NPS permits. Dance the government dance and etc. Many Alaskans want to live that rustic rural wilderness way but it is hard to pay the bills or find a career with a retirement plan in the bush. Sure, you can get certified and be a teacher but the school year runs into hunting season and you'll find that a lot of times those people who live in Fairbanks or Anchorage have found careers that actually give them more hunting time.

Anchorage is ok. It is semi-urban; but people get mauled by bears or killed by moose every year. Hell, they have the hardest fight out of any of us up here in that many "bunny-huggers" of the greenie persuasion move up there to hobnob at Alyeska Ski Chalet and drink non-fat soy lattes at Barnes and Noble. The Anchorage Dudes and Dudettes have to live with them.
We from other areas recognize this and tip our hats to them. Them eco-hippies smell pretty bad. Barney's Sports Chalet is about a block away from REI and you can still smell the greenies with the wind is coming from the West.

KC- your interest in moving away from Colorado is an indication that you don't like moonbats either- you just sense a little of the real Alaskans from Anchorage hardship.

Anchorage is pure Alaska allright. They have to represent against that derned tide thats coming up from Seattle.

Sincerely,
Thomas

"Them eco-hippies smell pretty bad."

How did I see that the other day??? Oh yeah, Fishier than a hairy-legged woman's thong after an hour on the treadmill...

That's a visual I don't need.

Southern Hunter, Give a call to Burgess Bauder DVM,here in Sitka 907-747-3056. Three warnings, hold on to your socks, roll up your boots, bring a hammer.

Being from southeast, I always try to encourage folks to consider the Kenai. Up and coming area with plenty of opportunities.

On the surface that seems like good advice, but the truth is that the KP is in an economic decline and no longer the boom place it once was.

The fishing is micromanaged and always under threat from "in-river" commercial fishermen (read: guides), and moose and caribou populations need some large, hot fires to regenerate habitat.

Other than that...

Funny when the mention the fires. I talked to a retired F&G guy, good old school guy, and he mentioned that he and a friend that commented that the best thing they could do for moose habitat would be to fly a super cup from Homer up to Kenai, dropping out molitov cocktails.

The trouble is, so many cabins have been built here and there over the past 30-40 years that a good rip roaring fire won't be allowed to help the habitat.

Fixed the above!

We had a pretty good fire last summer (Shanta Creek). It was of lightning origin. The black spruce, mature white spruce, and beetle kill will burn - sooner or later.

The smart thing to do would be to have smaller "controlled" burns to provide wildfire buffers to protect cabins and other developed areas..