Please talk me out of moving back to Alaska! (gated, living)

[tigre79]

Originally Posted by Metlakatla

Once again, tigre..I personally prefer the mountains of Oregon. Sorry you have a problem with that.

I don't care one way or another what your personal preferences are. I'm simply expressing a different opinion in an open forum - one that happens to be about Alaska, not Oregon. I guess that's a problem somehow.

I like the vegetation that grows in them, especially the columbine and the sword ferns. I have no interest in skiiing or in tearing them up with four wheelers.

Just in building roads and houses on them so all your average people can live there. Got it. You don't tear up a mountain by driving on a mining road, btw, and the tundra plants survive skiing just fine. Just because you don't enjoy the means with which many Alaskans access the mountains doesn't mean they aren't accessible.

Thanks for making me aware of the Chugachs and the Wrangells. Funny how I've never heard of them after being around Alaska for more than 30 years. It's great that every now and then someone who's barely spent a summer in Alaska comes along and sets us straight, thanks

When you call the Talkeetnas "true mountains" and the terrain of the Copper River Valley (the Chugach and Wrangell Ranges) "little hills," it just comes across as ignorant. Really surprisingly ignorant, actually. Certainly not something I'd expect from someone who's lived in the state that long, unless they were trying to be duplicitous. Heck, you don't have to even live here to read a topographic map or look at a few pictures and see that that characterization is completely ridiculous.

But whatever. Have fun in Oregon. Alaska is the kind of place that should be appreciated for what it is, not resented because it isn't more like the lower-48.

[rwjoyak]

Originally Posted by Nephler

I have never seen the lights like I did many years ago on the tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula in Michigan. The lights were just about straight above me and in a circle in all directions.

I saw something similar in Fairbanks - out on Badger Road with no city lights - approx 30 years ago. It looked like there was a bowl directly above us with the lights spilling down on the top and running off all the edges. Easily the best ones I've ever seen. They were making sounds, too.

[Metlakatla]

Originally Posted by tigre79

I don't care one way or another what your personal preferences are. I'm simply expressing a different opinion in an open forum - one that happens to be about Alaska, not Oregon. I guess that's a problem somehow.

Just in building roads and houses on them so all your average people can live there. Got it. You don't tear up a mountain by driving on a mining road, btw, and the tundra plants survive skiing just fine. Just because you don't enjoy the means with which many Alaskans access the mountains doesn't mean they aren't accessible.

When you call the Talkeetnas "true mountains" and the terrain of the Copper River Valley (the Chugach and Wrangell Ranges) "little hills," it just comes across as ignorant. Really surprisingly ignorant, actually. Certainly not something I'd expect from someone who's lived in the state that long, unless they were trying to be duplicitous. Heck, you don't have to even live here to read a topographic map or look at a few pictures and see that that characterization is completely ridiculous.

But whatever. Have fun in Oregon. Alaska is the kind of place that should be appreciated for what it is, not resented because it isn't more like the lower-48.

What I meant, yet one more time, is that I like mountain living, and again, people don't live in the mountains of Alaska. I like the Cascade Range. I am not the weekend warrior type who drives around with four wheelers in the back of my truck (it's usually too loaded down with salmon to fit in anything else). Sorry that you feel that my love for the beautiful Cascades takes something away from Alaska....your personal preferences are fine and they are shared by many, but there's no need to become defensive about them to the point of small minded snarkiness.

By the way, part of the major purpose of this board is specifically for the type of comparisons that you seem to think are not appropriate here

Oh well. It's kind of a joke among those of us who've lived here quite awhile, how newcomers often try to "out-Alaska" everyone else. You won't become a true Alaskan until and if you outgrow that. Good luck.

My little home in Oregon is much more like Alaska used to be than it is now, by the way, but you wouldn't know anything about that.

Thanks for the good wishes on my upcoming return to Oregon for the winter I'm sure I'll enjoy it very much.

*edited to add*

You're employed by a salmon cannery in Valdez, aren't you? Are you going to be working there again next season?

[tigre79]

Wow, small-minded snarkiness huh? Now how would you ever recognize something like that?

I wasn't even addressing my initial comments to you. You're the one who took my post personally. All I did was point out that even as a new resident I can get into the mountains (not little hills by any rational definition) in many places, by a variety of means (and even stay there for more than a weekend!), and that there is a value to leaving those places largely uninhabited. Not trying to "out-Alaska" anyone (whatever that means), and I don't care whether anyone thinks I'm a "true" anything. I just like living here. I guess some people don't. Oh well.

And no, I don't work for a cannery, I work for the hatchery. I've got a couple months off this winter to play, but there's a year-round job waiting for me after that. I guess you're trying to imply that I'm also only here seasonally. Sorry no, I live here. And I'm done with this. Think whatever you want, I really, honestly don't care. Didn't mean to start any kind of argument at all. I only responded because of your bizarre "little hills" comment. Still puzzling over that one.

[warptman]

The Mountains in Southcentral Alaska and the rest of Alaska don't compare to Jasper and the Banff Range. Total beauty. I'd drive through this area again in future trips down to the states.

[Metlakatla]

Originally Posted by tigre79

Wow, small-minded snarkiness huh? Now how would you ever recognize something like that?

I wasn't even addressing my initial comments to you. You're the one who took my post personally. All I did was point out that even as a new resident I can get into the mountains (not little hills by any rational definition) in many places, by a variety of means (and even stay there for more than a weekend!), and that there is a value to leaving those places largely uninhabited. Not trying to "out-Alaska" anyone (whatever that means), and I don't care whether anyone thinks I'm a "true" anything. I just like living here. I guess some people don't. Oh well.

And no, I don't work for a cannery, I work for the hatchery. I've got a couple months off this winter to play, but there's a year-round job waiting for me after that. I guess you're trying to imply that I'm also only here seasonally. Sorry no, I live here. And I'm done with this. Think whatever you want, I really, honestly don't care. Didn't mean to start any kind of argument at all. I only responded because of your bizarre "little hills" comment. Still puzzling over that one.

No, I was simply asking if you worked for a salmon cannery and not trying to imply anything. There are plenty of people who work for salmon canneries who actually live in the state, by the way. Just ask any of my employees.

My bizarre little hills comment was specific to places that you can get to by a vehicle other than a plane--in relation to the Alaska Range et al, they are indeed little hills. In that same respect, the Cascades of Oregon are little hills as well, but they are what passes for mountains in that part of the country.

Nah...I didn't take your post personally until you started slinging the snark, which you're still trying to do with your lame little comments about how "some people like living here" and your hallucinations about how the Cascade Range (which somehow I doubt that you have ever even seen) is crawling with houses.

I merely pointed out the difference between being a weekend or even weeklong warrior type and actually living in the mountains. That really shouldn't be too difficult to comprehend and I'm sorry that you're having such obvious trouble with it. Neither should the fact that just because some people retain a deep love for a certain area doesn't mean that they don't "like" being somewhere else. Of course Alaska "should be appreciated for what it is" and I've probably seen more of it than you ever will, and have appreciated every moment.

For now, though, and probably for the rest of my life, I'll take the best of both worlds.

[Nephler]

Originally Posted by rwjoyak

I saw something similar in Fairbanks - out on Badger Road with no city lights - approx 30 years ago. It looked like there was a bowl directly above us with the lights spilling down on the top and running off all the edges. Easily the best ones I've ever seen. They were making sounds, too.

They were quite possibly the same ones, seems the timing is right. And yes, it was just like a bowl above me. It's something I will never forget, just awesome.

[Metlakatla]

Originally Posted by tigre79

Just in building roads and houses on them so all your average people can live there. Got it. You don't tear up a mountain by driving on a mining road, btw, and the tundra plants survive skiing just fine. Just because you don't enjoy the means with which many Alaskans access the mountains doesn't mean they aren't accessible.

Oh my. I guess I hadn't realized how pathetically uninformed you are on the topic. Sorry to add further commentary here, but I hadn't really noticed this statement until now.

Even if I had some vested interest in infesting the Cascades with houses and roads, anyone with even a rudimentary understanding of Oregon's land use laws would know that what you're speculating about simply is not possible.

I do appreciate the fact that Oregon's land use laws keeps our Cascades free of subdivisions and subsequent human invasion.

I just happen to like drinking my morning coffee on my porch in Oregon rather than tearing it up on some four wheeler in Alaska,,,bfd.



Nah, you don't "get it" at all.

Good luck on the year round job that's waiting for you at the hatchery in Valdez.

You can thank those of us who've done our time in the seafood industry for that job, by the way.

You're welcome.

[tigre79]

So people live in the mountains without roads or houses? Wow, Oregon must be a magical place. This is beyond silly. Think whatever you want about whatever you want. Your self-righteousness doesn't impress me, and neither does your attempt to take over this thread just because someone disagreed with you.

[melbern]

Originally Posted by warptman

The Mountains in Southcentral Alaska and the rest of Alaska don't compare to Jasper and the Banff Range. Total beauty. I'd drive through this area again in future trips down to the states.

I went to Banff/Jasper for the first time last year. It was pretty awesome.