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Not yet. I haven't figured out how yet. I will say, That would be great if I could. I only found the property late last week though.
I've looked at Totek lake for years and Wein lake(2008 government auction) this year. This Deadman lake fits the bill better they either of those.
(Commute...lol) Maybe a Gyrocopter..lol
I'd still like to learn more on the 10" walls. Does anyone know how this is done?
Ran into your post on Totek Lake when I was reading here. A friend is selling a cabin on Totek lake with a runway on it that he built. Very good land and solid ground, no tundra/bog that is normal for much of Alaska. Just North of Mt. McKinley and Denali Park.
Here is the listing for it.
You will have to clear the [url]http://www.city-data.com/forum/alaska/ parts at each end, copy and paste it in the address bar... to see the photos. I live about thirty miles from Totek lake and fly over the area alot. Deadman lake is too close to Minto for my liking, but there is a lot of guys that fly out there from Fairbanks.
It's one of the real cultural distinctions between England and America - Health Care. Both are good quality, but the difference is England (like Canada) has socialized medicine - I've never had to factor in Health coverage when I switched jobs in England. Coverage is always the same - it's free. You can have as many kids as you want and not pay for any of the medical costs. But unfortunately my relocation to Alaska is completely limited to employers that offer good Health Plans.
Fairbanks Memorial Hospital is run by Banner Health. They offer a plan which covers 90% of your medical costs. But this year alone my son's medical fees were $150,000! That means I would have been served a bill for $15,000 if I were working for Banner. But I work for Providence and they cover almost 100% of medical costs after you've paid a maximum out of pocket of $3000 for your entire family. That's pretty good from what I've seen here in America. This year, my wife is having another baby (a boy!) and my son is having ongoing tests and treatments. But the maximum I will have to pay is $3000. Fortunately I can move from Oregon to Anchorage and keep the same benefits by staying with the same employer.
True, it will be much more expensive for me to get from Anchorage to Deadman Lake, and more time consuming, but weighing that up against medical bills it's a much safer bet.
Now, you're all thinking: Why didn't he buy land nearer Anchorage...?
Okay, you got me on that one... But I've spent so little on the land ($3,500 for 5 acres) that really I can't lose out. Buying the land was a commitment I needed to make to ensure I got to Alaska.
I will be getting a $10,000 sign on bonus to move to Alaska. I am seriously considering using that to get my Private Pilots License. I believe their is a flight school in Anchorage that offers the whole package for $8,000. After that, I can nickel and dime it until I can save enough to buy a 4 seater Cessna or something similar. That way, getting around in Alaska won't be such an issue.
It seems to be the way to go. It's going to be a long hard trek. But I am on the path. I am due to arrive in Anchorage at the beginning of August.
I'm looking to rent a place in Girdwood or somewhere rural outside of Anchorage. There's a lot of ugly looking houses with baseboard heaters advertised on craigslist, but there's one or two log cabin / swiss chalet style buildings nestled into the woods that I like the look of.
Once you get settled in, you could consider going somewhere else within the Providence system like Seward or Kodiak. Both of those places are very wet so you may not like it. Here in Kenai our hospital just completed a major expansion and you could eventually work here Employment Opportunities (http://www.cpgh.org/Departments/HR/Employment%20Opportunities.htm - broken link) and find your cabin spot. Here's a listing www.AlaskaRealEstate.com - Advanced Property Search for acreage that you could access with something like an Argo in summer or snowmachine in winter. There's lots of land out in this area when I checked a couple years ago for cheaper prices. You can call the Kenai Borough and they have a list of properties with maps for their "over the counter" sales. Good luck on your move.
I am not sure about how it is out there but my humble opinion is that it is non-sense to expose a child in that condition to such a harsh environment. If anything happens to that kid, it can turn out into a deadly situation. No way, one would get immediate medical assistance in such a place. This child is still growing and has some serious health issues.
How is it like -90F temperature? Technically, I doubt that the cabin you have shown to us would offer enough shelter for that temperature?
I find you idealistic. I think you need to get going some serious research about living in those areas.
I am not sure about how it is out there but my humble opinion is that it is non-sense to expose a child in that condition to such a harsh environment. If anything happens to that kid, it can turn out into a deadly situation. No way, one would get immediate medical assistance in such a place. This child is still growing and has some serious health issues.
How is it like -90F temperature? Technically, I doubt that the cabin you have shown to us would offer enough shelter for that temperature?
I find you idealistic. I think you need to get going some serious research about living in those areas.
In the movie "Into the Wild", that idiot killed himself about forty miles from my house. I flew over that bus often as well as most of the interior Alaska pilots did. He didn't want to be found, he had all intentions of dying there for whatever his reasons were. The movie made him into some kind of cult hero and today people hike there as if they are going to a shrine. Had he wanted to be found, all he had to do was start a fire, the smoke would have been a signal for us to see what was going on there, the bus itself had old tires that could have put off black smoke and in the shadow of Denali National Park, that would have attracted a lot of interest.
There seems to be a really big misunderstanding of Alaska and living in the "Bush". I have lived here over fifty years and none of the negatives that some portray here are true this day in age.
Years ago, if you went off into the wilderness to build a cabin, you were pretty much on your own. Now days, you have GPS to find your way to where you buried a dime, cell phones that can reach out a long way with addition of antennas, radios, Satellite Internet (which I am on and install), Satellite Phone systems and so forth.
Yes it may take you hours to get to a remote site on your own, but now days, if you have an emergency, you can be medivac'd to a hospital faster than some rides in an Ambulance.
We aren't all dog sleds and igloos despite popular belief. I started flying over thirty years ago and this is the best place one could hope to fly. We went from dog sled in the 1920's to Airplanes and cars came along later.
I live about 80 miles outside of Fairbanks, I get more bears, moose and wolf in my yard than visitors, although I am on the "Road" system, I am still an hour and a half from a hospital by car and about forty min's by air. Not bad for living a really nice lifestyle.
The coldest I have ever seen here was in 1993 when it got down to -72 on Thanksgiving day. Normally it is about -30 during December to February with times it drops to -50 or so for a few weeks. Normally the interior here is colder than up on the Arctic Ocean, where I work in the oil fields.
People don't want to drill for oil in ANWR, here in Alaska we overwhelmingly do. It doesn't look like the Yellowstone Park photos that you see done by the environmentalist, it is a flat mosquito infested place that would drive you insane without bug dope (repellent).
Polar Bears aren't endangered, they are doing very nicely, I have to deal with them all the time where they swim from the sea ice to land to snack on a few Caribou before heading back out to fish for seals. That endangered species bit was a ploy to keep from drilling for oil, nothing less... matter of fact, they have increased in numbers over the last thirty years in spite of the "oilfields".
Cars have plug in heaters so they start and get you to work in the city even at the extreme cold temps, homes and cabins are built for the cold, just as houses down South have insulation to keep them cool in the heat.
Schools won't shut down until it is -50 and then it is an "Option" day for kids in the town of Nenana of about 350 people on the Tanana River.
Anyway, I thought I would just throw that out there for everyone to ponder...
Location: Wherever they send me... (Family are based in Oregon)
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I certainly am idealistic and I do have to check myself constantly that I don't ground myself in reality. But I don't think that's such a bad thing.
I'm still in the process of working out the logistics of how I can get to Alaska - it's, as I'm discovering, an ongoing process.
Right now, my plan is to get some ICU nursing experience so I can work in the ICU at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital. I am a cancer nurse of 7 years, but Fairbanks doesn't have a cancer ward and I'm quite interested in getting into the ICU.
The land I have purchased in Alaska is quite far from the Fairbanks. Although it's only 80 miles by float plane, it's several hours by car and snow machine.
My son has Inflammatory Bowel Disease, which means when it 'flares up' he needs hospitalization. The flare ups are usually preceded by certain signs and symptoms that give us a good warning that he is getting sick - dehydration, weight loss, paleness, stomach pains, nausea, etc.
I have no intention of moving my family to Alaska 'sight unseen'. My plan at the moment is to go there alone for a travel nursing assignment and 'check it out'. Once I'm there I'll have a much better idea of what is involved and the practicalities.
Just because things are a challenge doesn't mean they can't be done.
I don't understand the 'Into The Wild' Christopher McCandless analogy. I'm not going off into the wild to commit suicide. Nor am I going unprepared. I've done a reasonable amount of research and I plan to check it out further by myself without putting my family at risk.
I've written off the idea of moving to Anchorage or any outlying coastal towns. That was 'pie in the sky'. I got waylaid from my original plan which was to move to Fairbanks. Fairbanks it remains.
Location: Wherever they send me... (Family are based in Oregon)
61 posts, read 181,103 times
Reputation: 30
One other thing about 'Into The Wild'... You say that Christopher McCandless could have burnt the tires on the bus to signal for help?
At the time he was in need of help - after he'd eaten whatever it was that made him ill - he was too debilitated to do much of anything, no matter pulling tires of a bus! He might have been able to make a fire out of something else, but would that have really drawn any attention? Anyone seeing it would assume it was just a hunter out camping. But more likely that he was just too sick at that point to do anything.
People are interested in his story because there is a lot of dis-satisfaction in our culture at the focus on material happiness and his story seems to have been driven by a compulsion to rebel against materialism and a conventional life. That much I admire about him. The worry he caused his parents can't be admired. But who among us is perfect?
The point is, I would be less quick to pass judgement over someone who has died under such unpleasant circumstances. Saying he could have built a fire out of the tires is simply ignorance.
One other thing about 'Into The Wild'... You say that Christopher McCandless could have burnt the tires on the bus to signal for help?
At the time he was in need of help - after he'd eaten whatever it was that made him ill - he was too debilitated to do much of anything, no matter pulling tires of a bus! He might have been able to make a fire out of something else, but would that have really drawn any attention? Anyone seeing it would assume it was just a hunter out camping. But more likely that he was just too sick at that point to do anything.
People are interested in his story because there is a lot of dis-satisfaction in our culture at the focus on material happiness and his story seems to have been driven by a compulsion to rebel against materialism and a conventional life. That much I admire about him. The worry he caused his parents can't be admired. But who among us is perfect?
The point is, I would be less quick to pass judgment over someone who has died under such unpleasant circumstances. Saying he could have built a fire out of the tires is simply ignorance.
He didn't have to pull the tires off the bus to light them. When I fly over Alaska, I see smoke coming up all the time in "Normal" areas that are habituated. Where he was at isn't "Normal" so most pilots would go over and take a look. At some point common sense has to kick in and say to you "I am in Danger" and you take actions to defend yourself. The tires on the bus are rubber and burn very black smoke, if I saw "black" smoke coming up from the "Wild" I would pass over it to see what the issue is.
He got to the point of being too sick to do anything, it was stupidity on his part, no matter what his dissatisfaction was of the normal world. Had he been mauled by a bear, that was something sudden and unforeseen, but starving over a long period of time is not and he could have done something to protect himself.
He didn't need to "Remove" the tires off the bus, all he had to do was start a fire next to them and let it burn. Nobody would have faulted him for burning the bus to save themselves, and he would have had four shots at getting attention, only one wheel set of tires would have burnt at a time because of the metal and nothing else was flammable on it to spread, even starting a brush fire is acceptable if you are in need of saving.
That is the difference between being "Normal" and not.
If you wish to come to Alaska and live in the wilderness, you need to be able to grasp the dangers there in, he was totally clueless. This is a very beautiful place, and I don't want to live anywhere else. I see guys like him here all the time and it eats them for lunch.
I have a cabin about twenty miles that I have to fly to or snowmachine to in the winter from where he died. I know the area very well and he was a very classic "Idiot" in what happened to him. I feel sorry that he died, but he could have saved himself had he thought it though a bit, he gave up and just died.
If you think I don't know of what I am talking about, you should reasess your moving here, it may not be the place you want to be. I am speaking of over fifty years of living here... In the same stance, I can't fathom moving to a big city and living with people elbow to elbow either, nor would want to.
English Nurse, I just read your post about the fact your son requires hospitalization when his condition flares up. I would rethink your idea of living off the road system with him. Especially in a place that doesn't have regular air service. If it is a life and death situation you may lose him.
My brother died of the flu because a float plane couldn't get in to the Innoko River to get him to a hospital. If he could have been flown out, he likely would have lived. This really is something not to take lightly.
I certainly am idealistic and I do have to check myself constantly that I don't ground myself in reality. But I don't think that's such a bad thing.
I'm still in the process of working out the logistics of how I can get to Alaska - it's, as I'm discovering, an ongoing process.
Right now, my plan is to get some ICU nursing experience so I can work in the ICU at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital. I am a cancer nurse of 7 years, but Fairbanks doesn't have a cancer ward and I'm quite interested in getting into the ICU.
The land I have purchased in Alaska is quite far from the Fairbanks. Although it's only 80 miles by float plane, it's several hours by car and snow machine.
My son has Inflammatory Bowel Disease, which means when it 'flares up' he needs hospitalization. The flare ups are usually preceded by certain signs and symptoms that give us a good warning that he is getting sick - dehydration, weight loss, paleness, stomach pains, nausea, etc.
I have no intention of moving my family to Alaska 'sight unseen'. My plan at the moment is to go there alone for a travel nursing assignment and 'check it out'. Once I'm there I'll have a much better idea of what is involved and the practicalities.
Just because things are a challenge doesn't mean they can't be done.
I don't understand the 'Into The Wild' Christopher McCandless analogy. I'm not going off into the wild to commit suicide. Nor am I going unprepared. I've done a reasonable amount of research and I plan to check it out further by myself without putting my family at risk.
I've written off the idea of moving to Anchorage or any outlying coastal towns. That was 'pie in the sky'. I got waylaid from my original plan which was to move to Fairbanks. Fairbanks it remains.
Watch this space.
No, I didn't mean you were going to do yourself in.
People have all type of ideas about Alaska, some that far exceed their expectations, or they are clueless to what they are getting into with wide eyes or closed. Many are in between and with a level head, you can get a pretty good bearing of where you want to be.
You said you have property about 80 air miles from Fairbanks, I would assume it is on a lake, because there are very few runways on most areas. There is a lot of pretty neat places, some have pretty good ground and some of it is pretty bad with permafrost that you have to build a "Floating" cabin on.
I hope you were able to see the property before you bought it. A lot of people buy from Ebay and really get hosed by the sellers there, they don't tell the truth about what they are selling. They buy the junk land from the State at over the counter sales, mark it up ten times and resell it with a low down, high interest and fully expect the buyer to default after a year or two as their dream fades or the get to the property and find it is a swamp.
Hopefully you were able to get the property checked out before you bought!
If you haven't, I can maybe tell you a bit more about it if you IM the GPS cord's.
One other thing about 'Into The Wild'... You say that Christopher McCandless could have burnt the tires on the bus to signal for help?
He was starving before he poisoned himself, he should have done something to alert others of his condition. Where the bus is located, almost all pilots in the area that fly though there would go over and check what the smoke is if it was "white" to report a possible forest fire. If it was "black" that would mean there is something that has caught fire like a truck or a plane crashed. It would grab all that saw it's attention.
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At the time he was in need of help - after he'd eaten whatever it was that made him ill - he was too debilitated to do much of anything, no matter pulling tires of a bus! He might have been able to make a fire out of something else, but would that have really drawn any attention?
Again yes, that was on the main flight path between Anchorage and Fairbanks for many private pilots, me included. I flew over him a number of times and never saw any smoke coming from the bus. It is a popular place for hunter's to camp during hunting season. I have snowmachined there a number of times with friends for something to do.
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Anyone seeing it would assume it was just a hunter out camping.
At that time of year, the term is "Poaching", hunting season is Sept. 1 to Sept 20 of each year.
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But more likely that he was just too sick at that point to do anything.
You are a Nurse? How many times have you seen someone come it with some kind of infection that could have been taken care of with a little attention instead of ignoring it until it kills them? He wasn't much different in that fact to realize that something was wrong when he couldn't cross the river and was out of food.
Quote:
People are interested in his story because there is a lot of dis-satisfaction in our culture at the focus on material happiness and his story seems to have been driven by a compulsion to rebel against materialism and a conventional life. That much I admire about him. The worry he caused his parents can't be admired. But who among us is perfect?
There is a difference between being "Perfect" and having common sense which he clearly lacked.
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The point is, I would be less quick to pass judgment over someone who has died under such unpleasant circumstances. Saying he could have built a fire out of the tires is simply ignorance.
The fact that people do stupid things is good in that others will learn from their mistakes if they pay attention. The fact that he died under unpleasant circumstances is not an issue, the fact he cause his own demise is what should concern you if you want to live that kind of lifestyle.
As for getting the tires to burn, I could do it with no matches or lighters using the stuff around the bus to get a fire started, simple friction is all you need to get heat, then fire. But if I recall correctly, he did have matches... maybe wrong, but I recall in seeing it in the police report.
By the way, his book was a number one seller in the States, in Alaska you couldn't give a copy away, that should say a lot.... The people here knew he was an idiot that died in their back yard....
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providence
No, I didn't mean you were going to do yourself in. 
