Considering property (Tok, Nenana, Hope: houses, rent, job)

[English_Nurse]

Access isn't actually that bad. If there is a campground there then it can't be inaccessible. You can get to it by road from Manley Hot Springs off the Elliot Highway. Either way, inaccessiblity is a bonus too. I don't plan on commuting or coming and going frequently. I want somewhere remote. That's the whole thing.
As long as I can get there and get out three times a year to earn some money, then I'll be okay.
(may end up eating my words, but who cares...?)

[Arcticthaw]

Ok, looks like you have done your research pretty well, and with the number of cabins on the lake odds are they have improved overland access to a decent trail. Though they may of brought it in during the winter.

Your second photo shows some shorter trees, its hard to tell if those are black spruce or not. Black spruce tends to burn real fast during forest fires and have poor quality ground underneath. Try to avoid them if possible.

Again good luck, and make friends with the people if the picture with the U shaped dock. they have a airplane.

[English_Nurse]

They are black spruce, you're right. There's birch too.
The soil is reportedly 2 - 5 feet of sandy silt covered by a shallow organic layer.
Well, as long as it's not a swamp. I guess I can't be too fussy. Thanks for all your feedback though.

[Manmountain]

EnlishN ; If there are any semi or fulltime residence on the lake , what do they do for a permanent source for water?

You could use the lake water for everything but drinking, if your close enough to run a small gas pump and 100' of hose to fill a tank in and outside thecabin. How did pernansky make it 30 years for drinking water?

For drinking water; collection from rain and snow can give you a lot.

I think if you explored the whole region and I mean really explored a few weeks of lookin around and learning your new area., you would find trails going everywhere. That means a snowmachine and quad trails in summer.

even the rough times there will be gold.......

Also an alaskan mill will make you enough boards for the floor and door/window trim etc in just a few days.

[Marty Van Diest]

Originally Posted by English_Nurse

If there is a campground there then it can't be inaccessible.

You are not going to drive to Deadman Lake with any kind of a highway vehicle. In Alaska, small planes are common place and almost everyone will be accessing this by small plane.

I would not purchase any land here without at least flying over it. At this time of year it would be easy to charter a plane from Nenana or Fairbanks to land you on the lake.

I have never been on Deadman Lake but have flown over it many times years ago. Don't ask me, I don't remember it.

I have also been down the Tanana by boat.

Looking at Google Earth, it might be theoretically possible to access this by 4 wheeler from the Tanana River from the East. It doesn't look like you could do it from any other direction...too swampy.

But I don't know who owns that land between the river and the lake. If it is owned by a Native Corporation you better make sure you have permission to cross it.

Really, the only practical access is by plane. Or maybe snowmachine in the winter. There is no way on earth that you are going to get to it from the Elliot Highway.

[English_Nurse]

I have looked at the lake from Google Earth.

I don't know who owns the land from the lake to the Tenana River. I know to the North is 800 acres of State owned land.

I'm keeping an open mind, initially I might just use it as a recreational cabin for a few months of the year. Maybe working in Fairbanks as a nurse and chartering a plane if it really is too inaccessible, and spending a few months in the cabin then flying back to Fairbanks or all the way back to Oregon to work for a few months and then repeat.

I know it's foolish to buy the land without seeing it, but I only have enough cash from my tax returns to either buy the land, or go up there and check it out, not both. So, I'm really thinking - how bad can it be? - and just buying the land and winging it...

Otherwise, the longer I wait the less land will be available (if any at all) and the more chance of me putting the whole thing off. If I buy it I'm committed to it.

I'm emailing a lady who has owned a vacation cabin on the lake since 1982 and she says it's a wonderful place and is giving me information about the area and nicest parts of the lake.

I certainly would look into getting a snow mobile and using the Telegraph Trail to get to and from the property if it is totally inaccessible. But everything I've read tells me that it's accessible from Spring to Autumn via road because the campground is open during those times and alot of people park their RVs there.

Water-wise, I had considered either digging a well, using catchment systems and snow, or gathering the water from the lake and purifying it.

Toilet: Outhouse.

[Marty Van Diest]

Don't worry about water...you have a whole lakeful. You can purify it for drinking.

I suppose the worst case scenario is that you find out the land is unusable for your purposes after you get there and you have to sell it. You might lose some money but not all of it. Better than spending it on a car or something.

Where are you getting info about parking your RVs at the campground?

[English_Nurse]

Good old Google searches. I punched in Deadman Lake and waded through all the entries. A half dozen people listed it on their online travel diaries as a place they stopped on their roadtrip in their RV.

I know its a risk. But there are already 12 cabins on the lake, so I'd have to be particularly unlucky to get the parcel that you can't build on.

It's going to be very hard to pull it off. I realize that. But the alternative right now is me continuing to live a directionless and thankless life. Paying the mortgage till my old age, for a view of my backyard.

This is a big chance, the wife has only agreed to it on the basis that I go there for a few months at a time.

Maybe it won't work out. Maybe I'll get there and freeze my balls off and be miserably lonely. The cabin will collapse. The ground will be a swamp. My wife will divorce me. I'll loose money and go broke, broker than I am now. Eaten by a bear or some other bizarre Alaskan fate like eating mouldy potato seeds and starving to death.

But the flip side, the possibility that the land is buildable, I manage to build a cabin that could be liveable, I actually like the peace and quiet and solitude and hard living, it reinstalls a sense of meaning into my life, maybe even the wife and kids will see the same things I do and we could all make a go of it. Or maybe it would just be somewhere I could go for a few months of the year to stay sane.

Alternatives are few and far between.

If I live to be an old man, I'll regret never having tried. If I die in the process (drama queen here) then I'll have died trying to do something I believed in.

I bet a million people think they can escape to Alaska, the Last Frontier, to try to find a new way of life. I bet the Native Alaskans think they're idiots. But, that's the draw of the state. For some people it works and they stay. I've lived in small towns, podunk nowhere towns and big cities. I didn't much like any of them. So the backwoods wilds of nowhere might work. If you want my psychological profile I fit the bill: Restless, idealistic, needs a sense of purpose.

Modern living sucks your soul dry. You can't avoid it. It's a consumer culture. Popstars and celebrities are worshiped like Gods. Every great pioneer in our history is just some dusty old quaint weirdo. Kids just want to play X Box all day.

Frankly, I think humans come into their own in times of adversity. The biggest challenge for me is getting out of bed to go and do the same old thing day in day out. Looking after sick Californians who have retired up to Oregon. It makes me question why I'm nursing half the people I nurse back to health...

I also know all the good advice that people give: You'll still be 'in your head' in Alaska, just like you're 'in your head' in Oregon or England or wherever - and that you have to seek change inside yourself, not in your environment. Well, that's a surefire recipe for insanity. I've tried changing 'in my head', but then I go for a walk or go to work or turn on the tv and it all comes flooding back in.

I think that if there is the slightest chance that living in the wilds of Alaska could change how I feel, then it's worth a shot.

I'm glad it won't be easy. I like a challenge. I need a goal. This is the only one I can think of that's worth a shot right now. If anyone has any better suggestions I'm open to your advice.

[English_Nurse]

"Deliverance will not come from the rushing, noisy centres of civilization. It will come from the lonely places." Fridtjof Nansen

[Metlakatla]

Go for it.

Keep a few things in mind. You can get some good deals through the over the counter thing (personally I dislike seeing the linky posted here but I've PMed it to a couple of people).

One thing to keep in mind is that this is land that was not chosen during the land lotteries (those being open to residents only). There could be reasons for that, especially if it has some sort of road access. And then maybe it simply got overlooked and is just fine. Either way, that land isn't so expensive that it's going to ruin your life if it somehow doesn't work out for you. What the hell, I buy a little now and then just because I can, never seen it and maybe never will.

You can earn good enough money in your profession to give you a few options; maybe a rental in Fairbanks while you get your bearings and check out your land would be something to consider.

If you don't mind my asking, what part of Oregon are you in? I have a little home there close to the Willamette National Forest.