disappearing into Alaska (Fairbanks, Valdez, Whittier: house, rent, travel)

[amylewis]

Notwithstanding that there are hints of things looking up I find myself thinking of just bailing out of Ann Arbor and Michigan altogether. I'm just not suited for city life, and jobs are just too hard to get here with Pfizer leaving town, and the auto industry downsizing in Detroit. All those workers are pretty desperate for jobs, and I'm finding I can't compete with all that and still count on eating.

So I went on Google Earth, and started looking around from altitude for the kinds of places I'd be most suited for, those being remote wilderness, or at least something close to it, and within realistic range.

I found some very beautiful country away from people in West Virginia, full of mountains, rivers, and lakes. My kind of place! However, Alaska never leaves my mind... never has, and I know I'm going to be there...

But about West Virginia..

No towns for miles and miles and miles...

Plenty of ways to eat, fish, deer, rabbits, squirrels, gamebirds, plants...I'm no stranger to that way of eating having grown up killing dinner, and having to clean it for the rest of the family, who bitched about finding a no. 8 pellet of bridshot in it, but would never have lowered themselves to cleaning it.

Alaska has MOOSE! One of those is a lot of meals in the winter. Here in Ann Arbor you can't kill anyting to eat, and you can't get a job either, regardless of your qualifications. I'll take killing a moose tax free over working here as a data thrall any day!

My truck (Hank the Tank) holds 90 gallons of diesel, and I can make 1000 miles without paying for more fuel.

So now I'm scheming. When I do manage to get a job here the money I don't eat on is going back into my 5th wheel trailer. It needs fixing up pretty bad. I have a place to live rent free, so I can do that.

It's in storage, and that's paid for until November, so I have time to do a lot of fixing on it.

I need to get the propane refrigerator in it fixed, that quit on me in Texas, and I've found out how to fix it myself online. The furnace needs fixed too, as well as the water heater, and I think I can handle those as well. It won't cost much to bury the trailer in bails of straw for the winter.

I'm planning on rigging it for solar and wind power, then putting an array of batteries in the back of my truck for the solar and wind to charge. These can be gotten for next to nothing, if not nothing at all. I know how to revive dead car batteries, desulfate them using a simple breadboard circuit, and how to rig them in series and parallel for power. Need to work out a charge controller though.

I think I can trade off one of my M1 garand battle rifles for a couple good sized solar panels somehow, 400 combined watts ought to do it. Building the wind turbine shouldn't be too hard, just need a small generator head, and pop-rivet some aluminum blades together on a suitably strong shaft, then couple the two, output to the battery bank through the charge controller. I favor the vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) concept.

My truck is a monster Dodge diesel 4x4 with very strong suspension, and can hold several hundred pounds of batteries in the bed and still haul the trailer. If I can get 800 amp/hours minimum in there I'll be fine, and it shouldn't be hard to get a lot more than that.

I'm thinking I can prolly get through the winters with 5kw generating capacity and propane I barter/work for. Of course, there's also wood to burn out there.

The whole point of this is to live my own way, and stay off the radar/grid.

One thing that worries me, how to get me, my malamute, my rig , all my weapons past Kanada, and into Alaska...

Amy Lewis
Ex-professional

[Rance]

Well you get recent shot records for the dog. Long guns should not be to much issue at the border. And as long as you have vehicle records and ID for yourself...you should be fine. Just make sure none of those firearms are stolen!

[amylewis]

Originally Posted by Rance

Well you get recent shot records for the dog. Long guns should not be to much issue at the border. And as long as you have vehicle records and ID for yourself...you should be fine. Just make sure none of those firearms are stolen!

Sounds good to me, and I'd dead sure my firearms aren't stolen, I bought them from reputable gun stores, with papers and all that. My dog had his shots a week ago. He's a malamute, and should like it up there.

Er... what about handguns up there?

Amy

Amy's Experimental Webpage (broken link)

[Rance]

I don't think you can drive handguns through the border. You may have to contact a Canadian consulate or something.

[mal_flisk]

You can probably get them up on the ferry, but check with the AK DOT.

[rotorhead]

You're right to be concerned about driving through Canada with firearms. They've got a whole list of "prohibited" weapons that includes ALL handguns, virtually all semi-automatic rifles, and a number of other weapons with "scary" features like detachable magazines and pistol grips. If you don't want to downsize to bolt and pump action only, plan on having them shipped from FFL to FFL ($$$?) or use the ferry from WA. If by chance you'll be traveling by air at some point from the continental US to AK, you can easily move several weapons as checked baggage but not much in the way of ammo. If you're doing the ALCan drive, you can move quite a bit of ammo (especially if its not the same caliber as the weapons you're carrying) but you've got the weapons restrictions. Remember that you've got paperwork to fill out on the US side as well, to prove you did in fact leave the US with that particular gun and you're not importing it from Canada. Don't plan on trying to hide anything in the rig or sneak it past customs, its a big-time problem if you get caught, not just a slap on the wrist. They take weapons violations extremely seriously and it sounds like you've got just the type of rig they'd be likely to zero in on for the fine-tooth comb inspection. They think nothing of unloading everything you own just to look it over if you rub someone the wrong way, and they're not particularly gentle about it either.

The whole thing is quite frustrating and smacks of absolute hypocricy and govt. double-speak given their admitted huge non-compliance rate with the Canadian governments own
domestic gun registration program. The fact that their own citizens have pretty much decided en-masse to ignore their new and draconian gun laws only makes their law enforcement types more dedicated to giving US citizens a hard time about border issues concerning weapons. Perhaps things will change with the liberal partys gradual slide from power, but remember that in Canada there is no equivalent to the 2nd amendment and their nanny-state government is totally invested in the NATO nonsense about small arms being the sole provence of the police and military.

Good luck on trying to survive the Alaskan winters in a 5th wheel, hay bales or no. Hope you've got a good woodstove and a lot of energy for cutting and splitting. Fairbanks and the interior might not be the best choice for year-round use of a camper, the coastal weather is wetter, but milder.

Don't forget that a spark from that stove (or wherever else) landing on a haybale revetment could easily leave you homeless in the middle of winter. Cabin fires used to be a major cause of tragedy in the old days, and its not uncommon to hear stories of rural residents losing everything to a house fire even in modern times. It was common practice in the old days to have a separate "cache" with enough food and clothing and such to keep yourself alive till you could get to the nearest neighbors place if the worst happened and you got out with nothing but your boots and longjohns. Actually, given Alaskas frequent earthquakes and its vulnerability to tsunamis its not a bad idea to have a "bail out" pack ready whether you're urban or rural, but thats another issue entirely.

[BudinAk]

O......M......G!!! Did I read this right...a girl/lady/female with more than one M1 Garand? And a Dodge 4X4 diesel? And a malamute? And knows how to hook up solar power to batteries? With technical and mechanical expertise? Ok...lest I be mis-construed: I'm not "hitting" on you, I'm taken and quite happily married. But...I'm impressed! You will fit RIGHT IN anywhere in Alaska you care to settle...so come on up!
Anyway...the tips and suggestions from Rance, Mal_Flisk, and Rotorhead are 100% right on, especially the warning about guns in Canada...they are really quite paranoid about it (like you are gonna run totally amuck and overthrow their country with your Garand or something). When I was in Oregon 2 yrs ago, I shipped my 4 handguns to Alaska via FEDEX to a FFL dealer at my destination, and paid the $$$. (about $130. Not including the fee the dealer at destination charged me. Not cheap, but better than paying a ridiculous fine, or having my truck, guns, dog, salami sandwich, and everything else in it confiscated...) At least I still have my cherished 454 Casull...
Bypassing Canada entirely IS an option. Like drive to Bellingham, WA, and depart via Alaska Ferry, destination: Valdez, or Whittier, Alaska. (because both are on the Alaska road system...drive to your final destination from there). Not sure about cost...but you can determine that from their website:
Alaska Marine Highway System :: Alaska DOT&PF
Hope this helps.

Bud

[DannyL]

If you take your vehicle on the ferry, you can bring all the long guns and handguns you want. Put them in cases, unloaded, and somewhere secure.
Carrying concealed on the ferry is a no-no, at least that's what security told me.
You'll have to jump thru more hoops over getting your dog on board than carrying your firearms.

[FishTAxi]

Taking a fifth wheel on the ferry will cost as they charge by the foot. A monetary sacrifice for being able to bring all your guns. If you choose to drive through Canada make sure you have no priors. Even a traffic ticket can get you turned away.

I'd bag the 5th wheel and all the batteries. We've got plenty up here.

Come on up! It sounds like you will love it. And fit right in or out

[rotorhead]

Yeah, the per-foot thing is gonna kill you cost-wise with a full-size truck and just about any 5th wheel, they calculate on the total length of the combo when its hitched up and its not cheap....especially in the prime season during the summer. If you're dead set on taking the boat you might consider if you can live with downsizing to a cab-over slide-in type rig if your truck can handle the axle weight. They're typically pretty cheap when bought used and add hardly anything to the overall length of the vehicle. It would work best if you've already got a dually, they're by far the best bet for a heavy slide-in since you can spread the load over more tires. A blowout on a rear tire with a traditional cab-over could get pretty scary, their center of gravity is way up there.

Another option is to wait until the fall, when the rates on the ferry go down dramatically. Also keep in mind that you can't stay in your camper/RV when its on the boat, the Coast Guard regs don't allow anyone to occupy the vehicle deck. Even with your comfortable little slice of mobile home parked down below, you'll be wandering the upper decks with everyone else. Not so with the dog though, he'll have to stay in the camper the whole time except for a couple of brief potty stops a day up on a special deck. Doesn't seem to make much sense, but thems the rules.

I'd say if you can get your existing rig up to snuff, the cheapest and least irritating way to get up there would be to pare your arsenal down to what you really need and ship the "canadian scairdy-cat guns" up to a reputable gun shop in AK via FFL to FFL transfer. Yes, its probably gonna cost a couple hundred bucks, but nice M-1s aren't getting any cheaper and they're not exactly common as dirt up there from what I've seen. I'd love to have one myself (especially in .308) but we're on a "no toys budget" for a while yet.
I regret selling my Dodge/Cummins truck, they're great tow vehicles and the older models are about as fuel efficient as you're gonna get considering the weight and drag of a 5th wheel. My Ford Expedition does OK, but even with the small engine we couldn't get much better than 9.5 - 10 mpg on the way down here towing our 20 foot trailer...adds up over 4000 miles. Shoulda kept the Dodge as far as the towing goes, but if you've ever dealt with stuffing a squirming toddler into a baby seat every day in a 2 door truck you'll understand.