Move from Alaska to Maine? (Portland, Bangor: home, movie theaters, high school)

[corgis]

Check out Eastport. Right on the coast, an island with an active fishing village. It's an artsy town, a fishing town, hunting, etc. Population about 1,300. Snowmobiling is another sport. You can buy a nice size house for 100K, good internet, fresh ocean air and good people.

[maineguy8888]

Originally Posted by puff5655

Thanks so much everyone! Lots of options. Next summer we will definitely visit all the towns we're considering. Bethel, Lincoln, Caribou, etc. all sound fantastic, and are all within a day's drive of family.

If you're willing to help narrow it down, or throw out more town names, here's what we're looking for with day-to-day life..

-For recreation, we like to hunt/snowmobile/fish/boat/hike/bike/x-country-ski and would like to do all those things near home. As much public land and trails nearby as possible.
-A pedestrian friendly/bike friendly town would be great- to bike to work, etc. on bike paths or at least sidewalks. Our current town has a 25mph downtown with zero stoplights. We love it!
-No fast food chains please. A local coffee shop would be nice. Local produce, great.
-Good air and water quality? Can we eat any fish we catch? In Western NY, the water was just awful..
-Of course we'd like friends. So the more active outdoorsy families with young children, the better.

That's about it! We are used to living rural and so a big arts/culture scene, movie theaters etc are not important to us.

Thanks again! I really appreciate all the time and thought you all put into your answers.

You're very welcome. I'll try to take another poke:
There is tons of hunting, fishing, hiking, biking, boating, etc. just about any where in Maine. Also cross country skiing. Northern Maine is probably one of the top two or three snowmobile destinations in the entire country. We get a lot of sledders from many states. (Great snow conditions and the trails are fantastic).

Air and water quality is good just about anywhere. There are ozone alerts a few times a summer in southern Maine and in the midcoast, but it really is only serious for people with major breathing issues.

There is more and more of a movement towards local produce in Maine.

There are many small towns which are pedestrian friendly. Maine is mostly small towns (under 10,000 people). Most of them would fit your needs; does it matter what jobs you want to get?
As stated before, the Millinocket area is able to offer very cheap housing, and a great location next to Baxter State Park. (Millinocket has 5,000 people; East Millinocket is five miles away and has 1,500 people).
Other small towns in northern Maine that I like are Danforth, Island Falls, Patten, Ashland, Limestone and Van Buren. They all have between 1,000 and 2,500 people. No fast food restaurants and decent little downtowns.
Fort Fairfield is also nice, about 4,000 people.

I guess when it comes to making friends, if you have the right attitude then it's easy to make friends here. I know some people have had bad experiences but I think that's because they don't really try to "fit in" or reach out to the locals.

[puff5655]

Perfect!

As for jobs, we are both teachers so we'll need to scope out the teaching situation there. My degree is early childhood so I can teacher K-6 but am also open to working at a daycare/preschool. My husband teaches math, which I see is a shortage area in Maine.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

Maine is going to have MANY teachers leaving in the next few years and we are already short. Most schools have small class sizes. We have overall declining student populations, but our teacher population is declining at a faster rate, mostly through retirement. I am on two school boards and a delegate to the Maine School Management Association.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by puff5655

How about the hunting in Maine? I read an article that says most people in the state do not hunt, fish or own firearms.

They publish all sorts of articles. I know a few Maine Guides who earn their living doing guided hunting/fishing trips. In our town the only store-front business we have is a gunsmith [no gas station, no general store]. To my anecdotal experience on life in Maine 'everyone' is armed and regularly hunts/fishes/traps.

Every year I give permission to neighbors who run trap-lines on my land, as well as a few hunters.

I owned a home in Bremerton Washington, along with homes in California, Scotland and Connecticut. From my observations, the taxes here in Maine are very low.

I recommend that you rent a home your first year in Maine. Give yourself a chance to settle in and explore the state for a year, before you decide which town to put roots in.

When you arrive, message me and we can have you over for supper.

[7th generation]

I attended college and stayed in Utah for 22 years before moving back to the western mountains of Maine to take care of my parents. Our mountains are gorgeamous. I can leave my house heading north and won't see another dwelling till I hit Andover...10+ miles away. Fishing is great and so is the hunting. Our moose are smaller than yours and I've heard it's because Alaska has wolves and the moose evolved to give them a fighting chance. The winter tick has done a number on their population but most people around here tag out. Deer hunting is good along with bear, partridge and rabbit.
What more do you want? As you can tell I'm partial. Being teachers you can almost write your ticket. Besides a couple more taxpayers can't hurt.

[OutdoorLover]

Winters are shorter and easier in Maine, no doubt. They do have voracious insects too, but outside of about 4 weeks of peak black fly season, I don't think they are too bad. I was included in the food chain by some impressive amounts of mosquitoes in Glacier Bay that beat anything I have run across in Maine.

[puff5655]

Originally Posted by 7th generation

The winter tick has done a number on their population but most people around here tag out.

When you say most people tag out on moose-- how long can we expect to wait to get a tag out of the lottery once we become residents, and how often after that? We are very spoiled here, being able to take 2 per year. We usually get about 200 meals out of each moose and now prefer it over beef. We will definitely be "stocking up" a few years worth before moving!

Speaking of ticks... are they a concern for people/animals? I hate those things. We have none in AK, but a few summers ago I spent a few days in central WI, and picked 30 ticks off my long-haired dog in one sitting.

[puff5655]

You've all entirely convinced me.

It's funny- when we first looked into destinations in the lower 48, we automatically thought the PNW would be our best bet. In that forum, people were very negative- they said we wouldn't like it. There's no snow and people are not welcoming (true, we wouldn't like it). Then we looked at MT and WY in the rockies. People were very negative in that forum too.. they said we wouldn't like the massive wildfires, rattlesnakes, or living among 100% staunchly conservative people (true, we wouldn't).

I had pretty much decided that maybe there wasn't anywhere in the lower 48 we would want to live. Until I decided to check out Maine, which I knew NOTHING about. I'm so glad I did!

I can't thank you enough.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by OutdoorLover

Winters are shorter and easier in Maine, no doubt. They do have voracious insects too, but outside of about 4 weeks of peak black fly season, I don't think they are too bad. I was included in the food chain by some impressive amounts of mosquitoes in Glacier Bay that beat anything I have run across in Maine.

Black fly move in waves across the state. One of our regular posters operates a website that attempts to track these waves each summer.

At any given location you might have waves of black fly hitting you one after another. Or you might not see any black fly for years at a time.

When I was shopping for land to buy, this property had black fly pretty thick. I have lived here since 2005, and I have not seen them as thick again. Most years the waves of black fly seem to miss this location.

Originally Posted by puff5655

... Speaking of ticks... are they a concern for people/animals? I hate those things. We have none in AK, but a few summers ago I spent a few days in central WI, and picked 30 ticks off my long-haired dog in one sitting.

Some posters know people who have had Lyme problems. As this disease has affected their friends, we have seen many posts warning others to be aware of ticks in Maine.

I do not know anyone IRL that got Lyme disease in Maine. Our livestock and pets rarely pick-up ticks. Obviously, they are present, but they are not as bad as some fear.