Hi, info on Alaska please! (Anchorage, Fairbanks: living in, moving to, friendly)

[DJuse]

LoL LOL LOL and more LOL...hahahaha!
Someone please ask me what do we do in Chicago, IL.
By the way...Good responses to the question!

[tessa_marie]

I'm not an Alaskan...yet...but it's ignorance...and laziness...and you find it EVERYWHERE! My husband is Australian...aborignal australian at that...and so when he meets new people here in Duluth, they expect him to know every single detail not only about Australia, but about native culture in Australia. Fortunately, since he's Australia has such a fantastic slang vocabulary, he gets away with a lot of fun. But then you know, I'm originally from Wisconsin, so when I was visiting in Australia, people there thought that I knew every single solitary kind of cheese...and as an American, they thought I personally knew Britney Spears and all that! Fortunately, it's the minority of people who think like that and those idiots can be shut up fairly quickly.
But don't you wonder how on earth they were raised to think that asking such ignorant questions could possibly be okay...ever?!!?!?! Ugh!!

[dmyankee]

You guys are a riot.

A lot like native New Englanders to some extent. I am interested in hunting and fishing up your way.

Cruise ships huh? Sounds a lot like flatlanders in a can!

[rose.pal]

Originally Posted by Metlakatla

Don't mind us, dmyankee. It's the end of touron season and we are jaded beyond belief.

At least I know I am. If I ever see another cruise ship I'm gonna sink it (unless karla with a k is on it).

You see...we get bombarded with questions constantly about our state and sometimes it feels that people are regarding us as a curiosity--not that you are; your post seems genuine and friendly. This summer I decided to take a "break" from my "normal" life and got a job in Skagway working in the touron industry and if ever another person approaches me and demands to know whatever in the world I do in the winter, I am going to reply that I engage myself in a nine month long marathon of sex and moonshine right before I break their face

I had one touron stalk up to me and demand to know if I grew all my own food--she informed me that us natives utilize everything and repeated her question about growing food. I had another demand (and I'm talking about tone here--it was demanding) to know what different kinds of salmon spawn in the local creek. I told her I didn't know and she made some comment about how as a native I should know. I am neither native or Native. Another favorite touron comment is how we depend on the cruise ships for our economy. BS, bs, bs. That kind of tourism is destroying parts of this state.

Anyway, we work at the same jobs that people work at in the lower 48, we spend our free time in similar ways.



I fish for King salmon now and then. I've never hunted but I think I'll take it up next year. Open season on my intended prey tends to be between the months of May and September.

Wow Metlakatla! I can't believe she was that rude! I'm insulted and it didn't even happen to me. No wonder you'd rather hunt tourists than game!

p.s. we're not all like that!

[Rance]

Originally Posted by dmyankee

You guys are a riot.

A lot like native New Englanders to some extent. I am interested in hunting and fishing up your way.

Cruise ships huh? Sounds a lot like flatlanders in a can!

Well we have moose and deer and caribou and elk and bison and bear and sheep and goats and for fishing we have king, silver, reds, humpies, chums, rainbows, steelhead, dollie, grayling, halibut, red snapper, cod, shrimp, crab etc. There is also some very good rabbit, spruce hen and ptarmigan, ducks and geese. Lot's of hunting. I don't do politics so I'm not even gonna try to answer that portion. There are miles of trails to hike and bike or snowmachine or ski, and ice fishing. The list is endless.

[dmyankee]

LOL!

I take it that a touron is a cross between a tourist and a moron?

The closest thing we have to a cruise ship is a restored logging steamship that offers cruises up the lake for $30-60 a pop for the flatlanders. My neighbor took a 850 lb. moose last week, probably small by your standards. Do folks in Alaska have the tradition of a 'deer camp'? Somewhere deep in the woods where you gather to hunt and fish.

[Rance]

Yes sort of I guess. Usually not something you can drive to tho. More like a fly in or horseback type access.

[Metlakatla]

Wow Metlakatla! I can't believe she was that rude! I'm insulted and it didn't even happen to me. No wonder you'd rather hunt tourists than game!

That's just an example. There are plenty of those who come off the ships with an air of entitlement, as if they are in Disneyland--it was a little weird to me how many of them seemed to think that the entire town was a part of the cruise line somehow. But in all fairness the great majority are okay and of course it's the rude ones that get noticed, and they all fell into pretty much the same demographic; the American baby boomer.

[Dusty Rhodes]

Alas, I am envious, have been for quite a while. I habitate a region of rural N.C. betwixt and between Raleigh, Durham, Greensboro, Chapel Hill is nearby, home of UNC-Chapel Hill. It is not exactly hillbilly heaven, Duke University, NC State University, Chapel Hill, N.C. Central University, N.C. A&T University, Elon College, Guilford College, UNC-Greensboro (my alma mater) and various community colleges are all within easy commute range. We do have some of the finest College Basketball in the world. I believe myself to be luckier than most, in winter, I can sometimes see the lights of my nearest neighbor, can not see the road from the house, nor the house from the road. We haven't seen a real snow (more than 6 inches) in over 7 years. I can let my dogs out without ropes, chains, or fences. My chickens no longer go into the woods (foxes), the foxes no longer come into the yard (German Shepherds). I also hunt. Am not on any flyway for Ducks or Geese, drat! but....We do have Deer, Odocoileus Virginianus- White tail deer, last year I got 4, all four combined were less than half the size of one good Moose. This year, there is effectively, no limit on deer. The hunting license allows each hunter 6, 2 of which can be males, the others must be doe. After filliing all your deer tags, go to the same place you bought your license, and get another slip of paper good for 2 more does. There is no limit on how many doe any hunter can harvest, just go back and get another slip of paper for each two. Neither our hunting or fishing rival the "Great Land".... well.... we do have several variety of Tuna and Blue Marlin. If your Blue Marlin is less than 700 lbs, you probably won't even place in any of the tournaments, similar experiences abound with Blue fin Tuna under 500 lbs. We do have large Black Bear, large because it is so warm here that hibernation is not part of their normal cycle, without sleeping and losing a third of their body weight, they get good size, 900+ pounds. I saw more animals, larger animals, greater variety of animals in one day in Alaska, than I've seen in 30+ years in N. Carolina. It is our intent to return for more fishing, and perhaps hunting on the next trip. The people living in Alaska that we ran across(figuratively speaking of course), driving around, not a ship, were friendly, humorous, easy to talk with, answered our questions with smiles and humor, and, in general, treated us as valued guests, not interlopers. The only bad experience we had was Jet lag.

[Glitch]

Thanks for sharing your experiences Dusty.

Originally Posted by Dusty Rhodes

We do have large Black Bear, large because it is so warm here that hibernation is not part of their normal cycle, without sleeping and losing a third of their body weight, they get good size, 900+ pounds.

Wow! That is one BIG black bear. Only grizzlies get to be that size in Alaska. Brown bears are even bigger (it is that rich salmon diet of theirs).

Sitka deer are pretty small, but they are only found in the southern part of Alaska. Once you get as far north as the Kenai Pennisula you won't find any deer or elk, just moose and caribou.

The largest fish that is commonly caught in Alaska's coastal waters are halibut. The largest was 454 pounds, caught by a Fairbanks resident a few years back. However, 150 to 250 pound halibut are fairly common. Personally, I prefer the 50 to 100 pound halibut. They make better fillets.

The largest fish in Alaskan rivers is without a doubt the King salmon (Chinook), and the Kenai River is where you will find the biggest of them.