Living in Alaska

gsimmons2

FNG
Joined
Mar 4, 2018
Messages
67
For you guys that live and hunt in Alaska, how is it? I’ve read a few things online but none of those perspectives were written by hunters. I understand it has its down side as does every other place but couldn’t be so bad living in hunting paradise.
 
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gsimmons2

gsimmons2

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Joined
Mar 4, 2018
Messages
67
i dont find it difficult to deal with because i have winter activities that i enjoy. SAD is definitely a thing, depends on the person though.
I think I would find a way to cope if I got to hunt sheep/moose/mountain goat every year.
 
Joined
Apr 9, 2012
Messages
1,848
Location
Fishhook, Alaska
How extreme is the weather? And is SAD as big of an issue as they say?

You have to understand that Alaska is a huge state and thus has wildly different weather patterns (and amounts of daylight) depending on where you live. Southeast for example is very temperate and rarely gets below freezing along the coastline, you deal with massive amounts of rain. Where I'm at in the interior the weather is quite dry but temperatures swing widely between summer and winter.

SAD is a real issue for the northern regions and hits some people pretty hard. I combat it by spending as much time outdoors as I can, but that can be tough this time of year. My Strava apps says I have been on my xc skis 11 times in the first 19 days of 2020. The WARMEST temperature I've seen on the trails so far this year was +3F. The coldest was -32F.

Similar to the weather, the hunting also varies widely depending on where you are and what you are chasing It's like saying "hey, what's the hunting like east of the Mississippi?". Actually... it's a lot more variable than that.

Probably the biggest hunting challenge is just getting to the animals. Our road system is so limited that boats, planes, and ATV's tend to play a large role in spreading people out. And even with the use of all those expensive toys people tend to get crowded into the access points while a huge portion of the state remains nearly untouched.
 
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gsimmons2

gsimmons2

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Mar 4, 2018
Messages
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You have to understand that Alaska is a huge state and thus has wildly different weather patterns (and amounts of daylight) depending on where you live. Southeast for example is very temperate and rarely gets below freezing along the coastline, you deal with massive amounts of rain. Where I'm at in the interior the weather is quite dry but temperatures swing widely between summer and winter.

SAD is a real issue for the northern regions and hits some people pretty hard. I combat it by spending as much time outdoors as I can, but that can be tough this time of year. My Strava apps says I have been on my xc skis 11 times in the first 19 days of 2020. The WARMEST temperature I've seen on the trails so far this year was +3F. The coldest was -32F.

Similar to the weather, the hunting also varies widely depending on where you are and what you are chasing It's like saying "hey, what's the hunting like east of the Mississippi?". Actually... it's a lot more variable than that.

Probably the biggest hunting challenge is just getting to the animals. Our road system is so limited that boats, planes, and ATV's tend to play a large role in spreading people out. And even with the use of all those expensive toys people tend to get crowded into the access points while a huge portion of the state remains nearly untouched.
That makes sense. With that being said, would you ever want to move out of Alaska? -32 is pretty cold.
 
Joined
Apr 9, 2012
Messages
1,848
Location
Fishhook, Alaska
That makes sense. With that being said, would you ever want to move out of Alaska? -32 is pretty cold.

No.

I'm fairly cold tolerant at this point, and it was only -32 for that one ski. Although I've seen -20F in the low areas of the trail a number of times, including today.

The dark gets old though. If you work an desk job in the city, you can go all week without seeing the sun. I'm lucky that my work is located a couple minutes from a trail system, so I take full advantage of my lunch breaks.

I'd say moms with young kids tend to get it the worst. If you don't have a good plan, being trapped indoors for months with a baby or toddler is enough to break anyone.
 
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gsimmons2

gsimmons2

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Mar 4, 2018
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I think my biggest issue would definitely be the dark. I am an active person so it being dark outside all but ~4 hours a day would probably drive me crazy pretty quickly. However, if I was offered the chance I would try it out, always wanted to experience Alaska.
 

hodgeman

WKR
Joined
Mar 4, 2012
Messages
1,547
Location
Delta Junction, AK
Couple of thoughts... small population in a big state with limited road and infrastructure. As discussed, dark and cold can really work on people. Turnover rate in the state is 20% per year, that's 1 in 5 people leave every year for a variety of reasons. One of those reasons is misery in the winter.

The other thing is that not all industries are well represented here- depending on what you do, employment may or not be as lucrative compared to the significant cost of living.
 

as.ks.ak

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Joined
Aug 22, 2015
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722
Location
AK
.Southeast for example is very temperate and rarely gets below freezing along the coastline, you deal with massive amounts of rain.

Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahah LIES!!!! We haven’t been in double digits for two, almost three weeks. And the sustained North wind has been below 30 MPH one of those days. Yes. 1 of those days. Otherwise we’ve had SUSTAINED 35-50MPH winds for weeks now.

It cracks me up when folks living in the interior say the coast isn’t cold! It’s cold, AND we have the moisture. It can be downright disgusting here at times.

However, fairly often, yellow is right. It does tend to be more mild along the coast in the winter time. I just had to get my jab in there, specifically because of how harsh it’s been as of late.

I moved up here almost 10 years ago now. The biggest adjustment is definitely the darkness. As long as you stay busy and active in the winter, you can combat the cabin fever.



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Joined
Apr 9, 2012
Messages
1,848
Location
Fishhook, Alaska
haha. Does Skagway even qualify as SE??? You guys are so far up the panhandle you are practically Canadian over there. :D

I travel to SE a couple times a year, but to be fair it's mostly be in the Ketchikan / Misty Fjords area, which is a LOT warmer and wetter than you. Been to Skagway too, and it's got it's own thing going on. Rough place to spend a winter I'm sure... but the goat hunting is a lot better than Fairbanks., so you got that happening!

Couple of thoughts... small population in a big state with limited road and infrastructure. As discussed, dark and cold can really work on people. Turnover rate in the state is 20% per year, that's 1 in 5 people leave every year for a variety of reasons. One of those reasons is misery in the winter.


A additional note on this... our migration numbers been negative since 2012, with more people moving out than in. For a while we kept the population levels up with natural increase (aka babies), but the last three years even that hasn't been enough and we are on a slight downward trend. This is largely driven by the economy at the moment, which has generally been worse here than the US as a whole for the last 4-5 years.
 

.270

WKR
Joined
Jun 12, 2018
Messages
339
Location
Tucson
Shoot does Fairbanks even qualify as Alaska? Got them fancy stoplights and Home Depot. Haha Lynn Canal does have better goat hunting but not much on the bou or sheep or moose.
Born and raised in Haines.
 
Joined
Dec 22, 2018
Messages
615
If I had to work inside, I would probably lose my mind too...working outdoors everyday makes coming in and just sitting on the couch a treat to be relished...but I'm on the coast, we've just been flirting with subzero lately, not marrying it... :p

...some visitors on my jobsite this week:

20200114_164228.jpg
 

thinhorn_AK

"DADDY"
Joined
Jul 2, 2016
Messages
10,341
Location
Alaska
It’s pretty good, I can’t imagine moving out of Alaska any time soon or ever really. The winters can suck when it’s dark at 4 and -30f out but it sure is nice to be able to jump on my snow machine and leave from my house and go on all day adventures and caribou hunts, I also like being able to launch my jet boat from ~ 10 minutes from my house and go cruise around, fish and moose hunt. There’s decent bird hunting here as well.

Unfortunatly for me, there aren’t any sheep or goats where I live so I still have to fly to other places to hunt that stuff but. That being said, I absolutely hate anchorage and you couldn’t pay me enough to live there. I’d live in fairbanks any day over anchorage.

edit to add: lots of good bear hunting here in SW if that’s your thing, I do it once in awhile but I’m not a serious bear hunter.
 
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ramses342

FNG
Joined
Dec 16, 2019
Messages
73
Location
SE Alaska
I live just outside of Ketchikan in SE so I can give you some insight into that. I moved here about two years ago from Portland Oregon. What everyone else is saying about different parts of Alaska being super different is right. Like where I live I am closer to Seattle than Anchorage both geographically and weather. I get maybe an hour less of sunlight than Seattle and it rarely gets below freezing here. Maybe 20 days a year or something.

The pros of SE as far as living here are we can get stuff from the lower 48 barged up to us relatively cheaply. Our winters are not bad both with sunlight or temperature. Flights to Seattle are really cheap. The fishing is pretty awesome and since I am in the inside passage it’s fairly protected from the ocean. Hunting is good for blacktail, and black bear, also I can over the counter hunt goats which is pretty sweet.

The cons are you really need a boat to access a lot of the really good fishing or hunting. We have a 16 foot Lund which is nice because I can fish in summer from it and hunting season I can also use it to access other islands around me but only if we have nice weather. The ferry system is a hassle and really expensive. Getting up to Anchorage is expense and a long flight. There are not any moose near me either which is a bummer. SE is basically like Alaska Lite.


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gsimmons2

gsimmons2

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Joined
Mar 4, 2018
Messages
67
Some great info! I thought I would be deterred but it doesn’t sound too bad of a deal for the hunting benefits that one would get.
 

VernAK

WKR
Joined
Dec 24, 2012
Messages
2,009
Location
Delta Jct, Alaska
SAD is great!......it causes one to load obscene amounts of ammo and clean rifles that haven't been fired since the last cleaning.

I doubt if I'll shoot any big game next fall as this past fall we were overwhelmed with moose and bison meat.....throw in a dall sheep and a couple caribou.....gave the black bear meat to older folks along with moose meat.

I do have to shoot a pile of cranes to trade for rock fish.
 

Broomd

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Joined
Sep 29, 2014
Messages
4,210
Location
North Idaho
Shoot does Fairbanks even qualify as Alaska? Got them fancy stoplights and Home Depot. Haha Lynn Canal does have better goat hunting but not much on the bou or sheep or moose.
Born and raised in Haines.
lol!
Fairbanks can still kick one's ass, 52* below this week I believe. I lived there for a long time and had to laugh out loud with your comment. Fairbanks isn't Anchorage.
It's a tough place to live. Glad I did it, but 'no thanks' to doing it again.
We killed our share of sheep and mountain goats, bou, moose...everything actually. Having a son there certainly takes the pressure off if I get the urge..
So much time in AK is waiting for Summer, and those days are life too, ticking away. We only have so many.
We get WInter here in Idaho, but it's livable. It isn't misery.

I've spent time in Haines as well, nice town. Good fishing for Reds on the Lynn.

PIc= visitor outside the bedroom Sunday morning...
 

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