Move to Alaska?

[BFR]

A few weeks ago my wife asked me if I would like to move to Alaska. I said sure, we just need to get a place to live, now she’s googling houses. One daughter says no, you’ll be too far away, heck she doesn’t come to Montana now, so what. The other says HELL YEAH, go for it and have fun before you get too old. How old is that? We’re planning on driving up there in July and staying until we decide for sure, may take several months, or longer.

Unless someone can give me a couple thousand reasons not too, we have a goal and a plan, maybe not much sense but who cares.

 

[justinspicher]

If my wife lets go to alaska id be packed and leaving before she could finish her sentence. Where are looking at moving to?

 

[Dexter Grayson]

Do it, you won’t regret it.

 

[eddielasvegas]

I'd be gone in 60 seconds too. I fancy your state too.

There is no time like the present as tomorrow is not guaranteed.

Good luck and keep us posted.


Eddie

 

[BrooksRanger]

Unless the Canadian government opens their border by July the only two ways you'll be able to get to Alaska will be by taking a ferry from Bellingham up the Inside Passage to Juneau and then over the Gulf of Alaska to Whittier. The second option is flying up. Believe me this is a royal pain the rear even for everyone. However, before you get too involved in your research you ought to consider making a plan using one of these methods before planning on driving up. Driving is easy, if they open the border then just get in your vehicle and go.

 

[dieselchessy]

Grew up there. Miss it most days. Will move back up once the kids are out of the house.
It’s the last frontier. Go west young man, go west.

 

[22lr]

Everything up here is expensive. Land, gas, shipping, vehicles, visiting anyone in the lower 48. Also, do research on neighborhoods. Anchorage and Fairbanks have crime and homeless problems that will shock most people.

The reward is a paradise for hunting and fishing, just understand your daily expenses will probably go up 20% just for living here. The PFD, and no sales tax helps but dont be swayed, its still expensive up here. Your also gonna want a quad, snow machine and new hunting gear... so... again... $$$, hahaha.

If you do move, bring a 4x4 crew cab truck and haul a trailer. Get to Alaska and both of those items will command a serious premium.

 

[22lr]

To be clear. I say go for it. Just my word of caution is that its pricey up here, for everything. Just keep that in mind, and if you can afford it, do it and never look back!

 

[wildwilderness]

The border is open if you are “moving” to Alaska. They do limit the time to traverse the provinces. Different border crossings are more or less strict on your “proof of move”.

 

[Catchfish]

Where are you headed, are you planning to check out parts of the state before deciding.

 

[wingmaster]

Would love to hear about your experience for those of us that will follow in your footsteps!

 

[AK Shane]

Summer in Alaska is like a meeting a beautiful blonde who likes beer, football, fishing and can field dress a deer and change her own oil. You fall head over heels in love. The summer will suck you in then 5 months of winter rolls around and the love of Alaska turns into thin tolerance.

 

[Q child]

I don’t know man. There’s been snow on the ground since October.

 

[Doug in Alaska]

We moved up here in 1981, were born and raised in Idaho. I'd never move back. Stay clear of Anchorage and Fairbanks, the rest of the state is heaven. Both boys were raised here and wouldn't consider living in the lower 48. However, I still travel to Idaho to visit family and hunt whitetail, turkey, and pheasants. Gotta love those whitetails especially. Yep, and I miss hunting lions down there, but hunting up here is a different ball game.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Where do Alaska people tend to “snow bird”. New York has palm beach. Chicago has Naples. Lots of people like AZ.

 

[WRO]

I loved my time in AK, but not a place I want to put my kids in public schools.

Alaska is a beautiful state filled with degens.. (there's lots of great people too, but it has a degen problem)

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

[Crusader]

BFR if you don't mind me asking, how old are you and your wife and are your kids adults and out of the house? It seems to be kind of a gutsy move to relocate like that. My wife and I aren't too far from retirement and are considering a big change move and to me it is a little more daunting now that we're almost "old," LOL!

 

[EastMT]

Having grown up in Montana, moved to AK there are some considerations to take into account

Hunting is amazing, but it is expensive to access the backcountry to get away from the crowds. If it can be reached by ATV there will be lots of people. If you have a nice jet boat, so do 1000 other guys. Have an airplane? Someone else could be parked on your planned landing strip.

If you go into places that you look at and say no way in hell, that’s where you should go because most of the other people said the same thing. Be prepared to buy expensive toys if you want to get out to hunt or pay for flights on a well researched company.

Fishing in the popular places(even winter trout is crazy) that you can access is usually shoulder to shoulder, I never got used to this, so I preferred a few out of the way places as I like solitude. Even flights to the amazing rivers to fish out west you will bump into lots of rafts. Go fishing week days, start at 3am instead of 5am, you get a few hours that are fairly quiet.

Overall it’s an amazing place, nothing better. There are limited roads and access, so with half the state out hunting a few places can turn into a zoo, so study, read, talk to a lot of state people and try to find out of the way, less popular areas.

Also, hike up that alder choked miserable valley, because 99.9% of the guys turned around there.

All that being said, after moving back to the lesser 48, everything seems extremely boring in comparison. Fishing, meh. Hunting, meh. It’s still fun, but half the fun was the effort involved in accessing, the adventure of finding out of the way places, finding out you are the only 2 in an entire drainage after a death march.

It’s something every sportsman should experience and visiting for 2 weeks isn’t the same.

One really weird thing I’ve noticed is how quiet it in a small town compared to Alaska, constant hum of small airplanes, I didn’t really notice it until I went back last August, it’s really noisy!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[5MilesBack]

My wife was onboard for moving to AK years ago........me, not so much. I hate the cold and I hate flying bugs. I put AK right up there with WY.......I'd love to move there but would have to leave before winter started.

 

[adventure907]

Snowbird....best of both worlds.