Railroad Alaska

[BeardyMan]

Ok, so this surprised me.

Found this on NowTV on the discovery channel. Its about, well, railroads in Alaska. And the people who live next to the railway out in the middle on nowhere. Like 14 miles from the nearest ROAD! These are real off-grid types. Very interesting program, and imo worth a watch.

[Mortblanc]

Why did this surprise you?

Were you not aware that they existed?

Or were you not aware that they could exist?

---

Even the capitol city is "off grid".

There are no roads going in or out of the capitol city, Juno. One must enter by boat or plane.

[BeardyMan]

The surprising bit was I expected a program about the railroad, but it's mainly about the off-grid homesteads along the track. I know Alaska is pretty empty, for want of a better word, but just how far these people are from anything was a bit of a shock. Especially when most of the people in the first series were OAPs. One dude was 88, still travelling to the creek daily to haul water back. His land he owned was 100 square miles!

Looks like a nice lifestyle, if you can deal with the snow. And the bears. Maybe, one day, when the kids have flown the coop, we can emigrate and build our own cabin. I think I'd like to be a little less reliant on that train for being able to reach civilisation though, just in case.

Awesome place though, must visit!

[Mortblanc]

Just remember, it is a good place to visit but you might not want to live there.

Temps in the interior areas routinely reach and stay at -50c for weeks or months, and you will have zero daylight from mid Dec to mid Jan.

Alaska has the highest drug abuse and alcoholism rates in our nation and also the highest suicide rates.

And Alaska is home range for several animals that still consider humans part of the food chain.

It's all fun until someone gets eaten!

[bigpaul]

BUT.....BUT ......BUT........Beardy has his buffalo shirt and his new hatchet..oh, and don't forget his hammock!!!.he'll be fine

[Midnitemo]

We don't really do the concept of wilderness here in the UK when people say big country in Australia/Canada/Alaska it really is BIG country....nowhere here is far enough away from civilisation/neighbours to really be isolated....I love the idea of being off grid and rural but I don't think I'd like to be that far out on a limb.

[Mortblanc]

One must also take into consideration that Alaska is the "last frontier".

To many that means that there would be no law, no restrictions, no enforcement, no one telling you what to do and no one to "bother you", whatever that definition might be.

As a result Alaska turns into the "end of the road" for a lot of "ner-do-wells", drifters, criminals on the run and losers looking for a place where there is no-one to compare their life to normal or successful.

There is also the fact that Alaska is a frontier in the middle of the modern world with ham radio, satellite phones, cell phones, GPS locators and law enforcement agencies equipped with 4wd, snow machines, airplanes and all manner of modern devices. Since they patrol a wide and lonely area with no backup and with few CCTV cameras on them, they take no guff from anyone and will warp our head with a nightstick in a split second or shoot you at the slightest presentation of armed resistance with knife stick or gun.

There is also a population already in the bush which is well armed and not predisposed to take any crap off newcomer wannabes who decide to push other folks around. If you do not fit in with the locals very quickly they will run you out of town, or out of their territory, without hesitation.

I have several friends up there and communicate with them often. Many of those isolated off grid cabins now have solar power and satellite uplinks for internet connection. The wilderness with E-mail!

[Steve]

I don't fancy this "middle of nowhere" lifestyle.

My idea of heaven is to live on a smallholding surrounded by other people with smallholdings.

[BeardyMan]

(20 February 2015, 18:45)bigpaul Wrote: BUT.....BUT ......BUT........Beardy has his buffalo shirt and his new hatchet..oh, and don't forget his hammock!!!.he'll be fine

I'll take the frontier stove too

[bigpaul]

i'll take "middle of nowhere" any day, rural, remote, isolated, no neighbours........absolute bliss!!!