Off Grid Alaska

[mooseoutfront 3643]

1 hour ago, Armybrat said:

You could spring loose for a $14 pancake at the Hash House A GoGo in the linq hotel

 

 

We’ll check it out. Thanks for the tip Brat. 

[mooseoutfront 3643]

35 minutes ago, Kennythetiger said:

That’s a pretty fucking good pancake. I don’t know if it’s worth $14 but it’s pretty fucking good. 

They don’t put bourbon in it or nothing?

[Armybrat 40850]

7 minutes ago, mooseoutfront said:

They don’t put bourbon in it or nothing?

No, but you could probably request a shot or two on the side.

I couldn’t finish it....

 

[mooseoutfront 3643]

 

[Sam Lin 3559]

[luke duke 6413]

That’s a pretty fucking good pancake. I don’t know if it’s worth $14 but it’s pretty fucking good. 

[Gil Bang 25960]

https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/wildlife/2022/05/10/jber-soldier-killed-in-bear-attack-during-training-in-anchorage-army-says/?fbclid=IwAR2gG-38LU3kPsvv942WtkjbNcfIvmZb-cStwWZUKg3CqMhyqSfxbKE3_PI

[mooseoutfront 3643]

4 hours ago, Gil Bang said:

https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/wildlife/2022/05/10/jber-soldier-killed-in-bear-attack-during-training-in-anchorage-army-says/?fbclid=IwAR2gG-38LU3kPsvv942WtkjbNcfIvmZb-cStwWZUKg3CqMhyqSfxbKE3_PI

I wonder if he did anything to provoke the attack?

The wife and I were in Fairbanks this weekend enjoying the hotel rates before they skyrocket for the tourists.  Lots of military transitioning in and out of Alaska right now and there were a ton of newbies at our hotel.  A big group were getting their instructions in the lobby when we checked in.  The two notable things I heard them told were that the weed shops were off limits and to not interact with the wildlife. 

People really need to be told to not interact with dangerous wild animals?

[Brisketexan 105151]

21 minutes ago, mooseoutfront said:

People really need to be told to not interact with dangerous wild animals?

Perhaps you did not receive the numerous memos on how stupid people really are.  I could have sworn you were on the distribution list.  Anyway, yes....they do need to be told that.

[gernblansten 3197]

5 hours ago, Gil Bang said:

https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/wildlife/2022/05/10/jber-soldier-killed-in-bear-attack-during-training-in-anchorage-army-says/?fbclid=IwAR2gG-38LU3kPsvv942WtkjbNcfIvmZb-cStwWZUKg3CqMhyqSfxbKE3_PI

[Gil Bang 25960]

1 hour ago, mooseoutfront said:

I wonder if he did anything to provoke the attack?

The wife and I were in Fairbanks this weekend enjoying the hotel rates before they skyrocket for the tourists.  Lots of military transitioning in and out of Alaska right now and there were a ton of newbies at our hotel.  A big group were getting their instructions in the lobby when we checked in.  The two notable things I heard them told were that the weed shops were off limits and to not interact with the wildlife. 

People really need to be told to not interact with dangerous wild animals?

When my kid led a platoon, they were out in the field for a few days.  He sees some of his guys in a semi-circle, and goes over to see what the fuck.  Oh, just Pvt. Cleetus playing with a cottonmouth with a stick.

"Ain't no big deal Sarge...I've been catchin' 'em since I was 5". 

Corrective action was taken. 

[Ten Bears 2481]

You say you miss BBQ.  You don't have a smoker and some hardwood to make your own?

[mooseoutfront 3643]

2 hours ago, Ten Bears said:

You say you miss BBQ.  You don't have a smoker and some hardwood to make your own?

There is no hardwood up here.  We have spruce and aspen and birch, all of which produce acrid smoke which is not palatable.  People use alder to smoke fish, but alders are basically just bushes.  No big chunks that you can go low and slow with for a long smoke on a brisket.  People have electric smokers and they use smoking chips or pellets that can be bought, but chips are expensive as shit.  Plus I don't have electricity.  I'd have to run the generator for at least 14 to 16 hours to smoke a brisket and I'm not doing that.

[Ten Bears 2481]

I'm out then.  No Alaska for me.

[Carl Spackler 3483]

On 4/30/2022 at 7:23 AM, Native Horn said:

Gotdamn that's a yuge skeeter.  F that.

Well, they *are* the state bird, so . . . 

[mooseoutfront 3643]

Finally caught some sunshine

Mud season is here. Water is rising

[mooseoutfront 3643]

[mooseoutfront 3643]

Fire season is in full effect. Smoke is rolling in. 

[Kennythetiger 9388]

Which river is that?  

[mooseoutfront 3643]

1 hour ago, Kennythetiger said:

Which river is that?  

The Nenana

[markstanco 12577]

On 5/5/2022 at 8:05 PM, luke duke said:

In fairness, this is a good deal in 2022.

[ztejas 43457]

On 6/22/2022 at 6:37 PM, mooseoutfront said:

The Nenana

Should have told him it's nenana his business. 

[Biff Tannen 45691]

On 6/22/2022 at 5:37 PM, mooseoutfront said:

The Nenana

[mooseoutfront 3643]

54 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

 

[mooseoutfront 3643]

Fucking fires man.  The smoke is ungodly right now.

If anyone is interested, here are a couple of links to see how many fires are burning:

https://blm-egis.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=32ec4f34fb234ce58df6b1222a207ef1

http://smoke.alaska.edu/current_fires.html

The Clear Fire (Fire 346) is about 8 miles from our cabin.  We had ash dropping out of the sky yesterday.  Air quality is for shit.

[Native Horn 3504]

Sorry to hear that Moose.  Although I haven't been to Alaska, first things that come to mind when pondering what the weather must be like is crisp, cool and clean.  Hope the nearby fires die out before they cause y'all any danger.

[Da Fino 2783]

On 5/28/2022 at 10:48 PM, mooseoutfront said:

Do you ever travel by rail? Or is that purely freight service?

[sidis 9828]

the problem with this thread is that every time i click on it, i end up on google maps street view pseudo-driving through the most remote and random ass places in central alaska for the following two hours.  i just checked out basically everything between nenana and denali park.  utterly fascinating.

and man, you ain't kidding about the fires.  even google maps has a layer of them.

[mooseoutfront 3643]

2 hours ago, Native Horn said:

Sorry to hear that Moose.  Although I haven't been to Alaska, first things that come to mind when pondering what the weather must be like is crisp, cool and clean.  Hope the nearby fires die out before they cause y'all any danger.

Thanks for the well wishes. Part of living in the woods we basically go through every summer. 
 

Summer is my least favorite season because of the fires, bugs, road construction, constant daylight, and tourists.

[mooseoutfront 3643]

1 hour ago, Da Fino said:

Do you ever travel by rail? Or is that purely freight service?

Mostly freight, but the summer season has a lot of folks traveling by rail. They have glass top cars so people have unobstructed views. I’ve never done the trip, but I hear it is awesome

[mooseoutfront 3643]

Clear fire is up to 23000 acres. It’s mainly pushing South now, which is good for me. Bad for the folks that live that way though. Lots of homestead cabins out that way. 
 

On a side note, my wife got her red card this year to be an emergency wild land firefighter. She got a job in Fairbanks in the aviation section. She’s filling the planes that are fighting the Clear fire with retardant. It’s kinda personal to her now. Her goal is to get on a helicopter crew to do bucket drops before the end of season. 

[sidis 9828]

i just spent some time reading up on the fires.  seems they are largely attributable to the fact that the snow was so much less this year than typical and thus, the snow melt happened a lot earlier and faster this year which led to unusually dry conditions, as well as the fact that southern alaska has a giant, austin-esque high pressure dome over it making it unusually warm (temps all the way in the 60s which obviously is a bit lol when you forget that it is basically the north pole and think in austin terms).  but the dryness, lack of rain, early melt, and a little lightning mixed in is driving a lot of it apparently.

does that jive with your experience, moose?  you live not that far from clear, right?  that pic from 5/13 looks pretty wet.  did you observe that it all dried up unusually fast this year?

[BearSchlong 8098]

Thoughts and prayers. I just peed in my yard while pretending I was pissing on the Alaska fires. My dogs helped too.

Seriously, sending best wishes to you and your wife and all Alaskans.

[Biff Tannen 45691]

16 hours ago, mooseoutfront said:

On a side note, my wife got her red card this year to be an emergency wild land firefighter. She got a job in Fairbanks in the aviation section. She’s filling the planes that are fighting the Clear fire with retardant. It’s kinda personal to her now. Her goal is to get on a helicopter crew to do bucket drops before the end of season. 

This is badass.  What was her experience prior?  This is something I would love to get into, though probably not actually getting INTO the fire part.

[Ten Bears 2481]

Are most of the fires started by lightning or what?

[Brisketexan 105151]

19 hours ago, mooseoutfront said:

On a side note, my wife got her red card this year to be an emergency wild land firefighter. She got a job in Fairbanks in the aviation section. She’s filling the planes that are fighting the Clear fire with retardant. It’s kinda personal to her now. Her goal is to get on a helicopter crew to do bucket drops before the end of season. 

Women who are into adrenaline rushes......are a good choice.  Well-done, Moose.

[Blotto 23525]

20 hours ago, mooseoutfront said:

She’s filling the planes that are fighting the Clear fire with retardant.

If there was only some way to redirect all the retardant generated here on the shag and send it your way, fires would be out by 4:30. 

[mooseoutfront 3643]

20 hours ago, sidis said:

i just spent some time reading up on the fires.  seems they are largely attributable to the fact that the snow was so much less this year than typical and thus, the snow melt happened a lot earlier and faster this year which led to unusually dry conditions, as well as the fact that southern alaska has a giant, austin-esque high pressure dome over it making it unusually warm (temps all the way in the 60s which obviously is a bit lol when you forget that it is basically the north pole and think in austin terms).  but the dryness, lack of rain, early melt, and a little lightning mixed in is driving a lot of it apparently.

does that jive with your experience, moose?  you live not that far from clear, right?  that pic from 5/13 looks pretty wet.  did you observe that it all dried up unusually fast this year?

I don't know what info you were reading, but the Denali Borough had record snowfall this year.  Like 3 to 4 times what we normally get.  It surprised me how quickly things dried up though.  I thought we'd be slogging to our cabin through the mud into July.  I've seen the mud last way longer with way less snowfall.  The prevailing theory is that we had so much snow on the ground that when the really cold temps hit (30 to 60 below) it insulated the ground and the ground didn't freeze hard like it usually does in winter so the ground was able to absorb the extra water quicker.  Makes sense to me.  We've also had very little rain so far this summer, couple that with the warm temps (it's been in the 70's and 80's in my neck of the woods with one day reading 92) plus all the lightning storms we've been experiencing it was only a matter of time before something close got set off.

[mooseoutfront 3643]

6 hours ago, BearSchlong said:

Thoughts and prayers. I just peed in my yard while pretending I was pissing on the Alaska fires. My dogs helped too.

Seriously, sending best wishes to you and your wife and all Alaskans.

Appreciated

Had a buddy that lost just about everything last night.  He and his wife live about 12 miles out off the road.  They are old school.  Can't get to their place in a vehicle, you have to either atv or snowmachine out.  He traps during the winter and then they get their PFDs.  That's all the money they have coming in.  Since the woods are scorched there will be nothing to trap out his way for years.  I really don't know what they are going to do to live.

[mooseoutfront 3643]

4 hours ago, Biff Tannen said:

This is badass.  What was her experience prior?  This is something I would love to get into, though probably not actually getting INTO the fire part.

Absolutely no prior experience.  She was reading in the paper about the firefighter shortage expected this year.  Then she heard basically the same story on NPR and decided to sign up and take the classes online.  She passed her pack test (carrying 45 pounds of gear 3 miles in 45 minutes) and got her red card as they call it.  This qualified her to start training.  She wanted to go the aviation route.  Not many women in that line of work so she basically got a job immediately.  She wants to be on the line fighting a fire on the ground at least once just to see what it is like, but the aviation thing came along so quickly that she couldn't pass that opportunity up.

[mooseoutfront 3643]

2 hours ago, Ten Bears said:

Are most of the fires started by lightning or what?

Lightning is the major cause.  Pure stupidity is the other.  People truly are morons...especially the tourists.  For some reason their brains go full aggy when they get up here.   

[mooseoutfront 3643]

2 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

Women who are into adrenaline rushes......are a good choice.  Well-done, Moose.

Been with her for 21 years for a reason : )

[mooseoutfront 3643]

36 minutes ago, Blotto said:

If there was only some way to redirect all the retardant generated here on the shag and send it your way, fires would be out by 4:30. 

We made a similar joke when she got the job.  We say she's on the retard crew.

[sidis 9828]

16 minutes ago, mooseoutfront said:

I don't know what info you were reading, but the Denali Borough had record snowfall this year.  Like 3 to 4 times what we normally get.  It surprised me how quickly things dried up though.  I thought we'd be slogging to our cabin through the mud into July.  I've seen the mud last way longer with way less snowfall.  The prevailing theory is that we had so much snow on the ground that when the really cold temps hit (30 to 60 below) it insulated the ground and the ground didn't freeze hard like it usually does in winter so the ground was able to absorb the extra water quicker.  Makes sense to me.  We've also had very little rain so far this summer, couple that with the warm temps (it's been in the 70's and 80's in my neck of the woods with one day reading 92) plus all the lightning storms we've been experiencing it was only a matter of time before something close got set off.

this was one of the stories i was reading.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/29/weather/alaska-record-wildfires-heat/index.html

Quote

Several things advanced the early-season wildfires, according to Rick Thoman, a climate specialist at University of Alaska-Fairbanks. The region had limited snow over the winter, which caused quick snow melt and dry vegetation.

 

[mooseoutfront 3643]

4 hours ago, sidis said:

this was one of the stories i was reading.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/29/weather/alaska-record-wildfires-heat/index.html

 

That's a strange one to me.  He's even at UAF.  Fairbanks had a shit ton of snow this year too.  Maybe he means statewide and not just the Interior.  I don't know.

Whatever the conjecture is, this is the worst fire season in several years.  It's good for the forest, bad for the folks living in it.

[Judge Roybeanbag 11819]

Was scrolling through some old manual camera pics.  Here’s a pic of my wife at a pit stop near Haines Junction  on our honeymoon in March 1993.  Drove from Haines to Fairbanks in a Toyota Corolla, which was a poor choice but we did it anyway.

Edited July 3, 2022 by Judge Roybeanbag

[mooseoutfront 3643]

49 minutes ago, Judge Roybeanbag said:

Was scrolling through some old manual camera pics.  Here’s a pic of my wife at a pit stop near Haines Junction  on our honeymoon in March 1993.  Drove from Haines to Fairbanks in a Toyota Corolla, which was a poor choice but we did it anyway.

Made that drive myself, but not in a Corolla. Kudos to you and your wife. 
 

Beautiful country out that way. 

[mooseoutfront 3643]

Fire is up to almost 40K acres burned. Still pushing mostly South which is good for me. Our area got downgraded from “set” to “ready” evacuation wise. 

[mooseoutfront 3643]

This is the view from the highway turnoff to our cabin. Fire is about 8 miles away. 

[Judge Roybeanbag 11819]

18 minutes ago, mooseoutfront said:

Made that drive myself, but not in a Corolla. Kudos to you and your wife. 
 

Beautiful country out that way. 

It was a good trip.  Seattle to Ketchikan, a few days there, took a ferry to Juneau, spent a few days there, another ferry to Haines, rented a car, drove to Fairbanks and then took the train to Anchorage.  Would like to do it again.