Mark from Alaskan Bush

[Mark from Alaska]

Greetings all.

I am Mark. I live in a pretty remote part of SE Alaska on an Island about 200 miles off the Coast of SE Alaska. I practice a subsistence lifestyle although I do get to town about once every other month or so. It's about 100 miles to the store. Float plane delivers mail when the weather holds, but we can go up to 6 weeks or so for mail. I love the life. Have a wife, and 6 kids, 12 grandkids.. all moved out and gone except 1.

I hunt, fish, gather, and get what I need to continue hunting and fishing. Lots of bears, deer, moose, elk on the next island, wolves, whales, and the normal Alaskan things you hear about.

I believe in the lord!

Mark

 

[Hermit]

Is Homer the closest?
Hermit

 

[ny griz]

:hatsoff: Welcome Mark,you are living the life.

 

[Mark from Alaska]

Ketchikan is the closest real town, about 200 miles... it's a full day trip with the boat ride and such... 😬

 

[Mark from Alaska]

Thank you sir... :grin:

 

[Katahdin]

Went to Google Earth and looked the town of Ketchikan over,big as any city I would want to live in.

 

[Mark from Alaska]

Well, I don't live in Ketchikan... I live 200 miles west... on Prince of Wales Island... pretty good sized island... rainforest.. with rainfall about 160 inches per year.. with the winter being nasty wet snow and mostly ice. The island has approx 1000 miles of old logging roads.. I use an ATV a lot, but something with a roof is much better. My old beater truck does quite well.
My son matthew

Some hunting pix from around the state.

A couple pix of my friends brownies. I don't shoot brownies myself. They taste nasty.

The wife's moose

Me with an average caribou

And of course there is fishing...

And sightseeing...

And of course reloading. A BP 12g slug on old Winchester brass cases. The slug is a custom 768g mold cast pretty hard for bear protection. I don't shoot them very much as you take a pretty good beating. I have never shot a brownie in self defense. But I have pulled back the hammer a few times...lol

Mark

 

[Mark from Alaska]

I think I should add a few things to my post... those pics above always get to folks and stir imaginations of a different life, all glory and fun. But I am hear to tell you, this area is filled with the remnants of people's dreams of Alaska. Living this life is filled with the sacrifice of convenience. There is no Wallmart or lowes, furniture stores or clothing stores. No fast food, or gas station on the corner. Mail comes when the weather is perfect only. I haul my fuel in barrels and pump into a storage tank. My propain I haul. Electricity comes from a local community generator, and is dang expensive. If we want new or better furniture, we make it.. if we want lumber for a building project, we mill it with a back breaking chainsaw mill powered by a 100cc chainsaw. If we want veggies not out of a can, we have to grow them. If we hurt ourselves or get sick, medical care is hours away. I have stitched myself and others several times, and remove the same stitches. I have to keep a supply of anti-biolotics for things like Giaridia always. This is not a life for the meek, weak, or lazy. This place has many abandoned homesteads, from nice folks that did not realize life here is not like some reality show, but a daily struggle. Many just up and leave, leaving all their possessions and dreams behind and never look back. It is not all glory, but it is rewarding for those that want to get back to a non simple, simpler life. Lol. Ok, rant over!

Here are some pics of daily life making lumber to build furniture and so on.

Matthew with rough cut lumber and a building project

Furniture from milled cedar.

Garden

Visitors are few and far between.

Anyway.. hope you all enjoy the pics... forgive the rant, I would just save those who think remote would be all fun. It can be, and it can also be hard.

Mark

 

[Elkeater]

Wow Mark, very impressive. Please rant more. Thanks for taking the time.

Does UPS/fedex ever get to you?

 

[Mark from Alaska]

No sir.. fedex and ups both need to be repackaged by the post office in Ketchikan... usps is the only thing that comes straight through.

 

[Louisk]

Welcome! Always nice to see another Alaskan show up here. Thanks for sharing the great photo's! I'm an "urban" Alaskan living in the outskirts of Fairbanks but I fly out to bush villages a couple of times a day for my job. I met my wife when she was teaching in Chevak.

Living in the bush really has its draw but it certainly isn't for everybody. I have nothing but the highest respect for those of you who make it work. Things we take for granted here can get very complicated when you get off the road system.

Getting black powder to your location must take some planning.

 

[Mark from Alaska]

Hi Louis!!!

You guys up there probably sitting around in some hot spring watching the days go by... I can get zero, nope, Nada real black here. I am able to find some pyrodex in several sizes, but I learned to make holy black many years ago in a kitchen blender and on the stove top.. lots of willow in the area, and that makes pretty fast powder.. no problem getting the chemicals shipped in. So I roll my own...

 

[Elkeater]

I am inspired by people like yourself. When hunting elk alone in the wilderness for a couple of weeks I get lonely and an aching gut feeling of nakedness to the elements. Just have to concentrate on the hunt.
So seeing you in the bush is reinforcement, thanks.

 

[Mark from Alaska]

Thanks ElkEater...

I know that feeling sir. When I was younger and still worked in the lower 48, about 30 ish years ago, I got the ich and grabbed my van and left the city and headed for Alaska. On the way, I decided to explore the Yukon territories. I was out there alone with my German Shepard for most of the summer, fishing for pike, living off he land and so forth. About August I was getting that same ache you speak about. I haddent spoken to a "real" person in several months. I decided to "come in" and head over to the Kenai like I originally planned. On the way, Out in he middle of absolutely no where, there was a young man hitchhiking. He too was seeking alone time, but he was a city person and totally unprepared and basically starving. He told me, he had not seen a car in over 2 days he had been hitchhiking, and I remember when I heard his voice, I started busting up laffing. It just seemed so strange to hear another person talking...lol. I prolly thought that I had been in the bush way too long.lol. I gave him a ride into Alaska and civilization, and he promptly ate about 5 lbs of my stored up pike. But what I was trying to say really, was there is that "ache" and quiet vaunerability of feeling so small and insignificant that you only get from being alone in the wilderness for a while. You seem to get a Mind for a Rendezvous... 😬

 

[Elkeater]

Yeah !! October hunt then Rondevous!

 

[oldude]

Welcome Mark very happy to have you in camp. Jim