Mike R
Reged: 05/26/03
Posts: 15948
Loc: Stinson Lake - New Hampshire
|
|
right on schedule...the first snow arrived today...no great shakes and it didnt even stick anywhere but on the peaks......but the smiles were a little bigger around town today...on whats to come soon
--------------------
|
Island Visitor
Reged: 12/19/02
Posts: 10396
Loc: Retraité
|
|
Uh oh. This was always Crazy Day in Alaska. With the first snow, we knew we would not see grass again for almost nine months and before long we would not see much daylight either. Lotta drunks on this day, lotta fellows missed work. Even some suicides.
Sounds as though it goes a little better in colorado, perhaps owing to the more congenial climate.
If you like snow, alls I can say is Ski One For Me - rhum waiting at the lodge below.
|
Mike R
Reged: 05/26/03
Posts: 15948
Loc: Stinson Lake - New Hampshire
|
|
yeah the onset of snow means two things to all of us who call this place home..... the influx of beau coup tourist cash and world class skiing...both things of which we all love to death....so to say the snow is welcomed is an understatement
--------------------
|
Dennis
Reged: 04/05/04
Posts: 3202
Loc: Chicago
|
|
"we would not see grass again for almost nine months"
Well, in Colorado during ski season, that wouldn't be a problem.................
|
Island Visitor
Reged: 12/19/02
Posts: 10396
Loc: Retraité
|
|
Quote:
"we would not see grass again for almost nine months"
Well, in Colorado during ski season, that wouldn't be a problem.................
ba da bing!
|
Island Visitor
Reged: 12/19/02
Posts: 10396
Loc: Retraité
|
|
My bias against outdoor winter sports was shaped by two rugged winters in alaska.
The brochures of colorado show Beautiful People in designer fashions sliding down pristine slopes in clear blue skies with wonderful restaurants and lodges all around before heading to the Hot Tub Party. Sounds groovy.
In alaska, the winters can be more harsh. You can go out cross country on a nice, balmy ten below day and feel quite good about things. Then the sun drops (about 3:30 or 4) and the temperature can go to 50 below in a matter of minutes. Of course there are no bears out by this time. But there are moose, some of which are slightly larger than asian elephants. Moose are stupid. They know two things: Stand and eat or charge and run over things, car, truck, person.
Mistakes in Alaska are often fatal. We had a small town eight miles from the base where a lot of people lived. And between the base and the town was nothing but road. NOTHING but road. It was not uncommon for a blizzard to blow through and whiteout the whole area. If you took blankets, hot coffee, lots of clothing, etc, you MIGHT make it until they could find you the next day. Alas, we had cases of people who froze to death halfway home on an eight mile stretch of road.
Fun is fun. And it is a beautiful state. But when the cold winds blow in off the Bering Straight, it dont play around. Be prepared or die.
|
Mike R
Reged: 05/26/03
Posts: 15948
Loc: Stinson Lake - New Hampshire
|
|
we are NOT the beautiful people in designer fashions!!!!!...the tourists are!!..we are the working slobs who are much better skiers then the beautiful people, in practical clothing, and outstanding gear that we got for half off in the summer when no tourists are around to keep prices up....LOL
but sorry to inform Florida and California and Arizona but we are`also, statistically the sunniest state in the nation......all this snow..and sunshine too....what a concept
--------------------
|
Island Visitor
Reged: 12/19/02
Posts: 10396
Loc: Retraité
|
|
Regardless, if you have nice warm weather to ski in, you know, 10 to 15 below or so, then that is one thing. Quite temperate.
I am talking about COLD weather. And Alaska has cold weather.
|
Mike R
Reged: 05/26/03
Posts: 15948
Loc: Stinson Lake - New Hampshire
|
|
yeah but I still wouldnt mind living there for a while...I used to watch Northen Exposure on TV and think...wow..I can live there easily and be happy
--------------------
|
Island Visitor
Reged: 12/19/02
Posts: 10396
Loc: Retraité
|
|
Miker: You would be Poster Boy for Alaska.
Alaska is the land of Second Chances where n'er do wells flee justice to live out their lives in a quiet drunken stupor. As such, you dont ask anyone where they are from or what their history is. It just isn't done.
At night, you walk along the beautiful streets of Anchorage, occasionally stepping over a sleeping (drunk) native who have a propensity for sleeping on the ice covered sidewalks. By day, you fur around in your parka and mucklucks.
It is a Rough And Tumble place with a man to woman ratio of 6 to 1 - and many of the women being a bit "manly" to boot. As the ladies of Alaska like to say:
"Alaska Men - The Odds Are Good. But The Goods Are Odd".
It is a place for people who dont like to bow to social convention in things such as manners, job, personal grooming, etc. If your dream is to schlepp around looking like you just drove ten thousand musk oxen across siberia in winter, it is your kind of place.
And the real peachy time of the year is in may when the 20 foot high snow drifts and ice all over the street melts over a one week period of time.
Do you folks have ANY idea how much dog poop and wee wee can be frozen into snow over a nine month period of time - or how it smells when it all thaws? If you aint never experienced it, you aint never experienced it.
Yep, Alaska, The Next St Barts.
|
Island Visitor
Reged: 12/19/02
Posts: 10396
Loc: Retraité
|
|
When you step off the sidewalk onto the street in May, the slush you step in will be cold, liquid, yellow and brown. Sure, some of that is the sand they used on the streets. But some of it isn't. You and your car are gonna stink. That is the way it is. BTW, we dont wear shoes into the house. Take those stinky things off on the artic entry, I thank you.
|
Mike R
Reged: 05/26/03
Posts: 15948
Loc: Stinson Lake - New Hampshire
|
|
LOL...you re too much....but then there is incredible salmon fishing in beautiful streams.....and I hear the skiing is way better then most people think.....and all that daylight to do thing in....hell I hardly sleep anyway so I could put all that daylight to good use......but you are not the first person to tell me I would fit right in, in Alaska....I wouldn't want to be in the city however..if I'm gonna do Alaska..I'm gonna do it in a log cabin by a stream and by a mountain....and maybe by a high school so I can coach hoops
--------------------
|
Island Visitor
Reged: 12/19/02
Posts: 10396
Loc: Retraité
|
|
It depends on what kind of fishing you like. Most people do Combat Fishing. This is where 2000 - 3000 fellows, many drunk, show up at a quarter mile stretch of river that The Feds have designated can be fished that day. You stand three or four deep along the bank until it is your turn to shuffle up to the water and cast. Then you reel it in and shuffle back. If you yell "fish on" they actually move enough for you to wiggle your rod one way or another and maybe land the thing, unless someone gets pissed and it turns into a Toby Keith video.
Or, you can be a Beautiful People and have a bush pilot fly you to some deserted lake. MAKE him file a flight plan because most of them like to keep their choice spots secret. And about 1 in 20 bush pilots crashes and dies on the return trip and you are stranded on one of the three million lakes (accurate number) in the state with NOBODY having any clue where you are.
Second chances? The state gives few.
|
Mike R
Reged: 05/26/03
Posts: 15948
Loc: Stinson Lake - New Hampshire
|
|
something in between the two would work for me....LOL
dont worry..I would eventually figure out a way to do it all my way...I always do
--------------------
|
Island Visitor
Reged: 12/19/02
Posts: 10396
Loc: Retraité
|
|
Having said all that, waking up to find a Hoare Frost on everything and seeing the beautiful sun shining over the Chugach mountains is quite, quite lovely. And you can count on a White Christmas. Yep, you will have one.
My favorite place in the state? I like Homer. But I LOVE Halibut Cove - an artsy commune full of Swiss Family Robinson types (possibly of "progressive social sentiment") across the bay from Homer. Really way, way cool.
|
Island Visitor
Reged: 12/19/02
Posts: 10396
Loc: Retraité
|
|
Miker: As I think about it, you and family need to live a year in Halibut Cove. It is so you!
And I mean that as a compliment - my favorite place in the state.
|
Mike R
Reged: 05/26/03
Posts: 15948
Loc: Stinson Lake - New Hampshire
|
|
In college I commercial fished quite a bit to help pay for my expenses......and I almost went up to Alaska to go crabbing....but I got talked out of it by the girlfriend....Im sorry I didnt go
--------------------
|
Mike R
Reged: 05/26/03
Posts: 15948
Loc: Stinson Lake - New Hampshire
|
|
White Christmas??...sheesh..its been 20 years since I didnt have a white Chritmas....my one Chritmas in St Barts being the exception...LOL.....hell we usually have white Halloweens>>>>>
Edited by Mike R (09/15/05 09:46 AM)
|
Island Visitor
Reged: 12/19/02
Posts: 10396
Loc: Retraité
|
|
Be glad you didn't go. Commercial fishing in Alaska has the highest death rate of any occupation in the US - by far.
You hit the water and you are dead. Nothing left but the crying. And the job itself is long hours in nasty conditions. When you finally get home, yep, you will indeed have 100K (or so, per year, not trip) in your pocket. But over the next few weeks, you will pee most of it away at the bar.
It is a hard life for harder men. And there are few to no women to soften it.
But, Halibut Cove is different. It is about sixty to one hundred people, almost all women and children (hmmm) who live in Swiss Family Robinson style chalets built on a boardwark thirty feet above the water in a beautiful circular bay. I think it is a "progressive" commune. I could be wrong, but that is what it looks like. And who can blame the ladies for fleeing to this sancuary, the state being a bit rough around the edges?
I like Halibut Cove. Really way, way cool.
|
Island Visitor
Reged: 12/19/02
Posts: 10396
Loc: Retraité
|
|
Quote:
White Christmas??...sheesh..its been 20 years since I didnt have a white Chritmas....my one Chritmas in St Barts being the exception...LOL.....hell we usually have white Halloweens>>>>>
Well in Alaska you have White Everything. If you like to go to the mountains just outside of Anchorage (fifteen minutes away) you can have a White Fourth Of July.
Unless a bear eats you, which they do about a dozen times a year there.
|
Mike R
Reged: 05/26/03
Posts: 15948
Loc: Stinson Lake - New Hampshire
|
|
Quote:
Be glad you didn't go. Commercial fishing in Alaska has the highest death rate of any occupation in the US - by far.
You hit the water and you are dead. Nothing left but the crying. And the job itself is long hours in nasty conditions. When you finally get home, yep, you will indeed have 100K (or so, per year, not trip) in your pocket. But over the next few weeks, you will pee most of it away at the bar.
It is a hard life for harder men. And there are few to no women to soften it.
But, Halibut Cove is different. It is about sixty to one hundred people, almost all women and children (hmmm) who live in Swiss Family Robinson style chalets built on a boardwark thirty feet above the water in a beautiful circular bay. I think it is a "progressive" commune. I could be wrong, but that is what it looks like. And who can blame the ladies for fleeing to this sancuary, the state being a bit rough around the edges?
I like Halibut Cove. Really way, way cool.
I know..I know...but instead I fished Georges Bank..and Hudson Canyon...in the winter..and that was no walk in he park either
--------------------
|
Island Visitor
Reged: 12/19/02
Posts: 10396
Loc: Retraité
|
|
Most commercial fisherman fish the Bering Straight. The water temp is at or below freezing but it doesnt freeze because of the salt and rough conditions. The waves can be thirty or more feet commonly with fifty footers occuring and the wind is constant. When/if you do get home, "home" is often a little collection of ramshackle hovels around a smelly pier. The one local bar serves rot gut and brine and dinner equals fish, fish or, perhaps, fish. Women? Nope.
If you are a true Man's Man who likes the company of other Manly Men, go for it.
I am a softy. Leave me and The Ladies on St Barts. I'll keep a good eye on them for you, fellows.
|
Mike R
Reged: 05/26/03
Posts: 15948
Loc: Stinson Lake - New Hampshire
|
|
no thanks...too old for that crap now...I'll leave all that for the young studs to do.....
--------------------
|
Island Visitor
Reged: 12/19/02
Posts: 10396
Loc: Retraité
|
|
Quote:
no thanks...too old for that crap now...I'll leave all that for the young studs to do.....
Good answer. When your idea of "roughing it" means staying at L'Auberge Petit Anse, that is a sign of maturity, my friend.
Welcome to The Club. Like it or not, we are adults (though Lord knows our behavior wont give us away).
|
Mike R
Reged: 05/26/03
Posts: 15948
Loc: Stinson Lake - New Hampshire
|
|
yup..I do/have done some really narly stuff out here..in terms of back country activity.....but Im gettng heavy pressure to lighten up and join the mainstream......we went 15 miles from no where Labor Day weekend....to a little cabin on a lake...and all I did was fish and drink....no rock climbs....no hikes up ravines....just fishing and drinking...Wendi was very proud of me....I felt like a freakin horse sent out to pasture....LOL
--------------------
|
Island Visitor
Reged: 12/19/02
Posts: 10396
Loc: Retraité
|
|
Quote:
.and all I did was fish and drink....no rock climbs....no hikes up ravines....just fishing and drinking...Wendi was very proud of me....I felt like a freakin horse sent out to pasture....LOL
Out to pasture or out to stud? It is not the worst retirement imaginable.
Let's face it, we are barbarians. Without the softening influence of warm, snuggly women, we wouldn't be worth shooting. Thank God these ladies, for some mysterious reason, have taken us on.
|
Previous
Index
Next
Threaded
on schedule
Edit
Reply
Quote
[Re: 