Railroad Alaska

[Cromag]

I was thinking about @Nanuq today after watching three episodes of that reality tv show about people living off the grid in Alaska. Some depend on a train as a lifeline but have been living that way for decades. Very interesting adventure. Admirable to some extent but why in such cold remote places sheesh.

I grew up in Canada and am familiar with cold rugged terrain which is why I don't understand it. -60F is cold man. I've been in -50F in a very remote part of The Great White North and almost perished. So I can see trying it as an adventure but decades in that cruel unforgiving off the grid climate... Why there and not a slightly more hospitable -20F in the lower 48?

[AKTime]

The thing about Alaska is it is really like living in your own separate country. This state is massive. I personally live here because I like the solitude, don't miss traffic, and there is so much to do if you are an outdoorsman. The best hunting and fishing in North America, hands down. People live in Alaska because we love it. You have to earn the right to live here and putting up with the weather is the cost of admission. If living here were easy, more people would be here. You find a different breed of people up here.

[Nanuq]

I know you guys will roll your eyes at this, but Robert Service said it best.  Take time to READ this ... don't just scan it.

 

 

Have you gazed on naked grandeur
where there’s nothing else to gaze on,
Set pieces and drop-curtain scenes galore,
Big mountains heaved to heaven, which the blinding sunsets blazon,
Black canyons where the rapids rip and roar?
Have you swept the visioned valley
with the green stream streaking through it,
Searched the Vastness for a something you have lost?
Have you strung your soul to silence?
Then for God’s sake go and do it;
Hear the challenge, learn the lesson, pay the cost.

 

Have you wandered in the wilderness, the sagebrush desolation,
The bunch-grass levels where the cattle graze?
Have you whistled bits of rag-time at the end of all creation,
And learned to know the desert’s little ways?
Have you camped upon the foothills,
have you galloped o'er the ranges,
Have you roamed the arid sun-lands through and through?
Have you chummed up with the mesa?
Do you know its moods and changes?
Then listen to the Wild -- it’s calling you.

 

Have you known the Great White Silence,
not a snow-gemmed twig aquiver?
(Eternal truths that shame our soothing lies).
Have you broken trail on snowshoes? mushed your huskies up the river,
Dared the unknown, led the way, and clutched the prize?
Have you marked the map’s void spaces, mingled with the mongrel races,
Felt the savage strength of brute in every thew?
And though grim as hell the worst is,
can you round it off with curses?
Then hearken to the Wild -- it’s wanting you.

 

Have you suffered, starved and triumphed,
groveled down, yet grasped at glory,
Grown bigger in the bigness of the whole?
"Done things" just for the doing, letting babblers tell the story,
Seeing through the nice veneer the naked soul?
Have you seen God in His splendors,
heard the text that nature renders?
(You'll never hear it in the family pew).
The simple things, the true things, the silent men who do things --
Then listen to the Wild -- it’s calling you.

 

They have cradled you in custom,
they have primed you with their preaching,
They have soaked you in convention through and through;
They have put you in a showcase; you're a credit to their teaching --
But can't you hear the Wild? -- it’s calling you.
Let us probe the silent places, let us seek what luck betide us;
Let us journey to a lonely land I know.
There’s a whisper on the night-wind,
there’s a star agleam to guide us,
And the Wild is calling, calling. . .let us go.

[Nanuq]

You have to earn the right to live here

 

+100

[Cromag]

Nice lyrics and appropriate to the query. It speaks to the remote wilderness theme and paints an honest picture.

Though these uber remote off-the-gridder's appreciate a good Stratocaster guitar, I can't see them getting into the trappings of replica watchdom.

Just to clarify, I'm not talking about people living in Alaskan towns. I'm talking about way off wilderness full time cabin living in the black darkness of a snow buried season. No company, no gazing upon gods majestic Alaskan glories. Just cold dark unrelenting unforgiving cruel lonely winter. Not sure that qualifies for special. Isn't it like wasting away in Abaddon for a season? And what motivates someone to this extreme?