Got bored today and drove over to the village whale bone pile here at Barter Island where I work.


A mother and her cub were hanging around the bone pile.  The cub is walking towards me in the truck.


The cub is looking in the open window.


The cub is looking in the window, which I have now decided to close.


Fuzzy side shot.  Note the blur in the lower right - that's where the cub was licking the window.

You didn't pet it????

Pussy

Thanks, Bro.

Wonder how many coats I could make out of one.

I think I could have actually have gotten away with it but for three serious reasons why not:

1) The mother was still around and they get touchy about threats to their cubs

2) Don't want to get the bear used to humans otherwise it may get too friendly, wander boldly into the village, then have to be shot.

3) It's highly illegal to molest the polar bears in any way, you are not even supposed to honk your horn at them.  Of course if you are an Alaskan Native then you can molest/haze it or shoot it dead, which they do on occasion.

I should be in Alaska full time, never been there but everthing I see simply amazes me. Next year The ELcan {sp} by MC no doubt.


Are the jobs that a fit 35 YRO male could do and more then likely not lose his life?

How bad are the dark months?

Sorry to side track,  the idea always intrigued me.

Copy of post for the Alaskan board.


I work here.  In ANWR 12 miles away from where the couple recently got eaten by grizzly bears.  It's a USAF long range radar station on the North slope near the Canadian border.  Desolate, harsh, and I hate it all the way to the bank.


Here's a picture of one of the whales the village harvested last year.

Dark months suck.  Badly.  Where this is the sun sets from Nov 22 and doesn't rise until Jan 17 and because of the brief sun during the days near that period it's more like dark for about 2+ months.  Of course the opposite is true in the summer.  The effect is more pronounced the farther north you go.  When I am home (Fairbanks) in the summer the days of 24 hour sunlight are awesome allowing for some amazing trigger time at the range since it never gets dark during that period.

The mosquitoes (Alaskan state bird) bother me more.  Vampires got nothing on them.  The cold I can deal with.

But Alaska is truly a wondrous place filled with amazing delights to behold unlike most all other states.  There are many good things, and some bad.  It is a state of extremes.

Some of the other good:  No permit needed for Carry Concealed, no extra gun laws, Class III friendly, no state tax, no sales tax, free oil dividends each year just for living here, extreme fishing and hunting, respect for personal privacy, independent thought, and more.  It's a state of mind.  Normal people need not apply.

tag

I always heard the saying " I will ship your ass to a remote village in Alaska where no one will ever find or hear from you again, if you don't straighten up". But I never actually thought it would happen, much less me being able to talk to that person. So what did you do? [BUD]

I am very envious of you. I would give up quite alot to move to Alaska.

Three times I heard my job come up in movies.  Stripes where the inept Captain is punished by being sent to man a radar tower in Alaska, Mission Impossible where they send the lower level agent to a radar town in Alaska and they mail him his clothes, and I think a threat was made in Wargames where someone is threatened with being sent to man a radar town in Alaska...

I was born here (Fairbanks), went away for college (Seattle), moved (Las Vegas), moved some more then came back to Alaska on a vacation, been here ever since.  The jobs I got just paid too well.  Hard to give it up.  However it's allowed me to travel, live decadently, and rack up close to 200 guns and NFA.

However money isn't the reason I love Alaska - it's the state of mind and way of life.  Nevada is going to be my winter home as the frontier individualism (in the rural areas), the lack of taxes and gun laws are similar.

When I grew up here I thought people were the same elsewhere, boy was I ever wrong!  I think I met the antithesis in the PRK which was so repugnant to me I ran back to Alaska.  If you just get rid of most of the people and laws there, it would be a really nice state.  Just imagine...

Much of a market for Mechanical Engineers up there?  I am a Senior at Colorado School of Mines...

free oil dividends

What do they usualy pay out for this?

Great pics BTW.

Very nice pics.... girlfriend is wanting to plan a vacation to Alaska. When I show her your pics... I'll be booking a trip.

Any suggestions for a vacationer?

"The cub is looking in the window, which I have now decided to close."


i believe this has just become one of my favorite arfcom posts.

Quoted: The cub is looking in the window, which I have now decided to close.

Awesome pics; thanks!

Wow Mike...those pictures are AWESOME!! Someday I would like to spend a couple weeks (hell...even longer!!) up there...looks so nice.

So do you cuddle them at night to keep warm? Nothing like a REAL teddy bear

-Derek

I had to go make hamburger helper after seeing that, I bet theyre tasty...

On 30 July I arrived in Anchorage to spend a week with a friend.  The first things that greeted me when I stepped from the jetway into the terminal were two big bears, a grizzly and a polar bear (mounted).

The message was, "Welcome to Alaska.  You have now entered the food chain."

Beautiful animals.

wow, that is so cool.

is it wrong for me to thank that is pretty.

need any computer programmers up that way the specialize in mainframes and AS400's

i would love a change of pace.

plus no people is even better.

Ronald

Quoted: oil dividend was $850 per person this year.

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, exnay on the ividenda

Quoted: I think I could have actually have gotten away with it but for three serious reasons why not: 1) The mother was still around and they get touchy about threats to their cubs 2) Don't want to get the bear used to humans otherwise it may get too friendly, wander boldly into the village, then have to be shot. 3) It's highly illegal to molest the polar bears in any way, you are not even supposed to honk your horn at them. I can see it now ..... {honk.honk}"Hey Baby , I like it nice and furry. Of course if you are an Alaskan Native then you can molest/haze it or shoot it dead, which they do on occasion.

That part in red is so wrong on so many levels I don't even know where to begin .

Cool. Tag for later viewing

Quoted: Much of a market for Mechanical Engineers up there?  I am a Senior at Colorado School of Mines...

Alaska has one of the best school of mines what there am.  As far as universities/schools go, mining is one of the three areas that we are high level with.  The ex-dean of CSM (if I'm not mistaken) was a personal friend of mine, lived up here for quite sometime.  Her name was Gosink.  I'm not personally in touch with the ME's up here but I would assume there is a fair market and mining is a BIG deal up here.

Oil dividends.  To qualify you must have been a resident for two years here, and they use the registration list to derive the jury duty pool so the old trick of maintaining a remote post office box up here doesn't work anymore, at least not without risk.  They are derived from a portion of the oil revenues that the state gets with which they invest and a share of that is given to the residents.  The dividend is based on a 5 year average of that invested fund which they normally due very well with.  This translates into $700-$2000+ each year for everybody including children.  This year it was abysmal, a little over $850 because of the hit the fund took in the stock market zoink after 9/11.  With oil prices so high, I expect to see the dividend to start soaring keeping in mind it's based upon the 5 year average of the revenue profit invested funds.

Primary advice of vacationer - don't come in the winter.  Women especially hate the winter here.  Tourism is our 3 largest industry.  Cruise ships and RV's are popular.

The cub looking in the window wasn't particularly dangerous.  I probabably really could have petted it without the cub becoming agressive.  As polar bears have NO natural predators, they have NOTHING to fear.  The young cubs are curious and don't know to fear humans or feel threatened.  Polar bears don't fear humans like the other kinds of bears, they best you can do is annoy them while trying to haze them to get them to depart.  Anything they see move is potential food to them.

I don't cuddle with them.  My hot gun barrels keep me warm especially when the girlfriend is on the fritz.  A warm gun barrel in the cold is just wonderful.

How cold?  Fairbanks has the widest temperature range of any city on Earth.  Officially -66 to +99 though my personal experiences have hit -77 to 103.  And that's WITHOUT wind chill thank you very much.



Here's one of the pictures we have hanging up in the office.  It's a P bear looking in one of the station windows but this was taken at our Cape Lisburne station.

Quoted: Quoted: I think I could have actually have gotten away with it but for three serious reasons why not: 1) The mother was still around and they get touchy about threats to their cubs 2) Don't want to get the bear used to humans otherwise it may get too friendly, wander boldly into the village, then have to be shot. 3) It's highly illegal to molest the polar bears in any way, you are not even supposed to honk your horn at them. I can see it now ..... {honk.honk}"Hey Baby , I like it nice and furry. Of course if you are an Alaskan Native then you can molest/haze it or shoot it dead, which they do on occasion. That part in red is so wrong on so many levels I don't even know where to begin .

If we are going there, this deserves my oh so wrong dirty Alaskan Bear tale

Bear Hunting! Frank was excited about his new rifle. So, he went bear hunting. He spotted a small brown bear and shot it. There was then a tap on his shoulder, and he turned around to see a big black bear. The black bear said: "You've got two choices. I either maul you to death or we have rough sex." Frank decided to bend over. Even though he felt sore for two weeks, Frank soon recovered and vowed revenge. He headed out on another trip where he found the black bear and shot it. There was another tap on his shoulder. This time a huge grizzly bear stood right next to him. The grizzly says: "That was a huge mistake, Frank. You've got two choices. Either I maul you to death or we have REALLY rough sex." Again, Frank thought it was better to comply. Although he survived, it would take several months before Frank finally recovered. Outraged he headed back to the woods, managed to track down the grizzly and shot it. He felt sweet revenge, but then there was a tap on his shoulder. He turned around to find a giant polar bear standing there. The polar bear says: "Admit it, Frank, you don't come here for the hunting, do you?"

Hey I know that fred meyer picture

It's a classic, I think it sums it up and shuts down most "Oh me it's so cooold" discussions.  I leave it big for full effect.  I'm happy I stole and kept it.  Thanks!

Quoted: It's a classic, I think it sums it up and shuts down most "Oh me it's so cooold" discussions.  I leave it big for full effect.  I'm happy I stole and kept it.  Thanks!

But its a wet cold .

The pics are great. I have lived here for almost 8 yrs now.

I have no plans what so ever to leave. The coldest I have been in with wind chill is -108

damn cold, but... I love it all.

This is my home, my life, and my play gound.

Well I envy you all. I want to move there but due to my business and my wifes family, moving is out of the question, for now.
I can handle the the severa temp changes but I am not sure about my wife.
Any hot chicks up there? I might have to come up with a plan "B".

Hot chicks must be imported, just as all the hot ones at the strip joints.  I think there is a 13 to 1 ratio for male/female.  One of our Universities was voted top college for ugliest women.

Quoted: Hot chicks must be imported, just as all the hot ones at the strip joints.  I think there is a 13 to 1 ratio for male/female.  One of our Universities was voted top college for ugliest women.

Not true . I caught mine here .

If she's hot, then she was most likely imported, or perhaps second generation imported.

There's always the rare exception.

A lot of grizzlies up there too, at least around Prudhoe where all the garbage is.  The local gov't fenced off the dump to keep the bears out, so they wandered into the oil patch to do some dumpster diving.  One even managed to get inside the freaking hotel where we were staying.  That was exciting.  One time there was one right outside our office.  I step out, and there's a freaking grizzly 20 feet away.  I came back inside and started freaking out. The cool chick I worked with said "Evan, don't get so excited.  It's just a bear."

Quoted: If she's hot, then she was most likely imported, or perhaps second generation imported. There's always the rare exception.

Second Gen on one side .

Got an more cool polar bear pictures?