The "Twilight" zone

Every once in awhile you have one of those Twilight zone moments. Well, this incident could be not be more aptly named.

It began with the 8,000 mile trip to AK and back. When your doing a MAJOR trip with a non-musical individual (closet weaver) you must have your own music in the form of head phones and ipod. When I'm watching the miles slip by and knowing that I have just another five more days to sit in the same position I listen to books on tape. The AK library system has a very cool feature of downloadable books from the library which I take advantage of a lot.

One of the books that I chose to listen to on the trip was "Twilight". Now I am not a fan of vampire stories but Jenn had told me the series was like the new Harry Potter and when your traveling that far, for that long, watching that many miles.. it'll do.

Imagine my surprise when I was contacted by a young man doing a fan fiction based on Twilight looking for reference material on what the Trapper Creek area is like. I can hear the theme song music from Twilight Zone as I type. Even more surprised was I find to find out that the Twilight books use Trapper Creek as one of the places that the vampires hang out. Guess this means I'll have to listen to the two other books and see if Stephenie Meyers got it right.

At any rate I thought it might be interesting to look at his questions and read my responses on life in bush Alaska:

There are not many people that actually live in TC proper. Most have a PO box in town and live out. So basically there are three areas in Trapper Creek, town which is a blink, contains one combination restaurant/gas station (Trapper Creek Inn – kind of the touch stone of town, has great biscuits/gravy, showers, laundry facilities, every one who lives out goes here for one reason or another), one bar Cache Creek (I think never been there), post office, and WAL-MIKE’s complete with tons of nostalgic junk and a reindeer you can pet in the summer (seriously). Area #2 Petersville: If you head up Petersville Rd 19 miles from Trapper Creek you end up in the old mining district. The Forks Roadhouse is the honky tonk for snowmachiners in the winter. Fantastic views of Mt. McKinley (Denali to us Alaskans) and tons of open meadows where all the motor heads can rip up the powder that can get up to ten feet deep. You can go past it in the summer to the actual ghost town of Petersville but the road is really bad – some miners are still up their working their claims in the summer. Area #3 Oilwell: Now if you had turned south about six miles up Petersville Rd you would have seen Oilwell Rd. Maintained as far in as six miles to Moose Creek, when the snow gets more than a foot deep they open it up another six miles to Amber Lake and from there in the summer its rutted and resembles more of a 4-wheeler road than actually for motorized vehicles. Now, our place from Amber Lake was another three miles. Had to park there in winter and snowmachine in. Driveway to our place (unusual most people have trails) in summer.

How common is it to have an outhouse vs indoor plumbing? Are septic tanks not feasible due to freezing?
If you lived in town you’d have electric, indoor plumbing, etc. If you live off the grid then outhouses are used pretty much exclusively. Remember, most cabins are excessible by trail. This area is the drainage for the largest mountain in North America so basically that means it’s a bog in summer. You’d have to be able to get heavy equipment in to dig a septic – no driveway not possible, expense, AND trying to get someone that can run heavy equipment that far out when there is more than enough work for them in the city. Therefore outhouse is the answer.

I read that you used a hand pump. I'm assuming this is for either a well or an indoor tank of fresh water. Which, please? And how did you go about getting a hot shower or bath? Large pot on the woodburning stove? Woodfired hotwater heater?

The cabin does have a hand pump for drinking water. In winter you have to take a hot kettle of water to get it unfrozen and primed. Usually a big pain in the kiester. Therefore we hauled in drinking water and melted snow and caught rain water in 55 gal drums in the summer. We had mules/horses and 16 dogs to water as well. Too much pumping required and snow is so much easier and plentiful. We built a sauna (see website) for bathing. Once a week whether we needed it or not, Trapper Creek Inn showers once a week as well if we we’re lucky in checking mail.

How often did you shop for groceries? It seems to me that you might have made very large grocery runs so you wouldn't have to go every week, especially during the winter. Also, where did you shop for groceries, in town or did you make the long haul to Anchorage? Would I be correct in assuming that most homes there would be well stocked with food and whatever other supplies a household might need? Just makes sense to me if you're in a place where you could get snowed in. Any items on the grocery list that you think would surprise someone from the lower 48 who does not stock up at home?

We had a pantry stocked up with sugar, flour, and whatever staples and canned goods we needed. Also because we ran dogs a whole bunch of dog food stocked up as well. Every fall I would go into Anchorage and buy about $1K of food for the winter and about once a month go into and replenish. Alaskans catch and smoke/can a lot of salmon. Moose, caribou, or sheep meat in the freezer. For an Alaskan winter you have to be prepared for staying where you at for along time if need be due to cold and/or snow.

Did you get your electricity from solar or wind or a generator or from the power company? Were you using a battery bank and inverter?
Off the grid that far out. Battery/inverter system with two Honda 2500 generators.

You were on a homestead and from what I gathered, a little off the beaten path, even for Trapper Creek. Are snow machines used as the main source of transportation during the winter in Trapper Creek? If I were there, would I see snow machines on the roads in the winter more than I would see four-wheel-drive vehicles?

Snow machines are the only source of transportation in winter, ooops sorry dog team too. And there is a guy that owns a lodge out to Shulin Lake that is twenty fives out from Amber Lake that grooms the trail and brings supplies out with a bombardier. Makes for a great snowmachine trail or dog trail for that matter. I think it would be a great place to line out your vampires. 4-wheelers (ATVS) are the transportation during summer months. To get through the much they put tracks on instead of tires.

What about the wildlife in that area? What could I expect to see if I lived there? Moose, elk, deer, racoons, bear? Lots of birds in spring and summer? And how about the bugs during spring and summer? Are the mosquitos pretty bad? Were there precautions you took for animals? I assume the trash couldn't be left out in cans without lids. Looking for that sort of thing.
Moose, bear (brown/black), wolves, chickadees in winter, woodpeckers in winter, nuthatches in winter, spruce hens fall, loons in summer, trumpeter swans in summer, ravens ALL THE TIME. Mosquitoes oh yes, we’re talking you must wear a head net or be eaten alive. You always have a gun with you mushing, picking berries, salmon fishing. Anytime your out of the vicinity of the cabins you must have protection. You probably won’t get charged by a moose or bear but you don’t know that. To be unprepared in Alaska is just plain dumb. Both my daughter and I ran, not smart in bear country, so we carried bear spray with us. Trash, burn what is burnable, compostable goes back into garden, aluminum cans recycled, all else put in 55 gal drum with lid until taken to dump in TC.

How long did it take to drive to Anchorage and what sorts of things were you going there for when you did go? I thought maybe to see a movie or do some shopping at the mall.

Anchorage is about 150 miles south of Trapper Creek. Of course it’s another 20 miles back to my place by vehicle and that takes about an hour (bad road makes for slow ride). Therefore it takes about 3-1/2 hours to get to Anchorage. I LOVED to go junking at the thrift shops, Value Village, was a must. Usually a Costco run for wholesale groceries. A stop in Wasilla on the way back at Carr’s to get perishables. Must tell husband that I have them for the trip back in because he must bring in a cooler and warm it up so perishables will make it back to cabin and not freeze. Groceries of course, pizza at Sorrentos, and usually a movie. We’d stay the night at a friends house and head back the next day.

And how about the Northern Lights? This one is going to make me sound like a complete idiot, I'm sure. Could you see them from where you were in Trapper Creek? If so, what time of the year could you reliably see them?
Yep, the northern lights are noticeable beginning in the fall. The geophysical institute at UAF gives a daily forecast of where they might be seen at. You need dark to see them and it doesn’t start getting dark in AK until the fall – which is basically the end of August. Visible through winter and into March. April I doubt it.
I've heard of the times a year where it's dark for most of a month or the sun is up for most of a month. How does that really work and is it everywhere in Alaska or just in certain areas farther north? (Oh look, I was wrong about sounding like an idiot before. Now I truly sound like an idiot.) What effect does that have on people and how do they deal with it?

Land of the midnight sun. The further north you go the more extreme this is. For example, Barrow or Prudhoe Bay it’s extreme, months without any light at all. However, in TC best case scenario summer solstice – June 21, the sun never goes down it just dips in the sky and comes back up. Makes for fantastic LONG sunsets on Cook Inlet on Turnagain Arm. Worst case scenario winter solstice – December 21, the sun comes up low in the sky at 10:00 AM and is down by 3:00 PM. In March you’ve got about 12 hours of sunlight again and it’s BRIGHT, with the reflection off the snow. Effect: summers are manic, it will be 10:00 and you think man, is it time for supper yet. Nothing stops, all those chores, wood, building plans, garden, ad nauseum that you wanted to do only have a few months to be accomplished in June – beginning of August and its’ go, go, go. Winter, think hibernating bear, hard to get up and get going due to no sunshine. Can be very depressing if you don’t go do something OUTSIDE. Snowshoe, ski, run dogs, cut wood, SOMETHING OUTSIDE.

During a week, how often did you get to interact with other people in town? I'll assume that during the winter you didn't get to interact as often. Would you say that you knew most of the people in Trapper Creek? What is the biggest mistake a new person to Trapper Creek could make in terms of getting along with others or making friends?
(I know that in the south the biggest mistake a newcomer could make would be to make fun of their accent or play up the stereotype that Southerners are slow and ignorant. I was wondering if there was anything like that in Trapper Creek, or Alaska in general.)

We went into town about once a week. Talked to Jim at the post office. Went to Trapper Creek Inn and talked with Arlene who runs the place or Alice the waitress. Didn’t know many people in TC and liked it that way. Lived for 10 years in Talkeetna and knew a lot of people there. Preferred it the other way in TC. Biggest mistake…shooting your mouth off. Talking about what a hot shot trapper, hunter, mountain man, etc. you are. Putting your brand of lifestyle on people that live there. Alaskans are independent thinkers that don’t confirm to the norm, especially those that live out that far. A really good example is the book Out in the Wilds about the kid that came to AK to become one with nature and nature killed his ass. Alaska doesn’t care if your dumb, unprepared, and egotistical it’ll kill you regardless.

If you called the police, would State Troopers show up or did Trapper Creek share a police force with another town? Where was the nearest police station?

Lots of people that live out have signs that say, “we don’t call 911”. Which basically means there is no law that far out, you are the law. If you call a trooper they are located in Talkeetna which is 50 miles away to our place. And you can’t drive to our place in the winter which means they have to bring a snowmachine. Can you imagine how excited they are to do that?