The other night saw us heading north out of the Denali area. Crossing the bridge over the Nenana river we noticed to our right a nice log giftshop with beautiful flowers and all sorts of nice items to be seen. Turning in we noticed that it was also a campground so we thought we'd check it out.
Out front he had a spectacular garden going. Apparently he's letting some friends who are "living off the grid" do some organic farming. They must be pretty good at it as they have students come up to learn organic farming techniques from them. They sell the produce to the hotels and restaurants serving the crowds in Denali and apparently do well enough that they spend their winters on their sailboat down in Florida.
Inside the gift shop he has a huge Polar bear mounted. It drives home how large Polar bears can be. The mount was a gift from a friend he met while attending airframe and power plant training. He described this friend as appearing to not having two nickels to rub together yet had a beautiful log home full of mounted animals he had hunted around the world. Turns out his friend had made his fortune in oil and owned lots of 7-11's on the east coast. When leaving Alaska one year he offered up the polar bear on the condition that it came with all the other mounts to the point where the new owner had to build a special building to hold them all.
Outside there were mounted more Moose racks than we could count. The campground owner had bagged them all over the years. He professed that Moose meat is very delicious and that one full grown Moose can provide for three families. One of the folks I worked with, Todd, is a big hunter and he would be in heaven in Alaska. I know that Todd eats what he hunts and many Alaskans bank on getting at least one Moose or Caribou to provide much, if not all of their red meat. The other staple of course is fish and for those in interior Alaska that usually means salmon.
As I mentioned, the owner was also a pilot. Next to his plane were floats that could be fitted to convert to a floatplane. I wondered how they got the floats on the plane and he explained it was about a half day job that entailed trucking the floats to a company that had a 'gin pole' next to a river. He'd fly down and land on their grass strip, they'd lift the plane, switch out the tires for the floats, and the now float plane would be lowered into the adjacent river. He made it all seem very easy. More than 1 in 4 Alaskans has a pilot's license so I guess they get a lot of practice!
All in all, quite a lifestyle and it's hard not to be envious. And next winter? Maybe I need to check out Belize...
Sounds like Tatlanika will forever be on your list of "gems you've found"......:-)
ReplyDeleteSounds like he does pretty good in life. Belize doesn't sound too bad for a winter vacation. When we were in Alaska, someone told us that his kid got his pilot license before he had his driving license. Quite special and interesting people. Margaret.
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