I moved to Anvik Alaska in Aug. of 2010 from Montana. Its a little native village on the Yukon River. Its like a whole other world out here. My wife and I are teaching 4th through 9th grade in the village and have 9 total students. We actually sat down last night and figured out all the pros/cons of living in AK thus far. We came up with some of these:
Pros: I got to go Yukon moose hunting, although I was unsuccessful it was an entire different kind of hunting than i'm used to. We cruised all the rivers in the area in search of moose coming to get a drink. Pretty much all of the village shot their moose, and I just had dumb luck.
-The village has really taken my wife, son and I in as one of their own. We attend community dinners and birthdays, new years parties..etc. The people here are very friendly to us.
-Although i didn't get to shoot one yet, the opportunity is still present for me to hunt and shoot wolves. I will include a picture of one my student shot. He knew how much i was into hunting so he had to show me. I stayed up until 3 a.m. helping them skin it out.
-I also got to see my first Grizzly dead. For the first 3 months i was here, we lived in a old cabin (one of the first cabins in the community i think) with wood heat, and no running water. It wasn't uncommon for my wife or I to make a trip in the middle of the night out to the outhouse to take care of business. I was always weary about doing so, but you gotta do what ya gotta do. About a week after we moved into a nicer, a place the school had built for teacher housing, this Grizzly was shot really close to where our out house was.
-The Anvik River is known world wide for its fishing. Although I have spent numerous moose hunting trips on this river I only fished it once, and caught some 8
to 10 lb salmon. The river is also known for its pike fishing. We plan on doing some ice fishing to try for some of the 4 footers that are pulled from the ice every year.
- I've got some snares and things to do some trapping.
- There are some moose running around close to the village,,, so i just might be able to pick up some sheds... wish me luck...
- Although they are sleeping, you can shoot 3 black bears here.
-Moose hunting around these parts are really cheap, even for non-resident. $85 for a "Harvest tag" in some areas.
CONS.
-To hunt here you need to find someone to take you. These people hunt for the food and need to fill their freezers before they want to take anyone else... So its kind of hard to find someone to tag along with.
- The winter hasnt been long thus far. I have been pretty busy, being a teacher and a maintenance guy for the school, so its going buy at a steady pace.
- I am a huge horn hunter.... It is killing me not being able to go look for whitetail sheds now, and muleys later, and then finally elk. hopefully some giant moose paddles will cure this.
- I also love mule deer hunting... This was the first year in 14 years i haven't shot an elk and deer. I was very hard to swallow at first.
- As far as being alone in this wilderness...i wouldn't advise it.
Not once did I step out of the moose hunting boats and not see Grizzly tracks.
I could come up with a whole bunch more..but im sure your getting tired of reading so ill just stop and set you up with some pics of my "adventure thus far."
"Like a midget at the urinal, always be on your toes!"
www.Anacondatreasure.com
www.rwmurals.com
http://www.themontanagallery.com/
