Fairbanks Area

[Woodchuk]

I'd like any information anyone has about the area.  Anyone been there that could tell me about it?  I'm considering spending some time in the area and would be moving from the Catskills, in New York.  How far out of town to you have to go to get to good hunting country?  Does the city sprawl out very much?  Any Suburbs?  Good Resturants (seriously, I could use as much information as I can get so I can make an informed decision here).  Anyone been to Alaska that didn't like it?  If so, Why?  Specifically, I'm interested in the are surrounding the University of Alaska, Tanana Valley Campus.  Thanks for you help.

Woodchuk

[Winter Hawk]

You might try AKPLS.  He lives there.  Be prepared to hear some brag on his .450 Marlin Guide Gun...

Climate change is really here.  I lived in and around Fairbanks in the '60s and '70s and we would see -45 degrees and below for weeks on end during December, January and February.  I was back there a while back for a year, and I don't remember it even getting down there all winter.

Mosquitoes are a fact of life.  LOTS of them.  Deet is Alaska aftershave.  I'm glad to see that Buhach is available again as burning that was often the only thing that kept me sane in my cabin!

-Kees-

[Paul H]

I live just outside Anchorage, but have spent some time in Fairbanks on business trips.  Personally, I think it is a great city.  I don't think you can compare it to a similar lower 48 area, though I'm not that familiar with back east or the catskills.  

Weather can be extreme -60 in the winter, and 90's in the summer.  The last few winters across the state have been very mild, Anchorage area didn't drop below 0 the last two winters, where typically we see -30 for a few weeks, and I don't think Fairbanks was much lower then -30.

The city doesn't have sprawl in the conventional sense, but it is spreadout.  Fairbanks really feels like a subburb and not a big city, though there are bedroom communities in outlying areas.  I don't recall there being many buildings over 3 stories, and most of the time driving around you just see spruce and birch trees.  It has a real college feel to the town, and it is a good college as well.

I haven't eaten at many resteraunts, but the ones I've been to have been good.  One was called Wolf Run or something like that, they have good food and outstanding desserts.

As far as how far to go for good hunting, depends on what you consider good.  Lots of folks take game not that far out of town, but for world class conditions, you'd probably want to charter a plane and fly out a 100 or so miles.  You have access to moose, caribou, black bear (to a lesser extent), grizzly bear, sheep and goats as well as small game and fowl.  It all comes down to how much time and money you have to get out after game.  If you're expecting to drive 20 miles out of town, hike out in the woods and see it crawling with game, you'll be sorely disapointed.

[Woodchuk]

I'm not really looking for World Class hunting conditions (I'm not a world class hunter).  However, I am looking to be able to get into the woods and away from the city/people where I can find some solitude.  I'd like to be able to do so without driving very far (more than 30 minutes).  If I can help it, I'd choose to live 15-20 minutes out of town so I'd be 15-20 minutes closer to the wilderness.  Also, I'm very interested in small game hunting and trapping (more so than big game).  I'd like to be able to trap without being to far from where I live, and I'd also like not to have to commute very far to school.  In short, what I really want to know is can I live close to school (3750 Geist Road, Fairbanks, AK) and still be close to public hunting lands?

I also have visited the Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game website and see that squirrel season is open year round...How's the squirrel population in Alaska?

[akpls]

Woodchuk, 30 minutes out of Fairbanks in most directions is far enough to get you "solitude" if you get away from the highway.  I live about 35-40 minutes from town down the Richardson Highway and the areas immediately adjacent to the highway can be quite "populated".  Not populated in a Lower 48 sense, but still too populated to safely shoot or hunt.  A 10 minute walk will usually take care of that problem though.  People have also gotten seriously lost within 30 minutes of town so the other extreme does exist.  UAF (main campus) is on the western edge of town and nothing is more than 10-15 minutes away anywhere in Fairbanks.

I haven't done any serious trapping or small game hunting in a few years but those opportunities do exist fairly close to town.  Squirrels around here are more like a large red squirrel you might find back east.  There are none of the eastern gray variety that you're probably used to seeing.  I suppose you could eat one if you were really, really hungry but otherwise they are considered pests that get into cabins, etc. and chew things up and pull out the insulation.  I know cabin owners that will pay you $5 each just to eradicate them from the area.  There are lots of grouse  around and hares are starting to come back a little after being at the bottom of their cycle for a couple of years.  I know that there was also a "game farm" in the Delta Junction area that was offering pheasant shooting, but don't know its status anymore.  Delta is about 1.5 hours from Fairbanks though.

You should also check out the Fairbanks North Star Borough website as well as the Fairbanks Daily News Miner site for some local info and links.  I don't have the addresses at hand, but a search should turn them up.  Feel free to email me with questions if you like.  Good Luck!

[Daveinthebush]

http://www.dced.state.ak.us/cbd/commdb/CF_CIS.htm

http://www.news-miner.com/Stories/0,1413,113%257E7250%257E,00.html

http://www.state.ak.us/local/akpages/FISH.GAME/

http://www.arh.noaa.gov/wmofcst.php?

Try these and do some research first.  I really like the Fairbanks area better than Anchorage.  Much is going to depend on the job situation.  There are other areas outside of Fairbanks too that are possibilities.  As Paul said it is colder and warmer up there.  Valdez is a moderate climate, the "banana belt".  Here it might get to 75 if were lucky but then our average winter temp is 32-38. We just don't vary that much.  The Pacific Ocean kinda of helps with that.  But we get a little snow too.

Fairbanks is, drier, warmer and colder if that is possible.

[Woodchuk]

Thanks Daveinthebush,

That first website looks especially helpful.  I'm checking it out now.

[Dand]

I went to college in "Squarebanks, Bareflanks" among other names and had a great time. The pipeline was being built and the town was growing explosively and it was very lively.  Its settled down now but it went from about 12,000 when I first moved there to - I think - about 75,000?? now.  My sister and several other friends live there now and I visit it once in a while.  Summers can be great with 24 hr daylight.  My nephew works the "night shift" at the golf course.

But in the winter be ready for LONG DARK days - REALLY LONG DARK days, especially if the ice fog settles in.  I had forgotten about them but spent 2 wks there in Dec of 1997 stuck in meetings with little to do.  That long darkness from mid November through late January is really hard on some folks. But if you make friends and find diversions its not bad. Never bothered me in school.

The college really adds a lot of diversity and brings a lot of activities you wouldn't normally find in that size town.  Unfortunatley the shopping opportunities for nice clothes and such have really diminshed since Penny's and Nordstrom moved out.  But hey they have Big Ray's, Sears, and a couple really nice Fred Meyer's, plus plenty of gun shops.  What else ya need?  Lots of friendly people - but you might have to put up with a lot of "new cheechako and old sourdough" stories until you develop a few of your own.

I have really enjoyed fancy meals at Pike's Landing and the Pumphouse -there are others but I can't think of them.  There are the usual string of fast food places and a number of other intermediate places to enjoy as well.  

Headbolt heaters, block heaters, battery blankets, and radiator jackets/covers for your car are a MUST. It gets COLD.  These newer fuel injected engines seem to fare much better than the old carburetor fed mills. Synthetic motor oil helps.  Even better, get a house with a garage.

Hope you have a good time.

[GP]

I was in Alaska in 1956 & 1957.  I spent some time in Ancorage and a little in Fairbanks where I stayed at the tundra rest motel, I wonder if some of the old timers remember where that was? And I spent some time in Nome. At that time the streets of Nome were dirt and the sidewalks were wood and all the bars had swinging saloon doors. It looked like Dodge city with telephone poles.  I spent a year on St. Lawerence Island or the northeast cape. While on the Island I had the opertunity to hunt ducks and seals with the some of the eskamos from the the village of Suvunga. We were not alowd to hunt the caraboo. Man you talk about ducks, It was the greatest hunting I have ever seen.  We hunted the seals in a seal skin boat. I have a lot of pictures and some really great memories of my time in Alaska. I will probaly never get back there.  I wish now I would have moved there like I wanted to.  I am now retired and living in a log cabin in the mountians in west N.C.

[Winter Hawk]

GP,

I remember when they were redoing the streets in Nome, from an article in the Alaska Sportsman.  They were finding all sorts of gold, old coins etc. when they pulled up the boardwalks!

I didn't get to Alaska until '66, so a bit after you were here.  I don't remember the Tundra Rest, but that doesn't mean it wasn't still there.  You ought to come up for a visit some time.  What were you doing, military?  Building the DEW line or White Alice System?

Take care, have a great Christmas.
-Kees-

[Prince of Wales]

When I read of the Fairbanks of today I have difficulty visualizing it. I lived there in 1959 as a ninth grader at Austin Lathrop HS. Statehood was the big issue that year. There was one department store, Northern Commerce (NC) and one theatre and a bowling alley. Not much else. However the town was bustling with activity due to the boom of the DEW line activities and the military bases,Ladd and Eileson as I remember. I do`nt think I would like it as it is today simply because of my memories of a simplier time there. I just cannot immagine two Fred Meyer stores in Fairbanks. It was more the size of Craig then not counting the military installations. Best of luck. POW

[akpls]

.... I just cannot immagine two Fred Meyer stores in Fairbanks

The Walmart will be completed by this coming Spring.  And now that Home Depot is here, Lowe's is considering building a store across the street.  And Freddies is supposedly going to close the smaller of their 2 existing stores and build an even bigger one.  And Safeway was considering the same thing.  Fairbanks is booming commercially regardless of what you may hear otherwise.  Even the KMart that closed was making money here.  It just got caught up in KMart's corporate problems.  I don't believe you would recognize the Fairbanks of 1959.

[Winter Hawk]

At least Big Ray's is still there.  When I was there 3 years ago I saw that Frontier Sporting Goods is no more.  I guess that's "progress."

-Kees-

[Sourdough]

Like I said don't count on trapping anywhere near Fairbanks, the people that are trapping there don't like newcomers invading their lines.  All the good areas around Fairbanks currently have trappers working them.  Those lines have been passed down from Grandfather to Son to Grandson, and they are very possesive.  Most of my friends that trap have lines 100 miles or more out of town.  Trappers are also having a problem with town people running their dogs on the trappers trails, these towns people think that the trail belongs to everyone.  Then when their dog steps on a trap, they really get upset, steal the trap, and cause a general neusence by having it written up in the paper.  At least the Trapper then knows who stole his trap.

[gun_nut]

Fairbanks is a great place to live. I've been here ten years and would not move unless there was a financial reason to do so, i.e. work. there are fine restaurants like the The Castle, Pikes, and others. You can do  agreat deal of your shopping right in town, cost of living is lower than anchorage last I checked. As mention already, you are not going to do any serious trapping near town. I live about 10 mile from UAF down the Parks and that is far enough away to be alone and yet close enought to town to be able to get what I need. You can, as I do, hunt small game in town at Creamers field. If not there are many place to go and the trip alone will be well worth it.

The only problem I am having right now is with shipping stuff up here. But it is a small trade off.

Good luck

[Sourdough]

Another word of advise, go to the library or a big book store and find a copy of the Alaska Milepost.  It will tell all the latest statistics about Fairbanks, and the surrounding area.