|
Kent's Nav Bar
Turned Alaskan Crafts
| | The
Cabin Project An
Adventure on the edge of the Last Frontier
You
Are Visitor
|
Welcome to the Cabin Project
Pages! |
|
For those
interested, this is my attempt to share my quest of building a cabin in the
Alaska wilderness.
Use the links below to navigate my Cabin Project Pages.
[ Home ]
|
|
In 2003 my friend Patty Spires and I jointly purchased a 5 acre remote
piece of land. Remote meaning, no road access, or services such as
water, electricity, or phone. The property is located north of
Trapper Creek, and only 3 miles from the highway, which is close as far as
remote state property goes, yet it is still and adventure in settling a piece of
the Last Frontier.
The intent is to eventually build a small
cabin for year round use as a recreational retreat. As I've started making progress on the project,
I found myself often thinking of how it must have been for those early pioneers
who settled in various parts of Alaska. Armed with modern tools, equipment,
supplies, and transportation, this is my adventure as a modern
frontiersmen. As such, I decided to post some notes and photos here to give visitors an idea
of the process and progress.
To ease navigation and speed up page
loading, I've broken this section down into several pages. Below you will
find an Index of Links to my Cabin Project Pages, which will also be on the
pages within this section.
|
You can click on the photos on
these pages to
view a larger version.
Top of Page
|
State
Land:
|
|
|
|
Years ago the State of Alaska set aside lands for remote development.
They created farmstead, homestead, and recreational subdivided areas. They surveyed, platted,
and catalog these areas, complete with platted roads and trail
easements.
Homesteading was phased out in the early 1980's, and replaced with a land
lottery, which has eventually led to the current 'Over the Counter
Sales' of the remaining available lands.
Today you can purchase remote land from the state at very reasonable
prices. The catch is access. More times than not, the land
is not accessible by road. Roads may appear on the plat maps, however,
most of those roads do not exists, and may never exists. While most places can be
accessed by snowmobile in the winter, in many cases summer access
may be by plane or jet boat only. And no utilities or services
are available, which means no water, electricity, or sewage. You can find out more
about the State Land Sale at the Department
of Natural Resources web site. Look for land sales or OTC land
sales.
Since the early 1980's I have considered buying a remote parcel
at various times, but just didn't run across a parcel that was in a good
location with reasonable access. In 2002 a couple of friends
bought property in the Trapper Creek Glenn remote state subdivision just
north of Trapper Creek. After making several trips to their
properties to visit and help with their cabin construction, I decided
that I wanted to own a parcel in that area. To make it more reasonable
I partnered up with my friend Patty, and we purchased the land
together.
|
|
Why
this area: |
|
|
|
The subdivision is about
120 miles road miles north of Anchorage, then 3 miles by
trail, from the
Parks Highway, with good off highway parking that is not directly visible from the
road. The property is accessible year-round even by foot or skis. The 3 mile trail in is well established,
and has boardwalks
crossing most of the wet areas. And of course the pricing of
properties in the subdivision was reasonable.
Located just a short
distance north of the Petersville Road, a popular snowmobiling area,
with miles of trails, vast expanses of powder, and mountains to
climb. The Petersville Road is the only road that nears the
southern boundary of Denali Park, making it a great place to recreate
year-round. The Ruth Glacier is about 30 miles from the subdivision
by snowmobile. The area is abundant in
wildlife, offers views of Denali, secluded, yet relatively easy to
access, within reasonable driving distance of Anchorage, and at a reasonable
price. |
Topographic
map of area, cabin site marked with red tepee icon.
|
Top of Page
|
Selecting
a Parcel:
|
|
|
Needless to say I wasn't about to purchase a
piece of property site unseen. The easiest access is in the winter
by snowmachine, skis or snowshoes.
Four friends of mine have
parcels along shore of a lake in the southern portion of the
subdivision. While there were a few lake front parcels available,
I elected to look at some of the other sites that were available near
the lake but not right on it. (The lake parcels tend to be smaller, approximately
3 acres, while those away from the lake tend to run 4-5 acres.
That and I wanted something a little more secluded.)
With
good snowmobiling conditions in the late winter of 2003, I set out to
look at some of the available properties. Armed with a list of the
properties that were available, and a map, I checked out several
properties.
The parcel that caught my eye was located just upstream
of creek that feeds into the lake. It's a 5 acre parcel, with 700
foot parallel to Trapper Creek on the west side. On the East side
is a boggy area with a couple of little ponds. The north end is
bound by a wide trail easement, with my only adjoining neighbor to the
south. The property is basically situated on high ground between
the creek and the bog.
The next step was visit the property after the snow was gone.
(While a winter visit gave me an idea of the general location and lay of
the land, I had no idea how wet or dry the ground was, or what kind of
ground cover existed.) For this Patty and I hiked in and stomped our way around the property,
much of which was covered with waist deep brush. Noting plenty of
high ground on which to build, and several spots we could potentially
build a cabin, we decided to make the
purchase.
|
Top of Page
| Gearing
Up:
|
|
Once the purchase was complete it was time to look
at doing something with the property. First would be clearing a
summer tail into the property and a potential building site, which meant cutting brush and clearing
downed trees for about 200 yards from my southern neighbors trail to the
building site. I would need a decent chain saw, a brush cutter
(basically a gas powered weed whacker on steroids with a circular saw
type blade). And then a way to get it all in and out in the summer
besides packing it in on foot.
In the fall of 2003 I purchased:
-
Stihl
20" Professional chain saw
-
Stihl
Brush Cutter
-
Extra
chain saw chains
-
Extra
brush cutter blades
-
Hearing
protection With built in AM/FM radio, I do get
a couple of stations from the property.
-
2004
Artic Cat 400 ATV (4-wheeler) with wench
-
Racks
for ATV to carry tools
-
Rake
-
Weed
Burner propane torch
-
55
Gallon Barrel to use a burn barrel
-
Insect
Repellent
At this point I almost spent more for these items than the property cost! (Be warned, while the cost of
remote property can be very tempting, doing anything with the land may
be the more costly investment.) But I was now ready to start
finding and clearing trail. |
My
New Baby!
After
the 1st trip to the property. |
Top of Page
Top of Page
|
