I am just a little bit behind again with my posts… but I didn’t want to let this special trip escape notice. I got to go back to Alaska in October, 2025.
My family has decades-long connections to Alaska, and I’ve visited at least every few years like this trip to see them. Here’s another post – gorgeous snow! It’s so definitely wild, and it’s a heap of fun. Folks seem rugged and carefree, but also pretty weird and individualistic. And there’s really nothing that can be said about the aurora borealis…
My brilliant sister
2025 was a special year for my dear sister, Kyna, the bad-ass Nurse Practitioner. Time to retire. And a move back from Alaska to Denver, where the bagels are decent, the parks are plentiful, and there are cousins about. A big change!
There are no words to describe Kyna’s commitment to her work. She has always given more of herself than was probably healthy for herself. But she cares about people and she has been facing crises and emergencies her entire career. Now is supposed to be her time. I went to Alaska to help with the move, in particular as a second pair of hands to take her two kitties on the plane to Denver. I’m always down for cat transport.
To add to the mix, I would spend a week and go visit my brother and his lovely lady Missy at their cabin. I have been hearing about the cabin but this was my first visit since they got it mostly finished. They had been living in the 100-year-old shack that was on the land when my brother bought it – which was very Mad Jack in the summer…
…but just plain stupid in winter. if Kyle wanted Missy to stick around, he was going to need a place with complete walls. I know my family is a bit weird, and Kyle’s life up in the Alaskan hinterlands without running water or electricity is a little eccentric. But I gotta respect someone who lives their dream!
Arriving in Alaska
Just arriving in Alaska is enough to make a person dumbstruck. There is nowhere more grand or more grandly beautiful.
Brotherly love
I drove myself to Kyle’s “over the river and through the woods.” It’s a stunningly beautiful valley, surrounded by snow-covered peaks, and cut through with a fast-moving, freezing cold river full of snow-melt and salmon. It ain’t easy to get there, by design. My sister and I have offered to pay whatever it would cost to build a real road to his cabin, and he’s… not interested! He loves the remoteness, even when this is the track to get in:
Getting to his place is, if I’m honest, scary. You’re so far from civilization. There are these gigantic ruts and hills along the road – I do not understand how the quad bike doesn’t roll backward downhill. You have to fend for yourself out here – well, I mean, Kyle fends for us all!
Living, period, is so hard. First, you have to have water. Kyle goes down to a stream for this, and fills the green jugs and then totes them back uphill. This is just the washing-up water, not the drinking water, which he brings in on the quad car.
Okay, so once you have water, what comes next? You’ve got to stay warm, so… firewood! Our next task was to cut logs for firewood. You’ll see pics and videos here of me doing it, then pics and videos of my brother doing it. In case there is any doubt, my brother is the one doing it right.
Now we’ll see how it’s supposed to be done:
And the chopping is just a bit of it. There’s also a lot of sawing. I found it intimidating, until I did it. Then I found it horrifying.
Again, if you want someone to do this sort of thing, you look to my brother, not to me.
A solid wander
We did make time to explore, too. We went down to the raging river and to one of the quieter arms of it, walking along and enjoying the day. Yes, you do have to be scared of bears, and moose, and wolves, and Kyle carries a gun whenever we’re meandering. Luckily the only traces we saw of the animals were these:
This place is so special and gorgeous, with light that makes you think all the stones are made of hematite. I know it’s a lot harder to live through the winter up here, but I can see why they do it.
The cabin!
Yes, I mentioned the new cabin! The cabin itself is inseparable from its environment, which is on a plateau a couple hundred feet above the river. There is the house, and also a workshop and an outhouse. All around are beautiful mountains, some of them well-covered with snow by the time I arrived in October.
Indoors is cozy and gorgeous. My dad was a woodworker, too, but Kyle is “Somethin’ Else”, as we say in the heartland. He made it by the sweat of his brow and his own two hands, with ample help from Missy to chop the trees and slice them into the right sizes and shapes. They left me in the new cabin while they went to the old one to sleep – I was *gulp* on my own to turn off the generator when I was ready for bed. It is some kind of silent, let me tell you, and so gorgeous when the night sky fills with stars.
Kyle said I could have a gun if I wanted on. I did not. We did not need the kind of mess that might make!
Missy made sure we had amazing meals to keep us going in all this hiking, chopping, toting, and sawing. We ate and relaxed so well! There are big windows looking out over the mountain valley and Kyle and Missy have set up bird feeders to keep the view quite interesting. Teeny bitsy birds and big hefty ones, plus pine martens, squirrels and others make short work of any leftovers.
One small feller flew into the window and got its claw stuck in the screen. It was so sad! It couldn’t get any leverage to get itself out. So, with careful moves, Kyle was able to free it, but not before it shat a giant poop on him.
The move
The move was not nearly so picturesque, but we got the job done. We worked our little tuchuses off, went up and down the stairs too many times, and then we were done, and the truck was on its way. Our job was just to enjoy Kyna’s last smidgen of time as a resident in Alaska.
After a wicked good night’s sleep, we found ourselves with the day to eat and hang out together. The kitties spent the day hiding in the hotel room while we played poker, as we Culvers do. We found a mighty steak dinner and everyone got just that kind of awkward as the nighttime flight time rolled around. Kyle and Missy accompanied us to the airport, cats and cousin and bags in tow, and we had to say our goodbyes.
The good news is that we got Kyna installed in Denver soon after arrival, and she and the cats seem very happy all cuddled up in their new home!
