Alaska Boreal Forest Landstaking
And Anchorage and Fairbanks birch syrup deliveries & remote travel with a rabbit
What started as Anchorage wholesale order deliveries (3 hours from home) quickly snowballed into adding in-person Fairbanks deliveries (9 hours from home) followed by another 2 hour journey into the wilderness of Livengood, Alaska and to the Dalton Highway to stake land with 3 kids, our border collie and our rabbit in tow.
The James W. Dalton Highway is the most isolated and extreme highway in the US. It was built as a supply road to support the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System in 1974. It’s mainly unpaved and takes you across the Yukon River and Arctic Circle, through the Brooks Range and across the North Slope to the Arctic Ocean. There’s no cell reception anywhere on the highway and it has stretches of up to 240 miles without a fuel stop. The area of the Dalton Highway where we staked will be rerouted beginning in 2029 and will only be accessible by 4-wheeler or snowmachine.
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Alaska’s incredible boreal forests in the interior
The landstaking lottery:
Back in the fall, we were chosen in a state landstaking lottery. This program allows folks to stake land in the wilderness. The state provides a surveyor and there are some costs of course, which includes leasing before purchasing. We were eager to get up there before the start of the Kodiak Salmon season (where we spend our summers) or otherwise we’d miss the staking window. In a last ditch effort to get it done, we decided to load up the car with our camping gear, all of our wholesale orders for Anchorage and Fairbanks area and hit the road with our 3 kids, border collie and rabbit.
Sheep Creek Lodge, Willow Alaska
A stop along the way at Sheep Creek Lodge, just past Willow became eventful when we saw one of our first ever customers from 2023! Sheep Creek Lodge is 6 hours from home and not near her home either!. It really made for a magical journey forward.
Great Alaskan Bowl Company
We have worked with The Great Alaskan Bowl Company for several years and have met them in person at a vendor event in the past, but this was our first time ever being able to go into their Fairbanks shop and get a tour of the entire wood bowl making process. If you ever are in Fairbanks and have an opportunity to visit them, please do! It was really fun to see the process! We also got to deliver orders to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, Licen,LaBodega, The Roaming Root Cellar and Fairbanks Co-op Market.
Livengood, Alaska
After wholesale orders and groceries we loaded up the car again and made our way to a remote dry cabin in the White Mountains. The remote and off-grid Fred Blitz cabin was a perfect place for some rest and relaxation before the land staking began. It had a wooden bunk and a loft, a wood stove and an outhouse. It’s a beautiful and remote area, away from it all (except for the mosquitoes, they were very much there)!
Landstaking Success!
After a successful day and a collective 1,000+ mosquito bites, our land was staked and we made the 11 hour journey back home.
A few more spring wholesale orders to mail out to southeast Alaska and maybe we’ll have a day or 2 to relax before the summer work season begins!
And just a reminder that we are fully stocked of all of our products again! You can shop Alaska birch syrup and wildcrafted skincare here.
Thanks for following along!
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