Bear Cache & Alaskan Cabins

A bear cache stores food outdoors while preventing bears and other animals from reaching it, and campers in bear habitat often use them, as do hunters storing game. A makeshift cache can be created by hanging food from a tree branch with rope, ideally 100 meters from a campsite and downwind, with the food kept away from the branch, trunk, and ground; where no suitable tree exists, a cliff can serve instead. In places frequented by both people and bears, permanent caches may use poles with steel cabinets or raised structures with removable ladders. One cache on Lodge property had been used by a Fairbanks resident on his land for decades of successful hunting outside the Fairbanks area. Residential and vacation cabins are a normal part of life in Alaska, ranging from cabins with grand amenities to dry cabins without running water, and even dry cabins can be grand. Many residents haul their own water, wash in town, or drill deep and expensive wells. Some Fairbanks residents keep a home in town and another cabin for recreation, and many spend summer months at bush cabins in regions of the state not connected to the North American road network, returning in winter as well for snow machine trail rides, dog mushing, and ice fishing. Throughout the year, cabins are reached by fixed-wing planes, float planes, dog sled, cross-country skis, ATVs, SUVs, boat, and on foot.

Chena Ridge, Alaska · United States