Our second cabin…
In 2023, we purchased a 2nd cabin in Alaska. This cabin is meant for weekend get aways, remote fishing trips & the opportunity to really experience the wilds of Alaska away from civilization. And if I’m honest, a place to bug out if you know what hits the fan. Our main cabin is off grid but it is on the road system. Our remote cabin however, is not. It’s accessible only by boat in the summer & snow machines in the winter.
It’s truly charming…
Our remote log cabin sits on 15 acres, nestled on a riverfront. It’s approximately 30 years old. It was handcrafted with love, blood, sweat & tears. The bones are strong and rustic. With welded, barred windows to keep the bears out, chinked walls between the logs & cozy rough cut lumber framing the windows, this cabin really takes you back in time. A time that was harder no doubt, yet so simple. We long for our trips at the remote cabin, it truly allows us to disconnect from the world & focus solely on what matters most, which is family.
Everything we need…
Our little cabin has an outhouse & an artesian well. An artesian well is a type of well that was drilled & has a constant flow of water created by the pressure underground. The well provides us water without the need of electricity or a water pump. This is highly valuable to us as our remote cabin is completely off grid. The cabin itself has two levels. The downstairs living area which consists of a kitchen, dining area & family room all in one & the upstairs loft which is the bedroom. The previous owners installed propane lanterns on the walls which really adds to the rustic charm. I for one am a big fan of lighting ambiance.
The cabin is heated by an oil heater. We intend on removing this at some point & adding a small wood stove as the oil heater takes up a significant amount of space in what is already a tiny cabin. Plus, it requires us to haul oil out to the cabin. We have endless trees that are perfect for firewood and I happen to love the ambience of a wood stove & theres’ nothing like wood heat. The cabin is wired for electric which is helpful as we do have a small generator that we keep out at the cabin for those times that we need to charge things.
Unplugging from it all…
There is zero cell service at our cabin. Oddly enough I find myself carrying my cell phone around in my back pocket, though it does me no good. Just goes to show how attached we are to our devices. I take it to bed with me and set in on my nightstand & in the morning, it’s the 1st thing I grab to bring downstairs with me. Habit I guess. It’s quiet, it’s peaceful & it’s slow goin’ at the remote cabin. There are no schedules to keep, no alarms going off, absolutely no obligations. It frees up time for games, cards, roasting smores & taking in the beautiful view from the front porch with a delicious, warm cup of coffee.
Quality time…
Summers at the cabin are all about the fishing! We have a ton of beautiful Northern pike & several species of salmon on these rivers. We love taking the kids out fishing because it inevitably turns into a competition between Lexxy & Parker. The long days and endless sunshine gives us plenty of opportunity to explore Alaska in our back yard! With mosquitos in tow, we spend most of our time adventuring around outside taking in the warm Alaskan summer days.
Winter adventures…
Winter at the cabin is a time for snuggling up close by the heat. Playing cards, cooking good food & drinking yummy coffee & sledding. We couldn’t visit the cabin in the winter without sledding because we have the longest, most epic sledding hill ever. The winter days are short and the day light isn’t what I would really call day light. It’s more of a dim dusk. But we still find ways to have fun & explore. Snowshoeing around finding & trying to identify all of the wild animal tracks, ice fishing & snow machining the frozen rivers.
Wildlife & wildflowers…
When we escape to our remote cabin, we get to experience Alaska in a way that a lot of people may never get to. I often find myself dreading coming home to the main cabin just because it’s back to reality; phone ringing, obligations, bills to pay, PEOPLE lol. The wild life out here is different than at our main cabin. This is truly remote Alaska. Grizzly bears, moose, wolves, lynx, fox & so much more. The moose like to swim the rivers in the summer. This past summer, Parker actually swam in the river just 50 ft away from two cow moose. It was truly spectacular as we watched them walk through the brush. It’s like watching dinosaurs disappear into the woods with the cracking of the twigs & bushes under their hooves.
I am continually impressed by the Alaskan wildflowers we see. They line the landscape everywhere you look. The honey bees stay busy pollinating & buzzing around. The butterflies & dragon flys shimmer, always looking for a place to land.
Seasons at the cabin…
We usually get out to the remote cabin 4-5 times a year. Once or twice in the winter & the rest of our trips are spread out throughout the Summer & Fall. The only season that we do not get to visit our cabin is Spring as the rivers are not completely thawed yet to travel by boat, but not completely frozen either so it’s not safe to travel by snow machine. It’s a lot like camping when we’re out at the remote cabin, but a bit nicer & more comfortable! We do keep propane at the cabin for our gas stove for cooking, we have beds to sleep in, an outhouse instead of a hole in the ground & the well water makes our trips so much more convenient.
The water from our well is completely safe but does tend to have a lot of iron in it. So we invested in a Berkey water filter that’s kept at the cabin for filtering drinking water. It’s perfect for doing dishes & filling the coffee maker. Priorities right?
Dreams really do come true…
I can only hope that this beautiful log cabin will stay in our family for many, many years to come. It’s a sturdy little cabin & has all the necessities for fun weekend adventures. It’s our home away from home. We enjoy sharing our remote cabin adventures with our Youtube channel HOME FREE ALASKA! We will continue to do so as we know ya’ll enjoy coming with us!
“The allure of the wild is strong, almost hypnotic. It compels people to shed their civilized selves and plunge into the raw, unfiltered experience of nature.” -Into the Wild
