Drove across Wyoming the other day on the way to Denver and I could definitely appreciate that it was the least populated state in the US (or least densely populated). Lots of open space.
I'm a recluse and I've actually considered one day retiring to a state like Montana, Wyoming, or Idaho. This infographic just made my eyes light up. "Oh my god I can finally get away from everyone" I thought.
For this past long weekend I snowshoed into a remote lake and stayed in (and fixed up) a beautiful abandoned cabin. Ice fishing, star and northern light photography, wildlife viewing and beautiful sunshine. Didn't see a single person, and I would have been shocked if I did.
I cleaned out all the junk, repaired the window shutters, hung some plastic to catch water drips, put a new sheet of plywood on a table, built a new "coffee" table, re-hung the door on it's hinges and generally tidied up.
Remember, the daylight up here is already 6am-10pm, so there is tons of daylight for activities, and lots of the cabin work can be done in the evening, when the sun is setting but it's not yet dark enough for Northern Lights photos.
I knew you had the sun on your side but I figured the lack of a Home Despot within snowshoe distance was going to be a killer. I know from experience that having to recycle/repurpose materials can triple the length of time it takes to complete any project and on top of that you have to factor in the working solo 50% time tax. I am impressed.
Was the door rehanging due to some sort of winterizing or bear-proofing?
I don't know the history of the cabin, and I am trying to find out from old-time friends.
I suspect it was built in the '60s or '70s, likely a trappers cabin (most up here are). It was built with logs much too big to be from the Yukon though, so I think it must have been something important for them to import logs like that (likely from just down the road in Alaska). Which is confusing, because it wasn't on any important routes like you expect to find on, say, the Yukon river, or big lakes up here.
Judging from the materials, recent improvements and nails, books, clothes, stove, etc, I then suspect sometime in the 90's someone moved in for a summer and did a ton of work. New window shutters (built with screws indicating a cordless drill), new floorboards with paint, roof work, etc. etc. Also they conveniently left a bunch of brand new sheets of plywood and 2x4s out of the weather, and many thousands of nails. The only "visitors message" was from '98, written in pencil, which was conveniently left in a tin of nails for use in construction.
The door was very solid and clearly bolted and locked in many places long ago - the thing about locked doors on cabins in the Yukon is they tend to get smashed in by people, as this one had been. People up here prefer cabins be left unlocked so they can be used in emergencies in the winter (when it's -40) so 99.9% of cabins are not locked, and simply have a book that says "please use this cabin and treat it as your own - also leave a note in the guest book if you like". It's a great sense of community. So the door had been smashed in and was lying under a couple of feet of snow. The first night I was busy with everything else, so I just nailed up a sheet of plastic over the door in an attempt to make it air-tight. (I brought the plastic with me, having been told the cabin was a wreck)
After I dug out the door and got all the snow/ice off it, It was easy to line up the hinges and put a couple of big nails through to get it hanging right. It's possible it was knocked in by a bear (not common, but it happens), though I didn't see any evidence to suggest that.
Bears are awake now, but I didn't see any or any evidence of them yet this spring, and I covered ~40km on snowshoes
All in all, as you might be able to tell, it's a great sense of adventure to go to remote rivers and lakes and simply explore :) I'm working through the photos now, I'll post back here when they're online so you can see what I'm talking about.
Native wyomingite here - I wouldn't live anywhere else. Cheyenne (state capital) isn't even that densely populated and it's about the busiest city I'd ever want to live in. Here, life seems mostly laid back and relaxing where just a few tens of miles to the south in either Fort Collins or Denver, CO, life feels hectic and claustrophobic.
I'd call this city just about perfect, though - it's still in Wyoming, so there's still separation between people, but it's a quick hop skip and jump to a bigger city for any events in that area.
I don't know. I lived in Cheyenne for five years (nuke officer), and to this day, whenever I get caught in an afternoon, car door bending wind, I think of those days; the air continuously rolls down the Front Range whipping through town...but Vedauwoo was beautiful, and thankfully Ft Collins was just a hop away.
Vedauwoo is nice, and Laramie is a laid-back college town. I also like the more remote parts of NE WY, like Thunder Basin National Grassland. I have friends who are homesteading near Wheatland.
They purchased more than 50 acres of ranchland. It is a subdivided piece of a huge ranch that has never been developed. They had to "homestead" it in the sense of building everything themselves. The deed says it's 50 acres, but the prepared survey measured something approximating 55. They told me how much they spent on the property itself; I can't quite remember the number but I was surprised by how affordable it is. Of course, there isn't much in the way of services there but they do have satellite internet access and have built a house on the property, have a garden with an irrigation system, solar panels, raising chickens and some livestock, etc.
I have visited there and it's one of the few residences I've ever been to where you can do a full 360 degree revolution while standing on their property and all you see is nature except for their small prairie home...no other buildings, power lines, or structures owned by anyone else in sight. Also, the air there is wonderful; there's a faint scent of sage all the time.
Oh thank you. I didn't know anyone actually read those. I mainly started my blog to give myself a boost in confidence every now and then and help me get a 9-5 design job eventually.
Just so you know, Idaho is a very nice state in many ways. Largely the only real downsides are the lack of jobs and high culture. I've lived there in most of the corners and would be quite happy to discuss the state with you.
I did no such thing. I responded to someone's statement that he's a recluse with the suggestion that perhaps that's not a natural state. Somehow this is offensive?
Then I went on to make what I considered a positive and constructive suggestion, that assuming I did not understand the person, he might look in places other than zero-population areas for suitable but more convenient habitation.
I'm sorry you see that as "not OK." I see it as ridiculous that this sort of well-meaning input should somehow be so awful as to be unmentionable. But I seem to be pretty much alone there.
But why don't you think it's OK for the other poster to be a recluse? Like him, I quite enjoy solitude and that's one of the reasons I posted this. I spent a month working in a remote desert last year and found it the peace and quiet very restful, in contrast to the hustle and bustle of city life. I enjoyed the latter much more when I was younger but over time my tastes have changed.
I see no reason for you to project your standards of mental health onto other people, even if you don't share their inclinations.
And I see no reason for you to assume that my concern for another human being is somehow projection.
You like being alone. Congratulations. So does he. That's great, and I never said it wasn't OK. I tried to make suggestions that people for some reason didn't appreciate; that doesn't mean I was condemning him or his lifestyle (or your lifestyle).
Anyway, this is past the point of productivity. I tried, no one appreciated it, and I'm not going to apologize for other people's uncharitable misinterpretations.
An assumption I did not make. My statement about convenience was in reference to being around services central to population centers, e.g. medical facilities. Clearly most people here don't agree with me, but that does not justify projecting your own mistaken ideas about my position.
I have no idea what your comment was before it was deleted, but based on how defensive you've gotten since, maybe you should seek therapy for your anger management issues?
Drove from ND to Denver through Wyoming and felt very much alone in a lot of places. I thought ND between small towns was empty, but Wyoming was scary empty.
To put that number in perspective, I live on the border of Cobb County, Georgia, whose population as of 2012 is 707,442. This is one county outside the city limits of Atlanta (but not by much). While Cobb County is a metro Atlanta suburban county, it also has a large portion of semi-rural area. It blows my mind that more than an entire state's populace fits in a tiny (geographically speaking) county in a largely rural state.
Oh, I'm sure there are, I just think it's an interesting corner of Oregon that's worth pointing out because it's really unknown, but beautiful and fascinating.
