Bachelor's Roost

Dear Everybody who cares about the goings on at Bachelor’s Roost:

One long letter is the only solution I can think of to take care of my promise to write so many people and I need to get this written now as there are half-dozen things that could prevent me writing later:  bear or moose might get me, I may freeze or starve out and there is a pretty good chance I may get snowbound for many months and not be able to get away from here.

So at last we are getting to “Bachelor’s Roost”.  None of us have seen it yet, we are not too sure we can find it.  Personally I am very anxious to see what I have filed a claim on.  The train brings us to Kashwitna -- a former station and section house on the RR.  It has been closed a number of years.  All up and down the line are these former section houses crews used to live and work on their section of track, most are closed now with the work crews living on special work trains that park at various sidings along the RR.  (The Kashwitna section house is for sale.  I have been told for approximately $200.00 and it sure would be worth it.)  I will refer to the Kashwitna Section House as KSH from now on.  It plays a rather important part in the development of “BR” and might be mentioned often.

At this point I will also give better indication of where I am on the globe.  This in hope that the wrong people never find me--but even then it would be difficult for most to find me at all.  By RR Kashwitna is 80 miles from Anchorage.  By highway from Willow on the new road being constructed it will be 96 miles to the big city.  By highway from the old road over the mountain it would be 105 miles.  All these distances are in a northerly direction from Anchorage.

“BR” is situated one half mile in a straight line west of the RR and west of “BR” is the site of the new highway under construction.  At present it is still just brush and moss, they have made the cutout through, pushing down many beautiful trees through some mighty beautiful country.  The road, in fact, cuts right through my land, almost in the center--80 acres on one side and 80 on the other.  I lose what the highway requires.

So to those who expected me to get lost in isolated territory I wish to state that I feel almost like I am in downtown Cincinnati, with a RR on my east and a new road being built on my west and with the air full of north and south bound planes all day and night.  It will be some time yet before this area will actually be populated though.   May be two years before they get this far with the paved road that is okay with me, will give me time to get curtains up to the windows and I had hoped never to have to worry about that up here.  But all this tends to make this section of land more valuable.  And though it is much further along into the story I have received official Notice of Allowance and the property is mine if I earn it.  Received that two weeks ago.  I signed over my right to gas and oil so it sped up the action on my claim.  I didn’t want the messy old oil anyway.

“BR”, naturally, is in the bushes yet.  KSH is situated in the SE 1/4 of this section 31--I am in the NW 1/4 of 31, so it could be said I am 3/4 mile from the section house in a straight line.  However it is well nigh impossible to go more than 10 feet up here anywhere in a straight line because of the trees, bushes and lakes.  Along with the other RR’s and Highways I was also quite fortunate in having a former logging road (now named Snow Shoe Blvd.) already here.  It starts at KSH and goes west, south of the lakes and within a couple 100 yards of our building site.  Though it was a loss to us to have all the large timber taken out for the gold mines on Hatchers pass some time ago the logging trail is still in good shape and could be driven over with most any vehicle.  But the last 200 yards is another problem.  This unmarked path of sorts quickly became known as “Crazy Trail” (later re named Pall Mall Avenue when Russell we lined that trail with empty Pall Mall wrappers) soon after we arrived.  We were unable to go the same way twice, I don’t think we once went the same way over that trail in the hundred or so trips we made.  We were lost from one another within 30 feet of each other.  It is getting better now as I have blazed it some with an ax and machete.  We had to leave the logging trail as it is not on my property, it belongs to a future neighbor--of course he certainly doesn’t care it we use it.