Traveling off Beaver Island

So, while I am still kicking around Beaver Island for the next few months I thought it would be fun to profile a few aspects of life on the island.  There are lots of semi-strange things about living on a remote island.  One of the strangest things (in my opinion) is traveling off of the island.

Asleep on the deck of the ferry. 

The island is only accessible by boat or airplane (much like Juneau).  However, the ferry only runs for a handful of months out of the year.  From November to April it is pretty unlikely you'll be making any sea voyages.  Rough waters limit travel greatly. That leaves flying as the main mode of transportation to and from the island.

My boys looking out the airplane window.

There are only 500-ish people that live on Beaver Island.  A full-scale airline service just isn't happening.  We basically fly in bush planes similar to the ones that they use in remote Alaska villages.  You can fly with Island Airways or Fresh Air.  I usually use Island Airways because they have a contract with the school.  It just makes life easier to always fly with the same company.

Views from the airplane in late October. 

One super tough thing about being limited to air travel for most of the year is obtaining a car when you're off Beaver Island.  Unfortunately, Cody and I haven't hit the legal car rental age yet.  This means we can only fly off of the island if someone (like our parents) is willing to drive 4+ hours each way to pick us up.  Things get a little inconvenient.  Many families choose to just own a second car and pay to keep it stored at the Charlevoix Airport.  I think if we were planning to stay on the island long-term we probably would have done this. It would make life so much easier.  We must really like living in difficult places though…Juneau isn't on the road system either.

Your turn…Have you ever lived somewhere off of the road system?

Currently listening to…Two Weeks- Grizzly Bear