Real Alaskans must envy the way former, half-term Gov. Sarah Palin hunts on her TV reality show, "Sarah Palin's Alaska.'' All real Alaskans, excepting the comparative few who still live in rural Alaska, scrimp and save and finagle to try to find a way to make work the economics of hunting in the 49th state. Alaska is the most expensive place in America to hunt big game, which makes hunting complicated for the poor and average folk.
Not so for Palin. When she goes to the freezer and finds it low on vittles, she decides to take "a couple of days'' to fly from Wasilla to the Brooks Range to shoot a caribou. Most Alaskans would spend a couple of days just driving from Wasilla or Anchorage to Deadhorse on the Dalton Highway, a road distance of about 850 miles, to save money to be able to afford a charter flight back into the country.
Not Palin. She charters a twin-engine DeHavilland Dash, a much more comfortable way to travel, to the tune of more than $35,000. ...
There is much more in the story, "Palin's big game hunt not reality for most Alaskans", by Craig Medred of Alaska Dispatch. Don't miss it.
Hollywood Life is reporting:
... The grand Palin total to bag a caribou and get it back to the Palin homestead added up to $42,400, or $141.33 per lb. of caribou meat. Sarah shot and killed a female cow which may have weighed up to 300 lbs.
Just to put this in perspective, the Palins could have filled their freezer with ribeye steak at $10.99 a lb. from Alaska’s Mr. Prime Beef, which is based in Anchorage and ships anywhere in the state. ...
However, Craig Medred noted: "Palin's caribou was estimated to cost more than $140 per pound, but that figure is surely low, given that it calculated only the costs of lodging and transportation and assumed she got 300 pounds of meat off the little caribou cow she shot."
Update: Gryphen has posted "Take a moment to watch what a REAL Alaskan subsistence lifestyle is all about."
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