May 26, 2024

It’s been a while since I was up in the Basher Community Council area, aka Stuckagain Heights area.

Saturday, Sharon and I drove around to get reacquainted with the area, the number of homes that have been built, and the large lots. Knocking on those doors is going to take a while! (House District 9)

The area has many of the infrastructure road and wildfire issues that are a priority for the district, including having over 200 homes at the end of a long single route into the area that would be used to get out if there was a wildfire. Fortunately, their community council has been active in organizing phone trees and drills to help residents learn more about Firewise, Ready Set Go, and how to be prepared. They just completed a drill last weekend in cooperation with Station 14. (If you are interested in their evacuation plans, phone trees and drill, contact me and I’ll share what I can and connect you with others in the area organizing the work.)

I have vague memories of being up there for dinner when I was growing up, probably in the early 70s. There was a swimming pool there, and because my mom made it a priority to learn to swim, I probably did swim there but don’t remember it. There was also a ski hill with a rope tow for a few years, but at that point I was starting at the original Hilltop rope-tow and then going to Arctic Valley. Here is a bit of history about Basher from the ADN and David Reamer’s history column, it explains the name “Basher”.

If you are unfamiliar with the area, it’s up in the hills above the Bicentennial park. You get there by going out Tudor and up the Campbell Airstrip Road, past the Botanical Gardens. As the bird flys, it’s not far from our home in the Rabbit Creek area, but it’s quite a drive around the hillside to get there. Here is a link to a map and the community council’s FCC page.

Ky