I’ve been primarily a city dweller for most of my life but have had a few stints in very rural, mountainous areas and I cannot get enough of it. Think gold country in Northern California between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe.

There are a few advantages to settling here:

- Quiet: As long as you’re off the main road by a mile or so.

- Cheap: Land sales are usually FSBO and you have to be in the know. Locals generally don’t like selling their land to where it ends up on Zillow.

- Utilities: Most land is federal or state owned but the few private lots often have power and telecom on one end of the property.

- Building permits: Easy to get in unincorporated county assuming you’re outside of TRPA. As long as you are not cutting down trees, you’re good (usually)

- Allergies: I find it easier to breath even very thin air (elevation is about 5000 feet)

But there are also some drawbacks, too:

First off, Snow. The mountains get loads of this goddamn frosty Satan jizz. People cannot drive with it being either too cautious or too aggressive - both are very dangerous, sometimes it blocks private roads so you’re trapped until a neighbor with the snow blower is kind enough to come clear the road (there is a startup idea here I’m sure). For the driving part, there are few feelings worse than stepping on your brakes and realizing they have frozen over despite needing them to be functional in about 3 seconds. Snow also also breaks random stuff, allows water enter orifice, turns into black ice, makes going grocery shopping dangerous, and in general is a scourge if you have to go outside for any reason.

On a similar topic, convenience. In the city, I can generally find 24/7 stores. We have a handful of Safeways, WinCo, and 7-Elevens. In the mountains, things shut down for any weather, it’s 20 miles away, and the gas station may be closed. So you have to stock up, on everything. I have 10 gallons of gasoline in two 5gal containers (that I cycle through regularly), propane (so many tanks, all either full, partially used, or empty), canned food, frozen food, indoor dried, de-pested firewood, drinkable water, sat phone, spare adjustable tire chains, the list goes on.

Lastly, the weird shit that just happens. All the odd things you see in the deep woods, on your property cameras, random people that have no business being there (lost tourists, tweakers, illusions, etc). I saw (on my cameras) a guy in full business attire walk up to my remote cabin, look around then look directly at the camera, and casually walk the away. I’ve seen on a hike a newish Kia Optima stopped in the forest, driver side door open, keys in ignition, chime still ringing. From my porch, I’ve seen a girl in a white night gown walking along the ridge across the road at night. I’ve also seen strange shit like a mini cement obelisk, shrines to deerman, a wooden staircase to nowhere, half buried vehicle from the 1950s. I’ve also seen several bears, a mountain lion (well, two but one was someone’s pet and was dangerously sweet), deer like crazy (but no deerman yet). Also, it gets very dark. Darker than you can imagine sometimes.

Despite all of this, making your own power and being off grid is cool.