Arctic Adventures

Fall Colors Arctic Lupines The leaves on the willows literally changed overnight. Yesterday I went fishing a little ways upriver and all of the leaves on the trees were still green. Today we went fishing upriver and all of the leaves on the willows are now yellow. The salmon are really starting to deteriorate now and don't put up much of a fight anymore. Supposedly trout are starting to enter the river down near Kotzebue, so I hope that they make it here pretty soon. Pink Salmon Spawned out Chum Salmon Dead Salmon Doggy (male chum salmon) Now that the salmon are done spawning they start to die. As the river is dropping they get left high and dry on the bank. They also smell pretty bad. I guess the stench gets pretty overpowering by the end of September. 2nd graders fishing by themselves out getting "Sivaqs" (fish eggs) I found another spot for grayling upriver from our place. I also saw a lot of bear tracks but no bears. After a few weeks of bein...

Denali on the flight to Noatak Another side channel with the mountains Boat cruising View out of our window. View of Noatak River from overlook (water is very high right now) Salmonberry or Ukpik Blueberry Picking again More berries Blueberries everywhere Close-up of the big teeth on a Chum Salmon Salmon are starting to get really dark (notice the black belly) The shadows are fish (Pink Salmon, Chum Salmon, Grayling)

There are many people who float down the Noatak River starting from high up in the Brooks Range and then ending up some 600 kilometers later in our village of Noatak. This week I talked with a man from Switzerland who had made this float along with 9 others who were mostly from germany. He said that they had started up in the Brooks Range and had floated about 550 kilometers before they had ended up in Noatak. He told me they saw sheep, moose, caribou, grizzly bears, and caught arctic char, grayling, whitefish, salmon, northern pike, and lake trout. I actually didn't visit with this man for very long. His English wasn't very good and he seemed content to just watch me fish. This same afternoon I also visited with an Australian man who was much more talkative. He was asking me about the village and also inquired as to how I had ended up in Noatak. I told him that I lived here, he thought that was pretty cool. There were a few little native kids running around quizzing hi...

Well, I survived Day One of my second year of teaching.  This year was much easier than last year.  We spent most of the day going over rules and procedures.  I even had the kids make their own rules.  It was fantastic.  They came up with:  Work Hard, Be Nice, Be Safe, Have a Positive Attitude, Be Respectful.  They also assigned consequences to the rules and I think they were harder on themselves than I would have been!   It is nice knowing the kids from last year.  I showed them pictures from this summer and they loved looking at them, especially the wedding pictures.   Brett got a job working at the school as an Instructional Aide in the High School.  Today, he took off at 3:30 to go fishing.  He needs a little bit of balance:  work and fish, what a life :)

Since we have arrived in Noatak I have been able to go fishing just about every day. On lazy days I fish the river channel that is right close to our house for grayling. There is one spot that I have found that holds about ten grayling. I usually manage to hook two or three before I spook the rest of the fish. Grayling are fun fish to catch, although I am regretting not having brought my 5 weight fly rod up here because it would be very fun to catch them with dry flies. On days where I feel a little more ambitious I walk out to the main channel of the river to fish for salmon. The main channel is about a thirty minute walk from our house but I have to wade the near channel to get to the main one. When Kayla was in Kotzebue for the teacher in-service I took Thursday off from fishing to try to come up with a fly pattern that the Chum salmon would eat on a regular basis. I found a few different ones online and tied them up to use on Friday. I found out unfortunately that the most effectiv...

As soon as our work week was over, we decided it was time to let loose, Napaaqtugmiut Style. We went a little ways up-river with John and Lori (two other teachers) to fish. It was unbelievable. The fish were surfacing like dolphins and you could see them swimming past in a continuous school. It was almost like they were teasing us. About an hour after we began fishing, we heard a gun shot. They had tried to get a bear that was coming close to the village, but just ended up scaring it off. They have had quite a problem with bears lately--there are so many and they are beginning to come closer into the village. Lori pulled in a fish a right away and had bites all night. I was next to pull one in before Brett hooked one. John was skunked all night, Lori and Brett ended up with their one, and I ended up with six. We cleaned the fish at the river and Brett taught both Lori and I how to filet a fish! It was such a beautiful evening--we were out in our T-shirts! Lori with her fish...

We arrived safely back in Noatak on Monday. This arrival is so different than last year.  It was hard to leave home, but now that we are back up here it feels "right" and nice to be back. It's fun to see all the familiar faces and jump right into things.  Everyone here is so friendly and welcoming.  We got stopped many times walking around by people saying "welcome home" and giving hugs.  It also so nice to have a partner here to share all the new experiences with.  I think we will have some crazy adventures to write about this year!   Our trip from Michigan was quite long, but uneventful. We flew from Marquette, where our plane was delayed 1 hour due to weather, to Minneapolis to Anchorage. In Anchorage we got picked up by Brett's cousins and did our grocery shopping. Remember, we have to go to Wal-mart to pick out our groceries, etc--they have a special "bush-mail" check out where they package and mail all of our supplies. We had 16 hours t...