Year 2 Begins

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 to kill in ANC, so the boys took us to Jim Creek to fish. The boys fished all evening while I napped in the car. Then, the next morning we were off to Kotzebue and finally Noatak.  

Jim Creek

Sockeye (Red) Salmon

I had to go straight to work on Monday, but we have had time for some exploring in the evening. One night we went for a walk to the "pit," which is down by the river where they keep their boats. Then, tonight we went berry-picking. We picked an ice-cream pail full in a little over an hour, so we figured we did pretty well.  However, we will have to get out a couple more times to have enough berries to get us through the "long winter." --Kayla

Berry picking

Bucket of Blueberries

I went fishing today and caught a couple of salmon and a grayling which I was pretty fired up about. Grayling are part of the whitefish family but they have a large dorsal fin which looks pretty neat. While I was debating whether the first salmon was worth keeping it flopped back into the water and got away. I started fishing in the river right next to our house but then went over to the main channel. At the main channel there was literally a steady stream of salmon swimming past the entire 2 hours that I was out there. --Brett 
                                                           

                                                            Arctic Grayling

Chum Salmon

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