Regionals, Moose, Ptarmigan, and Snowmachine

New, Teacher Housing

Big Snowbank in Front of School

This past weekend there were regional basketball games in Kotzebue. The 1A and 2A girls and boys games were there. In all there were 21 teams. They all stayed at the high school and middle school. Both of the Noatak teams had a chance to advance to the state tournament. Unfortunately for the girls only the first place team advanced to regionals. The Noatak girls made it to the championship game. They ended up losing to perennial powerhouse Pt. Hope. On the boys side both the first and second place teams advanced to state. The boys also made it too the championship game where the faced the 2-time state champion Pt. Hope Harpooners. They lost that game on Friday night and then on Saturday night they had to play the winner of the losers bracket to see who the second place team would be that advanced to the state tournament. The boys played Buckland a team that they must have played at least 6 times this year and beat them handily every time. This game they were up by 17 points at one point in the game. They didn't put them away and Buckland crawled back into the game and a kid on Buckland hit a game winning three to put his team up by one with ten seconds to go. Noatak came down the floor and lost control of the ball before they could get a shot off. It was a pretty tough loss.

Kotzebue Gym

I finally was able to pick up our snowmachine this weekend as well. I picked it up on Friday and had it in Kotz for the weekend. On Sunday I followed a few people back from Noatak to Kotz. It is about a 60 mile trip mostly along the river with one shortcut through the mountains and then back down to the river. It was a beautiful day to travel. The temp was about 5 degrees. I wore one of the locals extra parkies so I was nice and warm. The trip was pretty long with both of the other people that I was following were towing sleds.

Kotzebue Sound

New Snowmachine in Front of Bayside in Kotzebue

Last Wednesday when I was out checking the traplines I noticed a lot of ptarmigan track on the ground. I decided to see if I could follow them and maybe kick up a ptarmigan or two. Well it turned out to be a hundred or two. I saw one, and then two, and then it seemed like they were everywhere. I ended up getting two with my .22 before they flew off. I should have been able to get a couple more but I missed more times than I would like to admit.

Ptarmigan

After I got the ptarmigan I still had to go check my traps. As I crested the rise coming out of the river bottom I noticed a couple moose on the other side of the river near to where my traps were. I slowly advanced to where my traps were keeping a wary eye on the moose. They slowly made their way across the open area, probably keeping a wary eye on me. My sets were empty so I tried to snap a few photos but the camera kept dying on me because it was so cold.

Cow and Calf

I turned around and was following the tree line back to the river looking for rabbits. It turns out there was something much larger than a rabbit in the treeline. As I was going along I almost stepped on a large moose. It must not have been more than 10 yards away just inside the trees on the other side of a small wash. My heart started pounding and I turned right around and made a wide circle around it. It didn't really seem to disturbed by my presence though. I watched it for a little while from a safer distance and it just went on eating like no big deal. I kind of wish I had gotten a close up photo but I the camera was dead and that might have been a little dangerous to boot.

Couple Moose

Sunset Over River Bank