Arctic Adventures

Kayla's Parkie Ruff (Beaver, Wolverine, Wolf) We got home yesterday after visiting family on our break. This is the first time on our way through Anchorage where we didn't do any shopping. Boy was that nice. We were able to run up to Palmer and visit at Aaron and Helen's. Bradley, Tim and Andrea, Becca, Luke, and all the kids were there too. We didn't stay too long because we knew that 3:30 am wake-up call was going to come all to soon As we were leaving Anchorage the pilot announced, "Temperature in Kotz, -20 F." Joy. Getting off the plane in Kotz the temp didn't feel that cold though. We managed to get on the morning flight out of Kotz to Noatak, so that was pretty nice. We touched down in Noatak to the balmy temperature of -30 F. It felt pretty cold. I woke up this morning to -40 F on the thermometer. I was hoping I might be able to get out on these few more days of break, but it doesn't look like that will be happening. Maybe I'll try to ski so

I went out hunting again this past Saturday with neighbor Kyle and our principal. I was hoping that we could catch some cows this time. The bulls are still extremely skinny from the rut and there is not a whole lot of meat on them. We finally have some snow on the ground, and you wouldn't believe how much better the trail is. Last time I was bumping over, around, and through the tundra tussocks. This time with all the snow we just glided right over them. As soon as we got over the bridge we started seeing tracks. We went up on a hill over the lake to see if we could see anything from up there. There were no caribou in sight, so we went over the first row of hills and saw a couple of high schooler's cutting a couple of caribou. We went and talked to them and they told us that the rest of the herd, five bulls, had headed over some more hills just a little ways. We headed over the hills and there they were. I checked to make sure that they were in fact bulls. We didn't really

I have been hearing about herds of caribou right close to town for a couple weeks now so finally on Saturday I headed out to see if I could catch one. My plan was to be on the way at daybreak. I gassed up at about 10:00 am, and then waited around for it to get light outside. I packed a duffel bag with some emergency food, knives, spare socks, shirts, rope, and matches. The hands on the clock showed about 11:00 am when I headed out. Still a while before daylight, but I had been chomping at the bit since about 6:00 am. I dressed up and headed out. Herd of Caribou I didn't know exactly where to go but I knew the trail to cross the creek was out past the dump somewhere. As I was nearing the dump I saw a moose take off into the spruce trees between the dump and the airport. I knew other teachers still had some moose tags to fill, so I blasted home and gave them a call. I was on my way back out and I saw them driving to get the moose. I stopped and waited to see if he would get it. A f