Arctic Adventures

   Up on the Hills We had some visitors for our Thanksgiving Break. Karl and Ingrid made the trip from Fairbanks. I was hoping that we would have snow so that we could get out and see some country, but no such luck. We went fishing on Thursday and Saturday, and on Friday we took a ride on the Kivalina trail to the first set of hills. I know I have said this before, but it is awesome to be able to gain some elevation. The tundra seems to last forever, providing a spectacular view of the surrounding country. Wolf Tracks On our ride on the Kivalina Trail was a lot smoother trail than I anticipated. We saw a couple set of wolf tracks close to town. The recoil rope broke on the green Honda when I tried to start it up after a pit stop. We had to tow it back to town.  Moon Over Mountains Fishing Thursday was slim pickings. We went to the spot below the pit again, but there wasn't much of anything going on there. You could see a few trout swimming around, and ...

The Winner   Rey-Rey Sharing with Oren  Helping Scrub the Floor  Oren Loves Fish  Fish Kisses  Practicing for the Plane Rides  Not Too Bad  Fog Noatak hosted the elementary and middle school wrestling tournament. It was a busy weekend here. We watched on Friday night. I went fishing on Saturday. It was a slow day, I manged to hook 6 , but I was out for most of the day. I shot a pair of foxes too. I have a rabbit call that just brought them in from all directions. At one point I could see 5 foxes. It was too cold for the .22 to be really effective. Seemed like every other shot just clicked. I almost ran out of shells. I had to put the last of them into my mitten so that they wouldn't get too cold. I set a couple snares for fox, and a couple for otters. The long weekend will be nice, but we really need some snow to be able to get out and go. Oren loves to go for sled rides and bbbbbb! Honda rides. ...

   Mayumaruk Winter is here. We woke up to the first below zero temps this week. Daylight savings time really takes a bite out of limited daylight in the afternoon.    Oren walking around in Mom's shoes giving high fives  My fishing hotspot has been calling for weeks, and this weekend I was not disappointed. The Michigan football delayed my trip, because I decided to watch at least the first half. Well, the game just kept getting better, so I ended up watching the whole thing. Then the neighbor helped me get my boat up, finally.    Trout I didn't make it out fishing until about 3:30, but I made the most of it. This particular spot has been taunting me for quite a while. When I heard that people were catching trout at the pit I knew that being just downriver around the bend from the pit would be even better. I spudded my holes and got to fishing right away. The trout took a while to get there, but once they were there the action was ...

 Oren's New Sled Trapping season opened on the 1st. I headed out onto the lakes to try my hand at catching muskrats. I set traps on Thursday. I planned to check them Friday, Saturday, and then pull them on Sunday. Friday evening I went out after work and checked my traps. I caught 5 muskrats.    Muskrats Saturday I went out fishing in the morning. We drove down to Ikpiks by Honda. The trail was a lot smoother than I thought that it was going to be but it was still pretty rough. We spudded a couple of holes and started fishing. I walked around an did some exploring. Caleb got a couple trout right away. I started fishing. I saw a couple of big trout and had one try to bite my egg. I missed it though. I tried a few other places nearby, with no luck. A skunk just snuck up on me. I was purposely avoiding whitefish trying to get trout when they came by, next thing I know it was time to head back. I didn't end up catching anything. It was a nice day to be out though...