Arctic Adventures

Last weekend I went with a local to set a outfitter tent up at the base of the Mayuumerruq Mountains 30 miles from town. We left town at 11:00, just when it was starting to get light outside. The tundra was still rough, and we pounded our way for a good two hours. As we neared the creek at the base of the mountains we looked for a place to set the tent. After looking at a couple of different spots we settled on a small, flat area tucked under 3 large pine trees set inside a wide stand of pines. I was a good thing that it was so protected because the wind really blew that night. Driving His Truck First thing that we did was clean out the area. Cut down all the willows and small little saplings on the trail into the site. Then we cleared out the pine branches to make room for the tent. When we went to set the tent up we realized that we had the wrong poles. I cut three smaller pines to manufacture some new poles. The tent was set up. I cut a pile of pine boughs to lay underneath t...

   Caribou After suffering through the lack of snow in the fall and early part of winter we are finally getting some much awaited snowfall. When we got back to Noatak from our holiday vacation back in Michigan we still didn't have any snow. A couple of day after we got back it started snowing. We now have about two feet on the ground and more upcoming. It's nice to finally get out on the snowmobile and ride.  Bull Yesterday I went for a little cruise southwest of town. There are reports of wolves getting close to town so I headed out early in hopes that I might run into a few (its relative because it doesn't get light until 11 am). I was also hoping to run into a caribou or two. I figured once I got across the Katchoruk creek just south of town I would have wide open tundra to the foothills and mountains. I was wrong. There are so many willow filled, steep banked drainages that I got to a point where I couldn't really go farther south. I could have gotten t...