Arctic Adventures

Its hunting season around here! This last week there have been boats trickling down from waaaay upriver with some caribou. A few people have gotten moose too. Last Sunday I got a call from Stan saying that his boy Caleb was on his way to Kotz and they got two moose and had only one boat. So we headed down about 9:00 pm and went and picked 1 of the moose up.   Getting In On the Action   Oren and I have been driving out north of town, where you can see a little ways with bino's, and just sitting for a while to see if we see anything. I took the boys just across the side channel by town and we caught some salmon to make dried salmon. I also cut a couple for annaliks? (the kind where you leave the eggs in them). I probably won't eat them but maybe I can give them to somebody who will.    They Shut the Water Off for a Couple Days  Prepared  Drying Fish  (I don't think Kayla knows those are there yet, see how long before I might have to move them)

It's getting to be fall time of year here. My moose season starts on Tuesday and goes through the middle of the month. Hopefully I will make it out a few times this year. I made 1 trip up to Kelly River a couple of weekend ago. I caught some grayling and salmon but no trout. The river really came up over the past week and a half I have my boat parked right below our house now. It would be nice if the channel below town would make up its mind where it wants to go, so that we could park by town during lower water.   Kelly River We are hoping to go camping upriver next weekend. If the river stays up we might try to go up to Kelly or even to Ricky's depending on a host of variables. Looking Toward Howarth's Camp Starting our second full week of school this week. Seems like it's a little easier for me this year, but it is still a busy time of year.  Can You See the Snow? Trying to Make it Upriver in Kelly

 Oren's Trout Friday was a rain day. We toured the school at bit and had a lazy morning/early afternoon. The weather cleared after dinner so we decided to go down to the pit for a bit and try our luck there. I was chuckling at Oren the whole time. Usually he doesn't have much patience for fishing. He might cast half a dozen times and even if he gets a fish he doesn't fish for much longer than that. On this evening he was just fishing away with grandma and grandpa. I put a KO wobbler on for him, so he could cast good and he is getting pretty good at casting it out there.  Casting After a few casts he starts yelling, "I got one! Dad, I got one!" Sure enough he had a fish on. As he was reeling it up, I thought to myself, "That kinda looks like a trout!" Then it got off before I could tell for sure. A couple of cast later he had another fish on that looked like a trout. We got some salmon and that one trout that evening.  Got a Salmon!

My mom and dad finally got to visit Noatak! We had decent weather for most of their trip and they were able to get a taste of everything that we do in the fall time. They got here on the Wednesday AM Raven flight. We had breakfast ready and then my trapping partner, Mike, stopped by to do some work on our door and ended up having coffee and visiting for a while. After lunch we went out to the end of the graves road and walked into the tundra to pick blueberries. The boys were not cooperative for berry picking, but we managed about a gallon between all of us. After berry picking we went down to the pit and went casting for salmon. The salmon were starting to get old there, but we got a couple that we brought home.  Dinner was barbecue moose ribs and then off to fly fish for grayling.       The grayling fly fishing is probably my favorite fishing to do. When the wind is calm there are fish rising everywhere, and it reminds me of catching sunfish off the dock at my grandma and g

 Oren With Grayling  Helping Mom Cut Fish We got out last week and set a net a couple of times to get our fish for the winter. I think we should be pretty much set as far as salmon goes. Still need an excuse to go after some trout too.  We Set the Net  Wanted to Cut Salmon Mom's Helpers    Production Mode  Red Dog Mine (last year)  Couple Pintails

It is a lot harder to keep up with the blog when I'm teaching. I'll try to do a better job this year. Here are some pictures from the end of last year in Noatak and then our summer.  Stuck It took a while for there to be any amount of snow on the ground last winter, but once it came we got a lot. Made me wish for a little sportier machine to blast around on. I got stuck twice on my widetrak and both time were doozies. One of the times I was by myself and I thought I was going to have to start walking.   Ice Fishing  Waimea After school we went to Oahu for a week. We stayed on the North Shore. Didn't snorkel as much as I would have liked, but still went a few times. If or when we go again I am going to do some spearfishing.  Gecko (I think)  Self Explanatory We tried to climb Diamond head with the boys. We didn't make it all the way to the top. Diamond Head is an old volcano where during WW 2 the military built bunkers and h