Arctic Adventures

We made it to Hawaii, just barely. It was snowing and blowing, but starting to let up and Era made it in. The last week we got the equivalent of the snowfall that we have received for the year. It started snowing on Tuesday and was still snowing when we left. On Friday I was out for a few hours with sunshine and relatively clear skies, but Saturday morning the clouds closed in again. We didn't really have much of a spring. It seems those late winter/early spring time days are the best days of the year. Sunny, clear, and relatively warm after all winter. We had some nice weather when Brenden was in Noatak, but that was pretty much it. Most of the days after that were overcast and windy, and still cold. I finally found a school of trout too. I was way downriver by Raymond Brown's camp. I was fishing in deep water, but the trout were right under the ice. I would jig the swedish pimple like crazy and they were just swiping at it one right after another. Ended up with about half...

"Oren, Who's coming to visit?" "Uncle Brenden!?" Oren was pretty excited that Brenden was coming to visit. He told stories about how he was going to go out and catch fish, and see moose, caribou when Brenden gets here. Oren was just fired up when he saw the "Big Airplane" that Brenden came on. He couldn't stop talking about the big airplane and then "neeeuuum!" Brenden got here on Wednesday and we went out first thing in the evening to go fishing. I had a whitefish hotspot lined up that I knew we would be able to get a lot of fish right away. Sure enough we got a pile of them. On Thursday after work we headed up the river a ways to try by Quesooks and Willies we found whitefish and grayling there but no trout. The sun is up until almost 11 so we took full advantage of that.  Trying to See Fish Friday we went on a bear hunt. I wanted to try to get a spring bear to eat. I have heard that they are a lot better eating now than i...

While visiting in Michigan over break, I was asked to share what general life is like in the arctic.  I find this difficult, because all of the things that seemed so crazy and out of the ordinary only 4 years ago, have now become part of the norm for us.  For some of you that have come in contact with our blog AFTER my first year here, I will try to recap some of the big changes we had to adjust to.   1)  Our village is a fly-in village.  We are not on the road system and you cannot drive here by car.  In the winter, people travel by snow-go from Kotzebue which is about 60 miles.  When the water is high enough in the summer, many people boat down the Noatak River to Kotzebue as well. 2)  We order all of our groceries through the mail.  (Grocery stores overwhelm me now!)  We've tried a few different routes for groceries.  Fred Meyer has a "Bush Mail" department to which we can email our order;  they shop for us, box it ...

I had to get on here before Brett, just this once, to tell my side of a story ;) Brett has been looking for a snow-go since this fall, and finally found one that fit his needs.  He drove it up from Kotzebue a couple of weekends ago and has been on the go ever since.  Oren and I have got to accompany him on a few excursions, and I admitted to him that it was alot nicer riding on a machine that was made for 2 people, rather than clinging for dear life on the end of our other one.  Maybe I should have just kept my mouth shut. He has been wanting to take a ride out to the flats and decided Sunday was the day.  It was a bit windy, but the trail was sheltered and the sun was shining brilliantly.  Now by a "bit windy" let me tell you that it was absolutely whistling down from the north and in the short trip to the actual trail, I was ready to call it quits.  My boys both have nice, warm fur hats, but not me.  My ear felt frozen, and I'm pretty sure the ...

 Oren Fishing From His Boat    Oren Riding the Snowmachine  Looking For Fish In the Hole  Asked for His Life Jacket When He Woke Up  Beach?  Neeuummmm! Airplane  In the Mountains  Tundra  Trapping Camp   Not A Bad Day Spring Break here was a busy week! I finally ran into some trout on one day. Kayla and Oren came with to fish across, but then they rode home with Doris. I headed up to Willy's and I ran into Frank Sr with a couple trout on the ice at a different spot. I stopped to talk, and while we were talking he pulled a couple more up. He told me I could use his auger and I didn't waste any time. I was leaning on that thing as hard as I could and it still didn't seem quick enough. He pulled up about ten trout before I had holes drilled for me and Zach. I ended up with about 10 but Frank ended up with a sack of trout.  On Thursday of break I took a ride to chec...

Oren James Cheese Shapes Eye? Bpppp!  Waiting for a Push This week is spring break. I am hoping to get out fishing a lot this week. Mike and I took a ride out to the trapping camp on Wednesday after work. All of my Conibears were tripped, but empty. We had a wolf tracks all around camp, but nothing in the traps. Mike shot a couple of caribou on the way back. I think its really hard for him to pass up on fat caribou.