Arctic Spring

Spring in the Arctic is getting closer and closer every day! We have the daylight already, with sunrise around 6:45am and sunset around 12:30am and gaining more day light every day. We still have some snow coverage in the village but it is disappearing quickly. We actually have finally had a day where the temperature didn't dip into the negatives! It has been in the 20's and 30's during the day and I am wearing carhartts and sweatshirts and find myself complaining about the heat.
I have been busy in the craft world. One of my best friends is having a baby boy and when I told the ladies I work with that they are expecting I was told I need to make them a pair of baby mukluks. I worked on them for about two weeks and then sent them off. The received them and told me how much they liked them. At least that kid will have something I bet no other baby in the tri-cities has, hand sewn mukluks made above the arctic circle.





After a short but difficult trapping season it ended on April 15. On April 14 all of my hard work paid off in the form of a young female lynx! We caught her on a set about a mile from town. I have since skinned it, dried it, stretched it and am preparing to tan it. I will update you on the final product in my next post. This season I trapped 10 red fox and one lynx. All in all not too bad for my first season. Next year I will trap harder and hopefully have better results. Trapping has been a great way for me to get out into the country and enjoying the winter.



I recently had the opportunity to go in a "field trip" with a group of people from our district. 3 students and 2 staff members went from Kiana. This "field trip" was a 340 mile round-trip snow machine ride to Selawik hot springs. Check out the link.
http://www.fws.gov/refuge/Selawik/about/hot_springs.html
Lucky for me, I was the first teacher to express interest in the trip so I was "put in charge" of planning the Kiana portion. This meant I had to make make sure who ever was going had all the correct winter traveling gear, camping gear, emergency gear, food for the group and any snow machines going were in good traveling condition. Not to mention I had to create all the legal paperwork for my site to go along with the trip. I made sure to CYA with paperwork. After many weeks of planning and finding last minute items the day was upon us. The morning of departure I noticed a loose idler wheel on the undercarriage of the machine I was going to borrow. We tipped the machine over in the shop to make the quick swap and found a broken undercarriage! I don't know how I missed that upon my initial inspection but that machine could not travel. Eventually as a last ditch effort we put out an all call on the VHF asking for a snow machine to borrow. A great community member stepped up and lent me his machine so the trip was a GO.



The Kotzebue team arrived in Kiana around 12 and we left at 2 heading for Ambler. Kotzebue had about 10 students with them and 4 adults with our trip leader Raymond Woods. It was about 100 miles to Ambler about 50 river miles and 50 through mountains and over tundra. The first 20 miles were spent checking loads, re-tying loads, checking sleds and machines. We had a sled flip and break during the first 10 miles so we had to borrow a sled and re-pack our grear. Once our loads were re-secured we continued on with our journey. During the first day we passed a few mushers that were running the Kobuk 440 race. It was exciting to see the mushers and dog teams in action on the trails. We spent the first night in Ambler. We were able to use the school kitchen in Ambler and we had brought frozen pizzas! In the morning disaster struck for me. While trying to pull start my borrowed snow-go my lower back exploded. I saw stars and fell off the machine in pain. I had never felt pain as intense and sharp as this. I would later find out that I had pulled and torn some muscles in my back. It was decision time for me, leave the group or tough it out. There happened to be a person from Arctic Chiropractic in Ambler helping out the mushers, she massaged some bio-freeze into my back and I loaded up on Advil. Well for various reasons I decided to tough it out. The trip would have been much more fun if I wasn't hurt but at least I can still remember the trip and not so much the pain.
After leaving Ambler we headed to Shungnak. It was a pleasant 26 mile trip accross the tundra. It was a great way to start the day with some beautiful scenery. We stopped for lunch and gas in Shungnak, 2 weeks before leaving we had to arrange with native store in Shungnak to allow us to buy fuel. They were having a fuel shortage and were only selling 5 gallons per non-shungnak resident. We were carrying 30 extra gallons of fuel in our sleds just for Kiana and as it turned out we would need every drop.
Leaving Shungnak we were tired but excited, this was the last leg of our trip. Just 45 miles to the hot springs. It was the hardest 45 miles of the trip BY FAR! There wasn't any snow cover on the tundra and it felt like it was beating you to death. In these 45 miles machines and sleds were broke, loads were lost and people were in foul moods. I have never been so relieved to see a place in my life as I was when I came around a corner and saw the hot springs.
Once at the hot springs we had to set up camp. Most of the group stayed in Arctic Oven tents with their own stoves. We had one tent and the girls wanted to stay in it. Once we figured the stoves out (damper problems) they slept very warm. The remaining members of the crew slept in two shelter cabins that were built by the Huslia people and the Shungnak people. There is also a bath house that was built over the hot springs so you can soak in a small pool. Soaking is said to be therapeutic. All the tribal doctors made to tell everyone that we had to drink a cup of hotsprings water before you soak. So I made sure to follow their directions.













Once camp was set up the kids went to cut wood. Raymond picked up food and a cook in Shungnak so we had great food while we spent our 2 days there. I spent most of my time soaking in the hot springs and preparing my back for the ride back. The kids and adults were able to go explore the valley, go on a caribou hunt with Raymond, see the hotsprings souce, learn about emergency shelter building and just hang out while we spent our time at the hotsprings. The hotsprings are a magical place but due to my back pain I was ready to leave. Unfortunately we noticed one of the Kiana snowmachines had lost a wheel going accross the tundra. Good thing we had satellite phones so we could call in for some help. Luckily the student who owned the machine had family in Shungnak that had the exact same machine and they were able to ride out and bring the part he needed! Raymond and some others stayed with the broken machine at the hot springs while the rest of the group headed for Shungnak. Raymond and the others caught up with us in Shungnak and we headed to Ambler together. After a night in Ambler we headed home. Along the way we had more sleds and machines break. Two machines bumpers totally ripped off. We fixed one by tying a stout willow branch to the remaining parts of the sled and it made it all the way back to Kotzebue! The other machines sled we had to caboose onto another sled and make it to Kiana wherer the remaining team could reload and redistribute gear. Even though Kiana was the end of the line for us, we still had a lot of working fixing sleds, hitches and machines so they could make it back to Kotzebue. Despite my pain it was an amazing trip! We learned a lot about arctic survival and overland travel. It was a great experience and I am looking foward to it next year!




As you have read I have been very busy, as always. School is winding down and I am getting prepared for driving tour busses in Alaska again. I decided working would help me afford all the toys I want! Thank you for reading my blog! I hope this has given you a little glimpse into my life here above the arctic circle. I made a short video of our trip, it's very amateurish but it may be entertaining. Http://you.be/G5BQm2e3bBk

Spring update

As far as we are concerned here above the arctic circle spring is on its way! Yesterday we had temperatures of 30! Almost above freezing, hot dog I felt like walking around in Hawaiian shorts. We still have the possibility of dropping again well into the negatives say -25 or so but it won't be for weeks on end! Life has been a whirlwind of activities lately. My primary activity it setting up and maintaining (running) a trap line! With the help of my Army Ranger buddy Glenn we have started a small line with only a few "sets". A set is a collection of traps that are typically centered around some attractor like bait, scent or visual. There are different sets for lynx, wolverines, and wolves. Since we are targeting all of these animals we have to make special sets for each intended species. Although each species has their own preference you may catch unintended species in different sets, wolves in wolverine sets or wolverines in wolf sets are the most common. All of the sets we are running use bait. This is Glenn's special bait, it consists of moose or caribou trimmings and bones put in a rubbemaid tote in August, then it has 3-4 eggs cracked over it and set in the sun to rot. It will eventually meld together and then freeze together forming a solid bait cube. The stink is indescribable, it just smells awful, but good to animals, or so I am told.
For a typical lynx set we find a natural "cubby" made by a fallen tree or a thick growing stand of willows. Typically you have to cut willows to improve your cubby so there is restricted access to the bait i.e. a front door and side door, close up the back door. Lynx will almost never use the front door or obvious opening, they prefer to sneak around to a side just like a house cat sneaking around. Once you have your bait hung and your cubby and doors made you can set your traps. We are using coil spring leg holds, long spring leg holds, Bridger leg holds and snares. There are different sizes for different animals. For lynx we use a smaller #4 trap. We set these where we think the lynx might step around the bait. The snares are positioned in natural causeways the animal may travel in, like low indentations or extra high snow banks. Once a trap is set, live, or hot (ready to spring) you move it into position securing the chain of the trap to a nearby tree or to a piece of thick #9 wire that you can stretch to a tree or anchor (wire is cheaper than simply having a longer chain). You then cover the trap with wax paper to keep the snow from building up in your trap causing malfunctions. Then you conver the wax papered trap with snow and try to make it look natural and even. A common wolverine set is a piece of bait in a 3-5 gallon bucket with a conibear trap at front. Wolverines like to dig hence the bucket and they will just bowl into anything hence the conibear. Very simple but effective set. Last is the wolf set we use the big #9 coil spring traps. We found a nice ridge (wolves like to travel ridge lines) dug a big hole and burried a whole tub of bait. Wolves won't come to bait just sitting in the open, they are very smart so you have to hide/bury it. After the bait is taken care of you set the big #9 coil springs around the bait and wait for the wolves to show up! Trapping in Alaska has been a dream of mine since my childhood. Ever since my father would regale me with stories or his father trapping and hunting in Alaska. I remember going to my grandfather's house and seeing his wolf, wolverine and lynx rugs hanging on the wall and being mesmerized by the amazingly beautiful and savage creatures of the far North! Unfortunately I have not trapped an animal yet, we have had lots of tracks around our sets but nothing in the traps yet. Glenn says it's only a matter of time the only problem is the season closes April 15. Hopfully I will be blessed and trap something other than the 9 foxes.


















I have been using my snowgo to run my line. Keeping it running is a full time job. It is not exactly reliable but it hasn't left me totally stranded...yet. It has been a great way to see some country and to get out of the village. Fortunately I do not have a lot of money invested in it so if it does die I won't be financially broken, but heart broken. I have put a lot of work into that machine and it has brought me to some beautiful places.



I was also fortunate enough to travel on my first ice road! We went to Norvik, then on a seprate trip all the way to Kotzebue. Every year the borough cuts an iceroad on the river from Kiana to Kotzebue. The road makes it possible for people living in villages to take trucks down to Kotzebue with trailers and buy fuel, groceries or items that would cost too much to ship. Since we were driving a truck on the iceroad I guess I am officially an iceroad trucker!





Life in the village has not changed much in the last few weeks. Caribou/moose meat in people's freezers is getting low so people are still hunting caribou. Soon the ducks and geese will be here and spring hunting will be in full swing. We are getting more day light, it is light when I walk to school at 7:30 and not dark until about 10:00pm. This week is HSGQE, the high school graduation qualifying exam, after this week of testing we probably won't see a lot of our students. The daylight and cabin fever will drive them into the wilds. Hopefully students will choose to prioritize school this year.........heres hoping.
As you can read I am staying amazingly busy in the village. There are many little events and nuances that I don't write about that a phone call could shed some light on. Feel free to give me a call. Thanks for reading my blog and taking an interest in my adventures!