Starting the year off right!

Well I'm back in Kiana for another year of school! I had a great summer driving tour busses all around Alaska, I didn't make as much money as i had hoped but do you ever? Coming back to the village really felt like coming home! I was welcomed by many old friends and before long I was already out in the country enjoying the scenery. I was able to go seining with the Westlake and Reich families up at their camp about 12 miles up river call sunaotuk "place of bones". We caught whitefish in the seine net and brought them back to camp to scale and cut them. Once they were scaled and cut and soaked in a brine we hung them on poles to dry. The white and blue totes in the boat were full of fish! When we were done we had 6 poles of fish. (Which is a lot)


















The next outing Brad took myself and his family up to Westlake camp which is about 45 miles upstream from Kiana. It was an awesome boat ride with Brad.I always learn a lot when traveling with Brad. I learned about the bad spots in the river and well as how to read the river when traveling upstream. Once at the camp we had to haul all the tools up the stair system(very similar to my parents stairs in Idaho) to the camp. We were not there for a visit, we were there to work. We built a look out that was made out of heavy 4 inch steel posts 20ft tall. It was tough work! The reason for lookout was to be able to harvest caribou from land. We had a small generator for power, cut pipe with an infomercial saw, welded in the rain, measurements were "close enough", it took two trips but we finally got the lookout done. On the second trip we were looking for moose so we camped about 15 miles upriver of the camp. It was about 25 degrees that night, good thing I had my cables guide bag that's rated to -20. We didn't find any moose that trip but I was able to catch a few pike!






I have been running in a time deficit since school has started. It has just been in the last week that I am finally getting into a schedule and routine. We have many new staff members including a new principal. Things are finally smoothing out in Kiana. In the last week I have been able to go moose hunting a lot. I was not able to get a moose but was able to work on 2! It was a fun time but a lot of work! The first was Brads moose shot about a mile from Kiana. We took a boat up the squirrel river to get as close as we could. We quartered it there and used the 4 wheeler to haul the meat to the boat. We then hung the meat for 3 days then butchered it all. The second moose was shot by my good friend and trapping partner Glenn. He called the moose from over 2 miles aways and directed him to the perfect spot. He shot the bull on dry land but with its dying breath made it into 1 1/2 feet of water! What a mess! Luckily my roommate Phil and I were there with Glenn so we were able to cut the moose up in the water. What a job!










The caribou are on their way. I am excited to get some! It has been a great start to the school year! Hopefully my next post will be full of adventures! Thanksfor reading and supporting me during my Greater Northern Adventures!

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!

Still Winter

It has been awhile since I have updated my blog and lots of things have been happening. Lets start with my extracurricular activities. I was working on my snow machine since last time I blogged. I pulled the engine out of the machine and sent my cylinders out to Darbys Performance Machine in Fairbanks to be bored out .02 over. I ordered new gaskets, pistons, rings, wristpins and bearings. Once all the parts got back I put them all together and re-installed the engine. Once I get the engine re-installed I had to hook up all the electrical and mechanical connections and I was ready to put a fire in the hole! The machine fired up great and was running good. Unfortunately during a trip, I will tell you about later, I scorched one of my cylinders and need to replace the piston, rings, and re-hone the cylinder and I will be back in business..... hopefully. It was a stupid mistake, I got caught up in the action and payed the price.










The school district sent me to a conference in Anchorage to meet with some teachers from around the state that have "Fab Labs" (fabrication). The reason for me going to this conference was to get ideas as to how I am to set up the first-ever fab lab in the district at my school. Of course money is always a concern but after a lot of research, with approval from district office I was able to purchase two fab lab machines! First, I was able to purchase a 3-D printer, it makes 3-D objects. I know it's hard to imagine but check it out https://store.makerbot.com/replicator2x.html take a look at what it can do. The second piece of equipment is a vinyl cutter! http://www.rolanddga.com/products/cutters/gx24/ With these two pieces of equipment my students will be able to design and fabricate in 2-D and 3-D! As you can imagine the implications for education are endless, hopefully this will help make my classes and learning more meaningful. Oh yea, and to power all of these new technologies I have 12 new powermac desktops with 1Terabyte hard drives and a lot of ram! Needless to say I am being spoiled!
While in Anchorage it was not just work. I was able to attend a few Fur Rondy events that were going on while I was in town. My favorite by far were the snow sculptures! Teams of artists carved hunks of snow into amazing sculptures. My favorite was titled "Moose Hunting" it depicts the moose as the hunter, hunting the human. The detail in this sculpture is amazing, they really did a great job. Voted a crowd favorite was the orca that represents a plane which was very cool as well! There were some other really great sculptures that I will post pictures of.




















The demise of my machine happened suddenly. My school was asked to go on a culture trip downriver to Noorvik by snowmachine. We had about 18 hours to set this trip up :/ Along the way we were supposed to drill holes in the ice using an auger then measure the thickness of the ice to see if it was thick enough for the ice road that will be built later. The trip was headed by the culture coordinator for the district. Once the machines were gassed up and a plan was made we headed out. I got about 5 miles downriver and my machine shut down on me. I thought my engine break in was complete but I was obviously mistaken. I eventually limped my machine home. At that first stop the students were trying to drill the first hole but the augers that were brought did not function properly. As I limped home the students and the other two chaperones pushed down to Noorvik to pick up an auger they left there. Upon arriving at Noorvik they realized their auger was "missing" aka stolen. So no holes were drilled, two machines broke down, a pretty dismsal trip.....at least the weather was beautiful!





This place has been pretty amazing so far. The country is like nothing I have ever experienced before. The absolute solitude that you can feel when you are out there alone is a new feeling. At those times it's easy to lose yourself in the beautiful mountains, the vast tundra, the winding rivers, a moose browsing in the willows, a herd of caribou crossing a ridge, a wolves howl echoing off mountains and ridges fading into nothingness. These are the feelings, sights and sounds that stir the soul to reflect. At those times a man may take an introspective look at his life to ascertain what he has done and what he is doing.
Winter is still here and strong. It won't lose it's grip for awhile yet. On the plus side I will have more time to break in my snowmachine. Hopefully i will be able to do it right this time. Thank you for reading and taking an interest in my life! Stay safe and warm,Taikuu! (Thank you)

Out in the country.....

It has been a pleasant couple of weeks in Kiana. We have finally received some snow! Not as mutch as we have had historically but some snow is better than no snow! It has been snowing for the last two days so hopefully we have a storm coming that will give us another foot or two. It is very interesting to hear my inupiaq neighbors talk about the lack of snow this year. Some the elders claim there has not been a winter with this little snow since 1981. The lack of snow effects everything in this arctic region. Pipes in houses are freezing because the snow typically provides insulation for the pipes against the frigid cold. SnowGo's are breaking down, overheating and "burning up" pistons, bearings and rings. Fourwheelers are being used at extreme temperatures, which they were not designed for, so they are breaking as well. It's amazing to think how important snow is to this way of life. These are not the age old problems of the Inupiaq, these problems are fairly recent. Historically wood stoves to heat, no indoor plumbing, and dog sleds to travel were all used.
Now that we have some snow i was able to get out into the country looking for some wolves. I went with my friend Glenn. Glenn is an ex army ranger and special forces solider who has lived and taught in Kiana for over 20 years. He loves to talk and loves the outdoors. Our plan was to head out on snowmachines and look for wolves or fresh wolf tracks. I was riding a 2010 Yamaha Bravo that looks like it is right out of the 1970's! It has about 2 inches of suspension travel. It is a VERY rough and bonejarring ride on this little machine, but the good news is that it is so light that you won't get stuck because you can just lift it back onto the trail. Glenn was riding his 2010 skidoo v-800max, a much more comfortable ride than what I was on! We started by heading North paralleling the Squirrel river. We were headed to Peter's slough, which is about 8 miles north of the village. On our way there we were traveling across lakes and tundra darting in and out of trees, but traveling at a relatively slow 15 mph because of the capabilities of my machine. The temperature was very mild when we started out about -5, but the wind picked up and the sun started going down and soon we were traveling at -15 with wind chill at -20. We had to stop every 2 miles so i could warm my hands up because my machine didn't have gauntlets or heated handgrips like Glenn's machine. About a mile before the slough we dropped down onto the river to looks for tracks. We saw a few old sets but nothing fresh. Once we arrived at the slough we hopped up onto the tundra to work different draws to see if we could kick a pack out of a draw. After spending about 2 hours on the tundra with no luck we dropped back down onto the river to take it home. About 3 miles from the slough we came across some fresh pack tracks that were chasing caribou. It was awesome to pick out at least 6 different wolves in the pack. One set of tracks stood out from the rest, a fairly large set that Glenn surmised would be the alpha male of this pack. We followed the tracks about a mile up a drainage but it was getting dark and we had to head back. It was a cold cold ride home but instead of stoppinng we just pressed on until we reached home. It was a great adventure! I can't wait until the parts for my snow machine come in and I can be riding a much more comfortable machine!











Thanks for reading my blog and taking interest in my adventures! Hopefully soon you will be reading about a new snowmachine and new adventures out in the country. Take care, God bless.