Winter! Spring? Winter!!

This year hasn't been able to make up it's mind as to whether it wants to be winter or spring. We have had very low snow all year as well as mild temperatures. Finally winter decided to come with temperatures but not snow. We had 2 weeks of average -30 degree temperatures. That was a hard two weeks, snow machines and vehicles wouldn't start, planes wouldn't fly because it was too cold, people (post office) wouldn't go to work. It was pretty miserable. Finally the cold spell let up and warm up it did, we got up to 40 degrees! From -40 to +40, 80 degrees of temperature swing in 3 days! With the warmer weather came the snow. Within 4 days we got about 24 inches of snow! It was wet snow and heavy but at least it was snow! We are now getting colder temps so hopefully the snow will "set up" and become harder so it will nicer to drive snow machines on.







For superbowl Sam and I decided to drive our snowmachines into KOTZ to watch the game with our friends the Martins and their family. Obviously I was rooting for the Seahawks and yes I'm still a fan even after that ending. We had a great time, the game was hard for Sam to stay awake for so I snapped a pic of her sleeping :). It was a short trip we headed down Friday and headed back Sunday after the game.....it was a long ride home. Oh well there is always next year! Before the game we had to drive out to pick up a friends broken snow machine. He was coming in from Noatak when his machines undercarriage broke. So we drove the 33 miles out of town to go pick up his rig. We loaded it in my sled and headed back to the Martins so we could make it for game time.









Sam and I had a very romantic Valentine's Day village style! We had a meal prepared by Sam from OmahaSteaks.com Split Maine lobster tails, chicken pot pies, potatoes Au'grotten and cupcakes. We dined by candle light the we watched a romantic movie.....Star Wars Episode 5 the Empire strikes back. Sam and I thought it was a perfect day.





Trapping has sucked this year there is no other way to describe it. Because of extremely low snow animals haven't been moving around as much searching for food. I have trapped a couple Marten and a few foxes. My trapping buddy Glenn trapped two wolves off a killed moose. One a really big male that we dubbed Hercules. He was a big boy.
Last weekend we went out to the backcountry where we are trapping. While I was trying to make a new trail for my marten line I got into some deep snow and got stuck. It was 33 degrees and raining which made my machine fall right through the deep snow. I dug it out 4 different times to only go about 100 feet each time. Finally Glenn and a a new teacher Aaron saw me and came to help. We ended up digging sbout 50 yards of snow so I could get back to our packed trail. It was hard work digging snow that was thigh to chest deep. Sure was happy I had 2 guys to help! We finally got out and headed home soaking wet and tired with one little Marten.
This last weekend we tried to get to the back country again but we had to cross a creek and Glenn and Aaron got stuck in overflow while trying to cross. Overflow is water that has gotten on top of the ice to form a layer of slush on top of the ice. It can be fairly shallow but this time it was over knee deep in some places. Your machine sinks in the slush usually all the way up to your foot boards or deeper. To battle the overflow we tipped the machines on their sides, filled the hole left by the track with snow, then cut willows and made a bed under the track then packed more snow on top. We finally stomped it down then let is firm up which didn't take long at 20 below. Once our traction/flotation bed was firmed up we rolled the machine back onto it. The idea was to give the machine enough traction to gain enough momentum to "float" on the overflow. Snow machines will act like jetskis in water if they have enough speed and momentum, if you don't believe me YouTube it. Anyways it worked and we got one machine across the creek and out of the overflow. Unfortunately Glenn was almost out of the creek but right on the edge, where the overflow is the worst, he buried the machine again. We repeated the process and we were finally out and safe. Glenns feet got wet so we had to cross the creek again to go home. Luckily I was able to find a safe way across and we crossed without incident. Hopefully as this March wears on trapping will pick up! It better pick up because I have a new skinning gamble to try out!

















Life and the school year if flying by. Basketball season is almost over, testing is coming, and field trips and senior trips are looming. It is a busy time of year but it is a good busy. Pretty excited for the next few months including my wedding! Sam and I are very excited! Fish is growing, not as fast as I would like but she is getting bigger. She is about 22 lbs. now so she still has a ways to go, hoping for about 40 lbs. Well that should pretty much update you on my Greater Northern Adventures as always thanks for reading and being interested!

Is it Winter?

We swiftly have transitioned from Fall to Winter but it seems as though we have not gone into "deep winter" that we typically expect about the arctic circle. The year as far as snowfall and temperatures it has been EXTREMELY mild. This could be a problem. Not enough snow makes traveling with snow machines very hard, lots of ice and uncovered ground makes for a bumpy ride. Also we will not have the spring thaw and melt like we should which could effect fish populations and other wildlife. The temperatures have been in the -20's at it's coldest and 20's-30's on average. So it hasn't been cold enough to from a lot of thick and substantial ice that could be dangerous in the spring.

November and December passed in what seems a blink of an eye. Thanksgiving was spent in Kotzebue with friends. The Martins invited us to their house and we had a fantastic time hanging out with them. Scott and Zonda taught with me my first year in Kiana and were amazing mentors. Their son Zach and his girlfriend were also there! Sam and I have become very good friends with them so it was really nice to have them there and it felt like a family Thanksgiving.  The dinner of course was fantastic. We had turkey and all the fixins. We were even able to eat left overs for a couple days, which we all know is the best part of Thanksgiving.

Christmas was a ton of fun! We were able to fly down to Idaho to have a big family christmas with the Dutton clan. It was a great time spend with family that i had not seen in awhile. I always love Christmas for that reason. We spent part of the time at the lake and the other part in Kennewick seeing old and dear friends. We had a great time but it went too fast as it usually does, and before we knew it we were back on a plane headed north. Because of the scheduling of flights Sam and I rang in the new year on a plane over the ocean......yay 2015. We decided that this is going to be a pretty exciting year with one major event punctuating the year which is our marriage. Plans have been coming along with help of my fantastic sister-in-law Bree. She has been a God send to Sam in helping with the planning process.

Sam is still staying extremely busy as she took up the mantle of Activities Director for our site and has to run all sporting events and extracurricular activities. On top of that both of us are seniors advisors which means we are fundraising for the senior class trip and of course she does more than her fair share in that.
I have been staying busy with trapping, working on snow machines and school. I try to lead an extremely active life style but it seems like time conspires against me at this time of the year with 4 hours and 21 min of daylight officially. We have not caught anything trapping yet but it is still really early in the year, but i have found some really nice moose antler sheds! I even found a matched set right next to each other. Glenn and I are trapping in the backcountry this year. It's pretty exciting to be going places that you know people haven't set foot on in years. We have high hopes for trapping this year. We have to go over a few mountains that are about 4000 feet tall.

Well that is about all I have to say for now. There hasn't been too much going on right now. Things will be more exciting when i start catching animals in my traps! Stay tuned for updates! Happy new year and thank you for taking and an interest in my Greater Northern Adventures.

Time flies in the Arctic!

Well as usual it has been longer than i would have wanted between my post. I really appreciate you for taking the time to read this blog post. Time seems to be at a premium currently, there never seems to be enough hours in the day. This year has had an interesting start to it. At school we have 6 new teachers out of 10 total. So there has been a steep learning curve for the new staff members. By now everyone seemsto be getting their feet under them with everyone running in the same direction. All in all the year has started out well for me. As a highlight of , my professional career this fall I was able to speak in front of Senator Mark Beigch and the chairman of the FCC Tom Wheeler. I was able to tell them about all of the technology we use in Kiana and I impressed them with my new 3-D printers.
Although time has seemed to have always slipped away, I have found time to go hunting this fall. This year I was successful in harvesting my first moose! I was hunting with my buddy Glenn, whom I have mentioned in other posts. We started huning the end of August for his bull. He had a federal subsistence tag which allows him to harvest a moose from August until December. I had the general federal tag which allows me to harvest a moose from September 1st-20th. So we started hunting for Glenn's moose first. We found a lot of great spots to hunt that we put in our "play book" and would check routinely for moose. We did a lot of hiking, a lot of boating and a lot of calling. Finally one night we looked in a meadow from our "play book" and there stood his moose. He wanted a younger bull for a more tender meat. It was sharing a meadow with 5 cow moose. Glenn pulled up and put the bull down. After congratulations we started to get to work. It was about 5 minutes after the shot that a HUGE bull walked into the meadow wondering what had happened. I got really excited thinking this could be my bull. He was a bull of a lifetime, with antlers that spread 70+ inches. I decided I was going to try for him. He was about 500 yards away and had 5 cows around him. I stalked in through the willows and brush to about 200 yards but with the fading light I couldn't get a clean shot so I let him walk. It was a great day of hunting!
Fast forward 7 days to September 15th.....the magic day as Glenn calls it. We are heading to the same meadow that Glenn got his bull in because we know that granddaddy is around there somewhere. As we round a corner of the river I see a bull through my binoculars, I can just barely see a part of his antlers for a split second but he right there next to the meadow. So we pull up downstream and anchor the boat and hike in quietly to the meadow, about 200 yards from where I saw the bull. Glenn starts calling like a bull to tempt this guy to fight. We brought a shed antler that I found so he is thrashing brush trying to sound like a big bull moose. After about 5 minutes of call I heard brush being thrashed. Then I heard the sound of willows and other brush scraping antlers! It was a bull coming our way and he was in a fighting mood! He would walk then thrash bushes then walk some more, this went on for about 20 minuets. Finally he came into the meadow swaying his head looking for a fight, what a sight to see!! He wasn't the huge north country monster but he was big enough for me. Once I gained my composer I put him down using my .338 Win Mag. About 5 minutes after my bull was down I head brush thrashing again, it was another moose. I waited a few minuets and out stepped the MONSTER. I couldn't do anything but laugh, I waved to him and promised to see him next year. What a great hunt. It took 2 days to get him out of the woods but I had an army of new teachers and my fiance Sam to help. Many hands made for lighter work, I still had to pack quarters to the boat! He is now sitting in my freezer and will provide many wonderful meals and jerky! That wraps up an extremely successful moose season!













I also found time to go caribou hunting. We went out a couple times for caribou but the herd was late getting to kiana. Instead my buddy Brad and I decided to go find them. We ended up going 75 miles up river to a place called onion portage. We saw a lot of caribou! We had another boat with us and ended up taking 13 between the 2 boats. It was a great time and decided to snow while we spent the night. I didn't get many pictures because it was so cold but it was a great hunt. Like I have done in the past I took a caribou up to school to teach the kids how to butcher an animal. It was very successful and the kids enjoyed it.










Well I guess hunting stories is all I have to tell currently, it seems that and school have taken over my life. Wrestling just started 2 days ago so I'm sure my next post will include more school/life based material instead of just hunting. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the stories of my Greater Northern Adventures.

Spring has almost sprung

Well it seems as though spring is coming sooner than I had hoped. I have been extremely busy with school, trapping, working out, moving Samantha to Kiana and trying to keep up with the ever lengthening day light. The kids are getting more squirrelly by the day because of the short nights and long days.

This year ended up being a decent year for trapping. It was a good second year! Glenn and I ended up trapping 3 wolverines, 2 nice marten and about 20 fox. We were really excited about the 3 wolverines! We missed a lot more but we will get them next year! Unfortunately we had 2 other guys trapping on the line that has been in Glenn's family for over 60 years! Then we also got beat by the "King of the Kobuk" from Noorvik. He ran the mountain range that leads to the river so he was picking the wolverines up before they got to our traps. Oh well next year we will give him a better run!
It was really fun to take those 2 big male wolverines and skin them in class with the kids. I took my time because I am going to make a rug out of my wolverine, the one with the red between the shoulders and head. The dark male and smaller male wolverine in the blue sled went to Glenn, I would have got the 4th wolverine if there had been one.











I have spent a good part of spring moving Sams stuff from Kotzebue to Kiana by snowmachine and sled. We have brought 6-7 sled loads, 20+ totes!! This is the most economical way to get her stuff out to Kiana. It has really cut down on the stuff she will have to ship. The catch is that everything is being stored in my house. It has become an inconvenience but it will be worth it in the end. I have been taking loads myself but a few weeks ago Sam was able to talk some friends from Kotzebue into a convoy of snowmachines and sleds to Kiana. We had 5 machines and 4 sleds to start. We arrived with 4 machines and 4 sleds. One machine broke down on the way and it was loaded up on a sled on their way back to Kotzebue. We really appreciated the help.














Instead of the hot springs trip we took last year we decided to support the Kobuk 440 dog sled race as a school field trip. I was able to convince 4 students and 3 staff members to go on the trip. We went from Kiana to Ambler and back. We marked trail on the way to Ambler and prepared a shelter cabin that is between Kiana and Ambler. We met up with w group of Noorvik students and chaperones as well as 2 chaperones from Kotzebue. While in Ambler the kids used a mobile satellite interactive broadcasting system to broadcast race results, conduct interviews with race officials and mushers and give the people a look of the Ambler checkpoint. We spent 3 days total on the trip traveling to Ambler, a day in Ambler and traveling home to Kiana. It was a great experience and the kids had a blast. It was a good time for me as well. Sam was able to go as a Kotzebue women chaperone so it was great to spend a little time with her.
I was excited to be able to see my favorite musher Jeff King in Ambler. He was in a good mood and running fast. One of my students was even able to interview him! What an experience that was for my student. Ambler was s strategic location for us because the teams come through there twice in 24 hours. On the way up and back. The trip was different for me this year because I was the "trip leader" for my group. Luckily I had 2 experienced chaperones from Kotzebue that I talked with but this trip wasn't a pleasant follow the leader, I was the leader. No machines or sleds broke down, no one got hurt, it was a sucessful trip! Enjoy the pictures of the trip.












Well as always thanks for reading my blog and taking an interest in my greater northern adventures. Stay tuned for future blog posts during the summer!