Life at 40 Below part 3 video/Lunar eclipse

Short and sweet ending to the vid but that's how things go when it's 40 below outside. Up next a look at hauling wood at 40 below.

And here is one of the better pics I got of the Lunar eclipse on Monday night. Beautiful show but it was 35 below and I only made a few trips outside to check it's progress.

Life at 40 Below video Part 2

Here is part 2, don't forget to watch part 1 in the previous post. Click on the link at the bottom of the post an it will take you to the vid on YouTube. I think I have this problem sorted out, sorry about the delay. I'll wrap up with part 3 tomorrow. I should be able to keep all of the videos together from here on.

Life at 40 below video link

I am still having trouble uploading my vids so here is a link to the first of three parts to "Life at 40 Below."



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vk6Uwzn5Nc

40 Below on the Chatanika!

Ahh, it feels good to be back! That little squirrel sure did a number on the interior of the cabin, but thankfully that was the only issue. It took about 2 days to totally thaw out everything in the cabin and get everything inside up to a consistent temperature. The battery compartment did it's job and kept the batteries from freezing, but I made sure to warm up the battery box before I ran the battery charger.

Just as I got the cabin warmed up, the temp outside dropped to 40 below and has been that way for a couple days! I am having no problem keeping the cabin 65 to 75 degrees thanks to all that birch and poplar I cut this fall. I can also stock the stove up and take off for 4 to 6 hours, come back and it's still 70 degrees inside.

I've spent the last few days getting into a rhythm and working myself into a daily routine. Right now we only have a few hours of daylight to work with so you have to make the most of it. I am still doing a lot of work when it's dark but most of the work away from the cabin I wait for some daylight. The sun is so low in the sky we don't get any direct rays just twilight.

I have taken the extra time I have during this darkness to put together some longer videos. I am compressing the videos with some updated software which allows me to make an 8.5 minute video the same size as my older 4 minute vids!

I'll let the video do the talking but I do want to clarify a few things first. In the beginning of the video you'll notice it's very bright in the cabin. This is because even when we have some daylight, it's not enough to illuminate the inside of the cabin and I have to have a light on almost all of the time. To keep from running the batteries down to far, at night I still use a kerosene lamp and candles. Second, the frost under eve of the front door is not all from air leaking from the inside of the cabin. Every time I open the door I get a huge steam cloud and a a lot of that moisture gets caught under the roof. And finally I wanted to point out that I do keep my generator and the chainsaw in the cabin but as soon as either of those machines hits that cold air things don't work almost immediately. And the box I mention for the generator I use to put over the machine while it's running to keep it warm, with only a couple smalls holes for the exhaust power cord outlet.

The pics are self explanatory, one of the thermometer outside the cabin window and the other of myself after a couple hours working outside when it's 40 below.

Hope you enjoy. I have a video about hauling my firewood to the cabin with a sled up next.

Sorry but I am having problems uploading the video, again, so I will try to put the vid up on a different post.

Work done, back to the Chatanika!!

Finally wrapped up work in town and tomorrow morning I'm heading up to Murphy Dome to meet up with Doug to get a ride on the snowmachine back to the river. I would just hike in but after spending so much time in town I have some much stuff that I'd have to pull at least 2 sleds to get all of it to the river.

I forgot to take a picture of my tent at Billie's before I took I down, it looked more like an igloo than a tent, being set up in one place for so long. And with that freezing rain we had it took quite an effort to break it out of the ice. Luckily we didn't get the 40 to 50 below temps they predicted while I was staying at Billie's. I think the coldest it got to be was 30 to 35 below. With all of the snow I had piled on the tent to help insulate those temps were very tolerable.

Needless to say I am very excited to get back to the lake cabin. Right now it sounds like I'll spend the rest of December at the cabin. In early January Doug will leave for South East Asia and I will move up to his cabin on the hill to care take while he's gone. I believe he will be gone for about 2 months so I'm sure I'll have plenty of material for the blog!

Sleeping in a bed is going to feel pretty good and I am looking forward to having Sammy hog the whole bed! Sammy has very short hair so she doesn't do too well in the cold temps. That being the case, while I was in town I picked up a very expensive jacket for her so when I spend time outside she can be right there with me.

Before I had left the river I had cut and split a good amount of wood but with this colder weather I'm sure it will go fast. While staying at the lake cabin I'm sure I'll spend a fair amount of time cutting more wood and with that ice storm we had, gathering wood will require not only a chainsaw, but a sledge hammer as well.

I'm also looking forward to having some visitors at the river this winter. Talking to some people here in town I know they are pretty excited to get out to the river and see the work Doug and I did this summer. I think Ralf will be out on the Chatanika as well in January to go moose hunting. Even though I'll be taking care of Doug's place by myself it doesn't sound like I'll be alone very often.

Look for more posts from the river soon...

Bear hunt! Part 3

As I said at the end of the last Bear hunt entry, heading back to the cabin on One Fish lake ended up being just as difficult as the trip out.

Our troubles began almost immediately. Our first obstacle was the river bank that was on the other side of the Sushana river. Coming down the bank wasn't a problem but going back up was another story. The river bank leading up to the trail was very narrow so getting a run at it with the snomachine was pretty much impossible. We piled as much snow on the bank as we could, similar to the snow bridge on one of the creeks on the way out, but it wasn't enough. When Travis made an attempt at the hill he literally ran into the hill side and broke one of the skis on the snowmachine. The ski didn't break in half but it got seriously bent and will require a replacement. We determined driving up the slope wasn't going to happen so we pulled out the rope-a-long, same thing as a cable come-a-long and winched the machine and sled up the hill. In winching the machine up the slope we ended up bending the wrecked ski back a little so the snowmachine actually went down the trail alright.

Not to far down the trail, somewhere in "Pinball Alley," we clipped a tree just at the right angle and broke part of the steering mechanism that connects the handle bars to the skis. Travis said, "Yep, that's the weak link to these machines and nope I don't have a spare." The part that broke only controlled one ski , which happened to be the already really bent one. What we ended up doing was lashing the two skis together with a stick. The machine really steered like a pig after that so the already hard task of keeping the machine on the trail just got more difficult.

Most of the trail after that that point on was more of the same, bouncing off and cutting trees, and getting tossed off the machine. Until we came to one creek crossing. It didn't look to bad on our approach but when we were going up the other side we hit a stump, hidden in the snow, which completely flipped the machine! In the process both Travis and I were able to kick ourselves free of the rolling machine which ended up on it's seat. After we surveyed the situation, both of us un-injured, we looked at each other and thought how do we flip a 700 pound machine? We eventually worked out a lever system with a big log, stuck it through the suspension and were able to turn the machine upright.

To our surprise the ski repair didn't break when the machine was flipped! But we did end up hitting a few more trees after that point and had to replace the stick that held the skis together one or two times.

Overall the trip back to One Fish Lake still took us about 6 hours. And our plan to go back to the Toklat springs area didn't look to good.

Before we left the Toklat springs area Travis had set a couple traps, hoping to get a wolf. Since we had planned on going back this was not really an issue, but now...

Travis decided that he would just walk back to the Springs, pulling a sled with minimum gear to spring the traps and stash them to be picked up later this winter. It would still be an overnight trip and luckily he had cut a pile of firewood expecting that we were going back with the snowmachine.

We set a time when Travis should be back by and if he didn't get back I'd go looking for him. While he was gone I spent the time doing some work on the cabin and cutting a bunch of wood, so when someone else came to the cabin it would be a good shape for them. That and a good book kept me plenty occupied until Travis returned. He returned well before our "worry time," and said the trip went without difficulty.

With the snowmachine in quite a state of disrepair we determined that heading back to Travis' property was the best choice. After a good night sleep we packed up our gear and began our limp back to civilization.

Each leg of the trip came with it's own difficulty and the return journey was no different. Now it wasn't the trail but the snowmachine itself that was the issue. Something in one of the two caurberators was stuck open causing the machine to foul out the spark plugs and also emptying the gas tank really fast. We could get the machine to start, go for 50 feet, then it would die. The only thing we could do was take the plugs out, dry them out, cycle the engine to pump out the excess gas, reinsert the plugs, start the engine and go another 50 feet. This went on for a couple hours until all of a sudden whatever was stuck fixed itself and the machine ran great all the way back.

I can't say this trip went all that well but at least Travis, Buster and I came away without an major injuries. I know Travis and I learned a lot from this trip and I can for surely say if I were to do this hunt in the future I would go about it in a different way. Most importantly taking a MINIMUM of two snowmachines, with no passengers.

To wrap up this trip I have a couple pics, during sunset, of Denali and Mt. Foraker from One Fish Lake. And the video is a look at the inside of the cabin at One Fish lake when Travis was on his way to/from the Toklat Springs area.

Bear hunt intermission

Last week was a heck of a week to be in the Fairbanks area! A day or two after we had just received almost a foot of snow the rain came. A weather condition called the Chinook wind, a blast of warm air that makes it over the Alaska Range, hit the interior of Alaska hard. Fairbanks ended up with almost and inch of freezing rain, which hasn't happened in November in over 70 years! While it rained the temp hovered around freezing and with all of the sewers along the roads plugged from snow, the rain literally made ice rinks of all the roads.

It usually takes quite an event to cripple Fairbanks and this rainstorm did exactly that. All schools, the University, public buses and a good portion of stores were closed or shut down all week. My friend Ralf with the tour company couldn't even back out of his parking spot at Billie's, which is completely flat. And Ralf has 600 pounds of sand loaded in the back of his van for added traction!

Some people got around town with chains on there tires but they were still sliding everywhere. One of my other friends here at Billie's works on a school bus, as an attendant and said 7 buses either had accidents or went in the ditch, even with chains on!

Thankfully it quit raining around Thanksgiving and by the time the weekend was over everything was back to normal.

The picture shown today was taken Monday the 22nd in the afternoon and yes it is as slippery as it looks.

Bear hunt! Part 2

As I said somewhere in part 1, the plan was to spend our first full day at One Fish lake cutting wood, repairing the cabin and resting. And when we woke up in the morning the first thing out of Travis' mouth was, how ya feeling, ready to go? So much for a day of rest. I understood that we were under kind of a time crunch, the bears aren't going to wait for us to show up to have there fill of salmon before winter comes.

The Toklat Springs area is a shallow part of the Sushana/Toklat river, easily accessible to wolves and bears, that is full of salmon that have swam all the way from the ocean to spawn. At this point in the season the salmon are considered dog salmon and are not very nutritious but I'm sure the bears and wolves don't mind.

Our adjusted plan was now to load up the snowmachine and one trailer with a minimum amount of gear, take a day trip 7.5 miles from the cabin to the Toklat river and see if there is any bear sign along the river. Well, that was the plan...

We got started a little later that we wanted to which meant we'd probably be coming back in the dark. We figured, no big deal, it's only 7.5 miles.

Travis was well aware of what the trail was like and explained a few things that we'd have to stop and do make it to the Toklat. The first job came about a mile from the cabin and would be the most physical. We needed to make a snow bridge across a creek that was cut about 8 feet deep into the earth. The banks of the creek were not totally vertical, in fact they were fairly slopped on both sides from being crossed by snowmachine and dog sled in the past. What we needed to do was just fill in the creek bed and some of the washed out trail on the banks with sticks and snow. Luckily when we got to that crossing we discovered the creek was frozen solid

so that gave us a good base to work from. That job still took us around an hour to complete but the up side was we didn't have to do it on the way back.

After the snow bridge the trail presented more of the same terrain as getting to the cabin. Stopping to chainsaw trees downed over the trail and tight winding corners which lead to more cutting of trees to squeeze through was a frequent occurrence. All of this lead us to "Pinball alley."

Since this was just going to be a day trip we had left the dog, Buster, back at the cabin. This was the only thing that saved my sanity during our trudge through Pinball alley. That section of trail got its name from being so narrow and lined so densely with black spruce that you literally bounced from tree to tree, like a pinball! And if that wasn't enough the tussocks were really bad too. And if we weren't bouncing off trees or getting tossed of the machine, we were getting snagged on the trees. This meant we had to cut ourselves loose and widen the trail to continue forward. My assumption from the previous day that snowmachining could not get anymore difficult was proven wrong.

By the time we got to the Toklat river it was dark and both of us were exhausted. We decided with the trail in such poor condition that we'd spend the night. But first we needed to get to a decent camping spot. Travis new of a nice cleared out area on one of the islands and to get there was about another half hour on the machine. "Ok, lets do it." I said, just wanting to eat and lay down. The cold I'd been fighting was not only sucking the energy out of me but also putting a serious dent in my morale as well.

To get to the island we were going to camp on, first we had to cross the Sushana river, which intersects with the Toklat, onto a large island. The river bank to get down to the river was very steep and we had to pile up some snow at the bottom to ease the grade a little. Going down wasn't a problem but going back up might be a issue. At that part of the river it was very shallow (still open water) and driving the machine across was no problem. Then the trail wound through the heavily wooded island and we had to cut more downed trees off the trail. Once across the island we pulled out onto the Toklat river basin. Most of the river was frozen solid and had broken apart and shifted. This created very wide cracks, almost like glacial crevasses and large vertical ridges that stretched for hundreds of yards across the river. With all of those cracks and ridges we had to weave back and forth on the river a couple miles just to go a half mile down the river.

At last we reached our destination for the day/evening, six and a half hours later. Yep, six and a half hours to go 7.5 miles! After breaking trough the brush on the island for several minutes we stumbled onto the camping site. Travis came across a tripod made from sticks to hold a pot over a fire, left by one of his dog mushing friends. At first Travis was a little disoriented from all the trees that had fallen down on the island, trees that he used to use to tie a shelter to. But the tripod told us we were in the right spot.

After locating our camping spot for the evening we were making our way back to the snowmachine, to unpack our gear and heard wolves howling on the other side of the Toklat river. Travis said he was going to take a look around and see if there are any bear tracks. He came back and said there was a lot of very fresh wolf tracks, maybe only hours old. And some bear tracks, probably a couple days old. "Ok, we've got a lot of action going on around here so be on your toes," he said.

We had packed our sleeping bags just is case this situation come up but neither of us had a tent. So we used the tarp that all are gear was covered with in the trailer and strung it up in some trees. We also didn't bring any type of sleeping pad so we went across the river, cut down a bunch of small spruce trees, de-limbed them and piled the needles on the ground. Travis had a giant gear bag, that most all our gear was in, that zipped open and laid completely flat. That was our ground tarp, that we laid on top of the spruce.

To complete the shelter was a giant fire, constructed in a way that it would continue to burn all night to keep us warm and keep unwanted predators at bay. Of course we also used the fire to dry our wet clothes from all the "fun" in the snow we had that day. During the trip so far the temps had been around 20 to 30 degrees so any snow you got on yourself stuck and melted.

I hadn't packed a lot of food for the trip, thinking we'd be back at the cabin in the evening, so we started plotting against the salmon we could see in the open part of the river. The plan was one guy would walk along the shore with a stick to corral the fish, the other would wait in the shallow water and when the fish got close we'd grab one. As is turns out grabbing a fish still half in the water is pretty difficult, but, a swift kick with your boot into a fish towards the shore works pretty good! Granted this technique only works when you get the fish into really shallow water and more of their body is out of the water than in. And don't forget the right footwear, Travis had on Bunny boots, the Alaska winter standard. And I was wearing my waterproof dog mushing style Pac boots.

With the food situation taken care of, it was time to get some much needed rest. As we drifted off to sleep we could still hear the wolves howling off in the distance, probably upset that we moved in on their feeding ground. Both of us slept with our handguns within reach and Travis had his rifle loaded in case we had a visitor during the night.

Thankfully we didn't have any animals come around when we were sleeping, I'm sure the large fire helped deter them. In the morning Travis took a walk around to see if there was any fresh bear tracks, but it looked like nothing had changed. Either we were to late to catch the last of the bears before hibernation, or me made so much noise that we scared them off and needed to wait around longer for them to return.

Hoping it was just us making a lot of noise that was keeping the bears away we decided to pack up our gear head back to the cabin. When we got there we'd load up all our gear, come back and stay for several days. Since we had come through, broke trail and cut a lot of trees out of the way we figured it'd be a lot easier to get to and from the cabin. As was the going trend, we figured wrong...

The pics start off with a fresh salmon kill, most likely from a wolf. Then a bear track, probably black bear. Both right along the river. And the rest are of our tarp camp on the island.

The video shows the snow bridge not far from the cabin. Travis was only stuck for a minute, after both of us lifted the back end of the machine up and put it on some fresh snow it pulled right out. Then onto a little, on the trail trailer repair. And next some video Travis shot along the river and ends with a look at the camp in daylight.

Bear hunt! Part 1 continued

There were quite a few things I didn't mention in the previous post. I tried to condense as much information as I could but it still was the longest post I've written. So much happened not only on the first day, our quest to get to One fish lake, but every day after that. And trying to keep the timeline straight even with the trip still fresh in my head is difficult.

First, when we pulled into the area where Travis has his property we were greeted by his neighbor, who either heard us coming or was just out for a walk. The plots of land are about 5 acres in size and Travis' neighbor's land is actually about a 15 minute walk away. He was quite a character and has been living mostly off the land for the last 35 years, needless to say he was a little, "off." After we were able to free ourselves, as politely as we could, from his rambling conversation I said to Travis, "yikes!" Travis went on to say he'd come across a lot of other bushman and this guy Gordon wasn't that bad. We both came to the conclusion that Gordon was more concerned about people messing with his stuff than going around and looting other people's belongings. So Travis and I were fairly confident we wouldn't have to worry about him messing with anything on Travis' property.

The next day while we were making our way through the subdivision after the power line trail, we came across a guy that was out setting traps for Marten and Lynx. His name was Jeff, and Travis discovered that they both new some of the same people! This was Jeff's first year giving trapping a go and already had a few Lynx to show for it. He told us that up the trail a ways there were some fresh Grizzly tracks and when he saw them he ran back to his place to grab his .357 magnum. To us that was great news, we told him, that's what were looking for! Meeting Jeff was great, he was a far cry from Gordon and a little more down to earth.

After our nice chat with the trapper Jeff, we continued up the trail and found the Grizz tracks he spoke of. They happened to go right down the trail we were going on. We stopped to inspect them for a moment and I compared them to my very large Pac boots I had on and each paw print was about the same size as my boot! "Keep your eyes peeled." Travis said. And I got my handgun repositioned so I could grab it right away if need be.

I had borrowed a very large rifle from a friend in Fairbanks, a .45-70, but both that and Travis' .30-30 were packed away in one of the sleds we were towing. Travis also had his handgun strapped to his waist so if we ran into trouble we were hoping the two guns together would get us by.

I have some pics of the .45-70 and the round it fires. It is the same caliber as my handgun but the slug is 405 grain versus my 230 grain pistol round! It is pretty much the equivalent of using a 12 gauge shotgun and that's what it feels like when you shoot it! The only reason I brought it was for protection and as soon as we got to the lake cabin it was never out of reach.

The Grizzly tracks continued on down the trail and when we got to our turn off, to head to the Teklanika river, they stayed on our previous trail and led off somewhere up a hill side. We stopped and talked for a minute. Travis was thinking that if we strike out at the Toklat springs area, our destination in a couple days, we'd come back and follow these tracks.

As soon as we veered off from the Grizzly tracks onto the unbroken trail the real work began. As I had mentioned the trail was very uneven and the going was very slow. That also meant I spent more time with my face in the snow, from getting thrown off, with Buster in my arms, than on the machine. And with the trail being so narrow we also got hung up on a lot of trees and had to get off the machine, dig out the bow saw and hatchet to open up the trail. So if we weren't getting thrown off the machine we were cutting trail and that eventually led to a 2 mile per hour average according to my GPS!

The rough going was somewhat expected since we were the first ones on the trail for the season and there wasn't a whole lot of snow on the ground. So we tried to keep our heads up and just battle through it.

After crossing the Teklanika river we had hoped the last 5 miles would be a little easier but it was more of the same. At that point we had to get the chainsaw out of the sled several times to remove lots of large trees that had come down over the trail.

By the time we were a mile away from the lake it was completely dark and Travis was having a hard time finding the right trail. After a couple of wrong turns we had to resort to the "elder in a box," my GPS, to get back on track. Not only being slightly lost but having to deal with those nasty tussocks and getting tossed off the machine made that the longest mile I had ever experienced! Little did I know that this was just the beginning, what lay ahead, after the cabin, actually gets worse!

And to add insult to injury somewhere from the arctic to Travis' property I picked up a cold. It was sapping all my energy and was pretty much making my life on the trail completely miserable. Oh boy, "I sure hope we get something for this." Is all that was going through my head.

Bear hunt! Part 1

As soon as Travis and I had arrived back in Fairbanks, after the trip to the arctic, we began to prep for the next venture. Our plan was to head south about an hour and a half from Fairbanks, to a property recently purchased by Travis, load up a snowmachine and head off into the woods to possibly harvest a grizzly bear.

I think we spent only two days in town, to resupply and touch base with our friends, then it was back on the road again.

Our first destination was a property Travis had purchased this fall, a mile or two off the Parks highway in between Nenana and Healy. He bought the property so he would have a place to go to when he wasn't working at Denali park, about a half hour to forty five minute drive south.

A lot of work still needs to be done on the property to make it a livable location but for the time being Travis is using it to store lots of his stuff. One thing he stores there is his snowmachine. To go anywhere from his property, other than the highway, it's the only way to get around.

Several years ago Travis also bought a property way out in the bush he calls his "remote property." And buying the property close to the highway gives him a great starting point to get to the remote property.

Travis is very familiar with the whole area from the highway property to his remote property because he has traveled to and from his remote property in every way imaginable; Canoe, jetboat, snowmachine, bush plane and hiking. So heading out with him to go hunt for bears had the feeling of just a walk in the park. And I couldn't have been more wrong.

This fall Travis had to clear a lot of trees just to get a vehicle to his property so there was plenty of wood laying around that needed to be "disposed of." So after getting some what settled we started up one of the many brush piles and enjoyed a nice bonfire for the evening.

After a night camping in van we finished sorting our gear, packed up the snowmachine and sleds it would be towing and hit the trail. I have a photo of the machine with a trailer hooked up but there is also second trailer also being towed out of view. On the second sled we had and extra 15 gallons of gas for the snowmachine and a couple gallons of fuel for the chainsaw. On the first sled, the one in view of the pic, was full of lots of gear. We had everything from sleeping gear and clothes, to shovels, a chainsaw and of course our rifles. When we packed everything in the big sled we had wrapped everything in a huge tarp to give our gear a little extra protection, which turned out to be a very smart thing to do when it came to our first major obstacle.

The first part of the trail took us down "power line roads" and across a couple creeks not frozen over yet. When we crossed one of the creeks with open water, it was cold enough out to freeze the track suspension all the way down, with all the weight we had on the machine. I forgot to mention that not only were Travis and I riding on the machine but I was holding his 60 pound dog in my lap as well. The machine we were on is considered a 2 up long track so it is designed for a passenger but it is quite old and would bottom out the suspension relatively easily. We were able to get the suspension back to where it was but upon hitting a big bump it would bottom out, get stuck and we'd have to get off and force it back up again.

The trail along the power lines ran about 10 miles from the highway property then we turned onto nice wide roads that wound their way though a rural subdivision. Someday the same type of roads will work their way through the subdivision where Travis bought his property. After another 10 miles or so we turned off the road and onto a trail that would lead us to our first major obstacle, the Teklanika river. The trail at this point had not been gone over yet this season an still didn't have enough snow on it to make it flat. The snowmachine trails also make for great game trails so all of the wildlife use them as well. This creates a single giant rut and until there is a lot of snow makes for difficult snowmachining. And to add to the difficulty, the interior of Alaska if filled with things called tussocks, large, hard, grassy mounds that don't move unless you chop them away with an axe. Needless to say on this part of the trail it was faster to get off the machine and walk.

After about three hours into our journey we came to the Teklanika river. There was still about a fifty foot gap of open water we somehow had to get a snowmachine, two sleds, two humans and a dog across. Travis had predicted that there still may be open water so he thoughtfully packed hip waders. So getting the people, a dog and possibly the big tub sled across wasn't a problem but that left our transportation, the snowmachine.

Before we left on this trip, back in Fairbanks, Travis had mentioned that there could be open water that we'd have to cross. I told him that I had skipped machines over water before so it was definitely possible.

Standing at the river side with Travis he said, "what do you think?" And after staring at the rushing water for a few moments I said, "I'll do it!" We unhooked the sleds and I made a couple practice runs to find a good line to the rivers edge and set up to aim for a flat spot of the bank on the other side. As soon as I made my run towards the river the machine fouled one of it's spark plugs and I had no power when I hit the throttle! But I went for it anyway! Made it across with no problem and didn't even get that wet!

After I finished jumping for joy and Travis picked his jaw up off the ground we start to prep for getting the rest of the stuff across. While he unpacked his waders I kept cruising around on the machine making sure it wouldn't freeze solid on us. He made his way across the river, with the help of a couple walking sticks to help stabilize himself in the rushing water. I backed up the snowmachine to the river, as close as I could safely get, so that we could tie a rope to the machine to help pull the sleds across. Travis would also walk with each of the sleds to help keep them stable.

While pulling the first sled across Travis lost his footing and fell in the river! Luckily he still had a hand on the sled so he didn't get totally submerged. I continued to pull with the snowmachine until Travis and the sled were out of the river then ran to his side. Calmly Travis said, "ok, lets get a fire going."

Both of us carry "Strike a fire" sticks in almost every pocket with some matches and I quickly grabbed some drift wood and had a fire going I a few seconds. While I got the fire going Travis was making his way back across the river to get the other sled and his dog Buster. We did the same thing with the other sled but this time Travis had to drag Buster across as well! As soon as got himself, the dog and the sled across he ran for the fire! After I had the sled secured I got Buster up to the fire as well, got the flames stoked up good and then went to the sled and unpacked some dry clothes for Travis. "Well," I said. "This is one hell of a way to start off a trip."

While Travis was warming his bones by the fire I took the snowmachine, after replacing the fouled spark plug, up the trail a ways to investigate our next obstacle. Travis was concerned about more open water in a slough a quarter mile or so up the trail. I came back and let him know that we were good to go, that it's frozen solid.

After getting his pants and bibs fairly dry and a dry pair of socks on he said he was good to go. "Only about 5 miles to go, I should be alright til we get to the cabin.," he said. Back on the trail we went. Some of the trail went through the woods and was not to bad but then it was back to the single track, heavily tussocked trail. That was the longest 5 miles I thought I'd ever witness on a snowmachine, but once again, I thought wrong.

Six and a half hours and 30 miles in to our trip we finally pulled out onto "One fish lake," our destination for night. We pulled up to the cabin located on a small peninsula and immediately saw we had more work in front of us. Their were openings for windows but nothing in the holes. And when we opened the cabin door found I was completely trashed from bears. I can for surely say it was a bear because of the claw marks all over the plastic hanging from the walls.

We jumped into action. First we had to split some wood, from log rounds Travis had left the last time he was there and got a fire going in the wood stove. Then we started cleaning up the mess in the cabin. When doing that I came across lots of nails in coffee cans and found a hammer as well! So I took some extra plastic that had been ripped off the walls and proceeded to cover the window openings, inside and out. And when I ran out of spare plastic a trash bag seemed to work quite nicely.

After we had the cabin habitable again we cooked up tons of food and crashed hard for the night. Thinking we would take the next day "off," and do some work around the cabin. Well, plans change.........

The photos today start with a "little" camp fire at Travis' property. Then the snowmachine all loaded up and ready to hit the trail. And the rest are of the cabin on One fish lake, outside and inside.

The video I shot just after skimming across the river on the snowmachine and just before Travis literally got his feet wet.

Arctic Adventure part 4

After spending a few days waiting for a caribou to come close enough to shoot with a hand gun, without any luck, we decided to pack up and head back to the truck. While we were packing up our gear and loading up the sleds Travis spotted 3 big caribou bulls heading our way! He had his handgun ready and I immediately handed over my .45 with a full magazine. Then he proceeded to crawl on his belly up a small rise from our camp. And before I could dig out another magazine and load it full he was firing round after round at the group of 3. By the time I got to him with more ammo he had emptied both our guns and sadly didn't connect with any of the shots. In his defense the caribou were still about 50 to 75 yards out and neither one of us has ever attempted target practice at anything near that range with a handgun. By that point the caribou had slowly made there way quite a bit further away and Travis was dealing with nearly frozen hands after waiting for the best time to shoot with no gloves on.

We watched the caribou make there way over the horizon with our binoculars and Travis mentioned that it looked like two of them dropped their antlers! "That's what it looks like to me," I said to him. So we finished packing out gear and made for the tracks left in the snow by the 3 big bulls. After following their tracks for a few minutes we didn't come across any blood trail but we did find a pair of antlers shed by two of the caribou! "Well," I laughed, "looks like you scared the antlers right off them!" At least we weren't going home completely empty handed.

As we made our way back to the truck we came across a couple caribou right off our trail! At that point we were only a few miles from the road so shooting a firearm wasn't an option. So we took out our cameras and shot pics instead. The new photo on the main page of the blog was a snapshot Travis got of the pair. The bull was jumping and prancing around putting on quite a show.

After we had our fill of the two caribou we continued on and when we were about half way on the road that ran 2.5 miles in from the Dalton we came over a hill to a small herd of about 50 caribou milling around on the opposite hill side. We got to enjoy another show of two bulls butting heads for several minutes. As we we made our way down the hill towards the caribou they all took off running, that was pretty neat to witness.

We eventually got back to base camp, several hours later around sunset, decided to stay one more night and head home in the morning.

Overall the trip went well. Weather couldn't have been better. Hauling all that gas worked out great, Travis had figured out the mileage almost perfectly! And having the Arctic oven was definitely is a luxury to be had in the future.

On the way back we stopped a few times for restroom breaks and also made a stop at the Arctic Circle to get our "touristy" photos in front of the big sign just off the Dalton Highway.

To end this Adventure I have some photos and video from both Travis and I. The first pic was taken by Travis on one of the hill tops with some caribou antlers in the foreground, left by previous hunters, and the Brooks Range in the background. The second is an out of focus shot I took of the caribou pair we came across hiking back to the highway. The third and forth shots are of the small herd we stumbled onto almost back to our base camp. And the final photo was taken at the Arctic Circle on the way back to Fairbanks.

The video I stitched together comes from both Travis and I. The first segment was taken by Travis of the caribou pair not far from our hill top camp. The footage is a little shaky, but his camera has a 20X optical zoom so I sure that amplifies any unsteadiness. He swivels around to show the little hill we were camped on as well. And the second part was taken by myself of the small caribou herd.

Up next "The bear hunt."

Arctic Adventure part 3 "Field camp"

After some breakfast and packing up our sleds Travis and I made our way back out to camp for a few days. This morning we had a little fog to deal with but since we already broke a trail to our destination finding our way was no problem. Granted I had my GPS on during the previous walk in so our track was recorded and if the trail had been blown over we still would been able to find our way. The weather up to this point had been great, somewhere around 0 to 20 degrees with very little wind. And we hoping it would stay that way.

The hike in was a little more strenuous, hauling all of our gear on the sleds, but we took our time and stopped for breaks about every hour to eat and drink a little bit. With the cool temps and hauling good loads the hike/snowshoe 5.5 miles in took about 4 hours. Upon reaching our destination Travis grabbed his binoculars and immediately began glassing the surrounding area. And just over the hill that we were going to set up camp a small herd, around 100 caribou, was milling about. They were approximately 150 yards out, quite out of range for either of our handguns, so we set up camp and hoped they would make their way a little closer.

In previous hunts for caribou Travis had discovered that caribou don't seem to be bothered by seeing tents or hearing noise but they do get disturbed with any type of motion. So we set up our tents well out of view of the herd.

After setting up camp and cooking up some food it had started to get dark and the herd of caribou had made their way over another hill further to the south of us closer to the Brooks Range. At that point we decided to hunker down and head for our tents for the night and see what the morning would bring. All around the little knoll we were camped on the snow had been trampled by caribou so we hoped that when we woke up that a few caribou would wander close enough to pick off with a pistol.

The photos today start off with the sunrise at my back showing how low the sun is in the sky with my shadow stretching off into the distance. And the next is the reverse standing in the same spot looking over the Brooks Range. The third and forth pic are of myself setting up my tent and of Travis next to his tent with caribou in the background. And the final photo is of the sun setting over the Brooks Range.

In the videos today I show the hike in and a look around our little home away from home.

Arctic Adventure part 2 "Base camp/Day hike"

The spot we chose as our base camp was kind of a shot in the dark as far as if we were going to find any caribou 5 miles out or not. But using my GPS we discovered that a road went about 2.5 miles off the Dalton that we would be able to use to hike in on then snowshoe from there so the 5 plus miles that we'd have to hike in wouldn't be so bad.

Our plan was to stay in the van for a night then do a day hike, about 5 miles off the Dalton Highway, do some looking around with the binoculars and go from there. On the hike in we hauled a minimum amount of gear in our sleds, some food, clothing and our sleeping bags just for safety sake. After getting a little over 5 miles in we came to a small hill top that Travis hiked up to have a look around and upon his return said that there were hundreds of caribou on the other side. So we packed up our sleds went back to our base camp and prepped for a 3 day trip back to that spot. That day hike was about a 10 hour venture so getting back to our base camp with the Arctic Oven that Travis had made himself was a welcome rest.

An "Arctic Oven" is a tent made here in Alaska that uses two heavy layers of material, one thick and breathable and an outer waterproof shell. They are designed to be heated with a small wood stove and can get very very warm, even in 40 below weather. One of the problems with them is that they are very expensive, around $1300 for the smallest one and the other being they are very heavy, about 40lbs. for the small size. So Travis decided to just buy the material they are made out of and sew together his own version. A couple things that differ from his to the store bought style are his doesn't have a floor and it just requires one center pole, or tree trunk, to erect were as the store bought one needs lots of poles and goes up like a cabin tent. And the greatest advantage to his tent was it saved him about a $1000 doing it himself!

At our little base camp we had set up the Arctic Oven but decided just to use it as our cook shack, to warm up and dry our clothes and gear. With all of our gear out of the van it made for a nice little camper so we used it to sleep in. We both brought very warm sleeping bags but at night and in the morning we warmed it up with a small propane heater and one of our white gas cook stoves.

I have a some pics and a video of our hike to our soon to be camping site and of base camp. The first photo is of the Travis unloading some Duraflame logs from the van, which was our stove fuel being that there are no trees in the arctic. The second is our camp in relation to the Dalton Highway. We were camped on the road I spoke of hiking in on but it's fenced off from vehicles so that's as far from the highway as we could park the van. The third pic is of Travis, rockin the expedition style hair do, and I hanging out in the Arctic Oven after a long day. And the forth photo shows Buster, an old retired sled dog, showing he can still pull a load. The final pic is of Travis breaking trail with his snowshoes on and the Brooks Range in the background.

The video I put together is of our "scouting trip," and our mess back at base camp prepping for a few days off the highway.

In the next post we make our way back out, off the highway and still see lots of caribou!!!

The bear hunt is on!

I hate to run out the door just as I got back but I'm off on the bear hunt with Travis! I'll have to finish up the Arctic Adventure when I return, in about a week. And of course I should have lots to tell about this adventure as well. Stay tuned....

Arctic Adventure part 1

Ah, the Arctic what an adventure indeed! This will of course have to be a multi-part post so please be patient as it will take me some time to get everything sorted out, especially since I have photos and videos not just from my camera but from Travis as well.

To start from the beginning we stuck pretty close to our plan and left Fairbanks, a little later than noon, 3:30pm and made our way up the Elliot Highway then onto the Dalton Highway. Not too much tell about the first few hours of the trip other that the Elliot Highway was a lot more hilly and winding than the Dalton Highway.

We arrived in Coldfoot, a mining town about 3/4 of the way to our final destination, around 10pm and had some dinner at the truck stop. Coldfoot is the last place to get fuel on the Dalton Highway until you get to Prudoe Bay at the end if the highway on the Arctic Ocean. The only problem with getting gas there is that it costs $4.50 a gallon! So what we did is hauled an additional 40 gallons of gas in cans on a hitch rack and a couple in the back of the van. Doing this also gave us added traction on the steeper parts of the highway, with the idea that we would replace the used fuel weight with caribou.

After our dinner at the truck stop we made our way outside and found Buster, Travis's dog had got loose. So we wandered around the truck stop for about 20 minutes, then Buster wandered out from behind one of the buildings. We got him back in the van, shut the doors and the blower motor for the heater stopped working. Hmm, we decided to keep moving and see what what happened. We found that if we kept moving the windshield would stay mostly defrosted with a little help from our "credit card window scrapers." A few miles north of Coldfoot Travis pulled off the road to camp for the night. We decided to re-evaluate the fan situation in the morning.

We decided to to just un-load our gear from the van and sleep in it for the night. And upon sorting through the gear outside the van we discovered Travis grabbed his .22 cal. rifle instead of his .30-30! Opps! Well, we decided to go for it anyway and us our hand guns instead. Quite a challenge of course but we're up to it.

The next day we loaded up the van and continued up the Dalton. The window continued to stay

clear enough to see through, with a little help from our scrapers. Up and over the Brooks range we went and drove back and forth on the Dalton on the North Slope until we found a suitable camping spot of the road.

The pics I have today are beginning on the Dalton, our mess of gear outside the van camping outside of Coldfoot, a view from the Dalton Highway north of Colfoot before the Brooks Range, looking down from Atigun Pass at the Pipeline and the stretch of highway we were just on, the Dahl sheep that greeted us as the top of Atigun pass and finally the North Slope just over the Brooks Range.

More to come....

Headed to the Arctic!!

About noon today Travis and I will begin our adventure to the north slope. Our plan for the day is to make it to about Coldfoot, stay the night, then weather permitting, drive up and over the Brooks range to our destination somewhere in the neighborhood of Toolik lake. It sounds like we will set up base camp off the Dalton highway, just past Toolik lake and day hike 5 miles off the road, where you are able to shoot and hopefully run into a caribou herd. I also picked up a small game license so if we run into any ptarmigan I will definitely try to bring a bunch of them back too.

I took a picture of my pile of gear that I'm taking up north. I have a large plastic sled that I outfitted with some rope and poles so that I can pull it as a Pulk sled. The Action Packer is filled with all my food and the duffel bag has all my other gear, clothing, cooking gear, GPS and so on. There is also my snowshoes and backpack. I'm not going to use the pack unless I have to, I tend to over-heat with a pack on in the cold weather.

I'm planning on taking lots of pics and video so check back in about a week for the "Arctic Adventure."

Work continues in town, but.....

As the title suggests I'm still plugging away at Pam's house trying to get the basement all wrapped up before the cold temps hit. Currently the weather has been very mild, not typical end of October weather. Usually the temperature should be dropping well below zero at night but it has been a very comfortable 10 to 20 degrees. As the pic shows I am still staying at Billie's in my mountaineering tent. I myself am glad it hasn't got really cold yet because I don't have my really cold weather clothing or gear here in town. All of that stuff is out at the Chatanika valley in the lake cabin. Which leads to my next segment.

While staying at Billie's I ran into Travis who asked how long I will be working in town. I told him I wasn't sure and asked him what his plan was for the winter. So he presented a couple of ideas one of them being a trip to the arctic to hunt caribou and the other going bear hunting in the Boreal Forest, where wolves are very frequently seen as well. Then he asked if I wanted to go! I of course jumped at the idea and said I'd see what I can work out with Pam. Pam was very open to me taking off for a little while and I said I would get to a point where someone could come in and install the heating system in the basement before I left. So the plan now is to get some things wrapped up at Pam's this week then on the weekend go out to the Chatanika, pick up my arctic gear and on Monday Travis and I will head up the Dalton highway to the arctic. It will be about a one week trip and upon my return I might continue at Pam's or possibly go on the bear hunt.

Around every corner there is an adventure to be had, all you have to do is reach out and grab it. That is why I love Alaska so much and I know I belong here.

Working in town.

I figured it was about time I put up a post from town. Work has been going about as good as a remodel/retrofit can go. A lot of work had already been done to Pam's basement this summer so I am there to do the finishing touches and get it sealed up for winter. Some of the work I have been doing includes repairing and replacing parts of walls, rotten from water damage, also repairing some walls that were not built properly in the first place. All of this work will eventually lead to hanging drywall, which will be the tail end of my involvement in the remodel.

Most of the work I have been doing is all located in the basement of a log cabin house, which was constructed of cinder block into a hill side. I took a picture from the driveway to give you an idea what it looks like. Originally the basement walls were just the concrete block but now on the inside it has two separate 2X4 walls filled with foam and fiberglass insulation. Once I have the electrical work done and the vapor barrier applied, the walls will be covered with Sheetrock to finish it off.

Pam's house is located out of Fairbanks several miles up on a hill side. From the kitchen on the main level and the laundry in the basement (on a good day) you can clearly see Denali and the Alaska range! I took a picture from the deck, on the mail level, of the Tanana Valley and way off in the distance the Alaska range.

I have taken some photos of the work that I have been doing but I don't think they will translate very well. I am having a hard time myself determining up and down in some of the pics.

Perma-chink done!

Yesterday thanks to the warmer weather I was able to finish up the chinking! And today I did some work on the front door to make it seal up nice and tight. I took a couple pics of the finished product, may not be the prettiest chinking job but it should to the trick.

Now that I feel comfortable that cabin is sealed up as tight as it can get, I'm going to head into town and see if I can make a little more money before care-taking for Doug this winter. I'm not quite sure how long I will be in town but I'm hoping not more that one to two weeks. One concern I have is that if I hang out in town for too long I won't be able to get back to the Chatanika valley. I believe I mentioned some time ago that there is certain time in the spring and fall when the seasons are in transition and a neither a snowmachine or 4 wheeler can get you up and down the hill. Also if the river freezes over again a canoe won't be much help and the ice will be to thin to take a machine across. I guess I'll just have to see what happens.

I'll try to get some posts up when I'm in town to show you what kind of work I'll be doing. I'm also looking forward to meeting up with some of my friends at Billie's, I haven't seen them for a while and I'd like to re-connect with them, especially Ralf. I haven't had the chance to meet up with him the last couple times I've gone to town. I have heard from Doug that he plans on making it out to the Chatanika, maybe in October, and I'd like to meet up with him before that.

Wood, wood and more wood

So far this week my work schedule hasn't changed much. Cut, collect, transport, split and stack wood for a few hours in the morning and when the temperature gets above freezing get some chinking done. As of this afternoon I have 95% of the chinking done, thanks to a little warm up in the weather. The only thing left is to fill in around the outside of the window casing with fiberglass insulation and cover it with perma-chink, about a half hour of work. I pretty happy that job is almost done, it was not much fun. But the cabin looks much more complete and I'm sure sealing it up will make a HUGE difference when it dips to 20 bellow and colder. As far as wood collection goes that will be a full time job now that the chinking is done. I want to be more than prepared when winter hits full bore.

We were have some pretty cool nights, around zero degrees, but the last few days have warmed up to about 45 to 50 degrees. The river, at our crossing point, was nearly frozen over all the way across a few days ago but the last couple days has caused a mini break-up. And now the river is open all the way across. I have a couple pics at the river crossing from yesterday showing some of the river frozen over and about a 1/3 of it open in the middle. The other pic is the raft strung up by a cable attached to a winch to keep it from getting swept downstream if the river floods in the spring.

Winter closing in!

Winter is closing in fast! The temperature is dropping and the water is freezing quick. The lake and the slough already have about 3 inches of ice built up and parts of the river, where the current isn't flowing fast, are starting to ice over.

I shot a short video this morning, after cutting some wood, showing the current state of the lake and the cabin property.

I have been using the 4 wheeler to haul wood from various parts of the property, everything from spruce to birch and poplar. By cutting a tree into 3 to 5 foot lengths it is easy to manipulate the pieces on to the 4 wheeler and/or the trailer. Then I have been hauling those chunks to the cabin, cutting them into stove length pieces and splitting them with a splitting maul. Like an axe, the maul has a blade but the rest of the head is the size of a sledge hammer, making the task of splitting wood much easier. In the video I also show the wood I have accumulated so far, some of it I have already burned up, and a pile of wood yet to be cut and split.

The pic today shows a pile of wood, cut to about 4 foot lengths, that I am preparing to cut up.

After I shot the video this morning I had a little lunch then prepped my supplies and got to perma-chinking the window side wall of the cabin. The plastic tarp worked great, the temp stayed about 65 degrees, while the outside temp hovered around 30. I was able to finish almost the whole side of the cabin before my hands got too tired. Applying perma-chink is a very messy and physical task. The perma-chink is a mortar like substance applied with a large pastry bag then brushed over with a soapy paint brush, to spread it into the cracks and give it a finished look. It is a water based product so at least clean up is easy. But being that it is water based that also means it needs to be above freezing to apply it, hence the effort to keep it as warm as possible where it's being put on.

Looks like tomorrow will be more of the same, cutting wood and chinking, but at the end of the week I might be heading to town to do some work for one of Doug's friends. Since Doug doesn't need my help for a while he took it upon himself to find me a job in town to keep me working into the fall/beginning of winter.

I'm sorry but I've tried to upload the video a half a dozen times and it's not working. I may try to get it on a future post.

Frosty morning/Cabin chinking

I woke up this morning to a nice and cool 4 degrees at the lake! I snapped a picture of the island just as the sun was coming up. Frost covered the trees and the lake is now frozen over. I punched through the ice this afternoon and found that there is already over an inch and a half of ice on the lake and the slough ice is over two inches thick.

I have 2 sides of the cabin chinked now but the cooler temps are putting a damper on my progress. The product I'm using is water based so I need most of the day to be above freezing for the perma-chink to take. Today I have a couple pics of the the chinking progress at the lake cabin.

Finishing the chinking on the cabin before it really gets cold is a must. So I have taken a huge sheet of plastic and enclosed one complete side of the cabin to retain some heat in the sun of the afternoon. That should allow me to finish the job while the air temp. is still below freezing. Today at 2 pm it was 30 degrees outside and under my plastic tent it was a steamy 70 degrees! My final pic today is of my chinking shelter, which will permit me to finish the chinking.