121 Miles Upstream: April 2011

New photos added April 18th, 2011...

Well, as most of you know, Sarah and I will be moving to Russian Mission this fall. That still means we are going to be residents of the Lower Yukon river, and really won't be going very far as the crow flies. Just hopping from one Eskimo village to another, is all. :) Our stay in Pilot has been nothing short of memorable. Though this now means we have to re-learn the Lynx haunts, which meadows the Moose prefer, and probably cut more new snowmachine trails instead of following the known, this new relocation is bound to carry its own good elements as well. For starters, the trapping and moose hunting are both reputed to be better where we are going...and I can't really say I could complain about either of those as it is now... At any rate, I figured I would post up some of our pictures accumulated throughout our stay in Pilot. I will try to not repeat too much stuff from earlier posts but no doubt there will be some that you have seen before. This is going to take several posts, for sure...so check back in and as I get more flashdrives and cameras and computer files checked out in our moving preparations I will keep adding more....

Gotta start with the welcome sign...

The road into town from the airstrip, (that's Fireweed on the left):

Pilot Station School and its proximity to the Yukon:

A nice shot taken in the Fall:

A cloudberry on the tundra..tastes like apple pie...

Sarah and I on Easter morning 2010 at Kako...with the non-photogenic Ada hiding behind us...:

The valley of the East Fork Andreafsky river in December:

Chasing after Bullwinkle:

Fall Beaver trapping in First Slough:

Sunrise out the front door:

A bluff typical on the Yukon. Overpopulated beavers cut down all the trees on a flat or island along the river. Roots die. erosion and yearly ice floes take their toll. Voila, bluff is born. Moral of the story: TRAP MORE BEAVER.....

A shot of the landscape throughout most of our 800-miles-in-3-days-journey down the Nenana, Tanana, and Yukon rivers. There's a moose in there....

Ada and Bridger during that boat trip, life jackets and all:

Shots from 'camp' during the trip:

Here's a video of Sarah pulling a 52 lb. Beaver out of one of our winter beaver sets...

And, no..I'm not making up the 52 lbs....

The school kids and Sarah on a beaver dam it took three hours to hike in to:

A shot from the memorial cross upriver from town. (Mountain in the distance is where the village of Marshall resides...):

Sarah in one of the various fish camps in the area:

Sarah ridin' on the trapline with her homemade Lynx mittens:

Sunrise, that same morning:

Out trail cuttin'...

One of our Winter Trapping camps...not quite a cabin, but the Kifaru tepee tent back there in the trees does a fine job when you keep the woodstove stoked...

and here is said woodstove: (note: when you have spent the night out in -33 temps - YES, this DOES become one of your favorite pics....) :)

Picture of Sarah planning where the next Lynx cubby should go....

A shot from one of our school Manaq trips (ice-fishing):

Moose down...(always a favorite pic of mine...) :)

Some of the kids from Pilot, on an old rusted out Cat up by the airstrip:

Some pics of the Trapping Project Sarah and I got going while we were here. Some of the greatest memories we'll take with us:

Two of the girls with one of their fox from behind the school:

Fleshing the stretched hide:

Sarah's 8th graders in the midst of a skinning/dissection:

Rolling upriver on a firewood-gathering trip with a couple of boats full of Sarah's students...

Motorin' to the beaver lodges:

Snowshoeing in the 'Deep Woods':

Time for s'mores and 'Dogs in the blizzard:

You knew I'd have to throw some animal pics in there...hard to pick just a few favorites from this category...

...a lamprey I caught using the traditional methods...

Cute, aren't they?..

the ugly mouth of the beast:

First Lynx:

The paw when finished skinning and returned (claws still naturally attached):

Not sure if I need to explain why I like this one so much....

Icefishing trip with a bonus ptarmigan:

Some more ice fishing trip shots:

One of my favorites - this is "Boots" when he got sleepy during a slow point in the fishing, but kept on keepin' on.... (hole is between his feet....)