Uvlaalautaq-Greetings in Inupaq,
Well we decided to stay in tonight (Thursday) and do a bit of catching up.
This gives me a chance to write and since it has been a week or two since the
last literary installment, I thought I might give it a go. If you are still
interested, after the time change last week daylight starts around five AM (I
think) with full dark about 11:30 PM.
Spring has finally braved making an appearance here in the Arctic with
Saturday being sunny with the temps up to the low 20's. We met at the fire
department around 9 AM Saturday with our snowmachines and our sled. There was a
snowmachine race that started in Kotzebue and went through three villages before
returning. I am not sure of the mileage but this race covered a pretty large
area. If I had to guess I would say it was at least over 150-200 miles,
possibly more. The race took about three and a half hours before the last racer
was accounted for. Patty rode Cathy's snowmachine while I rode out on our
machine pulling our sled. Cathy took one of the search and rescue
(SAR) machines pulling the SAR sled containing a litter and all our emergency
equipment. We followed the Argo-an 8 wheeled amphibious vehicle fitted with
tracks for travel in the snow belonging to the fire department, for about an 8
mile run to set up off Lockhart point out on the frozen sound east of town.
While waiting for the race to begin we attempted punched a few holes with the
fire department auger to do some ice fishing while on station. No sense wasting
a perfectly good day. Now this sounds simple until you realize that Carl, one
of the firemen, had filled the tank with old fuel that smelled of varnish. (We
figured this out after wearing out about four of us trying to start the blasted
thing). We dumped out the old fuel and then tried to figure how to siphon gas
out of one of the snowmachines. We had no hose or no spare fuel with us so we
did the next best thing-we took a plastic cup and turned Cathy's machine on its
side to get fuel. Now we had the problem that as it is a two cycle engine, it
needed oil mixed with the fuel. All the snowmachines we had are two cycle and
need an oil/gas mix to so the solution is simple right? NO, of course not. The
snowmachines all have oil injectors and oil reservoirs like outboards have now.
Again, who's prepared in this intrepid band of rescuers? No one-no extra fuel,
no extra oil, (no siphon hose)-who's going to rescue us? Aha, someone remembered
an almost empty bottle of old oil buried under some other stuff in back of one
of the machines. We were in business but by this time the race had begun and
the three planes that shadowed the racers were buzzing us-two of them with EMT's
aboard. The racers take off at approx one minute intervals for safety as they
travel over 100 mph, and the planes paced them until they passed us. Believe
me; the planes were flying behind the racers with the racers going so fast that
the planes were able to stay with them. When they got to us they would fly
right over us or right in front of us. There were bluffs about 3-400 yards in
front of our position with some spectators on top who got there by snowmachine.
The bluffs were about 150-200 feet high and the planes passing in front of us
were below the height of the bluffs. After all the racers passed us we finally
started our holes. The auger with one extension can punch a hole through about
five feet of ice. The engine was sitting on the ice when we punched through
with the first hole. We put the second extension on which was a good thing as
the second hole was through almost six feet of ice. The last two were not as
hard as the ice was "only" about four and a half feet thick. We only had about
two feet of water to fish in under the ice. We fished but caught only a small
ugly fish called here a bullhead. It is not a catfish though; it looks like
what we used to catch in the marsh called a searobin. It has big winglike front
fins, a wide mouth, and short tapering pointy body, is muddy brown to green in
color, and had a big head with nonpoisonous spines on top. The lures we were
catching them on were as big as they were.
We did get a report that one of the planes picked up a racer that had an
open fracture of the lower leg who we eventually medevaced to Anchorage. We
also got a report of people walking around the other side of the peninsula so
Cathy, I, and two people from SAR made a ten mile run to check out the report.
We met one of the planes on the ice who reported he had seen no one walking. We
did see a number of machines coming back being towed with riders doubled up.
Some of the machines with pieces flapping in the wind. How these guys walk away
from some of these crashes at over 100 mph is beyond me. I get up to 60 and
feel like I am flying; at 75 my sphincter is sucking up the seat through
multiple layers of clothing.
We didn't catch anything worthwhile but we were soaking up the rays. It was
warm enough in the sunshine most of us took off our hats and gloves. This is
sunbathing Arctic style. There is a picture of me on the website holding one of
these bullheads with no hat or gloves but with ice in my mustache. Quite
comfortable out. Two of the guys with us stretched out on the ice and went to
sleep while one fell asleep lying on the seat of his snowmachine.
Sunday we planned on riding across the sound and up the Noatak River to
fish but the weather played with us all day. It would go from overcast and
spitting snow to the sun peaking out. We finally decided against the run and as
they were planning on a BBQ with moose as the main course at the fire hall, we
decided to join in. They needed my grill so instead of hauling it over there we
did the cookout at our place. We had moose roast cooked on the grill, moose
roast cooked on a rotisserie, and moose ribs BBQed. One of the locals brought
roasted caribou with vegetables. We had macaroni salad, zucchini bread, deviled
eggs, and potato casserole, green beans with potatoes boiled with crab boil and
cayenne pepper, pumpkin pie with cool whip and on and on. Rough life here in
the bush huh?
Tuesday after work was overcast but in the mid thirties-the first time the
temp has gone above freezing since November so we went out on the ice about a
half mile in front of town, punched a couple more holes and caught no fish
again. Had fun though. Wednesday the plan was to stay home and take it easy.
The weather just would not cooperate darn it. The temp was in the upper
thirties with the sun shining and no wind so off we went Patty and me. This
time we went to Lockhart point and then north towards the Noatak. About halfway
to the Noatak River we pulled off the trail and drilled a couple of holes. We
fished until about 8 pm again not catching anything before coming home. The
fish are still about 20 miles or more out but hey, someone has to be the first
to catch them closer to town right? Not catching fish is not as bad as it might
seem. I cannot describe the feeling of sitting in the center of Kotzebue Sound,
a part of the Arctic Ocean with the sun gleaming gently off the ice, the quiet,
the solitude, the surrounding snow-covered hills, and the occasional snowmachine
with sled in the distance. The snow crusted sound forming gently rolling mounds
with various shapes, swirls, and artistic shapes for as far as the eye can
see................
Cathy has still been going our with her local friends and Monday they got a caribou. Tuesday they caught five sheefish and killed a reindeer (they are different, and as I wrote to someone else-guess Santa's sled is gonna be lopsided this year). Oh, they also got a ptarmigan-with a snowmachine, road kill Eskimo style. Yes they did stop, pick it up and take it with them for dinner. Anyway, they go about 20 or more miles out and being a southern boy who likes his comforts I have only gone out with them once.
I am finishing this letter Saturday morning as we have been working on our sled and our second snowmachine (still trying to get it running right) for the last few nights. The last three days have been in the upper 30's to low 40's-unseasonably warm for here. Snow is melting all over town and most roads are clear of snow or are slush. The frozen sound is still sound though (I hope)-pardon the pun. It is sunny with a breeze but we are planning on going out with the locals today to fish, go to fish camp, and who knows, maybe harvest some meat on the hoof for the freezer. (Hey, it saves on groceries and think of the poor cows we are sparing). Well with my luck we probably won't do either buy hopefully we will have fun.
I have a ton of things I want to write about but one
thing Alaska is known for-the longer the days, the more active you are and
routine daily chores kinda take a back seat.
Carlo
For problems or questions regarding this web contact
carlo@samsicles.net
Last updated:
08/29/05