Life Below Zero

I'm getting ready to go moose hunting for a few days and kind of just taking

the essentials, a tent, a sleeping bag, little bit of cookware, little bit of food.

I'm hoping the bulk of my load when I come back is meat.

This time of year is all about putting food up and getting ready for winter

because once the snow flies and once the temperatures hit 20, 30 below zero,

hunting isn't really that good.

Most of the time when I'm looking for moose,

I hunt right out of my own backyard here.

But one of the problems I've been running into over the last couple years is with lots

of boats going by and lots of people going by, it pushes the moose away from

the river where I normally would hunt.

Rather than waiting for the main hunting season and for when the animals go into rut,

try and get a moose nice and early.

I got to bring an extra boat with me so I can travel around in the back areas.

This little boat's great for that.

It's new country for me to go into.

It's going to be a bit of a challenge for me to, to figure out where to go, how to hunt.

For a lot of people, hunting is a real passion for them.

They love to just get out and walk around in the woods and hunt,

and they really get jazzed about it.

And that's great, but when you live out here, hunting is an integral part of life.

And without it, you really can't survive.

You can't live as a vegetarian out here.

Getting fish and getting meat is absolutely essential to just this lifestyle.

Getting a moose, it doesn't come knocking on your door.

You got to go out and find it.

So, I think this is the spot I, I want to camp out.

I've got a nice island here.

I'm seeing a fair amount of shoreline where moose could easily come out.

Go ahead, you can go out.

Good boys.

I'm about 35 miles from Calico Bluff.

And, uh, I think I'll get my tent set up and then spend the rest of the day doing

a little bit of, uh, calling and I do want to get out and hike around a little bit

just to kind of survey the area.

At this point in time, it's all going to be about luck and patience.

Every bit of red meat I can get right now is insurance and it's a stress reliever for me

because it allows me to know that I don't have to worry

about that later in the season.

It's all based on economics.

Out here, the currency is wildlife and resources.

The natural land and the resources that it has, is my job and my employer.

And that's what pays me to be able to live here.

Something's beaten down the grass here.

I don't know if that's a moose or not but it sure looks like the size of a moose.

That's all I want to do right now.

What I'm hoping for is if there's moose in these sloughs or back on these flats,

just making sounds like a moose hopefully will encourage a few of them to kind of

investigate the area.

I'm just going to walk around and go back to camp.

Got bear tracks right here.

That almost looks like a grizzly track.

See how you see the claws right here?

Usually you only see that with a grizzly bear.

Luckily, he's heading that way, my camp is this way.

I think that's a bear I really don't want to tangle with.

At this point it's all going to be about luck and patience.

Probably patience being the more important of the two.

There's nothing like instant reward.

Instant gratification.

When you go hunting, you either get something or you don't.

Okay, shall we open it up?

Yup. Overlap it.

-Yup. -Are you going to fish with us? -Yup.

-Carol we're just going to get a section of this net and then go set it.

-What are we going to be fishing for?

-We are going to be fishing for salmon, yup you got that right.

In Noorvik, the Hailstones rely on the surrounding waterways to

provide them with vital resources.

This time of year, the family must turn their attention to harvesting salmon.

A key food source, that will help them survive the coming months.

-There's people starting to catch quite a few salmon.

So, um it's about time to put out some salmon nets.

Um, we could be the first, but I'd rather have quantity and quality all together.

There's been a lot of rain so you get a lot of high water.

These rains will sweep down to the ocean and those fresh waters will

induce the salmon to come in.

So, all the conditions are right now for salmon to be showing up.

-Ready? -Yea.

Someday, Carol, you'll be able to handle one of these yourself.

You know what I mean?

-Mm, hmm. Whoa. -Leave it right there.

The thing is that we can get a massive amount of them, but only for a very short time.

Salmon to us are seasonal because they only come in, you know,

basically at one time of year which is at summer.

And when they're gone, they're gone.

Here in about a week or so, there's a whole big change that goes on.

The fact is summer's half over.

It's already starting to get dark.

Pretty soon we'll see stars, maybe even in the next week.

So, we're going to try and get ourselves a fair amount of them.

We'll put some of them in the freezer whole and keep them.

We'll dry some, we'll half dry some.

And we'll make strips and smoke the rest.

So, nothing's wasted there. It's all good.

Let's go set this net, uh?

Yup.

It's a real beautiful day for fishing.

Um, we're going a few bends away from town you can see there's already a whole bunch

of fish racks lined up along the beach.

So, we're just going to go a bit farther away where um, we can actually have some space.

-This is where you want to go, right?

-Yes. -Do you want me to put it on the point?

Or do you want it, where do you want it?

Should we go put it down here where there's high, high bank?

-Yea, I think so, probably. Yup.

Let's go try that then.

Want to grab that?

Put it right over here where the crack is.

One, two, three, go.

Okay.

Want me to hit it?

Uh, yeah if you want to.

Go for it. You're strong. Just tap it.

I'll tap it.

-We're going to use this pole to tie the net to.

And we'll just go straight out that way somewhere.

Straight out.

Your dad will drive and me and you will feed it out, Carol.

Yeah.

-And then we'll just leave it here for the night

and then we'll just pick this back up tomorrow.

-Okay, I'm going to fire this baby up.

-Okay, we're going to try and go straight out.

I'm sure the current is going to take us.

Carol, all you got to do is throw yours that way and try to get it out on the side of.

Throw it, Carol. Throw it far.

Throw it. Looking straight, uh?

Keep on, we're doing a good job, Carol.

-Yup, just keep going ladies. Keep going.

-Awesome. Just throw that right in, Carol it's fine.

Pull the tarp. That last.

-Hold onto that rope and straighten this net as best you can.

-Okay. Go ahead, it's tight, Carol.

Look, we got a fish already.

-Oh look, Carol! There's a fish.

-Alright, right off the bat. There's two fish in the net now.

Let's go get them and go home.

-Wow look, that's a silver? -That's a silver.

-Holy cow. Woah. -Ah, yup.

I think this is a good start to the season alright.

Down here on the bottom there's one jerking.

-Yee! This is awesome. -Oh, here's a big chum.

-Woo! This is fun. -This is fun.

-Haven't even had this net out for more than five minutes and we already got six fish.

Let it go, Carol.

It's going to keep fishing all night long.

-Let's go home. -Watch your motor, Chip.

-We'll go eat some fish. -Call it a day.

-Let this net do its thing and we'll go do ours.

Yup. Yee!

There's no one looking out for you.

You got to look out for yourself out here.

Out here it's up to you.

Not a single fly egg on this meat.

I left this little scrap of meat out here this afternoon just to see if there are any

more flies at all around that lay eggs on meat.

I don't like to hunt before the flies go away.

If there's still flies around that lay eggs on meat, I might end up with maggots.

But I can see that the flies are definitely gone.

There's not one single fly egg on this meat.

That's good.

It's time to go moose hunting.

I'll need my rifle, some extra ammunition.

My knife and I got a few clothes and small items in my backpack.

And my antler, that's all I need to hunt a moose.

Moose is the most important animal.

If I get a moose, that equals food security right there.

If I get one, that's hundreds of pounds of meat for me to get through the winter with.

I won't have another chance at a moose until next fall.

So, it's very important that I find one.

The way I hunt is to walk around the lake.

Every day, four or five miles a day walking through the woods calling moose,

listening for moose, looking for moose.

There's no certainty.

Sometimes it can take ten days before I get a shot at a moose.

It can be very difficult.

Once winter sets in, it's really hard to find enough fat out here to survive.

I won't have another chance at a moose until next fall.

So, it's very important that I find one.

Here's a big moose track right here.

Moose came through there and tore up all that moss with its hoof,

planted it right there.

It's headed this way.

I need to be careful where I start calling moose because if I call a moose into

an area that it's going to be hard to get the moose out of after I shoot it,

that's real bad.

A lot of times if there's a moose nearby, after you scrape like that,

you'll hear him grunt or you'll hear him scrape.

I just heard a moose grunt.

I see a moose.

He definitely hears me, he's looking this way.

I want to try and get him in closer.

He's turning his head.

He turned back this way.

I got to keep making little moose noises.

Keep him thinking that I'm a moose over here.

He's being very cautious.

I've only heard him grunt once and he's not racking his antlers.

He's moving further away from the lake.