Life Below Zero

I really got to start thinking about getting my fish wheel operating and,

and start catching fish because I only have about another week of fish left.

Last year, when I was pulling this fish wheel out, this whole thing just kind of twisted away

and, and pretty much separated from the rest of the fish wheel.

It's all rotten, you can see right here, it's all kind of caving in on one side here.

I've got to get this frame off, get these barrels out.

It's going to be quite a bit of work here.

It's just one of those projects that you, you wish you had lots of time and maybe even another person.

It's going to be challenging doing some of this stuff by myself because it takes me about

eight days to build a fish wheel.

I got about three.

I can't afford to miss this fish.

If you don't get it when it's here, you don't get it for another whole year.

Look at this barrel.

You wonder why this is leaking.

You know, these were filling up with water.

That's why I had to put this barrel under it a couple years ago.

Cause the whole fish wheel was sinking on this side.

I've been using this fish wheel for probably about 15 years now.

This one piece of equipment probably saves me more money and is more important

to my lifestyle than anything else that I have here because without this,

I don't put up the fish for the dogs the way I would need to.

And this is integral to feeding and taking care of and making sure those dogs are really well

taken care of and really well fed.

And it saves me a ton of money.

Right on.

Timber.

Maybe it's a good thing I'm taking it all apart because that's pretty worthless.

This whole project has now turned into a complete rebuild.

Fortunately, for me, I have the tools and the equipment to make this job go easier.

If I didn't have a, a tractor or a bulldozer, this would be a daunting task.

And I'd probably just now be maybe getting the thing apart.

Basically rebuilding the whole fish wheel.

Holy crap.

This turned into a way bigger project than I thought it was gonna be.

I have a lot of ideas and not a lot of fear about trying them.

It's kind of a rainy day.

I've got a little break in clients.

So, there's some projects I wanna get started on.

Had an idea of taking the Argo, putting a, making sort of a, a pop-up tent if you will,

that I can, it'll fold and just look like a flat cap on the back of my Argo.

But if you go over and open it like a child's pop-up book,

boing, this wonderful story of a tent pops open.

As I get older I'm less enchanted with sleeping on the hard ground.

I'm gonna make it a little bit comfier on my booty, so I can spend the rest of the time

getting the bounty.

For Sue Aikens, decades of living in the harsh conditions of Kavik

have taken a toll on her body.

To protect herself, she's drawn up a new contraption that will improve her ability to camp

on the tundra, and secure vital resources for her survival.

The rain makes me wanna wear my sweatshirt, but to me it's hotter than hades.

Let's take our little four-by and see.

I need at least one board grown-up size, which is, let's say five feet, six inches.

That's an oddball measurement now, isn't it for you?

This one.

Boom.

Part of the lifestyle here is adaptability.

If you are creative and you spend enough time somewhere, you should be able to create

your own comfort level.

The hinge is long and it needs to open well.

I only have an afternoon to get it together.

I'm gonna call it my prototype.

It'll be a little bit Kavik

Time management.

That's what it's all about up here.

Make hay while the sun shine.

I'm getting ready to head up the hill here.

I'm going to go out and look for some chaga.

I'd like to go ahead and just knock out getting my year supply of chaga in one go out here.

In Nenana, harvesting the surrounding resources is key to ensuring Jessie Holmes

and his sled dogs remain in peak physical condition year-round.

Today, he'll travel into the forest in search of chaga, a potent fungus and anti-oxidant

that is vital for keeping him healthy through the winter.

If I can come back with a boatload of chaga, that'll be a great day.

Who knows what else I'll find out there.

Wow, I see some awesome chagas already.

There's chaga all over in these woods.

You can see it throughout the forest.

Little black fungus that grow on the trees.

Siberian people call it the gift from God and it's an amazing anti-oxidant source.

And drink that for tea twice a day and keeps you really healthy and strong.

I got some climbing spikes in my bag here and a rope so I can get up and start getting these.

A lot of the good chagas that grow you can't really reach off the ground.

Some of them are easy pickings, but for the good ones you got to be able to get up the tree.

I try not to take it all so it'll keep growing.

So, what I do is I take this home and I chunk it up like this so it dries out real nice

in the sun for a couple days.

And then I vacuum seal and package it in jars.

From there, I grind it down to a powder that I make tea out of every day.

On to get some more chaga.

What goes up must come down.

Staying healthy in two different ways here.

Staying healthy by working hard and staying healthy by getting good medicine.

Time to go load this chaga back up and get these boots off and who knows what else I'll find out there.

The opportunities are there, but they're fleeting.

When you see the opportunity, you have to act.

It's fall time here now.

All the leaves are changing color.

The temperatures are getting cooler, and this is the time of year when I can start hunting

for big animals.

The first big animal I can go after is Dall sheep.

Dall sheep live on these mountains and now is the time of year to hunt them.

It's been a long time since I got a sheep, but I've got a skull from one I killed

years ago up here on the platform.

This is the last sheep I ever got.

It's hard to find sheep here and I've only ever gotten two.

This was an 11-year-old ram and he had what are called full-curl horns.

Sheep don't have antlers, they have horns.

And this horn stays on the sheep for life.

Every year, it grows a little longer.

The rule is, you can only kill a ram if it's eight years old, or has a full-curl horn.

Most of the sheep on these mountains are going to be younger,

smaller sheep that you can't legally hunt.

Sheep hunting's not easy.

The sheep like to live way up high on the mountains. That's their natural habitat.

They need to be near the rocks, steep cliffs.

That's how they get away from predators.

The wolves are up there hunting the sheep.

Grizzly bears hunt sheep.

And I'm going to be hunting sheep.

And when those sheep are threatened, they head for the rocks.

See those cliffs up high?

It's six miles from my cabin here.

That's where I have to go to get a sheep.

I need to pack as light as possible.

If I get a sheep, that's going to be a lot of weight to carry back down off that mountain.

So, I can't have anything extra with me.

All I'm really bringing are my clothes and my tools for hunting.

I'll take my canoe to start with, that'll save some walking.

I can get over to the base of the mountain with a canoe.

Then if I'm coming home with a heavy load of meat it'll be that much less distance I have to carry it on my back.

There's the mountain right there.

It's already got snow up on top.

Hopefully there's some sheep up there, too.

Not the best weather for starting a sheep hunt,

but you got to deal with whatever you've got.

Summer's short and fall's even shorter.

I got to make the best use of my time.

This is the time to get a sheep.

There. From here, it's all going to be walking, and I got about four miles to go

and 3,000 vertical feet just to the top of the mountain.

Hopefully I can find a sheep up there.

This has to be the absolute best time of the year, right now.

Peak foliage.

No mosquitos.

Fall goes by fast, but it's my favorite season of the year.

Visibility is definitely deteriorating.

Higher I go, closer I'm getting to the clouds.

If I'm lucky, the weather's gonna pick up.

If it doesn't, I'm gonna have problems.

Grizzly bear right here.

There's sheep on this mountain.

And there are bears on this mountain, too.

I'm not looking for a bear, I'm not hunting bear.

But I just ran into one right here.

He sees me, he's just checking me out.

Okay, and I do have a round in the chamber, just in case.

I don't really care to eat bears, so I'm not hunting a bear.

But there's a bear right there. And he's coming this way.

Hey, bear.

Out of here.

Go away.

Hey, out of here.

Hey, bear.

He's coming this way.

Hey, bear.

Out of here.

Go away.

Hey, out of here.

Hey, bear.

He went down over the ridge.

Could come back up.

Looks like he split.

That bear was kind of bold, wasn't he?

Came right down to check me out.

Sometimes they're not sure what's going on.

Only one time, in all the years I spent out here, I had to shoot a bear.

Most of the time, they'll leave you alone if you give them a chance.

That's the way I like to deal with a bear.

I just talk to it, let it know you're human.

Usually they'll leave you alone.

No need to shoot them if you don't have to.

First big animal I've seen today.

I got to keep going up this mountain.

Hopefully there's some sheep up here.

Wind's starting to pick up.

It's been raining, it's getting colder.

Clouds are moving in.

This is one of the most difficult conditions weather-wise to deal with.

This is gonna be tricky.