Those Crazy Kussaqs

Winter in the bush of Alaska can be a blessing and a curse depending on the weather and where you live in the bush. Coastal regions tend to get more wind and sometimes more snow, but definitely more wind. For that reason, I'm thankful that I moved farther inland from the coast. Eek is inland about 12 miles from the coast and settled in nicely amongst flat interior tundra landscape, about 45 miles west of the Kilbuck Mountains. The Eek river is a vital asset to the people here. During the winter time, it provides a necessary highway to hunting and ice fishing grounds. The cold winter season allows people to travel to other villages via snow machine over the bumpy frozen tundra. In the case of Eek, many people travel to Bethel and Quinhagak throughout the season.
Those of you that know me at all, know that I need time to play outside. Especially after teaching 4 grades in all subjects for 8 - 10 hours a day. I've found Eek to be a very nice playground for my recreational pursuits. Aside from fishing throughout the fall, I've been biking, x-c skiing, and sometimes skijoring with Katja. The trail system around Eek is well used and there are a couple of options for directions to go. I've been biking farther away from the village than I travel on my skis. I purchased a pair of "skate skis" this year and they have allowed me to ski much longer than I normally do. So when the snow gets too deep for biking, I break out the skis and Katja and I skijor on the river and trails around the village.
This year, the weather has been rather mild as far as temperatures and the amount of snow that we have experienced here in Eek. The warm temperatures melt the snow, turning the trails into ice roads when it freezes again. With studded ice tires on my bike, I can cover ground pretty quickly. Yesterday, I rode up to a nearby fish camp 6 miles up river away from the village. It was about a 12 mile round trip, which doesn't sound like a lot, but when you are traveling over snow and ice, it is quite a workout for me and Katja both.
When ever I run into natives, especially my students away from the village out on the tundra, I am greeted with the same concerns that sound like this. "What are you doing out here?" or "You rode out here on your bike?" and sometimes, "Don't get lost!"
Fortunately, there are many trail markers out on the tundra. The lakes are sometimes as much as a mile across and have small trees planted in the ice to guide travelers across safely. Out on the tundra, there are many types of markers, such as poles, old oil drums, etc. Obviously I haven't gotten lost yet nor have I gotten frost bite. So get out there, get your fix, and thanks for reading my blog.

Music in Bethel

Sqeaky Eeks II from Erin Kavanaugh on Vimeo.

This video is very old and should have been posted back in October...but better late than never. This was my birthday weekend and really made it a very memorable birthday for me. Traci Buckle, my roomie, and I decided to play at a benefit concert for the Bethel Council of the Arts. Actually Traci talked me into it and I'm glad she did. If it wasn't for her, I would never have dreamed of doing something so random as play my Ukelele and sing in front of 100 plus people. It usually takes me a couple of drinks (liquid courage) to get the gumption to perform in front of a crowd of strangers and since there are no bars in Bethel (yet...) I needed something else to motivate me. I don't think I'm a horrible singer, but I sure was glad Traci was there to enhance our vocals.

I bought a Ukelele on a whim back in late July for $40 and brought it out to EEK, Alaska, mostly because it would be easier to travel with than my big guitar. I found it very fun to play and it complements the guitar pretty well, at least according to Traci. Occasionally we fill our cozy home with music laughter that sometimes draws our neighbors over to join us. I only wish that I had gotten it when I could have practiced and played with some of my other Ukelele playing friends, Kale Iverson and Josh Cridler. Oh well, hopefully our musical paths will cross again soon.

Thanks to Erin Kavanaugh for shooting this video and teaching me how to upload onto Blogger. She was a big part of energy that we emitted on stage that night.

Enjoy!

Dirk

Thanksgiving Break

Wow, what a great Thanksgiving Break I had. Traci and I had been planning to have a somewhat larger get together for the holiday and were very excited. A couple of friends flew in from outta town. Tania and her daughter Justine flew in from Toksook Bay and our dear and close friend Erin flew all the way from Bethel with her dog, Capt. Macy (20 min. flight). We spent most of Thursday cooking up a storm. Blueberry Cheesecake, Apple pie, Pumpkin pie, and Chocolate Peacan pie were on the dessert menu. Sweet potatoes, stuffing inside and outside of the turkey, two different kinds of cranberry relish, Garden salad, mashed potatoes, green beans, home made bread, and of course a giant turkey. It was pretty awesome!

Katja got plenty of attention too. She took over as guardian for Justine and was really amazing at entertaining her. Katja would walk over to Justine and just flop over on her side. She would literally let Justine crawl all over her and just lay there and take it, as if it were one of her own puppies. I never would have guessed she would respond that way. Erin and I got the dogs out a couple of times for some late day, virtually night time runs. There was plenty of knitting, by the ladies of course. I don't know how to knit. I did tie some flies though. Just getting ready for summer. We played lots of music as well. Justine loves to listen to music, either live or on TV or ipod. We had a fantastic time watching her dance around the coffee table with a giant smile on her face.

Anyway, I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving as well. I look forward to seeing some of you over the Christmas break.

Visit to Quinhagak

This post a few weeks old, but I wanted to have some pictures to show you as well. I got a chance to visit Quinhagak, AK to visit some friends and take a trip up the Kanektok river in search of Rainbow trout. I got into the village on Friday evening and met up with my friend Milt who helped me finalize plans with one of the local fisherman.

The next morning, I met up with my fishing guide and another teacher from the school. We loaded the boat and headed up river for about 1 hour. Our first stop landed us in a part of the river that hosted many Cohos, Dolly Varden, and Rainbows. I managed to hook up with all three species which was my goal. That was the first rainbow that I had caught since I had been in Alaska. That actually sounds a little embarassing when I say it outloud. Hmmm??? I fished downstream a little more and hooked a Dolly that had to measure at least 24 inches.

We left that spot and hit a few other hotspots in that region of the river. We fished a section that was just inside Togiak National Wildlife Refuge and I got into a pod of Dollys. I must have hooked 20 Dollys in about an hour. It was laugh outloud fishing even though I landed less than half of the fish I hooked. After a while, I walked farther downstream to fish a tail out section. I rigged up with a double egg and large split shot to entice a nice rainbow. On my first cast, I laid my double egg rig out on the edge of the current and a huge rainbow came up and swallowed my indicator whole and took it right down to the bottom. My heart stopped, because I knew that I couldn't set the hook on the monster. The hook was no where near its mouth. I made several other casts, but I never saw the giant again. I left the hole with heart ache.

Later, we crossed the river and fished the other bank. Just standing and fishing on the bow of the boat, I saw some huge rainbows making their way upriver. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to hook any of them.

I was astounded when I looked at my watch and it was already 5 pm. We had to start heading back down river towards home. We did stop a couple of other places on the river as we made our way back down. During one stop, I waded down stream and crossed the river to a deep blue hole that was the confluence of two sections of the river. I made a couple of drifts at the upper end of the hole, but it wasn't until I let an egg sucking leech dead drift down into the bottom of the hole that I hooked the fish of the day. At first I thought it was my trophy rainbow. The fish made several strong runs and it took a while before I could actually get a glimpse at it. Eventually, I landed a very nice Coho that had just started turning its color from its Ocean fresh chrome silver radiance to its light reddish tones. I gotta tell you, I was a little disappointed that it wasn't a rainbow, but it was the hardest fighting fish that I hooked all day.

I can't wait to get back on the Kanektok river.

Katja and the EEK

This past weekend, I ventured up the EEK river again with my fishing buddy, Seth. This time I brought my 22 rifle and Katja along for the ride. Seth's dog Ginger is accustomed to the journey, but it was interesting watching the two dogs interact. Ginger is a healthy female Chocolate lab who is very focused on bird hunting with Seth. Katja is a ... playful dog that doesn't like to work much at all unless it is on her terms. The dogs had their little tiffs, but all was fine in the end.
It was a little colder traveling in the boat this time and Katja wasn't used to the lower wind chill and having to sit still. Eventually she came around and joined Ginger up at the front of the boat to spot the hundreds of ducks we saw on the water. Katja must have gotten really keyed in on the birds, because shortly after this picture was shot, she leaped out of the boat, traveling at 30 mph, after some ducks that were flying along beside us. Hitting the water at 30 mph was quite a shock to Katja who skipped twice, spun, and then tumbled to a halt all within about 2 seconds. Seth and I were laughing hysterically. Katja wasn't. With her head about 12 inches out of the water she was making her way towards the shore and out of the frigid river. She shook it off rather quickly and was very willing to get back in the boat. She stayed still while the boat was moving in the future. I wish I had my camera out for that moment. It was priceless. Luckily for Katja, she jumped out of the side of the boat and not off the front. It could have been a little more tramatic for her and us.
Seth and I did manage to catch about 12 - 15 Grayling and a couple of pike. The Grayling were all pretty good size, some reaching almost 18 inches. I took a couple of them home for dinner and released most of them back into their chilly environment. Still looking forward to catching a couple of trout in this part of Alaska. Maybe next weekend. If not, I'll have to wait another year.

A season to remember

Not only is the season starting to change from fall to winter already, but we have left Cross Country season and NYO has officially started up. I've helped coach NYO a little in Toksook Bay and I also participated in Cross Country practices, but this is the first year that I attempted to take on a team sport souly on my own. I jumped right into to X-C practice right off the bat from the beginning of school and got a surprisingly high number of kids show up. EEK School only has 91 students this year, so to get 14 of those students showing up to the first week of practice was very positive for me. Participants definitely came and went, but by the end of the season I still had 9 original runners, 2 highschool and 7 junior high, that were attending practices regularly.
Our season ended last weekend with our participation in the Bethel Regional X-C invitational. There were 17 different schools attending the meet, the largest attendance coming from Bethel Regional High School, who had approximately 24 runners and Nome, AK who brought 17 runners. Most of the other schools that are in this district brought 10 or fewer runners, some as little as 5 runners. EEK brought 8 runners that were very new to the sport but worked hard and competed well. We didn't place very high in any of the races, but we did finish each of our races and we didn't come in last place, although it was close sometimes. One of our junior high runners got tripped up at the start of the race, coming off the line dead last, but she fought and climbed her way past 22 other girls in the 30 runner field to end in 8th place. It was outstanding effort and I have great expectations of her in the future years of X-Country. The Bethel course was created in a giant sand pit that zigzagged its way around the perimeter up and down steep hills for about one and a half miles. Junior high runners did one lap and high school runners did two laps. The winning time for the high school boys, 19 min. 28 sec., came from a Chevak runner who ran very strategically and intelligently to clinch the victory. All of the races were very exciting to watch.
Part of the highlight of the trip for EEK, besides the actual race, was spending the night at Bethel's Regional High School with the other 150 runners from around the district. Energy was high the night before the race. The trip home was quite the opposite. Just about all the runners were dozing off during the 20 minute flight back to EEK on the "not so smooth" plane ride from Bethel. Turbulence wasn't a factor in keeping them awake. They were exhausted!
And a great compliment to me came from several of the runners expressing their anticipation for next year's season of X-country.
Happy trails!

Revisiting Toksook

Last weekend, I traveled back to Toksook Bay for a quick visit during our extended holiday. It was a really great visit despite the fact that 220 mile round trip flight cost me the same amount that my Dad paid to fly from Washington D.C. to British Columbia... round trip. Yeah, it's expensive to travel in Alaska.
Last weekend was the Blackberry Festival that I have written about in the past when I actually lived in Toksook Bay. This year seemed a little busier in the village, more of a social gathering and celebration of family and friends... and good times. It took me about 45 minutes to walk to the store from the school, mostly because I ran into almost all of my previous students and wanted to say "hi" to them. They asked me if I was returning to Toksook and where I was teaching and living now. Some even commented that they missed me and wanted me to come back to Toksook to teach again, to which I would respond with thanks and appreciation. But truth be told, as much as I enjoyed living in Toksook, I am also enjoying the village of EEK.
When I arrived, friend and colleague, Marty was waiting for me at the airport with his two oldest boys, ready to hit the river and start fishing. I quickly changed into my waders, jumped on the 4 wheeler and we sped off down the runway. We arrived during the outgoing tide, so the fish were there, but they weren't biting anything. Needless to say, we went home empty handed that night.
But we woke up the next morning ready to try again. This time, just Marty and I headed farther up river in search of some Dolly Varden. We found some and a bunch of Silvers that had been up river for some time now. They were mostly bright red males and they were pretty picky about what they would take. We both tied on a Bead Head Nymph pattern that we swung through the current and Marty was the first to hook up with one of the giants. I jumped into the shallows to help him land it against the sharp drop off of the bank. I hooked up with a couple of nice fish, but didn't get any landed. Marty, however, ended up landing 4 or 5 nice salmon and a half dozen Dollys. I threw most of the small fish that I did land, but kept this brute for my host and lodging provider during my visit.
It was great to see everyone from the school and most of the community members that knew me as well. I did miss seeing TJ and his wife, Kim who have transferred to Napaskiak this year. I am sure I will get a chance to see them during the school year sometime. In a way, I felt like I had never left Toksook Bay. It hasn't been very long since I did live there, but everything felt very familiar to me still.
It was an amazing realization when I returned to EEK of how different the two villages really are. Stepping off the plane in EEK and seeing just a couple of 4-wheelers waiting to pick up passengers and hearing the silence of the open tundra and the distant mountains made me really appreciate the quiet solitude of EEK. It felt good to be back.