This last weekend myself, Mike from work, Trae, the local cop, and Alex went to Mike's cabin for the weekend. The plan was to hunt, fish and collect fire wood. Here is a recap of the weekend.
Mike rents the cabin for $100 a month from one of the local guys.
The cabin is one room and a cunnychuck (mud room). In the mud room lives a weasel. Mike has seen him but he never came out this weekend. We did see the remains of a porcupine that it had killed and eaten. All weekend long I was waiting on Mr. Weasel but was out of luck.
When we first arrived, it was 20 degrees in the cabin. It was about -14 outside. I am still amazed at how cold you get riding on a snow machine. It was an 45 min ride out.
The only source of heat is a wood stove that we cooked on top of. In 1 hour we had the cabin up to 60 degrees. It was strange to cook on the top of the stove but after some trial and error, I was able to make pancakes and eggs.
The first night we just checked out the area. These were the first trees I have seen since I have been up here.
Mike tried his luck at trapping. We were hoping to get a rabbit or something, but the trap remained empty all weekend.
The sunsets at the cabin were just amazing! The sun goes down about 6:30 at this time of year. The amount of stars was more than I have seen in a while. No northern lights this time. At night we spent time playing cribbage.
On Saturday we went up to Lake Kobuk and tried our hand at fishing. We used an 8 inch arguer and drilled about 6 inched into the ice.
The fishing rigs up here are made from an old bone, some tuna line (80 lb test) and a spoon lure. The fish are pretty lazy and don't hit the lure very hard. Once you do have one on the line, you pull it up hand over hand until it is out of the hole. The fish give up pretty easily. Once they see the light of day, they lay down and die.
Fishing is a lazy sport. Here is Mike relaxing on his snow machine while fishing.
I caught the only fish of the day. It was -14 out on the river. We were out for about 4 hours. I was suprised that my cold winter gear was not enough to keep me warm.
The first on was a Shee fish. It is local up here and weighted about 15 lbs. The sheefish is found only in arctic and subarctic North America and Asia. In Alaska, it is most abundant in the Kuskokwim and Yukon river drainages and in the Selawik and Kobuk drainages of Kotzebue Sound. A few are found in the smaller rivers of Norton Sound. Its tremendous size, fighting ability, and fine eating qualities make the sheefish one of the most unique fish in North America. I also caught a flounder and a bullhead, both of witch are not eatable up here so they were thrown back.
We cooked the fish in tinfoil in the coals of the stove.
Shee fish is very smelly so we all wore gloves to eat. This way we didn’t smell like fish all night.
After fishing we went to collect wood for the fire. There aren’t many trees up here and they grow really slowly. We found a grove of dead trees and took down about 30. The small trees ranged from 30 to 50 years old (counting rings).
On Sunday we came home but stopped to fish along the way. Sunday was a great day for fish. We had 13 between us, in about 45 min. The largest was 22 lbs (caught by me) and the smallest was about 15lbs.
It was -20 on Sunday, but catching all those fish made me forget about the weather.
We traveled out by snow machine. We carried our gear in sleds behind the machines. This is me with my helmet on. We can reach speeds of up to 55mph on the trail. It was 4 degrees when we left on Friday at around 3 pm.
The trail takes us across the frozen river. It is marked by small branches that are placed in the snow. In the region close to town there are no trees, it's just wide open space. It kind of reminds me of Antarctia.
Mike rents the cabin for $100 a month from one of the local guys. 
The cabin is one room and a cunnychuck (mud room). In the mud room lives a weasel. Mike has seen him but he never came out this weekend. We did see the remains of a porcupine that it had killed and eaten. All weekend long I was waiting on Mr. Weasel but was out of luck.
When we first arrived, it was 20 degrees in the cabin. It was about -14 outside. I am still amazed at how cold you get riding on a snow machine. It was an 45 min ride out.
The only source of heat is a wood stove that we cooked on top of. In 1 hour we had the cabin up to 60 degrees. It was strange to cook on the top of the stove but after some trial and error, I was able to make pancakes and eggs. 
The first night we just checked out the area. These were the first trees I have seen since I have been up here. 
Mike tried his luck at trapping. We were hoping to get a rabbit or something, but the trap remained empty all weekend. 
The sunsets at the cabin were just amazing! The sun goes down about 6:30 at this time of year. The amount of stars was more than I have seen in a while. No northern lights this time. At night we spent time playing cribbage. 
On Saturday we went up to Lake Kobuk and tried our hand at fishing. We used an 8 inch arguer and drilled about 6 inched into the ice. 
The fishing rigs up here are made from an old bone, some tuna line (80 lb test) and a spoon lure. The fish are pretty lazy and don't hit the lure very hard. Once you do have one on the line, you pull it up hand over hand until it is out of the hole. The fish give up pretty easily. Once they see the light of day, they lay down and die. 
Fishing is a lazy sport. Here is Mike relaxing on his snow machine while fishing. 
I caught the only fish of the day. It was -14 out on the river. We were out for about 4 hours. I was suprised that my cold winter gear was not enough to keep me warm.
The first on was a Shee fish. It is local up here and weighted about 15 lbs. The sheefish is found only in arctic and subarctic North America and Asia. In Alaska, it is most abundant in the Kuskokwim and Yukon river drainages and in the Selawik and Kobuk drainages of Kotzebue Sound. A few are found in the smaller rivers of Norton Sound. Its tremendous size, fighting ability, and fine eating qualities make the sheefish one of the most unique fish in North America. I also caught a flounder and a bullhead, both of witch are not eatable up here so they were thrown back.
We cooked the fish in tinfoil in the coals of the stove.It took about an hour to cook. Shee fish is a white flake fish that does not have much of a "fishy" taste at all.
Shee fish is very smelly so we all wore gloves to eat. This way we didn’t smell like fish all night.
After fishing we went to collect wood for the fire. There aren’t many trees up here and they grow really slowly. We found a grove of dead trees and took down about 30. The small trees ranged from 30 to 50 years old (counting rings).
On Sunday we came home but stopped to fish along the way. Sunday was a great day for fish. We had 13 between us, in about 45 min. The largest was 22 lbs (caught by me) and the smallest was about 15lbs. 
It was -20 on Sunday, but catching all those fish made me forget about the weather.
