All language subtitles for Life.Below.Zero.S05E11.The.Crash.720p.WEB-HD.x264-KangMus_track3_eng

NARRATOR: On this episode
of Life Below Zero,

as winter fades, Alaskans
take their final shots.

A crafty predator rattles
the Hailstones' strategy.

I got ripped off
by a wolverine.

NARRATOR: Glenn races
against the wild
to protect his food stock.

GLENN: My main concern is that
nothing finds these caribou
before I get them back.

NARRATOR: The Salitans
hunt for big game
in winter's twilight.

ERIK: These are
the most nourishing animals
that you can harvest.

NARRATOR: And Sue's escape
from Kavik
leads to a grave mistake.

SUE: I want to get the hell
out of camp.

SUE: Some things,
some chores build up.

Is it gonna kill you
if it builds up?

No, but it's unpleasant.

My chores are just on
a different scale.

It's happy with the bucket
going down.

Lifting it is inconsistent.

Dumping overhead,
it's a little inconsistent.

I'm not sure what causes that.

NARRATOR: The unforgiving
landscape in the tundra

forces Sue Aikens to complete
a variety of tasks

to ensure her safety
at Kavik River Camp.

Drifts are a constant hazard
throughout,

and to clear them,

Sue relies on one of the most
important tools, the Bobcat.

Come on, pig!

Come on!

All right.

Walking up to it, I see...

"What the hell is that?"
Is what I'm thinking.

It's not oily.

My Bobcat is done.

I need to look at the manual.

I need, I need to
dig into it more.

Um, just another can of worms

in Sue's worm farm.

When I first noticed
the issue,

I said, "Man,
that doesn't smell right."

I thought it smelled like
burnt hydraulic fluid,

um, which was my panic
about the hydraulics,

and that would answer why
things weren't working right.

Nobody should get
emotionally trashed

over a 24-year-old
frickin' Bobcat.

I don't look at
what does it cost

when it was brand-new,
I look at replacement cost.

These things are
in the hundreds
of thousands of dollars.

I don't have it.

I don't wanna whine about it.
I wanna get on to my next job.

GLENN: It's not all
adventure and excitement.

A lot of times it's really
quiet out here,

but that's just as
important to me
as the other times.

All through the winter
I'm butchering meat.

I produce quite a lot
of scraps and bones,
crust on my moose.

What I do with them,
when I've got a bone
that I'm done with,

I just throw it out
the window.

And they accumulate out there.

I got quite a pile.

This is my bird feeder.

I got an ermine
that eats on it.
I really enjoy watching

the little critters coming up
and eating.

But, at this time of year,
the bears are starting to
come out pretty soon,

so I have to clean the yard up
and I've gotta move all
this stuff out.

'Cause it's just likely
to attract bears.

NARRATOR: The warming weather
in the Brooks Range

is a sign bears will soon
awaken from hibernation.

It is crucial for Glenn
to move his food scraps

offsite for his own
protection and survival.

So I'm gonna take all of this,
load up the sled,

and bring it over to that
island out on the lake.

Nothing goes to waste.

I got everything I could use
off of this.

But a wolverine or a bear
will come and
eat up the rest of it.

There is no food that evolved

in order to feed
something else.

Even the plants, well,
they're trying to survive,

and then something comes along
and eats them up.

A moose is trying to survive,
and something comes along
and eats it up.

That's what food is.

Food is one species
taking another and
turning it into itself.

Suffering is part of life.
I suffer, too.

Someday I'm gonna die
and things are probably
gonna eat me up.

Hopefully.

The cycle of life and death

is what makes life real.

I cleaned the scraps
and the bones up
from my front yard.

Right here is where I dump.

At the end of this island.
I've been leaving bones

and scraps of meat
here for years.

The wolverines, the bears,
they know this spot.

They come over here
and clean it up in the spring.

I'd rather have them
eat it over here
than right at my front door.

So it's a real hungry country,
and everything gets used.

You just can't leave something
laying on the ground

for more than
a couple of weeks

before something cleans it up.

AGNES: I never, ever am
scared to be out here
or anything like that.

I don't ever feel lost.

I always know that I'm on top
of the world,

way up in the north.

We woke up,
and it's a pretty crappy day.

It's overcast,
it's hard to see,

there's been blowing snow,
and there's a lot of wind.

So we got our traps
out of our cache.

We're gonna go make
at least one set.

NARRATOR: Last summer,
the Hailstones built a cache

at their camp in Kiwalik
to store hunting

and trapping gear for
the winter harvest.

CHIP: We are always
getting ready.

We're always getting ready
for the next season.

All of summer is just nothing
but a preparation

for the winter ahead,
and the winter is nothing

but a preparation for
the summer ahead.

NARRATOR: Today, they will
set traps for game fur,

a vital product for income
and trade within
their native community.

Okay, I think
I'm good up here.

We actually make more money
and catch less animals

because we do
a lot more work to them.

And for us, we don't need
to have 20 wolves to
make our year.

We need five or ten.

And we can make more money
than the guy
that got 20 wolves.

If the goal for somebody
is $1,000,

and it takes 50 foxes
to make that,

they'll have to
catch 50 foxes.

If we wanna make $1,000,
we'll catch five foxes,
and make five hats,

and we'll have that
thousand bucks.

So we're actually impacting
a lot less

because we take the, um,
process a lot further.

Let's go boil some water.

AGNES: When
we're out here, um,
dealing with traps and stuff,

we try not to put
our human scent on them.

Take this pot
and fill it up with snow.

Get the tops of these willows
and throw them in.

Prop even some of these
right here.

They'll make it like
scent-free from humans.

Not everybody can live
this kind of lifestyle.

For most women, it would
probably be hell.
(LAUGHS)

So while I'm in here making
the water for Chip's traps,
he's out there making sure

our sleds are gonna be
running fine.

We're out in the wilds
of nature,

so the chances of us seeing
anything are pretty good.

You never know
what you'll see,

and you don't know
until you see it.

We're kind of curious.
We want to get going.

The nice thing about leaving
our traps in the country is

they never get
any human scent,

or fuel, or anything on them.

AGNES: There's hardly
any people around this area,

but, uh, they kind of know
where me and Chip trap,

so hardly anybody ever bothers
our trap line.

I'm just gonna stay
right here,
so I don't put my scent

-all over your trap line.
-Yeah, good idea.

This is old salmon and bacon.

Ugly, yucky, chunky pieces
of bacon.

And foxes love this shit.

Gonna set this aside.

Gonna make a place
right here where I can
set it into a groove.

We offer them a little
something to munch.

We want these foxes to

come over here
and check it out.

They'll be able to smell stuff
around here,

little pieces of this
and that.

We'll even give them
a little freebie or two.

They'll have to
come over here and
figure it out themselves.

We come here in the summer,
so we kind of know
where these foxes live.

We know where the dens are.

Just stick some fur here,

cover it up.

And they can think
it's a kill.

And then here I'll make
a tassel for the wind,

that way I can find my...

My trap if I need to.

Now I'm gonna go set another
one over here.

This is what we call
a killer trap.

What will happen is, a fox
will come over here

and he'll, he'll take
a bite of that

or try to get a hold of that,
and it will spring the trap

around his head
and break his neck.

It's a quick,
it's a quick death.

It's a humane way
of killing it.

And we'll just check
this every day.
Because if they get killed,

um, we don't want ravens
pecking on them,

we don't want other animals
running off with them,

and we don't want, uh,
stuff to happen to them.

So, since we're pretty close,
we'll just go check
these every day.

At least maybe a couple
of times a day.

AGNES: That was the last one,
yeah?

Yep. That's two of them.

This is just the first
of many.

We'll get them all set,
and they'll start producing.

It's like a fishing line.

You don't just cast it
and get a hit,

come on,
that's a pretty rare day.

You gotta let that bait soak
for a while.

And then the fish come along,
and you go home
with something.

ERIK: This is an awesome
time of year.

I get to go out and enjoy
this great country,

and just get to love nature
out there with my wife,

and just have a kickass time.

(MARTHA LAUGHS)

This time of year,
large herds of caribou

come through the south side
of the Brooks Range here,

near where Martha and I live.

NARRATOR: In Wiseman,
the transition from winter
to spring

offers a brief window to hunt
caribou as they migrate.

It is an essential source
of meat and protein
for the Salitans.

ERIK: We've seen some tracks
up high.

Martha and I are gonna
hop on the sled.

We're gonna go up the valley,

go to a likely place
where the caribou first start
to congregate usually,

and see if there's anything
around yet.

The caribou is the animal
to hunt at this time of year.

You always look forward to
eating some

fresh caribou meat after
eating moose all winter.

At this time of year,
we're gonna target
large, mature bull caribou.

Martha shot some fox
this past winter.

(GUNSHOT)

That's all good and
that's fun.

Predator hunting in the winter
is one of my favourite
things to do,

but it's cold.

It's not really fun
'cause you're like,

always, "I gotta stay warm,
keep my hands warm,

"keep my face warm. Oh, shit,
my nose is falling off.
I'm frozen."

Life is good in the spring
in the Arctic.

This is easy.
There's no bugs,
and it's not cold.

MARTHA: If we come up on
any caribou,

I'd like to be the first
person to fire off a round,

being that Erik's killed
a lot of animals
in his lifetime,

so it's nice for me to
be able to pull the trigger
now and then.

ERIK: I see lots of tracks,
lots of diggings.

Ooh! Ooh!

-You know what I see?
-What's that big old thing
over there?

It's a muskox!

-No way.
-There's a muskox over there.

There's a caribou
in the bushes

like ten yards away
from the muskox.

-Do you wanna...
-Yep. There's two cari...

I take that back,
there are three caribou.

Let's see if we can't get
ourselves a little bit closer.

(ERIK WHISPERING)

(GUN FIRING)

ERIK: You got one, I got one.

Good shooting.

The really awesome thing
about what just
went down here,

outside of my wife
just shot a caribou,

I just shot a caribou,

is these caribou were hanging
out with this muskox,
which is totally unusual.

There's a muskox
100 yards away from us,

just hanging out,
doing muskox things,
and that's awesome.

Walking over to check out
the caribou Martha
and I just got.

She shot one. I shot another.

Gonna have some good,
fresh spring meat.

Here we are at springtime
in the Brooks Range of Alaska.

I'm with the best hunting
partner I've ever had
in my entire life, my wife.

She just made a really
awesome shot.

Perfect heart shot
on this adult bull caribou.

The other caribou ran,

I hit one, and then
I had to shoot it again, and
then the third one got away.

You know, as a guide
I get to do a lot of hunting.

I'm used to taking other
people and letting other
people shoot.

Martha likes to shoot,
I'm cool with that.

But as soon as she gets
her animal down,

I'm pretty quick to
grab the gun away

from her and
shoot one for myself.

MARTHA: Look at that heart.

ERIK: We got two
on the ground.

We can use more than
two probably,

but two will definitely
get us going.

SUE: The comfort
of your own life

has a direct relationship
to how hard you work

to keep it
the way you want it.

Chores are something
that you keep up on
to keep your quality of life.

I was having a problem
with the Bobcat.

I thought
the hydraulic system.

Everything pointed
to hydraulics.

I busted out the old manual,
looked at it.

It's the radiator itself
that's shot,

and that's not an easy fix
for me right now.

NARRATOR: Even though clearing
the camp has been put on hold,

Sue has to turn her attention
to another essential task

in order to keep Kavik
up and running.

SUE: I've got a generator
I need to do a change on.

Um, you know,
I've got some other chores.

This is the new oil filter.

I worry that,
what if this son of a bitch
doesn't wanna start back up?

Did I catch all the problems?
What? What? What? What?
If? If? If?

I mean, you make yourself
crazy with that.

I put oil already on the seal
any time you're putting
a new filter on,

so that as you're slipping it
against your hard plate,

it can slip and snug tight.

This old oil.

And then I take my waste oil,
and I throw it in here.

You know, always under
the impression
try to leave things clean.

Leave it ready and set up
for the next time.

And it's just a little bit
higher than my dots,

which is good,
and that gives me enough fuel,

enough oil in there
that it needs to
fill your filter.

Now the test. We'll go around,
see if we can turn him over.

(GENERATOR STARTING)

Now we'll let it run
for a moment.

That allows the oil to
circulate through the motor

and also fill up
that oil filter,

so it will be nice and warm

when I ask it to
deliver the power.

Then I'll run out and check
if the lights came on

in the front of camp.

And then this job is done.

All right.
I see a light there.

I see a light there.

It is running.
Power is being delivered.

Both spotlights in front
have come on.
Good enough for me.

So, boom, one job done.

The equipment in camp
is my spouse.

I'm having
an emotional response

to my equipment
having a headache.

I want to get the hell
out of camp.

No expectations, no jobs,
just get out and yay!
Have some fun.

AGNES: I don't really like
working for other people.

Me and Chip,
we enjoy living out here,
and we work for ourselves,

and it's a cleaner living,
we think.

We're happy.

So whatever makes you happy.

(CHIP SPEAKING)

I'm gonna go out
and come back.
Same circle.

I'm not gonna go far. I'm just
gonna go off and go see

if I could catch a couple
ptarmigan for your trap.

I love you.

I'll see you later. Be safe.

You be safe, too.

-Yep.
-(ENGINE STARTING)

NARRATOR: After recently
crashing her snow machine...

AGNES: There goes my ride.

My handlebars
won't even turn.

...field repairs have
Agnes' vehicle up and running

and will allow the Hailstones
to divide and conquer.

While Chip inspects
the trap line,

Agnes will hunt ptarmigan
for food and bait.

Huh.

Well, I don't see any prints,
though,

so nothing's come over here
and disturbed it.

I guess I'm gonna let
this one soak some more.

Look at that.

It got the bait and all.

Oh! Look at this!

That's about the size
of a wolverine.

They're real faint 'cause...
What can I say but

I got ripped off by
a wolverine.

(LAUGHS)
The wolverine came over,
he saw it was a trap,

and he beat it or he hit it.

He moved it completely
out of the way.

Ah, such is life.

I'm gonna get on the snow
machine and go check
the next one.

(LAUGHING)
I think he's checking
my traps for me.

AGNES: I saw a few ptarmigan,

and I decided to go try
and catch dinner

and at the same time
get some feathers

and, um, some of the skin
for the traps Chip's setting.

I'm looking for
white ptarmigan on white snow.

Look for that one white head.

I know they're around here
someplace.
I just gotta find them.

Ptarmigan. Yay.

I should have two around
there somewhere.

Yes!

I went and took
a couple shots,
and I just scored a couple.

You gotta really keep
your eyes on them.
They're white.

Hey!

I knew I got two of them.

I'm gonna take these two,
and I'm gonna go find Chip.

He'll breast them and, um,
he can use the rest for bait.

And then we can go home
and go make us
some ptarmigan dinner

and call it a day.

CHIP: I'm just checking
my trap line.

Basically, I check on it,
I see if there's
animals in it,

or I see if they've done
any damage.

Um, I see if they're
covered over,

and I maintain them
so that they're still easily
snappable and operable.

And when I can, I put in new
ones and expand my trap line.

AGNES: You were right.
If I kept on trying
and kept on trying,

I'd score. I got two of them.

-CHIP: All right.
-(AGNES LAUGHS)

Instead of eating
the whole thing,

we breast them out
and use the backs,

the wings, and the heads.

-Hang on.
-Look, there's
a perfect breast.

That one that you shot,
look at that,
it went right there.

-Almost ruined it.
-No.

Almost doesn't count.

Now look at all them guts
and that backbone,

and I'm gonna make
a link set out of this guy.

I think out of each ptarmigan
I can get two sets.

I can probably cut them
right in half and use a leg

and wing on one,
and the back end.

And then I could use the head
and wing and leg
on the other side.

Right on.
Now we even got bloody gloves
to work on our traps.

Yep.
They smell like ptarmigan.

Tear off these feathers.

Just scatter them around.

Okay. That's about the way
it works.

-Pretty good, eh?
-Yeah.

-You wanna go home,
call it a day?
-Yeah.

We'll come back
out here tomorrow,
have a look.

SUE: The older I get,
the more I break myself.

I slow down, everybody does.
Age happens.

Show me the expiration date,
then I know how to live.

Look at the sky, Ermie!

You know, I've had a lot
of frustrations this winter.

With the Bobcat,
you're talking a 24-year-old

piece of equipment
that's been beat
harder than it should be beat,

asking it to do things
that a big loader does.

So I can't see
the solution right now.

I kind of wanna put Kavik on
the back burner in my brain,

grab the snow machine,
and go camping for a night.

Have a fun little night
and camp out,
get some perspective back.

This is just a day trip.

I haven't been out of Kavik
for personal reasons
in a long time.

I haven't been able
to get out and camp

since, I don't know,
last summer.

I got to go for what?
Another over-nighter?

Um, it's nice to get
your head out of the game.

Okay.

I think I'm ready to get
the... Zip this up.

All righty.

(ENGINE REVVING)

MARTHA: As long as you
go outside and you
keep yourself busy,

be independent
and do your own thing,

the wilderness
will give to you.

ERIK: You couldn't have made
a more lethal shot.

You got the heart and lungs.

MARTHA: It's a savage world
out here in the wild.
You got to fend for your own.

NARRATOR: This time of year,
Erik and Martha
have a limited opportunity

to hunt caribou as they
pass through camp.

Each kill is vital to
their supply of meat
for the coming months.

MARTHA: Oh, yeah.

Oh, you made
a perfect shot, too.

Why don't I
gut this last one, and you

walk back and
get the snow machine?

-Okay, sounds good.
-Go get it.

ERIK: Martha's going
to grab the sled.

I'm just gutting this last
caribou, and then we can

load them up
and get out of here.

These aren't good animals
to eat throughout the winter,

but come springtime,
they're fattening up again.

They're real run down
throughout the winter,

after the late fall
breeding season.

But by this time of year,
the cows,

their bodies are stressed
with reproduction

and these are
the fattest, healthiest,

most nourishing animals
that you can harvest.

Got the second one gutted out.

I'm going to go follow up
the tracks here
on that third one now,

and make sure that
I didn't wound it.

I sure thought I hit it,
but it didn't look hit.

It ran off
into the forest there.

There's its track right here.

I'll follow this caribou
up a little bit

and make sure
I didn't hit him.

This is where I shot at him
right here, he was running.

I followed the tracks about
100 yards, and we got blood.

You can't leave
a wounded animal behind.

(WHISPERING)
I knew I hit the third one.

There's a bunch of
blood there.

-It's right up there.
-Where's it at?

I already saw it,
it's over there.

(GUNSHOT)

I know I hit it,
but it's still moving.
We're out of bullets.

But you have that knife still.

Yeah, maybe it's
slowed down enough
I can get him with a knife.

Let's go. Come on.

(PANTING)

NARRATOR: In Alaska, leaving
a wounded caribou to suffer
is illegal and unethical.

The Salitans are out of ammo,
so Erik is forced
to harvest the animal

in an ancient fashion.

I wanted all three.

Three's the number we need,
so I didn't have any

choice but to try to get
this caribou with a knife.

And I just kind of
eased up on it and

finished it in the most
humane way I could,
which was across the throat.

That's nature.
It's not real pretty,
but he'll eat all right.

We got a lot
of caribou to cut up.

MARTHA: This land here
provides a lot of opportunity.

You just got to go out and
find it as far as animals go.

You know, Erik and I can't go
to the grocery store
and be like,

"Oh, that's what
we want for dinner.

"Oh, that's what
we want for dinner."

We got to go out
and get it ourselves.

So it's very fulfilling
to be able to go out

with the person
you love, you know,

and go and spend time
out in the woods

and come home
with some fresh meat.

It's way better than
getting in your car

and going
to the grocery store.

The good is
we're all squared away
on red meat for a while.

The bad is, it's a lot of
work to do in one day.

One, two, three.

SUE: Life can surprise me
by showing me my wall and

reminding me not to get too
proud and too full of myself.

I am pleased
that I still have a mind

that can come up
with the ingenuity

of, "Yeah,
so I can't do it your way.
But I can do it this way."

I'll get my stuff,
throw it on,
find rope, tie it down...

Boom! Out of here.

I'm not going far.
I'm just going to get away.

You know, if it gets
too dark and I worry
about it, I'll stop.

You know, that's the
nice thing about going for fun

instead of going on a mission.

On a mission,
you got to get somewhere.

There's, you know, something
pulling your strings.

(ENGINE STARTING)

NARRATOR: Sue is awaiting
parts to fix her machinery.

In the meantime,
a night away from Kavik
is a much-needed retreat.

I kind of like this spot.

I saw a bunch of birdies.
I can see some
roosting over this way.

It's kind of nice.
I'd like get the tent up
before dark.

You know, right in here
would be a good little spot.

I may have to get
my other little hat on
in a second.

It's easy, you know,
the sun's going down.

It's going to get cool fast.

So that's why I wanna
get the little tent set up.

The sun sets here,
sun rises there.

This is a real quick
trip for me.

This is just what
the doctor Sue ordered.

I am even more remote
than I am at camp.

This is just me and whatever
nature's going to give me.

It's just meant to be,
"Don't stress,

"It's not a major expedition.
There's no focal point
I have to achieve

"other than a little R and R."

Even though I've got some
stuff going south at camp,

meaning my equipment
and whatnot,

maybe I'll just have
a nice day and have some fun.

No major point
to my activities
other than my enjoyment.

GLENN: I just feel really well
living out in nature,

and this is a place
where I can do it.

There aren't that many places
left in the world

where you can
still live this way.

There's a lot of
freedom out here.

NARRATOR: After moving his
food scraps to a nearby island

to protect his camp
from bears,

Glenn must now retrieve
the last of his buried caribou

before predators
can discover it.

A few days ago,
I killed five caribou

to the east of my camp
here in the forest.

Since then, I've been
moving them back to camp.

I'm headed out
to get my fifth load,
the last caribou.

There was no way
I was going to get them
all back that night.

So what I had to do was,
I decided to just gut them.

The only thing I could do
to protect them
was bury them with snow.

I'm coming over each day
and getting more caribou

and bringing them
back to camp.

It's a lot of weight to move.
It takes a lot of time.

And time is of the essence
because my main concern

is that nothing
finds these caribou
before I get them back.

What's this here?

It looks like a wolverine
came right through here.

Wolverines are gluttons,
they'll eat a lot of meat.

And even if
they can't eat it all,

they'll just take pieces of it
and hide it in different
places in the snow.

They'll urinate on it,
poop on it,
make a mess of it.

If he finds that caribou
before I get to it,
that's going to be a problem.

I just saw a snowshoe hare
running through here.

I think it disappeared into
that tree well right there.

(GUN COCKING)

There it goes.

(CHUCKLES)

They're pretty fast.

He was over there.

NARRATOR: On his way
to retrieve a stash
of caribou meat,

Glenn has encountered
a chance at adding
to his spring food stockpile.

There's lots of snowshoe hare
sign here.

There's some droppings.
See where he's
been sitting here.

It looks like
that one got away.

Right here,
this big pile of snow,

that's where
I left the caribou.

I don't see any
tracks around it.

Other than the ones I made
when I was burying it,

I don't see
any fresh tracks in here.

It doesn't look like
anything found it.

This looks good.
Nothing got into it.

The snow is really hard now
because I disturbed it,

and I piled it all up here.
It set up hard.

I'm going to have
to dig through that.
It's not going to be easy.

When I buried the caribou,
it was soft snow like this,
but now it's really hard.

It's all set up.
I'm going to use this
snowshoe to uncover it.

There it is.

A caribou hoof.

A caribou's right under there.

It looks good.

I just got a lot of work to
dig this all out
with a snowshoe.

But nothing else
dug into here.

The snow kept
the sun off of it,
preserved the meat,

it kept the birds
from finding it,

and luckily, the wolverine
didn't smell it
and get to it before I did.

That caribou
is really frozen in.

There's no way I can
pull that out of there.

The snow is good
for protecting the caribou,
but it's hard to get it out.

It's starting to come loose.

I think I can get it now.

(BREATHING HEAVILY)

I got it.

Caribou.

One caribou.

Whole, frozen,
ready to take home.

My guess is this weighs
somewhere around 250 pounds.

It's a lot of weight.

I'm going to get it home,
protect it there
where I can watch it,

keep an eye on it,
make sure nothing gets to it.

All the time it was
out in the field,
there was a chance of

something getting it.
But now I got it,
it's secure.

Of course pulling
a load like this,
it's a lot of work.

Of course it's a little easier
now that I got the trail.

Without a trail, it's pretty
tough getting around,

especially if you've got
a load to carry in the sled.

Got the caribou back.

I got to it before
anything else found it.

I got enough meat there
to last me a month,
so I'm happy about that.

CHIP: Instead of being rich,
we went for happiness.

So to hell with money.

I mean, we need it,
but it's not
the centre of our life.

Hi, fox. What's up?

He's watching us, but he's
not really afraid of us.

That is a nice cherry fox.

It would make a nice, warm hat
and a nice, warm
pair of mittens.

He knows I'm a predator,
and he's going to get

fairly close,
but not too close.

He's got a really nice skin,
and if we happen to

get him incidentally, we'd
rather get him in the trap

rather than shoot him.
We don't want holes in him.

We don't want the bruised part
to the leather.

We'll just leave him be
for what he is.

This guy right here is just
cleaning up our mess.
It's all good.

Once we check our traps,
we'll just stay low, too.

It's not a good day to
hunt up in the ridges.

The satisfaction I've gotten
out of my life

has always been probably
personal satisfaction.

I don't know what makes
other people tick.

I don't even
give a damn, actually.

But this is what I like to do.

This is where I like to be.
It's a lot of fun.

I'm my own boss.
I get to go where I want,
when I want.

I take my snow machine
where I think I can take it,

and I'm pretty much
left alone to it all.

(AGNES SPEAKING)

(CHIP SPEAKING)

(AGNES SPEAKING)

AGNES: Watch out!

CHIP: Get him down.
There you go.

Good one. That's a good shot.

Too bad for the raven.

The raven must have
come for the skin, too.

So the fox looks nice.

He's not even
frozen on his leg.

He hasn't
been here long at all.

This is nice.

This is a nice
red cherry fox,
real easy for our little,

young girls to
start sewing with.

Our daughters can make a hat.

If you had to
put a value on it,

at probably $250 to $300
apiece for a hat

just like they made
for their mom
that she's wearing right now.

AGNES: You can make
a real pretty hat.

CHIP: Yep.

Put him on the ground
if it's fine with you.

-(EXHALES)
-AGNES: There you go.

CHIP: No holes,

except for where
you hit it with the .22.

So this guy here, he's not
going to be a bit wasted.

There's no problem with it.

His meat will be fine.
His skin is fine.

He's profitable to us,
and he's a good start
to some trapping around here.

That's pretty nice.

It's a little tacky
right now, but

we'll take it inside
and we'll wash it.

-Stretch it.
-And we'll stretch it
on a stretcher,

and we'll start
cleaning off the flesh.

You cut the throat
so their spirit

can go to the
happy hunting grounds.

CHIP: We are the top predator.

We hunt the wolves,
we hunt the bears,
wolverine, everything.

That's us.
So we're a part of this.

We're just
the apex of this all.

When our time comes,
we'll be recycled
back into it.

I think in the very end,
just becoming
a turd in the tundra

is going to be like the best
thing we can hope for.

Leave no mark behind.

MARTHA: I would prefer that
when Erik and I

are driving around
on our snow machine

and we come to a crossroads,
that a wolf runs across

instead of a car
driving across.

You know,
that's what's great about
living in the wild out here,

is that every day you
walk out your door

and something is different,
instead of every day

you walk out your door and
everything is the same.

Martha and I just
got back to the house.

We put on some pretty
good miles today.

Got some premium
spring meat here,
some big bull caribou.

Oh, these are nice,
big ones you got, honey.

Let me help you out here.

There's king crab,

there's lobster,
there's foie gras,

there's oysters.

-I love oysters.
-That's all shit.

Caribou tongue is
the best thing there is.

The best way to
get at the tongue

is to cut along the jaw here
and get back to the larynx.

I love my wife.

I don't think we fight more
than any other couple.

But every time
we kill an animal
we get in a fight,

'cause we're always fighting
over the tongue.

(BOTH CHUCKLING)

MARTHA: I grew up eating
these kinds of things,

so I guess you kind of
require a palate
for these kinds of things.

Tongue isn't something that
most people probably wanna
be eating for their dinners.

ERIK: Whoo! We'll be
eating good tonight.

What do you think?
Not too shabby.

So two are mine, one is yours?

No.

We'll arm wrestle
for that later.

MARTHA: Just boiling it
in a little bit of salty
water, that's all.

Plain and simple, the best
way to eat the tongue.

You could put it in a soup
or do what you wanted with it,

but we just like
straight tongue.

I'm going to let them boil for
about an hour and a half.

The longer you boil them,
the more tender they'll be,

so usually we get
impatient and only
let them boil for an hour.

How's those tongues coming?

Good. They've been boiling
for an hour and a half.

ERIK: Oh, boy.

Let's eat them.
I can't wait any longer.

This is the fattest
part of the animal.

This is what
the animals go for
on a caribou, too.

The wolves always
eat the tongue.

I'm so excited right now.

ERIK: It's a really
complicated recipe.

It involves boiling and salt.

-MARTHA: Mmm.
-(PEPPER SHAKER RATTLING)

ERIK: This is candy.

This is a candy meal.

This doesn't even
count as a meal.

I could eat 50 meals
and be so full
and be like, "Mmm, tongue?

"How much can I have?"

You're going to
burn your mouth.

Mmm.

Winter's pretty much over,
the light's coming back,
caribou coming through.

Pretty soon
the birds will be here.

The bears will be coming out.
We'll be guiding bear hunts.

Before you know it
the salmon will be in,

and we'll be guiding
fisherman and netting fish.

And this was a nice cap
to the season though.

Yeah, it was.

We're about to pass out
of a tongue coma.

Eep!

-(EXHALES)
-Ugh.

SUE: I'm just packing up camp.

Um, it was just supposed
to be a little shorty trip.

And I needed it. It was nice.

Get out where there's
absolutely no noise,

absolutely no lights except
the ones nature provides.

-I still want to explore.
I'm not done.
-(ENGINE STARTING)

But in the background,
camp is on my mind.

But it is definitely time
for me to get back
and get that ball rolling.

That's where
I've got to concentrate
my brain power right now.

I've got a whole lot
of gnarly to get through
before I can get to the nice.