All language subtitles for Life.Below.Zero.S01E11.The.Thaw.Hunt.or.Be Hunted.720p.NF.WEB-DL

NARRATOR: Deep in Alaska,
the thaw has come,
but the land is alive.

SUE:
Bears wake up, they're hungry.

ANDY: You can see him
in the woods there.

CHIP:
You fall out of the boat,
you could die.

AGNES: Chip!

NARRATOR: On this episode of
Life Below Zero...

(WHOOPING)

It's hunt or be hunted.

ANDY: Worst thing to do
is turn and run.

NARRATOR:
High in the Brooks Range,
the primal way lives on.

It might be the last chance
I get to get a caribou.

NARRATOR: Sue has 48 hours
to kill a bear.

I got nothing
in the freezer right now.

NARRATOR: And the Hailstones
brave a new frontier
for valuable fur.

You don't get a second chance,
and we're flying by the seat
of our ass on this one.

NARRATOR:
It's spring in Alaska.

The bears are awake
and looking for food.

And one just showed up
at Andy Bassich's
remote homestead.

ANDY: Hyah! Get out of here!
Get out of here! Hyah!

Come on, girl,
you've gotta stay inside.

(ANDY SPEAKING)

You have to be cautious
up here.

You're on their turf
all the time.

So you gotta be careful,
and you gotta be vigilant.

Quite frankly,
they're intelligent,
they're predatory,

and when they come out
of hibernation,
they're hungry.

Where the hell did you go?

Early in the springtime
up here,

bears are our early meat.

It's the first fresh meat that
we see after a long winter.

He's in the yard here,
so he's gonna be
fuckin' dinner tonight.

There he is.

(COCKS RIFLE)

I see him in the woods there.
Right here in the woods.

NARRATOR:
If Andy doesn't get the bear
right now,

it could return and
take him by surprise again.

(GUNSHOT)

Bad day for the bear,
good day for me.

This bear didn't back down.

He kept coming
even when I yelled at him.

He wasn't afraid of me at all.

Yeah, come here. Come here.
It's okay. Good girl!

Good girl!
That's what I want you to do.

When you smell those guys,
you gotta let me know.

Actually, he's bigger
than I thought he was.

Look at that. His paws
are as big as my hand.

Looking at his hide,
looking at his teeth,

he looks like
a really healthy bear,

so this should be
some really good eating.

It's really unusual for me
to see bears
this time of the year.

I think that's why
I had my guards down
a little bit on this.

There are a lot
of wild animals up here and...

...you're on their turf
a lot of times.

So you gotta be careful.

All right, let's see
if we can't get this guy
drug in

and start getting him
butchered up here.

CHIP:
This is life without a clock.

But if we don't get up and
make ourselves do this stuff,

we're gonna suffer for it.

You girls be safe,
and no going to the river.

-No going to the beach at all.
-Yeah, I know.

We'll see you
when we get a load.

-Love you.
-Love you, too.

NARRATOR: Chip and Agnes live
in an isolated native village
with their five daughters.

Just putting food on the table
is a constant battle
in this harsh environment.

CHIP: Where I live
beyond the end of the road,

it's all hunting,
fishing and gathering.

If I go to the store and
I get two small bags of food,

I'm probably paying
a couple of hundred bucks.

So the fact is we have to go
get the food ourselves.

There's everything you need
to make a living out there.

The river's broken up,

and flood waters
came and went,

and we're gonna go downriver

and try
to catch up to the flood.

And hopefully,
when we get there,

we'll be able to hunt rats,
beavers, otters, fresh meats.

Different change of diet.

Right now
the muskrats and beavers

are all out of their homes
and stuff.

There're gonna be quite a few
out there,

and hopefully,
this will be a good hunt.

We have a flood come up,
and the flood forces out
all the animals.

And as the flood
goes down again,

those animals
have places to go and go hide.

So it's imperative
that we be there when
the water's at its highest.

The flood
has gone by here already.

It's already starting
to recede.
The water's going down.

So as we go downriver,
then we're gonna go
catch the flood

where the ice is jamming,
where it will be solid ice.

We're going to go to places
that are totally inaccessible
for the rest of the year.

And that's where we got to be,
because out on the main rivers
there is nothing.

Out on the big lakes,
wherever it's easy access,
there's nothing.

So we're going
to the nooks and crannies

'cause that's where
the animals are going to hide.

We're kind of flying
by the seat of our ass
on this one.

NARRATOR: Warmer temperatures
have broken up the ice

on the Kobuk River,
creating dangerous chunks.

One bad hit
could breach the boat's hull.

(AGNES SPEAKS)

Slow down!

Slowly!

Slowly!

CHIP: Very soon
the water will go down,

and we won't have access
to the really shallow places.

And the muskrats will
start fighting each other,

and they'll be putting holes
in their skins.

And when they start
doing that,

the hunt is over.

The skins,
they can make into parkas.

And if we can get 120 rats,
we'd have enough
for about three adult parkas.

And to us,
that's 15,000 bucks.

It's not a hunt
you want to screw up.

It's fun to change seasons.
We got off our snow machines,
we get in our boats.

This is our first good boating
this year.

So that's what makes it
more exciting
than anything else,

is that the change
of transportation.

It is blazing hot.

It's got to be, like,
at least 40 degrees.

And we don't have any chances
of freezing to death
unless we get wet first.

So that kind of narrows down
everything we're doing.

It makes everything better.

We got four months
to get up enough food

to get us through winter
without having to buy
a bunch of food.

GLENN: I hunt to live
'cause that's how I get
most of the food I eat.

It's a part of my life
every day.

The cycle of life and death.

I'm thinking about going out
and looking for
something to eat today.

I could use
another caribou this spring.

NARRATOR: Glenn Villeneuve
left the lower 48
and moved to Alaska,

where he's carved out
a primitive existence

in the high mountains
of the Brooks Range.

GLENN: I live about 200 miles
from the nearest city

and a 60-mile walk
from the nearest road.

I live by myself.

I'm hunting, trapping,
fishing.

NARRATOR: Glenn makes his way
in the wild

almost entirely by hand.

No machines, little fuel,

powered by his own two feet
over miles of mountains

in search of
every bit of food he eats.

GLENN: And nine years ago
I walked out here

because it was the last place
in the world where I thought
I could live like this.

I lived in Berlin.
I've lived in New York City.

After living out here,

I think I'd feel like I was
living in a hamster cage
if I went down there again.

NARRATOR:
It's an existence that makes
even the simplest task

a life and death
struggle for survival.

GLENN:
Spring is a transition time

because the caribou leave
and things really change here.

Up on top of those ridges,
right on the skyline there,

is where the caribou
like to travel a lot of times.

Didn't see anything
looking around today
from down here,

so I'm gonna head up
the mountain and see if I can
find something up there.

NARRATOR: But every hunt means

the choice between
finding food and leaving
his camp unprotected.

Living out here alone,

there's always a risk of
a bear coming and ripping up
my camp when I'm gone.

All I can do
is secure things a little bit.

When I'm around camp,
I can chase 'em away.

But just a chance
I have to take when I'm gone.

I try to pack
as light as I can.

For butchering,
I got my main hunting knife

and this little hatchet
comes in handy.

I'm going to carry
a .22 today.

I'm also gonna take
the .30-06.

If there're no caribou,
there's always the chance
of finding a grizzly bear.

This is really hungry country
up here.

It's the Arctic,
and life is spread really thin
over the land.

The only way I can find
enough food to eat out here

is to keep really close track
of the territory I hunt,

watching all the time
and walking all the time.

I hunt from the ridge tops
all along that side
of the valley

to the ridge tops
all along this side
of the valley.

It's an area
of about 60 square miles.

I have to come up here,

because from my lake
down there,
I can only see this side.

A lot of times there are
caribou just along the ridge,
a little bit out of view.

I can see
some caribou tracks now.

Looks like a big group.

Might have been
a couple of hundred caribou.

Look at all these spots
where they peed in the snow.

There's an antler
shed right there.

Yeah, there were caribou here.

We just didn't
intercept them today but...

I probably climb up
this mountain 10 times

without seeing caribou
for every time I come up here
and there is a caribou around.

NARRATOR:
In spring, the caribou migrate
from the 6,000-foot peaks

to the calving grounds
in the foothills
and out of Glenn's reach.

GLENN: There might not be
another caribou in this valley
for months now.

SUE: Some people can handle
the challenge of being
a food group,

some people can't.

You're either
the mouse or the lion.

It's time to find out
which one.

This is not winter any more.

It's a whole new world.

Instantly when I hear "thaw,"
my brain says,

"Holy shit. I only have
two-and-a-half months to get
all my shit ready for winter."

NARRATOR: Sue has only
48 hours to hunt a bear before
the season officially closes.

And with
a nearly empty freezer,

this is a kill
she desperately needs.

SUE:
I live at Kavik River Camp
up on the north slope.

My closest neighbour
would be 350 miles south.

I've recently bought Kavik
instead of just working here.

I'm now the owner,

and it comes
with a tremendous amount
of pressure

because if I don't do well
this summer,

I may not be here next season.

And it's critical for me
to get meat

'cause the grocery stores
are 500 miles away,

and in the dead of winter,
I can hunt,
but there's nothing to hunt.

But now my bears wake up.
They're hungry.

The caribou are
supposed to be migrating in.
They're late.

So it's time to go get supper.

You shouldn't go
too many places
without a weapon in your hand.

I'm an old-school gal,
I like my lever-action guns.

But I've saved up my money
and bought myself
what I call the equalizer.

Booya!

It is a gun that as quickly
as I can pull the trigger

another bullet will come out.

Every situation you have

with your predator
is different.

I might be some bear's dinner,

but it's an acceptable risk

to achieve
the type of lifestyle I want.

(ENGINE SPUTTERS)

I have
children and grandchildren.

Because I'm a hermit
and I have a very private life

does not mean
they don't deserve to have me
in their lives.

'Cause the bear
is probably looking
at his own regulations, going,

"Hey, it's still Sue season.
Awesome."

I mean, I know more
than most people

exactly how dangerous
these animals can be.

About five, six years ago,

smart bear who was hiding
in the cut bank

and reached out
and snatched me and
was just rolling me around.

I mean, you can still feel
here and here

where his teeth
went into my head.

The hips were torn out
of the socket,

and he slipped out
over the bank.

The hips did not hold,

and I ended up
having to drag myself up

from halfway across the river,
um, and got inside.

And I just had to lay here.

And it took 10 days
for somebody to find me.

So I accepted a long time ago

that I may be
bear crap any day.

So you cannot live here
and do this without accepting

your place in the food chain.

There's the bottom,
there's the top,

and I'm somewhere around here.

(SUE SPEAKING)

NARRATOR:
With less than two days left
in the hunting season,

Sue's next move is critical.

I don't know if I'm gonna come
walk out there

and jump right on top of him.

Or did he manage
to get past me,
and he's way far away?

I just don't know.

I got nothing
in the freezer right now.

So I've got two days,
today and tomorrow.

At midnight tomorrow,
bear season ends,

and it could be my last
opportunity to get a bear,

put some meat in the freezer.

Well, I either see a bear
or a moose,

another god damn
mile that way.

So, it's time to get
some meat.

Daylight's a-burning.

For me to survive,
I have to hunt
for the meat that I eat.

So, I'm worried
about getting that bear.

Finally see
the big dark shape.

He's right over there.

Quarter mile, half mile.

It's a moose.

But I can't shoot that moose.
It's not moose season,
it's bear season.

So no matter how badly
I need the meat,
he walks free.

I got 40 hours left
of the season.

But I took a chance.

It's the people that
don't take a chance,

those are the ones
I feel sorry for.

ANDY:
I like to be self-sufficient.

The outside world
could totally implode,

and we'll be
in good shape here.

In the springtime,
we are out of meat usually,

and we're looking to start
providing for the next year.

And I learnt a long time ago

that when something
presents itself
as an opportunity...

...if you pass it up thinking,
"Oh, I'll go get
the next one,"

the next one never comes.

This bear presented himself
as an opportunity...

...and I took advantage of it,

and it's gonna be
a big pay-off in the long run.

What did I shoot?
Three rounds?

So, this bear cost me
about $1.50

for 80 to 100 pounds of meat
off this bear.

So, that's
pretty good economics.

You can't buy a cup of coffee
for that.

And I can tan this hide up,

and if I want,
I can sell this hide,

or I can trade with somebody
for this hide.

So there's barter value in it.

The claws will be made
into jewellery.

The main canine teeth
will be pulled,

and I'll be making jewellery
out of those.

When I'm all done,

the only thing that goes
to waste on this whole animal
is the blood.

Here's all the fat.

This is gut fat we call it.

And it's really the sweet fat
for rendering.

Out in this country,
we crave fat.

In cities people want
a fat-free diet,
but out here fat is energy.

I've got the lungs...

...and the heart right here.

This heart will be good,
good eating.

It's a good start
on the summer
to have some fresh meat here.

We're not gonna be able
to hunt moose until...

The first season
is in late August.

So one bear is gonna feed
Kate and I

for probably a month,
month-and-a-half.

Kate will be excited.

Look at the hair on him.

-Oh, my gosh, it's soft.
-Yeah.

-That is really nice.
-It's a really prime bear.

We came out here
to live in the woods

and make a life
for ourselves

and live the way
we want to live.

For Kate and I,
it's about taking care
of ourselves...

...providing the food
that we want,

fishing, gardening.

There's only three things
you really need in your life,

and that's food,
shelter and water.

If we can provide those
for ourselves,
we're doing really good.

-We gonna make a rug
or a wall hanging?
-Something.

I'd like a wall hanging.

I think that'd be better
'cause of the dogs
walking on it.

-Yeah.
-Awesome.

CHIP: Nature doesn't
give you a warning.

Nature doesn't send you
a little card that says,

"You done screwed up.
Please come back."

You have to be ready before.
You have to be prepared.

We're heading downriver still.

We're trying to catch up to
all this busting-up ice.

And stay caught up
with the geese, beavers,
muskrats and ducks.

NARRATOR:
Although air temperatures
have risen in the Arctic,

the rivers are still icy cold.

One dip in these waters
could easily result
in hypothermia and death.

(AGNES SPEAKING)

CHIP: Being on the water,
there's always
some sort of danger.

I mean,
you fall out of the boat,
you could die.

(AGNES EXCLAIMS)

My wife's especially
leery of ice since
it's killed her family before.

It's just part of living.
Take a calculated risk
every time you go somewhere.

We might have a tough time
just getting out of here.

CHIP: I think we're screwed.
AGNES: Hold on.
I think we can push it.

(CHIP EXHALES)

Thank you.

AGNES: Ready?
CHIP: Yep.

We don't have
a safety mechanism
other than ourselves.

So we have to take care
of ourselves first.

AGNES:
Watch where you're going!

CHIP: I'm not so sure about
this piece of ice.

I don't want to be on it.

Chip!

(AGNES SPEAKING)

Now that we've gotten through
the main channels

and the things
that block us out of our way,

where we wanna go
is down by the lake,

and the closer
we get to the lake
and the edge of all this stuff

is where the greatest amount
of animals

are gonna be kicked up
by the high waters.

There's a lot of muskrats,

and those are the real prize,
you know, the fur
that we're after right now.

AGNES: Oh, there's something
right there.

It's a muskrat or a beaver.

AGNES: It's right there.
CHIP: It's still swimming
right there.

(CHIP SPEAKS)

-There it is.
-I see it.

Now, stand up.

Shoot fast.

Right there. Shoot it.

(GUNSHOT FIRED)

(CHIP SPEAKS)

Should be right around here
holding on to willows.

CHIP: Right there!
Right there! Right there!

There you go. Good one.

-AGNES: One more time?
-Yeah, one more time,
until he's dead.

There you go. Good one.
That's a good one.

AGNES: It's a beaver.

CHIP: A beaver pelt's
worth quite a bit to us.

My daughters will take that
and probably sew it into a hat

and get themselves $250 bucks.

(AGNES SPEAKS)

(CHIP SPEAKS)

You can't predict
what there is
and what there isn't.

You have to go out
and find out.

And that's part of hunting.

AGNES: Faster!

Ooh, first duck!

There's dinner.

Mallard, mallard, mallard!

Look, there's another one.
Is that a duck or a beaver?

It's a duck.

(GUNSHOT FIRED)

AGNES: Yeehaw!

CHIP: Beaver! Beaver!
On the bay.

Yeah!

AGNES: Got it!

There's a duck.

(GUNSHOT FIRED)

Ducks for dinner.

Beavers and ducks,
beavers and ducks.
That's what it's all about.

-Three ducks and a beaver.
-We gotta fill up this muskrat
order with ducks.

But we have yet
to find a muskrat.

AGNES: Not one muskrat
in here.

We'll be totally skunked
on muskrats evidently.

But sometimes you go out
for caribou

and you come home
with a moose, you know.
What can you say?

Rats have hit the low cycle,
and we need to seek
other animals.

We're opportunists,
we're hunters.

You can't be a hunter
with a fixed frame of mind.

So what you end up doing

is following what you can,
catching what you can
and doing what you can.

And making the most
of your day.

AGNES:
Not one rat. I'll be damned.

GLENN:
A lot of people would probably
find this a scary way to live.

I don't think
it's anything to be afraid of.

It's just difficult.

I had to learn a lot
in order to live out here.

From reading books,
sometimes from talking
to people.

But mostly
I just experimented.

I had to figure out
a lot of things on my own.

Physically,
it's been very hard

'cause a lot of my time
is spent getting food,

getting firewood,
getting water.

I don't have plumbing.

I get my water
out of the lake.

It takes a significant amount
of time and energy

compared to
turning a faucet on.

NARRATOR: Getting to
Glenn's water supply

requires constant effort
using hand tools.

All I have to worry about now

is that my arms
can do the job.

Boy, I don't really know
just how thick it is,

but I'd guess
it might be four feet.

NARRATOR: Glenn needs water,

but right now
he needs food more.

And he has to get close enough
to make the shot.

Whoo!

Whoo!

Whoo!

NARRATOR: The last caribou
of the season
is in Glenn's sight.

But his chance to get
close enough to kill it
is slipping away.

GLENN:
Not a whole lot of caribou
left around here right now.

(BREATHING HEAVILY)

(GUNSHOT)

(GUNSHOT)

Both shots missed.

(WHOOPING)

NARRATOR: Caribou have large
hooves that prevent them
from sinking in the snow,

making it easy
to outrun Glenn
on the frozen lake.

Whoo!

Whoo!

GLENN: Sometimes
I've been able to get caribou
come in pretty close

just by yelling like that.

I'll run right at 'em and yell
and try to bounce my voice
off the shoreline.

(WHOOPING)

And you sometimes get 'em
to stop and turn towards you,

get 'em to come
in 75 yards or so
while you're doing that.

Unfortunately,
this one didn't work out.

Looks like my ice hole
filled up with water
while I was gone.

I can't stand
in the hole any more,

so I just have to use
a longer chisel.

And it's a little bit harder
on my back.

NARRATOR: Water has seeped in
through a small crack.

If Glenn doesn't make
a large, clean hole,

it will freeze over,
and he will have
to start again tomorrow.

GLENN: I thought that might be
the last chance I get

at a caribou this spring.

So I decided to take a shot

that was gonna be
pretty difficult

considering how out of breath
I was.

It's too bad.
I would have liked
to get that.

I might not have
another chance this spring.

Most of them
seem to have headed
further north now.

SUE: Best possible scenario,
I get meat and I don't starve.

The worst is,
bear gets meat and gets Sue.

It's the last day
of bear season.
It ends at midnight tonight.

And I've got that much
in my freezer.

NARRATOR: If Sue kills a bear
out of season,

she could face fines
and criminal charges.

This is her last chance.

SUE: There he is.

Let's keep going.

There's an area just up here.

I nicknamed it Bear Creek
and Caribou Crossing.

That's where I'm gonna hit.

But I only got
about six more hours
and the season closes,

so I gotta fill the freezer.

So much more than just
"Bam, bam, bam, bam."

If that's your only goal,
I mean, you're missing
the whole picture.

Up here, I mean, a lot
of my inland grizzlies
are 800 pounds of meat.

That's a lot for a fat chick
to cut up and haul back.

But spring bear's real tasty.

And I have so many uses
for the bear.

It'd be great to have
some more warm fur,

some fat so I can make
soap and shampoo and stuff.

I'm worried that I got snow
and I got fog coming in
from the north.

I'm not liking that
'cause if that drops in,
I can't see.

I'm very limited.

But that bear can switch
from eyes to nose
and still be god-damn dead on.

He can smell what direction
I'm in and just
go charging and bowl me over.

I won't be able see.

NARRATOR:
Grizzly bears can lose
40% of their body weight

during their
six-month hibernation.

When they emerge
in the spring,

they will eat as much as
90 pounds of food a day.

They can be blinded
by their hunger.

SUE: I'm on his menu.

He may have a Sue tag,
so I've gotta keep
my little peepers peeled.

That son of bitch will jump me
just as much as
I wanna jump him.

We got deep snow
over there again.

And the snow might blow
this whole friggin' hunt...

...'cause where I wanna go
is covered in too much snow.

The other place...

Other place I want to go?
Can't get across the river.

Kind of boned.
A little bit boned.

ANDY: Transitioning now
from winter to summer.

We have four months
to prepare for a whole year.

Now, the real work begins.

All right,
let's go get some dogs.

NARRATOR:
A few weeks ago, Andy and Kate
evacuated 25 of their dogs

when the ice
on the Yukon River
started to melt and break up,

threatening to flood
and destroy their homestead.

In the 2009 flood,
one of their dogs drowned.

This year the dogs were taken
to the safety of the nearest
town, 14 miles upriver.

ANDY: Come on over here.

You're such a good girl.

In the summertime
their job is to be
our alarm system here.

Early in the spring
is when we see
a lot of bears in this area

and when we have all of our
dogs here, the bears can't
come anywhere near us

without the dogs picking up
the scent

and giving us
a really good warning.

KATE: Today is a good day.

We get our puppies home.

These dogs work for us,

they pull sleds,
they pull water.

They're our world.

I'm excited.
I just can't wait!

Come on, Uzo!

-Up, up, good boy!
-Come on.

-Come on. Heavy guy.
-Come on.

-Come on, Gambo.
-Quick, Gambo.

Come on, Iceberg! Come on, Ti!

You guys ready to go home?

Let's go home.

This is the first boat ride
for a lot of these dogs.

My biggest concern coming down
the river is that the weight

shifts in the boats

and if we were to tip these
boats and swamp them,

everybody would be gone.

All the dogs are chained in
real tight to these lines

so that they can't shift
their weight too far

to one side or the other.

And this is a big river,
and it moves fast up here.

It's got a lot of power.

NARRATOR: The Yukon River
is notorious for extreme
eddies and undercurrents

that have already claimed
one life this year.

ANDY: When you're out here
in the middle of the river,
there's nothing you can do

to change anything
if things go bad.

NARRATOR:
With only four miles to go,
Andy is nearly home.

But on the
unpredictable Yukon,

nothing is guaranteed.

(BARKING)

Hold on, hold on.

These dogs are, you know,

we do a lot of different
things with them

so they're pretty used to
being exposed to new ideas

and new adventures
and new things.

Once they get the hang of it,
it doesn't take them very long

to settle right in
and enjoy the ride.

Every week out of the year

the Yukon River is a different
place to be on.

And it's just something about
rivers, they just seem alive.

My whole life revolves around
the Yukon River and dogs.

Go, Gecko, go! On the beach!

-(DOG WHIMPERS)
-Come on, Keith.

Good, take the rest
of those guys with you!

KATE: Come here, girl!

Drachma!

(DOGS BARKING)

It's exciting for
the dogs to come home.

Come on, Crim. Come on.
At a boy, good boy.

Peso!

Hey, Shilling!

Come here, Shilling.

I know,
it's so much excitement.

GLENN: Out here
physical work has meaning.

You feed yourself.

It's work just to go to
the bathroom out here.

NARRATOR: Glenn sustains
himself primarily on
animal protein and fat,

but he's down to his
last reserves from winter.

Every bit of food he acquires
is critical to his survival.

GLENN:
A lot of my energy goes into
getting food out here.

And not only getting the food,

but preserving the food,
preparing the food,

eating the food.

We're gonna take a couple
of these heads and
get them thawing out

so we can skin
'em and...

...eat 'em.

There's a lot of good food
inside the head of caribou

or inside the head
of any animal.

Here are some foetuses
from the four cows

that I killed this year.

You can eat just about
the whole thing.

When you're eating mostly
animals for food

and not too much
in the way of plants...

...you need to eat as much fat
as you can find usually

or you'll get really sick.

There's the eyeball
right there,

and right behind that eye
there's gonna be
a nice chunk of fat.

And then you can start to pull
out some of that eye fat.

That right there
is just delicious fat.

Mmm!

That's really delicious fat.

I've never gotten sick eating
anything raw off the caribou.

I eat a lot of different
parts of caribou raw.

I eat it raw
if tastes better to me raw.

And if it's a part that tastes
better to me cooked,

I cook it.

I got a considerable
amount of fat right there.

I mean, that's like a stick
of butter, you know,

that was right behind
that caribou's eyeballs.

I'm also gonna take the
brain out and fry the brain.

I just happen to like brains
fried best.

There!
Right through the brain.

Boil up the eyeballs.

And the brains
I just scoop out.

They probably look like
scrambled eggs

to a lot of people.

Mmm.

I really like brains.

There's a lot of muscle,
but there's only one
little brain

that you can eat up
in one meal,

so it makes it extra special.

It's pretty powerful food.

You eat this stuff and you got
energy to run these mountains

and look for more
of this food.

If I was eating store-bought
food I don't know if I would
be able

to get around
these mountains the way I do.

CHIP: We're hunters,
and the thing for us to do

is to make the most
of every opportunity.

People call it work,
I just call it living.

We haven't done very
well seeing muskrats.

We've been coming across
a lot of beaver,

so there's always
something in the gap.

-What's that, Agnes?
-A beaver?

Muskrat! Oh, there it is!

Shoot it.

He's going right up there.

I can't get
a clear view of it.

CHIP:
Right by the base of the tree.

I can't see
which way it's heading.

I have the sun in my eyes.

Oh, there it is!

CHIP: He's going under us!
He's coming right to you!

He'll come up over here.
Go ahead!

AGNES: There it is!

NARRATOR:
Muskrats have partially-webbed
feet and a tail

to quickly propel them
through the water...

(GUNSHOT)

...making them
a difficult target to hit.

(GUNSHOT)

CHIP: When you're shooting
a rifle, you miss.

The animal doesn't
always cooperate.

Quite often the
animal's moving

and shooting at something and
missing is very, very common.

Thirteen shots.

You know why you're missing
so high it's because that

-thing's aimed
for about 100 yards.
-Yeah.

CHIP: It always matters
when you waste ammo.

I mean, you're wasting
your time,

you're wasting metals
and propellants,
and you're wasting money

'cause that stuff
costs a lot nowadays.

Ammo's crazy!
Shall we carry on?

CHIP: He's way ahead of us,
you see him?

CHIP: He's got his head up.
AGNES: Oh, it's coming.
Just stay still.

CHIP: You see him?

(GUNSHOT)

AGNES: Almost.

You got him in sight?

(GUNSHOT)

(AGNES SPEAKS)

Oh, you got him.

-I saw that.
-Right in its back.

CHIP: That's the first rat
of the year so far!

Right here. There you go.

Look, there's another muskrat!

Way up front, you see it?

CHIP:
That's a full-grown adult.
Get it!

(GUNSHOT)

That's a decent sized muskrat.

That was a good one!

NARRATOR: To prevent the meat
from spoiling,

Chip and Agnes
must skin and gut their kill

before the long journey home.

(AGNES SIGHS)

I feel like this was
a successful hunt.

-This has been successful!
-Yep!

CHIP:
When you have days like
we've got now, nice and hot,

probably 50 degrees,
tee-shirt weather,

this is, this is one of the
better times of year.

Check out your
beaver pelts, girls.

High five.

Come down here and check
out what we got for you girls!

No way.

Are those baby beavers?

-That's a muskrat!
-That's a muskrat!

-Now these are beavers!
-His eyes look nasty.

Help us clean up
the boat, please.

CHIP: We didn't catch
much muskrat,

so we settled for beaver
and did very well with those.

Let's go, girls.

CHIP: When you go hunting,
you can't say I'm after
one specific thing.

We hunt what is available
and what we can use

at that time of season
and that time of year,

and we're just opportunists
'cause we're hunters.

SUE: I'm not exactly
the cookie-baking,

knit-you-a-sweater
type of grandma.

I am the king of Kavik.

This is the last day of
hunting on the bear season.

And big game
fills up your freezer.

So if I don't get a bear
in the next three hours,

the season ends and that's it
until the next season opens.

It doesn't sink in that,

"Aw, I'm a grandma
and I'm actually 500 miles
from safety

"and I'm hunting
grizzly bears.

"What the hell are
you thinking?"
I don't think that way.

I see it very much like
somebody that might go,

"Oh, yeah, don't forget to
stop off at the five and dime

"and pick up milk
on the way home."

For me, it's like,
"Oh, yeah, bear hunting,
I gotta get it done."

But, you know,
I'm chasing a needle
in a haystack

and hoping to see
if they stuck by the river,

I'd be able to see
some tracks, some poop,
something.

I don't even see any sign,
the hunting is just,

I don't think very good
upriver.

I'm now officially down
just below the final hour.

And there's a couple of dots
of interest down this way...

...and that's three
hours of journey.

So, I'm not gonna go chasing
off across the tundra,

but I've got zero game meat
left and I needed to get it,
I wanted to get it.

But I don't live my life
dwelling on the negative.

Well, I mean, this is it.
The bear season's over.

Land of the midnight sun.
I mean there's my alarm clock.
It's midnight and it's done.

So the bear wins.

So the next challenge is
getting enough small game.

Always nicer when you can put
pound packages in your freezer

but, you know, I'll just start
doing it bite by bite.

Life just got a little harder.

ANDY: We spend a lot of time
working with these dogs

and providing for these dogs
but they provide for us, too.

It's a real
symbiotic relationship

we have with them.

Hey, Gamble,
come here, Gamble.

Well, they're all happy
to be home.

It's good to have these
guys home again.

It's a whole different feeling
when the dogs are here

as when they're not.

-Yep
-It's like empty-nest
syndrome.

You want bear ribs
for dinner tonight?

Absolutely.

I'll get some of those going.

Bringing the dogs
back to Calico Bluff

a really good feeling
for both Kate and I.

-Here we go, dinner music.
-(DOGS HOWLING)

ANDY:
Life's getting back to normal

and we'll celebrate
with a cold beer

and the sound of the dogs
in the dog lot again.

Cheers to the bear!

(DOGS HOWLING)