Original subtitles

NARRATOR: On this episode of Life Below Zero,

it's make it or break it in the Arctic.

This place will kill you deader than dead.

NARRATOR: A final trial could end a rookie's life in the bush.

CODY: I'm kind of afraid right now that I might find out

that this is something I don't wanna do.

NARRATOR: A Hailstone family lesson backfires.

CHIP: Are you all right?

NARRATOR: And Sue cuts a road home across the icy tundra.

This is not good. Shit!

SUE: Yay.

I am so excited for today.

Obviously if you look around this is not Kavik.

Um, I am in Deadhorse

and it's a little industrial town, my closest town.

It's about 80 miles or so away from me to the west.

I'm here because I've got some new equipment.

I ordered up and had specifically made an Argo.

It's an eight-wheeled

all-terrain vehicle with tracks

so that I can have a mode of transportation.

Living here, I have a lot of freedom of soul,

and now I want freedom of body.

It's time to rock and roll.

The Argo really is a unique rig

specifically designed for these kinds of conditions.

It's an all-year-round vehicle.

I'm gonna put it through one of the hardest tests it's ever gonna have.

The only way to get this vehicle, it's too big to fit in an aeroplane,

so the only way I can get it is to drive it over land.

And this is the virgin run for this piece of equipment,

so I am a little nervous about that.

NARRATOR: To reach Kavik, Sue will tread across nearly 80 miles of the tundra's snow,

rock, and river ice.

Losing her way in the vast Arctic wilderness could mean disaster.

If you go up this way then you'll only have

three major river crossings.

Although you do cross the Sag twice.

You got to cross the Sag twice.

Bob is a bush pilot friend of mine,

and he's not only watching my dog, Ermie,

while I'm gone, but he's gonna help me out

kinda mapping the journey to Kavik.

Sprinkled throughout this whole area

there's quite a few bear dens.

Yeah, that's another concern.

Especially as I make this turn

I know there's one out here.

From Deadhorse to Kavik in winter

it's roughly 80, 85 miles over land

and I'll be in the rig for about two days.

There's a lot of things, a lot of things could go wrong.

Am I afraid of the journey?

No, but I am concerned.

ANDY: The quickest way to learn what your needs are is to go out,

spend a winter out in the bush

in Alaska by yourself,

and you will learn really quick what your needs are

or are not in your life.

I'm gonna forget something. I know it. (EXHALES)

NARRATOR: Cody has come to Alaska

to learn the ways of survival in the bush.

Today, Andy will give him his final test.

Sleep well?

Always, I got a clear conscience.

How about you?

-It's kind of hard not to out here. -(CHUCKLES)

You've been here quite a while,

you picked up a lot of skills.

You're doing a great job.

What I want you to do now

is I want you to put together an outfit

and go spend some time out in the bush alone.

Okay?

Cody came out to us earlier this winter and his goal is to

learn some basic bush skills.

He's got a lot of drive.

He's showing a lot of potential.

But a big part of living out in this wilderness environment

is you got to be comfortable with yourself

'cause there's a lot of periods of time when you're going to be alone.

If you can't be comfortable with yourself out here,

you're probably not gonna stay for too long.

So what we're gonna do is he's gonna go out into the woods and set up a camp

and basically do it all on his own.

Make sure that you think about what is it you need?

If you don't spend time alone,

you really don't understand yourself very well

and you really don't know what your needs are.

So this is gonna be your opportunity to get out into the woods,

spend some time alone, and just see if you like it or not.

-Survival slash meditation? -Yeah.

We're gonna find out real quick

how he handles fear of the unknown.

Alrighty. (SIGHS)

ANDY: It'll be a good experience. It'll be fun.

CODY: Oh, yeah, I'm looking forward to it.

(LAUGHS)

(DOGS BARKING)

ANDY: All right, come on. Let's go.

Attaboys.

Go, go! Little haw, little haw!

CODY: I came out here to live what I consider my dream.

I don't ever want to go back to a 9 to 5 job.

I don't ever wanna have to deal with a boss

breathing down your neck.

But I actually am kind of afraid right now that I'm gonna go out there

and go through this whole experience and not be able to make it.

I try not to think about stuff that's gonna scare me.

I try not to let fear get a hold of me at all.

But there's this notion in the back of my head that

I don't want to find out that this is something

I don't want to do.

ANDY: Little haw.

Attaboy.

Good job.

Good boys!

Yay, good dogs.

We're gonna set your camp up right here on this little peninsula here, okay?

Things are gonna come up that we haven't done.

Just take a minute or two, think about it, try it.

Okay?

-So you good? -I feel pretty comfortable.

Okay.

Tighten up. Hup-hup.

Good boy.

CODY: And there was one.

GLENN: Most of what goes through

people's consciousness today

is a representation of something else.

Out here, it's direct.

You're experiencing reality.

Here in the Arctic fire is essential.

If I don't have a fire I couldn't live long out here.

And my preferred way to make it

is with a friction fire set like this.

The nearest place I can get matches is 200 miles away from here.

I don't wanna rely on matches because fire's so essential.

I want to be able to light a fire with what I can get right here in this valley.

Here is the set that I build a fire with.

The thing is some components of the set wear out.

This spindle, for example,

I make it about this long to start

and each time I build a fire, a little bit more wears off the end.

It gets shorter and shorter.

I need to get a new spindle.

I need to get a new fireboard.

New string.

Plus I need to get material to build a nest

that is where I cradle the ember after I get the ember.

And then I'm gonna blow it into a flame.

First thing I need to do is make the string.

This is the hide of a caribou that I shot here and that I ate.

And now I'm gonna use its hide to make a string.

I'm just gonna make a straight cut.

Now obviously I got to get all this hair off.

This is an example of the type of jobs

that require patience.

Not just pulling this hair out but to build this whole set.

You know, everything doesn't come fast and easy out here.

You just take your time.

Be patient.

Stuff will happen.

Awesome.

I got it.

Got it de-haired, twisted.

I think it'll work.

CHIP: A lot of kids think their parents just go out at 8:00 in the morning

and come back at 5:00.

Not so with our kids.

They know exactly what we're doing when we walk out the door.

AGNES: Wow, it's going to be an awesome day.

The sun is already shining.

I'm gonna get ready and go out, Carol.

I just need that gutting hook.

CHIP: Carol has an extremely intelligent personality.

She picks up on anything.

She's very creative.

And fortunately for her, you know,

with the way that people

teach people around here is for them to observe

and then to put hands on.

Well, she had to come to a certain amount of strength and a certain height.

And, you know, just a certain physical being

before she can drive a snow machine,

before she can compress the spring on a trap.

And now that she's old enough and large enough to do that, I got her traps.

And I want to go set, show her how to use them.

And if Carol ever has a hard economic time,

you know, if things aren't going so good,

she can always set a trap,

get a fox, sew a fox into a hat, and get 250 bucks.

Or get a hat out of the deal.

And it's gonna show her how to provide for herself.

And we want her to thrive.

Not just live. Not just get by.

We want her to really enjoy living.

-Carol, come. -Coming, Momma.

CHIP: I have traps.

These babies are going to camp with us.

I'm gonna go put in

a whole new trap line if there's something worth getting down that way.

-You're good to go, Agnes? -AGNES: Ready and willing.

NARRATOR: The Hailstones will travel 26 miles

from their home to Camp Kookoochaiq,

the same place Carol's family has been trapping fur as a way of life for generations.

CHIP: We live in the Arctic, which is a rather harsh environment,

and fur isn't just a luxury here, a lot of times it's a necessity.

Because fur has qualities that artificial materials don't.

But this place will kill you deader than dead

and if you don't get them down to basics

it's pretty tough to learn later in life.

AGNES: Oh, boy.

We're here.

The cabin still stands.

Home sweet home.

CHIP: This is Kookoochaiq.

My wife, and her dad, and her oldest brother Alvere

built this place about maybe 22, 23, 24 years ago.

Well, for the next few days

we're gonna be basing ourselves out of here

and seeing what kind of fur animals we can come up with.

We need some fur for sewing and to teach the children.

And we need some fur, the same stuff will make us some money.

And I wanna teach her and give her experience.

Ready?

This is excellent weather to be setting traps in.

It's clear skies.

We don't have snow falling down on us.

It's cold enough that the animals are out, and they're looking for food,

but we're able to operate right here

out of the cabin and save gas

and stay in the trapping area

without having to travel back and forth to Noorvik so much.

I'm gonna make a really obvious trap.

We put it out here in the middle of the river and let the animals come to it.

'Cause we have our fish camp right here

and the smell of salmon and people isn't so spooky to the animals.

I think they'll have no problem trying to wrestle off

a piece of the fish that I've got.

And they'll walk up to it, and they'll sniff it, and see it,

and wonder what it's all about.

And that will be that.

Put the safety on there.

CAROL: It is. CHIP: It won't get you.

CAROL: Okay, a little bit more.

CHIP: You got to do a better job than that. Is it up?

-Okay there, it's on. -Thank you, dear.

(GRUNTS)

It can't go any more.

Okay.

AGNES: Hopefully by the time we wake up

there will be something here.

CHIP: This will work out good. We just need a fox to come along.

Let's go put one more over here next to the bushes.

Okay, bun. Come over here. I'm gonna need your hands.

Can I step right here?

CHIP: Yeah, you can step anywhere you want.

'Cause you got to put the safety on for me.

I can't do this.

I'm gonna try one more time.

Fuck. These things are eating my hands up.

It gets pretty tough having the strength to compress this fucker,

and hold it while someone's trying to put the safety on.

God damn it. Are you all right?

Fuck. I'm sorry, bun.

-Are you okay? -Yeah.

You gonna be okay?

Last thing I want to do is hurt you.

I understand. I felt it go right out of my hand.

Look.

See my hand right there? Same thing.

You wanna just call this good?

Let's call it good with that, okay?

Trapping is inherently dangerous, you know?

I mean, you don't want to get trapped.

But more than that

it's something that we want to teach her

and we want her to enjoy it.

Because if you're not enjoying what you're being taught

you generally don't stick with it.

I want her to stick with it,

so no matter what I'm not gonna make an issue out of anything

that we do when it comes to trapping with her.

I wasn't trying to whack you, but look at me.

When it's that dangerous and we're not in control, we don't set the trap.

That make sense to you?

Bun, what I want you to learn is that sometimes you can just say you don't have to do this.

Okay?

That big trap, we don't have to do that.

It's okay when things don't work out.

I want my daughter to know when it's time to walk away.

Part of living out here is knowing when to quit or when to stay home.

Or knowing when to stay on shore or when to stay off the ice.

There's a lot of things you do that you learn that you don't do. (CHUCKLES)

It's all good.

We'll set those traps tomorrow.

ANDY: Being self-reliant gives you a sense of security that you can't buy.

Very few people ever really experience that,

and I kind of feel sorry for people

if they don't experience that.

CODY: Andy gave me a little bit of a surprise this morning

and told me I'd be going on a little survival trip.

With all the information Andy's given me, he's using it as a final test here.

Put me out in the middle of nowhere and see how I do.

It's a little bit freaky. A little bit scary.

But anybody who's not a little bit scared is a fool.

There goes our sunlight.

I got a lot of shit to do.

Main thing right now is to get this sucker up in a tent,

get myself some shelter before it gets dark.

And there goes that.

There's some things I heard about Andy before I came out here

and after getting to know him and learning from him,

when he yells there's no mistaking what he said.

There ain't no asking "Huh?" or "What?" with him.

He gets the message across straight and clear.

And when it comes to him teaching

he really doesn't leave too many questions.

Like there's a lot of things I do

where, you know, I'm questioning myself, questioning what I need to do.

How to do this, how to do that.

But he's been out here so long and

he's so passionate about what he does,

he wants it to come across

to whoever he's teaching it to.

And anytime he's taught me a lesson

it stuck pretty damn well, I'll say that.

And it's done.

SUE: You must live in the here and now to do what I'm doing.

If you got one foot in yesterday and one foot in tomorrow

the only place you don't have a foot

and a grasp on is today.

(ENGINE STARTING)

Last little check.

Everything's on. Everything's good.

NARRATOR: Sue's voyage home will take her across nearly 80 miles of brutal tundra.

She hopes to reach Kavik in 48 hours.

All right.

Here we go.

My version of going to town, that was all fun, that was really cool,

you know, I got to have a hot shower.

But I don't get bushy in the wild, but I do get town flu.

I need to... I need to get home.

Yeah. So this is it.

Bye-bye, Deadhorse. Hello, Kavik.

There's about 70 to 100 miles of wilderness between me and there.

The map is head towards that sundog out there.

About 70 miles later I should be in Kavik.

You know, this journey,

it's kind of like if anybody's ever been curious

about what would it be like to be on the moon.

This would probably be pretty freaking close.

Everything's white. Everything.

Your sky is white, your snow is white, your hills are white.

It's all variations on white.

Your depth perception is difficult,

because I just physically can't tell where the hills are,

it's all the same colour.

You know, we're... I'm just starting to go

from my ambient light back to darkness.

It's about 3:00 in the afternoon.

It is very difficult to tell where's your horizon at?

Where's the sky?

Where is the land?

So my visibility is starting to become an issue

and I'm just gonna have to slow it down a little bit.

Um... I am headed towards a 1951 helicopter wreck.

It's sort of a halfway point for my journey.

Got the coordinates,

so I'm trying to make it there

and then I'll just camp out for the night.

Check the pressure on the tyres,

get some fuel in,

and make a little tent camp, make a little dinner,

and get some rest.

Then finish up the journey tomorrow.

What was that? What was that?

Uh-oh. Good God, what was that?

Ruh-roh. We got a problem, Scooby.

Yeah, I've got squealing.

Fuck.

(SQUEALING)

Something's squealing. That's for damn sure.

NARRATOR: A troubling noise forces Sue to stop

and inspect her new vehicle.

With temperatures plummeting and darkness looming, time is crucial.

It's cold out here.

My guess with the temperature, clear skies, it's dropping like a stone.

I've probably got at least 35, 40 below zero right now on my skin.

I've got a problem with the rig and I've still got 35, 40 miles to go.

I'm a lot of miles from anything.

The satellite service doesn't even work.

I can't call for help.

I've got to get out and fix it.

With the wind chill right now it's a nasty mother

to try and fix something, tear it apart.

Moving this belt, I mean, it looks like it's in the right groove.

Nothing looks off track.

It is one of these two that's doing it.

Start it up, see what happens.

There was a bunch of ice on there.

If I keep going forward maybe that will help.

With something going wrong here, I don't want to risk it.

My life, I've got kids and grandkids and I need to be in one piece.

So if I shut it down,

I'm not so positive if it's gonna start up again.

I'm gonna give it a whirl.

I'm gonna see if it'll... I'm gonna see if it'll hold.

Come on, little red.

-Stop your whining, you're a Kavik girl now. -(SQUEALING CONTINUES)

You know, you're this lone little light in the middle of the tundra.

Yeah, it's not like I can call AAA.

CHIP: If you can't thrive in the environment you live in

and you become dependent on other people,

you're dependent and that's the wrong way to be.

These are brand new.

When they are brand new they are tough.

(CLICKS)

-AGNES: Whoo! Are you all right? -I did that on purpose.

No, I flipped it on top of it.

Okay.

NARRATOR: The Hailstones are teaching their daughter Carol

how to trap fur in the Arctic.

But despite a close call last night, the lesson must continue today.

I'm just trying to show Carol

what it is activities on a trap line are.

Now she's got her own traps and she's also large enough

and old enough to participate.

She's got to be careful when setting traps.

God damn it! Are you all right?

I wouldn't say she got bucked off the horse.

You get bucked off the horse

when your hand's stuck in the trap.

That's getting knocked off the horse.

But she found out the horse can kick.

Let's stop at that first slough across from those cabins and set one there.

CAROL: Yup.

There's a fox or something. No, over there.

CHIP: This is pretty good.

I'm gonna set something here.

Maybe we just get a fox.

Watch how he does that.

-Dad. -CHIP: I'm gonna set this trap.

Carol, I'm gonna show you something really important.

So I want you to really pay attention.

-You gotta have respect for the traps. -CAROL: Mmm-hmm.

-You see how the safeties are faced down? -Yep.

So they don't unhook accidental like.

-Okay? -Mmm-hmm.

AGNES: Carol's pretty tough. She's tougher than most I'd say.

I'm glad she didn't chicken out or be afraid of the traps

seeing how she hurt herself last night trying to set them.

She's a good one.

CAROL: This is interesting.

This is a hollow space underneath here.

I could see that.

And I'm gonna place that trap, 'cause you have a nice crust.

I could hollow this out real nice

and nothing's gonna interfere with the trap at all.

Then something comes along and steps on this.

And here's the dangerous part again.

You got to pay attention.

The safeties are on now 'cause they're under tension,

but once we spread them and the tension comes off

they're dangerous all over again.

I want her to see that death is occurring.

These animals are being caught, and trapped, killed,

and then where that comes from.

And it's a more complete education for the child.

Not only that, it ties her in

with her greater Inupiaq values

and her greater Eskimo family,

because everybody here is one big, huge family.

Pretty hard to beat that in school.

GLENN: Time, numbers, measurement, temperature.

I mean, who gives a fuck really?

It's how it feels.

It's not the number that matters.

I got my string all built.

What I need now is some dry grass

and the right piece of poplar.

And with that I should be able to build a fire

entirely with materials that I gather right here,

within a mile of my home.

NARRATOR: Living a primitive life in the Brooks Range,

Glenn cannot survive without fire.

GLENN: I need to look around for some grass that I can use for tinder for the nest.

And that takes a lot of work to find in these conditions

'cause everything's covered in snow.

I'll probably end up walking a couple of miles.

I don't really know where I'm gonna find it exactly.

That's what I'm looking for.

Nice, big grass leaves.

I have to be really careful not to get the grass wet.

It's pretty warm out, 12 degrees above zero.

So if I get any snow

on my hands or in my pocket,

it starts melting right away and the grass will get wet.

And that is bad.

Almost all the trees in this valley are white spruce.

But the type I'm looking for, a balsam poplar, is a very different tree.

And I know an area where there's a little grove of poplar trees.

Having spent a lot of my time out here for the last 10 years,

I'm pretty familiar with the forest all around the valley.

So I keep special spots like this in mind.

Anywhere there's a resource that I might need in the future.

I lock that away when I see it and then I can get back to what I need when I want it.

Rather than cutting a standing tree I might be able to find

a good piece of wood

on the ground from a tree that fell over.

I can see where some poplar trees here have died

and fallen over underneath the snow.

(THUD)

There, that's a piece of wood right there.

This is the piece I want.

This section in here.

'Cause inside this piece of wood there's a fireboard and a spindle.

I just haven't found it yet.

There.

I just split off a piece that I think will work pretty good for the board.

You know how I feel out here?

Meditative. (CHUCKLES)

It's just a meditation working on all these things.

Whether it's taking that hair out of that caribou, or just whittling away at this.

It's just a very meditative activity.

So, I've got my spindle.

I'm gonna try and build a fire and cook some dinner right here.

I'm just taking some of the grass and breaking it up.

Go right in the middle where the ember's gonna go.

I'm getting hungry.

(EXHALES) I've got an ember.

It's just so beautiful to see that first ember when I'm drilling away like that.

It's all dark, and then you see this little orange glow,

but you don't want to stop too soon.

You just keep going until you can't hold your breath any more

'cause all the smoke's rolling up.

You have to stop breathing at some point, and you just keep on trucking.

There's just something special about these tools.

They just feel great.

I mean, just to think that you can just take a tree that's laying under the snow,

and you can make a fire out of it.

For a second, I almost thought it was gonna go out once I had the ember.

I even had some flame and then it started to go out.

It's really fragile in the beginning.

You just have to coax it into life.

Now, it's going strong.

Here's some moose meat I brought.

I'm just gonna boil it right in this pot.

For thousands and thousands of years, people have been building fires this way.

They just stopped doing that recently.

Most of the time people have been on earth,

this is how they've been building fires, you know.

I live this way because I enjoy it.

I could be laying in a hammock on the beach in Thailand if I wanted to be,

but, no, I just have a lot of fun up here.

CHIP: If you don't know what the ice is like,

if you don't know when to stay home,

if you don't know, you know, what's the appropriate time to go do things,

you're not gonna do well at all.

A lot of people up here just disappear.

NARRATOR: After setting a number of traps in the wilderness

that surrounds camp,

it's time for the next phase of Carol Hailstone's

trapping lesson.

Checking for fur.

(CHIP SPEAKING)

CAROL: Yeah.

(CHIP SPEAKING)

Let's go.

CAROL: You could.

CHIP: Nothing in this trap here.

I hope you're not frustrated over not catching anything in this,

but just setting the traps overnight doesn't usually

produce on the very first night.

What happens is the animals go around for like three days

before they come back to where they started.

We'll leave this one right here, and I can come back and set it again.

CAROL: Those were the last ones, huh?

CHIP: One more to go.

(ENGINE STARTING)

I want her not only to be able to make it out living.

I also want her to know how to make a living.

I want her to see and know how to process the animal from beginning to end.

Because it doesn't just appear like out of the store,

we bought this and then put it together.

They've got to know the origins of everything that they're putting together.

Where they get them, how to get them.

And it's a more complete education.

Oh, look, Dad!

(CHIP LAUGHS)

CHIP: Excellent.

AGNES: Right on!

Last trap even.

Wow, is there something in it?

CHIP: Yeah. Tell me what it is though.

(CAROL SPEAKING)

CHIP: Yup. Sure is.

Looks like he got the piece of salmon off, and did himself in.

Well, we were towards the end of our line here,

and, you know, we got lucky with a lynx.

What can I say?

But this guy was just in the wrong place at the wrong time for himself.

For us, it was the right place at the right time.

CAROL: Oh, it's a lynx. CHIP: You see what I mean by killer trap?

Look at that. He didn't have a chance.

That broke his neck right away.

Since this is your first one, maybe you'll clean the skin up

and give it away to somebody who will sew it.

(CAROL SPEAKING)

CHIP: To Stephanie? There you go.

Being my daughter's first catch of a lynx,

traditionally among themselves,

these Inupiaq learn to be providers, and the best way to teach them to be providing

is to teach them to give it away.

So, one of the best lessons here is that my daughter's gonna take the skin

from the trap that she helped me set,

and she's gonna give it away.

She'll learn that something so valuable shall be passed on to someone else.

-Well, it's getting late. Let's get this home, huh? -AGNES: Yeah.

CHIP: We'll go show your sisters.

We'll thaw it out in the front room for a day or two,

and you can tell them all about it.

AGNES: I'm so happy for you, Carol. Yee!

CHIP: We've been working on this for years, and as she's growing up,

we keep showing her the next step, and the next step, and the next step.

And right now she's accomplished catching an animal in the trap.

We've got a little more to go to, but I would say this has been an excellent lesson

with an excellent reward for that lesson.

-You guys are ready? -AGNES: Yup. We're ready.

Yee!

ANDY: It's your philosophy of living.

A lot of it depends on what your skills are.

If you have a lot of skill sets,

you can live with less

of the outside world in your world.

CODY: I'd say today I woke up in one of those moods where

I really didn't feel like getting out of bed.

A little bit beat down today.

I guess I just don't feel

the same way I would back home.

I mean, I want to share this experience.

I want to share everything about this, and not having somebody there to talk to,

not having that right now...

It's hard.

Time to go get some water for the dogs.

I got a list of important things out here.

Water, fire, shelter. Pretty damn important to me.

Without water, I can't make my own food, soup,

anything I want to make in there.

Without water, I can't feed my dogs, can't give them the proper nutrition they need,

and they ain't gonna do too good out here in that case.

There's two good options for water out here,

and I can either go and take 10 trips scooping out snow out of the ground

where you're getting about half a bucket.

Every 22 inches of snow equals one inch of water.

So you can imagine the work you gotta put in for that.

Or if I just spend five minutes cutting hard with an axe,

get a bunch of chunks of ice, I can get a full bucket of water

out of a full bucket of ice for the most part.

Since we've had this crazy wind going on, all the snow on the lake got blown off,

and it made it real nice and easy for me to come out here and take a good crack

to take some chunks off of it.

I haven't had one good thing come of this wind until this morning,

and coming out and seeing this lake uncovered.

So, you know, for every down there's an up. For every up there's a down.

You just gotta try and make the best of it, and do what you can do

to keep on keeping on out here.

Anybody thirsty?

Main thing I gotta do is come out and care for these dogs.

You know, it gets lonely out in the lake by yourself, and knowing they're there

kind of perks the spirits up a little bit when you're getting down.

Having to feed them, water them,

it definitely takes a lot of work but in the long run, it's well worth it to have them.

SUE: I like challenge.

I like the unknown.

What's gonna come at me? What's the next challenge gonna be?

I don't know.

I don't know what I can or can't do.

Oh, my God. What a beautiful day.

I ran all night last night and got a little cold.

I mean, I got my little sleepy cover, but...

Man, that squealing on the belt, that wasn't good, but it's not doing it any more.

So whatever it is, is beyond me and behind me.

I've got my bearings. Um...

Home is there.

(ENGINE STARTING)

Well, I'm coming up to one of my last major river crossings,

and been trying to find a way around it, and there is none.

I've got open water up ahead.

Lots of it.

And it's just overflow,

meaning the pressure

of the running water underneath

all the ice is a lot,

you just have water on top of ice.

But there could be a hole,

and I don't see a way around it.

I just gotta go through. I mean, that's all.

I live on the other side.

I don't have a choice. I gotta do it.

Oh, man. Shit.

Yeah. I mean, I'm seeing...

I mean, I'm seeing channels of shiny water.

The sun's angled. I can't tell if there's holes.

Getting stuck would just wreak havoc on my plan.

So, getting stuck is not an option.

A little nerve wracking here, guys.

This is not cool. Wet is dead out here.

Whoa. Son of a gun!

I just gotta keep going, and hang onto my panties.

(CHUCKLES) Shit! I got water.

This is not good.

What I'm afraid of is my tracks spinning on the ice in the water.

There was a hole there, man.

This is not cool.

Oh, shit! It's getting deep there.

Shit! Oh, shit.

I sunk through, there was a hole there, man.

This is not cool.

The edge is in sight.

Oh, I'm almost there.

Shit!

I think I messed my panties.

(SIGHS)

A lot of relief right now. Um...

It's... It's scary.

You know, I mean, I'm big, bad Sue, but you know,

I do want to make it to my next adventure, so...

I faced my fear.

I was acting like a little girl about it a while ago in case I ran into it.

I ran into it, thankfully in the daytime, not the night.

Upward and onward. Back to exploring.

Good job, little red.

Coming in for a landing on my own runway.

Made it home. Yay!

Hey, buddy!

Are you here to see Mom?

(LIPS SMACKING) What is it?

Has I gots a new vehicle? Come on!

It's me!

Yeah. It's Momma.

What is this?

Is that our new rig? Come on.

(LIPS SMACKING)

(WHISTLES) Nice to have a welcoming committee when you get home.

It's been two days of travelling. Five hours today.

Oh. The odometer says a little over 80 miles,

and lights are on, foxes are happy, I'm home.

You know, the whole point of this journey,

two days, doesn't matter what I went through.

I got here, and for me, that was the whole point.

So, that's like the one small step for mankind,

one giant freaking leap for Suzy.

I mean, that was a one two-day trip, but it's the first.

Many more to follow.

Home sweet home.

ANDY: Big part of living out here is your mental aptitude.

If you're the kind of person that thrives on being alone,

being alone can be a real blessing.

(BARKING)

CODY: You're ready to go home, aren't you?

Today, I decided it's time to pack it up and head back.

Right now I feel like I got a good amount of energy to get back safely.

I'm pretty happy with how I did.

I was able to make it through on my own out here.

Got a lot of time to myself, and kind of proved to myself that

if I can do this out here somewhat comfortably, I could probably go

a damn good amount of time on my own out here.

I'm gonna pack it up, get out of this wind, and get back to Kate and Andy,

and hopefully, they'll be proud.

-(BARKING) -You guys ready? Let's go home!

Gee! Gee!

Gee! Gee!

Yay, Topaz!

All right! Come here, Tope. Come here.

I'll help you unharness here,

and then we can chat about how everything went.

Okay.

Did you have any moments,

like, there has to be something.

Nobody goes out into the wilderness for the first time,

and not have even a bad day.

Well, it was I think yesterday morning where

I didn't wanna get out of bed. I didn't really want to do anything.

Just feeling the utter vastness of the country, and having no one around.

I almost packed it up and called it quits, but started putting that lonely feeling

towards the back of my head.

Kind of perked up a little bit, and was able to keep on going.

You've been learning a lot of different skills.

Setting up the camp, building fire,

how to set up a trap line, how to find water, make water out here,

how to take care of your dogs.

Those are all the fundamentals and the basics for living out here.

I think you did a pretty darn good job of it.

You should feel proud of yourself, and I see some

confidence in your walk and your step, and that's the key to all this.

You gotta build that confidence.

The more you do, the better you get at it.

So, hey, good job, man.

Is that the Calico seal of approval?

(KATE AND ANDY LAUGH)

I may not be your mom, but I think she'd want me to give you this.

Oh.

That meant a whole lot to me right there.

Andy's kind of a man of few words,

and for him to basically give me a handshake and say "Good job".

I feel alive, and damn proud to be where I am right now.

ANDY: Cody came into our world about the same age

that I came into the wilderness in Alaska here.

I think what he's done for me is kind of help me remember a lot of the excitement,

the newness, some of the fears.

I hope he at least spends a year or two out doing this.

'Cause I think he'll really learn a lot personally from it.

All right, buddy. There's your plane.

(LAUGHS)

I think that was one of the greatest adventure/educational times of my life right there.

Alaska's a very, very rough place,

but I've gained so much respect for myself out here

that I didn't know I had, and gained so much confidence in myself out here.

I've been touched in many ways by the dogs,

and the landscape, and the beauty,

and having to leave this place

is one of the hardest things I've ever done.

But I'm leaving with the mindset that I will be back.

With the amount of information and knowledge Andy's given me,

I feel it's time for me to go find my own piece of heaven.