Original subtitles

[slow gentle music]

[boat engine purring]

Today, my son Skyler, my daughter Skarlett,

we're gonna head up to my cabin.

I'm hoping to get up to the cabin,

insulate it a little bit before winter hits.

Bringing some of my kids out just so they can learn

and watch what I'm doing,

and that's how they get knowledge to survive out here,

and thinking ahead and preparing ahead.

[boat engine purring]

I'm working against time right now.

Winter's coming up fast.

The nights get real cold right now,

so as river starts running ice,

that can be a big problem.

You can see there's snow along the banks,

there's snow on the mountains,

so just a matter of time

before there's ice covering everything.

[slow suspenseful music]

[boat engine purring]

I'm about to land at the cabin here,

and this cabin still stands where I grew up.

Part of my childhood,

and for me to be able to come out here,

and have my kids with me, that's a beautiful thing.

-[canoe rattling ] -[water splashing]

[Skarlett] Is it safe?

[Ricko] I think so.

Oh, look at that.

Wolf tracks. This was today.

[Skyler] Is it adult or is it a baby?

[Ricko] It's a full-grown wolf.

Okay, you guys stick close to me.

[lively upbeat music]

My name is Ricko DeWilde,

I'm from the north fork of the Huslia River.

The land out here provides, but it's very unforgiving.

There's open water, there's deep snow.

40, 50, 60 below temperatures.

If you make a mistake when you're out here,

it's a long ways from any help.

[bright upbeat music]

This year is gonna be a little different

because I'm gonna expand my country,

and I'm gonna bring my kids out here a lot more.

And I tell them the stories,

but now that the older ones

are getting old enough to follow me,

I'm able to show them where I'm at,

and put some life

behind these stories I've been telling them.

They take it all in, and they're excited to learn.

'Cause I want them to carry that torch of survival.

That's part of the cycle of life out here.

At least there's snow, we can see what came around, eh?

See all these bear marks?

[Skyler] Is that new?

[Ricko] Eh, some of them are new.

[Skarlett] Hey, look it!

-Scraping. -Still trying to get in,

but the windows are solid this time.

[Narrator] Ricko DeWilde is no stranger

to the predators that stalk the Alaskan interior.

Last year, Ricko found his family's cabin ransacked

by a grizzly bear,

which forced him to secure the structure

from another unwanted entry.

We had boards over the window,

and that didn't work out too well,

so we had to adapt to the environment.

I got metal screens so we're able to keep the bear out.

Let's go get a fire going, you kids look cold.

[gentle music]

Tomorrow, we have a lot of work to do.

We're gonna work on the cabin,

we're gonna seal off the windows.

We're gonna seal off the holes where the squirrels came in,

we're gonna put more insulation in there, close it off.

But if the ice starts running tomorrow, we'll look at it.

And if it's running, we got to get the hell out of here.

Okay.

Unless you guys wanna spend the winter here.

-Nope. -No.

'Kay, we're gonna have hot cocoa,

and then we're gonna get some rest.

And tomorrow, we're gonna get busy.

The only thing that stops creativity is you.

[gentle serene music]

I'm going over here to the gen shed.

Looking for one of the barrels

that I had saved from when I made the culvert.

I want to take it over to where I have my windsock.

I wanna make a more secure,

heavier base so the wind doesn't push it around as much.

I'm concerned all the projections are quite a windy winter,

and so I wanna just make something a little heavier,

a little bit more stout.

Lot of my winter chores are already done,

but I've got a chance to get some final chores done.

I want to secure the windsock, I need to fuel camp.

It's all the million little things you do

to get ready for the onslaught.

[serene gentle music]

My name is Susan Aikens.

I live at Kavik River Camp, at the top of Alaska.

I'm about 500 miles from the closest big city.

About 15 miles from the Arctic Ocean.

I am the only refuelling station

on the eastern side of the North Slope.

That's the size of a third

-of the State of California. -[plane engine roaring]

Those of us that live this remotely,

we're not particularly good about following the rules

that everybody else feels compelled to live by.

I live in an ever-changing environment,

but it's changing rapidly.

As an ecosystem goes through radical change,

you have to adapt.

[air whooshing]

The windsock is the number one visual that pilots need

to see where the wind is coming from.

Right now, it's held, but barely.

So I've got to get it in a stronger base.

I'm here by myself, and I have to get it handled,

or I'm gonna get caught with my pants down.

[rocks clacking]

I'm gonna have to move all these stabilising rocks.

The seasons come in with a roar.

They don't ask for permission.

They arrive, and you need to thrive, or you get run over.

So I've got to get on the chores, I've got to get them done,

and get my ass inside.

Winter's coming.

Look at that, the wind is picking up that sock.

I got to get this thing tied down.

With high winds predicted, I need to weigh it down better.

I need to add more weight to that tie-down.

Bulk that base out, filling it with rock.

Really beefing it out, and it's gonna be more stout.

Perfect. Exactly. Exactly what I wanted.

For me, I mean this is damn sturdy base.

And you got a little jostle,

but it is nothing like it was.

It's a damn, damn sturdy base. I'm pleased.

Well done task, but a task well done.

[suspenseful music]

[Agnes] There's lot of uncertainty around here.

Everything here, it's beautiful,

but it's pretty deadly also.

[suspenseful music continues]

[Chip] I'm just gonna go upside,

this side of the mountain.

I've got my binocs, I'm just gonna go have a look.

Yeah, I hear there's caribou

and stuff passing through up there.

That's what I'm hoping for.

I'm Edward Hailstone, my friends call me Chip.

I'm married to Agnes Hailstone.

We got seven kids together.

Right now I live in Noorvik, Alaska,

but I split my time between here and the Kiwalik.

We don't have an industry here,

we don't have a job I can go to nine to five every day.

What we do is we hunt the renewable resources.

Animal migration patterns are changing,

fish migration patterns are changing.

But the need to eat hasn't changed.

It's part of the culture here.

These folks up here have been around for 10, 12,000 years.

[Agnes] I've always lived up here in Alaska.

I've always been close to my home.

Now that the family's growing and growing,

and watching my girls grow into mothers

and caring for their own families,

and being happy is really joyful for me.

Well, it's freezing pretty nicely.

It's gonna be real firm ground up there,

it's not gonna be no marsh.

As soon as the river thickens, we can get back out on it.

-It'll be fine. -Yeah.

'Kay, love you lots.

-Be safe. -I love you, too.

Have fun. Whatever you do.

Yup. See you later.

[dramatic upbeat music]

[bike engine roaring]

I'm gonna go up to the mountain

behind our village here at Noorvik.

It's called Ashvanik.

We have places where we like to go constantly.

And that's because they generally turn out

to have caribou funnelled through them.

My chances of actually scoring something

aren't as high as they usually would be,

and that's because the bulls are in rut.

And want our caribou herd to flourish,

so they don't shoot the cows or calves.

So the one thing we can find right now, which are fat,

because they haven't been milked on all summer,

are the cows that don't have a baby.

So quite often it's a good thing to go up mountains,

sit around and then spot 'em.

And then be able to anticipate 'em,

and beat them to a certain spot so when they come up,

then I can get a good, close shot.

Yup, there's all kinds of possibilities,

but we don't know if we don't go.

My competition, they're out there training hard right now.

I'm gonna go out, I'm gonna train harder, better, smarter.

[dramatic music]

[dogs barking]

I'm hooking up two tandem teams

right on each side of the bumper of my truck.

-Comanche, Comanche. -[dogs barking]

Come on.

And I'm just gonna be using this truck

to set the speed of the team,

to where they don't go too fast,

but I'll be using the motor

to where they don't have to pull the whole truck.

[dogs barking]

[Narrator] After spending several years in Nenana,

Jessie Holmes has relocated 120 miles to Brushkana,

a region with better training grounds for his sled dogs.

Today, Jessie will haul materials 60 miles

to set up a remote training camp for racing season.

But he must complete the trek

before conditions make the roads impassable.

-[dogs barking] -Hoo! A bunch of psychos.

They're raging to get out there,

that's where I breed 'em for.

All right, straight.

-[Jessie whistling] -[dogs barking]

Go, go, go.

My name's Jessie Holmes,

and I live in the Alaska range on the Brushkana River.

I'm a professional dog musher.

Let's go! Hike!

10 years ago, when I first come to Alaska,

I was just a hard-working grunt

for everybody making everybody else money.

With this, give me a taste of being successful,

being competitive, being a champion.

And it's totally changed my whole path.

Right now, this is a new chapter in my life.

New place. Everything is new to me out here.

Lots of challenging conditions,

and you don't know what's gonna happen out there.

I could have just been comfortable with where I was,

but I don't want to ever get too comfortable.

I wanna keep working hard, stay in shape.

I mean, there's a lot of hard work to do,

but it's all out in the most beautiful environment.

All right!

But most importantly,

I'm gonna be training harder than I've ever trained.

We're out here giving it everything we have.

We've sacrificed everything for this.

[gentle music]

[laughs]

[truck hooting]

Moving out here, I have a month and a half more of snow

in the beginning of the season,

and towards the end of the season.

Opens up some incredible possibilities.

I mean, if we didn't have this early-season snow,

we'd be back in Nenana,

training on gravel and mud and stuff.

And sled dogs are designed to be on snow.

They're really getting into a real nice, set rhythm,

which is exactly what I wanna see.

This is a product of building all summer.

I'm sure they're fully capable of making it

to where I'm trying to go.

I'll just let the dogs do their job.

Going 60 miles, I'm just ready to get out there

and spend some quality time with these dogs,

and get this camp set up.

[bell tolling]

[suspenseful music]

[Andy] Well, winter can kill you.

It can be your best friend

or it can kill you really quick if you make a big mistake.

That's just nature doing its thing.

[boat engine purring]

Wasn't many months ago all that ice was in here.

Pretty rare to get this much open water this time of year.

That's why I figure we better take advantage

of this right now.

'Cause we could wake up tomorrow

and there's no more boating.

I woke up this morning and I noticed

that the river had no ice in it.

So, Denise and I are gonna head up to Eagle

and do a last run while it's ice-free, to go get mail.

Most people just walk outside their door,

open up a little mailbox,

pull their mail out and walk back inside.

For us, it's about 12 miles.

It's a cold boat ride.

And this might be the last day

that we can use a boat on the river.

My name's Andy Bassich,

I live on the Yukon River at Calico Bluff,

the homestead that I've been building for 30 years.

There are a lot of risks involved in living this lifestyle.

Every year brings changes.

Every year you get a little older.

I basically lost a year of my life to an injury

that will probably affect me the rest of my life.

And having a partner like Denise

really makes a big difference.

[Denise] My name's Denise Becker.

There is no preparing for life at Calico Bluff.

Where I've come from,

living in Florida, it's drastically, drastically different.

And a lot of the skills that I'm learning here,

they're new to me, they're awkward to me.

They're essential to learn.

It really makes you appreciate how much we are capable of.

[upbeat music]

[Andy] For me, living out here

is just what's inside of me.

I don't wanna ever leave here.

[boat engine purring]

-Look up there, off the bow. -[Denise] Yeah.

[Andy] That looks like some animals.

Maybe it's driftwood.

No, it's moving.

Holy crap. That's caribou.

Couple more dead ahead. There's a couple right there.

Oh, yeah. I see those. Wow!

You feel like driving for a minute?

-[Denise chuckles] -You want me to?

I think we should take one of those.

One of the really cool things

about living along the Yukon River

is you never know what you're gonna see.

And if there's one thing I've learned,

you never turn up an opportunity.

[Denise] You wanna go in closer?

No. This distance is fine. Just stay this distance off.

Just don't come any closer than this.

-It's shallow, okay? -[Denise] Okay.

[bright upbeat music]

[Denise laughs]

That's a missed opportunity.

We weren't able to get up to 'em in time to get a shot off.

But I'm thinking where there's one small band of caribou,

there's probably gonna be more.

So, we'll just see if we see some more caribou.

It's extremely unusual to see caribou

this time of the year here, so it might be a gift.

If we can get it.

Things happen really quick on the Yukon River.

It was really, really unexpected to see caribou.

We planned on going up to Eagle and getting the mail,

but seeing caribou trumped that.

Meat always trumps mail.

[gentle music]

I just wanna walk this slough in this fresh snow,

and see if there's any fresh tracks, okay?

[Denise] Yeah, that'd be, that's a good idea.

There's a bunch of old tracks here, see?

-This fresh snow. -Oh, yeah, yeah. Okay.

So I'm thinking if we just even walk,

and just check, and see where this valley comes out,

if we see caribou tracks heading down there,

then we know they're down there.

It could be 20 or 30 or it could be 500.

-You don't know. -Wow, 500.

Let's just walk up this slough.

Okay. Okay.

[slow suspenseful music]

[Andy] Here's a place where

they're coming down big time here.

[Denise] Wow. Look at that.

[Andy] It looks like there's a lot of them

that came out into here.

[Denise] It does, look it.

This hilarious trample, so this isn't just a band of 20.

This is a big migration coming through.

So I think the best thing for us to do

is not be standing out in the open here,

so we either need to go back to the boat

and go down to the far end of this island,

and just sit and wait.

And the chances are, they might come right out

and walk right up to us.

[Denise] Sounds good.

[dramatic music]

[Ricko] The weather and the animals,

all that stuff speaks to you.

If you're living in the city your whole life,

you're not gonna even pay attention to that.

You're blind to it.

[slow gentle music]

-You guys ready? -[Skyler] Yeah.

'Kay, you see all these cracks here?

That's what we've got to stop is all that draught coming in.

I wanna chink up the cracks in this cabin,

and get this cabin sealed off real warm.

The kids are gonna have fun doing it,

and hopefully have a real warm winter this coming winter.

Okay, ready? There you go. You can go a little more.

Little more, push it in there.

Here, Skar, you can push this.

So this will make a world of difference in here.

It's a good thing to have my kids out here, helping me,

not only to have help,

but it also gets them to put a stamp on this home of theirs.

Just by me telling the kids

that this is their cabin too, that's not enough.

When they put work, sweat and energy into this cabin

to make it better,

that's when it hits home

that it's their cabin, and it's home.

'Kay, you guys wash all that off.

What we did do the windows and the cracks,

that'll keep all that cold air out.

It's gonna make a huge difference.

Even tonight, when you sleep, it'll hold the heat.

You rest better, you feel better.

Awesome job. You guys are amazing.

-Skarlett, you're so tough. -[Skarlett chuckles]

When we seal it off like that,

we sleep so much better in here.

These dogs are what keep me here,

giving me a taste of being successful in life.

That's why I'm in Alaska.

[dogs barking]

Awesome run so far. Dogs are really doing great.

I'm gonna definitely make it to where I'm headed.

Just a little break like this is gonna reset them,

and give them some energy

to make it to where we're gonna camp tonight.

I'll be able to give the dogs a nice snack, and then,

keep moving down the trail.

[Narrator] Along the Denali highway,

Jessie has taken 24 sled dogs on a 60-mile trek

to set up a remote training camp

that he will use all winter.

But it's their first venture

into the Brushkana wilderness this time of year,

and they must be wary of their unfamiliar surroundings.

[slow suspenseful music]

So far, the dogs are looking great.

This is one of the places

that my dogs were always the most excited to come

after fall training in Nenana.

I'd get out here as soon as I could,

and the dogs always look forward to coming out here,

they really like it.

There's a lot of animals around, and they can smell it.

I'm seeing a lot of caribou scat all over the road,

you can see a tonne of caribou have been through here.

[lively upbeat music]

[dogs barking]

Ho! Shit!

Look at these caribou right here

crossing the road in front of us.

That's so cool, the dogs are so jazzed up now.

That's one of the things the dogs love about being out here.

They smell these animals.

They get excited,

they feel like they're back to their primitive roots.

I mean, these dogs derive from pack of wolves.

They work together like a pack of wolves.

It makes me so happy seeing the dogs have this much fun.

I keep moving on down the highway get to our destination.

-[gentle music] -I live alone.

But I enjoy the hell out of it. It doesn't make me lonely.

[gentle music]

[air whooshing]

I have these fuel tanks sprinkled around camp.

And you can even hear,

it needs to be filled.

So that's one of the things I'm gonna be doing today.

Fueling camp, it's something that I do quite routinely,

but I've got a storm coming in, and I've got to get it done.

That jet fuel, it's what I use to heat.

I don't rely on electricity.

If I don't do it,

if I try to skate and make it last a little too long,

then I'm doing it under the worst of conditions.

And I'm not gonna have heat.

[Narrator] Sue Aikens is completing a series of tasks

that will ready her camp

for the long and brutal winter ahead.

With only a short window before a storm arrives,

she must secure heat for herself,

and for the pilots who rely on Kavik

as a refuelling station, and safety outpost.

[gentle upbeat music]

The heat tanks, when it's just me,

I can probably go the better part of a month

without worrying about it.

But you really wanna keep up on it

when the weather's decent.

If you don't have some backup handy,

and you let yourself get low, you're gonna get cold.

Get your jobs done while the weather's good

because it will be getting bad.

[suspenseful music]

When I'm done fueling everything,

you always bring it back full.

You don't know when the big storms are gonna hit,

so you top everything off.

All full. Second of the chores is done.

And again, you may look at it and go,

"Big deal. That was not much."

Well, when you're out here alone,

500 miles from help,

could mean the difference between life and death.

[Agnes] Nothing is ever difficult

when you're the apex predator.

[bike engine roaring]

Made it to the top of the mountain

and a little over the top.

I wanna look along the edges.

We're probably not the only ones up here hunting.

Wolves and bears, they come up here too.

There's some caribou about three miles away. [laughs]

Like four of 'em.

Two moms, two babies. That's all I see.

Not much up here today.

But since the caribou, when they cross over here,

aim towards these mountains,

this is naturally the place where they're inclined to go.

So, we'll just keep looking.

One of the tougher parts

of caribou hunting this time of year

is just even seeing them moving right now.

Any dots I stared at went, "Huh, what's that?"

If I miss and they're still there, they're probably a bush.

[laughs] Or a rock.

But if they're moving, it's a different deal.

It's a tree. [laughs]

Never know, 'til you look.

Caribou at 1:05 will not be where they were at one o'clock.

They're known as the great wanderer.

All they do is walk.

They eat and walk and eat and walk and eat and walk.

No animals in sight. Best thing to do is move on.

I don't see any good, take-able animals.

The only ones I've seen were two cows with two calves.

And they're really far away.

And since there's nothing over here,

it just makes logical sense

to see what's on the other side of the mountain.

Seasons change quick here in Alaska.

You can't just wait for something to happen,

and react to it.

You got to be ready when it comes.

[slow tense music]

We got a lot of work done out here at the cabin,

but it got cold last night.

Clear and cold. That's not a good thing for the boats.

The lake is real froze over.

Oh, shit. This fuckin' river is freezing up.

I should have went home yesterday.

Damn, I'm all froze in.

I can get out of here,

but I don't know how my boat's gonna act.

It's cold out.

Get my motor started. My steering is good.

My throttle feels frozen.

Yeah, it's fuckin' froze.

I don't know what's going on with that.

I can't go anywhere with it like that.

What I'm gonna do is start that generator,

plug in the heaters, and just thaw this whole cab out,

and see if that makes a difference.

[bright upbeat music]

I took an extra day

to get everything sealed up in the cabin for winter,

and I came out here late.

Temperature dropped about 20 degrees overnight,

and that's not a good sign.

I'm worried.

I don't know what's gonna happen with my throttle.

I'm hoping it's not mechanical,

'cause I'm not trying to stay out here for the fall.

Especially with the kids,

we don't really have that much food.

Okay, I'm gonna try that throttle one more time

and see what happens.

Try it again.

Fuckin' locked up.

Oh, there we go. Okay.

It's tight, but it's working.

It's really frozen,

but it's just gonna have to idle for a while and thaw out

and I think I got it.

It doesn't feel good,

but I think after I use it for a while, it will loosen up.

It's real tight but, [exhales]

damn, I swear to God, I feel religious in times like this.

[bright upbeat music]

Now that the motor is running, the throttle is running,

I need to capitalise on the opportunity right now

to get back to the village and get home safely.

So I'm just gonna pack up in the cabin,

pull the canoes inside and head back to Huslia.

You guys, come on. We got to get out of here. Let's go.

A last minute check, last second check.

The grizzlies aren't in their den right now.

So I got to board up my cabin good,

'cause if a bear comes into this property

and sees a open door,

it's gonna raise hell with my cabin again.

Okay. You guys ready?

-[Skyler] Yeah. -[Skarlett] Yeah.

[Ricko] We're cutting it close.

Let's get the heck out of here.

[gentle music]

When you walk into where you're at,

you accept the challenges or you don't.

You can count on one hand the amount of days I have left

before the sun disappears for several months.

I've gotta keep my butt moving on the chores.

Or I'm gonna be doing it just with the light on my forehead.

I've got a couple of elbows.

I heat with the diesel fuel,

and the additives they put in it

so it doesn't gel during the winter, very corrosive.

And it just corrodes those pipes.

Once to twice a year, I have to replace 'em.

The leading edge of winter is when you do that.

You don't wait for it to crumble in the middle of winter.

You have a 60-mile-an-hour storm,

there's no way you're getting up there

to replace 22 feet of pipe.

It used to be, I would get eight inches of precip a year,

no matter what form it takes.

But I'm getting 10 to 15, 22 feet of snow, of rain a year.

It's not your grandma's Arctic.

[wires rattling]

All right.

Fuckin' fuck fuck.

Well, it is down.

Ah. I don't think I'd be happy, come on,

living a lifestyle where it was all too easy.

Where would be the fun in that?

Where would be the challenge?

Where would be the risk and reward?

Okay. There's that.

Hopefully, it doesn't fall.

Tighten it. But I can't risk a half-ass pipe.

If it comes apart during a 60-mile-an-hour storm,

I'm not gonna have heat.

You're putting your life right on the line

because you were lazy.

And that's not in my nature and it's not the way I roll.

I've got to get the job done.

I'm gonna call this project handled.

-[exhales] -Woo. My hands are cold.

[gentle music]

Okay. Turn this on.

Drop it in.

And you can see, you've got flame.

So, the stove is cleared,

it'll keep this place warm in the winter when I need it to.

And hold tough for the storms coming through.

I'm ready for winter.

It's a hell of a way to end the season

and start the new one.

[Andy] Nature always reclaims everything.

I'm always in awe of the power

and the wilderness around here and what it does,

what it can do.

[dramatic music]

[boat engine purring]

This is definitely the place

they've been crossing right here.

It's all within this one mile here, you know?

It's a very tight spot, like a very specific trail.

[Narrator] After discovering a caribou migration

along the Yukon River,

Andy and Denise are scouting the area

in hopes of locating the rest of the herd.

It's a rare opportunity for meat this time of year.

And if they are to succeed,

they'll need to work together as a unit.

[Andy] There's a whole bunch of them coming across.

-Look at that. -[Denise] Oh, look at them!

Switch over, you take that.

-Little bit more, to the left! -[Denise] Okay!

[Andy] Try and land pretty quick here!

Okay!

[Andy] Straight ahead, right through that ice.

[gun firing]

[sombre music]

[Denise] Holy, man,

I just can't even believe that all happened.

It's all opportunity, you know.

When it comes, you better take advantage of it

'cause if you don't take advantage of it,

you don't get it for the rest of the year.

Wow, that's some mail delivery.

[Andy laughs]

Holy, man.

You know, we saw the first couple of caribou

swimming the river and jumping out.

But once we got to shore,

I started seeing a lot more tracks.

So there was easily five or 600 animals

that have been crossing there in the last day or two.

We happened to connect with two of those,

so we're fortunate.

It's not something I do for sport.

It's something I do so that I can survive

and live along the Yukon River,

and actually thrive along the Yukon River.

This is a little guy here.

We can get him in the boat pretty easy.

This was a really great experience for Denise.

I've only seen 'em swimming the river like this

a couple of times in my 30 years,

so it was really cool for her to be able to experience that

and kind of brings back that excitement to me.

And I don't ever wanna lose that enthusiasm

over what this life gives to you here.

[Denise chuckles] I got blood in my boat.

[Denise laughs]

Yeah, but look what comes with that blood.

[Andy] We got meat.

[slow gentle music]

[Chip] These folks are 10,000 years intact

of living off these areas.

This is a culture around here.

They know where things are

and how to use them at their fullest.

Can't see 100 yards now.

Looks like it's getting kind of dark.

There are thicker clouds in the way of the sun,

and there, there's a big snow squall over there,

and snow's coming right to us.

That should be here in about 10 minutes.

I better get out of here.

[gentle upbeat music]

The weather is closing in on us.

Look at that shit coming towards us.

It takes me about an hour to come down from that mountain

to get back to town.

Down low, it'll be a lot better

but, you got to go with what the weather does.

And when the weather comes along and says,

"You can't see 50 yards,"

then I guess it's its way

of telling you to quit hunting too.

I saw a caribou, just didn't get any.

And you just have to be used to those days.

Now you can't have too many of those go in a row.

That'll really screw a fella up.

Sometimes, the best hunter comes home with nothing.

One thing leads to another and those accidents

or mistakes starts piling up on each other

and that's when you get into a lot of trouble out here.

Starting to see some ice on the river now.

It's starting to form.

You see it out there?

-[Skyler] Yeah. -[Skarlett] Yeah.

Woo. I hear the ice hitting the bottom of my boat,

so I'm just gonna take my time,

I got this whole day ahead of me.

Maybe about four hours of daylight left

to get me and the kids back to Huslia.

Ice is hitting.

Boating season is officially about over.

[Narrator] With Huslia's waterways already freezing,

Ricko must race against time to safely transport himself

and his children back to the village,

or risk being trapped in the wild when winter arrives.

If I didn't get that motor running on this boat,

we would have been froze in up there at the cabin.

The sun really has no effect this time of year.

Maybe jump up 20 degrees for about two hours,

then it's back to sub-zero temperatures

and with that happening,

you go from summer to winter overnight.

I wanna say, that's real smart of me to read the weather

and cut it that close,

but in reality, it's kind of stupid too

because I'm taking a chance.

If those rivers and lakes freeze in,

that basically mean my kids freeze in out here.

So I'm just trying to get back to the village

before I freeze in.

Holy shit. There's some ice in front of us.

Both of you put life jackets on.

There's some ice right here. I'm trying to dodge it.

[bright upbeat music]

Sharp turn there.

Come on, baby.

[Skyler] Dad, you're gonna get in close to that thing!

Oh, shit. Hold on.

That was crazy, huh? A lot of ice on the river.

[Skyler] Yeah.

[Ricko] This was our last day to get back,

so I'm glad we got out of there.

If we stayed one more day, we'd be stuck?

That's it. We would have been wintered.

Huh, you'd be going to school like I was when I was a kid.

Correspondents. [laughs]

I'd be your mean teacher. [laughs]

[water splashing]

We're home.

We made it, we survived.

[Skarlett] We finally survived from that ice!

I didn't let you kids down.

[gentle upbeat music]

Consider myself real lucky to get home safely,

and not get froze in.

My boat's out the water.

My kids are safe. My cabin is secure.

I'm ready for winter, I couldn't ask for anything better.

Winter is definitely here.

It's one of those sides

of Jessie Holmes people don't know about.

For I become the alpha of the pack,

and everybody looks to me.

[dramatic music]

[dogs barking]

Chee!

Chee! Chee! Chee! Chee!

All right, guys. Whoa.

We're gonna be staying here for a little while.

[dogs whining]

Good run!

Good run, let's have some fun.

While they play,

I'm gonna focus on getting this camp set up.

This camp ups our mushing game big time.

We're putting 110% in every aspect of the sport right now.

This is the product of it.

This shows, these dogs love me.

They surround me, they wanna protect me.

It's a comforting feeling

to see the bond this team has to me,

and I know that the people I'm gonna compete against,

I got to beat all of 'em.

It doesn't mean because dogs love me this much

that we're gonna win,

but it ain't looking bad, I'll tell you that much.

[gentle music]

All right, I got my camp nice and set up.

This is awesome right here is,

not only is this tent set up here for me,

like I'll be coming here with a 12-dog team.

And nice thing is,

there's room for me and twelve dogs in here

to recover from the cold and the run.

Today was an awesome day.

We got everything we need here.

We're gonna sleep good tonight.

[Denise] You have to fall down.

And when you fall down,

you have to get up and learn how to walk again.

If you can't learn from your mistakes,

you're not gonna grow.

So how many pounds of meat do you think we got off of that?

Eh, it's enough for a month or two.

I mean, we're gonna definitely want more meat this winter.

We just have to see where they're at, if they're around.

It looks like that river is making a fair amount

of ice now too, huh.

Pretty much timed this just about right

-for last boat trip -[laughs] Yeah.

And the last of everything, really.

With winter coming, for me, there's some apprehension.

I see people like Andy.

They do things instinctively. For me, it's not instinctive.

I'm gonna do it wrong, but that's part of learning.

So, to be able to take on a new challenge

and to succeed at it.

That's huge.

For me, Denise is a great partner to share things with

because she's so upbeat and she's so positive.

She's got the desire to learn the skills,

and that allows us to accomplish

way more than I would have been able to do on my own.

We're gonna have a lot of work ahead of us.

Winter is here.

As we're eating it, I think about how

when we first saw them in the river,

it's etched in my mind how beautiful they are.

Yeah, I think what really amazed me is that,

we can fish for salmon all summer long

and the river gives us that.

And then the very last boat ride of the year,

we can go out and bring home a couple 100 pounds

of super-delicious meat.

That's unique and special.

Cheers. Good job with the caribou.

Yay.

[gentle music]