Original subtitles

[dramatic music]

[Carol] You putting them on the sled?

Yep.

Here, I tell you what, set it on the toolbox.

Did you bring extra gloves you're gonna probably need 'em.

Today, me and my dad wanted to go out

caribou hunting together so

we're just gonna go for a ride and see what we see.

Day time.

Good time to hunt

[Narrator] For the Hailstones, seasonal hunts

are key to their survival in Northwest Alaska.

Today, Chip and Carol will hunt for caribou.

An animal that provides nourishment and warm pelts

to combat brutal Arctic conditions.

With their supply running low,

harvesting them now is critical.

30 years of caribou hunting and in my head,

I think where are the caribou gonna eat?

Where's there deep snow?

Where's there a little bit of snow?

And how can I find a place where caribou

would wanna be munching down?

So I know these places in my mind in this whole delta here

and those are the places I go.

[dramatic music]

Me and you were here a couple of years ago, huh?

-Good spot. -Looking around.

Remember they were eating down here.

Yep.

[Carol] Can you see anything?

There's quite a few of them over there.

Don't be afraid to just start shooting.

When it comes time to get off this machine

I want you to put a shell in the chamber,

take your safety off

and catch whatever you're aiming at right?

You ready?

Caribou are always moving.

You can find them just about anywhere

but if you want to find him nice and calm,

you find them in a wind swept spot

where the snow's been blown off.

Probably better go from here on foot.

Let's go sneak up on 'em.

If they're close enough, it should be no problem

for you to catch one with that rifle, you know?

[Carol] Yeah.

[Chip] Now let's try to keep these trees

between us and them for as long as we can okay?

[Carol] Yep.

I can see two of them are standing up

and a couple of them are laying down.

[Carol] Yeah.

If they're far away,

we can just stick with mine all right.

[Carol] Yeah.

Okay they can definitely see us.

We gotta just act like we're caribou also.

Learning how to get by out in new county is challenging.

But with challenge comes reward of accomplishment.

[dramatic music]

Nothing like a good hot cup of coffee

and a warm raging fire on a 40 below day.

I'm gonna be going out into some new country here.

I got this old map that I found and

here it's come quite useful.

These maps and these tables and these cups of coffee

are where a lot of dreams begin for a lot of Alaskans.

Really deep into winter out here on Brushkana.

Not a lot of times I can get out and train the dogs.

They don't need to be going out at 40 below

but that doesn't mean that I'm gonna sit idle.

I'm gonna get out and set out some traps

and start establishing a trap line out of my backyard here.

This is an opportunity for me to be able

to make an income to support the team.

You know from the signs I'm seeing around here,

there's gonna be some

really good pockets of marten hopefully.

Marten is the weasel family.

They have a really nice, beautiful dense fur.

These lakes and these little patches of timber

are where the marten are gonna be at.

Thing is you never know what's gonna happen when you go out.

You know, there's a lot of things that can happen,

there's a lot of challenges out there.

Navigating, not getting lost, not getting stuck.

A guy's just gotta be real careful out there.

You get hurt out there, in these temperatures,

things go south real quick.

Gotta go out, put the time in today,

get all my traps set up so whenever I get out there,

I'm just looking at one thing, locating good marten sign,

setting in a highly concentrated area

and seeing how it goes.

With all these leftover building materials,

I'm gonna be able to use some rough carpentry here.

Nothing has to be that precise or that square

I just need a box for the marten to be able to go into

where I can then set my trap.

I'm gonna cut some slots in this board right here.

Slides right in there.

The animal has no choice

but to get the bait and go through.

Body kill.

So it looks like this is what's gonna work.

Now I just need to keep cranking out these boxes,

get as many of them set up today as I can

and start getting these traps out.

[dramatic music]

This time next year, I'm gonna be wearing a marten hat

that I get out here and I catch myself,

I tan myself and I make myself.

A marten hat could bring me four or five hundred dollars.

Every one of those marten I catch is crucial income for me.

Pretty exciting prospects of getting out

into my own backyard, pure wilderness,

months of work getting this place set up,

making this dream happen.

It all started 15 years ago

whenever I travelled up to the Yukon territories

and I was living on a remote trap line with a dog musher.

That lifestyle really struck me as something

that I could be doing for the rest of my life.

And here I am, 15 years later,

all the work that I've had to put in

that I can finally be living that dream.

All right I got all my boxes made.

Time to pack up the rest of my gear and hit the trail

and see how my luck is.

Excited and hopeful

to hit some productive country out there.

Remote living, it can be the bane of your existence

or it can be the sane of your existence.

[dramatic music]

This,

this is the no-tech cabin.

This is one of the original buildings to this area.

There's no electricity, no running water.

Last year I gutted it,

started the chinking process

and making the logs good, disinfecting it

and then I put in an antique stove.

I'm not here as often as I wanna be, but each time I come

I wanna try and make some improvement.

Since I haven't been here

and it's not been any kind of temperature control,

I have to check the health of the stove.

It's cast iron.

Iron does rust.

So I may need to do routine maintenance on it.

Between Kavik and the Chena property,

it's a little bit like a dual citizenship.

I can't always, at the drop of a hat,

get here to do the chores.

The most convenient time tends to be middle of winter.

So here I am doing chores.

All right, well I already see that

my stove is really being affected.

The raw iron has oxidised some with the temperatures.

Let's try and light the lantern.

These cabins are no match for Mother Nature.

You've got to be diligent and consistent

and routine about the maintenance.

How are we doing inside?

Not too bad.

Not too bad.

So that's one job.

Looking around...

Uh oh.

Right there I see a problem.

I have got

a hole straight to the outside world.

That is a perfectly round hole,

which is suspect for animal.

You have to be on your guard and you have to be diligent.

I'm betting your bottom dollar

that the animal's probably got in

since I wasn't here to spook them away.

The animals, the mice, the vermin, they are destructive.

Holy goodness.

I have got to deal with this.

That is a wasp's nest.

This sucker's huge.

Squatter's rights exist and this time

the squatters had wings and little tiny furry feet.

So it looks like I have a few projects.

The animals, the bees, the birds and everything in between,

they're taking advantage of the fact

that I'm not here full-time.

[dramatic music]

Do not wake up.

Lots of little dead bodies there.

I don't know exactly what kind of flying creature it is,

it looks like a hornet or wasps nest to me

but it has to be removed.

It's my house, not the bug's house.

I'm gonna scrape this dude off

but I want him to go right into the bucket.

I'm grateful that I saw this in the winter

because in the summer I would've gone

all right summer, poof, poof, poof

and I would've opened it to a full face

of wasps and bees or whatever they are.

Close this back up.

I think

that's the easiest one of my problems solved.

I've got my insulation

and I'm just going down the line here.

These places take constant maintenance.

Any home owner knows that, no matter where you live,

the chores are gonna...

If you buy it, they will come.

There's the little place

them micey's are getting in again.

Stuff that solid.

Alright, I need one little more piece here.

And then I'm gonna call this ready for chinking.

There we go.

I'm just gonna blat a whole bunch on here.

I need to rechink parts that have been taken apart

by animals and who knows?

Birds whatever and finished chinking things

that had not been done.

And it's going to be a very solid

hard surface when it's done

and the animals can't get in, the bugs can't get in.

You just secured the safety of this entry point.

Problem is if you look down the line

this is gonna take a hell of a lot

of chinking compound to fill.

A sense of urgency as what I feel about this

because I know there's a lot more winter coming my way.

It's just slam bam and get it done.

That's pretty good.

This is the home stretch for me.

Once I reach the end of this, I can move to the interior

and onto the beautification and protection inside.

Protect the outside, protect and beautify the inside.

[dramatic music]

You go out and you capitalise on any opportunity.

That goes with the living out here.

All right I see a marten tracks here.

I'm gonna set one right in here.

I'm gonna turn this tree here into a spot to set my box on.

[Narrator] Jessie Holmes has set out to establish

a marten trap line in the Brushkana wilderness.

A dream many years in the making.

Harvesting marten will bring final income

for Jessie to support his dog team

and sustain his remote lifestyle.

Right here clearly, even though it's blown over,

I can tell that's a marten track.

They're the weasel family and the weasel family

tends to walk with her tracks in pairs like that.

So I dropped my tree right by this

because they're likely to come back through here again,

they'll smell my bait, they'll smell my lure and go for it.

Last part for me to do is add my bait to my boxes

and set my trap in there.

Got my soured salmon in here,

I've got some seal blubber.

Seal blubber has a really potent smell so

I think it should work as a really good

smell attractor for what I'm going for.

Now just got to wire it into the tree.

Pretty excited about getting these traps out.

These clouds are starting to move in.

That's a good sign it's gonna warm up and

all the animals are gonna start moving.

I've got my trap set.

Everything looks good to me.

I'm gonna keep moving down about a quarter mile,

set another trap.

[dramatic music]

Something that was really important to me

moving out here to Brushkana is getting out

into a wild piece of country

where I could establish a trap line.

Where I've been living in Nenana,

there's not a lot of concentrated fir there.

This is my opportunity now.

I'm enjoying the scenery,

I'm enjoying all the wilderness has to offer, but you know

this is like clocking in, going to work.

This is an opportunity for me to be able to make an income

from the work that I put in.

I'm in great country.

I know I'm gonna be successful trapping marten out here.

This is my dream and I'm living it.

All right I've got my last set out here for the day.

I'm excited to get back out here and check these traps.

I see the good sign.

I feel like I got some good sets out

and I feel like it's just the beginning of something big.

[dramatic music]

[Chip] Stick with the task at hand and forget the rest

and you just do it.

We need to go over here

and keep the trees between us and them.

It's our only chance of getting close.

[Narrator] Chip and Carol Hailstone

are hunting for caribou.

A key resource for their family's survival.

After spotting a herd,

they're stalking the prey on foot to avoid detection.

But they must traverse deep snow

and difficult terrain to get within range.

And one false move could jeopardise the hunt.

It's remembering to keep yourself cool and pace yourself.

Oh, look, there's a lake.

We can take the edge of this lake all the way over there.

Yeah, I see.

Gotta keep the trees between us and them.

Let's head this way.

I got a shot.

Shit they see us.

Fuck.

Make sure your sights are clear.

Make sure your barrel's clear of snow.

[gunfire]

Stay on the same one.

Go ahead bud.

It's all right we'll track them.

We got one for sure.

But we need the SnoGo right now.

We have one over here that's dying slow.

So we just got to...

We call it picking them up.

We wanna end this quick.

I got an eye on them still.

They're not far but that one didn't go back down.

[dramatic music]

Shit.

Do it.

Good one.

Good drop.

We caught up to the caribou

right before they got into the trees to get away from us.

And I wasn't too sure how many shells I had

so I just decided to take it in the chest.

I have two down right now.

Did that one just get back up?

Fuck.

Look.

[Chip] It got back up?

[Carol] Yeah.

[Chip] Jump in the sled.

I'm gonna take you over here to the farthest point.

And then we'll do it on foot.

One died right away and then I shot the other one

but then it still decided to get up and run in the trees.

Kind of let it get away or stay wounded.

[Chip] We're gonna lose it if we don't get to it.

[dramatic music]

[Sue] I don't know how to do most things half-ass.

I do it full ass and an extra pound of biscuits.

Okay

time to work inside.

Having spent months away from her Chena property,

Sue has returned to discover

many places in need of crucial maintenance.

After working on the protection

of her no-tech cabin's exterior,

Sue will now focus on preserving the inside

of this century old structure.

The stove that's in the no-tech cabin is cast iron.

When iron meets oxygen it oxidises, rust.

So I'm gonna have to go

piece by piece meticulously

and start working on it.

I like to make old things shine.

I don't live here full time,

but even if I did

this is gonna be a job every freaking year.

I'm using a specific high temperature stove paint

to seal it, protect it and do the best job possible

to keep the conditions here and the iron here.

That's the last piece of the puzzle.

And the next project is right here.

This is that cement heat resistant board that I put in

when I put in the stove.

So I'm gonna do some tile work here.

The fireboard it's doing its job.

It's a cement and fibreglass board

you screw to the back behind your stove

and it prevents a fire from starting

and spreading behind it.

But it's not the most attractive stuff on the planet.

I'm going to have this black slate on the bottom.

Slate is a really good rock

and it retains the heat well and reflects it well.

But on top of that this is gonna be the next thing going.

It reminds me of the Arctic Ocean.

You've got the icebergs, you've got the colours,

the ice blue.

You've got everything that says the Arctic.

I'm bringing a little bit of Kavik here with me.

Okay here we go, team Sue.

[dramatic music]

[Jessie] My job is think like a dog.

I tell ya, a lot of times thinking like dogs

is a lot more fun than thinking like an adult.

Hey guys you ready to go for your first big run?

I'm gonna take you out on a little adventure today.

[Narrator] With his marten trap line set,

Jessie will now use this time to take his newest puppies

out for a mock training run.

This will be the first time they will be in harness

and in line with the elder dogs.

It's a key stage in their development

as members of the racing team.

While my traps are out there

I'm gonna hook up the dogs, get a training run in.

I'll give my traps some time to sit.

And then tomorrow I'll head out and check them.

It's a nice feeling to be able to

be doing two things at once,

two things that are very important.

Artemis.

Come here Artemis.

Little stinker.

I have six pups here.

I got Apollo,

I got Odin, Freya,

Artemis, Loki, and Neptune.

These guys are totally ready

to run harness for their first time.

I just try to pick litter themes for dogs that I like

and decided this group would be the gods.

You want great dogs you gotta give them great names.

I've done what I can to set these pups up for success.

Today I'll be putting them in the line with their elders

and their elder dogs are gonna teach them more

than I could ever teach them about being a sled dog.

In running a thousand mile race,

which is my main focus for these dogs,

you're gonna be going and travelling

and camping out somewhere, resting and then going

and travelling and resting to make it a thousand miles.

One thing I've never really focused on

is teaching them that stuff early.

So this is a big experiment for me.

And now I'm out here in Brushkana

I can focus on making my training better.

And that's what I moved out here for.

All right, all right.

Great.

Great.

Gee, gee, gee, gee!

Gee!

Gee!

Gee Dallas gee!

Get up there.

A little bit all over the place coming out of here.

Everybody's starting to find their stride though.

That's to be expected.

Huh huh!

Good dogs.

The more they do this, the better they'll get.

I've been racing for 10 years.

And I mean I started at the bottom.

I took everybody's dogs that they didn't want

and I looked at it as a challenge

of learning how to train them.

So I train dogs to be prepared for all circumstances,

all situations that I could encounter

but I'm always a student and studying the dogs

and they teach me more than any musher's

ever taught me about running dogs.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Neptune.

Good girl Meg.

Its okay pup.

You stay on one side.

Oh good girl.

The puppies are a little bit rough here.

They're getting tangled

but that's just kind of normal puppy stuff.

They're just still learning about the lines and you know

sometimes things that start slow, finish fast.

Easy, easy Neptune Neptune.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Untangle.

Oh, ho!

Whoa.

Holy fuck.

Stay.

Stay.

[barking]

Oh, wow.

Whoa.

Odin, Titan.

Zeus no!

Whoa whoa.

Fuck me.

Oh wow their first moose.

There's moose in the trail up here.

Oh, whoa.

Easy yeah.

Oh them puppies see it now.

That's one thing they're gonna learn

to see a lot of out here.

There's a lot of moose in this country.

I run into moose on the trail sometimes out here.

A moose could cause a big problem with the dog team.

Some of the gods saw the moose, they go crazy for them.

They definitely get a euphoric high off of it

but they will not go after the animal.

Their passion for running over runs everything.

Right.

Ah that's like the power

of a full grown dog team right there.

Good dogs.

It's good to take these pups up some hills like this.

Nice and slow.

Let them learn what it's like to work.

I mean, one of the most important things

they can learn at this age

is to have a good solid work ethic and to pull really hard.

Later on I can train them all the finer details

of being a long distance dog but they're looking great.

They're really pulling hard too.

Straight, straight.

Good job Neptune, good boy Loki, good boy Odin.

Ho.

Whoa.

All right guys.

Hey, these guys are doing awesome.

Good boy Neptune.

So far so good.

They're calming down.

I'm gonna go up and see if they want something to eat

and put them down some straw.

Let them chill for awhile.

Oh boy.

Neptune wants some food.

Pretty happy with what I'm seeing.

Good boys.

Good eating habits is one of the most important attributes

of a long distance dog.

Can only go as far as you take care of yourself so it's

time to lay down some straw

and chill out for a little while.

To run nine miles like this and not have a problem

and an issue is just incredible.

You know, this is a very advanced puppy team

and I'm gonna be able to teach them a lot

in the next few years that's gonna take them

to the starting line of a major race.

They're all I could ask for, they're perfect.

They're gods.

I'm resting, the dogs are resting

but I'm gonna be looking forward to getting home

and getting a fire started.

[Chip] The one certain thing you can say in a court of law

is that you are going to die.

There's few other truths in this world,

the rest is subject to change.

You got a knack for big hunt don't you?

[Carol] Holy cow huh?

Should be right...

Couldn't be far, it should just be right here.

[Chip] No he's leaving a hell of a blood trail.

[Narrator] Chip and Carol Hailstone

are tracking the blood trail of a caribou

they wounded during their hunt.

Unable to use their snow machine in the difficult terrain,

they must wade through waist deep snow to find the animal,

dispatch it humanely and secure its meat and fur.

There's some blood

it's been shot trying to run away.

We just decided to follow its trail,

it left a big trail, you can't miss it

so we don't ever let wounded animals get away.

Oh, it's right there dad.

It's pretty tired too.

It ain't too often you get a track like this to follow.

Well there's no way he's gonna get away from us

with this kind of trail.

He's in chest deep snow.

Deep snow slows him down.

Got it?

Good shot.

In the Northwest Arctic to be a good hunter,

you have to be persistent and you have to hunt.

There it is.

That's one tough caribou.

Look, you hit the chest right below the heart.

If you'd been up another three inches

you'd have just blown the heart away

and none of this would have been a chase.

This is really hard to do in the shifting snow.

We need to drag this caribou over to that lake bun

and you're gonna bust trail for me.

I want you to get ahead of me, carry my rifle.

Bust me a trail as straight

and as short to that lake over there as you can get.

[Carol] Okay.

The animals are gonna eat good tonight too.

[Chip] Oh yeah, they are.

[Carol] Want me to help you?

No, no.

Your help is breaking this trail.

You're doing a lot of work for me.

See what I mean by you're gonna be doing a lot of work?

Imagine if you were doing that

and trying to help me pull this.

The trail we made was pretty hard but

out here you gotta do what you gotta do.

Okay I'm not dragging this any further than I need to.

I am hot.

I'm gonna leave my hat and goggles right there.

I'm gonna walk up the hill here

I'm gonna go get that snow machine.

Gonna come down here and get you and the caribou.

[Carol] Yeah.

[dramatic music]

Nature is a force that erodes things.

And you have to be the force that builds it back up.

As I'm nearing the closure of the tile project,

making the stove beautiful.

I'm gonna leave one foot roughly on either side

and that gives me a little bit of room for creativity.

I have an artistic nature.

I always think about Alaska,

I always think about where do I live?

What do I enjoy?

And how can I express that outward?

There's bits and bobs of places that I've been everywhere.

I'm showing the cabin where I've been.

Because it gave me the shelter I needed to get there.

I've got some more space to fill

but I'm having a hard time seeing so I'm gonna...

Oh, get my old lady bones

get some new batteries for this dude

and get some new propane.

I think it's going pretty well.

It's damn near done.

Stove is all beautified and protected.

Then I've got the tile almost done.

So

spruce hen.

Come to mama.

No, no, no.

Okay went that way.

Where'd you go where'd you go?

Come on.

There he goes, under the tree.

Oh shit there he is.

Got him.

Now that's timing.

I'm just about done with my project

and here's dinner on the fly.

Thank you little birdie.

You're gonna make a wonderful meal.

It's almost that the Chena property is courting me.

Here's your rose my sweet.

Would you care to dance?

This particular grouse is a spruce grouse.

What has it been eating?

Pretty exclusively spruce.

So now I know

where to look for the animal.

I don't call myself a survivalist.

You don't get to be this chunky monkey by surviving.

You know, you're thriving.

Finish with a project that beautifies

and solidifies my existence here

and then nature turns around the area itself says

I approve

and sends me a little gift.

Thank you buddy.

[dramatic music]

I live a subsistence lifestyle.

This is the wilderness.

It's tough.

There's no guarantees in anything.

My first trap here.

Dust a little of the snowoff,

nothing in it, bait still there.

Just old tracks around here

that I seen when I came here before and set it so,

you know, the beauty of this fresh snow is

I'll be able to see where things are moving

and what's going on with these traps.

Keep moving down the line.

Hopefully I got one in one of these traps.

[Narrator] After taking his dog team on a training run

Jessie Holmes is heading back into the brush

to check his trap line for marten.

If successful, the harvest would provide Jessie

with a new means of vital income

to support his racing kennel and way of life.

Got a dozen traps set.

They've been out there for a couple of days.

There's a anticipation.

It's just like going to the fish net.

You're hoping there's something,

you're excited as a child on Christmas.

You put the work in, you wanna be successful.

Time to see if I had any luck.

There's another one coming up here.

Looks like don't got anything in that one.

That's, that's how she goes.

Onto the next one.

I still see a lotta old marten tracks.

I'm bound to catch some marten out here.

I just might not catch them this time.

Here's another trap, nothing in it.

So far I've checked a few traps and nothing yet.

I'm pretty bummed out about that

but I had a great time coming out setting these traps.

It's sights and scenes just like those mountains right there

that just make coming out here all worth it.

Oh, right there.

All right I got a marten!

Heck yeah.

That's so cool.

Get a few more of these

and I'll be able to make myself a hat.

You know this right here,

this fur's worth a hundred dollars.

If I caught a marten every two days

for the rest of the month, that's $1,500 right there.

You know, I'm excited to get onto the next traps

and hopefully I got some more.

This is great, this is, you know,

what I've been dreaming of doing.

Being able to work for myself out here in the woods.

You know, this is a very renewable resource.

These hills are full of marten.

I mean I barely punched this country, you know

and I can just keep going with this

and pretty exciting to have

some more traps out there to go check.

All right I got another marten.

This is great.

This is really turning out well.

Beautiful.

It's got me excited.

I wanna go home and make some more boxes.

Put out some more line.

All right today's my lucky day, marten number three.

I mean, for two days, a dozen sets out here, three marten?

I'm pretty excited about this.

That's enough, I can make a hat right there.

I spend a lot of money whenever I train my race team.

This is a good income for me to be able to supplement that.

It's pretty hard making money winning races.

You got to have a lot of irons in the fire

to get by up here.

And this is a real good one I got going on.

I got a lot of country out here.

This is exactly what I wanted to see.

This has been an awesome day.

I'd say for my first year out here in Brushkana

a lot of progress has been made.

Total complete life change.

Definitely been a challenge but

I feel like I'm finally doing

what I've really wanted to do with my life.

[dramatic music]

[Chip] We're the top predators you know?

We're the top notch here

and I'm out looking for other predators.

Skin them, eat them, I wanna catch them.

That hunt was

kind of difficult.

That was a long walk through the powder.

My dad's gonna come down and he's gonna pick up

me and the caribou and take us to the sled.

He's gonna leave it up there by the other one.

Then we'll just go to the second one and gut it.

And then be on our way home.

[Chip] You wanna wrap that rope around its neck?

[Carol] Just one?

Yeah.

Just tie a knot.

It was easier to take the caribou 50 yards to a lake

and that took my snow machine

to a place that was easy to come down,

got on the lake, got the caribou,

brought that caribou back up here

where I'd left the other caribou in the sled.

Some good mukluk legs here if you want.

And they're fresh and they're wet

and you can start them from this very beginning.

One, two, three up.

[Carol] Whoa the leg.

Ready?

One, two, three, up.

Yep just like that.

Okay work on the next one?

[Carol] Yep.

You did a good job Carol.

Look at that.

Dude.

This young lady, when she becomes an adult,

will most likely be a really good hunter.

And I want you to watch how I'm doing this.

It's probably just growing up out here.

You gotta learn how to take care of that stuff.

Cause you know what?

There's gonna be a time when I'm not around.

Some kids are scared of gunshots,

some are scared of seeing animals bleed.

It's just reality.

Some people think it's brutal,

but you know that's just life in nature.

We're gonna put it in the

sled.

You need to go grab that other caribou skin.

[dramatic music]

These are the days of high adventure!

Today has been a really good day.

I can't wait to go home and tell my family what's happened.

It's been good experience with my dad once again.

Not much people get to do this or experience it

and it's gonna be something to remember though.