Take a Little Trip

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On saturday I went to the village of Noorvik to help gas up a couple of the snowmachine racers. Noorvik is located on the Kobuk river about 50 miles east of Kotzebue.




Noorvik has a population of about 642 people.




While we were there we had a chance to visit some family. Then we headed off for a ride in the countryside.




Here's Uyaana ready to head out of Noorvik.




Around here this is our version of a superhighway.




We left the trail and traveled along the river. We some moose. After a while we left the river and headed into the hills. There were lots of caribou here and there all over the hills.




We came across some fresh wolf tracks.




We followed the tracks for a while....




...and we came upon a caribou that had been killed by wolves.




Perhaps we scared the pack off with our noisy snowmachines.




We headed down out of the hills onto Kobuk Lake (Hotham Inlet).




We traveled along Kobuk Lake to Ivik.




Ivik is a group of subsistence camps with a few year round residents.




These Icelandic Ponies belong to one of the families who live out here year round. After visiting Ivik we headed back to Kotzebue across the inlet.




This cross is in memory of Dr. Roger Gollub.





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Wordless (almost) Wednesday

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A Day at Ed's

Last Friday, while we were out at camp, Uyaana and I decided to go over to Ed Iten's camp. The whole family had already left for Anchorage for the start of the Iditarod, but Ed's dog handler's were there keeping things going. They are busy taking care of the 70 remaining sled dogs, 5 horses, 11 chickens, 1 black lab, and one very spoiled, fat beagle.



Uyaana was very happy to go visit the girls. He had been there before and they had let him help feed the dogs and the horses so he couldn't wait to go do that again. First he helped them give the dogs fresh bedding. All the dogs in Ed's kennel are nice so I don't have to worry about them trying to bite Uyaana. They like him and he like to pat them.



Next we watched at they used a table saw to cut frozen sheefish into pieces to feed to the Dogs. Feeding programs are carefully researched and closely guarded by each musher so I won't disclose the specifics of the dogs diet, but it is well known that mushers in this area utilize sheefish so I don't mind talking about that.



One cut while the other loaded the pieces of frozen fish into 5 gallon buckets.



Then we each took a bucket and made sure that all the dogs had their share. Uyaana helped with her bucket.



We also got to feed the horses. These are Icelandic Horses. It seems that Icelandic Horses will eat just about anything. Believe it or not they really like fish...



......but like regular horses they also enjoy hay.


The girls are from Norway. They came to Alaska last August and will be headed back home at the end of April. After all the hard work they have put in at Ed's kennel they are certainly hoping that he wins the Iditarod....but I know deep down they must secretly be rooting for Team Norway. That's OK...we forgive them.