Take a Little Trip

.

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.





.

A few days ago I wrote about a polar bear that was shot in Noorvik, far out of the usual polar bear hangout zone. A couple days after that I received an email that had pictures of the bear and I thought I would post 'em up....


(photo credit B.Zibell)
This picture gave me the heebie jeebies. It's just not right to be seeing that beastie sniffing around in the TREES. I really have no desire to see a real live polar bear. If I want to see one I'll go to the zoo.


Here is the beastie after he had been dealt with. This whole thing cause quite the stir in the comments section of the article in the Anchorage Daily News. Scroll on down and check out the comments, they are full of the usual vitriol that is common for that forum. Isn't America a great place....even the crackers and the tweakers are allowed to have their say.