Little problems to be solved

Eric Leavitt checks out a problem in his fuel gauge in preparation for the 92 mile boat ride to Cross Island and all the boating that will follow.

History on the wall above

I took this picture this morning while looking up from the bed in which I slept. Folks up here in the far north have loved pictures since pictures first arrived. The walls of most homes are like visual libraries - family and community history, documented and displayed. 

Final post of the day: There but for a bear go I; I go anyway

I took a short walk and at about 9:30 PM stood at the edge of the village looking down this stretch of road. I just wanted to walk and walk, but earlier in the day a grizzly bear wandered into Nuiqsut - the same bear, I am told, that made a couple of appearances here just barely over two weeks ago when I was here before. I didn't think it would be a good idea for me to walk out there and meet that bear. But my legs could not be stopped. I told them not to do it, but they headed down that road. Out in the tundra grasses, I could hear geese nigliqing. They'll be going south real soon. Despite this appearance of continuing on endlessly this a village service road leading to the dump and does not go very far, just a couple of miles. I turned around before I got to the dump, just in case.

Logbook: Wasilla to Nuiqsut, ultimate goal, Cross Island, final entry: caribou cooking

I arrived about three hours ago and came over to the house of Edward Nukapigak and entered to the tantalizing aroma of caribou frying. Qipi was cooking. It proved as delicious as the aroma suggested. Edward showed me harpoon head, made by brother Jonah and Eric Leavitt. They landed a bowhead with it 'in 98. Here, people live from the land and the sea, as their ancestors have for millennia. Tools and methods adapt to time and circumstance, but the fundamental need for the food that nourished and formed them remains the same. Very weak, unreliable, cell reception trickles over to Cross Island from Prudhoe Bay. If you stand on top of a cabin you can sometimes pick it up and sometimes you can't. I am certain it is not going to be strong enough to transmit Instagram or blog posts so after we leave here, probably Friday according to the latest marine forecast, my posts will stop for awhile.

Logbook: Wasilla to Nuiqsut, ultimate goal, Cross Island, entry 5: approaching Nuiqsut

Approaching Nuiqsut. Kuukpik River (Coleville) below.