Original subtitles

[Andy Bassich] I don't wanna just sit in a cabin

when I get old and look out the window.

I wanna be able to get out, and continue doing the things

that I love to do out here all the time.

My goal in my life is to die here.

[narrator] Few have chosen a life of freedom in the Alaskan wilderness,

and even fewer have remained on that path, and prospered.

[Andy] If you don't like being tired at the end of the day,

you don't belong out here.

[narrator] For Andy Bassich,

it's a constant battle against Mother Nature's wrath to carve out a life

on his own terms.

[Andy] There's one thing I'll say about this country out here,

there's no guarantees to anything.

[narrator] The knowledge and skills to survive

can only be gained through trial and error.

And everything can be lost with one false step.

Oh, shit! [grunts]

[Andy] When you're on your own, you're really on your own.

One mistake can kill you out here.

[theme music playing]

[Andy] My name's Andy Bassich.

I live on the Yukon River

about 15 miles downriver from Eagle, Alaska.

I think the most important thing in my life

is independence and freedom.

Erm, there's very few places left in the world

where you can go live, and carve out a life for yourself,

and do it on your own terms.

And this is one place that you can still do that.

I grew up near Washington, DC,

and when I was young, about eight years old,

I realised that I really enjoyed being out in the woods,

and started teaching myself

some of the basic skills at a very young age,

so that I could someday, hopefully, live out in the wilderness environment.

I have, er, three other siblings.

We're all very different.

I'm the only one that lives this kind of a lifestyle.

I guess you'd say I'm kind of the black sheep of the family.

When I was 22 years old,

something inside of me told me I'd need to go north,

and something kept drawing me to Alaska.

And when I landed here at Calico for the first time with a three-dog team,

and sat on the bank, I felt like I was at home.

And fortunately for me, I was able to

turn that feeling into the dream of everything that I have here right now.

[dogs howling]

[narrator] To maintain a subsistence lifestyle

with his sled dogs in the Alaskan bush,

Andy Bassich must utilise

and contend with one of the Arctic's largest

and most powerful forces...

The Yukon River.

[Andy] It's fascinating to watch the workings of Mother Nature

on this massive river throughout the year.

When you live out here, you don't have roads.

In Alaska, most of the rivers are the highways,

and we live along an Interstate.

[dog howls]

What do you guys think? Tea, you wanna go to Eagle today?

Hey, Tea. Hi, girl.

[whining]

Tea, you wanna go to Eagle? Hey, Rem, you guarding her?

[narrator] Each year, the freeze-up of the Yukon River blocks Andy's pathways

to vital supplies in the nearest town.

To open up access, he must cut a new trail through the dangerous ice.

-Hey, Fergie boy. -[whining]

You ready to go up to Eagle? Huh?

He looks so excited. Yay!

-Yay! Yay! -[dogs whining]

-We're going up to Eagle today. Let's go. -[dogs barking]

Hup, hup.

Atta boy, straight ahead.

[howling]

[clicking tongue] Atta boy!

Come on, let's go. Up, up. Atta boy!

Good, perfect. All right.

Everybody stay.

Everybody stay.

Time to make some trail, you guys.

[whining]

You can see right here there's a bunch of hollow ice under here,

and I'm definitely gonna have to get this broke down.

Jumble ice proposes a couple of different problems.

It's very easy to hurt a dog

when you're going through rough jumble ice,

and I'm really concerned about taking care of my dogs,

'cause they are my workforce, they are...

They are everything to me in the wintertime.

Making sure they don't get hurt is critically important to me.

[exhales]

[breathing deeply]

[exhales] All that work and I can still see home.

[laughs] Man!

Sometimes it feels endless out here.

-I think the boys wanna go. -[all whining]

I'll try and go nice and slow through this.

Everybody stay.

Okay, let's go to Eagle. Come on, boys! Hup, hup!

[urging dogs]

[tutting] Go, go, go, straight ahead.

Come on, boys. Atta boys. Pack it out.

Put a trail in, you guys.

That's my boys. Easy, easy, easy.

Watch the crack, watch the crack. Easy, easy.

Okay, everybody move. Move. Good job.

Yay! Good boy!

You guys are trail-breaking machines.

I should have a pretty good trail.

I mean, I think I just went through the worst of it right now.

And I know that people up in Eagle probably have some trail in up there,

so as soon as I connect up with their trail, I should have

fairly decent trail into town.

So, I'm going to Eagle.

Tent up, let's go boys! Hup, hup! Yeah, let's go.

Playing chess with Mother Nature you're always a pawn,

and you're usually the first one taken off the board.

If you're lucky you make it to maybe knighthood.

Playing against Mother Nature you're never the king or the queen.

I'm gonna drill a hole through the Yukon River ice

so I can test the thickness of the ice right now.

I can tell a lot about what's gonna happen at break-up

by observing ice conditions.

[narrator] During break-up, rising spring temperatures

cause the snow in the surrounding mountains to melt.

The water runs downhill into the Yukon River,

shifting the ice, and bringing the threat of flooding to the area.

[drill whirring]

Son of a bitch!

Well, I'm guessing, right now, the ice thickness right here is still

close to five feet thick, and that's really bad.

[narrator] If Andy does not fully prepare for the potential damage,

he risks losing his home, his sled dogs, and his life.

[Andy] 2009, when we had our major break-up that destroyed our home,

that's how thick the ice was a week before break-up.

The ice crushed everything.

Big pieces of ice, the size of city blocks.

Trees were getting ripped out, the log cabins went floating by...

It was like flushing a toilet.

The ice wiped out our entire homestead.

I'd put ten years into this place, and lost almost all that work,

and I don't know what would happen if I lost it again.

If this break-up happens the way I think it might happen,

then where I'm standing might be covered with ten or 15 feet of ice

which will totally destroy this fish rack.

What I'm gonna try and do here is pull it up the hill

to where our house and dogs are at.

I've got probably close to 1,600 fish on the rack right now.

And that's our summer's dog food.

And that's worth couple thousand dollars.

Without the fish I couldn't afford to have these dogs.

All right, I think that's good enough.

As long as I got that, my dogs are in good shape for the year.

[all howling]

We're planning for the worst. Then after that it's just a matter

of what Mother Nature decides to do to us.

Here we go, come here. Come here, To.

One of the last things I wanna do is to put some eye bolts

through the beams supporting my house,

and then tie those off to the base of trees.

In the flood in 2009, every building on our property floated and moved.

Some of them moved 75 to 80 feet away.

What I'm a little nervous about is that if all these buildings start floating

they're gonna end up going back out with the water.

This rope here is weighted for five tons.

If the whole house was floating I'd be able to pull it with this rope.

We're not governed by other people very much, or society in general.

We're pretty much governed by what Mother Nature does for us

or doesn't do for us.

That's what our world revolves around.

So the house is secure.

I'm praying that I'm so wrong right now on what's gonna happen.

Probably go to sleep tonight with the window open

so I can listen and hear if something starts happening.

We're coming down to the wire.

The ice, it looks like it's just starting to break up.

[ice crackling]

Oh, crap.

You could hear the ice cracking and popping.

Just gonna have to wait and see what Mother Nature throws at us now.

I'm scared shitless of this river break-up.

I've invested 25 years of my life here, and I don't wanna leave.

So, the river's moving really good out in the main channel right now. Er...

I'm looking out there, and I can see it moving probably ten or 12 miles an hour.

Water came up about five feet in less than a minute here

when it breached upriver about maybe 200 yards.

So, er, there's a lot of water piling up back behind this. I hope...

I hope it keeps moving.

I just came up on my roof 'cause that's my best vantage point.

I'm seeing open water starting to show up,

and I'm seeing the ice thinning out in the main channel.

So, I think the first big push has gone through right now,

and, er, that's exactly what I'd like to see.

And it looks like I made it through

probably one of the worst break-ups that could have happened in this area

unscathed, so, good start to the spring.

Even 30 years of living out along the river

just goes to show you, you never know what's gonna happen.

One of the biggest challenges of living out in remote Alaska

is trying to figure out a way to make a living.

Living out in the bush, you can live on

pretty much all the resources that are out here,

but even 100 years ago, people needed money or needed something to barter with.

The first five, six years I lived in Eagle, I would go out and trap

with my seven dogs in the wintertime, and then in the summertime

I'd come into town and do carpentry work.

And pretty much started learning the skills I needed to live out here.

After that, I started teaching people how to dog-mush.

I would do that in the winters,

and then I would work on the Yukon River in the summers,

being a captain on a boat.

And I did that for 20 years, and it worked really well.

I'm totally self-taught.

I've never gone to school for anything. I've never really had any close mentors

to teach me things, I just kinda figure it out as I go.

[narrator] Surviving in the Alaskan wilderness

requires a deep knowledge of the land and resources.

For Andy Bassich, using that knowledge to earn an income

is crucial to his ability to thrive along the Yukon River.

[Andy] You know, the only way you live subsistence

is working off of renewable resources.

So far, I haven't figured out how to get the gasoline,

and oil, and all these other things as renewable resources.

You gotta make cash to make it happen.

[dogs barking]

[Andy speaking]

[narrator] In the spring,

bears roam the Alaskan forest in search of food after hibernation.

A bear has entered Andy's camp,

and harvesting its meat and raw materials is critical.

[Andy] Early in the springtime up here,

bears are our early meat.

It's the first fresh meat that we see after a long winter.

He's gonna be fucking dinner tonight.

See him in the woods there.

[gunshot]

[cocks gun]

[gunshot]

Bad day for the bear, good day for me.

This should be some really good eating.

Start getting him butchered up here.

I learned a long time ago

that when something presents itself as an opportunity,

if you pass it up thinking, "Oh, I'll go get the next one,"

the next one never comes.

This bear presented himself as an opportunity,

and I took advantage of it,

and it's gonna be a big payoff in the long run.

What'd I shoot, three rounds?

So, this bear cost me about $1.50 for 80 to 100 pounds of meat off this bear,

so that's pretty good economics.

You can't buy a cup of coffee for that.

And I can tan this hide up, and if I want, I can sell this hide,

or I can trade with somebody for this hide,

so there's barter value in it.

The claws will be made into jewellery, the main canine teeth will be pulled,

and I'll be making jewellery out of those.

When I'm all done, the only thing that

goes to waste on this whole animal is the blood.

Here's all the gut fat, and it's really the sweet fat for rendering.

Out in this country, we crave fat.

[scoffs] In cities, people want a fat-free diet.

But out here, fat is energy.

Got the, er, lungs...

The heart right here.

This heart will be good eating.

I'm not gonna be able to hunt moose until late August.

So, it's a good start on the summer to have some fresh meat here.

There's no nine-to-five jobs out here.

If you wanna live out in the bush

you gotta be self-motivated, and self-employed.

[dogs barking]

There's a lot on my shoulders right now.

I've got a lot of fish to hang in the next five or ten days,

and no matter what Mother Nature throws at you

you gotta get out there and do it when it's time to do it.

[narrator] In the fall, Andy uses a device called a fish wheel,

to harvest salmon as they swim upriver to spawn.

Relying on commercial food is costly and unsustainable.

So, the catch is crucial to feeding himself

and his sled dogs for the year ahead.

Looks like the boxes are overflowing.

Fish are flopping out. [laughs]

Welcome to my world.

[Andy] Living out in remote areas, you rely on natural resources,

and fishing for chum salmon is probably the most important thing we do every year.

It feeds our dogs for 365 days.

A day or two ago, we just fed out the last stick of fish to the dogs,

so right now the total focus in my mind is getting slimy with fish.

So, how's this for putting fish on ice right outta the water, huh?

[laughs] The Seattle fish market's got nothing on me.

So, there's 360 fish in the boat.

That'll be a good start. It's time to go cut fish.

All this has costed me is ten gallons of fuel,

and a bunch of labour, and a bunch of calories.

I love providing for myself and my dogs,

it's the best job of the whole year for me.

[dogs whining]

-What do you think, Prance? -[dogs howling]

Everybody's gonna get fish tonight. Oh, boy!

These fish are critically important to us. We live on a limited budget out here,

and we can't afford to feed our entire kennel commercial dog food.

So, putting up fish for the dogs saves us $4,000 to $6,000 a year in dry dog food.

It's like a symphony of slurping up when it's like this.

Killigan? Can you sit?

You're a good sitter! There you go, fat boy.

[dog whining]

Before I'd moved out to Alaska,

I held on to the notion that a job was security.

But security out here is not a job, it's skills and resources.

I think people are becoming very disconnected

from living in this environment.

Very few people have broad ranges of skills now.

Very few people know how to get their food,

or how to take care of their basic needs in life

which are food, shelter and clothing.

And if you don't have the ability to do those three things for yourself,

you're not very well prepared no matter how much money you have,

anywhere in this world.

[narrator] To feed himself year round,

Andy Bassich relies on the wildlife along the Yukon River.

But animal behaviour is unpredictable,

and taking advantage of opportunities is key to his survival.

[Andy] This land pretty much provides us with everything we need to live here.

Our food, our heat, our shelter.

It's just up to us to go get it, and make it happen.

[geese honking]

Putting up your meat out here

is probably the most important thing you can do for the year.

Caribou, bear, and moose are our primary source of protein.

So the best thing that could happen to me right now

would be to get a moose real quick,

but hunting for moose is sometimes the most frustrating thing to do up here.

Moose are not highly populated,

so you gotta work hard to get a moose here.

I'm definitely seeing some moose tracks here.

It looks like a cow and a calf. So where there's cows, there's gonna be a bull.

I'm going to do some calling for a moose right now by scraping,

and I'll be imitating what it sounds like when a moose is rubbing its antlers

to clean the velvet off.

A young bull just came out.

He's a little too far away for a clear shot.

Moose have great hearing, so silence is absolutely necessary

when you're stalking a moose.

[whispering] It's really, really wet down there.

I'm hoping I can call him out of that wet, boggy area,

'cause that'll be a pain in the butt to shoot him right there.

[mimics moose call]

It's getting a little bit dark.

I've got a good clear shot at him but he's in water.

I'd really rather not shoot him right now,

but I'm not going to be able to wait too much longer.

[gunshot]

[sighs] Should have fucking waited a little longer.

This moose is going to be a pain in the ass to get out.

He's three feet in the water, and 30 yards out into a slew.

But, er, he's down. And that's good.

So I'm gonna get him butchered up.

I love living a lifestyle where everything that I need to live is out here.

I like to use what the land has to offer.

That's what makes it all worthwhile. That's my payoff.

Atta boys, let's go! Hup, hup, hup!

A rifle to me is a tool, and it's a tool to go harvest protein,

and to feed myself, and to be self-reliant.

[gunshot]

We've had a very early snowfall this year,

and everything's frozen down, everything's buried under the snow.

I would've liked to have harvested a little bit more meat,

before winter sets in completely.

Today, what's on the agenda is to go get couple beavers.

[narrator] Andy is stalking the nearby lakes

along the Yukon River in search of a beaver.

An animal that, when harvested, will provide vital meat

and fur for the coming winter months.

[Andy] Hunting beaver's a little bit different than hunting

a lot of hooved animals.

Beavers have a pretty good sense of smell.

They tend to come out in the early mornings and late evenings, so, er,

I don't know if they'll be out right now.

It's a beaver chew.

You can see there's quite a few chews around here.

[whispering] Think I gotta let him get a little closer to the shoreline

before I take a shot, so he's not too far out.

[gunshot]

Don't sink, don't sink, don't sink, don't sink.

Oh, you son of a bitch.

So far, I've never lost a beaver hunting them this way.

I don't want this to be the first.

Gonna see if I can't cast out a few times

and hopefully, snag him.

I'll probably end up snagging a damn branch.

I can't stand losing game when I shoot it.

This drives me nuts.

It sucks.

Fishing for beavers. That's a first.

Hmm. There's some bubbles coming up right there.

This is like a one-in-a-million chance.

[reeling in]

I think I got it. There we go. I got him.

Son of a bitch. Oh, was I ever fucking lucky or what?

Oh, yeah. Nice.

Weighs a good 40, 50 pounds, anyway. Forty pounds.

[grunts]

I'm headed back to hacienda.

Life has changed living out in the bush dramatically

since technology has given us satellite Internet, satellite telephones.

You know, when I first moved out into this country 25, 30 years ago,

there were no... Even radios.

People either lined a canoe, drove a dog team,

or wrote a letter and handed it off to the person going by.

And you waited for two weeks or a month for your answer.

I'm not opposed to technology. I utilise it wherever I can,

but I try and balance it in my life.

I have a lot of tools and a lot of equipment here,

and, erm, that's because I want to get a lot of work done.

And if you're gonna work by yourself you need aid,

so I rely on the technology of machinery and tools to help me.

A lot of people working together can get a lot done.

But there's not a lot of people around here.

[howling]

[narrator] For Andy Bassich,

living alone in the wild requires ingenuity to solve problems that arise.

He must draw upon his knowledge of traditional methods,

and modern technology to maintain his livelihood.

[Andy] Living this lifestyle, you kinda become a jack of all trades.

I love inventing things, I love creating new ideas,

and creating new things with those ideas.

And this lifestyle allows me to do that.

I'm gonna have to go and replenish this today.

I'm starting to get low on wood.

I'm pumping a lot of wood into my stoves right now.

As much as I'd like to hunker down at 50 below zero,

that's not gonna be the case today.

There's always work to do, and I've gotta get wood today.

[narrator] To heat his camp in dark winter,

Andy must cut down trees in the surrounding forest

and replenish his wood supply.

But below freezing temperatures make relying on technology difficult.

[dogs howling, barking]

I'm gonna take both chainsaws out,

and hope that I can get one out of two to work today.

Come on, boys! Let's go.

I have about four loads with the dogs to equal one load with the snow machine.

Takes a lot more time to go out and use the dogs,

but I know I'm not gonna have to fight breakdowns.

Only thing I got to worry about with the dogs is they're well fed,

they're well hydrated, and they're in good shape.

Go!

Down! Turn right. Let's go! Hup, hup!

-[dog barking] -Yeah, buddy.

All right.

Good job!

Get that thing warmed up inside the house.

They don't really like these temperatures very much.

I got another saw. I think I'm gonna try that one.

So...

It still doesn't wanna really turn over.

I don't think they're gonna start.

Looks like it's time to build a quick fire,

and try and get a little bit of warmth to them.

Probably the single best skill to learn up here,

building a fire quick.

Birch bark catchin' really good.

Best fire-starter in nature.

And it burns even if it's wet.

People been living up in this country with far less than we have now.

When you didn't have the benefits of some of this machinery,

you didn't have lightweight warm clothes...

We're pretty spoiled nowadays living out here

compared to what people used to have to put up with.

The main thing I think I need to get is these precoils...

Need to warm up.

I'll see if I can warm these up without burning them up.

Fire, man's best friend up here in the north.

All right. I'm getting a little bit of heat on these.

I'm gonna try.

Think I'll try this big one first.

It felt like it's pulling a little bit better.

-[whirring] -Yeah, baby!

Yes!

You can't have high expectations when it's cold like this,

you just get out, try and get what you can done,

and be happy with that.

[grunts] I think that's it.

The last thing you wanna do is fall on that hard ice out there.

That's how you really get messed up.

I'd rather just let go. I can rebuild a sled.

I can't rebuild an Andy.

[narrator] In dark winter,

Andy relies on his dog sled to gather vital resources.

But any additional weight on his sled could strain the framework,

and make for a dangerous trek on the ice.

[Andy] This is like a giant sail out on that lake ice.

[muttering] What the hell?

What the hell is going on here?

[groans]

God dang it!

Ah, looks like my ties broke.

Looks like my plastic even broke right here too,

and it's broken on both sides, so this thing comes apart

I could fall off and smack my head on this ice.

You just don't want to take chances.

[sighs] I think if I take the weight out of this sled I'm gonna be okay.

I like everything's about efficiency.

Bush economics.

And shit happens.

Oh, shit. Here's another place it broke.

It's broke under here too.

Basically, I'm gonna have to rebuild this whole sled.

[sighing] All right. If that's the case, then better get it home and get on it.

Let's go!

I like this sled.

I've done a lot of miles with it, and I've hauled a lot of wood with it,

and it's one of my favourite little sleds to run around.

It's kind of my little Corvette.

So I wanna keep using it.

That was the guilty culprit. That's definitely needed replacing.

[whirring]

This is probably the hardest part of the whole process,

is cutting the big piece of this plastic by yourself.

It's like trying to cut a giant noodle.

I didn't want to screw that up 'cause that's about a $350 piece of plastic.

[laughs]

It is the most important part. It's the foundation.

It's like the foundation of a house, you know?

If you have a lousy foundation you don't have much of a house.

There's nothing like running a new sled, psychologically...

[grunts] It's, you know, your...

Just put a bunch of work, and time, and effort into something, that's always,

always a big deal.

One more screw.

I love making a mess. I always hate cleaning them up.

All right, I got her done. It's time to take her out,

and see how she tracks, and go get some wood,

and run some dogs.

Hi!

When I came out here,

I made the decision, and it was a very conscious decision

that I didn't ever wanna risk anybody else's life

to come save me if I screwed up.

Even when I was out on trapline, hundreds of miles from anything, really,

I figured, if I get hurt out on trapline, if I can't deal with it myself...

Hey, that's life, you know?

My mother has come to visit me, and she's in her 80s now.

And I don't know if she'll ever come again,

which kind of saddens me.

And the reason for that is that, erm,

she is worried about how far away she is from a hospital.

When I get older, if I'm not healthy, then I'll have to make that decision then.

"Is it worth it to me to leave here?

Or is it worth it for me to just live my life out here,

and take whatever comes my way?"

[narrator] Life in the unforgiving Arctic has forced Andy to learn

through success and failure.

Without preparation for the changing seasons

and unexpected dangers that lie ahead,

everything he's built is at risk.

[Andy] Son of a bitch!

I live out here alone.

So, if I get myself into deep shit, I gotta get myself out of deep shit.

That ability to be self-reliant, and self-sustaining,

that's what motivated me to come out here.

All right. Let this project begin.

I don't know if I'm going to have any more good days.

[narrator] A fierce storm stopped Andy from winterising his new cabin.

Too wet. That ain't working.

[narrator] But a break in the weather allows him to continue to work.

And with winter looming, each day is critical.

[Andy] Finally got a clear day.

So I'm gonna go like hell and try and get

as much sanding done today as I possibly can.

I have very little time right now to get this house winterised,

and ready for the snow to fly.

Sanding is the part that takes the most time,

and is by far, the most critical thing of this whole process.

I have to get this place sanded before I can get it stained.

I don't have full-blown scaffolding around.

Quite frankly, I'd have a hard time putting it up by myself.

It's generally a two-man job.

I have to keep things light, I have to keep it mobile,

I have to be able to do it by myself,

and I wanna be able to do it fairly quickly.

An injury out here is a lot different than an injury in town.

There's no 911, there's no ambulance.

There's nobody to come in with a back board.

This isn't gonna fucking work at all!

When winter hits, everything stops.

You didn't get it done, you wait another year to get it done.

There's a ticking clock going off in my head.

Shortcuts are seldom shortcuts.

Lesson learned.

It feels good to get some stain on it, and get this place closed in.

I'm really worried about weather getting between these walls.

The house is sanded, and it's stained.

Done.

I'm not getting any younger.

So, every summer is probably going to be pretty full for me

for the next year or two, until I get this house completed.

I always say the best way to learn something is to screw up.

You'll remember that lesson really well.

I've got some steel up in Eagle I've gotta bring down.

I've gotta haul fuel down here.

But I've got a major ice flow that has broken off,

and changed where my trail that I had been using all winter is.

[narrator] Warming temperatures have caused a large piece of river ice

to suddenly break off, blocking Andy's trail to Eagle.

He must cut a bypass trail,

and pick up vital supplies before his access to town

is cut off for the next several weeks.

[Andy] I'm trying to create a little bit of a trench.

So, if the sled starts sliding down

it's got something to come up against to stop right here.

It's kind of like a little luge-run right now,

so as long as I'm in that I'm not worried about sliding out

and on to that thin ice.

I was trying to get all these supplies loaded up.

I'm gonna be hauling back, probably, about 1,000 pounds of material,

and fuel, so we'll see.

Every day's an adventure on the Yukon.

We're running out of good trail.

I'm gonna have to be really cautious.

If I go off the edge, I'm gonna lose 800 pounds,

right into a deep part of the river.

Oh, shit.

[groans]

Oh, don't you dare go in there.

Oh... Shit.

This could all go to hell really quick.

Oh... Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.

Atta boy, stay in there.

Oh-ho.

[whoops] Boy, that was a close call.

[chuckles]

Good learning lessons for me. I really picked up a few new clues,

to look at the ice and decide whether it's safe or not.

Every time you go out here, you learn something new, good or bad.

That's life on the Yukon, man. [laughs]

When I first came here, this was raw land.

There was nothing but spruce trees this far apart everywhere.

And it took me, probably, four or five hours

just to cut a trail from the river up to where I set up a wall tent,

and then clear a little bit of a dog lot.

So everything has been from...

From the very beginning, from scratch, and it's been a lot of work, a lot of...

I... I call it "calories". I put a lot of calories into this place.

Do I mind the hard physical work? Not really.

Everything that I do out here is something I get jazzed about,

whether it's hunting meat, putting fish up,

milling wood, running the dogs...

And every time I do something,

it reaffirms that I'm doing the right thing

living out here the way I live.

I'm glad I listened to my heart when I was a 20-year-old kid,

and decided to come out here, and make a life for myself out here

'cause it's been a good ride.

Hup, go, hup, hup!

The freedoms that you get from this lifestyle is the independence

to pursue your life in any manner which you want to pursue it.

And I believe very few people have that freedom

anywhere in the world any more.

I don't want to depend on anybody

or anything for living my life in any manner.

That independence and that confidence in being able to take care of myself

is probably one of the strongest motivators for me.

When I moved out to Eagle, Alaska, there was a whole network of young people

in their 20s and 30s living out here.

And they're all gone.

We're a dying breed. We're an endangered species.

Straight ahead, let's go! Come, come, come!

These dogs work really hard all winter long.

And this is kind of playtime for 'em, but it's also educational for 'em.

I depend on my dogs 100%.

Dogs are my life here.

And I depend on them for safe transportation,

to haul the firewood, to haul the water.

They're great companions.

Yeah... [laughs]

I can't ever think of a time I won't live out in the bush without dogs.

You sure make it hard to paddle though, with you right in my face like this.

Am I happy living here? Absolutely.

But, you know, I think about getting older all the time,

because I can't work the way I used to.

I think about how hard I'm working all the time,

and I know I can't keep it up.

So, that weighs very heavy on my mind.

But this is a place that I have a really strong spiritual connection to.

And it's not gonna be easy to get me to leave here.

So, I think the important thing is,

is thinking and planning

where do you want to be in four or five years.

Where I'm hoping to be in ten years, I want my life to be comfortable.

I want to get to the point where I don't have big building projects,

and all this heavy stuff to move all the time.

That's what I'm working towards now.

I'm working towards setting myself up,

so that when I get into my later years in life, as they call it,

life's still comfortable,

and I don't have to work too hard to make that happen.

Before I die, I want a cabin that I can walk around with bare feet,

at 50 below zero and feel totally comfortable.

That's my goal.

And if I can have that, life's pretty darn good out here.

[panting] Time to throw this baby on the fire.

It's a good day when you can come home with 350 pounds of meat.

You learn to love the feeling at the end of the day

when you're tired and you're hungry,

and you're cold and you're wet,

to realise that, "Hey, man, I got something done today."

-[door creaking] -Oh, yeah!

Taking the time to go do all of this is a lot of hard work.

But Confucius once said that a man who loves his work

never works a day in his life.

And that's kind of the way my life is.

I love doing what I do. It's a lot of hard work,

but it doesn't feel like work.

Worth it. [chomping]

Oh, my God.

Yeah!

This was worth 120 miles, and two days' work.

Good sustenance, good life, good night.

[wind howling]