Original subtitles

NARRATOR: On this episode of Life Below Zero,

Alaskans race to arm themselves

against the onslaught of winter.

GLENN: I got a problem here. This doesn't look good.

The Hailstone girls take aim at a crucial harvest.

That one, big one.

Sue's livelihood is threatened by a nearby predator.

SUE: There was a bear sighting just a few hundred yards away.

NARRATOR: A vital repair puts Andy on edge.

ANDY: It doesn't take much to take a tumble.

And Glenn climbs to great heights

to protect an essential food source.

GLENN: If I fell down, it would be a painful death.

Whoa!

SUE: Everybody feels it's going to be an extremely aggressive bear year.

As a human, boy, am I under the gun.

You know, I better be packing heat

and I better be keeping my head on a swivel.

I've got, this time of year, a lot of hunters out here.

The nature of hunting, you shoot the animal,

there's blood on the ground.

Bears have an extremely keen sense of smell.

The bears are getting drawn in.

NARRATOR: With bear season three days away,

Sue Aikens cannot shoot a bear

unless it's an immediate threat to camp.

SUE: Right now, it's not open hunting season for them.

Very soon it is.

When it is then I can turn the tables and go on the hunt.

Until then, I've got to be protective.

I've been here 12 years.

I know pretty much every bush and what it looks like in every season,

visually, for miles.

If there's something out of the ordinary, I'll pick it up.

You know, for me,

right here.

That's the camp I'm protecting.

You have tents and campers that have every right

to enjoy Alaska and hunt for their meat.

As an owner and as a good human being,

I wanna see that they do it safely.

All right.

A prime example,

I'll get out and show you, this is...

Twenty yards from where I pump water.

This is, as uncomfortable as it is for me,

exactly where I got attacked and drug up into the tundra.

About five, six years ago, a smart bear who was hiding in the cut bank

and reached out and snatched me,

and was just rolling me around.

And you can still feel here and here

where his teeth went into my head.

The hips were torn out of the socket

and he slipped out over the bank.

The hips did not hold

and I ended up having to drag myself up from halfway across the river,

um, and got inside.

And I just had to lay here.

And it took ten days for somebody to find me.

You cannot live here and do this

without accepting your place in the food chain.

There's the bottom, there's the top,

and I'm somewhere around here.

I have to go relive old memories.

See, you've got two separate bear prints here.

A littler print and a bigger print.

You know, obviously a little bear highway going on here.

But it doesn't make me very comfortable.

This is pretty fresh.

He's big enough,

definitely I'm spreading my little fingers wide to match up with him.

Looks like he's doing the same damn thing the other one did

is just hanging out here waiting for an opportunity to snatch me

when I'm getting water.

So that's kind of not too comfortable.

It's also only 100 yards away, if that, from the campers.

So I definitely need to let them know.

GLENN: This is the last place in the world

where I could live this lifestyle.

I enjoy the autonomy it affords.

I enjoy the confidence it demands.

I like the connection to nature I feel

when I live the way I do here.

Landed in a great spot. It's dry here.

I'll be able to work on them right here.

NARRATOR: Having recently harvested a moose.

(GUN FIRING)

Glenn only has a short time before the kill goes bad.

When I take a piece off,

I have to have some place to put it where it's gonna stay clean.

So I'm cutting a few spruce trees

in order to make a rack to set meat on.

Making some initial cuts in the hide.

It's a very heavy hide and it's very tight on the carcass.

What I need to be concerned about now is salvaging this meat,

but, the job's just getting started.

It's all about meat preservation, meat quality.

That's why it's important,

if possible, to kill an animal with one shot.

(GRUNTS)

I'm gonna set it right here.

I'm gonna take the head off next.

And the head of a moose is well attached to the body.

These antlers are designed to smash into another moose's antlers

when they're fighting.

So it's really sturdy, the way it's built here.

It's got really tough tendons in here,

ligaments, that I have to cut.

There.

Look at that.

The head's coming off.

There.

NARRATOR: With daylight waning,

the meat must cool down or Glenn risks losing his kill to spoilage.

GLENN: This meat has to get cool.

It's very warm in there, and bacteria will start to decay the meat

from the inside out.

See all that fat?

That's what I want.

If you're not eating a lot of carbohydrates, you have to eat a lot of fat.

Because you can't live on a huge amount of protein.

If you eat too much protein you'll get sick.

This is all kidney fat. Look at that.

(GRUNTS)

That's really good kidney fat.

A bear will come along or a wolverine will come along

and eat this part up.

Now the heart,

of course, I'm keeping.

The heart's really delicious.

I like to cut it up in small pieces and fry it.

This heart I'll carry home with me tonight.

So the first big step is accomplished.

I got the guts out, I got the lungs out.

This meat can cool off now.

And then tomorrow morning I'll come over with my canoe,

probably two trips in my canoe

to get it back to camp about a mile and a half from here.

So, I got no control over what happens tonight.

I'm just taking a chance.

Hopefully, no bears come around and eat this up,

'cause if a bear comes, it'll get all this meat in one night.

CHIP: The whole idea is to support the family.

Family is the centre of folks' up here's, you know, existence.

It's all about family. I kind of like that a lot.

(DOG BARKING)

CHIP: We're going on a caribou hunt.

We'll go upriver, will put up a nice camp, in, uh

same place we put for the last how many years

and we're just gonna go get our hunt on.

Our idea was to go up and get them before they start rutting.

They got a lot of fat and when they start to rut

and they herd up their cows and their harems,

they quit eating and, uh, they'll burn that fat

and their meat will taste awful.

Even a dog wouldn't eat it.

Everybody in the family here can get five caribou a day.

This meat here is gonna get us through dark winter.

For us, you know, this is one of our most pleasurable hunts.

Um, it's also one of the most profitable.

And also we don't wound any. None get away.

We don't have to pack them across the tundra,

we just do them right in the river,

and take them to the edge and just work them.

Get them home. Be happy.

Settle in and get our winter on.

AGNES: This year we're taking on four of the girls.

We're leaving one behind to stay home

and watch the house and her grandma.

So, um, this year it's gonna require all of us.

It's gonna take team work and, um, I let the school know that, uh, the girls,

in case they don't come back for Monday and Tuesday,

they'll be out on a subsistence leave.

Which is just as good as being in school,

because they get to learn our traditional values.

And so, um, this is gonna be a good trip for all of us.

Okay.

And you make sure you guys lock the door every time you guys go out.

I love you, bun. Thank you.

Catch ya later dudes!

CHIP: This, for us, is a...

It's an important hunt because hopefully they can all work,

and then they'll all work together,

and they'll all see how each other does something,

and they'll learn.

And it's really important to not only learn and participate,

but to do it with their family so they can have a connection with the area,

a connection with the animals, and the things that we do.

And whatever their life ends up turning out,

meaning, you know, later in life, they can always look back at this

and we can have a good time.

Let's put it over here, huh?

Let's put the kitchen area and the fire

and all that shit right here

where we can watch.

Oh look, I see a caribou in the willow.

CHIP: This is a humane way to hunt.

You shoot them in the back of the head. They don't feel no pain.

There's no waiting for them to bleed out.

We have to kill to eat. There's nothing wrong with that.

Ah, my ears are ringing.

Your ears are ringing?

(SIGHS) Okay, kiss me. Thank you for your work.

Now I can do mine.

Well, this is what we call camp meat.

This is our first bull. Basically we'll be able to get up in the morning

and have some caribou for breakfast.

I got a good start here.

Tomorrow's gonna be a better day.

I'm pretty sure that tomorrow we'll be seeing a lot more caribou.

Yup. It's been a good day.

ANDY: This is what Alaska was built on, that pioneer spirit.

That subsistence way of living.

That traditional way of living.

And, uh, it's slowly going away

because we're really starting to sell out.

NARRATOR: As winter closes in,

Andy Bassich is amidst the most vital part of the year,

the chum run.

Ah, shit!

ANDY: I'll have to stop the wheel and

see if I can't fix some of this fencing.

It looks like something's coming loose here on one of these.

I don't know.

Gosh, it looks like one of the poles just broke loose.

NARRATOR: The Yukon River current powers the fish wheel

that provides the vital supply of food for the dog team.

Without it running,

Andy and Kate risk losing hundreds of fish a day.

ANDY: Let me get this wheel stopped and try to do a Band Aid fix for right now.

So, I went out and just got a stick

and stuffed it down into the pipe

and made kind of a makeshift splint for it.

A piece of this pipe broke.

It's really loosened this whole section here.

And then, the wire started breaking and popping off.

This mesh is what gives it a lot of strength.

So, if I lose this mesh,

then the whole wheel doesn't have a lot of strength to it.

It's a pretty critical thing. I can't afford to have this be broken.

Anything that's dipping into the water

six times a minute, for 24 hours a day,

there's gonna be wear and tear on it.

(CHUCKLING) I'm forced a lot of times to be out here,

like this, out in the middle of the river

in a very dangerous position.

If you fall in, there's a potential of being trapped underwater.

Once you're under the water, if something snags you,

you bump your head,

it doesn't take much to hold you.

And this water's really cold.

It's probably about 42 degrees right now.

So, it's not a good thing to end up in the Yukon right now.

Everything's really slimy.

Once you get that on the bottom of your boots

it doesn't take much to take a tumble.

It's pretty dangerous work.

I really don't like being out here, but I have to do it.

I can't afford for a day to be down because of maintenance.

This will be a kind of a quick fix until next year.

I'm glad I noticed that.

That could have been a real catastrophe tomorrow morning.

The most important thing to me right now

is that this wheel keep running.

It would be nice if we could catch 300 fish or more.

To do this efficiently, we gotta be fishing 24/7.

SUE: You've gotta be an active participant in your own life.

Trust me, you're gonna be an active participant in your death.

You know, don't make it come too soon by not living right.

SUE: The biggest predator is my bear population.

They should be asleep right now.

They should be hibernating.

They're not. They're walking around.

The longer they stay up, the more food they need,

they're burning up their winter calories

that they need for hibernation.

I'm laying out the guns

that I'm gonna choose to have in this building.

In the dining hall it was very cut and dried.

I had over a decade to decide,

if I'm laying in bed,

this gun is always here.

This gun is the next one I grab.

And it's set up for that.

This is an all-new building

and I... I don't have that set up yet.

So, it's disconcerting for me.

I don't feel that I'm being as proactive.

So what I need to do, set them out and make decisions.

You know, uh, if I'm laying here

and

at the front of the building...

(VOCALISES ROARS), ...smash, smash, smash.

You've gotta be able to do this.

I'm right-handed, so this has to come up

and I can deal with it anywhere around here.

If he's that far away, I'm gonna have time to grab this.

So its resting place, I have to decide,

I'm thinking I've rolled out of bed,

the next thing I need to do, it's two steps to grab it,

another step to turn.

I perceive my job as

making sure that Kavik camp is as safe as it can be

for anybody that wants to come through.

The clients that I have, they provide one hell of a service,

and the service they provide is life.

They take care of me, I take care of them.

CHIP: According to my wife's society and her upbringing,

I give her everything. She runs the money.

She goes out where the food goes.

She's, uh, in charge of basically all of our resources.

Basically the women are in fricking charge.

CHIP: Today is already another great family day.

I got my family kicking back and out of the wind

and we're watching caribou doing their thing.

Hopefully we'll get some bulls out here

and let the girls take some shots,

nail some caribou, and carry on from there.

We'll see how well it goes.

AGNES: Down the river on the other side

they're coming down this way.

Mary, maybe you'll be the shooter.

You'll be the first shooter and then when you're gun-empty or whatever

I'll get my pistol and try to catch your wounded.

Or um, I'll shoot and then you'll reload your gun.

NARRATOR: While the women shoot at their targets,

Chip will employ a more traditional hunting tool.

This is something you'd use out of a boat.

We have a lance with a pokey end and a long shaft.

And you grab a hold of the back and you shove it through into the animal,

and you hold onto it and you withdraw the thing.

This here is from a Mosin rifle, an old Russian surplus rifle.

And I bought it for like five bucks in Kotzebue.

And it won't cost me a single bullet.

Yep. (LAUGHS) Sweet.

AGNES: Oh look, they hit the water!

Chip, there's caribou crossing.

Time to go, Mary.

You ready?

You can't shoot from that far, babe.

You guys gotta take care of this.

Get up on this guy.

Shoot it Ag, with the pistol.

It is coming.

Shoot it, Ag!

CHIP: I got him.

Right on.

We got one, two, three, four, five right here.

So we just nailed six caribou.

My wife and my daughter, they got four

and I lanced two of them.

So, the lance works, it's been tested.

It's an awesome ride.

GLENN: People have become so civilized,

part of that process is removing ourselves

from the reality of life and death.

Real events that happen.

GLENN: I'm paddling across the lake now.

I got about a mile and a quarter paddle

and then I'll get over to the far shore.

And 250 yards from the shore I got a moose down over there.

I'm gonna use my sled to move it down to the lake.

It will probably take 11 loads,

over three miles of walking,

and then I'm gonna have to take two trips with this canoe,

to get that whole moose back to camp.

NARRATOR: Yesterday, Glenn processed a moose,

but was unable to bring it back to camp.

This morning, he heads to the kill

with the possibility that scavengers have taken the meat.

Now that it's getting light, the birds are getting active.

There're at least a few ravens over there.

Those ravens, they wouldn't normally be here.

They're here because of that kill.

I'm standing up here so I can get a look

over the top of the brush on the shoreline.

Let's see if I see anything going on back there.

So far I've been very lucky with the scavengers.

I've never lost a moose yet,

but there's bears around the lake,

there are a few wolverines around,

there are wolves.

There's too much brush, I can't see.

I won't know until I walk up to it.

The main thing I'm concerned about

is that it's possible a bear could have found this during the night.

Bears have a very good nose

and they can smell a moose from a long ways away.

There. That's the moose. It looks like it's okay.

No bears or wolverine or anything big got to it last night.

But there are birds on it.

I gotta get over there and start working on it

cause those grey jays will peck a lot of fat off it.

-They're on it right now. -(JAYS TWITTERING)

Hey, get off that!

This tarp is to keep the meat as clean as possible.

It's heavy.

I gotta start sledding this meat over to the lake.

Every time I leave here, there's a chance a bear could come along.

So, I gotta keep my rifle with me at all times.

One load down, about ten to go.

Hunting alone, that's the only way I've ever hunted.

When I first came out here,

the biggest thing I'd ever killed was a snowshoe hare.

That's been a big challenge, just learning how to hunt.

I'm sure a lot of times I'm out here reinventing the wheel.

(GRUNTS)

There it goes.

Final load.

That's a good feeling.

Get this moose packed out of here,

salvage all of this meat, and have six months of food.

I got my final load, the head, in here.

I'm ready to head for camp.

About a mile and a quarter and I'll be home.

This morning when I came out for the first load,

it was glassy calm water.

Now the wind's coming up.

The waves are getting bigger.

Sometimes they can get so big

that it isn't safe to be out here.

I've been caught out on a lake in big waves before in a canoe,

and it's no laughing matter.

This water's so cold

that your survival in it is just a matter of minutes.

Right now it's okay but

it could get rougher.

So I'm gonna stay fairly close to shore on the way home.

Okay, I gotta get this last piece of meat,

the neck, up onto the rack.

That's the heaviest piece of meat, the way I cut it.

So, I'm not gonna be able to carry it up there.

I can't wait to eat that moose nose.

I like moose nose.

Just thinking about it makes me hungry.

I got all of the meat on the platform now.

And now it's onto the next step.

I gotta still protect this meat.

Tomorrow, I'm gonna try and get all this meat hung up

where the bears can't get to it.

SUE: Everything here is just a huge amount of money.

It's a... It's a huge risk.

And I enjoy it,

but you bet your bottom dollar

I'm gonna be out here protecting it.

I've got several bears in the area.

I've got a lot of people in camp,

a lot of meat in camp,

which is gonna draw attention.

People ask me and I usually say it kind of funny, you know.

"What do bears like to eat up here?"

"You know, berries and slow tourists, and we're fresh out of berries."

NARRATOR: With two days remaining until bear hunting season opens,

Sue must take every step she can

to prevent bears from attacking camp.

SUE: You now, what's... What are my avenues for protecting camp?

Walk the perimeter. Are there prints?

What is it? What kind? How close?

Is it a mom with cubs?

I've got to do all those visuals.

Get the bleach.

Typically what I do this time of year,

lightly the rest of the year, this time of year definitely,

I get bleach and I sprinkle it around camp.

Bears can smell from ten miles away.

Very strong, acrid scents

will burn their noses

and deter them somewhat.

This right here, this is my storage closet,

but this time of year it's the meat shed.

People hang it, put tarps down.

I try to keep it as clean as possible.

All the meat and everything is still here.

You can see over here, bear, bear, bear, bear.

This is not the first time

that the bears have taken out parts of the building.

I keep repairing it.

You know, you've got brand new claw marks.

So, time for me to get the bleach.

You spray down the whole building.

You know, you do what you can.

Try to protect the camp.

This is just your basic bleach, you know.

And you just...

You know, you're just gonna wanna get the grounds.

You're not trying to perform miracles and scrub it.

Whenever you have meat,

somebody's gotten blood, you do it.

It's still my privilege to make people's visits

as great as they can be.

But it's my burden to keep them as safe as I can.

I don't see anything fresh that worries me

but I can't take chances.

You must be proactive. You can't leave it to chance.

A sucker, a pork chop leaves it to chance.

You wanna be a pork chop? Go right ahead.

You know, I'll serve the applesauce.

ANDY: That's what life is out here.

You're always adapting to new situations

and you don't just blindly go out and do things.

You gotta think about what you're doing

and have a plan A and a plan B.

It's starting to warm up a little today.

Finally. Our wind died down.

I'm just gonna cut these whole so we can get them done quicker.

NARRATOR: With minor repairs being made to their fish wheel,

Andy and Kate must work quickly

to keep up with the demand of their daily haul.

Okay baby. I'm ready.

We work pretty good as a team doing this.

My job is basically to collect the fish,

cut the fish, and hang the fish.

Kate's job is to help getting fish from the boat to the cutting table.

It's a huge help having a second person there

to just transfer fish from the table.

Once I start cutting, I can cut really fast,

but if I have to take breaks to get fish

from the boat to the table,

it really slows me down.

I'm gonna have to check the wheel again. No downtime.

Dawn to dusk, that's what fishing is around here this time of year.

Pretty critical to fish this wheel

as much as I possibly can right now.

Hopefully a quick trip over.

I'm hoping I have a good 300 fish in the wheel,

maybe 400.

Holy shit! What the hell is going on there?

That don't look good.

It looks like the boxes are both full,

but my flotation isn't the same on both sides.

I've got a problem here. This doesn't look good.

I've got a couple of holes or a hole in at least one barrel on the outside pontoon.

I'm almost underwater here.

NARRATOR: After a minor repair,

Andy faces yet another breakdown of the fish wheel.

One of the barrels is taking on water,

and if not repaired,

the wheel could sink into the Yukon River.

So one of the problems that I got right now

with that barrel leaking is that

it's hitting my lead right there.

It's tipping the wheel down.

That basket is kicking out at an angle

and as it comes down,

it's hitting the side of that lead.

And if that basket hooks on this lead,

it could start ripping the whole fish wheel apart.

So the only thing I think I'm gonna be able to do is

if I can, try and lighten this wheel up

and see if I can't get a barrel underneath of it.

I've never done that before out in the middle of the river,

and I definitely know I'm not gonna be able to do this alone.

So, I'm gonna have to go back and get Kate.

But the first thing I've got to do is

I gotta get all this heavy fish off that pontoon.

I gotta get this wheel emptied out

so that the lead's not being hit by the baskets

and stabilise the situation

so that nothing gets ripped apart on me right now.

It would be disastrous for me

to have to pull this wheel out right now

right in the middle of the run, the peak of the run.

The best I can do is get in there,

fix things as best as I can out in the river,

keep it fishing, and

hopefully, I can make it through the season here.

CHIP: It's a dog-eat-dog world.

Big fish eat little fish.

Nobody apologises or prayers for them.

If you're in nature, you're probably gonna get eaten alive.

It's good to be a human, we're the top predator.

CHIP: It's cows and calves. There's more coming though.

Yeah, there's one decent bull.

Yeah, there's lots behind them.

(SIGHS)

They hit the water.

NARRATOR: The entire Hailstone family stocks up

for the dark winter ahead.

This is their last day

before the caribou can no longer be hunted for the fall season.

-Sorry about that. -One bull, Ting.

Get closer!

AGNES: We just want that one big one right in front of you!

Carol, get it, watch what you're doing, Ting!

Wait until he separates from those two!

-Ting, get it! Ting, get it! -Give it a shot. Give it a shot.

-There you go. -Yay! (CLAPPING)

Grab a hold.

Here, Ting.

Straight to me, straight to me.

Qutan made a shot and Tingmaq put a second one in it

for what we call a sure-shot.

There's nothing wrong with what we call a double-tap up here.

And all it... All we're doing is making sure

that the animal is dead as quickly and as efficiently as possible.

KIDS: Oh, bonfire! (LAUGHTER)

That's lots!

-MARY: Scary. -TING: Don't be scared.

-And you, you're like... -There we go.

(LAUGHTER)

Oh!

CHIP: Well, we teach our kids this lifestyle as best we can.

And my kids, I think, are pretty well getting at understanding it.

As long as my kids keep looking forward

and they keep profiting from what's going on,

it could be in learning something,

it could be in making money.

It doesn't matter, they just gotta keep moving forward.

And I think my wife teaches that to these kids pretty well.

And, um, I think the kids have learned from me that,

you know, you gotta just be loyal to your lifestyle.

I also try to let them enjoy everything they're doing,

because I try to enjoy my day and enjoy my life

and enjoy the work that I have to do.

And as long as I can get that across to the kids,

I think they'll keep working too,

with a positive attitude and a smile.

GLENN: I don't know the future,

I don't know how long I'll live at this location

here in the Brooks range.

But I know that even if I ever leave here,

the place has left an indelible impression on me.

It's one of the most special places

that I have ever been to in the world.

(DOOR CREAKS SHUT)

This is the first snow of the year down here at lake level.

It's getting colder, and winter is just around the corner.

I'm gonna hang that meat up today.

It's not really safe until I get it up high enough that the bears can't get to it.

This is a meat-pole that I built the first fall I was out here

when I killed my first moose ten years ago.

It's about 20 feet above the ground

right here on this end.

It's tried and tested,

bears cannot get to meat on this meat pole.

I'm gonna have to go out on that pole

and attach ropes to hang the meat from.

And I'm gonna hoist the meat.

And I can also use that line for safety

when I'm crossing the pole.

Working alone I have to be very careful

because there's nobody to help me.

Every time I get up here by myself I always think,

what the hell would I do

if I knocked that ladder down

trying to get back onto it

and I was stuck up here with no ladder.

If I fell down,

broke my back, it'd be a slow, painful death

laying there on the ground freezing to death.

This meat is much too heavy

for me to just pull it up, even with a rope.

When I put my pulleys up there,

I'll be able to position them here

by pulling on this cord that I've rigged.

Put the cord through there.

Let's see what happens.

I can get it up there good and high.

Now,

no bear's gonna get a hold of that.

Whoa!

(EXCLAIMS)

Start all over.

It's not good that the ribs fell

'cause they could have gotten dirty if they landed on the ground.

But it's better those ribs fell from up there than me.

It's about 20 feet high.

I got to start all over again.

The way I attached it

when I was trying to lift it up

and take that other cord off,

the pin slipped out

and without tension on it, it wouldn't hold it.

It fell out, the meat fell down.

One piece down, several more to go.

Once I get this meat upwards, safe from bears,

it's safe for the rest of the winter.

I'll be able to keep this meat,

because it's gonna get cold enough here.

It's gonna be frozen in a short time

and the meat will last me until spring.

All right.

I'm gonna try and get the head up there.

The last load.

The weather got a little breezy and cooler this afternoon,

couldn't be better than this for the meat.

I'll be able to leave this meat up here until next spring.

I've got six month's food here in just one week's labour.

It was well worth the effort.

ANDY: We live out here to live a certain lifestyle,

to be connected to the land,

to get the resources from the land,

and a lot of people don't understand

how important that is to us.

All right. (SIGHS)

So this is the replacement barrel, I take it?

Well, I don't think there's any replacement.

I think this is an addition. (LAUGHS)

NARRATOR: In order to keep the fish wheel

from sinking into the Yukon River,

Andy must modify a barrel to help the wheel stay afloat.

I'm gonna weld some tabs on it,

'cause, uh, there's no way to hold onto this

when it's in the current.

Tighten up these bolts here.

I think we're ready to go across the river

and flounder about.

Once we get out there, I'll start figuring out

what's gonna work and what's not gonna work.

I mean, that's kind of the way I do things.

I just get a plan A, try it.

If it doesn't work, hopefully, an obvious plan B comes into play

and you just modify what you're doing and try and make it work.

What I'm thinking is,

if we get a line on it here,

get a line on it there,

and then attach a line here,

we can stick it down.

We tend to catch a lot more fish at night.

So I wanna get this thing fixed

so that, at least, I'm fishing through the night tonight.

Yeah, that's what we need.

Come to papa.

(GRUNTING)

Ooh, yeah, I think we almost got it. Hold that right there.

We just gotta keep it from flipping out.

Somehow, I gotta get something around the barrel here

to keep it from wanting to roll out that way.

There's a red tie-down, long tie-down strap.

Maybe I can get that around it.

Brr! That water's cold.

(SHUDDERING)

Man, I don't think I'd wanna go swimming in that.

So I'm hoping I can just secure this really well

so that it can't pivot or... Or move at all.

I think we got it.

Hopefully we can just get going on our fishing

and not have to mess with fixing the old girl any more.

You the man, Andy! You the man!

That was luck. That feels pretty secure.

So I think I'll get this thing spinning again.

And hopefully, we'll come in tomorrow

with some really, really full boxes.

That'd be good.

SUE: I live just a few miles from the Arctic Ocean.

I've been here for 12 years.

For nine, ten months of the year,

I'm 100% alone out here.

I wouldn't be here if I didn't love it.

Hey, buddy.

MAN: Looking good.

So did you see anything?

-Nothing. -Okay.

I see you though, you look good.

-God bless you. -(LAUGHS) Thanks.

NARRATOR: With less than 24 hours before bear hunting season opens,

Sue must continue watching over the safety of her remaining guests.

You know, it's an uncomfortable feeling.

I mean, I'm used to it.

I have the bears getting really close.

This feels very much like it did the other year

when I had the altercation with the bear.

You know, I called it an alpha push.

So, I mean, this is kinda your pointed line of demarcation.

You know, take your little paw, run it down.

Here is my runway and camp,

here is the wilderness and the bear's playground.

He crosses this line,

I can use deadly force

and by God I'll do it if that means keeping my people and camp safe.

I got people to keep safe, and a camp to guard,

and that's what I'm gonna do.