Original subtitles

GLENN VILLENEUVE: I like to come up here

and look around at this time of year.

Gives me a good view, gets me up above some of the trees,

I can see further.

Up in these mountains several miles from camp, there are Dall sheep.

And in a couple of months from now,

I'll be hunting those sheep.

There's a lot of country up there,

and the sheep are spread out, all over it.

So what I need to do at this time of year,

in preparation to hunt for 'em,

is to go out and scout for them.

I'm not looking for just any sheep,

the ewes, the young rams, the lambs,

those are left, to reproduce to maintain the population.

I'm looking for a big ram like this one.

This is the last sheep I killed in these mountains.

But to find a big sheep like this

is a real challenge.

Whenever I go out this time of year, I always carry my rifle.

Without a rifle, I'd be defenceless,

and there are bears around here.

(THEME MUSIC PLAYING)

NARRATOR: For Glenn Villeneuve,

scouting animal behaviour in the Brooks Range

is key to harvesting meat and protein for survival.

In the fall, Dall sheep hunting season will be open,

and locating them now is a priority.

VILLENEUVE: I'm gonna head up into the mountains this morning,

spend a few days walking around,

finding a promising area to hunt a couple of months from now.

Hunting sheep is the most physically demanding hunting I do.

I have to walk further,

in more difficult terrain,

and spend more time seeking out sheep than any other animal I hunt.

Sheep like to stay up high,

where there are rocks they can escape to when the predators are around,

that's how they get away from wolves,

that's how they get away from me.

I'm gonna head up this ridge, see what I can find up there.

I'm getting up above tree line now,

I got to start thinking about being quiet.

I gotta start thinking about the direction of the wind.

How it's carrying my scent.

And I got to start using terrain to conceal myself,

'cause the sheep are very cautious animals.

This is a sheep trail, right here.

There's sheep scat.

There's a beautiful sheep track right there.

This is a path the sheep walk regularly on this mountain.

(SOFTLY) Scouting for sheep is the same thing as hunting 'em.

The only difference is, I'm not gonna shoot it when I get there.

But I'm trying to stalk as close as I can to any sheep.

And anytime I'm out, I'm gaining experience.

These are all sheep beds right here. This is where sheep has laid its scat.

There, here.

This is more of a summer scat, when they're eating more succulent vegetation.

In the winter, it'll look more like this in the wintertime.

We're seeing lots of sheep sign on this mountain.

So, I'm hopeful I might find some sheep up here.

Things are looking good.

JESSIE HOLMES: To me, living out in Alaska

is all about being able to take care of yourself.

Just got done having my morning cup of coffee

and down here I can see the river really start dropping last night.

Dropped a couple feet.

I'm gonna head upriver, make sure my fish wheel is not high and dry.

I can't afford to just

let a functionable fish wheel go to waste, so...

The water's been high for about two weeks now,

it just kind of like, planed out in the last couple of days,

and just dropped overnight. Just like that.

And that's how this river is. It's constantly changing.

NARRATOR: Jessie Holmes relies on the resources along the Nenana River

to maintain a subsistence lifestyle.

Getting his fish wheel up and running is crucial to feeding himself,

and his team of sled dogs for the year ahead.

So, fish wheel is made out of spruce log rafts

and it floats out in the river.

What we do is, we take it with big logs

and push it far out into the river, into a deep channel.

We drop the axel down, and the big baskets dip through the water.

It's turning with the current, as it scoops down, the fish have no place to go,

so they swim right into the scoop. Scoops 'em up.

Now, the purpose of a fish wheel is to put up a large amount of fish.

I can put up 900 fish in a day, if the fishing's going good.

I need to be catching fish and feeding the dogs fish right now

because it's the most cost-effective way for me to be able to keep these dogs.

This could be a real big deal to me to not be able to use that fish wheel.

My main goal is to not fall in the river.

It's one of the fastest navigable waters in the U.S., the Tanana River is.

And there's just tons of silt in here.

The minute you're in there, the silt starts filling your pockets,

filling your clothes, filling your boots.

Little things can become big things, quick.

This thing's definitely up on the sandbars.

The river's dropped a couple feet here.

Yeah, it definitely looks like I got my work ahead of me.

If I don't get this thing out here on the water current soon,

it's gonna get a lot worse, 'cause the river's dropping fast.

If I wait any longer on this, it could put me out of the season.

It is stressful. The stakes are high.

And like, it's very easy to mess up with a fish wheel,

there's a lot of things going on.

You got the current, thousands of pounds,

I mean, this is gonna be one hell of a job.

Every minute that goes by is a minute wasted,

and another couple of inches of water lost possibly, so, it's time to get to work.

Bust this thing out. Get onto the next process.

It's a lot of work, but it provides a lot of food for the dogs.

There we go, she's moving.

SUE AIKENS: Your creativity, your ingenuity, and your ability to improvise.

The mind is the most important tool any of us carry around.

Not feeling 100%.

Just pushing it too hard.

And it's showing.

I'm exhausted,

all of my stitches hurt.

All of the things I've been lifting, pushing and pulling,

the body is kicking my ass, saying that I shouldn't.

NARRATOR: Kavik River Camp serves as a remote fuelling station

and bed and breakfast for bush pilots.

PILOT: Thank you.

To sustain her business during the busy summer months,

Sue Aikens takes on a heavy workload.

AIKENS: (EXHALING) All right.

NARRATOR: But an injury has restricted her ability to run Kavik on her own.

And with clients set to arrive soon,

she must call for reinforcements,

or risk losing crucial revenue.

This is my windsock,

and it's just another one of those things

that I can't do right now, by myself.

Part of being successful is being brutally honest with yourself.

And to be brutally honest with myself is to look at my abilities and disabilities.

Acknowledge them, and work with them.

It's summertime. These tracks have to come off.

These are 500 pounds or so each.

I do something this heavy over my limits,

and I'm gonna be back in the hospital.

There's just so many things I can't do on my own. I've got to get help.

All right, this is where I decide to

throw up the white flag, and go from tough to fluff.

I'm gonna call my nephew,

and see if he wants to come up and help out his Auntie.

There's way too much to do, and I am incapable of doing it right now.

Hey, Jesse, how's it going?

JESSE MOORE: I'm doing good, how about you, Auntie?

Um, well that's kind of why I'm calling, uh...

I'm trying to get everything running up here,

but there's just so much stuff that I can't do.

You wanna come help a gimpy old woman out this summer?

Yeah, that sounds perfect.

Just let me know when you want me up there and I'll go.

Can you be ready by tomorrow?

Yeah, give me a couple hours to pack up all my things, and I should be up.

All right, love you. Thank you so much.

-I love you too, Auntie. -All righty, bye-bye.

AIKENS: I have a nephew, Jesse.

He is one of my brother's sons.

He's a good young man.

Maybe untried, he's a little green around the edges,

when it comes to remote camp life.

He knows how to work on machinery,

but this is gonna be a test for him.

The world of Sue is tilting.

People need this camp, people need this service.

It's an important dream to keep alive,

but I'm only gonna keep it alive if I bring on help.

CHIP HAILSTONE: Some people are about quantity.

I'm about quality.

I want quality food. I don't want numbers. I want results.

AGNES HAILSTONE: Jon and his oldest daughter should be coming in soon.

This is kind of exciting. We haven't seen our grandbaby since winter.

NARRATOR: The Hailstone family has a limited opportunity to hunt for seals,

a vital resource for the long winter ahead.

Seal hunting is a native tradition

that has been passed down for generations.

AGNES: Hi, Avery!

You made it. (CHUCKLING)

(INDISTINCT CONVERSATION)

AGNES: (KISSES) I love you, Avery.

CHIP: Jon's purpose here is that he is an excellent seal hunter.

(GRUNTING)

And, we have a very brief time to go hunting.

Usually, less than a week.

Because pretty soon this ice is gonna go out.

Well, the importance of getting the seals right now,

is that Ugruk that are here

have migrated in while the ice is apart,

because they follow the edge of the ice pack.

And so, when it's really solid, they're not here.

When it's starting to break up, they come in, they feed, they hang out,

and when the ice goes,

and follows the end of the ice pack as it recedes to the north,

the Ugruk leave with it.

They're only here for a brief time.

Usually less than a week.

But when you do get one, you get 900 pounds of meat and blubber.

And it's a huge factor in the wintertime.

And since winter's here eight months of the year,

seal oil's a pretty important thing to have.

(INDISTINCT CHATTERING)

It's always good for one of the boys to come in and go hunt with me,

because my husband's not able to do the seal hunt with us, 'cause he's non-native.

Hi, Avery.

CHIP: We sit down and we'll get the guns clean,

and we'll get everything sharpened.

It's very important to get our stuff sharpened.

All our gear ready, everything prepared,

so that when we're out there, there should be no mistakes.

Everything we do now is setting up for this hunt.

(AGNES SPEAKING)

I just want to make sure it's nice and clean and oiled up,

because when salt water go on it,

it'll start to get rusty real fast.

CHIP: That's why these preps are important.

If we don't have everything clean,

all these hooks, sharp and ready to use,

just the first and only time maybe this year, it's not worth it.

-(CLICKING) -I think it's ready.

CHIP: The three of us need to know most importantly is the way in and the way out.

'Cause all that stuff is only three feet deep, and it freezes solid,

and every year it makes a new channel.

Basically a river under water.

And a lot of people have no clue where that channel is.

'Cause if you want to go in that place,

and you want to go out of the lagoon down there, you need to know.

It's best if we all three go together the first time, and we go find the channel.

And we go see where it carves itself this year after breakup.

AGNES: Yeah.

JON: Well, we've got all of our gear ready.

We're gonna go do a little scout, go look around.

I gotta learn the channel, it changes every year.

We need this meat, we need this oil.

And once we get it, we'll all be happy.

AGNES: We're heading down to the ocean.

We're gonna go see the ice conditions, and go check out the channel.

Just preparing for a hunt, and if we're successful,

then we should be able to eat all winter long.

We're at the mouth of the Kiwalik River Lagoon,

facing Kotzebue Sound ocean.

And we're having a look here at the ice,

but the ice is at least two or three miles away and the wind is up.

This is no day for us to hunt.

When we try to go out hunting, we usually wait for the wind to stop blowing

so that seals can actually go on top the ice.

(AGNES SPEAKING)

Now that we figured out the channel,

and we figured out the tide,

and we're out here scouting,

we know what to expect when we come back the next time,

so we're just gonna head back to camp.

CHIP: Whoa! AGNES: What was that?

I hit something.

(ENGINE SPUTTERING)

(CHIP SPEAKING)

NARRATOR: The Hailstones are surveying the waterways to hunt for seal,

a key resource for the family,

but a stalled motor has them dead in the water,

and the tide is getting lower.

(CHIP SPEAKING)

JON: One, two, three.

We broke our motor last year,

and this was the only replacement we got.

And it's probably gonna kill us.

(CHIP SPEAKING)

(JON SPEAKING)

CHIP: Just the wrong kind of motor and mount for this kind of boat.

Instead of the motor being able to pop up, it has a hydraulic lift,

and it basically broke the back of my transom back here.

I think I damaged my prop a bit too,

'cause I'm not getting quite the push I was.

We were trying to stay in a channel that's underwater in the lagoon.

It's not always easy to do,

it changes a little bit every year,

and I probably, instead of making a curve,

I probably cut it a little bit on the inside,

and I hit a stump that's sitting out here.

There's not much we can do to repair it here and now,

but we can repair it back there.

The water's about that deep

and it's only getting shallower

'cause the tide is going down, so what you want to try to do is

get into the river before the tide gets too low.

We beat the tide back, so we're not stuck in the mud.

Pretty happy for that alone.

We're back! (LAUGHING)

(TING SPEAKING)

(CHIP SPEAKING)

CHIP: We've gone and checked it out.

We've seen where the ice was.

We've gone and found the channel,

and that was what we needed to do first.

When the ice goes, the seals go with it,

and we really have to be able to get out there and give it our best effort.

'Cause if we don't then, we miss out on hundreds of pounds of meat,

and we'd have to make up for it some other way.

But, tomorrow, one of the best seal hunters around

is going out in the boat with his mom, so,

they should have some fun.

AIKENS: As I get older, I'm finding that I break instead of bend.

I mean that's just natural. But it's inconvenient.

I don't feel too terribly well, right now.

I am feeling mostly rundown.

Honey is in here. Powdered honey.

But I got honey in there. It's antibacterial, antimicrobial.

I'm gonna get fresh water from the river.

And then get the willow, stuff it full,

let all this stuff make out, and, uh...

See if I can't get myself healthy from the inside out.

NARRATOR: As Sue waits for her nephew to fly into Kavik,

she battles the pain from a recent injury

by using a tundra remedy.

AIKENS: I am not a pup any more. I'm a full-grown dog.

My body parts hurt. But my little sun tea here, should be helping that.

I'm gonna score up a little bit of this, so I can get the benefits,

just kind of crush 'em up.

And all this in here, all that wetness,

this plant has natural salic acid.

This right here, is juvenile fireweed.

So, toss a little bit of that in there for some added vitamin C.

Nice, fresh river water.

And I'll carry it back up.

It's gonna take a while for it to leech out its goodness,

but, that's what I'm hoping it does.

(EXHALING)

It's pretty tasty. I just set it out.

You know, it's the fresh river water,

it's not contaminated unless you count fishy poop.

I'm gonna take a little bit of this,

and go sit down,

rest a little bit of that.

VILLENEUVE: It isn't really so important what you do,

but it's important how you feel about what you do,

and I feel good about what I'm doing out here.

Takes a lot of time and energy and a lot of understanding of their habits.

That's why I'm out here scouting now. To learn more.

To see how the sheep are doing,

and to prepare myself for hunting in a couple of months.

NARRATOR: In order to hunt Dall sheep in the fall,

it's imperative for Glenn to scout them now.

But finding the illusive animals in the steep and deadly terrain,

is a challenge.

Every time I come up here I discover new areas,

new places where sheep are hanging out.

That's a big part of being up here,

just to learn more about the animals.

Get to know better their behaviour,

how they react in different situations.

Every time I go out and spend time around sheep, I learn something new.

Look at this.

A ram's horn.

Sheep don't shed their horns.

They're on for life. That ram died right around here.

They've been here a long time, but it shows that rams are in this area.

At least in the past, there was a ram right here at this lake.

And that's where he died.

The hunting regulations only allow

hunting of full-curl rams.

The full-curl rams tend to hang out at steeper terrain.

I've often found them on steep rocks, like cliffs, right here.

They'll be up on little ledges on these cliffs.

That's where I have to go to find a full-curl ram.

I wanna take a look over here.

There! I see some sheep right there.

(SOFTLY) There's a sheep trail,

and right on the skyline, a sheep was coming over it,

and now there have been eight sheep

that have come into view, following the same trail.

Sheep will follow the same trail for centuries.

(VILLENEUVE SPEAKING)

Right now, what I'm doing is scouting around and just looking for what areas

are the most used by sheep and where the sheep are living up on this mountain.

'Cause I wanna come back in a couple of months and hunt here.

So, it's really important to me.

There are actually a couple of sheep just around this corner.

I wanna try and sneak up closer and see what I can see.

Even when I'm scouting, not hunting,

it's really good practise sneaking up on sheep,

because they're so wary, and they have such keen senses.

The more time I spend around them, the more I learn,

the better my chances are when I'm hunting.

It's good to see sheep this close.

A little snow squall's blowing through.

You gotta be prepared for any weather this time of year.

I never know what to expect up in these mountains.

(BREATHING HEAVILY)

I'll get right up here on top, pitch my tent, spend the night right up here.

The most dangerous thing I do out here,

is coming up in the mountains, by myself.

If I were to slip, break a leg,

or even just twist an ankle badly,

I wouldn't make it home.

It's really blowing up here.

I gotta find a place to camp,

set up my tent before this storm kicks up even worse than this.

Storms can blow in fast like this,

and won't necessarily last too long, but you never know.

This time of year, the weather could just be about anything.

(SIGHS)

(SIGHS)

Once I get my tent set up, I'll be able to get a little rest, then go out,

look around on the cliffs for sheep.

Yeah, this is the place to camp out, right up above the sheep,

then I have an advantage.

One of my favourite ways to stalk sheep is actually to be up above 'em.

When I get up on top of the mountain,

and they're on the cliffs below me, that's really ideal.

It's good just to get in here, out of the snow and out of the wind.

I'll just ride this snow storm out in here.

When the weather clears up, I'll go back out, looking for sheep.

AIKENS: You prepare for the worst and be pleasantly surprised by the best.

(ENGINE HUMMING)

Hey, buddy, how you doing?

PILOT: Uh, good. I'll be on the ground there in just a minute, Sue.

NARRATOR: Sue's injury has left her struggling to get Kavik fully operational.

With more clients arriving soon,

she's called in reinforcements to help with essential camp tasks.

This is uh... My nephew, Jesse...

Is coming in on the flight.

I just had to man-up and admit that

I don't have the beans right now to get the job done on my own,

and, so I'm bringing the young gun in.

Hey, Jesse, how's it going? (CHUCKLING)

-How you doing? Mmm-hmm. -Thank you for helping me out.

I am Jesse Moore. And I am from Fairbanks, Alaska.

I am here because, um, my Auntie happened to get into an accident,

and I am here to help her with anything she happens to need.

AIKENS: I'm not at full service, yet.

So that's what I'm working on.

And I know you're probably tired, you're probably hungry,

but, I've got bigwig people coming in,

in the next few days,

so we gotta get that water line.

-Okay. -Get it rolling.

And I know I wanna hug you and be the Auntie

-and be all cool, but, you know... -(LAUGHING)

(GRUNTS) Let's get to work.

-Yeah, okay. -There'll be play time later.

Hold this, while I undo this.

AIKENS: Gotta do what I can, try to keep Kavik going.

There is absolutely zero running water in camp,

the only water running in camp is in the river.

So this absurd system is how I get my water.

We're gonna suck it out of the river,

up through this piping,

pump it through the filters,

into the water house.

Take this side in, it's gonna go in here.

And it's sent around camp.

You have a choke that you can see?

(ENGINE HUMMING)

Okay, rev it up a little bit.

(ENGINE REVVING)

(ENGINE SPUTTERING)

What is wrong with you?

(ENGINER SPUTTERING)

NARRATOR: In Kavik, Sue and her nephew Jesse are racing

to get water flowing through the camp before more clients arrive.

Without it, she could lose critical revenue.

AIKENS: You got water? You feel it here you got water.

Jesse!

You level that out, I'm gonna check the other side of it,

see if there's water coming out.

All right. I can already hear it.

I got me some water.

All right. I've got everything.

Got everything done in there that I can do.

The big test is, will it come out of the spout?

Yeah!

(SIGHS)

I've got water.

Hell, yeah!

* We have water

Better go tell Jesse.

We got water, yeah.

VILLENEUVE: It's all about taking advantage of opportunities.

And in order to take advantage of opportunities,

you have to learn the country,

and you have to learn where things are happening,

and when they're happening there.

Wind's really picking up. It blew the tent right down.

(SIGHS)

I don't think I can set it back up. Not here.

I got to pack this tent up and get down this mountain.

I got to find a better place to camp.

It's nice sheep hunting area up here,

but, this isn't a good place to camp. It's too windy.

This is an awesome spot to hunt.

It's got great sheep habitat and lots of sign.

I found tracks, trails, scat.

I wanna hunt on this mountain in a couple a months from now,

so what I want to do is build a camp,

that way when I come back, I'll have less work to do.

Right down here it looks like

there's a little creek right over there

where I'll be able to get some good water,

if I just want water for washing,

I can get it out of this little puddle right here.

There's some flat ground.

And there's plenty of spruce trees around to build a camp with,

so this looks like a good spot right here.

Most important thing, I want to have some firewood here

when I come sheep hunting, 'cause it takes time to cut firewood.

When I come back here, if I'm cold and wet, who knows, maybe it's raining

and 40 degrees, there's nothing like having a woodpile waiting.

-(CREAKING) -There it goes. Yeah!

Got a little woodpile all set to go when I get here. Got some kindling.

I could probably spend 50 years out here walking around,

and still find new things to learn every time I went out.

And this trip has been like that.

That's what it's all about out here.

Being closer to nature. Seeing what's going on.

I'm not interested in living where I don't have that kind of contact.

That's why I like it out here.

I like all the contact with the world around me.

Got my three poles, just about ready to tie together and stand up.

I'll be able to put my canvas tent right over these

when I come back in a couple months to hunt here.

(WHISPERING) I just tie this around like this.

Like to get it nice and even. Yeah.

And then I'll just spread out the legs, there we go.

That's like a nice, little tent frame. Look at that.

Got a nice little camp here right at the bottom of the mountain.

I'll be back in a couple of months to hunt these sheep.

Time to head home.

If I don't come out here and scout around, and keep track of the animals,

I just wouldn't know what was going on. I wouldn't be prepared.

It's all about being prepared and understanding, and learning more every year.

And taking advantage of the opportunities that exist.

More time I spend out here, the more I learn.

CHIP: It's knowing when to be there,

what you're targeting, and how to get it.

We take the opportunity that presents itself.

Well, we prepared ourselves for days and, uh,

we did a scout trip and now it's time for us to go do our seal hunt.

The weather has actually calmed down, considerably,

looks like a good day for a good hunt.

So, hopefully, we'll be successful,

and we'll just take it as it comes.

NARRATOR: After repairing a damaged engine, Agnes, and her son Jon

are ready to embark on their native hunt for seal,

a crucial source of meat and oil

to help them survive the brutal cold of dark winter.

So what we do, besides camouflaging ourselves,

we also camouflage our boat.

'Cause whatever we're coming to,

we want to look like a piece of ice,

and that's what we're gonna be doing,

we're just gonna be acting like a piece of ice out in the ocean.

-A hard hunt, but yet it's a good hunt. -JON: Necessary hunt.

AGNES: It's a necessary hunt.

AGNES: The bearded seal is one of the most important foods

that we have to hunt for this time of the year.

It keeps us warm, it gives us energy,

it's something we all enjoy, rely on.

It's a delicacy of the whole entire area.

AGNES: Ready?

Let's go find that canal out into the sea.

As I grow, and I'm part of this family, and part of this land,

it feels pretty good to be able to go out and hunt some Ugruk.

Hunt some seals.

It feels really good to be a native

and able to hunt on our land,

which we've always done for thousands of years.

(AGNES SPEAKING)

AGNES: Man, rotten, we got to go way out to find good ice, eh?

This is rotten ice.

And we can't really stand on it or work on it.

Or the Ugruk aren't gonna be able to go on it

and rest on it.

So what we're looking for is,

a real big sheet of ice, that can hold a lot of weight.

So what we're gonna do is we're gonna go probably out more

and go look for better ice.

JON: This is one of my absolute favourite times to go hunt.

It's beautiful weather. It's a beautiful country.

There's beautiful animals. We've got all our guns ready.

Get your hunt on and succeed.

Once we have our food set for the winter, I'll be happy.

(GUNSHOT)

(JON SPEAKING)

Go back to the boat, try and see if I can sneak on some other ones.

Just gonna take it slow and keep putting around the edges

and, hopefully, we'll come across more seals close to the edge of the ice.

(AGNES SPEAKING)

(GUNSHOT)

AGNES: Too high! JON: Way too high up.

AGNES: Yeah.

JON: I don't see any more seals close by.

AGNES: Doesn't look like there's any seals around this area.

So we're slowly gonna move our way back in.

The tide is coming in and the ice is starting to go against the shore,

so we just wanna make sure we have our way to get back into the channel

to the mouth of the lagoon,

before all the ice blocks us and we can't make it.

You really have to watch out for ice you can't see under the water

because if you happen to go and tip your boat over, over an ice,

it's cold water and you'll just freeze or die instantly.

(JON SPEAKING)

-We're in the channel? -Yeah.

AGNES: Lucky we learned the channel, eh?

(SPEAKING)

(GUNSHOT)

(EXCLAIMS)

-All right. -Hey, we got it.

Right on, at least, we got something in the boat. Awesome.

Perfect.

Nice red-throated loon.

Got past the shallows, got a loon.

Heading home. Right on.

AGNES: We didn't get a seal and we had quite the experience

and knew when to come back,

and it just worked out pretty good.

AGNES: It's always worth a try.

Better luck next time.

CHIP: Hopefully, there will still be another hunt.

If not, in August, the seals will be back.

HOLMES: I love getting out on the river,

but this isn't recreation to me.

This is something I just had to do to maintain this lifestyle.

(LEVER CREAKING)

If I can just get this thing out to some deeper water...

I only moved it quarter of an inch.

I've seen the water drop at least a couple inches, so it's rapidly dropping.

I have no choice. I got to get this thing off here now.

If I mess around here, this thing's gonna be really stuck.

I'm not gonna give up.

NARRATOR: For Jessie to harvest enough fish to feed himself

and his sled dogs for the year,

he must get his fish wheel unstuck from the mud, and back into the water.

Starting to gain a little.

It's a lot of physical labour whenever you're doing things on your own.

Especially, when you're working with a fish wheel.

Gonna go ahead and start rigging a pulley up to this, into some trees over here.

My dogs gotta eat. I gotta eat.

I have to do these things.

Especially, when you're coming at it

from a subsistence lifestyle like I am,

not a lot of money.

I had to make up for that in drive and determination.

So when I start a task like this, I'm gonna finish it

because that's what I'm gonna do with every task I start.

This is looking good.

It's going pretty hard at first,

but getting it now.

Still got a long way to go, though.

Oh, man. This should have a pin here.

The pin must have fell out.

I don't have one here.

So I'm just gonna use a nail. See if that works.

This is just how it is out here, you know?

If something goes wrong, you improvise.

Find something else to use.

All right, there it's going.

Fuck! Man.

Oh, the nail just broke.

I'm gonna have to figure something else out, for a pin.

Those nails aren't very strong. Go over to the boat.

I got some Allen wrenches or something that could be harder steel

and hold for that.

This should work a lot better.

This is more harder than steel.

There we go.

Just about to give this thing a little bit of a push,

and let the current start building up against it.

Glad to see it's not going fast and that it's going slow.

That's better, safer, thing.

It's pretty shallow right here, still.

(CREAKING)

Can't tell if it's moving.

With a fish wheel

there are so many dangers, like, when you're rising it up out of the water,

you're rising 1,000 pounds out of the water,

against the current.

There's a lot of weight sitting on this.

If like, you aren't careful with the way you do things,

like this whole thing could collapse.

And I mean, if that collapses on you, in the river,

against the current, you wouldn't stand much of a chance.

My key thing is to respect nature.

Respect the river, I want to work with the river, not against it.

Don't disrespect Mother Nature,

and, hopefully, she's gonna take care of me.

You never know what's gonna happen, you gotta be prepared.

Yes! All right.

Push it on out in that current so it will break up some of that stuff on it.

There she goes.

Get it up here. That'd be perfect.

I'm excited to, you know, have this where it is now.

I'm tired and it's a good tired, though,

you know, I like being tired at the end of the day.

Feel rest, you know, that way

whenever I wake up the next morning, I feel really rested.

It's like, take a lot of pride in getting the job done,

and keeping a positive attitude.

Now I just got to do some minor repairs,

get this thing a little bit further upriver,

and I feel good that I can get this wheel running and catching lots of fish.

That's my goal. So, I'm this much closer to my fishing place.

AIKENS: Remote people, we have a vested interest,

we put our backs into our existence every step of the way.

JESSE: How heavy are these tracks?

Tracks are hundreds of pounds each.

But these tracks have to come off.

It's for winter only to add traction and stability when you're on snow and ice.

But in the summer, you got to have the flexibility of the tyres.

(DRILLING)

I would say my mechanics skill is above average.

It's better than most, I mean,

if anything has wheels and a motor, I can fix it, definitely.

Or I can point out the problem really fast.

Good.

The Bobcat tracks were really heavy actually.

I'm surprised that she did 'em for all those years by herself.

There we go.

Yeah, it's pretty crazy, Auntie.

It seems like a two-person job.

Not a one-person.

-It's a one-person job when it has to be. -(CHUCKLING)

AIKENS: The winter storms were bad enough this year,

that it took my old windsock and blew it to kingdom come.

This part will slip over and down, over that part, the very top.

That sock will blossom out, depending on what direction the wind is coming from.

Pilots can see from a distance what direction the wind's going,

even if my radio isn't working.

So they can adjust how they're gonna land.

Really, no plausible way for me to get up there and do it.

Typically, it takes two people

and a running piece of equipment.

My nephew Jesse, he's a sharp young man

and knows how to figure things out.

And I can watch him problem solve.

It's like watching your babies

when they first learn to crawl.

And that's what I want to see.

It takes a problem-solver out here.

AIKENS: I'm gonna have you take me up,

just a few feet, and then level it out.

Okay, stop. This way.

Hold it there.

My nephew Jesse ended up taking me up on my offer.

Hold it still.

I had to admit I hit the wall.

I'm not able to do the chores that I should be able to do, that I used to be able to do.

And if I try to, even want to keep Kavik open, I have to get help.

Well, you did a good job. I appreciate it.

-AIKENS: You big lug. -(JESSE LAUGHING)

If I don't stay in the black, Suzy doesn't come back.

(FLAPPING)