Original subtitles

Ruger, I need my coat.

I got to take the time to love him.

He loves attention.

We're as close as you can get, me and him.

He loves me cleaning his ears,

scratching the inside of his ears

'cause he can't get there.

We're a pack, me, talicia and this dog.

We're a pack.

We love each other.

We depend on each other.

We'll fight to the death for each other.

I know he will.

I know I will.

That's what packs do.

The arctic refuge is roughly the size

of the state of south Carolina.

You go for hundreds, thousands of miles

without roads -- nothing.

Our permits only go up

until the death of our last child.

Within 100 years, there's gonna be nobody.

We are the last.

Out here, you're alone.

As far as I can see,

I'm the only human being.

When we're out here, we're really isolated.

I love that feeling.

When you're a couple living out in the woods,

you have to depend on each other for everything.

To live out here, I'm strong enough,

but the hardest part is to keep your mind together.

To have a companion, especially someone you love, is vital.

In a completely isolated environment,

we're all we have left.

Hey, don't eat that.

Don't eat that.

Hey. hey. Nope.

That's our meat.

I found the crook.

That's got to go up and under first.

How?

Like so.

Within a week of being at the camp,

our meat pole

is gonna be sagging under the weight

of a whole moose.

That's a good place to be this time of year.

These quarters weigh so much that,

if you don't support the middle of these,

these poles could just crash down.

We don't have refrigeration.

We don't have a freezer.

So you have to store your meat up off the ground.

Thanks.

You got to get it up in the air, hanging.

Keep the air circulating around the meat,

keeps it cooler.

And if a bear comes in and the dogs bark at it,

the dogs are just kind of like a bear deterrent.

I'll grab it down low.

Here, I got it.

Just run that wire. -Oh, sick.

Ashley, just focus on the...

I don't want that on my jacket.

I can't hold this very long.

I'm telling you, i do not want that on my jacket.

Hurry up. Run that wire.

Pull that wire up through there.

You should've let me do that part,

and we should've just put the moose down.

It's good now. Just stop -- stop -- stop twisting.

I've got to switch jackets.

I don't want this jacket to be a bloody mess.

Okay, but I was holding 150-pound object,

and you're worried about getting a little blood on you.

Yeah. I am.

Would you -- go change then. I got it.

We argue and bicker

and act petty with each other,

you know, just as much as

any other married couple, I'm sure, maybe more.

You know, but, I mean, it's because of the way we live.

You know, we're working all the time.

We're doing physical labor.

Now I'm equipped.

I'm glad.

I'm glad you're equipped.

I should probably put my blood jacket on too.

See? it's gross.

-I'll go get my coat. -Okay. Great.

When you're in a relationship

and you're in an isolated part of the world in a marriage,

you learn to get over stuff really fast.

Ashley's, like, um...

A true optimist.

It's -- that's what I love about her,

you know, and...

Yeah.

Yeah. I think we balance each other out pretty well.

One, two, three.

When everybody's gone, Tyler and I, we're all we have left.

You're good? -Yeah.

Okay.

See that? Mess. Messy.

-One more. -One more.

Okay. get it. Get it.

All righty. It's quite a sight.

Stand back and soak it in for a minute.

Yep. it's quite --

quite the display, isn't it?

Yeah.

Looks good.

It's like having a big bank account

back in town, you know.

To us, to people like me and Ashley

who are living out here in the woods,

just doesn't get much better than that.

Yeah. i feel really secure.

Yeah.

But there's still a lot of stuff at the kill site to bring back.

We got some work ahead of us. -Yep.

Ruger, where are the fish?

Talicia was out here for two weeks

during the best month of the year out here.

Hold on, first thing's first.

We had a good time out here.

I like her company,

but, uh...

I know it's time for her to get back.

She's going back to Fairbanks today.

I wanted talicia to learn some skills

and learn how to appreciate the woods.

I think it's all important for her growing up

and facing new challenges.

She has a hard time walking on this uneven ground.

She had both feet crushed in a car accident.

She falls often because of that,

and she gets up by herself.

She doesn't ask for help.

She doesn't want to be considered helpless.

She's stubborn like that.

She's like her dad.

Poor kid.

My dad's out of water right now.

Oh, shoot.

My dad's health is really not very good,

and I wanted to come out here this year

just because I'm not gonna get much more time with him.

I think that my dad's realized

that, when he's by himself,

it's just way harder.

And, seeing how today is my last day here,

my goal is just to make things the easiest

that they can be for him.

You can come on in if you want.

I'm gonna make my coffee.

Well, I tell you, it's much colder today.

Yesterday was so sunny and hot,

like, almost 80 yesterday

and today probably a high of 40, 45.

Winter is coming very close,

so I got to get booking on that cabin,

get it up and get it livable.

Our daughters are all out here.

I depend on them for a lot now,

like, you know, building the cabin.

If the snow hits the ground while we're still in a tent,

Edna's not gonna be happy at all.

Hell hath no fury like scorned wife.

Right here, this is

my medicine cabinet here, you see.

Toothbrush is stuck in the gravel there.

Toothpaste is there.

Bear ain't gonna mess with that.

He don't brush his teeth.

Got your -- it's really heavy.

Here you go, krin.

There. is it heavy? This is real heavy, huh?

Yeah.

This year, we're really depending upon the girls

to provide the meat for us while we build the cabin.

Come on! Come fish!

You got to catch one for grandpa.

That'll be grandpa's fish.

I'm just hoping that they'll...

That they'll get something.

Let me tighten that one.

Hey, what do you got to eat?

Nothing.

Uh, duh.

Roots and berries.

Roots and berries.

A little bit of trail mix.

You got to take more than...

I depend on them for a lot now.

I mean, the older I get, you know,

I'm gonna need that help.

All right. You be careful.

Very careful, girls.

Get something.

Talicia?

Yeah, she's going back to Fairbanks.

All right. All right.

Revelation is so critical today.

"I'm the Alpha and the omega,

the first and the last, the beginning and the end."

I'm 64 years old.

I have physical problems.

I don't know how many years I have left.

It's important for me to provide for my daughter in the meantime.

What's this dog named? Ruger?

-Yep. -Ruger.

Ruger loved the hell out of her,

and he protected her.

I want the perfect dog for her to have.

I want to leave her with that.

That dog...

You can't do better than that.

There's no way you can do better than that,

no way.

That's why it's her dog now.

Let's get a squirrel.

I'm happy I'm doing what I'm doing.

I'm happy I came up here.

I'm happy I got this country.

This wide open is more country than I need.

I'm happy.

But I still would love to have someone close

to share moments with,

to talk to,

to hug, to kiss.

I miss that.

All right.

There's a squirrel for dinner.

No Ruger this time.

He'll find a squirrel quicker than I will.

But I got him.

Bush rats, tree rat.

Meager pickings, though.

Lonely.

Lonely.

That's what it feels like.

Moss time.

Edna's putting the moss in,

which is the insulation between the logs, is moss.

Works good.

There's a whole woods full of moss here

so I'm not --

there's insulation growing all over.

I'm thinking the door right there, huh?

-Right there? -Yeah, yeah.

Well -- well, no, lookit.

-Right here. -No.

But I'm thinking to put the door, like --

like, right here.

Well, gonna have to get the --

too close to the cottonwood.

You're the boss.

I was living out here for six years by myself.

So, when me and Edna first got together,

and she came out here, it was kind of hard

because I was pretty set in my ways.

Big window.

No, I think -- I --

I think we should have a big window right here.

But, now Edna's happiness is mine,

and mine is hers.

Where's the stove gonna be then?

Right here or...

With the door... We could put it...

-The bed. -Right here.

It's hard to live out here.

I mean, there's a lot of hardships.

To have a companion out here,

especially someone you love, is vital.

I wouldn't be out here alone.

Just wouldn't do it.

I really want a caribou bad.

Hopefully, we get one.

I would not change a single thing

about the way I was raised.

You know, I wanted to hunt since I was a little girl.

I always wanted to go with my dad,

but I was way too loud, way too noisy.

But, once I got older,

I was able to go hunting with him.

He started teaching me, and I learned great knowledge,

you know, that got passed down to me.

And, now that they're getting older,

I want to be there to help them when they need it,

you know, especially with, like, building a new cabin.

I'm glad I got to come up and help with that.

Shh. shh.

It sounded like a caribou or a moose

when they call to their young or something.

All right. You ready?

My hair's caught in my backpack.

Krin.

Sorry, sis.

You want to spot it real quickly?

I dropped her gun. I couldn't see it.

My hair was caught in my backpack.

She was trying to take it out.

You want me to shoot it?

Yeah.

She's got it spotted.

My dad has got all our scopes with 150 yards.

And if you drop it, it throws it off.

You drop it -- the last thing you want to do

is wound something, make it suffer.

So, we try getting it one shoot, one kill,

and it's usually for the heart.

-Ready? -go.

Got -- oh, you're a little bit off,

a foot off.

All right. Let me try it again.

One of the symbols we have growing up here is,

if you shoot three times in a row, it's an s.O.S. For help.

And dad usually comes running,

so we try not to shoot within threes.

You got it. -Scope's good.

But now we got to wait about an hour before anything.

Yeah, probably scared everything away in sight.

Ah

sorry, sis.

Right here, too.

Those are going that way.

These are going this way.

They're really, really fresh.

You know?

I think we might've spooked it.

The gunshots scared anything away and...

We'll just wait a little bit and let everything calm down.

The seclusion is relaxing, you know.

Yeah.

Dad's raised us to want to come out here, too,

to come out and appreciate what he has, you know.

Kind of love the land.

Yeah.

But I don't know if I'd spend time

with my husband 24/7 in a cabin, I think.

I don't know. I don't think I could do it.

I could just see if dad didn't have mom,

and this cabin would probably be 12 feet by 12 feet

with a little, tiny window.

Barely over his head.

If you didn't build it to your wife's specifications,

you're gonna hear it for the rest of your life, you know.

-24/7. -yeah.

The original one had log floors

you'd walk around.

You're constantly...

Until mom said, "put a floor in there."

And there's a floor in there.

Man may be the head of the household,

but the woman's the neck,

and she turns the head any way she wants.

There you go. I like that.

Yes.

They need each other to, you know...

-They need each other to survive. -Yeah.

I think we're just gonna go ahead and call it a day.

Oh, yeah.

Five minutes till "trapline chatter."

"Trapline chatter" is a program, kjnp 1170.

And what it is, is messages from people in town

to their family members,

friends out in the bush.

And it's "trapline chatter" on this Saturday evening.

First message to Bob harte at Boulder creek

from Nancy at Fairbanks.

"Hey, Bob. Hope you're listening tonight.

After talking with talicia,

we thought it would be a great idea

for me to come out and enjoy a quiet evening together

and be thankful for all that is.

So, hopefully, see you soon.

Love, Nance."

She's coming out tomorrow?

I can't believe that.

I can't believe she'd do that.

I can't believe anybody'd do that to help me.

And Nancy's my ex.

She's, uh, the woman i loved most in the world.

We were married 12 years.

But I was so focused

on being the trapper, being successful,

being providing, doing it,

but I didn't give enough to her.

Can't do things over.

You can just regret the mistakes you made.

She hasn't been up in the camp for 22 years --

23 years.

I have to see it to believe it.

She's due by airplane, and I want to be there.

I'll be there.

I want this steak.

Look at that.

All right.

I like to marinate moose meat because it, like, really,

it's kind of a tougher cut of meat,

and it really helps to tenderize it.

This is liquid aminos,

which is a lot like a soy sauce.

Now that we have moose meat, cooking's a lot easier.

I'm thankful. I'm just, like, really grateful.

Tyler got our moose.

Tyler is my white knight,

and we depend on each other for different things.

But, yeah, in other ways, he depends on me, too.

Like, we're always collaborating, you know,

to get things done during the day.

Like, we're both busy at the same times,

and we're just doing different tasks.

Tyler went downriver to pick up

the rest of our moose stuff.

I just want more moose hide to work with to do some sewing.

If you leave a kill site alone

for, like, four or five days before you get back down there,

um, it is spooky.

You don't know what's gonna be on that pile.

You don't know if it's gonna be something that's really hungry

and feeling really aggressive about protecting it.

The other night, we finished up with the moose

and got all the meat out here,

but we left some bones and the head.

And there's a piece of hide from the body.

I'm gonna bring that home.

Wolves have been here.

You can see, and we got a little bit of fresh snow.

So the wolves were coming in here.

Circling the stuff we left behind the other day,

the hide and the head.

A lot of these animals are living

right there on the edge.

They're living from one meal to the next.

So, when a hunter comes along,

kills a moose and leaves the guts,

they've got to take advantage of it.

I mean, if we go back into that gut pile,

there's a good chance that there could be a bear back there.

Interesting.

Go look at that gut pile?

Curiosity kills the cat.

We're going? We go in? -Yeah.

We got to look around.

Sometimes bears will just lay there...

And hide.

Hey, griz. Coming in.

That gut pile that's been sitting here for a couple days.

There's a good chance that there could be a bear back there.

You got to look around.

Sometimes bears will just lay there...

And hide.

Hey. hey.

Hey, griz.

Looks clear to me.

So, two days ago,

there was 100 pounds of guts laying there on the ground.

Now, there's nothing except bear

that's really fresh.

Really, really, really fresh.

I mean, I heard something when we came in here.

We kind of approached it from downwind,

and I heard something run off.

Could've easily been a bear.

There's another pile over here.

That, to me, looks more like wolf

they get that kind of a real black-y kind of a crap

when they eat fresh meat.

But it doesn't take long for stuff to go up here.

Nothing goes to waste, you know. Nothing at all.

The animals are gonna eat it.

Pretty neat, though.

I'm just cleaning up everything.

Nancy's coming today,

and she likes things clean.

She hasn't been up in the camp for quite a few years,

so it's a big day for me.

The love of my life coming back up here --

big day.

Huge day.

I'm not an outstanding communicator,

but I've been a softy lately,

three or four years.

A puffball.

'Cause when I'm thinking of my love for Nancy,

it brings tears to my eyes.

Cleaning her cup.

She'll appreciate that.

I'm ready to go.

And we'll get some fire going.

That wind is bad.

Just cold.

Well, that's why we want a big fire today.

I just hope Nancy can stay warm.

Holy mackerel.

Can't believe she's here.

I can't believe it.

Nance!

Bobby!

Can you believe it?

You're not dressed warm enough.

Oh, I know, but you got clothes for me.

What's in this box? Food?

Yeah, a little bit of food, some long Johns.

When I first met Bob, one of the things

I was attracted to was his joy and delight.

I mean, it's addicting.

It just comes out. It pours out of him.

He's out there hunting, fishing, trapping.

That's what he lives for.

He loves all that stuff,

and, I mean, he loves it dearly.

It's not just he loves to do it.

It's a part of him. It's his make-up.

It's his -- it's who he is.

Oh, man.

It's good to be back here.

Yeah. it's been a long time.

But talicia called me.

And then she starts crying,

and she said, "mom, it's really bad.

He's not healthy. He's not doing well,

and he knows it."

Looking for the flattest part of the log on top and bottom,

you know.

And this log is not a good log,

a lot of bows and everything else.

I mean, everybody builds a cabin different.

You just got to do your thing, i mean,

what you think is right.

You know what really, really got me going in the outdoors

was when I was a little kid, i read Daniel Boone books.

Daniel Boone.

I read books about him, and it just inspired me.

I never thought about it until I got older,

and then I was thinking how I got out here

and everything and why.

And then it all stems to that one book --

to that one book, believe it or not.

It was about Daniel Boone.

Hey.

Where is everybody?

Fishing.

Fishing?

No caribou?

No meat?

No meat.

Oh, man.

The walls are up, mom.

Good. that's good.

Now we're not gonna have to be

in the tent much longer.

Couple more days, and we can move in there.

So what's to eat? Hot water?

Yep. it's boiling.

Yeah. Ashley's gonna probably end up using...

Once we get this tanned into leather,

she'll end up using it for --

to make moccasins

and backing for mittens.

And it's, like, the best, toughest leather you can get.

It's prized for its, you know, thickness, its durability.

It's, like...

In some places, it's, like, a half an inch thick, you know.

You can't leather like that in a store.

So, happy to bring this back,

so she can keep working on it.

Okay.

Outstanding.

Knock, knock!

Yeah.

Did you get into the box?

I've been waiting for you.

Oh, good!

Oh, toasty in here.

Thank god.

Oh, yes.

That's for lunch.

-Mushrooms. -for dinner.

Holy mackerel.

Eggs for breakfast.

All right.

Oh, dear.

Oh, good god. There's my girl.

Thank you.

That's all.

We're gonna have a feast tonight.

Steak?

Oh, man.

Angus beef, t-bone.

You put me in heaven.

Good. good.

You did.

Good.

I was hoping for that.

It's invaluable, someone caring for you,

someone loving you.

It's invaluable.

I wouldn't be --

I wouldn't want to live without that.

Oh, Bob.

I can't believe i have this here.

I'm figuring we got maybe a week to fish.

What we catch out here on the river

is the primary source of food for the dogs.

This is your one chance.

Once the river freezes, it's over.

The winter's gonna hit so hard and so fast.

If you're not prepared, you're in trouble.

-Wow. -look how big it is.

Pretty big bear. -Yeah.

It's been too difficult this year.

He's just not well.

I've never been this sick in my life.

It's important for me to hear how your health is doing.

I feel like I'm...

I'm fading.