Life above the Arctic Circle
Trip Start
Unknown
1
16
23
Trip End
Ongoing
Arctic Village,
Alaska,
United States
Monday, January 14, 2008
I am Amy's husband Mike. She has mentioned me in some of her blogs and I wanted to enter one to give a different point of view of living in Arctic Village, Alaska.
It's been about 4 months since Amy and I packed up and moved our family above the Arctic Circle in Alaska. The Chandalar river (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandalar_River) runs right past where we live in Arctic Village. On the other side of the river is ANWR (http://arctic.fws.gov/). The first time I looked out across the river toward the mountain range, I thought it was one of the most beautiful sights I had ever seen. Being from the South all my life, I have never seen mountains in this setting before and it blew me away. Another thing I have never seen is a REAL winter. When we first arrived in Arctic Village, it was about 40˚ and everything was still brown and green. Having lived in Florida for about 20 years, I got use to it raining about every week and in the summer about every afternoon. Since we've been here it hasn't rained once, instead, it has snowed. Everything is white now dotted with green from the trees. As I write this, it is -33˚ and forcasted to get as low as -50˚ with a high of -40˚ (http://www.wunderground.com/US/AK/Arctic_Village.html). It's not as bad as it sounds. With the right clothes it is comfortable. Every night Jago, our dog, and I go for a walk while I smoke a ciagar. Lately, we have been walking across the river on the ice to ANWR. Just a 15 minute walk and you are in total wilderness. Yesterday morning Jago and I were walking and I spotted some Cairbou. They were by a lake and took off when they spotted us. I took some pictures of where they bedded down. Including the ravens and some rabbits, it is the only wildlife I have seen.
I have enjoyed living here. The people here in the village have been very nice to us and the kids have adjusted to their new surrondings. I enjoy my new job. I have been creating a new website and have been involved iniating some educational programs for the school district. I was lucky enough to be involed in skinning some Caribou for a family in the village. Jimmy, the person who is recongized as the HUNTER of the village, is the person who saw the first Caribou of the season and because of his alertness, the village took 40 Caribou that day. Jimmy took 7 by himself. I asked him how many there were and he said thousands. He said they were everywhere. The meat is shared throughout the village and the elders of the village are the first to be given meat and the rest is divided for the others. The wolves followed the Caribou into the village and were a nusince for a while killing dogs, but have since left.
Comments
What an Adventure!!
Hello,
I am totally hooked on your 'NEW LIFE'. It must be a Culture shock, from Malls to Caribu is extreme.
Although I feel like I am reading some-one else Email, I am happy you are writing this. I am a Travel Agent who specializes in Alaska and have been there many times, but I always return to Traffic and Big City, I can't imagine the change. Please keep writing and I will keep snooping..Thanks, Pat