Tikigaq: back out on the ice with two WEIO Olympic champions, I see my final whale for this Point Hope visit, but no polar bear

On my final full day in Point Hope this trip, I found Krystle tying braids into the hair of David Thomas. David has roots here, lives in Palmer, but comes back as often as he can to reconnect with his traditional way of life.

David is also a star at the World Eskimo-Indian Olympics, held each summer in Fairbanks. Last year, he won first place in the knuckle hop, the toe-kick, the one hand reach, the Alaska high kick, the blanket toss and also received the sportsmanship award.

Many readers probably do not know what those events are. It has been a long time since I have covered WEIO. In her comments to this blog, Annette Donaldson has been urging me to come up for WEIO and has pointed out that this summer will be the 50th anniversary of the games and so will be extra special.

If I can go to WEIO next month, I will show you those events. I have much going on this summer and a huge amount of work that I must complete and so cannot say for certain that I will be able to attend, but if it is feasible, then I will.

I will look forward to it with both excitement and dread.

Excitement to witness the games, the dances, the traditional clothing fashion displays, all the events and the protocol of strong sportsmanship, but dread at the thought of having to join in the media scrum and being forced to jostle about with all the other photographers and videographers who will be covering the event.

Even back in the 80's, when I used to attend WEIO regularly, before there was a camera in every phone, it could be a real battle and I remember some hard and sharp elbows. So I fear it will really be a media scrum this year.

Even if it is, a photographer at WEIO should be polite, calm and good tempered at all times - just like the athletes. Being polite and a good sport and even giving assistance and encouragement to those you compete against is part of WEIO tradition and protocol.

Later that afternoon, I followed Jesse Frankson Sr. and David back out to the lead. Jesse is also a WEIO star and holds the world record in the one-foot high kick (Canadian style) - 9'10". the one-hand reach - 8'10" and the kneel jump - 63 1/4 inches.

So here I was, on the ice, with two of Alaska's most famous Native Olympic stars - right here on the ice of Tikigaq - where many of the games were born.

Jesse and David had come out earlier in the day and had happened upon a huge polar bear. David had watched in amazement as Jesse and the bear had spent some time studying each other while being separated only by about 15 feet.

We hoped that we might find that bear this trip as well.

The lead had still been open when Jesse and David had been out earlier, and so they also had hoped they might catch a beluga.

When we got there, the lead was closing fast. This bowhead swam through a mix of newly freezing slush ice and ice that was traveling in on the southwest wind.

Soon, the lead was completely closed. Yes, this is the very same stretch of sea pictured in past posts with belugas and bowheads swimming through it, with an umiak traveling through wide-open seas.

That is how fast it can change.

And when it gets like this, the hunt shuts down and the hunters must wait for the water to open again.

We meandered a bit on the return to the village, hoping to find the big bear. We did not find it, but we did find this raven perched atop a peak of pressure-ridge ice.

Jesse and Krystle, preparing meal-sized portions of their share of this spring's maktak for freezing.

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One month ago - flying to and settling into Point Hope; Yesterday in Wasilla

I again back up one month ago to begin anew my oft-delayed series of posts on my recent travels to Point Hope and Barrow - both of which are much colder towns than is Wasilla. I start on the Era flight that took me there on a one-way ticket that cost $410. Later, I would purchase another one-way ticket from Point Hope to Barrow and that would also run $410. 

Then I would need to purchase another ticket from Barrow to Anchorage on Alaska Airlines - $402.

Just imagine if you had a family of five or six and your father died two villages away and everybody needed a plane ticket to get there. That's the reality people face in Alaska, every day.

The only practical way to travel about Alaska is by plane, but it is getting harder and harder and harder to do. That's Annabelle Lane to the left, her son, Ephraim and Al Sokatis of Challenge Life Alaska.

I had originally planned to go to Anaktuvuk Pass on this trip. I needed my trip to coincide with a Challenge Life Alaska/NSB Healthy Communities event. Such an event had been planned for Anaktuvuk, but it got postponed and the time was scheduled for Point Hope.

So off I went to Point Hope.

I still hope I can get to Anaktuvuk before much more time passes by.

It was still early in the spring whaling season. I hoped that I might get out onto the ice. All my good, warm, Arctic gear had fallen apart or disappeared, so I was not properly prepared. Maybe someone would let me borrow some.

As we neared Point Hope, I could see open water, with shorefast ice on one side and young, new ice pinching in from the other.

This is Krystle Ahmaogak, granddaughter to the late Ben and Florence Ahmaogak of Wainwright, who in 1995 took me into their whaling crew, Iceberg 14 and then later adopted me as their honorary son. Krystle now lives in Point Hope with her fiance, Jesse Frankson and their three children.

When she learned I was coming, she invited me to stay with them.

We are headed to her house.

Krystle's two year-old son, Jonathan, at home in his play tent.

In the afternoon, Al and his Challenge Life Alaska partner Mike Hajdukovich met with the senior class, who were about to graduate. The students had raised money for a post graduation senior trip - to New York City. That is mostly what they talked about.

Geez, I wanted to go!

How fun it would have been to follow these kids from Point Hope around the Big Apple with my camera in hand!

Senior playing chess.

Going to New York with the graduated seniors was out of the question for me, but this is Michelle and as she was about to graduate, go on the trip, and loves photography, she was designated to be the official Point Hope Class of 2011 New York City Photographer.

Al and Mike had acquired a nice Canon 7D for the class, so she and I went walking about Point Hope so that I could give her some pointers on using the camera.

She caught on fast and she had a pretty decent eye for a picture.

I hope I get a chance to see the pictures that she took.

As I walked with Michelle, this girl came sliding by on a sled with a dog behind.

I shot many pictures of Challenge Life and have not yet taken the time to go through them. I did quickly pull this frame out, though: Challenge Life, Al Sokaitis in the school gym leading young children in a round of game playing.

This is Rex Rock, Sr., whose crew I followed whaling in 1991. Rex is also President of ASRC - the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation.

Children at play on a storage shed.

We learned that the crew of Isaac Killigvuk had struck a bowhead and were about to land it. Rex's wife, Ramona found a parka for me to wear. Mike and Al had never been to whale camp before, but now they had their chance. 

Off we went - the first stop would be the Rock whaling camp.

more to come

And this from yesterday in Wasilla:

Yesterday, as Margie and I passed by Wasilla Lake, we saw this dog in the next car, looking at us.

Inside the Metro with Carmen, study #6722: With Palmer Musician Dusty Bannon, wife Michelle and other family members and friend.

Dusty grew up on a Delta Junction homestead. When time and opportunity allows, I hope to catch him in action and to tell more of his story.

Also, let it be known that I have learned the identity of the person who, right after I returned home from this trip, bought me the coffee, pastry, paid the tip with 25 cents left over for me.

It was the Alaska Pony Girl. Thank you, Alaska Pony Girl! I think I owe you quite a few coffees now.

You can find her old blog here:

http://akponygirl.blogspot.com/

And her new blog here:

http://akponygirl.wordpress.com

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If you live in Point Lay, Anchorage is like a mad rush; hoar-frost at 65 mph (maybe just a little bit faster than that); Kalib begins the day at the end

This is Thomas Nukpagigak of Point Lay, and he is musing about the madness and rush of traffic and people swarming about in Anchorage. Thomas is the whaling captain whose crew I followed in 2008 and I might have been with them again this year, if I hadn't injured my shoulder and then gone to India. The day I left the Arctic Slope for India was the same day Point Lay caught its first bowhead in 72 years.

As for today, I picked Thomas up at the Embassy Suites in Anchorage and as we drove through the streets, he commented on the insanity and rush of traffic in the city. "The people never stop," he mused. "They just keep going and going and going. Always in a hurry to get to the next place. Point Lay is nice and quiet. That's how I like it."

Some of you who live in the country down in the Lower 48 might be nodding your heads knowingly, but, unless you have been to place like Point Lay - and there is no such place in the Lower 48 - you still can't grasp it. 

Point Lay has a population of about 300 people, maybe a bit less. If you go Northeast up the coast, the nearest village is Wainwright, population about 700, well over 100 miles away. If you go southwest, the nearest village is Point Hope, also about 700 and about the same distance. No roads link the villages. You travel between them either by airplane, snowmachine, or boat - sometimes, someone still makes the journey by dog team, but not very often.

When I followed his crew whaling, we set camp out on the ice 36 miles to the northeast, as measured by GPS. When you live like that for awhile, even Barrow, with its 4500 or so people, comes to seem like a big, bustling, city and when you first get there, you long for the quiet of the camp and the village.

So Thomas and I headed to Ray's Vietnamese Restaurant. We had a good lunch together and reviewed some material I had put together. He strongly urged me to come back to Point Lay for next spring's whale hunt. I felt a great desire to do just that.

Of course, my day did not begin in Anchorage. It began in Wasilla. And here I am, in my car, leaving Wasilla at about 11:50 AM.

The air has been foggy and still for the past couple of days, so there is hoarfrost on everything.

More hoarfrost.

The Alaska Railroad bridge that spans one braid of the Knik River.

About 30 miles still to go.

A car passes me on the Glenn Highway. It was speeding, but the driver did not get caught.

Shortly after I arrived in Anchorage, just before I picked Thomas up. I wish I had more money in that place. You can count every dollar that I have there now with just three figures.

Afterward, I dropped Thomas off at Wal-Mart by Diamond Center.

From there, I headed over to the Alaska Regional Hospital, to see a friend from Wainwright who was badly injured in a snowmachine accident last month. I found him in his room, alone, asleep. I called his niece and she said, go ahead, wake him up.

So I spoke his name, but he did not wake up. I placed my hand upon his shoulder - how thin and frail it felt, and he, always such a strong and vigorous man. I gave him a gentle shake. Still, he did not wake up. So I stood there at his bedside for awhile and then left. The first time that I went to see him he was still at the Alaska Native Medical Center. I could not see him because, due to fears of swine flu, they were only allowing two members of his immediate family to visit.

The second time, he was also asleep.

I might be in town again tomorrow. If so, I will try a fourth time.

Next, I headed over to the Captain Cook Hotel, to see my Iñupiaq sister, Mary Ellen Ahmaogak, of Wainwright. I was happy to find her daughter, Krystle, there, too. I had something in my computer that I wanted both of them to review, so that's what Krystle is doing here.

And in case you wonder about the little one...

...he is the youngest of her three children - Jonathan.

Krystle, Jesse, and Jonathan. Jesse was raised in Point Hope and that is where they all live, now.

I had meant to get Mary Ellen in a picture, too, but I devoted all my photographic attention to these three and forgot.

Remember how I said I felt a great desire to return to Point Lay next whaling season? When I see or talk to or even just think of any of the Ahmaogak's, I also feel a great desire to return to Wainwright next whaling season and to go back out with Iceberg 14, which Mary Ellen now co-captains with Jason and Robert.

And then speaking of Point Hope - yeah, I feel that same desire to go out there, too.

And then just a couple of weeks ago, a captain in Barrow invited me to get out of the south, come up north and go out with him and crew next spring.

The thought felt wonderful - tough - but wonderful. That's how it is. It is always tough. It is always wonderful.

Life gets very confusing, sometimes.

Who knows what will happen, come next spring?

And here I am, on my way back home to Wasilla, crossing the Palmer Hay Flats. People in vehicles are forever smacking moose on this stretch of highway and that is why they put in these fog lights.

Here is Kalib and Caleb, back at the computer, looking at dinosaurs. This is the very first picture I took today. 

You know what it says in the Bible: the first shall be last, and the last shall be first.

Well, the last wasn't first, but the first is last.

The Bible got it part right.