A Day in Teller, Alaska

Last Tuesday, I had a chance to travel to Teller, an Inupiat Village with a population of 290, along the west coast of the Seward Peninsula. Teller is a unique place in that it is accessible by a regional road. I drove the 72-miles from Nome along a narrow dirt road. It was a perfect day; sunny with hardly a cloud in the sky. Along the way I saw a bear, musk oxen, moose, ptarmigans, abandoned gold dredges, and lots of beautiful country. The drive went quickly even with the frequent stops to take pictures.

When I got to Teller, I had a chance to spend some time talking to the mayor, Joe Garnie. After our business was completed we hung around and started talking about dog sledding. It was obvious that Joe was knowledgeable in only the way a life time musher can be. When he told me he raced, I asked if he had ever done the Iditarod. He gave me a wry smile and said he had. Then I asked him how well he had done. He smiled again and said second place and third place. It then dawned on me; this was JOE GARNIE the legendary Iditarod musher. Libby Riddle raced his dogs to win the Iditarod back in 1985 when they were partners. The next year he placed second behind Susan Butcher with the same dogs. In fact he has placed in the top 25 all 15 times that he has raced. That is an amazing feat considering it is an honor to be able to even finish the race.

Joe is unique among Iditarod mushers in that he is a traditional Inupiat musher. Most of his training is just using his dogs to stay alive in the arctic. He wears traditional clothes. His kennel only has as many dogs has he can support from his subsistence hunting and fishing.

Joe claims dog sleds are the best transport in the arctic. He doesn’t use snow machines, preferring the traditional way. He says he starts traveling earlier in winter and continues longer through spring with his dog sled than anyone else can with a snow machine. He also claims to have never been stuck, broken down, or stopped by a hill he couldn’t climb with his teams. And I believe him.

Later that day, I watched as Joe finished clearing out his fishing net. He had hauled in a load of white fish, cod, herring, and a few dollies. Joe then explained that most of the fish would be dried and used as dog food, but the dollies would be saved for his personal use.

The dollies were going to be dried for a couple of hours until the pellicle forms then tossed into the freezer. The pellicle protects the meat and prevents freezer burn. I asked Joe how he eats them. His response was, “frozen.” I wasn’t sure if he was pulling my leg, but I later asked several other Inupiat friends and they all said it was true. In fact they all said it was their favorite way to eat fish. You just take it out of the freezer, sprinkle a little salt on it, and dip it into seal oil. After those rave reviews, I think I will have to add frozen fish in seal oil to my list of foods I have to try.

Tips: Ziploc Omelets

This past March, I went winter camping with my kids. It was one of those campouts when, in the rush to leave, things were left behind. While trying to fix breakfast the next morning I realized I had forgotten to bring a frying pan or spatula. Without either, I was unable to scramble the eggs for breakfast. While pondering what to do, I remembered I had once seen a friend cook scrambled eggs by boiling them in a plastic bag. I had often cooked oatmeal in Ziploc bags by pouring boiling water into it, but I had never tried it with eggs. I had always been curious. So, I pulled out a Ziploc and cracked a couple of eggs into the bag. I zipped up the bag and squished it in my hands to scramble the eggs. Then it went into the boiling water. The results were pretty fair. It would have been better if I had remembered salt and pepper. The only thing was it didn’t really taste like scrambled eggs but an omelet.

That got me thinking. All I would have to do is to chop up normal omelet ingredients (orange peppers, onions, etc.) and toss them into a Ziploc bag. And make sure to pack a couple of eggs. Then all I would have to do is crack in the eggs, squish it up, and boil them. Since that campout in March I have wanted to try it out. Who wouldn’t like a delicious hot omelet (without the mess) on a cold morning while camping? But alas, I have not had the opportunity to do that. So this last Saturday morning after I fixed the kids breakfast I tried it. I chopped up onion, green pepper, mushrooms, cheese, and sausages which I tossed in a Ziplock bag with a couple of eggs. I also put in some salt and pepper. After squishing it up in my hands I dropped the whole bag into some boiling water.

Almost immediately one of the kids came screaming to me about some disaster and I had to help them out. Since the omelet was boiling instead of frying, I didn’t have to worry about burning it. After a few minutes I came back and it seemed cooked. So I pulled it out, dropped it on a plate, and ate it. Let’s just say it was perfect. It tasted just like a regular omelet. It was also shaped nicely because I didn’t scramble it while trying to flip it. My wife tried a bite and loved it too. Best of all, the only clean up was throwing away the Ziploc bag. So now we have a new recipe in our camping cookbook.

Ziploc Omelets would also work well for a multiple day trip. You just have to make sure the ingredients will stay fresh without refrigeration. All the ones I listed above will last several days, but you would have to use vegetarian sausage. Eggs are fine as long as you leave them in the shell.

While I was “cleaning up”, Rebecca reminded me of another tip. Since the boiling water is still clean, you can reuse it for your morning cup of hot chocolate, reducing your fuel needs for the meal. That is true for us since we always boil water in the morning for hot chocolate anyways. With this meal we cooked everything in one pot at the same time.

Thirteen Rules for Family Camping

I love to camp, hike, fish, and just spend time outdoors. When I got married I wanted my wife to enjoy those things too. So I introduced her to them during our summer break in Alaska. When we started having kids I wanted to do all those things with them too. In the beginning I had varying degrees of success in my attempts to introduce them to camping.

I quickly realized that I was going to have to approach camping differently if my kids and wife were going to enjoy them as much as I do. Since then we have had a lot of fun experiences camping and playing in the outdoors. Here are some of the things I have learned that help my family enjoy camping.

1. Plan, Plan, Plan. You can’t go off half cocked or on a moment’s notice like you did when you were single. You can’t just hope it will all work out . . somehow. If you forget something you don’t want to have to rough it with kids or someone new to camping.

2. Don’t worry if they don’t follow the plan. Don’t get angry if everyone wants to turn around early on the hike you planned. You have to roll with the punches. You have to do what works and is fun and not necessarily what is planned. The plan was just to help you get started and make sure you have at least some fun things to do.

3. Start simple. You shouldn’t take your wife on your dream 50-mile wilderness hike of Denali or two-week whitewater trip down the Yukon for her first camping trip. You have to remember you started out roasting marshmallows at a state campground and that is when you fell in love with camping.

4. Keep it close. Kids don’t do well on long drives. And if you get there and they are already grumpy you may have a difficult time convincing them camping is fun. Until your kids are old enough for longer rides just go to the nearest campgrounds.

5. Suspend the rules (within reason or close to it). Well most of the rules. Let the kids stay up late. Let them scream and shout their heads off. Throw table manners out the window for that one or two days.

6. Get dirty. This applies to the kids and you. Let them roll around in the mud and leaves and all those things kids love to do. Just remember you can hose them down in the front yard when you get home. You may also want to lay an old sheet over the seats in the car. It helps with the clean up.

7. Let them eat treats. For us this goes along with #5. Make lots of s'mores, trail mix, candy bars, banana boats, or whatever. Don’t worry about eating the vegetables or all the normal food rules. Just let them enjoy the gooey marshmallows. Remember no one ever gains weight camping.

8. Keep them dry and warm. I can have a good time even when I am wet and cold, but kids just can’t and a lot of first time campers can’t either. So pack extra socks, jackets, and sleeping bags. Assume the worst possible weather then pack more.

9. Keep them full. Kids need lots of food to fuel all the extra running around. What kid can’t be happy with a stomach full of pancakes, hotdogs, or s'mores? Hungry kids are whiny kids and no one has fun when there is whining.

10. Lower your expectations. Things don’t have to be perfect to enjoy yourselves. Kids can find fun in anything. You might be bored out of your mind throwing rocks in a lake or picking up pine cones, but the kids will love it.

11. Do all the work. Do all the cooking, cleaning of dishes, packing the car, setting up the tent, etc. If you want your wife to enjoy camping make it a day off for her. If you do, I guarantee your wife will want to go again. If your wife has to do all the work just to get the family out the door she will cringe every time you suggest a camping trip.

12. Pamper your wife. This follows the previous one. Make an effort to ensure she has fun and can relax. Get her a camp chair and set it up by the fire. Bring her a pillow and nice mattress even if that is not ‘real’ camping. She will only love the experience more.

13. Remember what it is all about. It’s not about completing the hike. It is not about anything, but having fun with your family in the outdoors. It’s about creating special memories that they will remember always. All the other rules are just a means to this end.

Bears and Wolfs and Webelos OH MY!

For several years I volunteered as a Cubmaster for our local Cub Scout pack. One of the coolest things I learned about was ARLIS (Alaska Resource Library & Information Services). ARLIS is a library that specializes in Alaska climate, mineral rights, fish counts, or other natural information. This means most people stay clear of it, but the library also carries educational kits. It has a huge collection of animal skills, bones, and mounts. All of which can be checked out by anyone with a library card. The librarians at ARLIS are also the most helpful I’ve met, probably because they are happy someone uses their facilities. They often would help me carry items out to my car and give me free parking passes.

Why did I care as a Cubmaster? Well, in Cub Scouts ranks are based on animals; bobcat, wolf, bear, and webelo. Ok, the webelo rank isn’t an animal, but I will get to that later. So in our pack when boys advanced rank I would check out the appropriate animal fur for their rank. A bobcat pelt for the bobcat rank. A bear skin for the bear rank. For webelos we settled on a beaver skull and pelt. It would have been a muskox skull except it was checked out the first time. The boys looked forward to each pack meeting just so they could play with them.

Another time, we had a bird themed pack meeting. So I got four different full bird mounts; teal, snowy owl, merganser, and a ptarmigan. We had a game where the kids had to identify each bird. The snowy owl was the favorite thanks to Harry Potter.

My kids loved them too. Well, most of the time. The first time I went to ARLIS, I decided to surprise my kids. So when I got that home that night, I draped the wolf skin over me. It practically covered me. Then I snuck into the play room. The kids didn’t see me until I started growling. Surprisingly, two year old Ben saw right through it and laughed. It was our four year old Gwenna that started screaming. She was not happy with me after that.

My kids liked it when I went to ARLIS because we got to keep the skins or birds for several weeks at home. ARLIS makes it possible for anyone to bring home a museum.

Camping Trips and Spatulas

One year I took just William and Gwenna camping. We drove down to Trail River Campground at Kenai Lake and slept the night crammed in my two man tent. The next morning I got up to fix breakfast only to find I had forgotten all the cooking utensils. Luckily we didn’t need much. Except we were going to have scrambled eggs and I couldn’t find anything on my leatherman that resembled a spatula.

So I had the kids look for a suitable piece of wood. Soon they found a large piece of cottonwood bark. Cottonwood bark is great for carving because it is soft and easy to split. Now the leatherman came in handy! In no time, we had ourselves a spatula. The kids thought it was the coolest thing. We had a blast scrambling eggs with it.

This is one of the reasons why I love camping. Something unexpected always happens and it inevitably tests your knowledge and skills. On every campout something is forgotten or lost. Once I spent a week cooking on a flat rock because we lost the stove when the raft over turned. I love that. It must be the MacGyver in me. It’s those experiences that make camping so fun.

Will and Gwen loved that trip and making a spatula is one of the best memories from it. You can’t schedule or plan memories like. We still have that spatula and we still take it camping. Though, we now know if we forget it we can always make another one.

Tips: Homemade Camping Stoves

When camping with kids you have to bring a lot of extra equipment. If you can’t afford the latest ultralight REI gear, or a Sherpa, you have to stick with car camping or find creative ways to reduce pack weight. Getting rid of bulky stoves is one way.

In the past, I have used homemade hiking stoves. They tend to be cheap and light weight, while being rugged enough for kid-friendly trips. Plus you get the extra bonus of building one with your kids, because that’s what being a dad is all about.

This summer I am planning (there is that word again) to build an alcohol “cat stove”. I have been wanting to for a while and I think this year is going to be the year.

There are other homemade stoves out there. William and I have had good times with Hobo stove. It doesn’t get easier than that. It’s a converted number 10 can that uses paraffin and cardboard as fuel.

If you really want to get serious Backpacker Magazine had a contest to see who could make the best alcohol stove. The results are really interesting with some stoves performing like a high-end mountaineering stove.

As the summer goes by, I will keep posting updates on the stove project.

The photograph is brought to you by Jim Wood’s website which also has excellent instructions.