Fall Camping

Michael took off on Friday night to head out to camp with a few guys from school. Our district's cross country regionals were this weekend in Noorvik, which is a village about 50 miles from here. The guys camped out on Friday night, went to Noorvik on Saturday, camped again Saturday night, and then came home Sunday. The great thing for Michael was that this was an area that he hadn't been to before. He said it was amazing, as most of the country around here is. Here are some of the new things he saw:

A bull moose wandered right by the camp. The one guy in the group who could shoot a moose didn't get his gun out in time. But, it made for some pretty great pictures:

A beaver "hut" that they cam across:

He also got to see some of the usual, but still amazing scenery that we are surrounded by:

The boat:

The weather has definitely gotten colder. It is getting down to about 20 degrees at night. In fact, this time last year, we already had snow. The guys woke up to about 1/2 inch thick ice on the river. Fortunately, they were able to get through it without having to do any chopping!



Although living surrounded by this kind of scenery has become usual for us, there are still times where we just sit back and think "WOW!" The things that we get to experience on a daily basis are things that many people will never get to see or experience in a lifetime. I was walking to the post office last week, and I walked by a couple of hunters who were take video of the scenery from the shore of Kotzebue. They were saying something like "So this it what the world looks like above the Arctic Circle." It was one of those moments that I realized what a unique, and incredible life we live up here!