August / September

my first bull moose! These animals are incredibly huge! He weighed about 1,000 lbs and I got about 500lbs of meat! Just to give you an idea it took 2 of us to pick up one hine quarter

my moose taking a dirt nap

dead salmon after the spawn. These fish swim hundreds of miles from the coast to the interior of Alaska to spawn. By this point they are in bad shape and have lost a lot of weight.

Camping on the Chena River / Tara doing some cooking

talking to Tara on the SAT phone

fishing the Sag river up on the North Slope

camping on the North Slope

gas station in Deadhorse, Ak

The town of Coldfoot, Ak

Price per gallon in Coldfoot, Ak

Musk-ox on the North Slope

Grouse graveling up on the "haul road"

Driving thru Atigun Pass

Recent Pictures

The following pictures are from our 2 day fishing trip on the Chatanika River

I caught this one at 2:00 AM
Tara's first PIKE! The fish taped out at 28"


everything tastes better when you're camping!

this is the first Sheefish I've seen caught...and you can tell they get pretty big


as we came around the bend this moose was taking a bath








Pictures from the trip down south







Valdez, AK bear hunt 08'

my first bear

quick update: hey guys I know its been a while since the last post but things are going well up here. Spring is finally here and majority of the ice is starting to melt off the lakes.

On 22 May I was lucky enough to harvest a respectable interior black bear. He taped out a little over 5'6 (they measure from the tip of the nose to the tail) and weighed some where around 300+ lbs. I wanted to shoot him with the bow but he sneaked in without me seeing him and when I looked up there he was. I was shaking like a leaf and if I tried to reach for the bow he would of ran off so I grabbed my 44 mag and with a well placed shot he didn't make it 20 yards.

I've always heard that you'll see them before you hear them but I can't put into words the rush I felt when I looked up and had a starring competition with a black bear.

The rule up here is if you shoot a bear before 1 June you have to harvest all the meat because they are usually eating on blue berries and the meat tastes really good. As long as you harvest the bear before it starts eating fish the meat will taste just fine...if hes eating fish then the meat is oily and doesn't taste as good. Enjoy the pictures

Early April with a full load to go build the stand...Its about 4 miles from the truck to the stand

here is a picture of the stand


you can see how thick the spruce forest is up here. Also check out the moss...thats why you never hear them sneak up on you...

After I shot the bear I made my way back to the truck and called my 1SG to keep a watch out for other bears coming in. When I was field dressing this bear another one came in and was walking around us...


full load...
those could do some damage...
he is gonna make a nice rug

aurora

latest adventure

well my buddies and I decided to pack up the sleds Thursday night and head down towards Paxson, AK (Tangle Lakes) in high hopes of catching some lake trout. Good thing this wasn't a survival trip where you only eat what you catch because my buddy Bill was the only one to bring a fish to hand and that wasn't enough to go around! Needless to say we still had an awesome time on the sleds. On the 25 mile ride in on the sleds we saw a lynx sun bathing on a frozen river, a heard of Caribou, a lake trout through the ice, and the northern lights.


As we were heading back to camp from the ice shanty the Aurora made an appearance for only a few minutes and I was able to snap off a few shots. Don't be fooled this picture was taken a little after midnight.


Bill with his first Lake Trout. She taped out at 18"
Winston will be 1 yr old this May. This was from our latest rabbit hunt
picture of Bill on his sled

Here is a picture of some caribou we saw on the way in. Most of the bulls have already dropped their antlers

No...thats not the sun its the moon. This picture was taken around midnight

Aurora

not really a great picture but if you look hard enough you'll see both of us

More Pictures

here is a picture of some our our soldiers shooting a 120mm Mortar out of a stryker
This is where we do a lot of our training
waiting on the mortars to show up like usual. Here is a picture of me grabbing some chow before the MTRs show up for the live fire.
here is a picture of what we sleep in when were in the field. Notice the jerry can (tan thing) turned upside down...that actually supplies fuel for the heater inside the tent. Even when its -50 outside the heater inside will keep it nice and toasty.
breaking down the shanty. Notice my two little fish...one is an arctic char and the other is a rainbow trout. I know they're small but fish and game encourage catch and keep in some of the lakes due to low oxygen levels during the late ice.
never thought I would see my truck parked behind a no wake zone sign
just to give yall an idea on how people ice fish up here. These are personal permanent shanty's and some people go to town on the inside. I mean they have wooden floors, posters on the walls etc.
Shanty time. Inside you can get away with wearing a t-shirt as long as the heater is roaring. Believe it or not it was -20 outside!
Yeah thats right....my truck is on a frozen lake! Here is a picture of our first ice fishing trip up here in Alaska. Unfortunately, the ice auger broke after I drilled the first hole so our trip was cut short but we still had a good time.

The Conversation

I was ready to hit the sack after nodding off watching countless episodes Law & Order when I decided to peak out the window to see if the aurora was out, and sure enough they were dancing across the sky. I grabbed my boots, watch cap, gloves, camera and tripod in about 20 seconds while yelling for Tara to get out of bed and come look at the lights and its safe to say she wasn't a happy camper about waking up. Here is what the conversation sounded like

Richie: Tara...Tara wake up...come look at the lights

Tara: shut up I'm sleeping

Richie: no for real...wake up and come look

Tara: I don't wanna...(this is what she was humbling as she was walking towards the door) Richie, I'm sleeping...I'm tired...and I'm feeling sick....OMG those are awesome!

Richie: I knew you would like it in Alaska

Tara: no response, however I did get a stern look as she walked away

Once getting all set up and ready to shoot, the lights started to put on a top notch show and if that weren't enough the wolves started howl over by the river for at least 30 mins! At that point I realized this place is awesome and I could do this all night but after being outside for over an hour my fingers and toes started to go numb so I packed up shop and headed back in for the night.

Northern Lights

The Aurora

Finally...the Northern Lights decided to make an appearance last night and I was able to take a couple pictures of em'...this was my first attempt and they didn't turn out too bad but keep in mind these pictures don't do them any justice! They actually dance across the sky which makes them hard to photograph because the images will turn out blurry but they are truly amazing to see!