♪ ♪
ricko: Right now is some crazy times going on in the world.
There's coronavirus, and I think there's no better place
to be for me and my family is out in the woods.
So, blessed to have my kids out here and I'm real lucky to
be able to move around out here and enjoy myself with
this freedom I have.
Oh, oh, oh!
A wolf. Right there, look.
There's a wolf right there.
(howls)
awesome, huh?
Skyler: I know.
Ricko: You know how to say wolf in athabaskan?
Skyler: No. Skarlett: No.
Ricko: Teekana. Skyler: Teekana. Skarlett: Kana.
Ricko: Yeah. Just say it like you really mean it.
So you'll remember it. Teekana!
Skyler: Teekana! Skarlett: Teekana!
Ricko: Probably one of the most respected animals in our culture.
There's three of them that really, really respect
and that's, uh, wolf, wolverine, and bear.
Narrator: Ricko dewilde and his children,
skyler and skarlett, are on a 700 mile voyage
to the family cabin in huslia.
They're now in the koyukuk river,
and nearing the end of their journey.
But before they get home,
ricko will take the kids to an area that
his family has used to harvest food for generations.
Ricko: We have deep roots in this area.
We have places we know of that are rich for fish or
rich for moose and that's where we go.
So, on our way to huslia, me and the kids, we'll stop.
We'll make camp at darby slough and that's where it's
good for fishing.
And there should be a place there that we've been camping
for literally hundreds of years, my people.
This is our little camp.
We're just one bend above darby slough.
There's a lot of bears hanging out around darby slough
so I wanna get to where there's no bear trails.
Looks like a good spot here.
If you've never seen a wall tent,
this is what it looks like.
I got to kind of string it out just so I get an idea
how wide to put the poles and everything else.
Today, I'm putting up a canvas wall tent.
More of a traditional style of a tent with modern material.
And I'm gonna use some spruce poles to make the tent frame.
I haven't done this with my kids before,
so I'm looking forward to having them learn something
new with me.
Good job.
It's important for me to teach this to my kids.
I learned it at a very young age and I want them
to learn it also.
Just like this.
Okay. Getting closer here.
Put this end up first.
There you go.
Tent's up.
It's almost like a cabin in a way.
Skarlett: Jeez! Ricko: You like it? Skarlett: Yeah. It's so big.
Chip: I'd like to show my kids how to be close to nature,
but I want them to live in a modern, comfortable way.
Chip: Well, I think right across the river's a good
place to start for what I wanna do today.
I wanna make my daughters each a nice little berry scoop.
And they're best carved out of the roots from these trees
that drift from upriver where the trees are.
So I rely on these sandbars to catch 'em, after the flood.
I'll probably just go over there and just go cut a root
or two off of it.
Whittle out a couple of nice little scoops and the girls
can go after their berries.
Ugpichs are the little salmonberries.
Folks around here call 'em ugpichs,
and they gather them by the pound and by the ton.
My daughters carol and qutan who are out here babysitting
with me, we're watching my daughter idi-bitty's son wade.
And we're gonna be berry-picking soon,
so we wanna give 'em the right tool.
The best tool that they can have if they're gonna go out
here and go get food.
That's not gonna do,
that's got a really bad grain to it,
with a big inclusion halfway through it.
The only way we know to find out if it's any good
is to cut it and have a look.
This one's got good solid grain.
I believe I could take this down and make it
worth about almost a quart.
I can kind of see what I want out of it while it's
still in it.
Looks like it'll be a good section, too,
but got to cut to find out.
Ah, there we go.
Oh, this will be a wonderful scoop.
Those should do quite well.
Well, I'm gonna make a handle up top here,
and the scoop is gonna be down here.
And I'm gonna clean this up on the outside.
Make it nice and rounded.
And I'm gonna get the middle out of it.
And then, uh, the handle should be up here.
And then, they can fill these up with berries,
and then go put 'em in a bucket,
instead of carrying a five-gallon bucket all over the place.
And having to carry it every time you wanna get
to new berries can be kind of fatiguing.
So, the best thing to do is have something lightweight,
like this made out of wood, and they can go along and pick
all the berries they want and keep going back to the bucket.
I like to make things that are handcrafted.
I like to do things that are kind of custom.
It's just a, a dad-to-daughter kind of thing to give her a
really good tool to use.
They can use it for a bowl to eat out of.
They can cook in it.
Everybody used to have one of these a long time ago when
they had life on the trail, I guess.
Hey, wade.
Come here, I'll show you something.
It's gonna be a berry scoop for you.
It'll be done here pretty soon.
Carol: They call those kaluutuks.
Chip: Kaluutuks, yeah.
Wade: And I'll go find berries?
Chip: We will go find berries, very shortly here.
I should have this done in about the next half hour.
Most of it's just scooping out.
I've got all the outside done.
And I'll work my way down the, down to a thin but firm edge,
and, um, I'll fork it over here in a little bit.
Carol: It looks pretty good.
Chip: Yeah.
Carol: I'm gonna go lay wade down.
Chip: All right. Carol: Seems pretty tired. Chip: Yup.
Wade: I go, I go lay, lay down.
Chip: Well, you go do whatever.
But listen to your aunties, okay?
All right, we'll see you later.
Sue: Brutal honesty is the only way to survive out here.
I'd love to say I'm king of the forest, but at times,
I'm more the court jester.
Sue: All righty. So, here's the kitchen.
And, uh, here is the gray water system.
You can see it's coming apart.
It's old.
Gray water is, once you brush your teeth,
you spit in the sink.
That dirty water going out, that's gray water.
That gray water goes into the water house,
through a bleach and probiotic system,
and then goes back into the real world.
Healthy and safe.
But these are 1968, 1970 components.
That has to be replaced.
To get this started, I'll bring the bobcat.
I'm gonna put the forks here so that when I cut the pipe,
and cut this, this pipe has somewhere to go.
You know, couple of hail marys and get the
heck out of the way.
Hopefully it goes where I want it to go,
and not on my feet, or my legs.
Accidents do happen.
Things drop and bounce in the weirdest ways.
Right now, there's an imbalance in the weights.
When I start really cutting loose on the weights,
this may decide,
"right. I'm just giving up the ghost."
and bounce off.
So, the first thing I wanna do I think is, uh,
cut the pipe here.
That'll even out the weight.
All right. That's not good.
I was hoping that cutting this,
it would've taken the weight this way a little bit more.
I just don't wanna see this go, "wee!"
(groans)
flying by the seat of my pants, I got a nice ass,
but that doesn't get the job done.
Desire is not always enough to do it right.
Okay. I'm gonna cut it from this side,
just in case it decides to run free, little bird.
Don't hurt me.
And I thought "oh, I'm gonna get from this side because it
won't land on me."
well, I got to go back underneath it.
Bam! Okay.
I got the strapping tape cut there.
Now I need to cut this one.
I can see it's heavier over there than it is here.
I'm afraid it's gonna like, bounce to my loo.
Ah!
I'm afraid it's gonna go dropping.
Ah!
I got it!
That's good. I'm happy.
I'll take this to the bone yard,
because right now this is a done deal.
It has to get out of my way.
The next step for me is to get this next section of pipe off.
I need to keep working on it.
I'm a fly-by-the-seat-of my-pants gal.
Not the best plumber, not the best carpenter,
but why the hell not start doing it?
I am no expert at how to do a lot of this stuff.
I'm just willing to do it.
Second pipe down.
Building a better wheel only happens if you
start turning the cogs.
Whew!
Well, I've got the heavy work done.
But, I've got to get this stage cleaned up.
So clean up the old, and get ready to lay the new.
This is a project that I really can't delay on.
I don't have time.
So I've got to clean up and keep moving.
Ricko: I have to slow myself down.
I'm in no race in the end.
The only thing that I'm racing against is time.
Ricko: The kids and I put up a tent and I want a little bit
of flooring in there so it's not so damp and wet.
We got to look for a place where we can get spruce flowers.
We need a place that's, uh, got spruce trees close
to the river.
We can get some of the limbs off of them and, um,
make a little carpet basically for the inside of the tent.
Okay, we'll just use this rock here to anchor the boat.
And when you use a rock, use other rocks around it to kind
of pin it down.
Skarlett: So it doesn't float away?
Ricko: Yeah, because if the boat float away,
we're in big trouble.
Every like, hundred feet or so,
look back where you came from.
That's the number one thing when you walk back in the woods.
Skyler: Why? Ricko: If you don't look back,
everything looks different when you go in this direction.
And then you won't know where to go.
So, you've got to remember,
"where is the sun when you walk away from your boat?"
look back when you're walking.
Stuff like this in your way,
just chop it out of the way like this.
Even that right there tells you something.
I'm trying to get you to think on your own.
So that you know how to walk away from your boat,
come back to your boat.
Very easy to get confused in this land,
because it all looks the same sometime,
when you get back in the thick stuff.
It's part of survival out here,
and it seems real rugged maybe to some people.
But for us living out here, that's just like someone in
the city teaching their kids how to cross
the street safely.
See, this is what we wanna lay on or walk on.
It'll keep us off the muddy ground.
So I'm gonna throw this down on the ground.
Let's just get a pile of them.
Put them on the ground, and we'll carry them down
to the boat.
And then once you're done with one tree,
you move to the next.
And this doesn't hurt the tree at all.
Because the tree just grows another limb.
Even though we're coming to get spruce boughs,
I took advantage of the chance to teach the kids on how to
find their way back to their boat when they
walk away from it.
I got to take time to teach my kids everything that I know,
as best as I can.
Because I'm not gonna always be around to take care of them,
and that's what my late mom told me when
I was growing up.
We're not here forever, but whatever we teach you,
we're gonna try to leave it behind with you.
When we're gone, you're gonna have survival skills
and you're gonna have a lot of knowledge.
So, I'm hoping to pass that onto my kids.
Hopefully they learn some new tricks and add onto that book.
And in the end, we have a beautiful chapter
in this life.
And the more spruce boughs you have, the softer your bed is.
Skyler: Yeah, this is very spring-y.
Ricko: Yeah, it's nice.
Good job, kids.
Andy: The only way you learn how to live in the bush is go
live out in the bush.
There's no substitute for hands-on experience
in life out here.
Denise: This is definitely a task that'll be worth doing.
We could not get this to feed out on the boat like this.
Narrator: Andy bassich and denise becker are preparing to
fish for king salmon, a key resource that's briefly
available in the summer.
But over the years,
the salmon have dwindled to critically low numbers.
If they are to preserve the future of king salmon on the yukon,
they must catch only what they need to survive.
Andy: We're only gonna have two-and-a-half
days of fishing.
We've got a very short clock.
So, we wanna try and make the best of it.
It might be good practice for you to kind of take
the lead on driving the boat.
Denise: I can just see where this is going.
Andy: Well, if you don't do it, you're never gonna learn.
Denise: Yeah, but then I don't run the risk of, like,
jerking the boat and flipping you over the bow.
Andy: That's one way to get rid of me.
Let's go fishing.
Denise: Come on, dickle.
Can you do it?
Andy: He's not gonna do it, just lift him up.
Dickle's now almost 16 years old.
He really loves going for boat rides.
He has kind of a hard time getting in and out of the
boat, so we'll give him a little assistance there.
But it'll be, it'll be fun to have him along.
Denise: Attaboy, dickle!
Yay, dickle!
This is my third year going out and putting the nets out
with andy, fishing.
And with that comes the expectation that I know what
I'm doing.
Having some experience, I know enough to know that
anything can go sideways in a split second.
All I can say is sometimes ignorance is bliss.
Andy: There it is.
You won't be affected by anything until you get out
into that current.
As long as you stay in this eddy part,
you'll have lots of control.
The river's really dynamic.
It's constantly moving, it's very fast.
A lot of current, a lot of power in the river,
especially at high water.
You really have to hold on to your boat tight all
the time or you just get whipped around in there.
Think we stuck this net in here backwards.
This is the first thing coming out,
and we need the front of the net to come out first.
Denise: How did we do that?
Andy: It's upside down now, so we're gonna deal with it.
Denise: Oh, man.
Andy: We'll make it happen.
Denise: Okay, here we go.
Okay, and talk loud because I can't hear anything.
Andy: Give it a little bit of gas, then slow it down.
Got everything all tangled up here because
it's in backwards.
That was a big mistake.
That's it. That's it.
Now just hold yourself in the current here, okay?
Denise: Okay.
Andy: We're getting close to the end.
Denise: I just can't get that spot.
Andy: Your, your prop is right in the net right now.
No! No! No!
Don't get, oh, man, you just got the net!
All right, just stop.
Let's see what we got left of the net.
Denise: Is it bad?
Andy: Yeah.
Denise: One of the biggest things I was concerned about
was catching the net in the prop.
And I did.
And I did it right out of the gate.
There's moments where you just want to disappear.
You want to redo it, you want to undo it.
I mean, you can't.
You got to carry on.
That's the reality, so you do.
Andy: It's all right, denise.
I've done this before, too.
It's just something that happens sometimes.
She feels bad about chopping up the net,
but actually I feel bad because I think I
set her up for failure.
By having the net in backwards.
Well, the one good thing about this is we're contributing to
the conservation effort.
Maybe it'd be better for us to go up to the house and spend
the time fixing this.
'cause this needs to be done out in the grass and the lawn
where you can see what you're doing.
Denise: Okay, then let's just do it.
Qutan: We're not usually the staying type.
So, in the arctic, it's a pretty good place
for social distancing.
Me and my family, we're going across the river to our
personal favorite berry patch of ugpichs before
the upcoming winter.
There's usually a short window that you have
to get the ugpichs.
Chip: Oh wow, look at that!
Wow, this place is loaded.
Carol: Right now, the ugpichs are perfect and juicy enough
to go pick right now while the blueberries and
everything are still ripening.
Perfect for making jam.
You can mix them with your pancakes,
you can make ugpich pie.
There's a whole lot you can do with the berries.
Qutan: My dad decided he would make a scoop for berries.
Around here, we call them kaluutuks.
The kaluutuk is one of the many things the native people
use for gathering things.
We can carry water with them.
So, it's pretty good to have around camp.
Wade: I found one! Carol: You found one?
Wade: Look right here.
I found this right here.
Carol: Oh, and it's ripe.
Good job.
It's actually a challenge to be out there berry picking
with wade because he constantly wants to
eat all my berries.
He wants to hold my bucket and then he goes around swinging the bucket,
dropping a bunch of berries and stuff, so.
Hey.
I've been just trying to teach him how to pick the berries on
his own and put them in his own bucket.
You can tell they're ripe by how juicy they look.
Chip: Yup.
There's a color to it, huh, and a texture.
Qutan: Yeah.
Chip: Well, starting to see more and more ripe ugpichs.
Qutan: They're all over!
Sue: I have to change with the times.
Mother nature is gonna change when she wants to.
I have to change with it.
Sue: All right. I've got some of my supplies.
But what I need to do first,
try to get my pipes set up.
The basic pipe.
Narrator: Sue is renovating her gray water system,
a vital piece of sanitation in kavik,
and one that reduces her environmental impact.
After demolishing the old pipes,
she must now construct a new,
detachable system that can withstand the
brutal conditions of the tundra.
Sue: The pipe is gonna run somewhere down this way.
Right?
I'm gonna wanna put a piece of wood here and it's gonna
hold it for me here.
Working with me is a project all on its own.
Do I have training in any of this?
No.
I got my first one up, and now it's just a matter
of going down the line.
Deconstruction is my forte,
construction takes a little longer.
Not everything I think actually works.
But it's my camp and I get to try it.
You wanna help me?
You got little tiny paws.
Can you twist it on?
You think so?
I'll hand you your part.
Here you go. Twist it on, little buddy.
That's a good boy!
I got a helper on the project.
Not much of a helper, but hey.
Cheap labor.
This wraps up phase one of the lighter-weight,
up-to-date, detachable water system.
Looking up here, the overhead system has got
to be updated and upgraded.
Phase two, coming up.
Ricko: We might not see each other a lot out here,
but we do rely on each other.
Ricko: Growing up, I used to read some magazines that my
dad subscribed to.
And one of those magazines, I remember they talked about
sheefish fishing and how koyukuk river was good for it,
that the mouth of these tributaries to it.
Man, as a kid I used to dream of just going and out and
fishing for sheefish, but I never did get to do that.
Rod and reel fishing is something we didn't have when
we were growing up, and I always wanted to do it,
but I didn't have a rod and reel.
Just stick and string, or you know,
fish nets was how we got our fish.
In a way, it's kind of I'm living vicariously through
them and getting to do this fishing that I never did when
I was growing up.
Skyler: Oh, my god.
Skyler: I never caught a sheefish before,
that's why I'm so excited.
Skarlett: I don't even know what a sheefish looks like.
Skyler: Uh, me neither.
I think that it's a big white fish.
Skarlett: Yeah. Me too.
Skyler: I got one, I got one!
Ricko: Just let it fight, let it fight, let it fight.
Don't, don't pull on it.
Let him, let him get tired, there you go.
Skyler: It's a big one.
Ricko: That looks like a silver.
Let me get it.
Oh! Big old sheefish!
Skyler: That's bigger than I thought it would be.
Ricko: Nice!
Skyler just got his first sheefish.
Real good fishing here at dalby.
Let's get skarlett to cast.
Skarlett: Oh, I got one! Ricko: Oh. You got one?
Skarlett: Yeah.
Ricko: Okay. I'm not gonna help you,
I'll just help you get it out of the water.
Skarlett: It's super heavy, though.
Ricko: Let it fight, let it fight.
Skarlett: It hurts your hands.
Ricko: It's okay. Reel it up.
Oh! Pike.
Look at that, skar!
Skyler: Holy, cool! Look at that!
Skarlett: Dad!
Ricko: Oh. Move, get away, sky!
Don't let it grab your foot, hey!
Hold on, it's got so much hooks on this thing.
Yeah, we'll let it go.
Skarlett: It is my first pike.
Wait, dad, could they grow bigger?
Ricko: Yeah, they get even bigger than this.
Skarlett: Jeez!
Ricko: Okay, let's let it go.
Skarlett: I don't wanna let it go.
Ricko: Watch it swim away, though,
you'll get a good visual.
Just let him relax.
Skarlett: Whoa!
That was cool!
Ricko: Yeah. Awesome, huh? Skarlett: Yeah.
Ricko: We're fishing for food, but I'm not keeping all the
pike we catch.
A lot harder when I was growing up,
because sometimes we didn't catch fish,
and we went hungry.
That's just how it was.
But, for my kids, I'm teaching them to fish as best I can
with a rod and a reel.
Seeing them hang out together and catch fish together,
that's a big deal because they're gonna be talking about
this for years to come.
This is awesome.
Oh, look at that nice moose over there.
That's looking back, you see it?
You know, sometimes, when the moose do that,
when they come out when they're hanging out they're
looking back like that, that means that there's
a bear after it.
The one way they can shake that bear is
come around humans.
Oh, you got one!
Skarlett: That is big! Skyler: That's a sheefish. Ricko: Is it a sheefish?
Ricko: Oh yeah, it is a sheefish.
Bring it this way. Bring it this way.
Oh, big old jagged hooks on this thing.
Jeez, skar, look.
Half the size of you.
Skarlett: That's big!
It goes down to my arm.
Ricko: It's an awesome-looking fish.
Good job, skar.
I'm glad you guys got the sheefish.
Time to eat.
Okay, let's get out of here.
Good job, kids.
Good fishing.
Andy: Every time you take shortcuts,
it comes and it bites you right in the ass out here.
Nothing's a failure as long as you learn from that mistake.
Andy: We're just about done here.
I don't know what the heck I'm doing,
but it's coming together.
Denise: It's coming together.
It's closing up the hole.
Narrator: Andy and denise are fishing for king salmon,
a key food source that can be harvested from the
yukon river this time of year.
But a costly mistake has damaged their net,
and they must get it repaired quickly if they are
to seize the brief and dwindling salmon run.
Andy: This time we're gonna do it the right way.
Denise: We've got a challenging job ahead.
Get those nets out with the time crunch on us.
Every minute counts at this point.
That one looks good.
Andy: Yeah, no, I think this will be okay.
I'm just gonna go ahead and set this net here.
Denise: I'm nervous after getting the net wrapped up in the prop.
Some things with the river and the boat,
I find still very intimidating.
Andy: Okay, put it into reverse, denise.
Just get yourself out into the current.
That's good. Keep going.
Denise: When I feel anxious about something,
that's my signal I need to jump in and,
and learn how to do it, get over that anxiety and
build the skill.
Andy: Slow it down!
Neutral!
Denise: Is that coming in about right?
Andy: Yeah. Don't give it power!
Looks pretty good.
I think there's one more eddy right around the corner.
Let's go check that out. Good job setting that net.
(thunder)
denise: You hear that?
Andy: And, uh, then a storm's coming!
Denise: We better check that eddy down there quick.
Andy: Let's do it right now, 'cause the weather's probably
not gonna be good.
All right, round two.
I'm pretty lucky right now.
Denise is getting better and better.
And she's developing some really good skills and she's
getting faster and faster at things,
and getting that confidence to do them.
Just in time, the rain's starting.
So we got, uh, two nets in the river.
Hopefully we'll catch a couple of fish, anyway.
I'll be happy with a couple of fish.
Sue: No beauty contest out here.
Out here, strength is what matters.
Sue: All righty. What do you got, you gonna help me?
I don't think so.
You're not much help.
What I've got going on,
I'm now working on phase two of my water system.
The aeration system, the overhead system,
it is put together with whatever was laying around.
It's engineered well enough that it's held up for a while,
but I don't think I have another winter.
My idea is to take these hella stout pipes and reinforce
the old system.
There's still a lot of life in the old girl,
I just have to get her booty up in the air better.
The first thing to do is take these pipes,
cut them to length.
Guys, I'm gonna start lighting things.
You're gonna have to go.
Yeah.
Using this instead of wood;
if I can make this work for me,
if I can get this cut,
and weld it and support my system better,
hell yeah.
It's gonna last me well,
well, well into the next decade.
So, I've got the pipes cut.
The next step is I've got to weld on some barrels to keep
it in place.
Make it stout.
It doesn't have to be perfect.
It just has to be strong.
I may not be the best torch cutter,
but I'm the only one out here.
So, I got to keep trying.
All right. So, the welding is done on this one.
They're really heavy.
Not sure how I'm gonna get them over there.
I didn't think that far ahead.
Maybe I can just get this bobcat to help me
a little bit.
Let me see what I can do.
It's a little awkward, weight-wise.
It's unstable.
It rolls, it's round.
I've got sharp objects off of one end and a
barrel off the other.
And I've got a greenhouse and a building in the way.
Do not fall over.
Do not (bleep) fall over.
Sue: I did it, man.
I did it.
I have to stand them up now, but I can't use so much force
with this, that I tear up what I just welded.
So this first one is in place.
I could not have planned that better if I tried.
That's about as snug a fit as you can order
out of a catalogue.
I mean, it's beautiful.
I don't wanna spend a lot of time sitting and
hemming and hawing.
I've got two more to get in place.
I really take pride in being fit, being strong.
But the light dawning on me that I had to
use the equipment.
Once I did that, then the brain kicked in,
science kicked in.
I could see what I needed to do in my head,
and it went smooth as butter.
Shoot, here comes the rain.
This wasn't forecast, but it's not gonna get a
whole lot better.
So I've got to get some support and some weight
in these buckets.
You can't count on mother nature.
The only thing you can count on with it is that
you just can't.
The chore isn't as fun as it was,
'cause I'm getting rained on.
And that's alright.
I don't mind getting wet if it fixes the job at hand.
I think I finished it just in time.
I can feel the wind starting to pick up.
That's the steel gray of winter coming in there.
I've got 2,000 pounds right here,
a lot of it on the bottom side.
And that tells me this isn't gonna go anywhere.
And new pipe, detachable.
Win-win.
I got it.
For a chunky little girl, I got it going on.
Chip: The most gratifying part of my life would probably be
seeing my kids succeed.
Chip: Come on, wade, we're going over here to the beach.
We're gonna go make a little bit of tea.
Relax for a little while from all the walking
and stooping over.
Let's make some tea.
Go get some water.
But I'll show you a trick with that wooden bowl,
so fill up your wooden bowl with water too.
Carol: You got to get away from all the dust.
You can't fill it up with dusty water.
Look, can you see how it's clear over here?
But it's real dusty from your footprints over there.
I got the water you asked for.
Chip: Sure, I was gonna show you a trick while
we make this tea.
Take three nice rocks like this.
We heat them up really hot.
And we put them in one at a time.
It'll heat hat hot enough to make a nice pot of tea.
So if you think about it,
if all you've got is a knife out there,
something you might consider doing quickly after
you take care of shelter and keeping yourself, you know,
un-hurt, would be to make yourself a wooden bowl,
so you can gather things, drink from it,
put stuff in it, cook in it.
And it won't take very long to heat.
It's a pretty cool trick.
Qutan: Can I put my finger in there?
Chip: If you want to.
Qutan: Yup, that's hot.
This is cool.
Chip: This is what I would consider like the more
primitive way of doing something.
But sometimes that's what you're deduced to.
But it is a really good idea to know how to that.
And also for me, it's like something personal I can do
for you, for myself, and it's pretty dang handy.
Come on wade, we're leaving.
We're going to go have the rest of this day.
There you go, thank you.
Qutan: Wow, awesome. Chip: Always put the fire out.
Carol: I'm warmed up.
Chip: Time to go home.
Andy: I wouldn't consider myself a perfectionist,
but I do hold myself to pretty high standards.
There's nothing wrong with trying to do the best you can.
Denise: You ready? Andy: Let's go catch a fish!
Hop in, you're driving. Practice, practice, practice.
Denise: Okay.
Andy: Give it gas, there you go! Perfect!
Denise: Yeah, but you're still in the boat!
Andy: I know. You didn't knock me out.
We had to go to a couple different sites to finally get
two nets in.
Hopefully we'll catch a couple king salmon.
The way the runs are going, who knows?
This might be our only king salmon, if we catch any,
for the next year or two.
Denise: Oh, there's a lot of debris!
It's a net full of driftwood.
Andy: Oh, here's one right here.
Denise: Oh!
I can see it splashing!
Andy: He's trying to dive.
Denise: Nice!
That's a nice one!
Andy: He's tangled up pretty good.
Looks like a female.
Denise: Aw, man!
Andy: Half-tempted to put her back in.
One like this will carry about 4,000 eggs.
When you get to low numbers with what we have now,
every single female salmon counts.
I have something tugging at me saying,
"release that salmon, let it go produce for the future."
yeah, I think I'm gonna release that one back.
Denise: Yeah.
That's kind of how my gut feels about it.
It really strikes me as being the lone struggling female
trying to get out to the spawning grounds.
It's a very symbolic moment.
Of the struggle, of the salmon.
It is not her time.
She needs to have her fighting chance given back to her,
and that's what andy and I are doing.
Andy: They're tougher than hell,
but they're a lot more sensitive than you might think
in some areas, you know.
Denise: Yeah, it would even be worse to put her in and then
she dies anyway.
Andy: She's going straight down.
She's not even holding an equilibrium there.
Yeah, she's not very responsive.
Let's just give her a few minutes.
She's definitely waking up.
I think it's gonna be worth releasing.
Denise: That's good.
Andy: Send her up river.
Denise: I'm glad we did that.
She deserved it.
Andy: Well, let's go check our other net.
Maybe we'll find a male that we can eat tonight.
Denise: There's definitely debris in this one as well.
Here we go again!
Andy: Here's one right here.
Denise: Oh!
Andy: Looks like we're catching fish!
Denise: There he is.
Think that's a male?
Andy: Yup. Something to eat.
Denise: Oh! There's one here!
We got two nice ones there.
Andy: That's pay-off for our conservation.
Denise: I got something heavy here.
A live one!
Andy: Ooh, that's a big one!
Denise: Is that male?
Andy: Yeah.
Denise: Yay.
A little bit of driftwood, and three nice keeper fish.
I'm glad that we don't have a net full of fish.
Because that is more than we would need and we
don't want to overfish.
That's perfect for what that species can give to us.
Look who came!
Hi, dickle! Yay!
Andy: Hi, dickle!
He says, "are you guys cooking some salmon for me?"
good boy, dickle.
Dickle's been a great dog.
And I think about all the great times I had with him.
All the adventures we shared together.
And I celebrate that.
Not the fact that it might be the last couple of
weeks or the last month.
Denise: That is delicious.
Andy: It's pretty hard to beat too much fresher than that.
Denise: You know what I think makes it really taste good is
knowing there's one that was released out of it today.
Andy: I'm very proud of the fact that I was able to
release a female king salmon to go up and,
and finish spawning.
This life has provided a really,
really good life for me.
And I just want other people to have the opportunity to experience that.
Cheers!
Denise: Cheers. Andy: Chink!
Denise: Oh, it's so good.
Ricko: If I'm able to raise my kids successfully and raise
them to be strong,
it shows a lot to who raised me.
Ricko: There's a little process to making a fire out here.
It's summertime, it's not winter,
so now's the chance for me to teach the kids how to
do it on their own.
Skyler: How are you gonna light it?
Ricko: Don't burn yourself.
Skyler: Okay, now!
Ricko: Good job on the fire, kids.
My kids are real hands-on, very inquisitive,
very interested in learning, and that's what makes it
successful on my part because it shows that I'm doing my job
as a father to keep them out of trouble and keep them
interested in the right things in life and learn
how to survive out here.
Skyler: That looks good.
Ricko: Yeah, it does.
You guys pretty much did everything, you know that?
Skyler: How?
Ricko: You guys caught the fish.
You guys made the fire.
You guys helped with the tent.
You guys are getting more and more self-sufficient.
You guys want some sheefish?
Both: Uh-hmm.
Ricko: You know what my late mom used to say?
Skarlett: What?
Ricko: It's sink or swim out here.
Like, if you don't get up and hustle,
if you don't get up and know which direction you're going
to make things happen, you're not gonna make it.
You're gonna sink.
If you know how to get food and you know how to rest like that,
how you put up the tent, make it comfortable,
that's how you can live good.
Once you learn how to do all that,
then you're gonna be able to swim.
It was just overall a real good trip for me and the kids
because I had a good chance to bond with the kids and see
where they're at as far as learning their
survival out here.
And they both caught their first sheefish.
I've never caught a sheefish yet.
It was fun being able to bring them out there,
and watch them do something I've only dreamed of
doing as a kid.
Skyler: This is literally my favorite trip, favorite trip.
Ricko: Was it?
Skyler: Yeah, it's going so good, so far.
Ricko: Awesome. I'm glad you had fun.
Captioned by cotter captioning services.