♪ ♪
SONTA: All right, Sydney.
This is kind of a special spot in here.
You know why?
SYDNEY: Why?
SONTA: This is where Grandpa took me to get my first moose.
SYDNEY: Cool. SONTA: I was nine years old.
Just a wee bit younger than you.
SYDNEY: Yeah.
SONTA: But it was a winter moose hunt just like this.
You know, it's the end of the season and
our family's in need of fresh moose meat.
I thought maybe we might get lucky and
see something at the same spot.
SYDNEY: Yeah. SONTA: But we'll keep going.
I don't wanna keep talking too much.
I just wanted to show this.
It's just Sydney and I, Chevie's at home with the baby.
All right.
So there's a lot more pressure to try to get a moose together.
Here we go.
Being an Athabascan, it's a milestone for a young person to
get their first moose.
My job is really just to be the teacher.
And bring Sydney to the most opportunities.
I'm the guide, she's the hunter in this whole situation.
There's some fresh tracks, Bean.
SYDNEY: Mm-hmm.
SONTA: Looks like there's two of them.
Cow and a calf. See how soft that is?
SYDNEY: Yeah.
SONTA: These are definitely this morning's tracks,
so they're in here eating.
You see some of these sticks that are broken off?
SYDNEY: Yeah.
SONTA: That's where they're munching.
So, we'll keep going but anytime you see anything like this,
you know, just tap on my shoulder.
We'll pull over and look again, okay?
SYDNEY: Hey, look. Tap, tap.
SONTA: Yeah. SYDNEY: Tap, tap, tap.
SONTA: Tap on my shoulder.
SYDNEY: Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.
SONTA: All right? SYDNEY: Yeah.
Hunting moose is no piece of cake;
it's extremely hard.
SONTA: I didn't see anything stand up with all of our visiting.
SYDNEY: I've never actually shot one before,
but I'm extremely excited about it.
SONTA: So, what we're gonna do is we're gonna kinda hug
this tree line all the way back.
Watching and scanning the woods and scanning the hillside.
There's going to be a lot of lessons learned along the way.
There is a lot of obstacles in front of us, you know?
But I know the country pretty well,
and so now it's my opportunity to put all that
I know into practice.
Oh, dang.
There's one right there.
Yeah, way too brushy for us to go into.
But it looked like just one and looked like a decent size.
We'll just keep looking for tracks.
I won't get us lost, don't you worry.
SYDNEY: What?
JOHNNY: If you don't get out and explore you're just gonna use up
all the resources in your little local camp.
So I like to get out and have an opportunity to learn more.
Java, come on.
The more I see, the more knowledge I have.
And to me, knowledge is power.
Yeah, looks like a great spot.
This is where I'm gonna spend a little time doing some camping
and see if I can find some small game.
So in order to set up my camp, I just need to, um,
start digging all kinds of snow away,
clear it all out, make a nice little clear area.
Right now, I actually don't have any caribou meat.
You know, they all moved north.
And it's the small game that gets me through these moments.
It's about big enough of a ring.
Kind of just hand to mouth season.
So now I gotta go get some spruce poles and
the spruce poles are gonna be the frame of the teepee.
And that's the beauty of having the,
the teepee as my nomadic shelter,
is that I just get the material right on the spot.
Generally, the small game that I go after is ptarmigan or grouse,
hares or squirrels.
Although they're small, it's a good meal.
So it's nice to be able to just grab the teepee and
go on a little adventure.
But it's, uh, adventure that is with purpose.
All right, it's all latched together.
Start propping it up.
You know, to me, food is food.
I don't measure myself as a hunter based off of the size of
the animal I kill or anything like that.
So now I just take the rest of these and
start filling in the gaps.
It's a different existence out here for me,
and you get meat where you can.
You take advantage of the resources as they're available.
Okay, here we go.
It's starting to take shape.
It's not the first time I've done it,
but it doesn't necessarily make it easy.
Right now, I just gotta get by a little bit longer and
then I'll be hunting bears and catching salmon.
And those are things that I don't get to do up here.
So what I do is I follow the resources,
and where the resources go, I go.
Sweet. Firewood, kindling.
All right, Java, let's get some food, man.
I'm starving. Come on, let's go.
(smacks lips)
Let's go, doofus. I'm starving.
JESSI: The trails out here are absolute rollercoasters.
CHRIS: Really slam around.
JESSI: Just going up and down and just getting smashed with
the snow machine.
(groans)
CHRIS: Just jarring so hard.
JESSI: The harder you give it gas...
(rattles)
The more it's yanking, and it hurts.
But the thing is, trails out here are absolute necessary.
To eat, to get wood, to travel.
So we have to have trails.
(groans)
CHRIS: What the heck is going on here?
JESSI: You okay? CHRIS: Yeah.
I think she looks warm. She's steaming a little bit.
We just gotta kinda hang out and let it cool down.
This trail's beating the sled up.
Just so whooped out that I can't get going fast enough to
really throw the snow up underneath my tunnel.
And I feel like I'm going to rip the whole hitch off.
JESSI: Well, you know if we're going too slow because of the trail.
Maybe we need to smooth it out so we can go faster.
CHRIS: Yeah, I thought about coming out with a shovel.
But I would love to have some kind of plow or drag.
JESSI: I'm sure I can draw something up.
CHRIS: Well, let's get this load home.
JESSI: I feel like we're really putting a lot of undo stress on
our snow machine.
If it breaks down, that's it.
It is our way to get food, firewood and water.
So, we can build this drag and kind of twist our fingers together,
and kinda hope for the best.
That's kind of how things go out at the Cosna.
But, this time, um, I'm engineering it.
So, I kinda have a little bit more faith.
Hey, love.
CHRIS: Oh, hey.
JESSI: I think I have an idea about how to fix the trail.
CHRIS: Yeah?
JESSI: Okay, so if you build the frame,
these two beams will funnel all the snow inside.
This large beam back here will kind of compress the snow.
So as we go over the snow that these bring in,
that will smooth it and flatten it down.
Make that nice, smooth trail that we're hoping for.
What do you think?
It should theoretically work, right?
CHRIS: I think that, uh, I can cut a couple trees and
we can get after this.
JESSI: That would be great.
ROBERT: Look at that, RJ.
Ocean's coming alive. Bunch of sea lions.
Save those for another hunt.
I think I'll drop you on this pointe and let you just take
a peek up there and see what you see.
We're out here setting traps, looking for some otters.
Probably check those islands, too.
I kinda want to get up in the (inaudible) area.
We're gonna look for dens, trails, scat.
If we can find any of those that's fresh then
we're gonna be in the money.
RJ: The left right there.
ROBERT: Right in that crack I'll bet ‘ya.
Got 12 traps to work with, and we're gonna do the best we can.
Good luck, RJ.
I'll be on the other side of the island.
About ten, 12 years ago I started really getting into
my Tlingit culture, trying to provide for other people.
I don't know a lot of the dance and I don't know the language,
but what I do know how to do is harvest.
RJ: Oh, this is good sign right here.
Got some, uh, broken sea urchin shells,
some abalone shells on the ground here.
ROBERT: Here, there's otters here.
We got some fresh scat right here.
We got some places where they've dug and clawed going in
and out of that hole.
Good sign.
I'm not real excited yet because I haven't seen
the mother-load of crap yet.
(laughs)
One of the major skillsets that my ancestors were professionals
at was acquiring clothing.
RJ: Here's some river otter (bleep).
ROBERT: Out of materials that they gathered from the woods...
(whistles)
From the sea, it's something that has skipped
a few generations and it's something I've picked up.
See any sign?
RJ: Yeah, lots. ROBERT: Fresh?
RJ: Some scat.
ROBERT: You want to try to set a couple, or?
RJ: Yeah, we can set one or two if you want.
ROBERT: Worth a shot, huh?
Living off the land, getting the furs that I need to make a living...
Safeties are still on.
RJ: Safeties are on.
ROBERT: That's survival for me.
Watch this.
RJ: That's a good idea.
ROBERT: They're gonna run right in there and grab that herring.
RJ: Mm-hmm. It's a really good idea.
Well, if there's something here.
ROBERT: And he's gonna use this trail, I think we're gonna get 'em.
RJ: Yup.
ROBERT: This is the only trail that they're using for
this whole little entrance here.
So it kinda funnels 'em right in.
RJ: Safeties are off. ROBERT: We got a loaded trap.
SONTA: Pulling the trigger is an easy part of shooting a moose.
Navigating through the woods.
Getting set up, all that hard work's about
90% of moose hunting.
SONTA: I see those two in there.
Do you see them?
SYDNEY: I think I see it.
SONTA: You wanna go in there a little bit?
SYDNEY: Uh, why?
SONTA: I don't know if it's a calf or two cows.
So the moose in the fall have antlers,
this is an antler-less moose hunt.
We can't get any cows with calves or any calves.
I'm hoping for a nice, fat cow.
Or we can get a bull, but the bull's this time of year are
pretty skinny so we're not really looking to get a bull.
See it?
SYDNEY: Yeah.
SONTA: Okay. There's a bull in the back.
Either one of them will do.
Breathe, you're good.
It's going to the...
SYDNEY: It's going up in the air.
SONTA: See it?
SONTA: It's okay if you don't see it.
(gunshot)
That's okay, babe. Good try.
Keep going up to it.
One of the challenges for Sydney and I working as a team
is really that time factor and being quicker on the draw.
We're stuck.
You only have a limited time to pull your gun up and
get your sights on that moose.
SYDNEY: I'm getting out.
SONTA: Being a shooter comes with a lot of responsibility.
Hold on.
And I will teach her that level of responsibility.
Hey, come on.
And for her to voice to us that now she's ready,
well we better get ready, too.
Ready?
SYDNEY: That was interesting.
ROBERT: As a kid, my father really drilled it in my brain that, uh,
hunting and fishing and trapping was important.
It's another way I go back in time to my ancestors and
experience what they experienced.
Heck yeah!
This is what we're looking for all day.
We can find four or five slide areas and
set one or two or three traps in each one.
Spread them out on a couple different islands,
I think we'll have some good success.
You never know.
Otters love the islands, they not only live on 'em but they
use them as like, bus stations.
They'll stop there and hang out for a while and
then swim to another island.
I can't tell if they're going in and out of there or not,
but it's definitely, it's just solid like, tracks.
I think we can get one like this on that trail where
they're running right up and down, let's do that.
We're gonna set a bunch of traps.
We're gonna set traps where they're going underground,
where their holes are.
Take safeties off, watch out.
We're gonna set traps where their runways are.
RJ: That's it. Safeties are off.
ROBERT: Okay.
We're gonna stop in bays, we're gonna stop where there's rivers,
we're gonna stop on a bunch of pointes,
and I'm gonna set some bait traps.
RJ: Oh, you're gonna do herring on this one?
ROBERT: Let's try it. I salted them, too.
Maybe it will last a little longer.
That's why we have the safeties on.
RJ: Holy cow.
ROBERT: Now we know the safeties work.
RJ: Yeah. ROBERT: Got my heart pumping.
We're fishing now.
RJ: Safeties are off now. ROBERT: Okay.
RJ: Get out of here.
ROBERT: Hunting in younger days I'd have a vision or a dream at night,
and then I would go to that spot the next day and
hope for the best.
Lot of scat around here, lot of sign.
Most promising place I've seen yet.
RJ: Safeties are off. ROBERT: Yeah. It's loaded.
I believe in intuition, I believe in those dreams and...
RJ: Safeties off. ROBERT: That's it.
If we're gonna get something,
this is gonna be the spot right here.
I can just feel it in my bones.
JOHNNY: You can cover hundreds and hundreds of miles
and maybe not even see a grouse or a hare.
It's pretty hungry country and in order to see game
you just gotta be persistent.
JOHNNY: It's not super windy but it's,
the trees are moving enough that it's hard to see or spot game,
like small game in the trees.
Yeah, looking for like grouse, rabbits...
Let's go find some game.
Come on.
Man, look at all this.
This is all tore up from caribou.
God, those creatures are so like, mysterious.
You think they're gone, and then you see this.
(laughs)
Just drive you crazy, but, um,
as much as I'd love to get another caribou
I think I just gotta stick the plan and
just keep pushing forward with small game.
If you want to only hunt what you want to hunt then
you're not gonna be a successful hunter.
You gotta take advantage of what's local,
what's around, and just wait for a little bit of movement on
the side of my eye.
In this case, it's my dog.
Sup Java? Come here.
Good girl.
Smell something?
There's just loads of squirrel midden in here.
There's probably one staring at me right now.
Just gotta wait until there's like that little bit of movement, you know?
(rustling)
That's funny man.
Amongst all this squirrel midden,
which is all like, this debris.
There's a squirrel tail, caribou hair, it's just all
insulation stuff they use to stay warm.
It's bizarre out here sometimes, you just,
you never know what you're going to find.
That's what we're after I guess, huh?
Red squirrel.
(chittering)
Where'd you go, buddy?
Let's see if I can find it.
I heard it making a noise over here.
Oh, I see him.
(gun clicks)
(gunshot)
JOHNNY: Well, I got him. He's hanging up in the tree.
Never mind. Cool, man.
That's part of dinner right there.
Little red squirrel.
Squirrels are delicious, get a couple more and
I'll be in business.
What do you think, Javs?
Good stuff, huh?
The squirrels are nutritious, they're tasty, but they are
small so you need to get more than one of them.
And there's definitely more than one
available out here.
Here you go.
All right Java girl, let's go find some more.
You ready? Come on.
SONTA: I think with any lifestyle that you decide to live,
especially one like this,
there will always be the give and takes.
But to me, the pros definitely outweigh the cons.
Anytime I'm out on the land I feel so much more grounded.
The great thing about Alaska and Alaskan people is that
you're out on the land all the time.
(gusting winds)
SONTA: How's it going in there? SYDNEY: Mm-hmm.
SONTA: You're looking for fresh tracks?
SYDNEY: Mm.
SONTA: If there's anything around it's gonna be over
there in the woods, probably.
Staying warm out of this wind like what we should be doing.
(gusting)
Should we keep going?
I'm kinda thinking we'll see what we see and then we might
head home, because this wind is crazy.
SYDNEY: Mm-hmm.
SONTA: One of the things that I was taught at a young age
was you don't want to ruin a kid.
You don't want to pressure them into something that
they're not ready for.
Should I shoot one?
Dang it. Right there.
You know, this is a long day,
and I don't want to push her too hard,
but I do want to apply a little pressure and say this is
how it's done and have her rise to that occasion.
Shoot. Ah!
Damn, that was a close one though.
Thought we should have taken a shot on that one for sure.
Keep your eyes peeled for anything moving, Sydney.
They're gonna try to stay in that timber though,
I'm sure of it.
SYDNEY: Mm-hmm.
SONTA: Maybe we'll go around this corner just a little bit
and then we'll circle back and see if we see anything.
It's not easy to follow moose through the woods like this.
But even when they are in the open they're usually running,
so it's not the most ideal situation.
You want to get them when they're almost surprised to see you.
It's like, "Oh, who are you?"
Come Sydney, it's them.
Lean forward, lean your head forward.
He's right there. He's over there.
SYDNEY: I can't see through it. SONTA: It's okay. Breathe.
Take the shot when you're ready.
(gunshot)
Let's go over there, come on, get back on.
(scraping)
Oh, (bleep).
(beeping)
Oh great.
It had to be something.
Keep going.
All these sticks in the way.
Okay.
We almost got 'em, Bean.
(creaking)
JESSI: Problems are numerous out here.
They just keep coming.
It's like the wind, and the trail is just getting really
too rough and we need to do something about it.
CHRIS: How far did you want this across?
JESSI: Let's grab this guy.
Eight feet here, and then four feet from
outside to outside.
CHRIS: Yeah, we don't want to go any wider 'cause we know that
the trapping cabin was four foot wide and it barely made it.
JESSI: And it barely made it, yeah.
Okay, put three beams across the middle, boom, boom, boom.
Two beams will funnel the snow,
and something pretty hefty for the back piece.
CHRIS: All right. JESSI: We are doing it.
I mean, we're almost there.
Easy enough.
I don't have a lot of great construction knowledge.
Okay.
Our first years at the Cosna, I just never thought that
we had the right tools to overcome our problems.
It's hitting, um, the corner of this.
CHRIS: Little bit more?
JESSI: But the more problems that we face,
the more that I realize literally I can make the tools
that I need out here.
This one's a lot more angled, right?
CHRIS: I don't know, I can't bend over anymore.
My back is trashed.
JESSI: Yup, okay.
You just sit there for a second, let me make some lines.
CHRIS: One of the hard things about working out here,
I gotta be careful with over confidence.
When I was 15 years old I broke my back in two places.
JESSI: Can I try something? CHRIS: Yeah.
Sometimes if I tweak my back I just gotta lay down and
prepare for the worst.
(moans)
(moaning)
(pops)
CHRIS: Oh.
Okay. Something popped and let go.
That's good. Oh.
When I crushed my back, I was out goofing around on
a snow machine and did 100 foot cliff drop
and flat landed.
You could see the vertebrae sticking up through the skin.
JESSI: Oh, I didn't quite get it in right.
CHRIS: Just one more quick cut.
It was a pretty bad break.
I never really got it fixed.
JESSI: Nice.
CHRIS: I just kind of dealt with it over the last 15, 20 years.
It's been rough.
It's hard working with green wood,
but that looks great.
You just have to get back up and keep moving forward.
How's that look back there?
JESSI: Nice and flat.
I mean, there's some spots where like the, the bark is digging in...
CHRIS: Oh, yeah.
JESSI: But better than I thought.
CHRIS: I think that's gonna work pretty good.
Now we just need to wrap a rope around it and
drag it around a little.
JESSI: We'll see.
The trails out here are rough.
So rough it's overheating our snow machine
and it's breaking my neck.
So this has to work.
Yup, yup!
CHRIS: Your designs worked out really well.
JESSI: Yeah!
CHRIS: I really enjoyed how these are just shoveling snow
and then shoveling snow and it piles up in the back and
lays it all out.
JESSI: Look at that, Chris.
CHRIS: And after we've towed it around,
I haven't seen any wiggle and it's stout.
JESSI: Everything has stayed exactly where I was hoping it to.
All right. Well, I guess we'll see how the trail treats us.
CHRIS: All right. Let's go home.
(gunshot)
JOHNNY: Got 'em. Two bullets, two squirrels.
Cool.
You know, my diet out here has become so like unorthodox.
It's very diverse with all the weird stuff I eat.
And squirrel's just become like regular food in my diet out here.
I'm grateful for these little dudes.
(squeaking)
I heard a squirrel.
Oh, I see him.
Eh, he's in a squirrel hole.
So there's like a giant pile of squirrel midden right down here.
And the, the squirrels burrow into the ground and then
they'll climb up and eat the spruce cones.
I'm just gonna kinda hang tight for a second.
See if, uh, anything reveals itself.
Often, they have like a network underground.
So they might pop up over here or pop up over there.
Coming from like a very instant gratification world
where you just like get everything you want,
when you want it, how you want it.
Giving yourself reasons why you want it.
Then you come out here and you're kinda responsible for
anything that you want.
(squeaking)
And you quickly learn that you don't get what you want.
Let's go find this guy.
Come on, Java.
And it's just kind of nice to have that power removed from you.
(squeaks)
This guy's just (bleep) running.
And you just like feel so insignificant.
(gun clicks)
And I think that's good.
Cross country squirrel, man.
Better hold tight, buddy.
(gunshot)
Hoo.
I think I'll call it a day with three.
'Ya know, I don't take more than I need and
what I don't need, I leave.
Okay. Come here, buddy.
Oh yeah.
You know what I mean, you never want to be greedy with the land.
Take care of the land and the land will take care of you.
RJ: It's closed. ROBERT: It's closed?
RJ: Yeah.
ROBERT: Something went through it.
'Ya know, otters have ran this trail a lot in the past.
RJ: Something got it. One of the herring are gone.
Uh, it looks like something set it off.
But either it was too small or too clever.
ROBERT: Well, it's a start. Something set it off.
Curious about my bucket traps.
Find out soon enough.
Few more days of season left.
We're gonna hit it right to the end and see what we can do.
ROBERT: Yeah. The traps in there.
The water's still set good.
Think I'll just leave it there and not even go any closer and
get my scent out of here as much as I can.
Being out here, the biggest thing that scares me is...
Check the next side, I guess.
Failure as a father.
I just want my children to think that I'm doing things to
their best interests.
RJ: I don't see anything yet.
ROBERT: That's scary for me. And I don't want to screw up.
Ha-ha, the bait's missing.
But the trap's not sprung.
When I was RJ's age I was a lot different.
Bummer.
You know, I was young and dumb.
Wasn't half the man I am now.
This is one of their main running trails.
I don't think they've been here since we left.
No luck today on that one.
We set another one on the narrowest part of the trail right here.
They haven't been here yet.
Unless, they smarter than I think they are.
I hate failure. It sucks.
There's one here.
There's nothing in this one.
But if I'm out here working and trying to do
the best I can do and admitting my faults...
Nothing.
RJ: Yeah.
ROBERT: Trying to be a good mentor for my children,
that's all I can ask for in this life.
SONTA: I think any one of those will do.
None of them are calves.
You freaking have your pick.
Which one are you going for?
SYDNEY: I want the one that's literally staring at me.
SONTA: 'Kay.
Okay, they're starting to move a little bit.
That's okay. Better get at him.
You see him?
SYDNEY: No.
SONTA: That's okay, Bean. It's all right.
SYDNEY: I couldn't see him. All I could see was branches.
There were all these branches in the way.
SONTA: Yeah. Want to keep going after them?
SYDNEY: Yes.
SONTA: It's a lot of crap to go through.
I bet I can.
They're pretty far, but...
SYDNEY: Yeah.
SONTA: They're just gonna come right into that opening right there, okay?
SYDNEY: Mm-hmm.
SONTA: You tell me if you want me to shoot, okay?
SYDNEY: You to shoot?
SONTA: If you, if you, if you want me to.
SYDNEY: Okay.
SONTA: But I want you to get an opportunity. Okay?
SYDNEY: Yeah.
SONTA: I can get you a little bit closer.
It's been in my mind that if I needed to,
I could shoot a moose.
We're just gonna get one more look at them, okay?
SYDNEY: Yeah.
SONTA: But I know it's so important for her to get
the opportunity that I don't want to take over.
Moving fast.
And I'm just guiding her through this.
♪ ♪
Look.
Do you see it?
Running the bank.
Do you see it? As soon as you see him, go off.
(gunshot)
SYDNEY: I was so close. SONTA: Pretty close.
Doing good, honey. That was a good little chase.
Yeah.
They're moving pretty damn good.
(whistles)
Hey, hey!
SYDNEY: Hello!
♪ ♪
SONTA: Hey, hey!
Hey, hey! They're moving.
Let me know if you got one in your sight.
They're gonna go up the bank.
(gunshot)
SONTA: Ah. I was thinking, thinking about it.
But I'm so proud of you.
That was a good first couple shots.
SYDNEY: Yeah.
SONTA: I think we'll keep looking around a little bit,
but those are two bulls and I kinda want a cow anyways.
SYDNEY: Yeah?
SONTA: So I think we'll let those two bulls go.
They're a little bit small.
They're probably a little bit skinny this time of year.
You know, we did good for going out on our own and
giving it a try.
I never thought I'd have, well, I actually did.
I always knew I'd have my, my children with me.
(laughs)
And maybe taking shots, so, you did good.
SYDNEY: Yeah.
SONTA: We made them have a go of it.
That's good hunting right there.
SYDNEY: Yeah.
JOHNNY: I'm telling you man, I'll never get tired of eating squirrel.
I think some people might think of it as like just small,
not a good return rate, you know.
But it tastes so good.
I mean, I think about all the little foods that I would eat
in town, you know, it could be just like a little piece of candy
or just a little snack.
And the difference with this is, yeah,
it's small, it has damn good nutrition,
good protein, readily available.
The best way for me to feel non-domesticated and just to
feel completely free is to pop a teepee up on an unnamed lake
above the Arctic Circle and just spend time out here with my dog.
Do some hunting, find my own food.
I mean, it's kind of what I've always been dreaming of doing
since I was a little kid.
CHRIS: There it goes!
JOHNNY: That's the stuff we love, man.
Living as primitive as we can.
JESSI: Why didn't we do this so long ago?
JOHNNY: You know, within like realistic perimeters.
ROBERT: You want to take a peek at these ones?
RJ: Sure. ROBERT: All right.
JOHNNY: There's just something so freeing about it.
SONTA: Do you see it climbing right there?
JOHNNY: I always dreamed of a life where I could just walk out
my door and just look around and say,
"Where do I wanna go?"
And I feel so spoiled that that's where I'm at right now.
Let's not forget about you.
That's a good girl.
Thanks for hanging with me all the time.
It's always nice to have you around.
RJ: Guess what. Got one. ROBERT: Are you serious?
RJ: Yeah. It's right here. ROBERT: The bucket trap?
RJ: No. The one where we've built the little funnel and
is over the log.
ROBERT: (bleep) yeah. This is freaking awesome, man.
RJ: This thing was only trapped a little while ago.
ROBERT: Really?
RJ: There's a, yeah, there's a live rockfish right here.
ROBERT: He brought it up to eat it and went right into the trap, huh?
RJ: Yeah. It's still alive. Still flipping.
ROBERT: Well, wanna try to get him out of this trap?
To continue moving forward in this subsistence lifestyle is
very important to me.
Little better than our beaver trapping.
I never met my great-grandma,
but all the stories I heard about her,
she was big into the fur and the subsistence lifestyle.
And I think she would've been pretty happy to get this.
This is how she made her living.
CHRIS: Let's see if we can pull it.
It's probably too deep out there, huh?
JESSI: It's heavy. CHRIS: There we go. I got it.
JESSI: You got it? CHRIS: Yeah.
JESSI: Great. This will be the real test, love.
More than anything, we've really learned to adapt out here.
(grunts)
Every time we have a problem, we have to fix it ourselves.
Are we lifting going that way?
CHRIS: Yup. One, two, and lift!
Oh, that was nice.
JESSI: And I know that we can overcome anything out here.
CHRIS: All right. Let me know what it looks like.
JESSI: Whoo. That's a heavy load.
Oh, look at that. Nice and smooth.
CHRIS: This is awesome.
SONTA: It's a very human process to live off the land.
To know what it's like to take an animal's life.
You're not doing it out of malice,
but you're doing it because that's what you have to do to survive.
JOHNNY: We got more, don't worry.
SONTA: To me, it's a sense of responsibility that
you have this knowledge to pass on.
He still knows we're down here.
That's not a very old one.
That would've been a good sized one too.
Darn it.
See how fast they climb the hill like that?
SYDNEY: Yeah.
SONTA: Determination, perseverance, and putting in
time are all gonna be things that Sydney is
going to use at different points in her life.
JOHNNY: Come on. Help me up.
SONTA: So I know that she has a long road ahead of her in terms
of hunting, but she'll go to the end to do the job.
And I'm really proud of her for that.
All right. We'll keep going.
How'd you like to be a willow tree eater.
SYDNEY: I don't know. I wouldn't wanna be shot at.
SONTA: Definitely not.
Captioned by Cotter Media Group.