Wainwright, Alaska

On my first full day (7/25/2014) at work, I took the school vehicle out to see Wainwright.  Wainwright has the reputation of being a good and clean village.  It is on the North Slope of Alaska so it has oil money.  There is a hotel and restaurant run by the Olgoonik Corporation.  Having a restaurant in a remote village is a huge benefit.  I have eaten there three times since my arrival, good food but expensive, so I will have to limit my dinning out to once a week at the maximum.  The dinners consisted of teriyaki flank steak, chicken stew one night and roast beef stew, and pan seared salmon the other night.  Oh and the big plus of dinner, a full salad bar.  Breakfast with biscuits and gravy, eggs, bacon, sausage, ham, fruit, French toast, and fruit.  They did not have grits and redeye gravy.  It has been cool (32- 43 degrees) since I arrived.  I have experienced rain, snow, and a short glimpse of the sun.  My house and the school sit on a mile strip of land between the Arctic Ocean and the Wainwright Lagoon. 

My house

The High School

 The Elementary School

 Wainwright Lagoon 

The lagoon

Down Main Street.  My house on left, school on the right

Lagoon

Arctic Ocean

Village view

Day 4 (Full) (7/28/2014) – Got up at 5:00 AM today had a nice light breakfast and a cup of espresso enriched coffee.  Around 6:00 AM, I looked outside and it was foggy and appeared to be overcast.  I can see the main entrance of the school from my house and there were about 10 people standing on the porch.  All I could think was, I hope they are this early during the school year.  When I walked over at 7:00 AM the group was still on the porch, they were adults not students.  They were smoking away, right under the tobacco free zone sign.  Oh well, I introduced myself and asked them not to smoke on the porch and went inside.  I guess the porch is the hangout spot.  Kids using the Wi-Fi all day and adults enjoy a dry covered place in the morning. 

When I was reading about the school system, they said long johns were not necessary for work because they kept the buildings warm.  They do not keep building warm they keep them HOT.  I have turned my thermostat in my office and the main office down to 65 and it is still burning up.

Plan for the day – go meet people in the village.  Mayor, Olgoonik Corporation Chairman, Traditional Council President, Police chief/VPSO, and whoever else may want input into the way the school runs and interacts with the community.

I missed a two whole years on the blog while I was principal of Nome Elementary School in Nome Alaska (years 4 and 5 in Alaska).  I have departed Nome and moved to the North Slope, Wainwright, Alaska where I am the principal of Alak School, Pre-K - 12.

I made some good friends in Nome and will miss them.  My head custodian, Mark Smith, gave the going away gift I will treasure for the rest of my life.  He took me out on a hunt for a true predator - Grizzly Bear. 

Saturday, May 10, 2014,

I Got the Best Going Away Present I Have Every Received!

After talking about this for several months, the day finally arrived.  Mr. Mark Smith, my head custodian at school, took me out on a Grizzly Bear hunt.

We left at 7:00 a.m. and drove out the Kougarok Road.  I was just planning on spending half a day or so riding around looking at the scenery and if lucky enough, shoot a bear that would be a few 100 yards off the road.  After all, I am an old fat out-of-shape man.  We stopped and watched a moose for a while and then drove to the site where a guy had killed a grizzly 300 yards off the road last week.  After Leonard Lastine (fifth grade teacher) and I walked out to look at the carcass, we returned to the truck and Mark said, “I found your bear!”

He pointed to a small black dot two (+) miles up a hill.  I looked at it through the binoculars and said, “That is a rock”; Mark said, “NO, it is a bear.  I saw its head and ears.”  I said, “Oh, I see a cub with it”.  (You cannot shoot a mom if she has cubs.)  Again, Mark said “NO.”  I had run out of excuses not to go, so I had to go.

We started up the hill at 1:00 p.m.  After walking through Tussocks (small bits of semi-solid ground, that wobble when you walk on them and it is often wet between them) for about 200 yards, I looked at Mark and Leonard and said, “You guys go kill the bear.  I will meet you at the truck.”  My insulated Carhartt overalls were killing me.  I took them off leaving me in a pair of jeans, t-shirt, and sweatshirt.  This was the first time I wanted to quit (it was not the last time either) but Mark and Leonard would not let me.  We walked on through tussocks and willows until we came to a snow patch.  The snow was over knee-deep and this I figured was it.  However, I made it through.  Every time I stopped to catch my breath and make sure I was still alive, Mark (“The Guide from Hell” as he called himself) would smoke a cigarette.  I think he did it just to torment me.

We hit a small clearing about 500 yards from a rock outcropping that we wanted to set up on.  Leonard said it had been an hour and 36 minutes since we last saw the bear.  Mark looked at Leonard and told him he would have to take off his snow pants that they were too noisy.  About that time Leonard had his pants around his ankles and stuck on his boots, this is when we spotted a beautiful blond grizzly sow running towards us about 400 yards away.  She closed within 100 yards and stopped, turned around and walked back the way she had come.  I could not shoot her because we could not verify if she had cubs or not.  As we watched her and listened to Leonard complain he was going to be eaten (remember his pants were around his ankles and nothing was cooperating) we saw a golden grizzly boar walking across the ridgeline.  He disappeared behind a mound and the sow came out of a clearing 300 yards away carrying what looked like a dead cub.  Now, we had two bears to worry about and what appeared to be a fight between the sow and the boar over the cub!  The sow sat down 300 yards from us and watched us.  I was getting very nervous at this time.

The sow picked up the cub and started walking off to the right and Mark said, “Keep watching, the boar is going to follow the sow”.  A few seconds later the boar came into the clearing, Mark hit it with a laser range finder, 350 yards and moving.  Mark told me, “As soon as he stops take him.”  I was lying on tussocks with my bipod on a backpack.  I waited for him to stop, he did not, and I asked again, should I take him on the move?  Mark says to wait until he stops.  Not a second later Mark said, “You had better hurry.”  I let lead fly, hit him high and in the back, he took off around a mound.  As he came out on the other side Leonard let a round loose (I had told him after I hit it help me put it down) he missed.  I fired again and hit him in the shoulder.  He was still standing so Leonard fired again and hit him right in the forehead.  He went down hard.  Mark lased to where he laid, 358 yards.

We traveled the last 358 yards to the bear.  I crawled through he snow because I was worn out and it was easier since I did not sink up to my crotch.  We made it to the bear at 3:00 p.m.  He was about seven feet tall and had a wide set of shoulders.  His coat was a beautiful thick golden brown.  His claws were long and in pristine condition, his teeth were menacing, and his head was huge.

Mark skinned him out.  It took about 1-1/2 hours and then we packed him up.  Leonard offered to carry him out and I gladly let him.  On the way out, we went on up the hill to where we had originally seen the bear.  When we got there, we found a dead cub that had been eaten.  Mark picked up the hide and we headed down the hill.  It was no easier going down than coming up.  I think the tussocks and willow were worse on the way down, my toes would slide to the front of my boots and the pace was much quicker.  About 100 yards from the truck I filmed a video standing in the tussock and thinking I was about done, literally.  About 25 yards from the truck I fell down and landed on a small stump right between my shoulder blades.  It felt so good to be lying down, I just laid there for a couple of minutes enjoying the peace and thinking about the hunt.

When I finally got back to the truck, I remembered Mark had locked the keys in the truck, 62 miles from Nome and no cell service.  Luckily, a truck full of cops came by, stopped to see the bear, and helped us break into the truck.  We used the radio antenna to push down the auto unlock after we wedged the top of the door open.  Most of the people traveling on Kougarok Road are hunting bears.  We stopped four different times to show off the bear to different groups.  We finally made it home around 9:30 p.m.

On a side note: A guide in Nome charges $15,000 for a grizzly bear hunt.  It is nice to have friends that will do it with you free!!

A special thanks to my friends:  “The Guide from Hell”, Mark Smith and my “Sherpa,” Leonard Lastine.  Thanks for the hunter’s dream of a lifetime!  I got my bear!!!  

Caution - The photos below contain graphic scenes from my bear hunt

Mark Smith and me

Lenoard Lastine and me 

Me on my bear rug