Wednesday morning started out like any other day. I wont up at my normal time of 5:15 to get showered and tend to Huxley. I gathered the majority of my necessary items for the trip the night before so I was basically ready to go the next morning. We left for the river around 6:45 hoping for a 7 am start; everything was great until I had to push the boat into the water. I pushed us in and jumped into the boat like I always do but for some reason this time around I snagged my rain paints on the corner of Kyle's boat and they ripped straight down the back of my leg; I couldn't believe it and knowing I had about a 10 hour day ahead of me with ripped pants didn't make me any happier.
We took off up the Nushagak river until we met up with the Mulchatna river. In total we went up river a little over 100 miles; the way up wasn't bad but the trip back took a long time. I was really excited to see parts of the area that I had never been to before. After a while I started realizing that a lot of things really look the same no matter where we were. We stopped at a couple cabins along the way to stretch our legs and use the "outhouses"; it really is amazing how little there is to these cabins because most are one small room with a stove and room for a cot or two.
After a while we met up with the other boats at Mickia's cabin to get warm and decide on our plans for lunch. Shortly before this one of the boats got some fishing in and caught two nice Silvers for our lunch. We left Mickia's cabin and headed up river and found a big sand bar to dock and have lunch. Justin, who is an aide at the school, got a fire going and we grilled both Silvers along with 5 bags of cut up potato's. It was probably one of the best lunches I have had in a long time! We spend a couple hours on the sand bar; the kids got some fishing in and just spent time getting warm by the fire. Once lunch was over we headed up river a little farther and docked along this grassy hill so the kids could do some berry picking. It started raining on us so I found a nice wooded area that was perfect to hide out in while it was raining. I really enjoyed the hole in my pants at this point. After a while the kids started getting cold and wet and we all decided it was time to head back to New Stuyahok. The trip back was long and wet. It was raining pretty hard at this point and the wind from riding in the boat made things really cold. We stopped along the way to fill up with gas and it started to pour down rain while we sat there and continued to rain pretty hard for the majority of the trip back.
When we got back to New Stu it was still raining but I didn't care at that point since we were back. I helped Kyle unload the boat and headed up to our house hoping to see something covered along side our house! When I got home I saw my snowmachine sitting on the pallets that I had set aside last spring. I was so excited about finally having it here that I didn't even go in and say hi to Brie but instead I tore the cover off to see what I bought; i had seen it once before but it was only for a few minutes last spring!
Overall the day was a lot of fun. I didn't see any wildlife which was disappointing to me but also my brother because I was hoping to get a Moose that day. I have promised him the rack of the first Moose that I shoot. I am super excited to have my snowmachine and really excited to go out again next year for Culture Week. I hope the weather is better next time so we can do more stuff.
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