The Last Alaskans (2015–…): Season 2, Episode 1 - Home Again - full transcript

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The arctic refuge
is roughly the size

of the state of south Carolina.

You go for hundreds,

thousands of miles
without roads, nothing.

Our permits only go up

until the death
of our last child.

Within 100 years,
there's gonna be nobody.

We are the last.

Up in the arctic like this,
this is one of the few places

that a person
can live like this,

this kind of lifestyle.



This is probably
the most free --

free life you could live.

I've lived here 40 years.

I'm the only man
on the face of the earth

that knows this country
right here.

I love the solitude.

It's heaven on earth.

I've seen stuff
that you never see.

When it comes to the animals,
I'm just another --

another predator out here.

When you live off the land
like we do, you see how,

you know, close you are
to the edge of life.

It's the natural world
at play.

Being able
to pursue your life



without fences or borders...

It's thrilling,
makes you feel alive.

This is home.

The plane brought me out
yesterday.

And Edna and, uh,

my daughter Rhonda and --

and the granddaughter coleen,
they're gonna come out today.

This is just part of our life.

I mean, we just come out here
in the late summer, early fall

and then trap until springtime.

So I just wanna make
this gravel bar

as smooth as possible 'cause

I want 'em to have
a safe landing.

I've been here for 41 years.

And it's just part
of livin' out here.

You gotta --
you gotta make things good, uh,

good for the pilots.

Otherwise, they're not
gonna fly for you.

They don't wanna -- they don't
wanna wreck their airplanes.

And they don't wanna get
in a chance of gettin' hurt

or -- or, worse yet, dead.

Most people don't realize

the nearest road
is three -- 300 miles away.

You -- you don't drive
to a place like this.

I mean, this is true,
true wilderness, you know?

We have three cabins
that we move to.

And that way, we rotate them,

the trapping pressure
in the area,

so the animals can come back.

This lower cabin flooded
there so bad numerous times

that it's, uh,
it's so moldy it's unlivable.

You can't -- it's toxic.

So we're building
a new cabin this year.

And, uh,
until the cabin is built,

this is home.

This is home.

Here they are.

I'm tryin' to get this --
this perfect for her

so she has nice, smooth ground.

You know?
You know?

I'm just tryin' to be the --
the nice husband.

There. voilà.

Zee villa.

Edna's home.

Oh, I'm happy now.

It's good.
Everything's good.

Everything's real good.

Well, Edna, besides her role
as a mother and a wife...

-Oh, hello.
-Welcome home, mom.

Oh, thank you.

...i mean, she's --

she's my best friend too.

You know?

She's my best friend.

Last time, uh,

coleen and Rhonda were here,
i think it was 3 years ago.

Mwah!

Rhonda is excited to be
out here.

And she wants to show
her daughter

where she was raised
and -- and things she did.

And they'll wanna see the cabin.

This place is really
special for her.

What do you want?

Oh, we'll need a knife.

Couple --
you want my --

my little knife?

It's a pretty good one.
No.

I don't want to try and tackle
a moose with that thing.

We're in a total mess
right now

'cause we just opened
this cabin up,

like, less than 12 hours ago,
pretty much, the front door.

Just movin' in.

Ashley and I kind
of live this nomadic life,

where we're spending
half the year in Fairbanks.

The other place
that's our home is --

is up here in the refuge.

Just gonna go kinda take
a stroll and look for a moose.

We trap during the winter.

And that allows us
to make ends meet.

Once we land out here,

we're immediately battling
weather and time.

So we need to get our meat
before the river freezes.

-Love you.
-Yeah.

-Okay.
-good luck.

Yeah. thanks.

Go get 'em.

Yeah.
go get 'em, champ.

Charge.

I'm cooking without meat.

It's sad.

Everything's better with meat.

If you live in the bush,
having meat,

it's like the difference between
being poor and being rich.

Right now, I feel
like we need meat.

But especially
when we have a family,

it'll be really important
to have moose or so--

something, caribou, anything.

We kinda have a timetable
for starting a family.

Um, probably, it will be
maybe next fall.

Coming out here
when I'm pregnant,

I know that a doctor's,
like, really far away.

I mean, I'm not incredibly
experienced

like some of the other people,

like heimo korth
and the lewises.

But, I mean,

there's millions of people
that get pregnant in the world.

So it's a perfectly natural
thing in my eyes.

And I know a lot
of things can go wrong.

But I feel like
trying it my way.

But it is a little bit
frightening.

Let grandpa lead the way.

Grandpa, lead the way.

Look, baby.
There's a cabin.

Oh...wow.

Hey. what ha-- remember
that little thing you and krin

made there somewhere,
that little house?

-Oh, yeah.
-Go and look.

Here. coleen, come look.

You see all these rocks
over here?

-Mm-hmm.
-it's where me and auntie

built a little,
tiny village in here.

Oh.

We raised four girls here.

You know, them were --

them were really, really
good memories, fun, you know?

This was home for many years.

Coleen, come look.

This was mommy's old toy gun.

Oh, there you go.

You guys were climbing
so much

dad has to cut
all the branches up high.

Remember that?
Yeah.

Rhonda was a terror.

Yes, you were a terror.

Yeah.
i love you.

I remember when the girls
were small, saying,

"god, I can't wait
till they're bigger.

Ah, man," 'cause they --
the kids would be fighting.

And you know what I mean?

It'd been like,
"oh," you know?

And then,
now that they're bigger,

I wish they were small again.

You know?

You really don't realize
what you have until it's gone.

My mom always told me,

"i hope you have a kid
just like you."

I was like, "yeah.
Sure. Whatever."

And now I do.

Hiyah!

I just gotta unscrew that door.

The flood's really
screwed it up here bad.

You can see that.
It's obvious.

I mean, it's just rotted.

This was where I grew up.

It's depressing.

As soon as I get
the other cabin built,

I'm gonna torch this thing.

Just gonna burn it right down.

That was beautiful.

You never get to see it
like that.

That's why I do this.

Must have been a hell
of a fight.

I gotta find one
before the wolves find one.

Living out
in a wilderness like this,

you just feel more like
yourself, more human.

It's been 20 years

since I boated in
with my daughter.

I wanna see
what she can remember.

These cabins, eventually,

they'll just be
part of the land.

And nobody'll know
that they even existed.

-I love you.
-I love you too.

Aw, Bob.

But building the family --

-i can't believe...
-I'm so glad...

...i have this here.

It'll last forever.

Alaska, it's such a vast place.

It kinda opens your mind
to the other possibilities

that, you know,
life could bring.

Once you're exposed to it, then
you're never happy without it.

You see that wide-open space.

And it just... I don't know,
it just changes you.

So that's kind of
one of the things

that's always driven me
to wild country.

It just gives you a sense
of freedom.

Okay. we're in the --
we're in the water.

We're right there,
coming into the Yukon.

This year, we decided to pull
out of our cabin from last year

and come back out
to our old place on the nowitna.

It's been a long time
since we've been there.

And we kinda miss bein'
out there.

I'm glad the girls are able
to come out with us.

They've wanted to see it
for a long time.

Out here in the woods,

that's where we raised
our girls.

I would have been 4
the last time I was out there.

I don't really
remember our cabin.

So, yeah, I am really excited
and looking forward to it.

It is very special.
There's a lot

of memories in that cabin.

I'm glad to be going
back out there.

But nearest road
is 250 miles away.

So it's a long boat ride.

Yeah. wait a minute.

This is the beginning
of the boneyards right up here.

It's kind of a landmark
on the Yukon.

Occasional, um, mammoths re--

mammoth bones and,

you know, steppe bison bones

and extinct animals

of the pleistocene
that died out, like,

10,000, 12,000 years ago
wash out of the bank.

We're all anxious
to see these 'cause

we're kinda interested
in stuff like that.

The girls
got their eyeballs glued.

That's how you find stuff.

Look. we have a mud bank
up on our river.

I mean, like, this is so --
such a bigger scale.

-Oh, wow.
-Can I see? Dad?

-Dad. dad.
-Daddy.

-What?
-daddy, come here.

-No, right there.
-Where?

-That line.
-Right up -- that whole line.

-Yeah. that's a tusk?
-Yeah.

-You serious?
-Yep. It's a tusk.

-No! really?
-Yeah.

All right.
We're gonna turn around.

-No.
-i gotta look at it.

We'll go closer to that
to get a better look.

It's stable enough.

If it's not a piece of wood,
it's -- it's a tusk.

That -- damn.
That does look like tusk.

And it has layers.

That's a pretty good-size chunk.

So it was a full adult
wooly mammoth.

Seeing something
that no one has seen

for the last, like,
thousands of years, just...

It quickens the blood.

Yeah. that's cool.
Oh, man. I wanna be up there.

That's a whole pile.

I know.

That's a whole skeleton that's
just gonna go in the river.

Once they're exposed
to the elements, the rain

and the -- the sun
and the weather,

then they don't last long.

You can see. It looks like
a leg bone, kind of...

Very curved.
...Sticks out on both ends.

...jaw bone or something.
It's that curved black part.

They just erode naturally
into the river

and just get ground
into nothin'.

They just turn to dust.

It lasts all that --

them thousands of years
frozen there.

Then, all of a sudden,
it's just gone.

It's pretty neat stuff.

So we're starting to pick up
on some tracks down here.

So here, we got a --
got a bull moose track.

You can just tell kind of
by the size.

They've got so much weight
that they'll push

those little dew hooves

back down into the --
into the dirt too.

This time of year,

the bull moose up here
will go in a rut.

And that's basically
they're ready to mate.

And, um, their hormones
are really flowin'.

You know,
and they're all juiced up.

And they're just basically l--

out lookin' for a girlfriend.

And when they're
in that rut cycle,

they get really careless.

They pretty much drop
their guard in a lot of ways.

And, uh, I think
most men can relate,

you know, when --

when, uh...
When nature calls.

This is the best time
to hunt 'em

because they're careless
in a lot of ways.

It's really nice
to shoot a moose

because, with one bullet,

you've secured your whole
winter's larder of meat.

There's a bear around just
makin' his way upriver.

Hmm.

Bunch of tracks here.

A moose was, like,
dancin' around.

Yeah. he was beating
on the willows here,

thrashin' his antlers.

This moose is rutting.

And it's -- this is its --
this is its area, you know?

It's stakin' this out,

thinking he's the king
of the world, you know?

No. well, we just saw
bear tracks back there.

You know?

That's the king.

Well, with this rifle,
I'm pretty much at the top.

You know?
But take that away from me,

and I'm right down there
with the squirrels, probably.

We got some really
fresh tracks here.

This is, uh, like,
a day or two.

So we just gotta entice one
to come to us somehow.

This is just the shoulder
blade off of a --

off the front leg
of a moose.

And when you scrape it
on something,

it has a nice, hollow sound
just like a moose antler would.

Sometimes, you'll get
a response.

You know, another bull might
start doin' the same thing,

or he might just come chargin'.

If there was one close,
he'd just come chargin'

out of the trees
just right at us.

Now enter the poisonous
building.

Ooh, it stinks.

Whew.

God, it's nasty.

I wanna get all the --
the stuff.

-I can smell that from here.
-Well -- phew!

Do you see all that
white mold there?

Mold in a cabin,
you can't live in it.

We need water buckets, huh?

We gotta --
we gotta try to use

whatever we can here
that you can save.

The cost of getting stuff
in here, you know,

you know, flying it up,
it's pretty expensive.

Oh, god...

Bad in there, Rhonda, huh?

Pretty sad.

A lot of this is, I mean,
really memory Lane.

"To heimo on his 17th birthday

with much love
from your mom

and dad, 1972."

When I burn it,
it's gonna be hard.

But, uh, the new cabin

represents the family's future
here, hopefully,

if they wanna continue on.

You know, that's a lot of stuff.

We might have to bring
the boat up here.

-Oh.
-no, no.

-We can come back here.
-Later.

Yeah. yeah like
5 years from now.

No.

-No.
-help.

I'm being beat up by my women.

Just expect to see one,
you know,

one come outta nowhere.

Calling doesn't always
work, though.

But there's not much choice
up here in this brushy country.

You just can't see anything.

Gotta try and make 'em
come to you.

I'm a long ways
from my family up here.

I mean, I can't say
that this is where I thought

I would be as a, you know,
as a young lad.

But I'm glad this is
where I ended up.

I grew up in, uh...

The middle of the cornfields
in Nebraska.

Some weird little game

that I used to play with myself
as a child was just

we had a creek
near our home

that my brother
and I would always run off to.

And you get down
into the woods and stuff.

And it --
you couldn't see houses.

You couldn't hear the road
or anything.

And, um, I would imagine myself

in the middle of a -- of a big
wilderness or something,

you know?
And it was just like a --

a little fantasy that I had
as a -- as a kid.

And, um, I guess living up here

is kind of fulfilling that
in a real way.

-How's it look?
-Ah, it's, like, three...

We gotta get over left.

We'll come up
to where the river comes

to the point of that hill.

And then, that's it.

As far as we're goin'.

We're home.

Five and a half.

Four.

Ah, nasty sweeper.

Dad, why do those trees
have to be there, huh?

Oh, this isn't good.

It kind of looks like
the deeper water is right here,

where these birch trees
are hanging over.

I don't know if we can get
around that -- or under it.

Ah, man, that sweeper is bad.

This is one of those spots

where you got little water
all the way acrost.

This is like...

This is the kind
you don't like to see.

Can I just look around
in a canoe while...

-What?
-get out of that canoe.

Keep an eye on the canoe.

And the canoe...

Hey, Emma.
Emma, watch yourself.

- Hang on.

- Any better?
- Good.

What's it look like?

Emma, still with us?

-Hey, Emma, Emma --
-no, let her stay --

what do we got, Sarah?

Three, only 3 1/2.

I don't know if there's water
around that snag there.

Yeah. I know.
I don't know.

Looks like there's a v, though.
Oh.

Oh, maybe not.
Maybe the branches --

about three.

Three.

-What is it? What happened?
-She's in.

She's in. Emma's in. Emma's in.
Emma's in.

Emma's in.
Emma's in.

Hang on, Emma.

About three.

Three.

What is it?

-What happened?
-She's in. She's in. Emma's in.

Emma's in. Emma's in.

-Emma's in.
-Is she swimming?

Hang on, Emma.

Hang on, Emma.
Hang on.

Hang on, Emma!

-Hang on, Emma.
-Hey, Emma, Emma!

Hang on, Emma. Hang on.

Hang on, Emma.
Hang on.

Go back --
and go back there.

Emma, get into the canoe.

Okay. I'm gonna pull you
up to the front.

Or if you can get on
right there...

Get her inside, by the stove.

Watch it. Watch it.
Emma, watch it.

Sit -- sit centered.

No, Emma. Sit centered.
I'm serious.

-I am centered.
-Hang on to the --

-is this holding, ray?
-Yeah.

-Is she in the boat yet?
-She's in the boat.

-Got her.
-Okay.

All right.

You all right, Emma?

Yeah.

What'd you grab on to?

And how -- how...

She was hanging onto
the canoe while her --

how'd you get into the canoe?

She wasn't in it.

Oh, oh.

Four.

Good job, Dave.
Super Dave.

There's nothing
i could do to help Emma.

All I could do to help her was
hold the boat steady.

It was too dangerous of a spot.

We would have lost control.

So I had to stay
in that channel,

had to keep the boat in place.

When you got, um,
sweepers like that in the water,

a lot of times, that's --
they're dangerous.

Even when you're in a canoe,
you can get caught under one,

and you just can't get out
from underneath 'em.

They hold you under the water.

You just get all tangled up
in 'em.

They can look
like just, you know,

trees hanging over the bank,
but...No.

Other side of them willows,

right s --

right straight across here,

that's a good place
for geese and ducks.

This'll be the first piece
of meat, you know,

that I get, I mean,
since I come up here this year.

The thing that separates the
arctic national wildlife refuge

from down in the lower 48 --

it takes far, far more land
to feed one animal up here

than it does down there.

And it's because of the length
of the winters.

It's very hard for an animal.

And so you have to hunt harder.

You have to cover
a lot more country to find food.

And it's really important

to be a good hunter
out here because,

if you're not, uh,

how are you gonna provide
for yourself and your family?

I'm gonna make you
a hot chocolate now.

Hot cocoa!
Cocoa!

-Coleen.
-cocoa!

Sometimes,
you're too entertaining.

You can't keep up
with the little ones.

It's hard.

That was the cup I wanted.

-Okay.
-my hands are so cold.

We gotta keep the fire goin'
so we can cook.

Almost ready.

Okay. it's hot.
You have to wait.

Raising girls up here,

where, um...I --

-grandma!
-i enjoy it

because I try to raise 'em

as I was raised
when I was younger.

I would like to have coleen
learn the knowledge,

what her mom learned.

What about my aunt --
auntie coleen?

Her au --
your auntie coleen,

she died when she was
just 2 years old.

-She drowned.
-She drowned, yeah.

How did she drown?

We, um, we were goin' down here
from the other cabin.

-And...
-uh, in a boat?

Yeah, in a boat.

Did grandpa try to save her?

Yeah. grandpa tried
to save her.

I tried to save her.

Mm-hmm.

Coleen and I have
a very special bond,

maybe because she's, um,
named after our daughter.

She was just only a little girl.

-That tall?
-Yeah.

I told my dad
that I was gonna name

my first daughter coleen
when I was 11 years old.

And he got really, really quiet.

He didn't wanna say anything.

Coleen Ann spelled
exactly the same,

you know, everything the same.

So...

I think that their closure
is staying out here,

staying close to, you know, her.

She's still here with us.

Yeah?

In here.
Yeah, in your heart.

She's with us.
Mm-hmm.

I wouldn't wanna leave the place
at all

where we got all the memories,

where coleen, our coleen,

walks around here with us.

Two ducks.
Two ducks.

Come on.

-Oh, good girls.
-Good girls.

-Good girls.
-Good girls.

Good girls.

-Hey.
-hi, pups.

Yeah.

This is a girl named goose.

She's, uh,
just over 4 months old.

And she's the newest member
of our team.

Come here.
And this is smoky.

-Good girl. Good job.
-This is goose's sister.

Hopefully, they pay attention
to commands,

and one of 'em maybe
will be a leader someday.

- Hi.

Let you pups go, huh?
Hello?

Hello?

You want anything to eat?

Dinner's ready
whenever you're done.

Okay.

Eight dogs, you know.

Never had eight dogs out here.

There's a lot of mouths to feed.

We're definitely talkin'
about havin' a kid soon.

And that'll bring us up to 11.

That'll -- and that'll be
a whole new thing for us,

learning how to do that.

Let you pups go, huh?

Just let you go?

I know that, if we have a kid,

that this is where I want them
to spend a good part

of their life.

We're gonna have
duck soup, coleen.

My knife is so dull.

You wanna use mine?

I was out here 6 years alone,

6 years.

At first, when I come out here,
it was an adventure.

And then, it turned
into way of life.

But the way of life is family.

Gosh!

Now, I gotta take it down
by the river.

And it's good.
It's healthy, you know,

that you can
share this with someone.

Some people are
in the woods 'cause

they can't fit in anywhere else.

Some people just go to the woods

just for the sheer pleasure
of bein' there.

I'm kinda
somewhere in between there.

And bein' out with the family,
that's really enhanced the --

the satisfaction and pleasure.

-No moose.
-Not yet?

Unh-unh.

It stinks, doesn't it?

Yeah.

It's okay.
We'll get some.

You really think so?

Yeah. I do.

I think this is it.

I think we're there, ladies.

We're there.
We did it.

Yeah.
we'll tie off here tonight.

And then, we'll go up
to the cabin in the mornin'.

It's just around this bend here.

I'm tired, hungry.

And Emma's cold and wet.

So this is it for the night.

You need people.
You do.

I mean, the stomach needs food,
and the mind needs people.

Gotta get this cabin done.

Winter's comin' pretty soon.

And -- and it ain't
gonna wait for me.

Mom's a pretty good shot.

Let me see.
They could get close.

Seventeen, 18 years, you know?

I'm so excited.

It's kind of walking back
into a time machine.

I am excited,
also a little bit scared.

I'm not, you know,
in the best of health.

I gotta get home.

And I'll do what I have to do.

Resurrecting an old cabin.

Watch out.
That's where it's rotten.

Who is that?
Sarah?