NYO

Last week, I had the opportunity to coach NYO (Native Youth Olympics) while our Jr. High teacher was at a conference in Anchorage. NYO works like track, where there are a range of about 2 dozen events that students can train for and specialize in. 

This is Indian Stick Pull, where challengers hold a greased length of wood and attempt to wrest it out of their opponent's hands.

Girl power.

This is the Alaskan high kick. This is my favorite event and one I'm halfway decent at. However, after trying it for the first time, I woke up the next day and couldn't sit up in bed. You must land on the same foot that you use to kick the ball, which apparently involves muscles that I've never used before.

We finished the first quarter of the school year last week, and we only just managed to find a special education teacher a few days ago. That would be a major deal at any school, but especially ours where every classroom has at least 1 or 2 kids who, by lower 48 standards, would be in a self-contained classroom for various reasons, though most of those are behavioral in nature. Needless to say, we're very happy that Rick decided that retirement in Seattle at his age wasn't so glamorous or exciting after all, and that he'd rather spend the winter with us here in Goodnews. 

Rick has been itching to get out and explore the area around Goodnews, so last weekend Gary let him borrow his quad and I took him out on the trail to the trout stream that I frequent. This is a photo at Gary's- you can see the mountain Beluga in the background, where the bay meets the Bering Sea.

Lately, I've been snagging the spawned silver salmon that have migrated into the streams and rivers. Once spawned, these silvers are no longer feeding, so there's no way to catch them other than snagging or dip netting. I don't have a net yet, and snagging is much more fun anyways.

While catching the spawned silvers is fun, they don't really look that appetizing to us. Fortunately, these are a delicacy among the elders of the village, so I've been gutting and freezing them and handing them off to Gary, who distributes them to some of the older members of the village. Yesterday, one of the classroom aides told me she would love some spawned silvers if I catch any more. I guess the word has gotten out!

While the snow melts about as fast as it falls near the bay, out on the tundra where it's colder, the snow seems here to stay. We followed these fox tracks for 3 miles out to the trout stream. We found dozens of sets of tracks; it's a veritable highway out on the tundra for predators, and I found a lot of good places to set traps once the season opens on November 10.

The clouds rolled in just as we were getting ready to leave. Four-wheeling up and down mountains for an hour in freezing rain and sleet isn't exactly the most fun, so we'll see whether Rick joins me again next weekend or not!