Old Stomping Ground

I left Gambell and St. Lawerence island on Friday heading for Teller which is just a mear 7 miles from Brevig Mission where Erin and I taught a few years ago. I got some pretty decent footage in Teller, stayed the night, and shot a little more the next day. Around 5:00 I was on a plane to make that quick journey to Brevig. C.O. and AnnMaire were out at the airport when I stepped off the plane. I was lucky enough to stay with them while in Brevig. It was fun to see all of the students that we had worked with. AnnMaire and C.O. have a very nice house. They have it decorated up very nicely. We stayed up talking late into the evening enjoying some tasty Muskox for dinner.

The next day was beautiful out and we decided to hike up the mountain behind the village. I was hoping to get some video of Brevig from up above, and it was a nice day to be outside. As we approached the base of the mountain we found two of my old students. Sherosha and RayRay on a dirtbike. They were checking out the small herd of Muskox that had come down off the top of the mountain. We talked the boys into riding around to the other side of the heard to get them to run back towards us in hopes of getting some video. They were up for the challenge and did just that. The heard however headed up the side of the mountain, so I got some okay video but they were kind of behind a ridge. The boys met up with us as we were heading up the mountain after us. They said they’d try to go around them again and get them to come by us again. So we continued heading up the mountain.

We were about three quarters the way up the mountain when the boys finally had the heard coming back our way. I squatted down and started filming the heard coming my way. I was looking through the view finder and watching them get closer and closer. The hard thing to tell is how far away they actually are. I think it should have that little disclaimer “Objects are closer than they appear”. Well needless to say when I opened my other eye to see where they actually were, they were close. I stood up so they could see that I was there, and they were nice enough to divert their direction away from me.

We spent a little time at the top looking at the amazing panorama views. The weather was still very nice with some clouds rolling in.

We headed down the mountain and back to the village. After a little dinner we went over and I got my first look at the new school that was built since Erin and I left. It is amazing how its changed. It actually feels like a learning institution. You can see why the kids are more likely to be in a working mode. Really amazing to see such a nice school in the place our old run down one used to stand. After the school tour we went down to the beach and shot got some video of the sun setting over the ocean.

Today I left Brevig on a Bering Air flight that followed the coast landing in Wales. Wales lies on the tip of the Seward Peninsula and the Bering Strait. Wales has a few things in its surrounding area that are fairly well known. The first is a land feature known as Razor Back Mountain.

I hiked up the Razor Back and shot this photo looking between two if the spires looking over the Bering Strait.

On my hike up Razor Back I was surrounded by the tundra changing colors in the fall. It was really pretty.

Over behind the village is this huge hand statue. It is a peace symbol facing Russia. Apparently its waving to the Russians, and there is one on the Russian side waving back. I can’t really go to Russia to take a picture of it, but here is what the one on the US side looks like.

This is a picture of me with the village of Wales in the background.

I am off to Shishmaref tomorrow, so I’ll keep you posted in the next couple days on how my trip is going. I am really looking forward to getting back to Erin. It has been entirely too long to be away.

4 Comments

Leave a Comment

Username (required) :
Email (required) :
Web Site :
Comment :