Damon Hargraves

We've been enjoying the beautiful fall weather on the tundra: Good fishing Colors changing Beautiful sky Damon went on a bear hunt. He didn't shoot a bear, but he shot some nice pictures.

The best way to sum up the past 2 months is through pictures: First stop Wasilla, AK, where we spent time with Damon's family. Picnicing and hiking with friends at Hatcher's Pass. We kept ourselves busy.  Damon built a tool shed for his dad, and took a trip to Kodiak.  I took a knitting class, and made a scarf and dish cloth.    Kodiak, AK A highlight of the summer was our trip to Hong Kong and Japan.    View of Hong Kong  Incense burners in a temple Gates to a Shinto temple in Kyoto, Japan Golden temple in Kyoto Dinner in our ryokan in Kanazawa, Japan Bamboo forest in Kyoto Taking a drink from a fountain of wisdom in Kyoto Kanazawa Garden Japanese lantern in Kanazawa Garden Sake kegs outside the gates of a buddhist temple A highlight of the trip was visiting the family that Damon stayed with when he was an exchange student to Kanayama, Japan.   We stayed with Tony (far left), from Ketchikan, AK, and his family.   After we returned to the states, we headed down to Missouri to v...

Heidi and I were happy to host some more family this week. Heidi's dad Mike and grandpa Henry came up with the serious goal of trout fishing. All the river ice is gone now and most of the snow is melted; school is out so I guess we can officially say summer is here. We all leave tomorrow for Anchorage, and we have had a wonderful time these last few days. Here I am baking some fresh trout and grayling for an afternoon snack. Henry thought I was a pretty good guide. Henry, Mike, and Heidi all pulled in trout at the same time several times today. This happened quite a bit actually. The trout were really biting today. Along with boating on the river, we also had a chance to ride with our friends Jeff and Talon Erickson out on the ocean on a seal hunt. We have had some absolutely gorgeous weather, and on this trip we saw lots of seals, but didn't get any. It would have been Talon's first seal, sorry Talon better luck next time. We also had the opportunity to see the res...

My brother Darin and nephew Slayton came to visit just a few weeks ago. It was great to have them here, and they were celebrated as our first family members to visit us in Unalakleet. Even though it's winter, we of course did some serious fishing. Ice fishing for trout on the river proved to be just as successful for them as it was for Heidi and I last Spring. My friend Henry took us up the river to his secret spot. As well as fishing, we also did a bit of hunting. We were on the lookout for bear and grouse, but Slayton's sharp eye found a rabbit hiding in the willows. With permission from our church, we stayed at the Covenant Church Bible Camp. While there, we chopped wood and helped out in other ways to prepare the camp for summer. We were very impressed with the camp and Slayton thinks he might like to come back in for the summer camp. Here's a picture of Slayton riding an old John Deere, which was rusting away at an abandoned potato farm near Bible Camp. I'm...

Here are a few pictures of Damon's recent Caribou Hunt. He rode up to Koyuk with an elder from Unalakleet, and in Koyuk he met up with friends, Dave and Patty. They spent a couple of cold nights out on the trail, but the caribou meat and the stories he can now tell made it well worth it. Moose sighting. Living it up in a snow shelter. An old abandoned gold mine. Success.

Recently, we took a snow machine trip about 35 miles up river with some friends - Dan and Adrianna, Conrad, Jasmine, and baby Carter. Our destination was Old Woman Cabin, a government owned cabin on the Iditarod Trail. We stayed for the afternoon, and had a picnic lunch of chili and musk ox hot dogs.