The Marker | Life Below Zero

The hailstones are returning to Camp from a hunting trip, but without a marker to guide them along the treacherous River, their path home is uncertain.

"This is it right here. You see how hard that was? This is just inches off the surface of the water. You see how much trouble that was, trying to figure out where we were? That's why I was kind of fudging along here, thinking I'm going to take it slow till I know exactly where I'm going. We were having trouble out in the Lagoon, trying to find the mouth to the river. We came in really well over the sands; it's these real high tides that took away the marker that was here.

It was wood that was staked down in here, and it had Jerry jugs—red Jerry jugs—hanging on it, and you could see it for miles. It's going to be important you know where the mouth of this channel is. This point has receded quite a bit; the old marker's fallen over.

The absolute best thing we can do for ourselves and other people is probably put a marker here. Me and him know how to get into this River and this area without any landmarks or anything, but for the kids to learn and to be comfortable with coming here, it's good for them to have something to aim for and say, 'Hey, I know where I am.'

I don't want to put a tower here; we can use the tower for multiple uses. We can use it for orientating ourselves to come in, we can use it to orientate ourselves in the wintertime when it's snowing or when we're traveling and it's foggy. We’ll also be able to get up in it and look over and see if the ocean is rough, and maybe even see a seal or two if they're popping up around here.

It shouldn't take too long to dig and chop and tie something together that would be very, very useful to everybody around here."