The Long Journey Home, 96 Miles Up the Porcupine River / Ch’oodeenjik, Yukon

... It was the last long weekend of the fall, and likely our last trip to Driftwood that year. We’d had an unlucky hunting season. The caribou were not near our community and we had damaged our boat trying to go up the shallow Crow River (Chyahnjik). With no caribou around, we decided to take the boat far up the Porcupine River, past Gopher Bluff (Tthaa Vihk’aa) to Porcupine Lake (Dinjik Goonli), which everyone fondly refers to as “Moose Country.” The direct translation for Porcupine Lake in Gwich’in actually means “lots of moose.” I had never been this far up the Porcupine River before. The furthest I had gone was to the Bell River (Chiiveenjik). I was excited for this adventure and even more excited at the prospect of moose meat. It was Monday morning of the Labour Day weekend, and Paul’s cousin, Aunt, and sister had gone back to Old Crow the day before, so left at camp were Paul, his father, a family friend, and me. The four of us woke up early in the morning, packed breakfast and thermoses of coffee, and headed on our journey upriver. We would make the journey to Porcupine Lake and hopefully get back to Old Crow late at night with a moose. ...