Oh Luke here with the outdoor Boys YouTube channel and I'm snow Machining 120 miles to a remote offgrid Homestead for the next 4 days we're going to be hunting Tagan snow Machining exploring the idid rod Trail watching The Iron Dog race and ice fishing the only way we're getting home is by bush plane and we may not get out of here but one thing is for.

Sure it's going to be an interesting video  right now I'm on about 2 ft of ice on Big Lake Alaska unfortunately a freak warm spell has come and it's 45° right now and everything's melting.

That in the rainstorm last night is causing loads of water to pull on top of the ice that's called overflow that overflow can get so deep it can swallow a snow machine the hard part about overflow is that it hides underneath the snow it's hard to know it's even there until you drive into it see that that's all overflow right.

There look at this see there's a lot of water underneath the snow it's really easy to get stuck I think the best thing I can do is just go fast and try to get through it you can't drive your car to most of the towns and Villages here in Alaska but in the winter time some of them you.

Can reach by snow machine so a lot of lot of these communities use the winter time as their opportunity to get supplies in and out and there's a whole network of maintained snow machine trails that connect these communities to the road system and that's where we're going to start our journey all.

Right so this Trail I'm on is the Historic idod Trail it goes more than 1,000 miles all the way to gnome Alaska and this Trail is used by two major races here in Alaska the did Rod sled dog race and the Iron Dog snow machine race and the iron dog is actually going on right now if I'm lucky in a few days I'll pass the racers coming back to Big.

Lake all right welcome to the mighty C River so for the next 50 miles or so I'm going to be driving across and over for frozen rivers you can see that spot right over there where the water's coming through definitely want to stay on the trail don't want my snow machine turning into a submarine when the dog mushers run their.

Dog teams up and down this Trail to keep their feet from getting torn up they put little boots on them see they put the dog's paw in here and they stretch it around and it goes on like that and like toddlers dogs are constantly losing their booties bet my boys will want to see this save.

That see all the straw on the ground that's from dog teams when the mushers want to rest their dogs they throw down some straw so the dogs can sit on the straw it smells like huskys yeah there's a moose right there that's a very big animal it's getting.

Colder that's that's good this is the Etna station Roadhouse it's a remote Roadhouse that Services the community that lives along this River you can only get here by snow machine and In The Summertime by boat they sell gasoline and food and uh we'll just check it out all we'll see you then okay than you thanks.

Those some lovely people in there well I've done about 36 miles and I got another 30 miles to go so we better make some tracks there is so much overflow on this Trail look at this I've been going through 15 miles of slush it's just horrible.

All right guys welcome to squ this is The airst Strip This a town of 30 people but they do have a Roadhouse and I'm going to go find it cuz I am hungry oh thank you this is all from the Iron Dog race the squit in a Roadhouse here is a checkpoint on that race right now they're live streaming the Iron Dog.

They're up in White Mountain near gnome it's raining I got to tell you I would rather be ative -2° temperature than 40° and raining this is miserable I'm going to fill up some gas I'm going to try hard not to get water in my gas.

Tank tell you what guys it is miserable out there it's just above freezing and there's a strong steady rain going so I decided to get a room here at the squat in a Roadhouse that gives me a chance to dry everything out too my boots were pretty wet my gun is soaking oh yeah look at that my sleeping bag is a little.

Wet coming out here by myself on a snow machine was a little bit sketchy so I made sure to bring my winter camping gear and enough food to last two days and I also brought a SAT phone these satellite phones cracked me up the design hasn't changed since the '90s I got to dust off my old skills whenever I want to text with it all.

Right bad news news is that called rainy pass and up there in the mountains it's just snowing like the devil up there Trail's completely covered and it's a heavy wet snow and there's already been several people stuck up there that needed to get rescued in between here and there there's a place called Whiskey Bravo and it's pouring rain over there.

And the trail is getting flooded between here and whiskey braavos we'll see what tomorrow brings hopefully everything will freeze up tonight oh well guys I'll tell you what it feels great to get dry and get some food in me but I am worried about tomorrow but I'm going to try not to.

Worry about that I am going to go to bed and I will see you guys in the morning good morning oh my back is stiff at least it's not raining well it got below freezing last night and the snow is a lot firmer look at that later it gets today the warmer it's.

Going to get and it's going to start melting again we're also expecting some rain in the afternoon but it's going to be a little bit of a race to get back home before the trail turns to garbage again well the conditions are as good as they're going to get today so I'm going to get moving while I can I'll tell you I'm worried though it rained a lot last.

Night and there's going to be some very deep slush holes and some deep water I'm going to have to cross look at that that slush is like a foot and a half deep holy mackerel there's going to be some deep puddles on this Trail oh this is really hard riding the snow.

Was so soft yesterday the machines were sinking way down in the trail and making these deep ruts in the trail those ruts are all Frozen up now you get your ski or your track in one of those ruts and it just wants to pull the machine all over the place and you just really have to wrestle it but those slushy spots are not froze up and they're about twice as.

Deep as they were yesterday that's open water right there you can see the current ripping through it that's the actual River that's not overflow all right I made it to yetna station Roadhouse all the really nasty Trail is behind me so I think it's pretty smooth sailing from here on.

 out oh walk it off caught a little bit of an  edge that's my daily dose of learning experience well I think I better slow it down my wife and my mom are going to give me an earful when they see this.

Video I just realized there's a moose over there watching me he's probably having a good laugh well I made it back to my car safe and sound and I haven't given up on getting to rainy pass that's it right there let's plan B we're flying a rainy pass and we're bring in the.

Family got a whole bunch of groceries from Costco's coming on the plane with us if you sing into the microphones they're going to turn off your microphone I did that last time yeah I that's why I brought it up mom brought State just grab the see you guys Saturday all right see you Saturday.

 yeah  I'm Steve nice to meet you Jake Nate and Tom over there Tom thank you Becca I'm Steve nice to meet you nice to meet you welcome f it either way that's pretty fun.

Huh here kick your shoes kick the snow off hi so we can put you in these two rooms if you want you guys want to go in this one that going to be your cabin yeah you like this we're to put the boys in here me and Mommy are going to be over here this we got nice little bed we got bathroom and plumbing got electricity.

Got a nice propane heater this will do very nicely so guys this is rainy pass Lodge what a beautiful spot this place is called Tagan Valley and uh we hopefully get to do a lot of hunting some fishing some skiing we get a little bit of everything here right W what do you think Becky you like.

This this is beautiful lot lot better than me dragging you out into the woods in a tent or something yes this is the oldest hunting and Recreation LOD it's been here since 1937 193 yeah that that is by Alaskan standards that's ancient what kind of hunting you do probably Moose for sure yep moose Tagan sheep Caribou grizzly.

Bear black bear than kids are already out there driving the snow machine and I think they just dumped some nice kid on the on on the ice there was that Tomy I was like your kid oh yeah oh good you you don't how to break other people's children we are burning daylight I think it's time to go.

Get our stuff and get ready you want you want to drive a little bit or you want me to drive well you're don't want to have your hood up  buddy oh the powder's really deep we keep getting stuck looks like Mama's got a little stuck back.

 there this right here is one of the idod trail markers the Iron Dog and the idod comes right past here they go into that Valley and the next checkpoint is ran Roadhouse all right Mama are you ready this is what you really wanted right to ride your own machine all by yourself.

Yes yeah you did a great job that was cool babe you like that I like that that was cool okay there you go bud did you work up an appetite yes I did who me I don't know yeah y we got some dedicated grilling going on out there that's right oh they're grilling up some.

Dinner I tried to do it like kid kid friendly grab some food look at those I love squash come on you're like what I don't know that's pretty good they look pretty good Becca you got to make sure to save room for dessert they have Keim cheesecake oh my goodness Becca I don't know if the plane's going to be able to take off when I get on it.

On the way out of here that was Tommy you going out for more snow Machining well you're an expert now man you you'll have at it oh that was good well listen we got to get the kids to bed we're going to get to sleep cuz we've got a whole bunch of things planned for tomorrow so we'll see you guys in the morning all.

Righty woohoo oo it's definitely colder I can feel it in my nose when you get into the negatives your nose gets sticky inside when you breathe in through your nose like your boogers start to freeze yeah I mean that that feels like -10 at least hey good morning morning you guys sleep good oh wonderfully oh my goodness look.

At this problem they really good time on coming this on you there how's that feel is that okay got your adhesive body warmer there you go buddy you feeling warm Becca you want to go on a horse ride I would love to how's it going it's.

Going well look at this so this is Mo short for slow mo got a p yeah you bet yeah that is the fuest horse I've ever petted here you go hry oh and that's why they call him slow-mo I'm glad Becca got to go on the slay ride she was excited to do.

It they do a lot of big game hunting here at this Lodge but this is also a great place to hunt Tagan me and Tommy we're going to go do a little Tagan hunt are you excited to do that bud yeah got a couple guns I brought along with me this is a double barrel gun it's called an over and under and the top Barrel is a. 222 which is a rifle bullet for like.

Wolves and coyotes and the bottom Barrel is a 20 gauge shotgun for Tagan and rabbits got a little switch here on the hammer where you can select between the shotgun and the rifle yep oh my goodness okay those guys are from Italy and they're riding their fat bikes all the way to gnome Alaska which is 1,000.

Miles when that rainor came the trail got so soft that they got stranded and couldn't ride their bikes on the ice anymore they've been hanging out at the lodge until the trail freezes  up Fresh Fresh caragan Tracks she can see where his Wings hit the snow and he came in and kind of came in for a.

Landing then he looks like he went and flew off again we got one hey we just scared up a willow tarm just flew right over that Ridge we're going to bust out the guns well the Tagan got away but I found a tree here we go.

He snow Machining along this Frozen Creek bed and we broke through the ice that no step in there Tom you get your boots wet Tommy I'm impressed at how well you're doing Regal air is coming in to make a supply.

Delivery oh it smells good oh no they don't they don't make them any why why is there so much snow in my pants hey babe babe so what have you been up to I've been relaxing and eating and did you get any painting done now that we've got a little bit of food in this we're going to go out and uh do a little more hunting maybe a.

Little ice fishing he there's one all righty me and Tommy are going to take off along the idid rod Trail we're going to head towards ran Roadhouse and see if we can't find some tarmigan maybe do a little fishing meanwhile the kids are playing with their friends and Becca is going to go do a little CrossCountry.

Skiing everyone's kind of having just a good time it's nice here follow me you shoot at him with the toy too and if they fly I'll take it with the shotgun all right we just came on a whole flock of Willow tarmigan there's probably about 15 of.

Them the trigger oh right over his back again oh they're they're running we just put about 11 bullets down down range we'll see if we actually hit anything oh there he is hey hey I shot one Tommy you got him J.

Bud man down man down congratulations here you want to hold him one here oh the Dead one yeah I should swim Steve swim do it oh look oh it's nice being light Tommy I shot two good job Tom you got another one I shot two shot through the heart and you're to blame.

You it's another flock of Tagan right over there oh I saw a bunch of taragan but they just disappeared we saw two of them right here and they were walking off that way and we can't find them white bird in all this snow they could do that oh just saw a flock of like 40.

Birds look at that huge flock right there oh we got some Tagan I got him nice that was a big flock of Tagan oh here it is well there we go that's a willow Tagan that's the Alaska state bird right there and it's delicious.

They're brown in the summer and they turn white in the winter they have this little red marking above their eye that they can show they also have feathers on their toes keep their toes warm when they're walking in the snow that's why their Footprints always look like they're wearing snowshoes all right we made it to the.

Top of rainy pass this is the tallest point on the ID Rod Trail the lodge is back in pontell Lake 18 Mi away the next checkpoint is R Roadhouse Tom you're probably one of the youngest people ever be up here man we saw a lot of taragan I we probably seen close to 200 taragan yeah you guys got the fancy schmancy set up.

Yeah oh there bed seats in here Isn't that cool that is cool oh my goodness right there you got some hot cocoa for you guys you want some Tom that' be great ain't a problem we can we can do that you want the whisker Seeker all right I'll let you have the whisker Seeker camera Works no hey Tom there's a cabin over here you.

Want to go see that yeah okay that is a proper Log Cabin Tommy I you know it's a log cabin and there's no trees around every one of these logs had to be hauled up here there's a cabin they use for sheep hunting and for watching the idod race I I assume the nails are for the Bears yep got to keep them Bears.

Out oh sheep sheep we found piece of w oh look at that sheep horn the doll doll sheep horn got a little stove here you can see how bad the snow storms are they blow snow through any crack all the different fish they've caught 19 1/2 17 1/2 19/2 in well that's awesome these are grizzly bear shutters.

They got all the Nails sticking out to keep the grizzly bears from tearing up the windows you can feel that temperature do dropping the sun's starting to go down yeah absolutely yeah we're going to have to get back soon well we only got a soak aure for a few minutes but it's starting to get late so we better get heading back but.

Man this has been fun Tommy's hands were cold so I told him to ride around on the snow machine to warm up he seems to be embracing that idea take care how he go oh you are so wet are you sore so sore that was a epic trip very Mom did you have fun while we gone oh I had a.

Great time I cross country ski the IDE ride Trail and did a little sketching I think we're just finished up dinner and there's a fireworks show here all right well it's late we've got kids to put to bed I will see you guys in the morning oh look at that fox there's a fox.

There's a fox well we planned on this being our last day at rainy pass the plane was supposed to pick us up at 2 p.m. but there's a big storm in Anchorage and in sna and the planes can't fly through it so the weather doesn't clear up over there we might be stuck that's Alaska it's it's always.

Something but I'm not going to worry about that I'm going to go eat breakfast EXC me hey did you guys see the fox yeah yeah he's right outside he's right out there daddy look at that oh he's just sitting out there what the what does the fox say he was eyeballing me for a handout oh you going do you going to do a little.

Painting bab I think so oh EX one today but oh that was delicious I got one this area was originally settled by a Trapper called weno pantilla and the lake panilla lake is named after him panilla built his original cabin here in 1904 so there's been an off-grid.

Homestead on this location since 1904 and when I say offgrid I mean it it's 120 Mi to the nearest Power Line Road or grocery store you know it takes a lot lot to keep this place running and I asked Steve to give us a tour over the place so we can kind of see how they do it now St this is a pretty big outfit you've got like what a dozen cabins out.

Here yep there's about 12 cabins for sleeping cabins and then a bunch of little sheds and Shop man you harvested a timber here yep everything came from right around here they're so fuzzy hey bud Hi and then that's uh that's Mo that's the one that oh yeah hey Mo we go way back this was a US Mustang that was caught in the.

Wild oh they so furry do you have any problems with bears and stuff in the in the summertime uh we never have grizzly bear came into the Corral yeah and we ran up here to make sure the horses were okay and the horses formed together and Chase the grizzly out of the.

Corral but this one's from 1973 oh man two bathrooms look at that muss up there nice dull sheep this is one of the original idid Rod Trail tripod markers oh I yeah yeah that is cool so these these are all the bags for the idid rod team this is like their supplies and stuff yep so rainy pass is.

A major checkpoint on the idod race and so all the teams load up supplies and extra gear and they store it here so when the race comes everyone has their their stuff so we got big double doors on both sides you can drive equipment in one side out the other and you've got 16 of these Yamaha braavos is that what you.

Said y about that yep now the logic behind having these old braavos is that they're simple to work on the new snow machines require computers to do diagnosis and real fancy special ized equipment and training everything's got to be fixed out here so you need simple machines and you need all the same type of machine so you can switch parts and.

Yeah exactly love the pile of belts yeah got a big 500 gallon fuel tank in there to have fuel delivered out here is about $112 a gallon two 20 gallons a day during your peak season yep y oh oh my goodness yeah don't don't move to Alaska to save money  that's Yep this is where he lives most.

Of the year what do you think of this oh my goodness so many guns holy cow oh that is cool there's about 140 antique guns every one of these had to be fly flown out here that's CRA yep it was all flown out here blunder bust down here metal one right here is a three gauge Winchester that's the back tooth of a woolly mammoth right there that's a.

Fossilized sturgeon these are dinosaur eggs from China two different species Cave Bear skull from Austria uh NOC volley gun this one's really rare seven barrels I know this caliber do you 70 of these were made by during the Napoleonic era for the Navy British Navy yep it ignites all seven barrels at the same time yeah that's right this is pretty.

Neat this is a cane uhhuh but it's a gun also little sight oh my goodness 1924 Model T snowmobile a Model T snowmobile I love it they they spelled snow machine wrong that's right yeah Pistons are aluminum now instead of cast iron they shipped it all the way here from New Hampshire yep.

Oh my goodness yep I don't well thanks so much Steve that was awesome yeah no problem the Iron Dog snow machine race should come right through this Lake sometime in here in the next couple hours so I'm going to go in the cabin and see if we can look up the GPS trackers and find out when they're going to come through this team's about 100.

Miles away heading this way so maybe hour hour and a half or so they should be here pretty quick oh that's going to be awesome oh we just got word we're not going to be able to make it out today we are stranded here but you know I'm okay with this hey Tommy we're stranded here what yeah we're not getting back today we're going to have.

To stay at least another night are you okay with that yes so uh Becca are you okay with being weathered in I'm okay with being weathered in yeah it's lovely here I mean would you ever believe that we are weathered in look at that but Anchorage looks like a giant bowl of pea soup right now and so the planes can't take.

Off here guys come grab some  food well we're sitting here finishing lunch and says the iron dog racer should be by pretty soon hey baby that's you H we're waiting for the Iron Dog Racers to come they should be coming woo we're grabbing the.

Guns we will hunt and gather babe be safe come back safely got a little stove in here a little emergency sleeping bag see you use these little cabins for for hunting trips right yeah yep all right we saw a big block of a.

Tom I'm have a sniper that was a turkey shot that was a heck of a good shot  nice well there we go I got one now time you can't tease me about being skunked  anymore there we go got another one the sun's starting to get low and Tommy's feet are getting cold so I think we'll.

Start heading back this is the last day of the Iron Dog and these teams are racing for the Finish those guys are hauling butt and they've been doing that for 2,500 miles that's like racing your snow machine from Salt Lake City to Miami Florida or Moscow Russia to Madrid.

Spain Tommy shot once and got one bird I shot a lot and got two birds Tommy was a sniper I was suppressive fire oh oh some more of the IR dog teams we just went by there's the Tagan soaked them in milk overnight olive oil helps it the I I'm Mo thank you so much this is delicious.

You're welcome like that hot it's hot tan amazing oh that was delicious oh but I am so tired it's been a good day though it's been a great day been lovely look yeah it's crazy the guys are doing like 60 m per hour in the pitch black and they're going to do it for another 120.

Miles it's been lovely but I need to get going to bed we've got an early morning tomorrow I'll see you guys in the morning hey somebody stole my spot he wasn't feeling well Tom how you doing everything hurts are you sore from snow Machining so much like this oh W oh yeah little G the gun show is down the gun show is down well.

Here let's go let's go sit and go get some breakfast my wife I believe that that was very nice those three guys are going to break Trail for a big race that's happening soon right after the Iron Dog they have a big race where people go from Big Lake to gnome on Snowshoe hiking cross.

Country skiing and on fat bikes it's pretty brutal these guys are going ahead to try to pack the trail down with snow machines and get rid of Fallen trees and stuff yeah it's pretty intense well it looks like we just heard the plane on the radio so they got to make a few stops to help some other people but uh we might get out of here.

In a little bit we better get packed up get our bags ready to go this has been a fun trip has it so fun this has been one of my favorite trips with the family we've had such a great time if you guys want to come here to Alaska and do this too I'll make sure to put a link to rainy P lodges website in the video description below make sure.

To check it out but uh I definitely think we're going to have to bring the family back hey thanks for everything a pleasure it was absolute pleasure we hope we can come back yeah that' be great yeah definely a.

Pleasure thanks again  if you like that video make sure to check out the outdoor Boys YouTube channel where we have hundreds of videos just like this and if you want to see our newest Adventures make sure to click subscribe so you'll get notifications