My (Tisha) dad, Marty Van Diest, came out to visit us a few weeks ago. This is the second time he has come to visit us here in Grayling, and the 4th visit we've had from a family member in the 4 years we've lived here.
My dad actually grew up out here, first in the village of Holikachuk on the Innoko River, and then his family moved with the rest of the village to the new location of Grayling on the Yukon River. His parents, my grandparents, were some of the first missionaries in Holikachuk, and they moved out here when he was just 1 year old and lived in the same house Aaron and I live in now. So there are many people and places familiar to him.
Dad came out for just a few days in September. They were working on something at the powerplant the day he arrived so the power was out most of the day. The second day we made plans to go out by boat, drive through the slough from the Yukon to the Innoko River, see what's left of Holikachuk, do some fishing and swing down to visit Shageluk before heading back that evening. Aaron told me we should be back before too late, but it would be good to pack some sleeping bags just in case. With that thought, I also packed some extra food just in case too.
We made it through the slough to Holikachuk no problem, and sat and visited on the bank. We started up to go find a fishing spot but the motor was running rough. It then quit right in the middle of the Innoko in front of Holikachuk. We couldn't get it started so decided to wait and fish, hoping it was just flooded. Aaron swapped out to the fresh 15 gal gas tank to make sure it wasn't something with the fuel. We drifted and fished for a while, then tried again and got it running, but it only seemed to run well when it was full throttle. We decided it would be better to head back to Grayling rather than continuing trying to fish or go to Shageluk. We drove about 15 min to just above the "forks" before the motor quit again and we paddled to the bank.
Aaron started pulling off the engine cover and trying to figure out what was going on. Dad went to check the fuel and it was basically empty. We had gone through 15 gal in 15 min!
Aaron did a lot of digging in the engine, and finally found a cracked out fuel hose that was just spraying fuel everywhere down into the engine cowling when it was running. For the next couple hours he worked on different ideas to patch the hose with a splice and connector, from using a pen, to taking out the one connector already in use and shortening the fuel line, but the size didn't match.
I used our InReach to message friends Marvin and Judy, who were out in the slough camping too, and let them know we were working on some engine troubles. Marvin said he was just over on the southern side of the forks so he would come over. He drove up about 30 min later while Aaron was still working on different splices, and finding more and more of that tube was cracked out.
Marvin ended up having a metal tube that was a magazine for his .22 rifle. It was just the right size to fit and splice our fuel hose. Aaron cut off a piece and was able to make it work.
It was dark by now and after trying to drive for a short bit using a spot light we realized we couldn't see enough to avoid any snags, so we tied up to a snag and camped for the night.
I was thankful we had packed for an overnight just in case, and dad said he was glad we got to camp too since the engine problems and camping made it more of an adventure and more fun memories from the trip. I'm thankful also for Aaron's mechanic skills to be able to troubleshoot and put together a temporary fix so we could drive back home in the morning. And I'm thankful for Marvin and Judy willing to come and see if they could help and donate a part of a gun to fix an engine.
We made it home the next morning, and I made some Indian Fish Ice Cream for desert that evening. Marvin took Dad out hunting for spruce hens before his flight the next day.
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