Alaska: The Last Frontier - Season 9

Spring arrives early in Alaska and the Kilchers are forced to prepare their homestead. And 3,000 miles away, Idaho's River of No Return roars back to life and the people who live on its shores must navigate the raging spring rapids.

Otto surveys the condition of his rusting barge after a winter in dry dock; Eivin and Eve use explosives to clear land for a new root cellar; Jane builds an innovative dogsled for Atz Lee.

In preparation for the spring cattle drive, Atz Lee, Otto and August survey the homestead for signs of bears and employ surveillance to track their movements; Eivin and Eve take the kids on a kelp-harvesting expedition; Atz Sr. goes bear hunting.

While collecting coal on the beach after a storm, Eivin and Eve find a capsized boat and begin looking for survivors; Otto, Charlotte and August build a shelter for their calves; Jane brings the family together with a new spring tradition.

With predators stalking the homestead, the need for safe grazing land is greater than ever; Atz Sr. and Atz Lee head to Perl Island to begin plans for a new pasture; Otto and Eivin set to work transporting a small herd to the island by boat.

When Jane and Charlotte get word of a sick calf at the Head of the Bay, they trek through bear country to protect their herd; three generations of Kilchers build a line shack on Perl Island; Otto has a surprise for Charlotte.

Things get explosive when the Kilchers expand a road on their homestead with detonation expert Desmond Duffy; Jane and Charlotte get stuck in the mud on a fishing trip; Atz Sr. and Bonnie brave the back country to salvage vital resources.

In the midst of Thanksgiving preparations, a baby seal needs help getting back to its family in time for dinner. Later, Eivin and August engineer a hay baler that will literally take a load off their backs.

The Kilchers navigate their newly blasted road for the first time, hauling a huge pole barn up the hill and across the homestead. Eivin and Atz Sr. get tangled in a mooring line as the tide comes in, pushing Eivin's boat towards the rocky beach.

A backcountry winter wonderland is threatened when unseasonably warm weather brings rain to the homestead. But the Kilchers won't let the storm ruin their Christmas plans, and they adapt to throw a holiday celebration for the entire family.

Eivin and Eve discover a tangle of nets endangering fish in a nearby river, and launch a risky clean-up operation. Charlotte and Otto rebuild their rotting deck, leaving Jane and Jewel to pitch in elsewhere. And Atz Sr. goes on a solo hunt for moose.

Honoring tradition and the ways of the past, the next generation of Kilcher men venture out on their first big game hunts. Later, the family rushes to complete unfinished projects before winter's arrival.

Otto unearths and restores a homestead relic once used by Yule Kilcher himself. Jane is dropped into the harsh and unforgiving Arctic Circle with only a rifle and a backpack in her first ever solo hunt.