In Alaska, summer is spent preparing for what lies ahead; the Hailstones spend a night on the water; Sue Aikens battles river currents to source coal; Ricko DeWilde secures food with nets made by his late mother; Jessie Holmes gathers firewood.

Alaskans harvest the last of summer's bounty; Sue Aikens tracks a lone predator; the Hailstones are presented with a key resource; Andy Bassich races the clock to provide food for himself and his sled dogs.

With the summer ending, Alaskans must overcome exhaustion, injury and failure; after seeking medical aid, Andy returns home to pick up the pieces; Jessie harvests salmon; Sue searches for winter food; the Hailstones gather key resources.

Sue deals with a flooded runway; the Hailstones patch their fishing net before the run of fish occurs in Kiwalik; Ricko and his children head out to secure camp food; Jessie builds a new raft to haul firewood throughout the summer season.

Alaskans make the transition into the Arctic summer; the Hailstone family contends with a natural obstacle; Jessie harvests food; Sue hustles to protect Kavik before clients arrive; Ricko and his children face a deadly threat.

A thawing landscape and endless sunlight provide new opportunities for the Alaskans. Sue begins a project; the Hailstones gather fresh greens; Jessie hunts for fresh meat; Ricko takes his children on a camping trip to sharpen their skills.

Spring in Alaska leads to great activity; for Jessie Holmes, the melting tundra marks the final days of hauling resources with snow machines; migrating birds provide the Hailstones with new hunting opportunities.

Sue sharpens her survival skills; Jessie sets out for food and medicine; Glenn burns a manmade structure to the ground so that nature can reclaim its rightful place; the Hailstones embark on a traditional hunt for valued seal meat and oil.

The Hailstone family rushes to prepare camp for a possible storm; winds jeopardize Sue's camp and livelihood; as goose season opens, Ricko teaches his daughter to hunt; Glenn heads out to replenish his family's meat supply.

Alaskans seize opportunities to improve their livelihoods; Sue settles back into life at Kavik; Ricko replaces the cabin stove; Jessie struggles to free his four-wheeler from the frozen mud; Chip and Agnes hunt an apex predator.

A lifelong dream is within reach in the Arctic, and only Mother Nature stands in the way.

Alaskans take to the frozen trails to harvest much-needed resources for dark winter.

As the weather shifts in the Arctic, Alaskans brace for dark winter's wrath.

Hard lessons must be learned to survive during the dark winter in the Arctic.

In Alaska, any change in the weather pattern can throw off the natural balance of life.

Alaskans scramble to secure provisions before winter; Andy Bassich must secure clean water to grow vital crops; Sue Aikens stalks a herd of caribou; Jessie Holmes returns to a familiar area to hunt a dangerous predator.

Fire and ice play important roles in the Arctic tundra.

The cast reflects on memorable moments; Sue Aikens faces her fears; Jessie Holmes enters a dog sled race; the Hailstones overcome adversity; Ricko DeWilde goes trapping; Glenn Villeneuve builds a unique shelter.

For isolated Alaskans, strenuous labor is just a part of life.

Living in the remote Alaskan wilderness demands constant innovation.

The powerful bond between man and dog is crucial for survival in the Alaskan wild.

Each year adventurers make Alaska's mighty Yukon River their home for five weeks. They float downstream on homemade log rafts to sell firewood and other supplies to remote villages. The reality-documentary "Yukon River Run" presents hourlong episodes tracking the progress of various crews. As harsh winter months approach and threaten both safety and success, stakes are heightened as rafters endeavor to cash out and escape from the cold.

Extreme survivalists go head to head in a race across the Alaska wild. Using ingenuity, experience and just the gear they can carry in their packs, the participants have 60 hours to reach the finish point of each leg of the adventure -- the series features 13 legs -- and in addition to navigating treacherous glaciated river valleys, barren ridgelines, and high mountain peaks, the challengers battle hunger, dangerous predators and unpredictable weather. There is no grand prize awaiting each leg's winner, other than the pride of accomplishing a grueling feat. For season three, the 12 competitors are divided equally into four teams -- Military, Endurance, Alaskans and Lower 48.

Patrolling America's largest state is the job of roughly 400 troopers in one of the toughest law enforcement agencies in the nation. Essentially, these cops say, nearly every Alaskan resident is armed and they know how to use their weapons, which makes any scenario a trooper encounters a potentially fatal one. Follow along as the "blue shirt" Alaskan State Troopers police the towns and villages, and the "brown shirt" Alaska Wildlife Troopers enforce regulations covering both commercial and sport fishing and hunting activities.

Wilderness guide and survival instructor Hazen Audel attempts to stay alive in some of the world's most inhospitable places by using centuries-old techniques. Hazen joins tribes in the rainforests of Ecuador, the Kalahari Desert of Namibia, the mountains of western Mongolia, the frozen Arctic of Canada, in equatorial Kenya, and on a remote island in the Pacific Ocean to learn the skills firsthand. He hunts with bows and poisoned arrows, climbs harsh mountains in search of prey, and harvests food beneath shifting sea ice, among other challenges that push him to his limits.

The old Dolly Parton hit "9 to 5" isn't a tune worth humming for the blue-collar pioneers featured in "Filthy Riches." The series spotlights ingenious Americans who skirt a conventional workplace in favor of making a living in the deep rivers, soggy mud flats and wild backwoods of the U.S. Ray Turner, for example, has been catching eels in Delaware for 30 years. He uses a self-made smokehouse in the woods to cook the critters and sell them. Billy Taylor and his sons hunt for prized ginseng root in the Appalachians. Taylor, a fully licensed wild ginseng dealer, promotes sustainability by planting its berries. In Maine, Jim Campbell and Andy Johns make the coastal mud flats their office, as they dig for valuable bloodworms to sell to fishermen. And Greg Dahl and Albert DeSilva are burl hunters. A burl is a hard, unwieldy outgrowth on a tree, usually at the trunk. Burls have value because of the spectacular patterns found in them when cut open.

"It's the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine)," sang R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe, and it's a proclamation that must resonate with the people profiled in this series. That's because they are all preparing for doomsday, whether it's caused by a natural disaster, a financial collapse or a nuclear winter, and their plan is to outlast and outlive any apocalyptic scenario. The series goes inside America's "prepping" subculture and introduces otherwise ordinary folks who are stockpiling food, water, weapons and whatever else they think is necessary in the event basic services should falter and society turns chaotic and violent. Also, each prepper's plan is reviewed by the consulting firm Practical Preppers, which analyzes its potential effectiveness in case the prepper's worst fears become reality.

The producers of National Geographic Channel's hit series "Life Below Zero" are behind "Port Protection," which profiles individuals trying to survive way above the Lower 48. Surrounded by the North Pacific, Port Protection is a remote community tucked into the northwest corner of Prince of Wales Island, Alaska. The approximately 100 residents who call the rugged, unforgiving land home push the limits of survival, living an isolated and risky existence of self-reliance with no roads, government or law enforcement. However, they think the risk is worth the profound reward: a world of beauty with the security of community without the constraints of bureaucracy.