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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your guide to

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Speaker 1: the Whitetail woods, presented by first Light, creating proven versatile

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Speaker 1: hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind. First Light

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Speaker 1: Go Farther, Stay Longer, and now your host, Mark Kenyon.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. This week on

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Speaker 2: the show, I'm joined by Steve Speck and Mark Helsing

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Speaker 2: from Exo Mountain Gear to discuss their wild experiences and

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Speaker 2: greatest lessons learned for planning your first Alaskan adventure. All right,

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Speaker 2: welcome back to the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to

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Speaker 2: you by First Light and there came for Conservation Initiative,

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Speaker 2: and today we've got the finale of our adventure series.

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Speaker 2: We've talked about white tail adventures, a handful of really

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Speaker 2: cool ideas on that front. We last week talked about

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Speaker 2: planning an epic Western hunting adventure, and today we are

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Speaker 2: going north to Alaska for the ultimate, the Peak, the

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Speaker 2: pinnacle of all hunting adventures. Alaska. How to plan your

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Speaker 2: first Alaskan hunting adventure. It's something that so many of

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Speaker 2: us dream of, so many of us want to do,

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Speaker 2: but maybe have been intimidated by it or unsure of

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Speaker 2: how to approach it, or maybe thought it was cost prohibitive.

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Speaker 2: Many different obstacles stand in the way, I think for

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Speaker 2: those of us in the lower forty eight when it

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Speaker 2: comes to going to Alaska. But I have been super

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Speaker 2: lucky over the last handful of years to get to

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Speaker 2: go up there twice now. And what I've discovered is

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Speaker 2: that to a large degree, it's it's way more possible

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Speaker 2: than I ever realized. And so today we're going to

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Speaker 2: talk to two people who've got even more experience than

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Speaker 2: I do when it comes to playing these kinds of trips,

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Speaker 2: and that is Steve Speck and Mark Helsing from Exo

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Speaker 2: Mountain Gear. And they came to mind for me as

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Speaker 2: the right guys talk about this because they just finished

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Speaker 2: up a really cool project all about planning and executing

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Speaker 2: and documenting epic Alaskan adventures. This is called their Experience Project. They,

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Speaker 2: between the two of them and a handful of other

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Speaker 2: buddies and folks they work with, did a four person

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Speaker 2: caribou hunt in Alaska, then a gosh, maybe three person

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Speaker 2: I can't remember how many guys did it, but a

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Speaker 2: multi person moose hunt in a different part of Alaska,

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Speaker 2: and then two of them went and did a mountain

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Speaker 2: goat in South or mountain goat hunt in Southeast Alaska.

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Speaker 2: So they had this wide array of Alaskan hunting experiences.

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Speaker 2: They filmed it all, created a terrific video series. But

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Speaker 2: then they also broke down in detail everything they did

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Speaker 2: to plan for the trips and then how the actual

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Speaker 2: trips went. They've got gear reviews and discussions and strategy

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Speaker 2: sessions and stories and all sorts of great stuff on

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Speaker 2: their own feeds there and their website over at the

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Speaker 2: Experience Project. So I'm not gonna try to cover all

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Speaker 2: that ground here today. Today it's about high level stuff.

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Speaker 2: Me and Steve and Mark talk through everything from you know,

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Speaker 2: why go to Alaska to who is an Alaska hunt

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Speaker 2: right for? You know, how to tell if you're ready

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Speaker 2: or not. We talk through costs and planning considerations. We

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Speaker 2: talk about, you know, should you go DIY or guide

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Speaker 2: it or use a transporter. We talk through a bunch

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Speaker 2: of things about, you know, preparing physically and mentally for

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Speaker 2: this kind of adventure, what kind of conditions to be

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Speaker 2: ready for you know, some of the key gear considerations,

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Speaker 2: and a bunch more along those lines. This one for

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Speaker 2: me was inspiring, exciting, and super informative, as I definitely

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Speaker 2: am hoping to go back to Alaska and do more

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Speaker 2: of this, so highly recommend this. If you ever hope

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Speaker 2: to go to Alaska, listen to this episode. It will

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Speaker 2: help you plan it, prepare for it, and it will

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Speaker 2: definitely inspire you to stay up late at night daydreaming

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Speaker 2: about the Last Frontier two. So that is the main

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Speaker 2: gist of this episode, but we also have a little

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Speaker 2: addendum that will be added to the end of this

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Speaker 2: kind of a part two of the podcast, because if

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Speaker 2: any of us want to be able to Alaska and

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Speaker 2: have these incredible wild experiences in this incredible wild place,

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Speaker 2: we need to make sure that Alaska stays incredible and

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Speaker 2: wild and open and public and healthy. So there are

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Speaker 2: thriving wildlife and fish populations and wild open public lands

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Speaker 2: for us to go out there and experience in the

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Speaker 2: month in Alaska. Unfortunately, as I have been learning more

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Speaker 2: and more here recently, is not as picture perfect and

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Speaker 2: unthreatened as you might imagine. Sometimes I think in our

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Speaker 2: imagination we just assume that Alaska's way up there, far away,

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Speaker 2: and it's safe from all the other threats that public

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Speaker 2: lands down to the lower forty eight are used to facing,

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Speaker 2: but that's actually not the case. There's a number of

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Speaker 2: controversial and potentially really significant projects up there and proposals

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Speaker 2: up there that could impact our ability to have all

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Speaker 2: those things I mentioned, thriving wildlife populations, wild and wide

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Speaker 2: open public places, clean water, you know, all that kind

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Speaker 2: of stuff. So I've got my friend Bjorn Dela. He

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Speaker 2: is a lifelong Alaskan resident, a die hard hunter, a conservationist,

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Speaker 2: and an outdoor writer. He joins me at the end

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Speaker 2: for a quick fifteen minute ish rundown of some of

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Speaker 2: the very most important issues right now when it comes

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Speaker 2: to Alaska and the future of Alaska and hunting and

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Speaker 2: fishing opportunities. So be sure to listen to that once

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Speaker 2: that you know how you can be a part of

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Speaker 2: a positive future for Alaska, so that each never one

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Speaker 2: of us has that chance to get up there someday

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Speaker 2: to enjoy it ourselves, hopefully our kids are kids, kids,

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Speaker 2: and many more generations to come. So that's the game

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Speaker 2: plan today, guys. It's going to be an absolute banger

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Speaker 2: of an epid. So I'm excited you're here with me.

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Speaker 2: I'm excited to talk about Alaska, excited to dream about Alaska,

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Speaker 2: and we should probably just get right to it. So

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Speaker 2: here we go, all right with me? Now, I've got

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Speaker 2: Steve Speck and Mark Helsing. Welcome to the show, gentlemen,

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Speaker 2: thanks for having us on. I'm excited for this one

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Speaker 2: as I have personally been spending a lot of my

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Speaker 2: kind of mental daydreaming time on Alaska over the last year.

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Speaker 2: I got to spend about two weeks there last fall,

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Speaker 2: and have already been planning a couple of new expeditions

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Speaker 2: probably for this year. So so super excited about it,

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Speaker 2: and this seemed like the perfect place to end this

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Speaker 2: series that we've been doing over on Wired to Hunt

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Speaker 2: this month all about kind of adding adventure to your

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Speaker 2: hunting season. We've talked about a bunch of whitetail ideas,

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Speaker 2: we've talked about Western ideas, and there's there's no bigger,

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Speaker 2: batter adventure than Alaska. And you guys, as I've been

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Speaker 2: watching from afar, kind of took that to the next level,

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Speaker 2: it seems like, with your experience project this year. So

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Speaker 2: I got to ask straight out the gate, why Alaska

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Speaker 2: from your perspective?

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Speaker 3: Why?

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Speaker 2: And I guess I'll let you Steve maybe kick it off?

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Speaker 4: Sure?

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Speaker 2: Why why is the Last Frontier a little bit different

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Speaker 2: than everything else? Why did you just have to go

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Speaker 2: and start hunting there?

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Speaker 4: It's it's just like everything you want it to be.

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Speaker 4: For me, My first showed up there I think was

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Speaker 4: in twenty fourteen, and it was actually a miserable experience

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Speaker 4: in this swamp for moves and just a terrible but

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Speaker 4: it's it's just like all I'll ask heroins, like a

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Speaker 4: drug that just freaking hooks, yeah, you know, and it's

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Speaker 4: just so like everything's heightened up. They're so I mean

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Speaker 4: for Mark and I Adventures everything, we're not like species

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Speaker 4: or what kind of coined our own phrase called experience hunters,

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Speaker 4: kind of where the Experienced project came from, and that

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Speaker 4: we're just chasing like adventure and like go give me

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Speaker 4: dial up the adventure dial to you know, one hundred

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Speaker 4: and twenty percent. Let's go do this. And so it's

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Speaker 4: not about the animal as much as like, what, you know,

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Speaker 4: what are the logistics of the hunt? How far are

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Speaker 4: we hiking in there? What are we dealing with weather

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Speaker 4: and mountains and brown bears? I mean just whatever. So

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Speaker 4: that's what Alaska represents in Idaho, Like, I mean, I've

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Speaker 4: been living here for thirty nine of my forty years

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Speaker 4: and had some amazing experiences, and you can get away

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Speaker 4: from people. Closest thing down here is like the Frank

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Speaker 4: Church Wilderness, which you can go into and just kind

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Speaker 4: of be just have this feeling of isolation. Everything's just heightened.

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Speaker 4: It's not like you're not like two miles from your

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Speaker 4: truck where you have that kind of safety out if

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Speaker 4: you need it. You really got to you know, you

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Speaker 4: get to train, you gotta be ready, you gotta have

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Speaker 4: your gear dialed in. And Alaska is just kind of

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Speaker 4: the pinnacle of all that for me. And so I've

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Speaker 4: once I started hunting, I was like, I got to

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Speaker 4: figure out a way to get up there at least

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Speaker 4: once a year. What's after my first ship up there?

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Speaker 2: So what about you, Mark?

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Speaker 5: I think, like we'll talk about we were talking about

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Speaker 5: before we recorded, Like there's this idea that Alaska's untouchable

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Speaker 5: in a way, right, like it we all dream of

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Speaker 5: it and it's this big, grand adventure. I was able

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Speaker 5: to go for the first time in twenty nineteen with

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Speaker 5: Steve and a group of guys and we did a

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Speaker 5: like a pretty typical fly in, drop camp, caribou hunt,

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Speaker 5: and uh, it's like flying commercially up to Alaska. One

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Speaker 5: was way easier than I expected. But then two, I

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Speaker 5: remember that as soon as we got on the floatplane,

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Speaker 5: I was sitting up front with the pilot a couple

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Speaker 5: of guys in the back, and I'm like looking at

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Speaker 5: this plane and there's pieces missing out of the dash

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Speaker 5: and like wires hanging down, and I'm like, is this

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Speaker 5: literally what we're taking? You know, it's a little nervous,

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Speaker 5: And yeah, it was like the first time that I

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Speaker 5: got nervous about this whole thing. And then just the

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Speaker 5: flight in. I mean I remember flying in and thinking, okay,

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Speaker 5: like we could turn around go home now. That was

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Speaker 5: worth it. Like just the experience of being Alaska, being

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Speaker 5: part of what is such a different way of life

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Speaker 5: in a way up there. I mean I could tell

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Speaker 5: a bunch of stories. We basically stole some stole some

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Speaker 5: guys truck this year, Like this is just the people,

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Speaker 5: the culture, yes, the hunting of course, but like the land.

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Speaker 5: I mean, it's just such a wild place. And as

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Speaker 5: soon as I did it once, like Steve said, it's

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Speaker 5: a little bit like Heroin where it's like, Okay, how

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Speaker 5: do I how do I get back up here? Like

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Speaker 5: how do I do that? Again? Like it doesn't. I've

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Speaker 5: been fortunate enough to hunt with a bunch of different

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Speaker 5: species and parts of Alaska, which has been cool because

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Speaker 5: we all talk about Alaska. But there's so much variety,

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Speaker 5: which is another thing. It's like, you know, from southeast

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Speaker 5: to the far North and interior and coastal and peninsula.

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Speaker 5: It's like, there is just so much to experience and explore.

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Speaker 5: And uh, one, it's it doesn't have to be as

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Speaker 5: difficult or as expensive as you think. I mean, it's

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Speaker 5: not cheap, but you know, you don't have to spend

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Speaker 5: ten plus grand to do something, and then once you

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Speaker 5: taste it, it's yeah, it literally is a little bit

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Speaker 5: like a drug for sure.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. It was so eye opening for me this year.

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Speaker 2: I have I've done two separate trips to Alaska myself.

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Speaker 2: The first one was kind of set up by I

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Speaker 2: went with Steve and a bunch of guys from media there,

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Speaker 2: so they did a lot of the logistics and I

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Speaker 2: was just kind of there. But this last time around,

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Speaker 2: I was much more involved in figuring it all out myself,

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Speaker 2: and that you know to your point, Mark, was this

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Speaker 2: aha moment for me that you know, little old meat

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Speaker 2: could do this, and it's it was no more expensive

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Speaker 2: to fly to Alaska than it was to like take

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Speaker 2: a trip to Florida or California or something, and I

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Speaker 2: hell of a lot preferred going to Alaska than one

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Speaker 2: of those spots. So so so, yeah, it was. It

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Speaker 2: was a big eye opener for me this past year.

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Speaker 2: But I do think there's this other thing that a

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Speaker 2: lot of folks wonder about. There's the cost question, but

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Speaker 2: then there's a certain degree of like experience or skill

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Speaker 2: barrier that I think a lot of people maybe look at.

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Speaker 2: And so that that leads me to this next major

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Speaker 2: question that I think a lot of people ask, which is,

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Speaker 2: you know, am I ready for this? Or or or

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Speaker 2: am I right for this? Am I qualified for this? How?

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Speaker 2: How would you guys go about recommend, you know, recommending

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Speaker 2: someone think about whether Alaska is right for them or not,

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Speaker 2: or if they are ready or not? How do you

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Speaker 2: think about that?

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Speaker 4: Steve, That's a tough one. Yeah. We were just in

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Speaker 4: Salt Lake at the Huntecks b and I had a

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Speaker 4: dad and a son come up and he was wanting

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Speaker 4: to like, hey, can you like tell me about your caraboull?

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Speaker 4: You know, I can give you all logistics and and

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Speaker 4: then I do. The more I talked to him, he

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Speaker 4: was like, you're not You're not ready for this, Like

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Speaker 4: it's a that has a lot of logistics and a

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Speaker 4: lot of oh you know, just you gotta be really

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Speaker 4: died with your gear and there's just a lot going

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Speaker 4: on there that's probably too much to chew. I think

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Speaker 4: my first hunt out there was a moose hunt, and

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Speaker 4: even that was quite a bit. And then after doing

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Speaker 4: that and then doing a caribou hunt, because a lot

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Speaker 4: of people will have the mindset, well, I'm just gonna

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Speaker 4: go to Alaska once and so I'm gonna hunt the

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Speaker 4: most preferred species, and I think doing something that's a

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Speaker 4: little bit easier to chew is probably a good start.

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Speaker 4: So like a drop camp caribou hunt a fairly easier

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Speaker 4: hunt than a moose hunt with all the logistics of

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Speaker 4: getting all to meat home and just just packing that

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Speaker 4: and dealing with Alaska. So I do think you need

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Speaker 4: to just evaluate where your skill set is as far

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Speaker 4: as if you're just if all you've been doing is

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Speaker 4: white tail hunting, your whole life. And you've never backpacked,

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Speaker 4: I probably you know, drive out to Colorado and back back.

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Speaker 4: I mean, you would want to kind of take it

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Speaker 4: in steps, don't. I think weather is certainly a big

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Speaker 4: issue up there in Alaska, down here and even in

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Speaker 4: Idaho pretty casual about stuff like baby sacks and tarps,

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Speaker 4: and we're backpack and up there, So you better have

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Speaker 4: a four season ted, you better be. That's the first

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Speaker 4: time I ever spent more than like twenty four hours

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Speaker 4: in a tent our first caribou trip up there, you

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Speaker 4: had like forty eight hours stuck inside a little tent

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Speaker 4: because it's sixty mile an hour winds, right, Like, you

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Speaker 4: don't experience that stuff in the lower forty eight But

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Speaker 4: if you came from never backpacking to going full into that,

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Speaker 4: I think it's a lot to take. Sure, certainly some

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Speaker 4: guys can do it and you're gonna you're gonna learn fast.

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Speaker 4: But it's if you have no experience carabo hunt, maybe

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Speaker 4: I don't know.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, I think a drop camp caribou hunt is

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Speaker 5: a great introduction. Some of the Kodiak stuff is a

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Speaker 5: great introduction. I'm sure we're talking with Obviously a lot

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Speaker 5: of deer hunters and sick of blacktails. It can be

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Speaker 5: miserable and difficult at times, but it's also very doable.

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Speaker 5: Whether that's boat based or lodge based. It's a little

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Speaker 5: bit different obviously if you like fly in early and

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Speaker 5: get dropped off a pie and you're out on your own.

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Speaker 5: So yeah, some of those hunts where it's whether it's transportation,

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Speaker 5: like it's a drop camp hunt or it's this boat

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Speaker 5: based hunt, and you you kind of you have this

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Speaker 5: ability to, like say on a drop camp hunt, either

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Speaker 5: have like a pretty solid base camp to return to

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Speaker 5: because essentially you're just day hunting from there, or on

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Speaker 5: a boat based or lodge based like Kodiak to your hunt,

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Speaker 5: you have this place to retreat to. Like you may

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Speaker 5: go out and you may be very difficult day hunting,

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Speaker 5: you may get soaking wet, you may be freezing cold,

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Speaker 5: but you kind of have this place to return to.

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Speaker 5: It isn't home, but at least it's something versus obviously

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Speaker 5: like a true backpack hunt where you're just like, hey,

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Speaker 5: it's me and just what's on my back for you know,

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Speaker 5: seven to ten days, Like that's just a different level

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Speaker 5: of you know, risk and skill and what have you.

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Speaker 5: So I would say, there's like it's all difficult in

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Speaker 5: its own way. And that's one thing to just like

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Speaker 5: anticipate with Alaska and is we're talking about like this

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Speaker 5: theme of adventure wouldn't be adventurous if it all went well, right, Like,

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Speaker 5: so you have to expect, like part of what I'm

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Speaker 5: signing up for with Alaska in particular, and with this

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Speaker 5: idea of like chasing the next level of adventure is

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Speaker 5: getting outside of my comfort zone. Otherwise it wouldn't be adventurous, right.

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Speaker 5: It's like Steve was saying, like stuck in a tent

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Speaker 5: for hours and hours gear failures, I've never seen like

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Speaker 5: a mental like grind that I've never experienced. Like all

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Speaker 5: that stuff has happened in Alaska at a different level.

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Speaker 5: But that's also what makes it amazing. You know, It's

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Speaker 5: been cool, I think for me to look at like

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Speaker 5: some of the hunts I've been in Alaska and like

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Speaker 5: to your point of am I ready or not, it's

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Speaker 5: been neat for me to realize I wasn't ready to

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Speaker 5: do certain things. But like over the experience of years,

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Speaker 5: I've built some skill sets, confidence experiences that made me

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Speaker 5: ready and it's cool to look back and go, man,

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Speaker 5: I couldn't have I literally could not have done this

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Speaker 5: ten years ago. Whether it was knowledge, whether it was mindset,

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Speaker 5: whether it was you know, physical capability, whatever. But it's

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Speaker 5: really rewarding to like just kind of push outside that

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Speaker 5: comfort zone and then again like that's that's the entire

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Speaker 5: point of adventure from my perspective.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so you bring up a great point, which is

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Speaker 2: you know you can get ready for this. This isn't

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Speaker 2: something that you're just like born Alaska ready or not.

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Speaker 2: Steve you alluded to, Hey, you know, maybe drive out

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Speaker 2: to Colorado and do smell cunning or something for a while.

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Speaker 2: Are there any other things you'd recommend or do you

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Speaker 2: want to expand on that a little bit? If there's

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Speaker 2: someone listening to this that says, hey, man, Alaska is

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Speaker 2: on the list, I want to do it someday, but

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Speaker 2: I recognize I'm not quite there. I've been a lifelong

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Speaker 2: Midwest hunter or whatever. Can you expand a little bit

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Speaker 2: on things that they can do to build that skill

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Speaker 2: set and readiness level so that maybe in five years

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Speaker 2: or ten years or however many years it is, they

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Speaker 2: could do what we're talking about. Steve, do you want

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Speaker 2: to leave on that?

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Speaker 4: I mean, Number one's going to be mental toughness, though

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Speaker 4: just I think you're gonna certainly. I mean last time

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Speaker 4: is obviously hug statement of a million different opportunities and

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Speaker 4: things that could be thrown out. You could have a

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Speaker 4: very easy hunter, you could have extremely difficult, challenging hunts.

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Speaker 4: I would say, on the average, they're going to be

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Speaker 4: more physical, they're going to take more mental toughness. You're

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Speaker 4: going to deal with more adversity. So just prepping your

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Speaker 4: body for what, reboding your mind for dealing with those

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Speaker 4: things is something that you know, we talk about, Mark

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Speaker 4: Can I talk about a lot in our podcast, try

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Speaker 4: to do episodes with how do you build mental toughness?

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Speaker 4: It's it's not something that just happens overnight. It's got

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Speaker 4: its kind of a slow growth thing. And it could

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Speaker 4: be as simple as you know, waking up every morning

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Speaker 4: at five am and going for a run and just

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Speaker 4: starting to deal with like I don't want to do that,

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Speaker 4: but I'm going to do it, or I mean anything

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Speaker 4: just that you don't want to do. We do a

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Speaker 4: thing never year called the death Hype, where we we

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Speaker 4: just pick a ridiculous distance that we go hike, and

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Speaker 4: we got to train for it and that I mean,

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Speaker 4: it's like going to overhype it. But what that's done

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Speaker 4: for myself over the last ten years of doing it

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Speaker 4: is pretty incredible. Just pushing past I got in think

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Speaker 4: I could hike a hundred miles in three days. You know,

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Speaker 4: I don't think that was possible, but yeah it is.

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Speaker 4: You just train for it and uh you know, block out,

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Speaker 4: put the brain's telling in between your ears. You know

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Speaker 4: this sucks, and so uh yeah, I mean you got

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Speaker 4: to you need to take some very practical steps. If

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Speaker 4: you've never backpacked, just walk out in your backyard and

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Speaker 4: you know, I mean if that's the very first night,

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Speaker 4: just go camp down in your backyard for a night,

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Speaker 4: blow up your matters, sleep in there, Go out there

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Speaker 4: when it's you know, snowing or raining and cold, and

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Speaker 4: not just when it's convenient, because that's when it's you know,

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Speaker 4: you're not going to get to pick the weather when

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Speaker 4: you're in Alaska. So just little baby steps and it

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Speaker 4: won't take long, I think, just to get there. Certainly

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Speaker 4: physical trainings. You know that the hunts can be very physical.

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Speaker 4: You're youre's you know, we've done some marks. Very first

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Speaker 4: hunt we did, we killed your caribou eight or nine

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Speaker 4: miles from our base. Yeah, and walk into across that

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Speaker 4: tundra of stuff was absolutely miserable. But you didn't have

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Speaker 4: to do that. We're just the caribou numbers were low

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Speaker 4: and we're like, well, we better go find them. Some

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Speaker 4: guys are very successful in those sounds, just hunting right

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Speaker 4: around camp and waiting for care but to come by.

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Speaker 4: How don't it mark any other practical steps? I mean,

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Speaker 4: I think it's just like every d would think. You

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Speaker 4: got to start somewhere and baby steps and pretty quickly

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Speaker 4: you get there, whether it's a year or five years. Yeah, yeah, Yeah.

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Speaker 5: Where my head went it was like everything you said,

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Speaker 5: Steve is relevant, Like true, my head also goes immediately

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Speaker 5: to making sure that the people you're potentially going to

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Speaker 5: do this Alaska trip are also on that same page,

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Speaker 5: in that same journey.

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Speaker 4: Great point.

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Speaker 5: So like if if you're doing that, you know, say,

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Speaker 5: it's like you and a buddy or you and you know,

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Speaker 5: your brother, your brother whatever, like do that together. Even

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Speaker 5: when I'm saying that's on yes, the hunt, obviously, that's

401
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Speaker 5: like what you're doing but all that training and stuff,

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Speaker 5: all the you know, weird hours, tired stuff. I have

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Speaker 5: a friend at home who's who's not hunted at Alaska,

404
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Speaker 5: but he's he talks with me about hunting and stuff,

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Speaker 5: and he's turning thirty three here in a few weeks,

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Speaker 5: and he sent me to the other day. I was like, hey, man,

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Speaker 5: I'm getting together a group of guys. I want to

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Speaker 5: hike thirty three miles for my thirty third birthday as

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Speaker 5: fast as possible. And we're starting at one am. Like,

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Speaker 5: fign me up, I'll be there. Like but those are

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Speaker 5: the types of things that if you never make that

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Speaker 5: decision to be like, hey, how fast can I hike

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Speaker 5: thirty three miles? Like what would it be like to

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Speaker 5: hike when I'm tired and do it at one in

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Speaker 5: the morning, And that type of thing, Like that's a

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Speaker 5: like fresh in my mind example of if I was

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Speaker 5: playing an Alaska trip with a couple of buddies, Like

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Speaker 5: that's the type of thing I would do. And that

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Speaker 5: may sound really weird, but you don't know, like you

420
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Speaker 5: could you could have grown up with someone, but you

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Speaker 5: really people change under adversity and like difficult situations and

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Speaker 5: lack of sleep and physical exhaustion and whatever. And one

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Speaker 5: thing that's cool, like with some of the guys and

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Speaker 5: trips we've done with Alaska, is like you know those

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Speaker 5: people like you know, like what they're made of and

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Speaker 5: essentially like when they're squeezed comes out of them and

427
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Speaker 5: there's nothing like that. But that's also like to the

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Speaker 5: point that you also don't know what you're like, So

429
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Speaker 5: you learn about a lot about yourself too by doing

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Speaker 5: that type of thing.

431
00:22:10,240 --> 00:22:25,240
Speaker 2: Yeah, So a lot of this, I think, in preparing

432
00:22:25,359 --> 00:22:28,200
Speaker 2: your your body and mind for this kind of trip

433
00:22:28,880 --> 00:22:31,880
Speaker 2: and then also enjoying the trip, I think comes down

434
00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:36,320
Speaker 2: to expectations. Yeah, both you know, knowing what to expect,

435
00:22:36,520 --> 00:22:40,320
Speaker 2: but then also properly setting you know, expectations around the

436
00:22:40,359 --> 00:22:43,680
Speaker 2: experience or your goals or whatever to I mean, I mean,

437
00:22:43,720 --> 00:22:46,160
Speaker 2: so much of our at least I can only speak

438
00:22:46,200 --> 00:22:49,240
Speaker 2: to myself, but so often I find that my hunts

439
00:22:49,280 --> 00:22:52,040
Speaker 2: are colored by the goals I come into the trip with.

440
00:22:52,640 --> 00:22:54,199
Speaker 2: If I go into it and it's if I go

441
00:22:54,280 --> 00:22:56,200
Speaker 2: in there like I got to kill a mature buck

442
00:22:56,280 --> 00:22:59,080
Speaker 2: or whatever, I end up you know, sometimes having a

443
00:22:59,119 --> 00:23:01,680
Speaker 2: totally different experience then if I went into it with

444
00:23:01,720 --> 00:23:04,480
Speaker 2: what you guys described being like experience seekers just going

445
00:23:04,520 --> 00:23:06,000
Speaker 2: into like, man, I want to have an adventure and

446
00:23:06,040 --> 00:23:07,840
Speaker 2: I want to see what's out here and see what

447
00:23:07,920 --> 00:23:12,080
Speaker 2: happens and push myself and enjoy every different crazy thing

448
00:23:12,080 --> 00:23:16,720
Speaker 2: that happens. How would you how would you recommend someone

449
00:23:16,800 --> 00:23:18,840
Speaker 2: or how have you guys gone into these trips and

450
00:23:19,160 --> 00:23:22,080
Speaker 2: figure out how to properly set expectations and goals, because

451
00:23:22,080 --> 00:23:24,560
Speaker 2: I think a lot of people will go into this

452
00:23:24,640 --> 00:23:25,960
Speaker 2: kind of like you said, like this is my one

453
00:23:26,040 --> 00:23:28,600
Speaker 2: time trip going to Alaska. I got to kill the

454
00:23:28,600 --> 00:23:30,600
Speaker 2: trophy moose or I got to kill the trophy sheep

455
00:23:30,680 --> 00:23:34,040
Speaker 2: or the trophy bear or whatever the thing is, and

456
00:23:34,080 --> 00:23:36,959
Speaker 2: that maybe that's setting yourself up for failure. Maybe not,

457
00:23:37,119 --> 00:23:38,440
Speaker 2: But what do you think about that?

458
00:23:38,520 --> 00:23:45,240
Speaker 4: Steve? Yeah? What Mark? I'm thinking of? How lucky are we?

459
00:23:45,359 --> 00:23:50,080
Speaker 4: That's the thought in my mind. We were one of

460
00:23:50,080 --> 00:23:52,600
Speaker 4: our exhausts were dropping into the Grand Canyon and I'm

461
00:23:52,680 --> 00:23:55,640
Speaker 4: just like sunrise and I'm looking around. I look at Mark, like, man,

462
00:23:55,640 --> 00:23:58,600
Speaker 4: how lucky are we? Like we're alive, we're healthy, or

463
00:23:59,320 --> 00:24:01,440
Speaker 4: were about right to do one hundred miles here into

464
00:24:01,480 --> 00:24:05,000
Speaker 4: the Grand Canyon, Like it's all mindset right, you just

465
00:24:05,000 --> 00:24:07,040
Speaker 4: have to have a positive attitude. I know that that

466
00:24:07,160 --> 00:24:09,879
Speaker 4: very first Alaska Moost trip I talked about like I

467
00:24:09,920 --> 00:24:12,240
Speaker 4: had never done a hunt where I wasn't in control

468
00:24:12,440 --> 00:24:16,280
Speaker 4: of what basically our transportation. I guess, like plane dropped

469
00:24:16,320 --> 00:24:19,280
Speaker 4: you off and you're out there and you know everything

470
00:24:19,280 --> 00:24:21,680
Speaker 4: in Idaho, or you know, I'd done another state surrounding Idaho.

471
00:24:21,880 --> 00:24:23,080
Speaker 4: Was like, all right, I'm done with the hunt. I

472
00:24:23,119 --> 00:24:24,640
Speaker 4: hike out, I get to my truck, I drive away,

473
00:24:24,680 --> 00:24:27,200
Speaker 4: and we were almost I was like a old rotten

474
00:24:27,200 --> 00:24:28,520
Speaker 4: five year old, you know, like, what do you mean

475
00:24:28,560 --> 00:24:30,280
Speaker 4: you can't come pick us up? We're done hunting. And

476
00:24:32,480 --> 00:24:34,800
Speaker 4: that was a whole new perspective of just like you

477
00:24:34,920 --> 00:24:39,200
Speaker 4: gotta kind of embrace embrace Alaska. Things move it at

478
00:24:39,240 --> 00:24:44,120
Speaker 4: their speed and uh yeah, I don't know. I mean,

479
00:24:44,600 --> 00:24:46,240
Speaker 4: you just gotta stop and smell the roses. I guess

480
00:24:46,280 --> 00:24:48,040
Speaker 4: the best thing I can say when you're like, hey,

481
00:24:48,040 --> 00:24:50,520
Speaker 4: I'm in Alaska. It's gonna be amazing experience, and just

482
00:24:50,560 --> 00:24:54,120
Speaker 4: set that expectation that stuff's gonna happen. Not everything's gonna

483
00:24:54,119 --> 00:24:57,800
Speaker 4: go right. I always tell people plan on one day

484
00:24:57,840 --> 00:24:59,600
Speaker 4: up front and one day in the back end of

485
00:24:59,680 --> 00:25:02,720
Speaker 4: weather like that's a guaranteed thing to happen. I'd say,

486
00:25:02,720 --> 00:25:05,560
Speaker 4: on the average, it's probably true. Sometimes we get super lucky,

487
00:25:05,640 --> 00:25:08,439
Speaker 4: get up there, beautiful weather, get flown in, get you know,

488
00:25:08,440 --> 00:25:09,959
Speaker 4: the day you're supposed to, get picked up the day

489
00:25:09,960 --> 00:25:12,320
Speaker 4: you're supposed to. Other times you sit there. I mean

490
00:25:12,760 --> 00:25:15,600
Speaker 4: moose hunt we did last year. We sat for basically

491
00:25:15,640 --> 00:25:17,800
Speaker 4: an extra seventy two hours in a camp at the

492
00:25:17,880 --> 00:25:19,359
Speaker 4: edge of this lake waiting for the plane to come

493
00:25:19,400 --> 00:25:21,359
Speaker 4: back because with the winds are too big and the

494
00:25:21,400 --> 00:25:23,359
Speaker 4: cousin ways on the lake, and it's just you just

495
00:25:23,400 --> 00:25:25,800
Speaker 4: got to like, well, like I could be sitting at

496
00:25:25,800 --> 00:25:28,080
Speaker 4: a desk in the office, you know, like this is

497
00:25:28,080 --> 00:25:31,119
Speaker 4: those worst places to be. But I think setting that

498
00:25:31,160 --> 00:25:36,399
Speaker 4: expectation of there was a guy on another hunt. We

499
00:25:36,400 --> 00:25:38,919
Speaker 4: were on a sheep hunt in twenty twenty two and

500
00:25:38,960 --> 00:25:42,119
Speaker 4: he was a principal and he had to be back,

501
00:25:42,240 --> 00:25:44,080
Speaker 4: like he could not he only had so many days

502
00:25:44,080 --> 00:25:45,960
Speaker 4: off of work and he had to be back or

503
00:25:46,000 --> 00:25:48,119
Speaker 4: it was like, you know, all hell broke loose on

504
00:25:48,240 --> 00:25:50,399
Speaker 4: that day and I was like, dude, I would not

505
00:25:50,520 --> 00:25:53,119
Speaker 4: book this trick. He got out. He got really lucky,

506
00:25:53,200 --> 00:25:55,000
Speaker 4: Like we were stuck in this camp waiting for the

507
00:25:55,000 --> 00:25:57,560
Speaker 4: weather to clear, and luckily the guy got out of there.

508
00:25:57,600 --> 00:26:00,000
Speaker 4: But it was like, don't put yourself in that position.

509
00:26:00,040 --> 00:26:02,640
Speaker 4: Should like always tell the wife and kids, like, hey,

510
00:26:02,720 --> 00:26:04,240
Speaker 4: add a couple days at the end of the trip.

511
00:26:04,760 --> 00:26:07,160
Speaker 4: That's a big one because if you put that you're

512
00:26:07,200 --> 00:26:08,840
Speaker 4: on Alaska time once you're up there, and if you

513
00:26:08,880 --> 00:26:12,159
Speaker 4: have these like very hard constraints on when you you know,

514
00:26:12,160 --> 00:26:13,719
Speaker 4: getting up there's one thing, but getting back out it's

515
00:26:13,720 --> 00:26:16,400
Speaker 4: obviously the one that matters the most. And so that's

516
00:26:16,520 --> 00:26:21,560
Speaker 4: that's definitely a good tip of plan for that. Yeah,

517
00:26:21,680 --> 00:26:23,840
Speaker 4: I don't know, I mean, yeah, I think it's just

518
00:26:24,040 --> 00:26:27,280
Speaker 4: all the life. Just how lucky are we, Like just

519
00:26:27,800 --> 00:26:30,400
Speaker 4: put a smile on your face, you're happy, Like there's

520
00:26:30,400 --> 00:26:32,760
Speaker 4: always problems, there's always stuff come up. Having a positive

521
00:26:32,800 --> 00:26:37,280
Speaker 4: outlook can drastically change. I mean, I'm I know Mark,

522
00:26:37,320 --> 00:26:40,320
Speaker 4: same as me. Like firm believer and positive attitude has

523
00:26:40,359 --> 00:26:43,280
Speaker 4: positive outcomes, right, Like if you're upbeat and like, yeah,

524
00:26:43,280 --> 00:26:44,720
Speaker 4: we're gonna make this happen or this is gonna be

525
00:26:44,720 --> 00:26:47,320
Speaker 4: a fun experience. Generally, like when the bad things happen,

526
00:26:47,480 --> 00:26:49,560
Speaker 4: you're just like ah, you brush them off, Versus if

527
00:26:49,560 --> 00:26:52,240
Speaker 4: you're expecting a bad experience, and the bad things happen,

528
00:26:52,280 --> 00:26:53,679
Speaker 4: you go, oh, I told you, you know this is

529
00:26:53,680 --> 00:26:58,440
Speaker 4: gonna suck. So your mind can be a pretty powerful thing. Yeah.

530
00:26:58,680 --> 00:26:59,040
Speaker 3: True.

531
00:26:59,480 --> 00:27:03,359
Speaker 5: I remember speaking with Billy Malls. He's like an Alaska guide.

532
00:27:03,920 --> 00:27:06,000
Speaker 5: I've been doing it a long time. I think we

533
00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:08,080
Speaker 5: were speaking with him before our first trip, my first

534
00:27:08,080 --> 00:27:10,560
Speaker 5: trip Steve before the twenty eighteen care of Hunt on

535
00:27:10,640 --> 00:27:14,359
Speaker 5: our podcast, and he basically was talking about how like

536
00:27:14,480 --> 00:27:19,360
Speaker 5: the the worst hunting experiences or the worst like outcomes.

537
00:27:19,480 --> 00:27:21,600
Speaker 5: I guess that his hunters have had is all because

538
00:27:21,600 --> 00:27:24,840
Speaker 5: they've been focused on like the trophy to success, the results,

539
00:27:24,840 --> 00:27:27,240
Speaker 5: and they've whether they did or didn't fill a tag,

540
00:27:27,920 --> 00:27:30,760
Speaker 5: they ultimately missed the experience of hunting Alaska because they

541
00:27:30,760 --> 00:27:34,159
Speaker 5: were just focused on like especially too with Alaska, like

542
00:27:34,280 --> 00:27:36,880
Speaker 5: whether it's you know, something on the more affordable side,

543
00:27:36,960 --> 00:27:39,200
Speaker 5: or you do save up for years and then it's

544
00:27:39,240 --> 00:27:42,760
Speaker 5: like hunting sheep, Like wherever you're at on that spectrum,

545
00:27:42,760 --> 00:27:46,080
Speaker 5: there's there is like this. Oh, I'm I've been dreaming

546
00:27:46,119 --> 00:27:48,920
Speaker 5: about this forever. I've been saving for this. I'm spending

547
00:27:48,960 --> 00:27:52,600
Speaker 5: good money. I better come back home, you know, with

548
00:27:52,720 --> 00:27:56,160
Speaker 5: like my tag filled like that that pressure I think

549
00:27:56,240 --> 00:27:59,159
Speaker 5: is more natural to Alaska that mindset, but it's a

550
00:27:59,200 --> 00:28:03,359
Speaker 5: real danger like missing why you're doing it. So there's

551
00:28:03,359 --> 00:28:06,399
Speaker 5: a balance of like stop and smell the roses at

552
00:28:06,400 --> 00:28:08,520
Speaker 5: the same time, Like Steve just talked about all that

553
00:28:08,560 --> 00:28:11,439
Speaker 5: positive mindset and enjoy the experienced stuff. He is like

554
00:28:11,600 --> 00:28:15,640
Speaker 5: stone cold set on like no, we will be successful period, right,

555
00:28:15,800 --> 00:28:19,720
Speaker 5: So it's in the process, like embrace every aspect of it,

556
00:28:19,720 --> 00:28:22,399
Speaker 5: embrace the adventure, but never lose sight of like you

557
00:28:22,480 --> 00:28:25,840
Speaker 5: are there for a mission. Because also that like relentless

558
00:28:25,880 --> 00:28:29,760
Speaker 5: attitude of expecting success is what creates success when stuff

559
00:28:29,800 --> 00:28:34,160
Speaker 5: gets bad, Like the first mountain I had a mountain

560
00:28:34,200 --> 00:28:38,440
Speaker 5: goat hunt up there and we essentially had eight it

561
00:28:38,480 --> 00:28:43,920
Speaker 5: was either eight or nine days, and the in the

562
00:28:44,000 --> 00:28:46,520
Speaker 5: area and who I was hunting with, Like it's pretty

563
00:28:46,600 --> 00:28:49,560
Speaker 5: much like expected to fill your tag, like whether the

564
00:28:49,640 --> 00:28:54,120
Speaker 5: quality ability is or whatever. We'll see when people don't

565
00:28:54,120 --> 00:28:56,360
Speaker 5: fill their tag on the hunt with his outfit or

566
00:28:56,960 --> 00:28:59,040
Speaker 5: you know, he says, like it's generally because people quit.

567
00:28:59,120 --> 00:29:02,600
Speaker 5: It's not because they didn't get opportunity. It's because they

568
00:29:02,720 --> 00:29:05,680
Speaker 5: quit because it's too difficult to stick it out. So

569
00:29:05,720 --> 00:29:08,560
Speaker 5: a long story short, we're going into like the last

570
00:29:08,720 --> 00:29:13,920
Speaker 5: night of this eight nine day hunt. I hadn't had

571
00:29:13,960 --> 00:29:17,080
Speaker 5: a shot opportunity. We have to be out of the

572
00:29:17,080 --> 00:29:19,480
Speaker 5: field tomorrow, and like way up on the mountain, a

573
00:29:19,520 --> 00:29:22,000
Speaker 5: low visibility, you can't see a thing. So I had

574
00:29:22,040 --> 00:29:24,200
Speaker 5: to wrestle with that whole reality of like what is

575
00:29:24,240 --> 00:29:27,280
Speaker 5: it like to go on a hunt that I've been

576
00:29:28,480 --> 00:29:31,720
Speaker 5: truly wanting to do for many many years and that

577
00:29:31,880 --> 00:29:34,000
Speaker 5: was not cheap and now I'm going to bed knowing

578
00:29:34,080 --> 00:29:37,200
Speaker 5: we're hacking out here tomorrow, Like I had to wrestle

579
00:29:37,240 --> 00:29:39,239
Speaker 5: with that, and what what is that like to go

580
00:29:39,280 --> 00:29:41,480
Speaker 5: do this experience, to bring other people with me, to

581
00:29:41,560 --> 00:29:44,600
Speaker 5: have talked about it publicly, to you know, have money

582
00:29:44,640 --> 00:29:46,320
Speaker 5: on the line and all that stuff, and not fell

583
00:29:46,320 --> 00:29:49,920
Speaker 5: the tag. And I mean it was definitely like a

584
00:29:49,960 --> 00:29:52,200
Speaker 5: mental process to come to peace with it. And I

585
00:29:52,240 --> 00:29:54,360
Speaker 5: don't know what it would have been like to wrestle

586
00:29:54,400 --> 00:29:57,280
Speaker 5: with that afterwards, because I ultimately filled my tag the

587
00:29:57,280 --> 00:29:59,960
Speaker 5: next day, which is wild, but I truly didn't expect.

588
00:30:00,240 --> 00:30:02,040
Speaker 5: So I was like going through that, like I hadn't

589
00:30:02,040 --> 00:30:05,080
Speaker 5: given up hope, but like in all reality of basically

590
00:30:05,160 --> 00:30:08,680
Speaker 5: just hunting in the morning, and that's it. So yeah,

591
00:30:08,720 --> 00:30:12,800
Speaker 5: it's I get the whole pressure of it, I guess,

592
00:30:14,440 --> 00:30:16,880
Speaker 5: but again, like, why are.

593
00:30:16,760 --> 00:30:17,400
Speaker 3: You doing this?

594
00:30:18,880 --> 00:30:21,960
Speaker 5: Is it? It's hopefully not for social media. It's hopefully

595
00:30:22,000 --> 00:30:25,320
Speaker 5: not to say you've killed you know, bare buck bowl, sheet,

596
00:30:25,440 --> 00:30:28,760
Speaker 5: bram whatever. It's hopefully for the experience of it, for

597
00:30:28,800 --> 00:30:31,200
Speaker 5: the adventure of it too. Haven't gone to Alaska and

598
00:30:31,360 --> 00:30:36,240
Speaker 5: like met nature at a different level, essentially like hopefully

599
00:30:36,280 --> 00:30:38,760
Speaker 5: that's your why Yeah?

600
00:30:39,080 --> 00:30:42,440
Speaker 2: Uh kind of continued down this line with expectations. I

601
00:30:42,480 --> 00:30:44,640
Speaker 2: think there's and this is even something I feel like

602
00:30:44,680 --> 00:30:47,000
Speaker 2: one of you mentioned in one of your in one

603
00:30:47,040 --> 00:30:50,440
Speaker 2: of your episodes this past fall, but there's there's this

604
00:30:50,840 --> 00:30:58,200
Speaker 2: very hard to picture difference between what you imagine it

605
00:30:58,280 --> 00:31:00,720
Speaker 2: being like when you're looking at the map and when

606
00:31:00,760 --> 00:31:03,280
Speaker 2: you're you know, researching, and you're like, oh man, well

607
00:31:03,320 --> 00:31:05,720
Speaker 2: that's only you know, three coords of a mile from

608
00:31:05,720 --> 00:31:07,840
Speaker 2: this spot to this spot, or this is only a

609
00:31:07,880 --> 00:31:11,480
Speaker 2: thousand feet from this spot to this spot. It's often

610
00:31:11,600 --> 00:31:15,440
Speaker 2: very hard to actually translate from at home to what

611
00:31:15,520 --> 00:31:17,640
Speaker 2: it's actually going to be like there in the field,

612
00:31:18,240 --> 00:31:21,080
Speaker 2: And for people who've never been there, who've never done

613
00:31:21,120 --> 00:31:25,280
Speaker 2: this before, it's especially hard even for people that I've experienced,

614
00:31:25,320 --> 00:31:28,040
Speaker 2: you know, doing Western hunts and stuff. I mean, it's

615
00:31:28,200 --> 00:31:31,760
Speaker 2: as you said, it's different. You guys this past fall

616
00:31:32,640 --> 00:31:36,560
Speaker 2: were on caribou hunts, moose hunt, and a mountain goat

617
00:31:36,640 --> 00:31:40,240
Speaker 2: hunt from across some pretty wildly different terrain right low

618
00:31:40,400 --> 00:31:42,600
Speaker 2: river bottom stuff there for your moose hunt, Steve. And

619
00:31:42,600 --> 00:31:44,040
Speaker 2: then I saw, you know, Mark, you were up there

620
00:31:44,120 --> 00:31:46,560
Speaker 2: chasing the goats way up high in the alpine. You

621
00:31:46,600 --> 00:31:48,800
Speaker 2: guys are kind of in that Tundrum Mountain kind of

622
00:31:49,280 --> 00:31:51,719
Speaker 2: meeting ground there for your caribou hunt. You saw some

623
00:31:51,800 --> 00:31:57,800
Speaker 2: wildly different Alaskan experiences. Can you paint a picture for

624
00:31:57,920 --> 00:31:59,920
Speaker 2: me a little bit for our audience, a little bit

625
00:32:00,080 --> 00:32:04,280
Speaker 2: of kind of as best as you can what folks

626
00:32:04,400 --> 00:32:07,800
Speaker 2: should be prepared to experience when they get there, when

627
00:32:07,840 --> 00:32:12,719
Speaker 2: it comes to this wildly different terrain, habitat and experience

628
00:32:12,800 --> 00:32:14,600
Speaker 2: on the ground, Because this isn't like walking on the

629
00:32:14,600 --> 00:32:16,520
Speaker 2: back forward you go sitt in a tree stand in Missouri.

630
00:32:17,560 --> 00:32:20,680
Speaker 2: This is pretty different. Could you guys take some turns

631
00:32:20,680 --> 00:32:23,920
Speaker 2: just kind of walking through what it's actually like there

632
00:32:23,920 --> 00:32:25,360
Speaker 2: on the ground in some of these places.

633
00:32:25,680 --> 00:32:28,440
Speaker 4: Yeah, you mean, like from a physical efforts standpoint to

634
00:32:28,520 --> 00:32:30,160
Speaker 4: naviget or.

635
00:32:30,240 --> 00:32:33,280
Speaker 2: From from a physical standpoint, but then it actually literally

636
00:32:33,560 --> 00:32:36,760
Speaker 2: like what do you happen to slog through? What's it

637
00:32:36,960 --> 00:32:40,360
Speaker 2: like to slog across the tundra tussocks or pushing through

638
00:32:40,360 --> 00:32:43,080
Speaker 2: all their thickets or climbing up to refound that mountain

639
00:32:43,120 --> 00:32:46,840
Speaker 2: goat mark that I think people could use a little

640
00:32:46,840 --> 00:32:49,360
Speaker 2: bit of color to really truly understand what that looks

641
00:32:49,400 --> 00:32:50,760
Speaker 2: like and what that feels like.

642
00:32:51,360 --> 00:32:57,080
Speaker 4: Yeah, miserable or amazing, depending on how you want to

643
00:32:57,080 --> 00:33:00,320
Speaker 4: look at it. It's certainly like when I or whatever,

644
00:33:00,320 --> 00:33:02,960
Speaker 4: I'm done with almost any Alaska hunt, I'm just like

645
00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:04,640
Speaker 4: I can't wait to get back to Idaho and just

646
00:33:04,680 --> 00:33:09,160
Speaker 4: be on dirt and rocks, cause everything trail ground, yeah,

647
00:33:09,240 --> 00:33:12,440
Speaker 4: and a trail like there's no trails. It's it's tough

648
00:33:12,520 --> 00:33:16,760
Speaker 4: going on our moose hunt. You know, I'm we're hiking

649
00:33:16,800 --> 00:33:19,480
Speaker 4: you around stuff. I'm always designing and testing prototypes, and

650
00:33:19,680 --> 00:33:21,760
Speaker 4: like I can basically hike it like three and a

651
00:33:21,760 --> 00:33:23,360
Speaker 4: half to four miles an hour with a way to

652
00:33:23,400 --> 00:33:26,440
Speaker 4: pack on trails, Like, okay, four miles if I'm cruising,

653
00:33:26,480 --> 00:33:28,080
Speaker 4: I can do that in an hour. You can have

654
00:33:28,120 --> 00:33:30,800
Speaker 4: to Alaska. Like that's all just gone. Even so when

655
00:33:30,800 --> 00:33:34,200
Speaker 4: I'm in Idaho, if I'm planning a backpack and route

656
00:33:34,320 --> 00:33:36,840
Speaker 4: right like, up, I'm gonna hike this trail, go up

657
00:33:36,840 --> 00:33:39,440
Speaker 4: this finger ridge that comes down, I can look at

658
00:33:39,480 --> 00:33:42,120
Speaker 4: it and get a pretty good idea of you know,

659
00:33:42,160 --> 00:33:44,680
Speaker 4: maybe twenty minutes a mile, maybe thirty minutes a mile.

660
00:33:44,880 --> 00:33:47,200
Speaker 4: If I'm planning in say like, all right, I need

661
00:33:47,200 --> 00:33:49,200
Speaker 4: to leave boy C at this time so I can

662
00:33:49,240 --> 00:33:50,680
Speaker 4: get to the trailhead and I can get to where

663
00:33:50,720 --> 00:33:52,880
Speaker 4: I want to camp and glass by dark. I can

664
00:33:53,000 --> 00:33:54,440
Speaker 4: you know, I got a pretty good idea. You get

665
00:33:54,440 --> 00:33:56,640
Speaker 4: to Alaska, you throw that out the window. Like we

666
00:33:56,640 --> 00:33:59,760
Speaker 4: were on the Moose Hunt in particular, we got dropped

667
00:33:59,760 --> 00:34:02,040
Speaker 4: off lake and we're going to hike between two and

668
00:34:02,120 --> 00:34:06,400
Speaker 4: five miles up this kind of marshy bottom. There's a

669
00:34:06,480 --> 00:34:08,600
Speaker 4: river going through it. And then like, well, it looks

670
00:34:08,640 --> 00:34:10,680
Speaker 4: like there's some hills to the side of the river

671
00:34:10,719 --> 00:34:13,000
Speaker 4: that we can get up in and probably get out

672
00:34:13,040 --> 00:34:15,200
Speaker 4: of the marshy stuff. That should be easier walking. And

673
00:34:15,680 --> 00:34:17,320
Speaker 4: you get there and it's like, okay, never mind, the

674
00:34:17,400 --> 00:34:20,440
Speaker 4: hill is like neck deep brush. I guess not happening.

675
00:34:20,520 --> 00:34:24,480
Speaker 4: So you're just literally something that I'm sure a lot

676
00:34:24,520 --> 00:34:26,239
Speaker 4: of listeners could great to would be duck hunting or

677
00:34:26,280 --> 00:34:28,480
Speaker 4: something like that. Your you're knee deep in muck with

678
00:34:28,560 --> 00:34:32,120
Speaker 4: a ninety pound pack on just I mean it was

679
00:34:32,400 --> 00:34:36,560
Speaker 4: hours to get like a mile. We were moving camp

680
00:34:36,600 --> 00:34:38,680
Speaker 4: on the second day and it's like we got We're

681
00:34:38,719 --> 00:34:40,920
Speaker 4: looking at it and it's like, okay, that's gonna take

682
00:34:40,960 --> 00:34:43,080
Speaker 4: a while, and I pull up on ITX It's like, oh,

683
00:34:43,120 --> 00:34:45,640
Speaker 4: that's eight hundred yards. I'm like, that could take two

684
00:34:45,640 --> 00:34:48,360
Speaker 4: hours just cover that inder dark. I mean, it sounds ridiculous,

685
00:34:48,360 --> 00:34:51,200
Speaker 4: but it's it's true. And we moved through the country

686
00:34:51,280 --> 00:34:55,640
Speaker 4: faster than most. So it's definitely. You know, I don't

687
00:34:55,640 --> 00:35:00,319
Speaker 4: want to like harp on physical conditioning and and being

688
00:35:00,320 --> 00:35:01,919
Speaker 4: ready for that stuff. I don't want to scare people

689
00:35:01,920 --> 00:35:04,960
Speaker 4: away from it. But if you're not ready, you know,

690
00:35:05,000 --> 00:35:08,239
Speaker 4: if you're if you're saving for multiple years, this is

691
00:35:08,280 --> 00:35:10,520
Speaker 4: you know, like this is your like you know your

692
00:35:10,560 --> 00:35:12,880
Speaker 4: budget only allows to do this one hunt, this one time.

693
00:35:13,360 --> 00:35:17,719
Speaker 4: Don't let your physical ability set you back. So definitely

694
00:35:17,719 --> 00:35:20,840
Speaker 4: take training very very serious. And you may not need it,

695
00:35:20,880 --> 00:35:23,600
Speaker 4: but worst case, you're just in better shape. But generally

696
00:35:23,640 --> 00:35:25,720
Speaker 4: every hunt I've done, it's going to be like physical

697
00:35:25,760 --> 00:35:28,520
Speaker 4: condition is a huge part of it. What Mark was

698
00:35:28,560 --> 00:35:31,040
Speaker 4: saying on the mountain, goat hunts. So the number one

699
00:35:31,040 --> 00:35:32,960
Speaker 4: reason people aren't successful as they quit, right Like they

700
00:35:33,080 --> 00:35:35,719
Speaker 4: just get tired and they throw in the towel. So

701
00:35:35,760 --> 00:35:38,759
Speaker 4: it's it's it can be very very physically demanding. That

702
00:35:39,040 --> 00:35:41,720
Speaker 4: But like I think if you're from like Oregon and Washington,

703
00:35:41,760 --> 00:35:43,680
Speaker 4: like hunting Roosevelt Elk, you used to hunt really brush

704
00:35:43,719 --> 00:35:46,520
Speaker 4: the country. You don't get that in Idaho where it's

705
00:35:46,600 --> 00:35:49,000
Speaker 4: just a sea of alder brush and stuff up there.

706
00:35:49,040 --> 00:35:53,240
Speaker 4: That it's just a whole nother level. Yeah, the first

707
00:35:53,320 --> 00:35:55,400
Speaker 4: caribou hunt we did that Mark was talking about, like

708
00:35:55,480 --> 00:35:58,840
Speaker 4: walking through eight miles of the Tussix tundra of stuff

709
00:35:59,400 --> 00:36:03,279
Speaker 4: so fricking miserable. Or the ground is hyeah, you got

710
00:36:03,320 --> 00:36:06,120
Speaker 4: like eighteen inches just humps and heaves everywhere, and you

711
00:36:06,120 --> 00:36:08,040
Speaker 4: don't know if you're going to fall into them or not.

712
00:36:08,160 --> 00:36:09,719
Speaker 4: It's I don't know, I don't know how to put

713
00:36:09,719 --> 00:36:13,680
Speaker 4: it in perspective. It's just it's I mean, if you know,

714
00:36:13,719 --> 00:36:15,360
Speaker 4: if you do, if you went out to idahoud a

715
00:36:15,360 --> 00:36:17,680
Speaker 4: really tough backpack. I've hunted every square inch of the

716
00:36:17,760 --> 00:36:21,759
Speaker 4: state pretty much. There's everything I've done Alaska is exponentially

717
00:36:21,800 --> 00:36:23,799
Speaker 4: harder than what I've done here. And this is a rough,

718
00:36:23,880 --> 00:36:27,200
Speaker 4: rugged state here, and I know, yeah, yeah, yeah.

719
00:36:27,480 --> 00:36:31,520
Speaker 5: That first caribou hunt, the first pole like hunting day

720
00:36:31,560 --> 00:36:33,040
Speaker 5: we had there was I think whether there's a lot

721
00:36:33,080 --> 00:36:37,319
Speaker 5: six of us on that trip, Steve and yeah, well

722
00:36:37,360 --> 00:36:39,839
Speaker 5: six in the sorry, so Justin was filming. We had

723
00:36:39,880 --> 00:36:42,839
Speaker 5: seven glass, six eggs, but we were we were all

724
00:36:42,880 --> 00:36:46,920
Speaker 5: on this hillside and we had killed a bowl, one bowl,

725
00:36:47,760 --> 00:36:50,160
Speaker 5: and then we spot these caribou, just a few of them,

726
00:36:50,200 --> 00:36:53,440
Speaker 5: like across the basin, and so like lineus side, I

727
00:36:53,440 --> 00:36:55,720
Speaker 5: want to say, it was like one point three miles

728
00:36:55,800 --> 00:36:58,400
Speaker 5: or something. So we make this plan where it's like,

729
00:36:58,400 --> 00:37:00,839
Speaker 5: all right, these three guys are to stay where they're at,

730
00:37:00,960 --> 00:37:04,160
Speaker 5: keep glassing. The other three guys plus Justin the cabman.

731
00:37:04,239 --> 00:37:06,919
Speaker 5: So four guys we're gonna cross, and so we're gonna

732
00:37:07,000 --> 00:37:08,839
Speaker 5: drop down and like a cross the bottom and then

733
00:37:08,840 --> 00:37:11,279
Speaker 5: come back up this other side. So I was in

734
00:37:11,320 --> 00:37:12,480
Speaker 5: the group of guys crossing.

735
00:37:12,840 --> 00:37:13,839
Speaker 3: So we drop.

736
00:37:13,880 --> 00:37:15,680
Speaker 5: It's not a ton of elevation, but we dropped, and

737
00:37:15,719 --> 00:37:17,879
Speaker 5: then we get to the bottom and there's a river

738
00:37:17,920 --> 00:37:20,480
Speaker 5: bottom and It looks like when you're sitting on the

739
00:37:20,560 --> 00:37:22,600
Speaker 5: hillside looking at where the caribou were and we're we're

740
00:37:22,600 --> 00:37:26,160
Speaker 5: headed looks straightforward as all get out, right. You get

741
00:37:26,200 --> 00:37:29,040
Speaker 5: down there and there's like this brush and these trees

742
00:37:29,120 --> 00:37:32,360
Speaker 5: and all these super deep creek cuts you never saw,

743
00:37:32,400 --> 00:37:34,400
Speaker 5: and then you're crossing the river and you're like taking

744
00:37:34,440 --> 00:37:37,319
Speaker 5: waiters on or putting waiters on, and then taking them off.

745
00:37:37,360 --> 00:37:39,799
Speaker 5: And then soon you weroise, as soon as you wereise,

746
00:37:39,840 --> 00:37:41,239
Speaker 5: you took them off. You shouldn't have taken them off.

747
00:37:41,280 --> 00:37:43,160
Speaker 5: You got to put them back on. And like you're

748
00:37:43,200 --> 00:37:45,839
Speaker 5: falling your slide and you're stepping in holes. There's way

749
00:37:45,880 --> 00:37:49,040
Speaker 5: more micro terrain than you expected. Blah blah blah blah blah.

750
00:37:49,120 --> 00:37:51,920
Speaker 5: So I'm doing all that with these guys, and ultimately,

751
00:37:51,920 --> 00:37:53,440
Speaker 5: at the end of the day, we caught U through

752
00:37:53,480 --> 00:37:55,840
Speaker 5: these cariba. We kill the Cariban. What I didn't know

753
00:37:55,960 --> 00:37:57,680
Speaker 5: is all the other guys who sat back on that

754
00:37:57,760 --> 00:38:01,799
Speaker 5: hillside were like watching us, waiting for us, and just

755
00:38:01,840 --> 00:38:07,080
Speaker 5: going what are they doing? Why are they going so slow?

756
00:38:07,120 --> 00:38:09,799
Speaker 5: And it like became this joke of they have no

757
00:38:09,960 --> 00:38:13,520
Speaker 5: sense of urgency, Like these carab right here and they

758
00:38:13,560 --> 00:38:15,839
Speaker 5: have no sense of urgency. Meanwhile, we're down there like

759
00:38:16,120 --> 00:38:18,480
Speaker 5: going as fast as we can, working as hard as

760
00:38:18,480 --> 00:38:22,960
Speaker 5: we can, and it's just it's I would say, take like,

761
00:38:22,960 --> 00:38:25,480
Speaker 5: as a rule of thumb, take what you think you're

762
00:38:25,520 --> 00:38:28,520
Speaker 5: capable of in the lower forty eight and at least

763
00:38:28,560 --> 00:38:31,319
Speaker 5: half it, but like more often it's like a third. Right,

764
00:38:31,400 --> 00:38:33,279
Speaker 5: So if you're like, oh, I can hike three miles

765
00:38:33,280 --> 00:38:36,359
Speaker 5: an hour where I hunt, it's probably like if you're

766
00:38:36,360 --> 00:38:38,120
Speaker 5: doing a mile an hour in a lot of areas

767
00:38:38,120 --> 00:38:43,600
Speaker 5: of Alaska, like you're cruising. So yeah, like perspective on

768
00:38:43,680 --> 00:38:45,759
Speaker 5: like what you see, how much ground you can cover.

769
00:38:47,560 --> 00:38:48,120
Speaker 3: We love the.

770
00:38:48,080 --> 00:38:50,279
Speaker 5: ONEX guys, but definitely have to give them trouble. Like

771
00:38:50,280 --> 00:38:53,600
Speaker 5: do you guys use a weird ratio for the Alaska

772
00:38:53,640 --> 00:38:57,600
Speaker 5: maps because like nothing lines up? You know, Yeah, it's

773
00:38:57,640 --> 00:38:59,000
Speaker 5: just deceiving for sure.

774
00:38:59,480 --> 00:39:04,319
Speaker 2: Yeah, different world up there. Another thing I wanted to

775
00:39:04,320 --> 00:39:07,200
Speaker 2: get a little more kind of clarity from you guys

776
00:39:07,200 --> 00:39:11,600
Speaker 2: on when thinking about someone planning their first trip like

777
00:39:11,640 --> 00:39:16,439
Speaker 2: this would be determining whether they should do guided or

778
00:39:16,520 --> 00:39:19,840
Speaker 2: hire flight service to drop them in somewhere, or to

779
00:39:19,880 --> 00:39:22,279
Speaker 2: try to do something totally DIY. And I know there's

780
00:39:22,280 --> 00:39:24,680
Speaker 2: certain species. You can't do DIY, right, So there's some

781
00:39:24,840 --> 00:39:27,520
Speaker 2: stipulations there. But do you guys have any thoughts there

782
00:39:27,520 --> 00:39:31,000
Speaker 2: for people as they're trying to make that decision, because

783
00:39:31,040 --> 00:39:33,000
Speaker 2: I think that's another big one. People when they're looking,

784
00:39:33,040 --> 00:39:35,279
Speaker 2: they're looking at I have a certain set of experience,

785
00:39:35,920 --> 00:39:39,279
Speaker 2: but then I also have a budget and you're trying

786
00:39:39,280 --> 00:39:41,520
Speaker 2: to balance all that kind of stuff. So I don't know,

787
00:39:41,560 --> 00:39:44,400
Speaker 2: have you guys had any thoughts on that that have

788
00:39:44,680 --> 00:39:47,960
Speaker 2: changed over the years.

789
00:39:48,400 --> 00:39:52,080
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean certainly I wouldn't do if it's new

790
00:39:52,120 --> 00:39:55,879
Speaker 4: to Alaska. I wouldn't do anything without knowing somebody who's

791
00:39:55,880 --> 00:40:00,000
Speaker 4: done the hunt prior, have a friend, get on internet forums,

792
00:40:00,000 --> 00:40:02,000
Speaker 4: get on Facebook, I don't know, just start asking questions

793
00:40:02,360 --> 00:40:05,120
Speaker 4: and find somebody. You know. Usually guys are they did

794
00:40:05,120 --> 00:40:06,719
Speaker 4: the hunt, and they're willing to share like who they

795
00:40:06,760 --> 00:40:08,279
Speaker 4: went or where they went or things like that because

796
00:40:08,280 --> 00:40:09,680
Speaker 4: they probably don't go to go back. It's not like

797
00:40:09,800 --> 00:40:12,560
Speaker 4: lower forty eight. We're like very protective of this basin

798
00:40:12,600 --> 00:40:16,520
Speaker 4: you hunt it or something I would highly highly recommend yet,

799
00:40:16,640 --> 00:40:19,719
Speaker 4: like some kind of connect personal connection to what you're

800
00:40:19,760 --> 00:40:23,680
Speaker 4: doing up there, versus you know, if you just find

801
00:40:23,680 --> 00:40:26,200
Speaker 4: a you know, Google Search some outfitter and do a

802
00:40:26,280 --> 00:40:28,879
Speaker 4: drop camp or do a fully guided hunt. I mean

803
00:40:29,239 --> 00:40:32,560
Speaker 4: there's good ones and there's really bad ones. We hear

804
00:40:32,600 --> 00:40:36,239
Speaker 4: the horror stories all the time. There's Yeah, it's like

805
00:40:36,280 --> 00:40:38,400
Speaker 4: I had a friend of ours book The Stone sheepun

806
00:40:38,560 --> 00:40:41,480
Speaker 4: up in Canada and you know, this is like a

807
00:40:41,520 --> 00:40:44,480
Speaker 4: seventy thousand dollars hunt that's absolutely insane. Gets up there

808
00:40:44,520 --> 00:40:46,520
Speaker 4: and they hired the guide that was on them the

809
00:40:46,600 --> 00:40:50,840
Speaker 4: day before the hunt. I'm sure whoever it was, like,

810
00:40:50,920 --> 00:40:52,680
Speaker 4: but we're supposed to be the guide, quit or whatever.

811
00:40:52,680 --> 00:40:54,160
Speaker 4: They're probably in a tough spot, but you're like, you're

812
00:40:54,160 --> 00:40:56,920
Speaker 4: spending seventy thousand dollars a guy who's hunt, you're your

813
00:40:56,960 --> 00:40:59,080
Speaker 4: guide was hired the day before. It never been in

814
00:40:59,120 --> 00:41:02,480
Speaker 4: the country, no idea where the sheep are. So those

815
00:41:02,640 --> 00:41:04,960
Speaker 4: types of things you know that exists up there are

816
00:41:05,000 --> 00:41:08,400
Speaker 4: first moose hunt we did at the It was an

817
00:41:08,440 --> 00:41:12,600
Speaker 4: air service place where you hire them. You don't really

818
00:41:12,760 --> 00:41:15,120
Speaker 4: get a they just drop you off or they want

819
00:41:15,120 --> 00:41:17,040
Speaker 4: to drop you off. You know, they're showing hunters in

820
00:41:17,080 --> 00:41:19,640
Speaker 4: and out. They can you can some of them. Most

821
00:41:19,680 --> 00:41:21,960
Speaker 4: of them have an option where they can provide the

822
00:41:21,960 --> 00:41:24,840
Speaker 4: gear and food, or you can do it yourself. I

823
00:41:24,880 --> 00:41:26,520
Speaker 4: always do it. When I've done those times, I've always

824
00:41:26,520 --> 00:41:28,520
Speaker 4: done it myself just so I can control. You know,

825
00:41:28,520 --> 00:41:30,160
Speaker 4: you don't know exactly what they're going to give you,

826
00:41:31,719 --> 00:41:34,120
Speaker 4: but we were just cattle. They were just shelling hunters

827
00:41:34,120 --> 00:41:35,800
Speaker 4: in and out as fast as they could. They didn't

828
00:41:35,840 --> 00:41:39,640
Speaker 4: care about your experience. It was a pretty pretty miserable

829
00:41:39,680 --> 00:41:43,040
Speaker 4: experience from that customer service side. So it's like, I'll

830
00:41:43,080 --> 00:41:45,439
Speaker 4: never go with those guys again. But there are good ones.

831
00:41:45,440 --> 00:41:48,279
Speaker 4: There's ones who they don't overbook themselves. You know, they

832
00:41:48,320 --> 00:41:50,239
Speaker 4: all a lot of them, will, you know, they want

833
00:41:50,239 --> 00:41:52,719
Speaker 4: to maximize their profits, right, so they're doing as many

834
00:41:52,800 --> 00:41:54,920
Speaker 4: hunters as they can. Well they you you get two

835
00:41:55,040 --> 00:41:56,560
Speaker 4: or three days about whether all of a sudden there's

836
00:41:56,560 --> 00:41:58,560
Speaker 4: this domino effect and you're you're stuck out in the

837
00:41:58,560 --> 00:42:01,040
Speaker 4: field because they've got teen other groups of hunters and

838
00:42:01,040 --> 00:42:04,080
Speaker 4: they're trying to prioritize who's getting out and not. So

839
00:42:04,120 --> 00:42:06,000
Speaker 4: those are the ones you want to do your best

840
00:42:06,000 --> 00:42:08,799
Speaker 4: to avoid. And that's where hey, you know, reach out

841
00:42:08,840 --> 00:42:10,799
Speaker 4: on wherever it is and talk to somebody like, yeah,

842
00:42:10,800 --> 00:42:12,680
Speaker 4: I went with this company last year. They were great

843
00:42:13,840 --> 00:42:15,440
Speaker 4: or no, I went with this company, they were you know,

844
00:42:15,480 --> 00:42:18,560
Speaker 4: don't go with them. So that's that. I think that's

845
00:42:18,600 --> 00:42:23,880
Speaker 4: probably the easiest first intro into Alaska is hiring one

846
00:42:23,880 --> 00:42:26,160
Speaker 4: of those air service companies versus a total di y

847
00:42:26,280 --> 00:42:30,759
Speaker 4: thing just because they're you know, you generally there. They

848
00:42:30,800 --> 00:42:33,520
Speaker 4: should be. They're motivated to have you be successful. I mean,

849
00:42:33,560 --> 00:42:37,280
Speaker 4: because they want happy customers to report back. Some of them,

850
00:42:37,719 --> 00:42:39,400
Speaker 4: some of them don't care, some of them get you know,

851
00:42:39,440 --> 00:42:40,880
Speaker 4: there's so many people that want to do it. They

852
00:42:40,880 --> 00:42:43,319
Speaker 4: can just have people have bad experiences and they're still

853
00:42:43,320 --> 00:42:45,880
Speaker 4: booked up the next year, which is you know, just

854
00:42:46,000 --> 00:42:50,000
Speaker 4: how it goes. But yeah, I think it's your good

855
00:42:50,040 --> 00:42:51,759
Speaker 4: intro point to get up there and do that. Like

856
00:42:51,760 --> 00:42:54,840
Speaker 4: our caribou hunt was that we've done that twice. The

857
00:42:54,880 --> 00:42:57,000
Speaker 4: first Moves hunt was a drop camp pape hunt.

858
00:43:08,200 --> 00:43:09,960
Speaker 5: Yeah, the species you have to have a guide or

859
00:43:10,320 --> 00:43:12,480
Speaker 5: a sheet, not goat brown bear. So those are the

860
00:43:12,719 --> 00:43:15,480
Speaker 5: just people are new. Like, there's no other option other

861
00:43:15,520 --> 00:43:19,640
Speaker 5: than fully guided obviously for species like moose, even caribou,

862
00:43:20,320 --> 00:43:24,320
Speaker 5: you can do DIY transporter or fully guided. So the

863
00:43:24,640 --> 00:43:26,560
Speaker 5: you know, you get into a lot of different options there.

864
00:43:27,239 --> 00:43:30,360
Speaker 5: It is important to like This sounds like nuance, but

865
00:43:30,360 --> 00:43:34,440
Speaker 5: it's important for people to understand. Like a transporter is

866
00:43:34,480 --> 00:43:39,080
Speaker 5: a transporter. They are they're not really tied to being

867
00:43:39,120 --> 00:43:42,759
Speaker 5: able to offer you any sort of hunting services. So

868
00:43:42,840 --> 00:43:44,640
Speaker 5: like a good example would be the place we've hunted

869
00:43:44,640 --> 00:43:48,560
Speaker 5: in Kodiak Island. It's a lodge based hunt. They are

870
00:43:48,640 --> 00:43:51,320
Speaker 5: just a transporter, Like we are staying at their place there,

871
00:43:51,440 --> 00:43:54,040
Speaker 5: we get on their boat and they transport us, you know,

872
00:43:54,120 --> 00:43:56,520
Speaker 5: across the water to a place that we got fully

873
00:43:56,560 --> 00:44:00,000
Speaker 5: self guided whatever. But that is important for people to understand,

874
00:44:00,040 --> 00:44:03,080
Speaker 5: and like good questions to ask as well. Is they

875
00:44:03,200 --> 00:44:05,480
Speaker 5: legally like if we kill a buck and come back

876
00:44:05,520 --> 00:44:09,040
Speaker 5: to the lodge, they legally can't do anything like with

877
00:44:09,160 --> 00:44:13,840
Speaker 5: your deer. They will help like provide packaging for example,

878
00:44:14,400 --> 00:44:16,360
Speaker 5: But like just little nuances like that, Like if you

879
00:44:16,400 --> 00:44:18,279
Speaker 5: start talking it doesn't matter what the species is, but

880
00:44:18,320 --> 00:44:20,239
Speaker 5: you start talking to like a transporter, it's like, hey,

881
00:44:20,280 --> 00:44:23,560
Speaker 5: what what will and won't you help me with in

882
00:44:23,640 --> 00:44:26,160
Speaker 5: terms of taking care of my game or getting it

883
00:44:26,360 --> 00:44:28,120
Speaker 5: in or out of the field. Like they can do

884
00:44:28,200 --> 00:44:32,960
Speaker 5: that as a transporter, But do they provide any place

885
00:44:33,040 --> 00:44:36,440
Speaker 5: for you to say, cut up a caribou? Or package

886
00:44:36,440 --> 00:44:38,319
Speaker 5: caribou or do any of that stuff when you get

887
00:44:38,320 --> 00:44:39,759
Speaker 5: back to the field. Like so those are some of

888
00:44:39,800 --> 00:44:42,640
Speaker 5: the nuance things to look at. And then, like Steve said,

889
00:44:42,640 --> 00:44:46,239
Speaker 5: some of these drop camp services where it's like, hey,

890
00:44:46,280 --> 00:44:49,839
Speaker 5: they provide a shelter, they provide food whatever. I would

891
00:44:49,840 --> 00:44:52,360
Speaker 5: ask questions on what that means, like what type of shelter,

892
00:44:52,760 --> 00:44:54,799
Speaker 5: what type of food? In general, they're going to drop

893
00:44:54,840 --> 00:44:59,200
Speaker 5: you off with a giant rubber made bin of mountain

894
00:44:59,200 --> 00:45:01,520
Speaker 5: house and like a bag of onions and a bag

895
00:45:01,520 --> 00:45:03,200
Speaker 5: of potatoes or something like. It may not be any

896
00:45:03,200 --> 00:45:05,080
Speaker 5: food you actually want to eat for the whole week.

897
00:45:06,120 --> 00:45:09,120
Speaker 5: So sometimes it looks like it's easier logistically of like hey,

898
00:45:09,239 --> 00:45:12,440
Speaker 5: I'm doing this all in thing. They provide camp, they

899
00:45:12,440 --> 00:45:16,080
Speaker 5: provide food, they provide whatever. I would really look at

900
00:45:16,480 --> 00:45:18,800
Speaker 5: is that worth the cost and is it what you want?

901
00:45:18,920 --> 00:45:21,759
Speaker 5: It may be much better to say, hey, I just

902
00:45:21,840 --> 00:45:24,040
Speaker 5: want to fly in here, you know, I just want

903
00:45:24,040 --> 00:45:25,960
Speaker 5: you to transport us, but I'm going to bring all

904
00:45:25,960 --> 00:45:29,239
Speaker 5: my own gear and everything else. And then on that note, again,

905
00:45:29,280 --> 00:45:32,000
Speaker 5: like a nitty gritty thing is ask questions, especially for

906
00:45:32,040 --> 00:45:34,600
Speaker 5: a flight based hunt, on what is the weight limit

907
00:45:35,480 --> 00:45:38,680
Speaker 5: and understanding if that's when you do or don't bring

908
00:45:38,719 --> 00:45:41,600
Speaker 5: your own gear as well, because most of these flights

909
00:45:41,640 --> 00:45:43,800
Speaker 5: are going to have like a very strict weight limit.

910
00:45:44,400 --> 00:45:48,279
Speaker 5: And it's not a joke. You your person stands on

911
00:45:48,320 --> 00:45:51,200
Speaker 5: a scale. All of your gear and everything you're taking

912
00:45:51,239 --> 00:45:53,840
Speaker 5: into the field will be put on a scale. And

913
00:45:53,880 --> 00:45:56,680
Speaker 5: there's literally situations you could go in and they say,

914
00:45:57,480 --> 00:46:00,480
Speaker 5: okay for you guys, for this flight. You can have

915
00:46:00,520 --> 00:46:03,040
Speaker 5: a thousand pounds a year. If you're at like one

916
00:46:03,080 --> 00:46:07,160
Speaker 5: thy and twelve pounds, they're like, hey, take twelve pounds out.

917
00:46:08,560 --> 00:46:11,759
Speaker 5: Like so just little stuff like that, I mean, you know,

918
00:46:12,000 --> 00:46:14,480
Speaker 5: just to not be caught off guard on details like that,

919
00:46:14,640 --> 00:46:16,719
Speaker 5: Like those are the types of questions to ask and

920
00:46:16,760 --> 00:46:18,640
Speaker 5: things to look at and things to understand.

921
00:46:19,040 --> 00:46:20,880
Speaker 2: Yeah, such a great point. You don't want to be

922
00:46:21,000 --> 00:46:23,839
Speaker 2: there thousands of miles from home after you did all

923
00:46:23,880 --> 00:46:25,480
Speaker 2: this work to get there and saved up all this

924
00:46:25,600 --> 00:46:29,520
Speaker 2: money and then find out that you can't take major

925
00:46:29,880 --> 00:46:32,400
Speaker 2: chunks of important stuff you wanted to bring or or had.

926
00:46:32,560 --> 00:46:35,800
Speaker 2: I had a friend who just barely missed the cutoff

927
00:46:35,800 --> 00:46:39,880
Speaker 2: for how heavy a person will take it all. So

928
00:46:39,880 --> 00:46:41,600
Speaker 2: so you got to you gotta be aware of all

929
00:46:41,600 --> 00:46:46,600
Speaker 2: that kind of stuff. I guess, so final kind of

930
00:46:46,640 --> 00:46:53,240
Speaker 2: expectation question or preparation I guess all these are preparation questions.

931
00:46:53,239 --> 00:46:58,040
Speaker 2: But there's one big, kind of dark shadow elephant in

932
00:46:58,080 --> 00:47:00,960
Speaker 2: the room in the back of many people's minds when

933
00:47:01,000 --> 00:47:05,920
Speaker 2: they traveled to Alaska for the first time, which is bears,

934
00:47:06,400 --> 00:47:10,960
Speaker 2: brown bears. Steve, Yeah, Steve, you had one heck of

935
00:47:11,000 --> 00:47:17,319
Speaker 2: a trip there, Chason Moose. Wow. First off, incredible, But

936
00:47:17,600 --> 00:47:22,719
Speaker 2: what would you guys share with people about your experiences

937
00:47:22,960 --> 00:47:25,279
Speaker 2: dealing with that? You know, again, a lot of us

938
00:47:25,280 --> 00:47:28,360
Speaker 2: have had grizzly experience and encounters in the lower forty

939
00:47:28,360 --> 00:47:32,040
Speaker 2: eight around those parts of the country, but it's it's

940
00:47:32,160 --> 00:47:36,399
Speaker 2: different up there in Alaska. Two specific things. Number one,

941
00:47:36,480 --> 00:47:39,759
Speaker 2: would love to hear your thoughts on just how you

942
00:47:39,760 --> 00:47:43,600
Speaker 2: dealt with that mentally, best practices for being safe in

943
00:47:43,640 --> 00:47:47,680
Speaker 2: that degree of bear country. And then finally, everyone loves

944
00:47:47,719 --> 00:47:52,719
Speaker 2: to hear opinions on bear defense, your preferred weapons, spray whatever.

945
00:47:53,280 --> 00:47:54,200
Speaker 2: Can you walk me through that?

946
00:47:56,760 --> 00:47:59,040
Speaker 4: Yeah? I think obviously your first trip, you're going to

947
00:47:59,120 --> 00:48:02,200
Speaker 4: be nervous, you know, not familiar here in Idaho. I mean,

948
00:48:02,239 --> 00:48:03,600
Speaker 4: you can kind of get over the wilding border and

949
00:48:03,640 --> 00:48:05,160
Speaker 4: have some gruz of bears, but generally where I hunt,

950
00:48:05,160 --> 00:48:10,200
Speaker 4: it's not an issue. I'm see the first caribou on

951
00:48:10,360 --> 00:48:12,360
Speaker 4: moose trip, there was no bears because we're in a swamp.

952
00:48:12,480 --> 00:48:14,120
Speaker 4: First carribou trip, we saw grouz of bears, but that

953
00:48:14,239 --> 00:48:15,920
Speaker 4: was in the distance. They're and they were afraid of you.

954
00:48:16,000 --> 00:48:18,319
Speaker 4: Winds blown that way, they run away from you. That's

955
00:48:18,480 --> 00:48:22,280
Speaker 4: generally been my Alaska experience on some caribou, other caribou

956
00:48:22,320 --> 00:48:26,040
Speaker 4: haunts she hunts, the bears are afraid of you. You're

957
00:48:26,080 --> 00:48:29,520
Speaker 4: You're just mindful. I'm always gotta you know, I always

958
00:48:29,520 --> 00:48:33,960
Speaker 4: just go for a pistol, have it ready. I'm admittedly

959
00:48:34,000 --> 00:48:35,640
Speaker 4: I don't think I'm like a great pistol shot or

960
00:48:35,640 --> 00:48:38,440
Speaker 4: anything like that. Like I'm probably dead if something charges me.

961
00:48:38,560 --> 00:48:42,600
Speaker 5: But I forget what trip it was. But Steve, we're like,

962
00:48:42,760 --> 00:48:44,520
Speaker 5: we're getting here to hike and we're in the field

963
00:48:44,520 --> 00:48:46,279
Speaker 5: and he was like, hey man, just so you know,

964
00:48:46,320 --> 00:48:48,319
Speaker 5: like if a bear charges us, like I'm gonna wait

965
00:48:48,360 --> 00:48:50,520
Speaker 5: till the like wait till it's on us, like to

966
00:48:50,640 --> 00:48:52,640
Speaker 5: the last second to shoot. And I'm like ha ha okay,

967
00:48:52,680 --> 00:48:55,520
Speaker 5: and he's like, no, I'm serious. So I gotta wait

968
00:48:55,600 --> 00:48:57,560
Speaker 5: till this life like right here.

969
00:48:58,000 --> 00:49:02,080
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I think that was our first trip to Kodiak.

970
00:49:02,160 --> 00:49:04,440
Speaker 4: We've got some amazing experiences there. You're like, okay, there's

971
00:49:04,520 --> 00:49:07,279
Speaker 4: giant brown bears. Real scared of them again, you know,

972
00:49:07,320 --> 00:49:09,560
Speaker 4: they're when you talk to the guys who live out there,

973
00:49:09,560 --> 00:49:12,680
Speaker 4: who hunt up there, they're all like, just be mindful

974
00:49:12,719 --> 00:49:16,200
Speaker 4: of your surroundings when you kill something. That's where probably

975
00:49:16,640 --> 00:49:19,160
Speaker 4: ninety percent of the conflicts happen is at that kill

976
00:49:19,239 --> 00:49:21,000
Speaker 4: site where you've got a carcass sitting there and a

977
00:49:21,000 --> 00:49:24,960
Speaker 4: bear comes in, like on kodiaktors like basically, get the

978
00:49:24,960 --> 00:49:27,640
Speaker 4: deer cut up and get out of there. If you

979
00:49:27,640 --> 00:49:29,879
Speaker 4: you know the instances where bad things happen is they

980
00:49:29,960 --> 00:49:32,279
Speaker 4: you know, you kill the deer, maybe you hang it

981
00:49:32,440 --> 00:49:33,839
Speaker 4: or it takes a while to find it. You get

982
00:49:33,880 --> 00:49:36,160
Speaker 4: there and a bear's already on it. So that's when

983
00:49:36,200 --> 00:49:38,200
Speaker 4: you would definitely want to be kind of more aware

984
00:49:38,239 --> 00:49:40,279
Speaker 4: of things. Just once once you got an animal down,

985
00:49:41,160 --> 00:49:43,280
Speaker 4: I'm pretty sure you look at it, it's like ninety

986
00:49:43,280 --> 00:49:45,839
Speaker 4: percent of the cases happened in those and then yeah,

987
00:49:45,880 --> 00:49:51,480
Speaker 4: you're random stumbling into a sic cubs or something. But

988
00:49:51,600 --> 00:49:54,759
Speaker 4: I think it's just it's to me, it's mostly between

989
00:49:54,800 --> 00:49:56,839
Speaker 4: your ears, Like the actual danger is probably pretty low.

990
00:49:57,520 --> 00:50:00,000
Speaker 4: I'm probably more more afraid of going to like Wyoming

991
00:50:00,000 --> 00:50:02,080
Speaker 4: and stuff like that, where those are grizzly bears that

992
00:50:02,120 --> 00:50:05,920
Speaker 4: are very aggressive, they've not been hunted, they have no

993
00:50:06,000 --> 00:50:08,319
Speaker 4: fear of humans. Up there in Alaska, they're you know,

994
00:50:08,560 --> 00:50:10,799
Speaker 4: they're afraid of you for the most part, except on

995
00:50:10,840 --> 00:50:12,839
Speaker 4: our bus hut they could just care less. So they

996
00:50:12,920 --> 00:50:16,200
Speaker 4: were those are big, fat, salmon fed, happy brown bears

997
00:50:16,200 --> 00:50:19,480
Speaker 4: and they didn't really care that you were twenty feet away.

998
00:50:19,640 --> 00:50:25,160
Speaker 4: So yeah, and that was mental. We were. Everybody was

999
00:50:25,160 --> 00:50:27,440
Speaker 4: on edge on that hunt quite a bit because it

1000
00:50:27,480 --> 00:50:30,600
Speaker 4: was you know, when we're sitting up on this hill

1001
00:50:30,600 --> 00:50:33,000
Speaker 4: and your glass in this river, Like I mean, at

1002
00:50:33,000 --> 00:50:35,760
Speaker 4: any given point, you're seeing between five and twenty bears

1003
00:50:35,760 --> 00:50:37,319
Speaker 4: on the river, and you're like, we're going to go

1004
00:50:37,400 --> 00:50:40,840
Speaker 4: hike right through the middle of that. So I like,

1005
00:50:40,880 --> 00:50:43,560
Speaker 4: there's confidence in numbers. I don't know the exact stats,

1006
00:50:43,560 --> 00:50:45,920
Speaker 4: but I believe if you go from like even to

1007
00:50:46,040 --> 00:50:48,680
Speaker 4: one hunt, like a majority of bear attacks happened with

1008
00:50:48,800 --> 00:50:51,480
Speaker 4: a single hunter, you go to two people, it produces

1009
00:50:51,520 --> 00:50:53,560
Speaker 4: that by a significant amount and I think if you

1010
00:50:53,600 --> 00:50:56,680
Speaker 4: go to three people, it almost goes to zero percent chance.

1011
00:50:56,680 --> 00:50:58,120
Speaker 4: So you're going to get charged when you got three

1012
00:50:58,120 --> 00:51:01,160
Speaker 4: guys grouped together. So I do like when we're in

1013
00:51:01,239 --> 00:51:03,400
Speaker 4: really heavy bear country, I like to, hey, let's make

1014
00:51:03,440 --> 00:51:05,239
Speaker 4: sure we got to at least two guys. Try not

1015
00:51:05,360 --> 00:51:08,359
Speaker 4: to be solo. If you got three, like, odds are

1016
00:51:08,440 --> 00:51:10,920
Speaker 4: that nothing's gonna happen. Yeah, or if you if one

1017
00:51:10,960 --> 00:51:12,480
Speaker 4: guy's get in charge, you got two guys there with

1018
00:51:12,520 --> 00:51:14,719
Speaker 4: pistols that are you know, can help.

1019
00:51:14,920 --> 00:51:19,680
Speaker 2: So, yeah, what pistol did you go with as your Yeah,

1020
00:51:19,880 --> 00:51:20,880
Speaker 2: Mark's hot topic?

1021
00:51:21,239 --> 00:51:24,960
Speaker 4: Yeah no, I just run a nine millimeter sig with

1022
00:51:25,239 --> 00:51:28,319
Speaker 4: buffalo boor solid cast STAMO. I think it's one hundred

1023
00:51:28,320 --> 00:51:31,160
Speaker 4: and forty seven grain plus peak. Yeah. Mark knows the

1024
00:51:31,160 --> 00:51:33,879
Speaker 4: stuff better than I do. We did an episode years

1025
00:51:33,880 --> 00:51:37,160
Speaker 4: ago with a kind of grizzly bear expert guy out

1026
00:51:37,200 --> 00:51:39,759
Speaker 4: their Montana. They did their study and I think ten

1027
00:51:39,800 --> 00:51:41,560
Speaker 4: and M was the best, and then nine was right

1028
00:51:41,600 --> 00:51:45,960
Speaker 4: behind it. And I again, I'm not a pistol guy.

1029
00:51:46,160 --> 00:51:48,480
Speaker 4: I just shoot, you know, a couple dozen rounds a year.

1030
00:51:48,640 --> 00:51:51,279
Speaker 4: It's like, okay, well good enough. I'm not But.

1031
00:51:53,920 --> 00:51:55,920
Speaker 2: Did you guys did you guys have spray with you

1032
00:51:56,040 --> 00:51:57,320
Speaker 2: up there too, or just the pistol.

1033
00:51:57,640 --> 00:52:00,840
Speaker 4: No, I mean then when we've talked to and it

1034
00:52:00,840 --> 00:52:03,040
Speaker 4: makes complete sense to me. When you're dealing, like it's

1035
00:52:03,080 --> 00:52:05,839
Speaker 4: always windy up there, so there's a fifty to fifty chance,

1036
00:52:05,840 --> 00:52:07,680
Speaker 4: but the wind's blowing the wrong way. If pistols your

1037
00:52:07,680 --> 00:52:09,280
Speaker 4: only defense, you're screwed.

1038
00:52:10,080 --> 00:52:12,040
Speaker 2: Spray you sorry, Yeah, spray.

1039
00:52:11,840 --> 00:52:15,520
Speaker 4: Is your only defense, then yeah, you're sol so. But yeah,

1040
00:52:15,800 --> 00:52:18,400
Speaker 4: from I understanding, guys who shoot the tenem in like,

1041
00:52:19,080 --> 00:52:20,640
Speaker 4: you know you're you're not gonna get me rounds off.

1042
00:52:20,680 --> 00:52:22,440
Speaker 4: You're gonna be a lot less accurate versus a nine.

1043
00:52:22,440 --> 00:52:25,680
Speaker 4: You're probably gonna get more rounds off and be more accurate. Yeah,

1044
00:52:26,480 --> 00:52:28,360
Speaker 4: to me, I I just acknowledge if I get triers

1045
00:52:28,360 --> 00:52:32,160
Speaker 4: and probably did, I guess that's adventure.

1046
00:52:32,480 --> 00:52:35,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, what would you add on any of that stuff?

1047
00:52:35,120 --> 00:52:35,319
Speaker 4: Mark?

1048
00:52:36,280 --> 00:52:36,640
Speaker 6: Uh?

1049
00:52:36,880 --> 00:52:39,879
Speaker 5: Just mainly to echo the don't be afraid of it.

1050
00:52:40,040 --> 00:52:42,280
Speaker 5: Like I'm not saying nothing can happen, but I would

1051
00:52:43,480 --> 00:52:46,520
Speaker 5: you know. I wasn't on Steve's movie that was an

1052
00:52:46,560 --> 00:52:50,520
Speaker 5: exceptional amount of bears, but I have seen on almost

1053
00:52:50,520 --> 00:52:52,400
Speaker 5: every trip I've been to Alaska in different parts of

1054
00:52:52,440 --> 00:52:55,200
Speaker 5: the state have seen bears, and I've never had a

1055
00:52:55,960 --> 00:52:58,319
Speaker 5: scary encounter and have just observed that they want nothing

1056
00:52:58,360 --> 00:53:01,080
Speaker 5: to do with you either in general, So just that

1057
00:53:01,160 --> 00:53:03,759
Speaker 5: awareness piece to make sure you're ultimately like aware of

1058
00:53:03,840 --> 00:53:08,040
Speaker 5: your surroundings and not spooking, surprising, you know, just being

1059
00:53:09,719 --> 00:53:12,440
Speaker 5: a little bit aware but don't be afraid. Like definitely

1060
00:53:12,440 --> 00:53:14,640
Speaker 5: the first time I wanted Kodiak, like I grew up

1061
00:53:14,640 --> 00:53:17,080
Speaker 5: hearing about Kodiak brown bears, and I was like, they're

1062
00:53:17,120 --> 00:53:20,120
Speaker 5: around every corner, you know, And I think the density

1063
00:53:20,200 --> 00:53:25,719
Speaker 5: is like one per one point something square miles. And

1064
00:53:26,320 --> 00:53:28,520
Speaker 5: the first time I saw on on foot, it was

1065
00:53:28,560 --> 00:53:31,800
Speaker 5: probably like we were on this hillside, we had just

1066
00:53:31,880 --> 00:53:33,520
Speaker 5: killed the buck and we were looking down on the

1067
00:53:33,560 --> 00:53:37,600
Speaker 5: spottom probably six hundred yards away, and I was just like, oh,

1068
00:53:37,600 --> 00:53:40,080
Speaker 5: there's a Volkswagen or of something down there. I just

1069
00:53:40,120 --> 00:53:43,279
Speaker 5: saw this giant mask moving and it seriously looked like

1070
00:53:43,280 --> 00:53:45,560
Speaker 5: a giant vehicle. I was like, I was like, Oh,

1071
00:53:45,600 --> 00:53:48,400
Speaker 5: that's a big old bear. And then you do see

1072
00:53:48,440 --> 00:53:50,640
Speaker 5: like the prints and the tracks and the scat and

1073
00:53:51,200 --> 00:53:54,279
Speaker 5: it's it's impressive. But at the end of the day,

1074
00:53:54,280 --> 00:53:56,080
Speaker 5: I would I would much rather be in Alaska with

1075
00:53:56,080 --> 00:54:00,080
Speaker 5: a bunch of bears than Montana, Wyoming, et cetera. And

1076
00:54:00,120 --> 00:54:02,040
Speaker 5: then yeah, I think a side arm is generally the

1077
00:54:02,040 --> 00:54:04,080
Speaker 5: way to go, and I tend to align with Steve.

1078
00:54:04,480 --> 00:54:07,040
Speaker 5: I mean, I've owned a couple ten millimeters. I like

1079
00:54:07,080 --> 00:54:09,920
Speaker 5: the idea of them, I don't shoot them well, and

1080
00:54:09,960 --> 00:54:11,920
Speaker 5: so I'm just really honest with myself of hey, I

1081
00:54:11,960 --> 00:54:15,960
Speaker 5: would rather have something more controllable, something quicker, something I

1082
00:54:15,960 --> 00:54:20,000
Speaker 5: can shoot better under a quick scenario. Potentially one handed

1083
00:54:20,120 --> 00:54:23,040
Speaker 5: have more capacity et cetera, et cetera than the like

1084
00:54:23,400 --> 00:54:27,000
Speaker 5: babblistically optimal ten milimeter that it's probably just got to

1085
00:54:27,040 --> 00:54:30,440
Speaker 5: spray everywhere, to be honest, So yeah, I go with

1086
00:54:30,440 --> 00:54:33,239
Speaker 5: the nine milimeter. And then even going back to group size,

1087
00:54:33,280 --> 00:54:37,080
Speaker 5: that's a great, great thing. There's some of the trips,

1088
00:54:37,120 --> 00:54:41,040
Speaker 5: like the Mountain Goat trip we did, we had four

1089
00:54:41,080 --> 00:54:43,480
Speaker 5: guys total, and only one of us had a pistol.

1090
00:54:43,480 --> 00:54:45,440
Speaker 5: I'm not saying that's what you should do, but I

1091
00:54:45,480 --> 00:54:48,520
Speaker 5: do think there's massive safety in numbers. So if it's

1092
00:54:48,560 --> 00:54:52,160
Speaker 5: a situation where it's like, hey, we truly are hunting together,

1093
00:54:52,360 --> 00:54:54,319
Speaker 5: there's you know, two, three, four of us, We're not

1094
00:54:54,360 --> 00:54:56,920
Speaker 5: splitting apart there is a rifle in the group, and

1095
00:54:56,960 --> 00:54:58,759
Speaker 5: then like, sure, is it smart to have a guy

1096
00:54:58,840 --> 00:54:59,640
Speaker 5: or two with a pistol?

1097
00:54:59,719 --> 00:55:00,160
Speaker 3: Yes?

1098
00:55:00,800 --> 00:55:02,920
Speaker 5: Is it overkill for everyone to have a pistol?

1099
00:55:03,520 --> 00:55:04,080
Speaker 3: Probably?

1100
00:55:04,160 --> 00:55:06,000
Speaker 5: But make you know the decision that makes you feel

1101
00:55:06,000 --> 00:55:07,080
Speaker 5: comfortable for sure.

1102
00:55:07,400 --> 00:55:08,400
Speaker 3: Yeah.

1103
00:55:08,520 --> 00:55:12,279
Speaker 2: Continuing on with gear a little bit. I know there's

1104
00:55:12,320 --> 00:55:15,279
Speaker 2: a thousand pieces of gear, and people really spend a

1105
00:55:15,320 --> 00:55:17,319
Speaker 2: lot of time thinking through the perfect things for these

1106
00:55:17,360 --> 00:55:21,040
Speaker 2: types of situations, especially an Alaskan trip where everything matters more.

1107
00:55:22,000 --> 00:55:24,319
Speaker 2: But I'd love to talk through a couple categories with

1108
00:55:24,360 --> 00:55:27,840
Speaker 2: you guys, And we can't not talk about packs. You

1109
00:55:27,840 --> 00:55:30,000
Speaker 2: guys are the pack guys. Can you run me through

1110
00:55:30,080 --> 00:55:34,120
Speaker 2: a few of the most important considerations from your perspective?

1111
00:55:34,320 --> 00:55:36,080
Speaker 2: And I know this depends on what you're hunting, so

1112
00:55:36,600 --> 00:55:39,360
Speaker 2: I guess give me drill in where you think appropriate,

1113
00:55:39,400 --> 00:55:43,160
Speaker 2: But a few thoughts on, you know, making a good

1114
00:55:43,200 --> 00:55:45,719
Speaker 2: pack decision when you're going on a carebrew hunt or

1115
00:55:45,719 --> 00:55:48,400
Speaker 2: a moose hunt or something like that in these kind

1116
00:55:48,440 --> 00:55:52,080
Speaker 2: of extreme conditions, tough hiking through stuff, I think that's

1117
00:55:52,120 --> 00:55:54,320
Speaker 2: a big thing. You might be carrying heavy loads but

1118
00:55:54,360 --> 00:55:57,400
Speaker 2: then also having to crawl on all fours or falling

1119
00:55:57,440 --> 00:55:59,520
Speaker 2: over tussix. I mean, there's a lot of stuff going on.

1120
00:55:59,600 --> 00:56:03,160
Speaker 2: So I certainly have have experienced bad pack experiences and

1121
00:56:03,200 --> 00:56:07,359
Speaker 2: then very good pack experiences. No one better ask than you, guys.

1122
00:56:07,400 --> 00:56:08,600
Speaker 2: Can you give us a little bit of thought, a

1123
00:56:08,600 --> 00:56:10,000
Speaker 2: little bit something to think about there?

1124
00:56:10,960 --> 00:56:13,480
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean if you're new to pack, if you're

1125
00:56:13,520 --> 00:56:15,480
Speaker 4: a white TWL hunter, you're never like throwing a quarter

1126
00:56:15,600 --> 00:56:19,399
Speaker 4: on your back. Obviously, that's where a pack pays for itself, right,

1127
00:56:19,880 --> 00:56:21,920
Speaker 4: The comfort that it can provide, the stability you can

1128
00:56:21,960 --> 00:56:23,839
Speaker 4: provide getting you out of the field, get your meat

1129
00:56:23,840 --> 00:56:25,680
Speaker 4: back to camp or wherever it is that it's going

1130
00:56:25,719 --> 00:56:28,399
Speaker 4: to get picked up from. So you really just need

1131
00:56:28,400 --> 00:56:31,240
Speaker 4: to pick something that's got a you know, that's comfortable

1132
00:56:31,280 --> 00:56:34,799
Speaker 4: for you. So something that's you know, I mean, I've

1133
00:56:34,840 --> 00:56:37,720
Speaker 4: got my criteria when I'm designing packs of you know what,

1134
00:56:37,719 --> 00:56:39,560
Speaker 4: what are the necessary things it has to have, Like,

1135
00:56:39,880 --> 00:56:41,880
Speaker 4: it has to have a hip belt that fits you

1136
00:56:41,960 --> 00:56:44,719
Speaker 4: all right, So we have five different size belts that

1137
00:56:44,719 --> 00:56:46,160
Speaker 4: we have on our Exo packs to make sure you

1138
00:56:46,160 --> 00:56:48,520
Speaker 4: get proper fit. There. You want the foam wrapping around

1139
00:56:48,560 --> 00:56:50,319
Speaker 4: the front of the hip bones to help kind of

1140
00:56:50,360 --> 00:56:53,960
Speaker 4: distribute the weight has to have an adjustable torso, right,

1141
00:56:54,000 --> 00:56:56,239
Speaker 4: so get the shoulder harness dialed in. If it's like

1142
00:56:56,280 --> 00:56:58,680
Speaker 4: a fixed torso, that's non negotiable, Like that's just going

1143
00:56:58,760 --> 00:56:59,919
Speaker 4: to be really uncomfortable.

1144
00:57:00,840 --> 00:57:01,040
Speaker 3: You know.

1145
00:57:01,200 --> 00:57:02,919
Speaker 4: You have to have a certain amount of frame height

1146
00:57:03,000 --> 00:57:05,040
Speaker 4: and rigidity to that frame. So the low lifters are

1147
00:57:05,080 --> 00:57:07,799
Speaker 4: functional with heavy loads, there's like a it's like ten

1148
00:57:07,840 --> 00:57:10,560
Speaker 4: things are just like absolute must haves. But the end

1149
00:57:10,560 --> 00:57:13,560
Speaker 4: of the day, you just got to you know, don't

1150
00:57:13,600 --> 00:57:15,200
Speaker 4: you know? We packed some Boots are the two most

1151
00:57:15,239 --> 00:57:17,720
Speaker 4: important things. Boots first, pack second in our opinion for

1152
00:57:17,800 --> 00:57:20,360
Speaker 4: like Western hunt, Alaska hunt, because they're just they're in

1153
00:57:20,440 --> 00:57:22,360
Speaker 4: contact with your body all the time. If your feet

1154
00:57:22,400 --> 00:57:25,120
Speaker 4: are killing you, there's nothing that's gonna shut you down.

1155
00:57:25,120 --> 00:57:26,720
Speaker 4: I don't care how mentally tough you are. Like when

1156
00:57:26,720 --> 00:57:28,680
Speaker 4: you're covered in blisters and your feet are hot, like

1157
00:57:29,000 --> 00:57:31,439
Speaker 4: that stops a hunt pretty quick. Pack kind of falls

1158
00:57:31,480 --> 00:57:33,440
Speaker 4: right behind that, Like when you're when you just got

1159
00:57:33,480 --> 00:57:35,840
Speaker 4: your twenty thirty pounds, it doesn't really matters. I'm gonna

1160
00:57:35,840 --> 00:57:37,560
Speaker 4: shut you down. But once you go kill something, it

1161
00:57:37,640 --> 00:57:40,240
Speaker 4: can certainly be a if you've experienced it, it's going

1162
00:57:40,280 --> 00:57:42,000
Speaker 4: to be a limiting factor if you've had a miserable

1163
00:57:42,040 --> 00:57:43,920
Speaker 4: pack out, like, oh, I'm we're not getting more than

1164
00:57:43,960 --> 00:57:46,360
Speaker 4: a mile from camp, because it's gonna be absolutely miserable

1165
00:57:46,400 --> 00:57:49,360
Speaker 4: to pack that out. We're a good pack, can you know,

1166
00:57:49,400 --> 00:57:50,920
Speaker 4: take away like ninety percent of that?

1167
00:57:52,240 --> 00:57:54,720
Speaker 2: So who started interrupt? I was gonna say one one

1168
00:57:54,760 --> 00:57:58,800
Speaker 2: specific thing for a week long Alaskan hunt, what size

1169
00:57:58,840 --> 00:57:59,560
Speaker 2: do you recommend?

1170
00:58:01,920 --> 00:58:04,920
Speaker 4: Uh, the average guy, I'd say at least five thousand

1171
00:58:04,920 --> 00:58:08,200
Speaker 4: cubic inches. Five to six thousand's probably a good range. Yeah.

1172
00:58:08,680 --> 00:58:08,960
Speaker 3: Yeah.

1173
00:58:09,040 --> 00:58:11,680
Speaker 5: One thing on that that that comes a lot with

1174
00:58:11,800 --> 00:58:13,800
Speaker 5: our customers is they'll call and say, hey, I'm going

1175
00:58:13,840 --> 00:58:17,200
Speaker 5: on to even say a ten day hunt in Alaska, right,

1176
00:58:18,160 --> 00:58:20,840
Speaker 5: so they think they immediately need the biggest pack because

1177
00:58:20,840 --> 00:58:22,440
Speaker 5: ten days it's a lot of days. And then my

1178
00:58:22,560 --> 00:58:25,160
Speaker 5: question that always is like where and how are you hunting?

1179
00:58:25,280 --> 00:58:28,720
Speaker 5: Because if you're flying in and getting dropped off at

1180
00:58:28,880 --> 00:58:31,720
Speaker 5: Moose Camp and you have ten days to hunt, you're

1181
00:58:31,760 --> 00:58:34,120
Speaker 5: never carrying close to ten days where the stuff, right, Like,

1182
00:58:34,160 --> 00:58:36,360
Speaker 5: in all reality you're doing this drop camp hunts, you're

1183
00:58:36,400 --> 00:58:39,080
Speaker 5: probably never staying out overnight away from base camp. You

1184
00:58:39,120 --> 00:58:40,720
Speaker 5: could probably hunt with a day pack if you want

1185
00:58:40,800 --> 00:58:43,720
Speaker 5: to so just don't when you think of Alaska, you

1186
00:58:43,720 --> 00:58:45,960
Speaker 5: think of days of hunting if it's a fly in

1187
00:58:46,120 --> 00:58:48,800
Speaker 5: hunt or a you know, a drop camp hunt, a

1188
00:58:49,080 --> 00:58:51,360
Speaker 5: you know, boat based on lodge, based on whatever. Like,

1189
00:58:51,640 --> 00:58:55,200
Speaker 5: don't equate days to the biggest pack and look at

1190
00:58:55,200 --> 00:58:57,440
Speaker 5: your actual demands of how many days are the stuff

1191
00:58:57,440 --> 00:58:59,600
Speaker 5: if I'm carrying, Like on my goat hunt, we went

1192
00:58:59,600 --> 00:59:01,880
Speaker 5: out for a days where the stuff super coold weather

1193
00:59:01,960 --> 00:59:07,400
Speaker 5: gear needed a large pack. Caribean we were backpacking moose hunt.

1194
00:59:07,440 --> 00:59:09,720
Speaker 5: You guys were backpacking, but like say that twenty nineteen

1195
00:59:09,760 --> 00:59:12,360
Speaker 5: caribou hunt we did, or Kodiak stuff like, you just

1196
00:59:12,400 --> 00:59:15,919
Speaker 5: don't need a ten day pack just because you're there

1197
00:59:15,920 --> 00:59:17,280
Speaker 5: for ten days, if that makes sense.

1198
00:59:17,560 --> 00:59:19,640
Speaker 4: Yeah, how many how many days are you away from campus?

1199
00:59:19,760 --> 00:59:20,880
Speaker 4: You'r me trick?

1200
00:59:21,080 --> 00:59:26,919
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, uh okay. Any little hot tips as far

1201
00:59:26,960 --> 00:59:30,680
Speaker 2: as packing game off the mountain or in tough terrain.

1202
00:59:31,800 --> 00:59:33,320
Speaker 2: I feel like it was your video. I saw you

1203
00:59:33,360 --> 00:59:37,560
Speaker 2: guys with your truck and pulls stuck to the bottom

1204
00:59:37,600 --> 00:59:40,840
Speaker 2: of your pack to stabilize. That was really interesting. I've

1205
00:59:40,880 --> 00:59:44,200
Speaker 2: never done that before. Do you have any other thoughts

1206
00:59:44,200 --> 00:59:47,000
Speaker 2: on packing heavy loads anything like that you guys having

1207
00:59:47,040 --> 00:59:49,120
Speaker 2: done this so much, might be able to share this.

1208
00:59:49,760 --> 00:59:54,760
Speaker 4: Yeah, First understand Alaska's it's gonna have very different regulations

1209
00:59:54,760 --> 00:59:56,640
Speaker 4: on depending where you're at in the state, on what

1210
00:59:56,720 --> 01:00:00,200
Speaker 4: the requirements are for meat. Caribou hunt is like all

1211
01:00:00,200 --> 01:00:02,640
Speaker 4: bone in, got to pack out the ribs, bone in,

1212
01:00:03,040 --> 01:00:06,800
Speaker 4: you can split in half. But it's very different. We

1213
01:00:06,840 --> 01:00:08,800
Speaker 4: go over to our moose hunt. You can bone out

1214
01:00:08,800 --> 01:00:11,680
Speaker 4: in that area where we're moose hunting, which is just

1215
01:00:11,760 --> 01:00:14,640
Speaker 4: you need to really understand that. They're very in Idaho,

1216
01:00:14,760 --> 01:00:19,400
Speaker 4: it's like hind quarters, front quarders, backstraps, cenderlines. I don't

1217
01:00:19,400 --> 01:00:21,160
Speaker 4: think you have to take neck meat anymore, ne could

1218
01:00:21,200 --> 01:00:22,720
Speaker 4: rate me. I think you can leave on animals. So

1219
01:00:22,760 --> 01:00:26,000
Speaker 4: they're very like, you know, not super strict there. Get

1220
01:00:26,040 --> 01:00:30,160
Speaker 4: up to Alaska, it's very very strict, and really understand

1221
01:00:30,360 --> 01:00:32,840
Speaker 4: it's it's certainly not a state wide policy, so that

1222
01:00:32,880 --> 01:00:36,840
Speaker 4: really dictates certain things. If you're you know, bone in,

1223
01:00:39,160 --> 01:00:41,160
Speaker 4: you're just gonna you know, you to you know, oversized

1224
01:00:41,160 --> 01:00:43,120
Speaker 4: game bag so you can, you know, put all the

1225
01:00:43,120 --> 01:00:44,880
Speaker 4: meat in there. Doesn't really matter. The game bag is

1226
01:00:44,920 --> 01:00:46,680
Speaker 4: not that important in my opinion when it's bone in,

1227
01:00:47,680 --> 01:00:50,040
Speaker 4: because the meat's on the bone, it's got a structure already.

1228
01:00:50,280 --> 01:00:52,480
Speaker 4: If you're boning out, then you need game bags that

1229
01:00:52,520 --> 01:00:54,400
Speaker 4: are kind of tall and skinny. In my opin, you

1230
01:00:54,400 --> 01:00:57,160
Speaker 4: don't want something stretchy because when you're putting that in

1231
01:00:57,240 --> 01:00:59,479
Speaker 4: the pack, the meat just turns into this big ball.

1232
01:00:59,520 --> 01:01:02,000
Speaker 4: It's big lump of meat's really hard to strap down.

1233
01:01:02,320 --> 01:01:04,400
Speaker 4: So I always tell people like tall skinning game bags

1234
01:01:04,400 --> 01:01:06,720
Speaker 4: that don't stretch. Imagine you're making a tube of sand

1235
01:01:07,000 --> 01:01:08,240
Speaker 4: that you're going to strap on the pack into a

1236
01:01:08,240 --> 01:01:10,720
Speaker 4: train and hike with. That's the goal. You always want

1237
01:01:10,960 --> 01:01:13,400
Speaker 4: meat kind of in between the shoulder blades, high and tight,

1238
01:01:13,560 --> 01:01:16,080
Speaker 4: is what I say. Never have meat hanging or weight

1239
01:01:16,120 --> 01:01:19,080
Speaker 4: hanging down below the waistbelt. And then also don't have

1240
01:01:19,120 --> 01:01:21,720
Speaker 4: it off the back of the backpack. You want as

1241
01:01:21,760 --> 01:01:24,080
Speaker 4: close to your back as you possibly can, kind of

1242
01:01:24,080 --> 01:01:26,400
Speaker 4: between the shoulder blades. Have that weight up high so

1243
01:01:26,440 --> 01:01:29,120
Speaker 4: it's transferring down into the hips, not hanging low. You know.

1244
01:01:29,320 --> 01:01:31,200
Speaker 4: But you see pretty calm, and you see like a

1245
01:01:31,200 --> 01:01:32,760
Speaker 4: guy's got elk quarter and then he puts the elk

1246
01:01:32,800 --> 01:01:34,520
Speaker 4: head off the very back of the pack. And that's

1247
01:01:34,560 --> 01:01:36,080
Speaker 4: the worst thing to do, right because you're just putting

1248
01:01:36,120 --> 01:01:38,120
Speaker 4: all that weight further way from your back. It's pulling

1249
01:01:38,120 --> 01:01:39,960
Speaker 4: back on you. It's got leverage. You want to put

1250
01:01:40,000 --> 01:01:41,720
Speaker 4: that head like on top of it. So again, like

1251
01:01:41,880 --> 01:01:44,560
Speaker 4: I always just envisioned that weight transferring down into the hips.

1252
01:01:47,800 --> 01:01:48,880
Speaker 4: I don't mark anything else.

1253
01:01:50,320 --> 01:01:52,240
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's I mean, that's good stuff. Like you mentioned

1254
01:01:52,320 --> 01:01:55,280
Speaker 5: mark weed on the carriage, we were taking a trekking pole.

1255
01:01:55,360 --> 01:01:56,720
Speaker 5: You can do it with a stick too, but you

1256
01:01:56,800 --> 01:01:58,520
Speaker 5: take and this is true for a lower forty eight

1257
01:01:58,560 --> 01:02:01,680
Speaker 5: like bigger elk. If you get that head positioned higher

1258
01:02:01,720 --> 01:02:03,160
Speaker 5: like Steve is talking about, it's going to want to

1259
01:02:03,240 --> 01:02:05,919
Speaker 5: him to like rotate and swing. So it might stay

1260
01:02:05,920 --> 01:02:08,800
Speaker 5: in decent position, but as you move it's like creating momentum,

1261
01:02:08,880 --> 01:02:12,000
Speaker 5: which is terrible. Or the way you position it with

1262
01:02:12,000 --> 01:02:13,640
Speaker 5: a load, it might like want to rock and get

1263
01:02:13,720 --> 01:02:17,840
Speaker 5: up towards you your way. So yeah, just bracing it

1264
01:02:17,880 --> 01:02:20,000
Speaker 5: with a trekking pole a stick and tying that down

1265
01:02:20,120 --> 01:02:25,480
Speaker 5: is really helpful. And then it's really cool to shoot

1266
01:02:25,520 --> 01:02:27,680
Speaker 5: something big and until you're like in Alaska and like

1267
01:02:27,760 --> 01:02:29,480
Speaker 5: in the brush and have to like you get that

1268
01:02:29,520 --> 01:02:31,800
Speaker 5: thing through trees and I I really should have shut

1269
01:02:31,800 --> 01:02:36,240
Speaker 5: that smaller one. Yeah, So that's fun the other thing

1270
01:02:36,320 --> 01:02:40,480
Speaker 5: just this isn't pack but gear wise, as I would say,

1271
01:02:40,800 --> 01:02:46,360
Speaker 5: unique to Alaska is don't skimp on shelter. Like we've

1272
01:02:46,360 --> 01:02:49,840
Speaker 5: talked a lot, like if you're a new hunter, new

1273
01:02:49,880 --> 01:02:51,919
Speaker 5: to backpack hunting, and you're the guy who we talked

1274
01:02:51,920 --> 01:02:53,960
Speaker 5: about before, is going to go from being a white

1275
01:02:54,000 --> 01:02:57,640
Speaker 5: tail guy to go into Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, whatever in

1276
01:02:57,960 --> 01:03:01,440
Speaker 5: elk hunt and the Rockies like go to Walmart, like

1277
01:03:01,640 --> 01:03:04,280
Speaker 5: save money, do what you can, just go get experience.

1278
01:03:04,360 --> 01:03:06,520
Speaker 5: Don't worry about having the greatest shelter. I would say,

1279
01:03:06,520 --> 01:03:09,640
Speaker 5: if you're going to Alaska, ignore all that stuff and

1280
01:03:09,680 --> 01:03:13,600
Speaker 5: like get something that's built and built well. I've had

1281
01:03:14,240 --> 01:03:19,600
Speaker 5: actual shelter failures in Alaska. You know, one hundred plus

1282
01:03:19,680 --> 01:03:23,680
Speaker 5: miles away from civilization, so it's a real deal. So

1283
01:03:23,720 --> 01:03:26,640
Speaker 5: don't skip on shelter. And then just to touch quickly

1284
01:03:26,680 --> 01:03:29,360
Speaker 5: on a really common question with Alaska, we get a

1285
01:03:29,360 --> 01:03:33,120
Speaker 5: lot on gear is like down versus synthetic, and there

1286
01:03:33,320 --> 01:03:36,120
Speaker 5: is like if you look at a lot of gear

1287
01:03:36,160 --> 01:03:38,720
Speaker 5: lists or hear from like a lot of guides and outfitters,

1288
01:03:38,720 --> 01:03:41,040
Speaker 5: they're going to say you have to go synthetic everything.

1289
01:03:42,080 --> 01:03:45,920
Speaker 5: I really feel that that's not necessarily bad or wrong,

1290
01:03:46,040 --> 01:03:49,160
Speaker 5: but I feel like that's that guide and outfitter buying

1291
01:03:49,200 --> 01:03:52,880
Speaker 5: themselves insurance so that they're hunters are not like putting

1292
01:03:52,920 --> 01:03:55,480
Speaker 5: themselves in a bad situation. So I'd just say, if

1293
01:03:55,520 --> 01:03:58,520
Speaker 5: you have, if you already have decent down gear, and

1294
01:03:58,520 --> 01:04:01,920
Speaker 5: you have some experience, and you understand in the limitations

1295
01:04:01,960 --> 01:04:03,680
Speaker 5: of DOWN and how to take care of it and

1296
01:04:03,720 --> 01:04:06,959
Speaker 5: protect it, don't feel like I have all this rad

1297
01:04:07,000 --> 01:04:09,360
Speaker 5: down stuff and now I'm going to Alaska and I

1298
01:04:09,400 --> 01:04:11,520
Speaker 5: have to shed it all and get synthetic. I don't

1299
01:04:11,520 --> 01:04:14,640
Speaker 5: think that's the case at all. Just understand a little

1300
01:04:14,680 --> 01:04:16,800
Speaker 5: bit about what are the limitations of down and like

1301
01:04:17,040 --> 01:04:20,920
Speaker 5: how to use it. Again, I just I've noticed the

1302
01:04:21,840 --> 01:04:24,600
Speaker 5: over emphasis on synthetic, which again I'm not saying is wrong.

1303
01:04:24,600 --> 01:04:27,480
Speaker 5: I'm not saying you shouldn't get synthetic. I just think

1304
01:04:27,520 --> 01:04:33,680
Speaker 5: that's guides and outfitters, you know, wanting ill prepared, misunderstood

1305
01:04:33,720 --> 01:04:36,160
Speaker 5: hunters to like have a safe option, which I get.

1306
01:04:37,080 --> 01:04:39,640
Speaker 5: But yeah, if you have down stuff, don't automatically assume

1307
01:04:39,680 --> 01:04:43,919
Speaker 5: you can't take it to Alaska.

1308
01:04:51,520 --> 01:04:53,920
Speaker 2: So, just for people that maybe aren't familiar with this,

1309
01:04:54,560 --> 01:04:58,000
Speaker 2: the issue with down in somewhere like Alaska is the

1310
01:04:58,040 --> 01:05:00,960
Speaker 2: fact that it loses this insulating quality when wet, right,

1311
01:05:01,000 --> 01:05:02,760
Speaker 2: and so the idea is synthetic is it can keep

1312
01:05:02,760 --> 01:05:04,760
Speaker 2: you warm even if you do get moisture in there.

1313
01:05:05,040 --> 01:05:08,440
Speaker 2: And Alaska, you know, especially certain parts of Alaska being

1314
01:05:08,680 --> 01:05:12,840
Speaker 2: you know, notorious for for weather. But that brings up

1315
01:05:12,880 --> 01:05:16,640
Speaker 2: another good question, which is and actually you know I

1316
01:05:16,760 --> 01:05:19,080
Speaker 2: reached out to you Mark about this this last year,

1317
01:05:19,120 --> 01:05:21,120
Speaker 2: which is how what are some ways to keep my

1318
01:05:21,160 --> 01:05:23,680
Speaker 2: stuff dry in a place like Alaska. I was hunting

1319
01:05:23,720 --> 01:05:25,880
Speaker 2: in southeast Alaska last year and thinking, all right, how

1320
01:05:25,920 --> 01:05:27,920
Speaker 2: am I going to manage to keep all this stuff dry?

1321
01:05:28,280 --> 01:05:32,000
Speaker 2: What are the different layers of dry bags or different

1322
01:05:32,000 --> 01:05:34,400
Speaker 2: tools I can bring along with me to make sure

1323
01:05:34,440 --> 01:05:37,440
Speaker 2: I'm not soaking wet and cold up on top of

1324
01:05:37,480 --> 01:05:41,560
Speaker 2: a mountain. Can you can you walk us through anything

1325
01:05:41,640 --> 01:05:46,000
Speaker 2: you guys use to manage moisture and rain and inclement

1326
01:05:46,080 --> 01:05:49,520
Speaker 2: weather to keep your stuff usable, dry and warm.

1327
01:05:50,680 --> 01:05:55,160
Speaker 4: Yeah, dry bags for me. Let's just be very careful

1328
01:05:55,160 --> 01:05:57,000
Speaker 4: about that. We have a dry bag system that works

1329
01:05:57,000 --> 01:05:59,240
Speaker 4: with our packs or it's like an over dry bag

1330
01:05:59,480 --> 01:06:01,880
Speaker 4: drops in and turns the entire pack into a dry bag.

1331
01:06:02,120 --> 01:06:04,479
Speaker 4: And I just always have everything in there that needs

1332
01:06:04,480 --> 01:06:06,840
Speaker 4: to stay dry is in the dry bag, so it's

1333
01:06:06,920 --> 01:06:11,240
Speaker 4: extra clothes, sleeping bag, shelter is in or out, depending

1334
01:06:11,240 --> 01:06:12,800
Speaker 4: if you wake up in the morning it's covering a frost.

1335
01:06:12,800 --> 01:06:14,600
Speaker 4: I'm not gonna throw it in there. It's gonna leave

1336
01:06:14,880 --> 01:06:17,720
Speaker 4: that shell. I'm kind of putting an outside pocket. But

1337
01:06:18,120 --> 01:06:20,800
Speaker 4: that's kind of your ultimate insurance. Don't like, we don't

1338
01:06:20,920 --> 01:06:23,400
Speaker 4: don't rely on a rain cover. It's kind of pointless.

1339
01:06:24,480 --> 01:06:29,640
Speaker 4: We want like everything in dry bags. When uh, we

1340
01:06:29,680 --> 01:06:31,560
Speaker 4: had this hat, we got lucky on the very first

1341
01:06:31,600 --> 01:06:34,920
Speaker 4: caribou trip up there something I never do. I leave

1342
01:06:34,960 --> 01:06:36,920
Speaker 4: base camp and just got your pad and your sleeping

1343
01:06:36,920 --> 01:06:39,320
Speaker 4: bag all set up and good to go. Well, we

1344
01:06:39,320 --> 01:06:41,000
Speaker 4: we were out hunting and also on the winds kicked

1345
01:06:41,080 --> 01:06:42,560
Speaker 4: up and we got back and our tent was laid

1346
01:06:42,600 --> 01:06:45,760
Speaker 4: over and luckily everything wasn't scattered across the tundra. But

1347
01:06:45,960 --> 01:06:48,280
Speaker 4: ever since then, it's like, if I'm leaving the tent,

1348
01:06:49,000 --> 01:06:50,560
Speaker 4: I'm packing up my stuff in the morning, I gonna

1349
01:06:50,560 --> 01:06:52,520
Speaker 4: throw all my clothes and everything in a bag and

1350
01:06:52,600 --> 01:06:55,120
Speaker 4: kind of make sure it's at least pretty heavy. You

1351
01:06:55,160 --> 01:06:57,800
Speaker 4: know that if there's like there's been times where I

1352
01:06:57,840 --> 01:06:59,880
Speaker 4: like literally put a rock inside the dry bag to

1353
01:07:00,000 --> 01:07:01,880
Speaker 4: i'd wait to it so it didn't blow away. Just

1354
01:07:01,920 --> 01:07:04,479
Speaker 4: in that kind of you know, you just need to be, yeah,

1355
01:07:04,480 --> 01:07:06,360
Speaker 4: to treat your shelter like it's your I mean it

1356
01:07:06,400 --> 01:07:09,040
Speaker 4: is your wife lying out there right like, yeah, you

1357
01:07:09,120 --> 01:07:11,240
Speaker 4: got to treat it completely different than I would if

1358
01:07:11,240 --> 01:07:13,120
Speaker 4: I was in the lower forty eight where you know,

1359
01:07:13,240 --> 01:07:15,880
Speaker 4: I just I guess, I guess I've been backpack up

1360
01:07:15,880 --> 01:07:17,760
Speaker 4: for so long down here where it's just like, E

1361
01:07:18,280 --> 01:07:21,160
Speaker 4: like something terrible happens. I'm never more than four hours

1362
01:07:21,200 --> 01:07:22,840
Speaker 4: from my truck. Even I got to hike to the

1363
01:07:22,880 --> 01:07:24,520
Speaker 4: midle of the night. It's not a big deal up there.

1364
01:07:24,680 --> 01:07:26,760
Speaker 4: It's not an option. So you really want to make

1365
01:07:26,800 --> 01:07:29,520
Speaker 4: sure you're dialed and taking care of stuff. And it's

1366
01:07:29,560 --> 01:07:34,320
Speaker 4: just a lot of just be proactive, right instead of reactive, like, Okay,

1367
01:07:34,360 --> 01:07:38,080
Speaker 4: I'm if something's soaking wet, I'm not just gonna throw

1368
01:07:38,080 --> 01:07:39,320
Speaker 4: in my pack and leave on my pack all day.

1369
01:07:39,320 --> 01:07:41,520
Speaker 4: If the sun happens to come out, I'm gonna lay

1370
01:07:41,560 --> 01:07:43,240
Speaker 4: everything out and let it try out in the sun

1371
01:07:43,280 --> 01:07:44,760
Speaker 4: before you know, because you just never know when that

1372
01:07:44,840 --> 01:07:48,439
Speaker 4: next storm is gonna come. So just keeping maintaining things,

1373
01:07:48,520 --> 01:07:50,120
Speaker 4: keeping them dry as you go, so it's not just

1374
01:07:50,200 --> 01:07:53,640
Speaker 4: kind of this progressive it's wet, you pack it away,

1375
01:07:53,640 --> 01:07:55,120
Speaker 4: wet and get it and then all a sudden you

1376
01:07:55,120 --> 01:07:57,120
Speaker 4: don't pull it out until later that night and it's wet,

1377
01:07:57,120 --> 01:08:00,880
Speaker 4: you're sleeping bag, you add condensation in the morning, and yeah,

1378
01:08:01,080 --> 01:08:02,800
Speaker 4: the kind of a domino effect there.

1379
01:08:03,720 --> 01:08:07,120
Speaker 5: Yeah, Yeah, that reminds me of just like planning for

1380
01:08:07,840 --> 01:08:11,960
Speaker 5: like weather contingencies and planning for success of I mean,

1381
01:08:12,040 --> 01:08:14,920
Speaker 5: Steve and are both like pretty minimalist guys. Usually we're

1382
01:08:14,920 --> 01:08:17,200
Speaker 5: just backpack hunting, so it's like we want as little

1383
01:08:17,240 --> 01:08:22,160
Speaker 5: as possible essentially. There's definitely situations in Alaska where you

1384
01:08:22,439 --> 01:08:26,280
Speaker 5: think through like things you might need and that could

1385
01:08:26,320 --> 01:08:28,760
Speaker 5: be an extra tarp, that could be extra rope, and

1386
01:08:28,840 --> 01:08:31,800
Speaker 5: just especially on like a hunt where you are doing

1387
01:08:31,800 --> 01:08:34,000
Speaker 5: a drop camp, like say this caribou. You guys are

1388
01:08:34,000 --> 01:08:35,800
Speaker 5: going to go to your first drop camp caribou hunt.

1389
01:08:35,800 --> 01:08:38,760
Speaker 5: There's a group of you, there's four of you. You

1390
01:08:38,840 --> 01:08:40,720
Speaker 5: kill a caribou on day one or two, but you

1391
01:08:40,760 --> 01:08:42,559
Speaker 5: still have five, six, seven days in the field, Like

1392
01:08:42,880 --> 01:08:44,040
Speaker 5: what are you actually doing with that meat?

1393
01:08:44,040 --> 01:08:44,639
Speaker 4: The whole time?

1394
01:08:45,720 --> 01:08:49,240
Speaker 5: Having a tarp trying to keep it dry. Another advantage

1395
01:08:49,280 --> 01:08:51,960
Speaker 5: to like putting a tarp over meat is not only

1396
01:08:52,000 --> 01:08:54,000
Speaker 5: keeping it dry and keeping it shade, but usually it's

1397
01:08:54,000 --> 01:08:55,920
Speaker 5: going to be windy, and I really feel that like

1398
01:08:55,960 --> 01:08:58,400
Speaker 5: that noise in the wind of that tarp flying can

1399
01:08:58,479 --> 01:09:02,439
Speaker 5: keep like bears away from the meat, for example. So

1400
01:09:02,640 --> 01:09:05,679
Speaker 5: just thinking through things like that, I would just again,

1401
01:09:05,720 --> 01:09:08,920
Speaker 5: if there's a there's a case for hey, I'm doing

1402
01:09:08,960 --> 01:09:10,880
Speaker 5: at ten day backpack shee punts. I have to be

1403
01:09:10,920 --> 01:09:11,919
Speaker 5: as minimal as possible.

1404
01:09:12,280 --> 01:09:12,679
Speaker 3: For sure.

1405
01:09:13,479 --> 01:09:15,360
Speaker 5: I'm not saying go overboard and bring the kitchen sink,

1406
01:09:15,439 --> 01:09:18,240
Speaker 5: but I would have like, hey, what do we need

1407
01:09:18,280 --> 01:09:21,040
Speaker 5: an extra shelter or like maybe you know, a bigger

1408
01:09:21,040 --> 01:09:23,679
Speaker 5: shelter than we thought, because we could have to sit

1409
01:09:23,760 --> 01:09:26,160
Speaker 5: this out for forty eight hours literally in a shelter

1410
01:09:26,280 --> 01:09:29,280
Speaker 5: versus being crammed in a one main tent or having

1411
01:09:29,280 --> 01:09:32,040
Speaker 5: its tarp for a place to store gear. Maybe some

1412
01:09:32,120 --> 01:09:36,200
Speaker 5: extra rope, some extra guy like some of that extras.

1413
01:09:36,240 --> 01:09:38,519
Speaker 5: Like we always say that people tend to pack their fears,

1414
01:09:39,120 --> 01:09:41,559
Speaker 5: and we're usually preaching against that, like you don't need

1415
01:09:41,600 --> 01:09:43,760
Speaker 5: all this extra stuff. Don't pack all the fears and

1416
01:09:43,800 --> 01:09:47,439
Speaker 5: all the contingencies and what if At the same time,

1417
01:09:47,479 --> 01:09:50,000
Speaker 5: with Alaska, I would think through, like, Okay, if you

1418
01:09:50,080 --> 01:09:53,599
Speaker 5: truly are remote and you're one hundred plus miles away

1419
01:09:53,600 --> 01:09:56,080
Speaker 5: and that plane's not coming to get you, like you

1420
01:09:56,160 --> 01:10:00,160
Speaker 5: are on your own essentially, So again, don't be afraid,

1421
01:10:00,160 --> 01:10:02,120
Speaker 5: but like just think through some of those things of

1422
01:10:02,240 --> 01:10:06,519
Speaker 5: like how are we going to handle X Y problem right? Again,

1423
01:10:06,600 --> 01:10:08,439
Speaker 5: not being like paranoid scared, but just making sure you

1424
01:10:08,479 --> 01:10:09,400
Speaker 5: have your bas is covered.

1425
01:10:09,720 --> 01:10:15,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's important. One more water related question you

1426
01:10:15,160 --> 01:10:17,920
Speaker 2: mentioned how in your opinion, Steve, it's it's pack and

1427
01:10:18,040 --> 01:10:21,080
Speaker 2: boots that are the very most important thing. Boots are

1428
01:10:21,080 --> 01:10:24,960
Speaker 2: a big I guess there's questions around boots and handling

1429
01:10:25,080 --> 01:10:28,320
Speaker 2: wetness and moisture too, especially there. I've got a friend

1430
01:10:28,560 --> 01:10:30,960
Speaker 2: who I was hunting with this past fall, and he's

1431
01:10:30,960 --> 01:10:33,880
Speaker 2: an Alaska resident and he does all of his hunting

1432
01:10:34,600 --> 01:10:37,960
Speaker 2: everywhere in Alaska, you know, from the Brooks Range to

1433
01:10:38,120 --> 01:10:43,240
Speaker 2: southeast in extra tuffs and knee high extra tuffs, and

1434
01:10:43,280 --> 01:10:45,160
Speaker 2: so he was telling me that's that's what you gotta get,

1435
01:10:45,200 --> 01:10:46,840
Speaker 2: Just just take your extra tuffs. And I'm thinking, oh

1436
01:10:46,880 --> 01:10:52,000
Speaker 2: my gosh, not hiking boots. What what is your guys'

1437
01:10:52,200 --> 01:10:56,439
Speaker 2: take on boots in general for this these these kinds

1438
01:10:56,439 --> 01:11:01,800
Speaker 2: of trips, but then also managing moisture, crossing creeks, boggy swamps,

1439
01:11:02,000 --> 01:11:04,960
Speaker 2: fording rivers, all that kind of stuff, and maybe not

1440
01:11:05,000 --> 01:11:07,240
Speaker 2: just boots, but boots plus supplemental footwear.

1441
01:11:07,479 --> 01:11:11,080
Speaker 4: Yeah, crocs are your friend, man, Like, we used crocks

1442
01:11:11,200 --> 01:11:15,040
Speaker 4: a lot up there. It's something that I don't very

1443
01:11:15,120 --> 01:11:17,559
Speaker 4: rarely pack down here. Up here, I'm always taking crocks

1444
01:11:17,600 --> 01:11:20,040
Speaker 4: with me because then you just put them on cross streams.

1445
01:11:20,240 --> 01:11:22,880
Speaker 4: We did a sheet pack at once, like fifteen miles

1446
01:11:23,120 --> 01:11:25,519
Speaker 4: the entire thing of crocks because we were knee deep

1447
01:11:25,600 --> 01:11:29,960
Speaker 4: to wasteep walking down rivers, crossing the river like, and

1448
01:11:30,080 --> 01:11:32,559
Speaker 4: it was amazing. Way I get. We hiked in on

1449
01:11:32,760 --> 01:11:34,559
Speaker 4: and boots and you're just you know, you spend so

1450
01:11:34,640 --> 01:11:36,639
Speaker 4: much time and effort taking the boot off across the stream,

1451
01:11:36,680 --> 01:11:39,080
Speaker 4: putting them back on, trying to jump across the stream,

1452
01:11:39,120 --> 01:11:40,479
Speaker 4: trying to find a path, trying to find it like

1453
01:11:40,520 --> 01:11:42,080
Speaker 4: a dangerous like, oh there's a log I'm going to

1454
01:11:42,160 --> 01:11:44,360
Speaker 4: try to, you know, slap the crocks on, walk right

1455
01:11:44,400 --> 01:11:46,800
Speaker 4: down the middle the stream. It's pretty awesome. And you're

1456
01:11:46,800 --> 01:11:48,559
Speaker 4: getting like an ice bath the whole way. It's like

1457
01:11:48,600 --> 01:11:53,439
Speaker 4: pretty fantastic. Yeah yeah, boots are so I uh. Part

1458
01:11:53,479 --> 01:11:55,679
Speaker 4: of the Experienced project, we did a bunch of gear

1459
01:11:56,160 --> 01:11:59,000
Speaker 4: kind of tight delve into the top mark what like

1460
01:11:59,040 --> 01:12:01,960
Speaker 4: twelve gear items and I did. I did a boot one.

1461
01:12:02,160 --> 01:12:03,800
Speaker 4: I think I talked for at least an hour on

1462
01:12:03,880 --> 01:12:08,120
Speaker 4: my philosophies and I'm a little bit fucking the trend

1463
01:12:08,160 --> 01:12:11,120
Speaker 4: of the hunting Like stiff leather boots. I just stated

1464
01:12:11,160 --> 01:12:13,759
Speaker 4: for me, they don't work. There's a lot of downsides

1465
01:12:13,760 --> 01:12:15,719
Speaker 4: and drawbacks to them. So if someone wants to really

1466
01:12:15,840 --> 01:12:17,719
Speaker 4: kind of take a deep dive into boots, I suggest

1467
01:12:17,720 --> 01:12:22,280
Speaker 4: watching that video because there's a lot of just within

1468
01:12:22,320 --> 01:12:24,960
Speaker 4: a boot adjusting. You know, first of all, take the

1469
01:12:24,960 --> 01:12:27,080
Speaker 4: stock and soul that comes with it, throw in the trash,

1470
01:12:27,479 --> 01:12:31,120
Speaker 4: go buy an aftermarket quality one. The performance across the

1471
01:12:31,120 --> 01:12:33,800
Speaker 4: board is going to be better. No understanding socks and

1472
01:12:33,800 --> 01:12:35,640
Speaker 4: how you can adjust the sock thickness to kind of

1473
01:12:35,640 --> 01:12:37,720
Speaker 4: custom tailor the size of the boot. There's a lot

1474
01:12:37,760 --> 01:12:40,640
Speaker 4: of things you can do, and you really just you

1475
01:12:40,760 --> 01:12:42,519
Speaker 4: have to get your boots and break them in and

1476
01:12:42,520 --> 01:12:44,599
Speaker 4: try them out before a hunt, because you're just you're

1477
01:12:44,600 --> 01:12:47,080
Speaker 4: gonna find out what works and what doesn't and get

1478
01:12:47,120 --> 01:12:49,800
Speaker 4: like to buy a pair of boots and like hike

1479
01:12:49,840 --> 01:12:52,240
Speaker 4: around your neighborhood. No, like you got to go get

1480
01:12:52,280 --> 01:12:56,679
Speaker 4: like off trail, side hill, downhill to find all those things.

1481
01:12:56,720 --> 01:12:58,880
Speaker 4: And again that's like number one thing is gonna shut

1482
01:12:58,880 --> 01:13:03,000
Speaker 4: you down from a hunt. I generally like synthetic boots.

1483
01:13:03,040 --> 01:13:06,960
Speaker 4: There I haven't found. I really try five to ten

1484
01:13:07,040 --> 01:13:09,000
Speaker 4: pairs of boots a year. I have yet to find

1485
01:13:09,040 --> 01:13:11,200
Speaker 4: one that's like this is the boot that I'm gonna wear,

1486
01:13:11,880 --> 01:13:14,480
Speaker 4: this is the perfect one. They've all got drawbacks. Synthetics

1487
01:13:14,479 --> 01:13:16,559
Speaker 4: generally aren't going to be as durable. What I like

1488
01:13:16,560 --> 01:13:18,240
Speaker 4: about them is they're gonna dry out. So you get

1489
01:13:18,320 --> 01:13:20,759
Speaker 4: up in Alaska, you get you know, ah, other boots

1490
01:13:20,800 --> 01:13:24,280
Speaker 4: super soggy, wet. It's gonna take even if the sun

1491
01:13:24,280 --> 01:13:26,360
Speaker 4: comes out, it's gonna take days to dry that thing out,

1492
01:13:26,360 --> 01:13:29,920
Speaker 4: where synthetic can dry out in hours. So that's my

1493
01:13:30,080 --> 01:13:33,759
Speaker 4: general preference. Everyone's different, said, I don't have a perfect

1494
01:13:33,800 --> 01:13:36,720
Speaker 4: answer other than have crocks and use the crap out

1495
01:13:36,720 --> 01:13:37,240
Speaker 4: of those things.

1496
01:13:37,400 --> 01:13:41,160
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, I think it's an important Yeah, it's an

1497
01:13:41,160 --> 01:13:44,320
Speaker 5: important like caveat to what we talked about earlier. Alaska

1498
01:13:44,360 --> 01:13:47,000
Speaker 5: can be so different. So it's it's understanding what am

1499
01:13:47,040 --> 01:13:49,880
Speaker 5: I heading into. Am I going into you know, tundra

1500
01:13:49,920 --> 01:13:52,080
Speaker 5: in the Brooks Range. Am I going into it interior

1501
01:13:52,120 --> 01:13:55,040
Speaker 5: moose swamp? Like Steve talked about my going to Southeast Alaska,

1502
01:13:55,160 --> 01:13:59,439
Speaker 5: my going to Kodiak. I think if you had a

1503
01:13:59,439 --> 01:14:01,519
Speaker 5: good boot, you can kind of take a boot on

1504
01:14:01,960 --> 01:14:06,040
Speaker 5: almost anything. I think it's the supplementary stuff that's like

1505
01:14:06,120 --> 01:14:09,880
Speaker 5: do I need crocs, Do I need hip waiters, Do

1506
01:14:09,960 --> 01:14:13,080
Speaker 5: I need chest waiters? You know, Like it's it's that

1507
01:14:13,280 --> 01:14:18,479
Speaker 5: extra stuff of swampiness, water crossings and all that.

1508
01:14:20,120 --> 01:14:20,640
Speaker 2: I tend to.

1509
01:14:20,800 --> 01:14:23,720
Speaker 5: I mean, people play up you get in especially like

1510
01:14:23,760 --> 01:14:27,320
Speaker 5: the Mountain Alaska hunts like sheep hunts, goat hunts, whatever,

1511
01:14:27,920 --> 01:14:31,400
Speaker 5: And obviously most of the advice there is, you know,

1512
01:14:31,479 --> 01:14:34,240
Speaker 5: you have to have like something like super hardcore stiff

1513
01:14:34,240 --> 01:14:38,120
Speaker 5: as possible. If that works for you, that's fantastic. I

1514
01:14:38,160 --> 01:14:40,759
Speaker 5: just don't think that's default advice that you have to follow.

1515
01:14:40,800 --> 01:14:43,120
Speaker 5: I mean I've done goat hunts and sheep hunts and

1516
01:14:43,160 --> 01:14:47,280
Speaker 5: a modern like if you had like a I think

1517
01:14:47,520 --> 01:14:49,680
Speaker 5: some of the companies do, like one to five on

1518
01:14:49,760 --> 01:14:51,400
Speaker 5: flex like I use it two and a half to

1519
01:14:51,439 --> 01:14:56,000
Speaker 5: three essentially on like the most deep, tough train there is.

1520
01:14:56,040 --> 01:14:58,800
Speaker 5: So yeah, it's at the end of the day, it's

1521
01:14:58,800 --> 01:15:02,400
Speaker 5: a situation of one understand what you're heading into and

1522
01:15:02,439 --> 01:15:05,080
Speaker 5: then to find what works for you. Don't listen to

1523
01:15:05,160 --> 01:15:09,960
Speaker 5: people because all of our feet are so different. I mean,

1524
01:15:10,000 --> 01:15:12,160
Speaker 5: there's certain things you can understand, Like if you know

1525
01:15:12,200 --> 01:15:15,200
Speaker 5: you have a narrow foot, some of these European brands

1526
01:15:15,240 --> 01:15:18,639
Speaker 5: like class Sportiva and et cetera like kind of fit that, well,

1527
01:15:19,240 --> 01:15:21,120
Speaker 5: you know you've a wide foot, you know you're gonna

1528
01:15:21,240 --> 01:15:24,720
Speaker 5: have to go to a different boot manufacturer. You can,

1529
01:15:24,800 --> 01:15:26,519
Speaker 5: and we talked about this like in your video, Steve,

1530
01:15:26,560 --> 01:15:29,360
Speaker 5: but like they're just the last of the boots, which

1531
01:15:29,400 --> 01:15:32,240
Speaker 5: is essentially the shape of the footbed of the boot,

1532
01:15:32,640 --> 01:15:35,800
Speaker 5: and even doing simple stuff like take that insol out

1533
01:15:35,840 --> 01:15:38,120
Speaker 5: of the boot, like Steve talked about before you throw

1534
01:15:38,160 --> 01:15:41,599
Speaker 5: it away, but like literally just take the insol out first,

1535
01:15:41,640 --> 01:15:43,639
Speaker 5: Like if you got three four pairs of boots, take

1536
01:15:43,680 --> 01:15:46,720
Speaker 5: all the insoles out and like step on those and

1537
01:15:46,760 --> 01:15:49,360
Speaker 5: you're essentially looking at the inside shape of the boot

1538
01:15:49,360 --> 01:15:51,000
Speaker 5: because you're looking at the insul and going hey, like

1539
01:15:51,479 --> 01:15:53,920
Speaker 5: one of these is gonna look like it fits my

1540
01:15:53,960 --> 01:15:57,280
Speaker 5: foot better, and one's not right. So just a little

1541
01:15:57,320 --> 01:16:01,679
Speaker 5: stuff like that. So boots are the most important thing

1542
01:16:01,800 --> 01:16:04,680
Speaker 5: in all of like whether Alaska hunting or where elk

1543
01:16:04,760 --> 01:16:08,000
Speaker 5: hunting or anything where it's like you covering ground. Like,

1544
01:16:08,080 --> 01:16:10,280
Speaker 5: boots are the most important thing. It's also the most

1545
01:16:10,320 --> 01:16:13,920
Speaker 5: annoying thing, right, Like sometimes it takes years and a

1546
01:16:14,000 --> 01:16:15,840
Speaker 5: ton of money and try and stuff on to figure

1547
01:16:15,840 --> 01:16:18,000
Speaker 5: out what works for you. And then sometimes you do

1548
01:16:18,000 --> 01:16:19,360
Speaker 5: that and you find the boot and then like a

1549
01:16:19,400 --> 01:16:23,480
Speaker 5: year and a half later, you realize the manufacturer changed it, discontinued,

1550
01:16:23,479 --> 01:16:26,400
Speaker 5: it did whatever. So like for me, I just bought

1551
01:16:26,800 --> 01:16:29,720
Speaker 5: a fourth pair of a pair of boots that have

1552
01:16:30,320 --> 01:16:32,280
Speaker 5: done everything for me, and they happened to be on sale.

1553
01:16:32,320 --> 01:16:34,639
Speaker 5: I literally saw him yesterday. I was like, fourth pair,

1554
01:16:34,760 --> 01:16:37,040
Speaker 5: let's go, you know, because I know, like I could

1555
01:16:37,080 --> 01:16:38,880
Speaker 5: just for the next ten years, I could pretty much

1556
01:16:38,960 --> 01:16:41,600
Speaker 5: go do anything anywhere in that pair of boots. And

1557
01:16:41,640 --> 01:16:43,400
Speaker 5: like I'm not saying it's perfect, but it's just it's

1558
01:16:43,479 --> 01:16:44,960
Speaker 5: never gave me a problem, you know.

1559
01:16:45,200 --> 01:16:48,680
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think one of the advice I get, like,

1560
01:16:48,960 --> 01:16:52,439
Speaker 4: don't assume your feet have to be uncomfortable. I in

1561
01:16:52,520 --> 01:16:55,439
Speaker 4: my opinion, you should have comfortable feet no matter what

1562
01:16:55,439 --> 01:16:57,920
Speaker 4: you're hunting, where you're hunting. So if you're having uncomfortable feet,

1563
01:16:58,000 --> 01:17:00,720
Speaker 4: to start to address it, whether it's the boots too

1564
01:17:00,720 --> 01:17:04,439
Speaker 4: stiff for it's not you know, there's too much flex

1565
01:17:04,640 --> 01:17:06,439
Speaker 4: or there's too much room inside the foots or your

1566
01:17:06,439 --> 01:17:08,479
Speaker 4: foot sliding around getting hot, or you got heel lift

1567
01:17:08,560 --> 01:17:12,080
Speaker 4: or something like that, Like just keep tweaking that until

1568
01:17:12,520 --> 01:17:15,280
Speaker 4: you know your feature never kill you if a good tip,

1569
01:17:15,439 --> 01:17:17,040
Speaker 4: like you get back to camp, the very first thing

1570
01:17:17,040 --> 01:17:18,360
Speaker 4: you want to do is, oh, my feet are kill

1571
01:17:18,439 --> 01:17:20,400
Speaker 4: me and you take these boots off, Like that's a

1572
01:17:20,439 --> 01:17:22,800
Speaker 4: good sign to me that I mean there's obviously like

1573
01:17:22,840 --> 01:17:24,880
Speaker 4: the bigger ones like full blisters and your feet are

1574
01:17:24,920 --> 01:17:26,600
Speaker 4: really tore up. But if that's the first thing you

1575
01:17:26,600 --> 01:17:28,160
Speaker 4: want to do and get back to camp, like keep looking,

1576
01:17:28,240 --> 01:17:31,519
Speaker 4: keep tweaking, there's gonna be there's a combination of boot,

1577
01:17:31,640 --> 01:17:34,559
Speaker 4: sock and sole out there that you're gonna allow. That's

1578
01:17:34,560 --> 01:17:37,320
Speaker 4: gonna allow you have very comfortable feet. We have, yeah,

1579
01:17:37,360 --> 01:17:41,599
Speaker 4: I mean very like I don't have feet issues anymore, right,

1580
01:17:41,640 --> 01:17:44,920
Speaker 4: Like they're just comfortable, good to go. But I like

1581
01:17:45,000 --> 01:17:47,720
Speaker 4: I'm doing that caribou hunt and like a basically a

1582
01:17:47,760 --> 01:17:50,640
Speaker 4: mid trail running shoe and that's what works for me.

1583
01:17:51,640 --> 01:17:55,240
Speaker 4: But that's just my experience. Yeah, but it's not you.

1584
01:17:56,320 --> 01:17:56,519
Speaker 3: Yeah.

1585
01:17:56,520 --> 01:17:59,200
Speaker 4: That another bit of advice, like don't you can ask

1586
01:17:59,200 --> 01:18:02,240
Speaker 4: somebody what is a good durable boot? What's a waterproof boot?

1587
01:18:02,320 --> 01:18:04,839
Speaker 4: But as far as someone saying, oh, this boot's comfortable,

1588
01:18:04,880 --> 01:18:08,639
Speaker 4: I think it's like that's completely irrelevant. Everyone's different so personal,

1589
01:18:09,120 --> 01:18:12,280
Speaker 4: So it's like, don't if you're on social media or

1590
01:18:12,320 --> 01:18:15,240
Speaker 4: whatever form like aspect what have you had good experience

1591
01:18:15,280 --> 01:18:17,320
Speaker 4: with from waterproof or have you had a good experience

1592
01:18:17,400 --> 01:18:19,400
Speaker 4: with from durability? And that's where it stops. Like the

1593
01:18:19,439 --> 01:18:21,320
Speaker 4: rest of that's just so up to your feet.

1594
01:18:21,760 --> 01:18:27,840
Speaker 2: Yeah, one last fast comfort related question, which would be

1595
01:18:27,960 --> 01:18:32,280
Speaker 2: your comfort with your experience packcrafting. So you guys using

1596
01:18:32,320 --> 01:18:35,280
Speaker 2: pack grafts there on the caribou hunt epic float out there,

1597
01:18:35,840 --> 01:18:38,160
Speaker 2: so you guys pushing them across there on your moose hunt.

1598
01:18:38,600 --> 01:18:40,679
Speaker 2: I've I've used them a little bit and have thought

1599
01:18:40,680 --> 01:18:44,160
Speaker 2: about a number of trips in Alaska using those. What

1600
01:18:44,200 --> 01:18:46,000
Speaker 2: were your thoughts on how it handled the job you

1601
01:18:46,080 --> 01:18:47,759
Speaker 2: guys are trying to put it through a lot of weight,

1602
01:18:49,000 --> 01:18:51,160
Speaker 2: you know, kind of a little bit Western there with

1603
01:18:51,240 --> 01:18:54,360
Speaker 2: the rising waters and everything. What was your quick take

1604
01:18:54,400 --> 01:18:54,600
Speaker 2: on that?

1605
01:18:55,880 --> 01:18:59,080
Speaker 4: They're incredible. They're brand new to us. I've never done

1606
01:18:59,080 --> 01:19:01,519
Speaker 4: one before the carribout. Mark add either. I've got a

1607
01:19:01,520 --> 01:19:04,240
Speaker 4: decent amount of river wrapping experience here in Idaho. Mark

1608
01:19:04,280 --> 01:19:06,280
Speaker 4: had like next to zero, So he came out.

1609
01:19:06,200 --> 01:19:06,960
Speaker 3: Glad to be here.

1610
01:19:07,160 --> 01:19:08,280
Speaker 5: I'm glad to be here.

1611
01:19:09,400 --> 01:19:13,320
Speaker 4: We did a golf tournament last summer that Exo sponsored,

1612
01:19:13,760 --> 01:19:15,439
Speaker 4: we put on ourselves, and when Mark was out here

1613
01:19:15,479 --> 01:19:17,080
Speaker 4: for that, We're like, hey, there's a creek that I

1614
01:19:17,160 --> 01:19:19,080
Speaker 4: knew we could go float and so we literally went

1615
01:19:19,160 --> 01:19:23,120
Speaker 4: and bought dog food about like eighty pounds for each boat,

1616
01:19:23,360 --> 01:19:25,240
Speaker 4: threw him in the tubes, and went floated this creek

1617
01:19:25,280 --> 01:19:27,400
Speaker 4: just to get some like some kind of I mean

1618
01:19:27,439 --> 01:19:29,479
Speaker 4: to me, it's just like just had to have some

1619
01:19:29,560 --> 01:19:32,760
Speaker 4: base to like go off of, and they did beautifully,

1620
01:19:33,240 --> 01:19:36,160
Speaker 4: so I got confidence. And then yeah, on the Cariboo trip,

1621
01:19:36,400 --> 01:19:38,280
Speaker 4: the waters, you know, it was like a record high

1622
01:19:38,320 --> 01:19:40,680
Speaker 4: flooding that came through like highland spring run off, and

1623
01:19:41,080 --> 01:19:42,439
Speaker 4: we had to wait for it to go down, and

1624
01:19:42,479 --> 01:19:44,080
Speaker 4: we were all nervous as hell, because we had a

1625
01:19:44,120 --> 01:19:47,639
Speaker 4: couple of sharpest turns coming up and like, well, full sin,

1626
01:19:47,720 --> 01:19:50,920
Speaker 4: let's see what happens. And they were awesome, made it

1627
01:19:50,920 --> 01:19:55,080
Speaker 4: absolutely fantastic. We had the alpaca rangers and one I

1628
01:19:55,080 --> 01:19:58,160
Speaker 4: think it's called the forger boat from a packer and yeah,

1629
01:19:58,240 --> 01:20:00,200
Speaker 4: put all the meat, all the gear, every you and

1630
01:20:00,240 --> 01:20:02,000
Speaker 4: they're the only thing on top of the raft was

1631
01:20:02,200 --> 01:20:04,840
Speaker 4: strap the antlers and PLoP your body downside of it.

1632
01:20:04,880 --> 01:20:07,479
Speaker 4: And they were incredible. Yeah. To me, it is like

1633
01:20:07,560 --> 01:20:09,360
Speaker 4: open my eyes, what else can like what can I

1634
01:20:09,400 --> 01:20:11,080
Speaker 4: do here in Idaho? Or can I start utilizing this

1635
01:20:11,120 --> 01:20:13,479
Speaker 4: one access some country? I didn't think it was possible.

1636
01:20:13,760 --> 01:20:15,320
Speaker 5: Yeah, Yeah, they're pretty cool.

1637
01:20:15,479 --> 01:20:16,360
Speaker 2: Any thoughts for me?

1638
01:20:16,439 --> 01:20:16,679
Speaker 4: Mark?

1639
01:20:17,760 --> 01:20:17,880
Speaker 3: Now?

1640
01:20:17,920 --> 01:20:22,240
Speaker 5: I'm just still glad to be here. Yeah. It was

1641
01:20:22,360 --> 01:20:26,200
Speaker 5: like I was like moderately nervous about doing it in general,

1642
01:20:26,320 --> 01:20:28,840
Speaker 5: not like afraid. But then we yeah, if you watch

1643
01:20:28,880 --> 01:20:31,040
Speaker 5: the video, we had this giant, like Steve said, just

1644
01:20:31,600 --> 01:20:35,720
Speaker 5: way unexpected river conditions that went crazy and just as

1645
01:20:35,760 --> 01:20:38,640
Speaker 5: we were loading up for that, you know, it was

1646
01:20:38,760 --> 01:20:41,360
Speaker 5: like I loved it. I even loved it at the moment,

1647
01:20:41,400 --> 01:20:43,560
Speaker 5: but it was still it was like a little unnerving

1648
01:20:43,680 --> 01:20:46,240
Speaker 5: to be like I don't know what's around the corner.

1649
01:20:46,320 --> 01:20:48,599
Speaker 5: Like we had been sitting there watching this river and

1650
01:20:48,720 --> 01:20:52,360
Speaker 5: just full on trees and like everything go down. It's

1651
01:20:52,360 --> 01:20:53,840
Speaker 5: like what's around the corner is it can be a

1652
01:20:53,840 --> 01:20:56,800
Speaker 5: big sweeper and are you caught? And I'm like, we

1653
01:20:56,880 --> 01:20:59,360
Speaker 5: have everything in the tubes of these pack crafts, like

1654
01:20:59,479 --> 01:21:02,800
Speaker 5: all the me oliver gear, oliver everything, So you're literally

1655
01:21:02,800 --> 01:21:06,400
Speaker 5: making these decisions of like Okay, inside my zipper, chestwai

1656
01:21:06,479 --> 01:21:10,000
Speaker 5: or pocket, I have my inReach, I have a lighter,

1657
01:21:10,240 --> 01:21:12,519
Speaker 5: like I have a little bit of food because you know,

1658
01:21:12,640 --> 01:21:15,080
Speaker 5: maybe those three guys get passed and I get swept

1659
01:21:15,160 --> 01:21:17,640
Speaker 5: up and then I'm soaked and I'm bailing off, you know.

1660
01:21:17,680 --> 01:21:21,240
Speaker 5: So just like thinking through all that stuff. But the

1661
01:21:21,320 --> 01:21:23,519
Speaker 5: end of the day, like it was one of the

1662
01:21:23,520 --> 01:21:26,240
Speaker 5: coolest things I've ever done. Like those moments and I

1663
01:21:26,240 --> 01:21:28,240
Speaker 5: don't remember what I told GC, but like those moments

1664
01:21:28,240 --> 01:21:32,840
Speaker 5: where you're doing something so amazing, like you almost just

1665
01:21:32,880 --> 01:21:35,280
Speaker 5: want to like scream, like at the top of your

1666
01:21:35,320 --> 01:21:37,559
Speaker 5: one is like this is the coolest thing. Like we're

1667
01:21:37,600 --> 01:21:40,360
Speaker 5: just floating down, four of us, floating down this river

1668
01:21:40,840 --> 01:21:44,080
Speaker 5: and the Alaska Mountains and just like Carivous antlers be bopping,

1669
01:21:44,280 --> 01:21:47,400
Speaker 5: you're getting splashed from the waves, Like, yeah, I think

1670
01:21:47,400 --> 01:21:48,960
Speaker 5: it's told to you, Like I knew this was gonna

1671
01:21:48,960 --> 01:21:52,519
Speaker 5: be awesome, but this is like exceeded every expectation of

1672
01:21:53,280 --> 01:21:56,000
Speaker 5: everything it was. They're so cool and to your point,

1673
01:21:56,439 --> 01:21:59,280
Speaker 5: I'm very experienced or inexperienced. I have no idea what

1674
01:21:59,280 --> 01:22:02,679
Speaker 5: I'm doing. And even loading, I mean had four guys,

1675
01:22:02,680 --> 01:22:04,839
Speaker 5: four rafts, four characters, so all of us are loaded

1676
01:22:04,880 --> 01:22:08,559
Speaker 5: with four full cariboo, all that meat, all of our gear,

1677
01:22:08,720 --> 01:22:12,840
Speaker 5: all of everything, and those rafts just like ate it

1678
01:22:13,080 --> 01:22:16,280
Speaker 5: up like it was impressive, really impressive first.

1679
01:22:16,120 --> 01:22:19,479
Speaker 4: Three miles that it's a narrow river and you're the

1680
01:22:19,640 --> 01:22:21,519
Speaker 4: times like in the trough of the wave and those

1681
01:22:21,600 --> 01:22:24,040
Speaker 4: rafts like full on waters over your head, come and

1682
01:22:24,040 --> 01:22:27,760
Speaker 4: crash into your chest, and they just like it was incredible. Yeah,

1683
01:22:28,000 --> 01:22:29,880
Speaker 4: we didn't. We weren't unding the cameras at all during that,

1684
01:22:29,920 --> 01:22:32,840
Speaker 4: so you don't see it, unfortunately, but yeah, it was

1685
01:22:32,920 --> 01:22:33,599
Speaker 4: freaking awesome.

1686
01:22:34,400 --> 01:22:35,080
Speaker 2: Quite the truth.

1687
01:22:35,479 --> 01:22:35,639
Speaker 3: YEA.

1688
01:22:35,840 --> 01:22:40,520
Speaker 2: Well, we opened this conversation with a question of why Alaska,

1689
01:22:41,200 --> 01:22:43,800
Speaker 2: and I want to end it a little bit more

1690
01:22:43,880 --> 01:22:48,960
Speaker 2: zoomed out and just ask you both why adventure you

1691
01:22:49,040 --> 01:22:51,880
Speaker 2: both said that's really important in your lives. Yeah, why

1692
01:22:52,040 --> 01:22:53,360
Speaker 2: why would you say, Steve.

1693
01:22:54,439 --> 01:22:58,120
Speaker 4: Well, uh, you feel a lot. Like we talked about

1694
01:22:58,120 --> 01:23:00,840
Speaker 4: this a lot. Is like every everything in our life

1695
01:23:00,920 --> 01:23:03,640
Speaker 4: right now is about making things more comfortable. You know,

1696
01:23:03,720 --> 01:23:05,839
Speaker 4: let's make this easier to do. Let's be more comfortable.

1697
01:23:05,920 --> 01:23:08,040
Speaker 4: Let's let's never do it too hot, let's never get

1698
01:23:08,080 --> 01:23:11,800
Speaker 4: too cold. And it just kind of like numbs yet

1699
01:23:11,840 --> 01:23:13,840
Speaker 4: to everything. And so it's like when you go out there,

1700
01:23:14,439 --> 01:23:16,160
Speaker 4: you just feel I don't know, you just feel alive,

1701
01:23:16,360 --> 01:23:18,759
Speaker 4: like the bear hunt the moose with all the bears,

1702
01:23:19,600 --> 01:23:21,559
Speaker 4: all the guys where we like when we left that,

1703
01:23:21,640 --> 01:23:24,439
Speaker 4: we're like, nope, never again, and everybody's like there was

1704
01:23:24,439 --> 01:23:27,200
Speaker 4: something there, like can we go back again? Like it

1705
01:23:27,240 --> 01:23:30,479
Speaker 4: sounds crazy, but when you're you know, you're just out

1706
01:23:30,520 --> 01:23:33,599
Speaker 4: there surviving. You're you're experiencing it. You're not thinking about,

1707
01:23:33,760 --> 01:23:35,680
Speaker 4: you know, some email or text or trying to make

1708
01:23:35,680 --> 01:23:38,240
Speaker 4: it like it's just everything's gone. You're just focused on

1709
01:23:38,280 --> 01:23:40,360
Speaker 4: the moment in front of you. I think it's just

1710
01:23:40,400 --> 01:23:44,000
Speaker 4: so rare these days where we're just got so much

1711
01:23:44,080 --> 01:23:46,000
Speaker 4: being thrown at us from so many different angles and

1712
01:23:46,400 --> 01:23:49,200
Speaker 4: bounce and work, family and you know, just social media

1713
01:23:49,240 --> 01:23:53,840
Speaker 4: or whatever the heck, it's just yeah there the second

1714
01:23:53,880 --> 01:23:56,080
Speaker 4: amount of there. I think that's one thing that I do.

1715
01:23:56,880 --> 01:24:02,280
Speaker 4: We talked about is it's that you're sometimes you're miserable,

1716
01:24:02,400 --> 01:24:04,240
Speaker 4: but you just got to like take your mind out

1717
01:24:04,240 --> 01:24:05,760
Speaker 4: of that moment. If I say you're stuck in the

1718
01:24:05,800 --> 01:24:08,360
Speaker 4: tent like that, within a week of being home, you're

1719
01:24:08,400 --> 01:24:12,479
Speaker 4: gonna wish you're back in that tent and you know,

1720
01:24:12,640 --> 01:24:14,439
Speaker 4: so it's like it's one of those little mental things

1721
01:24:14,479 --> 01:24:17,240
Speaker 4: to do, like, Okay, this sucks, but it's also amazing

1722
01:24:17,280 --> 01:24:20,400
Speaker 4: at the same time. So just taking it, you know,

1723
01:24:20,439 --> 01:24:22,599
Speaker 4: like put a smile on your face. How lucky are we? Like,

1724
01:24:23,000 --> 01:24:25,240
Speaker 4: or we're in Alaska, we're suck in the tent. It's

1725
01:24:25,320 --> 01:24:27,519
Speaker 4: fifty mile an hour winds and raining sideways, but like

1726
01:24:27,840 --> 01:24:30,640
Speaker 4: there's kind of obviously my family's number one thing in

1727
01:24:30,680 --> 01:24:32,759
Speaker 4: my life. But as far as like that's a pretty

1728
01:24:32,760 --> 01:24:34,360
Speaker 4: awesome experience. So just enjoy it.

1729
01:24:34,560 --> 01:24:48,120
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, Mark dead oh to everything.

1730
01:24:48,240 --> 01:24:51,160
Speaker 5: Yeah, Steve said, I mean, at this point it feels

1731
01:24:53,160 --> 01:24:54,840
Speaker 5: I think at this point for me, it feels like

1732
01:24:56,160 --> 01:25:00,400
Speaker 5: I get disserviced not to keep doing an adventure simply

1733
01:25:00,439 --> 01:25:04,280
Speaker 5: because like I know what it means to me. I

1734
01:25:04,320 --> 01:25:07,160
Speaker 5: also feel like it makes me a better person for

1735
01:25:07,200 --> 01:25:10,120
Speaker 5: when I am home, Like it feeds my soul, it,

1736
01:25:10,320 --> 01:25:15,400
Speaker 5: you know, like it re energizes me. And I don't

1737
01:25:15,600 --> 01:25:17,639
Speaker 5: I don't even know how to say this without sounding

1738
01:25:17,680 --> 01:25:20,840
Speaker 5: like really cheesy or corny, but I feel like it

1739
01:25:20,880 --> 01:25:24,360
Speaker 5: would be because I have the capability to do it,

1740
01:25:24,520 --> 01:25:28,040
Speaker 5: like even physically, I feel like it would be a

1741
01:25:28,080 --> 01:25:32,360
Speaker 5: big waste not to do it. Like there's not just

1742
01:25:32,400 --> 01:25:35,320
Speaker 5: these giant trips, but like just little stuff like I've

1743
01:25:35,439 --> 01:25:38,519
Speaker 5: just man like to take health for granted, to take

1744
01:25:38,680 --> 01:25:43,760
Speaker 5: capabilities for granted. And I mean it's a sacrifice to

1745
01:25:43,840 --> 01:25:46,200
Speaker 5: like go do this stuff like even on my family

1746
01:25:46,280 --> 01:25:49,559
Speaker 5: like time away. But again, I feel like it makes

1747
01:25:49,560 --> 01:25:52,559
Speaker 5: me better for when I am home and anymore. It's

1748
01:25:52,600 --> 01:25:56,160
Speaker 5: just like, man if I can physically go do something,

1749
01:25:56,360 --> 01:25:58,000
Speaker 5: And again, it doesn't have to be Alaska, but it

1750
01:25:58,000 --> 01:26:01,280
Speaker 5: could be like hiking the Grand Canyon, could be you know,

1751
01:26:02,080 --> 01:26:05,439
Speaker 5: a random oh hunt, it could be hunting deer, you know,

1752
01:26:05,520 --> 01:26:07,439
Speaker 5: like in this more adventurous way like you've been talking

1753
01:26:07,439 --> 01:26:11,639
Speaker 5: about in the series. If you can do it, to it,

1754
01:26:12,040 --> 01:26:13,880
Speaker 5: because there's going to come a day where you can't

1755
01:26:14,479 --> 01:26:17,599
Speaker 5: like there is you know, So for me, it's just

1756
01:26:18,240 --> 01:26:19,800
Speaker 5: I'm trying to battle with that with like work and

1757
01:26:19,880 --> 01:26:22,679
Speaker 5: family and everything else. But like, you have to choose

1758
01:26:22,760 --> 01:26:27,120
Speaker 5: to to make it. I don't even gonna say priority,

1759
01:26:27,240 --> 01:26:31,479
Speaker 5: Like you have to choose to make it happen. If

1760
01:26:31,479 --> 01:26:35,000
Speaker 5: you don't, Like you may find yourself one day wishing

1761
01:26:35,040 --> 01:26:36,240
Speaker 5: you could, but you no longer can.

1762
01:26:36,520 --> 01:26:39,640
Speaker 2: Essentially, yeah, life will just pass you by if you

1763
01:26:39,760 --> 01:26:43,639
Speaker 2: let it, that's for sure. Well, you guys have done

1764
01:26:43,760 --> 01:26:46,680
Speaker 2: a heck of a job documenting the trips. We've been

1765
01:26:46,720 --> 01:26:50,680
Speaker 2: talking about the equipment, you use, tactics, planning, like in

1766
01:26:50,800 --> 01:26:53,479
Speaker 2: so much more detail than we've done here today. Can

1767
01:26:53,520 --> 01:26:56,120
Speaker 2: you guys point towards where they can get all your

1768
01:26:56,160 --> 01:26:58,439
Speaker 2: content and then of course where they can learn about

1769
01:26:58,479 --> 01:27:00,679
Speaker 2: the packs and anything else you want tell people about.

1770
01:27:02,400 --> 01:27:06,200
Speaker 5: Mark, Yes, we have Exo Mountain Gear, which is the

1771
01:27:06,200 --> 01:27:09,200
Speaker 5: pack company. And then as we've talked about, this idea

1772
01:27:09,200 --> 01:27:11,640
Speaker 5: of the Experience Project is kind of what we all

1773
01:27:11,680 --> 01:27:14,240
Speaker 5: these Alaska answer we just talked about. We launched the

1774
01:27:14,280 --> 01:27:17,320
Speaker 5: Experience Project last year. We talked before the trips about

1775
01:27:17,320 --> 01:27:20,439
Speaker 5: like our planning process and like the boot videos and

1776
01:27:20,920 --> 01:27:24,080
Speaker 5: shirty and stuff. All kinds of stuff, and then each

1777
01:27:24,120 --> 01:27:26,880
Speaker 5: of those three trips, the Caribou, the Moose, Mountain Goat,

1778
01:27:27,080 --> 01:27:30,040
Speaker 5: they're all filmed, so there's a whole video series out.

1779
01:27:30,880 --> 01:27:33,320
Speaker 5: You can find everything on the XO YouTube channel. And

1780
01:27:33,360 --> 01:27:38,360
Speaker 5: then there's a separate website it's the dash Experience dash

1781
01:27:38,479 --> 01:27:44,280
Speaker 5: project dot com that has like blog articles, podcasts, videos,

1782
01:27:44,400 --> 01:27:47,400
Speaker 5: a bunch of stuff. And then yeah, at the end

1783
01:27:47,400 --> 01:27:49,439
Speaker 5: of the day, we're also super easy to get hold of,

1784
01:27:49,560 --> 01:27:51,960
Speaker 5: So if people have questions, let us know. That could

1785
01:27:51,960 --> 01:27:54,760
Speaker 5: be us replying and answering your question directly, or there's

1786
01:27:54,760 --> 01:27:57,439
Speaker 5: been times where people have emailed something or like that's

1787
01:27:57,439 --> 01:27:59,400
Speaker 5: a great question, we should do a podcast about it

1788
01:27:59,479 --> 01:28:01,320
Speaker 5: or a video of it or whatever, So just feel

1789
01:28:01,320 --> 01:28:03,320
Speaker 5: free to shoot us an email as well. Just go

1790
01:28:03,360 --> 01:28:06,760
Speaker 5: to XO and go to contact. But yeah, there's there's

1791
01:28:06,760 --> 01:28:07,240
Speaker 5: a lot there.

1792
01:28:07,640 --> 01:28:08,280
Speaker 3: Yeah.

1793
01:28:08,320 --> 01:28:11,920
Speaker 2: Well, I'll vouch for everything I've watched and listened to

1794
01:28:12,120 --> 01:28:14,880
Speaker 2: has been awesome so far. And I use one of

1795
01:28:14,880 --> 01:28:18,160
Speaker 2: your packs on my Southeast Alaska hunt this past fall.

1796
01:28:18,280 --> 01:28:21,719
Speaker 2: It was incredible. I've used your packs on elk hunts

1797
01:28:21,760 --> 01:28:24,280
Speaker 2: and I've used other people's packs on elk hunts, and

1798
01:28:24,320 --> 01:28:27,280
Speaker 2: I was miserable in some of those other packs, and

1799
01:28:27,479 --> 01:28:30,840
Speaker 2: always very very happy in yours. So thanks for putting

1800
01:28:30,840 --> 01:28:34,439
Speaker 2: out really good content, really good equipment, and thanks for

1801
01:28:34,680 --> 01:28:36,360
Speaker 2: thanks for chatting about all this day. You got me

1802
01:28:36,400 --> 01:28:38,120
Speaker 2: fired up, Thanks.

1803
01:28:37,920 --> 01:28:38,519
Speaker 4: For having.

1804
01:28:42,520 --> 01:28:45,360
Speaker 2: All Right, now, as promised, we're going to do a

1805
01:28:45,439 --> 01:28:48,120
Speaker 2: quick part two. We're going to join my friend Bjorn

1806
01:28:48,240 --> 01:28:52,360
Speaker 2: Dila to discuss some of the current threats and issues

1807
01:28:52,439 --> 01:28:55,120
Speaker 2: impacting Alaska, things that you and I need to be

1808
01:28:55,120 --> 01:28:57,639
Speaker 2: paying attention to over the coming years to make sure

1809
01:28:57,640 --> 01:29:00,880
Speaker 2: that Alaska is you know, kept healthy and thriving and

1810
01:29:00,960 --> 01:29:03,240
Speaker 2: public and all the things that we need to make

1811
01:29:03,240 --> 01:29:06,559
Speaker 2: sure we can experience something like what Mark and Steve

1812
01:29:06,760 --> 01:29:09,439
Speaker 2: just told us about. So real quick, here's my chat

1813
01:29:09,479 --> 01:29:19,559
Speaker 2: with Bjorn. All right, Bjorn, thank you for hopping on

1814
01:29:19,640 --> 01:29:25,240
Speaker 2: here today for this quick kind of mini addendum addressing

1815
01:29:25,280 --> 01:29:28,200
Speaker 2: the future of Alaska, because we just had this great

1816
01:29:28,240 --> 01:29:33,560
Speaker 2: conversation with Mark and Steve about planning an Alaskan adventure.

1817
01:29:34,080 --> 01:29:36,840
Speaker 2: But I thought it would be appropriate that while we're

1818
01:29:36,840 --> 01:29:39,000
Speaker 2: thinking about someday going to Alaska right now, we should

1819
01:29:39,000 --> 01:29:42,599
Speaker 2: also be thinking about the things influencing the future of

1820
01:29:42,640 --> 01:29:46,919
Speaker 2: this incredible state. So you, being a lifelong resident, Diehard

1821
01:29:46,960 --> 01:29:49,360
Speaker 2: hunter and someone who cares about this place a lot.

1822
01:29:49,640 --> 01:29:52,000
Speaker 2: You seem to be the perfect person to help us

1823
01:29:52,040 --> 01:29:54,880
Speaker 2: with that. So there's a lot going on right now, Bjorn,

1824
01:29:55,840 --> 01:29:59,360
Speaker 2: What for you stands out as a couple of the

1825
01:29:59,520 --> 01:30:02,519
Speaker 2: very most important issues that hunters and anglers need to

1826
01:30:02,520 --> 01:30:05,120
Speaker 2: be aware of up there in Alaska right now? What

1827
01:30:05,240 --> 01:30:06,800
Speaker 2: is what's at the top of the list for you?

1828
01:30:08,439 --> 01:30:10,840
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, there's there's so much, as you just said,

1829
01:30:10,960 --> 01:30:13,920
Speaker 6: going on, and a whole lot of chaos, and we're

1830
01:30:13,920 --> 01:30:16,400
Speaker 6: not sure you know where everything's going to stand when

1831
01:30:16,439 --> 01:30:21,559
Speaker 6: the dust clears, and what to really even expect, but

1832
01:30:21,640 --> 01:30:24,320
Speaker 6: we can basically expect that we're going to need to

1833
01:30:24,360 --> 01:30:29,120
Speaker 6: stay the diligent and just well where as hundred and

1834
01:30:29,120 --> 01:30:34,519
Speaker 6: anglers of what's going on and staying cued in. You know,

1835
01:30:34,560 --> 01:30:36,760
Speaker 6: you can start at the top of the Alaska you

1836
01:30:36,760 --> 01:30:41,800
Speaker 6: can just kind of go down by strata and look

1837
01:30:41,800 --> 01:30:44,800
Speaker 6: at the whole, the whole, all the different things going on,

1838
01:30:44,960 --> 01:30:46,679
Speaker 6: and some of the you know, things that are grabbing

1839
01:30:46,720 --> 01:30:53,719
Speaker 6: the news the most don't concern me as much as

1840
01:30:54,200 --> 01:30:59,519
Speaker 6: a few issues. And those issues that concern me in

1841
01:30:59,640 --> 01:31:03,120
Speaker 6: part it's you know, personal, it's also what I kind

1842
01:31:03,120 --> 01:31:06,640
Speaker 6: of recognize is the biggest threats I feel like to

1843
01:31:06,960 --> 01:31:07,240
Speaker 6: just the.

1844
01:31:07,200 --> 01:31:09,120
Speaker 3: Hunting and fishing community.

1845
01:31:10,200 --> 01:31:12,800
Speaker 6: And you know, there's there's anwar, and an war is

1846
01:31:12,840 --> 01:31:15,960
Speaker 6: just one of those kind of nebulous battles that.

1847
01:31:15,960 --> 01:31:17,120
Speaker 3: Have been going on forever.

1848
01:31:17,360 --> 01:31:21,280
Speaker 6: And you know, we could talk about an war, but

1849
01:31:21,840 --> 01:31:25,240
Speaker 6: ultimately it doesn't really concern me in the same way

1850
01:31:25,479 --> 01:31:29,000
Speaker 6: as what's going on just a little bit further west

1851
01:31:29,520 --> 01:31:31,639
Speaker 6: and a little bit further south, and that's the proposed

1852
01:31:31,680 --> 01:31:33,639
Speaker 6: Ambler Road.

1853
01:31:34,240 --> 01:31:35,200
Speaker 3: So real anwar.

1854
01:31:35,800 --> 01:31:37,640
Speaker 2: I want to interrupt you real quick before you go

1855
01:31:37,680 --> 01:31:41,920
Speaker 2: to Ambler just so people know. Anwar is an acronym

1856
01:31:41,960 --> 01:31:45,120
Speaker 2: for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. And so what's been

1857
01:31:45,160 --> 01:31:49,759
Speaker 2: proposed up there is possible drilling in a portion of

1858
01:31:49,800 --> 01:31:52,040
Speaker 2: the refuge. That's one of the things that has been

1859
01:31:52,040 --> 01:31:55,200
Speaker 2: debated for years and was included in this recent executive

1860
01:31:55,200 --> 01:31:58,880
Speaker 2: offer or executive order. But okay, so so that is

1861
01:31:58,920 --> 01:32:01,400
Speaker 2: one thing that and keep tabs on. But you're saying,

1862
01:32:01,439 --> 01:32:04,000
Speaker 2: go a little farther west, a little bit south, yeah,

1863
01:32:04,040 --> 01:32:04,800
Speaker 2: to the Ambler rope.

1864
01:32:04,960 --> 01:32:07,439
Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, anwar is always just it's just been

1865
01:32:07,439 --> 01:32:09,960
Speaker 6: this big argue. It's like an argument over an idea

1866
01:32:10,000 --> 01:32:13,960
Speaker 6: as much of something practical, you know, And there's just

1867
01:32:14,000 --> 01:32:17,639
Speaker 6: been so much energy put into both sides of that argument,

1868
01:32:17,680 --> 01:32:22,200
Speaker 6: and the reality is that, you know, it's very likely

1869
01:32:22,240 --> 01:32:24,880
Speaker 6: that there's not it's not even viable, you know. So

1870
01:32:24,920 --> 01:32:27,040
Speaker 6: it's not something that like at this moment, the drilling

1871
01:32:27,120 --> 01:32:29,000
Speaker 6: is not viable. It's just like it's just not going

1872
01:32:29,080 --> 01:32:32,240
Speaker 6: to happen. Like if there was drilling, it might just

1873
01:32:32,240 --> 01:32:36,160
Speaker 6: be done out of spite versus something that's you know,

1874
01:32:36,200 --> 01:32:40,880
Speaker 6: economically feasible. So for me, I don't I mean, I

1875
01:32:40,920 --> 01:32:43,080
Speaker 6: try to pay attention a little bit what's going on there.

1876
01:32:43,120 --> 01:32:46,400
Speaker 6: But a little bit south, a little bit further west

1877
01:32:46,439 --> 01:32:48,960
Speaker 6: is the proposed Ambler Road two hundred and eleven mile

1878
01:32:49,840 --> 01:32:54,320
Speaker 6: road that'd be constructed with taxpayers dollars to service an

1879
01:32:54,400 --> 01:32:57,360
Speaker 6: unknown number of foreign owned minds. And I think that's

1880
01:32:57,400 --> 01:33:01,960
Speaker 6: really important to just understand that this is the taxpayers

1881
01:33:02,040 --> 01:33:05,240
Speaker 6: are taxpayer's money, and these are foreign own minds.

1882
01:33:07,320 --> 01:33:08,200
Speaker 3: And the Brooks Range.

1883
01:33:08,240 --> 01:33:11,160
Speaker 6: For anyone who's been there, it is kind of just

1884
01:33:11,240 --> 01:33:16,639
Speaker 6: the the ultimate. It changes your perspective, It could change

1885
01:33:16,640 --> 01:33:19,160
Speaker 6: your life. It can take someone who is just super

1886
01:33:19,200 --> 01:33:23,400
Speaker 6: cynical and make them a believer. You know, I could

1887
01:33:23,439 --> 01:33:25,800
Speaker 6: go on and on. It's it's one of the most amazing,

1888
01:33:28,360 --> 01:33:32,400
Speaker 6: if not the most amazing gem of our public land

1889
01:33:32,439 --> 01:33:35,200
Speaker 6: in this country. It's the biggest wildest piece of country

1890
01:33:35,320 --> 01:33:39,960
Speaker 6: left in America. And so this road would you know,

1891
01:33:40,000 --> 01:33:42,680
Speaker 6: there'd be it's not just a road too, it's there's

1892
01:33:42,720 --> 01:33:49,920
Speaker 6: gonna be spur roads off every which direction. And basically

1893
01:33:49,960 --> 01:33:54,759
Speaker 6: the road would supposedly end two hundred and eleven miles

1894
01:33:55,120 --> 01:33:58,200
Speaker 6: west of the Dalton Highway, but there's really no reason

1895
01:33:58,280 --> 01:34:00,519
Speaker 6: not just extend it all the way to the GC

1896
01:34:00,720 --> 01:34:03,800
Speaker 6: and then down to no you know, the cots Well

1897
01:34:03,840 --> 01:34:05,920
Speaker 6: to a little north of Coots View, then too the

1898
01:34:06,000 --> 01:34:09,439
Speaker 6: Nome road system. So basically, you know, talking to some people,

1899
01:34:09,439 --> 01:34:13,120
Speaker 6: it's just like it's the it's the final nail in

1900
01:34:13,160 --> 01:34:19,120
Speaker 6: the coffin of you know, North America's a big wilderness basically,

1901
01:34:19,760 --> 01:34:22,719
Speaker 6: and so for us, for hunters and hunters and anglers,

1902
01:34:22,720 --> 01:34:25,000
Speaker 6: we you know, we have everything to lose and nothing

1903
01:34:25,040 --> 01:34:27,240
Speaker 6: to gain from this project. It's a it's supposed to

1904
01:34:27,280 --> 01:34:29,840
Speaker 6: be a private road. It's not going to be open

1905
01:34:29,880 --> 01:34:32,960
Speaker 6: to the public. That might change thirty years down the road,

1906
01:34:33,040 --> 01:34:37,280
Speaker 6: but you know, it's just pretty much guaranteed. I mean

1907
01:34:37,320 --> 01:34:43,800
Speaker 6: all the Environmental Impact Statement from the last administration made

1908
01:34:43,840 --> 01:34:46,400
Speaker 6: it very clear that it was going to negatively affect

1909
01:34:47,160 --> 01:34:51,240
Speaker 6: sixty six villages that rely on food out there, you know,

1910
01:34:51,320 --> 01:34:56,519
Speaker 6: fishing game. It's going to affect negatively affect caribou and

1911
01:34:56,560 --> 01:35:02,080
Speaker 6: other species. So there's there's been a lot of arguments,

1912
01:35:02,760 --> 01:35:06,200
Speaker 6: you know, there's been a lot of propaganda, and I

1913
01:35:06,240 --> 01:35:09,200
Speaker 6: think it's it's key to understand that these are foreign

1914
01:35:09,560 --> 01:35:14,320
Speaker 6: owned minds. It's also key to understand that these minerals

1915
01:35:15,240 --> 01:35:17,920
Speaker 6: are not staying in our country, and that's really important.

1916
01:35:17,960 --> 01:35:21,760
Speaker 6: It's like, these minerals are going to be ship to

1917
01:35:21,840 --> 01:35:23,840
Speaker 6: be refined at least most of them, that's not all

1918
01:35:23,880 --> 01:35:27,640
Speaker 6: of them that are understanding at this point, to Asian refineries.

1919
01:35:27,720 --> 01:35:31,760
Speaker 6: They're going to enter Asian markets. There's no guarantees these

1920
01:35:31,800 --> 01:35:34,160
Speaker 6: minerals are going to be sold back. So essentially it's like,

1921
01:35:36,240 --> 01:35:37,840
Speaker 6: you know, it's it's I'm not going to call it

1922
01:35:37,840 --> 01:35:42,320
Speaker 6: a you know, robbery, but it's it's also an opportunity though,

1923
01:35:42,360 --> 01:35:44,680
Speaker 6: it's you know, this, this would be a great opportunity

1924
01:35:44,680 --> 01:35:47,599
Speaker 6: for President Trump to be like just say no, I'm

1925
01:35:47,600 --> 01:35:50,920
Speaker 6: not going to allow these minerals to go to a

1926
01:35:50,920 --> 01:35:54,920
Speaker 6: foreign owned mining company to foreign markets. And so I

1927
01:35:54,920 --> 01:35:57,360
Speaker 6: think it's a great opportunity and I'm hopeful that you know,

1928
01:35:58,479 --> 01:36:01,439
Speaker 6: a lot of these executive orders just kind of I

1929
01:36:01,439 --> 01:36:04,519
Speaker 6: don't know if it's a lot of bark. I just

1930
01:36:04,520 --> 01:36:09,320
Speaker 6: want to stir the pod as much as possible and

1931
01:36:09,360 --> 01:36:11,840
Speaker 6: then you know, build, build back up or is it

1932
01:36:11,880 --> 01:36:13,280
Speaker 6: just to burn everything down.

1933
01:36:13,360 --> 01:36:13,760
Speaker 3: I don't know.

1934
01:36:13,800 --> 01:36:18,400
Speaker 6: But it is a great opportunity for Trump and you know,

1935
01:36:18,439 --> 01:36:21,479
Speaker 6: to stand up and be like, look, this is this

1936
01:36:21,520 --> 01:36:23,800
Speaker 6: is this is not American, this is not the right

1937
01:36:23,840 --> 01:36:28,080
Speaker 6: thing to do. This hurts Americans, this starts our outdoor legacy.

1938
01:36:28,920 --> 01:36:30,360
Speaker 6: Let's say no to the Ambler Road.

1939
01:36:30,880 --> 01:36:34,920
Speaker 2: Yeah, And so, to to provide just a little bit

1940
01:36:34,920 --> 01:36:37,639
Speaker 2: more background, this has been a thing that's been debated

1941
01:36:37,680 --> 01:36:40,240
Speaker 2: for for a handful of years now, and then this

1942
01:36:40,560 --> 01:36:46,519
Speaker 2: last summer, the BLM basically came on and said we

1943
01:36:46,520 --> 01:36:48,280
Speaker 2: were not going to permit the road. The road's not

1944
01:36:48,280 --> 01:36:50,720
Speaker 2: going to happen. So after a bunch of hunters and

1945
01:36:50,760 --> 01:36:55,040
Speaker 2: anglers and many other folks submitted comments and sent emails,

1946
01:36:55,120 --> 01:36:56,920
Speaker 2: made phone calls, all that kind of stuff, Like I know,

1947
01:36:57,040 --> 01:37:00,439
Speaker 2: through the hunters and anglers for the Brooks Range campaign,

1948
01:37:00,479 --> 01:37:03,640
Speaker 2: I think like thousands of comments were sent and I

1949
01:37:03,680 --> 01:37:06,799
Speaker 2: think I remember seeing many thousands. So hunters and anglers

1950
01:37:06,840 --> 01:37:09,439
Speaker 2: have fought this issue already. We thought we had it

1951
01:37:09,560 --> 01:37:14,320
Speaker 2: taken care of. And now yeah, non partison exactly. And

1952
01:37:14,360 --> 01:37:19,960
Speaker 2: so the unleashing Alaska's uh, you know, Extraordinary Resource Potential

1953
01:37:19,960 --> 01:37:22,360
Speaker 2: Executive Order, I think that's what it was called. It

1954
01:37:22,479 --> 01:37:25,120
Speaker 2: specifically called that out as something they want to put

1955
01:37:25,160 --> 01:37:28,200
Speaker 2: back on the table possibly, right. So, so that's why

1956
01:37:28,240 --> 01:37:31,160
Speaker 2: this is back on the radar, and to your point,

1957
01:37:31,960 --> 01:37:34,719
Speaker 2: big opportunity for hunters and anglers to once again stand

1958
01:37:34,760 --> 01:37:36,880
Speaker 2: up and say, hey, not the right place, not the

1959
01:37:36,920 --> 01:37:42,519
Speaker 2: right mind. And you know the administration last time around, Uh,

1960
01:37:42,640 --> 01:37:45,200
Speaker 2: there's precedent for them saying no to some stuff because

1961
01:37:45,200 --> 01:37:47,120
Speaker 2: they did say no to the Pebble mine, right, so

1962
01:37:48,360 --> 01:37:50,120
Speaker 2: why not do it again with this one. This is

1963
01:37:50,240 --> 01:37:53,400
Speaker 2: like you said, this is an opportunity to show support

1964
01:37:53,479 --> 01:37:56,479
Speaker 2: four hunters anglers in the wild places we care about, right.

1965
01:37:57,600 --> 01:37:57,840
Speaker 3: Yeah.

1966
01:37:57,880 --> 01:38:01,559
Speaker 6: I mean Don Junior, big thanks to him for saying

1967
01:38:01,600 --> 01:38:04,400
Speaker 6: no to you know, saying yes to Bristol Bay, no

1968
01:38:04,520 --> 01:38:06,400
Speaker 6: to Pebble And I mean I think again, just as

1969
01:38:06,439 --> 01:38:09,640
Speaker 6: someone who is one hunter and fishermen, once that goes in.

1970
01:38:09,760 --> 01:38:13,120
Speaker 6: We kind of we really, we kind of lose out.

1971
01:38:13,280 --> 01:38:14,360
Speaker 6: We lose Yeah.

1972
01:38:14,400 --> 01:38:18,360
Speaker 2: Yeah, because to your point too, there's at least I've heard,

1973
01:38:18,720 --> 01:38:23,040
Speaker 2: like you said, rumblings of two hundred and eleven miles in.

1974
01:38:23,160 --> 01:38:25,800
Speaker 2: But why not connect it to the Red dog Mine

1975
01:38:25,840 --> 01:38:29,240
Speaker 2: area too, right, which is there to the northwest further.

1976
01:38:29,320 --> 01:38:31,680
Speaker 2: And if you had a full road, the bifurcates that

1977
01:38:31,760 --> 01:38:36,519
Speaker 2: whole you know, western Alaska region. You you then have

1978
01:38:36,680 --> 01:38:41,920
Speaker 2: carved out a whole new line of potential travel and development.

1979
01:38:42,160 --> 01:38:45,599
Speaker 2: And like you said, the western Arctic Cariboo herd has

1980
01:38:45,720 --> 01:38:47,960
Speaker 2: dropped by more than fifty percent I think I saw

1981
01:38:48,000 --> 01:38:49,360
Speaker 2: in the last twenty years.

1982
01:38:49,120 --> 01:38:51,240
Speaker 3: And I mean there's been more than that. Yeah.

1983
01:38:51,360 --> 01:38:53,760
Speaker 2: The studies have shown them bumping up against that Red

1984
01:38:53,800 --> 01:38:55,960
Speaker 2: dog Mine Road and turning around and not wanting to

1985
01:38:56,000 --> 01:38:57,519
Speaker 2: cross it. So there seems to be a lot of

1986
01:38:58,000 --> 01:38:59,080
Speaker 2: red flags on this one.

1987
01:39:00,479 --> 01:39:00,759
Speaker 3: Yeah.

1988
01:39:00,920 --> 01:39:03,439
Speaker 6: I mean the locals are going to lose out, The

1989
01:39:03,520 --> 01:39:07,280
Speaker 6: village folks out there visiting sports venner in and lose out.

1990
01:39:08,360 --> 01:39:08,559
Speaker 3: Yeah.

1991
01:39:08,560 --> 01:39:10,360
Speaker 6: I mean, if I was a developer, there's no way

1992
01:39:10,360 --> 01:39:12,840
Speaker 6: that I wouldn't be pushing to extend that road. And

1993
01:39:13,760 --> 01:39:17,880
Speaker 6: there's just you know, there's other stuff to extract out there.

1994
01:39:18,400 --> 01:39:20,000
Speaker 6: And then I think the other thing to remember too,

1995
01:39:20,000 --> 01:39:22,760
Speaker 6: it's not just a two hundred and eleven mile road.

1996
01:39:22,800 --> 01:39:25,719
Speaker 6: There's going to be spur roads going off every which direction,

1997
01:39:27,000 --> 01:39:30,439
Speaker 6: north and south, to to to whatever, you know.

1998
01:39:30,640 --> 01:39:34,080
Speaker 2: So and it's you know, I don't think people are

1999
01:39:34,120 --> 01:39:36,040
Speaker 2: realizing this either. It's it's not like this is just

2000
01:39:36,080 --> 01:39:39,920
Speaker 2: a random blank spots on the map. This is also

2001
01:39:39,960 --> 01:39:42,439
Speaker 2: a national park that they're putting part of this road

2002
01:39:42,479 --> 01:39:47,080
Speaker 2: through too, right, So that's yeah, pretty wild. They're put

2003
01:39:47,120 --> 01:39:49,080
Speaker 2: a new road to the through a gates to the

2004
01:39:49,200 --> 01:39:52,200
Speaker 2: Arctic and then through a bunch of blm land and

2005
01:39:53,320 --> 01:39:54,360
Speaker 2: you know, who knows what else.

2006
01:39:55,280 --> 01:39:59,240
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's interesting because there's there's there's you know, lawyers

2007
01:39:59,320 --> 01:40:03,160
Speaker 6: argue whether the legality of whether or not that's legal,

2008
01:40:03,640 --> 01:40:05,800
Speaker 6: and they both have their points, you know. So it's

2009
01:40:05,840 --> 01:40:08,479
Speaker 6: just kind of this weird case of the artyca is

2010
01:40:08,479 --> 01:40:11,679
Speaker 6: a weird one as far as the the road going through.

2011
01:40:11,720 --> 01:40:17,360
Speaker 2: But yeah, so Ambler, that's a big one. Uh An

2012
01:40:17,479 --> 01:40:20,760
Speaker 2: whar is one that's tricky and been long debated. But

2013
01:40:20,840 --> 01:40:24,439
Speaker 2: another special place. Is there any other third or fourth

2014
01:40:24,479 --> 01:40:27,160
Speaker 2: thing that we should be keeping tabs on? What else

2015
01:40:27,200 --> 01:40:28,080
Speaker 2: is high on your list.

2016
01:40:29,439 --> 01:40:32,160
Speaker 6: Well, I mean, there's there's a lot going on, and

2017
01:40:32,200 --> 01:40:35,280
Speaker 6: I think, you know, we can put some links so

2018
01:40:35,360 --> 01:40:38,720
Speaker 6: people can can kind of stay abreast of what's going on.

2019
01:40:38,880 --> 01:40:41,200
Speaker 6: But the issues with salmon that we got going on,

2020
01:40:41,360 --> 01:40:45,640
Speaker 6: like there's not fish in the Yukon Cuscaquan rivers, the

2021
01:40:45,680 --> 01:40:49,479
Speaker 6: two biggest rivers in Alaska. People cannot catch salmon anymore.

2022
01:40:50,240 --> 01:40:52,240
Speaker 6: So I think that that's a huge you know, the

2023
01:40:52,240 --> 01:40:54,559
Speaker 6: future wild salmon is a huge issue that I think

2024
01:40:54,640 --> 01:40:57,040
Speaker 6: as hunters and anglers we should stay.

2025
01:40:57,360 --> 01:40:58,080
Speaker 3: Well aware of.

2026
01:40:59,640 --> 01:41:02,320
Speaker 6: And there's a variety of factors going into that which

2027
01:41:02,360 --> 01:41:04,360
Speaker 6: I won't go into, but I just think that, you know,

2028
01:41:04,400 --> 01:41:06,280
Speaker 6: we got to be thinking about the future of salmon.

2029
01:41:07,479 --> 01:41:10,960
Speaker 6: And a big one that's kind of new and tricky too,

2030
01:41:11,080 --> 01:41:14,040
Speaker 6: is a road. An access road to get in the

2031
01:41:14,040 --> 01:41:16,920
Speaker 6: west is Sittina region, which is just north of Anchorage.

2032
01:41:17,240 --> 01:41:18,519
Speaker 3: It's one hundred mile road.

2033
01:41:20,840 --> 01:41:23,280
Speaker 6: It's not you know, Grant, I've spent six months in

2034
01:41:23,320 --> 01:41:26,360
Speaker 6: the Brooks Range over the years, had all sorts of experiences.

2035
01:41:26,400 --> 01:41:30,120
Speaker 6: I don't have that same relationship with that zone. I

2036
01:41:30,160 --> 01:41:33,479
Speaker 6: don't think the polls quite as strong with hunters and

2037
01:41:33,520 --> 01:41:36,160
Speaker 6: anglers there but it's definitely something to think about. A

2038
01:41:36,240 --> 01:41:42,040
Speaker 6: very similar situation where taxpayer dollars are going to build

2039
01:41:42,080 --> 01:41:45,679
Speaker 6: the road for private enterprise and very likely I don't

2040
01:41:45,680 --> 01:41:49,240
Speaker 6: know what the status is where those minerals are going

2041
01:41:49,360 --> 01:41:52,880
Speaker 6: or the minds involved, but it's very likely foreign owned.

2042
01:41:54,520 --> 01:41:56,080
Speaker 3: And so yeah, I think that's a big one.

2043
01:41:56,240 --> 01:41:59,559
Speaker 6: The salmon stuff too, going down to my neck of

2044
01:41:59,560 --> 01:42:03,960
Speaker 6: the wood, you know, the trans boundary issues with mines

2045
01:42:04,000 --> 01:42:10,080
Speaker 6: in Canada upriver of our biggest salmon producing rivers, the Taku,

2046
01:42:10,960 --> 01:42:15,800
Speaker 6: the Staccine and the Unich. That's that's a big, tricky,

2047
01:42:16,000 --> 01:42:20,160
Speaker 6: hard issue and it's definitely one that you know, people

2048
01:42:20,160 --> 01:42:23,840
Speaker 6: in Southeast Alaska are really worried about. But the biggest issue,

2049
01:42:23,880 --> 01:42:26,360
Speaker 6: other biggest issue, if I had to say, two issues

2050
01:42:26,400 --> 01:42:28,840
Speaker 6: to really think about for hunters and anglers, and this

2051
01:42:28,920 --> 01:42:32,000
Speaker 6: is also just selfishly my biggest things, it's it's ambler

2052
01:42:32,600 --> 01:42:35,880
Speaker 6: and then it's the future of the tonguests. One of

2053
01:42:35,960 --> 01:42:39,800
Speaker 6: the executives or part of Trump's executive order was to

2054
01:42:39,800 --> 01:42:43,840
Speaker 6: do away with a roadless rule, and and you know

2055
01:42:44,400 --> 01:42:46,479
Speaker 6: it's hard to exactly know what he was what he

2056
01:42:46,600 --> 01:42:51,280
Speaker 6: means by bringing logging, you know, more logging and people

2057
01:42:51,320 --> 01:42:55,200
Speaker 6: in Southeast Alaska aren't against logging, even the people who

2058
01:42:55,600 --> 01:42:56,479
Speaker 6: really want to keep.

2059
01:42:56,320 --> 01:42:57,120
Speaker 3: The roadless rule.

2060
01:42:57,200 --> 01:43:00,479
Speaker 6: So the road this rule essentially it protects fifty eight

2061
01:43:00,520 --> 01:43:04,720
Speaker 6: million acres of roadless whatever you want to call it

2062
01:43:04,720 --> 01:43:08,599
Speaker 6: woods across the United States. It's one of the few

2063
01:43:08,640 --> 01:43:13,519
Speaker 6: things that can really be used to protect clear cutting

2064
01:43:13,760 --> 01:43:18,120
Speaker 6: old growth forests. And Southeast Alaska it's it's different than

2065
01:43:18,120 --> 01:43:22,680
Speaker 6: in Washington, where our rotation cycles so much longer and

2066
01:43:22,760 --> 01:43:27,280
Speaker 6: there's just been a lot of habitat and wildlife issues

2067
01:43:27,360 --> 01:43:31,760
Speaker 6: because of past logging practices, just you know, massive clearcuts.

2068
01:43:32,240 --> 01:43:34,879
Speaker 6: But no one in Southeast unless you know, you're completely

2069
01:43:35,800 --> 01:43:39,880
Speaker 6: an anomaly, is against logging. But we just don't want

2070
01:43:39,920 --> 01:43:41,759
Speaker 6: to go back to all of a sudden not having

2071
01:43:41,800 --> 01:43:44,439
Speaker 6: protections of our last great stands of old growth for

2072
01:43:44,560 --> 01:43:46,479
Speaker 6: us and have them you know, clear cut for POLP.

2073
01:43:47,560 --> 01:43:48,840
Speaker 6: You know a lot of people would like to see

2074
01:43:48,840 --> 01:43:52,160
Speaker 6: a very viable canber industry, but we just want to

2075
01:43:52,160 --> 01:43:58,320
Speaker 6: focus on you know, wildlife restoration work being done, you know,

2076
01:43:58,479 --> 01:44:01,920
Speaker 6: not every tree being cut down, more selective logging and

2077
01:44:01,960 --> 01:44:04,400
Speaker 6: then you know, more of a focus on second growth

2078
01:44:04,439 --> 01:44:07,760
Speaker 6: logging and stuff like that. And so you know, when

2079
01:44:07,760 --> 01:44:10,360
Speaker 6: we hear when I hear that, you know, been part

2080
01:44:10,400 --> 01:44:11,920
Speaker 6: of the executive order, you know, getting rid of the

2081
01:44:12,000 --> 01:44:14,920
Speaker 6: road this rule. It's just you kind of have this

2082
01:44:15,000 --> 01:44:18,879
Speaker 6: PTSD from what happened in the seventies, sixties, seventies eighties

2083
01:44:19,120 --> 01:44:22,360
Speaker 6: here where just you know, in some of these zones,

2084
01:44:22,400 --> 01:44:25,280
Speaker 6: people kind of almost lost their ability to hunt. You know,

2085
01:44:25,400 --> 01:44:28,200
Speaker 6: like where I hunt, I can shoot sixty er a year,

2086
01:44:28,920 --> 01:44:32,559
Speaker 6: and then you know, like venit three, they didn't, you know,

2087
01:44:32,720 --> 01:44:35,439
Speaker 6: just in the large part because of massive winners and

2088
01:44:35,520 --> 01:44:40,639
Speaker 6: big clearcuts coupled with lots of wolves and black bear predation.

2089
01:44:41,600 --> 01:44:45,160
Speaker 6: You you know, it was hardly a deer season for decades.

2090
01:44:45,680 --> 01:44:48,000
Speaker 3: So you know, we just don't want to go back

2091
01:44:48,040 --> 01:44:48,320
Speaker 3: to that.

2092
01:44:49,479 --> 01:44:53,519
Speaker 2: And that's I think I saw nine million acres of

2093
01:44:53,560 --> 01:44:58,840
Speaker 2: the Tonguest National Forest would lose those roless rule protections.

2094
01:44:58,439 --> 01:45:01,800
Speaker 2: That's a that's a vast sw off of that area

2095
01:45:01,840 --> 01:45:05,360
Speaker 2: around you that right now is still pretty darn wild,

2096
01:45:05,520 --> 01:45:11,320
Speaker 2: pretty darn you know, as it was that could all

2097
01:45:11,320 --> 01:45:14,320
Speaker 2: of a sudden be you know, opened up in a

2098
01:45:14,360 --> 01:45:17,120
Speaker 2: lot of ways and picked apart and cut down. And

2099
01:45:17,240 --> 01:45:18,720
Speaker 2: you know, the little bit I got to see of

2100
01:45:18,760 --> 01:45:23,439
Speaker 2: it is pretty damn special. I'd hate to see those

2101
01:45:23,640 --> 01:45:29,400
Speaker 2: last few roleless spots we've got, you know, lost, because

2102
01:45:29,439 --> 01:45:30,800
Speaker 2: we're not getting any more after that.

2103
01:45:32,280 --> 01:45:32,679
Speaker 3: Yeah.

2104
01:45:32,920 --> 01:45:35,479
Speaker 6: And you know, I think and I guess the monument

2105
01:45:35,520 --> 01:45:40,360
Speaker 6: stuff too, uh, you know, just the talk of you know,

2106
01:45:40,479 --> 01:45:45,759
Speaker 6: going back to reassessing monuments and you know, the place

2107
01:45:45,840 --> 01:45:48,400
Speaker 6: you saw was was a you know, a national monument,

2108
01:45:48,479 --> 01:45:52,280
Speaker 6: and the battle to make that place a national monument

2109
01:45:52,439 --> 01:45:56,120
Speaker 6: was epic. You know, the plan was to completely clear

2110
01:45:56,160 --> 01:45:58,200
Speaker 6: cut it and rode it, and it was just like

2111
01:45:58,280 --> 01:46:01,200
Speaker 6: it was just a tooth and nail fight between a

2112
01:46:01,240 --> 01:46:05,479
Speaker 6: lot of different people to keep keep it, you know

2113
01:46:06,160 --> 01:46:06,960
Speaker 6: how we want it.

2114
01:46:07,080 --> 01:46:12,720
Speaker 2: So yeah, so okay, So we've got an wars going

2115
01:46:12,760 --> 01:46:17,200
Speaker 2: on Ambler Road really big deal, the roadless role protections

2116
01:46:17,240 --> 01:46:20,280
Speaker 2: on the Tongus National Forest really big deal. We've got

2117
01:46:20,320 --> 01:46:22,559
Speaker 2: to keep tabs on this national monument review. We've got

2118
01:46:22,600 --> 01:46:27,360
Speaker 2: to keep tabs on the salmon situation. That's a lot. Yeah,

2119
01:46:27,840 --> 01:46:32,599
Speaker 2: Where or how can people number one, you know, tap

2120
01:46:32,640 --> 01:46:35,880
Speaker 2: into future information about this stuff? And then number two,

2121
01:46:36,760 --> 01:46:40,200
Speaker 2: are there any resources you'd recommend for people to you know,

2122
01:46:40,320 --> 01:46:43,120
Speaker 2: start letting our voices be heard on these things or

2123
01:46:43,160 --> 01:46:45,000
Speaker 2: connect or engage in any kind of way.

2124
01:46:46,560 --> 01:46:48,680
Speaker 6: Yeah, So I mean, I'm just gonna talk on on

2125
01:46:49,040 --> 01:46:54,000
Speaker 6: ambler joint hunters and anglers for the Brooks Range. Sign

2126
01:46:54,080 --> 01:46:59,519
Speaker 6: up for their their newsletter and just get updates there

2127
01:46:59,600 --> 01:47:04,040
Speaker 6: and you know, comment when you get a chance, and

2128
01:47:04,080 --> 01:47:07,679
Speaker 6: then anything related to salmon and the Tongest Salmon State

2129
01:47:09,439 --> 01:47:14,519
Speaker 6: does a great weekly newsletter where it's just some of

2130
01:47:14,560 --> 01:47:18,320
Speaker 6: the best news that you'll have for different salmon related stuff.

2131
01:47:18,320 --> 01:47:20,839
Speaker 6: And they're working on the West is sitting a too,

2132
01:47:20,920 --> 01:47:24,040
Speaker 6: but I think it's just just a lot of good

2133
01:47:24,080 --> 01:47:27,200
Speaker 6: information that's condensed in a way that you can sit

2134
01:47:27,280 --> 01:47:30,320
Speaker 6: down Saturday morning with a cup of coffee and spend

2135
01:47:30,320 --> 01:47:33,880
Speaker 6: ten minutes instead of scrolling all over you know, the

2136
01:47:33,920 --> 01:47:37,800
Speaker 6: news and getting lost in all the doom and just

2137
01:47:37,880 --> 01:47:40,559
Speaker 6: kind of keeps you educated on what's going on for

2138
01:47:40,600 --> 01:47:44,120
Speaker 6: big conservation issues. And we'll give you also, you know,

2139
01:47:44,840 --> 01:47:48,320
Speaker 6: pointing in the right direction to comment or get involved

2140
01:47:48,320 --> 01:47:49,120
Speaker 6: if you want, so.

2141
01:47:49,840 --> 01:47:53,439
Speaker 2: Perfect we'll be or I appreciate the quick rundown of

2142
01:47:53,479 --> 01:47:56,519
Speaker 2: this stuff. I appreciate you up there in the last

2143
01:47:56,800 --> 01:48:01,240
Speaker 2: best place, fighting the good fight and helping that incredible

2144
01:48:02,240 --> 01:48:06,280
Speaker 2: state you've got there in good health so that folks

2145
01:48:06,320 --> 01:48:09,000
Speaker 2: like me down here can can dream of it and

2146
01:48:09,080 --> 01:48:13,120
Speaker 2: hopefully sometime get up there and experience it ourselves. I

2147
01:48:13,160 --> 01:48:15,559
Speaker 2: you know, as I have mentioned already earlier in this

2148
01:48:15,640 --> 01:48:18,240
Speaker 2: episode with the other guys and on my own, my

2149
01:48:18,320 --> 01:48:23,360
Speaker 2: experiences in the Alaska have been so so impactful, so powerful,

2150
01:48:23,400 --> 01:48:27,559
Speaker 2: so special, and I'm hoping and praying and willing to

2151
01:48:27,600 --> 01:48:29,280
Speaker 2: do a lot of hard work to make sure that

2152
01:48:29,640 --> 01:48:32,040
Speaker 2: my kids have that same chance, and your kids and

2153
01:48:32,200 --> 01:48:34,800
Speaker 2: hopefully many more generations that come. So thank you for

2154
01:48:35,120 --> 01:48:36,280
Speaker 2: helping us do all that stuff.

2155
01:48:37,080 --> 01:48:38,720
Speaker 3: You get the nail on the head. I think you know,

2156
01:48:38,760 --> 01:48:39,760
Speaker 3: it's not just you or me.

2157
01:48:39,840 --> 01:48:43,919
Speaker 6: It's all us outdoor men and women, you know, hunters

2158
01:48:44,000 --> 01:48:47,000
Speaker 6: or whatever, dreamers, whatever, I mean, you need to have

2159
01:48:47,080 --> 01:48:50,920
Speaker 6: a place like Alaska where you can have these experiences.

2160
01:48:51,400 --> 01:48:55,160
Speaker 6: And without these experiences, it's just like I don't, I mean,

2161
01:48:55,200 --> 01:48:55,960
Speaker 6: what are you gonna do?

2162
01:48:56,439 --> 01:48:58,360
Speaker 3: So yeah, thanks for having me.

2163
01:48:58,400 --> 01:49:02,680
Speaker 2: I appreciate it, all right, and that is going to

2164
01:49:02,800 --> 01:49:05,920
Speaker 2: be a rap. Thank you so much for joining me

2165
01:49:05,960 --> 01:49:09,080
Speaker 2: here today. This has been a terrific conversation both with

2166
01:49:09,320 --> 01:49:13,519
Speaker 2: Steven Mark from XO as well as Viorn here here

2167
01:49:13,560 --> 01:49:17,000
Speaker 2: at the end, I am inspired, I am excited, and

2168
01:49:17,080 --> 01:49:20,559
Speaker 2: I'm better prepared for my next Alaskan trip. I hope

2169
01:49:20,560 --> 01:49:23,679
Speaker 2: you are too, so until then, thank you for being here,

2170
01:49:23,960 --> 01:49:26,439
Speaker 2: and stay wired to hunt.