WEBVTT - Ep. 430: Freezing to Death 0:00:02.560 --> 0:00:04.520 If we don't get picked up by this helicopter, we 0:00:04.640 --> 0:00:08.840 probably will hit the other shoreline either at or shortly 0:00:09.000 --> 0:00:11.960 after dark. And then my concern is, am I even 0:00:12.000 --> 0:00:14.280 gonna be able to walk around to get firewood? Are 0:00:14.320 --> 0:00:17.640 my fingers gonna work for me to light that fire? 0:00:19.079 --> 0:00:21.799 This is the story of a near death experience of 0:00:21.840 --> 0:00:25.160 a game warden in northern Canada. It's kind of weird 0:00:25.160 --> 0:00:27.520 to me how humans are so attracted to these near 0:00:27.600 --> 0:00:30.520 death stories. I know that, I sure am, and I 0:00:30.520 --> 0:00:34.120 think it's a primitive built into our DNA thing because 0:00:34.159 --> 0:00:37.960 these stories are loaded with payoff, they teach us how 0:00:38.000 --> 0:00:41.760 to survive, and are simply entertaining stories, and both of 0:00:41.800 --> 0:00:46.160 these things are connected. On this episode, you're gonna learn 0:00:46.440 --> 0:00:49.920 a new way to die, which also might teach you 0:00:50.600 --> 0:00:54.560 a new way to survive. Cold water is a deadly killer. 0:00:55.040 --> 0:00:57.520 I really doubt that you're gonna want to miss this one. 0:00:58.400 --> 0:01:01.360 And hey, don't forget about our new Bear Grease YouTube 0:01:01.400 --> 0:01:05.400 channel and Instagram page Bear John and I've got videos 0:01:05.440 --> 0:01:07.600 coming out every Wednesday. 0:01:08.200 --> 0:01:09.240 Thank you for the support. 0:01:17.080 --> 0:01:19.199 My name is Clay Nukeom and this is the Bear 0:01:19.240 --> 0:01:24.080 Grease Podcast where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant, search 0:01:24.160 --> 0:01:27.640 for insight and unlikely places, and where we'll tell the 0:01:27.720 --> 0:01:31.360 story of Americans who live their lives close to the land. 0:01:31.800 --> 0:01:35.120 Brought to you by to Covi's Boots. I'm a cowboy 0:01:35.160 --> 0:01:37.920 boot man and I've been wearing to Covis for years. 0:01:38.120 --> 0:01:40.840 They're the most comfortable boot I've ever put on. Good 0:01:40.880 --> 0:01:51.680 boots for good times. 0:01:52.920 --> 0:01:56.240 We're making our way up through the river. Eventually we 0:01:56.320 --> 0:01:58.560 get to the lake right around It was in the evening, 0:01:58.560 --> 0:02:00.560 around six o'clock, and you sort of play it that way, 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:03.120 thinking that, Okay, if guys are going to be, you know, 0:02:03.200 --> 0:02:05.640 coming up to the camp throughout the day, they'll probably, 0:02:05.920 --> 0:02:08.160 you know, either like a lot of guys. I should 0:02:08.200 --> 0:02:10.440 also say, like the ice has only been off the 0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:12.880 lake for I think two or three days at this point, 0:02:13.000 --> 0:02:15.040 this is late May. We get out of the lake. 0:02:15.120 --> 0:02:17.760 We don't hear anything, we don't see anything. We kind 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:20.840 of putter down to one end of the lake. We 0:02:20.880 --> 0:02:23.160 can't see, you know, anybody in the camps. It just 0:02:23.160 --> 0:02:25.640 looks like it's it's empty. There's nobody around. So we 0:02:25.680 --> 0:02:28.400 get out, grab a snack, stretch our legs a little bit, 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:30.600 get back in the boat, start puttering our way back 0:02:31.000 --> 0:02:33.600 and it wasn't windy, but there was, you know, a 0:02:33.639 --> 0:02:37.440 bit of a wind, I will say. And we're driving 0:02:37.480 --> 0:02:40.760 along and I don't really I don't think either of 0:02:40.840 --> 0:02:43.680 us really know what happens or what happened. But I 0:02:43.760 --> 0:02:46.519 was peeling a banana in the front of the boat. 0:02:46.520 --> 0:02:47.120 That's why I remember. 0:02:47.160 --> 0:02:49.240 I'm peeling the banana, and the next thing I know, 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:52.800 I just feel the boat. It kind of you know, 0:02:52.919 --> 0:02:55.839 like if you're going along to have a small wave 0:02:55.960 --> 0:02:58.680 kind of hit you sideways, you just kind of roll 0:02:58.680 --> 0:03:02.680 over that almost ladder, if that makes sense. So we 0:03:02.720 --> 0:03:04.760 feel that that wind, that little wave, it just kind 0:03:04.800 --> 0:03:07.160 of rocks the boat one way, and then the next 0:03:07.200 --> 0:03:09.000 thing you know, we're upside down. 0:03:10.280 --> 0:03:14.280 The table for crisis has been set, icy water and 0:03:14.360 --> 0:03:18.160 a flipped boat in a remote location. We'll start to 0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:19.320 move backwards from here. 0:03:20.440 --> 0:03:21.600 My name is Rob Argue. 0:03:21.880 --> 0:03:25.520 I'm a retired conservation officer from the Province of Ontario 0:03:25.639 --> 0:03:28.920 in Canada, and I'm now the owner and operator of 0:03:29.000 --> 0:03:32.040 Eastern Canadian Outfitters, where we have three hunting and fishing 0:03:32.080 --> 0:03:34.359 lodges in Ontario and Quebec. 0:03:34.880 --> 0:03:37.320 In twenty seventeen, a hunted bear with Rob at his 0:03:37.440 --> 0:03:40.440 place in Quebec, and I've never forgotten a story that 0:03:40.480 --> 0:03:43.120 he told me. I think I remember it because it 0:03:43.240 --> 0:03:47.320 touches on one of my core fears, big water. You 0:03:47.360 --> 0:03:49.280 may have heard me talk about it, but my only 0:03:49.440 --> 0:03:52.360 legit near death experience that I've had thus far in 0:03:52.400 --> 0:03:56.120 my life was a close call in fast water in 0:03:56.320 --> 0:03:59.720 wash it Tall Mountain Stream when I was nineteen. Rob 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:03.280 has a story about not just water, but cold water, 0:04:03.800 --> 0:04:07.440 icy water, which is as deadly as any bullet bomb 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:11.240 or disease. Our bodies just starting equipped to take much 0:04:11.280 --> 0:04:15.080 of it. Rob was a conservation officer, or what we'd 0:04:15.120 --> 0:04:17.920 call down here a game warden, and he was stationed 0:04:18.160 --> 0:04:22.080 in a remote community in northern Ontario called Cappus Casing. 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:24.920 I wanted to ask him how he got into being 0:04:24.960 --> 0:04:25.560 a game. 0:04:25.360 --> 0:04:29.560 Warden basically, I mean, I started out being a conservation 0:04:29.640 --> 0:04:34.040 officer a game warden in the late nineties. That's when 0:04:34.040 --> 0:04:36.960 I got on full time, was January of ninety nine. 0:04:37.040 --> 0:04:41.000 But yeah, as a young officer in a northern community 0:04:41.040 --> 0:04:42.680 like that, I mean it was it was kind of neat. 0:04:42.720 --> 0:04:44.440 I equate it to being like a you know, the 0:04:44.440 --> 0:04:47.120 sheriff of a small town. Everybody knew, you know, who 0:04:47.160 --> 0:04:51.120 you were. It was neat and that you made contacts 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:54.440 and relationships with sort of key people in the community 0:04:54.520 --> 0:04:57.479 and it was nice to you know, you'd start to 0:04:57.520 --> 0:04:59.520 build trust with those people and then they would give 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:01.760 you in for me, which made your job easier just 0:05:01.800 --> 0:05:04.560 of you know where to look and who you were 0:05:04.600 --> 0:05:06.600 sort of keeping an eye on and what was going on. 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:10.440 So it was a great, great place to start being. 0:05:10.760 --> 0:05:12.359 You know, I wouldn't say a city kid, but I 0:05:12.360 --> 0:05:14.280 mean I was born and raised in Ottawa, which is 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:16.840 the capital of Canada, so I was in a very 0:05:16.839 --> 0:05:19.760 suburban environment growing up. Then in high school we moved 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:22.440 about forty five minutes out of the city, so it 0:05:22.480 --> 0:05:24.839 was in a small town carl Carlton Place, and it 0:05:24.920 --> 0:05:27.560 was like going back in time. Basically everybody hunted and 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:31.000 fished there. The high school. You know, there would never 0:05:31.040 --> 0:05:32.840 be a test during the first two weeks of November 0:05:32.880 --> 0:05:35.080 because i was the deer season and there were just 0:05:35.120 --> 0:05:38.240 no boys in school during those those two weeks of November. 0:05:38.279 --> 0:05:40.080 So it was a bit of a culture shock going 0:05:40.120 --> 0:05:43.040 from the city out to the country. But that's where 0:05:43.240 --> 0:05:47.160 you know, the hunting and fishing bug kind of really bit. 0:05:48.320 --> 0:05:50.920 Rob's story of deer days in school makes me see 0:05:50.960 --> 0:05:54.880 that rural North America, even if it's in Canada, isn't 0:05:54.960 --> 0:05:58.839 much different anywhere. We're kind of all the same. The 0:05:58.920 --> 0:06:02.480 context of Rob's story happens while he was a game warden, 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:05.880 but the second part of the context was that it 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:10.280 took place in deep Canadian wilderness, which is no joke. 0:06:10.839 --> 0:06:14.240 When I first started traveling in Canada, I quickly realized 0:06:14.320 --> 0:06:18.960 the vast amount of uninhabited wild places that they have 0:06:19.080 --> 0:06:22.360 as far superior in terms of absence of people in 0:06:22.520 --> 0:06:24.400 roads than anything that we. 0:06:24.440 --> 0:06:25.960 Have in the lower forty eight. 0:06:26.520 --> 0:06:28.880 A good place to start this story is to try 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:31.440 to get a grasp of Canadian wilderness. 0:06:32.360 --> 0:06:34.960 So to give you an idea of the expanse of 0:06:35.080 --> 0:06:38.680 sort of, I'll say northern Canada, and it doesn't even 0:06:38.680 --> 0:06:40.839 have to be that far north. But basically, you know 0:06:40.839 --> 0:06:44.599 where I live in Ottawa. It's the capital city of Canada. 0:06:44.640 --> 0:06:46.640 There's a million people here, which is not a big city. 0:06:47.680 --> 0:06:50.000 But if you drive say forty five minutes to an 0:06:50.040 --> 0:06:54.239 hour outside of the city, you have Deer, Moose Bear, 0:06:54.480 --> 0:06:58.640 you have some small towns, but you're kind of in 0:06:58.680 --> 0:07:01.680 the on the border, the middle of nowhere, and even 0:07:01.720 --> 0:07:04.080 beyond that, Like if you think of the province of Quebec, 0:07:04.120 --> 0:07:06.039 for example, the northern. 0:07:05.760 --> 0:07:07.640 Tip of Quebec is the Arctic. 0:07:07.680 --> 0:07:11.360 There's polar bears, there's walrus, there's you know, seals, there's caribou. 0:07:12.000 --> 0:07:15.400 The eastern corner of the same province in Quebec is 0:07:15.440 --> 0:07:16.640 the ocean, so you have you. 0:07:16.600 --> 0:07:18.360 Know, the. 0:07:17.640 --> 0:07:19.600 Saint Lawrence River, the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River 0:07:19.680 --> 0:07:22.840 where you have whales and you know seafood, so you 0:07:22.920 --> 0:07:26.040 have that maritime environment. If you look at the reflection 0:07:26.080 --> 0:07:29.600 of the wildlife that's present and the different species, it 0:07:29.800 --> 0:07:32.520 just gives you an idea of the different environments and 0:07:32.560 --> 0:07:36.280 how much that one province, you know, spreads from one corner, 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:39.320 which is the Atlantic Ocean basically to the Arctic Ocean, 0:07:39.360 --> 0:07:41.960 and then in the southwest you know the Great Lakes region. 0:07:42.040 --> 0:07:44.200 So these are big, big areas. 0:07:44.680 --> 0:07:47.560 Canada's population, i think right now is around forty million, 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:49.280 so it's about a tenth of what it is in 0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:53.320 the States. So we have just massive, massive tracts of 0:07:53.400 --> 0:07:56.640 land that there's nobody around. 0:07:57.320 --> 0:08:01.400 Roughly one point five million square miles of Canada. Nearly 0:08:01.440 --> 0:08:05.080 forty percent of the country's land mass is considered largely 0:08:05.160 --> 0:08:09.600 wild and remote, characterized by minimal human impact and sparse 0:08:09.680 --> 0:08:13.400 infrastructure in low road density. Much of this is boreal 0:08:13.440 --> 0:08:17.520 forest and Arctic tundra. Over eighty percent of Canada's land 0:08:17.560 --> 0:08:20.400 masks is public land or what they call crown land, 0:08:20.960 --> 0:08:24.120 while roughly twenty eight percent of America's land mass is 0:08:24.160 --> 0:08:27.520 publicly owned. But it's kind of deceptive because a large 0:08:27.560 --> 0:08:31.800 percentage of that roadless big public land is in Alaska. 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:37.000 About sixty five percent of Canada exists in large roadless tracts, 0:08:37.360 --> 0:08:43.800 reflecting its vast, sparsely penetrated interior. Point being, Canada has 0:08:43.840 --> 0:08:48.360 some seriously wild places. Big backcountry is the context of 0:08:48.559 --> 0:08:53.160 Rob's story, and it involves some walleye poachers or potential 0:08:53.200 --> 0:08:56.880 walleye poachers. Let's get into the story and if why 0:08:56.920 --> 0:09:01.320 Canadians call the backcountry or backwoods the bush? 0:09:01.360 --> 0:09:03.080 So? I mean, one of the first things I should 0:09:03.120 --> 0:09:05.520 say is when I was in Kappuskasing, I started with 0:09:05.640 --> 0:09:09.520 another new officers name was Greg Clark, super guy. He 0:09:09.600 --> 0:09:11.040 was a couple of years older than me, had a 0:09:11.320 --> 0:09:13.280 you know, he started at the same time as I 0:09:13.320 --> 0:09:15.640 did as a conservation officer full time, but he had 0:09:15.679 --> 0:09:18.520 been a deputy a little bit longer than me. He 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:21.560 was from northwestern Ontario, you know, born and raised in 0:09:21.640 --> 0:09:25.000 the bush. Great with everything, snow machines, boating, you know, 0:09:25.040 --> 0:09:27.680 he was just he was a bush guy. So it 0:09:27.800 --> 0:09:30.440 was again just what a great way to start my 0:09:30.600 --> 0:09:33.400 career with this other guy. And we got along anyway. 0:09:33.400 --> 0:09:36.640 It was just a fantastic relationship and a great partner. 0:09:37.640 --> 0:09:40.360 So as I mentioned, you know earlier, is you know, 0:09:41.120 --> 0:09:42.720 we had heard that there were people that were always 0:09:42.720 --> 0:09:45.880 fishing every year the day before the walleye season opened 0:09:45.880 --> 0:09:48.520 on a certain lake in the southern end of our district. 0:09:48.600 --> 0:09:51.360 So this was a remote lake, hard to get into, 0:09:51.400 --> 0:09:54.080 and cap Skasing is a pretty it's kind of a 0:09:54.120 --> 0:09:57.679 swampy area, so a lot of guys up there had argos. 0:09:57.320 --> 0:09:59.440 You'd have you know, ATVs with big mud tires. 0:09:59.440 --> 0:10:01.320 But our goo were pretty popular at the time, just 0:10:01.320 --> 0:10:04.160 because it was so wet. So a lot of these lakes, 0:10:04.400 --> 0:10:06.120 you know, you might be in your argo for an 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:08.400 hour or two hours from where you park your vehicle 0:10:08.440 --> 0:10:11.520 to get back into your camp that's on a certain lake, 0:10:11.600 --> 0:10:14.080 so so we were trying to figure out of you know, 0:10:14.120 --> 0:10:15.600 the big problem with a lot of these spots is 0:10:15.640 --> 0:10:18.080 you just you can't get in there without everybody else 0:10:18.360 --> 0:10:21.240 knowing that you're either coming or that you're in or whatever. 0:10:21.320 --> 0:10:25.600 So there was a river that flowed in from another 0:10:26.080 --> 0:10:28.160 you know, remote location, so we had to It was 0:10:28.160 --> 0:10:29.360 a lot of work to get into where we were, 0:10:29.360 --> 0:10:30.920 so we're kind of limited in what we could take. 0:10:30.960 --> 0:10:33.960 So we basically brought a square stern canoe and there 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:36.280 were a couple of sets of rapids that we knew 0:10:36.280 --> 0:10:37.880 we had to get through to get up into the lake. 0:10:38.280 --> 0:10:41.880 So we ended up I chucked because we put like 0:10:42.160 --> 0:10:47.240 a fifteen horse outboard motor on this canoe. You know, 0:10:47.440 --> 0:10:50.079 that's basically what we needed to get up. But at 0:10:50.080 --> 0:10:54.000 the same time, safety wise, you know, maybe that was 0:10:54.200 --> 0:10:56.199 a touch over powered for the canoe kind of thing, 0:10:56.240 --> 0:10:59.320 but whatever. So I always always, and I still to 0:10:59.360 --> 0:11:01.319 this day, you know, a pack with me that has 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:04.680 a first aid kid survival kit, especially in those northern environments, 0:11:04.760 --> 0:11:06.400 right because if something goes wrong, you may be there 0:11:06.440 --> 0:11:09.199 for a day or at least overnight before somebody can 0:11:09.240 --> 0:11:12.480 get to you. So the M and R provided M 0:11:12.480 --> 0:11:15.760 and R Ministry and not resources. They provide us each 0:11:15.800 --> 0:11:18.680 with a personal locator beacon and then we kind of 0:11:18.720 --> 0:11:23.400 made our own survival kits. You know, I had my backpack. 0:11:23.000 --> 0:11:25.280 With my gear. We loaded the canoe. 0:11:26.000 --> 0:11:28.120 We were doing what was called plane clothes patrol, so 0:11:28.640 --> 0:11:30.839 that meant that, you know, we were dressed. We weren't 0:11:30.880 --> 0:11:33.679 in uniform, but we still had our gun belts on. 0:11:35.559 --> 0:11:37.360 We sort of had all of our tools with us, 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:40.360 our ticket books, you know, binoculars, cameras, all that kind 0:11:40.360 --> 0:11:43.520 of stuff. So we loaded up the canoe and I 0:11:43.559 --> 0:11:45.720 don't remember how long, but it was certainly, you know, 0:11:45.760 --> 0:11:47.400 it was a couple of hours. I can say probably 0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:49.960 about two hours to kind of because again you couldn't 0:11:50.000 --> 0:11:52.560 go too fast up this this river. It was again 0:11:52.600 --> 0:11:54.320 there was good current and everything else, so we kind 0:11:54.320 --> 0:11:56.320 of just putted our way up the river. 0:11:56.520 --> 0:11:57.320 It was beautiful. 0:11:57.360 --> 0:11:59.040 All I could think about, you know, being sort of 0:11:59.080 --> 0:12:00.679 this new Hunters, like I'm want to come back here 0:12:00.679 --> 0:12:02.480 in Mussan because it just it looked like I was, 0:12:02.600 --> 0:12:04.439 you know, on a TV show in the Yukon or 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:06.200 something like that. It was gorgeous area and again nobody 0:12:06.240 --> 0:12:11.240 else around. So we're making our way up through up 0:12:11.280 --> 0:12:14.760 through the river. Eventually we get to the lake right 0:12:14.760 --> 0:12:16.960 around It was in the evening, around six o'clock, and 0:12:17.000 --> 0:12:18.760 we'd sort of planned it that way, thinking that, Okay, 0:12:18.760 --> 0:12:21.120 if guys are going to be, you know, coming up 0:12:21.120 --> 0:12:23.560 to the camp throughout the day, they'll probably you know, 0:12:23.640 --> 0:12:24.319 eater like. 0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:25.000 A lot of guys. 0:12:25.280 --> 0:12:27.640 I should also say, like, the ice has only been 0:12:27.640 --> 0:12:29.800 off the lake for I think two or three days 0:12:29.800 --> 0:12:30.360 at this point. 0:12:30.480 --> 0:12:31.080 This is late. 0:12:31.080 --> 0:12:36.160 May, so depending on the year, sometimes sometimes walleye season 0:12:36.320 --> 0:12:38.400 opened up there and there was still ice on the lake, 0:12:38.440 --> 0:12:40.520 normally not enough to ice fish. But anyway, it was 0:12:40.600 --> 0:12:42.920 right around that time when the lakes were thawing that 0:12:43.000 --> 0:12:45.880 the walleye season would open. So we get onto the lake. 0:12:45.960 --> 0:12:48.600 We don't hear anything, we don't see anything. We kind 0:12:48.600 --> 0:12:51.680 of putter down to one end of the lake. We 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:54.000 can't see, you know, anybody in the camps. It just 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:55.880 looks like it's it's empty. There's nobody around. 0:12:56.280 --> 0:12:58.720 So we turn the boat around. 0:12:58.720 --> 0:13:00.480 I think we got out at one point actually because 0:13:00.480 --> 0:13:03.280 we switched spots where I had driven up and Greg 0:13:03.840 --> 0:13:07.280 was going to drive us out, and so we get out, 0:13:07.840 --> 0:13:09.920 grab a snack, stretch our legs a little bit, get 0:13:09.960 --> 0:13:12.360 back in the boat, start puttering our way back. And 0:13:12.440 --> 0:13:15.120 it wasn't windy, but there was, you know, a bit 0:13:15.200 --> 0:13:19.040 of a wind, I will say. And we're driving along 0:13:19.200 --> 0:13:22.240 and I don't really I don't think either of us 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:25.079 really know what happens or what happened. But I was 0:13:25.160 --> 0:13:27.920 peeling a banana in the front of the boat. That's 0:13:27.920 --> 0:13:30.040 where I remember. I'm peeling the banana and the next 0:13:30.080 --> 0:13:32.520 thing I know, I just feel the boat. It kind 0:13:32.520 --> 0:13:36.080 of you know, like if you're going along you have 0:13:36.480 --> 0:13:39.199 a small wave kind of hits you sideways, you just 0:13:39.280 --> 0:13:42.240 kind of roll over that almost laterally, if that makes sense. 0:13:42.760 --> 0:13:45.680 So we feel that that wind, that little wave, it 0:13:45.760 --> 0:13:48.000 just kind of rocks the boat one way, and then 0:13:48.040 --> 0:13:53.040 the next thing, you know, we're upside down. So yeah, 0:13:53.080 --> 0:13:56.320 I'm peeling this banana one second and then I just 0:13:56.320 --> 0:13:59.559 just like this little swoop and then I'm underwater. 0:14:00.320 --> 0:14:04.320 Everything is perfect until it's not. This is usually the 0:14:04.400 --> 0:14:08.320 context for bad things happening. And don't forget about that banana, 0:14:08.520 --> 0:14:10.680 because I garand dog te you we will be back 0:14:10.720 --> 0:14:16.160 for that. But usually disaster is quick and unexpected. However, 0:14:16.240 --> 0:14:18.760 they were on a remote ice cold leg, so they 0:14:18.840 --> 0:14:21.880 knew there was just a razor thin layer between them 0:14:21.880 --> 0:14:25.440 and extreme danger. But let's dwell on that thin edge 0:14:25.440 --> 0:14:28.280 for just a minute. I think about that thin edge 0:14:28.320 --> 0:14:31.280 when I ride a mule. Things can go wrong like 0:14:31.560 --> 0:14:34.000 so quick. I think about it. When I drive a car, 0:14:34.360 --> 0:14:37.360 things can go wrong quick. And you should think about 0:14:37.400 --> 0:14:40.680 this when you're in cold water. These guys all of 0:14:40.680 --> 0:14:46.480 a sudden found themselves in a life threatening situation. But no, biggie, right, 0:14:46.680 --> 0:14:52.320 I mean, they've got a lot of options, or do they? 0:14:53.160 --> 0:14:55.960 So? As I mentioned, you know, we're still wearing our 0:14:56.920 --> 0:14:58.680 I call them duty boots or whatever, but you know 0:14:58.720 --> 0:15:01.160 they're like fairly black hea boots were wearing a gun 0:15:01.200 --> 0:15:05.320 belt back in the day. Of course, everybody, that's cool. 0:15:05.360 --> 0:15:07.280 You're not wearing a life jacket. You're sitting on it 0:15:07.320 --> 0:15:10.160 because it's a seat. So neither of us were wearing 0:15:10.160 --> 0:15:15.680 life jackets, which was really dumb. And it's funny because underwater, 0:15:16.360 --> 0:15:19.000 it's it's amazing what sort of comes to you and 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:21.320 how quickly things come to you. When I was a kid, 0:15:21.400 --> 0:15:23.560 before I knew what a conservation officer was, I always 0:15:23.560 --> 0:15:26.120 wanted to be a fighter pilot, So you know, I 0:15:26.200 --> 0:15:29.080 knew everything about we had f eighteens up here cfaighteens. 0:15:29.080 --> 0:15:31.080 I knew all the stats on cfaighteens. I was watching 0:15:31.160 --> 0:15:33.040 videos all the time as a young guy, and one 0:15:33.080 --> 0:15:35.640 of the videos I remember seeing was it was a 0:15:35.760 --> 0:15:39.240 US Navy video where you would see the pilot in 0:15:39.440 --> 0:15:42.080 like a fake cockpit coming down into a pool. So 0:15:42.120 --> 0:15:44.560 I think it was for like whatever fourteens or something, 0:15:44.560 --> 0:15:47.560 but it was a training video of what you do 0:15:47.840 --> 0:15:49.920 if you hit the water and you're kind of you know, 0:15:50.000 --> 0:15:52.760 you'd lose your whereabouts. And what I remember is you 0:15:52.840 --> 0:15:56.720 blow a bubble. So when you blow a bubble, automatically, 0:15:56.800 --> 0:15:58.960 the bubble goes up, and that tells you which way 0:15:59.080 --> 0:16:02.000 to swim because you're upside down or twisted around and 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:04.600 you start swimming. You may be swimming down, you may 0:16:04.600 --> 0:16:07.360 be swimming sideways. You don't know. So that that came 0:16:07.400 --> 0:16:09.360 to me in my head. So I blow the little bubble. 0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:10.920 I see which way is up. So I and then 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:12.280 again in my head, I'm like, oh my god, I'm 0:16:12.280 --> 0:16:14.000 gonna sink like a rock wearing you know, the gun 0:16:14.080 --> 0:16:16.880 belt and everything else. So I just start swimming up. 0:16:17.400 --> 0:16:18.880 And you know, I wasn't that deep. I was probably 0:16:18.880 --> 0:16:20.600 only a couple feet under the water, but you don't 0:16:20.640 --> 0:16:23.440 realize it at the time. So I actually came up 0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:28.280 underneath the canoe, and so I sort of put my 0:16:28.320 --> 0:16:30.480 hands on the canoe, you know, take a breath, and 0:16:30.520 --> 0:16:33.080 that's when it hits you of how cold that stupid 0:16:33.080 --> 0:16:35.000 water is. Like I say, I think the ice had 0:16:35.040 --> 0:16:38.800 been off the lake for two maybe three days. So 0:16:38.840 --> 0:16:41.360 then the next thought is, okay, where's Greg. So you know, 0:16:41.400 --> 0:16:43.880 I kind of pull the canoe over my head or 0:16:43.960 --> 0:16:45.080 I get out from under the canoe. 0:16:45.120 --> 0:16:47.160 I look around. I see Greg's you know. 0:16:47.680 --> 0:16:50.880 Off whatever I'm gonna say, five yards maybe off the 0:16:50.920 --> 0:16:54.480 back of the boat. And of course, like you're hearing 0:16:55.080 --> 0:16:57.240 different videos or whatever, he had hit his head as 0:16:57.400 --> 0:17:00.200 part of his kind of process going down, so you 0:17:00.200 --> 0:17:03.600 know he was. He was okay, but still a little 0:17:04.200 --> 0:17:07.680 I don't want to say groggy, I think just disoriented, 0:17:07.680 --> 0:17:09.400 maybe like you don't both wear in the water. 0:17:09.480 --> 0:17:13.159 But yeah, anyway, we you know, I get him to 0:17:13.240 --> 0:17:13.639 the boat. 0:17:13.760 --> 0:17:17.080 We kind of take a second to take it all in, 0:17:17.240 --> 0:17:21.960 just realize the situation we're in, which isn't good. 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:24.760 You know, it's cold water, the boat's flipped over. 0:17:24.920 --> 0:17:26.639 How far are you from the bank? 0:17:26.800 --> 0:17:29.480 Exactly, great question, Not that far. 0:17:30.040 --> 0:17:35.520 I would say we were probably, oh, one hundred yards 0:17:35.520 --> 0:17:38.879 at the most. Probably like eighty yards would be my guess. 0:17:39.200 --> 0:17:41.920 So, Robin Gregg, are less than one hundred yards from 0:17:41.920 --> 0:17:44.840 the bank. That doesn't seem like very far. If someone 0:17:44.880 --> 0:17:46.919 put a gun to your head right now and asks 0:17:46.960 --> 0:17:49.960 you if you believe that you could swim to the 0:17:50.000 --> 0:17:53.840 shore with a life jacket on in thirty five degree water, 0:17:54.200 --> 0:17:57.040 what would you say? If you're with somebody right now 0:17:57.119 --> 0:17:59.720 riding the in a truck, or with your why or 0:17:59.760 --> 0:18:03.160 your kids, ask them if they think that they could 0:18:03.160 --> 0:18:06.960 do it, say yes or no. When in cold water, though, 0:18:07.160 --> 0:18:10.960 you typically have about ten minutes of fairly normal mobility 0:18:11.320 --> 0:18:12.800 before you start to seize up. 0:18:13.440 --> 0:18:15.919 The tick and clock has started for Rob. 0:18:16.800 --> 0:18:18.040 Let's see what Rob says. 0:18:19.040 --> 0:18:20.879 The first thing we're doing is we're going, okay, well, 0:18:20.920 --> 0:18:24.040 let's try to, you know, get the boat flipped over 0:18:24.080 --> 0:18:25.960 and we'll see if we can get back in the boat. 0:18:26.920 --> 0:18:28.960 And as we're doing this, you know I talked earlier 0:18:28.960 --> 0:18:31.000 about having a backpack with different equipment. Some of the 0:18:31.000 --> 0:18:34.639 equipment then starts kind of popping up from underneath I 0:18:34.680 --> 0:18:38.320 see my backpack pop up. So I think the first 0:18:38.320 --> 0:18:42.480 thing I did was I went back underneath the boat 0:18:43.640 --> 0:18:46.239 because I wanted to try to find life jackets. Right 0:18:46.400 --> 0:18:49.240 our two life jackets. So I found one life jacket. 0:18:49.520 --> 0:18:52.600 I put that on. Then I swam again, not far 0:18:52.600 --> 0:18:58.040 a couple feet to grab that backpack. And then we 0:18:58.400 --> 0:19:01.399 tried correcting the a couple of times, and we we 0:19:01.520 --> 0:19:03.119 just we couldn't do it. I mean a it was 0:19:03.760 --> 0:19:06.399 a combination of the cold water. It's amazing how fast 0:19:06.480 --> 0:19:08.480 you just you can't move. It's like your muscle sees 0:19:08.600 --> 0:19:12.960 up you're breathing, really constricts on you. So then my 0:19:13.000 --> 0:19:15.240 next thought is, okay, I have this life jacket on. 0:19:15.320 --> 0:19:16.359 You know, Greg's holding on. 0:19:16.280 --> 0:19:17.080 To the back of the boat. 0:19:17.440 --> 0:19:19.360 You know, the whole key in cold waters just get 0:19:19.400 --> 0:19:21.200 as much of your body up out of the water 0:19:21.240 --> 0:19:23.200 as possible. So at that point, you know, Greg was 0:19:23.200 --> 0:19:26.160 pretty much I would say, other than maybe his legs 0:19:26.160 --> 0:19:28.560 in the water, like his chest and upper body was 0:19:28.920 --> 0:19:31.800 up over the back of the canoe, you know. And 0:19:31.880 --> 0:19:34.560 I I was a very strong swimmer. I used to 0:19:34.640 --> 0:19:36.480 love swimming all that good stuff. I said, Okay, well, 0:19:36.480 --> 0:19:38.399 I have my life jacket on, I'm going to swim 0:19:38.400 --> 0:19:40.760 to the shore because there were camps right across from 0:19:40.760 --> 0:19:42.720 where we were, So I'm gonna swim to the shore. 0:19:42.760 --> 0:19:45.320 I'm gonna grab you know, another boat. If I have 0:19:45.400 --> 0:19:47.280 to break in somewhere, I'll break into a shed or 0:19:47.320 --> 0:19:49.879 grab a canoe, whatever, and then I'll come back out 0:19:49.960 --> 0:19:50.720 and pick them up. 0:19:50.760 --> 0:19:51.600