Speaker 1: Welcome to this country life. I'm your host, Brent Reeves
Speaker 1: from coon hunting to trot lining and just general country living.
Speaker 2: I want you to stay.
Speaker 1: Awhile as I share my experiences and life lessons. This
Speaker 1: country life is presented by Case Knives on Meat Eaters
Speaker 1: Podcast Network, bringing you the best outdoor podcast.
Speaker 2: The airwaves have to offer.
Speaker 1: All right, friends, grab a chair or drop that tailgate.
Speaker 1: I've got some stories to share. Trucks, boats and airplanes.
Speaker 1: Unexpected results from a planned out and can test your metal.
Speaker 1: Scheduling those outings back to back can test your stamina.
Speaker 1: But good or bad, we reap what we sow and
Speaker 1: we'll never get anywhere standing still. Sometimes, in my eagerness
Speaker 1: to please everyone and do everything, over extend and don't.
Speaker 2: Really enjoy the opportunities afforded me.
Speaker 1: Now I'm gonna talk about if that's the case today
Speaker 1: on a recent trip. But first I'm gonna tell you
Speaker 1: a story. Corey Coleman, a crane operator, native Texan and
Speaker 1: one of the one thousand, one hundred and nine folks
Speaker 1: calling Oor City home, sent in this little jewel. He
Speaker 1: calls the Jasper disaster a Buffalo River story. Now I
Speaker 1: think Coors, missing his calling running that crane, he ordered
Speaker 1: to be naming books and movies for a living. He
Speaker 1: wrote this story pretty good too, and I'm about to
Speaker 1: turn it loose, so in my voice and Corey's words,
Speaker 1: here we go. I've been itching to see the Buffalo
Speaker 1: River ever since I listened to the beargrease that featured it.
Speaker 1: Something about the wildness, the history, and the raw beauty
Speaker 1: stuck with me. After eight months of talking with friends
Speaker 1: and slowly putting together a plan, we were ready the
Speaker 1: gold float, thirty nine miles through some of the most
Speaker 1: breath taken terrain any of us had ever seen. Four companies,
Speaker 1: eight people, a mix of kayaks and canoes. None of
Speaker 1: us were pros, but we weren't clueless either. When we
Speaker 1: checked in with the park office, we were told the
Speaker 1: river was low but floatable, and that sounded perfect, especially
Speaker 1: for a group with varied experience. We figured slower water
Speaker 1: mit fewer surprises. By that first night, we set up
Speaker 1: camp during a lull in a decent storm, and when
Speaker 1: we woke up the next morning, our first full float day,
Speaker 1: the river had come up about eight inches, still floatable,
Speaker 1: still within reason, but a little faster than expected. And
Speaker 1: we were optimistic, a little more current, a few less shortages,
Speaker 1: and that optimism lasted about four hours. By the end,
Speaker 1: we'd only made it about five and a half miles.
Speaker 1: Our goal had been ten. More concerning two kayaks in
Speaker 1: a tandem canoe had flipped into rapids. People were okay,
Speaker 1: but it rattled us with another storm. Forecasting we decided
Speaker 1: to stop early and set up camp what we thought
Speaker 1: was safely above the high water mark.
Speaker 2: We were wrong.
Speaker 1: The thunderstorm rolled through, heavy but manageable. We thought we
Speaker 1: were in the clear and finally drifted off asleep until
Speaker 1: about three am, when we woke to find our sleeping
Speaker 1: paths floating.
Speaker 2: In the span of a.
Speaker 1: Couple hours, the Buffalo River had risen nearly ten feet.
Speaker 1: It was immediate chaos. We knew the boats were gone,
Speaker 1: no chance. The priority became clear. We were in waste
Speaker 1: deep water, hauling packs and supplies the higher ground in
Speaker 1: the One guy didn't even have time to get dressed.
Speaker 2: He was fair and gear in his underwear.
Speaker 1: About thirty minutes, we'd moved a week's worth of cappin
Speaker 1: supplies for eight people, one heck of us crampled By sunrise,
Speaker 1: we'd regrouped the while we started affectionately calling Hobo Cam.
Speaker 1: The early light did a lot from morale, and we
Speaker 1: took stock of what we had and what we didn't.
Speaker 1: One gall had gone the whole morning barefoot, no one
Speaker 1: had dry clothes, and the bullnettle man. We were calling
Speaker 1: it fireweed. By the end, it earned the name. We
Speaker 1: knew the Buffalo River Trail was somewhere north of us,
Speaker 1: so two of us set off to find it. Eventually
Speaker 1: we made it to Irby and were able to get
Speaker 1: a shuttle back to retrieve our vehicles, and while waiting
Speaker 1: at Irby Landing, we met some outfitters who were trying
Speaker 1: to track down lost rental boats and clients. We weren't
Speaker 1: the only ones, apparently, who were caught off gold. By
Speaker 1: the time we hiked back in, our group had already
Speaker 1: broken down camp and started hauling gear out. Everything was
Speaker 1: dried out as best as possible. Everyone stepped up, nobody complained.
Speaker 1: It was a full on team effort to get ourselves
Speaker 1: out of the woods, literally and figuratively. We holed up
Speaker 1: at the Gordon Motel in Jasper, Arkansas, to regroup and
Speaker 1: get cleaned up. At the Ozar Cafe one of our
Speaker 1: crew spotted a T shirt that read Jasper Disaster, and
Speaker 1: it felt.
Speaker 2: Like a sign.
Speaker 1: After hot showers and a bit of reflection, no one
Speaker 1: wanted to quit. We found another camp site and finished
Speaker 1: the trip the best way we could, and we didn't
Speaker 1: let the river beat us. In the end, we lost
Speaker 1: four kayaks, two canoes, all of our fishing gear, and
Speaker 1: maybe ten percent of our camping supplies, but we came
Speaker 1: out of it tighter than ever. This was the kind
Speaker 1: of true that could have broken friendships, but it didn't
Speaker 1: made them stronger, And according to Corey Coleman of Or City, Texas,
Speaker 1: that's just how that happened. Well, Corey, I appreciate you
Speaker 1: sending in your story that's some great lessons and perseverance
Speaker 1: and adapting to a situation that could have turned dire
Speaker 1: and making the best of it out of that trial.
Speaker 1: The bonds with those you care about strengthens. That's one
Speaker 1: way to know that you're running in the right circle
Speaker 1: of folks. Thanks for sharing. I have a problem with
Speaker 1: saying no, I spent a career wanting to be a
Speaker 1: helper and help folks, but most importantly I was raised
Speaker 1: to put others before self. I know I can be
Speaker 1: selfish at times, but it is the flaw of humanity
Speaker 1: and something righteously work on and struggle with daily. There
Speaker 1: was only one true selfless person to walk this planet,
Speaker 1: and he paid the ultimate price for it, which validates
Speaker 1: Oscar Wilde's saying of no good deed goes unpunished, but
Speaker 1: saying yes nearly all the time the folks doesn't have
Speaker 1: to be at the cost of oneself. And while I
Speaker 1: have on occasion bore the brunt of coming up on
Speaker 1: the short end of the stick, sometimes sometimes it works
Speaker 1: to my advantage. And such was a recent trip with
Speaker 1: my friend John Howard. John's a lifelong resident of our
Speaker 1: town and served our community and stayed as a firefighter
Speaker 1: for quite a while. He builds houses now a lot
Speaker 1: of them, and has a dirt moving operation. He's quite
Speaker 1: reserved and he doesn't talk a whole lot. His daughter
Speaker 1: dances with Bailey at the dance studio, and it was
Speaker 1: through that relationship that my family became friends with their family.
Speaker 1: And what prompted the invitation to go fishing. Now I
Speaker 1: know you're thinking, what's the issue. It's fishing and invitation
Speaker 1: to go fishing. Who wouldn't want to go fishing. Brent,
Speaker 1: you love fishing. I know all that, But this three
Speaker 1: day fishing trip was eight and a half hours five
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty miles away in Venice, Louisiana, which isn't
Speaker 1: a big deal. I love Venice and the funny talking
Speaker 1: folks that lived there, aside from their overwhelming infinity and
Speaker 1: love for that football team I shall not name that
Speaker 1: they all seem to support down there. The people of
Speaker 1: Louisiana are my people. I love them all. This U
Speaker 1: was I needed to get some podcasts and other non
Speaker 1: fun work related stuff done prior to leaving for a
Speaker 1: hog hunting in Texas that would start the following day.
Speaker 2: The fishing trip ended.
Speaker 1: Now, that was a hunt with the good folks at
Speaker 1: Magpool at the sell Mark Ranch, an iron and a
Speaker 1: half from Dallas near Teague, Texas.
Speaker 2: Y'all, don't start chunking rocks at me.
Speaker 1: Having to coordinate back to back fishing and hunting adventures
Speaker 1: is a.
Speaker 2: Problem a lot of folks would love to have.
Speaker 1: I'm blessed beyond measure to be where I am, but
Speaker 1: I have other obligations with this job and my literal
Speaker 1: outdoor adventures. Compared to my talking about them ways heavier
Speaker 1: on the sutting behind a computer screen than stomping around
Speaker 1: out in creation. I write all this stuff I say
Speaker 1: on here so I can make sense of it to
Speaker 1: explain exactly what I'm trying to say.
Speaker 2: Now that means I have to type it.
Speaker 1: My typing abilities are only slightly comparable to Edward Scissard Hands,
Speaker 1: who's probably faster. So I got to work, wrote and
Speaker 1: recorded two shows ahead of time for my gall river,
Speaker 1: packed it back, and took off with my friend John
Speaker 1: for South Louisiana. We skipped breakfast and left later than anticipated,
Speaker 1: so we stopped in Pine Bluff eat dinner what most
Speaker 1: everyone else can lunch anyway. After our Google search for fish,
Speaker 1: we rolled up to the Underwater Seafood on Main Street.
Speaker 1: It's a family owned concern, turning out some of the
Speaker 1: best fried catfish I've ever eaten in a restaurant. It
Speaker 1: was good, The Hush pubbies were good, the Coast Law
Speaker 1: was good. But what impressed me the most was the
Speaker 1: man who brought out our food. He stood at the front,
Speaker 1: greeting people as they came in and visited with what
Speaker 1: were no doubt regular customers When he came to our table,
Speaker 1: he sat down our food, and before I could say
Speaker 1: thank you, he said, bow your heads.
Speaker 2: I was going to do that anyway.
Speaker 1: I do it before every meal, either out loud when
Speaker 1: requested or to myself, but regardless of where I am.
Speaker 1: But this is the first time I've ever had a
Speaker 1: waiter blessed my food and thank.
Speaker 2: Us for coming in.
Speaker 1: I appreciated the effort, and the food was outstanding, and
Speaker 1: it pretty well set the tone for how the rest
Speaker 1: of the trip was going to go. Continuing on on
Speaker 1: our trip, we stopped near Gilsburg, Mississippi, and visited the
Speaker 1: memorial dedicated to the members of Leonard Skinnert who were
Speaker 1: killed in the infamous plane crash on October twentieth, nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy seven. I was eleven when that happened. The band
Speaker 1: was set to perform in a little rock at Barton
Speaker 1: called Seeum two days later, and it would be ten
Speaker 1: years and seven days before the survivors of that tragedy
Speaker 1: reunited and finished that tour, and me and some friends
Speaker 1: were there in the audience when they did. We hustled
Speaker 1: through New Orleans and made it to our destination of Venice,
Speaker 1: sometime around midnight that night. We weren't fishing until the
Speaker 1: next afternoon, so we lacked the area of urgency I
Speaker 1: usually have on these trips. There was no production schedule
Speaker 1: or deadline. It's just time and the opportunity to see
Speaker 1: the sites and fishing environment, vastly different from what I
Speaker 1: normally do. With my friend John, we checked into my
Speaker 1: friend Renee, crossed the Cypress Cove Lodge. I met Renee
Speaker 1: when me and a whole host of media and folks
Speaker 1: were there last October. It was my first experienced fishing
Speaker 1: on our southern coast and I absolutely loved it.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: On that trip, we spent two days fishing inshore for
Speaker 1: red fishing speckled trout. Offshore was for tuna, and holy cow,
Speaker 1: was that every exciting water is so clear you could
Speaker 1: literally see one hundred feet deep. And when I was
Speaker 1: fortunate enough to hook into one good night nurse, that
Speaker 1: was a whole lot like work. I wasn't sure who
Speaker 1: had who, but in the end I put him in
Speaker 1: a headlock on the back of that boat and got
Speaker 1: my picture tuk. He wound up feeling the heat of
Speaker 1: my blackstone grilled back at Cassa day reeves. When that
Speaker 1: trip was over, Man, what a time. This time we'd
Speaker 1: be fishing offshore once again, but it would be for
Speaker 1: red snapper, no trolling for chummed up tuna. We fished
Speaker 1: with Patrick and his son, Paxton. Patrick is a friend
Speaker 1: of John's and Paxton. He's a baseball player, just making
Speaker 1: time until he gets called up to the big leagues.
Speaker 1: He's filling his hours with elementary school and fishing while
Speaker 1: he waits. We became friends pretty quick. Paxton and I
Speaker 1: have a lot in common. We both like playing outside
Speaker 1: better than sitting on the couch and naps after fishing.
Speaker 1: They are a welcome activity. The first afternoon, we didn't
Speaker 1: venture far off the bank, maybe a forty minute ride
Speaker 1: off shore to an abandoned oil platform.
Speaker 2: We look fanning to me anyway.
Speaker 1: Once we got there, we cut up some frozen fish
Speaker 1: called poogies.
Speaker 2: The proper name I found out is men Hayden.
Speaker 1: A little did I know as we were cutting up
Speaker 1: these thin, silver, football shaped, mental looking fishing about the
Speaker 1: size of a dog dollar bill, that these were of
Speaker 1: great historical importance. Historians believe that these were the fish
Speaker 1: that tis quantum, better known as squanto encouraged the pilgrims
Speaker 1: to plant alongside their seeds as fertilizer after those big
Speaker 1: brass buck of loving folks started tilling up the gardens
Speaker 1: back in sixteen twenty. Here I am four hundred and
Speaker 1: five years later baiting up a hook one thousand, six
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty miles southwest of Plymouth Rock with the
Speaker 1: descendants of fish I'd only been anecdotally learning about in
Speaker 1: school when I was Paxston's age. My education has now
Speaker 1: come full circle. I have now learned everything. Anyway, we
Speaker 1: were fishing one hundred and eighty six feet deep. That's
Speaker 1: so foreign to me. That's like at six first downs
Speaker 1: plus two yards. In the one hundred and five year
Speaker 1: history of the NFL, only a handful of kickers have
Speaker 1: made field goals from beyond that distance. And we were
Speaker 1: fishing with a sixteen ounce weights that took a while
Speaker 1: to get to the bottom as they free spooled off
Speaker 1: thrills above the ways. We had two drop hooks rigged.
Speaker 1: They were on eight inch leads, and the cut bait
Speaker 1: was secured with circle hooks that had a point so
Speaker 1: fine you couldn't see it. Man, those things were sharp.
Speaker 1: You drop your bait, locking your reel, and wait for
Speaker 1: a bite, which didn't usually take long. The key to
Speaker 1: catching them, believe it or not, was not setting the hook.
Speaker 1: When you got a bite, you were just supposed to
Speaker 1: commence the reeling and let the fish catch himself. That
Speaker 1: was harder than reeling in two thirds of football field
Speaker 1: worth the line, which if you're wondering, equates to one
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty five thousand and six cranks of a
Speaker 1: fishing reel, or somewhere thereabouts. We filled the ice chest
Speaker 1: that afternoon and the next day with more red snapper, amberjack,
Speaker 1: and the possible record al Macko that John caught that
Speaker 1: we misidentified as an amberjack that got himself flayed and
Speaker 1: is now lying in a state of cryogenic suspension waiting
Speaker 1: to be revived on my blackstone. It was a fantastic
Speaker 1: trip called lots of fish, made some new friends, ate
Speaker 1: a lot of good food, and slept very little, three
Speaker 1: quarters of which would be repeated starting the following Monday.
Speaker 1: About four hours after I went wheels down at the
Speaker 1: Dallas Fort Worth Airport that, according to Moe Bandy in
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy six, was the biggest airport in the world. Now,
Speaker 1: if you don't know who he is, do yourself a
Speaker 1: favor and let Google tell you how Moe got his
Speaker 1: heart broke there.
Speaker 2: Forty nine years ago.
Speaker 1: Anyway, I was meeting up with my colleagues Matt Miller
Speaker 1: and my boss Garrett Long for a nighttime hog hunt
Speaker 1: on the previously mentioned ranch guests of magpull and hosted
Speaker 1: by Kevin Reese and Jeff Hamilton. The majority of the
Speaker 1: next forty five hours would be spent behind a rifle,
Speaker 1: either at the range shooting footage and steel targets, or
Speaker 1: in the field shooting footage and pork chops. The first
Speaker 1: night I sat in a blind with Dwayne Liptak, a
Speaker 1: former fighter pilot and Bronze stard with valor to vice
Speaker 1: recipient for his actions on the ground during the Global
Speaker 1: War on Terror. Now, we poked holes in a couple
Speaker 1: of hogs before the sun lit up the other side
Speaker 1: of the planet, and when it did, we sat in
Speaker 1: the dark scanning the field for more bacon factories. I
Speaker 1: was glad the pilot was there. He was going to
Speaker 1: come in handy when it came time to land the
Speaker 1: box blind that we were sitting in. After the thunderstorm
Speaker 1: that blew up pounded us with high winds and big
Speaker 1: fat rain.
Speaker 2: I just knew it.
Speaker 1: Any minute we were going to be airborne and flying
Speaker 1: nap of the earth to a yet to be determined
Speaker 1: new area of operations. Fortunately, the anchors held true and
Speaker 1: the only thing that got that was us as we
Speaker 1: abandoned the blind and got in Jeff's truck. The most
Speaker 1: dangerous part of that night was the ride back to
Speaker 1: the house with Jeff. Ah, I'm just kidding, Jeff, No, really,
Speaker 1: I was terrified. I'm not sure Dwayne had a scary
Speaker 1: flight in Afghanistan. I'm kidding, Jeff, kidding, Jeff, No, I'm
Speaker 1: not kidding at all. The next day was more of
Speaker 1: the same, minus the high winds and storming. The rides
Speaker 1: with Jeff varied from between driving miss days in fast
Speaker 1: and furious. Much like the hog hunting, long periods of
Speaker 1: time in the field spent waiting on something to happen.
Speaker 1: A lesson in patience. All hunters learned to accept this
Speaker 1: time for relaxation and deep thought and reflection opportunities really
Speaker 1: to learn more about yourself, and if you're fortunate enough
Speaker 1: to be spending that time with someone, who volunteered to
Speaker 1: put his life on the line for his nation in
Speaker 1: any capacity, an opportunity to learn more why they do that.
Speaker 1: Now I've seen the same thread through all of them
Speaker 1: that I come to know in the military and the
Speaker 1: first responders who outdoors people or not, and regardless of
Speaker 1: religious affiliation, political beliefs, or ideology about foreign affairs, all
Speaker 1: held true to a similar idea of others. But for self,
Speaker 1: it's not hard to recognize the sacrifices that they make,
Speaker 1: but it's hard sometimes to see the prices that they pay.
Speaker 1: The folks I had the pleasure of being in the
Speaker 1: company on both of those trips make me appreciate even
Speaker 1: more how blessed I am to get to do the
Speaker 1: things that I do, keep company with the people I
Speaker 1: get to spend time with, doing things and being in
Speaker 1: places with people we all find important enough to protect
Speaker 1: to the last measure. Now that's what makes me say
Speaker 1: yes to just about everything. I've met some pretty incredible
Speaker 1: people and shared some incredible adventures because of it. No
Speaker 1: good deed goes unpunished, No, how about, no great reward comes.
Speaker 2: Without a little sacrifice.
Speaker 1: Just like Corey Cole, our protagonist in the first story
Speaker 1: in John Dwayne and all the others in the second
Speaker 1: and everyone listening. We all, at some time in our
Speaker 1: lives have been or we'll be asked to step up
Speaker 1: and do something that we didn't plan on or sign
Speaker 1: up for.
Speaker 2: Or we will volunteer say.
Speaker 1: Yes to an invitation that turns out better for someone else.
Speaker 1: But life isn't measured in an upset float on the
Speaker 1: river or a lack of rest on a series of
Speaker 1: sleepless trips. The measure is the journey from start to finish,
Speaker 1: and a trip without obstacles, well that just makes for
Speaker 1: a shorter, more boring riot. Father's Day is next week.
Speaker 1: In my case, signature Minie Trapper, pocking knife, and the
Speaker 1: new This Country Life merch is online at the Meat
Speaker 1: Eater dot com and at the store in downtown Bozeman.
Speaker 1: For all you folks that may be vacation in the
Speaker 1: Treasure State, stop buying. See my buddy Alex Zimmerman and
Speaker 1: his band of Untouchables and they will hook you up.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to us here on the Bear Grease Channel,
Speaker 1: home of history, science and buffoonery. Until next week. This
Speaker 1: is Brent Reeves. Sign it off, y'all, be careful,