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Speaker 1: We decided to take a route down that we saw

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Speaker 1: on the way up that looked like it was going

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Speaker 1: to be a lot easier. That was an illusion, as

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Speaker 1: it often is.

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Speaker 2: We've been pounding hard over the last six months of

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Speaker 2: this Bear Grease podcast, diving Deep into the Mississippi River

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Speaker 2: David Crockett and the literary con man Asa Carter. These

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Speaker 2: were some of my favorite series. But I need relief

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Speaker 2: from the browbeaten history and science. I fear we've all

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Speaker 2: become too smart in our proclaimed quote pursuit of understanding

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Speaker 2: the world. Remember when William Faulkner said you had to

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Speaker 2: understand a place like Mississippi to understand the world. I

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Speaker 2: just need some regular old excitement. How about a fresh

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Speaker 2: plate of harrowing stories with the tall glass of adventure

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Speaker 2: and risk.

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Speaker 3: That sounds pretty good, doesn't it.

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Speaker 2: This is the first part in our sies of wild

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Speaker 2: stories from one of my favorite places on Earth, Alaska.

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Speaker 2: America has been enamored and perplexed for the last seventy

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Speaker 2: years by its sheer volume of wilderness, wildness, and its

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Speaker 2: great beasts. Today we'll hear five stories from five storytellers

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Speaker 2: about wild rivers, grizzly bears, widow makers, and even a

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Speaker 2: cold night under the hide of a great beast. We've

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Speaker 2: never done an episode like this before. We're about to

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Speaker 2: meet some great people. I really doubt you're gonna want

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Speaker 2: to miss this one.

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Speaker 4: And she looked at me, and then she stood up

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Speaker 4: and stretched her neck out and cocked her head and

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Speaker 4: then immediately went into a charge.

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Speaker 2: My name is Clay Nukem, and this is the Bear

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Speaker 2: Grease Podcast, where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant, search

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Speaker 2: for insight and unlike places, and where we'll tell the

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Speaker 2: story of Americans who lived their lives close to the land.

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Speaker 2: Presented by FHF gear, American made, purpose built hunting and

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Speaker 2: fishing gear that's designed to be as rugged as the

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Speaker 2: place as we explore. Alaska is an anomaly. It's a

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Speaker 2: deviation from the standard American state. In the late eighteen hundreds,

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Speaker 2: naturalists John Muir called Alaska Wilderness a temple, claiming the

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Speaker 2: place was still in the morning.

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Speaker 3: Of its creation. It's a giant place.

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Speaker 2: As a grown man decades out of high school geography class,

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Speaker 2: I find myself still trying to grasp its size, almost

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Speaker 2: like a math equation with symbols and multipliers. I have

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Speaker 2: never been trained to manipulate. It's hard to understand how

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Speaker 2: how big it is. The state is over six hundred

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Speaker 2: and sixty five thousand square miles, more than twice the

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Speaker 2: size of our second largest state, Texas, in larger than

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Speaker 2: our biggest three states, Texas, California, and Montana combined. Roughly

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Speaker 2: seven hundred thousand people live in Alaska, making it by

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Speaker 2: far our most sparsely populated state. Purchase from Russia in

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Speaker 2: eighteen sixty seven, you may have heard the term Seward's folly.

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Speaker 2: Secretary of State William Seward negotiated a price of seven

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Speaker 2: million dollars that's less than two cents per acre for

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Speaker 2: the whole state. He was ridiculed for the purchase, like

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Speaker 2: someone living in the plains of Kansas might chide his

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Speaker 2: neighbor's purchase of one hundred foot yacht now parked in

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Speaker 2: the driveway. Alaska would gain statehood in nineteen fifty nine,

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Speaker 2: making it America's forty ninth state. But I'm not here

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Speaker 2: to give you a history lesson. Remember I said we're

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Speaker 2: done with all that. The first story is told by

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Speaker 2: a man that I'm starting to feel like as an

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Speaker 2: old friend of mine. His name is Billy Moles, originally

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Speaker 2: from Wisconsin. Fresh out of high school, he fulfilled a

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Speaker 2: lifelong dream when he headed to Alaska to become a

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Speaker 2: hunting guide. Now, after twenty plus years of living that

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Speaker 2: dream and spending over one hundred nights per year in

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Speaker 2: a tent hunting brown bear, caribou, sheep, and moose, Billy

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Speaker 2: is no doubt an Alaskan wilderness veteran.

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Speaker 3: Big fast water.

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Speaker 2: Is the Achilles heel of a human moving across the

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Speaker 2: landscape afoot. It's a natural feature that humans are almost

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Speaker 2: completely unequipped to deal with. This first story is called

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Speaker 2: The Rising River. Here's Billy.

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Speaker 5: This story starts on a small farm in southern Wisconsin.

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Speaker 5: A young boy by the name of Don Johnson was

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Speaker 5: fishing on the Mississippi River with his brothers wintertime. They

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Speaker 5: were on the ice. They were smoking cigarettes. Her dad

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Speaker 5: was gonna come by and pick him up, and so

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Speaker 5: Don takes the cigarettes and was going towards off shore,

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Speaker 5: a little farther out and towards the current, and was

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Speaker 5: gonna bury the cigarette butts in the snow. And when

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Speaker 5: he went to do that, he fell through the ice.

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Speaker 5: Long story, short and nearly drowns, and ever since then

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Speaker 5: Don is terrified of death by drowning. So forty years later,

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Speaker 5: Don is my neighbor in Wisconsin, fellow farmer. I have

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Speaker 5: known him on a little bit my whole life. But

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Speaker 5: I'm fifteen twenty years into guiding and he comes to me.

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Speaker 5: He's like, hey, I want to want to go caribou hunting.

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Speaker 5: And so we put this hunt together, and Don is

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Speaker 5: bringing his cousin, Mike, so they're both in their late

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Speaker 5: fifties early sixties. And then Mike has his son Greg

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Speaker 5: to come along and it's a three on one hunt.

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Speaker 5: And pretty much every time I've done a three on

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Speaker 5: one hunt it has turned into a debacle. But against

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Speaker 5: my better judgment, I agreed to it. I hadn't connected

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Speaker 5: all the dots back then as I have now. But

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Speaker 5: I take these guys and we go up into the

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Speaker 5: Northern Brooks Range early August. We show up into camp

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Speaker 5: and they got all kinds of gear, and so the

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Speaker 5: next morning we're eating breakfast, her caribou starts coming through.

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Speaker 5: We can see them about a mile and a half off,

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Speaker 5: and we get into position. Greg shoots a really nice bull.

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Speaker 5: It starts to rain, we get that bold taken care of.

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Speaker 5: The next morning, it's still raining and we were in

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Speaker 5: relatively flat, open tundra, but right across the river there

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Speaker 5: was a nice knob, and so what we're doing is

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Speaker 5: we're walking across this creek and then we'd hike up

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Speaker 5: to the knob, and then we'd sit there all day

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Speaker 5: and glass. We could see anything coming. You can see

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Speaker 5: five ten miles in either direction, farther than you'd want

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Speaker 5: to walk. This creek's ankle deep, maybe mid shin at

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Speaker 5: most when we first get there, and so we're sitting

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Speaker 5: on the hill, we're glassing for caribou, and this spot,

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Speaker 5: this little little the creek. We could see the creek

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Speaker 5: out in front of us, and we're not paying it

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Speaker 5: too much attention, but I could see there's a nice

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Speaker 5: shallow riffle there. Anytime i'm hunting a creek, I'm always

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Speaker 5: looking for access points, you know, easiest spots to cross

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Speaker 5: the creek. And this this creek was still so shallow.

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Speaker 5: It wasn't it wasn't a big issue. And we don't

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Speaker 5: see anything the next day, get back to camp that

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Speaker 5: night and go to bed. Next morning, we're up eating

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Speaker 5: breakfast and I could see the creek was rising, but

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Speaker 5: it still was no big deal. Go back up on

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Speaker 5: the hill, get fogged out, it's raining, don't see anything

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Speaker 5: on next day. So then the following day, same deal.

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Speaker 5: We wake up, it's foggy, the river's still raining. The

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Speaker 5: river's definitely coming up, but it kind of clears up

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Speaker 5: early morning. And I just told the guys like, hey man,

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Speaker 5: we're we're gonna have to get out of here. But

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Speaker 5: it's too the ceiling is too low to fly, so

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Speaker 5: we can't get moved with a plane day regardless. But

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Speaker 5: let's go up on. If we climb up on the hill,

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Speaker 5: we can sit for a couple of hours, and you know,

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Speaker 5: if we don't, we don't get anything, we'll just come back.

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Speaker 5: And basically at that point we're gonna wait for the

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Speaker 5: have to wait for the weather to lift, because this

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Speaker 5: is getting so high, like it could flood out our

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Speaker 5: camp because we were camped on a gravel bar. So

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Speaker 5: we climb up onto the hill and I'm looking at

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Speaker 5: this river and I'm noticing that shallow spot that I

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Speaker 5: had noticed a couple of days before, and I'm watching

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Speaker 5: watching the river rise up on this big rock on

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Speaker 5: the bank and I figured it was rising somewhere between

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Speaker 5: an inch and two inches an hour, So I'm gauging,

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Speaker 5: and I just decide, hey, we've got until noon after noon.

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Speaker 5: If we haven't, we're not after something. We've got to

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Speaker 5: be back to camp, because it was about it was

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Speaker 5: up to our crotches when we crossed by camp that morning,

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Speaker 5: and I knew that we could run the way back.

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Speaker 5: We would go back in that shallow riffle kind of

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Speaker 5: below our glassing knob, which was about a half mile

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Speaker 5: below our camp, but that was much much shallower than

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Speaker 5: where we were crossing it camp.

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Speaker 1: But I.

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Speaker 5: Knew that it was kind of pushing the limits of

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Speaker 5: what I was comfortable with it. But I just figured

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Speaker 5: for Don and Mike particularly, there was going to be

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Speaker 5: pushing their limits to be crossing that river.

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Speaker 2: Well.

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Speaker 5: As it turns out, about eleven o'clock, we spot this

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Speaker 5: hurt of cariboo. They're about two miles off, and I

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Speaker 5: just figured, hey, if we're going to go after any

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Speaker 5: caribou today, let's go after him. Give them a run.

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Speaker 5: If they're not there, we'll turn around, we'll come back.

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Speaker 5: So we run after these caribou where we're hoping they

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Speaker 5: are they're gone. Well, there's a ridge right up ahead

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Speaker 5: of us, about a ten to fifteen minute hike, and

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Speaker 5: we could look over this lip. I said, well, they're

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Speaker 5: probably right in there, and so we get up over

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Speaker 5: this lip and sure enough there's the Cariboo. They're about

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Speaker 5: thousand yards off. So we sneak up around, go up

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Speaker 5: in this next little ridge, trying to figure out if

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Speaker 5: there was a way we could ambush them. And we

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Speaker 5: get up there and there's no where to go. There's

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Speaker 5: just no way to really ambush them, to get to

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Speaker 5: them without them seeing us. And the whole time, in

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Speaker 5: the back of my mind, I'm really nervous of this

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Speaker 5: river crossing because now it's about one PM. And I

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Speaker 5: didn't want to say anything. I didn't want to make

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Speaker 5: the guys scared, and I just said, told the guys, hey,

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Speaker 5: that river coming up. We're just going to go right

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Speaker 5: at these Cariboo. If they run off, that's fine, but

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Speaker 5: we got to take our chances here. And so they understood,

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Speaker 5: so we just take off. We start going right towards

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Speaker 5: the Cariboo. Well, just as we take off, they get

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Speaker 5: up because they were bedded, and they start feeding toward

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Speaker 5: us and I'm like, well, let's just wait. But when

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Speaker 5: looking back, I could just see all these little little

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Speaker 5: minute details. We're just pushing the envelope, pushing the envelope.

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Speaker 1: You know.

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Speaker 5: We had two more cariboos still to kill, and our

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Speaker 5: hunt basically at this point is more than half over.

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Speaker 5: But the caribou are working towards us, and we sit

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Speaker 5: and we wait. That takes another twenty minutes. Well, finally

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Speaker 5: Don gets a shot opportunity. Boom, he shoots, the cariboo

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Speaker 5: runs off, intermingles with the herd, so we couldn't get

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Speaker 5: a second shot without risk hitting another cariboo beds down. Finally,

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Speaker 5: I just take take my rifle and I just walk

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Speaker 5: around and boom, and I just finished the thing off.

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Speaker 5: I just I just didn't have any patients because I

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Speaker 5: wanted to get the thing killed. Get back to camp.

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Speaker 5: We're high five and take some pictures. Don's happy, he's

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Speaker 5: got a real nice caribou. We butcher the thing. I mean,

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Speaker 5: we're working. I'm slicing and dicing and they're taking the

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Speaker 5: bags and we're we get this thing whooped up pretty quick.

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Speaker 5: I said, all right, guys, got everything, let's go. And

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Speaker 5: Don's like, well, I forgot my binoculars. And I'm like,

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Speaker 5: what do you mean you forgot your binoculars and he said, well,

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Speaker 5: I think they're up on the hill where we shot from.

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Speaker 5: I'm like, he's like, we can get them tomorrow. I'm like, no,

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Speaker 5: we ain't come back tomorrow. I said, you guys, see

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Speaker 5: that willow bush. I point to it. It's about three

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Speaker 5: quarters of a mile away. I said, there's nothing between

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Speaker 5: here and that willow bush. I said, you guys, get

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Speaker 5: hike into that willow bush, and you do not stop

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Speaker 5: until you get to that willow bush. You sit there

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Speaker 5: and you wait for me. And I was pretty direct,

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Speaker 5: and non recognized that I was pretty direct. He's like, wow,

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Speaker 5: I'm I'm I'm hungry. And I said, grab a couple

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Speaker 5: candy bars and eat them as you walk. I was like,

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Speaker 5: we got to get back across that river again. I

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Speaker 5: didn't want to. I wanted to be firm, but I

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Speaker 5: didn't want to freak them out. So I run up

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Speaker 5: to the top of the hill where we shot from,

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Speaker 5: and there was his binoculars, and I still I beat

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Speaker 5: him down to the willow bush and I can see

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Speaker 5: they're tired. He's like, oh, can we take a break.

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Speaker 5: I'm leg you guys can take a break when we

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Speaker 5: get back to camp. Let's keep her moving. And they

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Speaker 5: just kind of looked at me, and I didn't argue.

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Speaker 5: I think at that point that's when they realized that,

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Speaker 5: and they were they were cognizant of the river coming

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Speaker 5: up as well. So we hike about another mile and

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Speaker 5: we maybe a mile and a half and we get

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Speaker 5: to that shallow spot. We actually walk a half mile

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Speaker 5: further down downstream of camp, but we got to that

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Speaker 5: shallow spot and holy smokes, that river was angrier and darker.

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Speaker 5: I mean, the water is just so silty. There's no

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Speaker 5: reading the river at that point. I mean, it's just

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Speaker 5: covered over. It's probably about gosh, I would guess, seventy

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Speaker 5: yards across of just water. And now this is up

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Speaker 5: to our belt and it was darn near to crotch level,

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Speaker 5: almost the whole way across, which three days earlier it

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Speaker 5: was basically ankle deep. And I told the guys, Don's like,

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Speaker 5: oh my gosh. He's like, I don't know about this,

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Speaker 5: and I'm like, Don, I don't know what other options are.

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Speaker 5: We could stay here, but you know, the clouds are

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Speaker 5: still too low nobody can fly in here. There's no

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Speaker 5: place to land on the other side of the creek anyways.

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Speaker 5: And I said, well, don't just let me go across,

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Speaker 5: and just watch where I go, and go exactly where

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Speaker 5: I walk. And I told him, undo your chest strap.

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Speaker 5: Only have your belt strapped. And if you go down,

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Speaker 5: keep your head downstream, and if you keep your head

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Speaker 5: above water, and if you have to shuck your pack off.

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Speaker 5: And that's one thing I've learned to get in a

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Speaker 5: dangerous situation. You got to keep instructions really really simple.

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Speaker 5: And so I go across. Not a big deal. I mean,

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Speaker 5: it was deep, but Mike makes it across, and then

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Speaker 5: Greg comes and he comes about three quarters of the

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Speaker 5: way across, and there was like a little island. It

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Speaker 5: was submerged, but it was about knee deep water. And

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Speaker 5: so Greg walks to that knee deep water and he

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Speaker 5: sits there and he waits. I just told him to

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Speaker 5: wait there, and we have Don come across. We've all

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Speaker 5: got trucking poles. Don makes it across. You can tell

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Speaker 5: he's pretty nervous. He makes it to that island where

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Speaker 5: Greg is and it's only at this point it's like

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Speaker 5: ten yards to get all the way across, and I

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Speaker 5: just told DoD you got it. And that's the deepest

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Speaker 5: channel in the river. And so I go about thirty

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Speaker 5: forty yards downstream of Don, just in case. And Don

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Speaker 5: goes across, and he's right in the heart of the channel,

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Speaker 5: and of course you're in fastest water. That's where the

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Speaker 5: rocks get small because the small one or the rocks

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Speaker 5: get big because the small rocks are swept downstream. And

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Speaker 5: Don stumbles and then he kind of corrects himself, but

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Speaker 5: in doing so, he puts too much weight on his

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Speaker 5: trekking pole, and he bends his trekking pole into the

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Speaker 5: shape of an elk. And looking back, I should have

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Speaker 5: told him to just throw the thing in the river,

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Speaker 5: but I didn't. He corrects himself and I said, you

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Speaker 5: got it. You got it. Literally four more steps and

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Speaker 5: he's across the river. Well, Don, in his muscle memory,

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Speaker 5: he goes to take a step, and then he goes

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Speaker 5: to take another step. And when he did that, he

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Speaker 5: put his other trekking pole down, or tried to use

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Speaker 5: it the one that he had just snapped in half

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Speaker 5: or was the shape of an elk. And so when

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Speaker 5: he did that, and that support wasn't there. He goes

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Speaker 5: down foom under the water, I mean, just like that,

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Speaker 5: and now he pops up out of the water and

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Speaker 5: it just happens like almost slow motion. He pops up

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Speaker 5: out of the water and his eyes are like saucers

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Speaker 5: in his mouth. He's just gasping for air, just like that,

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Speaker 5: and he's floating down the river like a rubber ducky

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Speaker 5: game at the fair. And I'm imagining that as he

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Speaker 5: comes by, I'm just gonna grab hold of him and

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Speaker 5: just like pull him right to the bank, and you know,

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Speaker 5: everything's gonna be okay. But as he comes by, and

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Speaker 5: he's got the carribou antlers on his back, and again

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Speaker 5: that was a mistake of mine. As I grab him

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Speaker 5: and I try to pull him to the bank, I

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00:16:12,680 --> 00:16:14,560
Speaker 5: realize I should have been pulling in him at about

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Speaker 5: a forty five degree and go downstream, And I learned

307
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Speaker 5: that after the fact. But as I pull him, I'm

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Speaker 5: getting headway, and all of a sudden, he gets perpendicular

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Speaker 5: to the current where he's straight out from me and

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Speaker 5: I'm pulling, and then the next thing I know, he's

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Speaker 5: just a little bit downstream of me, and then all

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Speaker 5: of a sudden, I feel the power of that water

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Speaker 5: on his body, his pack, those caribou antlers, and I'm

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Speaker 5: getting headway, but then all of a sudden, it just

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Speaker 5: I'm powerless, and I am pulled right out into the

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Speaker 5: current with Don, and all of a sudden, the bottom

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Speaker 5: goes from underneath us, like we can't feel the bottom

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Speaker 5: in our feet at all, and we're like crappies just

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Speaker 5: trying to get our mouth to the surface. And I'm

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Speaker 5: a pretty good swimmer. Don can just maybe stay alive

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Speaker 5: on a perfect you know, a perfect pool in a

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Speaker 5: perfect day. It's about all he can really do as

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Speaker 5: far as swimming. But right below us, this sixty seventy

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Speaker 5: yards stretch of river narrows down to a ten yard channel,

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Speaker 5: if you will, and it's like raging white water. You

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Speaker 5: can tell that there's a big dip in the bottom

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Speaker 5: of the river there, and so that's about twenty thirty

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Speaker 5: yards below us, maybe forty, And then it makes a

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Speaker 5: hard ninety degree bend, and I just tell myself, Man,

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Speaker 5: if we get to there, we're dead. And I'm yelling

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Speaker 5: at Don, get your pack off, get your pack off,

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Speaker 5: and I'm reaching for him as I got a hold

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Speaker 5: of him, and I'm trying to find his belt of

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Speaker 5: his pack to try to undo it, but I can't

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Speaker 5: find it, and Don's face is just like right in

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Speaker 5: front of mine, and right away, his fear just kicks in.

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Speaker 5: As a kid who nearly drowned and his whole life,

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Speaker 5: he's his only fear, he said, was death by drowning,

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Speaker 5: and he just yells at me, Is this the end?

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Speaker 5: Is this the end? And I'm like, get your pack off,

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Speaker 5: get your pack off. I can't find his buckle anywhere,

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Speaker 5: and all of a sudden, I just realized, like Don's

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Speaker 5: in shock. And at that moment, I realize like I

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Speaker 5: either let go or hang on, and ahead is what

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Speaker 5: I call it, just a raging torrent, because that's basically

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Speaker 5: what it was. And I'm just like, if we go there,

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Speaker 5: we're dead. If we get that far, if we get

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Speaker 5: that far, Don's dead and maybe I got a chance.

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Speaker 5: And I just realized as like I've got a decision

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Speaker 5: to make either a hang on or I let go.

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Speaker 5: And at that moment, I just figured, you know what,

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Speaker 5: I'm as good with God as I'll ever be. My

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Speaker 5: wife knows who I am, my kids know who I am.

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Speaker 5: What I stand for what I believe, and I just figured,

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Speaker 5: you know, what, if today's the day, if it's if

356
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Speaker 5: Don dies, I die with him. And it's almost like,

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Speaker 5: I don't know, maybe within a second, you know, Don's

358
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Speaker 5: still screaming, is this the end? And I'm just trying

359
00:18:51,200 --> 00:18:54,199
Speaker 5: to tread water and swim side stroke with him and

360
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Speaker 5: my toe and in tow and right just right as

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Speaker 5: we hit that that lip where that torrent, the angry

362
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Speaker 5: torrent starts, I'm side stroking and all of a sudden,

363
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Speaker 5: I feel gravel in my toes and I start digging

364
00:19:08,560 --> 00:19:10,800
Speaker 5: the toes, my toes into the gravel, and I get

365
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Speaker 5: a couple of steps, and I take about two steps

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Speaker 5: towards the shore as much as I possibly could, and

367
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Speaker 5: we're kind of coming up out of the water, but

368
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Speaker 5: we're still being sucked down into that torrent. And I

369
00:19:20,640 --> 00:19:23,480
Speaker 5: just done, and I kind of both I guess lunge

370
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Speaker 5: or in my mind, I'm just lunging, trying to heave

371
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Speaker 5: us both towards short and just prey that wherever we land,

372
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Speaker 5: there's not enough current to push us down into that torrent.

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Speaker 5: And when we lunge and we land, we're about we

374
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Speaker 5: basically went underwater, but it was slack enough that we

375
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Speaker 5: stayed there. And so we get up and like, Don's

376
00:19:43,560 --> 00:19:47,919
Speaker 5: cough and water and I'm coughing water, and you know,

377
00:19:47,960 --> 00:19:50,320
Speaker 5: we just Mike is there right there, because he was

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Speaker 5: already across the river. He's like, are you guys okay?

379
00:19:52,359 --> 00:19:54,520
Speaker 5: We're like, yeah, we get his pack off, or like,

380
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Speaker 5: where's your rifle? He lost his rifle in the drink.

381
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Speaker 5: He's like, I don't care. I've just never been so

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Speaker 5: happy to alive, you know. And yeah, I learned a

383
00:20:04,200 --> 00:20:06,199
Speaker 5: lot on that hunt. Greg. He was able to make

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Speaker 5: it across no problem. Later after that, we made it

385
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Speaker 5: back to camp and we get Don all dried out,

386
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Speaker 5: you know, I mean I made a ton of mistakes.

387
00:20:13,359 --> 00:20:15,040
Speaker 5: I mean, there's just no doubt about it. I let

388
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Speaker 5: my pride, my ego and the pressure the pressure, and

389
00:20:18,040 --> 00:20:20,399
Speaker 5: I kept, you know, I just pushed the envelope and

390
00:20:20,440 --> 00:20:21,960
Speaker 5: I knew I was doing it, but I thought I'd

391
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Speaker 5: get away with it. And it almost cost a man

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Speaker 5: his life. So we get back to camp and the

393
00:20:29,480 --> 00:20:33,119
Speaker 5: weather later that evening it clears up and Matt was

394
00:20:33,119 --> 00:20:35,640
Speaker 5: able to fly in and he was there to pick

395
00:20:35,720 --> 00:20:37,679
Speaker 5: up meat. But in the end we just decided that

396
00:20:37,840 --> 00:20:40,359
Speaker 5: we'd fly Don out that night too, because we were

397
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Speaker 5: gonna have to move the next day. Anyway. Our camp

398
00:20:43,080 --> 00:20:46,000
Speaker 5: was more or less flooding out. But Don said that

399
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Speaker 5: when he was flying out that night, he said, he

400
00:20:49,119 --> 00:20:52,520
Speaker 5: found himself looking back as long as he possibly could,

401
00:20:52,560 --> 00:20:56,240
Speaker 5: and he only did he look forward when he could

402
00:20:56,280 --> 00:20:59,240
Speaker 5: no longer see the camp. And he said, for some reason,

403
00:20:59,359 --> 00:21:01,480
Speaker 5: he goes, I, I didn't want to look forward, and

404
00:21:01,520 --> 00:21:04,240
Speaker 5: he said, when I did look forward, he said, I

405
00:21:04,440 --> 00:21:10,199
Speaker 5: realized that in Don said this, Don speaking that my

406
00:21:10,359 --> 00:21:13,840
Speaker 5: whole life I was looking back. I was looking back,

407
00:21:13,920 --> 00:21:16,679
Speaker 5: and that fear of drowning, he said, I realized that

408
00:21:16,720 --> 00:21:19,840
Speaker 5: it almost that fear almost killed me. And he said,

409
00:21:19,880 --> 00:21:23,119
Speaker 5: I realized that at this point now, I'm never going

410
00:21:23,200 --> 00:21:25,480
Speaker 5: to let that happen again. I'm always going to look

411
00:21:25,520 --> 00:21:29,080
Speaker 5: forward and don't look back with fear and regret. And

412
00:21:29,119 --> 00:21:32,520
Speaker 5: to this day, Don says that he wouldn't change a

413
00:21:32,560 --> 00:21:35,359
Speaker 5: thing about that hunt, because it changed the trajectory of

414
00:21:35,359 --> 00:21:41,480
Speaker 5: his life forever. And what I've learned in Alaska hunting

415
00:21:41,520 --> 00:21:44,320
Speaker 5: adventures is that adversity is one of two things. It's

416
00:21:44,359 --> 00:21:47,639
Speaker 5: either cement that draws the people together or it's a

417
00:21:47,680 --> 00:21:51,240
Speaker 5: wedge that drives them apart. And every Alaska hunting adventure

418
00:21:51,280 --> 00:21:56,480
Speaker 5: brings a new adversity, it's a new challenge. And what

419
00:21:56,520 --> 00:22:01,040
Speaker 5: I've discovered in life is that on the other side

420
00:22:01,040 --> 00:22:09,119
Speaker 5: of fear his freedom.

421
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Speaker 2: That was a wild story. I've been following Billy for

422
00:22:12,760 --> 00:22:16,239
Speaker 2: over a decade, watching his documentary videos about Alaska, and

423
00:22:16,280 --> 00:22:20,119
Speaker 2: I read his book, Alaska and Me years ago. Billy

424
00:22:20,200 --> 00:22:23,000
Speaker 2: is now a hunting consultant helping hunters who are wanting

425
00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:25,080
Speaker 2: to go on big hunts, and he's doing a lot

426
00:22:25,080 --> 00:22:28,119
Speaker 2: of public speaking events at churches and for groups all

427
00:22:28,160 --> 00:22:32,159
Speaker 2: across the country about his adventures in Alaska. He's easy

428
00:22:32,200 --> 00:22:37,240
Speaker 2: to find online if you're looking for him. Our next

429
00:22:37,240 --> 00:22:40,960
Speaker 2: story hails from the high altitudes of the Alaskan wilderness

430
00:22:40,960 --> 00:22:46,120
Speaker 2: in Mountaincoat Country. Years ago, Alaskan resident Carrie Kegler, at

431
00:22:46,160 --> 00:22:49,240
Speaker 2: my request, wrote a story for US at Bear Hunting

432
00:22:49,359 --> 00:22:52,359
Speaker 2: Magazine about a black bear she killed that was missing

433
00:22:52,440 --> 00:22:55,560
Speaker 2: two thirds of its lower jaw and had apparently been

434
00:22:55,600 --> 00:22:59,520
Speaker 2: without it, presumably for years. The beast was happy, fat,

435
00:22:59,520 --> 00:23:02,680
Speaker 2: and old when she wrote this story. It was clear

436
00:23:02,720 --> 00:23:06,520
Speaker 2: to me then that Carrie wasn't your average outdoors person.

437
00:23:07,359 --> 00:23:11,280
Speaker 2: Here's her story that we'll call Goat Country Night.

438
00:23:13,200 --> 00:23:16,200
Speaker 1: My name is Carrie Kegler. I've been an Alaska resident

439
00:23:16,359 --> 00:23:19,240
Speaker 1: nearly my entire life. My family moved up here when

440
00:23:19,240 --> 00:23:21,560
Speaker 1: I was about four, so it's pretty much all I've

441
00:23:21,560 --> 00:23:26,119
Speaker 1: ever known, and grew up in a hunting and fishing family,

442
00:23:26,280 --> 00:23:30,879
Speaker 1: really outdoorsy. Our dad got us started with hunting and

443
00:23:30,920 --> 00:23:34,280
Speaker 1: fishing and archery when we were really young. I believe

444
00:23:34,320 --> 00:23:37,560
Speaker 1: my brother and I got our archery certifications when we

445
00:23:37,560 --> 00:23:42,040
Speaker 1: were probably fourteen or fifteen. So kind of give you

446
00:23:42,080 --> 00:23:47,200
Speaker 1: an idea there. Like our background, So as an Alaska resident,

447
00:23:47,680 --> 00:23:51,119
Speaker 1: we have a lot of opportunity here. We don't like

448
00:23:51,160 --> 00:23:55,000
Speaker 1: to brag about it, but we're very fortunate in that

449
00:23:55,080 --> 00:23:58,160
Speaker 1: in one year you could have a number of tags

450
00:23:58,200 --> 00:24:03,800
Speaker 1: in your pocket. The generality you could have black tailed deer,

451
00:24:04,600 --> 00:24:09,840
Speaker 1: five of them, caribou, moose, dull sheep. They're very generous

452
00:24:10,080 --> 00:24:13,520
Speaker 1: with the opportunity here. The bear hunters, we love it.

453
00:24:13,960 --> 00:24:18,080
Speaker 1: You could take three black bears per season, and the

454
00:24:18,119 --> 00:24:24,600
Speaker 1: season ends on June thirtieth and then begins on July first,

455
00:24:24,720 --> 00:24:29,160
Speaker 1: so that's six bears a year. You know. You could

456
00:24:29,200 --> 00:24:35,959
Speaker 1: take one brown bear per season. As well lots of opportunity.

457
00:24:37,200 --> 00:24:41,200
Speaker 1: So the story that I was going to share, it's

458
00:24:41,240 --> 00:24:46,720
Speaker 1: my second goat hunt ever. But in the process we

459
00:24:46,840 --> 00:24:51,320
Speaker 1: learned a lot, also got some reminders of things that

460
00:24:52,160 --> 00:24:56,119
Speaker 1: you just don't do or maybe you should do. I

461
00:24:56,119 --> 00:24:58,359
Speaker 1: guess I go back to kind of where this hunt

462
00:24:58,480 --> 00:25:03,399
Speaker 1: began in February of every year, it's kind of like

463
00:25:03,480 --> 00:25:07,280
Speaker 1: Christmas for us because we get to find out whether

464
00:25:07,359 --> 00:25:11,720
Speaker 1: or not we drew a tag. This year was in

465
00:25:11,800 --> 00:25:17,840
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, and I rarely ever get the opportunity to

466
00:25:18,440 --> 00:25:22,960
Speaker 1: look up my own name. Yeah, it's one of those

467
00:25:23,000 --> 00:25:25,840
Speaker 1: deals where by the time I wake up in the morning,

468
00:25:25,880 --> 00:25:29,840
Speaker 1: a friend of mine has already texted me and said, hey, congratulations,

469
00:25:29,880 --> 00:25:33,159
Speaker 1: you drew this, or you do that, or oh bummer,

470
00:25:33,359 --> 00:25:36,840
Speaker 1: next time, maybe you'll have better luck. So this year,

471
00:25:36,880 --> 00:25:39,320
Speaker 1: if my friend Ryan had already texted me and said, hey,

472
00:25:39,640 --> 00:25:42,440
Speaker 1: congrats on the goat tag and uh, I'm sure you'll

473
00:25:42,440 --> 00:25:46,280
Speaker 1: do great well. At that time, I didn't have a

474
00:25:46,359 --> 00:25:49,639
Speaker 1: hunting partner, and it's actually pretty tough to find somebody

475
00:25:49,640 --> 00:25:52,520
Speaker 1: that will commit to one to a goat hunt. That is,

476
00:25:53,400 --> 00:25:57,480
Speaker 1: and I had just started dating John Krueger. I told

477
00:25:57,560 --> 00:25:59,960
Speaker 1: him that I drew the tag and he said, great,

478
00:26:00,640 --> 00:26:03,320
Speaker 1: are you know when are we gonna go? So from

479
00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:06,199
Speaker 1: there we kind of made our plans. And at the

480
00:26:06,240 --> 00:26:11,359
Speaker 1: time he was living in Arkansas for work, and so

481
00:26:12,000 --> 00:26:15,520
Speaker 1: we'd made our plans and he flew up here. This

482
00:26:15,640 --> 00:26:20,080
Speaker 1: hunt took place in early September. We had incredible weather.

483
00:26:20,320 --> 00:26:25,400
Speaker 1: You couldn't ask for better weather, clear, cold, great visibility,

484
00:26:25,840 --> 00:26:30,000
Speaker 1: you could see for thirty miles, just just perfect. So

485
00:26:31,000 --> 00:26:36,919
Speaker 1: we flew into a glacial lake and from there we

486
00:26:36,960 --> 00:26:41,360
Speaker 1: got dropped off. We actually we were being dropped off

487
00:26:41,400 --> 00:26:45,080
Speaker 1: as four other goat hunters were being picked up, and

488
00:26:46,080 --> 00:26:49,360
Speaker 1: they were actually successful. Two of the four guys had

489
00:26:49,400 --> 00:26:52,320
Speaker 1: goat tags. They both got, one got a billy, one

490
00:26:52,359 --> 00:26:56,879
Speaker 1: took a nanny. I was surprised at the sparseness of

491
00:26:56,920 --> 00:26:59,000
Speaker 1: the game bag for the fella that had the nanny

492
00:27:00,040 --> 00:27:02,879
Speaker 1: and asked him what had happened, and he said, well,

493
00:27:03,400 --> 00:27:06,199
Speaker 1: when I shot her, she took a leap off of

494
00:27:06,240 --> 00:27:10,880
Speaker 1: a cliff and ended up down at the bottom and

495
00:27:11,119 --> 00:27:14,280
Speaker 1: pretty smashed up. So he ended up climbing down there

496
00:27:14,320 --> 00:27:18,960
Speaker 1: repelling actually and got her. But there wasn't a whole

497
00:27:19,000 --> 00:27:25,320
Speaker 1: lot left when you're hunting goats, they're almost always, especially

498
00:27:25,480 --> 00:27:29,520
Speaker 1: by September, they're gonna be above you know, they're gonna

499
00:27:29,520 --> 00:27:33,160
Speaker 1: be above Alpine. They're gonna be in the rocks, they're

500
00:27:33,200 --> 00:27:37,040
Speaker 1: gonna be they're gonna be high. You can expect to

501
00:27:37,080 --> 00:27:41,000
Speaker 1: see them skyline sometimes and they're gonna be in all

502
00:27:41,040 --> 00:27:45,600
Speaker 1: the little nooks and crannies that and they'll perch themselves

503
00:27:45,680 --> 00:27:47,320
Speaker 1: up there, and they do that so that they can

504
00:27:47,359 --> 00:27:50,800
Speaker 1: get a real good view of everything that's happening below them.

505
00:27:51,160 --> 00:27:53,960
Speaker 1: And they don't like things to be above them. And

506
00:27:54,240 --> 00:27:58,320
Speaker 1: if you're gonna be successful at taking one, you got

507
00:27:58,320 --> 00:28:02,880
Speaker 1: to be in good shape, of course, but also patient.

508
00:28:03,640 --> 00:28:07,040
Speaker 1: You can kind of pattern them for the most part.

509
00:28:07,240 --> 00:28:11,000
Speaker 1: I mean, if you find one that you are certain

510
00:28:11,560 --> 00:28:14,960
Speaker 1: is a billy, they've got characteristics that set them apart

511
00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:19,600
Speaker 1: from a nanny. They're usually a little dirtier, their horns,

512
00:28:19,680 --> 00:28:25,600
Speaker 1: have more masks, but they're also usually alone. So for

513
00:28:25,720 --> 00:28:30,160
Speaker 1: this hunt, we didn't actually get to pattern them so much.

514
00:28:30,720 --> 00:28:35,320
Speaker 1: We really only came across one one billy this time.

515
00:28:36,080 --> 00:28:40,120
Speaker 1: And when we got to the hunting location, we made camp,

516
00:28:40,560 --> 00:28:43,720
Speaker 1: set everything up, took another look at our topo maps,

517
00:28:43,800 --> 00:28:47,440
Speaker 1: and we're just trying to make a game plan, familiarize

518
00:28:47,440 --> 00:28:52,040
Speaker 1: ourselves with the area, and took a peek around. So

519
00:28:52,080 --> 00:28:56,480
Speaker 1: we made camp and went up and over, like I

520
00:28:56,520 --> 00:28:58,720
Speaker 1: would call it, like the foot of this mountain, just

521
00:28:58,720 --> 00:29:00,280
Speaker 1: to kind of get an idea of what was on

522
00:29:00,320 --> 00:29:02,800
Speaker 1: the other side. I mean, you can study those topo

523
00:29:02,880 --> 00:29:06,600
Speaker 1: maps all you want, but you really get a feel

524
00:29:06,720 --> 00:29:10,000
Speaker 1: for what it is that's there when you actually get

525
00:29:10,040 --> 00:29:13,200
Speaker 1: your eyes on it. So we went up and over

526
00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:17,200
Speaker 1: just exploring because in the state of Alaska, you can't

527
00:29:17,280 --> 00:29:22,400
Speaker 1: hunt and fly the same day. So we went up

528
00:29:22,440 --> 00:29:26,920
Speaker 1: and over and just did some exploring and you know, curiosities,

529
00:29:27,000 --> 00:29:29,720
Speaker 1: getting us what's over this ridge, what's over this one?

530
00:29:30,320 --> 00:29:35,880
Speaker 1: And before we knew it, we spotted a goat from there.

531
00:29:36,280 --> 00:29:38,760
Speaker 1: We kind of just hung out, put him to bed,

532
00:29:38,800 --> 00:29:42,000
Speaker 1: so to speak, and went back to camp, made a

533
00:29:42,000 --> 00:29:45,000
Speaker 1: game plan for the next day, and then as soon

534
00:29:45,040 --> 00:29:48,920
Speaker 1: as it was light, we put some gear in our

535
00:29:48,920 --> 00:29:52,200
Speaker 1: in our packs and headed on our way. And one

536
00:29:52,280 --> 00:29:54,880
Speaker 1: of the things I'll mention too, with putting gear in

537
00:29:54,920 --> 00:29:56,920
Speaker 1: your pack before you leave for just what you think

538
00:29:57,000 --> 00:30:01,160
Speaker 1: is going to be a day hunt. If you've got

539
00:30:01,160 --> 00:30:04,200
Speaker 1: that extra puffy you think it's going to be a

540
00:30:04,240 --> 00:30:07,840
Speaker 1: few ounces too heavy. Put it in your bag. Put

541
00:30:07,840 --> 00:30:11,480
Speaker 1: it in your bag. And there's a reason I say that.

542
00:30:13,360 --> 00:30:17,120
Speaker 1: So as we made our way away from camp, we

543
00:30:17,160 --> 00:30:19,920
Speaker 1: had a pin marked the last location we saw the

544
00:30:19,960 --> 00:30:23,760
Speaker 1: go the evening before. The way that the terrain in

545
00:30:23,800 --> 00:30:28,680
Speaker 1: this specific area looks is you've got a glacial lake

546
00:30:28,880 --> 00:30:31,240
Speaker 1: that we were dropped off at, and then you've got

547
00:30:31,280 --> 00:30:36,120
Speaker 1: a big gravel valley that was carved out by that

548
00:30:36,160 --> 00:30:40,000
Speaker 1: glacier that left that lake. And as you get closer

549
00:30:40,040 --> 00:30:44,280
Speaker 1: and closer to the toe of that glacier, you've got

550
00:30:44,320 --> 00:30:49,360
Speaker 1: these braids, these gravel braids of just meandering little creeks

551
00:30:49,360 --> 00:30:53,400
Speaker 1: and streams, and it's all run off from this glacier

552
00:30:53,440 --> 00:30:57,280
Speaker 1: that's essentially melting away. And then in front of that

553
00:30:57,320 --> 00:31:02,600
Speaker 1: glacier you'll see these big tills, which are huge mounds

554
00:31:02,680 --> 00:31:07,240
Speaker 1: of just whatever that glacier left behind. So we were

555
00:31:07,280 --> 00:31:09,960
Speaker 1: near the lake and we were making our way. Instead

556
00:31:09,960 --> 00:31:11,880
Speaker 1: of going up and over the mountain like we did

557
00:31:11,880 --> 00:31:17,360
Speaker 1: the evening before, we went up this valley and decided

558
00:31:17,960 --> 00:31:21,000
Speaker 1: about where we were going to start going up and

559
00:31:21,080 --> 00:31:24,600
Speaker 1: over on the other end of this mountain, closer to

560
00:31:24,600 --> 00:31:29,560
Speaker 1: the glacier. So we did that. We had a pretty

561
00:31:29,600 --> 00:31:35,840
Speaker 1: decent ascent. Nothing nothing scary, nothing really notable. I mean

562
00:31:36,000 --> 00:31:40,040
Speaker 1: it was tough. It was probably about twelve hundred feet

563
00:31:40,560 --> 00:31:45,800
Speaker 1: elevation change, I would say from the bottom. So after

564
00:31:45,920 --> 00:31:50,080
Speaker 1: hours of sitting patiently and glassing and looking, John and

565
00:31:50,120 --> 00:31:53,440
Speaker 1: I decided that we were just going to reposition ourselves

566
00:31:53,440 --> 00:31:55,440
Speaker 1: and cover a little bit more you know, real estate,

567
00:31:55,520 --> 00:32:01,480
Speaker 1: by splitting up. So we're probably at this point about

568
00:32:01,520 --> 00:32:04,719
Speaker 1: two and a half miles or so from our camp.

569
00:32:05,680 --> 00:32:08,360
Speaker 1: So I get to like a little rocky outcropping and

570
00:32:09,680 --> 00:32:13,760
Speaker 1: just kind of looking around and I saw something glimmer

571
00:32:14,000 --> 00:32:18,840
Speaker 1: which it caught my eye. It almost seemed glassy, like

572
00:32:18,880 --> 00:32:21,880
Speaker 1: it didn't belong, you know. I took my biino was

573
00:32:21,920 --> 00:32:25,920
Speaker 1: out and sure enough it was that billy goat. And

574
00:32:25,960 --> 00:32:29,720
Speaker 1: what I had seen was the sun caught his horn

575
00:32:30,120 --> 00:32:32,800
Speaker 1: in a way that it shined like you could actually

576
00:32:32,800 --> 00:32:35,840
Speaker 1: see the shine on it. That's what gave him up.

577
00:32:36,560 --> 00:32:40,600
Speaker 1: And so I went and found John, and we had

578
00:32:40,600 --> 00:32:45,160
Speaker 1: about thirteen hundred yards I guess between the goat and

579
00:32:45,240 --> 00:32:49,520
Speaker 1: us at that point, but we were also probably about

580
00:32:49,960 --> 00:32:54,280
Speaker 1: three or four hundred feet above him in elevation, so

581
00:32:54,880 --> 00:32:57,600
Speaker 1: we had to stay off the skyline and out of

582
00:32:57,640 --> 00:33:00,680
Speaker 1: sight and of course be quiet. So we made our

583
00:33:00,760 --> 00:33:05,120
Speaker 1: path and stuck to it and got to within two

584
00:33:05,160 --> 00:33:10,240
Speaker 1: hundred and eighty yards and he was completely asleep, totally

585
00:33:10,320 --> 00:33:14,480
Speaker 1: zonked out. And so I get set up on this

586
00:33:14,960 --> 00:33:18,360
Speaker 1: really big flat rock because we didn't know how long

587
00:33:18,400 --> 00:33:21,040
Speaker 1: he was going to be there. Sometimes they'll take naps.

588
00:33:21,280 --> 00:33:23,520
Speaker 1: You catch him when they first lay down, and they

589
00:33:23,520 --> 00:33:29,000
Speaker 1: could be napping for hours. So I get set up

590
00:33:29,280 --> 00:33:35,520
Speaker 1: and I did a couple of dry fires, and at

591
00:33:35,520 --> 00:33:38,280
Speaker 1: one point I did a second dry fire, and I'm

592
00:33:38,320 --> 00:33:43,000
Speaker 1: absolutely certain that he heard it. Then he looks up

593
00:33:43,720 --> 00:33:47,360
Speaker 1: and John's moving around. He is a pretty tall guy,

594
00:33:48,400 --> 00:33:51,880
Speaker 1: and I can tell through the scope that this goat

595
00:33:51,960 --> 00:33:54,720
Speaker 1: sees him moving around, and I tell him, hey, he

596
00:33:54,840 --> 00:33:58,440
Speaker 1: sees you, and John says, well, good, maybe he'll get up,

597
00:33:59,480 --> 00:34:03,280
Speaker 1: and I said, uh, yeah, hopefully. So it happened very

598
00:34:03,400 --> 00:34:08,239
Speaker 1: very quickly, but he did get up. I fired the

599
00:34:08,320 --> 00:34:13,920
Speaker 1: moment he turned broadside and he fell right down, never moved.

600
00:34:15,320 --> 00:34:18,279
Speaker 1: I was fortunate this one didn't go anywhere. We got

601
00:34:18,320 --> 00:34:22,200
Speaker 1: down to him, took the obligatory photos and all that,

602
00:34:22,400 --> 00:34:26,960
Speaker 1: and started field dressing him and caping him out. It

603
00:34:27,040 --> 00:34:30,080
Speaker 1: had to be about four o'clock or so by the

604
00:34:30,120 --> 00:34:34,239
Speaker 1: time that we left the kill site. So we got

605
00:34:34,280 --> 00:34:36,600
Speaker 1: all the meat and everything in our packs and we're

606
00:34:36,640 --> 00:34:41,560
Speaker 1: heading back towards camp. This is where we made We

607
00:34:41,600 --> 00:34:45,040
Speaker 1: made a mistake, and I would say it's we broke.

608
00:34:45,920 --> 00:34:48,320
Speaker 1: We broke one of those cardinal rules of mountain hunting,

609
00:34:48,480 --> 00:34:52,080
Speaker 1: and that being you go down the same way you

610
00:34:52,120 --> 00:34:56,880
Speaker 1: come up unless there is no other navigable route that's safe.

611
00:34:57,920 --> 00:35:01,640
Speaker 1: We decided to take a route down that we saw

612
00:35:01,680 --> 00:35:04,399
Speaker 1: on the way up that looked like it was going

613
00:35:04,440 --> 00:35:07,719
Speaker 1: to be a lot easier. That was an illusion, as

614
00:35:07,719 --> 00:35:10,399
Speaker 1: it often is. You can look at a mountain from

615
00:35:10,400 --> 00:35:14,239
Speaker 1: one end to the next and it looks smooth and

616
00:35:15,040 --> 00:35:19,359
Speaker 1: you know, unassuming, but there's cracks and crevices in there

617
00:35:19,560 --> 00:35:24,359
Speaker 1: that you don't see unless you're right there. We took

618
00:35:24,400 --> 00:35:28,080
Speaker 1: an alternative route down, thinking it was going to save time,

619
00:35:29,040 --> 00:35:34,120
Speaker 1: and it did the opposite. We ended up in a

620
00:35:34,160 --> 00:35:37,040
Speaker 1: couple of dead ends. We ended up on top of

621
00:35:37,239 --> 00:35:42,200
Speaker 1: like a huge glacial till couldn't go anywhere. There was

622
00:35:42,680 --> 00:35:46,439
Speaker 1: a river that was probably hip high and going very

623
00:35:46,520 --> 00:35:50,400
Speaker 1: fast underneath a big sheet of ice. We had to

624
00:35:50,440 --> 00:35:55,160
Speaker 1: go back up and around. By the time that we

625
00:35:55,239 --> 00:35:58,920
Speaker 1: lost the light. We'd come to a cliff face. It

626
00:35:58,920 --> 00:36:01,680
Speaker 1: was about one hundred feet above where we needed to be,

627
00:36:02,640 --> 00:36:07,080
Speaker 1: and although we had headlamps, they just didn't cast enough

628
00:36:07,200 --> 00:36:10,920
Speaker 1: light in that kind of terrain for us to to

629
00:36:10,960 --> 00:36:15,160
Speaker 1: safely navigate it. And we were, like I said, we

630
00:36:15,160 --> 00:36:18,239
Speaker 1: were out of light. So the best option was for

631
00:36:18,320 --> 00:36:21,680
Speaker 1: us to just stay put until we could see, and

632
00:36:21,680 --> 00:36:27,680
Speaker 1: that's what we did. So again, this is September in

633
00:36:27,719 --> 00:36:35,000
Speaker 1: Alaska and clear, clear skies, so that means during the

634
00:36:35,080 --> 00:36:37,879
Speaker 1: day it's going to be warm, and at night it's

635
00:36:37,920 --> 00:36:41,800
Speaker 1: going to freeze. It's actually going to frost more often

636
00:36:41,800 --> 00:36:46,239
Speaker 1: than not when it's that clear. It was probably at

637
00:36:46,320 --> 00:36:50,640
Speaker 1: night it was getting down to I would say below freezing.

638
00:36:51,040 --> 00:36:54,879
Speaker 1: It was cold. It was cold, and when we got

639
00:36:54,920 --> 00:36:57,960
Speaker 1: to that patch of alders where we decided that we

640
00:36:57,960 --> 00:37:00,759
Speaker 1: were gonna hang out for the night, I try to

641
00:37:00,800 --> 00:37:04,879
Speaker 1: sleep before it got light. We emptied our packs of

642
00:37:04,920 --> 00:37:08,600
Speaker 1: our game bags full of meat, took the goat cape out,

643
00:37:09,120 --> 00:37:13,560
Speaker 1: and we layered up with all the layers that we brought.

644
00:37:14,000 --> 00:37:17,360
Speaker 1: And of course we both had a couple of coats,

645
00:37:17,440 --> 00:37:21,440
Speaker 1: puffy coats in our tent, but we wish we'd stuffed

646
00:37:21,440 --> 00:37:29,000
Speaker 1: in those backpacks because it was a monumental regret, but

647
00:37:29,239 --> 00:37:32,000
Speaker 1: it was what it was, so we had to make

648
00:37:32,040 --> 00:37:33,640
Speaker 1: the best of it, and there was no sense in

649
00:37:33,680 --> 00:37:37,720
Speaker 1: complaining about it, and we emptied our backpacks. We climbed

650
00:37:37,760 --> 00:37:40,759
Speaker 1: into our backpacks kind of like a little gunny sack,

651
00:37:40,800 --> 00:37:44,640
Speaker 1: you know, and we covered up our cores with that

652
00:37:44,680 --> 00:37:48,399
Speaker 1: billy goat cape and on top of those backpacks and

653
00:37:49,600 --> 00:37:53,440
Speaker 1: just tried to huddle and stay as warm as we

654
00:37:53,480 --> 00:37:59,360
Speaker 1: could for the duration of darkness. And I remember looking

655
00:37:59,440 --> 00:38:02,719
Speaker 1: up at the sky, I think him, man, this this

656
00:38:02,800 --> 00:38:06,640
Speaker 1: is gonna be awful. And it was. It was. It

657
00:38:06,680 --> 00:38:09,640
Speaker 1: was the coldest I think I've ever been. It was

658
00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:13,480
Speaker 1: severely cold. I think maybe the two of us maybe

659
00:38:13,480 --> 00:38:15,600
Speaker 1: out an hour of sleep if you wanted to add

660
00:38:15,640 --> 00:38:19,000
Speaker 1: it all up. But as soon as that sun came up,

661
00:38:19,480 --> 00:38:23,879
Speaker 1: we were up with it and repacked our bags and

662
00:38:24,600 --> 00:38:28,120
Speaker 1: got to it. I can't speak for John, but I

663
00:38:28,160 --> 00:38:31,759
Speaker 1: know that I have never been happier to get back

664
00:38:31,760 --> 00:38:37,000
Speaker 1: to my tent. We were just absolutely exhausted, and you know,

665
00:38:37,160 --> 00:38:41,279
Speaker 1: like I said, like I said, we definitely left that

666
00:38:41,400 --> 00:38:45,440
Speaker 1: hunt with some lessons and some reminders. You know, know

667
00:38:45,480 --> 00:38:49,640
Speaker 1: your limits and don't ignore them and go down the

668
00:38:49,680 --> 00:38:53,040
Speaker 1: way you came up if it's safe, and bring that

669
00:38:53,120 --> 00:38:56,879
Speaker 1: extra layer with you. It was a few ounces, aren't

670
00:38:56,920 --> 00:38:57,440
Speaker 1: gonna hurt you?

671
00:39:04,200 --> 00:39:06,520
Speaker 2: Sleeping under a goat hide on the side of a

672
00:39:06,560 --> 00:39:10,520
Speaker 2: mountain is rough, and it's certainly a pretty Alaskan thing

673
00:39:10,640 --> 00:39:11,000
Speaker 2: to do.

674
00:39:11,880 --> 00:39:13,040
Speaker 3: That was a good story.

675
00:39:14,680 --> 00:39:18,760
Speaker 2: Well, the next story, I'm gonna tell you the best

676
00:39:18,800 --> 00:39:22,960
Speaker 2: I can recall. I've never told this tale publicly, though

677
00:39:23,000 --> 00:39:26,680
Speaker 2: it seared me with a humbling respect for Alaskan backcountry

678
00:39:26,680 --> 00:39:30,279
Speaker 2: that has never left. It happened in twenty fifteen on

679
00:39:30,400 --> 00:39:34,279
Speaker 2: my first ever trip to Alaska. I call this one

680
00:39:34,880 --> 00:39:35,760
Speaker 2: the widow Maker.

681
00:39:37,760 --> 00:39:40,040
Speaker 3: I want to tell you a story about Alaska.

682
00:39:41,000 --> 00:39:45,640
Speaker 2: A little backstory would be that in twenty thirteen I

683
00:39:45,719 --> 00:39:49,320
Speaker 2: acquired Bear Hunting Magazine. I had not worked in the

684
00:39:49,360 --> 00:39:53,719
Speaker 2: outdoor industry full time before. I had done some freelance

685
00:39:53,760 --> 00:39:58,480
Speaker 2: writing and published a regional hunting magazine, but twenty thirteen

686
00:39:58,680 --> 00:40:02,600
Speaker 2: was major break through for me and my family. And

687
00:40:02,800 --> 00:40:07,359
Speaker 2: with that magazine and that opportunity, I had already bear

688
00:40:07,440 --> 00:40:11,319
Speaker 2: hunted quite a bit. But a long time dream of

689
00:40:11,360 --> 00:40:15,600
Speaker 2: mine was to go brown bear hunting in Alaska, which,

690
00:40:15,840 --> 00:40:18,560
Speaker 2: as you might know, for most people, that's probably out

691
00:40:18,600 --> 00:40:21,760
Speaker 2: of reach because if you're not an Alaskan resident, which

692
00:40:21,880 --> 00:40:24,839
Speaker 2: if you are an Alaskan resident, you can hunt just

693
00:40:24,880 --> 00:40:27,920
Speaker 2: on your general tag. If you're not an Alaskan resident,

694
00:40:27,920 --> 00:40:30,560
Speaker 2: you have to use an outfitter, which can be very expensive.

695
00:40:31,400 --> 00:40:35,240
Speaker 2: But as things went, I remember telling my wife, I said,

696
00:40:35,320 --> 00:40:37,880
Speaker 2: one day, I'm going to walk in this house and

697
00:40:37,920 --> 00:40:40,920
Speaker 2: I'm going to tell you that I have secured an

698
00:40:40,960 --> 00:40:43,759
Speaker 2: Alaskan brown bear hunt, and that is going to be

699
00:40:43,800 --> 00:40:45,560
Speaker 2: an incredible day.

700
00:40:46,360 --> 00:40:48,280
Speaker 3: Well, I thought that might.

701
00:40:48,120 --> 00:40:51,279
Speaker 2: Be ten years from then, But two years later, in

702
00:40:51,440 --> 00:40:55,000
Speaker 2: twenty fifteen, I had worked out a deal with a

703
00:40:55,080 --> 00:40:59,600
Speaker 2: brown bear outfitter and I was going to Alaska. This

704
00:40:59,640 --> 00:41:02,400
Speaker 2: would be my first time there. I for all I

705
00:41:02,480 --> 00:41:04,880
Speaker 2: knew it would be the last time that ever hunted Alaska.

706
00:41:05,280 --> 00:41:09,879
Speaker 2: And I remember I secured the hunt in January and

707
00:41:10,120 --> 00:41:14,840
Speaker 2: the actual hunt didn't take place until September, and every

708
00:41:15,280 --> 00:41:18,640
Speaker 2: spare moment that I spent that entire year, I was

709
00:41:18,680 --> 00:41:20,680
Speaker 2: thinking about being in Alaska.

710
00:41:21,120 --> 00:41:22,840
Speaker 3: It consumed my thoughts.

711
00:41:23,320 --> 00:41:27,600
Speaker 2: Well, September came and me and my good friend Scott

712
00:41:27,640 --> 00:41:31,440
Speaker 2: Brown went up there. We're hunting in south central Alaska

713
00:41:31,440 --> 00:41:32,480
Speaker 2: on a river system.

714
00:41:32,920 --> 00:41:34,200
Speaker 3: We flew a beaver.

715
00:41:34,360 --> 00:41:39,120
Speaker 2: From civilization about forty or fifty miles. A beaver is

716
00:41:39,160 --> 00:41:41,799
Speaker 2: an airplane, and we landed it on the river where

717
00:41:41,880 --> 00:41:45,920
Speaker 2: we were met by the outfitter and his guides. And

718
00:41:46,000 --> 00:41:48,640
Speaker 2: as guides were two young guys that I really liked

719
00:41:48,920 --> 00:41:51,280
Speaker 2: still do. And after a day or two in camp

720
00:41:51,280 --> 00:41:55,120
Speaker 2: with the main outfitter, we set off to Spike Camp.

721
00:41:55,760 --> 00:41:59,440
Speaker 2: So me, Scott and two guides went and set up

722
00:41:59,480 --> 00:42:02,200
Speaker 2: a remote camp up this river. And the way that

723
00:42:02,239 --> 00:42:05,759
Speaker 2: you hunt these brown bears is that there's smaller streams

724
00:42:05,800 --> 00:42:11,160
Speaker 2: that feed into this big braided river, and the salmon

725
00:42:11,280 --> 00:42:14,399
Speaker 2: swim up from the ocean and they go back into

726
00:42:14,440 --> 00:42:18,120
Speaker 2: the mouths of these creeks that come in from the mountains.

727
00:42:18,640 --> 00:42:21,359
Speaker 2: That's where they had been born and they'd come back

728
00:42:21,400 --> 00:42:26,120
Speaker 2: to spawn. There was bear sign everywhere, but I quickly

729
00:42:26,200 --> 00:42:29,840
Speaker 2: realized how difficult it was to actually see a bear.

730
00:42:30,640 --> 00:42:33,920
Speaker 3: This was going to be a ten day hunt, and.

731
00:42:33,880 --> 00:42:36,560
Speaker 2: By the fourth or fifth day we had yet to

732
00:42:36,600 --> 00:42:40,040
Speaker 2: see a brown bear. So what we would do would

733
00:42:40,040 --> 00:42:43,440
Speaker 2: be mornings and evenings we would go sit on a

734
00:42:43,520 --> 00:42:46,480
Speaker 2: high bank with some cover on the mouth of this

735
00:42:46,600 --> 00:42:49,640
Speaker 2: creek within shooting distance of where we were seeing a

736
00:42:49,680 --> 00:42:53,319
Speaker 2: lot of bear sign. I remember the first bear that

737
00:42:53,400 --> 00:42:57,319
Speaker 2: I saw on the trip, which would actually be the

738
00:42:57,360 --> 00:43:01,640
Speaker 2: only bears that we saw on the trip. I'm setting

739
00:43:01,680 --> 00:43:04,759
Speaker 2: on the cut bank side of a bend in this

740
00:43:04,840 --> 00:43:08,000
Speaker 2: big creek. You can see salmon swimming all down in

741
00:43:08,000 --> 00:43:11,359
Speaker 2: front of you. It's about ten yards across to this

742
00:43:11,480 --> 00:43:14,719
Speaker 2: gravel bar, and I'm sitting there with my traditional bow.

743
00:43:15,280 --> 00:43:18,719
Speaker 2: This young guide who I've said I like so much,

744
00:43:18,800 --> 00:43:22,320
Speaker 2: is sitting right beside me. He's got his Marlin forty

745
00:43:22,360 --> 00:43:26,520
Speaker 2: five seventy backing me up with the trad bow. And

746
00:43:26,640 --> 00:43:30,200
Speaker 2: this brown bear sow steps out on the gravel bar

747
00:43:30,440 --> 00:43:34,200
Speaker 2: like thirty five yards away. It makes our way basically

748
00:43:34,239 --> 00:43:37,520
Speaker 2: straight towards us and is inside of fifteen yards. And

749
00:43:37,560 --> 00:43:40,120
Speaker 2: now remember, first of all, we can't shoot this bear

750
00:43:40,160 --> 00:43:43,439
Speaker 2: because it's a sow with cubs. Secondly, it's a sow

751
00:43:43,520 --> 00:43:47,840
Speaker 2: with cubs, so it's a dangerous animal. We're within fifteen

752
00:43:47,920 --> 00:43:50,040
Speaker 2: yards of this bear on the ground. It does not

753
00:43:50,239 --> 00:43:54,600
Speaker 2: know that we're there. And I have confidence in our

754
00:43:54,640 --> 00:43:58,680
Speaker 2: situation because my buddy has his forty five seventy right

755
00:43:58,719 --> 00:44:01,520
Speaker 2: over my shoulder. And all of a sudden, I start

756
00:44:01,560 --> 00:44:05,160
Speaker 2: hearing a little movement right behind me, and my guide

757
00:44:05,400 --> 00:44:09,719
Speaker 2: is filming with his phone over my shoulder, and when

758
00:44:09,760 --> 00:44:13,400
Speaker 2: he does, he knocks his forty five seventy, which is

759
00:44:13,520 --> 00:44:17,440
Speaker 2: leaned up against a tree, knocks it over. The gun

760
00:44:17,640 --> 00:44:21,920
Speaker 2: falls on my shoulder, rolls down my arm, and just

761
00:44:22,080 --> 00:44:25,240
Speaker 2: plops onto the ground right in front of me, which

762
00:44:25,400 --> 00:44:29,600
Speaker 2: Number one is dangerous. Number two, the sow and both

763
00:44:29,680 --> 00:44:33,520
Speaker 2: cubs just go lift their heads and just stare us

764
00:44:33,600 --> 00:44:37,839
Speaker 2: down at less than twenty yards now, and he's got

765
00:44:37,840 --> 00:44:41,880
Speaker 2: his iPhone up filming, and I'm thinking, holy cow, man,

766
00:44:42,520 --> 00:44:44,400
Speaker 2: that is not a good time to make a mistake

767
00:44:44,560 --> 00:44:48,799
Speaker 2: like this. And they pretty much ignored us and just

768
00:44:48,880 --> 00:44:53,839
Speaker 2: continued meling around and fishing for several minutes before they

769
00:44:53,840 --> 00:44:57,480
Speaker 2: were out of sight. When they left, I'll be honest

770
00:44:57,520 --> 00:45:01,160
Speaker 2: with you, I scolded that dude. I was probably thirty

771
00:45:01,160 --> 00:45:06,040
Speaker 2: three years old and my gud was maybe twenty one.

772
00:45:07,040 --> 00:45:08,640
Speaker 3: And again I like.

773
00:45:08,719 --> 00:45:11,480
Speaker 2: This kid, but I was like, hey man, you got

774
00:45:11,520 --> 00:45:13,120
Speaker 2: to bring your a game around here.

775
00:45:13,719 --> 00:45:15,160
Speaker 3: And we had a.

776
00:45:14,800 --> 00:45:19,640
Speaker 2: Little laugh about it after I for real scolding. That

777
00:45:19,840 --> 00:45:24,400
Speaker 2: was probably on day five of a ten day hunt. Well,

778
00:45:24,640 --> 00:45:27,160
Speaker 2: that was the only bear we'd seen in five days

779
00:45:27,160 --> 00:45:30,080
Speaker 2: between two hunters and I started asking the guys we

780
00:45:30,080 --> 00:45:33,160
Speaker 2: were hunting one creek. Had we positioned our spike camp

781
00:45:33,200 --> 00:45:37,040
Speaker 2: basically to hunt one creek? And that's where the salmon congregated,

782
00:45:37,080 --> 00:45:39,640
Speaker 2: So that's where the bears congregated. And I said, man,

783
00:45:39,760 --> 00:45:42,640
Speaker 2: is there another creek? I said, me and Scott need

784
00:45:42,680 --> 00:45:45,040
Speaker 2: to split up. There's no sense in both of us

785
00:45:45,080 --> 00:45:47,799
Speaker 2: hunting this same creek. We need to split up. And

786
00:45:47,840 --> 00:45:50,920
Speaker 2: they said, well, there's a creek about eight miles up

787
00:45:50,960 --> 00:45:53,160
Speaker 2: the river, and I said, well, why don't we go

788
00:45:53,280 --> 00:45:56,360
Speaker 2: up there. I said, let's take three days worth of

789
00:45:56,360 --> 00:46:01,479
Speaker 2: supplies and let's me in my guy go up there

790
00:46:01,680 --> 00:46:05,200
Speaker 2: and camp on that creek and we'll leave Scott here.

791
00:46:05,800 --> 00:46:09,200
Speaker 2: So we decided that's what we're gonna do. I want

792
00:46:09,239 --> 00:46:12,520
Speaker 2: to describe now these braided Alaskan rivers. If you've never

793
00:46:12,560 --> 00:46:15,640
Speaker 2: been on one, or seen one from the air, or

794
00:46:15,719 --> 00:46:17,919
Speaker 2: been on one in the water, they are very hard

795
00:46:17,920 --> 00:46:22,840
Speaker 2: to understand. This valley that we were in had big

796
00:46:22,880 --> 00:46:27,960
Speaker 2: mountains almost in every direction, big snow capped, you know,

797
00:46:28,480 --> 00:46:32,840
Speaker 2: nine thousand foot plus mountains, and these snow caps have

798
00:46:32,920 --> 00:46:37,680
Speaker 2: been melting and feeding this river. And the river is

799
00:46:37,719 --> 00:46:43,799
Speaker 2: a light grayish color from glacial till. There's big glaciers

800
00:46:43,880 --> 00:46:47,720
Speaker 2: up in the heads of these valleys. And this river,

801
00:46:48,120 --> 00:46:50,520
Speaker 2: the further you go up it, you're going towards the

802
00:46:50,560 --> 00:46:53,680
Speaker 2: head of the valley, the swifter the water gets and

803
00:46:53,719 --> 00:46:58,759
Speaker 2: the narrower it gets. And this river in places was

804
00:46:59,400 --> 00:47:02,360
Speaker 2: over a half half mile wide, but in that half

805
00:47:02,480 --> 00:47:07,640
Speaker 2: mile there might be twenty five to fifty separate braids

806
00:47:08,160 --> 00:47:13,600
Speaker 2: that were separated by gravel bars in willow flats. And

807
00:47:14,160 --> 00:47:16,960
Speaker 2: the best way that I can describe an Alaskan river

808
00:47:17,120 --> 00:47:18,960
Speaker 2: like that is they are angry.

809
00:47:20,000 --> 00:47:20,840
Speaker 3: I mean, it looks like.

810
00:47:20,920 --> 00:47:24,800
Speaker 2: A war zone in those braided rivers, with all the

811
00:47:24,840 --> 00:47:28,600
Speaker 2: stumps and snags in this gray water that you can't

812
00:47:28,640 --> 00:47:31,440
Speaker 2: see more than six inches if you're standing in it,

813
00:47:31,840 --> 00:47:33,919
Speaker 2: and you're in water up to your shins, you can't

814
00:47:33,960 --> 00:47:36,880
Speaker 2: see your feet. And because the water is colored the

815
00:47:36,880 --> 00:47:39,120
Speaker 2: way that it is, you can't tell how deep some

816
00:47:39,160 --> 00:47:43,040
Speaker 2: of these channels are. So we had a sixteen foot

817
00:47:43,440 --> 00:47:46,759
Speaker 2: aluminum john boat with a jet motor on it. This

818
00:47:46,920 --> 00:47:51,400
Speaker 2: was a really strong vessel design for going up these rivers,

819
00:47:52,080 --> 00:47:55,359
Speaker 2: and me and my god set out with a couple

820
00:47:55,400 --> 00:47:59,120
Speaker 2: of days supplies, going eight miles up the river. But

821
00:47:59,160 --> 00:48:02,360
Speaker 2: the braids change that he didn't know the way. He

822
00:48:02,400 --> 00:48:05,160
Speaker 2: didn't there was no main channel to go on, so

823
00:48:05,239 --> 00:48:07,279
Speaker 2: it was really hard to tell. You know, do you

824
00:48:07,280 --> 00:48:09,520
Speaker 2: go up that braid, that braid there might be a

825
00:48:09,560 --> 00:48:12,000
Speaker 2: big braid that looks like the way you need to go,

826
00:48:12,480 --> 00:48:14,920
Speaker 2: But when you get up there, it very quickly turns

827
00:48:15,160 --> 00:48:20,319
Speaker 2: four inches deep, and so you'll be powering through and

828
00:48:20,480 --> 00:48:23,080
Speaker 2: just gravel out, and then we'd have to jump out

829
00:48:23,080 --> 00:48:27,000
Speaker 2: of the boat, push it, and then go back downstream

830
00:48:27,360 --> 00:48:30,440
Speaker 2: back to the why and then take the other braid

831
00:48:30,480 --> 00:48:32,760
Speaker 2: and we'd go up the braid, and we're just working

832
00:48:32,760 --> 00:48:36,320
Speaker 2: our way, and we got about two miles from camp,

833
00:48:36,360 --> 00:48:39,600
Speaker 2: and it had taken us a while, and we're not

834
00:48:39,640 --> 00:48:42,160
Speaker 2: sure if we can make it eight miles. But I

835
00:48:42,200 --> 00:48:46,359
Speaker 2: am dead set on getting up there. And I'll tell

836
00:48:46,360 --> 00:48:49,480
Speaker 2: you why. For me, this was what I believed was

837
00:48:49,480 --> 00:48:52,920
Speaker 2: a once in a lifetime hunt and probably what scared

838
00:48:53,000 --> 00:48:55,520
Speaker 2: me more than anything. And it's kind of dumb to

839
00:48:55,560 --> 00:49:00,160
Speaker 2: say this, but was not bringing home a bear. You've

840
00:49:00,160 --> 00:49:03,560
Speaker 2: ever been on a big hunt, you probably understand what

841
00:49:03,600 --> 00:49:07,920
Speaker 2: I'm saying. So every time that one of the braids

842
00:49:07,960 --> 00:49:11,520
Speaker 2: would peter out and gravel out, I would say let's

843
00:49:11,600 --> 00:49:14,400
Speaker 2: go back, let's go try another one, and we'd push

844
00:49:14,440 --> 00:49:18,360
Speaker 2: the boat out of the gravel and float back downstream,

845
00:49:18,680 --> 00:49:22,200
Speaker 2: spin the boat around, and go try to find another shoot.

846
00:49:22,400 --> 00:49:24,160
Speaker 2: And we'd get up there and there'd be a huge

847
00:49:24,280 --> 00:49:25,200
Speaker 2: log across it.

848
00:49:25,480 --> 00:49:26,320
Speaker 3: We'd have to.

849
00:49:26,160 --> 00:49:30,040
Speaker 2: Turn the boat around, go back down river two hundred

850
00:49:30,120 --> 00:49:34,200
Speaker 2: yards and go up another braid, and a small braid

851
00:49:34,280 --> 00:49:36,920
Speaker 2: might turn into a big braid, and it was just

852
00:49:36,960 --> 00:49:42,280
Speaker 2: this maze of little streams going through these willow flats.

853
00:49:43,880 --> 00:49:48,680
Speaker 3: Well, we're now several miles from camp, and we gravel.

854
00:49:48,280 --> 00:49:52,600
Speaker 2: Out and we'd push the boat back, get it spun around,

855
00:49:53,600 --> 00:49:56,640
Speaker 2: and get out into the main part of the river,

856
00:49:57,000 --> 00:50:00,560
Speaker 2: which at this point is probably twenty yards wide and

857
00:50:00,640 --> 00:50:04,840
Speaker 2: deep and fast flowing. And I'm standing in the bow

858
00:50:05,080 --> 00:50:09,200
Speaker 2: of the boat, and we're going downstream, but I'm facing upstream,

859
00:50:09,280 --> 00:50:11,799
Speaker 2: so my back is to the direction that we're going.

860
00:50:12,960 --> 00:50:15,160
Speaker 2: My guid he's in the back of the boat, standing

861
00:50:15,239 --> 00:50:18,760
Speaker 2: up with his left hand on the tiller of the motor,

862
00:50:18,840 --> 00:50:23,160
Speaker 2: which is the twist throttle control and steering stick of

863
00:50:23,200 --> 00:50:28,239
Speaker 2: that jet motor, and he is looking back upstream. We're

864
00:50:28,239 --> 00:50:31,160
Speaker 2: trying to find which braid to go on. So both

865
00:50:31,239 --> 00:50:35,560
Speaker 2: of us have our backs turned to the direction that

866
00:50:35,640 --> 00:50:39,279
Speaker 2: we're going. And if you remember, I said that these

867
00:50:39,320 --> 00:50:43,440
Speaker 2: Alaskan rivers are angry and they eat the banks, and

868
00:50:43,760 --> 00:50:46,719
Speaker 2: there's trees that are just waiting to fall into the

869
00:50:46,800 --> 00:50:51,359
Speaker 2: river around every cutbank where the pressure of the outside

870
00:50:51,840 --> 00:50:56,759
Speaker 2: bend of the river is eroding away the bank. So

871
00:50:56,840 --> 00:50:59,719
Speaker 2: I've got my back facing the direction that we're going,

872
00:51:00,200 --> 00:51:03,840
Speaker 2: and just all of a sudden, I just feel a

873
00:51:04,360 --> 00:51:09,920
Speaker 2: incredibly powerful just lam just slammed me in the back,

874
00:51:10,920 --> 00:51:14,040
Speaker 2: and I just go tumbling through the boat.

875
00:51:15,040 --> 00:51:15,800
Speaker 3: Head first.

876
00:51:15,960 --> 00:51:19,920
Speaker 2: I go down and my head is like imagine my

877
00:51:20,120 --> 00:51:23,400
Speaker 2: head on the touching the boat, the only part of

878
00:51:23,480 --> 00:51:26,400
Speaker 2: my body touching the boat, and my feet straight up

879
00:51:26,440 --> 00:51:29,600
Speaker 2: in the air. That is the angle to which I

880
00:51:29,760 --> 00:51:33,080
Speaker 2: saw the culprit for what had just happened, because I

881
00:51:33,200 --> 00:51:37,239
Speaker 2: see what we called widow makers. It was about an

882
00:51:37,280 --> 00:51:41,000
Speaker 2: eight inch log that hung about ten or twelve feet

883
00:51:41,040 --> 00:51:44,440
Speaker 2: out from the cut bank of that river, a dead log.

884
00:51:44,800 --> 00:51:47,880
Speaker 2: And I see that dead log while I'm upside down

885
00:51:48,480 --> 00:51:50,160
Speaker 2: hit the guide right.

886
00:51:50,000 --> 00:51:50,760
Speaker 3: In the chest.

887
00:51:50,880 --> 00:51:54,600
Speaker 2: He's standing in the very back holding the stick, and bam,

888
00:51:54,719 --> 00:51:58,080
Speaker 2: that log takes him and we're going as fast as

889
00:51:58,080 --> 00:52:00,080
Speaker 2: the current is taking us down the river with a

890
00:52:00,120 --> 00:52:02,719
Speaker 2: little bit of throttle, and it hits him right in

891
00:52:02,760 --> 00:52:06,240
Speaker 2: the chest, and I see him go head over heels.

892
00:52:06,080 --> 00:52:10,319
Speaker 3: Out the back of the boat, splash.

893
00:52:09,800 --> 00:52:12,680
Speaker 2: And I am now and now that's what I saw

894
00:52:12,680 --> 00:52:14,960
Speaker 2: when I was upside down. And then I complete the

895
00:52:15,000 --> 00:52:17,960
Speaker 2: somersault and I am now in the back of the

896
00:52:18,000 --> 00:52:21,960
Speaker 2: sixteen foot boat. I scrambled to my feet and I

897
00:52:22,000 --> 00:52:26,800
Speaker 2: see the guide in the water. He's wearing breathable waiters,

898
00:52:26,920 --> 00:52:31,319
Speaker 2: like breatheable fishing waiters. He's completely submerged. I see him

899
00:52:31,360 --> 00:52:34,920
Speaker 2: come up out of the water gasp for air. I

900
00:52:35,040 --> 00:52:38,319
Speaker 2: know that he has all our communication equipment on him.

901
00:52:38,360 --> 00:52:40,919
Speaker 2: He's got the SAT phone on him, he had our

902
00:52:41,000 --> 00:52:45,239
Speaker 2: fire starting equipment. He had all the important stuff on him.

903
00:52:46,239 --> 00:52:50,160
Speaker 2: And here he is going downstream and I'm in the boat.

904
00:52:50,239 --> 00:52:50,520
Speaker 4: Now.

905
00:52:51,200 --> 00:52:53,160
Speaker 2: All I knew to do was just push that stick

906
00:52:53,200 --> 00:52:55,360
Speaker 2: as hard as I could to the left and just

907
00:52:55,560 --> 00:52:59,120
Speaker 2: wom just ram the boat up onto a gravel bar.

908
00:52:59,360 --> 00:53:00,960
Speaker 3: I just needed to make this stop.

909
00:53:01,840 --> 00:53:04,279
Speaker 2: And I boom, get up on the gravel bar, and

910
00:53:04,320 --> 00:53:07,480
Speaker 2: I'm yelling this guy's name, and I see him just

911
00:53:07,560 --> 00:53:11,719
Speaker 2: floating down the river. The water is probably only like

912
00:53:11,920 --> 00:53:14,840
Speaker 2: navel deep like just below his chest. But it's fast

913
00:53:14,880 --> 00:53:17,520
Speaker 2: moving so he can't really stand up. But I can

914
00:53:17,560 --> 00:53:20,000
Speaker 2: see that he's gaining his footing as he goes down,

915
00:53:20,080 --> 00:53:23,800
Speaker 2: and he's working closer and closer to the bank, and finally,

916
00:53:24,280 --> 00:53:28,040
Speaker 2: fifty to seventy yards down from where I've pushed into

917
00:53:28,040 --> 00:53:31,480
Speaker 2: this gravel bar, he makes his way and crawls up

918
00:53:31,480 --> 00:53:35,200
Speaker 2: on the bank, waiters full of water, and it's over

919
00:53:35,719 --> 00:53:41,960
Speaker 2: and we're safe. When the widow maker this slog hit

920
00:53:42,000 --> 00:53:44,920
Speaker 2: me in the shoulders, I was really sore. It didn't

921
00:53:44,960 --> 00:53:48,319
Speaker 2: really hurt me. I mean, it didn't break anything. I

922
00:53:48,360 --> 00:53:51,880
Speaker 2: remember it had my traditional bow strung laying in the

923
00:53:51,880 --> 00:53:54,799
Speaker 2: bottom of the boat, and somehow me tumbling over that

924
00:53:54,880 --> 00:53:59,680
Speaker 2: bow unstrung the bow. It didn't damage it too bad,

925
00:53:59,800 --> 00:54:04,400
Speaker 2: just banged it up. I was grateful to be alive,

926
00:54:05,600 --> 00:54:08,680
Speaker 2: and as much as I had to take responsibility for

927
00:54:08,800 --> 00:54:13,240
Speaker 2: what happened because I wasn't looking downstream, I was also

928
00:54:13,680 --> 00:54:17,759
Speaker 2: to be honest upset with the goud for you know,

929
00:54:17,880 --> 00:54:20,680
Speaker 2: when you're out in a place you've never been, you

930
00:54:20,800 --> 00:54:23,640
Speaker 2: kind of depend on the people you're supposed to depend on.

931
00:54:24,160 --> 00:54:26,680
Speaker 2: And so I look back now and realize it was.

932
00:54:27,160 --> 00:54:27,919
Speaker 3: It was my fault.

933
00:54:27,960 --> 00:54:30,400
Speaker 2: I mean, I just have to take personal responsibility for

934
00:54:30,520 --> 00:54:34,040
Speaker 2: pushing him to go up the river. And man, we

935
00:54:34,160 --> 00:54:37,200
Speaker 2: just sat on the bank and he dried out. And

936
00:54:37,239 --> 00:54:39,960
Speaker 2: this was the seventh day of a ten day hunt,

937
00:54:40,760 --> 00:54:43,520
Speaker 2: and it absolutely just took the steam out of me.

938
00:54:44,800 --> 00:54:49,480
Speaker 2: It really scared me. I was very It just Alaska

939
00:54:49,560 --> 00:54:52,680
Speaker 2: is such a wild place. It's so remote, and if

940
00:54:52,680 --> 00:54:54,960
Speaker 2: you've never been there, it's hard to understand what the

941
00:54:55,000 --> 00:54:59,440
Speaker 2: place feels like. It's romantic when you see it on TV,

942
00:55:00,160 --> 00:55:03,480
Speaker 2: when you read about it. When you're there, it's in

943
00:55:03,520 --> 00:55:06,080
Speaker 2: some ways it's a lot less romantic, and it's just

944
00:55:06,280 --> 00:55:11,719
Speaker 2: more real, and you realize how small mistakes will kill you.

945
00:55:12,480 --> 00:55:17,600
Speaker 2: Those Alaskan rivers are waiting to kill you. That's just

946
00:55:17,640 --> 00:55:21,880
Speaker 2: the truth. We didn't make it to the second Creek.

947
00:55:22,160 --> 00:55:25,800
Speaker 2: We went back downstream and went back to our camp,

948
00:55:26,000 --> 00:55:28,520
Speaker 2: and we remained there for the final three days of

949
00:55:28,560 --> 00:55:32,040
Speaker 2: the hunt, and I did not kill a brown bear.

950
00:55:33,120 --> 00:55:40,520
Speaker 2: That's the story that I call the widow Maker. I

951
00:55:40,560 --> 00:55:45,080
Speaker 2: still get a little shook up when I recall the shock, surprise, confusion,

952
00:55:45,440 --> 00:55:48,799
Speaker 2: and sheer force of that log closelining me off the

953
00:55:48,840 --> 00:55:52,959
Speaker 2: bow of that boat. The aloneness and vulnerability you feel

954
00:55:53,040 --> 00:55:57,399
Speaker 2: when something unpredictable happens in the wilderness is unnerving. We

955
00:55:57,400 --> 00:56:01,080
Speaker 2: were lucky, no harm, no foul, though, but the scare

956
00:56:01,360 --> 00:56:06,359
Speaker 2: truly humbled me and haunts me to this day. The

957
00:56:06,400 --> 00:56:10,839
Speaker 2: next story is told by Alaskan resident Chad Ferguson, a

958
00:56:10,840 --> 00:56:13,799
Speaker 2: man who I've just met. You're just gonna have to

959
00:56:13,880 --> 00:56:18,800
Speaker 2: hear this one. I'm restraining myself by allotting minimal foreshadowing,

960
00:56:19,160 --> 00:56:24,239
Speaker 2: well no foreshadowing this story I call Gunslinger.

961
00:56:25,800 --> 00:56:29,640
Speaker 4: My name is Chad Ferguson. I am originally from Ohio,

962
00:56:30,080 --> 00:56:32,640
Speaker 4: but I tell everyone that I've lived as many places

963
00:56:32,640 --> 00:56:35,560
Speaker 4: as ten people. If you read any hemingway, you'll probably

964
00:56:35,640 --> 00:56:37,600
Speaker 4: encounter a quote from him that says, when you like

965
00:56:37,640 --> 00:56:39,799
Speaker 4: to hunt and you like to shoot, you have to

966
00:56:39,840 --> 00:56:43,480
Speaker 4: move often and always farther out. And that's been about

967
00:56:43,520 --> 00:56:47,080
Speaker 4: the truth for me. So she and I were just

968
00:56:47,080 --> 00:56:48,880
Speaker 4: talking about this the other day. This is our fourth

969
00:56:48,920 --> 00:56:52,880
Speaker 4: autumn up here. Actually, I have not been in Alaska

970
00:56:53,040 --> 00:56:55,040
Speaker 4: very long. I thought i'd be here the day after

971
00:56:55,080 --> 00:56:57,040
Speaker 4: I graduated from high school and just kind of got

972
00:56:57,080 --> 00:57:00,800
Speaker 4: waylaid with this and that, but finally made a decision

973
00:57:00,840 --> 00:57:03,879
Speaker 4: to come up here, and I'll never live anywhere else.

974
00:57:03,920 --> 00:57:08,480
Speaker 4: And well, I have lived in a number of places.

975
00:57:09,160 --> 00:57:13,080
Speaker 4: I've lived in Wyoming, I've lived in Oregon, lived in

976
00:57:13,080 --> 00:57:16,720
Speaker 4: Pennsylvania of course, where they've got black bears, lived up

977
00:57:16,720 --> 00:57:19,240
Speaker 4: here for a few years, and so I've seen a

978
00:57:19,280 --> 00:57:21,920
Speaker 4: few bears in the wild. Not a lot of bears

979
00:57:21,920 --> 00:57:23,440
Speaker 4: in the wild, but I've seen a few bears in

980
00:57:23,440 --> 00:57:25,960
Speaker 4: the wild. And you can chalk this up to coming

981
00:57:26,000 --> 00:57:29,360
Speaker 4: from the Midwest after too long down there, or you

982
00:57:29,360 --> 00:57:32,160
Speaker 4: can chalk it up to reading too many outdoor life articles,

983
00:57:32,280 --> 00:57:35,160
Speaker 4: or I don't know what, but I was certainly, I

984
00:57:35,240 --> 00:57:40,320
Speaker 4: certainly have a lot of bear fear, Like when I'm

985
00:57:40,360 --> 00:57:44,600
Speaker 4: in the backcountry hunting here for caribou or moose or whatever,

986
00:57:45,960 --> 00:57:49,280
Speaker 4: even ptarmigan, Like I've always got bear spray with me

987
00:57:49,600 --> 00:57:53,200
Speaker 4: or a forty four on me. So very bear aware,

988
00:57:53,600 --> 00:57:57,000
Speaker 4: you know, like lifelong camper. So you try to be smart.

989
00:57:57,040 --> 00:57:59,000
Speaker 4: You don't fry bacon and then crawl in your tent.

990
00:58:00,560 --> 00:58:03,400
Speaker 4: You say hey bear, hey bear, when you're walking through

991
00:58:03,440 --> 00:58:05,400
Speaker 4: places where they might be and where they might not

992
00:58:05,440 --> 00:58:07,240
Speaker 4: be able to hear you coming, and just try to

993
00:58:07,240 --> 00:58:11,160
Speaker 4: be smart. And so I would definitely characterize myself as

994
00:58:11,160 --> 00:58:17,040
Speaker 4: somebody who is bear aware, bear smart, and bear afraid. Yeah.

995
00:58:17,200 --> 00:58:19,040
Speaker 4: In fact, I'll tell you something. I'll tell you something

996
00:58:19,080 --> 00:58:22,040
Speaker 4: that I wrote in another essay, and it's an anecdote

997
00:58:22,040 --> 00:58:24,360
Speaker 4: about a guy that I met up here, and he

998
00:58:24,440 --> 00:58:27,120
Speaker 4: and his cousin they grew up here. Anyhow, he and

999
00:58:27,160 --> 00:58:30,440
Speaker 4: I were in the truck riding somewhere when we were

1000
00:58:30,480 --> 00:58:33,880
Speaker 4: king salmon fishing, and he said to me, I'll tell

1001
00:58:33,920 --> 00:58:36,880
Speaker 4: you when I quit being afraid of bears, And of

1002
00:58:36,920 --> 00:58:41,200
Speaker 4: course I'm all ears. He was bear hunting, actually bear baiting,

1003
00:58:42,240 --> 00:58:44,280
Speaker 4: and he had this big grizzly come in to the

1004
00:58:44,320 --> 00:58:48,320
Speaker 4: bait and he said that grizzly bear didn't make a sound,

1005
00:58:49,280 --> 00:58:52,880
Speaker 4: I mean, didn't even break one little twig. And it

1006
00:58:52,880 --> 00:58:55,680
Speaker 4: occurred to me that if they can be that quiet

1007
00:58:55,760 --> 00:58:59,000
Speaker 4: anytime they want to, they could take you anytime they

1008
00:58:59,040 --> 00:59:03,320
Speaker 4: want to. They don't or they don't, Varied Moften, And

1009
00:59:03,360 --> 00:59:06,200
Speaker 4: that's when I quit being afraid of bears. And boy,

1010
00:59:06,240 --> 00:59:08,160
Speaker 4: that made a lot of sense to me. That made

1011
00:59:08,160 --> 00:59:10,280
Speaker 4: a lot of sense to me, right, because you can

1012
00:59:10,320 --> 00:59:14,120
Speaker 4: really make you can worry yourself to pieces. It was

1013
00:59:14,200 --> 00:59:21,000
Speaker 4: a beautiful fall day, quintessential autumn weather. I was moose hunting.

1014
00:59:21,080 --> 00:59:25,600
Speaker 4: It was early September, blue skies, some light clouds now

1015
00:59:25,640 --> 00:59:28,840
Speaker 4: and then, and the colors were really starting to come on.

1016
00:59:29,080 --> 00:59:31,439
Speaker 4: I mean everything was pretty. In fact, to this day,

1017
00:59:31,520 --> 00:59:37,120
Speaker 4: the desktop on my laptop the background is a picture

1018
00:59:37,160 --> 00:59:40,360
Speaker 4: that I took from this trip, and it's just so pretty.

1019
00:59:40,360 --> 00:59:42,880
Speaker 4: It looks like it was painted by an Impressionist painter.

1020
00:59:44,000 --> 00:59:47,080
Speaker 4: I was out for a week moose hunting. I had

1021
00:59:47,080 --> 00:59:50,080
Speaker 4: not been to this area before. It's a special walk

1022
00:59:50,120 --> 00:59:52,680
Speaker 4: in area, and I'm here to tell you that there's

1023
00:59:52,720 --> 00:59:55,400
Speaker 4: not enough of those here in Alaska. There's more ground

1024
00:59:55,440 --> 00:59:58,000
Speaker 4: than you could ever cover in ten lifetimes. But you're

1025
00:59:58,000 --> 01:00:00,840
Speaker 4: going to need a plane, a boat, and some buddies

1026
01:00:00,840 --> 01:00:03,400
Speaker 4: that have planes and boats to go do it. But

1027
01:00:03,440 --> 01:00:05,520
Speaker 4: there are some walk in sites. This one has a

1028
01:00:05,560 --> 01:00:08,840
Speaker 4: trail and you can take a bike on the trail,

1029
01:00:09,760 --> 01:00:14,439
Speaker 4: non motorized, non electric bike with a little trailer, which

1030
01:00:14,520 --> 01:00:16,560
Speaker 4: was my plan. Fact, that's exactly what I'm be doing

1031
01:00:16,560 --> 01:00:18,000
Speaker 4: here in a couple of weeks, going back to the

1032
01:00:18,040 --> 01:00:21,840
Speaker 4: same area. And yeah, I was out for a week

1033
01:00:22,000 --> 01:00:25,680
Speaker 4: solo moose hunting. I had not been here before. I

1034
01:00:25,680 --> 01:00:29,280
Speaker 4: had seen some moose, some guys that were sub legal,

1035
01:00:29,400 --> 01:00:33,160
Speaker 4: as they say, less than fifty inches. And then I

1036
01:00:33,200 --> 01:00:37,480
Speaker 4: saw one that was probably four three miles from me

1037
01:00:37,600 --> 01:00:40,120
Speaker 4: for sure, maybe a little bit more than that. And

1038
01:00:40,160 --> 01:00:45,240
Speaker 4: I was already eight miles in from the truck. So

1039
01:00:45,960 --> 01:00:49,640
Speaker 4: when you're solo, you know, hauling out, you know, what

1040
01:00:49,720 --> 01:00:51,520
Speaker 4: could it be? I mean, it could be nine hundred

1041
01:00:51,520 --> 01:00:56,400
Speaker 4: pounds after he's you know, gutted and skinned. You got

1042
01:00:56,440 --> 01:00:58,360
Speaker 4: to think about that, right. I Mean, there's plenty of

1043
01:00:58,360 --> 01:01:00,360
Speaker 4: people that'll say, don't shoot a moose farther than a

1044
01:01:00,360 --> 01:01:05,120
Speaker 4: mile from the truck or the landing strip, and that

1045
01:01:05,280 --> 01:01:07,040
Speaker 4: just wasn't an option for me on this hunt. And

1046
01:01:07,040 --> 01:01:08,480
Speaker 4: in fact, a moose that I had watched for a

1047
01:01:08,520 --> 01:01:11,840
Speaker 4: couple of days on this trip, either him or one

1048
01:01:11,920 --> 01:01:15,600
Speaker 4: that was like him, between where I was and that moose.

1049
01:01:16,040 --> 01:01:17,760
Speaker 4: A couple of other guys went in after me, and

1050
01:01:17,880 --> 01:01:20,120
Speaker 4: I told him I've been watching this moose, and a

1051
01:01:20,160 --> 01:01:21,880
Speaker 4: couple days later they were coming out with a real

1052
01:01:21,960 --> 01:01:24,440
Speaker 4: nice one. So I fancy that it was the one

1053
01:01:24,440 --> 01:01:28,120
Speaker 4: that I'd been watching and just didn't have the you know,

1054
01:01:28,360 --> 01:01:31,520
Speaker 4: gumption to go after. And that's something else I've had

1055
01:01:31,560 --> 01:01:34,240
Speaker 4: to learn about being up here, is you don't want

1056
01:01:34,240 --> 01:01:36,880
Speaker 4: to be foolish, right, And you always have to have

1057
01:01:36,920 --> 01:01:41,040
Speaker 4: a plan for recovering the game. But I'm pretty confident

1058
01:01:41,120 --> 01:01:44,280
Speaker 4: that people will figure it out, you know. So if

1059
01:01:44,360 --> 01:01:46,240
Speaker 4: he's a little deeper than you wanted to be and

1060
01:01:46,360 --> 01:01:48,320
Speaker 4: it's going to be a little more effort, he just got.

1061
01:01:48,240 --> 01:01:49,200
Speaker 1: To dig a little deeper.

1062
01:01:51,440 --> 01:01:56,920
Speaker 4: It was late afternoon and I am eight miles into

1063
01:01:56,960 --> 01:01:59,760
Speaker 4: a walk in unit. I had about an hour hike

1064
01:02:00,320 --> 01:02:03,160
Speaker 4: to get to a good glassing knob, and I had

1065
01:02:03,160 --> 01:02:06,680
Speaker 4: my rifle strapped on my backpack, three to zero eight

1066
01:02:07,120 --> 01:02:09,320
Speaker 4: bold action strapped by my backpack, and a forty four

1067
01:02:09,360 --> 01:02:12,440
Speaker 4: magnum on my hip belt. I always carried bear spray

1068
01:02:12,480 --> 01:02:14,280
Speaker 4: with me, but that day it happened to be zipped

1069
01:02:14,280 --> 01:02:17,200
Speaker 4: in my backpack for some reason. But I round a

1070
01:02:17,240 --> 01:02:20,320
Speaker 4: corner on the trail and I look up the trail

1071
01:02:20,320 --> 01:02:23,840
Speaker 4: about fifty yards and there's a big brown bear it

1072
01:02:23,880 --> 01:02:25,640
Speaker 4: would turn out to be a sow grizzly, And she

1073
01:02:25,720 --> 01:02:28,960
Speaker 4: stand a broadside and she looked at me, and then

1074
01:02:29,000 --> 01:02:31,880
Speaker 4: she stood up, stretched her neck out and cocked her

1075
01:02:31,920 --> 01:02:36,360
Speaker 4: head and then immediately went into a charge. And I

1076
01:02:36,400 --> 01:02:39,920
Speaker 4: mean she was every bit of seven feet tall, and

1077
01:02:39,960 --> 01:02:44,200
Speaker 4: here she comes, so it's the only thing I could

1078
01:02:44,240 --> 01:02:46,800
Speaker 4: get out before I had to do something, and I

1079
01:02:46,840 --> 01:02:48,920
Speaker 4: had no time to think. I didn't feel any fear,

1080
01:02:49,200 --> 01:02:52,200
Speaker 4: I didn't have any thoughts at all. I just immediately

1081
01:02:52,280 --> 01:02:56,520
Speaker 4: unholstered my forty four, put both hands on her, and

1082
01:02:56,640 --> 01:02:59,080
Speaker 4: followed her in. And she starts running down the trail

1083
01:02:59,160 --> 01:03:04,640
Speaker 4: towards me, and at about twenty paces, she stopped, turned

1084
01:03:04,680 --> 01:03:09,600
Speaker 4: around and took two steps going away from me, and

1085
01:03:09,640 --> 01:03:11,880
Speaker 4: then she looked back over her shoulder and I was

1086
01:03:11,880 --> 01:03:15,880
Speaker 4: still standing there. She immediately flipped back around and charged again.

1087
01:03:15,960 --> 01:03:18,400
Speaker 4: And when she hit twelve paces, and those were measured

1088
01:03:18,440 --> 01:03:21,400
Speaker 4: off after the fact, I shot three times as fast

1089
01:03:21,400 --> 01:03:24,520
Speaker 4: as I could with my revolver, just right into the

1090
01:03:24,560 --> 01:03:27,840
Speaker 4: middle of the bear and hoped for the best. She

1091
01:03:28,000 --> 01:03:30,720
Speaker 4: winced at the shots, and I didn't know how many

1092
01:03:30,720 --> 01:03:32,480
Speaker 4: times I'd hit her, but it was almost like she'd

1093
01:03:32,520 --> 01:03:34,640
Speaker 4: been stung in the chest by hornets. She kind of

1094
01:03:34,640 --> 01:03:37,320
Speaker 4: pulled her paws up to her a little bit and

1095
01:03:37,400 --> 01:03:41,760
Speaker 4: recoiled a little bit, and she turned at those shots

1096
01:03:42,560 --> 01:03:45,600
Speaker 4: and ran thirty yards back up the trail, and then

1097
01:03:45,640 --> 01:03:50,360
Speaker 4: she bailed off to the right into the scrub. The

1098
01:03:50,400 --> 01:03:53,280
Speaker 4: colors were just starting to get pretty so the dwarf

1099
01:03:53,440 --> 01:03:56,560
Speaker 4: birch was starting to turn red and the willows were

1100
01:03:56,560 --> 01:04:00,000
Speaker 4: starting to turn yellow, and the brush in that air

1101
01:04:00,240 --> 01:04:03,320
Speaker 4: is about four or five feet high. She just disappeared

1102
01:04:03,320 --> 01:04:06,560
Speaker 4: into that off the trail. So I immediately, you know,

1103
01:04:06,880 --> 01:04:09,880
Speaker 4: polster my revolver, drop my pack, get my rifle undone,

1104
01:04:10,080 --> 01:04:13,080
Speaker 4: chamber around, dial it down to two X, and I

1105
01:04:13,200 --> 01:04:15,360
Speaker 4: just start creeping up the trail, which might seem like

1106
01:04:15,520 --> 01:04:17,240
Speaker 4: kind of a crazy thing to do. Maybe it was

1107
01:04:17,520 --> 01:04:21,200
Speaker 4: the wrong thing to do, but if I was going

1108
01:04:21,280 --> 01:04:23,240
Speaker 4: to do any more hunting, I had to go forward,

1109
01:04:23,840 --> 01:04:25,760
Speaker 4: not just that night, but you know, in the next

1110
01:04:25,760 --> 01:04:29,280
Speaker 4: few days. And I needed a dead bear, not a

1111
01:04:29,280 --> 01:04:32,760
Speaker 4: wounded bear. So again I didn't even really think about

1112
01:04:32,800 --> 01:04:35,080
Speaker 4: it. It wasn't like I made a decision. I just got

1113
01:04:35,160 --> 01:04:38,880
Speaker 4: my rifle off, got the magnification dialed down, started walking

1114
01:04:38,920 --> 01:04:40,920
Speaker 4: up the trail, and I'm just like, you know, on

1115
01:04:41,000 --> 01:04:43,200
Speaker 4: the scope, off the scope, on the scope, off the scope,

1116
01:04:43,280 --> 01:04:45,320
Speaker 4: like looking for any patch of brown fur that I

1117
01:04:45,360 --> 01:04:48,480
Speaker 4: can see. And as soon as I see a patch

1118
01:04:48,520 --> 01:04:50,560
Speaker 4: of brown fur, I shoot right into it. I don't

1119
01:04:50,560 --> 01:04:51,960
Speaker 4: even know what part of the bear it is, and

1120
01:04:52,080 --> 01:04:54,720
Speaker 4: chamber another round and I'm watching for movement, trying to

1121
01:04:54,760 --> 01:04:58,400
Speaker 4: pick her up again, and then finally just stretching my

1122
01:04:58,440 --> 01:05:00,400
Speaker 4: neck out and standing up real tall. I could see

1123
01:05:00,400 --> 01:05:03,720
Speaker 4: that she's laying there and she's still, and that it's over.

1124
01:05:04,880 --> 01:05:08,680
Speaker 4: So of course I go up to her. And as

1125
01:05:08,680 --> 01:05:12,160
Speaker 4: I'm walking up the trail, I can see every few

1126
01:05:12,240 --> 01:05:17,160
Speaker 4: feet there's a splattering of bright red blood off to

1127
01:05:17,200 --> 01:05:19,800
Speaker 4: the left of the trail, so I knew that i'd

1128
01:05:19,840 --> 01:05:23,840
Speaker 4: hit her in the heart or in the artery at least,

1129
01:05:23,880 --> 01:05:28,640
Speaker 4: But it almost immediately started to dawn on me just

1130
01:05:28,840 --> 01:05:33,840
Speaker 4: how incredibly lucky I was. Because she was only twelve

1131
01:05:33,920 --> 01:05:39,120
Speaker 4: paces from me at a full run, and she's weighing

1132
01:05:39,160 --> 01:05:41,520
Speaker 4: four hundred pounds is what I estimated her at she

1133
01:05:41,600 --> 01:05:43,640
Speaker 4: was a very big bear. I could barely move her

1134
01:05:43,680 --> 01:05:47,240
Speaker 4: when I got up to her at the shots. She

1135
01:05:47,440 --> 01:05:50,440
Speaker 4: decided to turn around and run back up the trail,

1136
01:05:51,120 --> 01:05:53,920
Speaker 4: and she ran thirty yards, which was a lot farther

1137
01:05:54,160 --> 01:05:57,560
Speaker 4: than she was close to me when I shot her,

1138
01:05:58,200 --> 01:06:01,520
Speaker 4: so she could have just as easily flip of a coin,

1139
01:06:02,240 --> 01:06:06,000
Speaker 4: decided to keep on going forward, and while she was

1140
01:06:06,040 --> 01:06:08,560
Speaker 4: dead and didn't even know it, she could have knocked

1141
01:06:08,600 --> 01:06:12,840
Speaker 4: me down, broke me up, bit me up, maybe you know,

1142
01:06:13,840 --> 01:06:16,880
Speaker 4: severely mauled or maybe even killed me and then died herself.

1143
01:06:17,040 --> 01:06:19,440
Speaker 4: You know. So it just occurred to me almost immediately

1144
01:06:19,680 --> 01:06:21,880
Speaker 4: how incredibly lucky I was on this. And the other

1145
01:06:21,920 --> 01:06:24,280
Speaker 4: part was that I'd hit her at all. I mean,

1146
01:06:24,320 --> 01:06:26,880
Speaker 4: I'm not Roy Rogers with a six shooter. You know,

1147
01:06:27,200 --> 01:06:29,800
Speaker 4: I don't practice, I don't compete. I mean, I sided

1148
01:06:29,840 --> 01:06:33,040
Speaker 4: him in sure, but you know, hitting a running target

1149
01:06:33,120 --> 01:06:35,960
Speaker 4: like that's not something you practiced very often. So I

1150
01:06:36,040 --> 01:06:39,080
Speaker 4: just felt really lucky. So, you know, I start to

1151
01:06:39,240 --> 01:06:41,360
Speaker 4: I try to get her moved around a little bit.

1152
01:06:41,520 --> 01:06:43,240
Speaker 4: I wanted to take some pictures, but I just couldn't

1153
01:06:43,280 --> 01:06:45,600
Speaker 4: move her. And it was also pretty late in the

1154
01:06:45,680 --> 01:06:48,440
Speaker 4: day for as far back as I was, and I

1155
01:06:48,520 --> 01:06:51,360
Speaker 4: knew that since I had a tag that area, you

1156
01:06:51,360 --> 01:06:53,160
Speaker 4: don't have to have a locking tag. So if you

1157
01:06:53,160 --> 01:06:56,000
Speaker 4: have a hunting license and the bears are in season

1158
01:06:56,480 --> 01:06:59,280
Speaker 4: and they were, you know, I could tag the bear legally.

1159
01:06:59,640 --> 01:07:01,240
Speaker 4: And I was happy to do that because I was

1160
01:07:01,280 --> 01:07:05,120
Speaker 4: definitely going to be keeping this one. You know, it

1161
01:07:05,120 --> 01:07:06,800
Speaker 4: would be easy for me to say that I'm a

1162
01:07:06,800 --> 01:07:10,040
Speaker 4: brave man, but that just wouldn't be the case. You know, like,

1163
01:07:10,080 --> 01:07:14,360
Speaker 4: I'm not a quarterback who's had to face down linemen

1164
01:07:14,960 --> 01:07:18,920
Speaker 4: coming across for that crushing sack. I'm not a veteran

1165
01:07:19,040 --> 01:07:23,240
Speaker 4: who's ever had to operate under fire. I've never rushed

1166
01:07:23,240 --> 01:07:25,640
Speaker 4: into a house that's on fire anything like that at all.

1167
01:07:26,560 --> 01:07:31,760
Speaker 4: And I'm just happy I didn't run. But next time

1168
01:07:31,800 --> 01:07:33,560
Speaker 4: I might run, you know, I mean, I hope not.

1169
01:07:33,840 --> 01:07:36,840
Speaker 4: But there was no time for a reaction. Like I

1170
01:07:36,920 --> 01:07:41,720
Speaker 4: saw her, I said, I uttered that expletive. I immediately

1171
01:07:41,760 --> 01:07:45,200
Speaker 4: took my forty four out and there was just no

1172
01:07:45,360 --> 01:07:48,480
Speaker 4: thinking about it at all. And after everything happened that

1173
01:07:48,520 --> 01:07:50,800
Speaker 4: I told you, and from the time I saw her

1174
01:07:50,840 --> 01:07:53,439
Speaker 4: to the time that I was taking my pack off,

1175
01:07:53,920 --> 01:07:56,600
Speaker 4: I mean, it was less than ten seconds. There she

1176
01:07:56,800 --> 01:08:01,000
Speaker 4: was here, she comes, bang, bang, bang, and now she's

1177
01:08:01,080 --> 01:08:04,040
Speaker 4: running off. So you hear people say that I didn't

1178
01:08:04,040 --> 01:08:05,600
Speaker 4: have time to think or I didn't have time to

1179
01:08:05,640 --> 01:08:08,160
Speaker 4: be afraid, and that was absolutely the truth. So I

1180
01:08:08,200 --> 01:08:10,640
Speaker 4: get my pack off, you know, I shoot the rifle.

1181
01:08:11,240 --> 01:08:13,720
Speaker 4: I finally see that it's done. I walk up to

1182
01:08:13,760 --> 01:08:16,519
Speaker 4: her to see that she was not breathing. Probably should

1183
01:08:16,520 --> 01:08:17,920
Speaker 4: have put a safety run into her. To tell you,

1184
01:08:17,920 --> 01:08:19,960
Speaker 4: the truth had been something else that would have been

1185
01:08:20,000 --> 01:08:22,479
Speaker 4: smart to do, but I didn't. You know, the African

1186
01:08:22,479 --> 01:08:24,320
Speaker 4: guys will tell you it's the dead ones that kill you,

1187
01:08:25,200 --> 01:08:28,639
Speaker 4: and I did feel very calm. I called my partner

1188
01:08:28,840 --> 01:08:31,559
Speaker 4: and I told her what happened. I had one bar

1189
01:08:31,680 --> 01:08:35,280
Speaker 4: reception and after that I texted a couple hunting buddies.

1190
01:08:35,479 --> 01:08:38,599
Speaker 4: I'm like, you would not believe just what happened, And

1191
01:08:38,920 --> 01:08:41,559
Speaker 4: ten minutes later I was shaken so bad I wouldn't

1192
01:08:41,560 --> 01:08:42,960
Speaker 4: have been able to hold a glass of bourbon.

1193
01:08:46,120 --> 01:08:49,040
Speaker 2: Chad is undoubtedly better trained with the pistol than he

1194
01:08:49,080 --> 01:08:52,160
Speaker 2: gives himself credit for. However, if he had it to

1195
01:08:52,160 --> 01:08:56,480
Speaker 2: do over again, the outcome could have been different. Encountering

1196
01:08:56,520 --> 01:08:59,519
Speaker 2: an aggressive grizzly at close range is a life altering

1197
01:08:59,560 --> 01:09:03,479
Speaker 2: interaction that I'm certain imprints someone at the psychological level,

1198
01:09:04,000 --> 01:09:07,439
Speaker 2: and now I'm totally speculating here, but probably even at

1199
01:09:07,439 --> 01:09:12,200
Speaker 2: the DNA level. Somehow our offspring know what almost killed us,

1200
01:09:12,560 --> 01:09:16,240
Speaker 2: and we make subtle amendments to adjust, trying to avoid

1201
01:09:16,280 --> 01:09:19,639
Speaker 2: the same fate. That was a good story, Chad. I'm

1202
01:09:19,640 --> 01:09:24,280
Speaker 2: glad you were prepared for the worst. Well, we'll end

1203
01:09:24,280 --> 01:09:28,240
Speaker 2: with a short story from doctor Randall Williams, the resident

1204
01:09:28,520 --> 01:09:32,800
Speaker 2: historian of Meat eat Or Incorporated. Randall spent eight years

1205
01:09:32,840 --> 01:09:40,200
Speaker 2: as a fishing guide in Alaska, and he's got a story.

1206
01:09:40,360 --> 01:09:43,840
Speaker 6: My name is Randall Williams. When I was twenty two

1207
01:09:43,960 --> 01:09:46,320
Speaker 6: years old, I took an offer through a friend of

1208
01:09:46,360 --> 01:09:48,400
Speaker 6: a friend to go up and work at a fly

1209
01:09:48,439 --> 01:09:52,040
Speaker 6: out fishing lodge in Alaska. I kept going back each

1210
01:09:52,080 --> 01:09:54,640
Speaker 6: summer and guided my last trip in the summer I

1211
01:09:54,680 --> 01:09:58,280
Speaker 6: got married of twenty fifteen. For all those years, I

1212
01:09:58,320 --> 01:10:02,600
Speaker 6: split my time and my world belongings between Montana and Alaska.

1213
01:10:03,400 --> 01:10:05,479
Speaker 6: Every year, at the end of the season, I'd roll

1214
01:10:05,560 --> 01:10:08,679
Speaker 6: up all my stuff underwear, T shirts and a couple

1215
01:10:08,720 --> 01:10:11,400
Speaker 6: pairs of jeans and a hoodie and a big blue

1216
01:10:11,439 --> 01:10:15,559
Speaker 6: plastic bag. These bags we used to pack fish for clients,

1217
01:10:15,720 --> 01:10:17,560
Speaker 6: and I'd tuck it all away in my cabin so

1218
01:10:17,600 --> 01:10:20,000
Speaker 6: that it was waiting for me the next summer. I

1219
01:10:20,040 --> 01:10:21,880
Speaker 6: had a pair of extra tufts that lived up at

1220
01:10:21,880 --> 01:10:24,120
Speaker 6: the lodge, and I had a big box of books.

1221
01:10:24,760 --> 01:10:27,080
Speaker 6: That way, I only had to fly with my fishing

1222
01:10:27,120 --> 01:10:30,240
Speaker 6: gear and my personal items. I had my Alaska stuff

1223
01:10:30,320 --> 01:10:34,320
Speaker 6: and I had my Montana stuff. Now late May through

1224
01:10:34,320 --> 01:10:38,280
Speaker 6: mid July was king season. These were extremely long days

1225
01:10:38,400 --> 01:10:40,680
Speaker 6: with all that daylight. You wanted to be at your

1226
01:10:40,680 --> 01:10:43,840
Speaker 6: spot well before legal fishing hours at six am, and

1227
01:10:43,880 --> 01:10:46,599
Speaker 6: you're often going out after dinner until fishing clothes at

1228
01:10:46,600 --> 01:10:50,840
Speaker 6: eleven PM. In July we started getting sakeyes and then

1229
01:10:50,880 --> 01:10:54,120
Speaker 6: silvers and chums through August, and by late August and

1230
01:10:54,160 --> 01:10:57,720
Speaker 6: the early September we were targeting rainbows. It was an

1231
01:10:57,800 --> 01:11:00,280
Speaker 6: education to say the least, and I saw my share

1232
01:11:00,320 --> 01:11:05,559
Speaker 6: of wild, weird stuff, bears, boat crashes, cabins getting swept

1233
01:11:05,560 --> 01:11:08,400
Speaker 6: down river. We even had the troopers come out and

1234
01:11:08,439 --> 01:11:11,280
Speaker 6: conduct a manhunt in the drainages around the lodge. One

1235
01:11:11,320 --> 01:11:14,280
Speaker 6: spring and another summer we found a bunch of coffins

1236
01:11:14,320 --> 01:11:17,120
Speaker 6: and human skeletons from the old mining days as they

1237
01:11:17,280 --> 01:11:20,439
Speaker 6: washed out of an eroding cutbank. This was only in

1238
01:11:20,520 --> 01:11:24,040
Speaker 6: Alaska kind of stuff. But the biggest shock I think

1239
01:11:24,120 --> 01:11:27,719
Speaker 6: I ever faced up there happened on May twentieth, twenty fourteen,

1240
01:11:28,640 --> 01:11:30,519
Speaker 6: And that was the day I flew out to the

1241
01:11:30,520 --> 01:11:33,040
Speaker 6: bush for the summer and realized the only pair of

1242
01:11:33,160 --> 01:11:39,240
Speaker 6: underpants I had were the ones I was wearing. Now,

1243
01:11:39,320 --> 01:11:42,160
Speaker 6: remember the closed system I mentioned earlier, Well, that was

1244
01:11:42,200 --> 01:11:45,639
Speaker 6: a system that worked great until it didn't. I'm sure

1245
01:11:45,680 --> 01:11:48,559
Speaker 6: a lot of people that have worked intense seasonal jobs

1246
01:11:48,640 --> 01:11:51,320
Speaker 6: are familiar with this feeling. You get to the end

1247
01:11:51,320 --> 01:11:53,800
Speaker 6: of the season and you tell yourself, I am never

1248
01:11:53,920 --> 01:11:59,080
Speaker 6: coming back here. Long hours, hard work, nightmare clients, and

1249
01:11:59,120 --> 01:12:01,320
Speaker 6: in my case, at the end of the summer twenty thirteen,

1250
01:12:01,640 --> 01:12:03,880
Speaker 6: i'd gotten engaged a few months before I came out.

1251
01:12:04,360 --> 01:12:06,720
Speaker 6: I thought I was done, so at the end of

1252
01:12:06,720 --> 01:12:09,200
Speaker 6: that summer, I threw all my clothes in the burn

1253
01:12:09,280 --> 01:12:12,240
Speaker 6: barrel and torched it, and I forgot all about doing

1254
01:12:12,240 --> 01:12:16,360
Speaker 6: this until May the following year. For a while, my

1255
01:12:16,520 --> 01:12:20,040
Speaker 6: lack of underwear was a crisis. You can imagine it's

1256
01:12:20,080 --> 01:12:23,360
Speaker 6: just about impossible to hit a strategically timed wash cycle

1257
01:12:23,360 --> 01:12:26,160
Speaker 6: in the middle of king season. And then the whole

1258
01:12:26,200 --> 01:12:29,320
Speaker 6: situation became a source of entertainment for everyone in camp.

1259
01:12:29,880 --> 01:12:32,560
Speaker 6: We kept a running tally. When I was asked to

1260
01:12:32,600 --> 01:12:35,080
Speaker 6: record this story, I reached out to my old boss

1261
01:12:35,160 --> 01:12:36,960
Speaker 6: to see if he could remember the details.

1262
01:12:37,680 --> 01:12:39,400
Speaker 1: His reply, I know it.

1263
01:12:39,360 --> 01:12:41,679
Speaker 6: Went on for over a month. I was just talking

1264
01:12:41,680 --> 01:12:44,840
Speaker 6: about that to some of the guides this summer. Another

1265
01:12:44,880 --> 01:12:47,800
Speaker 6: fellow I worked with replied, I know you broke two

1266
01:12:47,800 --> 01:12:52,080
Speaker 6: weeks for sure, maybe a month. Then another guy responded

1267
01:12:52,080 --> 01:12:54,720
Speaker 6: with a photo of the underwear in question, which we

1268
01:12:54,800 --> 01:12:57,080
Speaker 6: nailed up above the front door to the guide check.

1269
01:12:57,240 --> 01:13:01,360
Speaker 6: After the situation was resolved, was finally able to fly

1270
01:13:01,439 --> 01:13:04,160
Speaker 6: out with a five pack of Haynes and a special

1271
01:13:04,200 --> 01:13:08,439
Speaker 6: pair of Superman undies to celebrate. That photo shows a

1272
01:13:08,479 --> 01:13:11,640
Speaker 6: whole bunch of threads hanging from a stretched out wastebind

1273
01:13:11,960 --> 01:13:15,120
Speaker 6: nailed into a rundown shack, and next to it on

1274
01:13:15,200 --> 01:13:19,400
Speaker 6: the wall as a hand drawn sign reading as follows

1275
01:13:19,400 --> 01:13:24,960
Speaker 6: certified thirty three days of continuous use. Randa Williams, June

1276
01:13:24,960 --> 01:13:26,919
Speaker 6: twenty third, twenty fourteen.

1277
01:13:28,080 --> 01:13:42,719
Speaker 2: Only in Alaska, You, my friends have just been punked,

1278
01:13:43,120 --> 01:13:46,040
Speaker 2: and he walked right into it. It was almost as

1279
01:13:46,120 --> 01:13:48,320
Speaker 2: foolish as me standing on the bow of that boat

1280
01:13:48,360 --> 01:13:52,040
Speaker 2: looking upstream while we were heading downstrength. Regardless of if

1281
01:13:52,080 --> 01:13:56,840
Speaker 2: you have clean underwear, Alaska is a wild place, from

1282
01:13:56,960 --> 01:14:00,320
Speaker 2: raging angry rivers to cold nights under a out and

1283
01:14:00,360 --> 01:14:05,960
Speaker 2: go hide to charging grizzlies. Alaska's stories are forever intriguing,

1284
01:14:06,439 --> 01:14:11,920
Speaker 2: and we're just getting started. I can't thank you enough

1285
01:14:11,920 --> 01:14:15,360
Speaker 2: for listening to bear greats hunting season is upon us.

1286
01:14:15,840 --> 01:14:17,960
Speaker 2: Be sure to check out first Light for all your

1287
01:14:18,040 --> 01:14:22,519
Speaker 2: hunting clothing this year, including whitetail and waterfowl gear. I've

1288
01:14:22,520 --> 01:14:25,320
Speaker 2: been wearing first Light for almost a decade and it

1289
01:14:25,360 --> 01:14:26,080
Speaker 2: would be hard for.

1290
01:14:26,040 --> 01:14:27,160
Speaker 3: Me to wear anything else.

1291
01:14:27,800 --> 01:14:30,800
Speaker 2: And thanks to everyone who bought a phelps Acre and

1292
01:14:30,840 --> 01:14:33,960
Speaker 2: Grunt and Bleak Call. They sold out in about twenty

1293
01:14:34,000 --> 01:14:36,840
Speaker 2: four hours. We're trying to get some more made as

1294
01:14:36,920 --> 01:14:40,439
Speaker 2: quick as we can, so stand by. I hope you've

1295
01:14:40,479 --> 01:14:44,439
Speaker 2: got big plans this fall. Be careful out there and

1296
01:14:44,560 --> 01:14:47,640
Speaker 2: have some adventure and just be aware what's going on

1297
01:14:47,720 --> 01:14:50,519
Speaker 2: around you. I can't wait to talk to all the

1298
01:14:50,560 --> 01:15:03,360
Speaker 2: folks on the Render this week about these Alaskan stories.