WEBVTT - Ep. 142: Alaska Stories (Part 1) 0:00:05.480 --> 0:00:08.760 We decided to take a route down that we saw 0:00:08.840 --> 0:00:11.240 on the way up that looked like it was going 0:00:11.280 --> 0:00:14.200 to be a lot easier. That was an illusion, as 0:00:14.240 --> 0:00:14.920 it often is. 0:00:15.840 --> 0:00:18.639 We've been pounding hard over the last six months of 0:00:18.680 --> 0:00:22.840 this Bear Grease podcast, diving Deep into the Mississippi River 0:00:23.280 --> 0:00:27.200 David Crockett and the literary con man Asa Carter. These 0:00:27.200 --> 0:00:30.440 were some of my favorite series. But I need relief 0:00:30.520 --> 0:00:34.200 from the browbeaten history and science. I fear we've all 0:00:34.240 --> 0:00:38.640 become too smart in our proclaimed quote pursuit of understanding 0:00:38.680 --> 0:00:41.920 the world. Remember when William Faulkner said you had to 0:00:42.040 --> 0:00:47.080 understand a place like Mississippi to understand the world. I 0:00:47.200 --> 0:00:50.640 just need some regular old excitement. How about a fresh 0:00:50.640 --> 0:00:54.080 plate of harrowing stories with the tall glass of adventure 0:00:54.120 --> 0:00:54.680 and risk. 0:00:55.200 --> 0:00:56.920 That sounds pretty good, doesn't it. 0:00:57.560 --> 0:01:01.520 This is the first part in our sies of wild 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:05.480 stories from one of my favorite places on Earth, Alaska. 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:10.240 America has been enamored and perplexed for the last seventy 0:01:10.360 --> 0:01:14.399 years by its sheer volume of wilderness, wildness, and its 0:01:14.440 --> 0:01:19.080 great beasts. Today we'll hear five stories from five storytellers 0:01:19.120 --> 0:01:23.679 about wild rivers, grizzly bears, widow makers, and even a 0:01:23.760 --> 0:01:27.280 cold night under the hide of a great beast. We've 0:01:27.319 --> 0:01:30.120 never done an episode like this before. We're about to 0:01:30.160 --> 0:01:33.840 meet some great people. I really doubt you're gonna want 0:01:33.840 --> 0:01:34.560 to miss this one. 0:01:35.000 --> 0:01:37.200 And she looked at me, and then she stood up 0:01:37.240 --> 0:01:40.360 and stretched her neck out and cocked her head and 0:01:40.400 --> 0:01:47.480 then immediately went into a charge. 0:01:50.920 --> 0:01:53.600 My name is Clay Nukem, and this is the Bear 0:01:53.680 --> 0:01:58.639 Grease Podcast, where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant, search 0:01:58.720 --> 0:02:02.360 for insight and unlike places, and where we'll tell the 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:06.520 story of Americans who lived their lives close to the land. 0:02:07.200 --> 0:02:12.920 Presented by FHF gear, American made, purpose built hunting and 0:02:13.000 --> 0:02:16.440 fishing gear that's designed to be as rugged as the 0:02:16.480 --> 0:02:29.040 place as we explore. Alaska is an anomaly. It's a 0:02:29.120 --> 0:02:35.160 deviation from the standard American state. In the late eighteen hundreds, 0:02:35.280 --> 0:02:40.000 naturalists John Muir called Alaska Wilderness a temple, claiming the 0:02:40.000 --> 0:02:42.640 place was still in the morning. 0:02:42.280 --> 0:02:44.959 Of its creation. It's a giant place. 0:02:45.560 --> 0:02:48.960 As a grown man decades out of high school geography class, 0:02:49.200 --> 0:02:52.560 I find myself still trying to grasp its size, almost 0:02:52.600 --> 0:02:56.080 like a math equation with symbols and multipliers. I have 0:02:56.240 --> 0:02:59.919 never been trained to manipulate. It's hard to understand how 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:03.520 how big it is. The state is over six hundred 0:03:03.600 --> 0:03:07.080 and sixty five thousand square miles, more than twice the 0:03:07.160 --> 0:03:10.480 size of our second largest state, Texas, in larger than 0:03:10.520 --> 0:03:16.560 our biggest three states, Texas, California, and Montana combined. Roughly 0:03:16.600 --> 0:03:20.320 seven hundred thousand people live in Alaska, making it by 0:03:20.400 --> 0:03:24.680 far our most sparsely populated state. Purchase from Russia in 0:03:24.720 --> 0:03:28.280 eighteen sixty seven, you may have heard the term Seward's folly. 0:03:28.880 --> 0:03:32.640 Secretary of State William Seward negotiated a price of seven 0:03:32.720 --> 0:03:36.440 million dollars that's less than two cents per acre for 0:03:36.520 --> 0:03:40.280 the whole state. He was ridiculed for the purchase, like 0:03:40.360 --> 0:03:43.080 someone living in the plains of Kansas might chide his 0:03:43.240 --> 0:03:46.480 neighbor's purchase of one hundred foot yacht now parked in 0:03:46.520 --> 0:03:50.520 the driveway. Alaska would gain statehood in nineteen fifty nine, 0:03:50.920 --> 0:03:55.040 making it America's forty ninth state. But I'm not here 0:03:55.040 --> 0:03:57.720 to give you a history lesson. Remember I said we're 0:03:57.760 --> 0:04:01.400 done with all that. The first story is told by 0:04:01.440 --> 0:04:03.520 a man that I'm starting to feel like as an 0:04:03.520 --> 0:04:07.120 old friend of mine. His name is Billy Moles, originally 0:04:07.160 --> 0:04:10.320 from Wisconsin. Fresh out of high school, he fulfilled a 0:04:10.360 --> 0:04:13.200 lifelong dream when he headed to Alaska to become a 0:04:13.280 --> 0:04:17.400 hunting guide. Now, after twenty plus years of living that 0:04:17.520 --> 0:04:20.240 dream and spending over one hundred nights per year in 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:24.360 a tent hunting brown bear, caribou, sheep, and moose, Billy 0:04:24.480 --> 0:04:27.239 is no doubt an Alaskan wilderness veteran. 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:29.440 Big fast water. 0:04:29.360 --> 0:04:32.440 Is the Achilles heel of a human moving across the 0:04:32.560 --> 0:04:36.680 landscape afoot. It's a natural feature that humans are almost 0:04:36.680 --> 0:04:41.839 completely unequipped to deal with. This first story is called 0:04:42.200 --> 0:04:44.760 The Rising River. Here's Billy. 0:04:45.880 --> 0:04:49.200 This story starts on a small farm in southern Wisconsin. 0:04:50.000 --> 0:04:52.240 A young boy by the name of Don Johnson was 0:04:52.279 --> 0:04:57.360 fishing on the Mississippi River with his brothers wintertime. They 0:04:57.360 --> 0:05:00.400 were on the ice. They were smoking cigarettes. Her dad 0:05:00.440 --> 0:05:02.880 was gonna come by and pick him up, and so 0:05:03.160 --> 0:05:07.200 Don takes the cigarettes and was going towards off shore, 0:05:07.240 --> 0:05:10.159 a little farther out and towards the current, and was 0:05:10.200 --> 0:05:14.960 gonna bury the cigarette butts in the snow. And when 0:05:14.960 --> 0:05:16.760 he went to do that, he fell through the ice. 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:20.960 Long story, short and nearly drowns, and ever since then 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:27.760 Don is terrified of death by drowning. So forty years later, 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:30.800 Don is my neighbor in Wisconsin, fellow farmer. I have 0:05:30.880 --> 0:05:34.080 known him on a little bit my whole life. But 0:05:34.160 --> 0:05:36.920 I'm fifteen twenty years into guiding and he comes to me. 0:05:36.960 --> 0:05:39.239 He's like, hey, I want to want to go caribou hunting. 0:05:39.240 --> 0:05:43.080 And so we put this hunt together, and Don is 0:05:43.080 --> 0:05:46.039 bringing his cousin, Mike, so they're both in their late 0:05:46.120 --> 0:05:49.839 fifties early sixties. And then Mike has his son Greg 0:05:49.920 --> 0:05:53.080 to come along and it's a three on one hunt. 0:05:53.200 --> 0:05:55.480 And pretty much every time I've done a three on 0:05:55.480 --> 0:05:59.800 one hunt it has turned into a debacle. But against 0:05:59.839 --> 0:06:03.000 my better judgment, I agreed to it. I hadn't connected 0:06:03.040 --> 0:06:05.159 all the dots back then as I have now. But 0:06:05.760 --> 0:06:08.120 I take these guys and we go up into the 0:06:08.120 --> 0:06:12.599 Northern Brooks Range early August. We show up into camp 0:06:12.600 --> 0:06:15.640 and they got all kinds of gear, and so the 0:06:15.680 --> 0:06:19.680 next morning we're eating breakfast, her caribou starts coming through. 0:06:19.720 --> 0:06:21.679 We can see them about a mile and a half off, 0:06:21.720 --> 0:06:25.000 and we get into position. Greg shoots a really nice bull. 0:06:25.960 --> 0:06:30.080 It starts to rain, we get that bold taken care of. 0:06:30.160 --> 0:06:32.839 The next morning, it's still raining and we were in 0:06:33.240 --> 0:06:38.040 relatively flat, open tundra, but right across the river there 0:06:38.080 --> 0:06:40.039 was a nice knob, and so what we're doing is 0:06:40.040 --> 0:06:42.840 we're walking across this creek and then we'd hike up 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:44.840 to the knob, and then we'd sit there all day 0:06:44.920 --> 0:06:46.800 and glass. We could see anything coming. You can see 0:06:46.880 --> 0:06:49.280 five ten miles in either direction, farther than you'd want 0:06:49.279 --> 0:06:54.039 to walk. This creek's ankle deep, maybe mid shin at 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:58.160 most when we first get there, and so we're sitting 0:06:58.160 --> 0:07:03.000 on the hill, we're glassing for caribou, and this spot, 0:07:03.080 --> 0:07:05.880 this little little the creek. We could see the creek 0:07:05.920 --> 0:07:07.919 out in front of us, and we're not paying it 0:07:07.960 --> 0:07:09.960 too much attention, but I could see there's a nice 0:07:09.960 --> 0:07:12.920 shallow riffle there. Anytime i'm hunting a creek, I'm always 0:07:12.920 --> 0:07:16.240 looking for access points, you know, easiest spots to cross 0:07:16.240 --> 0:07:19.120 the creek. And this this creek was still so shallow. 0:07:19.160 --> 0:07:22.200 It wasn't it wasn't a big issue. And we don't 0:07:22.200 --> 0:07:24.440 see anything the next day, get back to camp that 0:07:24.560 --> 0:07:26.960 night and go to bed. Next morning, we're up eating 0:07:26.960 --> 0:07:29.680 breakfast and I could see the creek was rising, but 0:07:29.720 --> 0:07:33.720 it still was no big deal. Go back up on 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:37.240 the hill, get fogged out, it's raining, don't see anything 0:07:37.280 --> 0:07:39.960 on next day. So then the following day, same deal. 0:07:40.000 --> 0:07:43.720 We wake up, it's foggy, the river's still raining. The 0:07:43.800 --> 0:07:47.480 river's definitely coming up, but it kind of clears up 0:07:47.520 --> 0:07:50.000 early morning. And I just told the guys like, hey man, 0:07:50.040 --> 0:07:52.520 we're we're gonna have to get out of here. But 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:58.600 it's too the ceiling is too low to fly, so 0:07:58.640 --> 0:08:01.240 we can't get moved with a plane day regardless. But 0:08:01.560 --> 0:08:03.600 let's go up on. If we climb up on the hill, 0:08:03.840 --> 0:08:07.240 we can sit for a couple of hours, and you know, 0:08:07.280 --> 0:08:09.920 if we don't, we don't get anything, we'll just come back. 0:08:09.920 --> 0:08:11.920 And basically at that point we're gonna wait for the 0:08:12.200 --> 0:08:14.360 have to wait for the weather to lift, because this 0:08:14.480 --> 0:08:16.760 is getting so high, like it could flood out our 0:08:16.840 --> 0:08:19.680 camp because we were camped on a gravel bar. So 0:08:19.760 --> 0:08:23.560 we climb up onto the hill and I'm looking at 0:08:23.560 --> 0:08:27.160 this river and I'm noticing that shallow spot that I 0:08:27.160 --> 0:08:30.400 had noticed a couple of days before, and I'm watching 0:08:31.400 --> 0:08:34.360 watching the river rise up on this big rock on 0:08:34.440 --> 0:08:37.040 the bank and I figured it was rising somewhere between 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:40.559 an inch and two inches an hour, So I'm gauging, 0:08:40.559 --> 0:08:46.600 and I just decide, hey, we've got until noon after noon. 0:08:46.840 --> 0:08:49.880 If we haven't, we're not after something. We've got to 0:08:49.920 --> 0:08:53.320 be back to camp, because it was about it was 0:08:53.400 --> 0:08:56.800 up to our crotches when we crossed by camp that morning, 0:08:57.720 --> 0:08:59.560 and I knew that we could run the way back. 0:08:59.600 --> 0:09:01.800 We would go back in that shallow riffle kind of 0:09:01.840 --> 0:09:05.600 below our glassing knob, which was about a half mile 0:09:05.640 --> 0:09:08.240 below our camp, but that was much much shallower than 0:09:08.280 --> 0:09:09.600 where we were crossing it camp. 0:09:09.640 --> 0:09:09.840 But I. 0:09:11.720 --> 0:09:14.720 Knew that it was kind of pushing the limits of 0:09:15.559 --> 0:09:19.600 what I was comfortable with it. But I just figured 0:09:19.640 --> 0:09:21.599 for Don and Mike particularly, there was going to be 0:09:21.640 --> 0:09:23.480 pushing their limits to be crossing that river. 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:23.960 Well. 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:26.680 As it turns out, about eleven o'clock, we spot this 0:09:26.760 --> 0:09:29.520 hurt of cariboo. They're about two miles off, and I 0:09:29.559 --> 0:09:31.080 just figured, hey, if we're going to go after any 0:09:31.080 --> 0:09:34.120 caribou today, let's go after him. Give them a run. 0:09:34.559 --> 0:09:36.640 If they're not there, we'll turn around, we'll come back. 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:40.160 So we run after these caribou where we're hoping they 0:09:40.200 --> 0:09:42.720 are they're gone. Well, there's a ridge right up ahead 0:09:42.760 --> 0:09:45.920 of us, about a ten to fifteen minute hike, and 0:09:46.280 --> 0:09:48.680 we could look over this lip. I said, well, they're 0:09:48.720 --> 0:09:51.880 probably right in there, and so we get up over 0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:58.040 this lip and sure enough there's the Cariboo. They're about 0:09:58.760 --> 0:10:02.360 thousand yards off. So we sneak up around, go up 0:10:02.360 --> 0:10:04.720 in this next little ridge, trying to figure out if 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:06.640 there was a way we could ambush them. And we 0:10:06.720 --> 0:10:09.040 get up there and there's no where to go. There's 0:10:09.080 --> 0:10:12.760 just no way to really ambush them, to get to 0:10:12.800 --> 0:10:15.960 them without them seeing us. And the whole time, in 0:10:15.960 --> 0:10:18.200 the back of my mind, I'm really nervous of this 0:10:18.320 --> 0:10:21.120 river crossing because now it's about one PM. And I 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:22.800 didn't want to say anything. I didn't want to make 0:10:22.840 --> 0:10:26.840 the guys scared, and I just said, told the guys, hey, 0:10:27.160 --> 0:10:29.280 that river coming up. We're just going to go right 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:32.320 at these Cariboo. If they run off, that's fine, but 0:10:33.200 --> 0:10:35.840 we got to take our chances here. And so they understood, 0:10:35.880 --> 0:10:38.160 so we just take off. We start going right towards 0:10:38.240 --> 0:10:41.880 the Cariboo. Well, just as we take off, they get 0:10:42.000 --> 0:10:44.400 up because they were bedded, and they start feeding toward 0:10:44.480 --> 0:10:48.240 us and I'm like, well, let's just wait. But when 0:10:48.400 --> 0:10:51.560 looking back, I could just see all these little little 0:10:51.600 --> 0:10:55.160 minute details. We're just pushing the envelope, pushing the envelope. 0:10:55.200 --> 0:10:55.360 You know. 0:10:55.440 --> 0:10:58.240 We had two more cariboos still to kill, and our 0:10:58.320 --> 0:11:00.720 hunt basically at this point is more than half over. 0:11:01.920 --> 0:11:04.079 But the caribou are working towards us, and we sit 0:11:04.120 --> 0:11:06.760 and we wait. That takes another twenty minutes. Well, finally 0:11:06.960 --> 0:11:09.800 Don gets a shot opportunity. Boom, he shoots, the cariboo 0:11:10.000 --> 0:11:12.280 runs off, intermingles with the herd, so we couldn't get 0:11:12.320 --> 0:11:17.640 a second shot without risk hitting another cariboo beds down. Finally, 0:11:17.679 --> 0:11:19.800 I just take take my rifle and I just walk 0:11:19.880 --> 0:11:21.760 around and boom, and I just finished the thing off. 0:11:21.800 --> 0:11:23.719 I just I just didn't have any patients because I 0:11:23.920 --> 0:11:25.959 wanted to get the thing killed. Get back to camp. 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:29.439 We're high five and take some pictures. Don's happy, he's 0:11:29.480 --> 0:11:33.120 got a real nice caribou. We butcher the thing. I mean, 0:11:33.160 --> 0:11:36.640 we're working. I'm slicing and dicing and they're taking the 0:11:36.679 --> 0:11:39.240 bags and we're we get this thing whooped up pretty quick. 0:11:39.320 --> 0:11:42.000 I said, all right, guys, got everything, let's go. And 0:11:42.040 --> 0:11:45.120 Don's like, well, I forgot my binoculars. And I'm like, 0:11:45.160 --> 0:11:47.400 what do you mean you forgot your binoculars and he said, well, 0:11:47.400 --> 0:11:49.280 I think they're up on the hill where we shot from. 0:11:49.280 --> 0:11:51.520 I'm like, he's like, we can get them tomorrow. I'm like, no, 0:11:51.600 --> 0:11:53.720 we ain't come back tomorrow. I said, you guys, see 0:11:53.720 --> 0:11:56.120 that willow bush. I point to it. It's about three 0:11:56.200 --> 0:11:58.760 quarters of a mile away. I said, there's nothing between 0:11:58.760 --> 0:12:00.559 here and that willow bush. I said, you guys, get 0:12:00.640 --> 0:12:02.920 hike into that willow bush, and you do not stop 0:12:03.120 --> 0:12:04.880 until you get to that willow bush. You sit there 0:12:04.880 --> 0:12:07.360 and you wait for me. And I was pretty direct, 0:12:07.520 --> 0:12:10.560 and non recognized that I was pretty direct. He's like, wow, 0:12:10.600 --> 0:12:12.920 I'm I'm I'm hungry. And I said, grab a couple 0:12:12.960 --> 0:12:15.040 candy bars and eat them as you walk. I was like, 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:17.040 we got to get back across that river again. I 0:12:17.040 --> 0:12:18.719 didn't want to. I wanted to be firm, but I 0:12:18.760 --> 0:12:21.000 didn't want to freak them out. So I run up 0:12:21.000 --> 0:12:22.760 to the top of the hill where we shot from, 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:25.160 and there was his binoculars, and I still I beat 0:12:25.200 --> 0:12:27.440 him down to the willow bush and I can see 0:12:27.440 --> 0:12:29.160 they're tired. He's like, oh, can we take a break. 0:12:29.160 --> 0:12:30.640 I'm leg you guys can take a break when we 0:12:30.679 --> 0:12:32.880 get back to camp. Let's keep her moving. And they 0:12:32.920 --> 0:12:36.760 just kind of looked at me, and I didn't argue. 0:12:36.840 --> 0:12:39.080 I think at that point that's when they realized that, 0:12:39.840 --> 0:12:42.200 and they were they were cognizant of the river coming 0:12:42.240 --> 0:12:45.160 up as well. So we hike about another mile and 0:12:45.200 --> 0:12:47.160 we maybe a mile and a half and we get 0:12:47.200 --> 0:12:49.920 to that shallow spot. We actually walk a half mile 0:12:50.040 --> 0:12:53.040 further down downstream of camp, but we got to that 0:12:53.120 --> 0:12:58.040 shallow spot and holy smokes, that river was angrier and darker. 0:12:58.160 --> 0:13:00.360 I mean, the water is just so silty. There's no 0:13:00.520 --> 0:13:02.880 reading the river at that point. I mean, it's just 0:13:02.960 --> 0:13:07.120 covered over. It's probably about gosh, I would guess, seventy 0:13:07.200 --> 0:13:11.040 yards across of just water. And now this is up 0:13:11.120 --> 0:13:14.959 to our belt and it was darn near to crotch level, 0:13:15.040 --> 0:13:17.960 almost the whole way across, which three days earlier it 0:13:18.000 --> 0:13:22.000 was basically ankle deep. And I told the guys, Don's like, 0:13:22.040 --> 0:13:23.720 oh my gosh. He's like, I don't know about this, 0:13:23.840 --> 0:13:26.880 and I'm like, Don, I don't know what other options are. 0:13:26.920 --> 0:13:29.560 We could stay here, but you know, the clouds are 0:13:29.600 --> 0:13:31.839 still too low nobody can fly in here. There's no 0:13:31.920 --> 0:13:34.360 place to land on the other side of the creek anyways. 0:13:34.800 --> 0:13:36.720 And I said, well, don't just let me go across, 0:13:37.760 --> 0:13:41.480 and just watch where I go, and go exactly where 0:13:41.480 --> 0:13:45.920 I walk. And I told him, undo your chest strap. 0:13:46.360 --> 0:13:49.680 Only have your belt strapped. And if you go down, 0:13:49.800 --> 0:13:52.280 keep your head downstream, and if you keep your head 0:13:52.280 --> 0:13:55.319 above water, and if you have to shuck your pack off. 0:13:55.760 --> 0:13:57.079 And that's one thing I've learned to get in a 0:13:57.120 --> 0:14:00.640 dangerous situation. You got to keep instructions really really simple. 0:14:01.360 --> 0:14:04.600 And so I go across. Not a big deal. I mean, 0:14:04.600 --> 0:14:09.720 it was deep, but Mike makes it across, and then 0:14:09.840 --> 0:14:12.679 Greg comes and he comes about three quarters of the 0:14:12.720 --> 0:14:14.679 way across, and there was like a little island. It 0:14:14.720 --> 0:14:17.960 was submerged, but it was about knee deep water. And 0:14:18.000 --> 0:14:20.480 so Greg walks to that knee deep water and he 0:14:20.560 --> 0:14:22.480 sits there and he waits. I just told him to 0:14:22.520 --> 0:14:24.520 wait there, and we have Don come across. We've all 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:27.480 got trucking poles. Don makes it across. You can tell 0:14:27.520 --> 0:14:30.680 he's pretty nervous. He makes it to that island where 0:14:30.720 --> 0:14:33.520 Greg is and it's only at this point it's like 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:38.200 ten yards to get all the way across, and I 0:14:38.280 --> 0:14:40.280 just told DoD you got it. And that's the deepest 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:43.920 channel in the river. And so I go about thirty 0:14:44.120 --> 0:14:47.440 forty yards downstream of Don, just in case. And Don 0:14:47.520 --> 0:14:49.720 goes across, and he's right in the heart of the channel, 0:14:49.760 --> 0:14:51.840 and of course you're in fastest water. That's where the 0:14:51.920 --> 0:14:54.160 rocks get small because the small one or the rocks 0:14:54.160 --> 0:14:57.720 get big because the small rocks are swept downstream. And 0:14:57.800 --> 0:15:01.160 Don stumbles and then he kind of corrects himself, but 0:15:01.200 --> 0:15:03.280 in doing so, he puts too much weight on his 0:15:03.320 --> 0:15:05.720 trekking pole, and he bends his trekking pole into the 0:15:05.720 --> 0:15:08.400 shape of an elk. And looking back, I should have 0:15:08.440 --> 0:15:09.920 told him to just throw the thing in the river, 0:15:10.680 --> 0:15:12.840 but I didn't. He corrects himself and I said, you 0:15:12.920 --> 0:15:15.360 got it. You got it. Literally four more steps and 0:15:15.400 --> 0:15:18.560 he's across the river. Well, Don, in his muscle memory, 0:15:18.600 --> 0:15:20.520 he goes to take a step, and then he goes 0:15:20.560 --> 0:15:22.640 to take another step. And when he did that, he 0:15:22.720 --> 0:15:25.400 put his other trekking pole down, or tried to use 0:15:25.440 --> 0:15:27.320 it the one that he had just snapped in half 0:15:27.440 --> 0:15:29.560 or was the shape of an elk. And so when 0:15:29.600 --> 0:15:33.480 he did that, and that support wasn't there. He goes 0:15:33.520 --> 0:15:37.160 down foom under the water, I mean, just like that, 0:15:37.600 --> 0:15:41.720 and now he pops up out of the water and 0:15:41.760 --> 0:15:44.680 it just happens like almost slow motion. He pops up 0:15:44.680 --> 0:15:47.040 out of the water and his eyes are like saucers 0:15:47.080 --> 0:15:50.760 in his mouth. He's just gasping for air, just like that, 0:15:50.920 --> 0:15:53.160 and he's floating down the river like a rubber ducky 0:15:53.200 --> 0:15:55.200 game at the fair. And I'm imagining that as he 0:15:55.280 --> 0:15:57.240 comes by, I'm just gonna grab hold of him and 0:15:57.320 --> 0:16:00.360 just like pull him right to the bank, and you know, 0:16:00.760 --> 0:16:03.680 everything's gonna be okay. But as he comes by, and 0:16:03.680 --> 0:16:05.880 he's got the carribou antlers on his back, and again 0:16:05.920 --> 0:16:10.000 that was a mistake of mine. As I grab him 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:12.600 and I try to pull him to the bank, I 0:16:12.680 --> 0:16:14.560 realize I should have been pulling in him at about 0:16:14.560 --> 0:16:17.200 a forty five degree and go downstream, And I learned 0:16:17.240 --> 0:16:19.360 that after the fact. But as I pull him, I'm 0:16:19.360 --> 0:16:21.960 getting headway, and all of a sudden, he gets perpendicular 0:16:22.000 --> 0:16:24.200 to the current where he's straight out from me and 0:16:24.280 --> 0:16:26.360 I'm pulling, and then the next thing I know, he's 0:16:26.520 --> 0:16:30.000 just a little bit downstream of me, and then all 0:16:30.000 --> 0:16:32.200 of a sudden, I feel the power of that water 0:16:32.360 --> 0:16:36.880 on his body, his pack, those caribou antlers, and I'm 0:16:36.920 --> 0:16:39.280 getting headway, but then all of a sudden, it just 0:16:39.440 --> 0:16:41.760 I'm powerless, and I am pulled right out into the 0:16:41.760 --> 0:16:45.920 current with Don, and all of a sudden, the bottom 0:16:46.000 --> 0:16:48.480 goes from underneath us, like we can't feel the bottom 0:16:48.480 --> 0:16:50.920 in our feet at all, and we're like crappies just 0:16:50.960 --> 0:16:54.760 trying to get our mouth to the surface. And I'm 0:16:54.760 --> 0:16:58.800 a pretty good swimmer. Don can just maybe stay alive 0:16:58.840 --> 0:17:01.960 on a perfect you know, a perfect pool in a 0:17:01.960 --> 0:17:04.880 perfect day. It's about all he can really do as 0:17:04.880 --> 0:17:08.479 far as swimming. But right below us, this sixty seventy 0:17:08.560 --> 0:17:12.400 yards stretch of river narrows down to a ten yard channel, 0:17:12.480 --> 0:17:15.199 if you will, and it's like raging white water. You 0:17:15.240 --> 0:17:18.520 can tell that there's a big dip in the bottom 0:17:18.560 --> 0:17:22.720 of the river there, and so that's about twenty thirty 0:17:22.800 --> 0:17:26.560 yards below us, maybe forty, And then it makes a 0:17:26.560 --> 0:17:29.320 hard ninety degree bend, and I just tell myself, Man, 0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:33.280 if we get to there, we're dead. And I'm yelling 0:17:33.320 --> 0:17:35.520 at Don, get your pack off, get your pack off, 0:17:35.560 --> 0:17:37.480 and I'm reaching for him as I got a hold 0:17:37.480 --> 0:17:39.960 of him, and I'm trying to find his belt of 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:41.800 his pack to try to undo it, but I can't 0:17:41.840 --> 0:17:44.320 find it, and Don's face is just like right in 0:17:44.359 --> 0:17:47.080 front of mine, and right away, his fear just kicks in. 0:17:47.320 --> 0:17:50.640 As a kid who nearly drowned and his whole life, 0:17:50.680 --> 0:17:53.040 he's his only fear, he said, was death by drowning, 0:17:53.240 --> 0:17:55.120 and he just yells at me, Is this the end? 0:17:55.200 --> 0:17:57.280 Is this the end? And I'm like, get your pack off, 0:17:57.280 --> 0:18:00.520 get your pack off. I can't find his buckle anywhere, 0:18:01.440 --> 0:18:03.520 and all of a sudden, I just realized, like Don's 0:18:03.520 --> 0:18:06.480 in shock. And at that moment, I realize like I 0:18:06.640 --> 0:18:11.320 either let go or hang on, and ahead is what 0:18:11.400 --> 0:18:13.800 I call it, just a raging torrent, because that's basically 0:18:13.840 --> 0:18:16.400 what it was. And I'm just like, if we go there, 0:18:17.280 --> 0:18:19.800 we're dead. If we get that far, if we get 0:18:19.800 --> 0:18:22.960 that far, Don's dead and maybe I got a chance. 0:18:23.840 --> 0:18:26.680 And I just realized as like I've got a decision 0:18:26.720 --> 0:18:29.720 to make either a hang on or I let go. 0:18:30.000 --> 0:18:32.600 And at that moment, I just figured, you know what, 0:18:32.800 --> 0:18:34.600 I'm as good with God as I'll ever be. My 0:18:34.640 --> 0:18:36.800 wife knows who I am, my kids know who I am. 0:18:36.920 --> 0:18:39.600 What I stand for what I believe, and I just figured, 0:18:39.640 --> 0:18:42.400 you know, what, if today's the day, if it's if 0:18:42.440 --> 0:18:46.439 Don dies, I die with him. And it's almost like, 0:18:46.760 --> 0:18:48.760 I don't know, maybe within a second, you know, Don's 0:18:48.760 --> 0:18:51.200 still screaming, is this the end? And I'm just trying 0:18:51.200 --> 0:18:54.199 to tread water and swim side stroke with him and 0:18:54.280 --> 0:18:59.120 my toe and in tow and right just right as 0:18:59.160 --> 0:19:02.240 we hit that that lip where that torrent, the angry 0:19:02.280 --> 0:19:05.720 torrent starts, I'm side stroking and all of a sudden, 0:19:05.800 --> 0:19:08.560 I feel gravel in my toes and I start digging 0:19:08.560 --> 0:19:10.800 the toes, my toes into the gravel, and I get 0:19:10.840 --> 0:19:13.320 a couple of steps, and I take about two steps 0:19:13.359 --> 0:19:16.000 towards the shore as much as I possibly could, and 0:19:16.040 --> 0:19:17.639 we're kind of coming up out of the water, but 0:19:17.720 --> 0:19:20.439 we're still being sucked down into that torrent. And I 0:19:20.640 --> 0:19:23.480 just done, and I kind of both I guess lunge 0:19:23.560 --> 0:19:25.840 or in my mind, I'm just lunging, trying to heave 0:19:25.920 --> 0:19:29.520 us both towards short and just prey that wherever we land, 0:19:30.240 --> 0:19:33.040 there's not enough current to push us down into that torrent. 0:19:33.840 --> 0:19:36.760 And when we lunge and we land, we're about we 0:19:36.880 --> 0:19:40.600 basically went underwater, but it was slack enough that we 0:19:40.760 --> 0:19:43.520 stayed there. And so we get up and like, Don's 0:19:43.560 --> 0:19:47.919 cough and water and I'm coughing water, and you know, 0:19:47.960 --> 0:19:50.320 we just Mike is there right there, because he was 0:19:50.359 --> 0:19:52.280 already across the river. He's like, are you guys okay? 0:19:52.359 --> 0:19:54.520 We're like, yeah, we get his pack off, or like, 0:19:54.560 --> 0:19:56.920 where's your rifle? He lost his rifle in the drink. 0:19:56.960 --> 0:19:59.480 He's like, I don't care. I've just never been so 0:19:59.560 --> 0:20:04.159 happy to alive, you know. And yeah, I learned a 0:20:04.200 --> 0:20:06.199 lot on that hunt. Greg. He was able to make 0:20:06.240 --> 0:20:08.560 it across no problem. Later after that, we made it 0:20:08.600 --> 0:20:10.640 back to camp and we get Don all dried out, 0:20:10.720 --> 0:20:13.360 you know, I mean I made a ton of mistakes. 0:20:13.359 --> 0:20:15.040 I mean, there's just no doubt about it. I let 0:20:15.119 --> 0:20:18.000 my pride, my ego and the pressure the pressure, and 0:20:18.040 --> 0:20:20.399 I kept, you know, I just pushed the envelope and 0:20:20.440 --> 0:20:21.960 I knew I was doing it, but I thought I'd 0:20:22.000 --> 0:20:24.480 get away with it. And it almost cost a man 0:20:24.560 --> 0:20:29.440 his life. So we get back to camp and the 0:20:29.480 --> 0:20:33.119 weather later that evening it clears up and Matt was 0:20:33.119 --> 0:20:35.640 able to fly in and he was there to pick 0:20:35.720 --> 0:20:37.679 up meat. But in the end we just decided that 0:20:37.840 --> 0:20:40.359 we'd fly Don out that night too, because we were 0:20:40.359 --> 0:20:43.000 gonna have to move the next day. Anyway. Our camp 0:20:43.080 --> 0:20:46.000 was more or less flooding out. But Don said that 0:20:46.720 --> 0:20:48.840 when he was flying out that night, he said, he 0:20:49.119 --> 0:20:52.520 found himself looking back as long as he possibly could, 0:20:52.560 --> 0:20:56.240 and he only did he look forward when he could 0:20:56.280 --> 0:20:59.240 no longer see the camp. And he said, for some reason, 0:20:59.359 --> 0:21:01.480 he goes, I, I didn't want to look forward, and 0:21:01.520 --> 0:21:04.240 he said, when I did look forward, he said, I 0:21:04.440 --> 0:21:10.199 realized that in Don said this, Don speaking that my 0:21:10.359 --> 0:21:13.840 whole life I was looking back. I was looking back, 0:21:13.920 --> 0:21:16.679 and that fear of drowning, he said, I realized that 0:21:16.720 --> 0:21:19.840 it almost that fear almost killed me. And he said, 0:21:19.880 --> 0:21:23.119 I realized that at this point now, I'm never going 0:21:23.200 --> 0:21:25.480 to let that happen again. I'm always going to look 0:21:25.520 --> 0:21:29.080 forward and don't look back with fear and regret. And 0:21:29.119 --> 0:21:32.520 to this day, Don says that he wouldn't change a 0:21:32.560 --> 0:21:35.359 thing about that hunt, because it changed the trajectory of 0:21:35.359 --> 0:21:41.480 his life forever. And what I've learned in Alaska hunting 0:21:41.520 --> 0:21:44.320 adventures is that adversity is one of two things. It's 0:21:44.359 --> 0:21:47.639 either cement that draws the people together or it's a 0:21:47.680 --> 0:21:51.240 wedge that drives them apart. And every Alaska hunting adventure 0:21:51.280 --> 0:21:56.480 brings a new adversity, it's a new challenge. And what 0:21:56.520 --> 0:22:01.040 I've discovered in life is that on the other side 0:22:01.040 --> 0:22:09.119 of fear his freedom. 0:22:09.240 --> 0:22:12.679 That was a wild story. I've been following Billy for 0:22:12.760 --> 0:22:16.239 over a decade, watching his documentary videos about Alaska, and 0:22:16.280 --> 0:22:20.119 I read his book, Alaska and Me years ago. Billy 0:22:20.200 --> 0:22:23.000 is now a hunting consultant helping hunters who are wanting 0:22:23.000 --> 0:22:25.080 to go on big hunts, and he's doing a lot 0:22:25.080 --> 0:22:28.119 of public speaking events at churches and for groups all 0:22:28.160 --> 0:22:32.159 across the country about his adventures in Alaska. He's easy 0:22:32.200 --> 0:22:37.240 to find online if you're looking for him. Our next 0:22:37.240 --> 0:22:40.960 story hails from the high altitudes of the Alaskan wilderness 0:22:40.960 --> 0:22:46.120 in Mountaincoat Country. Years ago, Alaskan resident Carrie Kegler, at 0:22:46.160 --> 0:22:49.240 my request, wrote a story for US at Bear Hunting 0:22:49.359 --> 0:22:52.359 Magazine about a black bear she killed that was missing 0:22:52.440 --> 0:22:55.560 two thirds of its lower jaw and had apparently been 0:22:55.600 --> 0:22:59.520 without it, presumably for years. The beast was happy, fat, 0:22:59.520 --> 0:23:02.680 and old when she wrote this story. It was clear 0:23:02.720 --> 0:23:06.520 to me then that Carrie wasn't your average outdoors person. 0:23:07.359 --> 0:23:11.280 Here's her story that we'll call Goat Country Night. 0:23:13.200 --> 0:23:16.200 My name is Carrie Kegler. I've been an Alaska resident 0:23:16.359 --> 0:23:19.240 nearly my entire life. My family moved up here when 0:23:19.240 --> 0:23:21.560 I was about four, so it's pretty much all I've 0:23:21.560 --> 0:23:26.119 ever known, and grew up in a hunting and fishing family, 0:23:26.280 --> 0:23:30.879 really outdoorsy. Our dad got us started with hunting and 0:23:30.920 --> 0:23:34.280 fishing and archery when we were really young. I believe 0:23:34.320 --> 0:23:37.560 my brother and I got our archery certifications when we 0:23:37.560 --> 0:23:42.040 were probably fourteen or fifteen. So kind of give you 0:23:42.080 --> 0:23:47.200 an idea there. Like our background, So as an Alaska resident, 0:23:47.680 --> 0:23:51.119 we have a lot of opportunity here. We don't like 0:23:51.160 --> 0:23:55.000 to brag about it, but we're very fortunate in that 0:23:55.080 --> 0:23:58.160 in one year you could have a number of tags 0:23:58.200 --> 0:24:03.800 in your pocket. The generality you could have black tailed deer, 0:24:04.600 --> 0:24:09.840 five of them, caribou, moose, dull sheep. They're very generous 0:24:10.080 --> 0:24:13.520 with the opportunity here. The bear hunters, we love it. 0:24:13.960 --> 0:24:18.080 You could take three black bears per season, and the 0:24:18.119 --> 0:24:24.600 season ends on June thirtieth and then begins on July first, 0:24:24.720 --> 0:24:29.160 so that's six bears a year. You know. You could 0:24:29.200 --> 0:24:35.959 take one brown bear per season. As well lots of opportunity. 0:24:37.200 --> 0:24:41.200 So the story that I was going to share, it's 0:24:41.240 --> 0:24:46.720 my second goat hunt ever. But in the process we 0:24:46.840 --> 0:24:51.320 learned a lot, also got some reminders of things that 0:24:52.160 --> 0:24:56.119 you just don't do or maybe you should do. I 0:24:56.119 --> 0:24:58.359 guess I go back to kind of where this hunt 0:24:58.480 --> 0:25:03.399 began in February of every year, it's kind of like 0:25:03.480 --> 0:25:07.280 Christmas for us because we get to find out whether 0:25:07.359 --> 0:25:11.720 or not we drew a tag. This year was in 0:25:11.800 --> 0:25:17.840 twenty eighteen, and I rarely ever get the opportunity to 0:25:18.440 --> 0:25:22.960 look up my own name. Yeah, it's one of those 0:25:23.000 --> 0:25:25.840 deals where by the time I wake up in the morning, 0:25:25.880 --> 0:25:29.840 a friend of mine has already texted me and said, hey, congratulations, 0:25:29.880 --> 0:25:33.159 you drew this, or you do that, or oh bummer, 0:25:33.359 --> 0:25:36.840 next time, maybe you'll have better luck. So this year, 0:25:36.880 --> 0:25:39.320 if my friend Ryan had already texted me and said, hey, 0:25:39.640 --> 0:25:42.440 congrats on the goat tag and uh, I'm sure you'll 0:25:42.440 --> 0:25:46.280 do great well. At that time, I didn't have a 0:25:46.359 --> 0:25:49.639 hunting partner, and it's actually pretty tough to find somebody 0:25:49.640 --> 0:25:52.520 that will commit to one to a goat hunt. That is, 0:25:53.400 --> 0:25:57.480 and I had just started dating John Krueger. I told 0:25:57.560 --> 0:25:59.960 him that I drew the tag and he said, great, 0:26:00.640 --> 0:26:03.320 are you know when are we gonna go? So from 0:26:04.000 --> 0:26:06.199 there we kind of made our plans. And at the 0:26:06.240 --> 0:26:11.359 time he was living in Arkansas for work, and so 0:26:12.000 --> 0:26:15.520 we'd made our plans and he flew up here. This 0:26:15.640 --> 0:26:20.080 hunt took place in early September. We had incredible weather. 0:26:20.320 --> 0:26:25.400 You couldn't ask for better weather, clear, cold, great visibility, 0:26:25.840 --> 0:26:30.000 you could see for thirty miles, just just perfect. So 0:26:31.000 --> 0:26:36.919 we flew into a glacial lake and from there we 0:26:36.960 --> 0:26:41.360 got dropped off. We actually we were being dropped off 0:26:41.400 --> 0:26:45.080 as four other goat hunters were being picked up, and 0:26:46.080 --> 0:26:49.360 they were actually successful. Two of the four guys had 0:26:49.400 --> 0:26:52.320 goat tags. They both got, one got a billy, one 0:26:52.359 --> 0:26:56.879 took a nanny. I was surprised at the sparseness of 0:26:56.920 --> 0:26:59.000 the game bag for the fella that had the nanny 0:27:00.040 --> 0:27:02.879 and asked him what had happened, and he said, well, 0:27:03.400 --> 0:27:06.199 when I shot her, she took a leap off of 0:27:06.240 --> 0:27:10.880 a cliff and ended up down at the bottom and 0:27:11.119 --> 0:27:14.280 pretty smashed up. So he ended up climbing down there 0:27:14.320 --> 0:27:18.960 repelling actually and got her. But there wasn't a whole 0:27:19.000 --> 0:27:25.320 lot left when you're hunting goats, they're almost always, especially 0:27:25.480 --> 0:27:29.520 by September, they're gonna be above you know, they're gonna 0:27:29.520 --> 0:27:33.160 be above Alpine. They're gonna be in the rocks, they're 0:27:33.200 --> 0:27:37.040 gonna be they're gonna be high. You can expect to 0:27:37.080 --> 0:27:41.000 see them skyline sometimes and they're gonna be in all 0:27:41.040 --> 0:27:45.600 the little nooks and crannies that and they'll perch themselves 0:27:45.680 --> 0:27:47.320 up there, and they do that so that they can 0:27:47.359 --> 0:27:50.800 get a real good view of everything that's happening below them. 0:27:51.160 --> 0:27:53.960 And they don't like things to be above them. And 0:27:54.240 --> 0:27:58.320 if you're gonna be successful at taking one, you got 0:27:58.320 --> 0:28:02.880 to be in good shape, of course, but also patient. 0:28:03.640 --> 0:28:07.040 You can kind of pattern them for the most part. 0:28:07.240 --> 0:28:11.000 I mean, if you find one that you are certain 0:28:11.560 --> 0:28:14.960 is a billy, they've got characteristics that set them apart 0:28:15.000 --> 0:28:19.600 from a nanny. They're usually a little dirtier, their horns, 0:28:19.680 --> 0:28:25.600 have more masks, but they're also usually alone. So for 0:28:25.720 --> 0:28:30.160 this hunt, we didn't actually get to pattern them so much. 0:28:30.720 --> 0:28:35.320 We really only came across one one billy this time. 0:28:36.080 --> 0:28:40.120 And when we got to the hunting location, we made camp, 0:28:40.560 --> 0:28:43.720 set everything up, took another look at our topo maps, 0:28:43.800 --> 0:28:47.440 and we're just trying to make a game plan, familiarize 0:28:47.440 --> 0:28:52.040 ourselves with the area, and took a peek around. So 0:28:52.080 --> 0:28:56.480 we made camp and went up and over, like I 0:28:56.520 --> 0:28:58.720 would call it, like the foot of this mountain, just 0:28:58.720 --> 0:29:00.280 to kind of get an idea of what was on 0:29:00.320 --> 0:29:02.800 the other side. I mean, you can study those topo 0:29:02.880 --> 0:29:06.600 maps all you want, but you really get a feel 0:29:06.720 --> 0:29:10.000 for what it is that's there when you actually get 0:29:10.040 --> 0:29:13.200 your eyes on it. So we went up and over 0:29:14.000 --> 0:29:17.200 just exploring because in the state of Alaska, you can't 0:29:17.280 --> 0:29:22.400 hunt and fly the same day. So we went up 0:29:22.440 --> 0:29:26.920 and over and just did some exploring and you know, curiosities, 0:29:27.000 --> 0:29:29.720 getting us what's over this ridge, what's over this one? 0:29:30.320 --> 0:29:35.880 And before we knew it, we spotted a goat from there. 0:29:36.280 --> 0:29:38.760 We kind of just hung out, put him to bed, 0:29:38.800 --> 0:29:42.000 so to speak, and went back to camp, made a 0:29:42.000 --> 0:29:45.000 game plan for the next day, and then as soon 0:29:45.040 --> 0:29:48.920 as it was light, we put some gear in our 0:29:48.920 --> 0:29:52.200 in our packs and headed on our way. And one 0:29:52.280 --> 0:29:54.880 of the things I'll mention too, with putting gear in 0:29:54.920 --> 0:29:56.920 your pack before you leave for just what you think 0:29:57.000 --> 0:30:01.160 is going to be a day hunt. If you've got 0:30:01.160 --> 0:30:04.200 that extra puffy you think it's going to be a 0:30:04.240 --> 0:30:07.840 few ounces too heavy. Put it in your bag. Put 0:30:07.840 --> 0:30:11.480 it in your bag. And there's a reason I say that. 0:30:13.360 --> 0:30:17.120 So as we made our way away from camp, we 0:30:17.160 --> 0:30:19.920 had a pin marked the last location we saw the 0:30:19.960 --> 0:30:23.760 go the evening before. The way that the terrain in 0:30:23.800 --> 0:30:28.680 this specific area looks is you've got a glacial lake 0:30:28.880 --> 0:30:31.240 that we were dropped off at, and then you've got 0:30:31.280 --> 0:30:36.120 a big gravel valley that was carved out by that 0:30:36.160 --> 0:30:40.000 glacier that left that lake. And as you get closer 0:30:40.040 --> 0:30:44.280 and closer to the toe of that glacier, you've got 0:30:44.320 --> 0:30:49.360 these braids, these gravel braids of just meandering little creeks 0:30:49.360 --> 0:30:53.400 and streams, and it's all run off from this glacier 0:30:53.440 --> 0:30:57.280 that's essentially melting away. And then in front of that 0:30:57.320 --> 0:31:02.600 glacier you'll see these big tills, which are huge mounds 0:31:02.680 --> 0:31:07.240 of just whatever that glacier left behind. So we were 0:31:07.280 --> 0:31:09.960 near the lake and we were making our way. Instead 0:31:09.960 --> 0:31:11.880 of going up and over the mountain like we did 0:31:11.880 --> 0:31:17.360 the evening before, we went up this valley and decided 0:31:17.960 --> 0:31:21.000 about where we were going to start going up and 0:31:21.080 --> 0:31:24.600 over on the other end of this mountain, closer to 0:31:24.600 --> 0:31:29.560 the glacier. So we did that. We had a pretty 0:31:29.600 --> 0:31:35.840 decent ascent. Nothing nothing scary, nothing really notable. I mean 0:31:36.000 --> 0:31:40.040 it was tough. It was probably about twelve hundred feet 0:31:40.560 --> 0:31:45.800 elevation change, I would say from the bottom. So after 0:31:45.920 --> 0:31:50.080 hours of sitting patiently and glassing and looking, John and 0:31:50.120 --> 0:31:53.440 I decided that we were just going to reposition ourselves 0:31:53.440 --> 0:31:55.440 and cover a little bit more you know, real estate, 0:31:55.520 --> 0:32:01.480 by splitting up. So we're probably at this point about 0:32:01.520 --> 0:32:04.719 two and a half miles or so from our camp. 0:32:05.680 --> 0:32:08.360 So I get to like a little rocky outcropping and 0:32:09.680 --> 0:32:13.760 just kind of looking around and I saw something glimmer 0:32:14.000 --> 0:32:18.840 which it caught my eye. It almost seemed glassy, like 0:32:18.880 --> 0:32:21.880 it didn't belong, you know. I took my biino was 0:32:21.920 --> 0:32:25.920 out and sure enough it was that billy goat. And 0:32:25.960 --> 0:32:29.720 what I had seen was the sun caught his horn 0:32:30.120 --> 0:32:32.800 in a way that it shined like you could actually 0:32:32.800 --> 0:32:35.840 see the shine on it. That's what gave him up. 0:32:36.560 --> 0:32:40.600 And so I went and found John, and we had 0:32:40.600 --> 0:32:45.160 about thirteen hundred yards I guess between the goat and 0:32:45.240 --> 0:32:49.520 us at that point, but we were also probably about 0:32:49.960 --> 0:32:54.280 three or four hundred feet above him in elevation, so 0:32:54.880 --> 0:32:57.600 we had to stay off the skyline and out of 0:32:57.640 --> 0:33:00.680 sight and of course be quiet. So we made our 0:33:00.760 --> 0:33:05.120 path and stuck to it and got to within two 0:33:05.160 --> 0:33:10.240 hundred and eighty yards and he was completely asleep, totally 0:33:10.320 --> 0:33:14.480 zonked out. And so I get set up on this 0:33:14.960 --> 0:33:18.360 really big flat rock because we didn't know how long 0:33:18.400 --> 0:33:21.040 he was going to be there. Sometimes they'll take naps. 0:33:21.280 --> 0:33:23.520 You catch him when they first lay down, and they 0:33:23.520 --> 0:33:29.000 could be napping for hours. So I get set up 0:33:29.280 --> 0:33:35.520 and I did a couple of dry fires, and at 0:33:35.520 --> 0:33:38.280 one point I did a second dry fire, and I'm 0:33:38.320 --> 0:33:43.000 absolutely certain that he heard it. Then he looks up 0:33:43.720 --> 0:33:47.360 and John's moving around. He is a pretty tall guy, 0:33:48.400 --> 0:33:51.880 and I can tell through the scope that this goat 0:33:51.960 --> 0:33:54.720 sees him moving around, and I tell him, hey, he 0:33:54.840 --> 0:33:58.440 sees you, and John says, well, good, maybe he'll get up, 0:33:59.480 --> 0:34:03.280 and I said, uh, yeah, hopefully. So it happened very 0:34:03.400 --> 0:34:08.239 very quickly, but he did get up. I fired the 0:34:08.320 --> 0:34:13.920 moment he turned broadside and he fell right down, never moved. 0:34:15.320 --> 0:34:18.279 I was fortunate this one didn't go anywhere. We got 0:34:18.320 --> 0:34:22.200 down to him, took the obligatory photos and all that, 0:34:22.400 --> 0:34:26.960 and started field dressing him and caping him out. It 0:34:27.040 --> 0:34:30.080 had to be about four o'clock or so by the 0:34:30.120 --> 0:34:34.239 time that we left the kill site. So we got 0:34:34.280 --> 0:34:36.600 all the meat and everything in our packs and we're 0:34:36.640 --> 0:34:41.560 heading back towards camp. This is where we made We 0:34:41.600 --> 0:34:45.040 made a mistake, and I would say it's we broke. 0:34:45.920 --> 0:34:48.320 We broke one of those cardinal rules of mountain hunting, 0:34:48.480 --> 0:34:52.080 and that being you go down the same way you 0:34:52.120 --> 0:34:56.880 come up unless there is no other navigable route that's safe. 0:34:57.920 --> 0:35:01.640 We decided to take a route down that we saw 0:35:01.680 --> 0:35:04.399 on the way up that looked like it was going 0:35:04.440 --> 0:35:07.719 to be a lot easier. That was an illusion, as 0:35:07.719 --> 0:35:10.399 it often is. You can look at a mountain from 0:35:10.400 --> 0:35:14.239 one end to the next and it looks smooth and 0:35:15.040 --> 0:35:19.359 you know, unassuming, but there's cracks and crevices in there 0:35:19.560 --> 0:35:24.359 that you don't see unless you're right there. We took 0:35:24.400 --> 0:35:28.080 an alternative route down, thinking it was going to save time, 0:35:29.040 --> 0:35:34.120 and it did the opposite. We ended up in a 0:35:34.160 --> 0:35:37.040 couple of dead ends. We ended up on top of 0:35:37.239 --> 0:35:42.200 like a huge glacial till couldn't go anywhere. There was 0:35:42.680 --> 0:35:46.439 a river that was probably hip high and going very 0:35:46.520 --> 0:35:50.400 fast underneath a big sheet of ice. We had to 0:35:50.440 --> 0:35:55.160 go back up and around. By the time that we 0:35:55.239 --> 0:35:58.920 lost the light. We'd come to a cliff face. It 0:35:58.920 --> 0:36:01.680 was about one hundred feet above where we needed to be, 0:36:02.640 --> 0:36:07.080 and although we had headlamps, they just didn't cast enough 0:36:07.200 --> 0:36:10.920 light in that kind of terrain for us to to 0:36:10.960 --> 0:36:15.160 safely navigate it. And we were, like I said, we 0:36:15.160 --> 0:36:18.239 were out of light. So the best option was for 0:36:18.320 --> 0:36:21.680 us to just stay put until we could see, and 0:36:21.680 --> 0:36:27.680 that's what we did. So again, this is September in 0:36:27.719 --> 0:36:35.000 Alaska and clear, clear skies, so that means during the 0:36:35.080 --> 0:36:37.879 day it's going to be warm, and at night it's 0:36:37.920 --> 0:36:41.800 going to freeze. It's actually going to frost more often 0:36:41.800 --> 0:36:46.239 than not when it's that clear. It was probably at 0:36:46.320 --> 0:36:50.640 night it was getting down to I would say below freezing. 0:36:51.040 --> 0:36:54.879 It was cold. It was cold, and when we got 0:36:54.920 --> 0:36:57.960 to that patch of alders where we decided that we 0:36:57.960 --> 0:37:00.759 were gonna hang out for the night, I try to 0:37:00.800 --> 0:37:04.879 sleep before it got light. We emptied our packs of 0:37:04.920 --> 0:37:08.600 our game bags full of meat, took the goat cape out, 0:37:09.120 --> 0:37:13.560 and we layered up with all the layers that we brought. 0:37:14.000 --> 0:37:17.360 And of course we both had a couple of coats, 0:37:17.440 --> 0:37:21.440 puffy coats in our tent, but we wish we'd stuffed 0:37:21.440 --> 0:37:29.000 in those backpacks because it was a monumental regret, but 0:37:29.239 --> 0:37:32.000 it was what it was, so we had to make 0:37:32.040 --> 0:37:33.640 the best of it, and there was no sense in 0:37:33.680 --> 0:37:37.720 complaining about it, and we emptied our backpacks. We climbed 0:37:37.760 --> 0:37:40.759 into our backpacks kind of like a little gunny sack, 0:37:40.800 --> 0:37:44.640 you know, and we covered up our cores with that 0:37:44.680 --> 0:37:48.399 billy goat cape and on top of those backpacks and 0:37:49.600 --> 0:37:53.440 just tried to huddle and stay as warm as we 0:37:53.480 --> 0:37:59.360 could for the duration of darkness. And I remember looking 0:37:59.440 --> 0:38:02.719 up at the sky, I think him, man, this this 0:38:02.800 --> 0:38:06.640 is gonna be awful. And it was. It was. It 0:38:06.680 --> 0:38:09.640 was the coldest I think I've ever been. It was 0:38:10.000 --> 0:38:13.480 severely cold. I think maybe the two of us maybe 0:38:13.480 --> 0:38:15.600 out an hour of sleep if you wanted to add 0:38:15.640 --> 0:38:19.000 it all up. But as soon as that sun came up, 0:38:19.480 --> 0:38:23.879 we were up with it and repacked our bags and 0:38:24.600 --> 0:38:28.120 got to it. I can't speak for John, but I 0:38:28.160 --> 0:38:31.759 know that I have never been happier to get back 0:38:31.760 --> 0:38:37.000 to my tent. We were just absolutely exhausted, and you know, 0:38:37.160 --> 0:38:41.279 like I said, like I said, we definitely left that 0:38:41.400 --> 0:38:45.440 hunt with some lessons and some reminders. You know, know 0:38:45.480 --> 0:38:49.640 your limits and don't ignore them and go down the 0:38:49.680 --> 0:38:53.040 way you came up if it's safe, and bring that 0:38:53.120 --> 0:38:56.879 extra layer with you. It was a few ounces, aren't 0:38:56.920 --> 0:38:57.440 gonna hurt you? 0:39:04.200 --> 0:39:06.520 Sleeping under a goat hide on the side of a 0:39:06.560 --> 0:39:10.520 mountain is rough, and it's certainly a pretty Alaskan thing 0:39:10.640 --> 0:39:11.000 to do. 0:39:11.880 --> 0:39:13.040 That was a good story. 0:39:14.680 --> 0:39:18.760 Well, the next story, I'm gonna tell you the best 0:39:18.800 --> 0:39:22.960 I can recall. I've never told this tale publicly, though 0:39:23.000 --> 0:39:26.680 it seared me with a humbling respect for Alaskan backcountry 0:39:26.680 --> 0:39:30.279 that has never left. It happened in twenty fifteen on 0:39:30.400 --> 0:39:34.279 my first ever trip to Alaska. I call this one 0:39:34.880 --> 0:39:35.760 the widow Maker. 0:39:37.760 --> 0:39:40.040 I want to tell you a story about Alaska. 0:39:41.000 --> 0:39:45.640 A little backstory would be that in twenty thirteen I 0:39:45.719 --> 0:39:49.320 acquired Bear Hunting Magazine. I had not worked in the 0:39:49.360 --> 0:39:53.719 outdoor industry full time before. I had done some freelance 0:39:53.760 --> 0:39:58.480 writing and published a regional hunting magazine, but twenty thirteen 0:39:58.680 --> 0:40:02.600 was major break through for me and my family. And 0:40:02.800 --> 0:40:07.359 with that magazine and that opportunity, I had already bear 0:40:07.440 --> 0:40:11.319 hunted quite a bit. But a long time dream of 0:40:11.360 --> 0:40:15.600 mine was to go brown bear hunting in Alaska, which, 0:40:15.840 --> 0:40:18.560 as you might know, for most people, that's probably out 0:40:18.600 --> 0:40:21.760 of reach because if you're not an Alaskan resident, which 0:40:21.880 --> 0:40:24.839 if you are an Alaskan resident, you can hunt just 0:40:24.880 --> 0:40:27.920 on your general tag. If you're not an Alaskan resident, 0:40:27.920 --> 0:40:30.560 you have to use an outfitter, which can be very expensive. 0:40:31.400 --> 0:40:35.240 But as things went, I remember telling my wife, I said, 0:40:35.320 --> 0:40:37.880 one day, I'm going to walk in this house and 0:40:37.920 --> 0:40:40.920 I'm going to tell you that I have secured an 0:40:40.960 --> 0:40:43.759 Alaskan brown bear hunt, and that is going to be 0:40:43.800 --> 0:40:45.560 an incredible day. 0:40:46.360 --> 0:40:48.280 Well, I thought that might. 0:40:48.120 --> 0:40:51.279 Be ten years from then, But two years later, in 0:40:51.440 --> 0:40:55.000 twenty fifteen, I had worked out a deal with a 0:40:55.080 --> 0:40:59.600 brown bear outfitter and I was going to Alaska. This 0:40:59.640 --> 0:41:02.400 would be my first time there. I for all I 0:41:02.480 --> 0:41:04.880 knew it would be the last time that ever hunted Alaska. 0:41:05.280 --> 0:41:09.879 And I remember I secured the hunt in January and 0:41:10.120 --> 0:41:14.840 the actual hunt didn't take place until September, and every 0:41:15.280 --> 0:41:18.640 spare moment that I spent that entire year, I was 0:41:18.680 --> 0:41:20.680 thinking about being in Alaska. 0:41:21.120 --> 0:41:22.840 It consumed my thoughts. 0:41:23.320 --> 0:41:27.600 Well, September came and me and my good friend Scott 0:41:27.640 --> 0:41:31.440 Brown went up there. We're hunting in south central Alaska 0:41:31.440 --> 0:41:32.480 on a river system. 0:41:32.920 --> 0:41:34.200 We flew a beaver. 0:41:34.360 --> 0:41:39.120 From civilization about forty or fifty miles. A beaver is 0:41:39.160 --> 0:41:41.799 an airplane, and we landed it on the river where 0:41:41.880 --> 0:41:45.920 we were met by the outfitter and his guides. And 0:41:46.000 --> 0:41:48.640 as guides were two young guys that I really liked 0:41:48.920 --> 0:41:51.280 still do. And after a day or two in camp 0:41:51.280 --> 0:41:55.120 with the main outfitter, we set off to Spike Camp. 0:41:55.760 --> 0:41:59.440 So me, Scott and two guides went and set up 0:41:59.480 --> 0:42:02.200 a remote camp up this river. And the way that 0:42:02.239 --> 0:42:05.759 you hunt these brown bears is that there's smaller streams 0:42:05.800 --> 0:42:11.160 that feed into this big braided river, and the salmon 0:42:11.280 --> 0:42:14.399 swim up from the ocean and they go back into 0:42:14.440 --> 0:42:18.120 the mouths of these creeks that come in from the mountains. 0:42:18.640 --> 0:42:21.359 That's where they had been born and they'd come back 0:42:21.400 --> 0:42:26.120 to spawn. There was bear sign everywhere, but I quickly 0:42:26.200 --> 0:42:29.840 realized how difficult it was to actually see a bear. 0:42:30.640 --> 0:42:33.920 This was going to be a ten day hunt, and. 0:42:33.880 --> 0:42:36.560 By the fourth or fifth day we had yet to 0:42:36.600 --> 0:42:40.040 see a brown bear. So what we would do would 0:42:40.040 --> 0:42:43.440 be mornings and evenings we would go sit on a 0:42:43.520 --> 0:42:46.480 high bank with some cover on the mouth of this 0:42:46.600 --> 0:42:49.640 creek within shooting distance of where we were seeing a 0:42:49.680 --> 0:42:53.319 lot of bear sign. I remember the first bear that 0:42:53.400 --> 0:42:57.319 I saw on the trip, which would actually be the 0:42:57.360 --> 0:43:01.640 only bears that we saw on the trip. I'm setting 0:43:01.680 --> 0:43:04.759 on the cut bank side of a bend in this 0:43:04.840 --> 0:43:08.000 big creek. You can see salmon swimming all down in 0:43:08.000 --> 0:43:11.359 front of you. It's about ten yards across to this 0:43:11.480 --> 0:43:14.719 gravel bar, and I'm sitting there with my traditional bow. 0:43:15.280 --> 0:43:18.719 This young guide who I've said I like so much, 0:43:18.800 --> 0:43:22.320 is sitting right beside me. He's got his Marlin forty 0:43:22.360 --> 0:43:26.520 five seventy backing me up with the trad bow. And 0:43:26.640 --> 0:43:30.200 this brown bear sow steps out on the gravel bar 0:43:30.440 --> 0:43:34.200 like thirty five yards away. It makes our way basically 0:43:34.239 --> 0:43:37.520 straight towards us and is inside of fifteen yards. And 0:43:37.560 --> 0:43:40.120 now remember, first of all, we can't shoot this bear 0:43:40.160 --> 0:43:43.439 because it's a sow with cubs. Secondly, it's a sow 0:43:43.520 --> 0:43:47.840 with cubs, so it's a dangerous animal. We're within fifteen 0:43:47.920 --> 0:43:50.040 yards of this bear on the ground. It does not 0:43:50.239 --> 0:43:54.600 know that we're there. And I have confidence in our 0:43:54.640 --> 0:43:58.680 situation because my buddy has his forty five seventy right 0:43:58.719 --> 0:44:01.520 over my shoulder. And all of a sudden, I start 0:44:01.560 --> 0:44:05.160 hearing a little movement right behind me, and my guide 0:44:05.400 --> 0:44:09.719 is filming with his phone over my shoulder, and when 0:44:09.760 --> 0:44:13.400 he does, he knocks his forty five seventy, which is 0:44:13.520 --> 0:44:17.440 leaned up against a tree, knocks it over. The gun 0:44:17.640 --> 0:44:21.920 falls on my shoulder, rolls down my arm, and just 0:44:22.080 --> 0:44:25.240 plops onto the ground right in front of me, which 0:44:25.400 --> 0:44:29.600 Number one is dangerous. Number two, the sow and both 0:44:29.680 --> 0:44:33.520 cubs just go lift their heads and just stare us 0:44:33.600 --> 0:44:37.839 down at less than twenty yards now, and he's got 0:44:37.840 --> 0:44:41.880 his iPhone up filming, and I'm thinking, holy cow, man, 0:44:42.520 --> 0:44:44.400 that is not a good time to make a mistake 0:44:44.560 --> 0:44:48.799 like this. And they pretty much ignored us and just 0:44:48.880 --> 0:44:53.839 continued meling around and fishing for several minutes before they 0:44:53.840 --> 0:44:57.480 were out of sight. When they left, I'll be honest 0:44:57.520 --> 0:45:01.160 with you, I scolded that dude. I was probably thirty 0:45:01.160 --> 0:45:06.040 three years old and my gud was maybe twenty one. 0:45:07.040 --> 0:45:08.640 And again I like. 0:45:08.719 --> 0:45:11.480 This kid, but I was like, hey man, you got 0:45:11.520 --> 0:45:13.120 to bring your a game around here. 0:45:13.719 --> 0:45:15.160 And we had a. 0:45:14.800 --> 0:45:19.640 Little laugh about it after I for real scolding. That 0:45:19.840 --> 0:45:24.400 was probably on day five of a ten day hunt. Well, 0:45:24.640 --> 0:45:27.160 that was the only bear we'd seen in five days 0:45:27.160 --> 0:45:30.080 between two hunters and I started asking the guys we 0:45:30.080 --> 0:45:33.160 were hunting one creek. Had we positioned our spike camp 0:45:33.200 --> 0:45:37.040 basically to hunt one creek? And that's where the salmon congregated, 0:45:37.080 --> 0:45:39.640 So that's where the bears congregated. And I said, man, 0:45:39.760 --> 0:45:42.640 is there another creek? I said, me and Scott need 0:45:42.680 --> 0:45:45.040 to split up. There's no sense in both of us 0:45:45.080 --> 0:45:47.799 hunting this same creek. We need to split up. And 0:45:47.840 --> 0:45:50.920 they said, well, there's a creek about eight miles up 0:45:50.960 --> 0:45:53.160 the river, and I said, well, why don't we go 0:45:53.280 --> 0:45:56.360 up there. I said, let's take three days worth of 0:45:56.360 --> 0:46:01.479 supplies and let's me in my guy go up there 0:46:01.680 --> 0:46:05.200 and camp on that creek and we'll leave Scott here. 0:46:05.800 --> 0:46:09.200 So we decided that's what we're gonna do. I want 0:46:09.239 --> 0:46:12.520 to describe now these braided Alaskan rivers. If you've never 0:46:12.560 --> 0:46:15.640 been on one, or seen one from the air, or 0:46:15.719 --> 0:46:17.919 been on one in the water, they are very hard 0:46:17.920 --> 0:46:22.840 to understand. This valley that we were in had big 0:46:22.880 --> 0:46:27.960 mountains almost in every direction, big snow capped, you know, 0:46:28.480 --> 0:46:32.840 nine thousand foot plus mountains, and these snow caps have 0:46:32.920 --> 0:46:37.680 been melting and feeding this river. And the river is 0:46:37.719 --> 0:46:43.799 a light grayish color from glacial till. There's big glaciers 0:46:43.880 --> 0:46:47.720 up in the heads of these valleys. And this river, 0:46:48.120 --> 0:46:50.520 the further you go up it, you're going towards the 0:46:50.560 --> 0:46:53.680 head of the valley, the swifter the water gets and 0:46:53.719 --> 0:46:58.759 the narrower it gets. And this river in places was 0:46:59.400 --> 0:47:02.360 over a half half mile wide, but in that half 0:47:02.480 --> 0:47:07.640 mile there might be twenty five to fifty separate braids 0:47:08.160 --> 0:47:13.600 that were separated by gravel bars in willow flats. And 0:47:14.160 --> 0:47:16.960 the best way that I can describe an Alaskan river 0:47:17.120 --> 0:47:18.960 like that is they are angry. 0:47:20.000 --> 0:47:20.840 I mean, it looks like. 0:47:20.920 --> 0:47:24.800 A war zone in those braided rivers, with all the 0:47:24.840 --> 0:47:28.600 stumps and snags in this gray water that you can't 0:47:28.640 --> 0:47:31.440 see more than six inches if you're standing in it, 0:47:31.840 --> 0:47:33.919 and you're in water up to your shins, you can't 0:47:33.960 --> 0:47:36.880 see your feet. And because the water is colored the 0:47:36.880 --> 0:47:39.120 way that it is, you can't tell how deep some 0:47:39.160 --> 0:47:43.040 of these channels are. So we had a sixteen foot 0:47:43.440 --> 0:47:46.759 aluminum john boat with a jet motor on it. This 0:47:46.920 --> 0:47:51.400 was a really strong vessel design for going up these rivers, 0:47:52.080 --> 0:47:55.359 and me and my god set out with a couple 0:47:55.400 --> 0:47:59.120 of days supplies, going eight miles up the river. But 0:47:59.160 --> 0:48:02.360 the braids change that he didn't know the way. He 0:48:02.400 --> 0:48:05.160 didn't there was no main channel to go on, so 0:48:05.239 --> 0:48:07.279 it was really hard to tell. You know, do you 0:48:07.280 --> 0:48:09.520 go up that braid, that braid there might be a 0:48:09.560 --> 0:48:12.000 big braid that looks like the way you need to go, 0:48:12.480 --> 0:48:14.920 But when you get up there, it very quickly turns 0:48:15.160 --> 0:48:20.319 four inches deep, and so you'll be powering through and 0:48:20.480 --> 0:48:23.080 just gravel out, and then we'd have to jump out 0:48:23.080 --> 0:48:27.000 of the boat, push it, and then go back downstream 0:48:27.360 --> 0:48:30.440 back to the why and then take the other braid 0:48:30.480 --> 0:48:32.760 and we'd go up the braid, and we're just working 0:48:32.760 --> 0:48:36.320 our way, and we got about two miles from camp, 0:48:36.360 --> 0:48:39.600 and it had taken us a while, and we're not 0:48:39.640 --> 0:48:42.160 sure if we can make it eight miles. But I 0:48:42.200 --> 0:48:46.359 am dead set on getting up there. And I'll tell 0:48:46.360 --> 0:48:49.480 you why. For me, this was what I believed was 0:48:49.480 --> 0:48:52.920 a once in a lifetime hunt and probably what scared 0:48:53.000 --> 0:48:55.520 me more than anything. And it's kind of dumb to 0:48:55.560 --> 0:49:00.160 say this, but was not bringing home a bear. You've 0:49:00.160 --> 0:49:03.560 ever been on a big hunt, you probably understand what 0:49:03.600 --> 0:49:07.920 I'm saying. So every time that one of the braids 0:49:07.960 --> 0:49:11.520 would peter out and gravel out, I would say let's 0:49:11.600 --> 0:49:14.400 go back, let's go try another one, and we'd push 0:49:14.440 --> 0:49:18.360 the boat out of the gravel and float back downstream, 0:49:18.680 --> 0:49:22.200 spin the boat around, and go try to find another shoot. 0:49:22.400 --> 0:49:24.160 And we'd get up there and there'd be a huge 0:49:24.280 --> 0:49:25.200 log across it. 0:49:25.480 --> 0:49:26.320 We'd have to. 0:49:26.160 --> 0:49:30.040 Turn the boat around, go back down river two hundred 0:49:30.120 --> 0:49:34.200 yards and go up another braid, and a small braid 0:49:34.280 --> 0:49:36.920 might turn into a big braid, and it was just 0:49:36.960 --> 0:49:42.280 this maze of little streams going through these willow flats. 0:49:43.880 --> 0:49:48.680 Well, we're now several miles from camp, and we gravel. 0:49:48.280 --> 0:49:52.600 Out and we'd push the boat back, get it spun around, 0:49:53.600 --> 0:49:56.640 and get out into the main part of the river, 0:49:57.000 --> 0:50:00.560 which at this point is probably twenty yards wide and 0:50:00.640 --> 0:50:04.840 deep and fast flowing. And I'm standing in the bow 0:50:05.080 --> 0:50:09.200 of the boat, and we're going downstream, but I'm facing upstream, 0:50:09.280 --> 0:50:11.799 so my back is to the direction that we're going. 0:50:12.960 --> 0:50:15.160 My guid he's in the back of the boat, standing 0:50:15.239 --> 0:50:18.760 up with his left hand on the tiller of the motor, 0:50:18.840 --> 0:50:23.160 which is the twist throttle control and steering stick of 0:50:23.200 --> 0:50:28.239 that jet motor, and he is looking back upstream. We're 0:50:28.239 --> 0:50:31.160 trying to find which braid to go on. So both 0:50:31.239 --> 0:50:35.560 of us have our backs turned to the direction that 0:50:35.640 --> 0:50:39.279 we're going. And if you remember, I said that these 0:50:39.320 --> 0:50:43.440 Alaskan rivers are angry and they eat the banks, and 0:50:43.760 --> 0:50:46.719 there's trees that are just waiting to fall into the 0:50:46.800 --> 0:50:51.359 river around every cutbank where the pressure of the outside 0:50:51.840 --> 0:50:56.759 bend of the river is eroding away the bank. So 0:50:56.840 --> 0:50:59.719 I've got my back facing the direction that we're going, 0:51:00.200 --> 0:51:03.840 and just all of a sudden, I just feel a 0:51:04.360 --> 0:51:09.920 incredibly powerful just lam just slammed me in the back, 0:51:10.920 --> 0:51:14.040 and I just go tumbling through the boat. 0:51:15.040 --> 0:51:15.800 Head first. 0:51:15.960 --> 0:51:19.920 I go down and my head is like imagine my 0:51:20.120 --> 0:51:23.400 head on the touching the boat, the only part of 0:51:23.480 --> 0:51:26.400 my body touching the boat, and my feet straight up 0:51:26.440 --> 0:51:29.600 in the air. That is the angle to which I 0:51:29.760 --> 0:51:33.080 saw the culprit for what had just happened, because I 0:51:33.200 --> 0:51:37.239 see what we called widow makers. It was about an 0:51:37.280 --> 0:51:41.000 eight inch log that hung about ten or twelve feet 0:51:41.040 --> 0:51:44.440 out from the cut bank of that river, a dead log. 0:51:44.800 --> 0:51:47.880 And I see that dead log while I'm upside down 0:51:48.480 --> 0:51:50.160 hit the guide right. 0:51:50.000 --> 0:51:50.760 In the chest. 0:51:50.880 --> 0:51:54.600 He's standing in the very back holding the stick, and bam, 0:51:54.719 --> 0:51:58.080 that log takes him and we're going as fast as 0:51:58.080 --> 0:52:00.080 the current is taking us down the river with a 0:52:00.120 --> 0:52:02.719 little bit of throttle, and it hits him right in 0:52:02.760 --> 0:52:06.240 the chest, and I see him go head over heels. 0:52:06.080 --> 0:52:10.319 Out the back of the boat, splash. 0:52:09.800 --> 0:52:12.680 And I am now and now that's what I saw 0:52:12.680 --> 0:52:14.960 when I was upside down. And then I complete the 0:52:15.000 --> 0:52:17.960 somersault and I am now in the back of the 0:52:18.000 --> 0:52:21.960 sixteen foot boat. I scrambled to my feet and I 0:52:22.000 --> 0:52:26.800 see the guide in the water. He's wearing breathable waiters, 0:52:26.920 --> 0:52:31.319 like breatheable fishing waiters. He's completely submerged. I see him 0:52:31.360 --> 0:52:34.920 come up out of the water gasp for air. I 0:52:35.040 --> 0:52:38.319 know that he has all our communication equipment on him. 0:52:38.360 --> 0:52:40.919 He's got the SAT phone on him, he had our 0:52:41.000 --> 0:52:45.239 fire starting equipment. He had all the important stuff on him. 0:52:46.239 --> 0:52:50.160 And here he is going downstream and I'm in the boat. 0:52:50.239 --> 0:52:50.520 Now. 0:52:51.200 --> 0:52:53.160 All I knew to do was just push that stick 0:52:53.200 --> 0:52:55.360 as hard as I could to the left and just 0:52:55.560 --> 0:52:59.120 wom just ram the boat up onto a gravel bar. 0:52:59.360 --> 0:53:00.960 I just needed to make this stop. 0:53:01.840 --> 0:53:04.279 And I boom, get up on the gravel bar, and 0:53:04.320 --> 0:53:07.480 I'm yelling this guy's name, and I see him just 0:53:07.560 --> 0:53:11.719 floating down the river. The water is probably only like 0:53:11.920 --> 0:53:14.840 navel deep like just below his chest. But it's fast 0:53:14.880 --> 0:53:17.520 moving so he can't really stand up. But I can 0:53:17.560 --> 0:53:20.000 see that he's gaining his footing as he goes down, 0:53:20.080 --> 0:53:23.800 and he's working closer and closer to the bank, and finally, 0:53:24.280 --> 0:53:28.040 fifty to seventy yards down from where I've pushed into 0:53:28.040 --> 0:53:31.480 this gravel bar, he makes his way and crawls up 0:53:31.480 --> 0:53:35.200 on the bank, waiters full of water, and it's over 0:53:35.719 --> 0:53:41.960 and we're safe. When the widow maker this slog hit 0:53:42.000 --> 0:53:44.920 me in the shoulders, I was really sore. It didn't 0:53:44.960 --> 0:53:48.319 really hurt me. I mean, it didn't break anything. I 0:53:48.360 --> 0:53:51.880 remember it had my traditional bow strung laying in the 0:53:51.880 --> 0:53:54.799 bottom of the boat, and somehow me tumbling over that 0:53:54.880 --> 0:53:59.680 bow unstrung the bow. It didn't damage it too bad, 0:53:59.800 --> 0:54:04.400 just banged it up. I was grateful to be alive, 0:54:05.600 --> 0:54:08.680 and as much as I had to take responsibility for 0:54:08.800 --> 0:54:13.240 what happened because I wasn't looking downstream, I was also 0:54:13.680 --> 0:54:17.759 to be honest upset with the goud for you know, 0:54:17.880 --> 0:54:20.680 when you're out in a place you've never been, you 0:54:20.800 --> 0:54:23.640 kind of depend on the people you're supposed to depend on. 0:54:24.160 --> 0:54:26.680 And so I look back now and realize it was. 0:54:27.160 --> 0:54:27.919 It was my fault. 0:54:27.960 --> 0:54:30.400 I mean, I just have to take personal responsibility for 0:54:30.520 --> 0:54:34.040 pushing him to go up the river. And man, we 0:54:34.160 --> 0:54:37.200 just sat on the bank and he dried out. And 0:54:37.239 --> 0:54:39.960 this was the seventh day of a ten day hunt, 0:54:40.760 --> 0:54:43.520 and it absolutely just took the steam out of me. 0:54:44.800 --> 0:54:49.480 It really scared me. I was very It just Alaska 0:54:49.560 --> 0:54:52.680 is such a wild place. It's so remote, and if 0:54:52.680 --> 0:54:54.960 you've never been there, it's hard to understand what the 0:54:55.000 --> 0:54:59.440 place feels like. It's romantic when you see it on TV, 0:55:00.160 --> 0:55:03.480 when you read about it. When you're there, it's in 0:55:03.520 --> 0:55:06.080 some ways it's a lot less romantic, and it's just 0:55:06.280 --> 0:55:11.719 more real, and you realize how small mistakes will kill you. 0:55:12.480 --> 0:55:17.600 Those Alaskan rivers are waiting to kill you. That's just 0:55:17.640 --> 0:55:21.880 the truth. We didn't make it to the second Creek. 0:55:22.160 --> 0:55:25.800 We went back downstream and went back to our camp, 0:55:26.000 --> 0:55:28.520 and we remained there for the final three days of 0:55:28.560 --> 0:55:32.040 the hunt, and I did not kill a brown bear. 0:55:33.120 --> 0:55:40.520 That's the story that I call the widow Maker. I 0:55:40.560 --> 0:55:45.080 still get a little shook up when I recall the shock, surprise, confusion, 0:55:45.440 --> 0:55:48.799 and sheer force of that log closelining me off the 0:55:48.840 --> 0:55:52.959 bow of that boat. The aloneness and vulnerability you feel 0:55:53.040 --> 0:55:57.399 when something unpredictable happens in the wilderness is unnerving. We 0:55:57.400 --> 0:56:01.080 were lucky, no harm, no foul, though, but the scare 0:56:01.360 --> 0:56:06.359 truly humbled me and haunts me to this day. The 0:56:06.400 --> 0:56:10.839 next story is told by Alaskan resident Chad Ferguson, a 0:56:10.840 --> 0:56:13.799 man who I've just met. You're just gonna have to 0:56:13.880 --> 0:56:18.800 hear this one. I'm restraining myself by allotting minimal foreshadowing, 0:56:19.160 --> 0:56:24.239 well no foreshadowing this story I call Gunslinger. 0:56:25.800 --> 0:56:29.640 My name is Chad Ferguson. I am originally from Ohio, 0:56:30.080 --> 0:56:32.640 but I tell everyone that I've lived as many places 0:56:32.640 --> 0:56:35.560 as ten people. If you read any hemingway, you'll probably 0:56:35.640 --> 0:56:37.600 encounter a quote from him that says, when you like 0:56:37.640 --> 0:56:39.799 to hunt and you like to shoot, you have to 0:56:39.840 --> 0:56:43.480 move often and always farther out. And that's been about 0:56:43.520 --> 0:56:47.080 the truth for me. So she and I were just 0:56:47.080 --> 0:56:48.880 talking about this the other day. This is our fourth 0:56:48.920 --> 0:56:52.880 autumn up here. Actually, I have not been in Alaska 0:56:53.040 --> 0:56:55.040 very long. I thought i'd be here the day after 0:56:55.080 --> 0:56:57.040 I graduated from high school and just kind of got 0:56:57.080 --> 0:57:00.800 waylaid with this and that, but finally made a decision 0:57:00.840 --> 0:57:03.879 to come up here, and I'll never live anywhere else. 0:57:03.920 --> 0:57:08.480 And well, I have lived in a number of places. 0:57:09.160 --> 0:57:13.080 I've lived in Wyoming, I've lived in Oregon, lived in 0:57:13.080 --> 0:57:16.720 Pennsylvania of course, where they've got black bears, lived up 0:57:16.720 --> 0:57:19.240 here for a few years, and so I've seen a 0:57:19.280 --> 0:57:21.920 few bears in the wild. Not a lot of bears 0:57:21.920 --> 0:57:23.440 in the wild, but I've seen a few bears in 0:57:23.440 --> 0:57:25.960 the wild. And you can chalk this up to coming 0:57:26.000 --> 0:57:29.360 from the Midwest after too long down there, or you 0:57:29.360 --> 0:57:32.160 can chalk it up to reading too many outdoor life articles, 0:57:32.280 --> 0:57:35.160 or I don't know what, but I was certainly, I 0:57:35.240 --> 0:57:40.320 certainly have a lot of bear fear, Like when I'm 0:57:40.360 --> 0:57:44.600 in the backcountry hunting here for caribou or moose or whatever, 0:57:45.960 --> 0:57:49.280 even ptarmigan, Like I've always got bear spray with me 0:57:49.600 --> 0:57:53.200 or a forty four on me. So very bear aware, 0:57:53.600 --> 0:57:57.000 you know, like lifelong camper. So you try to be smart. 0:57:57.040 --> 0:57:59.000 You don't fry bacon and then crawl in your tent. 0:58:00.560 --> 0:58:03.400 You say hey bear, hey bear, when you're walking through 0:58:03.440 --> 0:58:05.400 places where they might be and where they might not 0:58:05.440 --> 0:58:07.240 be able to hear you coming, and just try to 0:58:07.240 --> 0:58:11.160 be smart. And so I would definitely characterize myself as 0:58:11.160 --> 0:58:17.040 somebody who is bear aware, bear smart, and bear afraid. Yeah. 0:58:17.200 --> 0:58:19.040 In fact, I'll tell you something. I'll tell you something 0:58:19.080 --> 0:58:22.040 that I wrote in another essay, and it's an anecdote 0:58:22.040 --> 0:58:24.360 about a guy that I met up here, and he 0:58:24.440 --> 0:58:27.120 and his cousin they grew up here. Anyhow, he and 0:58:27.160 --> 0:58:30.440 I were in the truck riding somewhere when we were 0:58:30.480 --> 0:58:33.880 king salmon fishing, and he said to me, I'll tell 0:58:33.920 --> 0:58:36.880 you when I quit being afraid of bears, And of 0:58:36.920 --> 0:58:41.200 course I'm all ears. He was bear hunting, actually bear baiting, 0:58:42.240 --> 0:58:44.280 and he had this big grizzly come in to the 0:58:44.320 --> 0:58:48.320 bait and he said that grizzly bear didn't make a sound, 0:58:49.280 --> 0:58:52.880 I mean, didn't even break one little twig. And it 0:58:52.880 --> 0:58:55.680 occurred to me that if they can be that quiet 0:58:55.760 --> 0:58:59.000 anytime they want to, they could take you anytime they 0:58:59.040 --> 0:59:03.320 want to. They don't or they don't, Varied Moften, And 0:59:03.360 --> 0:59:06.200 that's when I quit being afraid of bears. And boy, 0:59:06.240 --> 0:59:08.160 that made a lot of sense to me. That made 0:59:08.160 --> 0:59:10.280 a lot of sense to me, right, because you can 0:59:10.320 --> 0:59:14.120 really make you can worry yourself to pieces. It was 0:59:14.200 --> 0:59:21.000 a beautiful fall day, quintessential autumn weather. I was moose hunting. 0:59:21.080 --> 0:59:25.600 It was early September, blue skies, some light clouds now 0:59:25.640 --> 0:59:28.840 and then, and the colors were really starting to come on. 0:59:29.080 --> 0:59:31.439 I mean everything was pretty. In fact, to this day, 0:59:31.520 --> 0:59:37.120 the desktop on my laptop the background is a picture 0:59:37.160 --> 0:59:40.360 that I took from this trip, and it's just so pretty. 0:59:40.360 --> 0:59:42.880 It looks like it was painted by an Impressionist painter. 0:59:44.000 --> 0:59:47.080 I was out for a week moose hunting. I had 0:59:47.080 --> 0:59:50.080 not been to this area before. It's a special walk 0:59:50.120 --> 0:59:52.680 in area, and I'm here to tell you that there's 0:59:52.720 --> 0:59:55.400 not enough of those here in Alaska. There's more ground 0:59:55.440 --> 0:59:58.000 than you could ever cover in ten lifetimes. But you're 0:59:58.000 --> 1:00:00.840 going to need a plane, a boat, and some buddies 1:00:00.840 --> 1:00:03.400 that have planes and boats to go do it. But 1:00:03.440 --> 1:00:05.520 there are some walk in sites. This one has a 1:00:05.560 --> 1:00:08.840 trail and you can take a bike on the trail, 1:00:09.760 --> 1:00:14.439 non motorized, non electric bike with a little trailer, which 1:00:14.520 --> 1:00:16.560 was my plan. Fact, that's exactly what I'm be doing 1:00:16.560 --> 1:00:18.000 here in a couple of weeks, going back to the 1:00:18.040 --> 1:00:21.840 same area. And yeah, I was out for a week 1:00:22.000 --> 1:00:25.680 solo moose hunting. I had not been here before. I 1:00:25.680 --> 1:00:29.280 had seen some moose, some guys that were sub legal, 1:00:29.400 --> 1:00:33.160 as they say, less than fifty inches. And then I 1:00:33.200 --> 1:00:37.480 saw one that was probably four three miles from me 1:00:37.600 --> 1:00:40.120 for sure, maybe a little bit more than that. And 1:00:40.160 --> 1:00:45.240 I was already eight miles in from the truck. So 1:00:45.960 --> 1:00:49.640 when you're solo, you know, hauling out, you know, what 1:00:49.720 --> 1:00:51.520 could it be? I mean, it could be nine hundred 1:00:51.520 --> 1:00:56.400 pounds after he's you know, gutted and skinned. You got 1:00:56.440 --> 1:00:58.360 to think about that, right. I Mean, there's plenty of 1:00:58.360 --> 1:01:00.360 people that'll say, don't shoot a moose farther than a 1:01:00.360 --> 1:01:05.120 mile from the truck or the landing strip, and that 1:01:05.280 --> 1:01:07.040 just wasn't an option for me on this hunt. And 1:01:07.040 --> 1:01:08.480 in fact, a moose that I had watched for a 1:01:08.520 --> 1:01:11.840 couple of days on this trip, either him or one 1:01:11.920 --> 1:01:15.600 that was like him, between where I was and that moose. 1:01:16.040 --> 1:01:17.760 A couple of other guys went in after me, and 1:01:17.880 --> 1:01:20.120 I told him I've been watching this moose, and a 1:01:20.160 --> 1:01:21.880 couple days later they were coming out with a real 1:01:21.960 --> 1:01:24.440 nice one. So I fancy that it was the one 1:01:24.440 --> 1:01:28.120 that I'd been watching and just didn't have the you know, 1:01:28.360 --> 1:01:31.520 gumption to go after. And that's something else I've had 1:01:31.560 --> 1:01:34.240 to learn about being up here, is you don't want 1:01:34.240 --> 1:01:36.880 to be foolish, right, And you always have to have 1:01:36.920 --> 1:01:41.040 a plan for recovering the game. But I'm pretty confident 1:01:41.120 --> 1:01:44.280 that people will figure it out, you know. So if 1:01:44.360 --> 1:01:46.240 he's a little deeper than you wanted to be and 1:01:46.360 --> 1:01:48.320 it's going to be a little more effort, he just got. 1:01:48.240 --> 1:01:49.200 To dig a little deeper. 1:01:51.440 --> 1:01:56.920 It was late afternoon and I am eight miles into 1:01:56.960 --> 1:01:59.760 a walk in unit. I had about an hour hike 1:02:00.320 --> 1:02:03.160 to get to a good glassing knob, and I had 1:02:03.160 --> 1:02:06.680 my rifle strapped on my backpack, three to zero eight 1:02:07.120 --> 1:02:09.320 bold action strapped by my backpack, and a forty four 1:02:09.360 --> 1:02:12.440 magnum on my hip belt. I always carried bear spray 1:02:12.480 --> 1:02:14.280 with me, but that day it happened to be zipped 1:02:14.280 --> 1:02:17.200 in my backpack for some reason. But I round a 1:02:17.240 --> 1:02:20.320 corner on the trail and I look up the trail 1:02:20.320 --> 1:02:23.840 about fifty yards and there's a big brown bear it 1:02:23.880 --> 1:02:25.640 would turn out to be a sow grizzly, And she 1:02:25.720 --> 1:02:28.960 stand a broadside and she looked at me, and then 1:02:29.000 --> 1:02:31.880 she stood up, stretched her neck out and cocked her 1:02:31.920 --> 1:02:36.360 head and then immediately went into a charge. And I 1:02:36.400 --> 1:02:39.920 mean she was every bit of seven feet tall, and 1:02:39.960 --> 1:02:44.200 here she comes, so it's the only thing I could 1:02:44.240 --> 1:02:46.800 get out before I had to do something, and I 1:02:46.840 --> 1:02:48.920 had no time to think. I didn't feel any fear, 1:02:49.200 --> 1:02:52.200 I didn't have any thoughts at all. I just immediately 1:02:52.280 --> 1:02:56.520 unholstered my forty four, put both hands on her, and 1:02:56.640 --> 1:02:59.080 followed her in. And she starts running down the trail 1:02:59.160 --> 1:03:04.640 towards me, and at about twenty paces, she stopped, turned 1:03:04.680 --> 1:03:09.600 around and took two steps going away from me, and 1:03:09.640 --> 1:03:11.880 then she looked back over her shoulder and I was 1:03:11.880 --> 1:03:15.880 still standing there. She immediately flipped back around and charged again. 1:03:15.960 --> 1:03:18.400 And when she hit twelve paces, and those were measured 1:03:18.440 --> 1:03:21.400 off after the fact, I shot three times as fast 1:03:21.400 --> 1:03:24.520 as I could with my revolver, just right into the 1:03:24.560 --> 1:03:27.840 middle of the bear and hoped for the best. She 1:03:28.000 --> 1:03:30.720 winced at the shots, and I didn't know how many 1:03:30.720 --> 1:03:32.480 times I'd hit her, but it was almost like she'd 1:03:32.520 --> 1:03:34.640 been stung in the chest by hornets. She kind of 1:03:34.640 --> 1:03:37.320 pulled her paws up to her a little bit and 1:03:37.400 --> 1:03:41.760 recoiled a little bit, and she turned at those shots 1:03:42.560 --> 1:03:45.600 and ran thirty yards back up the trail, and then 1:03:45.640 --> 1:03:50.360 she bailed off to the right into the scrub. The 1:03:50.400 --> 1:03:53.280 colors were just starting to get pretty so the dwarf 1:03:53.440 --> 1:03:56.560 birch was starting to turn red and the willows were 1:03:56.560 --> 1:04:00.000 starting to turn yellow, and the brush in that air 1:04:00.240 --> 1:04:03.320 is about four or five feet high. She just disappeared 1:04:03.320 --> 1:04:06.560 into that off the trail. So I immediately, you know, 1:04:06.880 --> 1:04:09.880 polster my revolver, drop my pack, get my rifle undone, 1:04:10.080 --> 1:04:13.080 chamber around, dial it down to two X, and I 1:04:13.200 --> 1:04:15.360 just start creeping up the trail, which might seem like 1:04:15.520 --> 1:04:17.240 kind of a crazy thing to do. Maybe it was 1:04:17.520 --> 1:04:21.200 the wrong thing to do, but if I was going 1:04:21.280 --> 1:04:23.240 to do any more hunting, I had to go forward, 1:04:23.840 --> 1:04:25.760 not just that night, but you know, in the next 1:04:25.760 --> 1:04:29.280 few days. And I needed a dead bear, not a 1:04:29.280 --> 1:04:32.760 wounded bear. So again I didn't even really think about 1:04:32.800 --> 1:04:35.080 it. It wasn't like I made a decision. I just got 1:04:35.160 --> 1:04:38.880 my rifle off, got the magnification dialed down, started walking 1:04:38.920 --> 1:04:40.920 up the trail, and I'm just like, you know, on 1:04:41.000 --> 1:04:43.200 the scope, off the scope, on the scope, off the scope, 1:04:43.280 --> 1:04:45.320 like looking for any patch of brown fur that I 1:04:45.360 --> 1:04:48.480 can see. And as soon as I see a patch 1:04:48.520 --> 1:04:50.560 of brown fur, I shoot right into it. I don't 1:04:50.560 --> 1:04:51.960 even know what part of the bear it is, and 1:04:52.080 --> 1:04:54.720 chamber another round and I'm watching for movement, trying to 1:04:54.760 --> 1:04:58.400 pick her up again, and then finally just stretching my 1:04:58.440 --> 1:05:00.400 neck out and standing up real tall. I could see 1:05:00.400 --> 1:05:03.720 that she's laying there and she's still, and that it's over. 1:05:04.880 --> 1:05:08.680 So of course I go up to her. And as 1:05:08.680 --> 1:05:12.160 I'm walking up the trail, I can see every few 1:05:12.240 --> 1:05:17.160 feet there's a splattering of bright red blood off to 1:05:17.200 --> 1:05:19.800 the left of the trail, so I knew that i'd 1:05:19.840 --> 1:05:23.840 hit her in the heart or in the artery at least, 1:05:23.880 --> 1:05:28.640 But it almost immediately started to dawn on me just 1:05:28.840 --> 1:05:33.840 how incredibly lucky I was. Because she was only twelve 1:05:33.920 --> 1:05:39.120 paces from me at a full run, and she's weighing 1:05:39.160 --> 1:05:41.520 four hundred pounds is what I estimated her at she 1:05:41.600 --> 1:05:43.640 was a very big bear. I could barely move her 1:05:43.680 --> 1:05:47.240 when I got up to her at the shots. She 1:05:47.440 --> 1:05:50.440 decided to turn around and run back up the trail, 1:05:51.120 --> 1:05:53.920 and she ran thirty yards, which was a lot farther 1:05:54.160 --> 1:05:57.560 than she was close to me when I shot her, 1:05:58.200 --> 1:06:01.520 so she could have just as easily flip of a coin, 1:06:02.240 --> 1:06:06.000 decided to keep on going forward, and while she was 1:06:06.040 --> 1:06:08.560 dead and didn't even know it, she could have knocked 1:06:08.600 --> 1:06:12.840 me down, broke me up, bit me up, maybe you know, 1:06:13.840 --> 1:06:16.880 severely mauled or maybe even killed me and then died herself. 1:06:17.040 --> 1:06:19.440 You know. So it just occurred to me almost immediately 1:06:19.680 --> 1:06:21.880 how incredibly lucky I was on this. And the other 1:06:21.920 --> 1:06:24.280 part was that I'd hit her at all. I mean, 1:06:24.320 --> 1:06:26.880 I'm not Roy Rogers with a six shooter. You know, 1:06:27.200 --> 1:06:29.800 I don't practice, I don't compete. I mean, I sided 1:06:29.840 --> 1:06:33.040 him in sure, but you know, hitting a running target 1:06:33.120 --> 1:06:35.960 like that's not something you practiced very often. So I 1:06:36.040 --> 1:06:39.080 just felt really lucky. So, you know, I start to 1:06:39.240 --> 1:06:41.360 I try to get her moved around a little bit. 1:06:41.520 --> 1:06:43.240 I wanted to take some pictures, but I just couldn't 1:06:43.280 --> 1:06:45.600 move her. And it was also pretty late in the 1:06:45.680 --> 1:06:48.440 day for as far back as I was, and I 1:06:48.520 --> 1:06:51.360 knew that since I had a tag that area, you 1:06:51.360 --> 1:06:53.160 don't have to have a locking tag. So if you 1:06:53.160 --> 1:06:56.000 have a hunting license and the bears are in season 1:06:56.480 --> 1:06:59.280 and they were, you know, I could tag the bear legally. 1:06:59.640 --> 1:07:01.240 And I was happy to do that because I was 1:07:01.280 --> 1:07:05.120 definitely going to be keeping this one. You know, it 1:07:05.120 --> 1:07:06.800 would be easy for me to say that I'm a 1:07:06.800 --> 1:07:10.040 brave man, but that just wouldn't be the case. You know, like, 1:07:10.080 --> 1:07:14.360 I'm not a quarterback who's had to face down linemen 1:07:14.960 --> 1:07:18.920 coming across for that crushing sack. I'm not a veteran 1:07:19.040 --> 1:07:23.240 who's ever had to operate under fire. I've never rushed 1:07:23.240 --> 1:07:25.640 into a house that's on fire anything like that at all. 1:07:26.560 --> 1:07:31.760 And I'm just happy I didn't run. But next time 1:07:31.800 --> 1:07:33.560 I might run, you know, I mean, I hope not. 1:07:33.840 --> 1:07:36.840 But there was no time for a reaction. Like I 1:07:36.920 --> 1:07:41.720 saw her, I said, I uttered that expletive. I immediately 1:07:41.760 --> 1:07:45.200 took my forty four out and there was just no 1:07:45.360 --> 1:07:48.480 thinking about it at all. And after everything happened that 1:07:48.520 --> 1:07:50.800 I told you, and from the time I saw her 1:07:50.840 --> 1:07:53.439 to the time that I was taking my pack off, 1:07:53.920 --> 1:07:56.600 I mean, it was less than ten seconds. There she 1:07:56.800 --> 1:08:01.000 was here, she comes, bang, bang, bang, and now she's 1:08:01.080 --> 1:08:04.040 running off. So you hear people say that I didn't 1:08:04.040 --> 1:08:05.600 have time to think or I didn't have time to 1:08:05.640 --> 1:08:08.160 be afraid, and that was absolutely the truth. So I 1:08:08.200 --> 1:08:10.640 get my pack off, you know, I shoot the rifle. 1:08:11.240 --> 1:08:13.720 I finally see that it's done. I walk up to 1:08:13.760 --> 1:08:16.519 her to see that she was not breathing. Probably should 1:08:16.520 --> 1:08:17.920 have put a safety run into her. To tell you, 1:08:17.920 --> 1:08:19.960 the truth had been something else that would have been 1:08:20.000 --> 1:08:22.479 smart to do, but I didn't. You know, the African 1:08:22.479 --> 1:08:24.320 guys will tell you it's the dead ones that kill you, 1:08:25.200 --> 1:08:28.639 and I did feel very calm. I called my partner 1:08:28.840 --> 1:08:31.559 and I told her what happened. I had one bar 1:08:31.680 --> 1:08:35.280 reception and after that I texted a couple hunting buddies. 1:08:35.479 --> 1:08:38.599 I'm like, you would not believe just what happened, And 1:08:38.920 --> 1:08:41.559 ten minutes later I was shaken so bad I wouldn't 1:08:41.560 --> 1:08:42.960 have been able to hold a glass of bourbon. 1:08:46.120 --> 1:08:49.040 Chad is undoubtedly better trained with the pistol than he 1:08:49.080 --> 1:08:52.160 gives himself credit for. However, if he had it to 1:08:52.160 --> 1:08:56.480 do over again, the outcome could have been different. Encountering 1:08:56.520 --> 1:08:59.519 an aggressive grizzly at close range is a life altering 1:08:59.560 --> 1:09:03.479 interaction that I'm certain imprints someone at the psychological level, 1:09:04.000 --> 1:09:07.439 and now I'm totally speculating here, but probably even at 1:09:07.439 --> 1:09:12.200 the DNA level. Somehow our offspring know what almost killed us, 1:09:12.560 --> 1:09:16.240 and we make subtle amendments to adjust, trying to avoid 1:09:16.280 --> 1:09:19.639 the same fate. That was a good story, Chad. I'm 1:09:19.640 --> 1:09:24.280 glad you were prepared for the worst. Well, we'll end 1:09:24.280 --> 1:09:28.240 with a short story from doctor Randall Williams, the resident 1:09:28.520 --> 1:09:32.800 historian of Meat eat Or Incorporated. Randall spent eight years 1:09:32.840 --> 1:09:40.200 as a fishing guide in Alaska, and he's got a story. 1:09:40.360 --> 1:09:43.840 My name is Randall Williams. When I was twenty two 1:09:43.960 --> 1:09:46.320 years old, I took an offer through a friend of 1:09:46.360 --> 1:09:48.400 a friend to go up and work at a fly 1:09:48.439 --> 1:09:52.040 out fishing lodge in Alaska. I kept going back each 1:09:52.080 --> 1:09:54.640 summer and guided my last trip in the summer I 1:09:54.680 --> 1:09:58.280 got married of twenty fifteen. For all those years, I 1:09:58.320 --> 1:10:02.600 split my time and my world belongings between Montana and Alaska. 1:10:03.400 --> 1:10:05.479 Every year, at the end of the season, I'd roll 1:10:05.560 --> 1:10:08.679 up all my stuff underwear, T shirts and a couple 1:10:08.720 --> 1:10:11.400 pairs of jeans and a hoodie and a big blue 1:10:11.439 --> 1:10:15.559 plastic bag. These bags we used to pack fish for clients, 1:10:15.720 --> 1:10:17.560 and I'd tuck it all away in my cabin so 1:10:17.600 --> 1:10:20.000 that it was waiting for me the next summer. I 1:10:20.040 --> 1:10:21.880 had a pair of extra tufts that lived up at 1:10:21.880 --> 1:10:24.120 the lodge, and I had a big box of books. 1:10:24.760 --> 1:10:27.080 That way, I only had to fly with my fishing 1:10:27.120 --> 1:10:30.240 gear and my personal items. I had my Alaska stuff 1:10:30.320 --> 1:10:34.320 and I had my Montana stuff. Now late May through 1:10:34.320 --> 1:10:38.280 mid July was king season. These were extremely long days 1:10:38.400 --> 1:10:40.680 with all that daylight. You wanted to be at your 1:10:40.680 --> 1:10:43.840 spot well before legal fishing hours at six am, and 1:10:43.880 --> 1:10:46.599 you're often going out after dinner until fishing clothes at 1:10:46.600 --> 1:10:50.840 eleven PM. In July we started getting sakeyes and then 1:10:50.880 --> 1:10:54.120 silvers and chums through August, and by late August and 1:10:54.160 --> 1:10:57.720 the early September we were targeting rainbows. It was an 1:10:57.800 --> 1:11:00.280 education to say the least, and I saw my share 1:11:00.320 --> 1:11:05.559 of wild, weird stuff, bears, boat crashes, cabins getting swept 1:11:05.560 --> 1:11:08.400 down river. We even had the troopers come out and 1:11:08.439 --> 1:11:11.280 conduct a manhunt in the drainages around the lodge. One 1:11:11.320 --> 1:11:14.280 spring and another summer we found a bunch of coffins 1:11:14.320 --> 1:11:17.120 and human skeletons from the old mining days as they 1:11:17.280 --> 1:11:20.439 washed out of an eroding cutbank. This was only in 1:11:20.520 --> 1:11:24.040 Alaska kind of stuff. But the biggest shock I think 1:11:24.120 --> 1:11:27.719 I ever faced up there happened on May twentieth, twenty fourteen, 1:11:28.640 --> 1:11:30.519 And that was the day I flew out to the 1:11:30.520 --> 1:11:33.040 bush for the summer and realized the only pair of 1:11:33.160 --> 1:11:39.240 underpants I had were the ones I was wearing. Now, 1:11:39.320 --> 1:11:42.160 remember the closed system I mentioned earlier, Well, that was 1:11:42.200 --> 1:11:45.639 a system that worked great until it didn't. I'm sure 1:11:45.680 --> 1:11:48.559 a lot of people that have worked intense seasonal jobs 1:11:48.640 --> 1:11:51.320 are familiar with this feeling. You get to the end 1:11:51.320 --> 1:11:53.800 of the season and you tell yourself, I am never 1:11:53.920 --> 1:11:59.080 coming back here. Long hours, hard work, nightmare clients, and 1:11:59.120 --> 1:12:01.320 in my case, at the end of the summer twenty thirteen, 1:12:01.640 --> 1:12:03.880 i'd gotten engaged a few months before I came out. 1:12:04.360 --> 1:12:06.720 I thought I was done, so at the end of 1:12:06.720 --> 1:12:09.200 that summer, I threw all my clothes in the burn 1:12:09.280 --> 1:12:12.240 barrel and torched it, and I forgot all about doing 1:12:12.240 --> 1:12:16.360 this until May the following year. For a while, my 1:12:16.520 --> 1:12:20.040 lack of underwear was a crisis. You can imagine it's 1:12:20.080 --> 1:12:23.360 just about impossible to hit a strategically timed wash cycle 1:12:23.360 --> 1:12:26.160 in the middle of king season. And then the whole 1:12:26.200 --> 1:12:29.320 situation became a source of entertainment for everyone in camp. 1:12:29.880 --> 1:12:32.560 We kept a running tally. When I was asked to 1:12:32.600 --> 1:12:35.080 record this story, I reached out to my old boss 1:12:35.160 --> 1:12:36.960 to see if he could remember the details. 1:12:37.680 --> 1:12:39.400 His reply, I know it. 1:12:39.360 --> 1:12:41.679 Went on for over a month. I was just talking 1:12:41.680 --> 1:12:44.840 about that to some of the guides this summer. Another 1:12:44.880 --> 1:12:47.800 fellow I worked with replied, I know you broke two 1:12:47.800 --> 1:12:52.080 weeks for sure, maybe a month. Then another guy responded 1:12:52.080 --> 1:12:54.720 with a photo of the underwear in question, which we 1:12:54.800 --> 1:12:57.080 nailed up above the front door to the guide check. 1:12:57.240 --> 1:13:01.360 After the situation was resolved, was finally able to fly 1:13:01.439 --> 1:13:04.160 out with a five pack of Haynes and a special 1:13:04.200 --> 1:13:08.439 pair of Superman undies to celebrate. That photo shows a 1:13:08.479 --> 1:13:11.640 whole bunch of threads hanging from a stretched out wastebind 1:13:11.960 --> 1:13:15.120 nailed into a rundown shack, and next to it on 1:13:15.200 --> 1:13:19.400 the wall as a hand drawn sign reading as follows 1:13:19.400 --> 1:13:24.960 certified thirty three days of continuous use. Randa Williams, June 1:13:24.960 --> 1:13:26.919 twenty third, twenty fourteen. 1:13:28.080 --> 1:13:42.719 Only in Alaska, You, my friends have just been punked, 1:13:43.120 --> 1:13:46.040 and he walked right into it. It was almost as 1:13:46.120 --> 1:13:48.320 foolish as me standing on the bow of that boat 1:13:48.360 --> 1:13:52.040 looking upstream while we were heading downstrength. Regardless of if 1:13:52.080 --> 1:13:56.840 you have clean underwear, Alaska is a wild place, from 1:13:56.960 --> 1:14:00.320 raging angry rivers to cold nights under a out and 1:14:00.360 --> 1:14:05.960 go hide to charging grizzlies. Alaska's stories are forever intriguing, 1:14:06.439 --> 1:14:11.920 and we're just getting started. I can't thank you enough 1:14:11.920 --> 1:14:15.360 for listening to bear greats hunting season is upon us. 1:14:15.840 --> 1:14:17.960 Be sure to check out first Light for all your 1:14:18.040 --> 1:14:22.519 hunting clothing this year, including whitetail and waterfowl gear. I've 1:14:22.520 --> 1:14:25.320 been wearing first Light for almost a decade and it 1:14:25.360 --> 1:14:26.080 would be hard for. 1:14:26.040 --> 1:14:27.160 Me to wear anything else. 1:14:27.800 --> 1:14:30.800 And thanks to everyone who bought a phelps Acre and 1:14:30.840 --> 1:14:33.960 Grunt and Bleak Call. They sold out in about twenty 1:14:34.000 --> 1:14:36.840 four hours. We're trying to get some more made as 1:14:36.920 --> 1:14:40.439 quick as we can, so stand by. I hope you've 1:14:40.479 --> 1:14:44.439 got big plans this fall. Be careful out there and 1:14:44.560 --> 1:14:47.640 have some adventure and just be aware what's going on 1:14:47.720 --> 1:14:50.519 around you. I can't wait to talk to all the 1:14:50.560 --> 1:15:03.360 folks on the Render this week about these Alaskan stories.