WEBVTT - River's Bear 0:00:00.520 --> 0:00:03.840 You're listening to the Sportsman's Nation podcast network, brought to 0:00:03.840 --> 0:00:07.080 you by Lacrosse Boots. Now Lacrosse is at it again 0:00:07.240 --> 0:00:10.560 with a new line of lace up hunting boots, the 0:00:10.680 --> 0:00:14.280 Navigator series. And in that Navigator series there are two models. 0:00:14.560 --> 0:00:17.159 There's the Atlas for men and the wind Rows for 0:00:17.280 --> 0:00:20.480 both men and women. To find out more information about 0:00:20.520 --> 0:00:30.680 this new Navigator series, visit Lacrosse Footwear dot com. My 0:00:30.800 --> 0:00:33.000 name is Clay Nucleman. I'm the host of the Bear 0:00:33.080 --> 0:00:37.360 Hunting Magazine podcast. I'll also be your host into the 0:00:37.360 --> 0:00:42.200 world of hunting the icon of North American wilderness. There, 0:00:42.800 --> 0:00:46.840 we'll talk about tactics here conservation. We will also bring 0:00:46.880 --> 0:00:50.600 you into some of the wildest country on the planet chasing. 0:00:56.880 --> 0:01:00.160 For all you houndsman out there, check out our friends 0:01:00.160 --> 0:01:05.039 over at W Hunting Supply tu supply dot com. W 0:01:05.319 --> 0:01:08.840 has been in business since two thousand, so for almost 0:01:08.920 --> 0:01:12.960 twenty years. They've been serving houndsmen and their biggest thing 0:01:13.360 --> 0:01:16.600 is that they hunt with the products that they use. 0:01:16.760 --> 0:01:19.360 They really do. When you call the guys at W 0:01:20.080 --> 0:01:23.960 the ladies at W, they know these products their houndsmen 0:01:23.959 --> 0:01:27.200 and hounds women, and they're gonna bend over backwards to 0:01:27.240 --> 0:01:30.640 give you incredible customer service and stand behind all the 0:01:30.720 --> 0:01:35.880 products that they sell. 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Sometimes just showing up is the most important 0:02:27.680 --> 0:02:30.040 thing that we can do. And the Western Bear Foundation 0:02:30.400 --> 0:02:35.000 is a voice out there with the bear conflict mitigation 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:36.840 and right out there in the heat of the battle 0:02:36.960 --> 0:02:40.400 right now with the the listing of the grizzly and 0:02:40.560 --> 0:02:43.600 uh and there a voice of reason in a voice 0:02:43.639 --> 0:02:46.040 of the hunter, and a voice for conservation, and a 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:49.320 voice for the North American Bottle of Wildlife conservation out 0:02:49.360 --> 0:02:53.839 there in a pretty crazy conversation with people that don't 0:02:53.880 --> 0:02:56.840 understand our way of life, and and uh, the Western 0:02:56.840 --> 0:02:59.200 Bear Foundation is just a voice. Just this week they 0:02:59.200 --> 0:03:03.119 were a petition and people to just for Sportsman's sportsman 0:03:03.160 --> 0:03:06.520 to just go to a public event where they were 0:03:06.520 --> 0:03:10.880 looking for feedback from the public. And uh, again it's 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:15.160 these kind of services that bring attention to needed things 0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:20.760 in the outdoor community. Anyway, valuable organization. They're driven by membership, 0:03:20.880 --> 0:03:26.160 nonprofit hunting conservation organization. Check out the Western Bear Foundation. 0:03:29.360 --> 0:03:33.120 This week, I have a very special guest at the 0:03:33.120 --> 0:03:37.400 global headquarters today and that guest is my daughter, River 0:03:37.520 --> 0:03:40.920 Nukem High River. This is your first time, your long 0:03:41.000 --> 0:03:46.560 time listener, first time guest on the podcast. Is that right? Okay, Well, 0:03:47.160 --> 0:03:51.440 what we're gonna do is we're gonna talk about Rivers 0:03:51.520 --> 0:03:54.160 hunt because the River had a successful bear hunt here 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:57.240 in Arkansas about just a few weeks ago, and just 0:03:57.280 --> 0:04:00.880 this week we released a video that called River's Bear 0:04:01.320 --> 0:04:03.480 And if you if you haven't seen that video, I 0:04:03.520 --> 0:04:05.720 don't know if it would be it might be better 0:04:05.720 --> 0:04:08.960 to listen to the podcast first, but you gotta if 0:04:08.960 --> 0:04:10.960 you're listening to this podcast, you got to watch the 0:04:11.080 --> 0:04:15.080 video of all the video that that I've produced. I 0:04:15.120 --> 0:04:17.000 feel like it's one of the best films, not just 0:04:17.040 --> 0:04:20.719 because my daughter was in it, which that could potentially 0:04:20.760 --> 0:04:24.839 make me make me biased in some way, but the 0:04:24.839 --> 0:04:30.640 the story spanned two years, a serious accident, a mule wreck, 0:04:31.880 --> 0:04:35.360 and an encounter with a giant color phase bear that 0:04:35.400 --> 0:04:40.799 we did not capitalize on, and then eventually River taken 0:04:40.880 --> 0:04:43.840 a really nice bear in Arkansas, I mean a very 0:04:43.960 --> 0:04:48.080 nice bear, pope and young nineteen inch plus skull bear 0:04:48.200 --> 0:04:52.000 in Arkansas. And but more important than that, the whole 0:04:52.000 --> 0:04:56.320 sequence of events from the perspective of a father was 0:04:56.360 --> 0:05:00.120 really powerful because River had to endure a lot, she 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:04.840 had to practice a lot of restraint, and uh so 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:09.000 what we're gonna talk about all those details, But so River, 0:05:09.560 --> 0:05:12.120 I want to start off with a little little history. 0:05:12.800 --> 0:05:14.880 When River was how old are you when you saw 0:05:14.920 --> 0:05:16.760 your first bear out there with when we were baiting 0:05:16.760 --> 0:05:19.520 bears when we were I was like four the first 0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:23.800 bear I saw. Do you remember? I remember that so vividly? Yeah, 0:05:24.000 --> 0:05:27.080 tell us that story. Well, we had a bait and 0:05:27.360 --> 0:05:29.800 you're you didn't. We didn't have any picture to the 0:05:29.800 --> 0:05:34.120 bear or just any bear, and you were gonna you 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:36.800 were we were gonna move the bank and move somewhere else. 0:05:36.839 --> 0:05:38.200 But that night I was gonna go with you the 0:05:38.240 --> 0:05:41.880 next day. And that night I had a dream that 0:05:41.960 --> 0:05:44.000 we were at the bear bait and there's bear, there's 0:05:44.040 --> 0:05:45.560 like cubs. It was just a bunch of cups. The 0:05:45.560 --> 0:05:48.440 bear had left. That's what happened. The bears. The bears 0:05:48.440 --> 0:05:51.280 were gone. Like I was baiting bears and I had 0:05:51.360 --> 0:05:53.760 one bait and the and the bears left, and so 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:55.200 you know, I would have come home. You'd have been 0:05:55.200 --> 0:05:57.200 four and might have been dramatic. I was like, the 0:05:57.240 --> 0:06:01.640 bears are gone, you know, Yeah, Okay, that's probably what happened. 0:06:01.680 --> 0:06:03.880 And then you had a dream and yeah, I had 0:06:03.880 --> 0:06:05.720 a dream and there was just a bunch of bears 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:09.880 at the bait and you're four years old. Yeah, And 0:06:09.920 --> 0:06:11.840 I begged you to let us bait it one more time. 0:06:11.880 --> 0:06:14.240 And so we went out like a couple of days later, 0:06:14.560 --> 0:06:16.880 and we had the back filled with bread and we 0:06:16.960 --> 0:06:18.520 carried it back there. You gave me like a little 0:06:18.520 --> 0:06:20.279 Walmart sack and you had a big old trash bag 0:06:20.320 --> 0:06:22.120 and I carried it out there and I was just 0:06:22.160 --> 0:06:24.719 like not, I was just like dancing through the woods 0:06:24.720 --> 0:06:26.880 with my little trash bag of bread, and I looked 0:06:26.960 --> 0:06:28.680 up and you were like crouching down on the ground 0:06:28.680 --> 0:06:30.080 and you were looking at me with your finger over 0:06:30.080 --> 0:06:32.480 your mouth, telling me to be quiet. And I tiptoed 0:06:32.480 --> 0:06:34.160 over there, and you pointed out and there was like 0:06:34.440 --> 0:06:36.960 to me, it was a massive bear and it looked 0:06:37.000 --> 0:06:41.320 so big, and I was scared. I just grounded on 0:06:41.360 --> 0:06:43.159 your arm and was like, oh my gosh, yeah, I 0:06:43.200 --> 0:06:45.880 remember exactly what you said. You were just like happy, 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:49.920 go lucky, and then you saw the bear immediately latched 0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:53.200 onto my leg and said let's go. You just said, 0:06:53.279 --> 0:06:55.320 you just said let's go. I mean, you were just like, 0:06:55.880 --> 0:06:58.880 I don't want any man. When in my mind when 0:06:58.880 --> 0:07:00.920 I looked back, I remember that being awesome and not 0:07:01.000 --> 0:07:04.400 being scared. But it was so funny because you were 0:07:04.440 --> 0:07:07.720 just like just immediately just like let's go, let's get 0:07:07.720 --> 0:07:10.280 out of here. So so that was Rivers like first 0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:14.840 thing first like like sequence of interacting with bears and 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:16.720 and so for years we were like River had a 0:07:16.800 --> 0:07:21.240 dream that the bears came back, and actually yeah, and 0:07:21.240 --> 0:07:25.720 and uh so that was that, and then you would 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:30.600 have bear baited with me and stuff for years. But 0:07:31.000 --> 0:07:34.280 so I saw a lot of people letting their young 0:07:34.480 --> 0:07:38.200 kids shoot bears over bait, which man more power to them, 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:42.760 that's awesome. I did not want the newcome kids to 0:07:42.920 --> 0:07:45.320 kill a bear until I felt like they could truly 0:07:45.360 --> 0:07:48.080 appreciate it. Yeah, And you had it instilled in us 0:07:48.120 --> 0:07:50.520 that like a bear was this majesting animal and if 0:07:50.560 --> 0:07:52.440 you were going to kill it, you were gonna earn it. Yeah. 0:07:52.520 --> 0:07:54.400 And that's a lot of the video. Like when watching 0:07:54.400 --> 0:07:55.960 the video, you see that we weren't gonna be able 0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:57.840 to kill a bear. Let's we could shoot it with 0:07:57.960 --> 0:08:01.000 bo Yeah. And that was the challenge pretty much. Well 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:04.280 and and uh and not to take something away from 0:08:04.280 --> 0:08:06.200 somebody that lets a six or seven or eight year 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:09.400 old kids shoot a bear, that's that's any parents progative. 0:08:09.440 --> 0:08:11.960 But I just knew that it would cheapen it a 0:08:12.000 --> 0:08:14.400 little bit if you were that young. And so you 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:16.840 were the first nucom that I ever let bear hunt. 0:08:17.160 --> 0:08:19.360 I mean, for years, y'all were totally capable. Y'all were 0:08:19.400 --> 0:08:24.800 killing deer, y'all were killing turkeys. Uh. Yeah, and you 0:08:24.880 --> 0:08:27.040 knew that, you knew what was happening and everything. But 0:08:27.120 --> 0:08:30.480 you were thirteen years old when you could pull the 0:08:30.720 --> 0:08:33.600 weight limit for archery in Arkansas, and I was like, 0:08:33.679 --> 0:08:35.600 I worked for that all summer. It's like, you, ever, 0:08:35.800 --> 0:08:38.480 this is the year where I want you to kill 0:08:38.480 --> 0:08:43.840 a bear and uh. And so that was and you 0:08:44.000 --> 0:08:47.400 just turned thirteen and uh and you killed a bear 0:08:47.920 --> 0:08:50.680 the first first afternoon we hunted. I mean you helped 0:08:50.679 --> 0:08:52.000 me bait and do a bunch of stuff that you 0:08:52.080 --> 0:08:55.040 killed a really nice colored face bear out at at 0:08:55.120 --> 0:08:59.959 James Lawrence's old home place and out in the mountains, 0:09:00.640 --> 0:09:04.079 and uh, that was a really awesome experience. And we 0:09:04.280 --> 0:09:07.120 you killed the bear, knew come killed the bear. Well, 0:09:08.320 --> 0:09:11.480 So as it goes in our family, we don't just 0:09:11.559 --> 0:09:15.200 have unlimited access to be able to hunt and shoot 0:09:15.200 --> 0:09:17.439 bears over bait. I mean, we've got some good properties, 0:09:17.440 --> 0:09:19.800 but usually what it boils down to is we work 0:09:19.840 --> 0:09:22.480 our fingers to the bone and when opening day comes, 0:09:22.520 --> 0:09:25.880 we have one spot. That's good. Yeah, because I killed 0:09:25.880 --> 0:09:28.280 that bear when I was thirteen, and then the next 0:09:28.400 --> 0:09:31.640 year I didn't. I sat on a bait for a 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:34.160 long time, I didn't even see a bear. And when 0:09:34.160 --> 0:09:40.560 I was fifteen we went back where well point being, 0:09:41.000 --> 0:09:46.800 the next year I decided to bypass our oldest son 0:09:47.400 --> 0:09:50.000 and and skip down to our youngest son and let 0:09:50.080 --> 0:09:52.680 him bear because Bear wanted to kill it. On. Well, 0:09:52.880 --> 0:09:56.480 we've made a we I feel like every kid is 0:09:56.520 --> 0:10:00.160 so different that you can't just script out just they're 0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:03.360 supposed to do. Baron Newcomb, he was hunting with me 0:10:03.400 --> 0:10:06.600 in the mountains in National Forest and I just said, hey, Bear, 0:10:06.920 --> 0:10:10.040 how about you not kill a bear overbait? You you 0:10:10.040 --> 0:10:14.600 you restrain yourself from that, and you just take five 0:10:14.720 --> 0:10:17.000 years and let's try to kill one in the mountains. 0:10:17.720 --> 0:10:19.920 And so he's not hunted over bait until this year. 0:10:20.000 --> 0:10:22.559 He went hunting with James overbait one day without me knowing. 0:10:22.559 --> 0:10:24.680 They were supposed to go deer hunting. Did you know that? 0:10:24.880 --> 0:10:28.520 I thought Mr James was taking bear deer hunting and 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:30.400 they went and said on that bait, good thing, he 0:10:30.400 --> 0:10:32.880 did get one, good thing, he didn't get one. Well, 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:39.120 so so Bear rivers younger brother has been bypassed. And 0:10:39.200 --> 0:10:42.240 Shepherd killed the bear, and I really wanted to kind 0:10:42.240 --> 0:10:44.720 of throw Shepherd a bone, and he had a lot 0:10:44.720 --> 0:10:48.120 of desire, and for whatever reason, I just felt like 0:10:48.160 --> 0:10:51.600 I needed to give him a taste of success fairly easily. 0:10:52.120 --> 0:10:54.240 And I feel like that's played out very well because 0:10:54.240 --> 0:10:59.320 now Shepherd is like, I mean in like well, in 0:10:59.440 --> 0:11:01.760 like June, and he's like, hey, Dad, we gotta start shooting. 0:11:01.960 --> 0:11:04.160 We gotta start getting ready. Where are we gonna bait? What? 0:11:04.240 --> 0:11:05.880 You know? He's like, He's like, he always makes sure 0:11:05.880 --> 0:11:11.559 I'm shooting my bow. Yeah, and so Shepherd yeah, so 0:11:11.559 --> 0:11:16.319 so well he sell that to say. In twenty eighteen, 0:11:16.960 --> 0:11:20.559 we gained access to a piece of property that was 0:11:21.440 --> 0:11:26.120 inaccessible by vehicle. Okay, you could not drive a four 0:11:26.160 --> 0:11:30.079 wheeler in there, legally you could not. The only way 0:11:30.120 --> 0:11:32.920 to get in there is either by foot or by 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:35.679 equine animal. And is it basically a mile and a 0:11:35.760 --> 0:11:38.560 half from where we could park the truck straight up 0:11:38.559 --> 0:11:42.840 a mountain, a lot of elevation gain for Arkansas. And 0:11:43.160 --> 0:11:45.079 we gained access to hunt this piece of private land. 0:11:45.120 --> 0:11:47.360 And in Arkansas we can only bait bears on private 0:11:47.480 --> 0:11:52.200 land in certain zones, okay, And so we knew that 0:11:52.240 --> 0:11:55.120 this property was gonna be pretty good. We really did, 0:11:55.320 --> 0:11:58.800 just because of how secluded it was typically in Arkansas 0:11:58.920 --> 0:12:02.400 and and pretty much anyway, the more secluded, the more 0:12:03.840 --> 0:12:08.400 access to vast amounts of public land around where you're baiting, 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:11.440 the more of that the better. So we knew this 0:12:11.480 --> 0:12:15.280 place was going to be good. So in UH in 0:12:15.400 --> 0:12:19.240 early September, we gained access to the property and we 0:12:19.320 --> 0:12:24.240 started baiting on September. Is that correct? Is that when 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:31.800 it happened? It was? But yeah, yeah, let's just say 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:36.280 it was. So on September two thousand and eighteen, River 0:12:36.360 --> 0:12:40.120 and I basically bushed whack in bush whacked into where 0:12:40.160 --> 0:12:43.120 we could where we could park. We had two mules 0:12:43.400 --> 0:12:47.160 with paniards. We loaded up the mules with probably a 0:12:47.280 --> 0:12:50.640 hundred fifty to two h pounds of bait each. UH 0:12:50.640 --> 0:12:55.800 season opened in like eight days. It opened on September, 0:12:56.760 --> 0:12:59.120 so we were just baiting like seven days, seven days 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:03.640 before season. We went up there. We didn't carry a 0:13:03.679 --> 0:13:06.400 barrel in. We just put the bait right on the ground, 0:13:06.480 --> 0:13:09.400 put up a fair box and a cutting back camera 0:13:09.640 --> 0:13:12.840 and left it and just had no idea what was like. 0:13:13.800 --> 0:13:15.480 You know, when you start a new bait, even if 0:13:15.480 --> 0:13:18.200 it's in a good location, a lot of times these 0:13:18.240 --> 0:13:22.120 bears are fixed in on baits and other places. Like 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:24.760 baiting does kind of change the bear landscape for a 0:13:24.760 --> 0:13:29.840 certain period of time because bears are extremely habitual, even 0:13:29.880 --> 0:13:32.200 down to the day of when they show up at 0:13:32.200 --> 0:13:34.600 a bait site, there really are river um It's it's 0:13:34.640 --> 0:13:37.760 like a it's like a biological thing. Like if a 0:13:37.800 --> 0:13:41.440 bear knows that this certain section of a white oak 0:13:41.520 --> 0:13:45.200 ridge always produces, he remembers that for his entire life, 0:13:45.640 --> 0:13:47.560 and he goes back there and checks it every year. 0:13:47.880 --> 0:13:50.080 And I remember Will Beason one time told him that 0:13:50.120 --> 0:13:52.240 he used to leave cameras up year around on his 0:13:52.320 --> 0:13:55.720 bait sites even when he wasn't baiting, and the bears 0:13:55.760 --> 0:13:58.520 would always show for like years in a row. The 0:13:58.600 --> 0:14:02.200 bears showed up on the very same day, even before 0:14:02.240 --> 0:14:05.760 he started bating. Yeah, like like they they they were 0:14:05.800 --> 0:14:09.400 real meticulous about when they started baiting bears. And uh 0:14:09.480 --> 0:14:12.240 in a bear would have not been there for months 0:14:12.280 --> 0:14:14.920 and would show up the day before they started baiting. 0:14:15.600 --> 0:14:18.560 And they just know they're just so. I say that 0:14:18.640 --> 0:14:21.840 to say, even if you have a good location, you 0:14:21.920 --> 0:14:23.680 never know if you're gonna be able to draw bears 0:14:23.680 --> 0:14:27.880 because bears maybe you know, I mean bear movement is 0:14:27.880 --> 0:14:32.080 is navy is influenced by bear baits. When you can 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:34.440 bait bears, it's pulling bears away. So we didn't know 0:14:34.600 --> 0:14:38.840 well and just like I wanted to kill a bear 0:14:38.920 --> 0:14:41.800 that year, I didn't kill the bear. I think I 0:14:41.840 --> 0:14:43.880 was fifteen and I hadn't kill a bear since I 0:14:43.920 --> 0:14:46.240 was Well, you hunted, you killed the bear in fifteen, 0:14:46.240 --> 0:14:49.320 you hunted sixteen and seventeen and didn't kill anything. I 0:14:49.400 --> 0:14:51.160 wanted kill the bear, and we were like, why don't 0:14:51.160 --> 0:14:54.520 we kill it? For whatever reason? When I got access 0:14:54.520 --> 0:14:56.560 to this property, I was just like, Yeah, this is 0:14:56.640 --> 0:14:58.560 gonna be river spot, did you know? I mean, I 0:14:58.560 --> 0:15:00.680 didn't know that. I was just like gonna go bating 0:15:00.680 --> 0:15:03.560 with you and maybe well, I mean I could have 0:15:03.600 --> 0:15:06.640 done anything with that spot. I could or like a 0:15:06.640 --> 0:15:08.800 lot of times on the day or like a couple 0:15:08.840 --> 0:15:11.080 of days, like we'd be driving down to where we're 0:15:11.080 --> 0:15:13.120 gonna bear hunt and we'd be like, okay, River's gonna hunt. 0:15:13.120 --> 0:15:15.040 Hear Chevard's gonna here. I was just going baiting with 0:15:15.080 --> 0:15:17.720 you the day one. I didn't know that was gonna 0:15:17.760 --> 0:15:20.960 be my spot. I didn't know. Probably just weren't paying 0:15:20.960 --> 0:15:23.600 attention when I told you, probably not. But but I 0:15:23.640 --> 0:15:25.120 just had not like I would just going to bait 0:15:25.160 --> 0:15:28.000 with you, like I wasn't well, I had in my 0:15:28.040 --> 0:15:30.200 mind from the very beginning for whatever reason. I was 0:15:30.280 --> 0:15:31.760 just like, this is gonna be river spot because I 0:15:31.800 --> 0:15:33.920 knew it's gonna be really hard. Yeah, pretty quick I 0:15:33.960 --> 0:15:35.480 realized like this is gonna be my spot, and this 0:15:35.560 --> 0:15:39.440 is like a significant mountain. But and and it was 0:15:41.320 --> 0:15:43.440 I knew it was gonna be incredible. I really did. 0:15:43.760 --> 0:15:46.000 And uh, and I just I just had this. I 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:48.080 just I don't know, it's just like from the very beginnings, 0:15:48.120 --> 0:15:49.720 like this gonna be river spot. I mean, I've never 0:15:49.840 --> 0:15:55.720 killed a bear up there, you know. Um September two, eighteen, 0:15:55.880 --> 0:15:58.040 we go up there, we put out our bait, we leave, 0:15:58.200 --> 0:16:00.480 and it's hard to get up comment. It's it's a 0:16:00.600 --> 0:16:04.840 it's an hour and a half walk and we're leading 0:16:04.920 --> 0:16:08.120 mules in but on foot. Okay, so we're not riding 0:16:08.160 --> 0:16:10.320 the mules in most of the time. We're leading the 0:16:10.400 --> 0:16:12.720 mules in there, carrying all our gear on our bait. 0:16:13.040 --> 0:16:15.400 So we're getting a heck of a workout hour and 0:16:15.400 --> 0:16:17.520 a half through the mountains up to this spot, which 0:16:17.920 --> 0:16:20.160 on the on the garment, it's it's really only about 0:16:20.200 --> 0:16:23.000 a mile and a half, but you're gaining about you're 0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:26.720 gaining a lot of elevation for these mountains. Yeah, it 0:16:27.080 --> 0:16:31.920 really does. It really does. But so here's what happened, 0:16:32.000 --> 0:16:34.040 is is we had a riding saddle on my young 0:16:34.120 --> 0:16:36.280 mule Easy, which a lot of you guys may have seen. 0:16:36.840 --> 0:16:41.240 I was training Issy and stuff. Well I was just like, hey, Riever, 0:16:41.280 --> 0:16:43.320 you want to ride Easy down the mountain and she's 0:16:43.360 --> 0:16:46.800 like yeah, and I was like okay. And it truly 0:16:46.880 --> 0:16:49.000 is one of the biggest just kind of like blind 0:16:49.080 --> 0:16:51.600 spot mistakes that I've made. Is a father that put 0:16:51.720 --> 0:16:53.880 my kids in danger for real, I look at it 0:16:53.960 --> 0:16:56.000 like that because I just I was just like, yeah, 0:16:56.000 --> 0:16:58.960 I just ride that three year old mule down down 0:16:59.000 --> 0:17:03.080 this big mount and uh, soon as you got on 0:17:03.120 --> 0:17:07.720 it is he was kind of just just high spirited. 0:17:07.760 --> 0:17:09.560 I remember, you're kind of having a little bit of 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:14.040 trouble controling her or just lends being so low. That's right, 0:17:14.560 --> 0:17:16.720 that's what. That's what. And I thought that was just 0:17:16.720 --> 0:17:18.480 gonna be at the top of mountain, like at first 0:17:19.000 --> 0:17:22.840 I got caught in not a big mule, but she's 0:17:22.840 --> 0:17:24.639 not a short mule, so you're kind of up in 0:17:24.680 --> 0:17:28.040 the trees. And yeah, boy, riding in Arkansas, that's the 0:17:28.040 --> 0:17:31.040 biggest hazard of riding the way that we're using these 0:17:31.119 --> 0:17:33.960 mules in the mountains of Arkansas is that you're constantly 0:17:34.040 --> 0:17:36.400 ducking and fighting thems, and you could get raked off 0:17:36.440 --> 0:17:38.560 a mule pretty easy if you're not moving around and 0:17:38.640 --> 0:17:42.240 limber and mounting around. And so I just let her 0:17:42.320 --> 0:17:44.160 ride and I was gonna lead my other mule down 0:17:44.200 --> 0:17:47.119 the mountain because we only had a sawbuck. Sawbuck is 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:50.479 a is a pack saddle that you can't ride, So 0:17:50.560 --> 0:17:54.440 you had a riding saddle. Ellie at the time had 0:17:54.520 --> 0:17:59.360 that pack saddle, you know, And so there just there 0:17:59.400 --> 0:18:01.359 you go off the mount and no, you know, no 0:18:01.400 --> 0:18:03.120 big deal. I didn't even think of think about it. 0:18:03.240 --> 0:18:07.400 Well directly, you get out about fifty yards in front 0:18:07.440 --> 0:18:11.240 of me, maybe forty, and I see Izzie start trotting, 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:14.400 and then all of a sudden, I started here you 0:18:14.440 --> 0:18:18.680 start yelling, and I see Izzy go into a full gallop. 0:18:19.560 --> 0:18:22.560 What happened? She? We got out a little ways in 0:18:22.560 --> 0:18:25.320 front of you, and there's a limb. There's a limb 0:18:25.400 --> 0:18:28.439 hanging down and it was just like it wasn't It 0:18:28.520 --> 0:18:30.480 was just about as stick as your wrist, and it 0:18:30.600 --> 0:18:31.919 was coming in. It was just gonna hit me like 0:18:32.000 --> 0:18:34.359 right in the chest. And so I bent overside. She 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:37.960 wasn't trotting yet, and I bent over sideways the duck 0:18:38.040 --> 0:18:41.280 under that limb, which wasn't smart. And when I bent over, 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:43.840 grabbed the saddle horn and she took off run and 0:18:43.880 --> 0:18:45.680 she just didn't. I guess you just didn't like that. 0:18:46.119 --> 0:18:49.200 I think you squeezed her with your legs, queuing her 0:18:49.359 --> 0:18:51.760 to run, That's probably what it was. And she just 0:18:51.800 --> 0:18:55.280 took off like she she was running fast on that mountain, 0:18:55.800 --> 0:18:57.639 and I didn't have the reins, and you kept you 0:18:57.640 --> 0:18:59.480 were telling me like, yank the rent. You're telling me 0:18:59.520 --> 0:19:02.159 to just pull on it. You're telling me to do something, 0:19:02.680 --> 0:19:05.760 and I was just like I was yelling at the 0:19:05.800 --> 0:19:08.080 top of my lungs. Yeah. And I mean I just 0:19:08.400 --> 0:19:12.200 wasn't gonna let go with that side a word. Yeah. 0:19:12.320 --> 0:19:15.920 And so what I see is I see this mule 0:19:16.080 --> 0:19:20.240 at a full gallop just disappear over the crest of 0:19:20.280 --> 0:19:24.399 this steep hill with with rivers sliding off the side. 0:19:24.480 --> 0:19:26.560 That's the last image I've had of you was you 0:19:26.680 --> 0:19:30.359 about halfway off of the mule, like going down and 0:19:30.359 --> 0:19:33.639 this mule running as fast as a mule can run downhill. 0:19:34.880 --> 0:19:38.159 And I've ever since we've been riding mules and with 0:19:38.240 --> 0:19:42.359 the kids involved. I mean there's inherent danger and pretty 0:19:42.440 --> 0:19:48.119 much everything that we do. Um, and I've always just thought, 0:19:48.680 --> 0:19:51.119 you know, I mean, this is dangerous, but this is 0:19:51.200 --> 0:19:56.080 something that we're gonna do. And anyway, this was the 0:19:56.200 --> 0:19:59.560 bad dream that I thought could happen, and it was 0:19:59.560 --> 0:20:03.680 happening out before my eyes. And I dropped the rain 0:20:03.840 --> 0:20:06.159 the leader on my mule and just take off running. 0:20:06.280 --> 0:20:08.600 And I finally catch up with you guys, and I 0:20:08.640 --> 0:20:13.920 see Izzy facing me with no river newcum on her back, 0:20:14.000 --> 0:20:17.359 and I see you head first on the ground on 0:20:17.400 --> 0:20:20.239 your back, with your head down the mountain and your 0:20:20.320 --> 0:20:23.240 legs up the mountain, and I honestly didn't know if 0:20:23.280 --> 0:20:26.760 you if you were alive, And so I run to 0:20:26.920 --> 0:20:31.399 you and yeah, go ahead and go ahead, um, because 0:20:31.600 --> 0:20:34.880 when we were going down, she was like I hung 0:20:34.880 --> 0:20:36.320 on for a long time. I hung out for a 0:20:36.320 --> 0:20:38.919 long time. I'll give you that. Yeah, yeah, And she 0:20:39.040 --> 0:20:42.639 was like jump jumping, like she was like jumping like 0:20:42.760 --> 0:20:45.560 logs and and going through ditches and stuff. And my 0:20:46.640 --> 0:20:49.560 I can't remember why, but somebody it might have been you, 0:20:49.640 --> 0:20:51.879 But somebody told me, if you ever get in a 0:20:51.920 --> 0:20:54.640 situation like that, just kind of roll off. And I'm 0:20:54.680 --> 0:20:57.760 not sure that person was credible, but that's what I'm thinking. God, 0:20:57.840 --> 0:21:00.119 that's what I was thinking in the moment. And my 0:21:00.320 --> 0:21:02.480 foot was like stuck in the stir and the stirrup 0:21:02.520 --> 0:21:04.640 on the other side, and I was leading like I 0:21:04.680 --> 0:21:08.120 was like, I was just riding on like my I 0:21:08.160 --> 0:21:09.919 was not sitting straight up on her. I was like, 0:21:10.240 --> 0:21:13.640 yeah you were, and she was just running on purpose. 0:21:13.920 --> 0:21:16.880 No no, but I was like like no, no, no, 0:21:16.880 --> 0:21:19.120 no, no no, no, no, no, I did not. My advice 0:21:19.280 --> 0:21:21.480 is to ride it out. Yeah, that's what you've always 0:21:22.200 --> 0:21:25.520 Somebody said, if you're going to fall, Yeah, that's what 0:21:25.560 --> 0:21:27.760 you've always thought. But somebody said, if you're gonna follow, 0:21:27.840 --> 0:21:30.560 just roll off, because I mean, I wasn't even hardly 0:21:30.640 --> 0:21:33.240 on her, Like my one leg was not in the 0:21:33.240 --> 0:21:35.600 stir up anymore. I don't know how that happened, but 0:21:35.680 --> 0:21:37.080 I was just hanging off the side of her as 0:21:37.160 --> 0:21:39.199 she was running, and my other leg was just stuck 0:21:39.400 --> 0:21:42.960 and I couldn't get off Anyways, the saddle like kind 0:21:42.960 --> 0:21:46.119 of broke like something happened, and so kind of probably 0:21:46.160 --> 0:21:48.439 spun a little bit off. Yeah, it suthing happened, and 0:21:48.520 --> 0:21:51.200 I like she jumped over a log and my leg 0:21:51.280 --> 0:21:53.400 finally just got loose and I just hit the ground. 0:21:53.640 --> 0:21:55.480