WEBVTT - Ep. 085: Afognak Island Elk Hunt 0:00:08.960 --> 0:00:13.320 This is me Eater podcast coming at you, shirtless, severely, 0:00:13.480 --> 0:00:18.320 bug bitten, and in my case, underwear listening podcast. You 0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:34.000 can't predict anything, all right, you freeloaders. There's two, uh two, 0:00:34.600 --> 0:00:37.600 three super important things. I'm gonna tell you about two 0:00:37.680 --> 0:00:43.800 of them, and then as a bonus, the Eagle, the 0:00:43.920 --> 0:00:48.000 Latvin Eagle, your honest who tell us, is gonna tell 0:00:48.000 --> 0:00:50.239 you about the third thing you can do for us. 0:00:50.320 --> 0:00:54.320 So this is a three for one um as a 0:00:54.400 --> 0:00:58.560 total freeloader who doesn't pay for squat and just listen 0:00:58.640 --> 0:01:02.319 to this the digital radio program with like no end 0:01:02.320 --> 0:01:04.280 of their own, no skin in the game of their own. 0:01:04.880 --> 0:01:06.840 The thing you can do to mitigate that some of 0:01:06.880 --> 0:01:13.760 your guilt for doing that is go on to the 0:01:13.760 --> 0:01:16.720 the the the sixty percent of you who are listening 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:21.520 on iTunes, go on to iTunes and give the me 0:01:21.640 --> 0:01:26.200 Eater podcasts are ripping five star review. It doesn't really 0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:27.759 matter what you right, just's go give it a five 0:01:27.760 --> 0:01:33.440 star review. So like, do that right now and subscribe. Yeah, yeah, 0:01:33.680 --> 0:01:35.600 five star review and subscribe. Just do it right now. 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:37.480 I'm gonna wait a second while you do it, So 0:01:37.600 --> 0:01:45.399 go click five. Okay, you got it. Okay, thank you. UM. 0:01:45.520 --> 0:01:47.400 If you listen to if you're part of the other percent, 0:01:47.520 --> 0:01:50.480 the twenty sum or thirty percent, to listen on stitcher, 0:01:50.520 --> 0:01:55.280 you do the same thing that that's thing one. UM. 0:01:55.440 --> 0:01:59.440 The second thing you need to do is that was 0:01:59.440 --> 0:02:03.920 it the right subscribe? Yeah? Yeah, subscribe, So that that 0:02:03.960 --> 0:02:06.040 was the easy one. Now the eagle is gonna tell 0:02:06.080 --> 0:02:11.120 you his little part of this this message. Mm hmm. 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:15.720 You go to the meat Eater store which is at 0:02:15.760 --> 0:02:18.760 the Meteor dot com and look at some of the 0:02:19.120 --> 0:02:24.320 badass branded first Light gear that we have in stock 0:02:25.520 --> 0:02:31.880 bow coup Chalma hoodies in camo and it's solid patterns 0:02:32.720 --> 0:02:37.400 with a cool Meter logo on them. There are brimmed beanies. 0:02:38.880 --> 0:02:45.480 What else was there? Hats, T shirts, decals. Yeah, the 0:02:45.520 --> 0:02:49.480 new hats are nice. We have new um richardson one, 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:53.280 twelves with the cipher new first Light cipher Camo on 0:02:53.400 --> 0:02:56.840 him with the Meteor logo. And Ridge Pounders. Ridge Pounder 0:02:56.880 --> 0:03:00.120 has been rocking one of those Yeah, yeah you are 0:03:00.240 --> 0:03:02.240 do you wear in Chicago when you're just kicking around 0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:06.560 town all the time? He says, yeah, But he's got 0:03:06.600 --> 0:03:08.880 that going for him. But he cannot cook squirrel and 0:03:08.960 --> 0:03:15.840 rabbit at all. That's it, right, that's it. Not for 0:03:15.880 --> 0:03:20.080 the program. Now, I know that listeners have grown accustomed 0:03:20.120 --> 0:03:26.000 to the impeccable sound quality of this year digital radio program, 0:03:26.080 --> 0:03:28.200 and that's gonna be a little compromised because we're in 0:03:28.320 --> 0:03:30.840 a teepee tent in the rain. And I know this 0:03:30.919 --> 0:03:34.000 has happened a handful of times throughout the history of 0:03:34.000 --> 0:03:37.040 this program, um, but you just have to bear with it. 0:03:37.120 --> 0:03:41.240 So if you're hearing a gentle pitter pattern punctuated by 0:03:41.320 --> 0:03:45.680 loud gusts of wind, that is the weather of a 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:49.720 fog nack island, which not many folks have heard of. 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:52.880 But a fog nack is separated by a narrow channel. 0:03:52.960 --> 0:03:56.880 Remember what's that channel called? You know? Uh no, not 0:03:57.000 --> 0:03:59.520 between the islands. I'm not sure. I think just fog 0:03:59.640 --> 0:04:02.040 net trade or something. Yeah, I don't quote me on that. 0:04:02.080 --> 0:04:05.520 I don't know. Well you're quoted, um, but well, well, yeah, 0:04:05.520 --> 0:04:10.360 I understand Raspberry straight straight, separated by a narrow channel 0:04:10.640 --> 0:04:14.480 from Kodiak Island and dirt here knows Kodiak as being 0:04:14.520 --> 0:04:19.600 an inferior brand of chew. No good Kodiak is good 0:04:19.640 --> 0:04:23.800 or not good good? Oh grizzly Yeah, do you think 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:27.039 Grizzly was trying to nose in on Kodiak's business. Kodiaks 0:04:27.080 --> 0:04:30.200 known for big grizzlies. What's the chew? You said? It's 0:04:30.240 --> 0:04:31.760 like a low grade choo that you don't need to 0:04:31.800 --> 0:04:33.640 chew because you have a good job, Grizzly, that's what 0:04:33.720 --> 0:04:35.880 my pops choose, not that he has a bad job, 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:40.160 but he's he's he's more frugal, he's better with what 0:04:40.160 --> 0:04:42.559 what do you got packed in right now? Dirt school baby? 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:48.440 If anyone, if anyone's followed the saga of dirt trying 0:04:48.480 --> 0:04:53.200 to quit you, you can see that uh I wasna 0:04:53.200 --> 0:04:56.320 saying no progress has been made on the quid you 0:04:56.360 --> 0:04:59.760 have to try though? Really well? Yeah, because now he's 0:04:59.800 --> 0:05:05.160 hit to a homeopathic thing he's taking, which she feels 0:05:05.440 --> 0:05:09.719 is gonna mitigate the damaging effects of chew by taking 0:05:09.920 --> 0:05:13.800 what are you eating? Licening and fresh air? Licening is 0:05:13.880 --> 0:05:16.600 the pill? So you take a pill to just a 0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:19.920 prolong how long you can chew because it's it's counteracting 0:05:20.000 --> 0:05:22.599 the carson genic effects of your chew. What is my 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:27.760 own theory? Yeah? No, I like it. I like it. Um, 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:29.919 So we have a riding the storm Out, and you know, 0:05:29.920 --> 0:05:32.760 if anyone's spirit the Rio Speedwagon song Riding the Storm Out, 0:05:33.640 --> 0:05:36.400 it has you know, it's like a real powerful song 0:05:36.520 --> 0:05:39.640 that gets everyone amped up, and it's like really um dramatic. 0:05:39.680 --> 0:05:41.320 But in the song where he's really right, he's like 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:45.680 at some kind of cabin scheme and he's just kind 0:05:45.720 --> 0:05:47.719 of saying like I'm not missing the thing Riding the 0:05:47.720 --> 0:05:50.880 Storm Out, and it's really sort of like, you know, 0:05:50.960 --> 0:05:53.919 it's kind of blase for his it's hard hitting of 0:05:53.960 --> 0:05:57.520 a tune. Riding the Storm Out is and if he 0:05:57.680 --> 0:06:00.560 was a real skier, he'd be out there. No, it's 0:06:00.600 --> 0:06:03.440 just like you feel like he's being more metaphorical, right, 0:06:03.600 --> 0:06:05.440 Like you feel like when he's like ride in the 0:06:05.520 --> 0:06:08.520 Storm Out, you feel like like it's metaphorical. You feel 0:06:08.560 --> 0:06:12.040 like he's in Miami during a hurricane. Yeah. Yeah, like 0:06:12.320 --> 0:06:15.760 but but if you listen carefully, just like he's in Colorado, 0:06:15.839 --> 0:06:18.600 I think, or more metaphorical, like he's got like a 0:06:19.000 --> 0:06:22.880 love triangle going on and just or he's going in 0:06:22.960 --> 0:06:26.599 to get um, he's going in to get a prostrate exam, 0:06:26.600 --> 0:06:28.880 which I just had my first stuff recently, so yeah, 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:30.520 like going into that when I had to get on 0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:33.040 my elbows on the map. I was in my head 0:06:33.160 --> 0:06:35.120 was you know it might have been like I might 0:06:35.120 --> 0:06:37.640 have done better had I been thinking riding the storm out. 0:06:37.800 --> 0:06:41.520 But um, it's really like if you listen to it's 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:43.640 kind of more of a Limp Dickey song because he's 0:06:43.680 --> 0:06:46.680 just up like skiing and he gets stuck in a 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:49.600 cabin for the night. It's it's one of the songs. 0:06:49.640 --> 0:06:53.760 It isn't as good. Um, no songs better. This is 0:06:53.800 --> 0:06:55.280 just a quick diversion for you get back to what's 0:06:55.320 --> 0:07:00.720 going on in fog Nack Island. Uh. The Bob Seeger 0:07:00.760 --> 0:07:04.760 song Night Moves. Do you know what that song is about? Yes, 0:07:05.880 --> 0:07:08.640 tell me what it's about. Well, only because I've I've 0:07:08.680 --> 0:07:12.480 had a conversation with you while you dissected it and 0:07:12.520 --> 0:07:16.320 told me about what it was about. Night Moves is 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:20.960 about senescence. It's about growing old where he for a 0:07:21.000 --> 0:07:23.600 lot of the song is reminiscing about being out with 0:07:23.640 --> 0:07:26.560 some gal behind back behind the corn field in the fifties, 0:07:26.640 --> 0:07:29.920 Chevy working on their night moves. So he's like, you know, 0:07:30.440 --> 0:07:34.960 perfecting the heart of love making I gather and but 0:07:35.080 --> 0:07:36.800 in the end of the song, it was like a 0:07:36.840 --> 0:07:41.000 PostScript to the song, and in the end of the song, 0:07:41.160 --> 0:07:44.800 Uncle Bobby Bob seeger crystals like you're from mission. You 0:07:44.840 --> 0:07:47.520 know what I'm talking about? What you're talking about? Uncle 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:53.320 Bobby says, I woke last night to the sound of thunder. 0:07:54.640 --> 0:07:57.480 How far off I sat and wondered. So here he is. 0:07:57.520 --> 0:08:00.240 He's painting this picture of like someone wake up in 0:08:00.240 --> 0:08:05.040 the middle of the night, counting time. Right, I started 0:08:05.160 --> 0:08:10.600 humming a song from nineteen Isn't it funny how the 0:08:10.720 --> 0:08:12.600 night moves when you don't don't seem to have as 0:08:12.680 --> 0:08:15.480 much loose? He's it's it's from the perspective. It's an 0:08:15.520 --> 0:08:20.680 old man waking up at night, coming to terms with 0:08:20.800 --> 0:08:25.400 his own death and thinking back on this thing that 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:32.840 happened to him. Isn't it funny? All the night moves 0:08:32.840 --> 0:08:34.600 and he just don't seem to have that much to lose. 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:39.560 And now here he is, you know, maybe his prostates gone. 0:08:40.360 --> 0:08:47.120 I don't know. Um, Farnack Island, me break break it 0:08:47.160 --> 0:08:50.240 down fourth the island itself? Just do you have a 0:08:50.240 --> 0:08:56.560 whole spiel picture? Yeah, So we're in a valley, but 0:08:56.960 --> 0:09:00.800 the mountains jet up pretty high. It's all uh, most 0:09:00.840 --> 0:09:05.400 of its volcanic activity. What all these mountains come out 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:08.079 of the ocean front A lot of vol can and 0:09:08.640 --> 0:09:10.880 hundred feet to be exact. When we were up at 0:09:10.960 --> 0:09:16.600 top Tony on the ridge we're camped at, three were 0:09:16.679 --> 0:09:19.440 camp blowing, not that doesn't matter, low enough, but about 0:09:19.520 --> 0:09:23.680 like a hundred yards most we got, uh, silver salmon jumping, 0:09:23.920 --> 0:09:27.400 oh yeah, fresh out of the ocean, clean salmon to 0:09:28.040 --> 0:09:32.240 being caught. Yeah, they're pretty aggressive. Ramy actually caught one 0:09:32.360 --> 0:09:36.040 on his first cast cast, which is a giant on 0:09:36.120 --> 0:09:39.760 his first cast. But anyways, there we are Farnack Island. Yeah, 0:09:39.800 --> 0:09:44.600 and so there's uh, just a few different animals running around. 0:09:45.080 --> 0:09:50.440 Elk Roosevelt elk, which were introduced. Then there's blacktail deer 0:09:50.640 --> 0:09:55.120 Cia blacktail deer, and then you've got the Kodiak brown 0:09:55.160 --> 0:09:59.120 were which is the king of the island. But it 0:09:59.280 --> 0:10:01.840 is biggest brown bears in the world, biggest brown bears 0:10:01.880 --> 0:10:04.320 in the world. You have pounds, so if you think 0:10:04.360 --> 0:10:07.680 about them, it's a bear that's about the weight of 0:10:07.760 --> 0:10:13.520 two standard Montana elk or more. That's a big bear. 0:10:14.160 --> 0:10:16.840 That's huge. But these elk are no These elk are 0:10:16.920 --> 0:10:21.240 no joke either in weight, they're about four hundred pounds. 0:10:21.280 --> 0:10:23.640 I would say somewhere in there some of the biggest body, 0:10:23.720 --> 0:10:27.120 biggest boggy dulk in the world. Yep, for sure. And 0:10:27.160 --> 0:10:29.360 I think it's just because there's there's what you've seen 0:10:29.400 --> 0:10:34.440 the grass. It's just head high, high protein grass from 0:10:34.440 --> 0:10:37.640 what I've heard. Yeah, we're kind of in It's weird 0:10:37.679 --> 0:10:39.439 about this island. Is you kind of in like a 0:10:40.559 --> 0:10:44.240 you're in almost like a grassland environment. Yeah, you would think, 0:10:44.360 --> 0:10:47.000 but I mean there's obviously there's spruce forests and then 0:10:47.040 --> 0:10:49.920 there's old growth forest on the other side, just this 0:10:50.040 --> 0:10:55.720 mountain behind us um. But this grass is you just 0:10:55.800 --> 0:10:58.400 notice all the seed and everything on the top of it. 0:10:58.720 --> 0:11:02.320 And this morning I found bear crap out back. There's 0:11:02.400 --> 0:11:05.640 just full of the grass seed. So it's obviously a 0:11:06.559 --> 0:11:09.720 pretty rich food source and easy to gather for the 0:11:09.760 --> 0:11:12.680 elk and the the deer and well, I don't know, 0:11:12.800 --> 0:11:14.880 I would imagine the deer do a little more browsing 0:11:14.880 --> 0:11:22.520 on some of the other plants growth. Yeah, everything grows 0:11:23.120 --> 0:11:27.360 larger here. Garrett was calling it, Kong Island is big. Yeah, 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:30.079 And there's a thing like in in you know, we've 0:11:30.080 --> 0:11:33.640 talked about Bergman's rule or Bergman's principle number of times 0:11:33.640 --> 0:11:38.760 that mammals tend to be. Mammals tend to be the 0:11:38.880 --> 0:11:41.839 largest specimens of mammals tend to be at the most 0:11:42.000 --> 0:11:45.240 northern point of their range, which has to do with 0:11:45.320 --> 0:11:49.800 heat retention and heat dissipation. So if you just imagine, 0:11:49.880 --> 0:11:53.400 like imagine the white tailed deer um the most you 0:11:53.400 --> 0:11:56.280 know the diminutive forms of white tailed deer, like down 0:11:56.480 --> 0:11:58.920 in the Florida keys we have keys deer like very 0:11:58.960 --> 0:12:01.760 small deer, and everybody knows like the really big bodied 0:12:01.800 --> 0:12:04.800 bruisers from Alberta. So if you imagine the white tailed deer, 0:12:04.960 --> 0:12:11.079 like a large white tailed deer has a lower surface 0:12:11.240 --> 0:12:16.400 area ratio than a small white tailed deer, so which 0:12:16.440 --> 0:12:20.840 is beneficial for heat retention. A smaller bodied white tailed 0:12:20.880 --> 0:12:24.640 deer has higher surface area, which is good for heat dissipation. 0:12:25.520 --> 0:12:28.000 The same way, if you think about an African elephant 0:12:28.120 --> 0:12:32.439 has big, huge ears and a wooly mammoth had very 0:12:32.480 --> 0:12:35.400 small ears because they use those ears to cool their 0:12:35.440 --> 0:12:39.880 blood by sending blood into their ears, which is exposed 0:12:39.880 --> 0:12:42.080 to the air to cool it. And then other things 0:12:42.120 --> 0:12:45.760 have strategies by which they try not to expose blood 0:12:45.840 --> 0:12:48.520 to air. But there's the reason that bring that up. 0:12:49.040 --> 0:12:53.200 There's a principle with islands were generally on islands, mammals 0:12:53.440 --> 0:13:01.480 tend toward diminutive form, and here you have but these 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:05.200 are huge. See. The weird thing is they're huge islands. Yeah, 0:13:05.240 --> 0:13:08.080 they're they're huge. They become almost like not they become 0:13:08.080 --> 0:13:11.920 almost like an island, like when they're so huge because 0:13:12.000 --> 0:13:17.079 you know, like there's there's enough. Probably everything is smaller 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:20.160 on an island because there's not as many resources, so 0:13:20.440 --> 0:13:24.559 they just tend to be smaller. But there's a surplus 0:13:24.559 --> 0:13:28.400 of food here. There's more food than animals, and there's 0:13:28.480 --> 0:13:34.480 large predators. So the populations, the populations here, especially for 0:13:34.559 --> 0:13:38.720 the deer, are an extreme flux. Last year was a 0:13:38.720 --> 0:13:43.040 phenomenal deer season. The year before, or maybe it was 0:13:43.080 --> 0:13:46.200 two years before, it was all you could do to 0:13:46.240 --> 0:13:49.640 find a buck. I mean, just hunting hard. Last year, 0:13:50.160 --> 0:13:55.960 bucks everywhere, good antler growth, unbelievable season. This year is 0:13:56.080 --> 0:13:59.280 kind of down a little bit. Yeah, but it most 0:13:59.320 --> 0:14:01.400 takes sometime, I am for that to even out, because 0:14:01.440 --> 0:14:02.880 I mean, like the thing has to be born and 0:14:02.920 --> 0:14:07.760 grow up. Yeah, I mean three to four. You know, 0:14:07.840 --> 0:14:11.880 you've got your babies and then about every three years 0:14:12.000 --> 0:14:18.560 or whatever to grow like a like a mature buck. Yeahs, 0:14:18.679 --> 0:14:20.840 the winners are a lot harder here. So like even 0:14:20.880 --> 0:14:23.920 the black tails where you're at, say, if you're hunting 0:14:23.920 --> 0:14:26.800 black sick of black tail and Prince of Wales, these 0:14:26.840 --> 0:14:32.000 black tails are way bigger, way bigger body. Yeah, and 0:14:32.040 --> 0:14:35.680 then their antlers get can get bigger. But they don't 0:14:35.680 --> 0:14:39.840 have as many trophy quality bucks all the time because 0:14:40.920 --> 0:14:44.880 extreme fluxes in the population and the horn grow antler growth. 0:14:45.040 --> 0:14:47.320 So there's good old days and not good old days. Yeah. 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:49.560 When I'm looking at pictures of sick of black tails, 0:14:50.080 --> 0:14:52.840 I can pick out the cordiac black tails. Oh yeah, 0:14:52.920 --> 0:14:54.720 this is such a look to them. When you're packing 0:14:54.720 --> 0:14:56.720 one out, it feels like packing out a meal deer 0:14:56.760 --> 0:14:59.920 from Montana. People think black tails are just tiny deer, 0:15:00.520 --> 0:15:03.960 not the ones on Kong Island. On Kong Island, now 0:15:04.040 --> 0:15:08.120 Remy is here's a good segue. Remy is hunting blacktails. 0:15:08.240 --> 0:15:10.840 Remy does have a black tailed tag, but we're manly 0:15:10.880 --> 0:15:15.480 pursuing elk and so on Fogna Fognack Island, there are well, 0:15:15.520 --> 0:15:18.120 there are handful of islands and coastal Laska that have 0:15:18.200 --> 0:15:27.480 elk kirds. Edeln Island, Yeah, what's that? Raspberry Island, Fognack 0:15:27.560 --> 0:15:31.040 Island have elk kirds and they're all limited draw hunts. 0:15:31.080 --> 0:15:36.240 You know what the draw odds here? Um? Now, probably 0:15:37.080 --> 0:15:40.280 I'm just guessing from when I looked a while ago. 0:15:41.120 --> 0:15:43.160 And how many years ago was it that you drew 0:15:43.160 --> 0:15:48.200 this tag the first time? Oh I'm not four years 0:15:48.640 --> 0:15:51.960 four years ago? Yeah, and talk about what happened that 0:15:52.120 --> 0:15:54.320 made it be that you said you would never ever 0:15:54.360 --> 0:15:58.120 do this again. Oh, it's just brutal pack out, just 0:15:58.160 --> 0:16:01.160 such a large animal, and it was me and my 0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:07.200 brother on that hunt, and so it was. Yeah, it's 0:16:07.200 --> 0:16:09.760 one of those trips where you're doing it and you 0:16:09.960 --> 0:16:14.200 just are saying, why did I suffer through that? Why 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:16.480 did I choose to do this? And then the day 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:18.920 you leave, you think about it and you go, that 0:16:19.000 --> 0:16:22.960 wasn't so bad. You're like proud of yourself for accomplishing it. 0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:25.280 But the elk, we're not anywhere close to where we 0:16:25.360 --> 0:16:27.400 were camping, so we had to go up over the range, 0:16:28.120 --> 0:16:32.120 down the valley to the other side, shoot an elk, 0:16:32.600 --> 0:16:34.560 carry it all the way back up and his was 0:16:34.600 --> 0:16:38.720 another six miles past mind, same deal up over range, 0:16:39.640 --> 0:16:43.760 dropping down, going through brush and terrible. Yeah, there's nowhere 0:16:43.760 --> 0:16:46.080 to land aircraft around now. I mean you can land 0:16:46.360 --> 0:16:51.080 aircraft on floats in and you know you can land 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:54.680 aircraft on floats. There's a couple like shoreline bars where 0:16:54.680 --> 0:16:57.120 you can down, like at sea level where you can land, Yeah, 0:16:57.160 --> 0:17:00.320 depending on the tide and the winds. But little there's 0:17:00.360 --> 0:17:03.000 some low lakes where you can land, but there's no 0:17:03.040 --> 0:17:07.840 way to get You can boat into some places, but 0:17:07.880 --> 0:17:09.640 then you got all but you got peaks out here 0:17:09.640 --> 0:17:11.960 that are a couple of thousand feet high. Yeah, so 0:17:12.040 --> 0:17:15.879 you're you're always going to be climbing from close to 0:17:15.920 --> 0:17:19.880 sea level to a couple of thousand feet And now 0:17:19.920 --> 0:17:22.040 you could have it luck out and they'd be where 0:17:22.080 --> 0:17:24.920 you camp, but it just hasn't been my experience. We 0:17:25.000 --> 0:17:26.920 tried that last year my dad drew in alk Tag 0:17:27.400 --> 0:17:29.640 and we had them spotted the day before the season, 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:34.480 like near the coast right we're camping. Storm rolls in 0:17:35.240 --> 0:17:39.879 and the next morning they were three miles up and 0:17:39.960 --> 0:17:42.560 some other hunters were actually up there, and then by 0:17:42.600 --> 0:17:46.040 the time they got done getting spooked around, they were 0:17:46.080 --> 0:17:48.760 just in a place where you had taken five days 0:17:48.800 --> 0:17:53.240 to pack out. Talk about the time and the hours 0:17:53.280 --> 0:17:55.840 and distance you guys spent pack in the elk up here. 0:17:55.960 --> 0:17:59.560 I have it on my because I did log it, 0:17:59.600 --> 0:18:02.479 and I hate saying what wasn't right, but it was. 0:18:04.000 --> 0:18:06.560 I can't remember at this point. It was what I 0:18:06.600 --> 0:18:08.359 have on this thing that I saw the other day. 0:18:08.359 --> 0:18:11.600 It's eighty hours of packing. So that might have been 0:18:11.640 --> 0:18:14.520 forty forty hours of person or it could have been 0:18:14.600 --> 0:18:19.080 eighty hours total. I can't remember now. But you're going 0:18:19.680 --> 0:18:29.320 from this location, you're going up feet and then down. Yeah, 0:18:29.480 --> 0:18:31.840 because you're almost back down on the sea level. Yep, 0:18:32.800 --> 0:18:36.280 we're on his ball. We did to get from camp 0:18:36.680 --> 0:18:40.320 to visible and back was five thousand feet five thousand 0:18:40.400 --> 0:18:44.680 vertical vertical feet. So and we would start we started 0:18:44.680 --> 0:18:50.119 an hour before sun up, hike up there, get there, um, 0:18:50.320 --> 0:18:55.560 get there just about a noon lunchtime, and be back 0:18:55.640 --> 0:19:00.040 just after dark. And then you had to move of 0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:05.320 seven pounds, six pounds, six hundred pounds, and and that's 0:19:05.359 --> 0:19:11.359 boned out. You know. Over the I've been putting in 0:19:11.400 --> 0:19:16.360 for this tag for well, different versions of it. I've 0:19:16.359 --> 0:19:18.680 been putting in for like some version of these tags. 0:19:19.800 --> 0:19:23.040 Different spots because there's many units on like Raspberry Island, 0:19:24.240 --> 0:19:26.520 and here's a bunch of units, a lot of units here. 0:19:26.640 --> 0:19:29.000 Some are easier to draw than others. And I've been 0:19:29.040 --> 0:19:32.240 like putting in for him for over a decade. It 0:19:32.359 --> 0:19:36.680 never drew it. And then Rammy drew it four years 0:19:36.680 --> 0:19:39.399 ago and vowed to never come do it again. And 0:19:39.440 --> 0:19:42.480 then I said, let's put in his partners and he 0:19:42.560 --> 0:19:44.240 was like, okay, so we won't draw it anyway, so 0:19:44.280 --> 0:19:47.120 it doesn't matter. And then we drew it. And then 0:19:47.160 --> 0:19:51.359 we drew it. And so now you sit in the 0:19:51.440 --> 0:19:54.320 rain with fog in a tent. I would do it 0:19:54.359 --> 0:19:57.359 with you because I know that it would It would 0:19:57.359 --> 0:20:00.520 be actually easy. There's just a certain people I would 0:20:00.520 --> 0:20:07.240 do this hunt with my brother, helicopter ceties, celebrities and 0:20:07.320 --> 0:20:11.160 helicopters and you knew you were going to draw. Yeah, exactly, 0:20:11.680 --> 0:20:14.119 because that's how it works in Alaska. But it's a 0:20:14.160 --> 0:20:18.560 big like just to be totally transparent. Um, well, the 0:20:18.800 --> 0:20:21.160 like the guys that we the guys we work with 0:20:22.640 --> 0:20:24.760 on our crew, they were you know, we're here filming, 0:20:25.600 --> 0:20:28.800 and the guys who work with on our crew, um, 0:20:28.920 --> 0:20:32.480 we always split meet up after our hunts usually like 0:20:32.520 --> 0:20:40.040 even Stephen, everybody packs me. So it really is a 0:20:40.359 --> 0:20:43.960 like a tremendous advantage when you have because we're going 0:20:44.040 --> 0:20:46.200 up the hill with six packers. When you have six 0:20:46.240 --> 0:20:50.840 packs and six people, that's that is two additional days 0:20:51.040 --> 0:20:55.399 of two people. That's huge. So you think about we 0:20:55.440 --> 0:20:58.720 shot two bowls and we had two guys, So if 0:20:58.720 --> 0:21:01.920 it was one trip with six guys, well in each bull, 0:21:02.000 --> 0:21:04.920 you have three trips. But it was actually more than that. 0:21:06.200 --> 0:21:09.920 Uh yeah. What was what we did on on one 0:21:09.960 --> 0:21:12.720 of them was we did like point A to B 0:21:12.880 --> 0:21:15.560 two see two D to E to F and just 0:21:15.600 --> 0:21:18.520 had it in trees the whole way, so we the 0:21:18.520 --> 0:21:22.000 whole thing bounced the whole thing like in a continuous line, 0:21:22.400 --> 0:21:26.440 and then we got it to A so you didn't 0:21:26.440 --> 0:21:29.399 have to go all the way back every day. You're 0:21:29.440 --> 0:21:31.840 still walking the same amount of miles you are, but 0:21:31.880 --> 0:21:35.760 it gets the cash because you've got you've got bears. 0:21:35.880 --> 0:21:38.120 You just go from tree to tree, so you're never 0:21:38.480 --> 0:21:41.000 you don't want to. You can't just skin it out 0:21:41.080 --> 0:21:43.600 and just leave it at the kill site and I'll 0:21:43.600 --> 0:21:46.960 be back here, you know. And the other thing is 0:21:47.320 --> 0:21:51.399 we can check on it at a closer point, because 0:21:51.920 --> 0:21:54.440 my thought is if it's hanging in a tree at 0:21:54.440 --> 0:21:57.159 camp or hanging in a tree four yards away or 0:21:57.200 --> 0:21:58.879 a mile away, it doesn't matter. It's hanging in a 0:21:58.920 --> 0:22:01.320 tree at something and it needs to come back to camp. 0:22:01.359 --> 0:22:03.480 But you can utilize your time a little bit better 0:22:03.840 --> 0:22:06.600 if you get a bowl down, you start ferrying him 0:22:06.680 --> 0:22:11.280 from points because to go, and because you have a 0:22:11.359 --> 0:22:13.520 mountain in the middle, you know, so if you get 0:22:13.560 --> 0:22:15.240 everything to the base of the mountain or to the 0:22:15.320 --> 0:22:17.240 top of the mountain, it's a lot easier than having 0:22:17.320 --> 0:22:21.800 to walk up that thousand feet there that the main 0:22:21.920 --> 0:22:25.199 pass and then drop back down and then drop back up. 0:22:25.280 --> 0:22:27.320 You know, you get up there and do your work 0:22:27.359 --> 0:22:31.200 and try to move the whole thing. You know, when 0:22:31.240 --> 0:22:38.240 when you draw the tag um, the Fish and Game 0:22:38.280 --> 0:22:40.879 Department well sends you kind of like a little no 0:22:41.200 --> 0:22:44.600 illustrating some of the challenges, and with this one they 0:22:44.680 --> 0:22:48.800 seem to be they're particularly pointed about the challenges of 0:22:49.200 --> 0:22:51.120 the hunt. And I noticed that when I drew a 0:22:51.160 --> 0:22:55.240 Copper river um buffalo tag they had that there was 0:22:55.280 --> 0:22:57.120 like a long letter, was like a couple of page 0:22:57.240 --> 0:23:00.240 letter being like but now that you have this thing 0:23:00.960 --> 0:23:03.760 this tag here are some things you should pay attention 0:23:03.800 --> 0:23:07.119 to UM and it had to do with you know, 0:23:07.720 --> 0:23:10.600 ice flow and free and access issues and just really 0:23:10.680 --> 0:23:12.400 lays out for you in a way that's almost kind 0:23:12.400 --> 0:23:17.160 of pessimistic sounding. Here. The note that your tag comes 0:23:17.240 --> 0:23:20.840 with is about one, these things are huge and people 0:23:21.000 --> 0:23:23.119 shoot them too far away and get in over their heads. 0:23:23.680 --> 0:23:26.760 And two it says, you know, the carcass the killsite 0:23:26.760 --> 0:23:30.240 will be claimed by a bear. Yes, usually within the 0:23:30.280 --> 0:23:34.040 first night. Yeah, so saying you have to get the 0:23:34.119 --> 0:23:36.879 meat away from the guts. When I shot my bowl, 0:23:38.280 --> 0:23:40.960 we had to. We had to actually go a different 0:23:41.000 --> 0:23:45.320 route to stock him because there was multiple bears amongst 0:23:45.320 --> 0:23:50.320 the herd of elk, big bears like big boars, and 0:23:50.320 --> 0:23:53.280 there's a couple there's one south cubs on the other side, 0:23:53.280 --> 0:23:56.480 so we're kind of dodging bears. We watched one go 0:23:57.080 --> 0:23:59.520 into where we were actually planning on walk like this 0:23:59.640 --> 0:24:02.359 patch all thats we're planning and walking down through, So 0:24:02.400 --> 0:24:06.480 I mean rerouted around that patch of alders. I shoot 0:24:06.520 --> 0:24:09.280 my bowl. We get up to it. The bear decides 0:24:09.320 --> 0:24:11.159 to wake up out of the patch of alders. The 0:24:11.160 --> 0:24:13.879 winds blowing toward him and he's just got his nose 0:24:13.920 --> 0:24:17.280 up as we're skintting clean. I mean, he knew it 0:24:17.359 --> 0:24:21.680 was there, and and so we had essentially with the 0:24:21.720 --> 0:24:25.000 two of us, one guy on bear watch while the 0:24:25.040 --> 0:24:27.160 other guy's cutting it up because it's it was thick 0:24:27.200 --> 0:24:29.359 in there, and we knew that the bear knew where 0:24:29.359 --> 0:24:31.760 we were and he was coming our way. At some point, 0:24:31.960 --> 0:24:38.840 they're fully habituated to gunshot being a meal here enough, 0:24:39.240 --> 0:24:41.480 I don't think there's enough of that, but they know, 0:24:42.760 --> 0:24:47.800 they just know they smell dead elk, and I mean 0:24:47.840 --> 0:24:50.480 maybe they're definitely aware of the probably like kill elk, 0:24:50.520 --> 0:24:54.840 calves and kill well to interesting bear stories. So one 0:24:54.880 --> 0:24:56.159 has to do with what we're talking about. One does, 0:24:56.200 --> 0:24:58.520 and I'll tell the one that does. At first, we're 0:24:59.280 --> 0:25:02.920