00:00:02 Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your home for deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host, Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm your host, Mark Kenyan. This episode number one sixty seven and today the show it is story time, as I'm sharing all the details of my absolutely mind blowing, unbelievable lasking cabal hunting experience and an update on my steal in progress Montana public Land White to hunt. All right, welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to you by sit gear, and today it's just Dan and I and I have got some stories to tell. But but Dan, before all that, well, what's what's new with you? Mark? Let's just cut the bullshit right now. Okay, nobody cares about what's going on with me, especially when you're posting pictures behind a giant cariboo and your social media feed is saying, oh cool man, Look I'm in Montana in a white you know, hunting white tail. When the coolest thing I've done in the past two weeks is okay, I checked one trail camera. My family got a new house. My wife gets mad because my son has a running nose and he wipes his boogers on it. My wife's pregnant and she's about to pop. That's my life right there. Thirty seconds. Really. Well, so you got a new house, that's news. No, a new couch, couch, couch couch. Remember that couch story, the browning points of the couch story. Yep, that was the birthday present. So and my son, he's in this mode. This is disgusting. And I'm sure all boys at some point did it, but he is in full blown pick your nose and eat it mode. Yeah. Yeah, I'm slapping his hand away. I'm saying no, that's disgusting. And he looks at me like I'm not even there, just with these hollow eyes, and he picks his nose and puts it in his mouth, and I'm just like, buddy, that is disgusting. That is disgusting. Mac. He's gonna be a troublemaker, Oh buddy, he already is he He just doesn't give it. He doesn't care. He doesn't care, which is kind of cool. I I see him as growing up being the kid that never gets pure pressured into doing anything because he doesn't care what other people are doing. He just he's that kid who just hey, man, I don't care if you think picking boogers is eating him his gross I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna be happy doing he I don't care, man, I don't care. Look good for him, good for him, good for him. So I'm thinking today we flipped the script a little bit and this is the Wired to Hunt podcast. But I'm gonna ask you a lot of questions about your trip, your trips, you know, the caribou hunt with Ronella, the Montana um, you know, the Montana adventures that you got going on, and just kind of shoot from the hip like we always do. Yeah. I think that's a good plan because there's there's lots to share over what I've been doing over the past few weeks and what's going on this week too. So yeah, so I could either just like, I mean, do you want to hear about my Alaska trip? No, nobody wants to hear about that. Shut up here. This is that's just but before we get into the Alaska trip, right, you what were you doing before that? I mean, because you went antelope hunting, right, talked about that a little bit and you never tagged out right, No, it didn't tag out because I only had one day to hunt um because you know, I was there with my wife and I just had a lot of stuff going on. I was trying to prepet as much work done as I could before heading off for these trips and um, and then I also was going on a packcrafting trip um that I that I was doing for this other project I'm working on. So that did I tell you about how that went? No? You did not, And I think that's gonna be a great place to start. Yeah. So that was. Man, it has been a pretty epic couple of weeks because that was one of the very coolest trips I've ever done. Um. So, me and my buddy Andy Bradley, we went and did a pack crafting slash fishing, slash backpacking trip in the Bob Marshall Wilderness up in northern Montana, and the Bob is one of the largest you know, wilderness with the capital w areas in the lower forty States. And for those who don't know, you know, when I say wilderness, I'm not saying just like generically, oh it's wild I'm saying like it's a designated by the federal government wilderness areas. So that means there's no motorized traffic, no permanent structures. Um, it's it's the highest protection that's given to public lands. So what that means basically is it's it's super super rugged, super wild and uh one of the highest densities of grizzly bears in the lower forty eight. So just an awesome place. Um. So me and Andy we rented these rafts and we threw them and we'll Kylie dropped us off at like this reservoir and we rafted paddled our way up this reservoir for like four miles. And man, right as we started going, it started like pouring rain in like twenty or wind, and I'm like, oh god, what did we get ourselves into. Um Like, we could hardly make any progress because the wind was blown right in our face. But we finally we made it a few miles down and then like the water levels were so low in the reservoir that actually just like we just were and out of water. We couldn't find a channel that kept going up into the river. So we had to take the boats out, pack them all back up and then strapped into our backpacks and then we hiked another like I don't know another four miles or so until we got to a camp. So that head a black bear run across right in front of us was just kind of cool. And then um, the next day we hiked another like six to eight miles something like that. And then the final two days we rafted this river all the way back to where we started, so it's a four day trip, half packing, half rafting. Um. And then we fished every day and um, man unbelievable scenery, just like beautiful rolling hills and mountains, and then this river was just a gorgeous kind of snake of Emerald winding us way through this valley and then every once in a while he gets these big rocky cliffs and stuff, and um, we saw lots of deer, eagles. Um, we didn't see any grizz but we did have um a good number of tracks around us that we saw. There was a big track and mom salon cub track near our camp one day, and then um, our last day hiking out, we were walked right in like fresh from that morning tracks that were heading towards us. So at some point he was on the trail and he probably heard us coming headed off the trail, and then we just passed through. So that was crazy. But man, the fishing was the It was the very best fly fishing I've had in my entire life, like by leaps and bounds um between the two of us. Like the first day, the first night, I caught nine and Andy caught like fifteen. The next day we both caught like I caught twenty seven, he caught thirty. The next day it was like thirty three and thirty three. The next day we didn't fish very much but still caught some. But I mean it was insane, and that was just the fish that we landed like that we got to our hand. There's so many our fish, fish that we missed or that broke off or that we lost at some point, And mean, it was just the most fun fly fishing ever. It was nuts. So I want to ask you a question real quick. This trip, you rafted and then you had to deflate the rafts right and and hike with them on your back. Yeah, So we had we had the rafts on our back, we had paddles, we had the inflating device, we had a life jacket, and we had all of our regular backpacking stuff too. So we had tents and sleeping bags and sleeping pads and food for four days and all of our fishing gears so fly rods, rails, flies, all that stuff. So we had we had some big packs on. Yeah. So uh, the next question, well that's not really a question. Yes, it is a question. I want will you Will you promise to take me on that same trip someday? Yeah, dude, if you can make it out there, we should definitely do that. It was it was. I mean, I've done a lot, I've done a ton of backpacking trips, but this was a really cool change of pace because, yeah, you're you're did some backpacking and hiking, so you feel like you worked for but in half the trip you were just floating along and like enjoying yourself. And the river was like it was at a nice point as far as water levels where it's relatively low water, so the rapids that you hit, you know, they weren't too bad, so you didn't feel like you're gonna die. But there was enough that like you had an adrenaline rush and you better to be you better like paddle well and get around these rocks otherwise you're gonna get flipped. So there was enough excitement. But then there are these long stretches where you just floated with your feet in the water and just enjoyed it. So it's like relaxing adrenaline, relaxing adrenaline, catch a bunch of fish. Uh so yeah, and just gorgeous weather. I mean it was like eighties in the day, but like a dry eighties, so comfortable, really nice and cool at night. And um man, it was just amazing, amazing trip. And um that's you know, part of this um public land related writing project. I'm working on going to share that story. And that's so excited about that super cool trip. And then and I came back and I had like three days to get all my ship around, pack up, unpacked from that trip, and then start packing for the new trip. And then Kylie and her friend Megan took off and they road tripped through Yellowstone and Grand Teetown on their way back to Michigan. And then I drove my camper into Bozeman and parked in the long term parking lot, slept in the long term parking lot in the airport on Friday night, and then I left for Alaska. Nice. So how long was that float trip in total? Four days total? Okay, four days So that's uh, something that you would recommend to somebody in the future. Highly highly recommend a pack rafting trip like that. And you know, I think you gotta you know, be aware of like your skill set. And if you've never rafted or paddled a kayak or anything and you know, don't have those experiences, I would like either go with someone who does, or try to learn before doing this, and then make sure you check on water flow levels for a river like this, um, because this river that we did, if we did it at much higher flows, UM, it could be dangerous, especially if you didn't really know what you're doing. And I don't. I'm not an expert by any means of this. I paddled decent bit, but I was even a little nervous, you know, not knowing exactly how rough these things are going to be. But for a lot of rivers, maybe all rivers, um, I'm not exactly sharing that, but the USGS keeps water flow meters in most of these rivers, so you can actually go on Google and look up, you know, and just google you know, ex river water flow and it will show you what the flow rate is and UM that that gives you a good like starting point. And then man, there's so much information online these days that people kind of you know, give you like guides for different rivers and stuff. So I found a website that had all sorts of information about different rivers you can raft in the Bob Marshall or in that general area. And then he had information to saying, Okay, you know, at this flow rate, it's like Class five rapids like super dicey at this flow rate, could be like Class two to three and be pretty decent. At this flow rate, it's too low. Um, So just look up that kind of stuff. Um. But there's there's a lot of rivers like this you can do in the Bob. In that general are there's the Bomb Mark. It's called the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex, and that includes the Bob Marshall Wilderness, the Scapegoat Wilderness, and the No Crap. I think it's the Great Bear Wilderness or something like that. I'm probably wrong, but there's three wilderness areas all tucked in just south of Glacier National Park, and that forms this Northern Rockies ecosystem. Um. And it's just just an unbelievable section in Montana. So highly recommend you know what's cool about it is I mean, Glaciers is epic, epic mountains, but once you go south of that into these wilderness areas, you don't have nearly the crowds, So you can see some similar things to Glacier, but not deal with you know, thousands of people. So right, I mean that sounds fun alright, So real quick, before we go any further, I want to pause real quick to thank our partners at Sicker Gear, And rather than share a typical sikest story from someone else, I thought I'd share a bit about my own experiences on this Alaska trip were talking about, because really, you know, this whole podcast is a sick of story. And for this hunt, I needed a bunch of new gear that was gonna be appropriate for the location and the type of things that we're going to be doing. So here's the system that I ended up using and that worked very very well for me. On the bottom for this hunt, I was wearing the Sick Timberline pants. These are just like a super rugged soft shell type pant It's like they're they're proto typical sheep hunters pant um. But it worked great for this too, and it's got this heavy duty reinforced backside and heavy duty kneepads actually in the front that I ended up really really liking. So so this pant is really built for the kind of hunt I was on where you're crawling or kneeling or sitting down and glassing a lot. So I love those pants and even you know, even when I was down in the thirties or ripping windy, which it was a lot, and this is all I ever needed to wear my lower half, nothing else. Now on the top, I wore a Core lightweight based layer, a Core midweight quarter zip layer, and then my fanatic hoodie, and then when I got really cold or windy, I topped it all off with the Kelvin Light hoodie and that's like a ultra light, packable puffy type jacket and everything there in that list it performed great, and it gave me the flexibility that I needed to shed or add layers based on the conditions or activities, so I was able to be comfortable out there no matter if it was super hot or super cold. And then finally I had the storm front jacket and pants for my rain gear, and we did get some pretty serious rain on two of the days I was out there, and this gear worked flawlessly I got I got another number of compliments on it actually, and the pants and jacket I found were just really smartly designed, with pockets and adjustment points exactly where you'd want them. I couldn't have been happier with it. And no point did I get wet or wa are seeping in anywhere. So that's that's why I hear. So there you have it. That's my Alaskan Caribou hunt sist system, and stick around here for more of my sikest story. As you know, as you might expect, this hunting experience is really once in the lifetime and I'm just really glad that my clothing enabled me to be out there and to be effective and to be comfortable. So if you'd like to make a SICKS story of your own someday, you can learn more at sick of gear dot com. Now transitioning to your Alaska trip, did you before we even talk about the travel to get there? I know that you were pumped and jacked to start. You know that you even got the opportunity to do this, So before you left, did you have any expectations of what this trip? This big Alaska trip was going to be like you know a little bit um. You know, I knew when when I got the invite. I talked to the guys about it, and they you know, shared some information, and they said that they had they had heard really good things about the area we were going into. Um and we're flying with a with a transporter. So basically there's there's lots of different kind of bush plane type operations up in Alaska where they transport hunters and all sorts of people way back there under the wilderness. And um, the transporter we were we were going with was very reputable. They're well known to you know, you know, they'll they'll get your in the right places and everything like that. So it sounded like the plan was to go into an area that should be really good. Um And there's a migration of Cariboo that comes through here this time of year that's fifty cariboo strong. Is this populations the forty mile herd and um, it's somewhere around fifty cariboo. They all kind of they bunch up more and more and more as they get into September and October. So I knew, based on all those things, a good chance of seeing a lot of animals. UM. And then I also knew that it was going to be like beautiful country. UM. They had done a hunt up in this general area last year for moose UM, somewhere within miles maybe of where we're at, give or take UM, so they you know, I heard a little bit about the general terrain and stuff, but that's basically all it new. UM. And so it was gonna be myself hunting. UH. Ronnello was hunting, and then Steve's friend Doug during Um, who's a guy from Wisconsin, a white to hunter from Wisconsin who's done a lot of stuff with Steve, and Steve's hunted on Doug's property lot in Wisconsin. So this is kind of like a way of saying thank you to Doug, I think, inviting him on this trip. So it was gonna be the three of us hunting. And then there was four other people that were on the production side of things, so the crew, So there was two full time cameramen and then the producer, and then a wilderness production assistant is what they call this other guy, Brody UM and both of the Janice and Brodie both had some cameras too for different things, but um but yeah, So so I knew I was going in there were seven guys that was gonna be really different, and I knew it was gonna be beautiful, and I knew we would probably see a lot of caribou, and that was basically all I knew. And those were my expectations going in were just like, I'm going to Alaska and it's gonna be like an amazing experience. Whether I killed anything or not. Like I wasn't really concerned about that at all. Like I could have gone and not shot anything and I would have still been super stoked. Um right, I just wanted to see Alaska my whole life, you know, dreamed about it and just like oh gosh, for years and years and years thought about trying to get up there. Um so that was that was where my head was that going in. Alright. So then you're you're sleeping in this parking lot and you're it's the eve before you're you're getting ready to take off on this epic adventure, right, something that you're going to tell your children about, right, something that you will never forget the first time you ever went to Alaska on this kick ass caribou hunt with some you know, some people that everybody knows, especially if you're a hunter. Did you have like opening day sleep, like you couldn't sleep like opening day, like the first day you're gonna go white tail hunting? Or was this on a different level, you know it was it was a little weird. Um, I'm trying to remember exactly what my sleep situation was. It was like that that day. That day was like a crazy day because like I had to pack up every all, Like Kylie left that morning, and so like it was like saying goodbye to her and getting off her stuff ready to go, and I wasn't I wasn't gonna see Kylie for three weeks. So it's kind of sad saying goodbye to her. Um. And then like it was like this really strong sense of like loneliness all day because you know, for all this time, I've been with Kylie the whole time and our dogs and doing all this stuff, and I don't know, like you're you're together all the time for like, you know, almost two months. Like it's not like she goes to work and I go to work and then we see each other at night. It's like we're with each other the entire day in this little camper. So then when it went from like all that interaction to like complete silence and nothing around and I was in the camper by myself, I was like, whoa, it just felt weird. So then that that whole day just said it was kind of weird. UM. But I was like busily trying to get stuff around, and then I had to drive the camper, and I've been trying to find somewhere to keep the camper like a campsite. UM. I was hopeful. I was hoping to find a National Forest pull off where I could park the camper, leave it and not to pay um, and then come back and pick it up. But I couldn't find anywhere that I could get the camper up to that UM was reasonably close. So I ended up finding out that I could park the camper at the airport. And yeah, that night, I just I think I was just so busy getting stuff around. I didn't even really have like jitters at all or like nerves about the trip. It was just like I get this done, gotta get this done, gotta get this done. And by the time I had everything done, it was super late anyway, so I just crashed and then I think I was up at like five am two to get in the airport and catch a flight. Right, all right, So how long did the trip take from the time you took off in Bozeman to the time you actually got to Alaska? So our flight left like seven in the morning or something like that from Bozeman, and then we flew from Bozeman to Seattle, and then we had a long layover in Seattle, um, like two or three hours, and we met up with a couple of the guys. So there was a group of like five of us now that were there, and we said like a big breakfast and talked about stuff. And then from Seattle we flew to Fairbanks, Alaska, and I think we got into Fairbanks around like three o'clock their time. Um, so I don't know. It was a pretty long day. And then we got Fairbanks, got all of our gear, and man, when you travel with these guys, it is an unreal amount of gear that they take. I think we had like twenty I don't I don't know how many total bags we have, but I do know that when we left Bozeman, just for me, janice and dirt, there was eighteen bags that we checked there and like huge duffels or big Pelican cases full of camera equipment or podcast equipment or all sorts of stuff. So there was probably thirty bags that we picked up at lug in the Fairbanks. We rented a rent a van in a car, and then we drove from Fairbanks to another town which is where our transporter was. And uh we we got in late lat night and got dinner and then um, I just passed out and uh I was ready for the early flight in the morning. Right, Okay, So I mean flying into Alaska itself had to be pretty kick ass, right, I mean, how how far is that flight from Seattle to Alaska Fairbanks? Yeah? So from Seattle Fairbanks I think was like three and a half hours or something like that. And unfortunately I didn't have a window seat. I wish I did though, because I was I was at an aisle seat, so I had to look past two people through the window and I was like over over the wing. But even with all that, you could still see some just unbelievable mountains, just you know, completely snow covered, massive peaks, all these glaciers that you're flying like the whole trip, but especially when you're on the plane. I just felt like I was living like a Discovery Channel special. It's just like I just like this, this isn't I kept of telling myself, this isn't a movie mark, this is life. Like this is actually real life. Um but yeah, like I'm flying over glaciers like massive tongues of ice coming off these mountain sides. Um just just awesome. And um so that was. That was sweet. And then we touched down in Alaska and I was like, holy crap, I'm actually in Alaska, like we landed there and then I'm like, hey, guys, I just checked a major item off my life bucket list. So I'm just gonna turn around and go home. Now made to Alaska. Um So, then the trans then it's time to take off from the transporter plane, right that that following morning and head into the bush right yeah, And that was that was really cool. Um So I was some of the guys were being shuttled from the trans from town to a wilderness airstrip on a bigger plane, like a four person plane, and then then they would take a smaller plane from that airstrip to our camp. But the two heaviest people, I was one of the two heaviest people. Um. We got to fly straight from town all the way to our camp area. UM in the little super cub and super Cub is this really small plane. It's like kind of ridiculous. UM seeing it for the first time, there's just the pilot in front and then you and it's like basically the pilots like sitting in my lap, like my legs are on either side of him, and it's just like glass all around me and one single propeller and it looks like you could just like tip this thing over with your leg if you kicked it. UM. But man, that was so so cool. We we got it, started flying, and very quickly you passed town and then it's just nothing so versus all this is like muskeg like swampy, tung jury marshy stuff that we're flying over. And like the colors are like these reds and yellows of these different willows and grasses and stuff. We're flying over all this stuff, and then you start coming into these hills and then eventually these big mountains. UM, and it's you know, there's there's all sorts of spruce trees and aspens. They're starting to change colors and then these massive above tree line mountaintops, just Barren Rock, um in Stone, and I don't know if you've ever seen pictures of um the Presidential Range in New Hampshire, like the White Mountains up there Mount Washington for anyone familiar with that area. This looked very much like that, like those types of mountains, but like just imagine on a much much bigger scale. But um, yeah, we're flying over these in this little super cubing. We're flying like fifty ft or a hundred feet off the ground. They just buzzing around these ridge tops and curling around stuff, and you can just see everything. I mean, it was just a super super cool flight. And that again was just like there's no way I can describe it in words to like convey just like I just on this flight in the entire time, I was just in awe of the scale of everything, like the distance I could see, and these massive mountains off from the distance, and these other mountains that I'm right on top of, and you know, these beautiful rivers winding everywhere, and and and not a single sign of human intrusion or presence anywhere. I mean, it was just hundreds hundreds of miles of open space, and I'm thinking, as we're flying over here, like how many bears out here are out here? Moose or caribou or whatever might be there so much wildlife all around here. So the flight in was super cool. Um. What was interesting though, is I assumed like they would be dropping us off I don't know, like a gravel bar or a runway that they've made somewhere out in the world. It's just something. But that's not the case. They land you on top of a mountain, like a little ridge coming off of a mountain side like it's like a fifty there's like maybe fifty words of space, and they just stop on a dime like that. They's they're flying down and then just like boom, they're right there on the ground. Um, but that's the case when the wind's good. I was the first plan to come in there, and we had like really windy conditions and it wasn't good. So we go flying in and he's like, all right, that's what we're gonna be landing, Like, holy crap, that's we're gonna land And he circles in and comes down and then he comes in and then the last second he pulls up and like cranks up and pulls up, and then he looks back and he goes, you don't get airsick, do you? And I'm like, I don't know yet. He's like, because this is gonna be interesting. So he ended up having to do that like four or five times. He makes these really tight turns were completely on our side, spins around, and then comes flying in and then tries to touch down in this fifty mile or fifty ft like circle on the ridge and can't do it, pulls up, does it over and over again. And meanwhile, while this is happening, there's he's scattering caribou off the mountain, like there's cariboo everywhere, right, We're gonna land. Um. So finally I feel like five times he's able to get down, and it was like, wow, that was something and um, and then you know, for the rest of the another four or five hours or so, it was just basically them shuttling in the other guys and all of our equipment and um, you know, then it was setting up camp. And meanwhile, while this is all happening, we're seeing caribou coming over the hillside on the mountaintop or skirting around us on the ridge. I mean there's just cariboo everywhere, and um, we set up camp and uh got ready and we're gonna go do a little scouting once we all got settled. So any question before move on? Yes, Yes, at this point, dude, like you're telling me you're living something that I've been dreaming about personally as well. Has reality at this point set in for you at all? Or are you just kind of overwhelmed with everything that's happening. Are you saying that right now today or at that point? I mean, like at that point, at that point, I mean, dude, you're living a national geographic type television show at this point. You know, it's like, well, ship, we can't land. While we're just gonna skip off this mountain. Five times you had some of the most beautiful scenery in the entire world outside and for me, I like every time. Do you remember when we were coming back from that Elk hunt. Yeah, and I was yeah that and just I was out the window like a dog looking and remember and we were driving even through Wyoming and I was just like, oh my god, look there's Natalope, Like, oh my god, look look look over there, Mark Martin. It was like, buddy, I've been on this road like a hundred times, right, so but for you, this is this is virgin ground. You've never done anything like this. I mean, what was going through your head at this point? Like I would be shaking, yeah, I mean it was definitely like kind of like you were on that wyoming drive. I was just like there was so much going on that like at times that you get caught up in like the action. But I made a point like as much as I could throughout the toll trip to just like try to like remind myself, like this is such a special thing, take it in. So I tried to find moments to like sit off by myself and just like just look around in silence or like just try to process it. But I probably didn't even get to do do that as much as I wanted to, because like, there was just stuff going on. And the one thing, you know, probably my biggest anxiety going into this trip. It wasn't like, oh, am I going to get in a plane crash like these things that can be dangerous. No, it wasn't that. It wasn't like worrying about grizzly bears. It wasn't, am I going to kill Caribou. Like my biggest anxiety was probably it was more so like that the people stuff, like, you know, and am I going to be a good fit with this group? Are they gonna like me? Uh? You know, I want to make sure I can you know, pull my own weight and you know, do all the stuff that I need to do. Um. I don't want them to feel like I don't know what I'm doing or anything like that. So it's like that people stuff. Um. So because of that, like I was kind instantly and I would I would do this anyways, but I was especially trying to make sure I did a really great job of like always be helping, always doing something. Like I didn't want to be that guy that was like lazy and like sitting off by himself playing around. So it was like whenever other people were doing stuff, I was constantly trying to find a way that I could help out. So because of that, I was I maybe didn't get as much time just like sit and like take stuff in because I was like can I help you move this back? Can I help you cook this thing? Can I help do this thing? Um? So I was like running around like like a chicken with his head cut off. Just trying to make sure I was, you know, doing my part um, but still still I mean there was still plenty of times to soak it all in. So yeah, it was just unreal. And we you know, once we got everything set up, we're gonna go out and do some scouting because that first day when you fly in, you can't hunt on the day you fly in. So we finally got our stuff around and you know, now I'm learning a little about the TV side of things too. So they got me all miked up and they kind of talked through some of the things they like to do and how they like to do this stuff, and um, we start hiking up the mountain and we were basicallynn hike up to a high point and sit up there in glass and just trying to get a get an idea of where these cariban are coming through and where we might want to go back to the next morning. And um, I found like it first when you've got like, you know, there's me and Steve and Doug up front, and then there's these other two guys behind you walking along, and then there's two cameras they're like running ahead of you or walking circles around you, or like standing right next to you with the camera in your face, and a couple of times I almost like started to laugh. It just felt so absurd, so I had to catch myself, like I got like a half smirk on my face, like keep it together, Kenyan, Yeah, act like you've been there before. But but yeah, the scouting was good. We saw a lout of caribou and um, you know, just got to have some good conversations with the guys. And then on our way back to camp that evening, Jana spotted the grizzly bear just underneath our camp, just off the ridge. So we all go walking down a ridge a little bit closer and we're watching him with our buyos and stuff. Just one of the most beautiful grizzly bears I've ever seen. Um. He was like pure gold like sheny blonde gold like beautiful coat. Um, and he was just feeding on blueberries and stuff. There's berries all over the place, and um, he's feeding on these blueberries. And he starts angling his way up the ridge, getting closer and closer and closer, and we're all geeking out on loving watching him. But he gets to maybe like a hundred yards ninety yards and Steve was like, you know, we probably ought to get this guy out of here, especially because of how close we were to camp Um. So he starts yelling, making some noise, and the bear looks up finally notices up there, but instead of like spooking off, he's just curious, so he just starts running towards us. Yeah. So then Steve was like picking up rocks and throwing rocks towards it and yelling, and finally he got to maybe I don't know, sixty five or seventy yards or somewhere around that ballpark. And then finally he does like, all right, real as, I don't want to mess with these guys, and he turns and runs off. But it was just a really cool, you know, encounter, And like now I'm like, all right, I've got like my lasket, Like this is everything I wanted. I've seen tons of cariboo, I had my grizzle bear encounter. I'm camped out on top of this wind swept rocky ridge and I can see like hundreds of miles maybe in every direction. That's all I need. I'm good, right, right, So, then while you were on this little scouting mission, did you guys, locate some cariboo and were you putting a plan together on how to attack it that next day. Yeah. So, so here's the thing with these caribo was like they're they're constantly moving, and it was just like there's always cariboo. So we kind of identified like a general path, like a travel path, like basically where we were situated, there was a almost like a pass in the chain of mountains and some ridges that kind of kind of like deer are funneled through topography by saddles in a mountain or something like their saddles on a ridge. There was a series of saddles and ridges that were funneling this migration of caribou passed our ridge. Um, so we located this general area where there's just constantly caribou trickling through, and um, you know, we knew that these these caribou are there one day, they're gone the next so there's gonna be different cariboo. But assuming that the migration continued, assuming that we weren't at the end of the migration, we knew that they should be back there the next day. So we we found this general area and then the plan was the next day to just go back up to this little glassing knob and watch again. But that was that wass as firm as a game plans we had, But it's kind of all you needed. Um. I mean, this is the most absurd hunting I've ever had in my life. Like it's unlike anything else, unlike elk hunting, unlike deer hunting, like by it ten times in that there's just there's constantly animals. You're constantly watching animals, and um, it wasn't a question, to be honest, very quickly we realized as soon as soon as we realized like okay, yes we're in the middle of the migration. It's not like the end of it, Like we're in it. It wasn't a question of if we're going to shoot cariboo. It was just which one you wanted to shoot because there were so many. But I will say what we found is that you know, when I when I went into this, when um Janice was like telling me, yeah, you know, there's we're gonna be hopefully intercepting the migration. Um. And when I started thinking about caribou migration, I was thinking of like Discovery Channel stuff where you see like these massive ambas of like twenty thousand or thirty thousand animals all together like pouring across an area. It's not it wasn't like that. Um. It was like here's a group of five, here's a group of twenty, here's a group of fifty, here's a group of fifteen, and they're all kind of strung out. Or you could like sit on the mountainside and you could look on one ridge and you see a group of twenty, group of fifty, group of ten there. But like any different direction you looked, you'd see a group of cariboo there and they're constantly moving through or the bed for a little bit, or they mail around feeding for a little bit. But it wasn't like this giant wave them. It was just this never ending kind of trickle and flow of different size groups coming through. Um. So that was what we started to see on day one, and we continued to see that the rest of the way. Okay, so so it's just one of those things where you guys just kind of you you found out where they were, and then you drop off the mountain to go intercept the basic line of the path of the migration. Then yeah, and there and there were you know, there it wasn't like one single line, Like there's lots of different little directions and stuff that different groups of them would go. But yeah, I mean when it came down to a day's you know, the three days that we were actually hunting, that basically end up being what we did. We had this general glassing section that we would go to and we would explore different areas, but many times we ended up back there and you could just watch over this large area and you just sit in the hillside with spotting scopes and binoculars and you just pick out different groups and eyeball that group. You find different group, eyeball that group, find different group, eyeball that group, and um, because there's so many animals, you know, Steve was, we should be pretty picky about what we're gonna shoot. I mean, there's no reason to go off and shoot the first thing, you see. So he kind of described the main things that you're looking for in a good and mature bowl and with a big you know, a big mature caribou bowl is going to have so they kind of differentiate. On a caribou. There's like these times and there's the there's the tops, and there's the fronts. Um. So the fronts, like those things that obviously come out from the front, like these different little arms and hands of aniler that comes out right above the kind of like a brow time type thing. And um. And then there's the tops, which are like you know, the tall main being that goes up and then you've got those top times up there. So good bowl would have like long tops and maybe palmated tops. He'd have backscratcher points, which are these little kind of flyers that come off the back of that big main beam. And he'd have you know, big sweeping fronts with good times, and maybe a shovel or two which are these like kind of palmated I don't even know how to describe it. But and the picture of my bowl you can see one I've I've got a single shovel on mine. You can see this flat kind of palmated vertical sun of antlers that comes like straight off his forehead. So we're looking for that. And then also you're looking at, you know, in relative to all the other caribou, So you need to establish a context because they all look big. Um, So you kind need to look at a bunch of them and then compare this one to that one, this one to that one. Um, so very quickly I realized like, we're going to be pretty picky. And uh so day one, you know, we we get up and we make some you know, cornolla oatmeal in the morning and coffee, get around and then we head back up the mountain and we're sitting there and we're seeing all these cariboo again and we're glassing and figuring stuff out, and finally we spott a cariboo that that you know, looked good and Steve was like, yeah, that's that's a good one. So he grabbed Doug and Doug, let's let's go after this one. So they go taken off after that one, and they took the two camera and then myself, Brody and Jana stayed up on the mountains side so that we didn't have seven people trying to chase his cariboo, and we watched and glassed from above, and they made a move on this group of cariboo. But these guys, these balls were moving so fast across the terrain that Steve and the crew they kind of angled where we saw them. But within moments of like them starting hike after him, these caribo were past that point, we're moving way far to the left, so we watched from above and watched them missed the cariboo by a mile, and they're gone, and then they continued stalking in, thinking they're getting on them, and then they finally realized that they weren't. But another group of cariboo had moved in and really another nice new ball came through and Doug ended up not shooting that one, but we thought maybe he would. But basically that whole morning was was watching that happen, and um, they didn't end up shooting anything, but super cool just watching it all happened. And meanwhile I was just sitting up on the mountain watching other animals and just kind of soaking it in and taking pictures and stuff. And eventually they come back up and we talked about what happened, etcetera, etcetera, and we're bs and and stuff. And while we're kind of getting shied around again, I'm glassing and I spot a new group of bowls that popped out over another hill across the ridge, and I'm like, oh man, there's some really good ones up there. And after everybody looked like, yep, there's definitely there's a really good one and so he's like your turn mark. And at this point it was like a roller coaster, um is the only way I could describe it. And I was kind of hoping that I wouldn't shoot one early, like I was thinking hoping I could shoot a caribou on the last day, you know. So he worked really hard and like had that whole experience and then it finally happens. Um. And also again to like my my only anxieties again were like related to like the people related stuff. I just didn't know what the process was going to be, like you know with the show. So did they determine who got first shot or was it just kind of a shoot from the hip thing? So I think Steve, I think Steve was just gonna bounce back and forth between me and Doug on stocks and then once we got a chance, then he would then he would shoot one. UM. So Doug got his first stock that didn't go. So then you know my name, we got called for the second stock. UM. But I don't know if I was mentally ready because I told Doug, I'm like, hey Doug, I want, I want, I want you should have the first you should have the first shot. You know you were invited on this trip. First, I was a late edition. You've been thinking about this for a year. Um, I want to make sure you get one. So I thought, you know, I want him to shoot one. And then also like I kind of wanted to let someone else go through the whole thing and I could observe, like you know, because it's not like hunting on your own. You know, you when you're hunting on your own, you make all the decisions. You do it your way. Um, you got the deer year way, you process the deer yr way, and there's no one, like, you know, no one else to worry about. In this situation, it was like you know, I was It was like I was living in someone else's house. Do you know how that is? Like if you go visit someone else's house and you're they're staying at their place, like you're following their rules. You gotta put stuff in the place they want to put stuff, Like you're not going to sit on their couch in the underwear, right, And like I get I have like anxiety, a small amount of anxiety when I stay at other people's house because like I don't want to do something the wrong way or I don't want to mess up their stuff or whatever it might be. So I had like those kinds of feelings because I just didn't you know, you just don't know what the norms are. So for example, like if I were to shoot one, um, should I just dig in and start gutting it right away like I would, or to Steve do the gutting because you know, that's how he likes it on the show, or like you know, So all these like little questions or the things that were like giving me anxiety. So all that to say that, now all of a sudden, it's my turn to go. And I was like not mentally prepared, Like I was thinking Doug was gonna be the shooting today and I would observe, and but no, it's like go time. So this whole time, I've been clicking, you know, going up the hill of the rollercoaster, click click click, click click click, going higher and higher higher, and then like I'm at the top, and then Steve says, all right, Mark, let's go. Now I'm just off the edge flying down And from that point on it was just a bulur. So we go running down the mountain. I got two cameraman behind me, running and we're like sprinting down because these bulls were coming across the ridge and then they went behind this big hill. But they're going to come over this hill and drop into this flat kind of basin, and we have to intercept them at that basin because if we don't get to the basin before, it's not really basin, it's more of a bench. If we don't get to that bench on the ridge before they do, they're gonna see us. So we have to get there before they come over top of this hill. So we're racing our way down there and I'm huffing and puffing and cruising down there. We finally get to this little knob looking over the bench and we we dropped down and start glassing and we don't see the caribou um. So now it's like, got crap. Did they like go around the corner, go another way? But you know, a minute of glassing maybe and all of a sudden, this is when I did get that Discovery Channel moment where like you just saw like trees pop out from the top of the hill, and slowly these trees became heads and the necks and then bodies as all these bulls came over the hill and then they just started piling and they were in one big, massive group, but maybe like fifty or sixty or something, I don't know, something like that. Those big group coming down the mountain and are right in the front is this big snowy white Maine big bull and Um, so I lay down, I put my pack in front of and put my rifle on the pack, and um, there's there's several next bulls. So I'm not exactly sure which of these bulls is like the best one. But Steve's like it's that it's that front one. And I'm like, look at him, like he looks really good, but the one behind it looks really good. So they're coming across to come down the hill. They're coming across the bench and UM, I look over at Steve, Steve, do you think we should try to cut? Should we try to crawl? Kind of cut a little farther to the left so we can intersect them at a closer distance. Um. And He's like, wow, how far are you come from shooting? And I'm like, well, I'd like I'd look a shot like two hundred yards would make me super happy, two hundred less because you know, I don't gun hunt. A gun hunt like a couple of days a year. Um. And when I do gun hunt, I'm up in northern Michigan, where the longest shot you're gonna get like sixty or seventy yards. So I'm not I'm not a long raine shooter. I'm not a long range rifle shooter. I've been practicing at a hundred and two hundred yards with this rifle that you honest let me borrow when I was out in Montana, and I kind of went into it saying, yeah, I know lots of guys take way longer shots than that. I know, like three hundred or four yard shots are like the norm for a lot of guys. But for me to be comfortable, I'd rather do two hundred, Like I just I don't need to stretch it. Um. But Steve's like, well, what do you what do you want to shoot at? I'm like, well, i'd be happy if it's two hundred or less. And he's like, well, look at your scope and look at the two hash marks down. That's three use that. I'm like, and I'm not going And I'm like, I'm not gonna say no, I'm not gonna like argue with him about it, um, but in my hand like shit, fortunately though, and I just want to stay up front, like before we went further, I want to preface that, like everyone and Steve to everyone was just like awesome about you know, Steve wasn't pressuring me into doing anything I didn't want to do, and I felt super comfortable and everything was great. But but regardless like how you know how great they were about it, I still felt like pressure, you know what I mean, Like they weren't putting any pressure on me, but I was putting pressure on myself. That's what I'm trying to say. So you know, so Steve's like, you know, just put that second hash on there. Um. Luckily, they kept angling closer and I'm kind of waiting and they're moving pretty quick. Um. And then I'm like I'm like, all right, I'm gonna shoot one night when they stopped, Steve's like, well, they're not gonna stop, Like like, oh crap, you're right because they're they're moving on a pretty good clip. And then he said, make sure you don't shoot two um, because there's you know, they're they're they're all bunched together and they're kind of coming in and out and I'm like, god, geez, so I'm taking a longer shot than I've taken often, and they're moving and they're like pasting in between, you know, they're all they're all bunched up, and I'm like, jeez, this is a debacle. But like in the moment, I didn't really have time to think through this. It was just like, this is a situation. This is happening. So a long story short, got gun rested on my pack. This is all happening. I'm gonna be taking this shot. So I get the scope on it, and um, I ranged. I got two thirty five I think was the last range I took. So I put it right on him and uh and then just shot like it just happened fast, Like I was on him. He was moving as soon as he came out from um behind another one and I had an open shot, a shot and instant you can see impact that you can see I hit him. He stands there and then like and then he like almost immediately lays down. So I'm like, awesome, like he's going down. It's done. But then like it's not like I'm not celebrating, not excited, and just like proof and then watching, but he hasn't like keeled over here. He's lays there and then he stands back up, and I'm like, oh god, no, what happened? So then I put another shot on him, and this time he goes down, lays down again, and then does some kicks and and he dies. Um. But it was like a longer process than I would have liked. I would have liked if it was like one shot drops and he's instantly dead, you know, that that shoulder shot that just knocks him right down. Um. So like I'm feeling like a little bit crap. I didn't have a great shot. Blah blah blah. But long story short, after a little while, we walked down there and check him out. My first shot was back a little bit. My second shot wasn't. The heart knocked him, you know, took care of him right right there. Um. But you know, I think that first one, it was just the chaos of the moment, the nerves, the moving shot, all these things that maybe, um, you weren't ideal um led to an ideal first shot. Luckily, the second one I was able to recompose and make it happen. But but I felt long the reason I mentioned all this is that in that moment, I felt like horrible, Like I wasn't excited. All I felt was like horrible about that shot. Um, Like I was embarrassed. I felt like, you know, all these guys watching and stuff being filmed, and like, you know, Steve, this guy I really respect. I would I would like to, like, you know, show that I'm like adequate. Um, like what does he think about my bad first shot? Like all these things like running through my head. It's like I kind of embummed with myself for not being able to enjoy the moment and like instead of like in my head, I was like just all these anxieties. Um. But looking back on it now, like I can remember, like what an incredible moment. I remember walking up to this annual and just being like in shock and awe of like just the size and the beauty um, and just like wow, this this happened. Just Um, the whole thing was was a crazy roller coaster of like emotions and um, I just killed a cariboo on my first day of actually hunting caribou um and just big beautiful. I mean the coat is so silky and like full and this main I just kept putting my fingers in that white mane on his neck. Um. Just amazing and interesting. Caribou are the only uncle it hooved animal in North America that has a fully um fur coated nose. It doesn't have that rubbery nose like a deer or an elk or something like that. It's totally totally covered in hair um, you know, because of what a cool environment they live in. So I remember touching the nose and be like, wow, this is just like so cool, kind of like a mixture of like peach fuzz and like my goatee maybe covering the nose so um. And then these antlers, I mean, just like unreal how big these things are. Another fun fact about cariboo is they have the largest antlers in proportion to body size of any North American ungleland. So so yeah, so it's wild man when you when you know the deer is dead or the cariboos dead, you you are now able to celebrate this kill and you walk up to it and you just you're you're looking at it. What we're what was going through your mind? You know at the time where you bent over and you laid your hands on this animal for the very first time, you know, it was it was. It was the two things. It was. It was still the the internal turmoil over over how the actual thing went down, UM mixed with just um, just like wow. I just kept saying wow, just like the whole experience. Every everything about this trip was like overwhelming, Like the landscape, the wildlife, um, you know, just all the other things surrounding it was just overwhelming sense of just like bigness and like awe. So that's kind of what I was feeling. It was just like shock and awe and UM an appreciation too. I mean sitting there like I, you know, I always try to do this, um, you know, just kind of thank the animal or or whomever or whatever it might be, whatever powers above that brought this moment to be um and soide I tried to do. I did that and just was like, this is just such an incredible blessing to be here and to have this animal. So just a lot of all those things just kind of a huge mixed pot of all sorts of stuff going on. Now, how big because you've killed an elk before, so how big was this caribou compared to an elk that you shot? And then did any of those guys know roughly how old this this bowl was that you shot. So relative to a bowl elk, a bull caribou is smaller. So a big bull caribou might be like four pounds or four fifty or you know maybe maybe maybe a really big one would be bigger than that. Um. You know, bull elk could be you know, seven pounds and hundred pounds something like that. Um, So definitely smaller than my bowl elk from a body perspective, but still really big look. And also like because of the low quality diet of the food available for cariboo, they eat just lichen and stuff like that, these little tiny lichens up on the mountain side. Because of that diet, they have this massive, massive stomach, like this huge bloated stomach. So like his belly just looked like a beach ball or bigger, just massive. Um. It's really interesting in that regard. But the antlers were much bigger, So the antlers were bigger than my elk. So the antlers are huge, but the body was maybe a little bit smaller. Um. Now, as far as how old this caribou was, we didn't really know, but it's definitely mature, like definitely a big mature bull. If that means four years old or six years old or how old, I'm not sure, and nobody there seemed to be sure either, um, but definitely one of the most mature bulls we've seen, Like up until the last day, this was probably the top one or two largest carriber we saw the whole time until the last day. So so yeah, man, And then, you know, like I mentioned earlier than I had, you know, those worries about okay, now what's the process, you know, like should I get going on gutting him right away? Or do I need to wait for the camera crew or to Steve start? And then I helped so all that kind of stuff, you know, had me uncomfortable, but made it through. You know, Steve kind of led the way and stuff, and I helped out, and you know, we broke it down and all that was fine, and got them all gutted and quartered and packed away and that was cool. You know, again, similar to when I killed my elk, I was just like so like overwhelmed by the size of everything in there, Like just gutting this animal so different than gutting a deer, like you could stick out your arm all away to your shoulder and not get to the esophagus um. So that was interesting and just this massive, massive balloon of a stomach. But I got all that taken care of, packed everything up, and then we brought all the meat maybe fifty sixty yards away from the gut pile and set it down because we still had a couple hours of daylight left and we feared we'd sit up on the mountain and glass and maybe find another one for Doug. So we we did that. We got in the mountainside and we're looking around for for caribou and stuff, and again I spot something off in the distance and it's not a caribou though, it's a big old grizz Spot another grizz and a cup, so this is a big She was like huge and brown and like patchy, very patchy, like different colored tufts of skin or hair all over, but her her cub was very much like the other grizzly we saw, like really sheeny golden um, and man, he was just having a great time. He was like doing somersaults down the side of the mountain, rolling over and over. At one point he ran over to a caribou shed and started like wrestling with the shed. Um. It was awesome, and so we started making bets, like she was running. They were running down the mountain like they were long ways off, like a mile away from where we were, maybe maybe further, but they were running towards us. And Steve is like, what do you think do you think she could possibly smell that gut pile? Like, and so we started like placing bets on whether or not she knew about that gut pile, Like why would she be running right down towards us this whole way like a long ways. So we started wondering if she was gonna come all the way to that gut pile. So we watched her for like an hour coming down the hill. Um. But then finally she made it to a berry patch and then they hung up at the berry patch. They never did make it to the gut pile, but um, they ate some berries. We watched him for a long time and finally she drops behind the hill and starts angling a gatting closer towards the gut pile and stuff. And then we're like, all right, you know, we should probably get our meat and get out of here before they do discover it. Um, So we hiked back to the meat loaded up, and then did the long hike back with a heavy pack. And that was that was a good load. I had a back quarter, front quarter and the skull and antlers on my back. Um, and I'm glad it wasn't like a six mile hike because that was a pretty heavy load. So what did you do with the meat? Because you you guys were dropped in right. There wasn't a plane still there was there. Yeah, no no planes know anything. We were just out there all by ourselves. But it was it was cold. It was cool up there, so we just you know, we had everything in game bags, you know, like a cheese cloth type game bags, and we hiked back towards camp, and on a hillside above camp, we just kind of made like a cat and meat casher and just stacked everything up there against the antlers so they could get air to the to all sides of the meat and um. You know, during the day, it was probably in the forties or fft s prior forties, high forties most days, and super windy. It was very windy. Um. And then at night, you know, it could be down to the twenties or low thirties or something. So it was plenty cool enough for that meat to be fine there. Um. And then that night we caught off a hunk of that caribou meat and sliced it real thin and fried it up, and we all eat a little bit of it. And how did that taste? Really good? Really good? Just like elk? You know. So I don't really know how to compare it yet. Um relatively similar. Um, I don't know how different. Yes, different, but I can't quit put my finger on how to articulate the difference. Um, but pretty similar to elk and deer. Um. Maybe it just felt especially good because I was eating it on side of a mountain. So um. So yeah, man, great, great first day of hunting. And you know, my anxieties aside, like the stress around that unnecessary, Like I didn't need to be stressed out about stuff because you know, nobody was giving me a time about anything, but I was. I was putting that on myself. Um. But all that aside, it was just like unbelievable, super super cool experience seeing the bears, seeing all those animals actually getting killed caribou packing them off the mountain. Um, just just amazing. So that night it was just kind of like in awe of all that, and um and then U. The next morning, I wake up day two, day three that we're out there, I put up my tent door and the very first thing I see is a grizzly bearing cub in our camp. Did you coop your pants? No? But I was like, WHOA good morning? Um, And like right away, I'm like grizzly and camp. I yell at out. Everyone's still in their tents, like still sleeping, and we're like getting around like grizzly and camp. And then when I see this grizzlies right next to like the tent where the crew was sleeping, so like the other the camera guys. So then I started hollering at try to get it away. And then luckily he or she in the cub look at me, and then they bomp off the hill and then drop over the side. But over there where these grizzlies ran to, one of the crew members had a separate tent. He didn't sleep with the rest of them because um, he has night terrors, actually um so he so, so he he sleeps in the separate tent just so doesn't wake people up. So I see these bears go run off the hill and then all of a sudden, I hear him yelling. I'm like, oh no, like they ran right into him, and um fortunately they ran like thirty yards of him. But then when he started yelling, they turned and ran the other way. So no issues. But it could have been it could have been hairy, because you know, a sal in a cub type situation like that is never good to surprise, and she was. She was right in there, close to the tents. So that was an interesting start to the day. Um. And I forgot to mention another crazy thing they happened was our very first night there. In the middle of the night, like amazingly heavy winds came through. Like I thought my tent was gonna get get crushed to the ground, or like the rain I was gonna get ripped off. Like I woke up several times in the night like so loud, my tent is like pushed down over top of my head. Um, like I thought for sure stuff was gonna get ripped out. Fortunately, we because of how windy had been during the day, we didn't. We staked everything, but then we also put big rocks over all the stakes too. Um, so that saved the day from our tents but the crew they slept in these big tps um like TP style tents. There's two of them, and one of them, like half of the stakes all came ripping out, So those couple of those guys had to wake up in the middle of the night and we're like out in these gale force wins trying to restake these tents. And then there's another guy that was sleeping solo and one of them, and that one in the middle of the night, like all the stakes came out in the middle pole like came out. So he had to for like two hours sit holding with all his might onto the center pool to keep the TPP flying away, and like he was yelling, but nobody else could hear him, so he had a rough night. Yeah, it was, I mean, like crip, I've never been in heavier winds than tent by fire. I mean it was it was out of this world. Um, So that was that was the tent. And then you know, day number three of the trip started with the grizzly encounter in the morning and then just more of the same the rest of the day. We just watched hundreds and hundreds of caribou, just like incredible seeing all these animals interact and flowing off the mountains and passing through. When you just glass all these different bowls up and look at him and watch them lots of times you see these bulls fighting and stuff. UM. Really cool. And then that day Doug shot at one. He killed that bowl and we packed that one off the mountain. That night started to rain. We record a podcast episode for Steve's podcast. UM. And then the third day, same deal, hike and all over the place, glass and all over the place. UM found a big bowl that Steve wanted to shoot. It was really far away. UM. So this time a couple of guys stayed back, and then me and Steve and the camera guys decided to go after him. And then we kind of went on a kind of wild goose chase, like Steve want to go after this once we go drop way off this mountain down to this deep drainage, and then we get to the bottom of the drainage and we spot some new bulls up at the top of the ridge. Again that looks really good, So we go all the way back to the top, like sprinting out the side of this mountain. We get situated there and these bulls dropped down in front of us, and then Steve didn't like them so much, so it's like, let's go back after the original one. So then we go all the way back down to the bottom of the drainage. And then at this point we spot another group of bulls um and this one's halfway up that mountain, and Steve ended up taking one of those, but um, super nice bull. And then it was just a heck of a pack out of that drainage because now we're at the bottom of this steep ravine and we had to go straight up this really steep face that like, that load nearly killed me, um because it was I took a back quarter and then I also found a big moose shed, like a big moose shed, so I strapped that on my pack. So I had a heavy load, and um, this was a very steep hill. So that one I was like finally feeling it, like this is our third care but we've packed out in three days, and that one I finally was like, Okay, I'm getting tired. But a Fortunately Steve must have been feeling it a little bit too, because he was taking breaks and so I was able to take breaks with him, and that that was good. So and then that night we had like our meal scene. Um and uh, you know because usually on the on the Meat Eater Show they do like a meal scene where they cook up something they killed. And um, so we did an Asian hot pot. So like this big boiling pot of like Asian broth mixture with like onions and carrots and I don't know, all these different things in there. And then we sliced up caribou heart and cariboo backstrap and ptarmigan heart and Ptarmigan breast. So Tarmigan's kind of like a an Arctic like grouse type bird. Did you guys shoot that while you were out there? Yeah? Shot one and Steve shot one and Brodie shot one. I think, oh coo. So so yeah, we we sliced all that up and then you screw you skew or a little sliceless meat on a little wooden stick and then you dip it in that broth like fifteen seconds. Let it just see he really quick and they take it out, dip it sauce and eat it with your fingers and holy crap. And that was amazing. So all that had to be packed in right with that plane. So all the vegetables and all the utensils. So the production of the Meat Eator television show. Let's say, if it was just you and me going out there to drop, we'd probably have you know, less gear to take just because of the production. Right. Oh yeah, yeah for sure. I mean there they had so much camera equipment and other stuff. Um yeah, just a lot of stuff. So quite a quite a production. But it made for comfortable, you know living situation out there because we had like a little tarp over our little meal areas so we could be you know, sheltered from the rain on that day it was raining all day, um, and the wind a little bit. You know. It's a nice little nook to sit in there and eat every day, and good food like different than like when we go backpacking our stuff. Like they had like real sandwiches and um, within mountain houses for dinner. But that what I really liked is they brought a massive bag of like candy bars, so there was like dozens of full sized snicker bars and kit cats and stuff. So so we ate pretty decent considering and so you were comfortable. This wasn't like a real it was. It was roughing it because you were way out isolated, but from a from a food and like, uh, it wasn't like you were on a spike camp out in the back country, like with just the meal for the day, right, Yeah, we had a little more food than I'm used to otherwise it's similar, but the food situation, we had more food available than usually. Like there's like they brought apples, so that was nice. So we had like lunch meet for sandwiches and apples, and then like granola bars and stuff like that, candy bars, and then every night, you know, you have a mountain house meal and in the mornings, yeah, they had they had they brought bagels like they'd fry bagels in a pot or um, there's some oatmeal and stuff like that. So so eating it was fancier than than my elk huic, that's for sure. Awesome. And that was and that was it. The next day, we're supposed to get picked up early in the morning from the plane by the planes, but they ended up not coming to like super late, so we just hung out. We packed up camp and hung out all day on the mountain side, walking around or napping or reading or goofing around, and like I think the planes finally got there like six or seven at night or something, um, and it was started raining. It was raining and cloudy and windy and all that kind of stuff. So it took him a while to be able to get us, but they finally did got us out of there late that night and on the flight back, So on the super cub flight back to the town, I saw thirty to forty moose, like it was insane, like moose everywhere. Wow. So that was sweet, like big, big old paddled moose bowls. I mean just it was sweet. So so when you were out there, um, you know, certain times of the year Alaska, you know Alaska or northern Hemisphere even into Canada and whatnot, they have longer days. What was your What was the day like out there? How many hours of darkness was there? Yes, it was like daylight by about six in the morning, maybe a touch before six, and then it was daylight till almost ten o'clock at night. So pretty pretty darn long days. Um, So what gives you about eight hours of darkness? The rest of the day was daylight? Yeah, And you know another thing, I didn't really get to see it, but there we did have decent northern lights A couple of nights there. Um, I woke up my last night, I set an alarm to try to see him, and I did see them, but just like little slivers of it, like you see. It's almost like a green string wavering in the sky. Um. But I never got to see it the whole sky lit up. But I did hear they got some good time laps footage of it, so hopefully well get to see that. The last night, though, was funny. They had a time lap set up right by my tent and I didn't know it. So I wake up within the middle of night two, I am to go see the northern lights. So I wake up, get on my tent, walk on my tent, take a piss, look up the sky, look for the northern lights, kind of see it, and then go to bed. Well, the next day I ended up taking a piss right in front of the time left of camera. So your junk is going to be on the next Mediator uh show possibly hopefully hopefully hopefully I pointed the other way. So you made it back to civilization, right, I mean, while you're out there after the you know, after the fact, after you've had this experience, you've got some time where you're in a plane, you're coming back to the civilization. Um, you're just kind of you're you're you're thinking about everything that just happened. Has this sparked any ideas from you as far as any additional adventure hunting scenarios that you that you want to take, whether it's in the States or somewhere else, Well, I definitely want to go back to Alaska again, Like I as often as I can, I'd like to get up there, um, because it's just I mean, we we're talking about this on Steve's podcast about the fact that in the Lower forty eight, like we are fighting now today too fixed mistakes that were made you know, a hundred and fifty years ago still or you know, fifty years or whatever might be, like whatever it might be, to wildlife populations and or habitat. Like we're fighting to try to protect the last vestiges of wilderness and open space that we have and to you know, continue to rebound populations or protect them at the at the place that we've been able to get these these animals back to now. But the Lower forty eight it's like repair mode kind of you know, we we've really screwed things up here, and we're just trying to make it a little bit better and fix the small things we've been all to recover. So far in Alaska, it's still for the most part, like it was years ago. For I mean, the large portion of it is relatively intact, relatively still wild, relatively you know, in harmony with it should be and where now it's just like, don't screw this up. So we screwed up in the lower forty eight and we're trying to fix it and keep it. We've got left in the last We've got this incredible thing still, this public land and this wilderness and these places that are just amazing. Um, We've got this liver of what it used to be still there, and um, it just has reminded me of how important it is to keep that the way it is. Um. Just knowing that there's somewhere that is still like that today, it's it's very reassuring for me. Its just it's good to know there's still a wild place. It's good to know that you can go somewhere and be hundreds of miles from anybody else and be surrounded by grizzlies and wolves and caribou and the night in the northern lights. It is like good for my soul to know that that is there and available. Um, and I just want to fight really hard to make sure it stays that way. Amen, man Amen. So any other takeaways from from this trip, I mean, not necessarily just the adventure and emotional standpoint, but anything else that was just really cool, or you know, something that you want to tell the listeners that they should try to do something like this, or I guess Mark Kenyon's final thoughts. Yeah, so final thoughts. I think first and foremost, you know, the trip was incredible from you know, being there in the wildlife and the landscape and killing the caribou and getting all this great meat, all those things were amazing, But just as important, if not maybe even more important, was, like I mean, I think this comes down to so often is the people to Like, just the group of guys I was with on this trip were so great. They were so welcoming to me, they were so much fun to be around. Um And like, so I just want to I appreciate that so much. I appreciate the fact that Steve and the guys invited me to go on this trip. Um. Just an unbelievable opportunity and I can never thank all them enough. Um, just the coolest guys in the world. So I would say number one. If you are not watching The Meat either TV show or listening to The Meat either podcast, you really should be. They're doing awesome work. The guys behind the scenes are amazing guys, super fun guys. UM, so check out, Like, make sure you're following Dirt Myth on Instagram. The guy takes some incredible photos. Um. Chris Gil followed Chris Gil on Instagram. He's another terrific camera guy. UM. Brodie Henderson and j honest, but tell us just did an awesome job of like keeping the train on the tracks as far as the whole production and everything. And then Steve. I mean I think most of most everyone listening knows who Steve Ronella is. But um, it was really cool to get spend more time with him. And he's someone that I've looked up to for a long time. I've um, you know, modeled a lot of the ways that I try to communicate things, um, kind of around the way he has. Because I think he's just done a tremendous job of representing the hunting community in a positive light, and I think he's influenced the hunting community in a really positive way, moved us in a reaction that I think is very important. So, um man, I'm just gonna continue to be appreciative of what he's doing. And it was neat to be able to learn from him in person. And also, these dudes are way goofier in person then you might expect, like just like constantly laughing about stupid things and like making up songs, and Steve's got nicknames for everybody. He starts making up songs about different people. Um, or like we were doing like handstandoffs, like seeing who could do handstand for the longest time, or who could do planks for the longest time, or all sorts of goofy stuff like that. So just like a really good time from a personal standpoint to um. But then as two other final thoughts, I think, just to what I said there a second ago, this just reminded me again of of how fortunate and blessed we are that, you know, our forefathers and people that came before us had the foresight to protect some of these places and leave them as they were, or you know, or that did things to allow our wildlife popular lations to recover in the lower forty eight or to keep them great as they're in Alaska. Um So I would just I would encourage everyone to a educate yourself on this, like read about the history of these places, read about these wild places, learn about what we have here. Realize that you, as an American have access to just this. You have access to a unbelievable swath of landscape and wildlife and experience like it's there for you. You don't need to pay anything to go in there and do these things. Um. Yet it takes planning. Yeah, it takes a lot of work. Yeah, it takes some money to get to places. Um, but it's there for you. So go see these places, experience these places, and then, um, you know, when needed, stand up for these places. Um, you know, call your congressmen, write letters, tell your friends and family. These places are important. Um So I think that's that's what I would say. Yeah, very very very very important. So yeah, man, unbelievable trip. So what's next? Man? Real quick though, Before we move on, we need to take a second to thank our partners at White Tailed Properties for the support of the Wired Hunt podcast and our producer Spencer Newhart caught up with one of the White Tailed Properties land specialists recently to get a little insight into the process of booking your first outfited hunt. This week with White Tailed Properties, we are joined by Tim Woods, a land specialist out of Central Ohio, and Tim is going to be telling us about what to look for when booking your very first outfitted hunt. Well, I guess I would say, if you're looking the book with your your first outfitted hunt, Um, first thing I'll do is, you know, maybe maybe not go right to social media. No, social media is big at this day and age, but you want to find an outfitter that is not out there pounding this chest a lot um, you know, saying look at me, look what we can do. Um. You know from my experience, you know, being that you know, I am an outfitter, you know, and I see a lot of a lot of guys doing last stuff on social media, which is great, you know, they're they're promoting the sport and they're promoting their business. Um, but it seems like they need they need the hunters. You know, if you want to look for an outfitter that there is that doesn't do a whole lot of advertising because they don't need to because they've got the returning client base that you know that they cater to and they're just from word of mouth. Is the best, you know, business model you can have as far as taking care of the people and treating them right, and they're always gonna come back, and if they can't come back, they're gonna have their buddies come in their place and so forth. So if you're looking at the book, your first first outfitted hunt, uh, get some references from that outfitter and call them and see how they treated them, you know, whether they killed or didn't kill. If you'd like to learn more and to see the properties that Tim currently has listed for sale, visit white Tail properties dot com backslash Woods that's you oo. D s Well. I got back late Sunday, well Sunday morning, like one in the morning and Sunday and then I slept for a few hours, got up, drove across the state to eastern Montana. Found the campsite in this area where I want to hunt, and now I'm trying to kill Montana whitetail. So trying to get that done. It's been a little bit. Uh, it's gonna be more challenging than I originally thought. Um, well super hot. It's like degrees, so I'm like just sweating to death every day. Excuse me with hiccups. Um. And then you know, I found a bunch of public land pieces when I just studied the maps and I was looking for public that again like what I was doing last year. I was looking for public land that got down into this river bottom cover that was adjacent to alfalfa fields because I wanted food and I want to cover that I could hopefully get in between. So I found like five or six of these places on the maps, and then my plan was to get here Sunday night and drive around and glass them all that night and get an idea of which areas held you know, possible mature bucks, and then go hunt those spots. Well, what I didn't do in my like all these different things going on when I didn't plan for, was like drive time, so I didn't realize how spread out this stuff was. It didn't look that big on the map, but it actually takes like an hour or more to get between some of these places. So that's made it tough for me to like get down and explore some of these like farther southern sections. So um, the first night I explored kind of the northern side, and then the next morning I woke up really early and drove way down to the southern section and check those out, and nothing really looked all that great. Unfortunately, Um, a lot of this stuff is all grazed, so like it's just like graze to dirt almost from cows and sheep and stuff. So like three out of this or four out of the six properties that I thought would have potential don't like not even worth hunting at all. Another one there was I did see some d are in a neighboring alf alfa field, but it's pretty far away from the cover. Like these deer are pretty far away from the public, and there looks like they're heading into bed on the private too. I didn't know if they're gonna make it down to the public or not. A glass on the spoting skill for a long time and never sound quite make it there, So that's I don't know. The best spot that I found so far is the spot that fortunately is close to my campsite. And um, this there's a state land and then there's a few sections of blm land that surrounds one alf alfa field where I saw a ton of deer the first night, um, like fifty sixty deer or something like that, including two potential shooter box one for sure shooter another one that maybe um. And so that's where I've been hunting. Um. Unfortunately the public land, like I'm not able to get in between the deer. It seems like there's betting and food on the private So these deer betting and then going right into the private there stay in the private to bed. They don't have to come onto the public to bed like they did in that party hundred last year. UM. So last night I set up a stand um on one side of this as as close as I could get to where that food was, and I was hoping that maybe these deer come out the other side of the cover towards us other distant half off the field. And I saw a bunch of deer, maybe like fifteen deer, but all does and fawns, and then two little year and a half of bucks. And went back into this morning, same place, left everything in the tree, same deal does and a couple of little bucks nothing nothing older than a year and a half, A little little like four key, So that's been a little bit disheartening. I was hoping to at least get eyes on a mature bucks so I could be adjusting my stand location based on a sighting. Um, but I don't have that. So I pulled my stand this morning, and as soon as we get done with this, I'm gonna go back in there and UM move a set. I'm going to try to get to that BLM land that's in there. It's it's land locked BLM lands. You can't actually access that anyway except for if you if you follow the state land all the way to the river, you can get in the river, and the river below the high water mark is public access. You can walk the river. So I'm gonna walk to the river and then I'm gonna follow that river bottom all the way to this BLM land and then pop up into the public again and try to get there. And that the piece I'm going to go into is directly behind this alfalfa field, so there should be a deer in there. The issue is going to be my wind. Um, the wind is just not great. It's gonna be blowing to some deer, to some portion of the deer. So I'm hoping that I can stay low in the river to get past a good number of them with my wind hopefully not gonna blow because I'm gonna be down low, and then I'm gonna immediately get up and pop right into a tree, and I'm gonna know that stuff due south of me is gonna win me. But hopefully it's just that one line and then the rest of it will hopefully be Um Like, I have to make a sacrifice to get in there. I only have a couple of days, so I gotta cut that risk reward. It's that risk award thing that we always talk about, exactly exactly, So it's a I gotta kind of swing for the fences a little bit here because I just don't have a lot of time. But I think it could be a good spot. Um. I met the rancher who grazes the public land and the private land right next to what he owns that private land next to it, and he was a really nice guy with Chad for a long time, and he told me his son in law I think, and a grandson are hunting his private land and they've been seeing a couple of big bucks, including one he claims like twenty four inches wide, and another one that either had a second main beam or a split brout town. I'm not sure what he was trying to say, um, but big like there's a couple of big Bucks in there that they're seeing, and that sounds like those are different than the deer I saw the first night. So I think if I can get into this spot without spooking a bunch of deer, I'm gonna be potentially in a good area. Cool well Man. Hopefully the momentum kind of from the from the hunt in Alaska kind of carries throughout the rest of the rest of this little Montana North Dakota trip you're on. Yeah, dude, thank you. I'm hoping so too. I'm feeling like a little bit like I don't know about how this is going so far. But tonight, tonight will hopefully be in the right spot, and then uh yeah, probably Thursday. Hopefully I can get it done by Thursday, and then Thursday and to move to North Dakota and try to refigure it all out again. And that's the fun part, right, Yeah, it is. It is so and it's it is supposed to cool down Thursday, like Wednesday night, Thursday morning, Big cold friends coming through. Um, it's gonna rain a bunch, which will be a little bit of a pain, but it's gonna drop like twenty degrees. So that's a good deer moving. Awesome. Well, good luck man, Thank you sir. So that's my story. That's what's going on with me. Anything else in your side that you want to share, that's me fake crime. What about the what about the trail camera? You check the trail camera? Oh yeah, I mean I got you know. I talked about this big egg field with a buffer strip in it, right. Yeah, we shed hunted there and every every big mature buck that is in the area was on that trail camera. So um on on the one side of the farm, they all show up right in the middle of this, uh this egg field and uh um. If it wasn't for my son coming here anytime soon, I would definitely be finding a way. I actually did a podcast with Scott Bestel recently where we talk about some early season hunting and he me and him get into a conversation of about hunting egg fields, standing egg fields in a scenario like what I'm talking about here, early early season, and the goal for me would be to you know, get in one of these trees and catch these deer. They're basically living in an eight acre egg field right now, that standing corn and with the big acorn drop that is happening right now, there's I have a feeling they're betting in the corn and then coming out to a couple acorn groves that are that surround this egg field, and um, we're not in the in the corn. They're not betting in the corn, but they're probably betting in some of these buffer strips in the corn. So it's roughly the same thing and making their way some of these acorn drop sites. And if if I was able to do it, which I'm not, I would be somewhere in between these buffer strips and these acorn spots. So Dan, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, please please find a way to hunt in October. You have you have to hunt in October. Well, here's the deal. And you know this man, or you're gonna you're gonna know that. I know, I know. It's not it is not. It's not an excuse you have to do. You got to find what I have to do. If I if I'm gonna send you, I'm gonna send you a hundred dollars. I'm gonna send you a hundred dollar check. In the memo line it is gonna say babysitter and I'm gonna hire. I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna I'm gonna send you a babysitter check, and you're going to pay for at least one night of babysitting on a good evening. And then you can and then you can show your wife. You can say, look, Mark sent me a hundred dollar check. I can't not use it. I have to hunte. Here's what the memo should say, hundred dollars. This is a in a payoff. You should just write the check to my wife and even want about it be like this. This is letting Dan hunt one night. Go buy yourself something nice, Sarah, go buy yourself something nice. That's exactly that's what it should be. Okay, I'll do that. I'm dead serious. Dan. I'm gonna buy you a night of hunting in October. I'm gonna send you a check. First, ye first, old friend. October, you go into a good spot, kill one of those suckers. Yeah, I wish, I wish it was that easy. All right, we'll look for look for it in the mail here when I get back. Okay, alright, alright, we'll see what we'll see if you if you address I think she. I think she'd be down for it if you give her the money directly to her and it doesn't touch my hands at all. Alright, So do you want me to address it to her, like write write her a special like, write her a letter like dear dearest Sarah, Dearest Sarah, Sarah, congrats on the new child. Um, here's a hundred dollars bill as basically a bribe to let your husband go hunting one night in Oh. This will be amazing. All right, I'm gonna do this, and I just need you to report back to me on exactly how she takes it. And then we're gonna really hype up this hunt. Like I'm gonna want full documentation of the hunt. I want like Instagram stories every five minutes. I'm gonna want you to do a full podcast debrief talking about how this all worked out. This will be like October fifteen. Episode will be like the post Dan Johnson October Hunt, and um, yeah, this is a good plan. I like it. Okay, all right, Well, well, uh, the first thing is you have to write the check to my wife and then after that we'll see how it all goes down. Alright, dude, there is there is a chance I'm not not joking that there's a small chance that she would send the check back to you or then you a text that it's uh that's worth that, that's worth two. I have three kids now, man, remember, oh man, well you will soon. Yep. Well, dude, I say, we gotta we gotta shut this down. I need to scramble some caribou brains. Um, I gotta clean out the brain cavity area on the skull on my my boo here, get that cleaned out so it doesn't rot. And then I need to take a nap before hunting. So it sounds like a good day. Yes, that's that's the day's plan. So good luck with baby stuff. If you guys end up having having him early fingers crossed, everything's great and healthy and uh let's check back in a week. Alright, good luck man, And that's it. Folks. Thank you for joining in for a little bit of story time today. Hopefully you enjoyed it. And before we go, I want to give a big things to our partners at Sick Gear, Yetie Cooler's, Matthew's Archery, Maven Optics, the White Tailed Institute of North America, Trophy Ridge and Hunt, Terra maps, and finally, of course, thank you all for listening. I appreciate your time and your support. If you're hunting this week, I wish you all the luck in the world, and until next time, stay wired to hunt. The broken bird beating beca