00:00:00 Speaker 1: Welcome to the 12 and 26 Companion Podcast, brought to you by Bush Light. Bush Light, head for the mountains. 00:00:09 Speaker 2: We are strangers on their property. I'm out here on the Alaskan Peninsula hunting brown bear. This place is known for gnarly weather, extreme travel logistics, and big, huge bears. This is bears being as wild as they can be. It's like bucket list. 00:00:34 Speaker 3: Once in a lifetime, huh? 00:00:36 Speaker 2: I never thought I'd be on. 00:00:39 Speaker 3: Okay. 00:00:41 Speaker 2: Man, what you just heard or saw there was the intro to a 12 and 26 film featuring myself and Ryan Callahan on the Alaska Peninsula. One's called In Pursuit of Brown Bear. This is the companion podcast to that show designed around you. The internet commentator who, you know, just never gets enough attention. I'm kidding. We solicited your comments and we want you to talk about this because it was awesome. And I believe the two gentlemen here at the table with me Did a phenomenal job of showing the awesomeness to my immediate left, Garrett Smith, a.k.a. Dirt Meth, a.k.a. Dirt. Man, a few words today. 00:01:39 Speaker 3: Howdy, everyone. 00:01:41 Speaker 2: And Jason Rarig, who is most of the time the producer on anything you see me do on on the, on the YouTuber elsewhere. Jason, what's happening? 00:01:57 Speaker 4: Nothing much. Yeah. Yeah. Most of the time, I think I've produced just about everything. Maybe not, maybe a couple of things like that you're not on with roasts, but most of the time, if it involves you, I'm there. 00:02:11 Speaker 2: That's right. 00:02:12 Speaker 4: In some, some capacity. 00:02:13 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:02:14 Speaker 2: The low sombra, uh, the shadow, the shadow. 00:02:19 Speaker 4: That sounds a little like I'm a follower, but. 00:02:22 Speaker 2: Uh, The guy behind the scenes making things work. So thank you to everybody who commented and watched this thing. It was awesome, man. I mean, absolute dream hunt. The Alaska Peninsula is an unbelievable place. I was out there a long time ago. And for folks certainly who grew up the way I did, you know, Alaska would definitely be like a stepping stone for as far as any sort of a hunting career, whether you're working as a professional in hunting or just as a traveling hunter. And brown bear on the peninsula would also be this pinnacle thing. And brown bear on the peninsula is even hard for residents of Alaska to do. Because of one thing that we cover in this episode a lot, it is very logistically challenging. They're a heavily, heavily managed animal and a low fecundity species, which just means that it takes them a while to make babies and get good at it. And it takes a while for those babies to get to a point where they make babies and be good at it too. and it's really expensive to get out there and spend the time that it takes to hunt so even even the locals um it's not a given if that that you're going to go out to the alaska peninsula and hunt these big bears and some folks just don't want to either um does that sound. 00:04:11 Speaker 3: Fair oh yeah and three planes three different sizes of planes right yeah which all have their own Yeah, you. 00:04:21 Speaker 2: Get smaller and smaller. And then it's so funny, the last plane that you're on is a Super Cub, which is like, it's just so absurdly close to like what the Wright brothers came up with. They just didn't think, they couldn't fathom at that time that you could put a heavier engine on something. 00:04:40 Speaker 3: Yeah, right, right, right. 00:04:42 Speaker 2: Yep. All right. We got a quick, clip here that we're going to play for y'all the mixed feelings have nothing to do with the bear itself it's just got to do with the expectations I put on myself way back when we were guiding antelope and there would always be a couple of big giant bucks that really stood out above everybody else and the old outfitter said you know you go hunt I'll clean up camp And so I took off after these big bucks that we'd been watching the whole time. And there was a pair of them that would hang out together. One had broken prongs and the other one was just perfect. And they were always running together. I squeezed the trigger and whacked what I thought was the better buck and got up there and it was the buck that was broken up and missing the antlers or missing the prongs. I was like pissed, you know, I was like a little kid. I was like, ah, I shot the wrong one, wasted my tag. And that old outfitter said, pard, that old boy deserves a hell of a lot better than that. And he was genuinely disappointed in my attitude. And I feel like that's, you know, a great story for this situation. Here, there's so many positives to how things shook out. Do we need some commentary on that? What do you guys think? 00:06:29 Speaker 4: Our thoughts on that? 00:06:30 Speaker 2: Yeah, what are your thoughts on that? 00:06:31 Speaker 3: Oh, it's just beautiful honesty. I think everyone should have that mentality of, you know, gratitude is above expectations is what Phil would say. 00:06:42 Speaker 4: I mean, it is at the end of the film. But it also was filmed at the end of the hunt. So everything was conclusive. No other distractions. No other real thoughts that you had other than your own. And that's what we saw there was just pure honesty. And it didn't take much coaching whenever we were out there. We were hoping to get more of that throughout. But at least I was. But we finally got there. And it made the film just that much more special. I do. 00:07:14 Speaker 2: Looking at the background of that shot, it's pretty funny that I'm like, oh, I know every inch of that. 00:07:22 Speaker 4: Oh, you did? 00:07:23 Speaker 2: I'm like, I glassed every centimeter of that space for eight hours a day for eight days. 00:07:31 Speaker 4: And you still didn't stop even whenever giving your commentary to us. You didn't stop. 00:07:36 Speaker 2: It's an addiction. Yeah. 00:07:39 Speaker 3: And it was ever-changing too, right? I mean, we were seeing so much wildlife. Oh, yeah. Moose and bear and bird. 00:07:45 Speaker 2: Caribou. 00:07:46 Speaker 3: Caribou. 00:07:47 Speaker 4: We didn't see any wolves, which is, I know, something that you said you may have seen on the flight in. But we didn't. 00:07:55 Speaker 2: The first pilot to come in and sat down said that there were basically wolves on the airstrip. 00:08:00 Speaker 3: Yeah. Oh. 00:08:01 Speaker 4: But we never saw them, though, ourselves. 00:08:03 Speaker 5: No. 00:08:03 Speaker 2: And that's the problem is, like, typically it's, like, it's better not to see them when you fly in because that means they could show up any time. Whereas if you see them on the flight, Anna, and they disappear, they probably went and did a big loop and they'll be back in a couple of weeks. 00:08:19 Speaker 6: Yeah. 00:08:20 Speaker 4: Good for us then. We had enough predators anyway. 00:08:22 Speaker 3: We don't need more. 00:08:23 Speaker 4: We don't need more. Cool. Yeah. Okay. So you want me to read the first question? 00:08:28 Speaker 2: Do it. Okay. 00:08:29 Speaker 3: Real quick, Phil, question for you. When the clips are playing, can we commentate or? Oh yeah. 00:08:33 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:08:34 Speaker 3: Have at it. Okay. 00:08:34 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:08:35 Speaker 3: I'll keep the mics hot. Okay. 00:08:38 Speaker 4: Okay. Okay. So JacobST54 wrote, I really appreciate Cal's honesty or honest commentary after harvesting the bear talking about some things. A lot of hunters tend to skirt around great episode. 00:08:51 Speaker 3: Cal. 00:08:54 Speaker 2: Um, I'm not sure if that's something hunters skirt around or if that's just how most TV, uh, makes it look like gotta, um, gotta, uh, put the positive spin on everything. Everything here was totally positive. In my mind, um, you know, it's just like, you don't get a practice doing once in a lifetime hunts. And I had a, you know, I really, really wanted to get like that big, massive bear, uh, preferably with, with the bow, um, to like absolutely knock this one out of the park. You know what I mean? 00:09:33 Speaker 3: Um, all right. 00:09:35 Speaker 2: Next one. Skylar Burrison. 00:09:37 Speaker 4: Burrison seven or nine, seven, six, four wrote. Curious how the guide felt about advising you to shoot the bear and then having it come to short of the expectations of your hunt. I'm sure he wanted to make sure you got a giant. Knowing the hunt would be viewed by so many people, he probably wasn't too happy either. Uh, still a beautiful animal and a trophy experience, beautiful country and well put together video that captures the rollercoaster of the hunt, beautiful animal and trophy experience. 00:10:08 Speaker 6: Okay. 00:10:08 Speaker 4: So that was just, yeah. 00:10:10 Speaker 2: Um, yeah, this is a, uh, interesting one for me because I think, um, and I'm not dogging on you at all. Skyler, but, um, you know, the old outfitter that I referenced in the show, he always used to say, yeah, you're a hero one minute and a goat the next. And that is guiding and you have to make, you know, tough decisions all the time throughout the course of a hunt. And I will tell you that, um, Kyle and Brando, I truly do not think they if they could have waved a magic wand, snap their fingers, all the camera equipment would have been broken. 00:10:55 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:10:56 Speaker 2: They, they, they did not care about, no, they didn't care about the, the being on TV part at all. 00:11:02 Speaker 4: They were accommodating. They definitely were like, okay, yeah, that's totally fine. But were they excited to be in front of it? 00:11:09 Speaker 3: No, it wasn't on their mind at all. 00:11:11 Speaker 1: No. 00:11:11 Speaker 2: And the only reason these are two season guides, the only reason that there were two of them is because there were three of us. 00:11:16 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:11:16 Speaker 2: And, you know, they want to maintain a certain safety ratio. 00:11:21 Speaker 4: Um, cause we were surrounded by bears. 00:11:24 Speaker 2: Oh yeah, for sure. But everybody was, that was out there on the peninsula and those are one-on-one hunts, right? 00:11:29 Speaker 3: True, true, true. 00:11:30 Speaker 2: Um, the, and so, um, I do, um, the reality is like the, the true reality of the situation. If you are the hunter, you are the only person whose decision matters at all. And everybody else can be screaming in your ear or crying in your ear or, you know, whispering sweet solicitations. And none of that matters. Like it is up to you. Like hunting's the ultimate responsibility sport. Um, uh, it was, ultimately my decision to go like this. And, um, yes, there were lots of factors that went into that decision-making, but it was my decision. And, um, uh, Phil, you pull up those two pictures. Which one do you want to pull up first, Cal? Um, the two guys behind the bear. Okay. So this is Brando, uh, lookers left. And we're looking at a big monster Alaskan brown bear from this spring, um, with, uh, his client. And this bear is the new, uh, number 70 of all time brown bear. Um, which is super cool. Nice Brando. Yeah. And then the next one, um, so Brando would have been the dude on, on my left during that scene. Uh, this is, uh, a bear that was taken with Kyle, also a big monster bear and show the skull on that. 00:13:06 Speaker 3: That thing, right? Um, nice Kyle. 00:13:11 Speaker 4: That was this spring? 00:13:12 Speaker 2: And that was this spring, yeah. 00:13:13 Speaker 3: Look at that facial hair, too. The old boy's got. 00:13:17 Speaker 4: Let's get serious. 00:13:22 Speaker 3: It's massive. 00:13:22 Speaker 2: Wow. Yeah, man. So, again, it's like hero one minute, goat the next. It was kind of my point with that. 00:13:30 Speaker 3: I will say when that happened, when that grizz came out and that kind of went slow motion. in those moments, it looked as big as those photos. You know, when you're out there, it was like, if I could have said anything, I'm trained as a cameraman long enough, I don't speak, I would have said, shoot that sucker, Cal. So, I don't know. 00:13:52 Speaker 4: I mean, when you guys came back to the cabin, because you guys shot, and then you guys came back because it was getting dark, you guys needed to get some, you know, more equipment, you needed to get your headlamps, and then I came out to join and help, when you guys came back, you were all just like in awe of like what just happened. That thing looked big. It could have been bad, but it didn't. So we're very fortunate, but we got minutes before things get even more intense with the low light, a carcass out there that other bears are probably aware of now. And that's what we tried to build up and the intensity of that moment too. Like we're down to minutes now. 00:14:30 Speaker 2: So who knows? 00:14:31 Speaker 4: Like it could have been. Yeah. 00:14:32 Speaker 2: We tried to, uh, we were hoping the ideal scenario would have been to get that bear on a sled that we had and try to get him out onto the gravel bar. 00:14:42 Speaker 4: Oh yeah. 00:14:43 Speaker 2: And out of those willows for, for safety. Yeah. Uh, and there was just no way to move that. 00:14:49 Speaker 4: We broke it, didn't we? 00:14:50 Speaker 3: So I don't think it just was too dense and the bears too. Yeah. Too heavy. 00:14:55 Speaker 2: Um, it says here that you're supposed to comment on the vibe after the kill Garrett. 00:15:00 Speaker 3: Oh man. Um, You got, I actually, I will say I've, I hunt with Ryan outside of filming too. And, um, I was definitely probably the most shook up. I feel like out of you and the two guides, I felt like I had, cause I had chosen not to have any defense. I think maybe I had bear spray and that camera, that plastic camera after that whole deal went down and then it was in the woods. I felt very, um, Cause I was, I was like, that was intense. And it was again, like the, the shot makes it look like it's further than it was. 00:15:39 Speaker 2: It was close. It looks like more of a casual situation. 00:15:42 Speaker 4: Well, you only took your 12 to 24 or sorry, your 24 to 105. Yeah. And at that point it was such a quick reaction. You were more wide angle, which made everything look further. 00:15:50 Speaker 3: Yeah. So it was, the vibe was Ryan Brando and Kyle were very close. decisive on next course of action. And I was like trying to catch my damn breath. It felt like, yeah. 00:16:03 Speaker 2: And then going into the willows in the rain and the light reflecting back off your headlamps. And, and I, you know, that was not a shot that I was anything other than a hundred percent on. I'm like, Oh, this is a dead bear. 00:16:23 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:16:24 Speaker 2: Um, and the sound was perfect and totally and everything. Um, and then Kyle got an extra shot off and I tried to just kind of follow through with another shot. Um, which there, which is interesting to me because you have, um, I think it was a three 38 that Kyle was shooting or it could have been a three 75. I can't remember. Um, but he did get like a low brisket shot on that bear would have been like a non lethal, non, um, Uh, no vitals, not even like a incapacitating shot, you know, so not like breaking down big bones or anything, but that bear disappeared in the willow so fast. It was amazing. He got another round in it and, you know, I cycled that gun as fast as I could and got another shot and didn't even touch the bear. 00:17:20 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:17:20 Speaker 2: And I think that's like bears now got two shots in it and still moves fast enough. 00:17:26 Speaker 1: Oh yeah. 00:17:27 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:17:27 Speaker 2: In that little burst of adrenaline to, I mean, he made it the full distance that it would have taken to get to us in, into the willows, uh, before expiring. 00:17:39 Speaker 4: So. 00:17:41 Speaker 3: And I mean, the other thing with going into there, not, not to interrupt, sorry. No, go for it. Well, we had been, the whole party had been watching how many, we had seen 20 bears at that point prior. I can't remember more than that. 00:17:52 Speaker 2: Oh my God. So many. 00:17:53 Speaker 4: This was day four of hunting. No, two days of scouting, one day of hunt. This was day four total, second day of hunting or second or third day of hunting. So we've seen a lot of bears in that period from the glassy knob. 00:18:13 Speaker 2: Is that all it was? I feel like it was more because we did that big long hike up to the other ridge and that hike all the way out to the first glassy knob where he almost died that one. 00:18:23 Speaker 4: I mean, almost died. 00:18:25 Speaker 2: Sorry, you got a little winded. Got a little overheated. 00:18:28 Speaker 3: Kyle got stood up on by that cow. 00:18:31 Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. 00:18:32 Speaker 3: But I mean, essentially, like, that was the other thing in my head where that bear exited out of sight into was we had watched a ton of bear activity. And it's like, you don't know if you're going in, what you're going into in the dark and the rain, you know, punched over in the willows, but it all went good. Did we hear a death cry? 00:18:53 Speaker 2: Moan. 00:18:54 Speaker 3: I can't remember. 00:18:54 Speaker 2: No, not really. So yeah, there's a little something I think, but it's even audible in the episode. 00:19:03 Speaker 4: There could be, that could be the death moan, but I don't know. Hard to tell. 00:19:07 Speaker 3: Um, the vibe was, the vibe was high energy. 00:19:13 Speaker 2: And it's just hard. You know, you got three big guns, uh, in the dark in close proximity. Yeah. Like the, the risk there was way higher than, uh, with the bear on, on, on hoof in a lot of ways. Um, especially had that bear been, been alive, it would have been bad news. I mean, that is why I didn't bring a gun too. We talked, I was like, yeah, there's enough. Just stay behind. 00:19:42 Speaker 3: Yeah. The people with guns. 00:19:43 Speaker 4: Hmm. Do you want to read the next question? 00:19:45 Speaker 3: Oh yeah. Where are we at? 00:19:46 Speaker 2: Right here. 00:19:48 Speaker 3: Uh, at Nate, Schwartz, seven, six, nine, nine wrote, I'm doing this hunt next fall. It seems so surreal that I'm lucky enough to even get the chance. 00:19:59 Speaker 2: Heck yeah. Good luck. Good luck, Nate. You'll love it. Uh, AK Arminius, man, this is a great video. Father-in-law is knocking on heaven's door. Needed something like this. 00:20:10 Speaker 3: Yeah, man. 00:20:13 Speaker 2: That's, you know, transport you is what these boys did with their lenses. So best to the father-in-law as well. Let's jump over to the next clip, Phil. A lot of people would agree that this is a pinnacle type of hunt. It's a dangerous game hunt. It's a big deal to come out here on the peninsula. My hunting culture within my family was very social, very recreational. We were waterfowl hunters. My mentors at that time were like outdoor life and field and stream. mom for my birthday every year would would get me those subscriptions you'd have a lot of that big wild adventures these big alaskan hunts so in that way alone it's pretty interesting getting up here my uncle texted me and was like you got a bunch of social hunters that aren't very happy with you right now because when i was like yeah that's how i grew up like that whole hunting circle um the, uh, uh, sorry, uh, Tyler bell, eight, seven, seven. 00:21:43 Speaker 3: No, there's one before. Yeah. 00:21:45 Speaker 4: Listen to it for Instagram. What was it like on the ride in knowing you were about to actually hunt brown bear and how big of a team did you have with you? 00:21:53 Speaker 2: Oh, the flight in is always the same. I'm like mental checklist. Do I have this? 00:22:00 Speaker 3: Do I have this? 00:22:00 Speaker 2: Do I have this? 00:22:01 Speaker 3: Do I have this? 00:22:02 Speaker 2: What did I? 00:22:03 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:22:05 Speaker 2: Um, And yeah, I mean, the. 00:22:12 Speaker 4: Three of us plus Brandon and Kyle, that's it. It was, it was five of us. 00:22:18 Speaker 1: Yep. 00:22:19 Speaker 4: Not much. I mean, when you consider, you know, sometimes Steve's projects that has seven. 00:22:25 Speaker 3: You know, we're a small crew, small crew. 00:22:28 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:22:29 Speaker 3: Relatively. 00:22:29 Speaker 4: And it's a luxury for me to come along. otherwise would have hired another camera operator probably would have had longer or better long lens. No, he's a great, but I'm very appreciative of coming out there to see you in action and get to be involved. 00:22:43 Speaker 2: Um, and it was such a gorgeous day. Like you just couldn't, it was amazing. I got, it was so awesome. So a really fun thing here too, is this flight. Um, so I had, I had, I have a five month old human child right now. Um, like two weeks before this hunt, uh, my partner, Sam is like, Hey, we're pregnant. And so it was way too early to be telling people. 00:23:14 Speaker 6: Yeah. 00:23:15 Speaker 4: I didn't know. You didn't know. But did you know? No. 00:23:18 Speaker 2: And so I had a lot of that on my mind too, going out there to the Alaska peninsula. I'm like, Oh man, well, what are all the things I got to do? 00:23:27 Speaker 3: Another checklist. 00:23:28 Speaker 5: Yeah. 00:23:28 Speaker 2: Another, another thing. And then, uh, also, you know, this is the, the same time that, uh, Rinella and I are talking about, um. 00:23:40 Speaker 3: No BHA. 00:23:41 Speaker 2: Yeah. Moving on to BHA full-time from, uh, being at meat eater full-time. And this is like one of the projects that we were wrapping up, you know? So like typically in this perfect world scenario, you have this dream hunt and you do nothing but focus on. all the odds and ends and just dedicate hours every day to go out and shoot and, and be prepared in every way. Um, and I truthfully couldn't, I didn't have the kind of like that luxury. And in fact, I was wrapping up all of these responsibilities cause I didn't want to leave a bunch of loose ends here. Um, and I was supposed to travel to the East coast for like, a week and then come back to my already packed bags and hop on a plane and head to Alaska. And, um, that we had a really nasty wind storm here in the Gallatin Valley and it was spitting rain, um, like a day before I was supposed to leave on this other trip. And, uh, I grabbed my bow and I went out to this really exposed chunk of state land, uh, out on the Madison and started shooting in this high wind rain scenario, um, which I knew we were going to encounter out on the peninsula. And, um, that I started noticing that my arrows were not flying. 00:25:18 Speaker 4: Right. I forgot about all this. We were talking about you practicing more, practicing more, practicing more. Like he needs to stop traveling. 00:25:26 Speaker 2: And, and I, yeah. So I was like, Oh God, Yeah. I need to really fix something here. And so I, I called and canceled half the trip and. 00:25:37 Speaker 4: Didn't you also call your archery mentor or. 00:25:40 Speaker 2: Uh, yeah, I called my buddy Brian, uh, day six archery and, and we did some 11th hour, uh, fine tuning, which we were able to work through. So thank you, Mr. Broderick. Next question is from Tyler Bell, 877, asking about the waders that we were wearing, which are the Forge waders. And I will tell you, they held up amazing. They're pretty darn good to get aired out because you can open them up pretty well with that front zip. That boot is not built to be like a sneaking around boot. 00:26:25 Speaker 3: No. 00:26:26 Speaker 2: Um, I put some insoles in mine for hiking and they were, were actually great, but you know, it's like a moon boot when you, you want to have like a moccasin when you're trying to sneak in on something. Um, so I mean, man, if, if that's what you're invested in, I wouldn't go buying a brand new pair of something else to go up there and do that hunt. Um, but if you have, uh, that old pair of stocking foot waders, that you can slide into. 00:26:58 Speaker 3: Uh, yeah. 00:26:59 Speaker 2: Tie high or a pair of boots. 00:27:02 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:27:02 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:27:02 Speaker 2: That'd be great. 00:27:03 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:27:04 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:27:06 Speaker 2: Um, next question. 00:27:09 Speaker 4: What do you got anymore? 00:27:12 Speaker 2: Well, there's another gear question, uh, on the rifle. That was a 300 wind mag, uh, in a saw tooth, uh, which is like just their lighter version. The whole idea with that rifle was the ultimate goal here was to have a bonfire scene on the beach, which would have been a challenge in and of itself and roast a hind quarter of, uh, a wolf and a front shoulder of a grizzly bear. Uh, that was like my whole, uh, whole deal and that's the rifle was definitely for the wolves and the idea was to uh only get a bear with that bow which was close to happening in that yeah man scene it. 00:28:05 Speaker 4: Was promising when after that hunt that first stock i thought you were going to actually succeed in getting your trad bow bear oh yeah man it was high likelihood. 00:28:16 Speaker 3: Yeah uh. 00:28:20 Speaker 2: Uh, that is a Bob Lebo out of Texas. And we discovered that he was shooting day six arrows and broadheads. Uh, what deterrents did you guys carry? Pistols, bear spray, atlatl, catapult, cannons. 00:28:38 Speaker 3: Bear spray and camera, 10 pound camera. 00:28:40 Speaker 2: We didn't have any bear spray because you can't fly with that. 00:28:43 Speaker 4: You can't fly with it. And that's 10 pound camera. 00:28:46 Speaker 2: Yeah. Garrett had a 10 pound camera. 00:28:48 Speaker 4: The guide also told us that it was going to be gnarly weather. So the bear spray was going to be practically ineffective with the amount of wind that we were going to have. And luckily we had pretty good weather. 00:29:01 Speaker 2: Stick it in their schnoz. 00:29:02 Speaker 3: Right. 00:29:04 Speaker 2: Which you're well within grabbing distance if you can do that. I had, yeah, 300 wind mag, which was on the backpack 99% of the time. So that would have been a complete waste. So really, I had that recurve bow. And Jason, what did you have? 00:29:29 Speaker 4: I had my P320 10 mil with me, chest mount. 00:29:36 Speaker 3: Ready to go, baby. 00:29:37 Speaker 4: Ready to go. But she's my first gun. So I did practice with her. 00:29:41 Speaker 3: Yeah, you did your diligence for sure. 00:29:43 Speaker 4: And none of you brought any pistols. And what happened whenever you guys had to go number two in the middle of the night? You grabbed pistols. 00:29:50 Speaker 2: Karen. 00:29:50 Speaker 4: Karen. 00:29:50 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:29:51 Speaker 2: Karen. 00:29:51 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:29:52 Speaker 2: Just say it. Just be proud. 00:29:54 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:29:54 Speaker 2: Karen's great. 00:29:55 Speaker 3: I haven't, I haven't taken her out. I was glad for Karen. 00:29:57 Speaker 4: Yep. 00:29:57 Speaker 2: Jason named his pistol Karen. 00:29:59 Speaker 3: Yeah. The sixth member. 00:30:01 Speaker 4: As everybody should. 00:30:01 Speaker 3: Right? 00:30:02 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:30:02 Speaker 3: Is that right? The sixth member. 00:30:04 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:30:06 Speaker 2: Number six out there. 00:30:07 Speaker 3: Karen went with us in the dark every time. 00:30:09 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:30:09 Speaker 4: Yeah. Every time. I didn't leave that cabin without that little pistol. 00:30:15 Speaker 2: And then, um, and it, You can't, I don't know. Uh, you know, it's probably not that noticeable in the film, but Kyle and Brando, they went everywhere with their rifles all the time, all the time. Yeah. 00:30:31 Speaker 3: They're the biggest deterrent. 00:30:33 Speaker 2: Well, yeah, but also like set the tone. Like they're, they're like, there are bears everywhere here. 00:30:39 Speaker 6: Yeah. 00:30:39 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:30:40 Speaker 2: They really don't care about us that much. 00:30:42 Speaker 4: And another reason why we had two guides, we're distracted. We're focusing on what you're doing. 00:30:46 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:30:47 Speaker 4: And, how the film's coming together. Brandon was, was focusing on safety a lot of the times and Kyle was focusing on guiding. 00:30:54 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:30:54 Speaker 4: So it all. 00:30:55 Speaker 2: So explain that, uh, the two camera dynamic, right? Long lens and then, uh, in my pocket, so to speak. 00:31:01 Speaker 4: So, right. So I stuck on long lens, um, mostly up on the glassy knob. Whenever we did go out hiking, I was still on long lens. And, uh, that's mostly just to be prepared. If something were to happen where we saw a bear. I've got my long lens already mounted and can get a shot. Whereas Garrett can then have his wide angle lens to focus on what the people are doing. 00:31:24 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:31:25 Speaker 4: And that way we just are set up for the best chances of covering the scene successfully. 00:31:30 Speaker 2: And basically set up to split up. So there's going to be a guide with a gun. Uh, nobody, nobody left behind defenseless. 00:31:40 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:31:40 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:31:41 Speaker 2: Um, heritage tradition, 1134. What are the nerves like hunting a seven foot aggressive bear? Fortunately, we never ran into a seven foot aggressive bear. They're all bigger than that. 00:31:56 Speaker 3: And that one was less aggressive. I mean, that one that stood up, that sow was curious more than aggressive. 00:32:03 Speaker 4: She was nine plus, right? 00:32:05 Speaker 2: She was probably right in there at the same size, I bet. A little under nine. But old bear, you know, her face was all scarred up. Great looking bear. Great looking bear for sure. 00:32:17 Speaker 4: Paid no mind to you with the yawn leaving. 00:32:20 Speaker 2: Oh man. 00:32:20 Speaker 6: Yeah. 00:32:21 Speaker 2: Uh, but everybody should know that was Jason Riggs long lens shot there. 00:32:25 Speaker 4: And I also want to say it's shaky, not because of my crappy camera moves. 00:32:30 Speaker 3: Wind. 00:32:30 Speaker 4: It was wind. 00:32:31 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:32:31 Speaker 4: I was on, I was actually on a Swarovski scope with the adapter on an FX three. So not an iPhone, not an image stabilized lens, a scope. So when you're up there on the glassy knob and you get some wind, even the slightest wind, it shakes. So I was trying my best. 00:32:49 Speaker 3: And you were a little nervous, weren't you? 00:32:52 Speaker 4: Yeah, my heart was racing. I was nervous for you guys going down there and whether or not I was gonna, as the producer, I'm thinking of what's the risk, right? What's gonna, what is my response to an emergency if something were to happen or right or wrong? So my heart was racing for all those other reasons. 00:33:09 Speaker 2: I mean, you should have just been like, Just kick back and relax because there's nothing you could do. What do you mean? 00:33:16 Speaker 4: I'm woofer trained. I could, you know, cauterize. 00:33:25 Speaker 2: But yeah, then looking through those lenses, right, it compresses everything. So it probably made it look like the bear was right on top of us the whole time. 00:33:33 Speaker 4: The long lens? 00:33:34 Speaker 2: For sure. 00:33:35 Speaker 4: When she stood up, it looks like you guys are within five feet. 00:33:39 Speaker 3: I mean, it was, what did we figure? 13 yards or something? I mean, it was close. 00:33:43 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:33:43 Speaker 2: I mean, it was under, I thought she was going to step out at 20, but she actually turned closer and stood up to look over that bush, which was a bad. 00:33:52 Speaker 4: Well, actually that's, that's one of the listeners questions. When the bear stood up, how, this is from Instagram. How good of an angle did you have down below? It seems like you didn't want to take a shot, but you did have a camera guy stay more behind you too. 00:34:08 Speaker 2: So that was... We should take a look at this clip first. Oh, sorry. 00:34:13 Speaker 1: We're breezing over clips here. I just want to make sure. Because I think this might show some stuff. 00:34:19 Speaker 3: Oh, there we go. 00:34:20 Speaker 2: Thank you, Phil. 00:34:27 Speaker 3: Big old girl. 00:34:30 Speaker 1: Damn shakiness. 00:34:31 Speaker 3: Wind. Wind. Just out of. 00:34:49 Speaker 4: Now, in this frame, you can't see you guys in the bottom right. 00:34:52 Speaker 3: Nice butt shot, Cal. 00:34:57 Speaker 4: My specialty. 00:34:58 Speaker 2: This is a good one, too, though, because it's like not every old bear is a big old bear. I mean, she's big in her own right. 00:35:07 Speaker 3: She's like, oh. 00:35:18 Speaker 2: There's the shot right there. 00:35:20 Speaker 6: Yeah. 00:35:21 Speaker 4: Which again, in that angle looks feet away. Yeah. 00:35:27 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:35:28 Speaker 4: So this, this person asks how good of an angle did you have down below? It seems like you didn't want to take the shot, but you did have a camera guy stay behind you too. 00:35:39 Speaker 3: So I'm confused by that. 00:35:41 Speaker 2: Uh, Yes, I well, I think we covered it We got one guy up on the original glassing knob Jason with the long lens and then Garrett's right in the pack I mean I could have reached out and and whacked Garrett with my bow real easy. 00:35:53 Speaker 4: But Garrett shots not in that in the film just to prep like Yeah, well your shot is in it, but you don't actually get the bear standing you actually duck down Oh, I would the head you got ahead barely, but you didn't get her standing up completely. I because you were right behind Cal. Me and the editor worked really closely on how to best present both angles, what I got on the glass and up, versus what you guys saw. But you were at this moment, I feel, correct me if I'm wrong, where you were like, he may take a shot, I need to get into a better position for a hunting shot, rather than who knows what the bear was going to do. You were focusing on what Cal was going to do. 00:36:32 Speaker 2: From a killing perspective, the. 00:36:38 Speaker 2: I guess here's the, the fun thing about traditional archery is you can't pull back and hold forever. Uh, I certainly can't. Um, and so you have a, a shorter window to draw your bow, get your, uh, get anchored, right? Which is your, your full draw, full tension, find your spot, release the arrow. So, um, Watching that again, I should have popped up drawn as soon as she started to drop down, which happens extremely quick. 00:37:21 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:37:21 Speaker 2: And then when she hits all fours on the ground, that arrow should have been in the air. But I can tell you like my mental picture is like that would have resulted in a arrow in the guts of that bear because she got out of there. pretty dang fast looks like there's time right there but you know hindsight um. 00:37:45 Speaker 4: This is also day one or no day two this is. 00:37:50 Speaker 2: Day two of hunting yeah. 00:37:52 Speaker 4: And we had a week yeah so it was also so that. 00:37:58 Speaker 2: I mean that would have been a great great bear no matter what it's a ideally a dry sow uh we can say sow with confidence because we did watch her pee a couple of different times Um, and it didn't come out of a penis. 00:38:12 Speaker 3: Okay. 00:38:13 Speaker 2: So, um, and the, and then when she stands up, um, yeah, I, I said it on film. Like, I'm just not that confident on that standing shot. Like where exactly it is. And, um, that recurve, has killed a bunch of elk, big, tough elk. Um, and I like my double lung shots, man. I want, I want exposed ribs and putting an arrow through, through both lungs is my ideal scenario. 00:38:56 Speaker 3: Um, all right. 00:38:59 Speaker 2: So that's, that's the shooting scenario right there. Um, but it was awesome. I mean, just incredibly awesome to have that bear stand up. 00:39:08 Speaker 3: Oh yeah. 00:39:09 Speaker 2: And like when she stands up, you have just enough time to like look at her face and go, oh man, look at all the scars on her face. That is an old bear. 00:39:17 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:39:17 Speaker 3: Which was really cool. 00:39:20 Speaker 2: Gary, you were there. What'd you think? 00:39:21 Speaker 3: Oh, it was amazing. And I do remember like we, which you can't really tell from the clips, but we were expecting, like you said, for her to pop out slightly. Yeah. Slightly in a different zone. And when she did pop up, she was like, right, right on. 00:39:40 Speaker 2: There was no question in her mind that something was there. 00:39:43 Speaker 4: Oh yeah. 00:39:43 Speaker 2: Right. 00:39:43 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:39:44 Speaker 3: She was coming in to check it out. And that was, that was amazing. And, um, yeah kind of set the pace for what lay ahead really. 00:39:52 Speaker 2: Yeah and a little confidence boost was like oh man we can't get up on these things which is great. 00:39:56 Speaker 4: Yeah and we can't film the whole entire thing yeah that was yeah great couldn't have asked for better coverage no um. 00:40:06 Speaker 2: Let's see do we have clip eight phil. 00:40:12 Speaker 3: We've got clip seven. 00:40:13 Speaker 1: We can roll here and see what that is. 00:40:15 Speaker 3: There's this thing. 00:40:17 Speaker 6: Called the lost wallet technique where the deer are all visible. They're out in the wide open. 00:40:23 Speaker 3: There's no approach. 00:40:25 Speaker 6: So your approach is the no approach approach where you take a bunch of off angles and you don't pay any attention to the mule deer and you act like you're out there looking for a lost wallet And eventually your off angles take you within archery range of the deer and you shoot one. That's kind of. 00:40:52 Speaker 3: What we're going on with. Just like that. Easy peasy. Just like that. 00:40:55 Speaker 4: Which that was not the first. Was that the first stock? 00:40:58 Speaker 2: That was the first stock, first arrow. 00:41:00 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:41:00 Speaker 4: First stock, first arrow. No more after. 00:41:02 Speaker 3: No two. You got two. 00:41:04 Speaker 2: No, we hit a couple more and I'd say there was an unfortunate catch and release incident out there. Time again. 00:41:12 Speaker 4: Why do I not remember the ptarmigan? Well, I didn't go out there whenever. 00:41:16 Speaker 2: No, it was too rainy for you, Jason. 00:41:18 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:41:18 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:41:19 Speaker 4: Well, also it's bird hunting. More people are more spooking. 00:41:21 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:41:22 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:41:23 Speaker 3: One lost wallet. 00:41:24 Speaker 2: I guess just background on this. As far as I know, like this was really explained to me by this dude who was, uh, he lived in the Frank church wilderness, was a caretaker in there. Um, and yeah, he talked about this and did this BHA member too. Um, and really what you, what you see is how it works, man. It's like, everybody's happy until somebody is like, Hey, I feel like this guy's watching me. 00:41:53 Speaker 3: That's weird. 00:41:54 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:41:57 Speaker 5: Uh, right. 00:41:59 Speaker 2: Next one, I think is the bear shot. All right. 00:42:00 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:42:00 Speaker 2: Let's do the, the, the scene. 00:42:02 Speaker 3: It's a horror film. 00:42:07 Speaker 4: It is a horror film. 00:42:25 Speaker 2: Still moving in there. 00:42:29 Speaker 4: Yeah. And you didn't record anything before things really got intense. 00:42:38 Speaker 3: The moose. We got the moose and then cut. And then literally... And it's great. 00:42:43 Speaker 2: You can hear that. 00:42:45 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:42:45 Speaker 4: Did you, yeah, you heard the, yeah. 00:42:48 Speaker 2: Um, so yeah, the, the seat, like we are underneath a tarp for eight hours in wind and rain and it just, it sucks. And you couldn't really see a lot like fog moving through and, um, and then it kind of lightens up at the end. And then we see these birds blow up and the birds had been a good indicator of when bears were fishing. Um, and we're like, okay, well let's go down there and try it. And we have this discussion of like, here's what I don't like about this. We're going to be putting ourselves in a situation where we don't get to judge. We might have to react. And then we get down on the river. But everybody wants to walk around, including me. Yeah, you just wanted to mobilize. 00:43:31 Speaker 4: Sitting on that glassy knob is nice, but it's also... You're missing out on all the action. 00:43:38 Speaker 2: Yeah. So we get... down in there and it is like the little side channel that we want to look up where we see the big bear on the very first hunting day. It is so foggy and, and misty that you can't even really see in there. And immediately it's like, okay, this is stupid. 00:44:00 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:44:01 Speaker 2: But now we're down there. So we're just going to like kick rocks for a couple of minutes before we call it quits. And that whole time, Everybody's thinking the same thing. We should probably just get out of here. 00:44:14 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:44:15 Speaker 2: But what if type of thing, right? 00:44:18 Speaker 3: I'm sure part of it too was like, as you could tell from the clip, I was like, we can't, it's too dark to film. Yeah. Like we're kind of wrapping up the day. 00:44:25 Speaker 4: I'm so glad that you did though, that you did roll. 00:44:28 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:44:29 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:44:29 Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah. 00:44:30 Speaker 4: Even if we can't see much, you can at least see something. 00:44:32 Speaker 3: It was, it was late. 00:44:33 Speaker 6: Yeah. 00:44:33 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:44:34 Speaker 2: We were kind of, kind of like encouraging things along, like, okay, let's. 00:44:37 Speaker 6: Yeah. 00:44:38 Speaker 2: Let's wrap her up. Tomorrow's a new day. Tomorrow's a new day. Yeah. And then, so here comes this crashing and splashing and, and people are like, Oh my God, what is that? And here comes this cow moose ripping across the river. Ultimately she's being chased by this bear, but we don't know that. It's just like your brain and you're trying to be a smart person out there. Um, do what you can with what you have anyway. And, uh, She sees us spins around, runs back across the river. Things are kind of quiet and then splashing and crashing again. And then all of a sudden here comes this bear that's going right on her scent trail and ultimately does like right, right before he gets there. And there's this talk, you know, got Kyle on my right side, Brando on my left side of like, Oh, it's a bear. Oh, it's your call. It's your call. It's your call. Better shoot that bear. All right. 00:45:40 Speaker 3: Well, okay. 00:45:42 Speaker 2: And, uh, and yeah, man, I mean, that's, that's how it all went down that, but, and I made the choice to bring that rifle down there because I was like, this is stupid. 00:45:57 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:45:59 Speaker 4: And you brought the weapon necessary for the conditions. 00:46:02 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:46:02 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:46:03 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:46:04 Speaker 4: Um, But you also tell me this. Did you know? Cause I, I know, I know the answer. 00:46:10 Speaker 2: Did you know Kyle was going to shoot as well? I, it did not surprise me at all that he shot like that, that, that scenario right there really is perfect for like, it's a followup shot. 00:46:26 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:46:27 Speaker 2: You know? 00:46:27 Speaker 4: Well, I remember you guys having a conversation beforehand. If this were to happen, I'm going to take a shot. Kyle told you it was coming. but maybe it's like dark. 00:46:37 Speaker 2: The bear is going into the brush. We have to track this thing. It's raining. Um, like the chances of recovery go way down. If you can't see the thing in those conditions. 00:46:50 Speaker 1: Right. 00:46:50 Speaker 2: So, um, very appropriate, uh, shooting scenario and truly like there's nothing to lose. 00:46:58 Speaker 3: Right. 00:46:58 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:46:59 Speaker 2: It's like we weren't going to be setting a world record right there. 00:47:03 Speaker 3: Right. 00:47:03 Speaker 2: And have some question about like, well, who shot? 00:47:05 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:47:06 Speaker 2: Um, there, there, you know, wasn't a Pope and young archery situation, you know, there was just no reason not to. And, and I, yeah, absolutely have no, him taking that shot still was barely on my radar. 00:47:21 Speaker 3: Don't care. 00:47:22 Speaker 4: Do you, do you know your shot placement? 00:47:24 Speaker 2: Oh yeah. I knew a hundred percent. 00:47:26 Speaker 4: Well, I knew you, you hit, but do you know, I don't, I can't remember where was yours. 00:47:29 Speaker 2: And I mean, that's, I mean, it was like a 40 some yard shot. 00:47:33 Speaker 4: Yeah. Okay. 00:47:34 Speaker 2: You know, 300 wind mag travels real fast. So it's, yeah, it was right. I mean, literally like his shoulder opened up and shot him right behind the shoulder. So, I mean, it was, I was very, very, very confident. 00:47:49 Speaker 4: And then where did Kyle hit? Do you know? 00:47:52 Speaker 3: Under, low. Yeah. 00:47:53 Speaker 2: Just, yeah. Right on that brisket. 00:47:55 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:47:55 Speaker 2: You know, it wouldn't be like a grazing brisket shot. It would have been like punching into the brisket and then back out. And, and a little tiny bit of the, the opposite leg, I think, if I remember correctly. Um, but yeah, going in after that bear, that's when I was like, okay, now we need to like, now things are very serious for me. 00:48:16 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:48:17 Speaker 2: Now I need to like, cause there's no walking away. Right. Like you are tied to that critter. 00:48:22 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:48:23 Speaker 2: Um, and there's no excuse of like, well, it was raining and dark. So yeah. 00:48:30 Speaker 4: And if you did use that excuse, no one would respect you afterward. Yeah. 00:48:33 Speaker 2: Well, man, it's like you punch your ticket when you pull that trigger, right? 00:48:39 Speaker 3: Uh-huh. Follow up. 00:48:40 Speaker 2: It's like that, there's no backing out, right? There's lots of backing out before you pull the trigger. 00:48:48 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:48:49 Speaker 2: Once you pull the trigger, like that is commitment with the bang. 00:48:56 Speaker 3: Cooking? 00:48:57 Speaker 4: Yeah. Cooking. 00:48:59 Speaker 3: Cooking. Ooh, yummy. 00:49:03 Speaker 2: This bear, the hide, smelled very, very fishy. But the meat and the fat, right now it smells extremely neutral. 00:49:18 Speaker 3: Yeah, actually. 00:49:18 Speaker 4: I don't know. 00:49:20 Speaker 3: Surprising. 00:49:21 Speaker 2: One of our like traditional meat eater meals with bear is rendering fat and then frying the bear in the fat. 00:49:44 Speaker 3: I almost smell it. 00:49:46 Speaker 4: I feel like I can smell it. 00:49:47 Speaker 2: Brown bear meat has a fishy reputation. It's a pungent smell, yeah. Mildly. And Kyle and Brando were skeptical. Okay, team. You want me to go first? 00:49:58 Speaker 5: I'll go for a big one. 00:50:00 Speaker 4: We were both covering this, right? Mm-hmm. I'm in the bunk. 00:50:03 Speaker 3: Oh, that's right. Top side. There is like a little. 00:50:15 Speaker 2: Kind of roof of your mouth. 00:50:18 Speaker 3: Fish there. 00:50:20 Speaker 2: Very subtle comparatively though. It's like nice long grain. 00:50:27 Speaker 3: Very clean. 00:50:29 Speaker 4: The editor almost cut that last shot by the way, but we kept it. 00:50:33 Speaker 2: Nice. It is gorgeous meat. 00:50:35 Speaker 1: Yeah, it is. 00:50:36 Speaker 2: It is gorgeous meat. There's no, you don't look at it and go, oh, this is not good. I will tell you my spring season out there back in 2011, I looked at that bear and I was like, man, that, that, that could be tough to eat that thing. 00:50:50 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:50:50 Speaker 2: Um, but it was, you know, very, very different condition. It was still like winter out on the peninsula. They hadn't been out and fattening up. Uh, they were still kind of in that emergent phase. Um, this bear you looked at, you're like, oh, that's beef. It's amazing. Like big, gorgeous, white fat, beautiful red meat. Um, the context matters, right? Like everything smells like rotten fish. It's wet. You don't, you know, no real way to feel clean. That smell inside an old guide shack is just layered on there and mildew and mold and all the farts. Yeah, man. 00:51:32 Speaker 4: There wasn't that much farts. It was actually the three of us did good. 00:51:36 Speaker 2: Man agrees. Um, and, uh, On top of that, right next to this cabin, there's an old outhouse. 00:51:47 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:51:47 Speaker 2: And that's where we hung all the meat was inside this outhouse that some bear had dug out. 00:51:53 Speaker 4: Which we were not using said outhouse for its intended purposes. 00:51:57 Speaker 2: Correct. Yeah. 00:51:58 Speaker 4: Just specifying that. 00:51:59 Speaker 2: But you know, you don't go, a bunch of people have pooped here. 00:52:04 Speaker 3: Right. 00:52:06 Speaker 2: That like, it's kind of hard to get that out of your mind. 00:52:09 Speaker 3: Yeah. You know. 00:52:10 Speaker 2: That's when you're hanging your meat in there. And the fat does have a real smell to it. Garrett, did you even try it? 00:52:25 Speaker 3: Oh, yeah. You did try it. I wasn't as enthusiastic. No, I didn't have the breakfast burrito with the bear meat. 00:52:33 Speaker 2: You didn't? 00:52:34 Speaker 3: No, because I forget. I was like, you know. 00:52:37 Speaker 4: Well, I think we were having some post- like effects of having so many dehydrated meals and then all of a sudden having grease for the first time in a long time that caused some digestive. 00:52:50 Speaker 2: Some GI issues. Yeah. Um, I do remember that. That's true. Or yeah, cause we did, we were talking about, man, maybe the water's getting. 00:52:57 Speaker 3: To us or something. Oh yeah. There is something I don't, didn't make the episode, but the theory, the theory with that, with your bear was because it was kind of its prime and it was chasing that most, maybe it wasn't eating as many. 00:53:11 Speaker 4: Although you did say the... Either you said the hide or whenever we were butchering it, that it did smell like salmon. 00:53:19 Speaker 3: Oh, yeah. For sure. But not as much as like. 00:53:21 Speaker 2: The meat. 00:53:22 Speaker 3: A less like apex bear would be eating just raw fish. 00:53:26 Speaker 2: If he's just laying there on top of a dead fish pile. This dude was out charging around in the rain, chasing moose. Yeah, so it could be a total you are what you eat scenario. I. 00:53:41 Speaker 2: Got this sucker back. Sam is in the midst of morning sickness and very sensitive to smell. And she was like, I will never eat that thing. That is horrible. This is disgusting. 00:53:59 Speaker 4: Yeah. And you had the hide. 00:54:02 Speaker 2: Oh yeah. 00:54:02 Speaker 4: Two. So you had multiple things. 00:54:05 Speaker 2: And all your gear just reeks. 00:54:07 Speaker 6: Yeah. 00:54:07 Speaker 2: You know, it's, it is bad and it falls year round and. Um, and the, and I will tell you, like I had, I had traded a shotgun for a fancy Arc'teryx ski jacket. And that was the only rain gear, like bomber rain gear that I had, uh, when I went out there and worked in 2011. And from skinning those two brown bears that we got on that trip, um, people, people would smell fish on that jacket for the entire life of that rain jacket. Still have it. Um, and so, I mean, it's, it's definitely real, but I made, um, so I've made a stir fry, which everybody loved and it was fantastic. And it's beautiful, like Mongolian, like kind of like, uh, Kyle said in there is like kind of the grain on it is just a, it's, it's a perfect stir fry meat. 00:55:09 Speaker 4: Um, what did he say? Mongolian beef. 00:55:11 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:55:11 Speaker 2: He said Mongolian beef. 00:55:12 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:55:13 Speaker 2: Um, and, uh, I used one of chef Linda's, uh, stir fry. 00:55:19 Speaker 4: Chef Linda from dragonfly. Right. 00:55:22 Speaker 2: Hummingbirds. 00:55:23 Speaker 3: Hummingbirds. 00:55:23 Speaker 4: Yeah. Um, birds, dragonflies. 00:55:26 Speaker 2: And then, um, the, and then, yeah, I, I did like some skewers at a like BHA staff event. that sucked because I just didn't have enough time to do anything. And so it was just making sure it was cooked and it was chewy and not, not, you know, not throwing it away, but it was not great. 00:55:46 Speaker 3: So a little more special care with the bear meat. 00:55:48 Speaker 2: Well, yeah. So then I took it and I rubbed it down like you would like a rack of lamb or a leg of lamb, like rosemary and lemon and garlic and olive oil. And, uh, put that on out on the pellet grill and, And, and cooked it just to medium and then sliced it really thin and made euros. 00:56:09 Speaker 6: Ooh. 00:56:09 Speaker 2: And Sam was like, this is amazing. I'll eat grizzly bear. No problem. 00:56:15 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:56:15 Speaker 4: Yep. I mean, even the, I didn't get to have all the fancy recipes you made with it, but even the bear that you made out in the camp was still really good. 00:56:23 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:56:23 Speaker 4: I didn't need all the fancy. 00:56:25 Speaker 2: And that like, so we get weathered in, planes can't fly, too much wind. 00:56:29 Speaker 6: Yep. 00:56:30 Speaker 2: And, um, we're still eating freeze dried food. And we're kind of like scratching the not favorites. And I'm like, this is so stupid. And that the loin on the bear was delicious. So, you know, we were limited in how we could cook, but I just started making bear steaks and they were awesome. 00:56:51 Speaker 3: I thought. Yeah. Mixing them in with some of the freeze dry. Yep. 00:56:55 Speaker 4: And you, you liked it so much. You actually would not stop harping about how you wanted to go back and get more. Yep. But you couldn't. 00:57:02 Speaker 3: Yep. 00:57:03 Speaker 4: Why could you not? 00:57:04 Speaker 2: Because another bear had already eaten that thing. 00:57:06 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:57:07 Speaker 2: Big bear. Yeah. 00:57:08 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:57:09 Speaker 2: The thing, yeah, the bear that ate this bear when it came out of the brush was like, like a VW van. So you've. 00:57:23 Speaker 4: Already answered a couple of these questions from Ian Trumpy 6048 and then RSA 90. 00:57:32 Speaker 3: Oh, he just said, good to see you. 00:57:34 Speaker 4: Well, he said, good to see you. And he says, what, what do you do if you can see the parasite in the meat? Do you cook it away and eat it? 00:57:42 Speaker 2: So the, like most, uh, carnivores are going to have some sort of parasite for sure. Um, depends on the density of the parasites. Like the canine cysts are what we see a lot. Um, and they can look like little grains of rice in the muscle fiber and they can be sporadic or they can be like, you can't cut a muscle without cutting a parasite. Um, and I'll let you be the judge of what. 00:58:11 Speaker 3: You would do with that. 00:58:12 Speaker 4: So, yeah. Um, you see a parasite just to me, I'd be like, I'm all right. 00:58:17 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:58:17 Speaker 2: But all that, you know, I have a whole hind quarter with, with the bone in, which that was a funny thing because when we were hiking away from the carcass, We had a lot of meat and, you know, you got to fly all this stuff out and weight's always a concern. And I was immediately guilt ridden because I was like, oh my God, we didn't get enough meat. We didn't get enough meat. We didn't get enough meat. And my backpack doesn't even weigh anything. And I was, I was just going through it emotionally. 00:58:50 Speaker 4: We could have taken more, but. 00:58:52 Speaker 2: And then every time we had to move that fricking dry bag that I had that. 00:58:56 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:58:57 Speaker 2: I was like, oh, this is like 80 pounds. 00:58:59 Speaker 3: Just the hide. 00:59:00 Speaker 4: The hide and the meat. That hide was more than 80 pounds. 00:59:04 Speaker 2: Wet hide is heavy, yeah. 00:59:06 Speaker 3: It was. 00:59:06 Speaker 2: Lightened up quite a bit by the end there. 00:59:08 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:59:10 Speaker 4: Hold on, I got one more. So about the meat, because you tagged me in your Instagram post. Danny Bolton put a question in there. He says, how would you compare black bear to brown bear? 00:59:20 Speaker 2: I'd say very, very similar. Totally similar, yeah. 00:59:24 Speaker 4: Very similar. 00:59:24 Speaker 1: Yep. 00:59:25 Speaker 4: Okay. Yep. 00:59:27 Speaker 2: Like, I mean, this is. 00:59:30 Speaker 2: It's a phenomenal eating meat. It's great to have it in the freezer. 00:59:36 Speaker 4: Why do so many people, sorry, I'm just going to keep asking you questions. A lot of people that I know that hunt bear automatically go to processing it into chorizo. 00:59:45 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:59:46 Speaker 4: Is it just because there's no flavor or? 00:59:49 Speaker 2: No, I think it's good. I think people are scared about trichinosis. And I think, you know, you end up with like a bunch of like ultra lean red meat. that you have to cook to medium. Right. And it's like, you kill an elk, you can eat that stuff raw. 01:00:05 Speaker 3: Right. 01:00:05 Speaker 2: And it's ultimately, you know, you have just more stuff that you can do with it. That's my thought. I mean, black bear roasts are fantastic. You know, yeah. You brine them and make sure that, um, you cook them gently to where you're not. Once you lose the moisture out of a black bear roast, and I would assume this grizzly bear roast, you may as well just like keep going into beef jerky. 01:00:31 Speaker 3: Yeah. 01:00:32 Speaker 1: Yeah. 01:00:33 Speaker 4: Okay. We got two more questions. You want to read it? 01:00:37 Speaker 3: Uh, at Hunter Presley, six, eight, five, one. Hey, Cal, as a huntsman, what aspect of hunting would you say had the largest learning curve or barrier of entry from your experiences? 01:00:48 Speaker 4: Largest learning curve. 01:00:52 Speaker 3: We're lucky to grow up in Montana. 01:00:53 Speaker 4: Or barrier of entry. Yeah. 01:00:55 Speaker 2: What, I mean, when to walk and when to sit still, still gets me, you know? 01:01:01 Speaker 4: Well, what about barrier of entry? Like, has there ever been a hunt that you had difficulty like for access purposes or for equipment reasons? 01:01:10 Speaker 3: Or cost. 01:01:11 Speaker 4: Or cost. 01:01:12 Speaker 2: I mean, cost is, is a huge deal, right? And you know, it's like all the way out there in the peninsula, um, we kind of piggybacked, right? Like the, um, village that we were based out of, they, as soon as they heard there was a bear down, somebody wanted, um, a ham off of that thing. And then, um, and the pause and the pause and fat, um, which may be super cool. 01:01:35 Speaker 4: Maybe that's something also to preface. You're talking about difficulty of logistics getting out there. It's also difficulty of permission to get to these areas because the locals are kind of the reasons why we have permission. Not permission, exactly, but. 01:01:50 Speaker 2: A better logistical hub. 01:01:52 Speaker 4: Yeah. 01:01:52 Speaker 2: Right? And so, like, the closer that you can get to your hunt area, the better edge you have on changing weather systems is really what it comes into. Like, we could have gotten to that spot from a couple of different airstrips, but it would have been further flights and things change so fast. 01:02:08 Speaker 4: But we were happy enough to build a relationship with those people because they were also helping us out, too. Totally. 01:02:15 Speaker 3: Oh, yeah. 01:02:16 Speaker 2: You know, there's a reciprocal... Not just. 01:02:18 Speaker 4: The remoteness of flights, but also the remoteness of just making friends and being a good person. 01:02:24 Speaker 2: Oh yeah. Yeah, man. Does not pay to be an asshole on the peninsula. That's for sure. Um, so, but what was the rate like flying back that, you know, the rate of cargo was what? 01:02:39 Speaker 3: Four bucks a pound or something like that. I think. 01:02:41 Speaker 2: No, it was $ 15 a pound. Really? 01:02:43 Speaker 3: Yeah. 01:02:43 Speaker 2: Minimum. 01:02:45 Speaker 3: I thought over. Yeah. Actually you'd, probably no. 01:02:49 Speaker 4: Wait for getting for the super cubs to get out or. 01:02:51 Speaker 3: No no no for the get off the peninsula oh yeah um. 01:02:55 Speaker 4: I don't really remember i just handed him my credit card so it right so i mean that's it was probably closer to 15 it was. 01:03:01 Speaker 3: 15 bucks a pound i'm pretty sure over a certain amount right like. 01:03:05 Speaker 4: Each person was allowed a certain weight and then after that it was all it was very extra very expensive because these planes aren't just used for hunting access they're also for the locals mail And they're groceries, you know, so. Yep. 01:03:19 Speaker 2: Parts. 01:03:20 Speaker 4: Yep. Parts. 01:03:21 Speaker 3: All the stuff. 01:03:22 Speaker 4: Yeah. 01:03:22 Speaker 2: So, um, yeah. 01:03:27 Speaker 3: No, one more Jason. 01:03:28 Speaker 4: Okay. Uh, Andrew Cotter, Cotterrill6251. I have a question for Cal. What, what is it like being a dad? What happens when the baby grows up to be an anti-hunt or yeah. What if anti-hunting any meat eater with Cal in a And it is an awesome day. I see, I can't read. I was in special reading classes as a kid. 01:03:52 Speaker 3: That was a tricky one. 01:03:54 Speaker 2: Well, yeah, I mean, I didn't, we should ask Phil what it's like being a dad. He's got a hell of a lot more practice at it than I do. Oh, my, my killed, my kids killed two more deer than I have. I don't think if, if my kids out there shooting deer, I don't think Cal has anything to worry about. I didn't know that. We got to catch up. Um, So yeah, man, if this kid's anti-hunting, he's just going to be anti-me and that's where he's going to come from. Um, so I, I'll just own that right now. Um, and being a dad's great, man, watching the, I mean, it'd be great if he slept through the night right now, that'd be special in and of itself, but you know, you're watching this little human evolve and every single day is brand new. And, um, I, uh, He's been sucking on all sorts of wild game for a while now. Yeah. And this morning I put, I made a nice cassoulet. Our buddy Jesse Griffiths has a technique for curing turkey legs and putting them on the smoker. So you're basically making a ham hock out of a turkey leg thigh quarter. And put that in the crock pot. just with water, let it get down to where, um, you can shred it and then put it in there with your white beans and start building up that fancy French peasant dish. And, uh, oh my God, it's a killer winter cold weather meal. And, uh, so I just put a scoop of that in the blender and hit puree this morning, made a, you know, beautiful light brown goo. And the kid just hammered it. 01:05:47 Speaker 3: Loved it. 01:05:48 Speaker 4: Or a little guy. 01:05:49 Speaker 2: Loved it. 01:05:49 Speaker 4: Yes. 01:05:51 Speaker 1: Yeah. 01:05:51 Speaker 2: And that's pretty darn fun. 01:05:53 Speaker 1: Oh, that's awesome. 01:05:53 Speaker 4: I know I missed out on it. I should have taken a bowl or something. 01:05:56 Speaker 2: I cook all the time if somebody likes it. 01:05:58 Speaker 4: But this year, I mean, as your producer, you've had a lot less hunts, a lot less time out in the country, in the back country. 01:06:06 Speaker 3: Yep. 01:06:06 Speaker 4: So you really had to work around being a dad and hunting while also being a new CEO. 01:06:13 Speaker 3: Yep. Yep. 01:06:14 Speaker 2: All those things, all those things. Yeah, man. I mean, I'm not like, there's never, even when I was primarily living in the woods, there was never a time where I was like, Oh boy, I've had enough of this. It takes about a week for you to be like, Oh my God, I need to get back out there. 01:06:32 Speaker 3: Yeah. 01:06:34 Speaker 2: Um, and so, yeah, there's definitely a big part of me this year that where I'm like. 01:06:38 Speaker 3: Oh my God, I need to get outside. 01:06:40 Speaker 2: I need to get outside. I need to get outside. Um, but it's, you know, we're definitely all hands on deck at, at five months. You remember what five months was like, Phil? 01:06:49 Speaker 3: Sorry, what was that, Kyle? 01:06:51 Speaker 2: Raising, raising your, your boys five months. 01:06:54 Speaker 3: Five months, that five months was five and six months. 01:06:57 Speaker 1: If I feel like as a turning point for sleep schedules, I'd say on average, I'm not saying that you're going to be that so lucky, but, um, but yeah, you're, I just, I just kind of scrub the first eight months out of my memory. 01:07:11 Speaker 3: Um, I was living in a haze. It was a lot of part-time jobs too. It was, it was, it was that sort of thing. Yeah. 01:07:18 Speaker 1: Yeah. 01:07:18 Speaker 3: I mean, you're just burning the candle at both ends, man. It gets easier. 01:07:22 Speaker 4: Yeah. 01:07:22 Speaker 2: I mean, it is, it is wild. I mean, I've always kind of been this way, but man, if I get, I'm very capable of getting things done. If I can just get three hours of straight sleep and we're at like three hours, two and a half right now, it's. 01:07:37 Speaker 4: Like, even three hours sounds miserable. I think I got nine last night. Yeah. 01:07:42 Speaker 3: I'm like an eight, eight to 10. 01:07:43 Speaker 2: Well, just break that up though. Right. So there's intermittent sleep, but no, I mean this, uh, yeah, it's pretty wild. You know, there, I guess you don't get a practice doing a once in a lifetime hunt, right? Like that is the, the moral of this story. Um, I think being out there on the, one of the things that didn't make it in the film, which was really, uh, cool just for me. And I'm not saying it should have is, there's like a big flock of Mallard ducks, like drinks out there on the peninsula. And I thought that was so just, it's interesting that it was very impactful for me because I was like, these ducks are part of the Pacific flyway. They're going to end up at my buddy Sean's place in California. 01:08:34 Speaker 4: In Ricefield. 01:08:34 Speaker 2: In Ricefield getting shot at. And I hope I'm there when they show up. And it was, really neat seeing them all the way out there on the illusion chain, basically. 01:08:47 Speaker 3: Yeah. 01:08:47 Speaker 2: I'm like, Oh, this is real. This is where it happens. And so part of that, just that duck experience, I was like, people need to have access to these places. Um, so they can connect the dots, slow learners like me, right? You gotta be like, Oh my God, they're actually here. This is worth protecting in the world of conservation. Um, and I also thought a lot about how, um, nobody else is going to go out there and sit on the Alaska peninsula for 10 days. Right. It's like, unless you are hunting, which, you know, you have got to be very observant to be good at it. Um, like nobody could just goes out there and sits underneath a tarp and watches the world for 10 days at a whack. And then you start stringing those seasons together and you have this running history of seeing the trends of seeing the trends and what are the trends, right? And, um, it's something I talk a lot about when we travel these days is like the canary in the coal mine of like people who spend time outside. It's not something AI is going to fix for us. 01:10:02 Speaker 4: Right. 01:10:02 Speaker 2: Like in throughout history, it's always been the same is like hunters go, Oh my God, something is changing here. 01:10:10 Speaker 4: Something doesn't feel right. 01:10:11 Speaker 2: What is going on? 01:10:12 Speaker 1: Yeah. 01:10:12 Speaker 2: And it could be a positive trend. It could be a negative trend. It could just be, the way the world works, but without people on the landscape, like we're going to miss a lot of things. 01:10:24 Speaker 3: Yeah. 01:10:24 Speaker 2: And so having this overlapping system of access and trying to do things in a responsible way, a stewardship minded way, making it renewable, like somebody can go out there and do that hunt. I did, uh, 50 years from now because we paid attention and we managed it well. 01:10:45 Speaker 4: Yeah. 01:10:46 Speaker 2: Um, like that's just gotta be baked into us. And I don't think the world gets better by just removing people from the landscape. Yeah. Being like, Oh, okay. We got to totally preserve it because like, we're not going to know what is going on out there. And we darn sure know all this stuff is connected. Um, so we will lose something if somebody is not there. 01:11:12 Speaker 3: Um, you know, Boots on the ground. 01:11:14 Speaker 2: Spring season and fall season and connecting them all together and maybe throw some paddlers out there doing some first descents and some skiers out there doing some first descents. And you get to look at these areas through all these different lenses. And then you put together this story of what that trend is. Yeah. Right. And we know we can love this stuff to death pretty darn fast. I mean, we damn near killed off all the grizzly bears in the lower 48. And it's because we, we made these hard choices and were observant that we made the decision to, Oh my God, we got to bring these things back. We got to stop issuing tags and hunting them even in really remote places like the Bob Marshall. Um, because they are, as it turns out, a low fecundity species and it takes them a long time to come around and they have. 01:12:07 Speaker 4: A big. 01:12:09 Speaker 2: Home range because they got to eat a lot. Um, And we're just seeing the effects of turning the hunting spigot off. Um, really right now, like in the last five to 10 years where we're like, oh my gosh, there's a lot of grizzly bears. What do we do now? 01:12:25 Speaker 3: Yeah. 01:12:27 Speaker 2: So, yeah. What do you think guys? Wrap her up. 01:12:32 Speaker 3: Great trip. Yeah. 01:12:33 Speaker 4: Great trip. 01:12:34 Speaker 3: Life changing. 01:12:35 Speaker 2: Great trip. 01:12:36 Speaker 4: Killer. Life changing for me for sure. Being so far away from home. That's the farthest. I've been not from home, but from a Walmart. 01:12:46 Speaker 2: Well, I mean, that's a pretty wild trip to do as far as if you don't have the real backcountry catalog. 01:12:53 Speaker 4: We don't have to go down that road. We don't have to go down that road. 01:12:57 Speaker 2: I mean, really prior to that, what's the most nights you've done someplace? 01:13:03 Speaker 4: No, I spent, I did a whole backcountry ecological trip whenever I was an undergrad in Arizona, going from the Oregon Pipe uh national park to national monument national monument yeah to we did like a little road trip hiking trip up to the grand canyon but we were also in a van we didn't shower. 01:13:24 Speaker 5: I mean it was just yeah yeah but yeah jason's face i do remember when he's like oh this is what a super cup is yeah well like you were like oh i didn't expect. 01:13:36 Speaker 4: It to be saran wrap yeah It's a sand rail with wings. It's a sand rail with wings. 01:13:42 Speaker 5: Yeah. 01:13:43 Speaker 4: Yeah. 01:13:44 Speaker 3: Yeah. 01:13:45 Speaker 6: It is. 01:13:45 Speaker 2: It's pretty funny. 01:13:46 Speaker 4: This is what costs so much. Really? And you're going to expect me to get in this coffin with wings? Yeah. 01:13:53 Speaker 2: Oh yeah. I mean, it's funny to like, it's like, this is a plane that like one of you could tip over if you really wanted to. 01:14:00 Speaker 4: I'd do it again though. I think it'd be cool to get a pilot license. 01:14:03 Speaker 3: Oh yeah. 01:14:04 Speaker 2: Anyway. 01:14:05 Speaker 3: Nope. 01:14:06 Speaker 2: Great trip. Great being on there with you. That is, I don't know if there's something in the, I don't think there is anything. So this is, we'll recap here. A companion podcast to Pursuit of Brown Bear on the Meat Eater YouTube channel is a 12 and 26 episode. So I hope you liked it. And there's more coming.

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