00:00:00 Speaker 1: Hey, I'm Tyler and I'm Case and you're listening to the Element podcast speaking. What is happening all you woodsy type folks out there. It is a blustery spring day here in northeast Texas. I'm not the white Tail weather man though, but I still have the weather report from kind of time. Tyler and I are sitting here looking at green grass and all blooming in springtime, and we're not kitching bass. My dad and granddad are out kitching coffee right now. My name is Like. He texted me, he said, do you want to go coppee fishing? It's like, that's not the right question, sir. It's like do you want to go to Alaska? It's not the right question either, but that is the question. The answer is yes. Today on the show, we have got Tyler Freel who's outdoor Rider and he's got another podcast called Tundra Talk, and um he's an Alaska native, does a ton of the Alaska life stuff. Man like Native American. Now he's not a Native American. It's I don't know really what the right uh you know, uh denotation of that is. You know, I guess well, he is an an Alaska native because he's from what do you say, Idaho or something like that, right, originally southern Colorado. Anyways, well we'll let him tell you about that, but he might be on Life with Low zero one of these days. He's that cool, so be ready for for that interview. He does some cool stuff, man, And uh, we had all or I had started a thing, uh moose and I think, well, something I used to say and now it's one so um that didn't happen. Life happens instead. But one of these days I'm probably gonna end up they're doing a little hunting or fishing at least until you don't know, man, it seems like an expensive deal. And I I don't have any disposable money right now, and I don't know, like I just don't know if I ever will. What if you just sold your truck one day and just like we went. I did that last year and I went hunting. Um, but I think the fishing might be a little bit easier to make that you know, or you know go Well, we asked Hoder a little bit about that the interview about what you know, what's actually practical and whatnot. But um, around here, what's practical to do? Right now is fish. Uh maybe uh dream about hunting turkeys that might one day returning to the landscape, especially if todder keeps burning. Um, and work on your gear and talk about gear and do call kinds of gear stuff. We've been doing a lot of that kind of stuff. We uh, I've been testing out a lot of new stuff, kind of tweaking some of our setups and stuff like that. And um, we actually just released a saddle comparison video. We did a lot of saddle hunting this past year, killed a lot of deer out of saddles. Uh. We used tetherans last year and they were great. Um. We also have a cruiser and a trophy line to test out in this newest video. So if you haven't watched that, we really appreciate if you go check it out. Let us know your thoughts, let us know if you have a preference of those three or if there's something else to look at. Two. Um, I know that they all were good products, and uh, you know, pretty much anything it's gonna be mainstream like that. It's not You're not gonna have just completely junk because it's it's um like you can have junk boots, but you can't have lives on the line in the saddle, so exactly. Yeah, that's the thing, Like you have to at least survive. But I'll tell you there was a you know, there was a difference. And that's what we're kind of looking for, is like we're testing saddles out because we want to figure out, like what's the best option for us going forward if we're gonna be in these things a lot and we're gonna hunt them, you know, ninety or more out of these saddles, Like we want we want something that is comfortable and very practical. Obviously, you know, I'm a I know you. I can speak for you on this, too. Comfortable. Comfortable is uh is not? But practical is probably more important to probably both of us than than just being comfortable. Absolutely. I mean, if you want to be comfortable, we'd hunt the box blinds with rifles. Yeah, I probably wouldn't hunt. Yeah, it's not really one thing that goes hand in hand, at least not on a extended basis. You know, Like if you wanted to hunt like a weekend or two a year, then you'd probably stay comfortable. But more often than not, people who are listening to the show are probably a little bit more in the vein of, you know, a little more serious about it. I mean they're uncomforts, yeah, exactly like um, and you know, by all means, if you're just a kind of person who likes to go hunt a weekend or two a year, but you think that our accents are funny, that's fine to you know, keep listening. But like it's I want to listen to a podcast about hunting, you have to be a little bit more on the vein of, like uman, figure out how to really do this thing, you know. And that's why I mean really, that's why we started podcasting as well. So uh, you know, you can find people to talk to that really know something about some stuff. So um, that's why we thought it'd be a good idea to talk to Tyler um Freel and Tyler Jones of course. Um but Tyler Freel because the dude lives in Alaska. He uh, Alaska is in the news as of late. It's always in the news because it's just for a lot of people, it seems like a little bit out of reach. It seems wild and right now. Also a um what do they call it, like a pop word or whatever you know, and people say Alaska or like it's political. Yeah, yeah, exactly, a pebble mine all this stuff and war I don't even know pebl mineo was in Alaska. Yeah, well, like all that country basically from Canada north just it's like, is it Northwest Territories? Is it Canada? Is it some weird lake like dude where my mallard was banded from you? No one has ever walked the whole border of Alaska in n WT, you know what I mean. That's a big big so no one really knows for sure that that mountain is there there. There's no reason to walk in w T because you can just fly helicopters the top mountain. Step that's right, that's right, and uh, you're probably getting really some interesting stuff there where you fly at the top of the mountain from the n w T but then go across and hunt Alaska doll sheep man, I'm probably happy to be dropped off on top, it sounds at this point. And those deals were like when you first started hunting to hear like you're happy to be in a box blind and shoot went under you know, feeder with a riffle and you know, after you shoot thirty or forty of them. You might not be the same way you might. You might, but I'm definitely not the guy who's like, I want the true experience. I'm gonna bring my re curve out there and chase them around. You know. It's like, No, some guys hunt with flint's though I know, not flint locks, but flint flint broadhead. Shot up grizzly bear with a flint broadhead. It's all on film. Killed it dead him meaning cell phone. That's right, man, Yeah, he does some cool stuff, and I don't know. It kind of seems like, um, there's a couple of factors coming into that one. For about three months out of the year, you just have to sit and think a lot, because that's about all there is to do. Uh, But to like, when you live in extreme places, you come up you have a little ingenuity about you usually, or you learn to to come up with new things in different ways of making stuff happen, and I mean goli at the same time, when you have as many different seasons for different animals as they do, like, you're gonna be a guy who tinkers and ponders and thinks about stuff along. So anyways, let's uh, let's get Tyler on the on the phone here and just hear all about hunt in Alaska. Alright. Today on the show, we have got Tyler Freel. He hosts the tunder Talk podcast and as an outdoor writer as well, and he is living it up in Alaska right now. Tyler, how's it going? Man? Oh, not too bad. I'm just uh, I'll look it out my window. About three ft of snow and who've got plasters? So I gotta I it's been plowing a lot of snow lately, but we're we're getting towards springtime. But when when are still here? For now? Man, it's like we're bordering on summer. We have got green grass. Do you know what the Indian paintbrush is? Because I'm looking at one of those right now. Yeah, And it's seventy seven. So I'm sure you never get tired of hearing about, you know, people from the South telling you how warm it is here. But uh so that's that's okay. I mean, I you and seventy seven is pushing it for me. Man, That's that's that's my overheat. The last I don't know if it's the last time I was in Texas. I got a good buddy that lives in Fort Worth, and uh, last time I was there, we went both fishing all night and then or during the day, I was passed out and on the floor of his garage with a camel back on, you know, overheating because I don't know how it was, but it was too hot for this. Yeah, I dude, no, Lie, I'm with you, honestly, but I've learned to deal with just like you've learned to deal with the you know, drastically negative temperatures and stuff. I'm sure my mom was actually born in Anchorage and she lived there for a little while, so I got a little bit of uh, I guess the thick blood coming from her side, but not a lot because I still get freezing cold whenever it's below thirty two. So it is what it is. Is It is it daylight there right now? You know everybody thinks about Alaska's being you know, land of darkness or whatever. Yeah, it's it's daylight here now. And I think that I said we got uh, I think we got more daylight than you guys. Now. Um, I don't know what we're up to. We're well over twelve hours now. Daylight. Oh wow, and gaining like eight eight nine minutes a day. Now, yeah, that's cool. Yeah, so you'll probably go straight from snow to just straight up growing season with that much daylight, I imagine, right, yeah, pretty much as soon as uh, you know, And it's been the last few days hanging around just below freezing, and here's sometime in the next three weeks or so, it's gonna kick over and all the snow melt quick and it'll be muddy for a couple of weeks and stuff will start dreaming up. So yeah, it's it's real quick. Um, that's cool. Man. Well, we wanted to get you on and talk a little bit about you know, just I don't know everybody from from really the lower forty eight I would imagine dreams about Alaska. And I'm sure you're used to this kind of a conversation, but it's something that's that's cool for a lot of us, where we think about like all the whiles and all the adventure and just all the stuff that there is to hunt and but you know, life up there is pretty intriguing to me. Do you look forward to, you know, this time of year where like you know, green up is about to happen, and and uh, you know, maybe if you got fishing on your mind and you're finally getting out of the out of the house, or do you really look forward to that, you know, late summer, early fall season where you know it's time to shoot stuff. Man, I think I kind of look forward to every season. Um, and you know, I'm I probably wouldn't. I don't know. I'd like to say I wouldn't never get tired of fall, because you know, obviously the fall hunting seasons are my favorite, but um, every season's got got plenty of stuff to do, you know, even going into winter. If you're you know, I haven't been trapped in the past couple of years, but if you're trapping or ice fishing, I've been doing a lot of ice fishing this year with my kids. Um, you know, riding, riding we call them snow machines. Everybody else calls them snowmobiles. Um, riding, fishing or ice fishing and trapping, that kind of stuff. And then this time of year, you know it's it's it's fun or to get outside. We still got some fishing to do, but uh, you know, starting to look forward to spring. Bear hunting and running the running riverboats and stuff like that, and then you know, once, once you're in summer, you're starting to think about fall and look forward to that, and it's just a big, vicious, vicious, nasty cycle. Is there any reason to leave Alaska? I don't think so. It sounds like it's such a different culture, man. I mean obviously, just the activities that mother nature gives us here in Texas are much different, you know, like you kind of alluded to earlier. But like, um, so, like there's so many things that you're talking about right now that I have never done that I kind of know what they are, you know what I mean, but like only through you know, reading and and seeing some videos and stuff like that, and like it's so exciting and something that I would love to do, but it seems like such a far far place. It's a land far away, you know what I mean. It's like such a hard thing to get to get to do, especially if you have family or whatever, and and trying to you know, buy five plane tickets for four people, and it just seems but but man, like it just seems like such a cool place. Man. You've always got something to do there, except for I guess, I guess the the period where you're kind of like cabin fever would be like the dead of winner obviously, right, Yeah, that that like January February time frame before it really starts, you know, and we and we still have you know, four or five hours of light here during during the day, but uh but by that time it starts wearing on you, you know, and just to lack of light and if it's been super cold and you haven't been out much. I mean, the key to the key to thriving, and it's just staying busy and having stuff to look forward to and and and keep yourself busy. But uh, yeah, no, it's it's it's almost like living on a different planet sort of. Yeah. I mean it's crazy also to think about this, but like our our cabin fever period is like August. You know, it's like y'all probably you know, salmon fishing, getting ready to kill moose and stuff like that, and we're over here like just dog days. Man, Like, if you're not inside most of the day, you know, you're gonna you stay in a chance of heat exhaustion and all this stuff, you know, So it's just like kind of get inside and you just get bored, do you know? So where where from? We're up here? You're run you know, when it's forty below, you're running from heat to heat. There, you're running from a C to a C guarantee, you man, you know. Yeah, the little push putting ignition thing on the truck or whatever on your keys, you know, but for air conditioning there, Yeah, it's a game changer. Man. How do you end up in Alaska? Well? We, Uh, I moved up here with my family when I was sixteen. My dad, my dad was born in here and grew up mostly here. And then I was born in southern Colorado and grew up there mostly. And uh yeah, my dad always wanted to move back, and we had the opportunity. And when I was a teenager and never really looked back. Man, it was it became home by quick. Yeah, I would imagine. It just seems like, uh so much opportunity. If you have that outdoor van in you you know that that's what you and you want to do that kind of stuff. It's just hard to beat, do you. Um, Like, what do you do for living up there? Well, the past couple of years, I do I have a variety of it would be that way. You know, well with things being so drastically different summer and winter, like you can't do the same thing twelve months of a year, you know. Yeah, and it kind of depends. I mean, I I uh, out of high school. I I went went to college and got an engineering degree that I don't use, but I read out of high school. My dad was a uh, insulation contractor, insulate um mechanical systems and you know, heat piping and ventilation stuff like that, like industrial stuff. And and we've got a lot of you know, a couple of big military bases here and and some some industrial construction. So I kind of I was in that true, you know, came up in that trade out of high school. When I was in college and just kept doing it. And in the past I started writing for Outdoor Life magazine right when I got out of college about ten years ago, and just did it on the side. And uh, just the last few years I've kind of been able to call that my full time my full time gig, which you know, it's you know, my wife plus her heart. You know, she she works hard too, and they just with with her working and me doing this, it gives us some flexibility and uh and uh, I'm my dad. I'm my dad duty when she works and then I can do my stuff in the off time. And started podcasting a little bit, and you know, every every little bit helps. And I've done everything though, you know, for skinning, skinning wolves in the winter during trapping season for guys and stuff like that. Uh. Yeah, you just sometimes you get creative to do to do the things you want to do. Yeah. Absolutely, And that's kind of how we live to you know, Uh, Tyler and I both are on dad duty quite a bit, and uh, you know have lives that are in the education system and stuff. So you just kind of fill in and do whatever it takes to kind of, I don't know, pursue your passion of being a bone. Really is what I was thinking, the same thing. We're in the in with it. We're not closet about that at all. So in that, you know, if you do any of that military contract and stuff or whatever. This is kind of a side note, but I have a great ant that works. Um, I don't they call it the rock. It's out there in the illusions and it's like almost to Russian and it's there's a there's a base out there or something like that. Do you know what I'm talking about? Well, there was, you know, there was a dact But I know we were just actually talking about because I've started recently working part time for my dad, like bidding some of this work and do you know, trying to get some of these jobs, and we were just the other day talking about it starts with the s I think I can't remember that. Yeah it sounds. Yeah, it's way it's like farther from Fairbanks than Seattle. Is Um, that's crazy. Yeah, she's like out there. It's uh the islands like one mile by two mile or something like that, and uh, she's there's like it's her and like three other people and a bunch of fox and that's what's on the island. And that's She's got her a place there, I think, uh, near Fairbanks or somewhere that you know, it's kind of like her homestead. But she's only there like three months of the year pretty much. The rest time she's out there doing supplies and stuff. But it's pretty rugged. Yeah. Yeah, she's a she's a tough gal, I'll put it that way for sure. So it's a but that's what it takes up there. Man. But you know, you got um, you know the spring season coming up. You're talking about shooting bears. Is that like that's I know, it is one of your big things, right. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, it's it's it's a bear thing. I you know, like it's kind of like the turkey kind of like the turkey hunting is a lot of a lot of places down in the States. I mean, that's what. Yeah, that's that's the spring thing to do. Man. I can't get enough of it. So, uh, we'll just dive in as opposed to leading up. Why on earth do you want to shoot a grizzly with a stickbow with a flint point. I don't know. It just seemed like a good idea at the time. Yeah, it worked, right, I well, I you know, and I'm I'm one of those I'm the type of guy. We're all I'll just I don't know, I'll get something in my head and then I can't leave it alone till I take care of it sort of thing. So uh, you know, I had uh, I was I had helped a buddy of mine, from a couple of buddies of mind from down the States on a moose hunt. I had hauled him in and dropped him off and then was hauling him out. You know, they did a full float trip and I was able to get in there with my four wheeler and haul amount. But one of them is a is A was a world renowned like you know, basically PhD level type of flint napper, and it hunted with with stone points a bunch killed a bunch of elk with them. And oh, we were talking and I don't know how it came up, but uh, I had said something I'd like to kill a BlackBerry with one of those someday. And then that led to why not at Grizzly, And I said, I don't know why not? And uh right, already right, already killed several of them with my with my record before, so you know, kind of looking for a little way to spice it up something cool, and and I, you know, it was curiously curious to see what they would do. And so that's kind of that's what kicked the ball off. It wasn't anything super significant, but you know, once I kinda once the idea stuck, I I you know, it was pretty committed to following through. Yeah, you know, grids are kind of like one of the I don't know what you call them, you know, like American Big five or whatever. It's like just the epitome of uh getting it done as an outdoorsman, right, Like it's just the trophy animal people think about all the time. Um, But I've always kind of wondered, you know, because it's legally you don't have to eat grizzly meat, right, So like, no, what's the um. And I'm by no means on the side of you shouldn't shoot them, I'm so far the other way, right, But I kind of want to understand the mindset of like shooting the grid is no when you're not gonna eat the not gonna eat the animal, you know what I mean? Yeah, No, that's that's a fair question in it, um, And I don't know, there's a lot of different ways to look at it. For I mean, the area I like to haunt them, Um, they're real hard on moose calves and don't not care about calves there. But other places those bears, especially if you can be selective and shoot like a bit shoot mature bores. Um, it's it ends up being beneficial to the bear population because they're not killing as many cups and and you know there's more. You know, for me, maybe that maybe that's selfish myself because I want better moose hut in there too. Um, but you know it's it's just a management tool and they're you know, there's there're plenty, plentiful And I don't really think I think that sometimes the way we look at at what we're considering waste and what's not as a little arbitrary. You know, I think a lot of you know, a lot of stuff like the stuff don't depending on how you look at it's not going to waste in nature, Um, if that makes sense. You know, other bears eat the stuff or you know, something something consumes it. Yeah, the nitrogen goes to the spruce trees. I mean, you know, down to the you know, the atomic level. It's all gonna go something. Yeah, and you know somewhat. You know, everybody's got to make up their own mind. If they don't feel right doing something, they shouldn't do it. But uh, I know that's kind of more. The way I look at it is that it ends up. You know, if you don't shoot, and I've tried, I tried two or three different different grizzlies I've killed and I couldn't eat any of them. They were it was bad. Um. So you know, not say there can't be a good one. But I really enjoy BlackBerry beat. But I think those grizzlies are just a lot more volatile and what they eat, they eat a lot more rotten stuff. Um. Just everyone i've skin just smelled the meat just smells awful. It's it was, you know, it's not like you know, like a moose or you know, I imagine a deer you know, you know, you get a nice dough or something, you could you know, the meat just smells good. That's not that's not how how that grizzly bear meat works. But they got you know, they if we want to have you know, balanced um, you know in populations and a lot of ungulates, you know, then you kind of gotta you gotta watch out manage the bears too, you know. And I think species like that do good when they're hunted. You know, that keeps them scared to people. Yeah, that's probably right now. They just they don't care. Yeah, yeah, you know, bears like you know, a lot of a lot of the bears were where I hunt them specifically. You know, they know what people are and there's a lot of grizzlies in there, but you know, people's cabins don't get broken into. You know, they know how to avoid people and they don't want nothing to do with you. And that's you know, from generations of being generations of being hunted, you know, and that's kind of maybe cherry picking, cherry picking certain things. But no, they're just a I find them to be a really fun and challenge animal to hunt, and you know it has some side benefits too. So what's the most challenging thing about hunting it? Grazy? I think it's just the timing and where I where I hunt them there have been hunting them is on bait in really thickly wooded and brushy areas you know you couldn't. I think it's actually from the hunts I've done on the coast for brown bears, and you know, in areas where you could glass and see a lot of country and can get around. I think it's a lot of times time wise, it's easier to spot and stock them. Yeah, yeah, no that's not always the case, but um but where you know, where I'm at, it's just impossible. But there's a lot of bears, and there's a lot of big bears, so you know they're so I hunt them on bait and the the too trickiest things are the timing. You know, they don't um all a grizzly barrel. You in my experience, usually come in and they'll find a bait, and they may come in another night and then they're gone. They're leaving. Um, you won't see them again, just because at least in that area that the nature. They're on the move hunting moose, calves and stuff in the spring. Oh, they're pretty nomadic, so you kind of gotta get your timing right. And they're extremely spooky. Um. You know, any bear I've ever had catch my wind, they're gone and you never see them again. So it's one of those things, you know, not ever haven't done much white tail hunting at all. I would kind of compare it to that, you know, except they except they have a much larger home range. You know, if they if you spook them, you're not going to ever see them again. Well, because we're comparing it to white tail hunting, I was thinking about this earlier. When you're talking about bait, like bait's kind of like it's like it seems like to me, like a very acceptable means of killing bears and up there, you know whatever, and like nobody's nobody's really dissing on it. But like in the white tail culture, which is when we live in, there's some people hating on bait right now, and it's mostly from states that don't allow it, and it's just like it's basically it's just like a plug of uh, you know, just self pride, I guess, you know, like we can hunt them without bait. We're better than you kind of thing. Congratulates what it feels like at least. So I was like, yeah, I was thinking about I was like, man, this is uh, this is kind of a weird deal, that kind of weird world we live in right now. But yeah, I know it is. And I think, you know, I've looked at that, and I think what it boils down to is people people tend to knock stuff they've never tried, and they don't try understanding the context of what you're doing. You know, like bear baiting. You know, even with black bears. Black bears are typically you know, I would say a little easier and easier to to hunt with baits um than than the grizzly bears I'm hunting. But it's still it's not as simple as you go put food out in the woods and then you've got bears all over it. It's much more, a much more nuanced I guess to you know, if if you want to call it that issue, the same thing with you know, it's easy, too easy to say, you know, this guy's you know, baiting white tails with corn or but I don't really know the context of the situation, you know, because I've had a guy, you know, guys explained to me some of those spots down there. Man, if if that's not what you're doing, you're just not gonna have much luck. Um. And that's that's the way it is up here, you know, it's and not everywhere, but in a lot of areas. You know, if you're if you're not using bait for bears, you're kind of pisting up a rope. You know you're not. You're just not if if you do get a chance at a bear, you can't be selective, you know, you're just you may get a chance at a bear, and who knows what that chance is gonna look like or what that bear is going to be. But you know, you know, I've got no as you can tell, I've got no qualms about using bait and certain circumstances. Yeah, it works. And are using cameras too, Is that kind of how your patterning bears and determined, you know, what's a shooter and stuff like that. Yeah, all and all. You know, for a couple of years, and especially the the Grizzly. With the Grizzlies, timing is everything, so you know, you kind of I found to be consistently successful. I've got to, you know, have a camera on there so I can see what's going on and when I they they have A couple of years ago made the cellular cameras illegal up here, which I used them for a couple of years, and and it wasn't a matter. It helped me with the Grizzlies. Helped save me gas, is what it did, because I don't have to go check my baits as often. You know, I could just kind of because Grizzlies especially, it's just a waiting game. You gotta wait, wait, wait and wait, and then if you want a chance of killing them, you gotta hunt the night after they first find the bait are usually they're gone. Um, they just don't stick around. So I could you know, it just saved me gas and time. I can. I'm still killing bears, but um now I just use I buy like whatever cheap trail camera I can get off Amazon and uh, because it's probably most of them get chewed on. It seems like at one point or another, bears destroy so many trail cameras it's not even funny. Yeah. Well, if you live in Alaska that kind of stinks because they're not legal. But in states that they are, okay. Cell cameras, cell phone cameras. Is I like to sell their phone cameras to sell you O. Their telephone cameras have really changed a lot of the way that a lot of hunters hunt. Um, we've used them some, Uh, we like them, but I feel like there's a specific niche and I think that in this situation where Tyler is talking about if they were legal, man, what a great way to not get eaten by bad you know. But Moultrie is actually coming out with a new cell camera. It'll be out this may, maybe even late April. You can use it for turkey hunting this year. Patternym gobs. You know what I'm saying. It's called the Delta. It's gonna be pretty awesome. It's gonna have a really good resolution. And what's one of the things I really really like about them, okay, is that they store all of your photos and videos on a cloud. Therefore, you've got an SD card like most camera I can't even get Apple to do that. I know, you gotta pay for it and do and they're like, well, that's actually fool. It's like it's a cloud. You can't even fill it up. But you have st card. You can delete stuff or whatever off the card from your phone, from your cell phone, but they can store your pictures that you've always had. Like however many you get, and we get lots of big we need a lot of stories here and takes the shadows depends on who the camera in there. Maybe a few big bucks, but they're gonna be some shadows, some shadows, but they may be full SD card when he hangs it, y'all go check out Motree Mobile and see all of their lineups for their trick cameras. Man, speaking of gas Um, we want to let you have the opportunity to speak to what's going on at the A n w R. And what's your thoughts are on all that? Oh yeah, well I don't think much as much at all is going to be going on now with the current the current administration, they pretty much um stymied it. But I think, you know, and we were really you know, junk ranting about it on my podcast to UM that whole issue. I think, just the sad part of it is it gets so over propaganda, propaganda, and I'm sure you know, being from Texas, you know, or anywhere that has oil and gas, oil and gas industry, you know, you understand that a lot of times the facts getting manipulated. There's been several you know, like the clothing company Sick to Gear made a big post with all these photos and talked about saving our last wilderness. One of them photos were even from the proposed drilling area. Dead it, you know. The only the only, the only one that could have could have been was a picture of musk Ox and that was taken right off the side of the road on the Dalton Highway. The highway the the only road up there which was put up there and is maintained by UM through the oil industry. Like and and that that is that road opened up millions of acres of access. You know, that's all public ground and I think it's the corridor five miles on either side of the road, and I think it's the largest bow hunting only area in the world. Um anyway, So yeah, that the air, you know, and you get guys like you know, meat eat or wrote something and got their their you know, token quote from Ronella about ruining our ruining our last, our last, you know, great wilderness. You know, when it's it's just that everybody they treat this like it's a foregone conclusion when it's it's just it's propaganda, is what it is. People don't really understand the area, what's going on. And that area wasn't even originally supposed to be part of Animir. It was just locked in at the last minute and still was set aside for potential oil development. And uh during the back by truck soun sorry but they I was not a pretty good rent there, but they you know, it was the area it set is still set aside for potential oil development, and it had already been completely seismic survey once. But these guys are I'm really get fired up. I'm trying to find well, you know, they don't even you know, they just say things like, well they think it's gonna interfere with the cariberry. They're not looking at the fishing game studies of the central article which exploded. Um, they went from like at the beginning of oil development, and it was a big it was a big concern in what the Cariboo would do with that oil development because they have right there too, um, and it's immediately adjacent to this drilling area. I mean they got drill pads all the way up to the edge of it basically that you can see on Google Earth. But um, that carib herd went from like five thousand animals when they first started punching wells up to like over a hundred thousand, and then the recent years it's declined. I mean it was beyond carrying capacity and it's gone down to it's it's about thirty sum thousand now, which is right where they want it. Misusing that stat to like herds down you know. Yeah, well that's why, and that's why that's why I looked. You know, I wrote an article kind of on the subject from Outdoor Life, and that's why I looked into the actual like fishing game surveys, and they you know why they think they they they think that decline was due to a bunch of these you know, it's they were overpopulating. A bunch of these cows got old and died and a big chunk of them mixed with another herd and left with them. All right, maybe it was a porcupine, because it's the porcupine they're concerned about. In all these Caribs. There's not like a big fence, you know, there's not like one of the big fences. There's not like one of the big Texas fences on them that keeps you know, they they intermingle and move back and forth, and they're can't you know, they're like, oh, well this this this tiny little area is there is there calving grounds? Well, the data shows that they have all over the place, all the way from Canada out to the central It's just it's a lot of misleading information. And none of these you know, these major companies and outfits, you know, they just regurgitate the propaganda. They don't they don't take the time and you know like it and from you know, from a there was some ecological society that there. I mean, I'm sure they're on the on the more quote unquote progressive side of things. You know, they even said they even came that study basically came to the conclusion that the most impactful part of the whole oil process would be the surveying, and that they still you know, and that it the only concerns were really boiled down to, is if it wasn't done by according to the regulations that are already in place. You know, it's not like it was, um, it wasn't what it wasn't what most people portray it to be. You know, they think that this and the issues that are real concerns aren't what is said because that's not what popular. What's popular. People just want to you know, they want to hear that the polar bears are are going to be endangered. They're floating around on tiny pieces as if you if you look at social media. Yeah, and I guess and sorry, I'm sorry, I just I gotta keep going to keep my momentum. The last thing that I um, you know, and a lot of these individuals and companies they'll be like, you know, I you know, the reference that the that a certain native group is again stid because they're worried about the caribou. But they but they but they ignore but and the ones they're referencing do do not even live in an wir But I okay, I can be I could. I can understand them being concerned maybe for the welfare of the caribou that that do move through there and they kind of depend on them. But they don't mention that the that the one community that's in the middle event or that is an an er that's basically surrounded by that drilling area, wants them, wants the oil development. And they've even applied for you know, there was some article I've seen where they they're irritated because all Biden said he was gonna consult with the native groups before making decisions whatnot. They didn't hear nothing from him the stairs. You couldn't make it. But yeah, yeah, exactly. But they you know, they found out that the U. S. Fisher Wildlife Service basically was doing things to undercut there because that that local um village basically those full we're trying to apply for exploration permits to do it themselves or go through that, you know, and the Fish Wallife Service, which is in control of that land. Um basically just did stuff to undercut their permitting process so they couldn't get their permits turn in on time or something along those lines. There's just there's a bunch of shady stuff that goes on and it, yeah, it's not what it's not what people hear about down in the States. So it's the same thing like what what you hear about on the news about border in the wall sound may sound outrageous to actually build a wall at the border, but if you don't live in Texas or Arizona and New Mexico, you know, and deal with it, you may be very you know. It's it's it's the same concept here, right. It's like if you want to know about anwar, um asking Alaska maybe a little bit, you know, like maybe maybe let's not talk um or ask somebody from Washington, d C. Let's ask somebody from Alaska. Same deal. If you want to know about the border and what's actually going on, maybe ask somebody from Texas that lives down here here. You know, Oh yeah, no, I can I can empathize man's Yeah, it's it's and that's kind of ore, you know, the kind of we get that that that into the stick a lot of times being far away. It's just whoever has the most the loudest voice, you know that that's the information that most people end up hearing. Well, people have forgotten that we are a republic and not a democracy, and that's part of the issue. We're supposed to solve our own issues in our own states. But uh, that's not what's really allowed too often. So that's the truth. Yeah, man. Um, So it sounds like, um, you might be a little frustrated with one of the major players in the outdoor industry, um over some certain articles whatnot? Uh, So to stick with that, vein just a touch. Um, you know, you worked for outdoor Life and and outdoor Life. I can't remember who wrote it, but someone came out with a rebuttal article to another mediator article that was about, um, you know, the case to be a anti new hunter. Did you did you see that? Did you read it or anything? Oh? Yeah, no, no, I I yeah, I read those and uh and I thought I had recently talked with my editor because it was four of the Outdoor Life editors, um, each you know contributed their parts to that, you know, as a rebuttal to that it's yeah, I thought so too. You know, it's it's just this, it's an elitist attitude. And I mean that's the regarding who we're talking about. I mean it just that's the issue I tend to have and with the and you know, statements have made about an war. You know, it's just super snobby, you know. I think he said, uh, and or the quote he gave for the meat eater, which it was kind of pretending to be a you know, an objective all just this is what's happening with an oar. You know, go sign up for b h a type of stuff if uh, you know, it's cool. From there, Be essentially said, you know that if you if you support drilling or you don't, if you don't oppose you know, any oil development, and where you're just a greedy asshole, you know, basically saying that that's what us Alaskans are, you know, when it's there's there's a little bit more than just just one thing, you know, we have to consider. And I'm not even make wouldn't make the argument to anybody that you know, we absolutely have to drill it now or it's just the kind of the principle of things of the thing. You know, like there's a lot of people up here, in regular folks that you know, in one even if you're not directly tied into oil and gas, like oil and gas pays for a lot, I mean, basically all the state government stuff, um, and a lot of industry appears supported by it. And you know, if regular people want the chance to come up here and experience that, you know, they've got to get a job. They gotta be able to support themselves and their families. And that's you know, the only path for most people. You know, I guess it's easy, too easy to say, you know, you shouldn't you shouldn't touch my private playground. When you're a millionaire sitting in Bozeman and can fly, you can and do fly all your buddies up here to exploit our resources for profit. You know, it's it's uh, I hope it makes sense. Why I you know, I hope it sounds reasonable that that. You know, myself and a lot of other people are a little miffed at that. Oh absolutely well, I mean, uh, not quite as much, but still um said individuals were down in Texas shooting axis and making profit off of it. You know, and it's just like, no, why don't y'all let the Texas people be the text people? You know in the same way. Yeah, yeah, you know. And it's not that I would want to exclude anybody from being able to come, you know, to go do that or do this, But it's when you start, you know, it's just kind of an elitist type, you know, kind of a a snobby type thing. And that seems that seems to uh, you know, per you know, I don't know, Perforator. That's not I just need to stop trying to be fancy with words, but it's something that kind of permeates. That's what I was like. Yeah, a lot of that, not not all, but a lot of that type of stuff. I mean, it's just yet it's not it's not something that I'm much of a fan off, I know, and I can tell that by um, we get a real big kick every year because you kill at all sheep, I think every year and you're you are the only member that I know of the less than fifteen club or something like that. I really liked that joke, man, Oh yeah, that was Sometimes I'll go to great lengths just to be a smartass, like it was like, I think it was a I think it was a couple of years after they did which like that less than one club thing was a genius move. First Sheep Foundation to like, you know, booster membership, and I mean that's the whole you know, sheep Wild Sheep Foundation is a whole another issue for me. But uh, you know everyone's doing the T shirt thing and that's fine. I don't I could care less, but I just thought it would be funny that year. So I made I made a less than eleven club shirt and took it. I didn't tell my Hunt Pardner I took it or he would like make me burn it because I was cheeks in the hunt or something like as I'm I'm a little I'm I'm not superstitious, but I'm a little stitious and I'm not superstitious enough to not do it, but I was. I was quiet about it. Didn't Yeah, yeah, I didn't tell him nothing until afterwards. Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. So you you you don't, like, you know, if if when I think of a sheep hunter, what a lot of people don't realize, especially they haven't been to a show of some sort, is um these sheep hunters look giant and like they're they're like monarchs of men, you know, on social media, and then you see them and they're like a hundred and twenty seven pounds. You don't look like a guy that weighs a hundred and twenty seven pounds. No, I've uh yeah, no to add add a hundred pounds to that. Yeah, you're solid, you know, like you don't look like a guy that would be getting up and down, you know, above timberline. And and uh so, like what's the what's the secret? Man? Obviously? I mean, I mean there's just I guess there's a toughness factor, right, But like, you know, do you do any working out or anything like that? Oh you believe it or not. I used to be in really good shaped back in the college days, and you know that, you know, good head kids, and got busy and uh you know, I I haven't really done a heck of a lot of working out. I actually this wind have been dieting a little, do a little little not eating um just because I was going especially with the little COVID thing going into winter. I was like, man, I gotta turn this thing around. And so I was feeling better it's good to be healthy, and but you don't have to be crazy, you know, you don't, you know, So it was so much to that stuff is just mental and perseverance. Yeah, it's physical discomfort too, but you know, you just go at the pace you can and you know, you realize it's not you're not having to like run a marathon against Cameron Haines or you don't get your sheep type of deal. Um, you know. So it's just you know, you you want to be in good enough condition and know how to not get yourself hurt. I think if you're a little less experienced, being in better shape will help because it you know it, it helps you deal with the hardship a little better. And especially you don't you don't know how hard it's gonna be or or you know just how miserable it's gonna be, then it can be kind of demoralizing. I mean, it's still demoralizing. Sometimes you just know that it's gonna suck, and you're just gonna keep throwing your feet in front of another, in front of each other until you get there. How many days a year do you average before you shoot a legal ram? Not too many really, um? I would say most of the time. And it's hard because it includes you know, usually a solid day or two days of like walking and you know whether it's you're right or four wheeler ways and then pack in you know all that's usually you know, a day or two days, and then of actual hunting. Over the years, yeah, probably, you know, maybe three days of hunting, of hard hunting, sometimes more. You know, some couple of them I've killed, you know, right at the right at the ten day or or fourteen day mark. But um, overall, you know, it's it's uh, it's been pretty good to me. I know, it would be be tough to keep up with it if everyone took took ten days. Yeah, I would imagine, Man, do you usually you never know, you got a plan for weather, and sometimes you get you get stuck in the tent for a couple of days. You know, you try to locate like a band of rams with four season opens and be ready to go as soon as that happens. If I'm hunting the if I'm hunting the open, or that's general generally what I do. Um and yeah, I think last year last year killed one on the opener. The year before I had well, I spent like an idiot, spent about twelve days chasing one around with my record before I finally do it, before we rifle thanked him. But um, but then, yeah, you know a lot of them yet it's if I'm hunting open or usually you know, it's not a lot of mine have been killed on the opening day. Um. But and I used to have it because my first one was, my second one was I think my third, and maybe my third one wasn't. But it was like a barrier. I'm like, oh, man, I don't know what I'm gonna once you get past opening day? How am I going to get it done? Yeah? Yeah, man, is that the thing that you you know, I don't know as far as the hunts going stuff. Is that the thing that you really really enjoy is the sheep stuff? Yeah? Yeah, I do. Um, And that's definitely what I've kind of kind of prioritized based. I mean, my entire adult life was always was always sheep hunting. But I mean everything is kind of has its own special attraction to me. You know, the bear I love bear baiting and just sitting in the woods at night and and hunting bears that way. I love, you know, she's saying, not, what do you mean, um, because it's Alaska. It's like, you know, evening hours or do you mean like it's dark not time in you're hunting bears. No, it's it's just Alaska because once we get once we get into late May early June, it doesn't get dark anymore. And so you know, black bears usually like the prime times between you know, ten thiry at midnight is kind of their witch and hour where we end up killing most of them. Um, grizzly bears can really be at any time like they're there's so much more random. Um, they're not. They just don't pattern. You know. They may come in once a night for two nights, then leave, or they may come and you know, they may spend hours going in and out of there in a in the same two day period and leave. You know, So what if you get on there and there's been a grizzly bear on it, you know, you just gotta be prepared to sit all night. And I've done that a few times and one time, you know, yeah, last year, I sat all night, finally gave up, winning rebated and was standing my boat putting my rain gear on because it's pretty cold for the ride back. Um, you know, I had like a three hour ride back and uh here here a bear runoff through the woods. Had been walking down the walking down the river, gonna go in, go into the bait, you know, after I had already pulled the plug and so he was he was gone. But uh no yet, it's it's sitting all night and it does get pretty dark, kind of dims down to a twilight, you know, two three o'clock in the morning for a while. But yeah, that's a long winded answer to that question. That's cool. I mean, of course, being from you know, Texas, I'm a little grizzly scared and it's kind of a joke and kind of a fun thing, you know, but for real, you know, like I'm sure it's a different feeling being somewhere where something can definitely just you know, kill you anytime it wants to, you know, and be in the tree trying to try to hunt that thing. So that's, uh, it's always curious to me. I don't know, one of these days, I I kind of want to go hunt Grizzly Country and do that thing, just to you know, just see what it's all about. But I kind of have to pick myself up for it a little bit. Yeah, it's uh, it's it can be a little unnerving some of them, things like going into especially this, the one particular bait I have that I have killed some grizzlies off of. It's I always get a little ain't nervous going in there because you can't see very well. It's all real thick timber and brush, and you just never know where one's gonna be laying down or or on the bait when you get there. Sometimes you know, it's just it's a little nerve wreck and you know, you all, even if I'm hunting with my bow, I mean, it's stupid to go in there without a big rifle. So um, I always go kind of prepared to deal with those situations. I used to actually sit on the ground in a ground blind um, and I just quit trying to hunt grizzlies like that because every time I could never get a shot off. They would always see, you know, they'd always see me in charge, or usually they charge and then run off so they can climb trees. But I I, you know, it's just you can see about better. It's and it's easier to stay undetected for longer in a tree stand because they won't once they figure out you, they're they're gone. Um. But yeah, and then track, you know tracking am I end up hunting by myself a lot of time, So track blood trailing yeah, well sometimes yeah, sometimes my schedules. I just gotta go when I can go. And and that's not that I don't like taking people with me, but you know, buddies coming along, Um just go do it. And yeah, like I had one blood trail one last year I shot with a my COVID project. Was was one of them them Kentucky rifle kits, and so I shot a couple of black bears with it, kind of taken for a test run, and then I end up shooting a big grizzly bear with it. Um shot him right, and then you know I gave him. I was sure I hit him good. But you know, I'm the type of guy I all start second guessing. It's easier and I try to film all these you know shots, and with a bow, you know, I can go back and really really um pick through what happened in and figure out what kind of shape I'm in, you know, as far as as far as shot placement, but uh, not quite the same with that that old smoke wagon. And I was sure, you know, everything felt good, no hang fire, just you know, my site picture was good. But I any ran. I heard him running off the ways and then stop, and usually they're dead right where the last place you heard him. So but I gave it, gave it an hour and go, and I find myself a blood trailing him like the darkest part of the night, and so I'm kind of straining and I finally found I found where uh And I didn't expect that as I shot him on the round ball and didn't expect it to exit. But he he was bleed, you know, spraying blood or rubbing blood off his side where the wound was. And so once I got dialed into what level to look for blood, you know, and I took it slow. And then you start worrying if if you're done a blood trail where you're going real slow, and you're like, I should have found him by now, you know, you feel like you feel like you're going forever, and then especially then you know, yeah, and then you look up and there he's laying there. But then you know, turn around and walk back to the boat and he didn't go very far at all. It's just like, but you know, I can't hardly like when I actually find the deer. Like the moment my eyes see the deer in the dark, I kind of like almost jumped out of my skin. I couldn't imagine when it was a grizzly. I don't know why. It's like they're just like when you see all of a sudden, you see that patch of fur, You're like, yeah, something big is right there. Yeah. No, when this one it was, you know, I was looking at that and then all of a sudden, you know, there was an alder that was busted over, like he just run right through it or something, and then kind of looked up and just seeing the hair and washed him for a minute before I made my appro to that rapidly turns into what the hell am I going to do with this thing? Yeah? I guess you what do you do? You? You? You you skin it hole and then you take the skull with you, and that's kind of what you do. Agree is yeah, I take the you know, skin it, skin it on the spot. If I can't drag him, and he was too big to drag, so scunn him and and take the skull off and get back, get back to the boat. Black bears and black bears most of the time, I can, I take one of the little kids like snow sled and uh, I tied some rope on there, and I can. I can just drag drag most of those bears out of the woods on a sled. I'd rather deal with them and butcher them at home, you know, with the black bears. Um, But sometimes you don't have a choice. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that makes sense. What's the tastiest thing that you partake in up there in Alaska? I'd say definitely sheep. Yeah, sheep. Yeah, Sheep's delicious fish or anything, right, Just cheep is the thing. Yeah. No, And I like fish too, you know, but we're kind of in Fairbanks, were kind of right in the middle of the state, and we get some fishing opportunities, but you know, not a lot of good like fresh ocean ocean salmon unless you travel. Um, but definitely sheep. I mean, I love moose meat man, that's a staple for me. Um. And I like the black bears too. I make a lot of smokes ostages out of them and stuff like that. Um. They're great for that. But uh, yeah, plenty of good stuff. Caribou, you know, most most of the time, cariboo is pretty good. I've had a couple of stinky ones there, but but yeah, now we've got plenty plenty to choose from. So what's the what's the what do you do with sheep? Is it? Do you treat it a lot like you would you know, one of the deer species or something like that. Yeah, pretty much. I mean all, you know, all grind all my scrap. But mostly it's like it's steaks. You know, I make as many steaks as I can out of it because it's a real you wouldn't think you know, you wouldn't think that it would be. But it's a real tender, like super fine green meat. And it's a little greasy. It's not like marble, but it's a little greasier than a lot of other meats. Um. So, just it's phenomenal steak, like you know, especially backstraps. You do backstrap steaks. You can cut them with a fork and uh, there's just not a lot of bad cuts on a sheep. It's all. It's all really good. Bet that sounds cool. It's like and that's a big old you know what, nine year old billy right that you're always eating. So it's uh kind of crazy, no, for such an old you know, you're a lot of time you're shooting you knowin year old animals and there, and they're surprisingly tender for how old the years they've been running around the mountains and they just eat lichens and rocks pretty much. It makes it. Hey, we talked earlier in the intro about the video we did that was a comparison video with the saddles. Uh, we are excited to actually announce that we are working formally with Cruiser saddles. And I'm also excited to announce that if you couldn't tell and you watch that video, um, there's a moment where I put the saddle on the Cruiser saddle and like there's a you can tell, like it's a genuine like, oh, this is this is different. This is gonna pull your shoulders back and you're like, this is comfortable. And that's what we had heard from uh, you know when we did the saddle videos going uh, going into the postseason this year, we heard from several different people in the comments section about how Cruiser was the way to go. Apparently it is uh Chad the owner we really like. Um he lines up really well with our values and uh it's just a good dude. They're trying hard to put out a great product and I think they're succeeding at it right now. So we're excited to be using cruiser saddles. When gonna be pig hunting out of them this year or the spring, and then we're gonna go right into the season using them. Yeah, I would imagine if all things go well, that uh Chad's gonna be in a state with us in the fall a little saddling and yep, yep, yep. So yeah, man, I'm super stoked to uh to hunt out of a cruiser this year and uh hopefully it won't be too comfortable in a fall asleep, but it would be just right. Are you gonna hunt Grizzly out of the saddle? Mmm? I'm gonna hunt. I'm gonna need a opper, that's for sure at least. Yeah. Well, so for people that like are aspiring, you know, thinking about Alaska, and I know that since you're a native there, um that it maybe is a different approach for you, but like you also probably can get some really good advice about like how to uh go about that. You know, I guess, first of all, if I want to go hunt in Alaska, how far out do I need to be planning to try to head up there? Yeah? I depended on what you're wanting to do, and especially if you if you if it's the first first hunt you're doing, you know it's not it wouldn't be crazy to start planning out a couple of years ahead of time. Um. Usually if you're gonna go on like you know, have an air charter, you know, drop the off somewhere on a flyout hunt, you usually want to have that stuff lined up and booked. Um. It kind of depends on the air service. Most of them, you know, a little less than a year. I don't know if of anybody that's booking out more than a year in advance. But you know, if it's like, you know, September, October November, you ought to be thinking about the following fall because a lot of those some of those air charter air services will open up their bookings in in like October, so for the following fall, and you know, you can pretty if you wait till springtime, you're probably gonna have a hard time find a spot. But it's so I mean, there's a couple of air services that just gets so booked up that they have a waiting list that you just get on and they've got you know, they get first DIBs to their their return clients, and if they don't book, then the next the first person in line gets DIBs. I guess, yeah, because they're still alive. Yeah, the other guys, the other guys hadn't been fined long enough to get into a rect Yeah, and that's yeah, I mean, it can be an issue, but there's a lot of there's a lot of of good air charters out there. It's it's expensive getting more expensive by the year. You know. This it's a you know, business that just gets through insurance and regulations, you know, gets has just gotten exponentially expensive. I mean, we used to we used to fly up to the Brooks Range and hunt sheep um and it would cost us I think the last time I did, it cost us about twenty two hundred bucks a person, you know, and that's two guys to a plane, so basically forty or whatever it was a plane, And you know, I thought, yeah, it was expensive, but it was still reasonable, you know, if you kind of budget for it throughout the year. But now it's like I think, I want to say, it's like four thousand bucks a person, you know, which, you know, back to the back to the whole low pashtag public land stuff. You know. It's just there's a lot of factors that end up regulating people out of being able to access the country. So it's kind of sad. But no, I would, but air service there are some good ones out there, and there's h and there are definitely could be a really good way to go and for a real fun experience kind of get the whole get the whole pie. But I would, I would start talking to those guys well in advance. Um, you know, a couple of years out from when you want to do a hunt, you know, is a good time to start to start scheming and saving and asking questions and stuff like that. Do you think that, um, you know, doing the whole flying trip and you know, trying to kill a moose or you know, do something real cool like that is the way to go? Or can Alaska be experienced? You know, flying an anchorage sort of d I y shooting you know, sick of black tails, bears and caribou or something like that. Is that kind of more attainable for somebody? Um, it's I think it's attainable, But it's more difficult for sure. Um. On average, you know, the biggest you know, the biggest thing up here is typically logistics and getting too good hunting and fighting finding good hunting. Um, it's just so big and everything so remote and inaccessible. That and we don't have the game density that a lot of places have, you know, when I first moved up here, Like a lot of people have the idea that there's just critters behind every tree and rock and bush up here, and it's just not the case. Some there's just a lot of trees and rocks and bushes, rocks, there's a lot of trees and rocks and bushes. Um. So you know, you can you can do research and find opportunities that are you know, road accessible, and you can still have a great time. Um, it's just gonna be more difficult for sure. Yeah. Yeah. So do you feel like if you're gonna tell somebody you know, like, hey, this is what you should go do in Alaska when you come on a hunt, Like what what's that looked like? Man? I think for a lot of people, something like you know, a flyout caribou h would be a good a good one, you know, because you can get some kind of remote wilderness, you know, self sustainability type of camping, type of hunt um, and you can you know a lot of time. I mean there's a lot of a lot of caribou herds that are doing pretty pretty well up here right now, and you know, numbers wise, you know that's going to be the resource that's most easily accessible. And I mean they're a super cool animal and not terribly difficult to hunt, you know, if you if you get into them. Um. But you know, the combination of of you know that just the volume of opportunity and variety of places you could choose to go, you know, something like that would probably be a really good first trip. Aside from that, you know, something like sick of Blacktails on Kodiak Um Kodiak or there. You know there's places in southeast and stuff like that they have them. But Kodiak has some pretty good good charter services. You know, they can drop you off intent camp or there's there's some boat some boat camping outfits where you can't you camp on you know, a big yacht almost and then you can move around and they'll drop you off for the data hunt and come back and can help you deal with your stuff. And there's some lodges around. You know, there's lodge on the Fognac Island that I went to a bunch and and and worked at guided for a little bit. Um um. Yeah, so you I mean stuff like that. There's really a wide gamut based on your you know, for a wide variety of budgets and uh, and what you really want to get out of it. There's there's some options. There's a long winded way to say, if that makes any sense at all. Yeah, Yeah, what's the what's the you know, like, what do you do? What do you gotta have when you come up there? Like what are I feel like? There's uh, there's kind of an entry level amount of money to get you up there. Yeah, I mean, you know, most of your I can't remember what the hunting license is, but depending on what you're hunting, you know, it may cost you eight hundred or thous and bucks you know for your your licenses and stuff. Um and man, it just depends you know, your your transportation. It's going to depend on you know, whether you're you're chartering and where you're going. Um, if you're gonna have what I yeah, I don't know if I could really give a great ball park for that, but you know you could probably come to a pretty good hunt for you know, two to three grand maybe some of them, so you know, as far as stuff, But then the only thing I would I would for sure mentioned is is that there sometimes are some unforeseen expenses you've got to account for. You know, you and you want to plan for maybe depending on where you're going and on extra day, you know, extra day or two on one end or the other in case you get you know, whether delayed somewhere or you know, you have to stay in you have to stay in a hotel and extra night and you know, or if you have to buy something to package your me or you know, by coolers to bring your meat back home or whatever. Um, some of that nickel and dimes stuff can kind of add up, and it's just stuff you want to be aware of ahead of time. If that If that makes sense? So is that like in that case would you suggest um, like especially if you're a first time or like trying to get uh get the help of an outfit or to help you uh kind of line up you know, the best means of travel and all the other little details that may not be familiar to uh lower forty guys. Yeah, that's not it's certainly not a bad way to go, you know, and you don't have to go on a full guided hunt. You know, there's I think there's still some you know, you can look at forums and find you know, something like there's I think there's something call them hunt Planning Services. Um, they're a little you know, it's a little interesting walking the line between guiding and not guiding. But there's you know a lot of the charter, the air charter, air taxis and stuff like that. Like they they've been doing it a long time and they kind of know they know a lot of that common stuff and you know, the frequently and asked questions type of stuff that they you know, they as far as the context that they're working and they can you're usually pretty good at answer and stuff like that. Yeah, it just seems like to me, like what if I like when I think about the some of the overwhelming parts of like the d I Y deal is like you know, you uh, there's a lot of like content out there to teach you how to LK hunt, and there's a lot of content out there to teach you how to deer hunt. And you know, if I'm hunting deer in you know, Texas, I can take some things that I've learned about deer and dear behavior and go hunt in Illinois and still do pretty decent probably, you know, and just adapt to the to more agriculture or whatever it is. But like, you know, most guys in the lower forty eight haven't ever hunted moose and they have a never hunted bear or you know, they might have hunted some black bears, you know, and and they haven't hunted cariboo and they haven't under cheap and so it's like like all the species up there, it's like a foreign continent almost, you know. And and it's like how do you how do you uh, as a d i y guy, Like, I mean, you can learn some stuff, but how do you know that the place? That place is so big? Right we talked, you talked about it before we're on the podcast. It is like, how do you know that you're going into the right valley where you know, Uh, moose even exists, you know, and and how do you know that, uh, like what they're eating and stuff? You know? For me, like I said, I can, I can know that a deer is going to go in and out of a corn field every night and come out of you know, a creek bottom or whatever, So I can. I can kind of put myself in between that situation. But it's a way different neal up there. You know, do you have any tips or thoughts about how to, like if you really want that d il y experience, you know, like how do you find out good information about how to how to get on those species? These different species? Yeah? It may, it may. That makes total sense because a lot of you know, a lot of it is different. You know, like moose, you're you know, during most of moose season, you're not really targeting feed, you know, you're calling them or just glass in them, and sometimes you don't you just you know, even we sometimes don't know you know, which value to pick um that type of stuff. Fishing Alaska Fishing Game as They've got some pretty good like basic info on their website, and you know, you can call up the Fishing Game offices and usually they're pretty helpful with you know, generic type of information UM. And I guess I don't really have a good individual source for like each specific thing UM in mind. But you know, you just kind of gotta try. It's well part of it. You kind of gotta just gleam glean what information you can UM through several different sources and talking to your your charter and you know, if you've got to reach out and reach out to two guys that that have done it UM on specific questions to get to get you know, kind of a basic game plan. UM. I guess that's a roundabout way of not answering your question at all, not questions answer it's yeah, it's it's it's there's not not a real clear cut answer, but you can't get so you know, you can look around and there's there's a lot of good uh you know, Alaska northern type content on YouTube stuff like that that you know, and that you can glean little bits of information from what you know. Eventually you're just gonna have to do it and and get that learning. You know, it's going to be a learning curve at some at some level UM when it boils down to it. But you know, yeah, Charter services. You know, like they're generally good. You know, if you're gonna go with the charter service, they kind of know the areas and they you know, they can get you pointed in the right direction usually as far as how to go about it. Um, you know, they they are at the what it boils down to it, there are they are a taxi and that's their job. But most of those guys are pretty pretty helpful too as far as tips like that. Um, but yeah, you know it can take you just take some legwork and hitting a bunch of different sources to try and get an idea of what's going on and how to go about it, because it is definitely different. Yeah, y'all talk about stuff like that on tunder talk. Yeah, quite a bit um between between talking crap and uh and uh just you know, random, real real We try not to do too much politics, but ran just random stuff. You know, we end un telling stories, We end up going over a lot of you know, just end up I think presenting quite a bit of useful information. You know, you may you may have to actually listen to a bunch of to find specifically what you're looking for, but um, well that is a good podcast. Plug, you're gonna have to listen to a lot of it. Yeah, yeah, you know, well it's it's it's we like to tell the truth that Yeah. But yeah, we you know, we shoot, we talked about every you know, basically, and that's kind of you know why I started that podcast. Was there just I didn't couldn't find anything that I felt really accurately represented. You know. Our perspective is just regular guys who live up here and like to hunt fish and do the kind of stuff we do. Um and so you know, and there's a lot of people up here that no one would ever hear of otherwise. They have a lot of cool stories and savvy and experience, and you know, we just, yeah, we like to get together and talk about the stuff, you know, you know, regardless of whether we're recording or not. So we might as well be recording. And there's a lot of there's a lot of experience and uh stuff that gets talked about on there. You know, whether it's you know, ice fishing for pike or or bear you know, bear baiting, or sheep hunting or moose hunting or anything like that. You know that that there's I feel like there's there's enough useful information there to justify listen to it. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, man, I've I've dabbled just a little bit of Alaska, still a little ways off, so I haven't, you know, forgive me for not doing deep diving the thunder talk yet. But one of these days, man, it's gonna be. It's on the radar. I gotta uncle in Anchorage. It's got a boat, and he's like, man, anytime you make it up, it's like, well, the making up parts the hard part, you know, like he's committing to do it, you know, and uh, like Tyler was saying, it's a you know, a good chunk of change, because quite frankly, um, I don't know if I'm gonna be able to go to Alaska without my wife, you know, because she's gonna be like, well I want to see that, you know whatever. So I think you're gonna have to work all that out. But it sounds like a pretty pretty cool deal man, and you're you're blessed to get to live there, for sure. I know that. You know, in January, it's probably hard to see, kind of like for us it's hard to see in July while we live in Texas. But yeah, Yeah, it's uh, it's a cool thing about outdoorsman that I found that's kind of uh uh you know why it spread. It's outdoorsman of the type of people who uh do the best with what they got and they're pretty happy with it, you know. Yeah, that's pretty cool. Yeah, No, it's yeah, it's uh yeah, definitely definitely blessed to live up here and try to remain thankful for it all the time, you know. I mean, there's there's just so much if a guy wants that. There's so much opportunity, you know, for all kinds of all kinds of fun, fun trouble to get into up here. So yeah, it's it's it's it's awesome, yeah, man, absolutely well. Uh, Tyler will link to the uh the podcast down in the show notes below, and also I'll link to an article or two of yours that because you're a pretty good writer and appreciate some stuff you have to say. So anyway, Man, appreciate what you've had to say today on the show as well, and uh, thanks for thanks for chit chatting with us and filling us in on everything Alaska dude. Yeah, anytime, man, thanks for thanks for asking me. It was a good time and hopefully I don't want to get you too much trouble. So we want to eat sheep. That's that's the drive behind sheep hunting, right, Is that tasty they are? I've heard people say that before, that sheep are good eating. I mean, of course, I've had zero experience with that. Really interesting get there my wires level around my mind, so uh yeah, I've my dad always made fun of the sheet that we used to shoot um in Texas that was probably aren't tasty he is. I don't know, like I wasn't old enough, you know, but I do know that we always made sheep or ram chili is what we called it, because that was that was the way that I guess mass the flame. Yeah. People. Let me let you know something. When people love dear meat, they love innocent They're like, oh, I can't wait to have dear chili, that means that you don't actually like it. That's what that means. He's you're masking something or what you know, when you're trying to cut it all into stakes. That's when you know, you know, could be elitist. Okay, because we learned from Tyler that that's they had not agree right. But whenever you do break out of that mold of chicken, fried jerky and chili and you go to the next thing, that's when you know that, like, hey, I'm kind of getting into this a little bit. I'll eat this. It's fun. I enjoy cooking. That's one thing I've missed over the last couple of years is I haven't had a house in three years. Uh. We did a little bit, you know, I did a little bit of cooking there at the shop that I had for a couple of years. But it's still like our kitchen was literally a makeshift deal on like a wooden bench. Uh. We didn't have like we all everything we had was either croc pote or on a single burner that plugged into the wall, or had this like big like it's like an electric skillet, is what it was. It's almost like a griddle, but it's got walls on it, you know. Yeah, And so like I cooked, took to uh iwa and learned out that Electra elector grittle and yeah, destroyed that morning and we were trying to cook pancakes on the tailigators that it was a good idea, Yeah it was, it was. But anyway, that's uh, something I really enjoy and I'm gonna hopefully enjoy again soon when we can get this house. Yeah man, I've been cooking some, but just since we have the kiddo and stuff, it's just all my meals are just utilitarian or whatever you want to call it, where it's just like I'm I haven't got to experiment or do anything. It's just been like spaghetti and jacos, which I love. Tacos don't even wrong, you know. But I am ready to get back into doing a little bit more of the hm hmmm, let's see about this thing I can't pronounce and see what yeah man, and hopefully we get to kill some turkeys this year and uh hope that you can do some more of that kind of stuff with that as well. I'm ready to get back. And I know I talked about a lot, but that pizzole you make out a thighs and legs? Boy, how does huh? Yeah? Yeah, I love turkey as you need to eat a turkey? Eis this year? For sure? I think Hunter should Hunter. You know what you had this saying in the last couple of years that I really like. Okay, it's uh you say when we're talking about we're usually like scheming and we're about to go into an afternoon. We're trying to figure out where to go, if we should go, if we should go look and drive instead, and you always go Hunters hunt. It's right, dude, Hunters hunt, and so I mean we should use that this year, especially with our hunter. You tell him to hunt in the mornings. Hunters. Hunters get up, yeah, hunters get up early, you know, hunt how to sit there along and get up and hunt? Anyways, big thanks Tyler for coming on, Tyler for for coming on the podcast today. We had the two teas today T T if you will. It's all good, um, but you know, the Alaska things something a little bit different, but it's real cool. You know. If you something we all like to dream about, you know what I mean, what are you laughing and they don't asking? What is it? I can't stop? Yeah, yeah, yeah that you'll can just talk to start showing podcast called it the Key Podcast. But don't say it too fast though, Okay, I won't want I don't ever say things fast, so it shouldn't be a problem for me. Guys. If you haven't subscribed to the podcast, we really really appreciate that, really would appreciate that. Like I said, I never say things fast, um um, and go check out what we got going on YouTube. It helps out a lot if you hit the subscribe over there and uh, the bell for notifications. We never talked about that, Yeah, because it's lane. It is lane that you have to do that. But man, like, if you don't, you're just not going to see your stuff notified by a couple of YouTube channels. And I do appreciate it, but I I keep it to the ones that I do care about. So please care about us and leave the bell for notifications. You know, if you care to kill deer next year, then you should definitely hit the bell. In fact, if you want to kill doing that deer next year, Yeah, like we were you. Oh man. Anyways, guys, I hope y'all are looking forward to something right now. Um. I kind of have cavin fever a little bit. I've got to fish a day and a half and I've I didn't even get my thumbs rough really tell you the truth. And my dad and granddad are out ripping slabs right now. I know this weekend, uh man, I probably I might have to build a chicken coop for your wife. I think what we have to do is a spawn video with old Dylon again and third So this weekends on Saturday. Sounds good. It sounds like a good time. Yeah. So if you haven't watched that video, go check out the video we did on pre spawn and Croppy. Uh. We use a little bit of live scope action on that was pretty cool with a dealing gossip of redline guyn service. We're gonna go do a little bit of that this weekend as well, maybe bring in some slabs of our own. Who knows, but I do know that some fish are in my future, whether it is now or this summer. Tyler's already talking about summer fishing trips in the mountains, so I'm not mad about that one bit. Well, I mean, we are about two months from going man alive. I can't I can't do the uh. We never because of volleyball. We never are able to do like the best time of the year. You know. That's what we're gonna do. I'm gonna try to do August. First time we did that one year and I didn't really know that much about fly fishing, but I caught one of the coolest rainbows ever caught us about nine inches. Last year. We went like right after fourth of July and it was still like a lot of snow. Um. But if you go up there knowing like early June that that's gonna be a thing, you can just fish all the lower stuff and probably be being good shape. But anyways, I hope you all are looking forward to something. I hope if you have an open turkey season that you've got to go out after gobblers. We will be doing that in a few weeks shortly, really stoked about it, and uh, I can't wait to eat a bunch of birds this spring and summer. So with that we will leave it with you. Remember, guys, this is your living