00:00:00 Speaker 1: Hey, this is Tyler Jones and you're listening to the Element podcast. What's going on, everybody. It's a great day here in Texas. It's a hot one, but the sun has finally gone down like one. Yeah, one of the longest days of the year. You're listening to myself and my buddy, my co host Casey Smith over here chilling on the couch in the mouth house. What's happening, dude. I just ate Liftover taco, which is probably second only to like fresh tacos. So it's pretty good. It's pretty tasty. It's a there's a line in a Pat Green song where he talks about a two day old burrito. You know what I'm talking about. I know all about it, right, I think you got it? It It als up too, yeah, probably, Okay, I was gonna get an also's Burris know the last time we were going through there and you didn't let me, And so now I still don't have that, like a piece of Texana to my name. Yeah, I know, dude, You're gonna have to collect that sometime. I do need to do that, because if there's anything that's good at Assups, it's a tulsu, which is a good sized drink at a at a fried burrito and beef, be and cheese. I do know that. Uh, there's assups in text line, I believe. And I've stopped at that many times, like three am to get coffee. And at three am, it doesn't matter if it's good or to sleep, you forget the burrito. Yeah, that's right, that is correct. Yeah, well that's I mean, I can't I can't believe it's as texting as you are. You haven't had that happen. Well, just have these inhibitors known as holler Jones? Is that going trip? Don't let me do it because he's afraid I'm gonna toy everywhere. Ye yeah, that's a very much a warranted fear. So how does it feel to be back in the Long Star State. It feels good. But you know, I like Tulsa. Man. It's cool little town. There's a lot of cool things happening up there. And one thing I love about big metropolitan areas is about certain big metropolitan areas is the when they have the when you have the ability in that city to quickly get out of town. So like I could see myself living in a town like Manhattan, Kansas, where like you got all the amenities there and it's nice and like you can go to a twenty four hour Walmart or something. If you need like medicine you know, you're sick one night or something, you can go midnight or in my case, if you need cereal um or you know, or and I guess you can quickly, like in ten fifteen minutes, you're like in the country and you could see, like I could hang a deer standing that true, you know, Like that's why I love going to school College Station. It was the exact same way and like everything you'd ever want in College Station and then right there you're in farm country. You know. That's what I loved about going to school in Dallas is that like you could, uh, you could like maybe find a lake to fish and within like thirty forty five minutes. You know, perfect, dude, I promise you. I spent so much time trying to scour maps and find bodies of water that were within like thirty minutes or twenty five minutes of me that I could possibly fish. I would I would go. Like there was times like if I had, like, say, we didn't have a football one afternoon or something like that, and we had I had a you know, classic ended at eleven am. I was like, I'm going fishing all afternoon. But then, you know, or if I had something I had to do later in that day and I had several hours, but I wanted to go fishing, like and I would have to find something like within twenty five minutes or something. You know, there was no like I couldn't find. I've searched a lot, and I could find anything. Are they like I would find like a some kind of like um business like decorative pond, you know, it's like a fountain in or it would just be like I would go out there and I would start fishing it, and I would be like, dude, there are way too many people creeping on me right now. I'm gonna get in trouble. And then I would you know, I have to take off whatever. And I would hardly ever call anything. We had Turtle Creek, which if anybody from Dallas is listening, they know there were some gigantic houses on that creek. It's also like two ft deep in the middle, so catching anything that would buy the H and H would probably be pretty tough. But I did catch funny. Well, you're out there hunting the experience either way, That's what I was. And and speaking of that, we're talking about that exact thing today. You know, there's, uh, there's a lot of trends going on in the in the hunting world right now, and uh and uh, I think you know, it's it's some of these trends are a good thing, but sometimes you can get taken overboard, just like anything, man. And uh, you know, there's a lot of good things about hunting for meat. There's a lot of good things about hunting for something that you hang on your wall to you know, I think so. Um, but somewhere in the middle or somewhere within those two things, even there's an experience that we had, you know, And um, I think we got a pretty interesting guy to talk about this with today, Gary Greenwalt. He's um from Washington State but lives in Alaska now and has had the white tail experience like probably in full you almost I mean to an extent, but like now he's starting to get into this whole like rugged Alaska experience, you know, and so he's really like in the heart of just of experiencing things and what that means to him. I guess so I think this ought to be a pretty cool interview. I can't wait to get Gary on the phone. But to you, this weekend had quite an experience, had an experience this weekend. Tell us about that you had a little something on Instagram on the story and I was like, oh, he looks so happy. That was the calm before the storm. So Cassie and I, uh, we would like to do outdoor trips with our youth kids, you know, from church, and uh try to get him outside and just do something that I enjoy and I can share it with them, you know, And we always have a good time doing stuff and this was no exception. But um, we went uh really camping. It was we stayed in screening shelters at a state park, you know, so it wasn't like extreme, but any measure, you know, it's like bring something to sleep on. And I didn't have any a c or anything, and um, our plug didn't work in our screen and shelters, so we didn't have a fan. And it was the stillest of still nights I've ever felt, Like I'm pretty sure I felt a flying squirrel fly from one tree the other outside from inside, Like that's how much wind like wasn't moving, but as exaggeration, but you get what I'm saying, Like no wind at all. And I was actually looking at the weather Apple used wonder Ground and they give you like an hourly update. It was ten pm and still eighty nine degrees. It was rough, rough, rough, I mean I was sweating so much. But um, a couple of things. It's good for those kids to deal with stuff like that, because man, they need a little bit of adversity sometimes, you know. And they I'm sure they get it in certain ways. I know they do, but like just that, like having to endure a little bit of a hot night or something. These kids don't ever really deal with that too much. And they were troopers about it too, man, all except for one, you know him, He was scared that the coons were gonna come in the shelter. Would not go to sleep, not even kidding. He was coon scared. He thought that the raccoons were gonna come inside. And I guess give him. I don't like, who's every been scared of a coon? I don't understand it. And this is a little a little tough guy too. Yeah, it's pretty funny, funny, man, Yeah, I agree with you man like UM, Like tough situations make you tougher, plain and simple man like UM. A few years ago before I hunted a lot of publicly and like three quarter mile walk to a stand as pretty good haul. And I mean it still isn't it really, you know, But like I just I'm used to it more now and I don't think about it too much, you know, whereas used to it was like all right, here we go, you know whatever. You know. Now I'm just like, oh, it's not a bad walk, you know, but just things like that you look at. Um. I can't remember. Somewhere in one of my history classes I learned about these like um just I don't I think it was like natives, but I can't remember. They used to, you know, work on their skills in battle on top of like acre fields with their bare feet, you know, because it made them tougher, not just their feet, but their whole body, you know, their whole mentality, I guess, And so like stuff like you know, think you think about stuff like that, and it is it's good for for people. I was, I was kind of thinking that I was on a different train of thought when you told me that, though, was I was like and did did you like take these kids on their their first outdoor experience and then all of a sudden now that they turned off. No, actually they all did pretty good. A lot of them feel asleep faster than I expected them to. Didn't worry too much about it, but keeping I guess man. And then the next day a body slammed them all so many times in the water with the swimming areas. They got to unleash a little bit. That was fun though we had it. We had a good time. And uh, I think the thing I put on the story like I truly mean it, like, um, you know, I'm there, of course to show these kids love of Christ and uh help them grow in that. But even on a I consider a spiritual thing too, but even on just like a human level, like find some kids that you care about and get them outside and get them outdoors, because that's gonna make a huge impact in their lives if you can instill like the love of that force. And it's gonna it's self serving too, it's gonna help us, you know. It's like you're just gonna keep this thing going that we care so much about. Yeah, for sure, I mean this is this whole different tangent. I don't want to get too far off from this, but we need we need to find ways as hunting media too, two educate people outside of hunting media and not Yeah, you were saying something about this. You posted this on Facebook because one of the big conservation organs sponsored and a post that I'm sure was targeted you mentioned was targeted. Yeah, yeah, I can't. I mean, it came up on your timeline. It's targeted to hunters talking about what we like, something that the anti hunters need to hear or something. Yeah. Well, I'm sure they didn't like put Peter or the Sierra Club or any of that, and the targets they probably put hunting, conservation, you know, all all of those things, right, that was your I mean, yeah, you're you're so uh. An organ like that is getting its money from hunters, So they're going to spend money on their sponsored ad to target hunters because they're going to get money from them. They're not going to spend I mean, I mean, I don't think most of the time I would say that these people are not going to spend money targeting an ad to apita person or somebody you know, just a general, like a guy that loves his work and that's it, you know, like, let me go ahead and target this to uh, people who invest in the stock stock market, you know what I'm saying Like that, I just don't see them doing that. And and to be frank with you, the comments that I read through a lot of the comments, and for one, the comments were stupid. That was just like it was. It wasn't even addressed anything within the video that was showing, you know, but like all these people were Hunters, I mean like all of them, all the comments, so like I would think that if they did target to Peter that Peter would be like, oh you suck, you know whatever, like, and there was no comments like that. So it just kind of like further put that in my mind. And yeah, I had to say I had to say something. I was like, hey, I'm shall spend money. I'll like your comment, you know, I saw that. Yeah, I appreciated that. I don't think anybody else did. They're all worried about some other big fight that's going on within hunter Hunter numbers shutting now, but I guess so anyway, all right, let's get Gary on the phone. What do you think, man, sounds good. All right, So on the phone now we have Gary Greenwall. What's happening, man, Not much. It's wrapping up the day of work and looking up to you guys. Yeah, yeah, So what's work with like for you? All right? Now? It's a little slow, you know. I do advertising sales for Hunalaska and Fish Alaska magazine, and it's kind of slow time of year for us, doing a lot of a lot of research, tracking down clients and kind of just keeping up with the count, seeing everybody's doing and getting ready for things to pick up here, you know, on the fall in the wintertime. So cool. So I would assume this time of year is really busy for people wanting to go to Alaska, Is that correct? Or? Yeah? Right now it's crazy up here. Are going the tourist seasons in full swing. We got bear seasons going on, all the fishing seasons are kicking in hard. So yeah that this is pretty crazy the time of year in Alaska right now. Yeah, I can't imagine. I had dream of doing it one day, for sure, you know so, But but for now I'm I'm I'm actually heading out here in the next couple of days to uh, to do a little swing through from Texas through uh Colorado, Utah, and gonna end up in Yellowstone at some point, I believe. So I get me a little experience. You know, they're for sure, but it's it's not quite Alaska. I can't dream. Yeah, that's the kind of thing I fear a lot of people don't realize, and that it here is that everything you do is like the an expedition. You don't just pop out of town twenty minutes and start hunt. I mean that there is some of that, but but you know, my bear hunting spots a two and a half hour drive. So I don't get into road construction. It's just the way it is. I mean, everything you know, and if you're gonna go hunt, like you know, way up north, like up around dead Horse, you know, get up on the north slope of the Brooks Range. You know you're looking to the eight hundred plus mile driver, you gotta fly up there. There's candical ways to get there. But but everything, everything is is a challenge logistically up here, there's a Alaska. We cut Alaska and half in Texas would be the third biggest state. So well we'll take it. We'll take it. Man UM, so you're so obviously you're coming to us from Alaska. Um, I just need a little bit of, you know, material to dream about. What's the weather like that up there right now? It's in the sixties and kind of partly sunny skies right now, it's really nice. I believe Chames in five minutes. So yeah, yeah, man, it's uh, it is like a hundred here and like humanity as well, so it's like miserable down here. I don't miss that. But the one thing we got, you guys don't as mosquitoes. Man, I've never seen I thought i'd seen bad mosquitoes before, and I always thought people up here exaggerated it in this spot and bear hunting. I mean, if you don't have bug dope on from head to toe and running the thermoscell, you are covered up in mosquitoes. That sounds miserable. I've done. Uh, we like, uh, I'll shoot the other I guess what was it a couple of weeks ago we were out hanging trail cameras. Uh. And we've had we had some pretty good floods earlier this year, so you know, everything's got it's holding water around all of our Riparian areas, and yeah, the man this we hadn't had mosquitoes that bad until a couple of weeks ago, and all of a sudden, it was that you could tell they were starting to get there. And like Casey, you know, he's like whatever. I lived in Brazoria County down on the coast, you know, the Gulf coast, and well, you know, I've seen him, but like for me, they just bugged the heck out of me. I can't. I can't hardly stand him. Yeah, they're vicious. I mean, these things up here, man, they're the size of humming burdens to place. Yeah, yeah, that's terrible. Um, but I mean I wouldn't mind sixty degree weather either, So I don't know. That's the one thing I hear. Man. I haven't seen eighty degrees yet since I've been up here. I think the hottest has been fence last summer, and this summer is about seventy six. It's just wild to me. I can't. I can't even comprehend that. Man, It's just crazy. I did, uh. I've filmed a sheep hunt. Actually, the last two years I filmed stone sheep in British Columbia. Um, and I mean I'm pretty sure we saw eighty degree temperatures, but you know it was like it's like August one and it was still like right in there, you know, wasn't wasn't too bad. It's a it's a nice break. Uh. I always try to like plan something to the to the Rockies this time of year, uh, just because you know, it just gets old living here in Texas when the heat starts in May, and and uh it just his brutal for several months, and I just gotta get away, you know. Yea, so um so kind of you know, on that note, what we're talking about today is just that that whole experience, like what you know, looking for that experience, looking for whatever you kind of dream about in life. And and um, you know the first thing I kind of want to do. I assume a guy that hunts as much as you do, Um, probably started early. How do you, I mean, how do you end up getting into hunting? In my my dad, you know, growing up, it was you know, something every year as an event deer hunter, there is usually anywhere from fifteen to twenty guys of the house that only more in the year season getting ready to rifle hunt, and back then it was it was the old school hunt. You know, guys going out and doing the deer drives and and you know, when you're a young kids starting out, you don't get to be the guy on stand you're bucking the brush. So that's kind of how I was ten years olden I started so cool. I've been doing this for what, I don't know that as a thirty two seasons now something like that still so by my Matthew about that sounds about but no, it's, uh, you know, like I just grew up that there's never any doubt. You know what you're gonna do. You're gonna hunt when you grow up, and you know, at one point, you know, it's kind of about putting meat on the table, and you grow up a little more and it's about you know, maybe shooting a bigger deer, and the older you get, it's kind of more about how you get him. And you know, now it's you know, just kind of enjoying the time out there. And this last weekend is probably a good example of that. Got a pretty hard and a bottle legwork be hunt up here and finally got my bait in a good spot and I had about a seven foot black bear come in. He came in three times before I had a good shot at him and got the shot, and I hit a damn twig that I didn't get with daddy, and the shot flew right in the middle. Yeah, I mean it was disappointing got away as a solid pope, young class bear, But you know, the plan came together. I got my shot and that particular time, and bear got away. But you know, how about you know, I'm happy the fact that I actually been able to put it all together on my own, didn't pay a guy and just taking everything phone first, go yeah really with and I get to go out again, so like I'm I'll probably gett another chance this weekend, so we'll see what happens. Yeah, that's I guess that's the benefit of living living up there. Yeah yeah, I mean it's it's a little you know men as a kid, you know, everybody, I don't know anybody hunts, doesn't dream about hunting on Alaskas. So being up here still a little bit surreal. You know, you kind of think about it for five minutes, like, dang, I actually gotta go do all this stuff. Now I'm a residence, so I mean literally, you know you can hunt. Just to give you an idea, I have five blackbird tags in my pocket too, grizzly blocking tags in my pocket. In August, I'm basically gonna go hunt mountain builts over the counter and then yeah, and I can. I'll be able to all sheep over the counter all when I go up on the moose hunts. So, I mean, it's just crazy the things that are available up here to resident that you guys down south and back home, if they just don't real life, it's it's crazy with yeah, no kidding, man, I don't know what it is. A bud goats are kind of like that's my thing right now. Like then I want to go on to go hunt real bad. And now I know they don't, like they're not the biggest horns, are craziest or whatever about something about them. It's just cool. Have you been on out hunts already? I have not been on a goat hunt yet. No, yeah, I didn't do. I mean I've been up where they're at that I haven't gone hunting for him yet. You know the thing here in alask because you climb past the sheep to get to the goats so yes, buddy, My buddy said, hunting goats disease, you just got to get above them, Like that's the hard parts getting above them. So sometimes it's hard to get above the peak itself is on top. That's cool though, So have you been out like scouting for him? Are you just just gonna see them at the place I'm going. I'll probably actually go do a flyover to actually scout it and locate them, and then I'll four hours because the place I'm actually gonna go hunt, I mean, it's not an easy access places. It's really not far out of anchorage, so like twenty or thirty minute bush plane flight. But but paying for that flight, you know, multiple times to actually spend time in the area scouting just not practical for me right now. So it'll be a fly over, get a lay of the land and study some maps and see where the grating and just get after him. Yeah, that's awesome. Are you an anchorage? Is that where you're at? I need an anchorage? Yeah? Cool, I've got a I've got a great uncle up there that I need to go visit and do a little habit fishing with one of these days. He it's like one of those things where, uh, it seems like the invitees always open, but it's just so hard to make it up there from the lower four day at least it is to me, you know, like it's uh, it's just so close you can taste it, but it's so hard to actually make the trip happen. You know. Well this time of me here too. I mean, if guys wanted to come up, you got to plan that thing while advance was getting up. I mean, if you wanted to book a plane saving two weeks out right now, it's not easy to do. Man, They're they're filled up. So yeah, you know, kids, is that the best way to get up there? Or would you would you suggest trying the fairy thing too? The fairy thing is you know, you can do that, but it's a lot longer. Um, it's at least it used to be a really used to kind of you know, if you're moving up here, the ferry used to be the way to do it. And I moved up here last year. I've been up here a little over a year now. Um, it was incredible. I mean it was gonna be like six thousand bucks or something. With my truck and the amount of time and that it was I'm like, I'll just drive came up through Canada's so the guy's got the time that That's the way I would suggest going. If you've got some time to you know, if you got a couple of weeks vacation, you want to burn out, do the trip up through Canada, come up here and fish drive back. But that's a that's you want to experience it. Yeah, We're all about those experiences. I actually, uh, my old boss did that on a motorcycle one time. I think I think that would be cool and also a little bit unnerving at the same time, because I've heard that that highway gets kind of rough in some areas. Yeah, you get what they call the frost heaves, and I mean on a motorcycle. Honestly, I don't know it would be quite as bad. But we were actually following the guy up here, were about a hundred miles out from the Alaskan border on the Canada's Diet and this guy was going way too fast. He wound up catching air over one of the frost He bumps about tour the back end of his truck when he came down. I don't know how he kept it on the road, but he did, man, he was doing about true. Yeah, that sounds pretty sketch. Yeah, the road is just buckling heat and it's just like rolling hills. I mean, it's it's and nuts once you see it. Yeah, no kidding, man. So it sounds like quite the experience. And uh, I'm at the point in my life kind of how you talked about earlier, where you know, you get to that point where you just want to kill things and then you want to experience the hunt a little bit more. And you know, we talked about it. Seems that hunting is almost bipartisan nowadays, where you have trophy hunters and meat hunters and it's not okay to be somewhere in between, you know what I mean. And I like to think that I'm kind of riding the fence a lot of times on that, and I think I've decided I'm gonna call myself an experience hunter and that's just what I'm after, you know. And if that, if if, and I don't know if there's a a solution for it or an equation or whatever, but it's there's something there and when I feel it, that's what I want to go after, you know. Um, I have a blast chasing hoggs around here in East Texta with shotguns and shooting a fifty pounder and eating it. You know, that is a great experience for me. But at the same time, man, I want to go and shoot a fifty inch moose, you know, floating down the river up there where you're at one of these days, you know what I mean. And and those two don't really I don't weigh them differently, uh, Or I don't. That's not right. I don't weigh them on the same scale. It's just an experience. I'm after, you know what I mean. So, um, on that note, it sounds like, you know, you kind of grew up in a hunting culture and you got that. So why was um that experience and that fun and that culture as a kid not really uh, something that kept you satisfied? Like what kept you longing for that next experience? Child? Boy? That's haying hard to pin down. I mean I think you know, you know, obviously I grew up before the internet was the thing. I mean, that didn't exist. As a kid. You're reading stuff and you're seeing all these places guys go on hunting the things they get to shoot, and you read about the Big Monster Bucks in North American Whitetail magazine, and you know, and you kind of go from that film the Freezer aspect where you do want to you know, experience, you know, getting a bigger animal if you wanna call it, you know, trophy hunting. And and you know, I was lucky enough to you know, I've I've shot my fair stay big white tails, and I got to a point where it wasn't just about killing something, you know, it was about how you were getting it done and having a good experience and you know, the game plan that came together versus walking out and just getting you know, lucky fer I used to think that you did something right now, smarter than cret or you know, so that kind of it keeps me going. It's just you know, like being up here, there's just so much different stuff to do. I mean, you could spend a lifetime in Alaska not accomplish everything up here, just so you know, that's it's always there's always something different to look forward to. So yeah, man, that's awesome. So is that is that what brought you to Alaska? Or and you know, was it was it a work thing or a last it was it was kind of the age old thing that drives most men to do stupid things chasing women. So oh seriousness. I got divorced and my college sweetheart lived up here and we wound up kind of getting back together. And I was originally supposed to move up here last September, you know, when I had originally had the moose hunt planned, and then uh, she called me episode why don't even up in July? Move up over the summer, and that turned into moving up over you know, Labor Day. So that's that's basically how I got up here. So you know that that and being you know, a couple of being able to get up here and do some of these things. You know, it's just all the timing and all the pieces just fell in place, and here him in. Yeah. I just don't know why none of the girls I ever chased had land or lived in Alaska. I just can't figure that out. Man. That's kind of the killer is mine mike Gal. She lives in Alaska and then her dad and there they have family farm back home in eastern Washington about ninety ninety miles north of US. Got killer whitetail hunt and so I got I kind of got it on both ends. That's I guess there's like an apple orchard on it to probably field not bad. That's cool. Man. So uh so you know growing up, um, when you were young, Um was there like Okay, I'm sorry that I didn't mean to say you're old, you know, but so it was there, like it was there like an experience that, um, you can remember that was kind of eye opening to you that like afterwards you were like, man, I'm hooked or was it just kind of like Casey said, like you grew up in a culture and it was just part of what you did. I think if I had to really go back and think about one experience that really kind of, if you want to say, locked me into it was like it was probably my first big deer I killed, and he wasn't a giant. I mean, you guys have called a seven pointer, we'd call it a three by four. And I was remember I was sixteen, and it just we have to have an early October snow and I told my dad I wanted to like this little circuit and was this was you know, this is getting a little bit later on where the big crowd and kind of died out dad's friends were getting old, not coming out as much, so we're kind of transitioning more more modern hunting stuff, you know, still hunting treaty stands, food plots and all that stuff. And I told him, and gonna walk the circuits. I've seen this buck out in the field, you know, in the summertime. I knew where he's traveling. This is before trail cameras actually had to go out and scout, and it's hard to even imagine that time now, but that's how. And I went and did this hike and here's this buck with his nose on the ground, falling trail six yards away, and I m drilled and you know, pulled up and shot and this when I rifle hunted, and he ran thirty yards piled up dead and we're walking up that deer and picking his head up out of the brush and it's like, man, this is but you know, he's eighteen ninety nine ins I had long times mass big body here. And for me it was like after that, it was like, you know, I don't want to shoot little deer no more. I'm hooked on this big buck stuff and and things just kind of think I probably evolved after that point are now so so the kind of the as your dad's group of buddies kind of got old and the hunting parties dissipated, it kind of changed the way that you hunted, I guess is what you're saying. Right, Yeah, it did. I mean it changed the way we hunted. And it wasn't It wasn't just the fact that there weren't as many guys coming out, you know, it was just I think the whole hunting culture started to change. You know, you didn't see nearly as much of the traditional style, you know, if the drives and stuff as we're just starting hunting different. And part of it had to do with some of the land around us being locked up a little bit more different landowners where we didn't have quite as much freedom to move around as we used to, and and the food coming on really hard, and we got into that with with the herd management and men real licks and developing our holes and ponds, and you know, it just it just kind of shifted the way we hunted. And you know, putting putting food on the table wasn't quite as important either, because you know, Mom and Dad both had better job been We're younger, and and you're putting a few gear in the freezer wasn't nearly as important so on mature animals and you management and that an end of thing, it's made more stand Yeah, I think you know, that's a you make a good point. Like I feel like, um um, I feel like it's you know, like what Casey was saying earlier, like there's a lot of polarization between trophy hunters and meat hunters these days. And one of the one of the things about guys that are you know, proponents of the meat thing um, which I am, but um, it's like, you know, you can't really like present that to people these days and be like, I mean, you have points to be made, but like you can't just say like, hey, this is a you know, this is a pretty kind of like a necessity or whatever when you can go get a big mac anytime you want, you know what I'm saying, And I mean it's it doesn't seem like a necessity to people. The only like, you know, thing that maybe people would be attracted to it with or be because is um because of the fact that it's you know, they know where the meat came from and that it's uh, you know, a happy animal. I put that in quotations, but you know something that's not in a you know, raised up in pretty harsh environment or whatever, so that makes Yeah, So that's kind of the thing too. You know. You hear people say them all about meat hunting and and and I am dent. If I'm gonna shoot it, I'm gonna eat it and make use of it. But man, if you can afford to hunt, nowadays, you can probably afford to go to the store and buy your beat. So you know, it was an excuse for, in my opinion, to shoot, you know, because I see you guys shoot small beer, and if it's a trophy to somebody, I'm a percent for him shooting it. But man, there kind of gets to be a point where we got to think about how we representing and we got together. Yeah, it's a complicated situa, definitely is. Man, it's I think everything, and I guess my point more than anything, is just that sometimes people are a little bit especially I mean, it doesn't matter. It could be deer hunting or it could be just world news, but like everything is so sensationalized nowadays, and it's like you gotta be this way or that way and there's no in between, you know what case he said. So it's a it's a kind of a it's kind of a well, it's not it's not a way that I like to be at all. I think there's a lot of different strugs for different folks kind of thing, you know. And both hunters are really kind of in the middle ground. And and I think it when you see that polarization, it does make it difficult on everybody. So yeah, and up here in Alaska it's different too, because we have some uh what do they call that, Yeah, subsistence hunting. Yeah, yeah, for the natives. Yeah, yeah, well it's not even just for the natives. It's you know, I can get subsistence tags too. Um yeah, it's you're not always guaranteed to getting, but you can apply for him and draw them. And you know, so that there is up here in some communities. It is a real aspect of putting need away in the freezer, you know. But you know, killing the moose will actually feed you for a year or two, depend on the size of your family. Were spot in a white it's me for about two months, So I guess you you need to fill me in on this, I guess if this makes sense, But I don't understand how if you are getting a subsistence tag that it's not based off of anything but a draw, you know what I mean. It's a little complicated there, and it it goes by where you're at in you know, different communities and what you're applying for, you know, because there's subsistence hunts for muskoks, which are incredibly hard to get unless unless you're in one of the communities around these herds or like a caribouse subsistence tags a holding, I mean, just but anybody can apply for that and get it. So but I mean, you know, like how do they have I mean, to me, if you're hunting as a substences subsistence hunter, that means you need the meat, right, I mean that you kind of that would generally be the consensus on it. It's not always the case, um, but that's the way they do it up here. The one thing subsistence hunt is you have to destroy the trophy. Yeah, so if you draw, you know, if you go out subsistence hunting, you shoot a four inch caribou, tough luck. You gotta split, Oh my gosh, So that they deterred the trophy hunting aspect for like guys that want to just get a good tagle blasted Big Bull? Did they take that incentive away by doing that? So I really do get the people that want to meet applying more so than the trophy hunters. That's a that's a pretty uh interesting way of waiting it out. I don't know if I uh would really side with that because I feel like the trophy is a part of it. You know, it's good. It's kind of what we've been talking about. You know, it's like that kind of my do is. It's like, you know, why why would you? I mean, you still gotta keep the horns. You can sew a piece them back together if you wanted to. But you know, for the guys that are serious and entering things in the books, they're not valid anymore to me, Like why should you know? If I drew this tag, why should I have to destroy the trophy? I mean, that's all part of the animal, that's all, you know. I don't know, it's kind of a it's kind of a tough one for me to comprehend. Yeah, I feel like it's not not an objective thing. It's a subjective thing, you know, like it's you're almost to the point of like I would consider it, you know, like a wanton waste thing. You know, if you you know, you know, if you're gonna like you're gonna shoot this awesome cariber that has you know, the coolest probably the coolest set of antlers of any uh of the deer species, you know, and you're just gonna supposed to leave it out there or destroy it. You know, it's like, come on, but anyways, but I get the point to, I get what they're trying to go for. So it's it's, uh, I guess, uh, there's no perfect um regulations, right, Like, there's always a loophole that somebody's gonna get upset about when we didn't we deal with it around here on antler restrictions, on on young white tails. You know, it's just there's always gonna be some regulation somewhere that kind of isn't perfect. But you just gotta assume that you're fishing game people are doing their best. Yeah. Yeah, So do you think, um, you know, earlier you're talking about how um, you know, the old way kind of died out of of guys coming in and Sharon hunting camp and um, you know, doing the the deer drives in the older way of hunting, uh, and how that changed and then at this like it's almost simultaneous that we've had a bigger and bigger push of anti hunting sentiment and uh a lot of uh, I guess naysayers of trophy hunting and this and that as that as that went on. Do you think that there's a correlation in like that old way going away? And then you know, kind of the social world that we live in nowadays of how uh how much turmoil there is in the hunting world. You know, I don't know if the two things are really related. There's definitely some kind of correlation, but you know, I think the way the world's gotten where more and more people are detached from you know, the reality of the natural world and the pature really works, that's definitely played into the negative aspects I think towards hunters. Um. As far as the old ways dying out, I really thinks just the way the huntings evolved and and part of that too is just you know, there's better science about hunting and all the herd management and q d m A and all of that stuff. Bundled up. I think hunter's just gotten smarter about how they hunt, you know, especially what I grew up doing. So I think the progressional way from the style, I think it is just natural. Um. I think social media has played a massive role in the anti hunting, you know, the upswing of that. You know, the way they can get a hold of something and twist it and turn it and use it against us. Even guys that are well intentioned with you know, posting certain types of pictures, you know that they get twisted and used again. I'm I'm pretty adamant Facebook about what what guys posting all callpee. It's like, man, if if you don't if you have to think about whether or not you should note that picture, you shouldn't lose it. Oh yeah. We had guys on a forum that I'm on that we're posting pictures of things. I mean it's massive of the wound channels and gut. It was horrible. You know. We called them out, said, guys, you gotta quit doing this. Man said well to private group said, well, private until somebody shares it or they save your picture and share it. I mean, they're things always get out. Yeah, we live in the world of screenshots nowadays. You know, like it doesn't matter how private you think it is, it can get out. I mean I wish there was a way that it couldn't, but and I think that's something that everybody that hunts seems to be aware of, and there's ways to promote hunting and a good light. I mean you look at guys like Cameron Haines and Steve Ronella, you know. I mean those guys are out there and and they do things the right way and and kind of put things at the forefront and show hunters the way it should be represented. And I think that's something we all need to pay attention to. Yeah, no kidding, man, I do feel like you're you're right on that. Like, um, it might be kind of a bleak outlook sometimes for us, but I think as a community we have got some great leaders in place, you know, and and all aspects of hunting, whether it's big game or upland or waterfowl or whatever. You know, there's a lot of a lot of very intelligent, very uh good intentioned leaders out there, and I think that that that side of it is stronger than it's ever being, especially when you throw in the fact that you've got like these huge groups like b h A or the t RCP or even q MAY like you talked about earlier, that are doing so much for advocacy and so much for education of the non hunting public. And I think that, you know, the continued support of those is going to really be one of our saving graces as hunters. Yeah, and you just said a word that I think a lot of guys don't really understand the difference between the non hunting public and the anti hunters. I think there's a lot of guys that group everybody who doesn't hunt into one big ball, and it's like, you know, the anti hunters, the people that just can't stand it. You're never gonna change their mind. You're ever gonna win a battle with them. But those non hunters, the people sitting on the fence in the middle. I mean, so many guys underestimate how important it is to keep them on our side. Yeah, and every single one of them that we lose to you know, a bad Facebook post or you know some twist story with a bunch of made up bs. I mean, it's just a guy. They need to understand the impact that has on it. As as a whole because you know, those people vote for these different laws and regulations and things that affect us, and it's important they all right. So you know, and I've talked a lot of people, and you always see these guys talk about, you know, the anti hunters, and that they talk about the non hunters the same way, and it's like, that's really not the case. I mean, I know a lot of people that don't hunt that are perfectly in favor of it. But it doesn't take much to change somebody's mind. Yeah, that's right, no kidding. And and all it takes is uh, somebody taking something that you had good intentions with and twisting it and making it seem like a bad thing, you know. And that's why the soul uh uh self implementation of of of rules, you know, like where we just kind of monitor ourselves is so important, you know, because you don't want to get to the point where I mean kind of Instagram has kind of gotten that way nowadays there social media in general where uh, you know, if if somebody, one person cries about something, you know, oh, this picture is blocked, you know, and and it literally can be a picture of meat, you know, And that's the world we've got into but it's it's it's of our own doing in some way, you know, because it started out with with something more gruesome or something like that, and it's just one of those things where the regulations just just gotten stricter and stricter because of you know, somebody's little mishap or whatever. Yeah, well it's like Brisley bear hunting in British Columbia. You know, they're they've done away with that just based on emotional arguments. You know, people didn't like usually bear hunting. Well, they're gonna see the give that about ten years and they're gonna have some serious problems. I mean, you can't have no management, you know, Apex parents like that. You know Washington State, you know back home, they're having problems two years now because they've you know, just they they don't allow the dog hunting anymore. And basically the only management that gets done some problem cap. They take dogs and take care of it and if you guys get lucky and shoot him every year. But they're just closing the cats and they're getting more close encounters. They had a you know people killed this year. Yeah, getting crazy. It's like the first one in like a hundred of years or something, right, it was the first one and yeah, quite a while. I can't remember the exact timeline off the top of my head, but it was quite a while. Yeah, that's nuts, man, And it's uh, you know, you you see the same thing across the whole lore forty eight. Really, I mean Colorado lost their spring bear season not long ago, you know, and then uh uh, I don't know. I know that in in Pennsylvania they're always doing stuff with bears. It always seems to be like their predators to that people. I don't I don't know why that is, because you think they'd be like what people would consider more dangerous creatures, so they would be okay with you hunt them, and I don't. I don't get it. Yeah, and there, Yeah, I don't know. So is that one of the things that kind of uh drove you to Alaska? Like, I know, it's a different world because I have family up there, you know, and it's just the culture is is a lot different, and I would just imagine that it's, um, it could be easier to be who you are up there, you know what I'm saying extent, But I mean there, there is still I mean there there's groups up here that are the same way they are down there. Man, they're anti hunting and they're trying to affect things, and they've had areas closed down, you know, for for example, where I work here in a suburb called Eagle River, basically like thirteen miles out of Anchorage. And earlier this week, I want to say it was, or last week, take that back as last week. On Monday, they had a hiker go missing and they have search trus out the next day and this gall went down a trail and American out of the woods that are another guy jumped in front of her. The guy wound up getting more pretty bad and sent to the hospital. And they went back in with I think fish and game went back in and the bear wound up. He was guarding the body of the hiker that he killed him and was guarding the body. And you know, this area there's no bear hunting. These bears, they say, lost their fear of people there. The populations starting to explode, the coming into town, and you know it's all because you know, there was groups that advocated against the hunting that was in place in this area, and they pushed it out. They pushed the hunt boundaries out so far away from town, and now there's these populations and bears that have this big buffer zone and it's going to create more and more problems that they do something. So on that note, have you ever been charged by bear? Oh? You want that story? Huh? So I've been charged. I've been charged five times. Four of them. One was shot and killed the tistel, three of them were killed the rifle, and the fifth one ran me over and I never saw. So I've been charged five times, five times. Yeah, and I've deterred two cells with cubs with pepper spray. Okay, So were these all grizzlies all black bears? For all black bears? Love me that I have not had. I had a grizzly this weekend walk right up alongside the blind that I was hunting and come around front for a shot. But he was actually I never got a picture of him because I was too slow getting the phone out, but he actually walked up right alongside the blind, sniffed the screen, then walked away. Yeah. I don't ever want to be that close to a bear again. If I would have had my pistol out, i'd probably I would have probably just shot right through the blind shot him in the head and killed him. But but that was that was way too close for comfort. I mean, if he would do something, I don't think i'd had time to react even once it did have the gun out. Yeah. Wow. So as guy with with the experience in the event, I guess I gotta ask it. You're gonna grab the pepper spray or the pistol. It kind of depends on the situation. I mean, if I have a few seconds to understand what kind of bear I'm dealing with, I'll probably go for the pepper spray if I think that's the way we route to go. Otherwise, I mean, if I got to just react, I'm gonna grab the pistol. Pretty super effective. But if you don't know what you're dealing with, you know, I'd rather just kill the bear. If I know I'm dealing with the south with cubs, probably just trying to scare me off a pepper spread. You know, if it's a predator man, you never know. If it's a predatory bear, you're better off just killing it. Do you feel like some of your charges were predatory? No, um, pretty much all online we're hunting in due situations. Where we had, you know, one, I'm trying to think one of them is a south that I had yearling cubs that I treat. She came back down the tree after me and came at me and I shot her. So most of mine were all more defensive type charges. Yeah, mm hmm. So what one was? What kind of handgun? I mean, what kind of handgun are you using in that bear country? Or Megan's three P D Smith and Weston super lightweight kicks like a mule. But yeah, a lot of guys, I mean, the guys, what they pack is all over the board up here. Um there there's guys thinking nine, a memory, ten, a M's and adequate bear gun in Alaska, And I'm well, I don't want to have you backing me up, but I think Megan's kind of the bottom line kidding, Yeah, man, I don't really like for I guess self defense to humans. I kind of questioned nine. I mean them sometimes, you know what I mean, I can't imagine if you bears. We kind of that was the point. And I was actually talking to a guy online, oh when I sitting in the ground blend this weekend about it, and like it's like there's there's humans that soak up eight or ten shots having to nine AMM and keep coming. I mean, I ain't gonna shoot no day. I'm grizzly bearer than nine am, No kidding. It's like even at ten. I mean, it tends a great personal defense round, but it's not a bear round, so you know, I mean, I don't know if you ever heard of. It's called the four three one rule for you know, picking a bear gun. That basically you want the caliber before to your bigger at least a three hundred grain slug doing at least a thousand feet a second. So if you, yeah, what's the pack for a bear gun, that's a good rule to follow. Cool, that's a good info. I had not heard that. I'm glad to hear it now though. Yeah. No kid. You know my guide we had up in British Columbia this last year. Um, he kept telling all these stories about black bear charges and it's just like it just seems like it's just a regular thing up there with the black bears at least, I mean, yeah, they but you know they do, like he you could tell when we we had a grizzly actually in the trail about maybe three arts up ahead of us at one point, and he just acted completely The guide acted completely different when the grizzly was there. It was like a you could tell it is a different level of fear, you know what I'm saying. Yeah, but you know a lot of up here in Alaska where these the grizzlies are hunted more. I mean, they want absolutely nothing to do with people. There. They are they get a whiff of people or see you and they're gone. Now, some other areas, like you go down on the Keen Eyed River, I don't know if you're familiar with the Keen Eye or the Rush, and you know these places where you're literally fishing in fifty yards of bears. Sometimes these bears have no fear of humans at all. You know, they know you're not gonna bother them. They're not really gonna bother you because they're after fished. Yeah, as long as you keep your distance, pay attention, you're fine. So, I mean, it's a the bear thing up here is definitely a different world. And the black bears up here have a curiosity level which is unbelieving. So that's that's interesting. That would be that could get really scary a guy like me especially Yeah, I had the first year we hunter British Columbia. The the outfitter was actually our guide and he, um, we were talking one night, uh, right before we went to bed, and you know, I was talking about snakes. Um, and we don't have like a ton of rattlesnakes right here where we're at in Texas. We have a ton of cotton mouths and uh, you know we're not far from rattlesnake country pretty much, you know, pretty heavy rattlesnake country, and and uh, we were talking about snakes and stuff, and he was just like he was like, he goes, I'd rather fight a grizzly bearer than a rattlesnake. I was like, kidding, But that's just you know, that's that's funny, because that's just the difference in like whatever, several thousand miles of growing up you know. Um. But I had a you know, I guess a couple of questions on like traveling and that kind of thing, because um, you know, I know how we did it and I've only been twice to like a big western out where we had to really go a long ways. Yeah, and we did the bad country thing and that kind of thing. But you know, like how do you pack to fly for a trip like that? You know, generally, you know, if I'm gonna like when I came up here the first time, I packed, I moved stuff up here on the plane the first time. But if I'm gonna pack to go, say if I'm flying home, for instance, a deer hunt, you know, kind of reverse it. I feel last I can in my bowcase. Um, you know, I'll pack my boat, get all my stuff in there, and then I'll pack as many clothes and stuff around that as I can. Make sure I have all my you know, the things that T. S A doesn't want you to having your carry on, you know, your knife and that kind of stuff. I get as much of that in a case, and you know, I'll pack my carry on. The other thing extra players are clothes and change the clothes as they lose my pluggage. M hmm. It's really not there's not a real good science to it. I mean, it really comes how long you're gonna be gone, you know, pack a suitcase full of stuff. I'm gonna be gone for a long time. But gender I can get everything and my carryings on carry ons and my bowcase and and being good shape. So the one the one thing that you know, I would say is make sure you have something with you. You know, if you get stuck without your you know that bowtcase doesn't make it for some reason. Make sure you got enough stuff with you get through a night while you're waiting for it. It happens, you know, I won't say fairly often, but it does happen up here from time to time. You know, things are delayed, and a lot of guys when you're flying the anchorage up here, and if you're flying out somewhere else, do you know one of the more local one smaller airports, sometimes there's delays getting stuff out there. But I mean it might be a few hours, might be two days. So and if you have the option of grabbing your stuff and taking it with you, you know, depend on the airlines you're flying. There's so many different scenarios up here to really cover. But you know, if you grab your bocase from from from baggage and take it with you, you know where whatever it happens to be your rifle case with you, you know, that's really the best man we we had a let's see, I think it was the first year, we had a he was gun hunting, and so we got to Calgary in Alberta and they, you know, it was just like I mean like at DFW here in Texas, in Dallas, we um, like I don't even think we had to take our shoes off when we went through you know, security. I mean, it was like no big deal or whatever. And then we get up there to Calgary, which is I think our second stop, and dude, they took forever with that gun case and they like he you know, it was almost like an SNL skit skit where he was like putting his gloves on, his rubber gloves on, and like stretching them out and with his fingers, you know, and like you know, popping the rubber arm or whatever. And it was like it's almost comical. It would have been comical if it wasn't me. You know, like that was about to be late for my plane. And so we're we finally like an hour later, he gets through like looking through this day gun case and everything, and um, we we take off man and are this and the next leg of our plane is on kind of like a prop jet um you know, and it's and so it's like the we were down on the tarmac. We're like underneath the airport where we're gonna like actually board the plane. And uh we get there and when we get to the door, the two hostesses like walk in the doors from the air the airplane and um, you know, we can see our airplane out the windows and they're like, um like, oh, sorry, we just closed the gates and and uh. Heath the guys with he was like, we're looking out at like the forty people or whatever they're going to be on this plane that aren't even on the plane yet and standing in line, and she was and he was like, he was like, we can't just you can't just get us through real quick. I mean, we're we'll be right there at the end of line. And they're like, no, we just we are. We closed the gates ten minutes in advance or something like that, you know, and and he's like, you know, he started he didn't He kept his composure pretty well, but he was getting pretty angry. And he was like, I can see my gun going on the plane right there. That's my gun. And it's like these like we can just slip out right here, and we're not. We're gonna still be waiting on people, you know, and they wouldn't have it. I was, I was completely amazed on a like, you know, it was a small airline and everything. Anyway, we uh, we had that happen in the gun actually, so we had to stay. We left Calgary and we actually went to Vancouver, which was not where we were going, and stayed the night in Vancouver. Um, and then we were supposed to fly out to uh the next airport the next day, the next morning. And so what the they were are? We watched the gun get on the plane in Calgary and go to our destination airport where later that day we're supposed go to Vancouver. So the next morning we get on the plane, I mean, we get through security in Vancouver and Heath gets a phone call and they're like, um, sir, you're gun. We have a gun for you, a firearm here for you or whatever. They had sent it to Vancouver, and we almost I mean we were literally about to board the plane before he he had to run back, grab the gun, go through check it, and go through security again. And we almost missed the flight out of Vancouver. So you're right, man, it can happen, you know, things can go haywire. Normally the guns not ahead of you though. That's kind of an odd one. Yeah, it was, it was, It was. I was actually pretty surprised because everything I heard, like you said, it can happen, but it doesn't usually happen. So I gonna say, I've flown back and forth, you know, a handful of times, and I haven't had an issue with my bow, but they seem to be a little more picky when it's when it's a gun. And yeah, yeah, I can see that for sure. So what's your favorite hunt you've ever been on? Ome? Man? Oh? God, you know, I mean there's all kinds of cool stuff to hunt, but I mean my favorite, my favorite hunt still going home to whitetail hunt. Man, If you were gonna be down to one thing, that's what I do. And my my my favorite buck probably that one you saw that article on is at one seventy two. I mean, I hunted that deer for three years and the only time I ever saw him was the night I shove me out there, you know, outside of hunting season in the velvet. The only time I saw him this is the night I shot him. So that's that is awesome, man. So Um, are you gonna miss that whole history thing with animals when you know, when you're hunting in Alaska? Yeah, a little bit. I mean because up here, you know, the trail camera thing isn't anywhere it's near what it is down there, you know, animals, just the home range thing is different, and you you really don't mean I use a trail cam on the bear bait, but but it's definitely a different ball game. You know, I still get to do the trail camp thing at home, you know, at the cell camera stuff. So that's kind of right. So you're an anchored Alaska getting cell cam white tails from Washington. Yeah, you can get yet that works. That's awesome. That is that is pretty neat. So are you gonna make it back this year to hunt white tails in the fall. Yeah, I'll go back in November. Also, I got clients to guide and then I'm gonna gonna go back and hunt myself. So so when does hunting season wrap up in Alaska? Um? It really never ends? Actually, so yeah, literally that's the truth. There. There's something to hunt year round. The unit I'm in hunting right now for bears that never closes. For black bear, there's a season on baiting. But you can hunt black bears year round. Obviously when they're hibernating, it's not too productive. But but so so there's that, and then you know there's sheep season, and goat season will start coming in here here in August, you know, move so ends up. I think there's some cariboo open up in August two, I can't remember. Moose start in September, you know, and that stuff rolls around into October and then October and to bring on more goat seasons and on into the winter you get Muskok season. If you get like you have to draw that tags. I mean, it goes year round. You just gotta be willing to do the traveling around the day to go do it. But but if you want to something to hunt pretty much any time of year. So yeah, that's awesome. Man. Uh do you have ever done the blacktail thing? I haven't done the blacktail thing up here yet. I've killed one back home in Washington, but I haven't done it up So they're a little bit different, right, and that the Colombian and the sick Or they're they're not a lot different. Um, the racks won't get as big on them, and I think they're on average or a tad bit smaller body. But I know a lot of guys that hunted him. I guess they have. You know, the bucks winder in the rut have a heck of an aggressive streak and makes them pretty collable with grunting. That's even I'm kind of one of these years, I'll get out there and give that a shot. But you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna do some of the other stuff first. Yeah, yeah, sure, have you done any of small game stuff up there? Um? I did a little bit of predator hunting this winter. Um, I didn't have much luck with it. It was I was not in a good spot, you know, I know no one what I know now I'm gonna go to some different areas. But yeah, um, I didn't get up here soon enough to really, I shouldn't say soon enough. I didn't have residency soon enough to really want to spend the money on the small game stuff to grouse. And I got you. So were you hunt for fox or what were you after? Well? Pretty much anything? You know. I called in a Fox, called in a Kyle. They both came in behind me and get them. But you know, fox kyote wolf for wolverine, any one of those four. Wow, I didn't I didn't realize there was kyotes up there. Oh yeah, I was kind of coyotes up here? Yeah? Wow? Huh? So are they? I mean, do they inhabit the same ranges as wolves up there or they do? They stay all the way? There is overlap that generally you're gonna find the coyouts and the thicker stuff, you know, once you get up on like the tunder and the more open stuff. You know, that's for the most part where you're gonna find the wolves. And you do find coyotes out there too, But but the coyotes tend to be, you know, on the thicker stuff that the wolves don't spend as much time in, you know, the same thing boxes too. So I bet a kyot hill from Alaska is awesome. I've heard they are. That one I saw, Man, he was big. I had to think for a second. I turned around, like, oh man, that that's a coyote. Yeah he was. That's cool. So how long did the residency thing take to kick in? A year? You gotta be here here, doce you get here? You gotta have a way to prove that you've you know, been living. Some guys say it's the driver's license, you can use that, but but I didn't get my driver's license up here for like sixty days till after I moved. So we just used one of the house builds in my name on it to prove that I've been here. So yeah, really all it takes. So I got you, So what were you? What were you itching for the worst as soon as you got that residency? Um, I'm still itching for Moose. That's probably the one I want the worst, Moose and the doll sheeps. So yeah, I don't know. It's yeah, so much stuff do it's hard to end one down. It sounds like it. Man, that is awesome. Man, Moose is uh, me and a couple of friends kind of have this whole Moose and thing going on. So but it's kind of starting to get time to start making some uh some puzzle pieces move around on that thing. If we're going to actually make that happen, you know, I know we kind of need to be planning a year or two out for that thing, so I might have to hit you up for some pointers on stuff or whatever. But I do know that you you don't want to shoot it more than a quarter a mile from the river, and you don't want to shoot it in the river. Those are the two things I've heard from people. Yeah, if you got guys to help me, you can get away from the river. But I mean, I don't know, man, it's all kinds how much work you want to do. Yeah, yeah, it's probably gonna be a lot of work to get to Alaska, So I don't know how much I'm gonna want to do on there. I had a buddy who uh he he shot his bull, you know, I guess it was like standing right at the water's edge and it just catapulted into the river. And I've seen the pictures, you know, and it's like a third out of the water, and you know, you can see his big angler. And he said that that was like one of the worst things ever is trying to quarter up that moose in the water, you know, because you can't move it. You know, they're huge. So yeah, yeah, well they where they fall is where you deal with. Yeah. Yeah, I can only imagine. So, um, what's the next big experience you're after? You know, what, what what are you gonna do when you finally conquer Alaska. No, Man, I don't know I'll ever conquer Alaska. I mean, I'm one of my end goals eventually to round out, you know, kind of getting the the big ten with my bow, and then then we'll see, you know, some day I'd like to go on a stone sheet pump, but my pocketbook is not deep enough for that yet. I'm hoping that, you know, there's a there's a scale of where demand and and supply me and I'm hoping that somehow that levels back out in a different way at some point in our lifetime. I mean, that's even up here. Some of the what they get for a grizzly bear hunt and some doll sheet punch just blows my mind what people pay to come hunt them. You know. There's one guy that I talked to, an outfitter that's working with us in the magazine Man, thirty thousand dollars for a grizzly hunt. Man, and that's before the trophy fees. Yeah. OK, well maybe uh, maybe these hunts opening up down here in the lower forty eight will drive that cost down a little bit. Yeah. Yeah, you ever know, yeah, have you ever done? You know, like we're talking a bunch of adventure trips out west, but have you ever done one out east? I have never gone east. I wanted to. I actually had a gator hunt lined up at one point in it fell through, But going yeast is definitely something I'd like to do, especially for turkeys and hogs. Those are those are two things I definitely like to come do. Well. We can help you out with hogs, that's for sure. We've got plenty of them, That's what I've heard. Man. That guess there's no shortage of them down there. That's one thing. Glad we don't have them washing between because man, yeah, they will take over man, But they're fun to run around screaming your head off with behind them. You know, the shotgun in your hands for sure. Can is there anything you can leave us with? It's just like inspiration as to why you should kind of leave the dulg drums of life now and then and just travel and find great experiences. Oh man, that's hard. I know, it's I know, I know. Yeah, somebody told me five years ago this is where i'd be had I told you know I was married back then. I said, your nuts, I'm not gonna be living in Alaska. I mean just if you're a young guy and you know there's something you want to do, it's doable. Just just drop what you're doing down there and get up here and give it a shot there there, regardless of what here on news, there's work to be had up here. There's plenty of opportunity, and it's worth it in the long run, I mean, if it's go after it. Yeah, I mean I was a little hesitant when I first start about thing about coming up here, and then I'm glad I did, so. Yeah, man, that's cool. I you know, I look at you know, I'm about the age where my granddad and our grandparents, and my wife grandparents, and my friends grandparents they are all getting pretty old and not able to move around that great sometimes, you know, and I look at it and I'm like, you know, and not many of them, because the people I hang out with are poor folks but not minium and have much money, you know, But there are some and and it doesn't matter, um, you know, I mean, yeah, they're their their kids will will have that money passed down to them, and there's something to be said about that. But like at some point, you know, um, you're you're gonna be old, you're gonna sitting around and you're gonna need a story to tell. And if you haven't done anything but work, you're probably don't gonna have very many stories, you know, that's true. Anyway, that's kind of way I look at it, and and, uh, well, Gary, we appreciate your time. Man. What's the good way for the listener and to get connected with you? And best ways is looking me up on Facebook. That's the easiest way to get me. I'm I'm usually my phone's on Facebook pretty much all the time, so they want to look me up. That's a great way to do it. Well cool, man, Well, I appreciate your time, like said man, And this has been a great conversation. Hopefully we can, uh we could chat again soon. Maybe talk some white tails. Yeah, I definitely talk some white tail. That's kind of my bread and butter. So cool, all right, man, Well, I appreciate you. Have a good eatning alright, you guys too, all right, see you all right, I'm thinking moves nineteen. Oh my goodness, dude, It's like after that, I'm just like ready to go. I'm ready to like do the whole hunt everything. Man. That's just so cool. Yeah, he saw my hunting doll sheep and mountain guts in the same year. Yeah, who gets to do that? Here's the problem. We've talked about this. I don't like problems. How do you like we live our lives like in reverse? Isn't this what you always say? Yeah? Is this? What are you the guy I always talked to this about? Possibly, I said that, why don't they let you get the tag early and then pay him for thirty years? Kin? Yeah, yeah, I guess if you died, that would screw the system up. Screw systems probably don't want you do that. But if you died on the hunt, you know, like it really makes it bad. Uh No, I just like feel like, you know, like people work, work, work, work, work until they have money to retire, and then there's they're like broken down, can't hardly do anything. So for getting RV and go to communion stores across the country, let their dogs use the bathroom out from yea by lunch at BUCkies. But like, I feel like that's that's kind of the issue. It's like man, but I do, like, I don't know, I really would love to just move off to Alaska, but I can't do that at this point in my life, I don't pay. I had the same thought earlier today, even before we did this podcast. I was like, I would not change the life I have now. Like I love my wife, I'll love what we're at, you know. I love what you and I get to do and how we get to hunt. But I'm almost glad that my eyes weren't opened as a very young man. I'm things would be a lot different if I was seventeen and I had a good long talk with Gary. You know what I mean, Things would be a lot different. It would you'd be like Beard down to your belly button probably, yeah, and be married to one of those Alaska bush girls, you know on those that show Alaska bush people. We should have asked him about the name. Yeah, we should have this opportunity. He knows, probably knows the dig on him. Uh okay, So are you gonna carry a side arm in Colorado this year? No? Just big old coons, aren't they just fight a bear and be fine. Written loves to make fun of you about that, it does, But that's all right. I can make fun of Brennon for many things, so it's it's fine. Well, Okay, I was just wondering because we're talking to Gary has been attacked five times. I'm telling you the bear, I mean, a two y pound black bear in Colorado is a big bear. I think. I don't know much about it, but they just it's not the same critter. And I've only had that one close encounter and she did not want any part of me. You know. It was just you had a karate chop coming at her and I actually had a I had a recurve. It was gonna get busted across her nose. It was my was it was my first plan. Yeah, I've always thought, and I really really don't want to have to ever test this out, but I always thought, if like a hog came at me, I would just kick it in the face as hard as I can. It's not gonna go well for you think I've done that, and uh their necks are so strong they don't care. They don't care. Uh. Now, I think if you came down anything with that long bridge of a nose. So that's why I think about like the bow across the the bear, or like if you're getting attacked by a dog or a hog, especially hawks and have a really long nose, but if you can come down with something blunt on a bridge of their nose that it really will affect them. I've seen that happen on hogs a bunch. But yeah, just a kick, I don't I mean, maybe what if I just like used used it, like I stepped up on the top of his head and just propelled myself up into the tree. You could do that. It's not a locust. I was just I was just wondering about the bear thing, because I was I was thinking about that when Gary was talking, I was like, it's bro over here. I carried a side arm one yeard you got tiring, well, I carried it a nut team eleven and it was heavy. You know, maybe if I had like a little Celtic P nine or something like that, But then you're just piece shooting them anyways, Like what's the point, you know? I just no, I don't even wrong. I go to Gris Country or Alaska, I do have a healthy fear of the bearers, you know, But in Colorado it's just it's a different thing. Man. It's not that worried about it. Yeah, it was weird being up there in British Columbia, man, I mean it was because I never had been in Grizzly Country, and then all of a sudden you step into like the Grizzly country. I mean, I guess outside of Alaska, you know, like you're like they are around, Well, those aren't those interior bears like really big? I mean, I don't know about in that particular area, but I mean the guide and he pretty much agreed that the one we saw was a nine footer, So I think that's pretty solid bear. Well that's three footer bigger than my six footer, So I don't know, I don't know what that really means, but that's big. Yeah, That's that's what I'm thinking too. I just know I didn't want to I didn't want to cross fast with them too close, and uh, you know, we had to name the tent. Went. The second tent that we like, spiked out even further into that they had set up, had a just a five ft gash in it from where Grizzly Bear got mad inside of it when he was hibernating inside of it and just ripped a hole in it. So kind of scary, kind of scary, scary, scary. But uh, is there anything else we need to talk about? Not that I know of just ready to be honest, man, we can get through July. Yeah, it's gonna be like it's season. Yeah, it's gonna be It's gonna be pretty quick July for me because technically the next time you guys hear us podcast, I will I guess I'll be probably in like Yellowstone or something. Well, I mean i'll be somewhere in the mountains. Yeah, that'll be awesome. So, and I'll be going to Colorado in July. In the end of July, we're going to the q A Banquet. If you can make it to that, go check it out. It's the nine heat, right something like that. I think so I was thinking twenty one for some reason. I don't know. I can't remember it starts though. Yeah, it's a it's a novelins go down there, eat some benas and hang out with us. Yes, I'm probably. I am almost as concerned with Cajun food as I am with deer management, so I'm sure there will be a lot of both going down that weekend. I guarantee you. If I'm not eating caging every single meal, I'm gonna be get these burgers out of here. Oh with the crawfish burger, I got you. Give me that that booty and biscuit old MPAs, thank you. Yeah, so you're right though. It's coming up quick man, and I'm I'm ready to get in the mountains, get some cooler weather and just get like that midsummer refresher and then, uh, we're gonna work our way when we get back somewhere around the QT and May convention, We're gonna have chick trail cameras for the first time this summer, and there's gonna be some growth on there. Dude, I'm having like withdrawals. I want to go check out cameras so bad, I guess so I've just been so out of pocket that I haven't worried about it too much. So maybe so I think I need to put one in the backyard just to have something to check. Yeah, it's not a bad idea, not a bad idea. Well, keep us updated, alright, man, Well let's get out of here. I hope you guys are having a great week I hope you have a great weekend. And I'll be talking to you probably from the West side of the Rockies next time you hear from me. So anyway, God bless you. Guys, and remember this is your element living in

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