In this captivating episode, we sit down with adventurer Jim Baird to delve into his extraordinary journey of self-reliance and outdoor adventures. Jim shares his gripping survival experience on the renowned show "Alone," where he faced the ultimate test of endurance and resilience in the unforgiving wilderness.
Listen in as Jim recounts a harrowing day battling gale force winds during an outdoor escapade, highlighting the unpredictable nature of the elements and the challenges they present even to the most seasoned adventurers.
We also explore Jim's perspective on outdoor adventures with kids, uncovering the joys and complexities of sharing the wilderness with young explorers and instilling in them a love for nature.
Jim opens up about the profound experience of sleeping alone in the wilderness, reflecting on the solitude, vulnerability, and self-discovery that come with facing the night under the stars.
Join us as we embark on a journey of self-sufficiency and resilience exploration with Jim, discussing the importance of honing survival skills and embracing challenges as opportunities for growth and learning.
Through candid conversation, Jim shares insights into navigating challenging life circumstances and finding meaning in the pursuit of outdoor passions. He sheds light on the financial struggles that often accompany such pursuits, yet emphasizes the unwavering dedication to following one's passions and crafting meaningful stories through adventure.
Wrapping up our podcast discussion, we delve into the art of storytelling in the realm of adventures, exploring how Jim's experiences inspire and captivate audiences, weaving together tales of survival, perseverance, and the human spirit. Tune in for a riveting conversation on the intersection of adventures and storytelling with the remarkable Jim Baird.
Youtube
youtube.com/c/jim-baird-the-adventurer
The Adventurer Website
My Self Reliance YouTube Channel-
https://youtube.com/@MySelfReliance?si=d4js0zGc5ogYvDtO
Shawn James Youtube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5L_M7BF5iait4FzEbwKCAg
Merchandise - https://teespring.com/stores/my-self-reliance
In this captivating episode, we sit down with adventurer Jim Baird to delve into his extraordinary journey of self-reliance and outdoor adventures. Jim shares his gripping survival experience on the renowned show "Alone," where he faced the ultimate test of endurance and resilience in the unforgiving wilderness.
Listen in as Jim recounts a harrowing day battling gale force winds during an outdoor escapade, highlighting the unpredictable nature of the elements and the challenges they present even to the most seasoned adventurers.
We also explore Jim's perspective on outdoor adventures with kids, uncovering the joys and complexities of sharing the wilderness with young explorers and instilling in them a love for nature.
Jim opens up about the profound experience of sleeping alone in the wilderness, reflecting on the solitude, vulnerability, and self-discovery that come with facing the night under the stars.
Join us as we embark on a journey of self-sufficiency and resilience exploration with Jim, discussing the importance of honing survival skills and embracing challenges as opportunities for growth and learning.
Through candid conversation, Jim shares insights into navigating challenging life circumstances and finding meaning in the pursuit of outdoor passions. He sheds light on the financial struggles that often accompany such pursuits, yet emphasizes the unwavering dedication to following one's passions and crafting meaningful stories through adventure.
Wrapping up our podcast discussion, we delve into the art of storytelling in the realm of adventures, exploring how Jim's experiences inspire and captivate audiences, weaving together tales of survival, perseverance, and the human spirit. Tune in for a riveting conversation on the intersection of adventures and storytelling with the remarkable Jim Baird.
Youtube
youtube.com/c/jim-baird-the-adventurer
The Adventurer Website
My Self Reliance YouTube Channel-
https://youtube.com/@MySelfReliance?si=d4js0zGc5ogYvDtO
Shawn James Youtube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5L_M7BF5iait4FzEbwKCAg
Merchandise - https://teespring.com/stores/my-self-reliance
Everybody. Welcome back to the cabin. My name is Sean James and I am the host of myself reliance podcasts and YouTube channels and Sean James YouTube channel. So if you're new to the channel, you new to the podcast.
Speaker 1:Basically, I'm living as self-reliant to life as possible and I've been building that for the last ten years and I've been sharing it online and now at this point, I'm talking to other people that Not only can can help us on our continue on our journey to self-reliance through Kind of self-reliant skills and philosophies. So here in other people's perspectives, but then also sharing that and hopefully you can pick something up from experts where, like I always say, I'm not an expert, I'm just a typical jack-of-all-trades, so I'm all right at a bunch of things and collectively that makes a pretty decent life, I think, self-reliant life, but I'm not an expert any one of those things. So I'm trying to find an interview experts in various, you know, parts of the self-reliance lifestyle. Anyway, this conversation with Jim Behrer, to hope you find it interesting.
Speaker 1:Kelly and I are about to take off and I think it's probably take about an hour to get there and this storm that's raging outside it's just starting is going to continue for the next 24 hours and various, so hopefully I can get back here, all right back here into the bush before it really socks us in. Anyway, let's get into that interview right now. Thanks for listening. Welcome back to the cabin, this time with Jim Behrer at his house. Again, we're refilming Podcasts. We film was at the beginning of December.
Speaker 2:I think so. It was December.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I lost my hard drive, as you all know, and I don't know if I can come off with another hour to talk to Jim or not. But we're gonna give it a go. Try see if that was a pretty good. I was actually happy with that.
Speaker 2:I thought we yeah, I don't know if I'm ever gonna be able to sound that smart again for the rest of my life unlikely.
Speaker 1:Well, so I don't even know where to start me one. First of all, I guess what I was what we started off talking about, which was unique. We had both just got back from a trip to the West and there was some overlap. And now, since since we since we filmed that Podcasts you've released half of that series, yeah, and I've been watching it and see that some of the places on your way out to where you did your canoe trip, we're identical exactly the campsites that we had started. Oh no, kidding, pretty cool, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh right.
Speaker 2:Well, I know you stayed even much closer to the east on the North Shore superior.
Speaker 1:Yeah, superior. And then out in BC that's Fraser Lake or whatever it was called. That was go up.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah, there's Fraser Lake on the on highway 37.
Speaker 1:A yeah, I don't even know how it because we hit it on the way back through this would end up being probably a week after you were there and the fire had gone, swept through exactly that area, wow, and it Did shut it down. So we were camping in smoke basically in my Recreation area. That was actually closed, but we're like, okay, it's bedtime or like, yeah, we're just pulling in and we're staying there. So we had the whole place to ourselves, right, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I guess there's always a silver lining. We're bursting into flame hey.
Speaker 1:I got the place to ourselves yeah and that area is pretty sketchy so you don't want to be in one of the towns. Yeah, crazy, that stretch is pretty. It's one of the unsafe is small towns in Canada. Oh, really looked up, yeah, like Prince George and a couple other towns interesting yeah.
Speaker 2:Interesting and nobody really fucks with me. I'm six or five.
Speaker 1:I'm like all these people wouldn't have the capability anyway where we were going through town, because they're all strung out Like line in the streets and everything was never seen that.
Speaker 2:I've seen that a little bit of West like Winnipeg and, yeah, like a certain areas, but yeah, it's too bad.
Speaker 1:Yeah, anyway, I'm really big pussy though. I'm not really tough at all, so I know I'm taking you, yeah, just an alcohol. Push you over, yeah, yeah, I shouldn't take too long, yeah, so anyway, that trip was pretty cool that you guys did. I didn't think I was expecting, based on your Complaints about the weather, that it was gonna be horrendous, but yet she had. You know, so far in the series at least the weather wasn't that bad.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was the drive was for the most part good. Where it really got interesting was when we got onto the lower stick in river and I started, you know, with the drive out West. We were more or less self-sufficient, like we brought all our food, we had a camper, small teardrop camper trailer, finding places to sort of call home for the night along the way. But then we jumped over to a canoe trip down the steam stick in river and we had our two little kids, hudson, who's two, and Wesley, who's five and also has some severe disability so that comes with challenges as well and Loaded them all into an 18-foot canoe and the weather started out nice. But that trip the sickening goes into northern coastal rainforest, so you do get rain, but when you're like but we got like, put it this way, you could have done that same trip ten times and not have as much rain as we like, that's like a one out of ten.
Speaker 1:Amount of rain? It's not unheard of.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but the first time I did the stickine was, I think, 20, 2007, and we had the opposite. We had like ridiculously perfect, like probably one of the only like Five really sunny days a year, once we're in the rainforest. That we got and this time was like when I had my kids was just like you know rain, and then it just rained and rained and rain. And then you go to bed and you'd be like it's pouring rain. You wake up in the middle of the night. You're like, is it still raining this hard?
Speaker 1:and you wake up the next morning and it's still rain that hard, and then they just keep no.
Speaker 2:And then the all day the next day, and then the same thing the night after that.
Speaker 1:Like for like days dude, it's funny and so Obviously gonna provide links in the description of this video on the podcast. But if you don't know Jim and when his brother run alone, where they probably first Started I mean you had a public image to some degree before that, but that kind of put you on the map. I would think maybe more of a household name, but what's interesting is that with the family and the kids, because how long ago was alone? So alone was 2017 so what's that six years ago? Yeah, so.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, so I was before that I was doing like a lot of freelancing work for outdoor magazines, mostly like web based stuff, and which was cool. I got to do some really cool stuff, but it was, it was a struggle. So alone was kind of a break for me and it was after a loan I won, which you get to get money when you win, which is nice, and Then I use some of that to basically start, you know, hang on to more my business. I still contribute to magazines and stuff, but now I kind of hung on to the footage put on my own platforms and I'm super lucky that like more than just my mom didn't watch, you know, which is just like doesn't watch anymore, not really Pretends to my dad's right into it, but oh yeah, he loves it but yeah.
Speaker 1:So I started Getting into that once I want alone, because then I had some money that I could say, okay, I could take a little bit of a risk.
Speaker 2:I filmed this and edit for a YouTube channel. I won't, and only my mom watches. I'm not gonna like lose my ass. You know what I mean. So, and then also about married and had a kid. After that, too, I didn't feel like I'd be raising them in poverty too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Well, when did you get? Married, so geez 2018, so I was after. Yeah, really, it's when I started talking to you. I think you were up here. How long you been in this, oh?
Speaker 2:I guess about six years, so we moved up here. Tory was pregnant with Wesley when we moved up here, so you were married.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I moved up here late after a loan. Basically, yeah, yeah, okay. So we started talking around that period for the first time. Right for you, around what?
Speaker 2:I've had Wesley yet, but that because I remember when I met you were here the first time and me and Ted, right, we're hanging out. Yeah yeah, so maybe we believe only I've been talking before that.
Speaker 1:So you know I met first that time in person here. But we've been talking about organizing a moose trip before. You were on alone because, that's right, choked about a couple times before that was communicating with you. We were talking about a trip and then you went, you ghosted me and then I think I worry messages, that's right and said Tim's away, mm-hmm. And then I found it afterwards that you were filming alone at the time.
Speaker 2:Well, you were not allowed to talk about. So you signed this big agreement, this big scary agreement that you're not Tell anybody where you are and what you're doing, because they don't want to the lid to be both social media. Somebody finds out, oh, so-and-so is not alone, and it gets on the internet and then to share it around, so they want to keep it a surprise. Who's gonna be the cast and definitely who wins, right? So you?
Speaker 1:got a very yeah. You can't be back early and then people Guess he didn't win because we knew we went there. And now he's back a week later like one of the other yeah.
Speaker 2:I had some people that were kind of figured that. Well, judging by when your social media posts Stopped and then when they picked up again, that's a long time, so I don't know who the hell is lasting longer than that. So we think you want I somebody say that. Yeah, yeah, you know, people are allowed to make whatever guesses they want to make.
Speaker 1:You know I mean calculator, or not.
Speaker 2:Some of them weren't very calculated. Yeah, you know, I'm just not allowed to say whether they're right or wrong.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was the first season I actually watched. Yeah, wait to see any of it. No only watch the season, I think, since that probably one when, when Kai was on it, mm-hmm, I was pretty cool up on great slaves, like yeah, that's pretty nice big place to do it. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I was. I actually work for the alone productive teams during that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we were staying at plumber's lodge, which is a fly-in remote fishing lodge that you, it's not really the heyday for that lodge anymore, but there's. So there's a lot of buildings there and it's not really a winter place, it's like a three-season place. Yeah, so literally some people after I left I went there's still some open water and and you know, after I left it was minus 10 in people's cabins, minus 40 outside, minus 38 outside when it's Celsius, minus 10 in the cabins. For me it wasn't exactly warm because they just had like a Basic sort of propane heat thing in the lunch, yeah, and but it was pretty cool.
Speaker 2:So my job working for the production team was essentially just like hanging out with the people who tapped out and, and you know, because they could relate to me a lot more and I found it to be super interesting that the people that tapped out that I Talked to had such a similar Came to like some of the exact same conclusions I did about what really survival was actually like and what they had taken for granted and all that kind of stuff. So I was actually able to connect with them, I did felt bad that I went one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, though, it's like how can I connect with these people that tapped out.
Speaker 2:I'm like, hey, you want a bottle, couple bucks, you know, you know, but no, I've made some good friends that way. And then during my downtime I'm fishing on the eastern arm, a great slave lake, and there's an area there where there's just some natural lake current, because all these rivers kind of pour into this upper basin, even though it's the same elevation as the rest of the lake, that kind of has to push through in arrows and you just catch from Shorshawn and you're just like Blue 15-pound lake trout, you're right from shore. This, this log, has been there since the 70s, mm-hmm, and I'm catching them, ones with orange fins, ones with yellow fins, ones with White fins, you know. And I actually got some time to go out with the guy who was staying on with the production as a caretaker. He's like the main guide, bob. I forget his last time. He's famous dude and got to go out on like a privately guided thing and I'm like this is a dream job, you know.
Speaker 1:So anyway, yeah, so anyway, yeah, that's bucket list for me to get up there actually. Yeah, did you catch anything big when you're in on the boat?
Speaker 2:nothing big, and I talked to the guide, bob, who was, like I said, he was still just working as a caretaker, he wasn't actually guiding because it was only production team and he's like, oh yeah, all the only the little ones are around here at this time of year and I'm just catching, like giant, probably twenty twenty pound lake trout, like I had, only only little ones now. Yeah, so nothing, nothing, probably bigger than 20 pounds.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, still cool, yeah, so that's uh. So that would been. How long was that? That's five years ago, maybe, well.
Speaker 2:I guess a little less than that, because there was, there was this season, that the first season that was up on great. So they call it alone the Arctic yeah, I don't know if it's technically the Arctic by like close enough, yeah. And then, um, I and they did two. So they did the first one, which is where Jordan won. It was on Joe Rogan or whatever yeah. Then the second one was that guy, roland, who's the Alaskan guide. He won where Ky Moroni was on it. Yeah, you showed the muskox.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and.
Speaker 2:Jordan got a moose and like beat a Wolverine to death with an ax and all this crazy like great, like it was a lot colder there but compared to where my season was, there was a lot more food Really, oh yeah, yeah, like it was colder, but also where I was it was just an insane damp cold, yeah, and like so there was kind of food for me, but that was all stuff at low tide where you know you're eating like limpets and stuff that has like almost zero fat in it. And the fishing was very bad, borderline, unreliable from where we were. So you know, there you really had the opportunity to bunny. They're super, super, super with lean too. But you could snare bunnies. You can catch big, you know huge lake trout. You actually have a legitimate opportunity to get a moose.
Speaker 1:You know, yeah, yeah, yeah, and it's more of a landscape that you're used to especially. But yeah, here it's more comparable to here than it is to Vancouver. I look at top trouble, not a tropical, but a rainforest, exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that would have been challenging people to underestimate survival from the perspective of the dampness and the temperatures. Yeah, and the dry halls too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we got away with having like a pretty basic shelter because we built like a platform. Everything's an underwater river in the northern part of Vancouver Island so when it rains the river almost comes through the ground and starts flooding. So you can be thinking that you're camping in a perfectly dry area and you can hear water trickling under it and the next thing you know you're camping in water. So Ted and I sort of saw this was about to happen. Then, going back and watching the show after, we saw that actually did happen to a bunch of other groups. So we ended up building a raised platform and we ended up just with trees and the amount of trees I think we needed like 21 trees this big just to build this platform by putting one log after the other and the amount of energy just to source those normal sized logs. So we're going to, as followers, mostly old growth we're talking about trees for me, to you. So how you can't access any of the branches. Everything's huge.
Speaker 2:So to get just the wood for that, we were walking over these huge undulating hills, bushwhacking a lot of its hemlock, which you know ain't the lightest either, right, like it's pretty dragging it back. You're already tired, you're already hungry. It's waterlogged, I guess. Oh, it's soaked, yeah, so it weighs a million pounds. So our shelter, because of that, we ended up being like you know what this is too much work to really put any time. We are on Northern Vancouver. I got down to minus 10, but we had sleeping bags. It was good to minus 30. So what we did to compensate is, when we had to fire every day to cook, we just take the hot rocks from around the side and just tuck them all into our sleeping bag. Yeah, and that's what we did. So we actually had a more or less a shelter that was kind of open on the front and just almost a bed with, with, you know, an, a frame over it.
Speaker 2:But yeah, if we were up on great slave life, like we just would have died, yeah, it's really nothing. Yeah, it would have been, you know, game over. Yeah, they would have just found a couple of popsicles sleeping and that thing.
Speaker 1:You know, yeah, it's a fascinating series and it's become a lot more mainstream than it was in the first season or two, so it's actually, I mean, good to win it, obviously, but it's also getting respect even amongst people that know anything about survival or wilderness living, because it's a little bit more authentic than yeah, well, you have everything self-shot, so you don't have a camera crew, so you're really out there for your survival and how you can't fake losing 25% of your body weight.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know what I mean, which is what I think. I lost 26% of my body weight, oh, or you could use it now?
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. What's that self-filming thing? That's interesting because I watched, you know, just as entertainment. I watched some of the bullhunting YouTube videos, yeah, and like they got. Not. I don't film for that purpose, but any time I have taken the camera and I did a few times on my ounce this year just messing around with the camera trying to capture that, you just messes up the opportunity. So you imagine being in survival situation like you are on that show. It's like, oh, I better get the camera and set it up, which is why you know, some of the big game hunts don't get caught on camera because you're too focused on actually getting the animal.
Speaker 2:And what do you want? The shot, yeah, or this. You know days and days and money and so much logistics and time and everything's been put in and you get one freaking chance you want to be bungling around with the camera and that's why those guys on the hunting shows they have to have a dedicated cameraman To be there following you. You know what I mean. I had that with a grouse that I managed to get the camera set up and throw a stick at this thing and honestly it was near perfect throw but I missed by an inch.
Speaker 2:And the reason I know that is because at night I'd watch the replays of like you know, trying not to waste too much battery, but I'd watch it rewind and slow it down and be like, oh my God, and I throw this thing at this parter and it just the stick just like less than an inch underneath it. But I was super worried that, okay, I'm coming up, I'm going to set my camera up here. Yeah, the GoPro flew off my head and smashed on some rocks you know what I mean and I managed to capture it, but, yeah, like the odds on it spooking were pretty high.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's so that challenge with the, with self filming, I would say, and I haven't. I try not to compliment you because it goes to your head so quickly. Yeah, I'm just so full of myself. But the your footage and your editing on the YouTube channel. I think I'm not sure that's still you while you doing it. If you went to RY, share that or how you do it Actually.
Speaker 2:Tori's editing. Tori's in the house right now editing our BC trip. She just finished editing the one where we lost our canoe. Talk about like there's always something else to learn, right, like I've been doing this for 18 years. You know what I mean and you know I think my canoe is secured. Well, you know, guess what? It's not.
Speaker 2:And this crazy beautiful day, all of a sudden, gale force winds blow up out of nowhere. We got the kids with us, sands blowing in our eyes. We're frantically trying to guide down the tent and I'm watching the video footage. It doesn't really do it justice. You know, if we didn't have a good tent it would have just been flattened. But I got like this MSR mountain Everest mountaineering tent. You can camp on K2 in this thing. You know what I mean and you know because it was foolishly I should have run over has a tent blowing. We're trying to guide down using rocks and sticks. I should have checked on the canoe but I thought I was thinking, oh, you know it'll be OK because you know it's way up on the beach.
Speaker 2:And you know if it blows in way and it's tied up to this log, and if it blows away, it's going to blow into the woods. Well, woke up the next morning, got out of the tent.
Speaker 1:No canoe, so you're down a river, remote area with your family, of things that you're, you know you're, you're protecting them, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and here's me just blowing it, and you know which you got to own and then so that's embarrassing to put on YouTube too, but you got to be able to show failure. So what ended up happening was it broke. It broke free. So there's just like a log in the beach like this, like kind of like this. So I tied it under the log, but it was just kind of like a loop. What happened was the wind blew it so hard If the wind was coming in the other direction we wouldn't find but it just, the loop, went under the log like this, and then it blew probably about 50 meters into a stream and then washed down the stream into the river. You know what I mean. And like, let me tell you the heart attack, like, like the kid I'm, like, did we put it?
Speaker 1:over there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right, yeah, yeah, you know, I believe sorry, the kid knows God, you know I mean total panic. And so the answer is like, do you need, like, do you blame yourself that you didn't reinforce your, your weld roll bars into your car roof because a tornado blew a tree down?
Speaker 2:on it and crushed it. Yeah, like this is your fault If you have once in a lifetime Gale, force wins. But should you tie up your canoe to prepare for a once in a lifetime storm? Every time you type, you cue, I mean, maybe the answer is yes, maybe at least just do a better job of tying it up. You know what I mean?
Speaker 1:Well, I mean obviously, it's a, it's a mist. Obviously it didn't work, so it didn't work. So the answer is, of course, yeah, there, I guess you do have to take that extra step, would you? Would you do it normally? And they are probably not. I mean it's, but hindsight is being, I'd say it's 2020, but the I guess I would imagine. I don't know what the comments are like, but I would imagine, because we're thinking, as we're watching this entire series and a lot of things you're doing with your families, that it's a lot to take on with two young kids and one with special needs.
Speaker 2:Well, fortunately there's alcohol, just kidding, yeah, so I guess yes and no, but we have. Yeah, we, you know you don't have. There's no time to hang out and have a drink kind of thing, you know what I mean? Like there's not really, maybe sometimes when the kids are, when the kids are asleep or whatever with dinner or something like that. But yeah, there's not as much time to just hang out and have adult time to amount of time that you have to break camp compared to in the amount of time that you have to make camp and feed the kids and everything is way bigger. So the distance you think you can travel every day is greatly reduced, you know.
Speaker 2:And then the kids start having a meltdown and then he shits himself and you got to you're changing diapers and they screaming and then you got to pull over to collect more sticks because if he doesn't have sticks to throw over the side, he's going to get grumpy.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:So you got to keep them happy and dry. But you know what I one of the things I did notice from that I just I said at what point do we start caring about our being wet and about our feet being cold, or even about bugs and these kind of things like we mean to me and Tori was dressed, so I just because the kids don't understand what the consequences of these things might be. But I just see these kids and they haven't learned that they need to feel uncomfortable and they just don't Like the kids didn't care, they didn't know the danger of the canoe, they're having an absolute blast and with that rain and keeping them soaked and they don't know that we only have one pair of dry clothes. And now dad's got a chop wood and sit up drying clothes under the tarp till one in the morning, trying not to let the wind blow the rain on them and they don't have to think about that extra amount of work, and maybe that's why, but they just seem to just be thriving out there, man.
Speaker 1:Well, it's our natural environment. Yeah, that's the people who say to that. They think that's the unusual thing. That's where I was going with that. You've got to be taking some criticism, thinking that people thinking that you're putting your family at risk and why don't you guys just go camping like everybody else does and drive to campers? Yeah, I mean that's what you can't.
Speaker 2:The thing is that's, the risk is that you can run into frequent storms, even if you're super prepared. Stuff happens. But I think the answer, too, is that everything has a risk and you can't do something that you're not comfortable with. Like we like to push our boundaries, do something, raise the bar with something that you're not comfortable with ourselves, sure, and even to a little bit of an extent with the kids, but I think with me it's something that, because I have the experience I do, I feel comfortable taking the kids out there. So for me it's not as scary or as dangerous as it might be like someone else, like, for example, alex Honol, can climb El Capitan without a rope. Could you imagine if I was to climb El Capitan without a rope? So me looking out at Honol, I probably think he's way crazier than he actually is, because for him he probably knows every handhold and it's just like clockwork too. You know what I mean. Maybe that's a bad example.
Speaker 1:Well, no, because put him in a canoe and he probably doesn't have the confidence that you have, and he should be taking his family on a roll over trip.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, so I just feel like it's something I can do, especially for my son, wesley, who has developmental delays, since he has FoxG1 syndrome. You know I'm not a neuroscientist, I'm not expert at physiotherapy, but being in nature is really good for him, which we've heard again and again, and that's something that I actually have the skill to do with him, to help him. And we've seen his core muscles strengthen. We've seen him his sitting improve and, even more exciting than that, we've just seen his overall awareness improve. By just looking at the scenery, you could see it on camera.
Speaker 1:I've watched his progress over the years on camera.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like remember when we drove by Bear Glacier and he's like looking and he's smiling and he can see it and his muscles don't move, his head doesn't move in a typical way, so it's sometimes hard to tell if he's looking at something. But just to see, look at that scenery, see it go by and take it in and smile, or see an animal, it's like really awesome that I don't think he would have got if we weren't traveling in the outdoors with him in that kind of way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and interact with the hoods and the freedom to take both. Oh yeah, you see how he's just running around no shoes on. Eh, it's funny man, he's a character.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh man, what a personality that is. Yeah, yeah, is he here today? Yeah, he's at daycare today.
Speaker 1:Oh, he's at daycare.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, he goes to daycare.
Speaker 1:Or else we wouldn't. This would not be like this.
Speaker 2:He'd be like jet dancing on the table sitting. We will rock you by queen. That's the thing he goes like and he goes to just like. That's horrible, but that's crazy. Yeah, but Tori, I was gonna say Tori's the one editing all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:I still do a lot of my editing, but I bumped up to shooting in 4K now and then I also am just taking extra time to, just because I have my charging and batteries more dialed in now than I did so I can keep things charged. So I'm breaking out that drone every time I'm setting up that camera on shore. That effort, yeah, and also one of the things, the Heart River was a little bit easier and I had a little more time than the Bonne plume, which was just this raging white water around every time. So it's hard to set a camera up and go back and get it. You know the time. So I really forcing myself to take that extra time to capture that element. And then I am working too with another editor who's cutting some of the stuff, so I have time to do things like podcasts and still editing some of the stuff myself too. So, yeah, it's a lot of work. As you know, I'll do well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a lot of work, but the storytelling is part of, it's one of the most important components of the editing and the capturing of it. And that like missing those shots and I find myself getting and I've been lazier, I would say, lately actually, so it's not like I'm improving that way, but stopping and getting that drone footage, like you guys went, even on your road trip the amount of times you would stop to film the car, like the driving away or driving too, or drone footage of the driving that delays a trip significantly, but to not have it. You can't just reap. It's not like you get home and say I'll just pull some B roll from some other thing and insert it there because it doesn't fit. There's no contact.
Speaker 2:Different place, different vehicle etc. Etc. It's kind of become almost a little second nature to me. But I do notice that now, when I'm so focused on following the story and getting all the shots, I'm not maybe not, I probably do have it's probably given me just through photography, I honestly a keen eye in some ways to spot where that beginning of the portage is or to spot an animal and stuff like that. But overall I think my general when I'm filming a trip so intently, my kind of general awareness of I used to be able to tell when I was gonna see an animal before I saw it. And that happened to me a bunch. I still can, but it still.
Speaker 2:That happened to me a bunch of times and I'm like I'm just gonna start saying this to see if it's really true or not. So I just started saying I'm like okay, be quiet, we're about to see an animal and sure enough, you'd see, I'd be like, oh, I guess there's wrong. And then five deer would be bounding along the side of the river. The first time me and Tori did this the Magneto one before we lived here I did that with the four deer and Tori's just like wow, you know what I mean. But all humans, we have that success, right, we all do, whether it's who knows what we're honing in on or what. But, like everybody can tell, most humans can tell if someone's staring at them when they're sleeping.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah but you could easily lose that and people have for the most. There are a lot of people who have lost that connection, that extra sense. So you do need to hone it and by putting yourself into those situations it comes back to you and I think that's one of the draws that people have, even to camping. If you're living in a city and you go camping on the weekend or something, you're drawn to nature, naturally for a good reason. I mean, that's who we are.
Speaker 1:But to keep hearing this actually podcast just did with a date from Canadian Prepper the other day. He talked about taking him three days to unwind from the city life when he gets out into the wilderness or even camping with the family, and I've heard that from a lot of people. That's not my experience, but a lot of people say that. So yeah, you need to. I guess it would be hard to slow down and you notice that even when you guys moved out here and where I am now, it's so silent that you are immersed and you're not inundated with all these extraneous noises and movements.
Speaker 2:I could just hear things better. And, janet, it's almost like you need to turn to your own internal volume down when you go into the city. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Well, people call that, even with animals, a sixth sense, because, let's say, there's a deer in the woods right here and you do have lots around here that it'll turn and look at you and you didn't think you even made a noise or a movement or anything, but they pick up on it. Well, they're just so in tune that you did make some kind of movement or you breathed, that, whatever it is. And when we have those senses too, so you do feel that somebody's looking over you, like you said, but it's probably because you're very slightly hurt breathing. You got slight movement or something, even maybe it's the air movement, because they haven't moved in the air.
Speaker 2:Maybe, maybe, yeah, I don't know if it's what exactly it is, but, yeah, maybe you subconsciously heard something you know. And when you spend more time in the bush, you start to realize like every noise comes from somewhere. And you start to realize and it's really exciting because you don't just write it off as a noise or a problem your ear must be like pulsing. No, that's a ground strumming. Yeah, yeah, you know, like that's a bird of Parker, you know. Or you hear a branch snap and you're like, okay, that's a deer's antler hitting a branch, and you know, it's probably the antlers, probably still in velvet. You know what I mean, or whatever, and all these things kind of. Or why is this bird making this noise? Or the squirrel Making this noise, right?
Speaker 2:That means there's probably a predator somewhere over there. You know what I mean and you start to be able to. It's really fun, you start to be able to kind of put these kind of things together which you've been camping with me and you notice I try kind of vocalize a lot and maybe sometimes I'm wrong or sometimes I people don't believe me, but then you know I end up being right sometimes. Like you know, like remember the eagle nests and I'm like guys, there's gonna be an eagle's nest around here, and I don't know who we're with, but they're like oh yeah, eagle's nest.
Speaker 2:Sure, sure enough, we round the corner. There's an eagle's nest, because I could tell the way the eagle was acting that I was protecting nests, which is just a simple example.
Speaker 2:But I do feel in a way that what I'm so heavily immersed in filming it that I kind of lose that like Connection. But I'm not always so heavily immersed in filming it. And when you see me out there doing these like long you know, two, three week solo trips, there are periods where I'm just like and I think that's, I've come to realize I do like traveling with other people better. But I've come to realize it's one of the things I like about being solo out there. It's because you kind of really slow down, you get it to almost like this meditative state and like really cool thoughts and ideas Sort of just just come to you, like you're not really trying to think about them, they just kind of come to you and you like you know, I don't know, it's just you get into this kind of Zone where you're just completely in the moment and it's a pretty cool feeling.
Speaker 1:Well, it's a yeah, probably cuz that hyper awareness is so important to your survival. Yeah, you're alone, you can't count. I get. People have been surprised to hear me say that I have a hard time sleeping when I'm alone out in the wilderness, thinking, well, aren't you like nature boy? And you just got so easy, you're comfortable and you go to sleep. Well, that's, that's a horrible survival thing if you sleep soundly by yourself.
Speaker 2:Threats I mean, they're overblown generally well, especially you, cuz half the time you're just in a bitty bag.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so there's no, nobody to save you. There's no alert if you don't have a dog with you, like no, there's no warning, early warning system. So you have to be aware. So don't I don't wish that I slept more deeply when I'm alone in those situations. Now the other thing is. I always leave food. I'm trying to get a bear to cry. Never happens, yeah, which? Is the irony these people are like. Aren't you afraid of bears, like I try so hard to see?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, to be honest with you do too.
Speaker 2:I've had some Really great sleeps solo in like polar bear country, but I did have a dog with me, yeah, but I do bring my dog into my tent and then I put like a polar bear fence around, which isn't like an electric fence or anything, it's actually just trip wires that are connected to 12 gauge blanks and so sometimes and I said I'm like a hair trigger so sometimes one goes off, sometimes two goes off and maybe all of them go off, you know, and hopefully it scares the bear away.
Speaker 2:Animals generally don't like really loud noises, right. But yeah, even you know my minus 40 down sleeping bag, even sometimes if it's really cool to put a liner in it, but and that helps with the condensation, but sometimes that's just too warm. And then I have my big inflatable down I forget the make of it like X-ped dead, like extra long, large fill with down so the cold doesn't come up. I'm like this is more comfortable than my pack and you're camped on a perfectly flat. Sir, I'm kept on the frozen ocean by these towering cliffs, you know, and I might be crazy being out there, but I'm like you know, I'm just like if I die, die.
Speaker 1:Well, that's, that's the other. That's yeah. If you're getting a deeper sleep, it it's so. That's when I will get.
Speaker 2:I like to think I don't care, I will wake up, though like do I still like, if are you sleeping? Like the ability to be able to be a soft sleeper and wake Up of a bear it's coming but also get a decent sleep. I feel like that's like a skill. Yeah you know what I mean, that, like you know, maybe your ancestors were better than us at well, and then what kind of way?
Speaker 1:how do you wake up? I wake up instantly and I can.
Speaker 2:I can jump up and defend, or I wake up and you start firing and Sorry, just yeah, I have. I one time I did that and and I fired a bear banger. So it's like a bear banger is like a really loud explosive that shoots about 50 yards and blows up, and you know what it was. But in case some of your listeners don't, and I just I hear my dog Middle of the night. Arctic polar bear country. Right, I was like, oh shit, you know. So I have this bear banger and I stick it out. I like the tents got a little vent hole, so I stick my hand out there and boom, but blast that off. Okay, I go back to bed. Well, in the morning I woke up and it was an arctic fox. They're coming over to check my stuff out, I had like. So there where I was camp there wasn't enough Snow to bury, so I have kind of like a steak. That the little contraption for my bear fences on okay.
Speaker 2:And and so there wasn't enough snow to push it down. So I had to cut like blocks of snow and make a snow blocks like that and then push this contraption in there so it would be firm in the ground and the the arctic fox had lifted its leg on that stack of blocks Right outside my tent. Yeah, so when I got that I got on the tent first take the fence out before I let my dog out, and the first thing my dog, sniffing it on, then found the piss and it just like melted the whole little Karen and like overpowered the arctic fox piss. But like he was like buddy, woke me up.
Speaker 1:So that's one good thing with having a dog there, cuz I could have been a bear you know, yeah, yeah, a dog, yeah, dogs, yeah, I struggled with whether we got another dog when we did get Kelly, because that's nice to have, but there's also lots of times it's inconvenient to have a dog on trips. Yeah, yeah, like, even I was thinking the last time I was here we weren't fishing, and it's actually two years ago I think now. Yeah, and north was with us but Kelly wasn't, and those types of trips I often don't take her with me, right, right trying to fish and yeah, it's not that fun for her when just yeah, then that when you, when you're beating them on camera, it doesn't look good.
Speaker 2:I mean just kidding. Actually you think kids it, you think kids are bad To what I mean be bad, like, because people there's a lot of really people out there that think God, that are just like I guess they call them like helicopter parents. Yeah, you know like, you know like that, think that if you're doing Anything, that's even what they would consider dangerous. Yeah, but you know what's dangerous. Driving on a two-lane highway, like that's really dangerous, but you're used to that. Yeah, right, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, like, imagine, like visiting, let's say, a northern native community that was off the road system in 1960, they would probably think, oh my god, you're driving fast in a car. Maybe they probably never driven a car. There's no road into there. You're driving a hundred miles a day. We never driven a car. There's no road into there. You're driving a hundred miles an hour on a road with your family. They think that's crazy. Then the people who visit from the city would say you're going in a canoe with your kids. That's crazy. You know what I mean. Yeah, it's like probably the highways was statistically way more dangerous. But then the other one is dogs. People, if you like, didn't understand, like I'm going out with a husky, oh husky Malamute, the thickest fur coat you have been there he got. We let him sleep in the tent. He panicked yeah, just too hot bashed himself under the wall and slept outside when it was minus 34.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the next morning you look like you might have had a little bit of a shimmer going.
Speaker 2:So we offered him go back in ten. He's like uh-huh, you know. And so it's like I'm taking my husky. They love the snow, they love to pull sleds and I'm taking on an eight hour walk a day. How is this not like the most fun thing for a dog ever to do?
Speaker 1:literally, which is why most of the Breeds are actually bred for some kind of sport, or not even sport for some kind of they loved that purpose. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but, like you know, we've come to a time where it almost feels like, unless your dog is a hundred percent comfortable, yeah right every turn doing exactly what it wants to be doing, but that somehow that's bad.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because that's what people expect of themselves. To right. I said, yeah, I think that's a problem, that I think we need an uncomfortable life in order to be challenged, in order to be satisfied. Yeah, fine, meaning I think these simple lives that we're leading are Really horrible, physically and mentally.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's spiritually and emotionally, for humans and for animals, whoever well, didn't dick Pranicki say a little dangerous, good for a man, good for anybody, we can say right. But yeah, I think he was. Hiking is like always dangerous, but little dangerous good for me. You know, I think there's something to be said about that. You know what I mean. It makes you stop and be thankful to be alive.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean. Yeah, I mean it's pretty boring Otherwise I think so the I mean self-reliance to me like, well, everything we're talking about is there's survival skills and there's just self-reliance. In an urban environment there's lots of definitions of, or lots of applications of self-reliance. So I mean we're talking because you take that on personally and your idea is to be self-reliant or survivalist in nature. But people have different circumstances. So I'm just interested in the philosophy of it, of people taking responsibility for themselves, and especially as a man which majority of people listening to this will be men and a lot of young men and like taking on the responsibility. You mentioned Dick Prennicki, but one of my problems with Dick Prennicki, and the reason I don't really look up to him that much, is he chose not, he didn't have a family, didn't have that, you know perform that function.
Speaker 2:He doesn't count.
Speaker 1:No, I just feel like that that's not actually meaningful enough for my people, I think, are attracted to the simplicity of what it looked like. His life was from 50 to 80, but in reality I don't. I'm glad I had that challenge of raising a family.
Speaker 2:I laugh because I'm only partially joking. You know, if somebody wants to make the decision that they don't want to have a family, you know all the power to them. I'm not saying that but like, yeah, when I see somebody that you know is going along like a month long, two month long canoe expedition across the Arctic you know what I mean I'm like the Joe kids, like did they have kids? No, well, it doesn't count, just for my own ego. You know, especially small kids, right, because it is super challenging to get out there and do that stuff when you have a family. But without having a family like man, my kids and my family, and just the time I spend with him what could be more enriching of an experience than that? You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:So at the end of your life it's 20 years, really 20 years of intense fatherhood. Basically, drinking is giving. You can do that before and after too, though maybe a little more during that period. Just give it.
Speaker 1:But no, I think it's a worthwhile function. I'm just encouraging. I was not this way. I always thought, well, yeah, you can have a pretty full and meaningful life just being a bachelor or just being a young man or a man with no responsibilities. I guess that's what I'm getting at. The responsibility for a part of life. It's not meaningful. I don't find it.
Speaker 1:I think for most people and generalizing here but I think for most people that they would find their life lacking if they didn't take on lots of responsibility and not just act like a reckless person for your whole life. Take on some sort of responsibility If it's not a family, that has some kind of service to the community or service to your country or whatever. I think there's meaning in that, but I don't think it's something we should aspire or encourage people just to live single and alone or fulfilling their fantasies and seeking happiness rather than meaning. I think it's important that because we do a lot of those things, we get challenged by being out in nature doing these things and doing them solo. But I don't think that's an entire life of that.
Speaker 2:So I just wrote an entire article on that, so it's called Born in the Wild Country. It was for Explore Magazine, but that's kind of what I directly reflect on and it's sort of like that's what the problem is. You hear, all these super wealthy people and their parents want them to be happy, so they get a Lamborghini when they're 18 and they get all these freaking things to make you happy, but they're miserable. But these people are miserable, right, it's the productivity that makes you happy. If you focus on just being happy, you're going to like how long could you go to a sit-line beach at an all-inclusive resort for it? Until you're like what am I doing with my life? You know what I mean, and so that was. You know that sort of thing. It was sort of like people asked me why do you?
Speaker 2:I was soloing the Bonne Plume. That was sort of the trip around this story and it's why do these things? That are hard, right, and it reminded me I think it was John A Shed who said it was a ship in the harbor and that was safe. But that's not what ships were built for and what that means is some real like safety is good and some comfort is okay, but beyond the harbor, beyond your comfort zone, beyond what people consider safe. That's where real life and fulfillment and happiness happens. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, totally, and that was sort of what I was. What that article that I wrote was kind of about sort of like the why behind doing these things. Why would you want to go build a cabin? I heard one guy say it was hilarious. He's like why do I want to go outside?
Speaker 1:You know much rent I pay for this place. Why am I going to pay all this?
Speaker 2:rent and just go and hang out outside all the time. I'm like that's such a good point, you know what I mean. Or you're mortgage.
Speaker 2:I pay a fortune, my mortgage, and I'm camping on a freaking river in Northern BC all the time, right, so you can see that perspective. But man, I gotta say, oh man, just the struggle. I'm always doing these hard things. I talked to my cousin the other day. I told you this before the podcast. I said what did you do? He's like, oh, you know, back to work. He went to work, came home watching the game. He's like, yeah, I'm working.
Speaker 2:A day I was driving here trying to get this, to get my podcast going and getting some guy to pick this up for me, and then get, like you know, just like doing like a hundred things a mile a minute and this is what you see behind the scenes in a lot of my adventure videos and all this is all that work that goes into all the desk work and working with sponsors, planning the trip, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, and travel Like it can be hectic.
Speaker 2:But, like man, does it ever feel good when you look back and be like holy crap, look what I just accomplished? I can't imagine a better example of the cabins that you've built about. Like, do you ever just sit there and stare at them for like an hour, like, if I watch your last, the one where you put everything together, the last cabin you built. I'm like this is the most impressive thing I think I've ever seen, you know, without using any freaking big heavy machinery and shit like this. I'm like I've tried to make a bow and arrow like a self bow before, like about halfway through it, and just gave up like let alone something like that which I'm allowed to do, my fear of getting into it, be like I wouldn't be able to follow through with this, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it's everybody chooses something that they do and they're good at. You like actually was when we were here, I think you, and you asked Nate and me on this last little canoe trip we did here about you know what bucket list big trips that we have and we didn't really have one. Because we do different things and that's what I focus on. I build these shelters and build these homesteads. I think I think innately as sort of providing shelter for somebody else, for family, because I'm actually nomadic and spirit myself, Like I have a feeling if I didn't get married, I'd probably maybe I wouldn't live in a band, Like I would have that nomadic life and then I would, you know, have brief periods where I kind of homestead and like grow some food and stuff, but I think I would get restless and move on.
Speaker 2:It's hard to do it both man.
Speaker 2:Like I was when Tori and I had the pleasure of meeting these, this couple who had been living, you know, off grid outside between like Glenor and Telegraph Creek in Northern BC for about 40 years and the guy had been his first home built, burnt down in a forest fire. Then he built his entire second house, log home, out of all wood that he milled. It was like straight, like milled logs and all the siding, everything in there. He got like a powers. Like you know, he's using professional machinery to like power make and dremel, power sand, plane, everything perfect, lumber, perfect, siding like crazy. And then they're raising goats that they use for food and for milk and for cheese. You know sawmill amazing, I don't know what a good groin see, like I said, light so much a year. And then he makes all his own, grows all his own hay to feed the goats. A lot of people don't think that You're just in a remote location. How are you feeding these goats?
Speaker 1:Funny. I just have a video I just released today talking about land and you're not self sufficient if you're not actually growing the hay to feed the animals, because they're especially.
Speaker 2:But even here, seven months of the year at least you're not growing grass for your and like that's not even something most people would think of.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean. And then he's growing all the stuff and I talked to. So his wife mainly manages a homestead he's the one you know, they're probably, you know, about retirement age and so she's doing mostly managing the homestead and he's doing that part time. But she says, well, you know, I can't really go anywhere. Yeah, exactly Right. And so how do you, how are you, and as much as I love growing, and we got a great bumper crop of squash this year. Oh my God, was it ever good, you know, with making it with the homemade maple syrup, having a meal of that squash, eating it with maybe some venison and harvest, and be like this whole meal except maybe the butter is absolutely delicious, super healthy, and we provided all this for you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:You know ourselves. I don't know a single person who can go through that process of doing that, putting that meal together, that wouldn't be just as proud as you are right now. That seems to be a universal thing and it's amazing that in the past that was the only way. They're right, like why am I proud that we're going through this?
Speaker 2:Fed ourselves. Yeah, that seems so basic, didn't?
Speaker 1:like literally everybody up to this point do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like somebody in 1805 would be like congratulations, you're four years old, you know what I mean. Like that's not impressive. I made my own food. Like you want to die in two minutes ago if you didn't do that right. Like geez, the basic human need. Yeah, I did it.
Speaker 1:Like it's crazy. What's crazy about our society? Yeah, literally we've outsourced everything in our lives to the point where we are proud of ourselves when we do something that's just functional, like it's just survive. I don't bite my own ass.
Speaker 2:I'm up a day, ha ha, fools. You know what?
Speaker 1:I mean Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's what's so attractive about these willingness trips Like you're on your own, you're putting it together, you're self-sufficient, you're responsible for if you mess up you're dead or you're in an inconvenient situation Like losing the canoe. I mean that worked out. You'll have to watch the video to see what the outcome of that was. But yeah, I mean everything has to be solved. You're forever given these challenges and you need to solve them and that's what creates resilience and that's missing for a lot of people and I think we seek it. I was talking to somebody recently about the micro challenges that are kind of encouraged by the gurus, the fitness gurus and the self-help gurus, like the cold punch, for example. I mentioned how about the life that we're living right now? We have to go outside every day and get some firewood that's cold, plunging off. I don't need an artificial tub full of water to jump into.
Speaker 2:Your life's the cold punch. That's a good point. I actually you see it behind me that all this wood that's stacked. So I actually, to be honest with you, like it better when it's not stacked, because even when it's minus 30, and sometimes I go out, I might not even be wearing shoes.
Speaker 1:I usually regret it, but I'm like whatever, I'm gonna keep on my shoes, I just walk out there, load it.
Speaker 2:I'm not gonna do two trips, it's just first light, get the wood in the fire, kids get warm, just that starting and that cold plunge. If you call it in the morning like that great start to the day. And I almost like it when there's no wood because it's just harder and this takes maybe 20 trips to fill up and rather I almost just leave it like that Forced me to go outside and start my day with cold exercise.
Speaker 1:Well, I've got wood on me. From doing that this morning Barefoot, you get your grounding and your cold plunge before your first five minutes being awake in the morning. So that's just that challenging life and I find it rewarding and I think a lot of people listening to this are looking for more meaning and satisfaction and it's coming from challenge and purpose and I just think it's. I mean, like I said, you can create sort of micro challenges or sort of false challenges to overcome, even the weekend warrior type thing, just because you need that in your life and intuitively, instinctively, you know that you need that. So you do seek it out and really tell everybody about it when you get back on Monday You're going to go to work. Well, 100%.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's how Tori was she would. We'd go back when I guess I was already doing this full time or I think I was working in mineral exploration. I've been doing this in between, so I'd be on stints and me and Tori would do these crazy weekend warrior things and talk about being exhausted on Monday morning. Why even put your gear away? Because you're just going to use it next weekend. So it's like lying in your house the whole time. You know what I mean. And then Tori would go to work and she worked at an office building in Newmarket and insurance and she'd take the one snippet was the craziest thing that happened.
Speaker 2:And everybody would be waiting for what Tori's crazy story was. One time we were so thirsty that we had to drink water out of a puddle that had frogs all jumping all over the place. It looked like spring water, but there was literally 20 frogs in it. You know what I mean. And we're just like I like drinking this frog water, so thankful for it. That's what she tells. I'm like why don't you tell them what the view when we got to the top of the mountain and see the frog water? And she's like no, the shock valley is way, way better.
Speaker 1:Yeah, people want to hear the challenge. They like the pretty part, like I talked about that recently on my videos and I'm going to lose a lot of subscribers for that, but I said it, I'm showing you the romantic part of it and it's pretty, you know that. And I like making those videos, like all scenery and the soft music, if any, or just nature sounds, and that's a good part of it. But that does not do nearly as well. Like fewer people watch that than they do those things where Kelly and I got surrounded by wolves or whatever that challenge was or that type of race.
Speaker 1:I'd be the Sasquatch to death with my bare hands, or he'd throw the duck with a tilly hat.
Speaker 2:Flying hammer punch. I can't believe that. So in that scene that was well, I forget what episode of alone, but there was two cameras covering that. Yeah, right, and so they want us to be filming. I mean, you need to have a switching out battery, switching out memory cards. Every so often they must have to capture that scene of me power slamming this duck that just out of nowhere, just walk through the woods near a fire and I was able to, like, react quickly and leak out like flying hammer punch, right, but to capture that there must have been like 40 hours of unusable footage that someone must have had to go through. True, and after that, we're like that's why they want us filming all the time. Yeah, because they capture these like crazy things. Yeah, nobody even believed it. The people are like. In the comments, I clearly had that production company through that there and I'm like how would they?
Speaker 1:possibly do that. Yeah, Right, Like you know.
Speaker 2:But anyways, that was wild.
Speaker 1:That's the stuff that happens in nature or when you're challenging yourself. The people are. We can miss that in our mundane lives If you don't put ourselves in those situations. We're unique and sometimes scary, sometimes risky or sometimes humorous situations happen, right, yeah, so that's what I like about living a life on the edge and it's not stable. I mean, I'm fully, fully expect my income to completely try helping, and sometimes soon, especially because I'm becoming more vocal. But you know, that's just life. You've got to do what I have to do and talk about what I want to talk about, right, you know, do the things I want to do, and I can't go back to this job. I made the decision 10 years ago. I'm not like, I'm not going to go down that corporate path.
Speaker 2:Well, think about, with just the uncertainties in the future, recessions and to all these kind of things it's the people that are going to be the entrepreneurs. That are probably the ones that are going to be okay, which is we probably don't go out there and consider ourselves as entrepreneurs, but we are. You know what I mean? You're not going to be able to just like hide in a corporate structure anymore and big businesses are going to be layoffs. But when you can just be nimble and you know, predict what's coming and make the change, I've been lucky because I've actually done that by accident.
Speaker 2:Maybe that's my sixth sense I learned in the bush who knows. But like when I've changed from magazines to YouTube, guess what tank the magazines, to a large extent like budget's, got slack print kind of ended around that time you know what I mean and I was everybody's watching videos on YouTube. The magazine's websites, videos at that time weren't doing as well as they wanted, or on Facebook even Algorithms changed out of your hands and I, largely because of talking to you about YouTube, and it wasn't until about a year or two after I finished alone that I actually got serious about it and I'm like wow, I really got to give this a try. Glad I did, because you know it made a huge difference and what I was doing before that went kind of kaput, yeah.
Speaker 1:And look at, you know, similar to the magazine's Instagram, that was the thing, putting photographs up there. That's how people built accounts and then suddenly videos were the thing, right, and if you were photographers like, yeah, that's the old news.
Speaker 2:Even before, that dude working in mineral exploration, like that industry, took a dive too and I'm like, guess I'm a full time adventurer now. Yeah, right, you know what I mean. Like not probably not the best, easiest career choice. Yeah, like, I heard it from people back when I was like talking about how I want to do that. I heard it from close family members Wow, that's just not practical.
Speaker 1:Yeah, look at that little boy stuff Like in here in the fantasy. Yeah, I'm an adventurer, I don't know what happens to Q.
Speaker 2:You know, you know, right Like right.
Speaker 1:Like literally stuff like that, yeah, but anyway Well yeah, I think you're right that nimbleness is really important and in uncertain times that becomes more critical than ever. And putting yourself in situations or in a place in our cases, moving to a place where it encourages that or requires. I would say that nimbleness, that self-starter, like, that personal responsibility, I had to detach from a place that didn't have that flexibility. I guess, when something happens, when there's some uncertainty even if it's just losing a job, like people think that I'm talking about right now that you should be prepared for major crisis events, like apocalyptic events. I lost a job and I got with everybody else. Four years ago, the economy was shut down for a short period and lots of other restrictions.
Speaker 2:That's the thing that you're preparing for, right, right, it doesn't have to be. Then to the world.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, giant media yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I think too much of preparedness. People think of it like that and then they think that all people are going too extreme, but a lot of people that are just common sense preparedness are the people that get when a tornado hits.
Speaker 1:Well, go to your local government's website and there will be a section in there about preparedness. Yeah, like it's not a fringe thing, it's not the doomsday prep for laughable genre that it used to be. Yeah, like you go to your local extension or whatever they call it, local health and welfare office or whatever, they'll have a list of the things that everybody should have on hand Right Anywhere from three days to 30 days, where the things they say you should have Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I saw your root cellar, by the way, being pretty stocked up.
Speaker 1:Well, we're fully prepared and again, if nothing else, like we have enough food on hand for four of us and enough garden space, enough hunting land and game, population and logistical knowledge that I've gained to be able to survive for a certain amount of time. But if nothing else, if there's no major event or even a short term event that we need to prepare for just the fact that we don't have to go to the grocery store when we have a colder sickness, like we're just going over right now, or snowstorm that's coming, that's probably predicting power outages and everything. Lots of things that we're prepared for. But also high inflation. The inflation rate over the last several years is crazy.
Speaker 2:I'm just a grocery shopping for my mom. She wasn't feeling too well and she wanted, like, certain things that were less, more like non-perishables, which are usually cheaper, you know what I mean Almost $400. And it's for like not even two weeks. Maybe two weeks of food, if that Almost $400. It's just like this is crazy.
Speaker 1:It's crazy. And you're getting on your you're doing well financially right now because of your hard work and I'm doing the same, but I've been poor for periods of my life.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, absolutely, I remember one year I was like below the poverty line. I still have to pay like $2,500 in taxes. I'm like I thought the taxes were supposed to go to the poor. Like are you just going to?
Speaker 1:give this back to me.
Speaker 2:Like what the hell?
Speaker 2:You know, what I mean. Yeah, like, yeah. When I started doing this there's a struggle. That's the thing, though, like it's funny because, like trying to get on YouTube, trying to be like his adventure or whatever, it's something everybody wants to do and it's like the things that are cool and fun that are like the hardest, and so probably people will be like, well, you're going to be a lot easier becoming a commercial real estate agent, which probably still isn't anything easy, but there are easier paths to like making an income for yourself. But with me, it's like the passion. Because you like it, it doesn't feel like work. So, yeah, the only way I'm going to be able to do as much work is if I'm really excited about it. Probably if I was passionate just about making money, or if I love, like, let's say, a hospital urinary receptacles.
Speaker 1:I could probably go and make you know.
Speaker 2:you know, look in the hospital they give you a little piss jug Like that guy is probably a multimillionaire who makes those. And he's like, yeah, you go be the adventure, but I'm going to be living in a mansion over there making piss jugs.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean. And he puts true, that's a great example. Yeah, what about that? Right?
Speaker 2:But if I tried to do the piss jug route, if I went the piss jug route, I would have blowing it because I just wouldn't find the passion. You know what I mean. I would, you know. I remember I saw Wayne Gretzky be asked somebody tell my kid how much you practice? And he's like I never considered it practice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, actually yeah, and he's like, he's like if I.
Speaker 2:He's like the amount of money and the amount of time and practice that you spend on things that you're passionate about. To become somebody like Wayne Gretzky is. The number is insane. Like most people would say that's insane. So if you're not passionate about it, there's. You know, you're never really going to be able to find the time to do it because it's going to feel like work.
Speaker 1:Yeah and don't do that to your kid, I think he said if they're not doing it right because they want to do it, and don't put them through that because you have a dream for them, Right, and it's true. Like like we try. I've had businesses in the past. This business I always talk about that put me so massively in personal debt. To be on the business debt was because I had no passion, Right. I was looking for I was already looking for some way to get out of that business into something else. And because I was doing that, I lost focus and I wasn't willing to put everything I had into saving that business when the crisis hit. So it, as a result, it failed. And then this I went into it not making any money and not even knowing how I would make money doing it, making content. I didn't even know that was really a thing. I was just started it and then suddenly it's successful on it and it's replaced by income.
Speaker 2:You did also. You didn't half-ass it though. Yeah, built like a sick cabin, but that's something you were like. This went up. My understanding is you're like well, this is something I always wanted to do.
Speaker 2:I was going to go build a cabin in the woods and you know what? I'm going to put a camera on it. If I could make 10, $20,000 in a year off of it, that would be incredibly amazing. You know what I mean. That's kind of how you started the passion for living in the woods kind of ability. You know that life sound was came first before.
Speaker 1:Well, even better. The beauty of it was that I was building a homestead, especially, especially over the last four years. Because of the homestead, the income was secondary. But at the end of the day, if I'm making income from the content I end up, it's the thing that I've created that's more valuable than the money that.
Speaker 2:I came in Right and you at least have a house, exactly, you know, just have a line on the map, like I do. Yeah, well, I patted them from here to here.
Speaker 1:How much do?
Speaker 2:you want to buy that for Right, you know what I mean yeah. It's written as an option. Probably you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So I end up with a food production systems and shelter and food and water and energy that I also ended up getting paid for, which is, again, not why I did it, but it's also why I don't doesn't struggle. I don't have to come up with ideas to make content, right, I'm just doing what I'm doing, and people have actually criticized or laughed or laughed with me, at least that I just put up a camera and just do stuff in front of it, right? I'm just living my life in front of the camera and then I do a half-assed job of editing and then some people watch it.
Speaker 2:Maybe that's One good thing about your content is it's not so hard to edit, like mine, is that? Well, some of my stuff is the same but like the stuff where I'm in a canoe and I have two cameras remember the one with me and Ted did a trip and we each had our own canoe and I traded footage of it I had Ted's two GoPros, my two GoPros, ted's other camera that he pulled out and shoot my other camera that he pulled out and shoot a drone, and you know what I mean. It's horrible editing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's so difficult.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Like that was, you know, became a life-sucking abyss, but you know I just stayed at it.
Speaker 1:Well, and it's difficult to. Yeah, I don't relish, I don't like that part so much where I have all this different footage and when we've gone on trips we've done that in the past where we share footage Right and it works, I mean. But in a lot of cases like Ted got a lot of footage of me on our canoe trip last year with Nate and I used some of it and it was valuable, like me catching a fish he could get it for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, how do you really film that for yourself? Yeah, it's like what we talked about.
Speaker 1:You don't think you'd have to run the camera all the time to get you actually catching the fish and you're not just not going to do it, you know, film it.
Speaker 2:Fishing is the next hardest, next to hunting.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like think about how many times you know Bob Azumi's got a shooter, it's just got him casting and reeling to nothing, probably just like a hundred thousand times more right. And then if you miss that shot when you're catching a fish, well, that's the that's. You don't have a show.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah. No, I'm happy with doing what I'm doing and I don't want to take on more of that type of stuff, but I do want to spend more time getting still on some trips, and I don't even know if it'll happen this year, because it's just, I'm getting to that point where I've got the two places you know, getting to them. They're almost fully self-sufficient at this point and I'm looking at now providing for the community and for the family more, and I need to just make sure that stuff is home right in before I start being selfish and doing trips and things. Right, right, yeah, but that's I mean wait a minute.
Speaker 2:Wait a minute. Being doing trips is selfish.
Speaker 1:That's what I do, yeah, well, you're doing it with family now too, but it's also your main source of income for your family, and that is a that's a responsibility for a man is to provide.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and it's a really good feeling to be able to do that, I think, if that's just societal or it's evolutionary, but both maybe. But I think you do. But like, yeah, the one I wanted to do with you would have been one of those amazing Brook Trout Rivers that goes up to Hudson Bay or to James.
Speaker 1:Bay, funny, actually I was going to suggest something like that because I got out on my bucket list to get a, just said yeah, a couple of big Brook Trout I want to, just want to.
Speaker 2:My biggest is five pounds in scale. So like probably in reality about seven pounds. Yeah, right.
Speaker 1:In fish stories seven or eight pounds.
Speaker 2:Well, all good stories deserve embellishment. Yeah, I said that I don't know. Yeah, yeah, what's the offer that wrote Lord of the Rings? Oh yeah, all good stories deserve some embellishment.
Speaker 1:Well, I think I don't know if you have anything else you wanted to say on this podcast. Just from the audience perspective, we're going to keep it going, but Jim's going to interview me now, so I'm not sure if there's anything to talk about.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're just going to sit there and stare at the wall. For my one, I'll think of something.
Speaker 1:Well, we're going to I want to continue to to like I think we should have a couple more podcasts even this year. Just continue the talks, but especially out on a trip yeah, that'd be fun, different perspective, you know, when you're out doing the thing and talking about what you're doing, but also go to those challenges. And why are we even doing this?
Speaker 2:When our mortgages are costed, when our rent is this much, why the hell are we outside? You know what I mean. Yeah, it's a good question for some.
Speaker 1:Right on, all right. Well, I've put all the ways in the description below. Link to all the Jim's content. I suggest going and checking out his latest video series. We'd start talking about the quality of the edits and the storytelling, and that's what we're really videos. Youtube is really becoming a storytelling platform, not just you know, tutorials and guys with camera just captioned something and throwing it online. Like the editing's gotten so much better over time for a lot of cases and in Jim's case, it was brutal trying to watch this stuff at the beginning, but it's really. It's really good storytelling and the adventures are pretty cool and unique. Thank you. I'm very inspiring to see what they're as a family, what they're doing and like we're super impressed with the amount of effort they put into their trips and now the storytelling part of it as well. It's a well worth a watch. So, yeah, thanks, sean. All right, I just rose from my dream. Everybody fanboy in the Gen.