[tense music]
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
I'm not tapping out.
I'd rather die.
♪ ♪
[exhales] Here goes nothing.
Whoa!
Yes!
Holy [bleep].
♪
This is the harshest location possible.
We're 125 miles in the Arctic Circle.
[shouts]
Never had an environment
make me feel like a complete amateur before.
Everything is against us out here.
Mother Nature went and bitch-slapped me.
Looks like I got grizzlies and wolves as my neighbors.
Holy crap.
They're just hunting the shoreline.
Mother Nature is about to dim the lights on us.
We're heading into total darkness.
[animal huffs, branch snaps] - Hey, bear.
The cold and the dark is gonna sap people's souls.
Really makes you wonder if it's worth it.
[splurting]
There is no camera crew.
There's no support system.
I'm completely alone.
Yes!
People go in one way...
Stop bleeding.
And they come out entirely different.
[yells]
This is the most difficult
survival challenge in the world.
[hooting]
$500,000.
That's completely life-changing money.
It's beautiful.
Whoever can thrive the longest.
They out here ought to be afraid of me.
- Whoever can push through... - [groans]
Wins.
I hope I made the right choice coming out here.
♪ ♪
[wind whooshing]
♪ ♪
[helicopter whirring]
♪
I think this is gonna be the most miserable
and greatest experience of my life.
I'm about to push and punish my body
further than I ever have.
Toughen up, bitch.
I've been in remote places in my life,
and this is far beyond.
We're in the Arctic Circle.
This place is a son of a bitch.
You're talking negative 40.
It's gonna feel like Santa Claus
just slapped you in the face with a canoe paddle.
Holy [bleep], man.
♪
Where I'm from, it's 104, 108.
You know, it's pretty warm right now.
So it's a big change to me.
Oh, man, this is wild.
I want that prize money.
I want to win so badly
that I'm willing to leave a bloody trail of footprints
in the snow behind me.
There's so much going on in a delta.
But it's also the land of the grizzly bears and wolves.
I'm not afraid of it, because I'm the first ever
Cree-Métis woman to do "Alone,"
and I feel a whole nation behind me.
I did grow up where there was a lot of polar bears.
You see them off in the distance.
But here, the landscape is different.
There's thick growth.
A grizzly could jump at you at any moment.
So you've got to be alert.
I'm not dreaming! It's real!
There is a bit of luck that goes along
with something like this.
Illness can happen.
Injuries can happen.
It is gonna take mental toughness.
Oh, there's a bear. [laughs]
Your brain 100% determines
whether or not you're the last one out there.
Never been alone this long.
Surviving out here is hard enough.
Surviving out here while filming it is a challenge.
So I'm absolutely curious to see
what kind of person I am when it's over.
I've got ten items that are gonna help me
get through this and the clothes on my back.
Man, this landscape is insane.
It's not gonna be a walk in the park.
I expect the worst.
It's amazing.
This is reliving a childhood memory
of your parents allowing you
to play in the woods by yourself,
this feeling of true freedom.
Yeah!
[laughs]
Oh, yes.
I love it.
♪ ♪
Where'd he go?
There he is. [laughs]
Look at my hair. [laughs]
Oh, man.
That's crazy.
[helicopter whirring]
There they go.
Oh, man, I'm in, like-- I'm in like a swamp right now.
Let's get out of this bog, do some scouting,
and we'll get started.
I'm so excited.
Was thinking last night how cool it'd be
to win this thing,
bring back a W for West Virginia.
[soft flute music]
[whip cracks]
[laughs]
I'm a game warden.
My job is to protect the natural resources
that we enjoy from poachers.
And I'm also a captain in the Air National Guard.
My main job with them is fatality search and recovery.
If there's any kind of events that are mass casualty,
we pick up bodies.
It's a pretty solid rope.
But what makes me who I am is family.
My wife and I tried for a long time to have a kid.
We didn't think it was gonna happen.
She starts telling me about the IVF process.
I said yeah, definitely.
That was tough.
We had a couple miscarriages.
Failure, failure, failure.
And then the one stuck.
Baby girl Caroline is a miracle.
Let's go for a hike.
And so taking care of my family
is always priority number one.
That looks like lunch to me. [laughs]
IVF was a few years of salary.
So if I could pull in $500,000,
that would change my life.
I think I could take on this challenge
because I've got a lot of military training.
I've got the mental, and I want to be the hero.
Bye-bye.
First thing I want to do,
see what I got here in front of me.
Let's go for a walk.
♪
In the first three days, you want to know your land
while you have the food that you carried in
in your gut to see,
you know, where am I gonna set up a permanent shelter?
Where's the best fishing spots?
Where's the easiest way in?
This stuff is thick.
Pretty heavy coverage right there.
There might be more water.
Let's go this way.
So finding access routes, game trails--that's key.
Keeping my eyes open
while I'm walking.
I just got a feeling I don't like.
♪ ♪
We're here with a population of moose,
which will trample you into the ground.
4,000 or 5,000 grizzly bears. 10,000 wolves.
There's black bears.
And if you let your guard down, you're done.
I'll just keep going.
♪ ♪
Wolves.
It's pretty nerve-racking.
I'm definitely gonna have to build a really good shelter.
Ooh, look at this.
Something got a fish. See the scales?
♪ ♪
Now that, that's a grizzly.
Pad,
toes, claws.
Not just a pack of wolves, but we got a grizzly bear.
And those aren't old at all.
What the hell is that?
♪ ♪
I don't think that's what we want to see.
♪ ♪
A small bear walking along
that other set means...
♪
The worst possible thing it could mean.
I got a mama grizzly
and a baby.
Guess who's not sleeping tonight.
[laughs]
[suspenseful music]
♪
Gotta get everything straightened away here.
Now...
slow in and pace yourself.
[sniffling]
I was gonna stop for five minutes
up on top of that hill, but,
I think it'd be a good idea now just to get that net out.
Passive fishing is real good, because, you know,
you could potentially catch a meal
while you're getting other things done.
So who knows, man?
We could be eating fish for supper.
♪
When I picked my ten items, I took a net
because I don't want to waste time making the net.
I want to get my net in the water,
get something fishing for you, get something working for you
so you could be working away at something else.
That could be a good spot for my net there.
Doo, doo, doo, doo, doo.
Yeah.
I'm not hunting for big game.
So I didn't want to take a bow.
I never bow hunted before, so I didn't want
to come into this with skills I didn't have.
I'm gonna focus hard and put a lot of innovation
into the fish.
And then when fishing season slows,
then I'm gonna move and switch.
I plan on harvesting squirrels, rabbits,
grouse, and partridges.
I know how to harvest them without a gun or bow.
I got tricks up my sleeve that would work quite well
to catch them little critters.
OK.
I just put the net out like that.
It's kind of slack here, so we'll see how that works out.
It don't look too bad back there right now,
but we're pretty much in the middle of a winter storm here.
I grew up in a little isolated community
in the south coast of Labrador.
There's no running water, no electricity,
or nothing like that.
It's not a real big igloo.
This is a perfect little hunting sized one.
Growing up in a tough place like that,
it was always a struggle.
Look at that. Successful porcupine hunt.
And so I built up a lot of knowledge and skills
just trying to survive.
Well, I think that looks pretty good.
I'm also a commercial fisherman,
30 years in the fishery for crab and shrimp.
Look at that.
I'm doing this for my family.
Whoo!
That's my whole world right there.
If I was fortunate enough to win the $500,000,
I'm just gonna buy the building materials
and build a house and move the family
to a small coastal community in Labrador.
Where I live too now is a good town.
Makes sense for work, fishing trips.
But it's a little bit too much on the go there
that I don't like.
And I want to get my kids to be reared up
in a smaller community.
That's really important to me.
And I'm gonna put everything into it.
[laughs]
I think I've found a real good spot for a shelter.
♪
I'll survive the night and get something
really good done tomorrow.
I want a quick shelter, not too much energy.
I'm thinking of a simple lean-to.
But then I want, like, some kind of poles around me
just to feel protected.
You don't want to wake up, a bear dragging you
out your sleeping bag and dragging you
across the ground.
You just can't go and make yourself vulnerable
on the land.
You've got to protect yourself.
[sighs]
Burning off a lot of calories starting off, but...
Maybe we'll take a break and go out and check the net.
♪
I see movement.
That's maybe just the wind and a lot of wishful thinking.
Oh, it's a fish out there. It is. Look.
Didn't take long.
♪
[indistinct]
[laughs]
Sharp teeth, eh? [chuckles]
[splashing]
[yells]
No way.
I can't believe it.
[scoffs]
What can I say? I'm in shock.
♪
[scoffs] I can't believe that happened.
Oh, oh, oh, oh.
That was a big-- that was a big pike.
24, 25 inch maybe.
A survival situation, man.
You gotta be more careful.
[soft dramatic music]
♪ ♪
I got belly button lint.
For some ungodly reason, I'm sitting here picking that
like I don't have enough to do.
Holy [bleep].
♪
[bleep].
That's a caribou.
I can't shoot that.
[yells]
[laughs softly]
Here we go.
Boom.
There's your broadside shot on a caribou.
Why can't you be a moose, bro?
It doesn't really care.
Doesn't care that I'm here. [chuckles]
This is wild, man.
♪ ♪
Hey, Mom.
I'm in the Arctic.
Check out my pet caribou right here.
Spooked now. He smelled me.
[laughs]
♪ And we are gonna set a beaver snare ♪
Whoo!
My name's Waldemar Paetz. I go by Dub.
Possum down.
The only thing I ever cared about
since the day I was old enough to walk was nature.
[grunts]
It's really not bad.
My one real job that I had was being a fly fishing guide
and I was damn good at it.
We just caught this big cutty
on our homemade rod.
I'm not ever really gonna settle for a 9 to 5
where somebody's breathing down my neck.
I'd rather live very poorly and keep my outdoor lifestyle.
[smooches]
"Alone" is the survival Olympics.
There's no bigger, better, more kick-ass challenge.
And I strongly believe I have everything
it's gonna take to do this,
because I don't have close relationships.
I can be by myself.
I got the best shot I could ever hope to get out of.
But my top skill, brute bullheadedness.
I have a mile and a half hike out of here.
Gonna try to make a deer backpack.
No matter what goes wrong, I do not quit.
Hell yes.
That works good.
$500,000 would allow me to pay off my house,
pay off my mom's house,
and just finally not have to stress about money.
My entire life, that's all I've done.
So the freedom that would give me
is something I just can't even imagine.
All right, love you guys.
I got to dig, dude.
We're gonna whittle this Earth away.
Turn it into something...
[grunting]
That's worth $500,000.
♪
I really love this spot for a few different reasons.
What beautiful dirt, dude.
I'm gonna build an empire out here.
It's got this beautiful berm.
It's very protected from the wind.
Sure got a lot of firewood laying around.
And as far as I can tell,
it's the best spot I'm gonna get.
I did not come out here with a set shelter plan.
I just came out saying I'm gonna Dub it.
And when Dub does something, he just...
♪
Starts doing it.
If I'm gonna last a winter in this thing,
it's got to be insulated like nobody's business.
That should be a pretty solid joint.
I really don't like those clouds.
It's gonna be such a pain in the ass if it rains.
The more I melt this shelter into this hill,
the better off I'll be in terms of warmth.
Willow lashing...
[grunts] Should work...
quite well.
Next thing, ridgepole--
it's heavy.
♪ ♪
Damn, is this gonna be cozy.
Cozy is code word for really freaking tight and small.
The bigger the shelter is,
the more wood you got to cut to heat it,
the bigger the problems associated with this.
And I don't know how comfortable
it's gonna be this tight between these logs,
but I can do anything for $500,000.
I started training for this
when I was very, very young kid
and I didn't even know it.
I'm gonna try to tarping it.
I was bullied all the way through school
because of my name, Waldemar.
Not perfect.
I'm gonna start moving it in.
And it gets to the point where you just,
man, I want to get away from everybody.
So I started gonna the library during lunch hour
so I could at least, like,
have a little bit of protection.
This thing came a long way.
And I remember reading a lot
of hunting and fishing and survival books,
and then I'd get home and I'd cry.
Oh, I'm so ready to lay down.
But I don't think I would change a thing.
That is what made me what I am,
made me love nature, and it made me stronger.
I guarantee you that.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[exhales]
Man, look at that.
My wife told me when I first get here,
just take a moment for myself
and sit and take it all in.
So...
[exhales]
[laughs softly]
Wow.
If someone asks me why bows are so expensive...
[chuckles] This is why.
Every bow I've made is carried out like this.
I'm a bowyer. I make bows for a living.
I'm a homesteader. We fish for our food,
hunt for our food, grow our own food.
And so I've spent a lot of years
honing in these skills, fire making,
bow drill, hand drill.
Fire.
And then the hunting, fishing, trapping,
snaring, and shelter building.
That type of lifestyle has given me the mentality to do
what it takes to overcome and adapt to really thrive.
And I'm excited to see what that's gonna do out here.
[pig snorting]
There you go. Good girl.
The reason I'm doing this is to change my family's life.
My wife and I have been together for 12 years,
and we want to have kids,
but she's been sick a lot of that time,
and makes it really complicated
for her to get pregnant.
$500,000 means everything.
It's gonna give my wife and I
the opportunity to get her healthy
where she can live a full life.
- [laughs] - And hopefully after this,
we'll be lucky to start our own family.
So that's why this is so important.
That's what I mean by life-changing.
All right. Here we go.
So first things first, I definitely want to find
where I'm gonna be sleeping tonight.
The biggest thing I'm gonna have to contend with
is the cold.
125 miles north into the Arctic Circle is pretty crazy.
It's gonna be freezing.
Having a good shelter that's gonna keep you warm,
keep you dry, but also keep you safe from bears
is gonna be life or death out here.
[whispering] There's a squirrel there.
So I'm gonna see if I can get it.
♪ ♪
Not afraid of me at all.
No fear. I almost feel bad killing him.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
[bow thwacks]
[sighs]
Dang it.
I broke an arrow.
Risky shot. I shouldn't have done it.
I was trying to be prideful.
I didn't need that right now.
[sighs]
Oh, well.
I can't believe I missed him too.
♪ ♪
All right, I'm gonna go collect firewood,
start a little fire, boil my water,
and have a good drink because I'm thirsty.
And then I'll throw up a temporary shelter.
It's all really good kindling.
I spent a lot of time in my adult life chasing money.
I was working two to three jobs,
60, 70, 80-hour work weeks, and I didn't see my family.
It was just my wife and work.
All right. Got some firewood.
Time to go make a fire.
But I had a good friend, Cameron, pass away last year.
And the day before he died,
I asked him what the most important thing in life was.
And he said family and friends.
That hit me really hard
because all he'd wanted in life
was to get married, be a dad.
And he got married. They had twins.
A year later, he died.
Really made me think about my family
and the time I have with them.
Good fire starter.
And so I took his advice.
My wife and I sold everything we had,
moved into this little camper, took it to Missouri
on this little property with my parents,
and we started homesteading
and building bows and selling bows full time.
And that's allowed me more time with my family.
All right. Temporary shelter time.
There's not a day that goes by
that I don't think about Cameron.
He'll never be forgotten, and he's a huge reason I'm here.
So this experience, I'm gonna chase it to my fullest.
I'm gonna do whatever it takes.
I'm gonna stay however long it takes
because this time on Earth is so precious.
It can, at any moment, just be gone.
OK.
Just kind of wanted to talk about my shelter a little bit.
I picked this location because it has a vantage point.
There's a couple game trails that run up through here.
Saw some bear sign and I wanted to be up
so I could hear, see anything coming.
I'm leaving it open so I can see around me.
And have a fire out here in front of me
to just kind of deter anything.
It's a little dangerous, but it's a simple shelter.
[fire crackling]
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
Yeah, the first night, no fire.
Just under the tarp here.
Not much room here, but a lot of branches down
to kind of soften it.
And man, oh, man, it was a real up and down
kind of day starting off.
Had a nice big pike, but what's done is done.
No going back.
So now the pressure is on.
Mother Nature is about to dim the lights on us.
We're heading into winter here.
There's dangers all around.
The landscape is totally different
than what I'm used to.
But I'm trying to incorporate the skills that I learned
from my area and try to adjust them for this area,
and it's not easy.
♪ ♪
Starting now, an hour a week of daylight is gone.
Once we get closer to that 100 day mark,
we're gonna be going 24 hours of darkness.
It's gonna be wild.
I probably look terrifying in infrared.
♪ ♪
Uh, so... yeah.
Pretty productive day.
Just kind of getting established
and getting an eye for the location.
♪ ♪
Right now, I'm just gonna try to get some sleep.
♪ ♪
It is pretty nerve-racking.
You know, there's wolves and mama bears and cubs.
That's pretty bad news.
But, you know, you just push.
Today was day one.
♪
I just heard something move.
[animal huffing] [branch snaps]
Hey, bear.
[leaves rustling]
♪ ♪
Hey, bear.
♪ ♪
I hope it's gone.
♪ ♪
Can't wait for daylight.
♪ ♪
All right, man.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
Yeah, that was a long night.
Those damn grizzly bears.
There's mega modifications that need to happen in this thing.
I'm gonna move everything out.
[rustling]
We got to do it.
Restructuring,
because this shelter sucks!
Right now.
But soon, it might not.
There is significant amounts of some very big bears.
Their presence is obvious,
and they're something I'm gonna have to live with.
Try this again.
The more I can put between me and the grizzly,
the more time I have to get some bear spray in its face.
If the grizzlies are gonna come through,
the only thing I can do is make a shelter
that's thick enough, strong enough
to fortify and make myself at least feel comfortable.
♪
If I were watching this on TV, I'd be saying to myself...
dude, it's not even that many grizzlies.
It's not that big of a deal.
But the reality is...
when you're the one sitting in the tent behind a tarp,
and you're hearing-- literally hearing bears walk,
it's scary, dude.
And I'm not particularly scared of bears,
but I've never been in a place
with this high of a density of bears.
I wonder if all the competitors here realize
just what those bears are capable of,
because I've seen it firsthand.
I had a neighbor that got his face ripped off
by a grizzly bear.
When you see the aftermath of a grizzly attack,
it'll scare the [bleep] out of you.
They are brutal, gruesome predators
that deserve every bit of respect.
♪
Just... daunting.
♪ ♪
All right.
So in an effort to attract more ducks to me,
because I've been seeing ducks swimming on this river,
I'm attempting to make some duck decoys.
So I've got a bunch of grass,
and I just start making the shape of duck.
♪ ♪
So first you make the beak.
♪ ♪
And then you fold it over
to make the first...
of the head shape.
Back home, duck hunting is really popular.
It's part of the culture.
And I remember duck hunting when I was a kid.
Duck decoys can be a very effective way
of attracting ducks closer to where you are.
Birds in general are really good
at seeing shapes and movement and color,
so you just have to remain hidden.
You have to be super stealthy.
Look at that.
It's a little bit of a duck shape.
♪ ♪
[quacks]
And then for the final thing, you take a stick.
♪ ♪
Then you stick it in the water.
♪ ♪
Now I have two duck decoys
waiting to entice some ducks right to the shore.
And then hopefully I can shoot them.
[quacks]
[laughs]
I just heard the ice crack underneath me, and that's...
[sighs]
I'm doing this because I want to follow
in the footsteps of my ancestors.
I have a Cree-Métis background.
In Cree culture, it's called a wapos.
And I've always looked up to those people
that came before me.
In this area, we have a lot of wolves.
And in my language, we call them mahikan.
I'm a wolf trapper myself.
I grew up in the wilderness,
very isolated out in the trapline,
being homeschooled, no running water.
Part of a Cree-Métis lifestyle is to live off the land,
so that's hunting, trapping, fishing, and staying out there
for long periods of time and providing for your family
through hard work.
My business is adventure guiding,
taking people out canoeing, snowshoeing, hunting, fishing,
and showing them how to set traps
or how to navigate rivers.
I love sharing my knowledge with people.
We have fire.
Me and my husband just got married.
And as soon as I get home, we want to have babies.
I really want to be able to provide for my future family.
So $500,000 is gonna be part of my motivation.
I'm excited to utilize all those skills
that I've grown up using my whole life.
♪ ♪
I got my fishnet strung up, ready to go.
So let's go deploy my fishnet.
♪ ♪
So one of the things about this location
is it is really, really shallow.
My net is not fully stretched out.
But I'm gonna leave it there for now,
see if I get anything.
♪ ♪
Check it out.
A wolf track.
And that is a running wolf.
♪ ♪
And just over here...
That is definitely wolves.
Oh, damn it.
♪
I never really trusted wolves that much.
They are killers.
When they have a good opportunity, they will.
[dramatic music]
♪
These little berries right here,
they're little cranberries.
It's not much, but calories are calories, huh?
I'm hungry.
Finally starting to get hungry.
My belly's going... [grumbles]
"Feed me."
But I want to get my shelter done
and then I'll start fishing.
Just a little shot of vitamins and calories to get me going.
OK. It's time to get to work.
♪ ♪
I've done a lot of searching, a lot of walking around,
trying to find the right shelter spot.
And I know it doesn't look like much right now,
but there's three trees that I want to build in between
right back there.
I'm gonna put up my ridgepole first.
And I'll use a little bit of snare wire to do that.
But I've got to cut a notch on the back side
to hold my snare wire.
Food is important, but it's not as important
as keeping myself safe.
There's grizzly sign. There's moose sign.
There's wolf tracks in the mud.
This is a dangerous location.
So getting that shelter done, that's my focus right now.
That's the start of it.
Next, I'm gonna work on my bed.
It'll go right here.
I'm aiming to build an A-frame shelter.
I want to be able to stand up in my shelter.
But I want an A-frame because
I want a high pitched roof for the snow.
I don't want it to just sit on top of my structure
and cave in.
I want to build something that's gonna be able
to hold a lot of weight
and stand strong in extreme wind and snow.
[sniffles]
Now I just need a lot of sticks.
[rolls tongue]
♪ ♪
I keep on getting this feeling
that I have to go, go, go, go, go.
Still got a lot of work to do.
But hell, I'm gonna be here for months.
Slow and steady.
Just got to keep on reminding myself,
slow and steady.
There's already enough dangers out here.
I don't need to be one of them to myself.
All right, so that is...
all the work for today.
I am whooped.
Tomorrow, we'll get back at it and hopefully finish her up.
So... [clicks tongue]
All around good day.
♪
[grunts]
I don't know what's going through my head.
This has been a dream of mine forever.
All I can think about is how much I miss my family.
My whole thought process was that
I was doing this to prove something to my daughter.
♪ ♪
That I could push through anything.
But what am I proving by leaving her?
It's starting to hit me just how alone I actually am.
And that's cool. That's what I wanted.
But I have these emotions that I wasn't anticipating.
I hear about "drop shock" over and over again.
Season after season, they talk about drop shock.
But I thought that meant that their plans changed.
I didn't think that that meant
they would be rethinking their lives.
♪
Is this really worth it?
♪ ♪
I don't know.
We'll see.
[stomach gurgling]
Hey, my stomach's growling.
Be kind of nice to eat something.
Let's take a look.
♪ ♪
Nice.
♪
How strange.
I think my nose is bleeding.
[foreboding music]
♪
Yeah.
It's pretty humid out.
It's not dry at all.
♪ ♪
Interesting.
Feel like I just did it again.
♪ ♪
Why am I bleeding so much?
Oh, now it's on my clothes.
Are you kidding me?
Stop bleeding.
♪ ♪
I wonder if has something to do with my berry diet.
♪ ♪
Mm.
♪ ♪
Maybe some of this stuff thins out your blood.
[sniffles]
I don't know.
♪
Everything I ate looked pretty familiar.
I am 97.6% sure that I'll be fine.
It's finally stopped.
But right now,
I'm not gonna waste my time on smaller stuff.
I got to focus more on protein.
Just keep pushing.
That's all I got to do. Just keep pushing.
I'm gonna go ahead and set something
I can just throw out there and let it just sit.
Just some passive fishing.
I'll probably set a line from here,
dig it into the ground kind of.
See if I can't catch a pike or something off of it tonight.
♪ ♪
In basic training on the military side,
they called me Machine Gun Preacher.
I used to be a preacher.
Just gonna sharpen it enough
to where it'll dig into the ground a little better.
But I go hard.
There's a switch that flicks when public face
gets turned off, when people's in danger
and you have to act
and you've got to take control of the situation.
There's a different gear.
♪ ♪
I need that other side of me.
I have to be tough,
but there's a spiritual part of it.
It's not that God speaks to you more
when you're in the wilderness.
It's just easier to hear him.
[splashing]
Did you see that fish jump?
Interesting.
Maybe we will catch a fish.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
Here's the Cree word of the day.
Okistatowân.
That means grizzly bear.
If you look in the water...
♪ ♪
You can see bear tracks
preserved under the water.
This is the real deal, people.
It is cold and there's bears
and there's a lot of work to do.
♪ ♪
I have a Cree name, and it is...
[speaks Cree]
Which means Beaver Hands Woman.
Here we go.
Checking my fishnet.
Come on, fishy.
Looks pretty empty,
but it hasn't really moved around that much.
♪ ♪
Oh, it's twisted up. That's why.
OK.
♪ ♪
So somehow,
my fish net got all twisted up.
I've got to fix that up.
The beaver, that is something
I'm gonna be thinking about a lot,
because the beaver is a hard worker.
That beaver is always building their shelter
and gathering food all the time.
So I'm gonna be embodying the beaver.
So I'm gonna think like a beaver, work like a beaver,
because that is my name and that's part of my spirit.
So I fixed and I untangled my net.
Now I must deploy it again.
[grunts]
♪
I just hope that I can get a fish
in my net...
one of these days.
Wow.
So my site was blessed with this big giant rock.
And in Cree culture,
when there is a giant rock in the middle of the landscape,
it is considered sacred.
Just gonna clear the area
around the sacred rock.
And I'm gonna leave my offerings here so that
the land provides for me and I take care of the land.
Mutual respect.
OK, back to work.
♪ ♪
Oh, my.
Man, my energy is drained.
♪
Yeah. My energy level is really low.
When I lost that pike, that was a bummer.
But onward and upward.
But I need every little calorie I can get.
The seeds, if you eat them, got little hairs on them.
Make your bum itch.
You don't want that.
[spits]
Spit the seeds out.
♪
Not a lot of berries though.
Uh, whew. I was expecting more berries.
♪
Feeling a little better already, yeah.
Sugars, I guess.
Look at that. Bunny trail there.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm gonna have to put a couple rabbit snares out.
You know, was hoping to save that kind of stuff for later,
but I need it now.
♪ ♪
Some rabbit poo right there.
Now I know they're coming through here.
This is my pole.
I'll make a rabbit snare.
[sighs]
♪ ♪
Oh, suck the brains out of the rabbit head.
Looking forward to it.
♪
Since I lost that fish, I lost my focus.
There's just too many thoughts coming at me at one time.
I got to be doing this. I got to be doing that.
And I want to slow down and try to get my focus,
but it's hard to do.
I need some food.
That should do it.
Whew.
I'm just gonna scout around a little bit here.
It's no good to have land if you're not gonna see
what's on it, I guess.
Being from Labrador, I've been hunting
and fishing and trapping ever since I was a little kid.
And this land is full of fish and animals.
And so I just got to carry those skills that I acquired
through my lifetime to get through
whatever I got to get through to be successful here.
It's a little swampy area.
Wow.
♪ ♪
What a beautiful spot, eh?
Look at this.
We have--what's that?
It's like smelt or something. Look at that.
Find a stick. [grunts]
♪
[grunts]
♪ ♪
Look at that. [chuckles]
Whew. [grunts]
Look at this. Another one there.
Come on. [grunts]
Yeah, so we've got these two with the shock waves,
you know, just a stick and you hit the water.
Yeah. So...
I wonder, should I get another two or three?
I grew up and survived in a tough environment.
But when it was tough, everyone pulled together
and built strong communities
so we all could survive together.
♪ ♪
Oh, I see some.
♪ ♪
[splashing]
[grunts]
Whoo-hoo! Another one.
Yes.
Down here's one.
[grunts] [splashing]
There you go.
Look at that. Five.
That's all I want.
Reminds me of when I was a little kid
catching trout in Beaver Pond.
Sometimes they'd be a bit small
and I'd bring them home.
And if I only had a couple, Grandma would
clean them and freeze them.
And when I'd get enough, she'd take them and fry them for me.
Isn't that awesome?
That's fantastic.
I'm gonna just take those fish,
light a little fire, and roast them.
That's a good meal.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
Let's do my morning smudge.
Cleanse my hair.
[distant howls]
[laughs softly]
Cleanse my hair so that I live close to the spirit.
Bless this land so that it provides for me.
All of these prayers,
may the smoke carry them to the Creator.
Sounds like I can hear wolves howling.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure there's wolves howling
in the distance over there.
[distant howling]
Look at that nice day.
♪ ♪
OK. Day four.
I'm walking to check my fish net.
Got everything I need with me.
Maybe I'll have something in my net.
That'll be the best.
♪ ♪
No new ducks.
Darn it.
Please, please, please, please, please.
[grunts]
That's not good.
Maybe I just move it over a few feet.
Honestly, it looks a bit deeper.
Let's try it out.
I'm not used to fishing on small rivers.
Usually I'm fishing on my big river
and there's like an eddy and a fast-flowing water.
And you find that eddy,
and that's a really good place to set a fish net.
OK, moving the fish net
is physically demanding.
But I just got to keep observing
and keep moving it around until I find a good spot.
♪ ♪
OK. Slightly deeper.
Needs to be on shore a little bit.
We'll see.
♪ ♪
Fresh tracks.
Wolf.
What the heck?
Something was killed here?
♪
Look at this, guys.
It's a squirrel.
♪
Somebody left me a kidney.
It smells fresh.
This was not here yesterday.
♪ ♪
Hm, well, I feel like I should eat that.
♪ ♪
I've been dreaming about protein.
Let's make a fire.
And it's something that I really need right now.
[distant howling]
I hear the wolves howling again.
Can you hear that?
And it's so perfect and clean and fresh.
I've never had roasted kidney before,
but I'm willing to try it right now.
It feels like it's a gift.
Thank you to the wolves.
Like I'm meant to be here.
♪ ♪
Oh, wow.
[laughs] It's so tasty.
[distant howling]
♪
All right, today I'm gonna go exploring.
Get some food...
Instead of spending...
a week trying to get my shelter done.
Draw it out a little bit.
Move down there slowly.
♪
Coming in this, my game plan was throw up a tarp,
do an easy shelter for the first week or so,
and then get to fishing and hunting,
just worry about food.
But it's a little terrifying being out here
just exposed, especially whenever
there's grizzlies walking around.
All that's been on my mind for the last three days
is safe shelter, safe shelter, safe shelter.
But hell, now I'm hungry.
I have to get some food.
♪ ♪
[grunts]
It's just so dadgum thick.
Hopefully it opens up. [grunting]
♪ ♪
I'm literally, like, scooting around on my butt, my knees,
pushing my way through here.
♪
[branches thwacking]
There is no walking through this stuff stealthily.
There's moose poop.
♪ ♪
My wife hates this part.
She's like, why do they always touch the poop?
It's because you need to see how fresh it is.
That's pretty dry.
♪ ♪
I'm trying to just figure out my prey.
I'm trying to figure out what I'm hunting.
And there's squirrels around, rabbits as well.
But I'm looking for big game here.
I'm looking for the moose.
♪ ♪
Also bear track.
Holy crap.
That's a bear.
Grizzly.
♪
Bear sign all through here.
Big bear.
♪
Every step is difficult,
and you can't see five feet into the thicket.
There's so many bushes and trees.
And you wouldn't know if a grizzly
was 10 feet away from you.
It's just so thick.
Do I push on, or do I just turn back?
I don't know. My stubbornness says keep on going.
♪ ♪
I really want to see the rest of my land,
but this way is just god awful. [grunts]
♪
[yells]
♪ ♪
[grunts]
Arrow in the leg. [exhales]
♪ ♪
[groans]
It slipped out of my quiver
and I just stepped right into it
and went right at the bend of my leg.
[sighs]
Man.
♪ ♪
OK.
Think.
♪ ♪
[groans]
♪ ♪
Can't believe this.
Can't freaking believe it.
♪ ♪
This is bad.
[exhaling]
♪
[groans]
♪ ♪
[groans]
♪
I'm just so pissed, so dadgum pissed.
[sighs]
And in a lot of freaking pain.
♪ ♪
All this work.
All this work to get here,
and this happens.
♪ ♪
[grunts]
[panting]
[soft sob]
[shaky exhale]
[exhales]
It's just pain.
I don't want to go home.
[grunts]
I'm gonna get back to my camp.
♪ ♪
[grunts]
♪
How am I gonna do this?
[panting]
♪ ♪
Getting a little lightheaded.
♪
I'm gonna turn you off for now so I can walk.
♪ ♪
I keep on trying to talk myself in my head to stay in.
♪ ♪
[groans]
It's still bleeding.
It went a good, oh, 4 inches in.
Oh, [bleep].
I can't--I can't deal with this out here.
Gonna need stitches.
♪ ♪
Oh, man, that hurts.
♪
Really?
♪
There's no way I can stay.
♪
Four days.
That's it.
[sighs]
[beeping]
[sighs]
Hey, it's Cubby.
I got an arrow in my leg, and so,
I guess I'm officially tapping out.
♪
That's the culprit.
♪ ♪
Just gonna take a quick look at it,
see what we're dealing with.
Feeling any other secondary symptoms?
- Dizziness. - OK.
It looks like at least a couple inches.
We're taking you into the hospital.
♪ ♪
The realization that my chance of winning this is over
is absolutely devastating.
There's so much more that I wanted to do.
There's so much I wanted to learn.
And I had a lot riding on this.
This was the chance to provide me and my family
with peace and stability financially.
And it's gone in a moment.
My chances for that are over.
But bad things happen in life.
Accidents happen.
That's a heaviness that you should feel,
because it teaches you how important life is.
I'm just gonna pick myself up and get back to work.
That's all I can do.
♪ ♪
To walk out of here with 500 grand,
it's gonna be bar none the hardest thing I've ever done.
Life is exciting when you live like this.
[ululating] - Ah, [bleep]!
Lot of fear of where the next real meal is gonna come from.
Oh, this is the biggest pike I've ever seen.
There's a beaver in the snare, but he's still moving.
How's that?
No, no, no, no. [bleep].
You have every possible land mammal around you
wanting to eat your face off.
Sassy! My white fish.
Bear spray handy.
Give him the old... [imitates squirting]
[laughs]
That wolf is directly downwind of me.
I think I am food right now.
Still running high on adrenaline,
and just so you know,
I cry with adrenaline. Whew!
[throaty growl] You feel it.
- [imitating call] - You feel the wilderness.
[throaty growl] And it gets inside you.
Everything will be a bigger struggle with the cold,
with the snow, with the wind, with the dark.
Temperatures of minus 50 degrees.
Pain is very real, and life is very painful.
[yelling]
The hunger and the silence
makes you think all kinds of things.
Something goes wrong in this cold of weather,
you just die.
No one around to hear me...
except God and the wilderness.
♪ ♪