[ominous music]
¶ ¶
- Can y'all see that?
[tense music]
That, my friends, is a bear print.
That's not good.
All right, a shelter spot, let's settle in.
- Here we go, heck yes, this is frickin' amazing.
12 trout day.
- I've spent 3 1/2 days just hiking around.
- I'm really burning calories like crazy
and not putting anything back in.
- Oh, wow, look at that trash.
In survival situations, I improvise a lot.
I'm going to be able to make a stove.
Here is the assemble.
- Grouse, there it is.
Damn.
Cost me dearly.
I burned two arrows trying to get it.
¶ ¶
- I can't wait to have this place try and break me.
narrator: For the first time on "Alone,"
ten participants fight to survive
in the hunting ground
of the world's largest land predator...
- Oh, my God, where'd he go?
Those are bear.
- I heard a big animal.
- Hey, bear. - Oh, no, [bleep].
- Sometimes you eat the bear. Sometimes the bear eats you.
narrator: Battling merciless conditions...
- This is some hardcore bushwhacking.
- Why does it have to be such a struggle every night?
- I hit it, I hit it, I hit it.
- I feel more alive every day I'm out here.
- Here comes the rain again.
- Labrador, you're not going to make
it easy for us, are you?
narrator: In complete isolation.
- The most dangerous thing out here is myself.
- Look at that!
- The cold ground is just pulling all the warmth from me.
- How many days can this go on?
- Very, very hungry.
- I feel like I'm hitting a wall.
narrator: Last one standing wins.
- Only gonna get harder the longer you stay out here.
[dramatic music]
¶ ¶
- I want to get some work done on the permanent shelter,
long-term shelter today.
Bathing weather like this just tells you, yep,
I'd better get that long-term shelter going.
Something nice, and enclosed,
and out of the wind would be awesome right now.
I don't know if anybody else has
their long-term shelters up yet,
but I'm guessing there's probably a couple of people
that are further along than I am anyway right now.
This is going to my shelter spot
from my temporary shelter spot.
See, it's just a hop, skip, and a jump.
My long-term shelter is what I'm excited about.
I've been building the front, taking down big logs
and putting things in place.
I'm gonna jump in here
and dig out some of this back wall of the shelter.
So this will be the front.
¶ ¶
And I want to move some of the duff and the sand
forward and come up against this log.
I found just natural spot here where I've got
four trees that are in a good position.
I plan on using those for my structural support.
¶ ¶
I've noticed, like, in all the seasons,
it seems like almost everyone has made
freestanding structures,
and I really don't understand that at all.
I would rather incorporate living rooted trees
that are much stronger and more stable.
¶ ¶
And I am berming it, so like one side is dug into the hill.
¶ ¶
I'm just gonna pull it down the hill
and put it up against there.
But with all the rain, it's coming apart pretty easy.
This weather is crazy, like, rain and then sunshine
for a while, and the winds come in really intense.
I'm gonna need a shelter that can adapt
to either warm or cold and can block wind.
I'm really hoping I'm gonna be out here a while,
and I want something that's gonna be insulated,
and I'd really like to get up away
from the moisture of all the water and stuff
that's down lower.
Bring it up level with the top of my log.
Bringing up poles, that's the next stage.
¶ ¶
I can be a workaholic when I get into something,
and really get into it, I'm like, go, go, go.
And my family is a lot like that too.
Pretty heavy load.
¶ ¶
I come from a line of women that are not routine people.
They tended to just go after life.
My mom was a single parent, big into the outdoors.
She's an amazing fisherwoman.
She's just so strong and been through so much.
Oh, good God, this thing's heavy.
¶ ¶
When things get hard, I think about my mom
and call on that strength.
You just got to keep going.
You can curl up and die, or you can keep going.
Which do you choose?
¶ ¶
I feel pretty good about that.
This will be the work done for today.
¶ ¶
- Today on the menu, there is a pot full of seaweed.
Get a good look at this, folks.
I don't think it gets much better than that.
Seaweed is my staple food. It is keeping me alive.
I haven't been successful fishing.
I haven't caught any fish.
It's still got that earthy, crunchy flavor.
Little elements of sand and dirt.
As you can guess, I don't eat this much seaweed usually.
I feel like my body is trying to figure out what's going on.
I'm gonna try and cut down a tree right after this.
Top priority is my shelter, but I also just want
to make sure I'm putting some food in my belly.
Just a dude eating his seaweed,
trying to build a home in the woods.
Okay, let's do some work on my shelter.
¶ ¶
I'm doing a log cabin as my permanent shelter
because it's sturdy.
We are in an area of really high winds,
and I want something that is rock solid.
I really did want to be farther along
on my shelter than I am.
I just gotta keep a more aggressive pace
than I have been and just really push through.
¶ ¶
This whole area is very wet.
I'm basically building on a marsh.
It's a muskeg and I'm worried about water coming up.
And so I think I'm gonna try and do a floor
in my shelter.
I know this seems like so much trouble for putting in a floor,
and people don't put in floors,
but I don't know if you can hear how squishy that is.
This is just one big marsh.
Okay, I'm a little worried about how marshy
this ground is.
But I just think this is the type of ground
I have to work with unless I go farther up.
But then it's just not level,
and I don't have access to the beach.
So I'm gonna need a lot more logs.
¶ ¶
This isn't the first shelter I've built,
but it's the first shelter I've built
for a climate like this.
¶ ¶
I'm just expecting that everything is
gonna take ten times longer than I think
it's going to take, but I'm gonna figure it out.
¶ ¶
Oh, boy.
It's getting dark. It was a long day.
I'm pretty excited about what I got done on the shelter.
I'm just cutting some firewood.
¶ ¶
Oh, my gosh.
¶ ¶
I got it. I got the grouse.
I got it with my saw.
[exhales]
Thank God, thank you, grouse.
¶ ¶
I've never caught a grouse with a saw before.
It feels surreal.
It feels like a gift.
I actually feel really blessed by the land.
¶ ¶
Oh, my God, that is amazing.
This feels like a confirmation of this being
the right site for me to build my shelter on.
Thank you, God.
Thank you, Labrador.
¶ ¶
- Pay dirt, baby.
I'm gonna try this here, chop it up with the ax,
and see how it goes.
Plan for the day, I'm gonna build a fireplace.
I think I have an idea on how to do it
without stones.
I'm gonna use the clay that I have and mix that in
with a bit of grass to make a type of cob,
and then build out the actual fireplace from there.
Right now, there's no way to ventilate smoke.
My shelter, it's just getting a bit too smoky.
¶ ¶
Ooh, it is smoky in here.
The house is so well sealed
that it's just holding that smoke,
and that is really bad for the lungs.
Like making mud pies as a kid.
Whether it will hold up a chimney is another story.
¶ ¶
But let's give it a go.
¶ ¶
I've never built with cob before,
but I don't have any rocks
here on my site, just little pebbles.
Cob seems to me like the best solution that I have.
And we're just digging out the space
where the firebox is gonna go.
That's good right there.
And we'll build up the framework with willow.
¶ ¶
I'm gonna use a kind of wattle and daub design
to build the walls of the fireplace up.
I need to get into a marathon mindset.
A slow, meticulous pace, just like little Flash,
my pet tortoise.
¶ ¶
I'm not someone that gets easily flustered.
Being able to allow yourself the room to do things badly
and not allow that to affect your mental state
is an incredibly powerful survival tool.
¶ ¶
So far, so good, everything's holding together.
Now we need to get it all the way up to the top.
I'm gonna be out here as long as I can,
and that's all that matters.
¶ ¶
[feathers rustle]
- I think I just heard of grouse land outside.
I'm gonna go see if I can take a shot at it.
¶ ¶
I need to save arrows for the bear.
I'm using my throwing stick.
There he is.
¶ ¶
[tense music]
¶ ¶
- There he is.
¶ ¶
[bleep]
Flew away.
Oh, man.
Can I have someone tell the grouse to come back?
That'd be great.
I'm starting to see grouse on my site again,
and again, and again, and I'm realizing
that I need to adapt my strategy.
Gotta get better at getting these grouse.
Gonna finish getting the chimney done.
Priority after this is getting food.
So far, I am having success with fishing.
I don't have anything stocked up in the pantry yet,
so I am still kind of living paycheck to paycheck
in the food department.
But the fishing doesn't seem to be dying off,
so I might try and hit that a little harder.
I've never gone this long on this few calories before.
¶ ¶
I'm gonna call that good.
I made a little weather flap,
so hopefully, it'll keep the water out.
¶ ¶
The big question is,
what happens when we put a fire to it?
Is the whole thing just gonna crumble?
I'm gonna try firing this thing up.
¶ ¶
Structurally, so far, so good.
It looks like it's holding up okay.
Side walls are starting to dry out.
The vent's amazing.
There's like no smoke in here.
Just amazing.
I think it's gonna work. [chuckles]
So this was like a total experiment.
I love moss house more and more every day.
What we need to do now is get the food situation on lock,
and I'll be cruisin' to a win.
[tense music]
¶ ¶
- It is just bunchberry galore.
Look at this.
Huge bunches of bunchberry.
So I think it's what's for lunch today.
Which is nice, because most days I don't even get lunch.
I might need to come up tomorrow and see
if I can collect a whole bunch more.
I'm really getting tired of bunchberry,
but it's what's on the menu.
Pretty much all that's on the menu.
¶ ¶
- Food is more of a struggle
than I thought it was gonna be.
I'm definitely not taking in that many calories,
and my shelter is, you know, just a lot of work.
I haven't seen any grouse yet.
I haven't seen any rabbit droppings,
but there's a lot of squirrel in this whole area.
So I'm gonna set up a snare line.
¶ ¶
What I'm noticing is that they're mostly
running along the trees.
So doing squirrel poles, putting up snares
where it looks like they're moving up the pole.
And that's nice 'cause you don't have
to use much snare wire.
You can attach right to the stobs,
right, the branches that are coming
off the main trunk, to your anchor points.
So this is one that I've seen them running along.
So there's a nice, narrow opening, right?
You can see where they would come through right here.
At SERE, my training was how to save calories.
It's all about survival, right?
So we did learn a lot of traps and snares
'cause they're just so much more energy efficient.
It's like a spring activator, basically.
If that gets hit, then it's more likely
that it'll close around them.
¶ ¶
Keep yelling.
If you really knew what I was doing,
you definitely--you're justified in your yelling.
¶ ¶
I've always been really empathetic.
I don't like killing things if I don't have to.
And I know--and in this situation,
it's like, well, you have to.
It's like, no, I could always push
a red button and go home, right?
I don't have to kill them.
[squirrel chattering]
- Yep, I hear you.
You don't want me here. I don't blame you.
Every day of any of our lives,
we're killing things indirectly, right?
I've killed way more animals and damaged
way more environment by building a house,
and owning a car, and buying clothes and shoes,
and all of that than I could possibly do out here.
Between transportation, and manufacturing,
and packaging, and all of that stuff,
many things have died.
All right, 15 snares up.
So it's good to remember that balance and understand
this is a much more direct and cleaner way to live,
even if some animals die in the process.
¶ ¶
There's been an awful lot of complaining
from just that spot.
I should go check the snares.
¶ ¶
Holy [bleep], wow.
¶ ¶
[tense music]
¶ ¶
I got one. I got some meat.
So you can see him hanging right here.
So I got some food for tonight.
Thank you, little buddy.
So I haven't even finished setting them up,
and I got a meal.
¶ ¶
Our catch so far for the day.
Poor little guy, but my tummy will be very grateful.
¶ ¶
- It does feel good to be able to start
providing for myself here, but squirrel isn't much.
I mean, I'd want five squirrels for dinner,
and I'm getting one for dinner.
But it's certainly better than nothing.
That's for sure.
My hope is that once I get the lodge done,
then I can start to put a lot more energy
into getting more food.
That's really what I want to end up doing.
All right, first full-fledged meal.
With actual meat in it.
Mmm, lot like chicken wings, mmm.
It's wonderful to have a meal.
¶ ¶
- All right, we're gonna do my video diary log
standing outside 'cause it's just too pretty
to lay in bed any longer.
I literally opened my eyes today,
I slept so well, and just looked out,
and it was just pink, and purple, and blue.
I need to get out of here for sleeping.
It's just gonna get way colder down in here,
and I'm kind of thinking just a debris hut,
but I gotta get this shelter up because I think
these nice days are gonna end, and I could be
in for a real awakening when the rain comes.
¶ ¶
I'm thinking permanent shelter just right over here.
Well, this could be the spot.
Number one reason is I like this access to the beach.
The ground I wanted,
the wind seems to be mostly east-west,
so I want to put the back of the shelter like so.
¶ ¶
I'm choosing my shelter site.
I'm trying to juggle a lot of factors into this one area.
Building a shelter isn't my first move
in a survival situation.
I felt that focusing on learning my site
and finding some resources like food would be time
better spent while the weather was nice.
I chose this site because it was out
of the main flow of animal traffic.
The island I'm on isn't a highly traveled area.
There's very little sign of anything
other than squirrel.
All right, we got about half the shelter built.
Coming together pretty well.
¶ ¶
I like using earthen type shelter ideas.
I like being the most connected to the earth.
Like, I didn't want to build a raised platform, or a bed,
or anything because it puts you off the ground.
I like sleeping on the ground.
I sleep better than I do in a bed.
My back hurts less. My shoulder hurts less.
[sighs]
Today was the day to get this done,
or at least get this started.
I don't know how long--it might take weeks
to actually be done for winter, but at least I got a roof on.
[squeaking]
- I hear a squirrel.
¶ ¶
Okay, he's gonna--he's moving away, but let's see
if we can't get the camera on him here.
¶ ¶
I got a good shot right here, so we're kind of gonna
just ambush for a second.
¶ ¶
Nice, another squirrel.
Tag.
Thank you, buddy.
Man, we're grateful to have him.
¶ ¶
- Seared squirrel, campfire.
This looks like I'm roughing it, but I'm not.
I think you're roughing it at home,
mostly because it's comfortable,
and you're not challenging yourselves.
Never been a big organ eater, but you know what,
They're the woods' vitamins and minerals so going down.
Mmm, pretty good.
I really enjoy cooking my food.
I really enjoy eating my food, savoring all my bites.
I am feeling amazing.
I'm having no problem with the amount of food
I'm getting or the nutrition I'm getting from this diet.
I feel more alive every day I'm out here.
I don't feel more like going home.
I feel more like seeing what's coming.
I can't wait to see the snow. I can't wait to see the ice.
I can't wait to have this place try and break me.
And I'm gonna give it all I got back.
I'm gonna swing for the fences.
And if I got a throw a punch,
I'll throw a punch, but I'm sticking it out
until I get pulled out of here or I'm the last one.
I couldn't live with nothing less.
[tense music]
¶ ¶
- Good morning!
It's the "Alone" Show with your host, Jesse Krebs.
Today's topics, how to build permanent shelters.
We'll be looking at roofs in particular today.
¶ ¶
- My goal today, start construction
on the roof and walls, and get out of this weather,
be able to have a place that's indoor.
Just want to get the support poles in place.
¶ ¶
There are so many different styles of shelter.
We have A-frames, and lean-tos,
and fan shelters, and igloos, and quinzhees.
But what I'm designing doesn't really fit any
of those models.
I feel like the best shelters are ones
that combine a lot of elements.
Okay, I think that one's in there as well.
It'll be more of a lean-to design,
but it's hard to really classify it.
¶ ¶
- We've cut some stakes for the walls.
So the plan would be to drive stakes down into the ground,
then I can weave some things in between them, like bark,
boughs, and then moss,
and fill the walls with debris.
Onto the other side.
Oh, God, okay.
¶ ¶
As usual, I'm probably biting off more than I can chew.
Everything takes me longer than I think it will,
but better to just do it right and have it be pretty solid,
and it'll make it easier in the long run.
¶ ¶
When my mom got pregnant with me, she was 20.
After I was born, my biological dad,
he wasn't around.
She decided that she was actually gonna
keep me and not give me up for adoption.
And I think about how she struggled putting herself
through college with no help, working, and raising me.
And, like, she still somehow managed
in that time to, like, travel to incredible places.
And she fell in love with a Nepalese man.
She was riding elephants in the Himalayas.
She's just amazing, and she's always just been
such a fan, you know, of me and supporter.
¶ ¶
Here's some bark.
Lots and lots of bark.
That's how I'm approaching this.
There is nobody out there.
I'm alone, and I've got to figure this out.
If you want to keep living, there's nobody gonna
show up and plug you in or make you feel better.
It's on you, so do what you got to do.
What do you need to do right now?
And that's got to be your focus.
I think it's looking pretty darn good.
I think we call it. It feels good enough for today.
It's gonna take a lot more energy than I thought it was.
¶ ¶
- There was a squirrel, tried to shoot, missed again.
The squirrels around here must be wondering,
"What the heck?
"I'm always getting these weird projectiles
whenever this guy's around."
[chuckles]
¶ ¶
I've already explored upriver very well.
There's nothing.
So now I just want to explore a little bit.
I'm not gonna go far.
Just gonna walk a little bit.
¶ ¶
So just for the record, this is how difficult it is
to walk through my piece of land.
After that grouse, I have not eaten much.
I've been very carefully looking at the ground
for signs of rabbits,
but I cannot see any droppings,
so that's not great news for me.
¶ ¶
Look at that.
Those are bear tracks.
¶ ¶
That's a bear track.
Holy [bleep].
¶ ¶
And here's my hand for reference so...
Holy [bleep].
¶ ¶
I can do a few things to try to optimize
so that if a bear goes nearby, I can get a shot at it.
¶ ¶
So I'm thinking that having a bear nearby,
it's quite dangerous.
I need to really protect myself and my food coming in,
so I'm gonna hang my food scraps from the grouse.
¶ ¶
Nice.
So here it is.
Grouse intestines, and foods scraps,
and some cans, and hopefully, if an animal is trying
to get it, it'll make a little bit of noise.
¶ ¶
Okay, so I just had a great idea.
Why don't I make, like, a bell?
So I have this pot here, so--and I also have
this huge, huge nail that I found.
If I string this nail through this hole...
¶ ¶
now I have a loud bell.
I'll be able to hear this from far away for sure.
¶ ¶
Bear encounters could be potentially pretty scary.
If I hunt a bear,
I'll be able to outlast anyone.
See if that works.
[tense music]
¶ ¶
- Got ourselves a vice.
Now we can put the hook in there.
I can put this between my legs.
I can work on my flies.
¶ ¶
I'm gonna take a little bit of this foam
off the edge of my boot.
I hope that doesn't make my boots too uncomfortable.
As time goes on, I'm realizing that I need
to make a few different flies to match different conditions
and weather conditions that are prevalent on the river.
For the legs, we're gonna take a little bit of fly line.
¶ ¶
I'm gonna make a couple of flies that will sink
and a couple of flies that will float
and give myself a little bit of diversity
in my fly box to allow me to catch some fish.
And there you have it,
the world's ugliest Chernobyl Ant.
Let's see if they're biting down there today.
Feeling hungry this morning, man.
I need something in my stomach.
It's important that we produce some food today.
The cupboard's pretty much empty again.
The fishing seems pretty reliable right now.
Just look how beautiful it is today.
¶ ¶
The wind is calm.
I think it's gonna be a really good morning for fishing.
I do wonder what everyone's doing.
My parents, I bet they've got a little countdown board
or something going on the fridge.
"He's doin' it."
They'll be saying stuff like that all the time.
"Man, he's doin' great."
I have no idea if I'm doing great,
but I just think I am.
500,000 bucks would be a big deal for us.
A huge deal, the whole family, it could help everybody out.
My parents live on less like 20 grand a year.
They do not have a lot of money.
I'd love to be able to sort them out with just
a little mini retirement pension.
When you're living on that kind of income,
it makes a big difference.
I know that I'm out here for the right reasons.
I'm hoping that I can make it happen.
¶ ¶
All right, not a nibble on the tenkara rod,
so I'm gonna put up the casting rod,
and toss that line out a little further,
and see if that does something.
¶ ¶
I'm worried that the fishing is drying up.
¶ ¶
The river levels are starting to drop,
and as the river starts to drop,
my shoreline gets shallower and shallower,
and I'm noticing that the fish are starting
to move further and further off.
¶ ¶
I just lost my fly in the back cast.
The river is getting colder,
the fish are getting a little bit more lethargic,
and the simple fact of the matter
is that I am fishing two very small sites,
and it's just a matter of time before I've taken the majority
of the fish that are hanging out in those particular spots.
I just lost my fly.
The homemade one.
It's frustrating.
I don't know what to do.
¶ ¶
What are the two things that you know
will make it onto "Alone"?
Song and a dance.
¶ Do the hunger dance ¶
¶ Doo, doo, doo, doo ¶
¶ Do the hunger dance ¶
¶ Doo, doo, doo, doo ¶
¶ Do the hunger dance ¶
¶ Doo, doo, doo, doo ¶
¶ Do the hunger dance ¶
¶ Doo, doo, doo, doo ¶
¶ Unlimited calories ¶
¶ Doo, dooby, doo, doo, ba-doo ¶
¶ Better low, low, low, low ¶
How's that? [chuckles]
¶ ¶
- So we will have a small delay
in the day's activities...
So I can do a little sunbathing.
Feels good to get some sunshine,
collect a little vitamin D.
¶ I'm here squattin' on the big river ¶
¶ Eatin' lots of berries and squirrel liver ¶
That's part of the tune I'm trying to work on.
I think that'll be the chorus.
Think it's catchy enough?
[chuckles]
It was nice to see the sun's face again.
All right, I suppose, let's get to work.
[groaning]
¶ ¶
Have to go check my traps.
¶ ¶
I need to start getting some more food.
I think the squirrel around here are starting
to figure out what those shiny metal things are.
Getting pretty good at avoiding them.
So nobody in any of those.
Could be a problem.
¶ ¶
Oh, I got one over here.
Poor thing.
I'm gonna get a good stick to hit him with.
[squirrel chattering]
They are not happy with me.
¶ ¶
[squirrel chirping loudly]
¶ ¶
I'm grateful for squirrels.
¶ ¶
Felt really bad taking its life,
especially mom was there chattering and yelling,
and she was really upset.
¶ ¶
Yeah, they have the emotions, right.
They feel like we do.
¶ ¶
So it is really hard to break up families,
but I know that's also part of how it works,
and that here it's direct, right?
I see it. I have to be part of it.
I have to take an active part
if I'm going to live and survive.
¶ ¶
[squirrel chirping loudly]
- You have every right to be mad at me.
I understand.
I think she was coming over earlier this morning
and like, you know,
she was yelling at me,
and I don't know if she was yelling at me
for setting out the snares or yelling at me to come help.
I would have liked to have come help instead,
but it's not why I'm here, babe.
¶ ¶
She's eating a pine cone right now,
which could be comfort eating,
but I see it as a good sign.
She's gonna keep living her life.
¶ ¶
Every day we live, other things must die,
and that is the law of nature.
That is the way things work.
And we don't realize in our modern lives
that the same thing is happening indirectly
because of our actions.
So even though this is hard,
to see it that directly,
it's more honest.
¶ ¶
[tense music]
¶ ¶
- Okay, I'm gonna do this. I'm going to wash my hair.
My hair feels so dry and wiry.
I've got some warm water.
First, I'm just gonna dunk my hair in there.
That'll be the easiest way.
Oh, my gosh, this feels so good.
[laughs]
Now I got a little leaves--
where'd those all come from?
Okay, well...
I think I got it pretty good.
Could somebody hand me my towel.
Thanks.
¶ ¶
My goal today is just to get into the shelter.
Let's try not to get my pink shirt dirty.
¶ ¶
It's very overwhelming for me to build a shelter
to settle into.
But the land told me how to build the shelter.
I saw the hill.
That hillside is all clay under those blueberries.
And I went to bed, and that night,
the land told me, lift up the topsoil, dig in,
build your little structure, and put the topsoil on,
but you have to put the topsoil back.
My plan is to have the front wall lean back
so that I can pile the clay up there
because the moss is rated R5, the clay is R50,
so I'm going to use this clay as much as possible
to really hold in the heat.
¶ ¶
I feel so blessed with all the abundance
that this land has to give.
It's like, it's making it so easy.
I think I'm gonna level this out a little bit,
and then start working on the bed.
¶ ¶
Brr, it got chilly.
I think I need to put on my shirt.
¶ ¶
- All right, so we can get the tarp on there
and start living in it while I'm finishing the roof.
¶ ¶
I'm not eating enough.
I'm burning way more calories than I'm eating,
but I also realize I get so wrapped up
on the to do, to do, to do.
Now I gotta do this, today I'm going to do this,
and not taking the time out to just be.
I'm so happy. I moved in.
¶ ¶
[scraping]
So here we are!
I moved into my shelter.
I got the tarp on. I got some ribs going.
we got everything tied down.
But I've been really looking forward to being able
to have a fire in my shelter, and here it is.
Number one, first night, whoo!
¶ ¶
Something I'm learning about myself is
I am a visionary person.
I get inspired, and I get these ideas.
Oh, it's only going to take two days.
But then I get into the project,
and I get really detailed, and I get very perfectionist
about things, and I'm discovering
with myself there's a balance between details
and just getting it done so that you can survive.
All that's left is food.
I just--that's the game. It's the food game.
And I can focus the majority of my day on getting food.
Yeah, this is definitely a game changer.
Definitely a game changer, for sure.
[tense music]
¶ ¶
- Nailed it. That's good.
¶ ¶
I am taking target practice.
I'm just gonna shoot into the opposite bank there
a few times because I feel like
my aim is just a little bit off,
and I need to start nailing more of these shots.
So morning target practice is
going into the morning routine.
Try something a little further away.
¶ ¶
I'm ready to start utilizing my bow.
The fishing spot is totally burned out.
I mean, I've tried fishing for a few days now,
and there's just nothing.
I want to spend more time out on the landscape
looking for black bear.
¶ ¶
Okay, I feel good about that.
Just needed a couple of confidence booster shots.
¶ ¶
- Check this guy out.
That's the first bolete I've found since I've been here.
It's a little old,
but we are totally going to eat that.
¶ ¶
We're gonna go up onto the hill,
see what we can find.
I don't see a path to 75, 80 days here for me
without that bear.
I can scrape by on good looks and charm only for so long.
After a while, things need to get real.
So I gotta produce.
[sighs]
¶ ¶
Wow, it's gorgeous.
If I'm gonna take a shot on the bear,
it's gonna be up on the plateau
where I have a good kind of visual
to be able to see where he might go.
¶ ¶
This would be a great spot to glass for bears.
¶ ¶
We have some bear scat, relatively recent.
Think they might be walking up and down on this ridgeline.
I'm gonna go explore inland for a couple of hours.
I just walked two hours in, good time to do it.
There's too many bear signs for me not
to run into one at some point.
¶ ¶
Getting a black bear means that you have just
upped your chances of winning exponentially.
So rather than sitting at home and trying
to conserve those calories.
For me, I just have to go all in,
and without doing that,
I don't feel like I'm really deserving of being here,
deserving of being on this land.
I was never gonna come out here and sit in my shelter.
I'd rather be out there hunting.
¶ ¶
[tense music]
¶ ¶
[tense music]
¶ ¶
- Holy [bleep].
¶ ¶
I got one, finally got a grouse.
Beautiful one.
I've probably shot at ten different grouse,
and I've learned every time how to get better at it.
I feel so, so, so thankful for this animal.
Look how beautiful he is.
¶ ¶
I get to eat tonight again.
Mushrooms and grouse.
¶ ¶
We're making it. We're doing it.
¶ ¶
Back in the game, back in the mother-freaking game.
The fishing started drying up,
and the bow is starting to produce.
This is a food source I could start to depend on
until that bear comes in.
¶ ¶
For dinner tonight, I'm gonna stuff
the entire grouse with cranberries.
Sprigs of Labrador tea
and some sliced up bolete.
That's one stuffed bird.
¶ ¶
Let's carve this turkey.
¶ ¶
Mmm.
That is [bleep] amazing.
You can taste the cranberry in it.
Sitting in moss house enjoying a whole roasted bird
in front of my fireplace.
If that's not thriving, I don't know what is.
[tense music]
¶ ¶
- We've got a bunch of fish,
so I'm gonna build a fish cache.
There we go.
The problems of having a surplus of food.
¶ ¶
The land's been awesome.
I came here to hunt, but clearly,
fishing is a very important part of survival
in any landscape.
So here's to still living like a kid.
Homemade rod, simple fly,
about 40 years later.
Enough fish that I'm not gonna go hungry,
at least for a few days.
So he looked a little small there,
but I don't want it floating away,
so we're gonna block off here, and then put a lid on that.
That'll keep it cool today.
Keep bugs off of it.
¶ ¶
Oh, I think I see something.
Look at this beaver trail.
There's just beaver sign all over right here.
That's too good to pass up.
I got to sit this.
¶ ¶
The best strategy to hunt most game,
especially with bow and arrow,
is to find a high traffic area
and ambush them at close range.
These beavers are super active.
It's just a matter of time before we cross paths.
There's this ambush spot where this beaver hits right here.
¶ ¶
Let's just take a peek and just watch this corridor
here for a little bit.
¶ ¶
- I think I see one right over here.
¶ ¶
Had one shot, just missed.
¶ ¶
There, that one hit it.
¶ ¶
Where would it go?
I know he's hit hard.
That's freakin' nuts.
¶ ¶
[tense music]
¶ ¶
These things are tough.
I'm just really hoping he goes belly up here.
¶ ¶
A lot of meat on this beaver.
Dang, I just can't believe he's not dead.
¶ ¶
Well, we got to go back up around and go back down
where he just went and see if we can't pick him up.
¶ ¶
What a frickin' saga, man.
¶ ¶
It'll be a real bummer to not recover this.
I mean, make me sick.
¶ ¶
I think it just crawled out of this pond
into the main river.
Dang it.
¶ ¶
I know he's hit hard.
I hit him really close, shot him right
behind the ear, basically.
I don't see anything yet.
Oh, man, adrenaline.
That's a big chunk of food I was going after.
¶ ¶
It's getting darkish now, and I see no sign
that he made it into the big river right here, so hopefully,
I'm recovering a beaver here tomorrow morning.
We're gonna head back,
recover some arrows, get regrouped.
¶ ¶
I think I would have caught him in this channel
if he would have made it, but I think he got up in there,
and laid down, and realized he was hurt pretty bad.
Anyway, I really hope he's down
and I can recover and use that hide and that meat.
That would be awesome.
¶ ¶
This is hunting.
You just got to get out here, and do the best you can,
and put in 100% effort to recover this guy,
and hopefully, he's just-- he's expiring peacefully.
Still sharp.
Oh, it's just like life, you gotta try.
Coulda, shoulda, woulda...
¶ ¶
What an exciting night.
I got to say, I'm alive, you know?
Heart's beating. Body's functioning well.
I got no excuses, just doing the best I can.
¶ ¶
Folks, this is how you learn.
Get out here and get your butt kicked.
¶ ¶
- Oh, [bleep].
- Come out, little guy.
- See if we can't catch a trout.
Holy [bleep].
- I really feel bear is gonna be a necessity
to make this long haul.
- We'll see who comes looking.
[bear growls]
- Well, I got some muscle spasms
and leg cramps,
the kind that curl your feet up.
[groans]
- I'm coming to the limits of my physical body.
And now my heart beat's irregular.
Ba-boom, ba-boom.
¶ ¶