I didn't even know if my wife was going to come with me.
Actually, what happened was, he called me up one day at work and said,
'"Listen, I've had it. I'm out of here. I'm leaving.
"We're gonna move out in the middle of nowhere."
And I'm like, what do I do?
I mean, my husband's gone off the deep end. Do I go with him or not?
So we just kind of took the plunge.
And what we did is we had a map up on the wall
and we took sticky notes, of all things, and we sticky note everything
that we thought we would need to move up in the woods, you know,
the chainsaws and the hatchets, and the...
I don't know, we had some weird on there,
and every time we got one, we took a sticky note down, threw it away.
And we had a five-year plan, and we wound up doing it in two.
- One. - Was it two? Was it one?
- One. - One year, yeah.
Yeah, that's what really happened, though. He called me at work. At work!
Yep, middle of the day, middle...
not wait till I get home, not say, "Hey, honey..." Nothing.
Yeah.
That's how we got here.
In the age of technology,
the electrical grid is expanding
and the world is getting smaller.
For some, finding peace of mind means hiding out
where no one thinks to look.
To escape, they redefine "off the grid."
Well, we're out exploring today.
I've heard rumors of there being a new cave up here, so, uh...
A new opening to go in,
so I'm up looking for it to see where I can get in.
In north central Arkansas,
Joe Ray makes his home within a labyrinth of caverns and tunnels
underground in the Ozark Mountains.
Out here, there are more than 2,000 documented caves.
And Joe frequently searches for undiscovered caverns
in hopes of finding potential living spaces
or valuable resources he can use.
Sinkhole here. This is a good sign.
This is probably caving in here into a cave below.
This is gonna fall out.
This will be an opening here, probably in a few more years.
I'm not going to.
Well, hang on. Looks like we might have a hole right over here.
I can feel cool air coming up.
Somebody's got their air conditioner on.
It's probably pretty big.
I think I'm ready to drop in.
Well, I want to see what's down there.
Coming down?
Okay.
Let's see what we can see.
Living out in the mountains here, I'm part of the horse culture.
I don't have a vehicle.
It gives me the freedom of living
wherever these horses take me, or wherever I want to go.
Beyond the grid,
Bear Claw makes his home high atop the ridgelines
of the Clearwater Mountains in western Idaho.
This grass is dry as a tinderbox.
This is the biggest danger about living in Idaho.
Up here, Bear Clawrelies on his horses,
Rainbow and Idahe,
to haul supplies and get where he needs to go.
With a severe drought in the area, he's headed to the Clearwater River,
to replenish an essential reserve of water for his camp.
I need two horses.
I need a riding horse and I need a packhorse.
They're real happy when there's two horses together.
They're half-brother and sister.
She's just a year older.
Their mother was the same horse.
Their fathers were...
Oh, oh.
Oh, man. Ho, ho.
Yep, yep.
Well, buddy boy, looks like you got a sore leg or knee.
Yep, that's the one, right there.
Looks like you got the weight off of that foot.
Well, I don't see a rock or anything in there,
so apparently it's in the joint.
Something bad could really happen here.
Oh, man.
We've had some late night visitors.
Got a bear hunting for, hunting for food.
That's flippin' awesome.
It's a waste of a good garden.
Last thing I need is to feed a bear.
You can see the tracks right here.
For the past five years,
Doc and Jeanny Leverett have lived in a tree house 25 feet off the ground,
within the dense forests of eastern Washington.
Last night, they got an unwelcome reminder
of why they made their move above the grid.
A black bear destroyed their garden,
and now Doc's on high alert.
I don't mind sharing the woods with them,
but I do not want to share my house.
Safety's on.
You know, out here, living out here in the trees,
bears are a part of life, and we've got to deal with that.
There was one time we had a...
I was coming back from scouting, or hunting, or something,
and I was coming through the woods,
and I come across a bear taking a nap,
and I knew Jeanny was working down in the garden,
so I immediately hauled ass trying to get back to her.
She's not armed. She's nowhere... She's around all this good bear food.
I don't think I've ever ran that far or jumped that high.
I could have been an Olympic hurdle runner.
Yeah.
You think you're all alone, and you hear a tree crash,
and you didn't hear any cause for that tree crash.
It kind of makes the...
Makes the hair stick up on the back of your head.
We're so lucky to live out here.
Mother Nature provides us with pretty much everything we need,
if we just know what to get and what to use.
In the Clearwater Mountains,
Bear Claw's mission to gatherwater has come to a standstill,
with his packhorse, Idahe, immobilized by equine arthritis.
There's a real nice plant right over there, arnica.
Before he can make another plan to haul water,
Bear Claw will use a natural remedy to ease his horse's pain.
Arnica is a plant that we use to put on bruises.
You got a sore spot, or an elbow, a joint, maybe a shoulder.
Hey, buddy boy.
What we do is we literally put the green side towards the horse.
Then the medicine comes out of the leaf and helps the soreness.
Pain is a figment of your imagination.
I learned that from my father.
He was pretty tough.
In the past, when Idahe has struggled with symptoms
related to equine arthritis,
the arnica treatment required three days or more.
During that time, there is no way he can haul supplies for Bear Claw.
Well, in the meantime, I need water real bad today.
I'm gonna have to go see if I can do some horse trading,
or I need to get me another horse from somebody.
Yeah, so, like, right about this point right here
is kind of like the center of my 20 acres.
You can see my very first outhouse over here.
That was the first one I ever built on the property.
It's, uh, no longer used. I guess emergency only.
This was one of the first buildings built on the property.
You know, it's a nice, solid structure.
I mean, if you had to, you could rough a winter in that cabin.
Outside the grid, in the middle of Lake Michigan,
Dan Burton makes his home on Beaver Island,
one of the most remote locations in the lower 48 states.
This is one of those areas we use to store food.
You know, I'm down to a few jams, some rice, some tomatoes,
little bit of venison, some beans.
When the cupboards start looking like this,
one, you're glad you survived the winter, but two, you gotta get right back to work.
Living in such an isolated place,
Dan must always plan weeks ahead
to ensure that he and his family have a stockpile of food.
In between the garden, you know, you get your fruits and veggies,
but, you know, you don't get everything.
Having an island like Garden Island just north of us here is nice.
It's got some hot spots for mushrooms.
There's berries to be picked, you know, wild game,
you know, birds and rabbits.
I guess Garden Island would be like a grocery store
to someone on the mainland.
It's always stocked shelves every year.
So, if I get out there now, I should be able to still get my year's supply.
I got a lot to do. I got a lot to get done.
Come here, Titus.
Get in the boat, buddy. Get in the boat. Good boy.
Okay, we're coming up to the drop-off here, so stay to your right.
In northern Arkansas, below the grid,
Joe Ray is exploring a new cave system
in hopes of discovering potential living spaces
or valuable resources he can use.
So far, he's traveled 200 yards underground with no luck.
There's no telling how some deep some of this water can be.
Bottomless.
I know it keeps on going back, so I've got to go on back.
I've been doing some exploring in the caves.
I've come to a spot that's causing me a lot of problems crossing,
makes me feel very unsafe.
So, I'm fixing to go up here to this little, old cabin.
It's old, dilapidated.
I'm gonna get me some wood,
and I'm gonna see about making me a bridge,
and maybe a set of stairs to go up, but who knows.
We'll just have to see what I can get.
In Arkansas,
Joe Ray has retreated outside a newly discovered cave system
to salvage supplies that might help him navigate deeper
into the unexplored tunnel.
Well, that's pretty still a solid board,
I mean, you can, uh...
There's no rot on it or anything.
See what else I can grab out of here.
I think the catwalk is gonna be the quickest, and easiest,
and surest way, so here we go!
Well, over my years of building,
I have built about four houses by myself from the ground up.
I started building a house for me and Mary,
and it's about 3,300-3,400 square foot.
It took me... Well, it took me about two years.
And it's at about 80%,
but I only got to work on it part-time, because I had to take care of Mary a lot.
Okay, these here will be the striders.
That's what'll be holding everything up.
Beyond this subterranean lake,
Joe plans to travel as far as the tunnel goes,
in hopes of finding a new living space
or valuable resources he can use.
Well, the bridge is up.
It feels safe.
I think it's time for us to go on back in the back
and do some exploring, because we're a half mile in or so now.
This thing could go back a couple of miles,
might go back even further, and we're gonna be the first ones in it.
So, y'all be careful.
Stay safe, hang close and let's go.
Go as far as I can.
So, this is Garden Island.
It's kind of like a Garden of Eden. It's got its pristineness.
I set some traps last night, and I'm over here to check them out
and see what we got.
In the middle of Lake Michigan, outside the grid,
Dan Burton is on a mission to stockpile food his family needs.
To do it, he'll venture into the uninhabited wilderness
of Garden Island.
It's rabbit heaven, deer heaven. It's the snowshoe rabbit that's abundant.
It's what we're after on these little areas.
Right up here is the trap.
Oh, yeah, check that out. That's a trap gate right there.
Why isn't this trap shaking around?
Ahh, , there's nothing in there.
And they got all the bait.
That's a classic grab-and-go.
You just reset this trap, rebait this trap,
and... Whoo, almost.
There's a little bit of sunflower,
some, you know, grapes, and a couple berries.
Lightly cover it back up.
So, you know, try to make it look as natural as possible.
You know, you're hoping that fresh smell of food
is gonna entice them into that trap.
You know, it ain't over. I still got a lot of island to explore.
And we'll see what else is out here.
Ahh! Another empty trap.
Let's see what else we can find.
Right up in here is where I set one of my traps here.
Dang it!
If it was an actual live trap, if I had a rabbit, he'd be in there.
Yeah, and you look in here and you see these knockdowns
where, you know, you can see where animals are sliding out of the forest.
You know, that's the perfect spot. You just tuck a trap in here,
nine times out of ten, you'll come to a sprung trap.
Mother Nature wins this time.
On each trip to Garden Island,
Dan normally brings home one or two snowshoe rabbits.
Son of a bitch.
But today, all of his traps are turning up empty.
You know, it's tough. You try it again, and you don't give up.
And we go look for something else.
There's a lot of different avenues on this island.
We'll see what's out there.
So you want to move the garden higher?
Well, if I keep it on the ground,
they're gonna come back and get our garden again, and we can't afford that.
At least, nothing can get it up there.
High above the grid, in Onion Creek, Washington,
Doc and Jeanny Leverett keep most of their possessions
25 feet off the ground.
With evidence of a bear in their camp,
they'll elevate one more crucial resource.
Garden to the roof. Is it possible?
Yeah, we can get it up there.
So I'm thinking I can mirror this up on top.
- Like that. - Okay.
And now, what takes the place of the corner ones is your next layer.
- See how it goes over that log? - I gotcha.
And then you can mount it into there, same with this one.
- And then in between. - Okay.
So I'm gonna go, and I'll cut down the logs we're gonna need.
Hopefully, I can find some dead ones. They're lighter.
- All right. So you got your plan? - We've got it.
Help an old lady up. Ouch.
All right, let's go.
Normally, we'd want to put this on the backside
and then come to it, but this tree is already tilted.
So... I'll let Mother Nature do the work.
Timber!
Some folks see me doing this and they think,
"Man, it's too bad that you have to do all that stuff."
They don't understand that we do this by choice.
It all starts with buying a chainsaw,
and next thing you know, you got a mortgage again.
There's one. Seven more to go.
Currency out here, I don't use a whole lot of folding money.
I don't make a whole lot of folding money.
It's just a barter system.
It's a whole lot more fun
than the common "pull the wad out of your pocket."
In the Clearwater Mountains of Idaho,
Bear Claw's horse, Idahe, is sidelined for three days
while recovering from symptoms of equine arthritis.
Let's see if we can get it to shoot right,
trade it off and get us a packhorse.
In need of a new packhorse to haul essential water reserves,
Bear Claw plans to barter with one of his most valuable possessions.
This gun looks great for its age,
but it's just, you know, sat around
for 50 years maybe, or longer, and it hasn't been fired.
Well, I reckon we should give it a whirl.
I'm not sure if this gun is trustworthy.
If it hasn't been shot for a long time, and you don't check it over really well,
you just throw a shell in there and shoot, it's gonna blow up.
I'd rather be safe than sorry.
All right, we're ready.
I want all you all to get behind me.
And then we're just gonna kind of do a little easy tugging on there
till we hear that gun go off, if it's gonna, or...
Holy smokes.
My goodness.
Bear Claw has confirmed that his .32-40 won't backfire.
But before it can be used as currency for trade,
he'll fire a test shot to ensure it's properly sighted.
As we say at rendezvous, fire in the hole.
Man.
Tell you what.
That is the nicest-shooting cartridge gun I ever shot.
The trigger is really light. The barrel is really heavy.
Phew, it goes off.
It's great.
That gun shoots very, very well.
The next guy that fires it is gonna get whatever he shoots at.
I got to go trade for a nice horse.
Pack this all up and mosey.
Little more.
In Onion Creek, Washington,
Doc and Jeanny are continuing to elevate their life,
high above the grid.
Oh, this is a heavy one.
To protect their garden from foraging animals
and deter predators in the future,
they've started construction on a living roof garden.
One more.
It's starting to rain.
Yes, ma'am.
Liquid sunshine.
Doc and Jeanny's home, 25 feet above the ground,
is anchored to a sole living tree.
Winds less than 20 miles per hour can move the entire structure.
Honey, be careful up there with the rain.
- What's that? - Be careful with the rain.
What's that?
Safety first.
Got it.
- Coming around... - Huh?
I'm singing... To keep from being scared.
This here is the butt-and-pass. There are some different ways...
There's some ways that makes it look like a pinwheel.
But this is basically a simpler version.
Just take enough to a little square knot here. Nothing fancy.
Just enough to make sure there's this...
Lee.
All right. I'm gonna come down.
Sit out the rain a little bit.
Batten down the hatches. You must have tied this knot.
This has "Jeanny knot" written all over it.
It's not coming undone? You see it's starting to come in?
Yeah.
It's perfectly safe.
Maybe on a 90% safe scale. 10% unsafe.
I over-braced, bolted, nailed, riveted, so it would sway,
'cause if it was rigid, and the tree starts swaying, it'd just break apart.
It's kind of like being on a boat out to sea, though.
I know, I know. You and your seasickness.
I know it's secure. I'm good. I'm secure.
We've had wind before. It's okay, it's okay.
Oh, my gosh! Did you feel that?
Yeah, easy, easy.
Remember, grab the tree. It flexes.
This tree has been here how many decades? It's strong. We built to it.
It's gonna sway, sweetie. We know that.
Yeah, I know.
Heading into Garden Island, as you can see,
this is considered a major highway.
I'm gonna be moving pretty good.
As you can see, the 'skeeters are gonna be thick.
Could be a bloodbath.
Outside the grid, in the middle of Lake Michigan,
Dan Burton is on a mission to stockpile food for his family.
Come on, Titus!
After his traps turned up empty,
he's scouring the uninhabited wilderness of Garden Island
for any source of food he can find.
I'm gonna do a quick 'skeeter rub.
Oh, God.
Let me just get the other shoulder, that's got a few more bites on that one.
Nice.
Oh, look at this bad boy. Whoo-wee.
We got two. I'm gonna take the big one.
Look at the meat on that. There's a meal.
That's the size you're hoping for.
Even if you're having empty traps, at least you got a steak.
Here's a good little batch of ripes.
Actually, this is worth stopping and picking.
Doesn't this beat a trip to the grocery store?
I mean, here we're in nature, and the beautiful thing is that,
you know, I didn't plant these, I didn't cultivate these,
I didn't introduce them to this spot, you know.
Bam.
Here's what we're after. See what's on these trees?
I'm gonna sneak up here.
I got a little orchard bag I keep hidden up here.
It's always there.
This tree is just loaded.
Whoo, nice bag of apples, lots of mushrooms,
lots of raspberries, even some grapes.
Now I've just got to get it all back to the boat.
What do you say, pretty girl? Time to mosey.
I'm riding down here to see my good friend Norbert.
I need a packhorse to haul water to my camp.
Beyond the grid, Bear Claw plans to barter
for a healthy packhorse he canuse to haul water to his camp.
His currency, a .32-40 rifle he's fine-tuned for the trade.
Hello to camp!
Anybody around?
Looks like he's home.
Hey!
You got a horse over here that I could trade you out of?
I got a young one, Smokey there.
He's a good-looking boy, ain't he?
You probably have to break him into shape a little bit.
Well, I'll put a few miles on him
and his ribs will come out a little bit.
He looks good and stout to me, and he's put together nice.
I like the heavy mane and tail.
I think this is your best bet.
Well, I've seen what you've got.
Now I'll show you what I got.
What do you got to trade?
- I got a pretty fancy gun. - Oh, man.
- Isn't that something? - The barrel looks straight.
Stock looks good. It's not scratched much.
I don't know what you're thinking,
but one of my good friends, when I was up in bear camp,
he makes knives, and I'll tell you what,
that gun and that knife there with a few cartridges here,
I'm wondering if that'll get me that horse.
We've known each other for quite a while.
I'll tell you what, you keep this, and you just take care of that horse.
All righty, all righty. Absolutely.
The wonderful neighbors that I have,
we're trying to help each other out all the time.
Bartering is a lot more close to the heart than folding money.
Bear Claw now has a packhorse to haul the water he needs.
And whenever his old horse, Idahe, is healed,
he'll return this new one to Norbert in another exchange.
Out here, allies barter to help everyone get by.
Tell you what, time to go get some water.
I think we're gonna have a lot of fun together.
Say what?
I see something promising-looking up here.
This could lead us to something good, maybe not, I don't know.
Below the grid, Joe Ray's bridge has allowed him
to venture deeper into a new cave,
on the lookout for potential living space or valuable resources he can use.
It's gonna be low, so watch your heads.
Nearly one mile in,
the main passage has splintered off into a series of smaller tunnels.
Moving forward, Joe will use a spelunking technique as a precaution,
utilizing a spool of cord to track his progress inside.
Who's gonna be the last one in line?
We'll put a line on you.
Looks like it's gonna be awful twisty and turny, and we drop down.
I don't know, we might go up sideways. I don't know where this is gonna go.
This is just something we'll have a way to find our way back if something happens.
Away we go.
First time I ever went in a cave,
well, I probably been 14 or 15,
we used to live by the old county rock crusher in Little Rock,
and we used to sneak down there and go in all over the place.
And ever since then, you know,
once I got older and went into mining,
it's just been a fascination to study a lot of this.
It's just Earth at its work, you know.
Oh.
I thought there was a lot more line on there than that, but...
Well, I'm planning on going on, so if y'all want to stay here, y'all can,
or you can cut the line and we can keep on going, 'cause, uh...
Yeah, yeah. Let's cut the cord.
We'll leave it there so we know we got back that far.
All right.
All we's got to do is follow the water. Water always goes out.
You ready?
I really wish you wouldn't stand there.
In Onion Creek, Washington,
Doc and Jeanny continue to elevate their life above the grid,
constructing a garden on the roof of their tree house,25 feet in the air.
All right, she is done.
Jeanny, your garden in the sky is complete.
Cool. It looks awesome, honey. You did a good job.
Only thing left we got to do is get some water up here,
and I think it'll make it. It's looking pretty good.
Ah, bingo! This is a little hand pump.
You go down to this to your, to your water source,
pumping action creates suction in here, puts the water out.
So, let's see.
Welcome to the bathroom.
In the warmer months, this is where we shower.
Up here on the top of the roof,
I have a rain gutter that catches the water
and brings it down to this black container.
So, what I'm gonna do is
I'm going to run a hose into the same tank,
connect the hose to the water pump.
Here we go.
We have flow.
Good deal.
I don't have to hump water up to the roof.
All right, the garden is watered, dude. The garden is watered, dude.
And we can just leave this up here
until we're ready to water again tomorrow.
Life's good.
Garden is good.
Well, I would probably say we are at least a good mile in right now.
When you start crawling, I sort of lose track.
Below the grid, in Arkansas,
Joe Ray has investigated a newcave system for over five hours.
He's now more than one-and-a-half miles inside,
continuing his hunt fora potential living space
or valuable resources he can use.
We're seeing some great signs right in here.
See all the white?
Oh, boy.
Hell .
Hey, this is, uh... Yeah, come on in. Hell, y'all can stand up in here.
Plenty of room for your cameras and .
Man! This is unbelievable.
When Joe Ray explores underground,
there's no telling what he might find.
Many of these missions uncover little more than narrow tunnels.
But here, at the end of this cave system,
he's discovered a 300-square-foot cavern,
laden with valuable quartz crystal.
Oh, I see everywhere.
Oh, my gosh!
Yeah, I can be in this room for a while.
Just the greatest place to live.
I'm seeing a lot here already.
You talking about a kid in a candy store. Look at all this.
It's just laying on the ground everywhere.
This piece right here is just fantastic.
This here is probably the best piece I've found today.
You can just keep looking at it forever,
'cause every time you look at it, you're gonna see something new.
Nature is just so amazing.
You never know what's gonna happen in here, and that's what's fun about this.
I mean, it's exhilarating, and, you know, I mean,
it brings you to life when you come in here.
And I can make this a great little home.
Far from the modern world, outside the grid,
peace of mind comes at a cost, and it never comes easy.
My search will never end.
I'll keep searching and exploring,
and, you know, maybe I'll find a room a lot bigger than this.
You know, my goal is always to find something bigger and better.
On the edge of the world, it takes blood and sweat to endure.
You're gonna be my buddy.
We got some work to do. Let's do it.
Sure was a good day on Garden Island.
That's a nice-sized bag right there.
Just enough daylight to get home.
Out here, every day demands perseverance
to overcome a barrage of obstacles.
All right, little guy.
Let's see what we can do for you here.
For those who choosethis kind of life,
the daily grind to survive is well worth the struggle.
A lot of people aren't cut out to come up here and crawl around and look,
but I can definitely see coming in here and staying for hours in here digging.
Every day I get up, I ask, how can it get any better?
And then I come in here, it gets better.