MICHAEL: It is very sobering, pondering what it is like for
somebody to freeze to death, and how easy it is.
I could count personally, nine or ten people that I care about,
who were killed by this environment here in Alaska.
And so, there are certain things that I try to do to
prepare for the dire situation in below-zero weather.
And one of them is survival training.
But when you're out here and it's below zero,
it's not a practice run.
I have to figure out how to survive.
All right.
We got about a 30-mile an hour wind on this no-name river.
This is survival training.
I was trained at the Black Rapids Northern Warfare Training Center
for mountaineering and cold weather survival.
But things change a little bit when you don't have all that
military equipment that you were issued.
NARRATOR: For Michael Manzo, having the skills to endure
the cold and lonely Alaska wilderness is a matter of life or death.
But even though this was a planned exercise,
an oncoming storm could quickly turn his test into a
real world fight for survival.
MICHAEL: This happens all the time in Alaska.
The river hasn't quite solidified like it would this
time of the year because of climate change.
And so, you have a sled go down, a snow machine.
It broke through the ice so fast,
couldn't recover nothing.
You're many, many, many miles away from your home.
Walking out is the wrong idea.
You gotta hunker down, you're waiting on people to find you
based off your trip report.
If I'm two days overdue, please come help.
So, two days before they realize you're missing,
if the weather cooperates, two days for authorities to come looking for you.
You add those days up.
Four days to survive the below-zero weather with what's in your pockets.
And so, it begins.
JESSI: There's just so many things that I absolutely rely on in the city.
And being out here, I rely on my own two hands.
And that's pure freedom for me.
Well, dang.
That's one empty snare.
And nothing's come through here in a couple days, for sure.
It's been snowing and there's no new tracks,
so I think I'm just gonna take this guy down.
Something that I spend a lot of time out here doing is just
setting traps and just following tracks.
But there is no tracks around the cabin.
I'm looking, like, I've been out.
This guy is right there, he hasn't been touched,
so I'm gonna just leave that there and go find the next one.
It's a big deal to get fresh meat out here,
to be able to sustain our bodies and to be able to live out here.
Ah, damn. Nothing.
Last year I had one spot that I was trapping,
but this year it's proving to be a little bit more difficult.
Nothing yet.
I'd really like to have a cabin wherever I'm putting my trap line,
but my trap line moves.
So, I'd like my cabin to move.
Like a micro-trapping cabin.
All right, so it's going to be taller than it is wide, right?
CHRIS: I'm guessing, I haven't measured yet,
but I'm guessing our trail is no more than four feet wide.
And then it's gotta be long enough that we can lay down in
it and have a wood stove in it,
so it's gotta be like eight feet long.
Jessi really wants to push out farther,
and if we had a portable cabin that could actually move from
trapping area to trapping area,
this would just be a game-changer.
JESSI: And then we got the skis.
Okay.
What do you wanna start with?
CHRIS: The first thing I'd like to do is just measure the trail,
see how much we have to cut down to make this feasible.
Hey!
Oh, that looks really tiny.
JESSI: Yeah.
CHRIS: Um, so that's four-foot-six.
Can we fit in this?
Okay.
Ooh, she's gonna be a tight bed.
All right, let's walk our trail.
As I'm walking along holding up the stick nice and high as
I am as wide, if not wider, than the building.
So, if I can fit through the trail,
the building can fit through the trail.
JESSI: Close.
Definitely gonna have to take that one out.
CHRIS: Okay. Let me see about these two.
JESSI: Yeah, I think we're gonna have to get those,
the birch, and this spruce for sure.
CHRIS: Watch out. JESSI: We got a lot to do.
CHRIS: Oh, yeah.
JOHNNY: This is one of the most far removed places that I could possibly find.
There's no boundaries, there's no, there's no limits.
It's freedom out here.
I think, ultimately, that's what we're all after, is freedom.
It, it's feeling pretty thawed back here.
You know, I won't know if the brain is thawed until
I actually cut it open but, yeah.
The mouth has movement, it's pretty malleable.
The Arctic is an unforgiving place in the winter.
Java and I both are experiencing temperatures
we've never felt before.
And Java is not Arctic-friendly naturally.
And I can see that she's starting to struggle with the cold.
So, I'm gonna use a caribou hide to make her some
booties and a parka.
I think I'm gonna utilize the brains from the hide to tan it.
It's something I've never done before.
This will all be new to me.
But it's something we've been doing as people for thousands of years.
Tanning the hides with the brains.
What do you say, Java?
I think it would be disrespectful to use just
selective parts of an animal.
Some people kill just for the meat,
but I think you can dive in and get creative and use
a lot more than that.
We're not running around just trying to kill everything that we see.
Cool. So, the hide's off.
That's not the way it works out here.
That's a fast way to get rejected by nature.
Never done this before, but that's the joy.
Always be doing something new.
I don't like to repeat things over and over again.
It's the curiosity that keeps me going out here.
I'm learning new things always.
That's all the brain.
I just need to boil this.
I'm gonna boil this for a couple hours,
and it'll make a paste, kinda like mayonnaise consistency.
And that's what I'll use to rub into the hide.
Like a witch's stew out here.
Java, your paws are cold, huh? She keeps lifting her paws up.
We'll get you inside soon, huh?
You know, the end result of this is gonna help Java
bear this cold weather.
And ultimately, her being able to handle the weather is gonna help me.
And hopefully by tomorrow this will be nice and cooled down,
and I'll be able to apply it to the hide.
So, we'll see how this process works.
BRITTANY: To raise a family out here in rural Alaska,
it takes a lot of planning, or you end up having issues later on.
KALEB: One of these two mounds is our foundation materials.
(laughing).
Got you, Gilbert.
BRITTANY: So, Gil and Ellie.
What are you most excited about building a sauna?
GILBERT: I dunno.
BRITTANY: We're gonna build it where we have a little room
that's a sauna and then a bigger area that we can hang
out and play games.
Kaleb and I are going to start our sauna build.
I am so excited about this.
I've been wanting one for quite a while.
KALEB: Um, I'll roll a couple of these short ones out of the way,
and we'll yard these out of here.
BRITTANY: A lot of our life here is winter.
It's dark.
At least seven months we have cold temperatures,
if not also snow.
So, I thought having a way to heat us up more would be a really great idea.
And I'm excited to have this sauna here.
KALEB: That was heavy.
BRITTANY: Yeah. KALEB: All right.
I think we've got what we need for a bit.
BRITTANY: Okay.
KALEB: Let's go get started and not get too overwhelmed
with materials here.
Brittany has long pestered me about having a sauna,
and I finally got to thinking, I am a professional builder
and I end up with a lot of varied building materials
leftover from jobs.
I'm gonna pull every single trick out of my bag of tricks
to make this the sweetest sauna in the entire valley here.
BRITTANY: So, what all are we going to get done today?
KALEB: I'm hoping to get the floor done.
BRITTANY: Okay.
KALEB: Our skids, floor joists, and we've gotta plywood the whole thing.
BRITTANY: Okay.
KALEB: Thank you.
BRITTANY: One thing that I'm really excited about when it
comes to this sauna is the family time we'll have,
where we get to go slower, just share memories, share stories.
I'm super excited.
Well, I'm pretty impressed with how much we got done today.
KALEB: It's quite an effort for two people and kids quote-unquote "helping".
BRITTANY: Very true.
KALEB: Now, I just gotta turn it into a building.
MICHAEL: You can talk about survival theory all you want.
You can make videos about all your elaborate survival gear,
but you've gotta get out here in the below-zero temps and test them.
Because now, that could mean your life.
This survival training, stranded.
No food.
This is the worst of it right here.
But this is something I've been trained to do.
Sun's going down mighty quick.
Son of a bitch.
And so, I'm gonna build a basic shelter that's just big
enough for me to crawl into.
Already.
The blade snapped like a toothpick.
Now all I have is like two, three inches of blade.
This is not some sort of a fun game.
I have to know what works and what doesn't.
When I did my cold weather survival training,
I was taught to build a snow cave.
But we had sleeping bags, and so this is the true test.
All the branches piled up into a little tunnel,
that's gonna be like rebar.
Because this is all gonna get filled in with snow.
Fill in any tiny little hole.
And when this sets up, it'll turn to concrete and
make it an insulated shelter.
A little pocket of warmth.
Number one priority is gotta get through this first night
without freezing.
And so, once I seal this off, I ain't breaking the seal,
because at night, it gets doubly cold down here
near the river valley.
You're not gonna get no eight hours of rest out here.
Maybe, at most, two hours between some shivering.
It's a humbling thing.
But I'm gonna try.
But this snow cave, this is providing nothing.
There's a storm coming.
I'm facing frostbite or even death.
Hunker down, survive.
Finally, I just bounced out of there about 5:00 AM.
My feet were cold, my hands were cold.
I had excruciating pain, then I had numbness.
I started a fire and I roasted my hands,
got 'em warm again.
So that snow shelter, it's really not working properly,
'cause there's not a good enough blanket of insulation
on the ground, which is the snow.
And so, really, what I was doing was I was sitting in a
little ice box that was freezing.
That's why I'm out here, to realize that how I was trained
to survive is only going to work in certain conditions.
In the long run, I feel prepared to continue on this
survival simulation, but it's not going as easy as I wanted it to.
And that is an eye-opener.
BRITTANY: There's a lot of unrest going on in the world right now.
Any time that a family can come together,
that's a really wonderful way to create harmony.
KALEB: Okay, we can start pulling layout.
BRITTANY: Okay.
So when we're done cutting these.
We're going to get them up there?
KALEB: We're gonna start, finish framing out the roof.
BRITTANY: Okay.
KALEB: Then we'll get some sheeting on.
So, my hope is that this sauna goes off super smoothly and we
have a nice, square building.
But you never know. It's Alaska.
All right, rafter.
BRITTANY: I thought you weren't supposed to stand on the blue part?
KALEB: Oh, it's merely a suggestion.
BRITTANY: I would assume that it's too high but I guess not.
KALEB: Come help hold it.
Look at that!
BRITTANY: Yeah. KALEB: Nice, proud roof.
BRITTANY: So, what's after this step?
KALEB: Sheeting. BRITTANY: Woo-hoo!
ELOVIE: Mom! BRITTANY: What?
ELOVIE: What were you doing?
BRITTANY: We're gonna put these pieces of boards up onto the building.
ELOVIE: Why?
BRITTANY: Well, 'cause this is supposed to be a sauna.
And if we were to put heat in it right now,
all the heat would go out to the outdoors, right?
KALEB: There's a lot involved in building a small building like this.
It's critical to get it energy-efficient,
so that it will heat.
After the sheeting is on, we put vapor barrier in,
that stops air from moving through the walls.
And then we can heat it.
Get a wood stove in there, doors, windows.
All that stuff goes in.
And now, all of the sudden, I've got a building that I can heat.
BRITTANY: Yeah! Look at that.
KALEB: Yeah! BRITTANY: Whoa! Perfection.
KALEB: Good job.
ELOVIE: Mom. BRITTANY: Uh-hmm.
Here, let's sit and enjoy the sunset.
KALEB: We're getting a lot done together.
But there's still a lot ahead of us.
CHRIS: Out here, everything is a little different,
and you can't expect perfection.
Once you realize that your projects aren't gonna be 100%
perfect, then you start to get things done.
When you're working on things out here,
Cosna perfect is all you need.
Ugh.
Everything is tougher when it's frozen.
There it goes.
Today, I'm gonna start building this micro-trapping cabin.
Out here, everything is based on necessity.
And the need we have today is getting out to a better trapping area.
I'm hoping to get like a, about a one-inch flat surface.
So, when we put the plastic over the bottom,
got a little bit of a flat spot.
JESSI: So, with our cabin, we're gonna start with the
base first, and our skis are the most important part.
Good enough for the cabin, yeah?
CHRIS: Yeah.
JESSI: They're gonna have to be sturdy,
and they're gonna have to be slick.
CHRIS: Looks pretty good.
JESSI: Cosna good? CHRIS: Cosna good.
JESSI: Chris and I have made a sled from wood before,
and it did not work very well.
It kind of got caught up on tussocks and things.
And, we've learned from our mistakes.
So last time we were in town, we got some plastic for it.
And this is gonna work so much better.
Oh, it looks legit!
CHRIS: I think so, too.
JESSI: This'll be us? Inside?
CHRIS: Yeah. Whoo! It'll be warm.
JESSI: All right. So next is the boards, right?
CHRIS: Yeah.
JESSI: All right, let's get on it.
This is the first project that I've worked on anything mobile.
Ready?
Chris and I make a lot of stuff together,
but I think this is one of the largest projects that we've done together.
Okay.
So, I really hope that we can get it to where it needs to be.
CHRIS: Generator died.
Not sure what to do about that,
I can go try to start it again.
Why aren't you running today?
What the (bleep)?
Overload. That sucks.
It's got fuel. Okay.
Guess I'm using a chainsaw.
Damn.
No-go on generator. It won't run.
JESSI: Okay.
CHRIS: The saw used too much power for the generator.
I love my chainsaw, I'm always out here using it.
But it's not a precise tool.
It's hard to get straight lines.
And it's even harder to get a sideways line,
so I'm going to build it almost like a skeleton.
The bare minimum for now, get this thing built,
see if I can move it easy enough.
Then I'll go back through and reinforce things like the floor.
It is what it is.
JESSI: It is what it is!
All right.
CHRIS: Even with our setbacks, it's not a bad-looking floor.
We're getting there.
JESSI: With the posts and the roof,
you can actually start see what it's going to look like
in the end.
It's starting to resemble a little house now instead of
just some pieces of wood.
I just really hope that it goes down the trail nice and well.
You think you could move it with me in it?
CHRIS: I'll try!
JESSI: Just give it a little go-skis.
Oh, jeez! Okay!
Oh, my goodness.
CHRIS: Wow, easier than anticipated!
But once we put the walls on, I have a feeling I'm not gonna
be able to move it.
JOHNNY: We all use resources one way or another.
My resources just haven't been collected,
assembled, boxed up, and delivered to my front door.
Just breaking up the fibers a little bit with a steel brush.
What I'm hoping that will do is allow the brain matter to
penetrate the hide a little bit better.
That way I can have a more malleable hide to work with
when I make booties.
Kind of like a parka for Java.
And I want her to be out here with me,
I want her to spend time in the wild with me.
And in order to do that, you know,
I gotta help her adapt, 'cause she doesn't have what she needs naturally.
It's just breaking up the fibers,
and my thinking is that that's gonna allow that brain,
which is moist, to absorb through the chalky surface
that I'm creating.
I don't have like an instruction booklet on how to do this.
It's all about trial and error,
that's how I learn best.
It's pretty much all scratched up.
I think that's about it.
So I'm gonna take this inside and start massaging the
brain matter into it.
Let's go play with some brains, huh?
So, this is the brain here.
It's got a nice texture to it, so I'm gonna start applying it.
Just gotta find that, that balance,
making sure I'm not using too much or too little because
this, this amount has to spread over this entire surface.
This isn't gross to me, this is probably disgusting to
a lot of people.
There's brain all over my hands,
there's brain all over this hide.
This hide came from a dead animal.
But I don't view it that way. This is just a resource to me.
It matches my environment. It matches the land.
This is what it's all about out here.
That's pretty much the end of it there.
So before it dries, I'm gonna shut this to keep this from drying.
And I gotta fold this in on itself.
So that's rolled up real tight.
It looks really good.
That should be good there.
What do you think, Java? Huh? You wanna clean the bowl?
Come on. This is all you, girl.
That's tasty, greasy brains, huh?
Hope you don't end up eating the parka.
I only have so much brain matter.
You're such a goof.
So, if I was to learn that I needed more because it didn't penetrate,
I would be in trouble. I don't have another brain.
MICHAEL: Facing nature every day with your wits and living
through some of the coldest, harshest weather,
that's the only way I like to roll.
That first night was so (bleep) rough.
That is just an eye-opener.
I maybe dozed off a couple times for a few minutes.
But I certainly didn't get no good night's rest.
This is day two with a hole in my gut.
I can feel the fatigue setting in,
not having a real meal for two days now.
So today, I need fuel.
And in order to find that fuel,
I gotta get to hunting.
But out here, there's really nothing.
I have seen no grouse tracks.
There's no snowshoe hare density here.
Low snow and below zero actually kills off animals.
The ones that stay all winter long,
they have a hard life out here.
I hear a squirrel right here.
I see where he'd been eating spruce cones.
Squirrel isn't even something that would normally be on my menu.
It's on the menu now.
It's crazy how fuzzy your mind can go when you're hungry.
There it is.
Dinner bell.
How numb...
(gunshot).
The entire chemistry of your body changes when
you haven't really eaten enough nutrients.
I know now what it's like when you're starving.
(gunshot).
(bleep), man. I desperately need fuel.
(gunshot).
MICHAEL: All right.
That right there, in the scheme of survival, is a lifesaver.
That's about the equivalent of four chicken nuggies.
But I'm a 220-pound man.
I ain't gonna sustain myself off a four-piece chicken nuggie.
I need a eight-piece chicken nuggie.
It's right there.
(gunshot).
There it is. Eight-piece chicken nuggie.
It's not near enough for a day's worth of food but,
I'm not gonna ration that out.
It's meat.
Sun's going down.
I need to go back into energy conservation mode.
Well, that don't look half bad.
Starving and eating squirrel.
Ain't no joke.
Wow! Tastes just like the spruce they eat.
It'll have to do.
To just go from no energy to something going in the gut,
I just lost all my drowsiness.
Must have some sustenance.
That's a good little nibble.
Ah, I got some juice in there.
KALEB: Everything is just so rugged and magnificent.
I get to experience it.
My kids get to experience it.
Feel so blessed to be able to just walk out my door and adventure awaits.
Hey, buddy!
GILBERT: Hi. KALEB: Just in time.
The stove's nice and warm.
If we sit right here, we can sweat in the sauna.
We just kinda hug the stove. Ah, so warm in here.
(laughing).
All right, Gilbert, let's start installing.
All right, can you push up here on the door as high as you can reach?
Okay, we can put some shims in there.
KALEB: Yeah, the shims stay in there.
They're what hold the door in place.
There's a lot of technological advances in the world.
There's electricity, plumbing, heat.
All these creature comforts that humans have made.
And pull with this sauna, there's gonna be no TV in
there to distract the kids.
No phone in there to distract myself or my wife.
And we should be able to have focused quality time in this building.
BRITTANY: Hey, we have a door. Can I see what's going on?
KALEB: Yeah. It's nice and warm.
BRITTANY: Wow! This is awesome.
KALEB: I think I'm ready to go get some cedar.
BRITTANY: Cool. Let's go do that.
KALEB: And hope it warms up enough to work.
CHRIS: I'm so far from town.
I can't just run and get supplies to address a problem out here.
It pushes you every time you work on a project.
But there's always trial and error.
But that's half the fun.
All right. That does the door.
JESSI: Our door.
CHRIS: All right. Looks good in here.
JESSI: Ooh, it's short.
CHRIS: I like the door. Closes nice and tight.
JESSI: Can stand up. Can stand up.
Got a lot of room. Have a little bit of room.
Yeah. This is great.
CHRIS: So, I'm feeling like we're gettin' pretty heavy.
And we might have to forgo beds.
It's gonna be about as heavy as one of these walls.
And each time we put another wall on,
it increasingly gets much heavier.
So, I'm worried about that.
I'd like to push it right now, see if I can even move it.
JESSI: Yeah. Okay.
CHRIS: The cabin is really heavy.
It's built outta all green wood and it hasn't had a
year to cure yet.
See if I can push this thing.
I'm not even sure how well it's gonna tow.
JESSI: Are you ready? CHRIS: Okay.
The whole point of this is to be able to move it from
trapping area to trapping area.
(grunting).
Okay. I'm gonna see if the skis are frozen.
Nope.
We wanna migrate with the animals.
Oh, man! She's heavy.
JESSI: Ooh! CHRIS: Okay.
I'm gonna try to push again. This is it.
If I can't move it, then this thing's useless.
All right, here we go.
JESSI: Oh, man. CHRIS: Ugh!
JESSI: There you go. CHRIS: Okay.
It still moves.
Well, we still have another wall to put on.
JESSI: Yeah.
CHRIS: Ugh! It's a pretty big gap down here,
but I don't know what else to do.
Should be interesting.
JESSI: This one might be short, I'm not sure.
CHRIS: I'm excited to get this cabin towed,
but the anxiety's pouring.
JESSI: There we go.
CHRIS: We spent a lot of time on this.
Why is it so bad now?
I have this feeling it's just gonna (bleep) rip apart.
It's the first time I've ever built anything like this.
But if we can actually tow it down the trail,
and I can actually get it out to the family trapping area
and we can't start trapping, it's worth the risk.
Some of these things do not wanna stay.
It's Cosna perfect.
It doesn't have to be 100%, as long as we're aiming in the right direction.
A few more screws to tighten it up.
JESSI: Push this that way.
CHRIS: Yeah. Okay. JESSI: Okay.
CHRIS: Good. That's it. Outta battery.
Last screw. All right. Let's check it out inside.
JOHNNY: I don't have utilities out here.
I don't have any modern conveniences.
And that's what I love about out here.
No bills are on my mind.
No parking tickets.
No fears of any, anything like that.
It's just peace, it's quiet, and there's no place I'd rather be.
Alright, now let's see.
Nice and waterproof for you.
So, the brain's soaked into this hide.
I've had it sitting for two, three days.
And I've already noticed quite a difference.
I mean, this thing is soft.
It's nice and flexible.
I'm gonna take it one step further and I'm gonna start
sewin' up a, a parka for Java.
Let me see that big old paw.
When you cut hide, you have to cut so you don't cut the hair.
You kinda want that, the seams to go together,
and the hair kind of hides the seam.
It'll keep any wind out too.
And I gotta make it so her front arms,
her front shoulders can move.
So, I'll have something that comes underneath and it wraps
across her belly but still has movement,
total movement with her, with her shoulders.
We don't want you hindered, do we?
So this hind part's sewed on.
I got it all stitched up. The seam looks pretty good.
Wanna give it a go, Java? Try on this parka.
What do you think? Warm?
Yeah. Look at that. Looks nice.
It covers up your neck real good.
The next part, I think I'm just gonna make a simple
little strip to go over her ears because her ears are the
most prone to frostbite of anything on her body.
Make some little mukluks to keep your feet nice and dry and warm.
I think she'll be good to go with those.
Having Java out here is the best.
It's nice to have a, a friend, a companion.
It's a, it's a huge morale boost for me.
You know, it'd be harder to be out here without Java.
She makes it possible to spend long times in the dark,
long times in the cold.
It's a team effort out here.
So if you got your paw out like you're ready to throw
this thing on.
You wanna give it a try?
As soon as you step outside, hopefully,
you'll feel a difference.
MICHAEL: It's a universal thing.
Stay home when it's really brutally cold.
Don't try to fight the weather.
But there comes a time when you actually have to work out
in this 20, 30, 40, 50-below weather.
That's just the nature of life here.
There's another squirrel.
Glad I don't have to eat another one of those.
But they weren't all that bad.
One of the most sobering things I've ever read on survival
was Jack London wrote a short story called "To Make a Fire".
I believe that's what it was.
I read it when I was in Iraq.
And then I read it again in a winter ecology course.
Thinking of survival, especially with below-zero temps,
it's a good thing coming out here and actually experiencing it.
The final chore of my simulation is I need to create
a signal, a smudge fire.
My campsite's tucked in the woods.
I wanna be out in the open.
If authorities are looking for you,
what you may end up with is a plane circling around above,
assisting a ground party.
And so, I might be smart to combine a smudge fire with some noise.
I don't want no blunders.
I want this smudge fire to go up fast.
Time to get this signal going because a plane is traveling
90 somethin' miles an hour, if not faster,
and I don't want them to miss me.
(blowing whistle).
All right, chances are I would not be in a standing position
at the ready.
I would be hunkered down like this.
And so the time starts now, from the resting position.
I hear a plane, the faintest sound of the ground crew.
And I gotta rush out there.
Plane! Plane!
Plane!
(blowing whistle).
If authorities are out looking for you,
and they have a ground party and a plane up in the sky,
that's an immense resource.
(blowing whistle).
That's a lot of money being spent to find you.
Authorities are heroes up here every year.
Out of appreciation, I owe it to them...
(blowing whistle).
to be as prepared as best as I can.
Nice.
Look at how that smoke is billowing.
That could be seen from miles away.
(blowing whistle).
JOHNNY: Sometimes I wonder who likes it out here more,
Java or myself.
But as it gets colder I worry.
After seeing her running around with the gear on,
it definitely proves that she loves it out here just as much.
And the more she loves it out here,
the more I do.
Seeing her enjoyment out here, it fulfills me.
It makes me enjoy being out here that much more.
Good girl, Java. Come on.
Good girl.
Come here. Drop.
What do you think, huh?
Do you like it? Do you like it?
They're all staying on your feet real nice.
It really makes me feel complete on this land,
to utilize all these parts of this caribou.
And I think a lot of people would view this process as
moving backwards in time.
But I view it as moving forward.
Because without having warm clothing out here,
you're just not gonna make it.
Picking up this skill, you know,
I got many more to learn.
Good girl, Java. Come on.
But, I definitely feel that I've taken one step closer to
being completely self-reliant.
BRITTANY: Who's ready for the first sauna?
KALEB: I am.
BRITTANY: All right, this one's my stool.
GILBERT: No! BRITTANY: Watch out.
GILBERT: This one mine. ELOVIE: And this one mine.
KALEB: Hey, that's my spot.
All right. Stove is all stoked up.
BRITTANY: It's gonna get steamy up in here.
One reason that I really wanted to build this sauna was
I thought it would be fun to have a weekly time together,
where we all come and hang out in here and just have a really
fun family time.
KALEB: You get out what you put into something and we put
a lot into this, so we should get a lot out of it.
BRITTANY: I think so, too.
KALEB: It's great sitting in here stroking the black death
out of my hair that got in there from building this place.
Oh, that feels good.
BRITTANY: Oh, no more. No more.
Okay, I'm good. I'm good.
Gilbert. Gilbert.
KALEB: Gilbert, you need to settle down.
BRITTANY: I said no more. GILBERT: Okay.
CHRIS: See if we can get it to go.
Holy cow. Okay.
JESSI: Just easy goes.
I've been stoked about this cabin for days.
Things that I'm gonna, you know,
do with the cabin, I mean, I'm really excited about moving
this to a better place to trap.
Hopefully to the spot that I have imagined.
Stop! Chris!
CHRIS: Bit of a tree, huh?
The name of the game here is to transport this little cabin
and not break it.
Jess and I are gonna take this out to the family trapping
area and then hopefully leave it for the winter.
I think this is gonna be a really good area for trapping.
Nobody's trapped it since, maybe, 1980?
So, it's had a long time to, to get ready for us.
Oh!
JESSI: What's going on?
CHRIS: There it goes!
JESSI: Oh, wow! Okay.
CHRIS: Whoo! Whoo! JESSI: Okay.
CHRIS: We've had a lot of trouble out here.
It just means so much to me that we came together as a family.
I love overcoming obstacles and not relying on anybody else.
We did it!
JESSI: Yeah. We did it!
CHRIS: Awesome! JESSI: Oh, my goodness!
CHRIS: I can't believe we made it all the way here.
JESSI: Holy smokes!
MICHAEL: You know, when I was five years old,
my aunt and her boyfriend, his name was Cecil Gallagher,
took me to a, a fairly deep pond.
I lost my footing and I started drifting out.
I didn't know how to swim, choking on water.
Tried to keep my head afloat and I couldn't.
The summer sunlight was beginning to dissipate.
I felt the pressure against my ears.
I said, "Well, this is what it's like to die."
And Cecil Gallagher, this sturdy, pale,
little blue-eyed Irish man,
grabbed me out of the dark depths,
and I started breathing air again,
and I came to.
I remember what that's like.
And I'm sure other victims who've been revived can
recall that it's pretty frantic stuff.
And maybe that's why I have a little bit more interest than
most folks would about survival,
because sometimes I'm not gonna have that
Cecil Gallagher there to give me a new chance in life.
Captioned by Cotter Media Group.