Your story's nuts, and the fact that you were able to have the
ability to film in after it happened is pretty crazy.
So just kind of start at the beginning.
What happened? Everything that went down.
Well, first, I'm I'm born and raised Alaskan, so this is kind
of like what my father and I do. We typically go hunting every
year. This place is new to us.
We decided to go to Resurrection Pass, and that's a trail that
connects Hope and Seward. Back in the day for trappers
used to just go back and forth on that trail.
And now it's just like kind of a really beautiful hiking trail,
biking trail. And we looked at the map and we
decided, you know, we'll go about 15 miles in because I
think it's a 20 miles. I'm not 100% sure.
It's really long and we mapped it out 15 miles and decided to
just go off trail from there. And when you're looking at a
map, we thought our best chance because we were hunting for
black bear. Black bear, you know, that's
about it. I don't know.
It was like if there was a. So you are already looking for
bear? Yeah, we're looking for bear,
that type of bear, a little bit smaller, and the Berry eaters.
And we realized when we were looking at the map that there's
a couple of rivers, it's called Abernathy American Creek, and I
think resurrection is in there. It's just that place where you
would think that there would be animals.
This area was already haunted years ago for guides, for moose.
I think that's long gone past, but we want to take our chances
there. It was just something that I've
always wanted to do and I never got to it.
And since I moved to Austin, I was like, you know what, what's
let's go someplace new that I haven't been.
And so we decided on resurrection pass.
We were going to do a week long hunt out there just to really
take in the last bit of Alaska for the year.
I'm always going to go back, but you know, last bit of Alaska and
we started about a day after I got back from so I drove from
Austin or from Alaska to Austin. Just like at.
EU Haul barely made it up those hills.
Probably should have looked at how much that Jeep can tow but I
said screw it let's just go and I only worked out I guess.
So I dropped my wife and kid off and I flew up to Alaska to go
for this hunt and we height the 15 miles in one day to where we
want to go camping. That was that was day one I.
Want to explain why I do these conversations?
Most people know me for backpacking, outdoor education,
and gear videos actually. But what really sits underneath
this channel is decision making under pressure.
A few years ago, I nearly died in the Grand Canyon, and going
through that permanently changed how I think about risk,
preparation and judgement. After my own survival situation,
I became absolutely obsessed with one question.
What actually keeps people alive when everything goes wrong?
That's why I talked to people who survived the worst moments
of their lives, whether it happened outdoors, on the water,
or in places none of us even expect.
So if you want to see my own story, I've put a link in the
description to the Grand Canyon survival video.
We had cameras filming the entire time.
It'll give you context for why these conversations mean so much
to me. Thanks.
It's just beautiful. I mean, like 65° in Alaska and
it was, it was sunny, there was almost no wind.
Oh wow. I mean, kept the bug.
There's not a lot of bugs out there.
It's kind of high country anyways, so I didn't have to
worry too much about that. What time of year is it?
This was August. I think we started August 15th.
This would have been. And so we hiked all the way out
there that day long day and camped out, made our camp,
played cribbage and woke up the next day.
And I remember that night when we were laying around just
hanging out, I looked over and there's this the, I was like,
I'm going to go to the biggest Mountaineers around us because
really this trail, you are just going in between mountains,
you're up in the mountains and then there's more mountains on
top of the mountains, right? And I was like, I want to go up
there because I want to say goodbye to my grandmother.
She passed away. I was like 2 weeks beforehand
and her funeral was that day. So I decided to go up and do my,
my piece and say goodbye to her. It was, it was, it was great.
You know, so that day we spent all day just hiking and kind of
class and trying to obviously we're, we're glassing looking
for animals. All we saw was bikers on the
trail because we were a couple, like a mile and a half, two
miles off the trail. But we can still see the trail.
So really we just spot a bunch of people being creeps on the
mountain. Like what are you doing?
What are you doing over there? Taking a break.
But yeah, we didn't see any animals up there that day.
And it was just a beautiful day. It was just beautiful.
And that day ended, and we looked at our map and decided
that it looks like there's a trail that we can take really
old. Because my dad, he's law
enforcement, Fish and Wildlife. He was law enforcement for 34
years on the Kenai Peninsula as a game warden.
Growing up with that, that was interesting.
Always something like, your father did this, right?
Like, oh, your dad's Chris Johnson.
Like, he got me a ticket for this.
Like, I bet he did. Well, don't do.
That I deserved it, yeah. Don't do that.
What are you doing? You know there's rules, right?
So yeah, so he kind of knew that there was trails back there
already, you know, because I mean, he moved up there before I
was born, like a year before. I always been a Fish and
Wildlife my whole life. So he's been around this area,
maybe did snow machines or heard, I think, I think he
hasn't done this one, but he knows people who have.
And we heard that there's a trail that leads to a cabin way
back there. Like I mean, it's another 8
miles away on the trail that probably never used because we
literally like kind of Bush wagged out there and we end up
finding the trail and this is day three and day three we
actually almost think leave camp and we just one of those might
as well just mose around or just hang around.
Chill out, whatever. Chill out.
You know, I have brew of coffee like I was talking about
earlier. I like brewing coffee in the
morning and throwing some Crown Royal in there and just watching
the sun come up and just really take it in where I'm at.
There's a, a Creek there also where you can potentially gold
pan for gold, cold pan for gold. I said, I just got really cold
and finds out I I suck at that. Didn't find any gold, found a
whole bunch of rocks. I only did that for about 20
minutes and I was like, I'm good on that.
And my dad and I just to say, you know what, let's go find
this cabin. Let's just go back.
Just try to let's just see where this leads.
And like I said, we were hunting for black bear at the time, and
this trail started off where we found it wasn't horrible, but
definitely wasn't kept by anyone like the state parks or anything
like that because we bushwhacked off.
I suspect this is a trail that the troopers use to look for
people that are poaching. So they have flagging, but it's
all in the winter time. So the flagging is like, you
know, up in the bushes, 8 feet high and super sun dried out.
You know, like they're all supposed to be red, but they're
pink, kind of hard to see weathered.
And I think this trailer kind of was just maintained by animals
say the least. So we started our way, I think
it was like 10 O clock in the morning.
We started and just kind of went further.
About an hour in, we started losing the flags, started losing
the trail a little bit, but it's nothing that we're not used to.
I mean, usually when we go hunting across Tuscamito, which
is a whole nother thing, beautiful as it is dangerous.
And you know, we started to find flags, get lost, turned around,
hey, who's now in front? My dad's in front because he
found that flag. Now he's lost, and now I'm in
front because we find the flag. And we did that for a few hours.
Again, 65° beautiful day, just happy to be out there.
And we're, you know, we take a spot because it's where we're
going. We're kind of side healing a
mountain that it's like 2 mounts going like it's like AV right
here. So we side healing and then you
can see in front of us that it opens up to this big kind of
Prairie area where when you're kind of further away, like, oh,
it looks easy to walk until you get close and you're like, yeah,
that's up to my knee. That sucks, you know all that
like brush and stuff and like swampyish, but we stop and we
kind of can see we want to head if we look at the map, we want
to go all the across it might have been like 3/4 of a mile all
the way across this kind of valley area and then you can see
it kind of you maybe go around this corner of another mountain
and who knows what's back. I was actually really excited.
I'm still excited to go see what's over there because I just
want to go around that corner and keep on going.
Adventuring. My my father and I actually we,
without saying anything, decided that we weren't going to shoot
anything that day because it was just that bad of hiking, that
bad of a trail. So we're just like, you know,
screw it, let's go for adventure.
Just me and you. That's just how my dad and I
are. I've always been, I end up being
like his paparazzi that day, you know, like there's pictures of
him, like looking over there. He looks stoic.
I'm like, yeah, there you go. How you doing?
Stop that. Like no, you know, so I got
pictures of all that stuff, actually got pictures of like 4
minutes before I ran into this guy, that girl actually.
And I remember when we're looking out there was just like
dead tree. And I always pictured it like
you watch Lion King when Simba's out there before the the herd of
the bison or Buffalo, kind of like he's under that tree.
It's just like a tree in a little nowhere.
That's kind of what it look like.
So we headed towards that tree and it was dead.
It was just standing there was a flag there.
And then we started trying to look for the other flag.
And I can see in front of us almost like a wall.
It's probably like 100 yards in front of us.
And it was just perpendicular right, right across our our
path. And it looks like it might have
been a Creek there. So that's why the vegetation was
a bit higher. And you know, we knew we had to
go across that. But going through that, if you
ever hike through Alders, that sucks.
It's like you take 2 steps forward, or even if you can take
2 steps forward, it's like Maleficent, just like you said,
Bap, you can't cross, right? But obviously there was someone
that went there before us because there's flagging.
So we started looking for old cuts and my father's in front of
me and we're just looking for flagging there.
And it's kind of, it's in August, so some of the leaves
kind of change colour a little bit.
So they have some like, oh, that's a fuck no, it's not, you
know, and he actually found where there was a flag.
So we got to there. We went parallel with it.
And then you can see old cuts. And that's the only way you
probably get through unless you really take some time to really
dig through this brush. And it almost like it felt what
I remember like a much, almost like orchard esque, kind of
overgrown. But you can see where people
took those little hand saws and cut their way through.
And there's, there's a little cuts and it might have been 1015
feet, you know, long. And so my dad make he makes it
all the way through. And by the time I'm getting in
there and then coming out and on the other side of this brush, it
kind of goes up a little little Knoll actually turns into a tall
golden grass. I think it's called cheat grass.
It's about waist high. And I remember think because
this is about 2:30 in the afternoon, we had, we've been
eating like Clif bars and I love making Top Ramen out in the
woods. I I don't know what it is about
that, but you cut. Everything tastes good out.
There summer sausage you put some Tabasco or tulula in there
that. Sounds good here.
Oh. I know, right, Crunch it up.
You know, I like got your Jetboil or whatever kind of
thing you have. Like that's my, I love making
that. I always make it for my dad or
whoever is out hunting with us. I'm just like, I enjoy doing
that. And so at that time I'm thinking
actually, this is a pretty awesome place to have lunch.
And that's all I was thinking at that time.
You know, I think I'm going to think it's a beautiful day.
This is a perfect place such as a perch.
Well, I know something else thought the same thing right?
And so my dad exits that little brush and he goes up this little
Knoll about 15 yards out and I'm just coming out and I take like
4 steps. And by the time I take 4 steps
and my own Top Ramen world, my dad yells bare because he heard
a little crash. And that was about 15 yards away
from us. And it it like the way I'm going
to explain it might sound like it it was a long winded like
whole event. But really keep in mind this is
about four seconds. Like this is I'm thinking about
Top Ramen. Like we're having a
conversation. And then you have the kool-aid
man just Buster the wall over here and says, oh, yeah, like
what's going on? Right.
So it's just something that just happens and you know, we were
making noise, we were talking, but I don't think it was above
the ambient noise of what's going on with with the Creek.
Maybe the bear was sleeping. I do remember there being bugs.
So not a lot, but that's so that there wasn't a lot of wind.
So she probably didn't get wind of us or anything like that.
So I mean, we're checking all the boxes, right?
Like not making a lot of noise. She just can't smell us and we
are walking through tall grass and brush.
Hindsight, I honestly didn't think I'd run into a grizzly
bear there or a brown bear, however you want to say which
one. But because I'm like, you know,
they're all by the rivers, right?
She was not. She was way back in the woods.
She had Cubs. Always be prepared, even though
those experienced people forget sometimes, you know, like you're
out there meditating or whatever.
You forget to make noise or you get caught.
Think about top Rahman. So my dad yells bear and as soon
as he yells bear this like, I don't know how to explain it.
And it's not like teeth chatter and it's not like like AT Rex,
you roar, but it's something more guttural and heart stopping
like. And and I've been around bears.
I mean, I'm born raised in Alaska.
I've been around bears hear them, you know, but this sound
was like I couldn't picture a brown bear making the sound
because I've never heard it. And so in my head I'm like, what
was that? And you just hear the brush snap
like it was like nothing like it just went right through what we
probably would have a hard time making it through just bed it
down there. And I remember seeing my dad
yelled bear and he kind of takes takes like a sidestep looking at
the bear and and I look over and I see this like brown hump kind
of Crest in the top of the the tall grass.
And I'm still processing what's happening.
And you can hear the foots like, I mean, it's like, oh.
My gosh. What it like you're still like
what's going on, like, you know, bear, then you have to connect
it with this noise in these steps and how quick is
happening. And then you have to go through
your head like what's going on. And by the time like it, we're
next to my dad, the grass shortened about 510 feet from
him because I, I picture it like we're in a triangle.
I'm here, my dad's 15 yards in front of me.
And she was about 15 hours over here, just a little bit over the
hill and she got about 5 feet from my dad.
And that time my dad, he had a Glock 40 on his chest.
And what you're supposed to do is, you know, when a bear is
like, you're getting mauled by a grizzly, turn your back, lay
flat, your backpack goes over your neck and back, your head.
Hopefully she just chomps on that.
Yeah. Yeah.
So my dad starts turning and I can hear him say, hey, hey, hey,
hey, hey, hey. You know, like, go away.
He's been charged by bears multiple times.
He's been on podcast about it. It's just it's.
Absolutely. Yeah, I 34 years, if I'm correct
on that, 34 years and then he's a trooper afterwards a bit.
He has a lot of stories of him run into pissed off bears where
they false charge you and they just kind of go around.
Right? Yeah.
And what I've learned later
because I got really curious about bears and like how they
react and their mannerisms when they're attacking their heads up
when they're false charge. And I believe that's what I've
learned to believe from what I've been doing research.
So she ran towards my dad and then disengaged from him.
And as she disengaged from him, she saw me.
I don't know if she knew I was there.
Wow. And I, I suspect because I got
really curious of why did you attack?
Like, how did this happen? I try to put all the puzzles
together. She saw your dad first.
She saw my dad 1st and then disengaged like she didn't like
oh Nope that's a human. But then she saw me.
Probably she was going to try to take that same trail back out or
an around, but I was just just came out.
So I was trapping her or or it might have felt like trapping
her in that in that area, that arena, it feels like and it she
didn't hesitate. It was no hesitation.
She turned she looked at me, her head's down and the next like
milliseconds that's happening. I don't know if you ever watched
like Marvel movies at the very beginning, how it looks like
it's flipping through pages. It's like like that's, that's
what I remember is just these frames of her coming at me and
like her turning her head down. That's a frame.
And then my reaction put in my hand to my 10 millimetre I had
on my side. That was my instant reaction.
Just go here and pull up. Wow.
That's impressive. And yeah, she didn't charge my
dad first. I would have been one of those
typical stories of instantly surprising a bear, having a gun,
having bear spray and you're just getting mauled.
You have all the tools, but it just happened so fast because
they are wicked fast. Super fast, yeah, like.
Cat like, that's how I like it. That's how I remember.
That's just like these 500 LB ball of fur and muscle boom
right there. It's just insane.
And I tried pulling my gun out of my holster.
My father gave me different holster because I I had I didn't
have the best holster for this. He gave me his one of his
holsters out of the house that had a strap going across it.
Like a retention strap, so you have to unsnap it to get it out.
Well, it's you press down and forward.
It's it's officer 1. So like someone can't like RIP
the gun out of your holster, but a, a bear's not going to RIP the
gun out of my wrist. I am, you know, so I tried
pulling it out and I even practiced it, you know, when he
gave it to me just but my thumb slipped when I tried pushing
down and forward. And so I tried to pull my gun
out and I failed that first one. And then by that time of that
reaction, trying to pull it up, she's already in front of me
with her head down. Then the next moment I remember
is how do I explain it? There's, I think there's like
grizzly cans or trucks that have this symbol where you see a bear
going like this, you know, like up and that face is in front of
you. And when she came down, I turned
my left shoulder towards her and my backpack that I have, it's a
old Cabela's backpack, I can't remember how many leaders it
holds, but has a external frame. She ends up slapping the side of
my backpack, coming down and coming across my shoulder and
just yards me backwards as she's coming on top of me and by the
time my feet go over my head I'm going down the hill with her on
top of. What?
Oh my gosh. And I at that, why I RIP it out
my gun out my holster. And I, I remember this just a
couple months ago because I got triggered by the event when I
was working out because I got light headed and that was the
same feeling I had when I shot myself in the leg.
It was just like the the adrenaline went through my body
just like, and I fell backwards and I was hitting the ground.
I tried like I guess as a reaction kicking her away, but I
put the pistol to my leg as I was like flying backwards and I
shot a hole right through my leg.
Like I didn't really feel it. It was just like one of those
like. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Happening, you know, and so then she's on top of me and my other
legs in her face and she bites down on my calf.
Oh my God, as I fall down and she tries to pull me in closer
with her other claw. And at that time I'm I shot
myself, but I'm just pulling the trigger as fast as I can.
How you you you were able to get the gun out after?
Like as she hit me, like I slip, pull it out and she's hitting
me. She's knocking me backwards.
And this time it's just reaction.
Just pull the trigger as fast as I can and as I'm on the ground
and she's on top of me. It's just the weirdest things
that you remember thinking at the time and you couldn't tell
if you were standing next to her, but she was collared.
But she was on top of me and her.
I mean, honestly, I like look back and I say this to everyone.
I think this is probably like the most beautiful bear I've
ever seen. Her fur was, I mean, she was
gorgeous, just fluffy everything and but her fur was so thick
that you couldn't see her collar.
And I just remember seeing red, yellow or orange.
It was just like a flash. I remember thinking, oh, she's
collared. You thought?
That at, at that instant, I remember her saying, I was
thinking collar shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot.
And her face is in front of me. So she disengaged from my, my
leg like as I was shooting her, I think she's just going to go
from my face because she's just like on top of me.
And if you ever haunted bears, you realize that these animals
and their adrenaline is like insane.
It's absolutely insane. And, and The thing is, I
probably could have put like all 15 rounds plus one into her
chest and she I would have been picked up, ripped around like a
rag. Doll.
Yeah, yeah. But that seventh round that I
fired I-77 rounds as I'm just on top and she's like coming on top
of me. I, I, we haven't confirmed this,
but this is the only thing I can think of.
It probably broke her spine or I hit her in the heart, something
that one of those bullets stopped her like boom, right on
top of me and she fell off of me.
And this is a 10 millimetre, right?
So the velocity of these things are like you can go snout the
ass with those things just because that's the velocity of
those. It doesn't have a lot of
stopping power. So for her to have an instant
reaction of a bullet when she's on top of me in mid attack, it
had to have like broke her spine or something because these
bullets are from my father as she was next to me as she was,
she fell off of me. So your dad was shooting her
too? So my dad.
So yeah. So this is all happening at one
time. Like while she's on top of you,
your dad's shooting. Her so he he sees, he hears me
go and the bears on top of me. He hears a bear and just sees a
bear's ass like facing him. Oh my gosh.
He has a get this, he has a where of all the mind capacity,
not just be like, that's my son getting attacked by a grizzly
bear. He goes to flank her on the side
because he knows if he starts shooting in that direction he
can shoot me. So he goes to the side and he's
just shooting head, neck, head, neck, head, neck.
And she like falls off of me. Oh my gosh.
And she's sitting next or she's laying here next to me and I
push myself back and I, I remember in my head, I remember
because I just, I don't know if it was, this is just something
that is made-up in my head or what.
But I just, it's, it's so vivid to me that whenever you see like
a Mad Dog and you're like, they can't hear you.
They're not there. Like they are doing what they
want to do. And then you see like a
submissive like, oh, I'm here. Like I just this energy, I don't
know if it's like an energy thing or what, but I remember
like she's, she's gone, she's off of me.
And I remember sending my piston on, pushing back as my dad's
coming up and just putting the rest of his magazine into his.
So it was down, but he was making sure it was down, yes.
And yeah, I mean, it was, it was clear as day what happened after
that. So she's now laying next to me.
I set my my piss and I push back away from her as she like fell
off of me and my dad just pop, pop, pop, pop, pop.
And it was just instantly like puts another clip of magazine
and and just I was that that moment of watching.
I mean, I can slap her head like right here.
She's right here next to me and he's just putting bullets into
her. And that's where these come in,
from the side of the head. And this one.
Yeah, so I also, what? Here's another one that went
straight down. So he must have shot down.
I I kind of joke when people come over, I say that's where I
punched her. But that's not true.
Obviously I'm not that strong. But yeah, so he put the bullets
on the side of her head here and there's a few on her neck and
I'm sure in her shoulder when he was falling down.
And then obviously my other 7 rounds or six rounds.
I don't like that pointing at me.
I'm going to turn it. And so, yeah, he finishes her
off. So she is, she is not to see
she's next to me. But that doesn't mean we're
safe, right? We don't know what else because
like I said, my dad in the past got charred by multiple bears at
once. So he, yeah, you know, starts
yelling like, hey, bear, hey. And I remember looking up my dad
and this all, like I said, from the bear, my dad yelling bear,
the bear coming at us to the bear now on the ground dead and
me scooting backwards was a total of 1012 seconds.
Everything like everything. And so I go from thing about top
Robin to what the hell just happened.
And it was just all muscle memory training that I've done
in the past trying to like simulate these type of scenarios
happening. But you know, in your head, when
you you're, you're simulating these things, you always think
that you have enough time. But there was, there was, did.
You have bear spray as well or just.
Probably my pack. I mean, yeah, we did have bear
spray, but it wasn't going to be accessible.
Yeah, it was buried, but we just had our pistols.
I don't know if my dad had bear spray on him outside his pack.
But yeah, we carry bear spray with us.
At that time, it was just it was just a day hike, you know, but
obviously you should have that out.
Like that's that's something you should have.
But a good question is like, well, if you had bear spray,
would it work? I don't think so.
I think I would have been bear sprayed and mauled at the same
time because it was just so fast.
And the way she was on top of me, it was just like I said,
even if I like shooting her, I think she would have still
picked me up, ripped me around and threw me to side like
ragdoll and probably go at my dad after that.
So she's a sow. We found this out later that's
she was colored, right? So I can, I mean, they had to go
back and get the collar and everything.
And they told her she was 18 years old.
She had 18. She was 18 or 17.
She was 17 years old. Yeah, either 17 or 18.
And she had three Cubs. So checking the boxes again,
right, That's that's you're not making enough noise, there's not
enough wind, and now you surprise an animal and it's a
sow. So we checked every box that you
do not want to check even one of those.
And from that moment that now the bears have ceased, my dad's
yelling, you know, hey bear, he already reloaded.
I look down and I I'm wearing like the army surplus kind of
camo pants. I don't, I don't know what kind
of material, but they dry real fast.
They're actually really nice. I like them.
I have all the cargo stuff and I'm looking down.
I shot myself and I don't know if I can say it on here, but
he's like blah, blah, blah, not good, right?
And I immediately take my pack off, dig into my pack.
I pull out a trauma kit. And it's not the first time we
had to use a trauma kit. It's always, I always carry the
trauma kit with me. There was a second when we were
going out. It's just like you're so I
don't. Need the trauma kit?
My God, it did go through my head.
I even I said it to the sudden no, I don't know.
And then I remember looking at it like now you're coming up
with me and put it back in there safe and Private Ryan always
goes through my head with that guy that takes his armor back
off that always. And then also on Adak, I took my
flashlight out my big 1, and I wish I didn't.
That's a whole another thing. I definitely need a good
flashlight that night. But yeah, so I took out the
trauma kit and I immediately just cut ties with what's going
on with me. I, I disassociate myself
immediately with my body and I'm like, OK, I just, I go through
triage and I don't know if this was trained in my ENT red car,
not my red car, but my first aid class as a hotshot for Pioneer
Peak Hotshots for a couple years.
And we go through scenarios of how to react in certain
situations to stay calm. First aid, you know, it's the
typical for, but for the Hotshots, it's, it's a little
bit more in depth. And so I kind of get into that,
just that training that head and like headspace of this is
happening, take care of it. And same with my dad, my father,
he's search and rescue. I mean, he's usually the guy
that's going out and saving people like this.
So, yeah, good response. I already have them out there,
right. And so look at the leg crap, RIP
it open. Just see an entrance wound.
It's it's literally like black. I don't know if it's from the
the gunpowder or what. I was point blank shot ran into
my quad and I don't know where the exit wound was.
It was actually it was down lower.
And you know, like Forrest Gump, he had $1,000,000 wound in his
butt. Like I don't know where that
exited, but this one, this one has $1,000,000 wound because it
literally just went into my leg and out the leg right through my
meat and kind of severed like a little bit of my quad there.
But it didn't take any tendons and hitting any arteries.
Nothing. No bone.
No, you're lucky, man. That like that, that alone is a
death sentence. Like any different angle
anywhere, you know, down to where the leg would have been.
A much different scenario, much different scenario, but a bad
scenario none the less, right. So we take the trauma kit out,
take trauma shears, cut my pant leg off, realize there is a exit
wound there before I left. I don't know why I thought about
this, but I usually bring a slingshot with me to get
ptarmigan, you know, So it takes you know.
But this time I brought a 22 with and which is so much more
efficient, just as fun. And I remember taking the rubber
part off the, the band and I took it out when I was putting
everything in. I was like, well, maybe I'll use
it as a tourniquet, put it in there.
Well, I kind of did. I use that because the, the
quick claw that I had, it wasn't the typical, you know, you have
ripped the top off look away so I can blow in your face, you
know, so we, it was like a, a wrap with a block on it.
That was like a quick claw block on it.
And I wrap that around my leg and to tighten it real securely.
I took that rubber band or not the rubber band, but the
slingshot banded tie that on quick and then then my dad's
reaction is, oh, your boots filling off with blood and this
boot I have right here that actually still has my blood on
it here. Oh, geez, gross.
No, this is staying with me. It's like that lucky pair
underwear, you know? I don't know anybody that has a
lucky pair anywhere. I don't know, I.
Don't know what you're talking about.
So I was like, oh, OK, something's going on there and a
dent. Adrenaline is just all my fears.
All I I feel is pressure, but that's it.
And maybe a little bit of burning.
And I remember looking down my leg and my pant leg is shredded.
Oh wow. Where she bit into me and I like
pull it back and try to wipe away the blood.
And I just, we couldn't, couldn't get a good look what
happened. Did you know that you had been
bit? At this point, yeah, so when I,
when I fell backwards like it's all like I'm just trying to like
grab like what's happening and in my video that's like, oh, I
don't know if I've been bit or I shot myself again like what's
going on? It was confirmed at the
hospital. I was like, yeah no she ripped
into her leg and so I. You can't get stitches or
anything like that cause all the bacteria so where I'm just like
I'm bleeding, I can't control it.
It's like we tried putting pressure on it, just bleeding
from both sides of my calf when I didn't realize happened, like
I just there's just so much blood.
And so my dad grabbed the tourniquet.
We have the like, this is this is all within minute of what's
happened. Like we are just going into
this, this, this mode. I never knew I had capacity of
doing until you have that moment.
I just didn't know. I just went into it.
It's just this almost so bizarre and awesome, honestly, that I
was able to get in my father too.
We just like it was like not even, we didn't even have to
like even communicate in a way. We just knew what to do at that
time. But we never practice this, you
know, except for, you know, EMT, but in separate places because
my dad was always in, you know, law enforcement.
I was in firefighting. So I just kind of work together.
I guess we got trained in the same way.
But so we start putting the tourniquet on and my dad, so he
puts the tourniquet on and then, you know, it's a high stretch
situation. And so he puts on backwards the
first time and he's like, oh, crap, doing again.
Then he puts on back. I mean, he's like, I need to put
this on. He puts on backwards.
You know, I'm looking at my dad. I said, I'm good, I got we're
good, we are good. And I just remember making that
eye contact with him. And I mean, we were in a space
of already going, but that moment of like, we make an eye
contact and we're saying we got this.
That's when we really both went into this like, all right, slow
as smooth, smooth as fast, go through everything.
Like, because I mean, rush, you know how much blood is missing?
Like you're trying to move fast, right?
And he puts that tourniquet on and this is where he gets his
revenge with me here for a second.
He tightens it up. I'm like, he's like, how is that
tight enough? I'm like, yeah, I know.
I think that's that's really tight.
Oh, OK, crank. I'm like, Oh my God.
So that's how you're supposed to do a tourniquet.
Yeah, I remember that in class too.
Well, does not feel good. And it sure as hell stop
bleeding. Like it just cut the
circulation. We put it just below my, my knee
right here, right above the wound and stop the bleeding
right there. So, yeah, that that tourniquet
saves lives. Painful.
Painful it is. Yeah.
And at this point, I don't even like I I had so much adrenaline
going through my body. And that's, that's when I start.
I pull out my camera, my phone. Yeah, that video went viral.
Yeah, yeah. I went around.
They were like like this guy, like they didn't realize it was
5 minutes after, maybe 4 minutes after the attack because I was
actually so calm. But then I'm like pointed out
the bear, you know, and then I'm like, and I also shot myself and
I go down to my leg and they're like, wait, what?
Like there's a ball hole and then you see my leg blood and
tourniquet on. I'm like, yeah, I'm trying to
keep my heart rate down because that's, you know, like keep your
heart rate down in these situations.
Like, you know, your heart rates pumping, you know, lose more
blood. And so it's like get your heart
rate down when you're panicking. You make decisions that you
probably wouldn't make if you were calm.
So I grabbed my phone. I was like, I'm talking to my
phone. It's just something I do when I
go hiking. I love hiking.
I love being outdoors. I love videotaping.
And so that was kind of a, a place that can pull me away from
what was happening and really try to, I, I guess, just address
the situation the best way I could.
And, you know, looking up like, Oh, it's a beautiful day, you
know, and my dad's in the background.
We have an in reach. And so that at that point I'm
I'm like secure, right? For the most part, You know, we
make a perimeter looking around, see if there's more animals,
more threats. My dad gets on his because he
connects his I think it's a mini in reach.
I'm sure you talked about these things.
Sitting right up there all. Right there lifesavers.
I've we've used them no, across from Homer we didn't.
We had actually cell phone service for the guy that had the
appendix that blew up, but in ADAC we had to use the in reach
and I. Had cell phone service for my
situation too so. Yeah, it's nice where we were
at, We we had nothing. We were barricading around
mountains. There is nothing but us and a
dead bear. And you know, is, is that type
of situation. And like I said, I probably had
the best, the best partner to have that situation.
Yeah, right. Right, right.
He was already there. Like instant instant search and
rescue. Yeah, he, you know, and I
remember, I can't like quote exactly what he says.
I don't know if I got it on camera, but he he has a few
people he can reach out to. I think you reach out to someone
personal that he knows he can get a hold of right away.
The troopers, I think this SOS might have because I know Jay
Bear, that's the military base in Anchorage.
They responded. So there's a few people he was
contacting and he said my son attacked by a bear, gunshot
wound, bear bite controlled bleeding stable LZ clear because
we were in a we were in a pretty good spot for a helicopter
landing and then coordinates and then he would go over and over
and over again with A and until we started getting response back
saying it's spinning up. Well, he lied to me, you know,
for a little bit, you know, it's just trying to calm me down.
Well, I mean we already calm but he wanted to keep my hopes up
that they were coming quicker which.
How long did it take? It took pretty quick, 2 1/2
hours, still sucked. But yeah, because we where we're
at on the Kenai. So if you ever been to Anchorage
and you drove down to the Kenai, the tourniquet arm.
You know, you're looking across the water and you see big
mountains, you see hope over there.
I mean, you might not know you're looking at hope, but
there's hope over there. But over those mountains and
across the woods, over the bridge, you go.
That's where we're at, where, you know, there's just mountains
and no one around. So they just had to go across
the water. To us it was about a 15 minute
helicopter ride, but they had to get everyone spun up right.
I think people that especially people that listen to this
aren't a lot of people that listen to these aren't outdoors
people. And they think 2 1/2 hours is an
incredibly long time and in it, and if you're living in the
city, response time is pretty quick if you're calling police.
But this is not calling police like you're in certain
situations where you're hoping that it's not just like a
volunteer search and rescue or it could be anybody, right?
Right. And you, depending on where
you're at, how far you are, what the obstacles are, it can.
I've talked to people that it's taken 1012 hours to get search
and rescue out. There, yeah.
And especially with a tourniquet on, we don't want that.
But yeah, they showed up in 2 1/2 hours.
And yeah, you're right. I've had people were in Austin,
you know, inevitably the story comes up and they're like, how
long did it take you? It's like 2 1/2 hours.
You're like, Oh my God, that's a long time.
I'm like, no, that's pretty quick.
That's pretty quick. And I didn't have to hike out, I
didn't have to use my gun or anything.
I was like a, a walking stick, you know, I didn't have to drag
my legs. So yeah, I might be optimist,
but I got out there like fairly quick.
It was the longest 2 1/2 hours of my life, that's for sure.
Because the adrenaline wears off, wear it off for me at least
for about 45 minutes. And that's when the video
stopped and, and my dad can tell that I started getting a little
more uncomfortable. And about 45 minutes in, I
started realizing, oh, I had more wounds than that.
And then where she gashed me in my side of my hip when she
pulled me in. Really.
Oh wow. I actually found that out
because I have these things are like called Teaser.
They're not sponsored by Teaser, you know, it's a chew that is
just tea pouches, no nicotine, no tobacco.
It's just kind of like a tea in your mouth with a little bit of
caffeine. And I went and I was like, you
know what Probably wasn't smart because we ran out of water and
that just dry your mouth off. But I was looking for something
that was familiar. And I remember pulling it out
and it was like a cartoon, you know, as everything just dumped
out because you got like, there's a claw mark went right
through the top. Of it and.
He's like, well, that sucks. And I set it down, look around
like, well, wait, what the heck? And I kind of like actually I
started feeling something beside my hip.
I looked down and I put my hand to my hip and a little
disgusting but I was like, oh, my fingers went into a huge
gash. I was like.
Oh. Dude.
And I felt a sting. I was like, oh, oh, I looked at
my dad. I was like, hey, do you have a
bandana? And he said why?
I was like, I got to gash my leg.
And he's like, OK, yeah. And he threw me his bandana.
He was sweaty and asked Batman, I'm like, get in there.
Oh man, you know, and. So you you like, sutured
yourself up essentially. Yeah, like, yeah, I just, like,
stuffed it in there. And so, yeah, at that time.
So after that happened, I realized now that's in my head,
I got this, this and this. I started getting really
comfortable because of the tourniquet, trying to keep your
leg up, your, you know, you got all these different sensations
going through your body. My heart rate, I was keeping
down. But again, I'm looking for
something familiar to keep me in a state of not panicking, right.
My dad's coming back with like, he's like blocking the sun for
me, like something that you don't really think about.
My dad stands in front of me intentionally to block that son
from beating down on me because we ended up running out of
water. And he's like, OK, we need to,
you know, keep him comfortable as best as possible.
So he's telling me they're spinning up and these in reach
messages are a little bit slower than your typical text messages,
right? So very useful.
Texas satellite. It's it's amazing.
A little bit slower, so we're getting messages in like, you
know, we're 30 minutes out and that was about an hour in or an
hour and a half. About an hour and a half in.
It was about an hour and a half in.
He said they're half hour out. So grab my phone, put 1/2 hour
on that. Probably the worst idea I
probably could have done because it's like watching paint dry or
you know, when you're getting ready to go out for recess or
leave school, you're watching 9 O clock go tick, tick, tick.
And I have one song that I played over and over again.
It's just like a North Norwegian kind of like primal song, just
keeping me going. Battle drums, whatever,
whatever. What in those situations, like
do whatever makes you feel comfortable patting you on the
head. Sure, like whatever.
And like it, it, it, it sucks. I'm trying to take that that
pain away or just the the idea of it.
Actually, at one point a helicopter did pass us.
So we're looking down like in the videos, you can see that
like almost like a tunnel and you can hear thump, thump,
thump, thump, man. Were you thinking that was it?
And that was about 40 some minutes into it or something
like it might actually might have been just before he said
1/2 hour. And it was a white and red
helicopter. So I'm thinking like, oh, it's
AUS Coast Guard. It must have been like some
sightseeing helicopter because it just went right by.
I'm like, oh, come back, come back.
But no. Then he says a little bit later,
that's 1/2 hour. So I'm watching the clock go
down. I'm listening to this music,
super uncomfortable. And at this time I actually
found a comfortable position that was on my stomach because,
you know, I can't be on this side.
I can't be on this side or I can't be.
It's just uncomfortable. And I'm literally face to face.
I'm looking at this bear's face now.
There's flies flying around her and stuff.
But I'm just like, at this moment, just like for a while,
just staring at her. And it's just, it's just
bizarre. You know, you don't think about
the consequences. Well, I mean, at least I didn't
think about the consequences of a gun like, you know, you know,
like, you know, you're using this gun, there's a reason for
it. But laying there next to the the
bear and what happened, you know, you start, it's just like,
Oh yeah, I killed her, right. That time I didn't know there
was even Cubs. I was even, I was actually
feeling a little bit remorse because I wasn't going hunting
for brown bear. I don't, I don't want to go
hunting for some or kill something that I don't want to
eat, not something that I want to bring back and provide.
That's just me. And I ended up inevitably
killing an animal that was just doing her own thing and we were
doing our own thing too. Like I'm not saying we don't
belong out there. That's I belong out in the
woods, that's for sure. But it's just unforeseen
circumstances and just unfortunate how everything
played out. So I that, that scenario was
just sitting here with the bear, like had time to think about.
And then also, you know, waiting for the helicopter.
And I think about that often actually now.
And about 2 1/2 hours go by and that's when Joe the trooper.
So they, they sent 2 helicopters, 1 just in case
something didn't work out. I think it's called like, you
know, I had to go somewhere else.
So they sent 2 helicopters and the troopers helicopter landed
and I had this whole idea that I was going to videotape the
helicopter coming in because it's just me.
I didn't, I didn't I, I lay there, I didn't even, I didn't
even pick my head up, man. I heard, I said yeah.
OK, cool. Adrenaline was kind.
Of it was gone, it was yesterday probably, you know, it went away
right at that point. And I hear it and I can hear I'm
going through the bushes and I pick my head up.
I see Joe and he's a, he's a bigger, stronger guy, you know,
And then it's like, Oh, I can't get up and they have to drag me
through. So they're trying to fumble and
push me through or drag me through.
And Joe just grabbed me from like the back of my shirt and my
dad grabs me from my legs and just yards me through all those
bushes. And I remember we crossed the
Creek and I'm just like, it's not like early days, you know,
I, I don't know, like I lost a lot of blood, but I don't think
it was that enough to be like, right, right, right.
But at that point, I was just like, done with it.
And I remember going through the Creek and feeling the wet on my
butt. I'm like, oh, that feels nice.
And I'm going through. And then he kind of little set
me down. And the helicopter pilot is
right here. And I'm next to the ski.
And Joe and my dad are talking. They actually know each other.
And look at the helicopter pilot.
He looks at me. He's like, yeah, you're good.
I'm like, yeah, for sure. Thanks.
And I hear them talking saying Joe's like the the Blackhawk is
going to be here shortly with the PJS.
Should we wait for them? And I remember hearing that I'm
like, I can't remember exactly what I said, but I might have
said explicit. So I'm like hell no.
And I start like crawling my way into the helicopter.
I Get Me Out of here. So I pulled myself in the
helicopter and they're like, guess who's going?
So I get into the helicopter and Joe jumps in with me and that's
when I take probably the most painful and most beautiful
helicopter ride I've ever been on.
I've been on a lot of helicopters being a hotshot.
And this was just like, like I said, it was a gorgeous day and
I never thought I'd get this view of all the mountains back
there. I'm hiking, always hiking back
in that area, going through hope and stuff with this perspective
up on. It's just, it was great, a
little bit bumpy, painful, but it was great.
And Joe actually, dude, he, he put an IV in me as the IT was
bumpy. It was very good.
And I remember looking impressive.
I know that's awesome. I was like, dude, nice work.
And he did it correctly. Even the even the nurses are
like, wow, he did great. So shout out Joe.
And like, I was like, is that, you know, he's like, no, it's
just sailing. I was like, OK, Dang it, but my
dad's still back there, right? So my dad's still hanging out
with a bear. I think the Black Hawk shows
like 15 minutes, maybe 20 minutes afterwards.
So he got the cool ride. He got the cool ride with the
Blackhawk, but the PJS? The limousine.
Yeah, I know that's actually on the news.
A videotape, the Blackhawk coming in, like thinking it was
me. It was really just my dad
because they they picked him up or he was like, can you help me?
And they're like, come on. That would have sucked.
Like, have fun. Walk back, Pops, you know?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, he got picked up and
then he showed up the hospital and and when I was going into
the hospital, there is probably like 1520 people maybe waiting
for me. You know, they have the idea
that, oh, there's a bear gonna be a gunshot wound.
They're like, what the hell is going on?
And I can't remember what I said, but I remember saying
something corny, like kind of like a joke.
That is how I am. And I can just like tell they're
like. OK, he's fine.
He's fine, Yeah. And that's when they take the
tourniquet off. And I was just like.
Oh boy. So I, you know, honestly, I
didn't know if I don't know where I heard this, but it might
have been like a how long a time you can have a tourniquet on to
where you I have a issue of bad blood.
I didn't know that timeline. So I even asked the doctor.
I was like, is this going to kill me?
You know, he's like No 2 1/2 hours.
That's fine. People have it on for longer.
And again, I still don't know the time.
Probably should learn that. But yeah, they took that
tourniquet off and it was just like, felt so good.
And then they, you know, obviously dosed me up tattoos.
Like I was like, oh, this is great, you know, making jokes
with the nurses and getting, I can't remember if it's a CAT
scan or something like that to see if, you know, if any vessels
were busted, bones broken or whatever, you know?
So yeah, that's that that then they let me out of the hospital
that night on good behavior, so they let.
You out that? Same day, yeah, they let me out
that same day because I, because I had my, my mother and
father-in-law actually came to the hospital they live in at
that time is Thunderbird Falls. And they had an extra bed that
they had there. And all I had to do is like, I
mean, really besides, you know, getting medicated for the pain
or whatever, I just, I had control.
I was like bleeding. Stop.
They stuffed it full of stuff to make it so I don't bleed as
much. Obviously I bled through that.
But yeah, there was nothing else really I can do except for like
knew that I was good. I was in good health, good
spirits. And they're like, hey, you're
good, man, Sweet, Get Me Out of there.
And then, yeah, that's when I, Oh my, my wife, that's, that is
a whole thing too 'cause she's in Austin, right?
And she gets a message about probably 30 minutes after the
whole thing happens and the only thing she gets is Tyler got
mauled by a bear, a helicopter on the way.
So she has our two year old son in a place where we just moved.
Like, like she has like 2 friends there 'cause they're her
boss, right? And her boss's husband and it's
just her. So I like they come in, I'm
getting interviewed by, you know, a trooper and a, a game
warden. They're asking me questions like
what happened? Probably because they want to do
the report. But it's like, you know, I had
AI had a game warden with me. I think he gots the report.
You know, I think he's, I, I, I think it's clear.
I think it's clear that this was self-defense, right.
Sorry, I didn't have a my brown bear harvest tag, but yeah,
there's a dead bear up there. But yeah, I remember the doctor
walking in with the white phone and talking to her and I, I
think I made a joke to make her feel a bit better and I was all
good. But yeah, that was, I can't
imagine like, just like sitting there for another two hours just
waiting for like, what happened, you know, like they don't know
if my, my leg is running off like a, like a dog bone with a
bear somewhere like a mile away or, you know, there's more
bears. Yeah.
Right, right, right. You know, how much blood am I
losing? So all considering I consider
myself, like I'm saying I'm an optimist, fairly lucky.
I would say you are fairly, fairly lucky.
Is, is an understanding. I, I'm, I'm just sitting here
thinking, I can't believe that you spent your, you, you grew up
in Alaska, but you leave Alaska and the one time you go back is
when you get mauled by a bear. Like how did you go your whole
life? And then when you go back they
were like, screw you for leaving.
That's my my I think I think Alaska was pissed I was leaving
because even like 2 weeks before that's the right before I did my
drive. I was going sockeye fishing in
the Kenai and I had AI think it's a size 5.
It's one of those bigger gamagatsu hooks go right through
my lip there. There's a picture online.
There's cut it off, but I have a a hook that went right through
my leg. I was a legal catch, obviously,
but you can't keep kings, right? So threw me back.
But so yeah, there's a picture of me with a hook through my
face. And in my bear video, you can
see a scar right here. So yeah, I was in the emergency
room a few times. Alaska was pissed I was leaving.
They're like, what are you doing?
Yeah, no kidding. Like, so we should probably tell
people that this is not the. Somebody's going to comment and
be like, wait a minute. Yeah, you can't have that.
Yeah. So this is a replica of the bear
skull so. Very well done, Replica, yeah.
I might add, I know so my my dad actually got an award.
It's like Blue Cross award for saving someone in the wild,
which is dope. Awesome like your dad getting an
award for saving your life. Awesome props.
Love that. So someone got in contact with
them because typically for anyone else wondering when this
type of situation happens, you have to skin the bear, bring the
sex. I think the pause I concluded
and the skull that way they can examine it and confirm she was
collared. So they had to go retrieve the
collar and for and we were 18 miles back.
That would have sucked. And it pays off to have a father
that's in that type of field and like a, you know, biologist.
Can you go out there and get the stuff and like for sure.
So they got the collar, the the skull and they put it on the the
fleshing worms and stuff to get it going to get it all nice and
pretty. But then a like a movie peep
whoever makes replicas or anything for movies.
I can't remember the the company, but they contacted my
dad. They said, hey, can we make a
replica of this? And we'll give you back the
original, obviously, but you'll have a replica and you can have
that. That's cool, man.
So the original is at the Park Service cabin at Morgan's
Landing in Sterling. Actually, probably on my dad's
desk because that's where he's working now, because he just
doesn't stop. So it's available like can you
go see it kind of thing. Yeah, I mean, I think you, I
mean, if you go in there and you ask them, they were like, yeah.
Oh, wow, that's come on down. Yeah.
It's actually a cool cabin that has a really beautiful view over
the Kenai River and all the Kenai Mountain range.
It's like an awesome cabin out there and really good fishing in
the summertime. Obviously it's the Kenai River,
right. So, yeah, the original is with
them. So yeah, you can't, you can't.
The reason why you can't keep all that stuff because I was
like, well, that's, that's like, why can't she's like, well, you
know, if someone's out there poaching, you know, they can
say, oh, it attacked me, right? And then they would get to keep
everything. So I get it.
It'd be nice to keep everything, but you can't.
And then on top of that, I mean, if you, if a, if a bear skull or
a bear hide had a story behind it, then it starts being a
little bit more of a value and it can be like a black market
type of thing. So I 100% understand the reasons
behind all this, which I can keep it, but it is what it is.
So I got a replica and that's awesome.
Usually right now it has a Christmas hat on it, but I I
flew it with me here to show you.
That's pretty amazing that you even got it here.
I'm impressed you brought it. Yeah.
So what's life been like since this has gone down?
I at first it was wild. I, I never got, I was like,
dude, I'm a small town sold out and a kid, you know, born and
raised, I can graduate. I think it was like 82 people,
which is, I mean, that's a bit for there anyways.
And I, I started getting all this media attention and it was
just, it was just weird, you know, but it's funny because I
sent my, after I got interviewed by Alaska news source.
They did a fantastic job. By the way.
Come to find out some news sources are a little bit
different. Even.
Even if you get like a 45 minute interview, it's still went out
there that my dad shot me like. Really guys like.
What are you doing? I clickbait guy.
OK, yeah. It was like in New Zealand or
Australia, they made it all the way there.
It was an international news. There was a company that reached
out to me to monetize the video. Just made a little bit off that
I guess, but it's funny because. Did you post the video?
Is that how like on your own? Is that how it kind of went?
Nuts. I posted a shorter video like
there was one where I just like in grimacing.
I'm like there's the bear black. It was like a 12 second video.
But when I went on to Alaska news source, they made a a
compilation of all the videos that I had.
So I had about 6 minutes of videotaping from about four to 5
minutes after the attack, and I started just videotaping,
explaining, like literally explaining what's going on.
It's actually pretty good. I mean, looking back, I wasn't
thinking about at the time, but it's a really good training,
honestly. Like, you see what?
Like this is a case scenario. And honestly, what my father and
I did was textbook perfect in my opinion.
Just saying. I'm just saying, but I don't
know, go watch the video and you can come up with your own
conclusions, right? But it was really weird because
I started getting messages from people because I didn't post the
big one Alaska news source did. But then a whole like a bunch of
people started taking that video and making their own videos of
my video and mom and my Co workers texted me.
He's like, dude, you're blowing up.
I'm like, what are you talking about?
And then I started getting messages from Inside Edition and
all this other stuff like what's going on?
And I didn't have a Twitter. Like I was like tweeting.
I don't even know what that's for.
I whatever. I got a Facebook and Instagram
and they're like, yeah, your video has like 4 million views
and he checks me back 5 million views.
I'm like, what's going on? And then I go on there and and
they're like Joe Rogan shared your video.
I'm like, what's going on? Or he reposted.
I don't know how Twitter works, but he's like, he reposted it.
And then one of my other favorite ones was the guy that
does Red zone. He's the red zone guy.
What's his name anyways? He posted it, he commented on it
and it was just like, what is going on?
And then you have all these other like on Instagram, these
guys are getting like 3 million views on it.
Facebook is having I I haven't looked in a while.
Like I'm sure it's probably even more than that.
Then I had my stab at it and try to post it on TikTok and they're
like animal cruelty. I was like, oh.
Yeah, Wow. That's that.
Whatever it was, it was actually wild because in like 10 hours,
like I've never posted something that got more than like 200
views. And then like a couple hours it
was over 100,000 views and like thousands of comments and stuff
and they're like, Nope, like oh OK, whatever.
So I just let whoever was doing the other time just go within.
And then it got really interesting looking at the
comments. Some people just they, they, you
know what? They live.
Their own life in their mom's basement and don't know what
else to do and. Yeah, yeah.
And that learned for me, honestly, I, I, I use that as a
learning moment. You know, not everyone
understands where I come from and what I do.
You know, one of the biggest ones, like, you know, you're in
their territory, their house. That's like, I get it.
But that's their own story. They can say say it all they
want, that's fine. It's not me.
It's not what happened. You can believe that.
Whatever. I pay attention to the ones that
actually. Have a clue?
Well, have a clue and and appreciated what happened.
I mean, obviously, like this is a sad scenario, but can
appreciate how we reacted and what can come out of this.
And like what came out of this is what I'm doing now.
That's that's preventing situations like this from
happening. Had you posted just a, you know,
normal video of you hiking along and nothing happened, that same
person probably would have been like, wow, what a beautiful
hike. I'd love to go on that someday.
Oh, yeah, actually I did. I did post something that I got
interviewed again this last summer by Alaska News Source
again because they kind of call me up every so often because I
don't know, I guess I, I've got personality that they like to
hear and I'm just always chipper.
And when people get mauled, they're like, let's get someone
that got mauled and it's kind of happy.
You know, it's really kind of, you know how to get on there.
And like 2 days before they call me for this interview, I went
and hiked this. Like it definitely did not stop.
This whole scenario never stopped, will never stop me from
going back out there to do what I love.
I. Was going to ask you that, have
you been out to? Yeah, I've.
That area again. No, I haven't been out there
that one I, I don't really have a desire to go revisit at this
moment, but I went up this mountain called Slaughter Ridge.
Beautiful hike on the Kenai. Kind of weird how to get to him,
but if you know how to get to it, it's awesome.
And I was hiking back down and I had gummy bears in my backpack.
For some reason. I had gummy bears.
I don't even know why I had gummy bears.
I did have them. Gummy bears are great when
you're hiking. I didn't realize how great they
were. They're so good.
And I so I pull them out and I end up going through this like
kind of hemlock tree area, like hemlocks, like they kind of look
like they're whimsical and just they grow in higher altitude.
And I was like, you know, how funny would it?
Because everyone knows me, I got attacked by a bear if I posted a
video of me seeing like, oh, there's bears.
And so I set up the gummy bears on the this branch and I'm like,
oh, there's some bears over there.
I'm going to turn towards like some gummy bears.
And so they actually put that on the news.
It's hilarious. But yeah, so I go hiking and
I'm, I'm still pretty light hearted about it.
So yeah, hiking, hiking is always going to be part of my
life. Well, didn't you want to tell me
about some deterrent that you're working on?
Yeah, so since this whole situation happened, like I said,
I got real curious about just bears in general and how how did
other people, what was their experiences?
Because I know this is rare, but it's obviously it's happened in
the past. And I, I found a kind of a
through line of something that's like it's written on the wall
that it's like, it's never really talked about.
Like we, when these attacks happened, typically you surprise
them. I mean, maybe they just talked
about it a little bit, but that's, if there's, you have
bear bells, right? You wear bear bells and they're
like, that's supposed to alert the bear of your presence.
Then you have your typical, you know, your bear spray and your
gun and you yell, right? So what I found out doing
research on these attacks is a lot of these people, they have
their guns, they have their bear spray.
They might have been making noise, but they surprise an
animal and when you surprise an animal, they react and you have
fight, flight or freeze. And you also have fight, flight
or freeze. And when you surprise an animal
that automatically ensues that you are in close quarters with
this animal and you have little to no time to react.
And so I just got curious like, how do, how do I like kind of
harness this? Like what?
Like what is this? Like, what is this surprise?
Like our presence isn't known to nature.
Like we're going out knowing we're in nature, but nature
doesn't know we're out there, right?
We're going out to their thing. So I have dogs and I started
thinking like how how deep can bears hear?
Like what's their hearing right? And because my, my aligned, like
my purpose in life after this whole thing is I, I've always
loved bringing people out hiking.
It's like, I love it. I love bringing and make and
make them feel safe and they are safe.
And that's just been my, my passion life.
And then this kind of just jump started this whole idea of like,
I'm going to go back to it. I have dogs.
I was like, how well can bears hear?
Can they hear as well as dogs? And so I bought this, they have
these dog barking things that use ultrasonic frequencies and,
you know, like dog whistles, right?
Always thought that was fascinating.
Like the dog can hear like how they're reacting to something
you can't hear, like that's weird.
So I wanted to test that out. So I went and bought one of
these things and I tested on my dog because they bark a lot like
stop that, you know, so it worked out, but I also wanted to
test it all on bears. And I had a couple chances with
a controlled setting with bears. And also when I drove up from
Alaska to, or drove from Minnesota to Alaska, my grandpa,
I ran into a few bears on the side of the road and I wanted to
see their reaction. And I just research on to how
well bears can hear. There's not a lot on there's not
like, like besides, there's a, there's one that was done up in
North Slope for polar bears. Now, polar bears a little bit
more curious and more predatorial by nature, but they
could hear ultrasonic frequencies, OK.
And a lot of the research, you know, they're like, it only goes
up to so far. And I was like, I want to test
this theory and see how I can harness this, this thing that
that we haven't really utilized before.
I mean, it's we utilize it for insects, we utilize it for, I
guess, disrupting communications.
We utilize it for making your home dog stop barking or your
neighbour's dog barking. I was like, how can I use this?
So my, I don't know why I've been testing this.
I want to see their reactions and see if they can hear it, see
what they do and come find out. When I would use this device, it
would they, they would pick their head up, start sniffing
around. Like what is that?
One of them literally ran away. Like I spanked it in the butt of
a rubber bullet. I was like, well, that was an
interesting reaction, but none of it was aggressive and it was
just alerted it. And if you're if you're
outdoorsman, which you know you, you learn if you've been in bear
country, they don't, they typically don't want to see you
either. You yourself is the deterrent,
right? You make noise, they lead.
So this a little bit of an educational things like it.
We are the deterrent. My device I'm developing uses
ultrasonic frequencies to make your presence known to the wild
before it escalates to the point of using bear spray or your
firearm. Those are very good tools.
Those are useful tools. They can save lives.
And I'm definitely not saying don't bring those.
This is a preventative, you know, and there's so many
different avenues like, you know, if you alert the bear of
your presence and the bear is curious, well, now you have time
to have these reactive tools. But if you are surprising a bear
in a close quarters, now those tools are a little bit harder to
use. For sure.
I think every person I've talked to that's been mauled by a
grizzly, and I've talked to several, I'm, I can't think of
one that didn't surprise the bear.
Every one of them was they and most of them were hunting.
Yeah, very, very few were just hiking.
Right. And I mean all these, you know,
bear attacks in general, fairly rare, right?
But that doesn't mean it can't happen to you.
And, you know, in a lot of people, I, I have friends back
home that don't want to go hiking because they're afraid of
bears. And that just honestly, it's,
that's sad to me because that's an experience I wish they can
have. And I, I'd always say go with a
partner like so I usually go with them, but you know, if you
have this device, So I actually, I'm going to say this, when
you're out hiking, your presence only goes about 20 feet.
If you're just walking right, you don't want to walk on a bear
about 20 feet. Trust me, sucks.
You know, So my device you would have, and I'm going to do more
testings going to be verified by guides, game wardens, just, I
have all of them lined up to test it.
At this point, I'm in the development of the prototype.
After I've done all the testing and verified that I know this
works, I'm getting into the right hands and that device is
now going to widen your presence to the nature by I but I want it
is about 50 yards just big, you know out there.
So you get that gives it. I probably go even further
because you know what they have amazing hearing just because we
can barely hear it at 50 yards. You know them, they could
probably definitely hear it at 50 yards and even further.
So it's, it's exciting to say the least.
And yeah. I think it's cool.
Nothing I've heard anything like that because, you know, what do
you, what do you have? Like the bear bells, which I
don't even know if those really work at all.
You know, you got dogs that you can bring with you.
But I've heard dogs are even also a problem for bears because
they just bring them back. Yeah, they bring the dog, they
bring the bear back or the dog can startle the bear.
Now the bear is getting aggressive and it's a problem.
And then you get, you know, bear spray and, and a firearm.
And a lot of people are afraid of firearms.
They don't want to take a firearm with them, but.
I mean, you can shoot yourself. Yeah, you can shoot yourself,
you know. So I think this is a pretty
interesting idea. Yeah, and I just recently I like
I said, I think I talked to you on the I didn't talk to you on
the phone or yeah, I did. And I told you I stopped talking
about the bear attack a little bit because it was it was like 1
podcaster called it shock jocking and you know, like I'll
hold for like shock and value. Like it just felt like I was
just giving away my story to shock people.
And I'm, I just like, this is like my story and I felt like I
was losing the value to myself. And after I just came up with
this ideas like, OK, I'm, I'm ready to start talking about
this again because there's a purpose behind this.
I like, I don't want this whole situation to have me go without
some type of positive influence and that, that just, it's such
an alignment with my purpose. And I want, I want people to, to
join me on this. I, I want this to be out there
for people because when humans and animals enter into his an
area of surprise that typically it's a, a reaction and that's
aggressive. And when that happens with us,
there's typically a loser. And I want that to be reduced.
So when I do my research about 80% of bear attacks, you know,
you have your ones that you don't know because they don't
come back right to give evidence of what happened.
Then you have your small percentage of things like 10
that actually turns into be predatorial.
And I typically those are black bears.
I don't know they stalk you after you find them by 80%.
That's a surprise encounter. And if I can reduce just a bit
of that, you know, let's say you go out there, like maybe I stop
a bear from bawling you, you know, it's unlikely.
I appreciate that. Thank you.
I got you. Here, take this device with you.
Thanks, Zelda. Here's a sword going.
Don't go out there. It's dangerous, You know.
Here have my device. So I, I ask everybody this, what
if, if you could have gone back in time and pulled this out of
your life from ever happening? Like if you could have just been
like, that never should have happened.
I wish it never would have happened.
Would you take it out of your life?
That's a yes and kind of thing for me, a yes and no like I no
because of this experience now has the potential to change how
we have prevent these things from happening.
But yes, I do wish that this and happened for the sake of just
that animal because again, I wasn't hunting her right now, if
I was hunting her, that's a different story.
But I was not. And it's just unfortunate
because because of what happened, there's three Cubs
that probably didn't make it right.
So that's just an action. That's something that happened.
But it's it's to me that's that's it's a double sided
thing. Like, yeah, it happened, it
happened. And So what do you want to do
about it? And I want to do something about
that. And well, without this, this is
probably I, I don't know, maybe someone would have thought about
this, but I'm doing that now and I I want to take that away.
Yeah, it's an interesting answer.
I, of course, I'm thinking back on a lot of the other people
that I've asked, and in their situations, the bear survived
because it ran off or got out of there somehow or for whatever
reason. So yeah, that's an interesting
answer. That's really cool, man.
Your story's incredible. I think you're pretty awesome.
And to be able to go through something like this and come out
on the other side and be able to tell your story is it was a
miracle. And plus, that video was pretty
awesome. When I saw it, I was like, wow.
So yeah. Anything else you want to talk
about, you want to share? I mean, how long do we have?
I do. I got stories and stories bro.
We. Don't have that long.
Yeah, I man, it's again, this I moved to Austin, but you know,
that's, that's a temporary thing that was for experiencing
because I'm an adventurer, but the Kenai River that's going
through my veins, man, I I'm always going to go back.
That's just. With a trauma kit, right?
With a trauma kit with sound barrier, by the way, that's the
name of the device sound barrier.
Anyways, play on words with clever I know and you know, with
friends, with people that want to experience the life I can
offer and that's bringing them out to the wild day.
I I want to be like my ultimate goal is to be a guide, not a not
a hunting guide like I so like I I haunted and passed.
I love hunting. It doesn't mean I'm not going to
go hunting again. I love the adventure.
I love eating meat. It's great, especially one that
I harvest myself. But I want to bring people onto
the wild and hopefully down the road here in a small amount of
time, I will get that opportunity to bring people to
these places across Tuscany, up in the glaciers that almost no
one knows where it's at except for, you know, if you know where
the trails. And it's just to have people
experience life changing views and go like, I mean, obviously
the hike is not easy and it just has its own purpose.
And I want to share that. I didn't know that's how I got
into really got into this outdoor stuff.
Is it because my father and my grandpa, you know, I did my rite
of passage with them when I was 13 years old, they would go on
this hunt every year, cross Tustamina.
It is insane. Like just going to cross
Tustamina itself. There's a glacier and
everything. Like you get 5 foot, 6 foot
swell sometimes. Like everyone's going out there.
Like someone dies there pretty off, not pretty often.
I'm a it's a deadly lake, right? But even when you get to the
other side, you park your boat where salmon spawn.
So the first thing you're doing is you're literally walking
through a mile of grass that's head high where a fish is just
flopping around with those brains hanging out because
there's there's a bear that just ran away where you were at.
It's always, and then it's just the most awesome experience and
I want to bring people out there and I want to do it safely.
So I'd be using my device to do that.
And yeah, shout out, you know, if anyone is aligned to what I'm
trying to bring to the world. I'm looking for partnerships in
this and investors to help me get to the next stage because
this is something that I can try to do a loan but it would take
longer to do. And I, I just want to surround
myself with people that are like minded and have the same passion
and just want to enjoy the wild nature and do it safely and you
know, save a life or two along the way.
That's cool man, Awesome. I appreciate you being here.
Yeah, me too. I love it.
Thanks. This is awesome.
Peace out.