History Channel's ALONE Keynote Talk with Mitch Mitchell, Zach Fowler, and Alex Rebar

Description

Cast members Mitch Mitchell, Zach Fowler, and Alex Rebar from History Channels Alone seasons 1, 3 and 4 give a talk at the New England Bushcraft Show in Massachusetts, speaking on thier experiences and answering questions from the crowd.

Tags: history,channel,questions,keynote,talk,speaking,alone,aloneshow,nativesurvival,mitch,mitchell,zach,fowler,alex,rebar,bushcraft,woodcraft,tipi,tipee,tepee,wikiup,new,england,show,survival,primitive,skill,skills

Video Transcription

[Music]

and then there's people that are getting different levels of celebrity status because of different types of engagement whether it's social media like YouTube or whether it's a TV show like a loan or any other one so I'm proud and excited to go to put these fine gentlemen on the stage here and have a conversation with them to learn a little bit about their story well how did they get into bushcraft how did they end up here sitting on these chairs what's their journey but also to learn a little bit more about their individual experiences so Mitch was in season one zach is the winner of season three and Alex was in season four so we've got a good spread here of the season so you guys could tell us you know what maybe we'll start here and work our way down but maybe you tell us a little bit about your story about how how you came to be sitting in that chair I move to mean when I was 20 turn 21 to build wooden boat both will in Kennebunkport and then being all around New England coming from Vermont and I bought land in Appleton Maine and I started going in getting old books again cuz I loved old books and I went and got my garage sales about bushcrafting and gardening and all kinds stuff like that so that I could learn how to use the bush crafting techniques from these old books in my homesteading allenl and I never wanted to be like a survivalist or anything and I didn't really want to be alone my dream is always has been to meet my family and be like homesteading on the land so I studied all these traps and primitive traps and old books so I can catch the woodchuck that was eating my cabbage you know or so I could learn to identify wild plants I'd go out and identify wild mushrooms so I could put them on my pizza and so I just I kept building on it that way and as the years went by and putting a Craigslist ad and meeting my wife that way we started up the air and we're doing more and more and watching naked and afraid out in the woods and I was like man that looks like so much fun I would love to do that and I'm like what are they doing

this is ridiculous of drinking muddy water they're getting sick I was like I could do better than that and like any good armchair critic I knew I could do better than that and so like I just like how this is just ridiculous and then Along Came on TV and we watched season one and Alan and these guys anywhere I'm like oh man I was like I could do that in my wife's like hide area and so I sent him an application and ended up getting on the show or they like I said I sold it to him to because I knew that like after watching season one and all these other naked afraid it's like they're looking for the Village People right so they they want the fireman the schoolteacher you know the the Navy SEAL I said what do I got to sell it I said I send him a message in like four two lines I said I'm a bearded wooden boat builder or ginger beard of wooden boat boat they're living in a yurt moon that shoots slingshots and they said we'll take you I would I got like three weeks later I was going to the boot camp and I'm there with 20 people and and of course these guys like I was like I was blown away like dan wall whack you know if you've seen the show you know he's like the Green Giant he's huge I'm thinking to myself he's gonna go out there and just twist the head off a boar and like like Ozzy really drink that in I'm like how can I compete with that and Dave you know he's like I've been going to survival school since I was three if I'm hungry I throw a stick at it and I grab another stick when I want to start a fire and rub it together and I'm good to go and like these guys are good we end up spending the whole time all like end up all bonding and stuff because it's like at first we get there in your eyeball in your competition that can you know I'm gonna be better than these guys humming it you know I'll do them a show everybody that even though they get on the show and there and then officer because we all love bushcraft and playing in the woods it's where all of a sudden Bosom Buddies everybody was and we end up going it and they put us and they test us a little bit and have us make some traps and different things and and I said you know what I know what they want to see more than anything else once again it's like I think I got it you know I'm watching these other people and they they're filming us at the boot camp and I'm like they want us to see they want camera people they want people to be able to film and they want to be comfortable with the camera so the first thing I did it was I just like played it up for the camera they gave us some rabbits and they said we have a dispatcher rabbits and cook them and so I went over I said today on backwoods Iron Chef I'm making an acorn paste and I'm gonna slow road I'm gonna Pansear it and slow roasted over the fire and meanwhile like everybody else is like burning there's over the fire and I'm like taking up hogging the camera time and and and I did and I cooked it all slow like that everybody still picking rabbit out of their teeth and I opened up mine two hours later and like using a chopsticks and the meats just falling off the bone and they're like other people are like ah ah and shouldn't get the rabbit out and and sure enough like two weeks later a week later and get a phone call and I said how'd you like to go to Patagonia and he said I'm there yeah sure and we packed it in ended up car breaking down the side of the road going to Patagonia and spent 87 days there alone in the woods filming myself I filmed for 12 hours a day and slept for 12 hours a day for the most part and just worked my butt off making myself as comfortable as possible because like I said before my I never studied this stuff to become a survivalist I didn't ever want to be alone I lived in a 12 foot yurt with my wife and two kids you know I never even knew what it was like to be alone and but I studied the things that I learned from the old books so that I could be a homesteader so when I went out there I said I don't care how my calories I'm gonna burn I'm gonna make myself as comfortable as possible so I don't have to be stressed out and I made myself super cozy carved 200 sets of spoons of chopsticks for Christmas presents for everybody 87 days later they came and they said you my wife came she said you did it you won you bout stubborn them all you can go home now and how does it feel to be half a millionaire and it's just like I don't even care I just want to go home I was ready to go home after like 8:30 but I still had fun and and now I'm full-time on YouTube making videos called 87 days the complete reenactment of all I didn't alone but as if I did it in main building things differently and learning things like the bow drill for the first time last week you know I did a bow drill fire with an Amazon bow drill that somebody sent me from Amazon and then I mail it made my own bow drill and and learn that because I and now I've always been like the opposite side there's a whenever you come to stuff like this there's the bush crafters that are like bow drill and over there all the time and stuff like that and hand drills and then there's like people like me I like I like my flint and steel there might well you know I was do fire necklace and stuff like that and so that's what I do with the 80-78 series and Jun slingshots having fun sometimes it turned to MacGyver and unlock cars Mitch sure um let's see

well I've native roots and I grew up watching my parents my grandfather my father this take me fishing every weekend

big time fisherman and for all lying kits just a total different style taught me how to you know use mud for medicine and I mean I was like three years old four years old and when you teach it your son or daughter bad there's just like they're just picking things up okay that's called an apple use mod for medicine and then I got older and I figured out like that's not normal in this dominant culture that's that's not how everyone does things and so that was it was kind of a kind of an interesting situation because after he passed away I like still like needed that all of a sudden those looks like my was almost like and I never will even brought this up to my dad but my dad kind of like my dad was like really to fishing and he like stopped after his dad passed away it was like like that was his thing I think and I didn't figure that out you know and so I think I think my dad was really sad for a lot so we didn't do that anymore and so um I was too young to like absorb that and understand what was going on I was just I was 12 years old and was just running around going crazy and just trying to figure out how to you know look cool I guess you know like every other talk and so I joined the Boy Scouts and if this is what a schock happened I'm watching people use like just like lighter fluid stuff that they supposed to use on like the cold briskets or something to get it go what I like to light fires it's like throwing like matches and liquid fire I'm like what is going on over here right now this is like I just couldn't they just really really bummed me out actually it was like wow I came here for like nourishment and I was shocked that like I didn't get it you know so I wasn't in the Boy Scouts for very long now iíd old books so I got a bunch of Boy Scout books from the 20s 30s 40s the 1950 first edition of the Field Manual actually funny I worked in Moore's can skis talked about his favorite books of all time he pulls out that book I'm like dude I got that book it's like my favorite book and he's like this is my favorite book I'm like really me too you know

the most dance keys like a legend right and so um anyway so I I realized that like at some point the Boy Scouts kind of gone off track you know and but like they were very legit back in the day and so I started having to teach myself and um kind of one step in each world and because of that I I think I'm finding out I don't think like other people when I get to the woods they seem to speed up when things happen it's raining I'm gonna go burn a bunch of calories and try to build stuff I did exact opposite like I slow down and like just look I'll sit down and put on like my wood for like two hours during the rainstorm people going crazy trying to get themselves all set up and it's like all their gears what everything's destroyed everything's still in my bag next to me I'm probably sitting on it taking a nap you know and so apparently somehow along the way I absorbed like a different version of understanding the woods and I didn't mean to it just kind of happened okay so that was kind of my foundation and getting into this stuff and it absolutely is pervasive through everything I do like when I carve boughs I'm chasing green in a different way I think than some others I don't use the rasps and stuff like it just I can imagine shredding grain like it's a beautiful grain I should be like you know working with it right so yeah so that kind of changes everything for me and season one alone wasn't a competition at all I guess it is now unfortunately I apologize I haven't watched any seasons at all because like I just have dreads like you I remember for a loan I dreads down to my waist like big Rastafarian Styles never rust behind a Christian but big treads you know hippie do not have TV do TV it's like corporatism man I don't need that you know what I mean like is you know oh I'll use the antenna maybe you know I try to get PBS watch mr. Rodgers my daughter or something you know and it's just how I was and so I I ended up not watching anything I had to get TV to watch my own show I call the lady up but I'm like yeah History Channel packaged and she's like that's an odd package would you like the apt to HBO do this package blow out I'm like I'm like literally just need you know so she's like well we have a one-year I'm like no no way like ten weeks ten episodes that's it pull it out of my house you know and so she was like whoa okay tell you what cuz I might look I'm on the show like whatever I need to see it she's like okay wow that's really cool okay so she's like I have this like tester package words like you know whatever they call it when they give it to you like for free basically to like see if you like a channel she was like she if she was able to give history as one of the premium channels uneven not whatever I'm like awesome so she like hooked me up for ten weeks and you know so and then I was gone classic you know whatever it's enough you know now they're all my desktop on my Mac now the producer email them to me Dropbox and all that but um so yeah so I'm kind of on a loop I'm a very like out of the loop guy and sometimes people have their telling jokes that's like a common thing of people and I'm like I'm the guy that just like nodding has no idea what anyone's talking about and this is kind of weird sometimes but it's very on purpose varying purpose I try to stay away from trends I try to just do what I do try to just keep my knife sharp I mean does that make sense I'm just gonna keep my knife sharp man you don't mean it's like what's going on - coming up - I'm trying to keep it sharp bigger thing I'll do my I will beat somewhere that's cool you know I can't keep track I just can't keep tracks do you want so I got on the show and so meeting everyone and it was not a competition for sure back then we were just like for some reason it never felt that way ever it was just like nice we're on the show and all that and a lot of guys were like yeah I get to be on TV and other guys were like you know

I'm gonna build a log cabin that was like that kind of thing and whatever everyone kinda had their own spin like we're all characters like apparently I was like uh you know the earthy native type and like Joe was like the city guy bushcraft type you know he had like those city earring things and stuff right you don't I mean right right and a pugs music you know I think that's his coward there you go we all had a character and so and I was like analyzing the characters while we're there I'm like Alan he's like the military guy got it yeah and like I'm having a conversation out loud I'm like who are you like which character are you and they're everyone's role and they just thought it was great and in the hotel you know and so we just had fun or whatever but for me personally it was about connection with the land it was something very special very sacred precious moments I was being allowed to go to the old quad see no reservation with it were they're not even allowed to live anymore they got taken off their only ancestral land and put onto a reservation tilt to this day which we got to go to the reservation and hang out with them for a week and all that stuff and I got like I was given the gift of being able to live in the woods without money just let that sink in just for a second okay because money has become something that controls everything everything and you're not allowed just go in the woods almost period do nothing you can't even go there without like someone showing up and being like did you pay for the privilege to do this who are you why are you here this is private lens whatever you know you're trying to set up a camp here to live here it's like that's squatting you gotta buy this light all you got to rent or do we got a lease so you gotta it's like everything is money all the time all the time it's like if you're hungry you know it's like you got to pay for that food

you can't even like trade for stuff in stores anymore it's just like it's wild look everything's money and so we're actually being allowed to literally go like have attitude like we're gonna drop you off and go live in the woods for free do your own thing you can you have 10 items alley at 9:00 cuz it kind of my baby is in I imagine that like baby whoa as an item like my sleeping bag Sheldon anyways so that's a hose I brought you know conversation but um hey let's go into the woods to just spend for ourselves for free all we had to do for payment instead of giving the money was recorded I get to go connect with ancestral land and I live off to do is film it for you and actually I get benefits out of that like people know me after and you know support my family after Wow okay great I went there and it was like amazing you know just it was just like this incredible landscape but at the same time it's a heavy heavily log landscape it's not all romance kids you know what I mean you go there and it's like clear-cut villain there's a lot of places where I was just like look up and it just everything's gone it's just gone and man did they edit out a lot of rants it was a there's a lot of rats about that you know you know I know you need to make money you know and I get it when you're cutting down trees it's not the answer you know it's freezing up here you know you know how about you get really good at dealing with the ring you're a gutter company we claim here they're giving like business I mean it rains here all day be good at dad you know you know anyway so it was a lot of fun and I really went off on tangents all the time and it was just really really cool to do that but like being able to like live in the land it's just it's mind-blowing man like I was able to carve wood that was like the tree stumps I'm not kidding the tree stumps were the size of this tent some of the trees are still there some of them weren't that's that's the the past that existed the size of the trees were logged so recently that the stuff still existed of the original old-growth the original lake when they showed up and cut down trees the first time the stump is still there like just looked at six like sinking just for a half second to imagine you know I would just like walk up for those things a touch them and be like dude like you here when they showing up up like who Oh the Europeans when they showed up right because the quad see no and the Nuka the Codel people that lived there you know they they were like you know caretakers of the land they totally looked at the landscape in a different way and they were able to like farm it actively where there was more berries every year there are like it's just mind-blowing to really wrap your head around it and so that plate part to us because if I go and you know strip that area of resources I'm not gonna last very long but once I eat all of that it's gone like I found an area with tons of blue mussels but I still ration to make sure that they were gonna be there and I ate 60 mussels a day ate half a fish a day so I still catch a fish on my trout lines every other day fillet it up you know for some reason none of the stuff if it makes the show you know how it is and so um I mean I I I just like eat a ton of food I probably lost maybe 12 pounds in seven weeks because I just was like I was just felt like a shell maniac they're just handfuls every day in fact they gave us a camera bag and supposed to be like actually for that tribe about the same camera rig that rig exactly and every way possible down to the microphones I was there for so long and the rise everything came on so the tripod bag to that Montferrat oh I made a half a sack out of and I used to fill it up three orders you know three quarters of blue mussels in multiple handfuls I used to eat that throw up today every morning's to go out a low tide at the same time every day by the way that shifts we're trying to realize how much and sometimes the low tide can be like 50 yards different than it was yesterday that was a bad day as I said an epic trotline rig that was like in the deepest section of the low tide and I didn't realize that I wasn't gonna see that for two more weeks until the low tide shifted all the way down to that point again so yeah I end up building a coracle to get water because that was my first challenge I didn't have any water it didn't decided not to rain the first four days and that was pretty traumatic I realized how important water was so much so like a half mile away I could hear like trickling and I'm like I'm building a boat to get to that that's the level of like water like I need it and I'm gonna build a boat to get that water cuz it was like if I don't get that today like fact if I can't build a boat in two hours be there in an hour get that boiled within three hours of me starting to cut down saplings if I'm not like boiling water I'm going home tomorrow cuz like I'm gonna be passing out tonight because I'm already dizzy at this point you know and so I'm water like I didn't realize how important water was it became paramount I actually caught that salmon by that point I caught this massive salmon bucket list epic salmon biggest salmon of my life you know and I told my dad about a big fisherman I'm like he's like how big how big I'm like yeah he was like no yeah dad it was that he's both that must have been like 120 something I'm like that it was so much five days no do me five days to eat that thing no it was that good yes baby anyways I caught it I could even edicts I didn't have water it's a smart enough to know that if I eat that and get so dehydrated I'm done so I'd literally cooked it and just put it in my shelter and was just like naive Oh Bilbo yeah smell it dude talk about discipline right yeah man never Dean for days and there's a sandwich hanging out Parnassus no one like smoked wood so a lot of challenges it was an incredible situation I saw tons of bald eagles I mean the most I kicked up was five at a time

there is eating the salmon carcasses and stuff unfortunately I got dropped off after the salmon run was done right before the snow started we missed all of that we missed all of the plenty I read a journal that explained that they that area could collect enough salmon in two days to last all winter for a tribe a whole tribe

that's how prevalent and so that we could production they brought us to one of the rivers where the salmon were running

I'm not kidding the salmon we're touching all the way across it was just like looking at a bathtub of floats or something I you couldn't even see water they're touching it looks like bottleneck we were picking them up like Joel was picking him up I'm picking on like dude really hit a flop and it was crazy yeah bring us out there man but like we all supposed to hear were like dying at that point that's why I'm so easy to pick him up and now with this skin was falling off like ever done you know they they had done their deed and if by the time we went out it was it was gone there Romania there anything everything is there they lay their eggs and now was hit and so we got dropped off in the beginning of a starvation week area and so it means that you have to you know live off of muscles because I read tons of stuff before I went and I knew that and during the starvation period they go to muscles so I I went to muscles sure enough I found muscles and that's what I rely on I really did you everybody right Vancouver Iowa yeah yep northwest coast jumping you were in Vancouver Island I was kind of I wrote my name is Alex rebar from Union Maine it's kinda ironic because that's where Fowler lives now pretty much the same thing so it's kind of strange but uh meaning anyways well I grew up out in the woods on a lake in the state of Maine yeah no running water we had an outhouse you always hear those old stories or the old folks would be like Jesus I had to walk two miles to school in the snow that's no joke I did I'm not kidding we walked Lots not that we were poor they sold the place bought three acres on a beautiful lake and start it over and it was you know it was four or five years after the camp got jacked out the foundation everything got put in buffer I think we I think I was eight when they bought that property so needless to say growing up as a young man my job was cutting at least ten cords of wood we didn't have a wood stove we had a four foot fireplace wide open and it was a camp up on stilts and

lived on a lake grew up fishing started traditional archery at eleven years old Orvis was my first deer between eleven and thirteen and I never say kill I never say hunt it's harvest because that's what we did not really a trophy hunter if you came by my thing up there I've got a couple nice big rocks up there but you can boil horns all day you can't deal so it's cool to get the big ones but that's not what I'm really about going from that it's kind of kind of neat hearing these guys talk powers like I never thought about you know you know I just wanted to learn about being homesteading and in Maine today that's a big thing people still do that so for him he read books for me kind of learned it I have five sisters and a brother and it was you kind of learn what you live is what I'm getting at and homeschooling was part of it and going to school became part of it but for me nature was my playground and you learn what you live you got a fish you got a hunt got a cut wood

and to me it was normal so it was junior high first time I had friend come over might Bend just before then first time he came to spend the night no he didn't live in a place like I did there's wonder time my mother got me up that get that chainsaw cut a hole in the ice legs and buckets up here sponge bats he was horrified horrified um but uh he thought it was cool to them and that's when I realized oh jeez I like everybody else it's kind of ironic cuz none of us are really alike but we are a lot alike and I think you guys noticed that just hearing us talk it's a lot of things that relate to all of us but my thing was I liked being around other kids I liked school I excelled in sports I was a champion wrestler in Maine boxing and that just led to I used to hit my face off people's fists a lot that was good at it so from there I went into the Marine Corps and any uh any jarheads out here

hoorah how about military folks thank you for your service went into the Marine Corps and I want to do the hardest thing but you can't go into Special Forces by you can't join space you can't just say I want to join Special Forces recruiter you have to go in you got to be a grunt you got to do all the stuff and if you pass all the physical things and you're an outstanding candidate you'll get a shot so I'll leave it at that I did very well there I went to the first Gulf War good at what I did and then you have this thing to call bad juju on another country you get wounded Tellis I just earned fit I was 20 so you're like oh yeah you know I want to stay you know I'm gonna make a great career and I bounce back from it they were horrified I passed the whole thing all over again pass it all physical did it all in about a year to the day I got shot so I said that's it came back did construction carpenter's apprentice of 15 just did my thing just got to be you it's all about attitude that's it so I came back rolled on with life I met a great woman built traditional bows and all that I've shot every gun there is in the world at a secondary molasses a gunsmith so growing up without running water and now house would be pretty smart a little guy yeah especially at one time though so I I use that to my advantage but okay I got back I'm a hunter by heart it's kind of my nature and I'd go out harvest animals and sometimes I'd be out there and I wouldn't I just watch them so I enjoyed it and it was soothing for me the girlfriend at the time was like was building the breakwater in Eastman Eastport Maine marine construction residential commercial but marine construction you live in Maine near the ocean

big money yeah dangerous work but big money so what they're building the breakwater come home every two weeks I was a superintendent and the job baby said it all hey but enjoyed it people are people it's cool came on one day she's like you see the shell smells like real check it out I said well you know the one thing about the shows it's still Hollywood it's the most realistic survival show probably you're going but uh to me it wasn't about that I was like well you know hogwash you know survivor alone I said I don't even know what alone is I watched one episode and she's luckily you've got to do that you you film your own bear hunts with long bugging me like 10 feet from a bear and I said mouth not doing it so I go back up to work I'm gone for two weeks come home I thought something was weird she just asked her Lin a couple weeks ago by I get a phone call and it's the production company that's like puts on the show and they said just got this video it's awesome how did you do that I was like what the hell is this and they told him who they were just kind of went from there I kind of figured it out it's like Billy Joe just did something but I was like well what's the deal they said well we want to do season four teams of two to four family members which by this time I really started researching alone and I'm going that's not you know I said well you know well I have a song that's nineteen knows all his animals knows how to build primitive things he's not like that he doesn't want he's more like it's more like when I heard you talking he's just like his mentality not that I don't know if you're a hunter or not but I mean he is all like like you were between stumps from the past and you know he is right into that so I said what do you think you want to try it and he's like no last you that's what he said it's no really my brother who was here today who's 44 he came down to help you out so they said two to four so I got all three of us together and we went out to 100 Acre island on Crawford Lake where I grew up in January roughed it for four or five days to the primitive shelter filmed it all did all the stuff sent it back and next thing I know they said congratulations you're in the finals and I said really they said but one dilemma you got a pet your son of your brother we're going to do two and I didn't really want a pic and part of me did but as a dad I didn't want to do that and I knew I know my son and I know me and I knew going seeing the show he's good at certain things but being exposed if he is by himself for whatever reason I'm probably gonna be in trouble if I don't get to him and that's and that's eventually what happened but uh I told him I you pack and they said no no no nice and I said well I can't I said you said to the boy I just don't know what to do ah granite my brother is a state champion Russell are also outdoors guy and they turned I think they just at that point they're like oh this is gonna be awesome take you and yourself and I okay good so I went with it now meanwhile as a dad trying to it's hard boys it was uh I don't want to hear you call me little man anymore you know so I had I don't mean it that way I was trying he every little thing and it worked great we got there make a long story short they came down and said mm-hmm they took all five teams absolutely back up we went to the finals came back and I went right out it was September that's expanded archery and in Maine expanded archery you have to hunt on the islands around the coast they have a major problem with deer populations and I'm the guy that they call the goes take care of it a lot of people on the island so I got a trailer on 22 acres out on an island take a ferry out there and and that's my bliss I enjoy it so I go out there right when we get back up in a tree with one of the long bows I had up here doing my thing and harvested a nice dough and the phone starts buzzing and this was this was the next Friday after I got back and phone's buzzing

and my Adrenaline's going I said I don't know who this is but I just harvested a deer and I'll have to call you back and it was Heather she's like Alex it's you you you guys are on and I was pretty stoked so every time I talk to I mean we all talked to them sometimes periodically before and after yeah she's like that's the guy that's always in a tree yeah so it's pretty cool and we made it on Vancouver Island and what's ironic it's kind of fast so I say still Holly went to a point imperfectly the example is we were we came two days before drop off they came down and said no shellfish if you notice season four the only thing they had ate with limits that was the only thing in the last it appears no well it went further than that note Rapids nobody built traps no dead falls no nothing now most of the people on season four like Peter and Sam were very good friends as the other father-and-son team they were running around to winning in for season four they were not impressed with that you know we're like what the hell's going on and we still don't really know to this day why they did that at the last minute no shellfish no trappings just like two or three days for drop-off and here's the big traditional Archer with his bow and some other people brought those and the show almost didn't go on at that point there was a few people really upset yeah because they didn't bring bows so I stood up and I got the other team guys together and girls and said hey what do you think yep those I got three days teach at it use them and they the producers probably weren't too happy but they got in the plane the next day and got everybody bows and came back and had a couple days the plane arrows with him and the show went on my son I was the last person dropped on season four it was a top of a mountain of saddle didn't know how far from my son I was and all of us other cast members it's only gonna be two three miles they want drama shots you know well it was ten miles anyone ever shipping they wanted to trip it well they dropped me off from the helicopter my son would be somewhere on a shore of course I'm gonna be the navigator no compass just a fine ass Minh I wanted him to keep the ball because he knows how to use the problem even though he doesn't honey target shoots all no no you're gonna crap travel more distance you might get lucky you know you're probably gonna you know you're the hunter you'll see a bear or something and I'm like all if I do however far away the hoist up the tree then find you go back and get it yeah they talked me into it though because it did make sense in a way we didn't know we're gonna be ten miles apart three miles no problem so they dropped me off it's raining the last one dropped power before dark and hour and a half maybe I get to I get to this precipice and it's like a 300-foot waterfall and you know what Vancouver's like it's just brutal thick you're so lining up you're climbing and I'm like guard I got this pact with no sixty pounds of camera equipment and I just have boxers on rain suit because I'm traveling light that's a Marine Corps thing arms are having your bellies are tight for a reason we used to say not anymore so I hunkered down there's and I could go more into the details but I probably shouldn't look the cast of living the rules that we had but anyways each season was different each season was different sometimes they tell you when to go when to stop because of safety reasons or they didn't have enough personnel if somebody go that's a 300-foot drop there Alex what are you doing yeah I'm gonna scale that thing so fastest way down yeah actually it's objection about safety no no I don't know I'm supposed to be sharing this enough with our our ability to help was so impaired that my yellow-brick didn't have service yeah and the only time I could actually press the button Prince's like a big making sure it's a matter the only way that I could actually ask for help was he was during low tide and I went out which would have been over my head so far out that's the only time I what they told Dad dude you couldn't go over anything over your name what they told us without putting on the life vests they had this festival I'm not giving yet 60 or 70 pounds it's cause of loss daily here you know we're Cardinals over the oceans but anyone on sticks yeah I think so just to wrap it up it was the second second evening second year something like that in my mind if you watch season four if you watch Brooke and David and everybody else some of these people were like to delete Alou oh look at that look at this slug that's so good

look at that mushroom well me you know my son's 19 one of the youngest people ever be on this show in my mind I'm like maybe I'm not two or three miles away so they dropped me off I could see the ocean and it was a long ways away and it's all this crevasses nasty so my mission was to get to that kid before he sees a bear or a cougar because he's not a hunter like that and that was Mike making the shelter making a fire but then I saw the ocean its lives like this is not true this is gonna be days week anyways longer I did not stop and look at mushrooms and only I did I got out of that helicopter and there was a big pile of bear scat yeah bear crap and I was like look at that this is gonna be awesome

I was all psyched in and I was I was very pumped and eager but uh I knew I had to get there so I was ready to boogie and then I get this phone Sat phone we have a stress I've set phones halfway through there goes like date there so they they're like yeah so that you can ask for help let's try this I'm like it's too cloudy or something snow like yeah well it's still better though it progressed steadily out gasps but we had Sat phone yellow for some other tracking apparatus on us and have any well actually that's funny you say that because I'm trying to prepare my son before drop-off and we're at this Lodge and I said listen they're gonna give you 2 pounds of duck fat reserve so when I get to you or you need it you've got it you can make a soup with it whatever just set up the net on the shore somewhere catch fish put out a bunch of lines build a fire and every every day every other hour I want you to throw green boughs on that fire because I see smoke I'm going there you know so that was the plan and told them hang that fat in the tree at night you forgot forgot watch season four it's pouring rains going through the salaah plants tripping falling gets to this spot not far off the shore but he gets to the spot half puts up his tarp gets it up pouring rain and he's in there and he set up they gave us like deer trail kids to put up when you're up at night or where you're staying for the night and here comes this bear they got it on camera the bear comes and you hear my son they they cut a lot out but he's like leave me that whoa whoa in an era where dolls he had was airhorn and mace he depleted those pretty quick there was two 600-pound bears the game warden service after they came and got me the next day he fended him off all night then he was like the duck fat and he digs it out of the pack throws it out there the sun's coming up both bears are bowing on it he's like I'm out of here he books it falls down this thing walk loose is the big camera no calls I'm out this like he would've died if you fell off the cliff but lost this big camera calls him on the satphone they fly out bring him another one they helped get him out of this crevice he's banged up a little bit when he's 19 he's pretty tough and you all right he's like yeah they give him another camera and he's soaked he's demoralized and I like you good he's like yup they get over to the helicopter he's like wait a minute yeah I'm not a marine like that I am done so they come and they get me I had no idea any of this happening with the Bears and they kind of want to get a response out of you sometimes on camera and I was mentally prepared for something if something I was there was no way in hell I was involved out there but Larry you know Larry he was pretty wild guy but things didn't go right no yeah yeah he was angry and tempura guy well they come and they get me and I was like I said what's this a courtesy check i heard the helicopter I go yeah fine but I'm playing it I was playing it and they come and they get me in they're like well how do you feel and you know I'm soaking wet too half naked under this tarp one mm-hmm thinking to myself oh man I hope he's all right and that's what I was really concerned but they're like well we're just gonna take you there I said the hell you are you're gonna tell me if my son's all right then so uh they kind of played that game to get a reaction I flat out told them you're not getting that reaction and I handled it well when they got me there if anybody has seen it I was very cordial to a 19 year old boy that was probably like I just left my dad down ya know and come to find out he thought and I see it he really thought he was the first one to give up and he wasn't first team gave up in three hours three hours three hours they were done it's when he watched the show and I supported him I said hey you don't know it was a great experience you know you should have you should have picked you should have picked uncle Stosh and my brothers staying we call him stop yeah he was he was really hurt you know and I said no it was a great experience someday you're gonna look back at this how many people go get do that with their dad or don't get to do that with their son yeah well it's kind of like every kid's dreams - it is a father proud of him you know short but I was totally positive and you have to be goofy and show weird he called me right up damn I wasn't the first one wait hours they only made it three hours the bonding the bonding began again because he was really yeah overall I think you know life's life's what you make it it's all about attitude and I say it all the time on my youtube channel it's all about attitude it's not it is what it is it is what you make it so I'm a perfect example of that and there's so many more people have had it hard off than any of us I'm sure so you just that's it colleagues Oh from from somebody that was on your group that lasted three hours switch to the other gear now which is exactly 87 days right - during the yeah day ah it's on here somewhere because I kept track of everything on here so on day 27 I excited that just making the marks on the trees wasn't enough I had wanted to bring a journalism of one of my items so like I figured that enough downtime might be able to write a book you know I was up there and they're like no no no you can't bring it there and like no you're the camera is your journal you know that's what I got - yeah so you do it I was like I would treat any one of my items probably for a journal and to be able to write you know and it's like they don't realize you know nobody realizes except for us I think it's like how long a day is you know it's not 24 hours it's like 48 hours long you know I mean they're like twice as long and it's amazing how time is different out there when you don't have any distractions or anything else you could just your thoughts and your time to make and just be creative and just to enjoy you know the outdoors is amazing so I thought well what can I do and it came to me I'll make a wizard staff I called it because I I'm uh as much as I like to read books about making stuff and things i'm a complete nerd when it comes to i listen to audio books i have dyslexia and so the state issued me audiobooks when I was younger and so I listened to sci-fi books and wizard stories and things like that I still do do building boats for years I'd listen like three books a week about like zombie apocalypse books or sci-fi just proper Jordan yes no we all the time you know all the good stuff yeah that's my man three books a week since I was about in well first great when they found my dyslexia and prescribed me audiobooks and Gameboy so so it's like Oh where's your Snapple I make it as well what I'll do is I'll carve six symbols every day and so I started out by what day of the week it was what kind of fish I caught what I achieved that day what my physical state was and my emotional state and I even have little bricks on here for how many times I went to the bathroom feeling really cruddy in my body cleansing all of a sudden it was like seven days before with the bathroom I used up all of that first twelve days - I use of all the moss on all the trees for toilet paper I had to climb the trees to get more of that Spanish moss stuff for toilet paper and great toilet paper though okay so I would carve all these symbols in here and the Boy Scouts love to quiz me out when I go to do the events for them they're like oh yeah and whether I kept my fire going and I ended up keeping my fire going for 1.50 days that put it to sleep and wake it up three or four times a day you know in between meals and things like that put ashes over it dampen it down come back twelve hours later my woke up in the morning

bring it back to life and and they never had to use my Ferro rod for fifty days and I was able to keep tracking that on here and so I can and then there's the one tassel from the Berta got my slingshot my ten items is up here and the fish head is on here because that's what kept me alive you know outside God but uh if that fish head soup three times a day you know every day everything went into the fish head soup pot boil it I did after that first pot of soup and the water that I put into my water bottle was working on my shelter which was one cup of day until then shelter was done over the hill everything I drank was always a fish head soup and I came out of there feeling stronger

ever had I had weight issues going into it that I've been gaining weight since high school and I I couldn't seem to stop it I was allergic to dairy I was allergic to fat if I eat a good steak I feel sick

and when I went out there and they cleansed my body everything changed I came back stronger seventy pounds lighter I lost a year because I 70 pounds less 73 pounds later because that was 223 going in and I had lost it year two I thought I was your older and when I came home they told me I was a year younger so I was like that's cool coming up so she lost two years yeah and so I kept track my whole time there and you know it's like part of my technique was to keep my mind busy so it was you know carving this carving the Twitter says the spoons top six and then I decided to take write in my own book in my head to entertain myself so I would tell the camera some of it and the rest of the time I just that was the time was a little bit quiet because mostly I just talked all the time to the camera to keep myself entertained Eames my Wilson you know who else to talk to about future America my family might you know whoever I was thinking of I wrote a whole book about space wizards each of the conversation of each of the characters and sometimes I break out laughing I had to tell the camera because I was worried they'd come and get the footage of the mess I made see the footage in velocity keep as I editor I'd be writing the book in my head and I had this one scene work um they're gonna cross this ocean in The Wizard and they're like all right I'm gonna stop and pick up the tracker woman and the Wizards like not the witch and he tries to jump over the rail and they're like The Apprentice is like what witch and the dwarves are like it's not a witch it's his ex-wife laughing the camera I had to explain the story and stuff so I kept my mind busy I'd sit there with a camera and they never put any of that on the show of course you know I feel like I'd like who's

tougher spider-man or Superman talking to the camera all the time no we don't get any of the signed that away at the beginning I think later I was like he's a duck hunter 3000 with a paddle wheel that paddled out and get my fishing it had a mark 2 version which had a propeller on it which I had couplings for it and it motorized it was the band's my slingshot and a spring-loaded fishing set that would come out there it caught more fish from me than any of my other fishing lines during the amount of time I was out there cuz it kept blowing back in so for me it was out there for like seven days all together like total time so some overnights in four hours and and they had I had footage of it like they said have you film a lot you'll be on TV a lot so I filmed everything for 12 hours day with sometimes two or three cameras at a time I had a GoPro under the water and had the boat fire up its motor and drive over the camera in the prop wash that came off the propeller was a spiral series of bubbles as it went we're in our area and a motor it out there to catch fish and it was amazing and a bird I got on my slingshot you know after all that work showing up there and there's no food except for fish and grubs you don't prep the rest of them is a much better find is it put up laughing up guys we're getting close to the end of an hour so maybe we can throw it to the audience for any questions service no matter sure yeah jump in so happen being away from society or your family and then coming back into society how has that changed you and how you do things just call her down um well unfortunately my visit to Vancouver was short-lived but I can say in the military I survived longer than you and more weight but that was 20-something years ago and that's a different story but um I think sac said it good about keeping your mind busy and my military experience when I was gone for a long time by myself I actually and you probably did too you notice you're like talking to the tree all sunny and you realized it you know so I was a little blown oh yeah talking to my tools inside I'm like oh man you know so much time to gone by I'm losing Lea so my whole thing was I'm not building one shelter and staying there and doing what I did you had to move around so within a ten or twelve mile radius I had three shelters that it offered maybe better edibles federal hunting area and then I just started stockpiling food every two weeks I'd move move move and I was there over four months and did very well and of course History Channel knows that

maybe something will happen in the future let's say but it's all in your mind you got to stay busy Zack hats off to you because he stayed busy and he was creative and that's in you or - I think that's the whole gig just be true to yourself stay motivated find something to do keep your mind occupied and you'll be okay yeah about staying busy I carved a bowl for my wife none of the stuff made to cut my meter a bowl a carpet spoon while I was out there and I gifted it to local elder who had befriended me before I went out he gave me a gift and those people that's like the greatest honor is like someone can give you a gift and the person who can give the most gifts at the richest person it's a pulley opposite Ben afford stuff they give stuff and so I wanted to make sure I could give him stuff before I left especially from his land right so I made him a spoon and I made him a plank had a Thunderbird on it it's very important to them and I chip carved quad seals sound

thunderbirds Haven on it that's why I care that the production to give to him I couldn't give it to in person because they wouldn't allow me you know it was like in downtime for three or four days before I got to the plane and he was like literally 20 minutes down the road on the reservation just like drove me nuts but like you're not allowing us provision they're washing my clothes for me it's like here lockdown I've talked to a psychologist three hours on the phone what do you want to eat my fish and chips they're like aren't you sick a fish I'm like nope let's take a fish 63 fish in two birds I love fish yeah man I fish there every day I keep it coming no no but so how did it change well I had a really big moment day 30 I realized that I had been living life completely I realized up to that point that I had always been naturally I would think trying to better my situation better myself at all times right and so I was constantly trying to better everything for me that's a problem because it's I'm not bettering things for anybody else and it's actually an incredibly self-centered way to look at life and it was just like so natural it's like when I was a little kid we're almost like where's my ice cream where's my whatever it's just a natural thing you know and so if you let go I can't wait to find you acts like hopefully yourself you know it's like that we don't ask that anymore so sick what's gonna buy for my son see you know it's like instead of buying like that epic acts that you've always wanted but like giving it to your buddy who you know wanted to even though you want a really bad like it's even better then he's just like only my god dude this is so amazing you know like you're so happy I'm so happy yes and so I realized that I was living my life for myself instead of other people and that's crazy it's just like day 30 my whole paradigm shift and I realized that if I had like 20 bucks left in my pocket instead of buying like XYZ 1950 Boy Scout book or something like I normally would on eBay like I'm gonna bring my dad like golfing or to the range or something and we're gonna build like stories and we're gonna laugh and cackle while we hit the ball and he's gonna be fun right I'm gonna be like miss up I'm miss completely and we'll laugh about it you know whatever and so like that like I realized that stuff it's far more important in life then you like being like oh but now I sit at home and read this book alone it's like - what's more important right like spending that time with your father building stories telling stories tackling all that stuff building memories or like having another item on your shelf right and so like I realized that my whole existence was consumed with getting things for myself and so I stopped doing that and day 30 I started making a list because in our medical kit in case we eat something poisonous my own ink at one point but I was only a break one whole piece we're ran out yeah they didn't give us sometimes yeah see they learned their lesson yeah and so my text my text was like negative two font every word yeah cuz I thought I'm gonna go up there for a year I got a you know let's so man I started making lists on like what I wanted to get people you know like what I was gonna do when I got back look it's just all about other people not about myself before it was all about like when I get this money I'm gonna buy this as and this and this and this and I'm gonna get that and then I was just like that list was like throw it away and I was just like things for other people and I realized I didn't have enough money to buy everything I wanted to for other people I'm like I'm gonna pay off my dad's house I'm gonna like he took care of me my whole life man I owe that guy like hundreds of thousands at all what do you have love 200 okay no big deal whatever it was like no hesitation man like ready to do it can't wait to see your face I wonder you know by his like club membership for life you know it's like how many years does he have enough to live whatever add ten years at that tell me how much it is you know I mean here's a check BAM you never pay for your club fee ever again you know surprise and I'm gonna tell you when you go to show up that day to pay for they may be like now do you some took care of that and now I'm gonna get a phone call and I'm just gonna be like oh oh you're happy good we got to hear it little play sometime BAM you know like I don't care what it cost right and so like that was like everything we manage I have the changed my whole life so that's probably my biggest change yeah it's all I made you realize what matters

yeah that's that's all you know unfortunately I feel like I don't know any mom and dad's out there agree with me but I have I have older gentleman than me that really respect what I do out in the wilderness they're like you're some doesn't he's not even interested you know you know unfortunately video games and computers are technology and that's kids future but and that's why I like doing what if it changed my life that short amount of time on Vancouver - you know what I'm gonna refer pursue getting people more interested in getting outside a YouTube channel going for three main guide licenses I'm doing all this it was like the bucket list appeared and I'm like I ain't got time just - I'm gonna get this done well but also bring awareness to everybody yeah you know what get your kids you know they came here did some tomahawk throwing when saw the slingshot went over so are you doing whatever that's good for exposures the the key so keep pumping it to him get him outside sports they don't want sports teach them how to get him on flint and steel make mom a fire boy something man my daughter was throwing the axe off it was bad she was a 20 times oh god I was there all day ahead on tonight you saw mostly I'm tired I guess don't drive for hours yeah yes yes I don't know I don't feel like it changed me all that much you know it maybe showed me more learn more about Who I am I guess maybe my biggest change is I spend an awful lot of time talking to God while I was out there that I hadn't for years I was just kind of you know more focused on getting get done get this done for the family get this you know we live in a yurt I got to work hard I can't give up but you know I got a you know I got to see this to some completion so that there's something I can do you know for my family and I slowed down a bit more and work harder but more in our days of being full-time on YouTube but and and like you know it's like I understand the value of my family more and how much every minute spent with them special and you know than just you know my my time but you know with the Lord is different now and there is a time and I make time for that now as opposed to before I didn't as much yeah I found myself like constantly like walking in look it's the spirit at all times

a constant part but before like I would stop at a certain time to speak to God and talk but I found that I was so gracious of everything at all times that it actually never stopped it just never like I woke up it was like if there's a fish out on my trout line I would just thank God please like physically like be walking and talking all the time it was it never ended is there anybody else that has a question thank you we spent so much time alone walking lambreaux

[Applause]

[Laughter]

okay we're here yeah review like seize the tomahawk already good today one two three you