Ep. 903: Mark Kenyon Q&A - Hunting with Kids, Turkeys, Whitetail Access, Public Land Advocacy, and More

This week on the show I'm tackling listener-submitted questions about topics such as hunting with kids, turkey hunting, whitetail access strategies, urban deer, my new book, my reading habit, public land advocacy, and much more.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your guide to
the Whitetail Woods, presented by first Light, creating proven versatile
hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind. First Light
Go Farther, Stay Longer, and now your host, Mark Kenyon.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Welcome to the wire to Hunt podcast. This week, in
the show, we're doing some listener Q and a yep.
I am answering a whole pile of questions from you,
covering topics such as turkey hunting, introducing kids to the outdoors,
deer hunting tactics, the sale of public lands, fly fishing,

(00:39):
my new book Whitetails in Alaska, and a whole lot more.
All right, welcome back to the Wired to Hunt podcast,
brought to you by First Light and their camera for
Conservation Initial and today it's just you and I and

(01:03):
we're doing one of our Q and A episodes. I
do a couple of these a year, it seems like,
in which I try to tackle some of the many
questions that I get from you guys throughout the year,
whether that's through email or direct messages or comments on
social media. It's hard to get to all those, so
I like doing one of these. Ever once in a

(01:24):
while to talk about different topics, to talk a little
bit about what's going on in my life and with
my hunting and fishing in outdoor pursuits, and to see,
you know, what things you guys are curious to learn
more about. So that's the plan here today. I have
a very wide array of questions from you guys. I've
got everything from questions around turkey hunting tactics and deer

(01:45):
hunting tactics, to you know, ideas and questions around bringing
kids into the outdoors or your spouse how to introduce
new folks to these activities that we love so much.
We're going to talk about my new book. We're going
to talk a little bit more about my latest film
on Meat Eater, about white tails possibly making it to Alaska.

(02:05):
We're going to talk about some questions around threats to
our public lands, the culture of deer hunting, fly fishing,
a little bit and a bunch more, a bunch more
along those lines and everywhere in between. So that's the
game plan today. I don't want to spend too much
time here on the front end, but I will give
you two updates from my world about what I just

(02:28):
did and about what I'm just about to do. I
just finished up my annual turkey camp here in Michigan,
where a handful of my longtime hunting buddies get together.
There's like five or six of us from Michigan, another
couple out in Iowa. Some of the guys that longtime
listeners right might remember from the very early days of

(02:49):
Wired to Hunt back when we were doing are very
rougher on the edges, YouTube episodes and whatnot. But that
crew got back together at my buddies farm here and
so other Michigan and we had two and a half days.
I have a lot of fun, And I think that's
something uniquely special about turkey hunting is that it's so

(03:10):
much fun because of the social aspect of it. You know,
when deer hunting, there's so much that can go wrong.
There's so many different variables that you need to try
to control. If you ever want to get within the
shooting range of a deer, that you just have to
you know, usually do it as a single person pursuit,
maybe one other person, but it's tough to get away
with anything. When turkey hunting. Number one, for some reason

(03:33):
the stakes feel a little bit lower. And then number two,
you just seemingly can get away with a little bit
more at least until the very end, and so lots
of times at least. The way we turkey hunt is
we'll go out as a big group, you know, three people,
four people, five people, sometimes more, just because we're just
there to have a good time and be there for
the story with each other. And so there'll be a

(03:54):
couple different people calling, a couple people might sit way
back and watch, a couple people might be up in
different shit shooting positions, and you know, we're we're moving
around running a gun and exploring new areas, glass and fields,
driving around a different regions, checking this spot, checking this spot.
And then when you find a turkey somewhere, then we
make a game plan, figure out how we're gonna kind

(04:14):
of stalk in on it or make a move or
get ahead of it and try to call it in
and all the while doing this as a group, and
it is an absolute blast. We laugh a ton. We
all camp out together at my buddy's house. He's got
a pole bar in there that we kind of use
as a base of operations, and man, it's great. We
had eight guys this year and six got birds. Another

(04:37):
guy got a shot, I guess one shot, and then
another one that came really close, So we certainly had
opportunities and it was it was another one for the
record books. Just just a terrific time and a great
reminder to me that as much as you know, filling
tags is what we want to do, right, we want
to put meat in the freezer or you know, antler

(05:00):
on the wall or whatever the thing is that you're hunting.
But you know, as we've talked a lot over the years,
if you focus too much on that end outcome, you're
going to miss out on so much in between. And
these turkey camps are a terrific reminder to me of
how important that camaraderie and fellowship is as a part
of the hunting experience. And you know, I'm just so

(05:23):
glad that we got to do this. And then I
get to share this with my kids, and you know,
I get to bring them to a little bit of
this and let them see what the camp atmosphere is
all about. And same thing with up our Northern Michigan
deer camp. That time together with your friends and family,
that's that's where the best stories are made. That's where
those greatest memories come from, so you never want to

(05:44):
get so busy hunting or achieving some hunting goal that
you don't end up having time for your hunting buddies
and your friends and family that are part of those things.
So once again, great reminder of that this past weekend,
and glad I've got some fresh turkey breasts and legs
in the freezer. Two. Now the next thing to do

(06:06):
is try to help my son get one, which I'll
talk about a little bit later as we answer some questions.
But my oldest son ever is turkey hunting for the
first time this year, so very exciting. We've had some
close calls already, a lot of fun already, and hoping
we can get it done. Now that said, that's what
I just did, what I'm about to do just here

(06:27):
in a matter of hours, I'm gonna be heading to
the airport, hopping on an airplane and heading to Washington, DC.
And I'm going there to do a handful of different things,
but all of them revolving around advocating for our public
lands and wildlife and smart conservation measures and practices and priorities.

(06:52):
We've talked quite a bit over the last handful of
months and really over the years, but more recently here
about recent events related to threats to our public lands,
threats to wildlife, threats to a healthy environment. And you
know what I'm doing in a number of different hunters
and anglers this week, we are heading to the nation's

(07:14):
capital to talk with some of our elected officials, to
talk with some of our lawmakers and their offices and staffs,
to make sure people know that we as a hunting
and fishing community really care about these things. That these things,
these animals, these places, these environmental protections, these smart wildlife
management practices, these guardrails are there for a reason because

(07:38):
our wildlife and wild places and public lands support our lifestyle,
our traditions, our families. For some of us, it's our
how we make a living. These activities, pursuits, landscapes, animals,
they support important economic economies. You know, the outdoor recreation
economy is now value that one point I think it's

(08:01):
one point two trillion dollars annually that are driven by
outdoor recreation, which is largely supported by our public LANs.
So I'm heading to go do that, to go hopefully
at least get in the ear and be a bug
in a squeaky wheel to anyone who will listen about
these issues. So we've got a handful of different meetings

(08:23):
with the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. I'm gonna be talking
to folks about many of the things we just discussed.
We're going to talk about some different upcoming legislation that
will help with resiliency, that will help with habitat conservation,
that will you know, look at natural climate solutions, that
will look at different ways to protect our public lands.

(08:44):
We're going to talk about, you know, making sure we
are not in any way supporting the transfer or sale
of public LANs. That's going to be a discussion piece
in some of these meetings. We'll be meeting with a
number of different representatives and senators offices and staffs, and
maybe hopefully some of the actual folks themselves. I'll be

(09:04):
doing some of this with Like I said TRCP, I
think I'll be doing some of this with the backcountry
hunters and anglers. My buddy mister Callahan will be there
with me for some of these things. I'll be doing
some stuff with sportsmen for the Boundary Waters. I believe
there's gonna be a lot going on, So we will
report back after this next three days, hopefully we'll be
doing a podcast with Kale to talk about, you know,

(09:26):
what we experienced, what we saw, what we heard, what
we learned, and hopefully maybe some progress on some of
these fronts. So stay tuned. We will be working hard
to try to make sure that the future of our
public lands and wildlife and wild places and all these opportunities,
hopefully we can keep that future looking good. And I'm
going to do my very damnedest to make sure that's

(09:47):
the case. So that's what I've done, That's what I'm doing.
Now let's get to these questions that you guys sent,
and there's a lot of good ones here. Let's see, Well,
this is a conveniently placed question here Shots by Shops
asks when does the new book come out? If you

(10:10):
were not following me on Instagram, you maybe didn't see this,
but I announced last week that I am working on
a new book. I've got a brand new book that
is going to be kind of in a similar vein
to my first book, That Wild Country, which you can
see on the shelf behind me. That first book was
exploring the past, present, and future of America's public lands.

(10:32):
It's called that wild country, And like I just said,
it explored our public land story, how we got here,
what the threats are now today, and where are we headed?
And I explored that set of information through a series
of my own adventures out there on public lands. So
that was book number one. Book number two, which I
am working on right now, is going to use a

(10:54):
similar format, but it will be exploring the past, present
in future of America's and wildlife. So how did we
get to where we are now with our wildlife and
fish populations here in America? What are the threats right now?
Why is it the fact that many scientists now are
calling this current moment in time the sixth mass extinction.

(11:15):
Why is this time period becoming known as a biodiversity crisis?
What's happening? Why is it happening? And what does it
mean for the future of fish and wildlife and all
the people whose lives revolve around these things. That's what
the new book's about. And the unique thing I'm trying
to bring to this conversation about wildlife is my perspective,

(11:38):
our perspective as hunters and anglers. What can hunters and
anglers bring to this conversation and this issue. What can
the larger environmental movement learn from hunters and anglers and
how we have been conservationists and advocates, and how we
engage with wildlife and fish, and why are kind of deep,
radical engagement with fish and game maybe fosters such a

(12:01):
deep and abiding love and care for these critters. All
of that will be covered in this new book, and
the plan is for that book to be released early
in twenty twenty six. So I'm wrapping up the first
manuscript right now. And I made this mention on Instagram
last week because I did want to give people an
opportunity to submit their questions or kind of areas of

(12:27):
concern or interest. What am I trying to say here?
I want to get thoughts from you, the listeners and followers,
on what topics related to fish and wildlife you want
answers on or would like more insight into. I want
to make sure that your feedback and that your concerns
and that your curiosities are included in this larger story.

(12:49):
So I'm going to send a newsletter out next week.
It will be the end of this week, I guess,
so if you were listening when this podcast drops on
May first, or second, whatever that'll be. Yeah, if you
were listening to this on May first or May second,
I'm going to send out a newsletter with a survey
that's going to ask for your opinions and ideas around

(13:12):
this book and if there's any specific topics that you
would love me to address if possible. So, if you
want to possibly send in some feedback on this book,
you can't do that by signing up for my personal newsletter,
my author's newsletter at Mark Kenyon dot net. That's Mark
Kenyon dot net. You go there, you'll see a box.

(13:34):
Right you scroll dow this a little bit, you'll see
where to enter your email address to join my newsletter.
You'll get all the updates on the book as that
publishing process begins later this year, and it'll give you
that opportunity to share your feedback and maybe your ideas
or questions could be a part of the final version
of this book. So hopefully that's something you're interested in doing.

(13:54):
I certainly appreciate your ideas, your feedback and input. So
that said, ranger Rick Outdoors has a question. He says
would love to hear more on getting kids, how you
get kids to love hunting and fishing or the outdoors
in general. Do you have any tips or tricks for
fostering that passion early in the field and at home.
My first child is doing may and I want to

(14:15):
start the process as early as I can. All right,
So that's super exciting. Congrats that you've got a kid
on the way. It's going to change your life in
many ways and mostly for the better, although there are
some challenges too, but it's incredible. And my biggest piece
of advice when it comes to getting your kids into

(14:36):
the outdoors is literally get them outdoors. That is the
single greatest thing I think my wife and I have
done is that we have gotten our children outdoors early
and often and in many different ways, and we have
not coddled them. We have not you know, we've not
done the thing that I hear many people do, which is, well,

(14:56):
you know, maybe we'll do stuff like when they're ready
for it, when they're eight, or when they're ten, or
when they're six, or whatever it is. Everyone has some
different age for when they think their kid will be
ready for a hunting trip or a fishing trip, or
an outdoor adventure or a camping trip or a backpacking trip,
and Oftentimes they're very conservative about that. They assume that
these kids can't handle an outdoor adventure or being out

(15:17):
in the elements or whatever it is. And what I
have found is that kids are incredibly resilient and they
adapt to whatever circumstances you put them in. If you
give them an opportunity to succeed and have a good experience,
they will work through and adjust and become used to
whatever is you throw them into. So what we have

(15:39):
done is we have taken our kids with us to
do everything we used to do prior to kids. We
do it now with our kids from the moment they
were born. We lived in a camper for five weeks.
I think it was when my first son was four
months old, so for the first, you know, and fifth

(16:01):
month of his life, he camped out every single day
next to the Yellowstone River and our old renovated camper.
When he was a year and a half old, we
did two months camping. Every one of those days, we
were hiking, we were fishing, we were playing in the dirt,
we were playing in the river, all of those things
as a baby, And when he was four months old,
he was strapped to my chest and we were going

(16:22):
on turkey hunts and he was with me. Now, I
wasn't going to shoot a gun next to his ear.
We're going to go on fake turkey hunts. But he
was getting introduced to those things. At four months old,
he was going out there and walking in the woods
with me looking for sheds. When I was scouting in
the summer or working on food plots, he was out
there sitting in the grass. When he was a year
and a half old, he was out there with me

(16:43):
calling turkeys. And he you know, when his brother was born,
when he was two, same thing with him, And we
continued to every year take them out hunting with turkeys,
with deer, taking him out to the river, taking them
out to the lakes, taking him hiking, having him play
in the rocks, having them go camping. Every single year
of their lives. They have been doing this. Now, of course,

(17:04):
you know the specifics of how we do it, or
how long we do it, or how extreme we do
any one of these things. That's adjusted to make sure
it's safe for the kids, to make sure you know,
they still have a positive experience. Uh, to make sure
you know, my expectations are in line with what is
actually possible with the kids. So you know, when whenever

(17:27):
my oldest was five months old, we were still going
hiking in the mountains, but I realized, like, okay, it
might be, you know, a four mile hike when prior
to kids, we've been doing a ten or twelve mile hike.
Now we're going to go on a four mile hike,
and we've got contingency plans so if you know, if
something goes wrong, we can get out of their fast
or the weather really bad, we got to make sure

(17:48):
we've got a way to keep them dry and warm
and et cetera. And then when the kids got older
and they got to that age where I couldn't carry
them around is easily on my back or on my
chest and they were going to walk. Now it actually
slows things down a little bit because now you're going
at their pace and as far as their little legs
can carry them. Same thing with hunting, like everything has
to be adjusted to their pace and their abilities. But

(18:09):
you still do it and you make the best of
whatever it is. And I think because of that, because
I've been doing that from the very beginning with both
of my boys, they have grown up knowing nothing different.
They see and understand the outdoors hunting, fishing, hiking, camping, boating, climbing,
all that kind of stuff. It's just normal life. And

(18:31):
so because of that they have fallen in love with it.
They have developed their own sets of passions around that,
each of the boys kind of gravitating to different things
based on their own interests. But we have given this,
I guess we've provided a canvas for them to paint
their own picture on when whichever ways and whichever you know,
lanes of the outdoor pursuits that they end up enjoying

(18:54):
the most, we give them those opportunities. But it all
started with simply having them out there and not cop them,
not you know, waiting for some future thing. I always
hear people like, oh, yeah, well we'll go out there
and do those trips, you know, when they can do
it right. Well, you know, I understand that, you know,
not everyone has the opportunity to do all these things
all the time, so you got to make choices and

(19:16):
stuff like that. But I would say, to whatever degree
you can get them out and doing this stuff as
early as you possibly can, even if it's little tiny
snippets here and there, because that sets the foundation and
I always you know, I remember early on some people
ask me, you, you know, why are you doing all
this stuff with your kids? Now? They're not going to
remember any of this. You're doing all this really cool stuff,

(19:36):
and they're not going to remember anything because they're one
or two or three, and when they're adults are not
they're not going to have any memory. But I got
to thinking that that might be the case. But you know,
when they're three, they'll remember what they did when they're two,
And when they're four, they will remember what they do
when they are three, and when they're five, they'll remember
what they did when they're four. And this is slowly
building up a foundation that builds year after year after year,

(20:00):
leading them to being kids that remember a whole lot
of great things, that have developed a love for a
whole bunch of great outdoor pursuits and a set of abilities,
and a level of confidence and comfort with not just
outdoor pursuits in the natural world and all these great
things we like to do. Not only a level of

(20:20):
confidence that they can handle all those things, but then
also a comfort level with being uncomfortable, which is something
we've talked about in the past that I think is
so important. One of the greatest things that hunting and
fishing and the outdoors can help us understand and get
better it is simply dealing with discomfort and challenges and adversity,
And so I think they've benefited from that as well,

(20:44):
because sometimes stuff does go wrong when you're out there
on a hunting trip or a camping trip or a
float trip, and I would, you know, I think it's
a great place for kids to learn those lessons now,
rather than being coddled and babied until they're teenagers and
then they go through some kind of crazy adversity in
the adult world in school or whatever, and they've never

(21:05):
learned how to deal with shitty situations. Well, they're going
to deal with some tough situations early on in the
outdoors in the setting that I think is very beneficial
for personal growth and a lot of fun and shared
family experiences. And I think it's going to make them
into capable, confident, outdoor loving young men. So that's what

(21:27):
I've been doing. Colin asks more specifically about tips for
taking kids turkey hunting. He wants to get his girls
out and make sure they see some birds or hear gobbling,

(21:47):
but they have a hard time waking up for school,
so I'm not sure if the morning is the best
time for them. So, as I just mentioned, I've been
trying to take my kids turkey hunting since the day
they were born. And what I've done a lot is
pretend turkey hunts. So either before turkey season opens or
even during turkey season, I'll just go out whenever I
can with them without a firearm. Obviously, if it's not

(22:11):
the season, I'll just go out to try to call birds.
And you do this whenever it's convenient for your schedule.
So if there's a nice spring day and it seems
like good conditions, or you've got time off work or
free time in the afternoon, or the kids don't have
school and you can go out and do it. Just
go out there with your calls and see if you
can find turkeys, call turkeys, go through that whole experience

(22:32):
of getting birds gobbling, coming in all that excitement. That
is so much fun in and of itself. So that
is what has been what I've done since day one.
We've gone out for a lot of fake turkey hunts together,
me and the boys, even with my wife, and that's
been a blast. We've called birds in the kids got excited.
They'll have their pretend gun and pretend to take a shot.

(22:52):
And you know, doing that when it's convenient, when it
works for schedules and not letting, you know, a short
turkey season time for or a kid's school schedule or
anything get in the way. That's been nice now for
actual turkey hunting itself. We have done some hunts before
before school. You know, it gets daylight really early compared

(23:13):
to when school starts now in the spring, So there
have been some times I've taken my son out with
me before school. We actually killed a bird together last
year before he had to go to school. You just
have got to do it again. You know, you're going
into it with knowing you have a very short time
for him, like this is a thirty minute hunt, or
this is a forty five minute hunt, and we'll get
the most out of it. We can have fun and
then get him to school. I don't think afternoon hunts

(23:37):
are impossible, though, if it's legal in your state. I've
had a lot of good luck in the afternoons. But
we oftentimes look at it more as like a nature walk.
We'll go on a walk we'll kind of I'll call
it walk and squawk. You'll walk around, do some calls,
walk around, do some calls, walk around, do some calls,
and glass as you're going along. And it's fun just
to be out there exploring nature with your kids. Sometimes

(24:00):
to get lucky and you'll strike one up and then
all of a sudden you've got this fun, exciting hunt
that takes place. But worst case scenario, even if you
don't get one to show up, or you don't get
anything gobbling, you still are out there doing something fun.
So I think that's a great way to keep your
kids interested, and you know, get out there more often
for these evening hunts after school. Lower risk, but there's

(24:24):
some upside and we've certainly enjoyed that. We just went
out last week, me and the boys, and this exact
scenario is what happened. We went out, we were going
to go for a walk, and if it happened to
come together, it happened to come together. Like I mentioned,
my youngest son now is is with a license and hunting.
So we went out, we struck up a bird. We

(24:45):
actually came over hill, saw some birds down to kind
of a low spot in a cut cornfield, snuck back,
made an ender out on them, set up closer to
them in the timber, did some calling, got them to
gobble back. But then I looked behind me and in
a field there was a separate gobbler like racing, and
he ended up running right in on a on a
line right to us. Got both the boys on either

(25:08):
side of me on the tree. My youngest is five,
my oldest is seven. Everyone's very excited. We're talking through
the scenarios and what to do and how we're going
to do this, and that turkey got to about fifty
yards and then kind of got like a little bit
wigged out. Maybe he just couldn't see the hen he
was looking for, or maybe one of the boys moved
a little bit, but he didn't really spook spook, but
he just circled us at fifty yards and went around

(25:30):
us and just would never come any closer. And you know,
for my son, it's it's gonna have to be a
really close, really great shot for his first bird. So
super fun experience, though, And you know that that way
we've gone about it has seemed to work very well
because both the boys are really excited about it and
continue to want to get out there and you just
enjoy the spring woods and have some turkey fun hopefully

(25:51):
along the way too. Let's see Tipper Outdoors asks if
there's a tark buck in the air, should I still
do prep for the season, like using a chainsaw and
stuff like that, And I would say absolutely, especially if
you're talking about doing that right now in April or
May or June. Really for a lot of months now,

(26:14):
any activity you do in the woods should not negatively
impact you come hunting season. I am not afraid to
do food plot work, chainsaw work, tree stand where, trail
camera work, anything like that up until about a month
before my hunts start. Now, I will say that if
you're trying to get you know, summer inventory, excuse me,

(26:36):
if you're trying to get inventory on your trail cameras,
a bunch of activity in the farm will definitely not
help you when it comes to those summer pictures. So
if you are, you know, really wanting to get that
kind of data now, you might want to do less
of that prep work once your trail cameras are out.
Once I put my summer cameras out, I largely try
to keep my prep activities to chunks of time. So

(26:59):
instead of like doing something every day of every weekend,
I would rather like spend three days all day, get
a bunch done, and then leave the farm alone for
as much as I possibly can. So I kind of
do this like batch work, where you get a bunch
done in a short period of time instead of a
little bit on a bunch of different days. That said,
for me, I like to make sure that from the

(27:22):
end of August until opening Day in Michigan, which is
October first, that I leave any properties that can hunt
as alone as I possibly can. So I try to
have everything done by August thirtieth, so that for a
full month they can be untouched, and then when I
start hunting, I can be you know, hunting a pretty
comfortably deer, a pretty comfortable deer population. And then I

(27:43):
keep my hunting and access very low impact, very minimal
from there on out for the rest of the hunting season.
But the rest of the year, I'm out on these
properties a lot, scouting, doing work, walking around with the kids,
turkey hunting, having a good time. I think you're going
to be fine in that case. Even if there's a
specific target buck, you know, they get pretty used to

(28:04):
some level of human activity, and they might not move
in the daylight hours as much, but give them that
safety come hunting season and they'll start doing it. Uh.
Carson Decker asks for ideas about how to create good
access to a stand that does not have good access currently. Well,

(28:25):
there can be many different scenarios and many different kind
of examples of what this bad access could look like.
So you know, I can't give you a incredibly helpful
answer without knowing exactly what your specific situation is. But
that said, a few high level ideas. Number One, there
might just be some spots that are going to be

(28:46):
tough to access no matter what, and nothing you do
can change that. And in those kinds of spots, it
comes down to hunting decisions. So how often will you
hunt that spot and when will you hunt that spot?
If it is a hard to access place, you just
got to know that if you're gonna hunt it, you're
going to make an impact. So every single time you

(29:07):
go in there, it's gonna make things worse for the
next time around. So first off, you need to take
those swings at the right times. So make sure you
know that, Okay, the day I'm going to go in
there has got to be one of those absolute highest
odds for that location. So maybe this specific location is
only good at a certain time of year. If that's

(29:28):
the case, make sure that at that certain time of
the year that's when you take your swings. Maybe it's
just a great rut spot, or maybe it's a great
spot all times of the year, but there'll be a
certain time of the year where it's the very very best.
Save it for that very best moment. And then, secondly,
know that you can't hunt over and over and over
and over again. So realize that, Okay, I'm gonna save

(29:49):
this for the best time, and then I recognize that
I might only have a couple shots, and then it's
probably gonna burn out. And so hunt it with an
understanding that you better hunt it just right that first
or second time. You better not only get the timing right,
but you better do everything right. Make sure that you
know when you go in there, do it the best
possible way you can, even if it's not perfect. Stay

(30:11):
all day, if you can stay as long as you
possibly can, do you know, cross every teed dot, every eye.
Make sure that you have used this high risk, high
reward moment appropriately. Get the best possible outcome out of
that high risk that you possibly can. Now. That said,

(30:31):
there might be other ways to improve that access. Maybe
it's just cutting in a trail by you know, clearing
brush and tree limbs, or raking out a pathway so
you can be at least a little quieter when you
get in there. Maybe there's open fields that you need
to traverse to get to this spot. If you own
this land or manage this land and are allowed to
do you know, land improvements, you could plant a screen

(30:53):
that might visually block you, like trees or switch grass
or or some kind of tall vegetation that will block
visibility so you can come in and out of a
spot without critter seeing you. You can make screens by
hinge cutting trees down and laying treetops into a wall
to block your site. You can use creeks, streams, lakes,

(31:15):
anything like that, ponds for access anytime, you can use
water to access, or being down low beneath the siteline
of most other wildlife that can make for great access
and exits. All of those things could help. I also
will use vehicles if possible, so if I know there's
a location that is hard to get into, or out

(31:36):
of if I can, I will always use a bike
or an e bike or you know, if you can't
get in there yourself or sorry, if you have someone
who can get in there with you to help with
a UTV or a truck to pick you up or
drop you off, that's then another great option. So anytime
I know I've got a high impact location that I

(31:58):
can get into by myself without messing things up, if
I've got a friend or family member nearby, I will
plead and beg and barter with them to try to
get a pick up or drop off, Because a wheeled
vehicle pushing you in there and spooking off the deer
is a lot better than you on foot walking in
there and spooking off the deer. So keep all those

(32:18):
ideas in mind. Access and exit can really educate a
deer herd and quickly change you know, what kind of
activity you see. So this is an important conversation to
be having. Let's see Nick Marking asked if I have
plans to do another ultra some more trail running, and

(32:41):
the answer is yes, I do. And I say that
because another answer to another question, M Buckley asked me,
has running made you a better deer hunter. And if so,
how and why so The answer is yes to that
as well, and that's why I plan to continue some
of these trail marathons and hopefully some bigger, real ultras

(33:02):
in the future. And I think that this has benefited
me for a number of different reasons. One thing, I
think running and training for races helps you build discipline,
and it forces you to become regimented with, you know,
doing hard things even when you don't want to do them,

(33:22):
and that's important for hunting, that's important for success on
a lot of different fields. And you know, by doing races,
it forces me to stick to my plan, It forces
me to stick to my goals, It forces me to
be accountable. When I didn't have the races and I
was just saying, well, I want to run every week
a handful of times to stay healthy, it was just

(33:43):
too easy to say, well, I'm too busy today, or
I've got this other thing going on, or the excuses
were very easy to come by. But when you know
that you've got a twenty mile race, or a thirteen
mile race or something like that, or thirty five mile race,
if that is coming down the line, then you know
that it's on the schedule for a month from now
or six months from now, and you know that you

(34:03):
were going to get your tail absolutely kicked if you
are not physically ready for it. That keeps you honest,
That keeps you sticking to your plan and your training regimen.
And so I just realized that I need that stick
in the future. I need to have that little extra
something to keep me at it. And so by doing that,
by signing up for these races, it keeps me running,

(34:26):
It keeps me training, and those things a build discipline,
like I said, which is one of those kind of
mental muscles that is so important as a deer hunter.
And then it also keeps me physically fit, which again
also very important as a deer hunter, especially a deer
hunter like many of us are, who you know, try
to be pretty mobile. We're hiking in deep into public

(34:47):
land or you know, doing the long way, or into
our hunting spots. Even on private land, we're climbing up
and down trees. You want to be comfortable doing that.
You want to be not huffing and puffing and sweating
to death and dying out there. You want to be
able to do it with a level of ease and comfort,
so that you can be focused mentally on the stuff
that you know you should be doing in the moment,

(35:07):
which is making decisions about how to hunt or where
to hunt, or how to adjust to whatever you're seeing.
If you're out there miserable because you can't physically handle it,
you're just not going to be able to be as
effective as you possibly could. So the running has been
something that has kept me honest, has kept me disciplined,
has made me more physically fit, and it's fun for me.

(35:29):
I'm honestly not a gym guy. I don't like being
in the gym. I like being outside, and running has
been that thing for me personally that has been that
sweet spot of good for you physically, good for you mentally,
and then also something that you just enjoy doing, and
if you enjoy doing it, you're more likely to stick
to it as well. So trail running specifically, I've really

(35:50):
come to like because I like being, you know, outside
in a beautiful place away from people and cars and
noise and road running. You know, you've got the noise
and the roads and all that kind of stuff. It's
just not as nice of an experience. So when you
add in the trails and the hills and just a
natural landscape to look at, and the fact that you
have to focus on every step, you're just you're very
engaged surrounded by nature, and that's been a win win

(36:14):
for me. So I've definitely, I've definitely enjoyed that all
that stuff. Let's see what's next here. Someone asked, let
me find this question. I want to make sure to
cover this one. If I had any updates on the
target bucks in my region? Where is that? Well? Oh yeah, okay,

(36:40):
So s Church asked if I had any updates for
the target bucks on my main farms in Michigan, and
I sort of do. If you guys were following me.
Last fall, I had a doozy of a hunting season.
I had two main target bucks that I was after,
and one of them disappeared at the beginning of September.

(37:00):
He had been a buck I'd been fouling for three years.
We called, oh my gosh, what was that buck? Wow,
I'm having like a total brain fart right now that
I've blacked out on my bucks. Anyways, target buck number
one was a five year old and he disappeared in

(37:21):
early September and very disappointed. He was my most mature buck.
I'd found his Bulldozer, thank you, finally can't it. His
name was Bulldozer, and my son and I found his
match Chet Antler's earlier in the year, so I was
really excited to get after him. Was seeing him in
the summer when I was out scouting, YadA, YadA, YadA.

(37:43):
He disappears first week of September. I don't see him
again until late October, and then I start getting a
few pictures of him, and I got a handful of
pictures of him in like the last couple of weeks,
last couple of days of October, and the first couple
days of November, and then he disappeared again and I've
not seen of him. I've not heard of him. I've
not found a shed or gotten a picture of him once.

(38:04):
So that was the number one buck pretty much Mia completely.
The second buck I was after. He was another great deer,
a year younger I believed in before last year, but
he grew had a huge year of growth last summer
blew up. My youngest son named him Bear Deer, and

(38:26):
I saw him all summer with pictures scouting, and he
was very daily active. It was looking great, and then
October third, I think it was, he disappeared. Didn't get pictures,
didn't get sightings, didn't get word of him, nothing all
the rest of the season. And that, unfortunately, I do

(38:46):
have some closure on because I got word from another
neighbor that someone on the other side of our square
mile killed a deer that was pushing one sixty, had
to split off of a G two, you know, basically
everything that this deer was. He described it and killed
them the first week of October, which is exactly when
this year disappeared off my map. So yeah, my two

(39:07):
target bucks last year both disappeared. I have not had
a single other shooter buck on camera the rest of
the year. I didn't have a single mature buck on
camera or sighted from the first week of November last
year all the way until now. So just it was
a brutal year, brutal hunting. I don't know what happened.

(39:29):
I don't know, I don't know. I've got a lot
of questions still, So coming into this year, it's one
of my more bizarre hunting seasons, at least on these
local spots, in that I don't have any dear that
I've got history with I don't know what's out there.
I don't know what's possible. I don't know what's going
to happen. So in some ways that's very disappointing. In
other ways, I guess there's a little bit of I

(39:51):
guess intrigue there because anything's possible. There's no expectations, so
there's also no stress or worry about trying to, you know,
finish story on a specific buck. It's just going to
be a new year and we'll see what happens. So
five will be different. Got some fishing questions in here.

(40:13):
Caleb asks if I fly fish in Michigan or the
Midwest at all, or if I keep my fly fishing
adventures just to Western states. And the answer is that
most of my fly fishing is in the Western States.
You know, we spend our summers at our cabinet Idaho,
and so we're right there on the Idaho Wyoming Montana
kind of border region where they all come together, and

(40:33):
so that means I'm doing a ton of fly fishing
out there all summer. But when I am home, I
try to get some in I live in a part
of Michigan that doesn't have trout fishing opportunities. I've got
to drive, you know, three four hours to get up
north to where we can do that. So I just
don't have the time to do that as much, but
I try to when I can. A time or two
a year we do that. I've been fly fishing for

(40:55):
bluegill and bass down here on the ponds and lakes
around here with the kids. One to do more and
more of that kind of fishing. We're doing some of that.
I've small mouth fished a few times out here on
the rivers. That's a lot of fun. And then, you know,
as some folks are price and as social every year,
trying to do some saltwater fishing down in the southeast
as well around Florida, and that's been a ton of fun.

(41:19):
Don't think I talked about on the podcast yet, but
caught my first tarpain on a fly, my first really
big tarpa it on a fly too, a couple of
weeks ago, which was unbelievable. So yes, love love my
fly fishing wherever I can do it. It's really the
kind of yin to my hunting yang, and I do
feel like it's really oh, I don't know, helped build

(41:44):
a lot of things for me as a deer hunter
through fishing, which I guess this is a perfect segue
to another question. Andrew asked what skills or traits have
you gained from other activities unrelated to deer hunting that
you believe have made you a more successful hunter? And
I think fly fishing is one of those things. I
think fly fishing in general, but fly fishing in particular,

(42:04):
forces you to solve a puzzle every time you head
to the water. Every time you go out, you are
having to assess the situation, kind of read the water,
read the weather, read the terrain, think about the time
of the year, think about what's happening right now with
are there any bugs hatching or what are the atmosphere conditions,

(42:26):
what are the weather conditions, what are the water conditions?
What might all that mean for where fish would be
living right now? What does that mean for where fishing
might where fish might be feeding right now, what does
that mean for when the fish will be feeding? And
then you start testing things. So given all of that
stuff I just mentioned, I'm going to try this fly,
or I'm going to trade this depth, or I'm going
to try these spots, and then you're testing and then assessing, Okay,

(42:48):
how do they react to that? What was the feedback
I got? Now I'm going to change up again, and
I'm gonna test this new theory, and then I'm gonna
test this new theory. And so you're just solving this
puzzle every single time you go out there. And that
is I think exactly what you need to do as
a deer hunter. You are, you know, on any given
day or any given week, when you're gonna go hunting,
you have to assess the situation, assess what does this

(43:11):
wind direction or these weather conditions or this time of
the year or this you know, trail camera data or
observation data. What does this tell me about what the
deer are doing now and where they're going to do
it and when they're gonna do it and how they're
going to do it. And then you've got to go test.
I'm going to try this spot because I think A, B,
and C, and then you're gonna hunt there and then
you're cee, what do I learn? And then adjust and
then test and then adjust and then test. So those

(43:33):
two things. The more you do anything like that, and
the better you get at making decisions around those things
about how to run those tests, about how to try
these new things and learn from wildlife and understand how
animals use habitat it all kind of works those same muscles.
I think that another activity that's helped me with both

(43:53):
of those pursuits was chess. As a kid, my grandpa
will my grandpa, taught me to play chess, and then
my dad and grandpa would both play chess with me.
I remember from an early age I would be sitting
down there and thinking about the next move and if
I make this move, what will my grandpa do? How
will he react to that move? And if he does that,

(44:13):
then what would I do to take advantage of that?
And I think chess has helped me build the ability
to think forward, to anticipate reactions, to anticipate future outcomes,
and then learn how to adjust from those two. So again,
it's the same thing with fly fishing and hunting. You're
trying to analyze a situation. You're trying to predict what

(44:36):
might happen, and then thinking about what decisions you can
make in reaction to those, or what decisions you can
make then maybe forces an outcome that you want. Chess
helps with that. Fly fishing helps with that. Another thing
that's helped me we already talked about running. The running thing,
as I discussed, you know, in detail earlier, has helped

(44:56):
me build discipline. It's helped me build my fitness and
just ability to kind of be mentally tough and physically
tougher in situations that I might otherwise. I think finally,
one other activity which we talked about at the top,
that's been very important to my deer hunting is parenting.
And I think parenting has really built for me the
ability to maintain perspective. Earlier, in my hardcore deer hunting years,

(45:22):
when I didn't have kids, you know, it seemed like
deer hunting was the most important thing in my world.
It was I was obsessed. It was so important whether
or not I killed a deer. It felt like life
or death in the moment. If I missed a buck,
it was like the end of the world. If I
wasn't seeing the deer I wanted to see, it was
the end of the world. If a hunt wasn't going well,
it was the end of the world. And once I
had kids, you very quickly learn that there's something you know,

(45:47):
you feel this it's not you learn it. You just
all of a sudden, your flip gets switched, and all
of a sudden, there's something much, much, much more important
in your life. It's these it's these children. It's just
this other life. And so now if something goes wrong
in my hunting, or if my season is not going
well or trip's not going well, it's a lot easier
for me to be like, Okay, it is what it is.

(46:07):
At least, you know, I've got my kids. At least
my kids are healthy, at least my family life is good,
and I have these incredible things in my life. And
you're just able to appreciate this other part of your
world that's so much more important than the grand scheme
of things. And so it puts deer hunting in its
appropriate place. It gives you a level of perspective. I
think it really helps you reorient your priorities, and at

(46:31):
least for me, has helped me remember that deer hunting
is just supposed to be a fun thing. It's a pastime.
It's a way to get out there and engage with
nature and have fun and hopefully feeds your family and
put meat in the freezer. But certainly should not be
something that you're getting all worked up about and stressed
out about or worried about as some ego thing. I

(46:51):
think deer hunting is getting way too much like that,
and I certainly was a part of that for a
lot of years, and I've actively been wanting to kind
of shift, you know, what my relationship with deer hunting
is and how I talk about deer hunting and how
we discuss it even here on Wired to Hunt, because
I think for too many people now it's becoming this

(47:15):
dragon slaying mission that you know, we have to do
no matter what the cost is, and we have to
show the rest of the world that we're the best
deer hunter in the world and that I killed my
big buck. And there's a lot of ego in that.
There's a lot of weird stuff in that that not
only do I think is not healthy for us as
a hunting culture, but I don't think it's healthy for
us as hunting individuals. And so that's that's where I

(47:39):
think parenting has really changed.

Speaker 1 (47:42):
Things for me.

Speaker 2 (47:53):
Scott asks, do you think that human scent and wind
matters slightly less in urban deer hunting situations? And I
would say, yeah, I think it does matter a little
bit less. You know, I've hunted in some relatively suburban
or urban situations, both in kind of where I grew
up in Michigan and then definitely in Washington, d C.

(48:15):
On a hunt I did there a few years ago. Deer,
no matter where they are, they adapt to what the
normal is. They adapt to their surroundings. They can very
quickly kind of establish a baseline of what should be happening,
what usually happens here, and then they can exist within
that framework. If the normal is people all over the place,

(48:35):
they can get used to living around people all over
the place. They can get used to someone being fifty
yards away taking their trash out, if that's the thing
they get used to. They can get used to smelling
people if there's always people, and so in these suburban
or urban places, you know, you can use that to
your advantage. If there's a location where deer are used
to being downwind of a house or people playing the

(48:57):
yard or whatever, you can hunt there and they will
probably think that you are just like the other people
that are there now. Of course, if you set up
in a place that they're not used to their being
human sent they probably like we'll be able to tell
that too, So you can probably get away with a
little more if you're smart about it. But don't expect
to be invincible, because just as deer in urban situations

(49:21):
can very quickly become used to what's normal, they also
have a very fine ability to determine what's not normal
and still react to that. So keep that in mind.
Joshua Billings asks, I want to hear more about how
you started your book reading habit. Has it ever been
hard to afford the books? Are there sites you use
to find new books? How do you pick what books

(49:42):
to read? Fun question. I love talking about books in
my reading habit on Instagram. I share my books I
read every month on newsletter I mentioned earlier at Mark
Kenyan dot net. I try to share some of my
reading recommendations on there as well. And for me it
started an early age. My fa family was just a
family of readers. Every Friday night we would go to

(50:04):
Outback Steakhouse and Barnes and Noble. That was our big
family outing every Friday. And so I just grew up
learning to love reading and love learning about new things.
And so that's how it started for me. I just
enjoyed diving into topics, whether it be fiction or something
new I could learn, and learning about it through the

(50:24):
written word. I continued that ever since, I think a
big part of my reading habit has been that I
have allowed myself to chase any curiosity. So if I'm
interested in something, I give my self permission to grab
that book and give it a try. And you know,
also give myself permission to not need to finish a book.
If you read something and you're like, yeah, this isn't

(50:45):
for me, I don't feel obligated anymore to finish a
book if it's a you know, if it's a slog,
that's not bringing me value or joy or entertainment or
new information. So you know, when it comes to you know,
staying excited about reading and doing it consistently, that helps
a lot. I also read every single night. That's the

(51:08):
way I go to sleep every night. I've got a
book by my bed. I read that with a headlamp.
I use a red headlamp at night, so that it's
you know, it's a little weird maybe, but with the
red light, it you know, does not I'm blinking right now,
having a brain fart on the oh the chemical that

(51:29):
does this. But white light or blue light will keep
you awake longer. Red light does not do that, and
so I'm able to slowly get tired and fall asleep,
but I can read up until that point with my
red light headlamp. I also don't watch a lot of TV.
Usually if I have a little bit of free time,

(51:50):
it's reading. I just have found that I believe that
reading books is more valuable use of my time than
watching some show or scrolling Instagram or whatever. I would
just rather learn about something new, or even if it's
just a book for entertainment. I think that the reading
process is like a higher nutrition, like a higher nutrient

(52:11):
punch for your book, buck bang for your book if
you're going to read it, versus kind of passively consume
it on TV. So personally, that's why I do it,
that's how I've continued to do it. I've given myself
permission to buy a book anytime I'm interested, knowing full
well that that's going to cost some money and that's
an investment. But I do really believe that, you know,
a book is one of the very best investments you

(52:33):
can make, especially if it's a book that you're learning
something new, whether it's through fiction and you're just kind
of learning about human the human experience, or if it's
a book where you're learning about, you know, some nonfiction topic.
You know, learning and expanding your mind and growing is
you know, that is a time investment that will pay

(52:53):
back dividends exponentially over time. There's nothing I think that's
more important for your growth as hunter or an angler's
a husband or wife, or mother or father, anything of that.
There's nothing more important than growing and learning and continuing
to never stop that personal growth. And books are about
as good of a way to do that as you

(53:13):
can possibly find. You have to deeply engage with the material.
You engage with it for a long time, you get
a comprehensive understanding, You get context. You know, we live
in this world today with social media and TikTok and
all this crap that is so short and sensationalist, and
it has no context and has no background, and it's
not comprehensive. And people are getting their understanding of the

(53:36):
world from thirty second or three minute snippets. There's very
little you can actually learn in thirty seconds or one
minute or a minute and a half and today's very complicated, controversial,
polarized world. We need more nuance, we need more context,
we need more comprehensive understanding, and books are one of
the very best ways to do that. So I would

(53:58):
rather sacrifice by in I don't know, a new TV
or going out to dinner. I'd rather not do that
and instead invest my dollars in books than vice versa.
How do I pick the books I read? You know,
I just follow whatever I'm curious about. I like to
go to bookstores and just prouse the shelves. I go
on Amazon, and I will like find a book that

(54:18):
I want to read, and then I will look at
the suggested books for people that also bought, you know,
for people that bought this book, they also bought this,
this or this. I try to buy most of my
books not through Amazon. I prefer to support like an
actual bookstore, like an indie bookstore, which you can do
through bookshop dot org or even Barnes and Noble. I'd
rather buy from them, just because I like physical bookstores

(54:42):
and I want to make sure they're still around. So
I personally do that. But I do keep a book
list on Amazon because that's just an easy place to
keep your list, and so every time I see a
book that I'm interested in, I just add it to
that list. And then I can keep this long running list
of things I'm intrigued by, and then you know, when
the time's a writer and I'm at an actual bookstore,
I can look at that list again and be like, oh, yeah,

(55:03):
I remember there's this book about such and such. Let's
see if this store has it. And that's how I
go about those things. Alaska, Lund asked in twenty years
will Alaska have white tails? With c WD? So this
is a question related to my film that came out
a couple of weeks ago on the mediat Or YouTube
channel in which I and we just did a full

(55:25):
episode on this last week, So hopefully you heard that
one with Colin and Bjorn. But this is a great question.
It's one of the big concerns that folks have about
this trend of white tails and mule deer showing up
to a state that has not historically had them, and
the questions will they bring their diseases with them? And
I think, unfortunately, it's very likely that twenty years from

(55:48):
now there will be white tails in Alaska, and there's
a very real chance that CWD could be there, because
right now, white tails are right on the doorstep of Alaska.
They're probably already in the state. As Roy Churchwell was
telling me in that film, you know, there's been sightings,
people have said they've seen them there in this area,

(56:08):
but they don't have one confirmed photographic evidence yet. But
they do have confirmed evidence of white tails like just
over the border right there, So it's probably happening. They've
been moving farther and farther north over the last handful
of years and decades. So this is a trend that's
been happening. It's been confirmed, it's likely to continue as

(56:28):
the climate becomes more mild up they're in, winters are
less severe. White tails can survive in these conditions more
and more. And there is also CWD right next door
in British Columbia and Alberta, And it's not that far away.
Excuse me. The CWD is in Alberta and about on

(56:49):
the same north south level though as southeast Alaska. So
as white tails continue moving across British Columbia up through
some of these river weys into south east Alaska, it
seems like it's only a matter of time before one
of these deer with CWD and Alberta ends up making
that trip or that not an actual individual deer doing that,

(57:10):
but the disease slowly spreading from deer to deer to
deer over the years until finally something does end up there.
I hope that's not the case. I'm not saying it
absolutely will happen, but twenty thirty years from now, would
it shock me if it had. It would not shock me.
Given how we've seen it spread across the lower forty eight,
Given how far it's traveled just in the last twenty

(57:31):
years down here, it certainly seems possible that could could
continue up north. I hate to say it, but I
don't think it's outside of the realm of possibility. A
couple other questions about the film. G v and Miller
asked about how the reception has been to the discussion
in that episode about the changing climate, and yeah, you know,
I'd say the reception has been largely how you might think.

(57:55):
I would say there have been a handful of loud detractors,
people who when they hear Climb Change, they think politics
and they think about you know, the crazy, far extreme
kind of radical take on climate change and folks, you know,
throwing paint on pictures and doing crazy stuff like that,
and you know, all of the liberal kind of taking

(58:17):
of that issue. So some people think that anyone who
mentions climate change is some crazy person like that. So
there's going to be that kind of troll like common.
So we had some of those, But then there's also
a whole lot of people. I think it's the it's
the quiet majority in the middle, who are people who
are hunters and anglers just like you and I who
go out there and we've been hunting and fishing all
of our lives, and we travel to wild places, and

(58:39):
we have seen with our own eyes how stuff has changed.
How we hardly ever get to ice fish anymore in
southern Michigan because we hardly ever have cold enough days.
How wildfires are getting crazy and crazier out west. How
more and more days you can't troutfish in Montana because
the rivers are continuously more and more shut down because

(59:01):
river temperatures are dangerously high for trout. We're seeing news
in Alaska about how salmon populations that have historically been
the best in the world are all of a sudden
crashing and one of the only reasons they can pin
it to is the fact that ocean temperatures are warmer
than ever before in certain places, or the rivers that
they're going up are now dangerously warm. There's just it's

(59:23):
becoming increasingly hard to ignore this stuff, regardless of if
you're a Republican, Democrat or whatever in between. And you know,
I've at least found for myself that it's not a
political thing anymore. It's just my eyes are open. I'm
seeing this stuff, and I care about the natural world
and wildlife and wild places. So I think more and

(59:44):
more people are getting to that point. Now there's I
think movement towards it's becoming not such a political issue,
but more so, like the solutions to it will become political,
so left and right can debate what we should do
about it, how we should do things about it. And
I think that's healthy. I think we should be having,

(01:00:04):
you know, different perspectives on that. But it's getting really
hard for a lot of folks in the middle to
just pretend it doesn't exist. And so I think with
this film, that's what we've seen a lot. There's a
lot of people that were appreciative of the fact that
we talked about it, appreciative of the fact that we
talked about in a way that was not radical or
extreme or demonizing anyone, but just said, hey, this is

(01:00:24):
a thing that's happening. You can't be denied anymore. It's
actually impacting wildlife in ways that we as hunters need
to be aware of. And it keep tabs on and
this stuff does impact fishing wildlife and hunting and fishing,
and I think that's an important reality to acknowledge now,
and a lot of people are pretty open to that

(01:00:45):
these days, and I was glad to see that, and
it's the kind of thing that I think we're going
to see, you know, discussed more and more as this
goes from being kind of a backwater, far left issue
to being something that's that's simply being addressed by everyone
in the middle and hopefully figure out some ways to
live with this new normal, or adapt to this new normal,

(01:01:06):
or changed in some kind of way if we can
towards a better future. And that's all yet to be
seen exactly what that will look like. So that was
kind of the take that we got, and that's my answer.
Cameron asks, did you notice the change in elevation where
you were hunting any you know, shortness of breath or
physical issues, and then do you have any training tips

(01:01:27):
for preparing for a black tail hunt like that? I
would say I did not really experience any elevation issues.
You know, we weren't really at a very high actual elevation.
We went up something like three thousand feet, but that
was you know, only up to gosh, I don't know,
four thousand feet or thirty five hundred feet or something
like that. Like the actual sea level elevation was not

(01:01:47):
very high. These mountains just kind of jump r out of
the ocean and go straight up. So you know, there
was not your typical high elevation issues that you might have,
you know, mule deer hunting in Colorado at fourteen thousand feet.
That said, when you're gaining three thousand feet or thirty
five hundred feet or four thousand feet of elevation, that's
still a lot of up, which means strain on your

(01:02:08):
legs and your muscles and your body. And so in
that case, you know, definitely the trail running that I've
been doing, the mountain trail running I've been doing all
last year, it really helped me with that. So training.
You know, gaining and losing elevation is the biggest thing.
Whether you're black tail hunting in Alaska or elk hunting
in Montana or whatever. Being able to handle that up
and down is just so dramatically different on your body.

(01:02:32):
You need to practice doing that a lot, and for
long periods of time, and probably with weight on your
back too. So that was one thing that I trained
a lot handling the elevation. I didn't train as much
with weight on my back, and that's something I want to,
you know, do more of for future hunts. But yeah,
be moving cover a lot of ground, cover elevation, if

(01:02:52):
you can use inclined treadmill, if you can't do stairs
in the stadium, whatever you gotta do. That's such an
important part of just being comfortable and capable out there
on really any kind of mountain hunt. All right, let's
see if we've got a last question or two here.
Uh Nick Fruscie asks what kinds of contingencies are you

(01:03:17):
considering for when they start selling public land? Public pressure
seems not to be making an impact. So what Nick's
referring to here are the threats to public land that
we're seeing across the nation, as more and more folks
are looking at, you know, removing protections on our public
land or transferring them to states, or even now we

(01:03:37):
have folks in the Senate debating whether or not we
should sell off hundreds of thousands of public land acres
to you know, deal with budgetary issues in the federal government.
That's actually being publicly discussed right now, which is pretty wild.
There's also proposals by the Interior Department to sell or

(01:03:58):
transfer public lands to be used for housing around urban areas,
which again is a super slippery slope that could lead
to tens of thousands or maybe more acres of public
land being taken out of the public estate and being developed.
And all of this is very real. It's more concerning,

(01:04:19):
probably than it's ever been. I've talked to folks who've
worked in this line of business for decades and decades,
much longer than I have. I've been doing this for
fifteen twenty years, but some of these guys have been
watching this for fifty years. And this is about as
concerning as we've ever seen. And so contingencies. I don't
think we can have contingencies. I think we simply have

(01:04:40):
to make sure this doesn't happen. We have to not
stop making noise. We have to not stop being squeaky wheels.
We have to continue to talk to our lawmakers. We
need to continue to show our support. We need to
continue to show that hunters and anglers in the outdoor
community demands that we protect our public lands, demands that
we keep these plays is intact and healthy and public.

(01:05:02):
Demands that our politicians represent our viewpoints on this, and
if they don't, we'll vote them out office. We'll make
their lives hell, We'll make it very uncomfortable. We need
to make these kinds of ideas a political poison pill.
And we can do that with phone calls. We can
do this by showing up at the state capitol at rallies.
We can do this by social media posts and calling

(01:05:22):
out our elected leaders, by emailing them, messaging them, using
every single possible lever, we have to get the point across.
And then, like I said, if none of that works,
we need to make change with our votes. And that's
something that we'll have an opportunity to do in a
year and a half or so. So I hope it

(01:05:43):
doesn't get to that. I hope that our efforts over
these coming weeks and months changes the direction that we're
headed with some of these public land issues, but it's
going to require more from us. Each and every one
of us is going to have to step up to
a different level than we probably ever have. It's not
going to cut to just be a hunter anymore. It's
not going to cut it to just be a fisherman anymore.

(01:06:04):
You also have to be an advocate and an active
conservationist if we want to keep these things around, if
you want to have public places to deer hunt, or
to go backpacking or hiking or camping with your kids
or your friends. You can't just sit and watch this stuff.
You can't just ignore the news. You can't just put
your head in the sand. We have to be active
participants now. If we don't, we will not have these opportunities.

(01:06:29):
We won't have these things, we won't have these podcasts
because there just won't be wild resources and wild places
and public lands to do this stuff anymore unless we
stand up and do something about it. Because there's a
lot of people out there that care about other things.
There's a lot of people out there that are happy
just living, playing golf and making lots of money or
playing video games or whatever. They don't know anything about

(01:06:49):
this stuff. They don't care about this stuff. They'd have
believe sell them off or cut them down or whatever
the thing is to make some money from it or
let other people do that, because it's not going to
impact their lives, but it does impact our lives, and
so we have to be the ones to speak up
for the stuff. So well, that said, that's what I'm
going to go do right now. I am going to

(01:07:10):
take a shower, get just dressed, and head off to Washington, DC,
heading to do stuff that's not really all that much fun,
but I hope it's worth it, and I hope we
can make a difference, and I hope we can keep
wildlife and wild places around for a very long time,
because man, they've been the world for me, and I

(01:07:31):
think that's been the case for a whole lot of
you too, So I appreciate you being a part of
that solution as well. Thanks for joining me for this podcast,
Thanks for joining me and being an advocate and a
conservationist and the support of our public lands and wildlife.
And until next time, stay Wired to Hunt.