November 29, 2023 • 49 mins
Professional Canadian Forester and Biologist, Megan Hanacek, was a contestant on The History Channel’s hit series, “Alone” Season 3. She shares her experience of being on the show, while having to be apart from her husband and young children while filming the show. She also reveals what takes place behind the scenes.
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Outdoors People is broadcast live Wednesdays at 6PM ET.
Outdoors People TV Show is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).
Outdoors People Radio Show is broadcast on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com).
Outdoors People Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
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(00:00):
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(00:21):
Radio. Welcome to outdoors people withme. Cw Getz and her Maya Marzaki.
(00:49):
Good evening. It's Wednesday, Novembertwenty ninth, twenty twenty three.
We've got a not bad forty twodegree fahrenheit six degrees celsius day here in
north central Illinois. And you're laughing. Why are you laughing? Hey,
that's a lot better than it wastwo days ago. It was two days
(01:10):
ago, maybe it was yesterday,I can't remember, but it was twenty
three degrees. Now listen, wedid because Mauddy Ally said, hey,
what's it celsius? I said,okay, I'll call it up eleven degrees
below zero with the wind chill.Yeah, wa ally it was six degrees
we I didn't set her outside.She's been you know, but it was
(01:30):
five six degrees below zero, justjust the temperature. But with the windshows
eleven degrees below it's pretty bad.Oh my gosh, that's so cold.
Well we were out there building asnowman by the way, and the snow
wouldn't pack because it was so cold, you know. But at least you
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guys had fun. We did,we did. We had a great time.
In fact, Saturday, we wentto the Chicago. We did a
Chicago shopping sort of a trip,took the tray up, took the Chicago
River architectural tour, and I cantell you that is a wonderful tour.
My friends. The captain, notthe captain, the narrator of the boat,
the tour guide maybe coming on thisshow. Cool, that's amazing.
(02:17):
Yeah, when the sun went down, it got colder than hell. Yes,
it isn't the water right, well, we weren't in the water,
but it was. Yeah. Yeah, it wasn't a boat anyways exactly.
But it does get windy if theydon't call it the Windy City for nothing
for sure. Yeah, once youget down there in Brazil Maya. Well
(02:38):
here, I am exactly the opposite. Today is raining like lots, you
know, like summer rain. Thehalf of my city is underwater right now,
but at least it is not thathot because it is raining. So
it is right now twenty three degreessouth's shoes and it means for a new
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United States seven far degrees fahrenheit.It's perfect. It's my favorite. Yeah,
that's my perfect. That's where myfirst at my fermost daut of my
house, seventy four. It's beautiful. Well, I'm glad you're not sweating
and you're just dying from the heat. So that's good little relief. That's
(03:22):
nice. Well. Tonight's episode ofOutdoors People is brought to you by Rudebega
Paddle Sports providing time on the water, by Camp Grund Views making campaign easier,
Mida Luth Pack made in the USAsince eighteen eighty two, and by
Jackson kayakepers So enjoy the Ruperto's Parks. Tonight's episode is the alone experience with
(03:45):
our guest Megan Hannicheck, professional forester, biologist, wife and mother in Vancouver.
Forty eight year old Megan Handicheck isalso the CEO of Private forest Landowners
Association in Canada. Megan holds adegree in biology and in forestry, as
well as having received a technical diplomain resource management. She also earned awards
(04:09):
in the field of biology in theareas of reclamation and climate change. In
twenty sixteen, Megan was a contestanton the History Channel's hit series Alone season
three. Her vast outdoors experience andextensive knowledge of survival skills allowed her to
finish in the top three out ofall ten contestants on the show. These
(04:31):
days, Megan continues to provide presentationsto various groups about building internal resiliency in
a changing world. And with that, welcome to the show, Megan.
Hi, nice to see you.Good to see you. I almost paused
there for a second as I think, oh, we're going to do a
video, but we didn't have that, hey introduced. Yeah, so sorry.
(04:54):
How are you doing up there?I'm sure temperature in Canadia, as
I like to call it, Yeah, while we're in the more temperate area
of Canada, so we're only sittingat you know, at night time,
it's about zero celsius for us uphere, So I'm not sure if you'd
like it. CW. Yeah,I'm kind of doubt. Do you know
anything that's in that single digit category? And that for me for sure?
(05:16):
Yeah? Right, ever, fakeup tanagers, sous it is good for
you exactly. I'm there, I'mnice and warm. Yeah that's my favorite.
Well that's cool. So first thingfirst, for those who may not
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be familiar, let's have you explainwhat the All Loan CEIs was about.
Sure, So it's a show thathas dramatically increased in popularity. So the
premise of the show is you gettransported, You're not sure where until very
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close to the launch date. Youget transferred into very extreme environments throughout the
world. So they've had our serieswas in South America, but they've had
also series in Mongolia and in theArctic of Canada. And you're allowed to
bring ten items only and you haveto see how long you can exist by
yourself, filming everything by yourself.And there is a prize of five hundred
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thousand dollars American, which for Canadiansis quite good. It translates to about
six hundred and fifty thousand dollars Canadian. That's for the winner. So I
came in third. I think I'mtied for six overall after eleven seasons,
now the longest lasting mother and soI went seventy eight days. I came
in third, But you don't getanything for coming in second or third,
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unlike Survivor, where they do givesecond and third prices. He was too
alive. But that's what you Yeah, and you get the experience. So
you come home significantly skinnier and you'vegot an experience under your belt. Oh,
oh my god, a man.Yeah, that's pretty cool. Well
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let me ask you. Okay,so five hundred thousand dollars and in Canada,
what was it six fifty you saidat that time it was about six
hundred and fifty thousand. I thinkeven now it's probably even closer to seven
hundred thousand with our exchange rate.Yeah, I heard that was fluctuating the
other day. Okay, So well, all right, so aside from the
everybody goes well, of course themoney, you know, yeah, But
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aside from the money, what elsewas your motivation you know, for wanting
to be on the show. Wasit just all No, definitely not if
you go on in for the money, I'd say after a couple of weeks
that quickly goes out the door.You're you know, like money is because
you're not using it out there andyou used to everything else starts to take
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a party in your mind in termsof survival and relationships and self growth and
setting yourself up there. So Ithink if anyone were to try to go
in it just for the money alone, you'll quickly uh just it just won't
work very well out there. Youhave to really want to do it.
And for my reasoning, I wantedto do it because I wanted to build.
First. I wanted to test myskills as a biologist and a forester,
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and that is the ultimate task,going to a totally new environment and
seeing if you can put your skillsto test your knowledge that you've learned your
field experience. And I also Iwork in a male dominated field, so
I also wanted to just see howstrong I was in terms of internal resiliency
language. Now you know that's Ilove it. Yeah, And it was,
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you know that, Yeah, itwas. It was a very unique
experience that I seriously think about everyday in different ways. When I go
to the grocery store. Just thinkof things in abundance now and you have
very little and you try to survivefor a very long time without your relationship
to your family connections, without otherresources, including just even having hot water
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or food at your disposal, ahouse, a shelter. You quickly,
like you know, after an experiencelike that, for that amount of time
I went seventy eight days, youview the world significantly different, and you
don't get caught up in small things. After an experience like that, you
start to really partize things in yourlife, what's important and how you view
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the world as well. Like Inow think of things in abutments. There's
so much abundance around us, youknow, I have to. I really
think that what you just said,the whole winning the first place and maybe
not getting first or second or thirdwhatever, you know, I almost think
that, really, at some point, other than the money, a little
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insignificant because all of you are goingthrough experience like what you just mentioned,
you appreciate things that you know youmay have taken for granted. Otherwise maybe
you didn't. But I know,you know, even when I go on
canoe trips, are we going youknow whatever? You start going, Oh,
yeah, that's right, I haveto boil water, you know,
just done coming out of the closeabut just things like that. I think
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you all probably take something away fromthat that's equal to or maybe greater value
than cash. Am I right exactly? And I think you start to view
the world in terms of where doI want to spend my time for the
rest of my life, and youstart to really recognize distractions in your daily
life. And I'll like, I'llbe you know, on a weekend,
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I'll sit and watch Netflix, doa Netflix bend. But you know,
I realize when I'm starting to getcaught up in things that are taking my
time away from other valuable things.So I think I recognize that a lot
more nowadays. And I will say, you know, to things that I
just I just don't want to putmy time towards and spend time with my
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children instead. She because I havetwo teenagers now. They were young when
I get The show aired in twentyseventeen. We did it in twenty sixteen.
But it's all of the contestants afterdoing the experience. Was just over
a hundred of us now that I'vedone it, and we're all pretty close
because it is such an experience.Yeah, and people question, is is
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it really truly a survival experience,and we are out there filming it all
by ourselves. Other reality shows usuallyhave production crews with them. And one
thing I think people don't realize ishow much time filming takes as well that
we are the production. We're tryingto survive out there, but we're also
burning calories, sitting three cameras,and we had to film everything even throughout
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the night, a few o copyof the film things, so it's a
significant amount of we're working out thereas well. There was a survival,
but it was also working, whichin a way was kind of good because
it keeps you busy, you distracted. Sure, yeah, exactly. Yeah,
that's a beautiful experience. And theway you crossed that and the way
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you changed your mindset in general,it is really beautiful. And I feel
like everyone needed to have at leastone experience outside to realize the basic things
that we need, like water,like a roof, like food, and
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change the perspective of life and asyou said, stopping spending time in things
that we shouldn't, like small thingsin life, and appreciate things that we
take for granted. So that's verybeautiful and that's very nice to hear and
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to hear your history. That's verynice, and about the show. What
qualifications are required in order to beon the show. Well, it's interesting
because they actually found the first twoseasons in my backyard. I live in
a really rural area of British Columbia, Canada, right on the west coast,
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and the Alone producers have actually sincesaid that that's been their favorite spot
to do it because we have wehave apex predators, we have wolves,
grizzly bears, black bears, andwe have very we have some of the
highest rainfall in Canada, so it'sit's not ideal to live in and it's
really challenging. We have really challengingterrain, steep, hilly, bushy terrain,
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and you know, so it's it'sa very interesting place to grow.
It was part of myself, likeit was part it was like it was
ingrained in me growing up, thisbeing surrounded by a really wild part.
We also have cougars up here aswell. The highest density of cougar is
actually in North America and in mybackyard were season one, two and four
were filmed. So, you know, if they hadn't actually filmed in my
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backyard, I don't know if Iwould have applied. I applied at the
urging of several of my colleagues whoknew that I love challenges, and they
said, hey, they're they're filmingthe show. You should you should try
out for it. So, aftera bit of encouraging encouragement, I eventually
put a submission in and I gota call that day and they said,
well, we've already picked the peoplethat we're going to cast from for season
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three. Would you like to doa couple's one? And I said,
well, the only person I canthink of it as a couple that I
can do it with would be myhusband, and two things like we both
wouldn't want to leave our young children, and the second one would be that
I don't think he'd want to dothis, like he's an outdoor exactly.
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So I said no, and theyactually said, well, okay, let
us get back to you. Andthey called me the next day and said,
okay, we're interested in your character. We're going to try to squeeze
you in for season three. Andwe went we went to New York,
did all the testing, and thenwe finally got the contract, opened it
and I think all of us assumedit was going to be in the same
location of Canada because I'd done twoseasons, they're already and all at the
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same time, we were like,what South America exist. So that's how
that all played out. And afterthe testing of that week, I came
home and my husband picking up attheir port and I I always another lasson
for me is I always underestimated theseskills. And I just came back and
said, holy smokes, like someof these bushcraft, especially some of the
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men who had done a lot oftrigger trap designs. I didn't think I
was going to get picked, butthe you know, not thinking that this
is a show and they really wanta diversity of different skill set. So
within five days I found out thatI had been picked as a potential and
I had three weeks to get readyto head to South America, including trying
to gain some weight because I wasquite then going into that yeah that's something,
(15:56):
Yeah that's you don't yeah, you'regoing like, I know, I'm
gonna lose some weight. You dolike a bunch of like cream pie and
stuff or oh man, you knowwhat, like I've there was only a
small group. We signed a reallycrazy couple of contracts this you know,
one of them was over one hundredpages long. We weren't allowed to talk
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about it, so there was onlya very small close group of our family
that knew that this was happening.Even my children didn't know. We didn't
tell them, We just my myhusband. So I was away at work,
which I had done in the past, has gone off to field work,
but not for three months. I'veknow that was the hardest challenging part
for me. But yeah, soyou know, my husband and my brother
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who's a lawyer who helped review mycontracts. He they both were handing me
to gain weight, like you bettergain weight and I but I only gave
eight pounds and the winner of ourseason had ninety pounds to lose. He
ended up losing seventy three pounds.So considering, you know, considering all
the factors, going in with veryshort notice, trying to get all my
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gear ready, I worked until thelast day before I left at my other
full time job. I'm pretty happywith how it all turned out that I
was that I was. I didn'thave unfortunate accidents where I had to leave
after a couple of days and alwaysquestion how far could I have gone?
So even without winning the monetary prize. I came out with a lot of
life lessons and a lot of understandingabout myself and being able to work through
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adversity. That's amazing. And Ihave a kind of a weird question.
I'm thinking, here, you knowabout a food and stuff like that.
What you miss the the most?I'm sure was our family, your job,
your kids, But I mean,did you miss I don't know,
like pizza? What what you?Yeah? And I talked. I talked
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about it on the show. Youknow, for there was five of us
on our season that went longer thanseventy days, and the season before us,
I believe it was fifty six days. Sorry, the one that we'd
seen. We only got to seeseason one and one of the shows of
season two before we actually launch becauseit was on the air. So you
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know, we all kind of thought, they say, you can go for
a year, but we all kindof thought, well, you know,
we'll go around the fifty day mark. But once you hit the seventy day
mark, your body really craves glucose, and as we know, you like
your brain operates on glucose and sugars. So many of us craved desserts like
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as soon as we got out.It was it was really hard to keep
us away. They've since really refinedthe refeeding process. But when I got
out, I had a coffee,which was not the best thing. And
I have a whole chocolate moves pe. I have never done that. Like,
I love chocolate, but I've nevereaten a whole pie. Probably too
minutes. And then I went andhad a bath, which was a huge
(19:03):
luxury. Yeah, so we crave. Many of us crave desserts after after
going that long starving without those thosesugars, and by then all the berries
and all the things that potentially couldhave provided sugars for us, we're gone.
You know. Let me tell youto give you a little hint on
this. If you ever have you'rein that situation again you want to gain
(19:26):
some weight, I'll give you thesecret. Heineken and pasta. I would
say I used to run marathons,and I made the mistake of going to
Jamaica about three weeks before I wasto run a marathon. And I'd say
pinut coladas are a good gateway togain weight, because I gained ten pounds
(19:47):
in five days. In all right, we're going to take a quick break,
We'll be back with more of MeganHandicheck right here and outdoors people right
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Kayak and we are back with Meghan. Meghan, what items did you choose
(22:36):
to take with you? So wewere heading to South America to Patagonia,
so I only had three weeks toget ready. So it was quite limited
in Canada compared to some of theother contestants. And it was during the
springtime that we were trying to pullwinter gear together. So I had a
sleeping bag, but it was notadequate for the coold near the end,
(22:59):
I was always curled. I'm basicallya bag going to bed at night with
hot rocks. I had a babybag, which is an outdoor gortex cover.
If you want to do any excursionsand not set up a shelter,
you can set up a baby bag. I also had fishing gear, fishing
line and hooks, and I hada gill net. I had a farah
(23:19):
rod to start fires. And it'sfunny they've sent standardize it, but when
I showed up, I had afaroh rod that was about an inch and
a half long, and one ofthe guys, one of the contestants,
had one that was one foot lotthey've sent standardized the sizes that you can
bring. I also had a twocourt pot, which was probably the most
valuable item that you can bring whenyou're going for longer adventures in the wilderness,
(23:45):
because you need to be able toboil your water. I had paracoord
to help make a shelter. Ialso had a W T W two bowie
knife, so a really big bowieknife. I had an axe, and
I also had I bought one rationof food. You were allowed to bring
up to two rations, and Ibrought just one ration of food. That's
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wow, Yeah, that's that's prettycool. You know, you think about
you got ten items that I'd bekind of tough to just pick ten,
you know, I would I wouldthink, you know, that would be
the toughest thing. Yeah, watchingthe show. And I have to tell
you a little confession. I satdown one night. I think I was
going to watch maybe I don't know, ten minutes of TV and I was
going to you know, brush myteeth, goat a bed. I ended
(24:30):
up sitting in front of TV watchingseason three or five and a half hours.
And that was not planned. Itwas that good, and I was
like wow, and I was reallyI was very impressed with with you know,
several of the people, and youwere absolutely one of those. I
remember watching a certain part and I'mthinking, oh man, it just felt
bad for you know, comes someof the things, like you know,
(24:52):
you guys were going through. Whatwas it what turned out to be your
biggest struggle? Would you say?Oh? So? The other thing we
were allowed to bring was a photowith us, like, not a Marrith.
You can bring instructions that you hadlaminated, just a photo. And
I deliberately that sounds very cold andstoic, but I deliberately did not earn
(25:15):
a photo that had my children Iknew if I started to go down that
path, and that was the hardestthing for me and obviously my husband as
well, but raising children. Mychildren at that time were five and nine.
My son actually turned six when Iwas out there. That was a
really hard day for me. I'dnever missed any of my cousin's birthdays.
Yeah, so that for me.I think I'm a pretty independent I was
(25:40):
raised by single father, a prettyindependent female. But you know, when
you have dependence that have no choiceand their dad is amazing, hands on,
amazing. When I got back,it was like I'd never laft.
He really just ran everything, andhe's got a really busy, full time
job as well. But the children. Missing my children was by far the
heart is there for sure. Youcan see that. I can see that.
(26:03):
Yeah, I cannot imagine how muchyou can miss your kids and you
have not one. It's your calla message, So that's very verbs there.
You don't know anything about what's goingon with then, right. Yeah.
One other thing I'll mentioned that wasafter the fact that's challenging is when
(26:23):
we get tested as potential cast forthe show, we'll also go through psychological
testing, not only physical and skilltesting. But psychological and also there's also
a psychologist after just to talk throughthe experience, and she also works on
survivors, so she's seen a wholeswap of contestants throughout the years. But
(26:44):
one thing that's interesting about our show, or at least step until season three,
was that almost all of us areour introvert lying our you know,
ambi adverts, but not necessarily extroverts, even the ones that come across as
more extroverted on TV where we're allwaning to its introversion. So when you
go to watch the show, you'reseeing it live with everyone else and you
(27:07):
have no idea what they're going toshow, so all of a sudden you're
watching it. And during our seasonthere were millions of people watching every show,
and then since then it's been syndicatedand it got very popular during COVID,
Like tens of millions of people haveseen our episode for sure. It's
that part is a really big thingtoo, being an introvert and really exposing
(27:30):
the rawness of a very uh youknow, a survival situation where you're you're
not guarded, you're just you're livingand trying to survive. So that was
the second piece of it that Ifound challenging after the experience was going through
that whole piece. We had trolls, we had the whole social media again,
(27:52):
it that people face a different typeof celebrity, but it's it's interesting
you kind of get a taste ofwhat some of the you know, big
celebrities go through in terms of socialmedia and just putting yourself out there into
the media world. And yes,that's funny now that you talking about that.
It came in my mind because inthe same time you are completely is
(28:14):
related from the world you are inthe TV show exactly very bizarre situation because
everything you are going to do aloneeveryone is going to see. So that's
that's very scary for sure, formainly for introvercted person and what else go
(28:37):
through in your mind every day inthat situation. For me, I kind
of went on with the strategy.I'm you know, I lean towards stoicism,
but I also knew that I neededto go in and feel like I
was being productive, I had apurpose and that I had daily tasks.
So every morning I had a setroutine. I'd wake up before dusk,
(29:00):
I'd go and check my lines throughoutthe day I was resetting, I had
over two hundred traps between trigger traps. They show some of the trigger traps
I made to catch fish. Inthe first three days. I actually made
a fishing rod and I brought deliberatelybrought certain hooks and I made a fishing
rod with a reel and I didthat for a few hours and just realized
(29:21):
that I can't be actively trying tofish like this, like I need to
set up some passive systems to helpme because I have other things that I
need to be doing, like shelterbuilding, collecting, foraging for other foods.
So I had a daily task listand it was like a job for
me. I did certain things inthe morning, and then I would dry
tinder, collect tinder, and collectforge in different areas of my territory.
(29:44):
I went throughout my whole territory,so I had about fifty meters of shoreline,
and then I went straight up amountain and I actually climbed that mountain.
They didn't show it, but Icould see the whole lake. And
I think the production curer when Itold him I did that day, because
they had the footage too. Theywere they were like, well, you
know, be very careful because ifyou had fallen up there, we kind
(30:07):
of extracted you. But I asmy daily life as a forester and a
biologist, I've done thousands of dayswhere I want to explore, too,
like, and I knew that wassomething I wanted to take back with me
as well, that I didn't wantit to just be a job. I
also wanted to explore an hill welost? Did you lost her? I
(30:32):
think we did. I don't know. I think I still here. Are
you still there? Maya? Yeah, I am here? Okay, yeah,
and I see my picture and that, Yeah, I think we did
lose we lost Megan for a second. Let's I'll tell you what. Let's
go to a commercial break. We'llsee if we can get her back here
during that time. Okay, sohey too, will be right back after
(30:52):
these messages. A few years ago, someone asked Rudebega's owner Darren Bush,
Hey, how long have you guysbeen selling boats? Darren replied, we
don't sell boats. We sell timeon the water. Of course, that
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we are Jacquelyn Kayak. Yeah,and we're back with our guest Megan hand
(33:25):
check and you know what before weMegan made her way back here. But
before we go to that, Iwant to just acknowledge a couple of people
here that have been leaving comments.Appreciate you tuning into the show. Everybody,
super good camping. Thank you forchiming, and you guys have some
really good, nice comments. Quaquest the two hundredth show, Yes,
(33:47):
is the two hundredth episode here wegot c W and myrak thank you episode
number two hundred and I don't seeit. I can't find it. Maybe
maybe you got it, but anyway, and then Camper sixty nine Mustang seven
seventy four, thank you guys fortuning in. We appreciate it and appreciate
(34:07):
the compliments or comments. I'm sorry, so anyway, my you take it
away. We got another question forMeg if she's back with us still comment
Yeah, absolutely, I love it. Well, Megan, where are you
allowed to have items like toilet paper? Toothpaste soap are a family and hygiene
(34:32):
products. So in terms of thesoap and toothpaste, if you there is
a list of forty items that youcould choose your time from, so you
could take two of your items asbeing soap, soap and toothpaste if you
had wanted to cut into your tenitems, but they weren't extra items that
you were allowed to take with younow and then in terms of so we
(34:57):
were pretty early in the production Riverseason three. Up until that point,
the season before us had three womenon it. One woman lasted quite a
bit longer than the other two andit was a fairly new thing in terms
of women and sanitary like other products. So in our season they actually didn't
want to include that for the women, and one of the women contestants actually
(35:22):
pushed back. So they did giveus a little bit of material that could
be used monthly, but we hadto film everything. They didn't want women
starting fires with any extras to givean unfair advantage. But I see that's
the extra challenge of being a womanout there that you know that you're not
getting tile and all, you're notgetting all you know, anything to help,
(35:45):
and you're also worried about attracting predators, so you're you know, so
it's another challenge. I think thewomen, you know, on our season
did very well. The three womencame in the top five, and I
just being a woman myself, veryproud of how far we went. We
did amazing. It's you know,and I think that's the thing. The
(36:06):
thing about this Bushcraft survival show,and we had several tools after our season.
It's been a predominantly male, mortualkind of profession. But I think
that's the beauty of this show.It shows the different perspectives and different human
interactions with nature, and women canjust do as equally well as men and
(36:28):
we since then, I've had afemale winner, which is awesome. Well
that's amazing, you know. Ireally have to say from the show,
the episode or the what I wantto call the episodes, the things that
I saw in that five and ahalf hours. I saw the men break
down a lot more than I sawthe women, which I was a little
embarrassed for our gender. But themen were quiet and they were carrying.
(36:52):
I'm like, you know, youdon't see the women doing this or not.
Well I did cry twice once.My said's birthday and they had eight
hours apported to me, and theyshowed them both the times that I cried,
and you know something, it wasa difference. It's not like,
oh my finger hurts, I'm gonnacry. It's it's like you got some
stuff and that's legitimately total. Thisgirl had a hole in her the side
(37:15):
of her butt, that something somespider had bitten her. Yeah, and
I'm like, that's something new,that's something white. Tell me about your
ankle, pal, you know whatI mean. Just say it troubling to
suit here. But still I'm justsaying the women were phenomenal. So anyway,
(37:35):
nothing that we've got some pictures herethat you said is let's take a
look at one. If we canhave you put those up for us,
that'd be great. There we go. What are we looking at here?
Meg? So I do just aspart of my professional career being a professional
biologist some forest or I think it'simportant to mentor and also to teach the
(37:58):
next generation coming up. So myjob is really interesting. I encourage many
people to onto the four sector becausewe are part of the solution moving forward
around climate change, big carbon sinks. You're dealing with multiple very interesting values
around indigenous nations, wildlife values,forscherious values. So it's a very dynamic,
(38:21):
interesting field. So this is takenfrom one of the This is making
cordage. This is showing children howto make cordage, which is like rope
when you're out in the woods.You can just make it from natural fibers
or out in the woods. Cool. This is a trip to Africa.
(38:44):
I'm really lucky. I've traveled toall seven continents, including Natarctic. How
my husband and I actually met inour early days and worked down there.
He was involved in the marine industryand I was a biologist, so we
ended up working down an Antarctic.This picture happens to be in Africa,
which is amazing for any of youwho've been wanting to go there, who
(39:06):
have been there, I have neverbeen some lion blue in and seeing giraffes
walk out of these watered big trees, but they're even bigger walking out.
It's surreal. So I love exploringand traveling is one of my top top
of the list for me in termsof experiences that I want in life.
(39:27):
You know, considering the diversity ofboth of your backgrounds, I bet you
had some interesting conversations on those datesat first. Yeah, we have a
very fun, interesting life. It'skind of tame down now that we have
children, but they come on ouradventures too. We have a boat regal
(39:49):
exploring all the time. My husbandjust took my thirteen year old, our
thirteen year old son on a bighunting trip and he loves it. We
weren't sure if he would love beingin the rain, but you know,
it was torrential sideways right and heturned to his dad and said, I
love this. So that's great excited. Raising some adventurers as well through our
family. That's very cool. Wow, this is actually the day we got
(40:15):
engaged. So I was just goingback moving together over two decades. But
my husband kept talking about hiking thismountain which is in the Waddington Range right
across from us, and I keptwondering, why does he want to do
this so bad? And one dayhe called me and just said, get
(40:35):
the camera here. We used todo a lot of professional photography, say
get the gear ready, we needto go out to the helicopter hangar.
And I was thinking, his family'sinvolved in the well watching industry, and
I thought there was something really neathappening with Wells and and he flew me
to the top of a mountain range. And again one of my close female
friends, very few and far betweento have female helicopter pilots, she was
(41:00):
piloting that day. And that's themountain we got engaged on. So that's
kind of oh my god, that'sanother show something. Yeah, yeah,
there you go. And then thisis our season looking all tough. So
(41:22):
we have Britt on the far leftand Greg Evans right, Pasoda Fowlers in
the orange. Then we have DaveNassia down in the front row in the
camel, Carly who came in secondin the in the purple, Zach is
in the middle of the screen.There myself in the blue, and then
we have Dan and Jim and Kellyon the far right. So it was
(41:45):
a great crew we had. I'llgive the alone casting crew the kudos because
they really picked some great people tobe on the show, like really really
great people who have so ward values. Yeah yeah, but I feel like
people who are willing to do thatmust be so nice, you know.
(42:08):
Yeah, yeah, I think you'relike, I think it does attract a
certain group that you know, they'renot kind of attracted by man made constructs
necessarily, they're more attracted to outdoornature experience and working through hard conditions.
Sometimes it's not always parklike and sunny. Yeah, and I have a question
(42:35):
the clothes you cannot go with yourclothes are there? We are? Yeah,
we are a lot of few thingsthat aren't included in the ten,
Like they're not necessarily anything that's goingto help you for survival, but we're
allowed. I think we had apair of boots and two pairs of socks,
a pair of pants, a jacket, and a couple of shirts.
(42:59):
But it's it's thing significant, likeyeah, it's like it's just stuff that
you know when they go through allthat gear too, and make sure that
there's not extra things sometimes that likebelts aren't allowed because you could use that,
you know, to sharpen your knife. Yeah, so there's they're very
sturringent. They go through all thegear and then they walk it away before
(43:22):
launch, so no one can andI don't think any And that's the other
thing about our career, like justsuch an honest group that we're there for
the experience, that you know,there was no concerns with people trying to
smuggle materials in or whatnot. No, that's cool. Yeah, so that's
just like grout. So this isanother interesting side story. So Callie,
(43:45):
he was on our season, isin the green there and she actually got
married to Randy from another season andhave a child. And this is at
their wedding earlier this year. Sothere's this is the some of the females
from the Alone franchise together. Ohthat's so nice. Yeah that where'd you
(44:07):
meet your husband in the middle ofan isolated different seasons but they met through
the network of the Alone family areAlone failing? That's cool. So this
is my regular job is I'm inthis photo in the blue and we do
(44:29):
professional forestry and management of a wholebunch of different values including wildlife and carbon
and wildfire is a really big one. As you guys know, you got
many much of our smoke this lastYeah, thank you very much, you
know, but these are things thatyou know, as globally we need to
(44:51):
deal with as we move forward,as doing the changing weather and how that
affects big fourest tracks of land andaffects all the values and how how do
we Managle's values of mitigay and stillproduce lumber for structural buildings like housing,
which is a big one in NorthAmerica an employment and economy. So the
four sectors are really interesting field andyeah, I love it. I just
(45:17):
love how dynamic every day is andhow interesting it is and how valuable it
is as a profession moving forward.That's a very cool job. Yes,
this is part of our adventuring.So this is in a very remote part
of Vancouver Island. And those glassballs you've seen my hand have likely being
(45:38):
on the ocean current for upwards orten years. They're Japanese floats. The
Japanese fishing industries use glass floats andmany of them are being phased out now,
but some of them are quite valuableand you can find them wash up
on the beach and one of thosein there is quite valuable. They have
(46:00):
their own sort of signature at thebottom. So it's really neat. It's
a really neat thing to do.We also mushroom forge. It's like treasure
hunting, going out and finding reallycool things that you know, it's just
really interesting and we our children loveit too to look for things like this.
(46:20):
This is one of my talks toThis is a younger group. I
usually do older audiences, but thisis one of my talks to elementary school
children and those groups are great.My son happened to be in this and
this audience too, so he lovedit. But the kids are yeah,
you know, it's great to getthem exposure to, you know, just
(46:42):
thinking differently and to thinking like howcan I get more in tune with nature.
We happen to live, as Imentioned, in an area that's more
wild but I've done presentations to alot of city children and there's that disconnect
with nature and the earth sometimes becauseyou're surrounded by an urban setting. So
it's great to be that connection withchildren, to get them appreciative and to
(47:07):
get them interested in wilderness. Verycool, very cool. Yeah, yeah,
that's very cool. Thank you somuch for sharing all those pictures with
you and Megan. Where can peoplefind you online? So I had a
(47:30):
really big following on Instagram and Igot around, but I'm back on Instagram
Facebook. An interesting thing that happenedduring the COVID pandemic is I quickly was
getting eight hundred requests after March thirteenth, when they announced the pandemic. So
I'm almost maxed out for friends onFacebook, but I am on Facebook and
(47:51):
I post their regularly. And thenmy professional career is more on LinkedIn,
so Facebook and LinkedIn, and Ialso have a website through my company,
Pacific West Resource Management, which youcan find through Google. That's awesome.
Well, Megan listen, we wantto thank you for being a guest here
on Outdoors People. It was apleasure having you with us here this season.
(48:12):
Great. Thank you so much forhaving me today. Yeah, yes,
thank you very much. And congratulationfor your compliments of what you did
in the show. That's very nice, absolutely nice. And we also want
to thank you our sponsors for bringingyou tonight's show Ruta Baga, Pettersports,
cam Ground Views, that Luf Peckand Jackson Kayak. Tune in for next
(48:37):
week's episode My Life as a ProfessionalScuba Diver with our guest Melanie Trevino.
Our Melody, Melody Trevino Sorry,along with miyamr Zaki. This is c
W Getz saying thank you for tuningin to Outdoors People. See you next
week. Shows
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comments should be directed to those showhosts. Thank you for choosing W FOURCY
(00:21):
Radio. Welcome to outdoors people withme. Cw Getz and her Maya Marzaki.
(00:49):
Good evening. It's Wednesday, Novembertwenty ninth, twenty twenty three.
We've got a not bad forty twodegree fahrenheit six degrees celsius day here in
north central Illinois. And you're laughing. Why are you laughing? Hey,
that's a lot better than it wastwo days ago. It was two days
(01:10):
ago, maybe it was yesterday,I can't remember, but it was twenty
three degrees. Now listen, wedid because Mauddy Ally said, hey,
what's it celsius? I said,okay, I'll call it up eleven degrees
below zero with the wind chill.Yeah, wa ally it was six degrees
we I didn't set her outside.She's been you know, but it was
(01:30):
five six degrees below zero, justjust the temperature. But with the windshows
eleven degrees below it's pretty bad.Oh my gosh, that's so cold.
Well we were out there building asnowman by the way, and the snow
wouldn't pack because it was so cold, you know. But at least you
(01:51):
guys had fun. We did,we did. We had a great time.
In fact, Saturday, we wentto the Chicago. We did a
Chicago shopping sort of a trip,took the tray up, took the Chicago
River architectural tour, and I cantell you that is a wonderful tour.
My friends. The captain, notthe captain, the narrator of the boat,
the tour guide maybe coming on thisshow. Cool, that's amazing.
(02:17):
Yeah, when the sun went down, it got colder than hell. Yes,
it isn't the water right, well, we weren't in the water,
but it was. Yeah. Yeah, it wasn't a boat anyways exactly.
But it does get windy if theydon't call it the Windy City for nothing
for sure. Yeah, once youget down there in Brazil Maya. Well
(02:38):
here, I am exactly the opposite. Today is raining like lots, you
know, like summer rain. Thehalf of my city is underwater right now,
but at least it is not thathot because it is raining. So
it is right now twenty three degreessouth's shoes and it means for a new
(03:02):
United States seven far degrees fahrenheit.It's perfect. It's my favorite. Yeah,
that's my perfect. That's where myfirst at my fermost daut of my
house, seventy four. It's beautiful. Well, I'm glad you're not sweating
and you're just dying from the heat. So that's good little relief. That's
(03:22):
nice. Well. Tonight's episode ofOutdoors People is brought to you by Rudebega
Paddle Sports providing time on the water, by Camp Grund Views making campaign easier,
Mida Luth Pack made in the USAsince eighteen eighty two, and by
Jackson kayakepers So enjoy the Ruperto's Parks. Tonight's episode is the alone experience with
(03:45):
our guest Megan Hannicheck, professional forester, biologist, wife and mother in Vancouver.
Forty eight year old Megan Handicheck isalso the CEO of Private forest Landowners
Association in Canada. Megan holds adegree in biology and in forestry, as
well as having received a technical diplomain resource management. She also earned awards
(04:09):
in the field of biology in theareas of reclamation and climate change. In
twenty sixteen, Megan was a contestanton the History Channel's hit series Alone season
three. Her vast outdoors experience andextensive knowledge of survival skills allowed her to
finish in the top three out ofall ten contestants on the show. These
(04:31):
days, Megan continues to provide presentationsto various groups about building internal resiliency in
a changing world. And with that, welcome to the show, Megan.
Hi, nice to see you.Good to see you. I almost paused
there for a second as I think, oh, we're going to do a
video, but we didn't have that, hey introduced. Yeah, so sorry.
(04:54):
How are you doing up there?I'm sure temperature in Canadia, as
I like to call it, Yeah, while we're in the more temperate area
of Canada, so we're only sittingat you know, at night time,
it's about zero celsius for us uphere, So I'm not sure if you'd
like it. CW. Yeah,I'm kind of doubt. Do you know
anything that's in that single digit category? And that for me for sure?
(05:16):
Yeah? Right, ever, fakeup tanagers, sous it is good for
you exactly. I'm there, I'mnice and warm. Yeah that's my favorite.
Well that's cool. So first thingfirst, for those who may not
(05:41):
be familiar, let's have you explainwhat the All Loan CEIs was about.
Sure, So it's a show thathas dramatically increased in popularity. So the
premise of the show is you gettransported, You're not sure where until very
(06:02):
close to the launch date. Youget transferred into very extreme environments throughout the
world. So they've had our serieswas in South America, but they've had
also series in Mongolia and in theArctic of Canada. And you're allowed to
bring ten items only and you haveto see how long you can exist by
yourself, filming everything by yourself.And there is a prize of five hundred
(06:28):
thousand dollars American, which for Canadiansis quite good. It translates to about
six hundred and fifty thousand dollars Canadian. That's for the winner. So I
came in third. I think I'mtied for six overall after eleven seasons,
now the longest lasting mother and soI went seventy eight days. I came
in third, But you don't getanything for coming in second or third,
(06:51):
unlike Survivor, where they do givesecond and third prices. He was too
alive. But that's what you Yeah, and you get the experience. So
you come home significantly skinnier and you'vegot an experience under your belt. Oh,
oh my god, a man.Yeah, that's pretty cool. Well
(07:11):
let me ask you. Okay,so five hundred thousand dollars and in Canada,
what was it six fifty you saidat that time it was about six
hundred and fifty thousand. I thinkeven now it's probably even closer to seven
hundred thousand with our exchange rate.Yeah, I heard that was fluctuating the
other day. Okay, So well, all right, so aside from the
everybody goes well, of course themoney, you know, yeah, But
(07:31):
aside from the money, what elsewas your motivation you know, for wanting
to be on the show. Wasit just all No, definitely not if
you go on in for the money, I'd say after a couple of weeks
that quickly goes out the door.You're you know, like money is because
you're not using it out there andyou used to everything else starts to take
(07:53):
a party in your mind in termsof survival and relationships and self growth and
setting yourself up there. So Ithink if anyone were to try to go
in it just for the money alone, you'll quickly uh just it just won't
work very well out there. Youhave to really want to do it.
And for my reasoning, I wantedto do it because I wanted to build.
First. I wanted to test myskills as a biologist and a forester,
(08:18):
and that is the ultimate task,going to a totally new environment and
seeing if you can put your skillsto test your knowledge that you've learned your
field experience. And I also Iwork in a male dominated field, so
I also wanted to just see howstrong I was in terms of internal resiliency
language. Now you know that's Ilove it. Yeah, And it was,
(08:43):
you know that, Yeah, itwas. It was a very unique
experience that I seriously think about everyday in different ways. When I go
to the grocery store. Just thinkof things in abundance now and you have
very little and you try to survivefor a very long time without your relationship
to your family connections, without otherresources, including just even having hot water
(09:05):
or food at your disposal, ahouse, a shelter. You quickly,
like you know, after an experiencelike that, for that amount of time
I went seventy eight days, youview the world significantly different, and you
don't get caught up in small things. After an experience like that, you
start to really partize things in yourlife, what's important and how you view
(09:26):
the world as well. Like Inow think of things in abutments. There's
so much abundance around us, youknow, I have to. I really
think that what you just said,the whole winning the first place and maybe
not getting first or second or thirdwhatever, you know, I almost think
that, really, at some point, other than the money, a little
(09:50):
insignificant because all of you are goingthrough experience like what you just mentioned,
you appreciate things that you know youmay have taken for granted. Otherwise maybe
you didn't. But I know,you know, even when I go on
canoe trips, are we going youknow whatever? You start going, Oh,
yeah, that's right, I haveto boil water, you know,
just done coming out of the closeabut just things like that. I think
(10:11):
you all probably take something away fromthat that's equal to or maybe greater value
than cash. Am I right exactly? And I think you start to view
the world in terms of where doI want to spend my time for the
rest of my life, and youstart to really recognize distractions in your daily
life. And I'll like, I'llbe you know, on a weekend,
(10:35):
I'll sit and watch Netflix, doa Netflix bend. But you know,
I realize when I'm starting to getcaught up in things that are taking my
time away from other valuable things.So I think I recognize that a lot
more nowadays. And I will say, you know, to things that I
just I just don't want to putmy time towards and spend time with my
(10:56):
children instead. She because I havetwo teenagers now. They were young when
I get The show aired in twentyseventeen. We did it in twenty sixteen.
But it's all of the contestants afterdoing the experience. Was just over
a hundred of us now that I'vedone it, and we're all pretty close
because it is such an experience.Yeah, and people question, is is
(11:18):
it really truly a survival experience,and we are out there filming it all
by ourselves. Other reality shows usuallyhave production crews with them. And one
thing I think people don't realize ishow much time filming takes as well that
we are the production. We're tryingto survive out there, but we're also
burning calories, sitting three cameras,and we had to film everything even throughout
(11:45):
the night, a few o copyof the film things, so it's a
significant amount of we're working out thereas well. There was a survival,
but it was also working, whichin a way was kind of good because
it keeps you busy, you distracted. Sure, yeah, exactly. Yeah,
that's a beautiful experience. And theway you crossed that and the way
(12:05):
you changed your mindset in general,it is really beautiful. And I feel
like everyone needed to have at leastone experience outside to realize the basic things
that we need, like water,like a roof, like food, and
(12:26):
change the perspective of life and asyou said, stopping spending time in things
that we shouldn't, like small thingsin life, and appreciate things that we
take for granted. So that's verybeautiful and that's very nice to hear and
(12:46):
to hear your history. That's verynice, and about the show. What
qualifications are required in order to beon the show. Well, it's interesting
because they actually found the first twoseasons in my backyard. I live in
a really rural area of British Columbia, Canada, right on the west coast,
(13:09):
and the Alone producers have actually sincesaid that that's been their favorite spot
to do it because we have wehave apex predators, we have wolves,
grizzly bears, black bears, andwe have very we have some of the
highest rainfall in Canada, so it'sit's not ideal to live in and it's
really challenging. We have really challengingterrain, steep, hilly, bushy terrain,
(13:35):
and you know, so it's it'sa very interesting place to grow.
It was part of myself, likeit was part it was like it was
ingrained in me growing up, thisbeing surrounded by a really wild part.
We also have cougars up here aswell. The highest density of cougar is
actually in North America and in mybackyard were season one, two and four
were filmed. So, you know, if they hadn't actually filmed in my
(14:00):
backyard, I don't know if Iwould have applied. I applied at the
urging of several of my colleagues whoknew that I love challenges, and they
said, hey, they're they're filmingthe show. You should you should try
out for it. So, aftera bit of encouraging encouragement, I eventually
put a submission in and I gota call that day and they said,
well, we've already picked the peoplethat we're going to cast from for season
(14:24):
three. Would you like to doa couple's one? And I said,
well, the only person I canthink of it as a couple that I
can do it with would be myhusband, and two things like we both
wouldn't want to leave our young children, and the second one would be that
I don't think he'd want to dothis, like he's an outdoor exactly.
(14:45):
So I said no, and theyactually said, well, okay, let
us get back to you. Andthey called me the next day and said,
okay, we're interested in your character. We're going to try to squeeze
you in for season three. Andwe went we went to New York,
did all the testing, and thenwe finally got the contract, opened it
and I think all of us assumedit was going to be in the same
location of Canada because I'd done twoseasons, they're already and all at the
(15:07):
same time, we were like,what South America exist. So that's how
that all played out. And afterthe testing of that week, I came
home and my husband picking up attheir port and I I always another lasson
for me is I always underestimated theseskills. And I just came back and
said, holy smokes, like someof these bushcraft, especially some of the
(15:31):
men who had done a lot oftrigger trap designs. I didn't think I
was going to get picked, butthe you know, not thinking that this
is a show and they really wanta diversity of different skill set. So
within five days I found out thatI had been picked as a potential and
I had three weeks to get readyto head to South America, including trying
to gain some weight because I wasquite then going into that yeah that's something,
(15:56):
Yeah that's you don't yeah, you'regoing like, I know, I'm
gonna lose some weight. You dolike a bunch of like cream pie and
stuff or oh man, you knowwhat, like I've there was only a
small group. We signed a reallycrazy couple of contracts this you know,
one of them was over one hundredpages long. We weren't allowed to talk
(16:18):
about it, so there was onlya very small close group of our family
that knew that this was happening.Even my children didn't know. We didn't
tell them, We just my myhusband. So I was away at work,
which I had done in the past, has gone off to field work,
but not for three months. I'veknow that was the hardest challenging part
for me. But yeah, soyou know, my husband and my brother
(16:41):
who's a lawyer who helped review mycontracts. He they both were handing me
to gain weight, like you bettergain weight and I but I only gave
eight pounds and the winner of ourseason had ninety pounds to lose. He
ended up losing seventy three pounds.So considering, you know, considering all
the factors, going in with veryshort notice, trying to get all my
(17:03):
gear ready, I worked until thelast day before I left at my other
full time job. I'm pretty happywith how it all turned out that I
was that I was. I didn'thave unfortunate accidents where I had to leave
after a couple of days and alwaysquestion how far could I have gone?
So even without winning the monetary prize. I came out with a lot of
life lessons and a lot of understandingabout myself and being able to work through
(17:30):
adversity. That's amazing. And Ihave a kind of a weird question.
I'm thinking, here, you knowabout a food and stuff like that.
What you miss the the most?I'm sure was our family, your job,
your kids, But I mean,did you miss I don't know,
like pizza? What what you?Yeah? And I talked. I talked
(17:56):
about it on the show. Youknow, for there was five of us
on our season that went longer thanseventy days, and the season before us,
I believe it was fifty six days. Sorry, the one that we'd
seen. We only got to seeseason one and one of the shows of
season two before we actually launch becauseit was on the air. So you
(18:18):
know, we all kind of thought, they say, you can go for
a year, but we all kindof thought, well, you know,
we'll go around the fifty day mark. But once you hit the seventy day
mark, your body really craves glucose, and as we know, you like
your brain operates on glucose and sugars. So many of us craved desserts like
(18:40):
as soon as we got out.It was it was really hard to keep
us away. They've since really refinedthe refeeding process. But when I got
out, I had a coffee,which was not the best thing. And
I have a whole chocolate moves pe. I have never done that. Like,
I love chocolate, but I've nevereaten a whole pie. Probably too
minutes. And then I went andhad a bath, which was a huge
(19:03):
luxury. Yeah, so we crave. Many of us crave desserts after after
going that long starving without those thosesugars, and by then all the berries
and all the things that potentially couldhave provided sugars for us, we're gone.
You know. Let me tell youto give you a little hint on
this. If you ever have you'rein that situation again you want to gain
(19:26):
some weight, I'll give you thesecret. Heineken and pasta. I would
say I used to run marathons,and I made the mistake of going to
Jamaica about three weeks before I wasto run a marathon. And I'd say
pinut coladas are a good gateway togain weight, because I gained ten pounds
(19:47):
in five days. In all right, we're going to take a quick break,
We'll be back with more of MeganHandicheck right here and outdoors people right
off these messages. A few yearsago, someone asked Rudebeka's owner Darren Bush,
(20:11):
Hey, how long have you guysbeen selling boats? Darren replied,
we don't sell boats. We selltime on the water. Of course,
that comes in all types. Wehelp people paddle more safely with rudebiga outdoor
programs. We rent canoes, kayaksand stand up paddle boards. We sell
and install racks to get you fromhome to adventure. Rudabega's got everything you
(20:32):
need to get you out on thewater, like paddles, life jackets,
dry bags and clothing. Rudebega paddlesportson the web at rudebega dot com.
Mention you saw this ad on theCamping Show. It is time to go
camping. Introducing campground Views virtual tours, you can tour the campground, see
(20:52):
the site, see if they areavailable, and click to book your perfect
spot. Hit the open road,explore the amazing places found in nature.
We make it easy to discover,find and book your site so that you
can go have the fun and freedomyou seek. Campground Views virtual tours make
(21:15):
it easy and simple for you tosee where you are going. D luth
(21:41):
Pack is handcrafted for every lifestyle makingmemories since eighteen eighty two, in store
at three to sixty five Canal ParkDrive, or online at the luthpack dot
com. We are one big family, a community of tattlers, and we
want to make that everyone had agreat time. I don't know water.
(22:03):
We are made right here in partof Tennessee and USA. This is where
we Jackson Kayak is born, builtby him with a focus on innovation.
We are Jackie Kayak. We arewe are, we are Jackson Kayak,
and we are we are, We'reJackson John We agree, we are Jackson
Kayak and we are back with Meghan. Meghan, what items did you choose
(22:36):
to take with you? So wewere heading to South America to Patagonia,
so I only had three weeks toget ready. So it was quite limited
in Canada compared to some of theother contestants. And it was during the
springtime that we were trying to pullwinter gear together. So I had a
sleeping bag, but it was notadequate for the coold near the end,
(22:59):
I was always curled. I'm basicallya bag going to bed at night with
hot rocks. I had a babybag, which is an outdoor gortex cover.
If you want to do any excursionsand not set up a shelter,
you can set up a baby bag. I also had fishing gear, fishing
line and hooks, and I hada gill net. I had a farah
(23:19):
rod to start fires. And it'sfunny they've sent standardize it, but when
I showed up, I had afaroh rod that was about an inch and
a half long, and one ofthe guys, one of the contestants,
had one that was one foot lotthey've sent standardized the sizes that you can
bring. I also had a twocourt pot, which was probably the most
valuable item that you can bring whenyou're going for longer adventures in the wilderness,
(23:45):
because you need to be able toboil your water. I had paracoord
to help make a shelter. Ialso had a W T W two bowie
knife, so a really big bowieknife. I had an axe, and
I also had I bought one rationof food. You were allowed to bring
up to two rations, and Ibrought just one ration of food. That's
(24:07):
wow, Yeah, that's that's prettycool. You know, you think about
you got ten items that I'd bekind of tough to just pick ten,
you know, I would I wouldthink, you know, that would be
the toughest thing. Yeah, watchingthe show. And I have to tell
you a little confession. I satdown one night. I think I was
going to watch maybe I don't know, ten minutes of TV and I was
going to you know, brush myteeth, goat a bed. I ended
(24:30):
up sitting in front of TV watchingseason three or five and a half hours.
And that was not planned. Itwas that good, and I was
like wow, and I was reallyI was very impressed with with you know,
several of the people, and youwere absolutely one of those. I
remember watching a certain part and I'mthinking, oh man, it just felt
bad for you know, comes someof the things, like you know,
(24:52):
you guys were going through. Whatwas it what turned out to be your
biggest struggle? Would you say?Oh? So? The other thing we
were allowed to bring was a photowith us, like, not a Marrith.
You can bring instructions that you hadlaminated, just a photo. And
I deliberately that sounds very cold andstoic, but I deliberately did not earn
(25:15):
a photo that had my children Iknew if I started to go down that
path, and that was the hardestthing for me and obviously my husband as
well, but raising children. Mychildren at that time were five and nine.
My son actually turned six when Iwas out there. That was a
really hard day for me. I'dnever missed any of my cousin's birthdays.
Yeah, so that for me.I think I'm a pretty independent I was
(25:40):
raised by single father, a prettyindependent female. But you know, when
you have dependence that have no choiceand their dad is amazing, hands on,
amazing. When I got back,it was like I'd never laft.
He really just ran everything, andhe's got a really busy, full time
job as well. But the children. Missing my children was by far the
heart is there for sure. Youcan see that. I can see that.
(26:03):
Yeah, I cannot imagine how muchyou can miss your kids and you
have not one. It's your calla message, So that's very verbs there.
You don't know anything about what's goingon with then, right. Yeah.
One other thing I'll mentioned that wasafter the fact that's challenging is when
(26:23):
we get tested as potential cast forthe show, we'll also go through psychological
testing, not only physical and skilltesting. But psychological and also there's also
a psychologist after just to talk throughthe experience, and she also works on
survivors, so she's seen a wholeswap of contestants throughout the years. But
(26:44):
one thing that's interesting about our show, or at least step until season three,
was that almost all of us areour introvert lying our you know,
ambi adverts, but not necessarily extroverts, even the ones that come across as
more extroverted on TV where we're allwaning to its introversion. So when you
go to watch the show, you'reseeing it live with everyone else and you
(27:07):
have no idea what they're going toshow, so all of a sudden you're
watching it. And during our seasonthere were millions of people watching every show,
and then since then it's been syndicatedand it got very popular during COVID,
Like tens of millions of people haveseen our episode for sure. It's
that part is a really big thingtoo, being an introvert and really exposing
(27:30):
the rawness of a very uh youknow, a survival situation where you're you're
not guarded, you're just you're livingand trying to survive. So that was
the second piece of it that Ifound challenging after the experience was going through
that whole piece. We had trolls, we had the whole social media again,
(27:52):
it that people face a different typeof celebrity, but it's it's interesting
you kind of get a taste ofwhat some of the you know, big
celebrities go through in terms of socialmedia and just putting yourself out there into
the media world. And yes,that's funny now that you talking about that.
It came in my mind because inthe same time you are completely is
(28:14):
related from the world you are inthe TV show exactly very bizarre situation because
everything you are going to do aloneeveryone is going to see. So that's
that's very scary for sure, formainly for introvercted person and what else go
(28:37):
through in your mind every day inthat situation. For me, I kind
of went on with the strategy.I'm you know, I lean towards stoicism,
but I also knew that I neededto go in and feel like I
was being productive, I had apurpose and that I had daily tasks.
So every morning I had a setroutine. I'd wake up before dusk,
(29:00):
I'd go and check my lines throughoutthe day I was resetting, I had
over two hundred traps between trigger traps. They show some of the trigger traps
I made to catch fish. Inthe first three days. I actually made
a fishing rod and I brought deliberatelybrought certain hooks and I made a fishing
rod with a reel and I didthat for a few hours and just realized
(29:21):
that I can't be actively trying tofish like this, like I need to
set up some passive systems to helpme because I have other things that I
need to be doing, like shelterbuilding, collecting, foraging for other foods.
So I had a daily task listand it was like a job for
me. I did certain things inthe morning, and then I would dry
tinder, collect tinder, and collectforge in different areas of my territory.
(29:44):
I went throughout my whole territory,so I had about fifty meters of shoreline,
and then I went straight up amountain and I actually climbed that mountain.
They didn't show it, but Icould see the whole lake. And
I think the production curer when Itold him I did that day, because
they had the footage too. Theywere they were like, well, you
know, be very careful because ifyou had fallen up there, we kind
(30:07):
of extracted you. But I asmy daily life as a forester and a
biologist, I've done thousands of dayswhere I want to explore, too,
like, and I knew that wassomething I wanted to take back with me
as well, that I didn't wantit to just be a job. I
also wanted to explore an hill welost? Did you lost her? I
(30:32):
think we did. I don't know. I think I still here. Are
you still there? Maya? Yeah, I am here? Okay, yeah,
and I see my picture and that, Yeah, I think we did
lose we lost Megan for a second. Let's I'll tell you what. Let's
go to a commercial break. We'llsee if we can get her back here
during that time. Okay, sohey too, will be right back after
(30:52):
these messages. A few years ago, someone asked Rudebega's owner Darren Bush,
Hey, how long have you guysbeen selling boats? Darren replied, we
don't sell boats. We sell timeon the water. Of course, that
(31:14):
comes in all types. We helppeople paddle more safely with Rudebig outdoor programs.
We rent canoes, kayaks, andstand up paddle boards. We sell
and install racks to get you fromhome to adventure. Rudabaka has got everything
you need to get you out onthe water like paddles, life jackets,
dry bags and clothing. Rudega paddlesportson the web at Rudebega dot com.
Mention you saw this ad on theCamping Show it is time to go camping.
(31:38):
Introducing Campground Views virtual tours, youcan tour the campground see the site,
see if they are available, andclick to book your perfect spot,
hit the open road and explore theamazing places found in nature. We make
it easy to discover, find andbook yourself so that you can go have
(32:01):
the fun and freedom you see.Campground Us Virtual Tours make it easy and
simple for you to see where youare going. Dluthpack is handcrafted for every
(32:37):
lifestyle, making memories since eighteen eightytwo in store at three sixty five Canal
Park Drive or online at d luthpackdot com. We are one big family,
a community of tattlers, and wewant to make sure that everyone has
a great time out on the water. We are made right here in part
(32:58):
of Tennessee at USA. This iswhere every Jackson kayak is born. Built
by hands with a focus on innovation. We are Jackie Kyak. We are
we are we are Jacks and Kayakand we are we are we Jackson,
we are Jacquelyn Kayak. Yeah,and we're back with our guest Megan hand
(33:25):
check and you know what before weMegan made her way back here. But
before we go to that, Iwant to just acknowledge a couple of people
here that have been leaving comments.Appreciate you tuning into the show. Everybody,
super good camping. Thank you forchiming, and you guys have some
really good, nice comments. Quaquest the two hundredth show, Yes,
(33:47):
is the two hundredth episode here wegot c W and myrak thank you episode
number two hundred and I don't seeit. I can't find it. Maybe
maybe you got it, but anyway, and then Camper sixty nine Mustang seven
seventy four, thank you guys fortuning in. We appreciate it and appreciate
(34:07):
the compliments or comments. I'm sorry, so anyway, my you take it
away. We got another question forMeg if she's back with us still comment
Yeah, absolutely, I love it. Well, Megan, where are you
allowed to have items like toilet paper? Toothpaste soap are a family and hygiene
(34:32):
products. So in terms of thesoap and toothpaste, if you there is
a list of forty items that youcould choose your time from, so you
could take two of your items asbeing soap, soap and toothpaste if you
had wanted to cut into your tenitems, but they weren't extra items that
you were allowed to take with younow and then in terms of so we
(34:57):
were pretty early in the production Riverseason three. Up until that point,
the season before us had three womenon it. One woman lasted quite a
bit longer than the other two andit was a fairly new thing in terms
of women and sanitary like other products. So in our season they actually didn't
want to include that for the women, and one of the women contestants actually
(35:22):
pushed back. So they did giveus a little bit of material that could
be used monthly, but we hadto film everything. They didn't want women
starting fires with any extras to givean unfair advantage. But I see that's
the extra challenge of being a womanout there that you know that you're not
getting tile and all, you're notgetting all you know, anything to help,
(35:45):
and you're also worried about attracting predators, so you're you know, so
it's another challenge. I think thewomen, you know, on our season
did very well. The three womencame in the top five, and I
just being a woman myself, veryproud of how far we went. We
did amazing. It's you know,and I think that's the thing. The
(36:06):
thing about this Bushcraft survival show,and we had several tools after our season.
It's been a predominantly male, mortualkind of profession. But I think
that's the beauty of this show.It shows the different perspectives and different human
interactions with nature, and women canjust do as equally well as men and
(36:28):
we since then, I've had afemale winner, which is awesome. Well
that's amazing, you know. Ireally have to say from the show,
the episode or the what I wantto call the episodes, the things that
I saw in that five and ahalf hours. I saw the men break
down a lot more than I sawthe women, which I was a little
embarrassed for our gender. But themen were quiet and they were carrying.
(36:52):
I'm like, you know, youdon't see the women doing this or not.
Well I did cry twice once.My said's birthday and they had eight
hours apported to me, and theyshowed them both the times that I cried,
and you know something, it wasa difference. It's not like,
oh my finger hurts, I'm gonnacry. It's it's like you got some
stuff and that's legitimately total. Thisgirl had a hole in her the side
(37:15):
of her butt, that something somespider had bitten her. Yeah, and
I'm like, that's something new,that's something white. Tell me about your
ankle, pal, you know whatI mean. Just say it troubling to
suit here. But still I'm justsaying the women were phenomenal. So anyway,
(37:35):
nothing that we've got some pictures herethat you said is let's take a
look at one. If we canhave you put those up for us,
that'd be great. There we go. What are we looking at here?
Meg? So I do just aspart of my professional career being a professional
biologist some forest or I think it'simportant to mentor and also to teach the
(37:58):
next generation coming up. So myjob is really interesting. I encourage many
people to onto the four sector becausewe are part of the solution moving forward
around climate change, big carbon sinks. You're dealing with multiple very interesting values
around indigenous nations, wildlife values,forscherious values. So it's a very dynamic,
(38:21):
interesting field. So this is takenfrom one of the This is making
cordage. This is showing children howto make cordage, which is like rope
when you're out in the woods.You can just make it from natural fibers
or out in the woods. Cool. This is a trip to Africa.
(38:44):
I'm really lucky. I've traveled toall seven continents, including Natarctic. How
my husband and I actually met inour early days and worked down there.
He was involved in the marine industryand I was a biologist, so we
ended up working down an Antarctic.This picture happens to be in Africa,
which is amazing for any of youwho've been wanting to go there, who
(39:06):
have been there, I have neverbeen some lion blue in and seeing giraffes
walk out of these watered big trees, but they're even bigger walking out.
It's surreal. So I love exploringand traveling is one of my top top
of the list for me in termsof experiences that I want in life.
(39:27):
You know, considering the diversity ofboth of your backgrounds, I bet you
had some interesting conversations on those datesat first. Yeah, we have a
very fun, interesting life. It'skind of tame down now that we have
children, but they come on ouradventures too. We have a boat regal
(39:49):
exploring all the time. My husbandjust took my thirteen year old, our
thirteen year old son on a bighunting trip and he loves it. We
weren't sure if he would love beingin the rain, but you know,
it was torrential sideways right and heturned to his dad and said, I
love this. So that's great excited. Raising some adventurers as well through our
family. That's very cool. Wow, this is actually the day we got
(40:15):
engaged. So I was just goingback moving together over two decades. But
my husband kept talking about hiking thismountain which is in the Waddington Range right
across from us, and I keptwondering, why does he want to do
this so bad? And one dayhe called me and just said, get
(40:35):
the camera here. We used todo a lot of professional photography, say
get the gear ready, we needto go out to the helicopter hangar.
And I was thinking, his family'sinvolved in the well watching industry, and
I thought there was something really neathappening with Wells and and he flew me
to the top of a mountain range. And again one of my close female
friends, very few and far betweento have female helicopter pilots, she was
(41:00):
piloting that day. And that's themountain we got engaged on. So that's
kind of oh my god, that'sanother show something. Yeah, yeah,
there you go. And then thisis our season looking all tough. So
(41:22):
we have Britt on the far leftand Greg Evans right, Pasoda Fowlers in
the orange. Then we have DaveNassia down in the front row in the
camel, Carly who came in secondin the in the purple, Zach is
in the middle of the screen.There myself in the blue, and then
we have Dan and Jim and Kellyon the far right. So it was
(41:45):
a great crew we had. I'llgive the alone casting crew the kudos because
they really picked some great people tobe on the show, like really really
great people who have so ward values. Yeah yeah, but I feel like
people who are willing to do thatmust be so nice, you know.
(42:08):
Yeah, yeah, I think you'relike, I think it does attract a
certain group that you know, they'renot kind of attracted by man made constructs
necessarily, they're more attracted to outdoornature experience and working through hard conditions.
Sometimes it's not always parklike and sunny. Yeah, and I have a question
(42:35):
the clothes you cannot go with yourclothes are there? We are? Yeah,
we are a lot of few thingsthat aren't included in the ten,
Like they're not necessarily anything that's goingto help you for survival, but we're
allowed. I think we had apair of boots and two pairs of socks,
a pair of pants, a jacket, and a couple of shirts.
(42:59):
But it's it's thing significant, likeyeah, it's like it's just stuff that
you know when they go through allthat gear too, and make sure that
there's not extra things sometimes that likebelts aren't allowed because you could use that,
you know, to sharpen your knife. Yeah, so there's they're very
sturringent. They go through all thegear and then they walk it away before
(43:22):
launch, so no one can andI don't think any And that's the other
thing about our career, like justsuch an honest group that we're there for
the experience, that you know,there was no concerns with people trying to
smuggle materials in or whatnot. No, that's cool. Yeah, so that's
just like grout. So this isanother interesting side story. So Callie,
(43:45):
he was on our season, isin the green there and she actually got
married to Randy from another season andhave a child. And this is at
their wedding earlier this year. Sothere's this is the some of the females
from the Alone franchise together. Ohthat's so nice. Yeah that where'd you
(44:07):
meet your husband in the middle ofan isolated different seasons but they met through
the network of the Alone family areAlone failing? That's cool. So this
is my regular job is I'm inthis photo in the blue and we do
(44:29):
professional forestry and management of a wholebunch of different values including wildlife and carbon
and wildfire is a really big one. As you guys know, you got
many much of our smoke this lastYeah, thank you very much, you
know, but these are things thatyou know, as globally we need to
(44:51):
deal with as we move forward,as doing the changing weather and how that
affects big fourest tracks of land andaffects all the values and how how do
we Managle's values of mitigay and stillproduce lumber for structural buildings like housing,
which is a big one in NorthAmerica an employment and economy. So the
four sectors are really interesting field andyeah, I love it. I just
(45:17):
love how dynamic every day is andhow interesting it is and how valuable it
is as a profession moving forward.That's a very cool job. Yes,
this is part of our adventuring.So this is in a very remote part
of Vancouver Island. And those glassballs you've seen my hand have likely being
(45:38):
on the ocean current for upwards orten years. They're Japanese floats. The
Japanese fishing industries use glass floats andmany of them are being phased out now,
but some of them are quite valuableand you can find them wash up
on the beach and one of thosein there is quite valuable. They have
(46:00):
their own sort of signature at thebottom. So it's really neat. It's
a really neat thing to do.We also mushroom forge. It's like treasure
hunting, going out and finding reallycool things that you know, it's just
really interesting and we our children loveit too to look for things like this.
(46:20):
This is one of my talks toThis is a younger group. I
usually do older audiences, but thisis one of my talks to elementary school
children and those groups are great.My son happened to be in this and
this audience too, so he lovedit. But the kids are yeah,
you know, it's great to getthem exposure to, you know, just
(46:42):
thinking differently and to thinking like howcan I get more in tune with nature.
We happen to live, as Imentioned, in an area that's more
wild but I've done presentations to alot of city children and there's that disconnect
with nature and the earth sometimes becauseyou're surrounded by an urban setting. So
it's great to be that connection withchildren, to get them appreciative and to
(47:07):
get them interested in wilderness. Verycool, very cool. Yeah, yeah,
that's very cool. Thank you somuch for sharing all those pictures with
you and Megan. Where can peoplefind you online? So I had a
(47:30):
really big following on Instagram and Igot around, but I'm back on Instagram
Facebook. An interesting thing that happenedduring the COVID pandemic is I quickly was
getting eight hundred requests after March thirteenth, when they announced the pandemic. So
I'm almost maxed out for friends onFacebook, but I am on Facebook and
(47:51):
I post their regularly. And thenmy professional career is more on LinkedIn,
so Facebook and LinkedIn, and Ialso have a website through my company,
Pacific West Resource Management, which youcan find through Google. That's awesome.
Well, Megan listen, we wantto thank you for being a guest here
on Outdoors People. It was apleasure having you with us here this season.
(48:12):
Great. Thank you so much forhaving me today. Yeah, yes,
thank you very much. And congratulationfor your compliments of what you did
in the show. That's very nice, absolutely nice. And we also want
to thank you our sponsors for bringingyou tonight's show Ruta Baga, Pettersports,
cam Ground Views, that Luf Peckand Jackson Kayak. Tune in for next
(48:37):
week's episode My Life as a ProfessionalScuba Diver with our guest Melanie Trevino.
Our Melody, Melody Trevino Sorry,along with miyamr Zaki. This is c
W Getz saying thank you for tuningin to Outdoors People. See you next
week. Shows
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