May 19, 2025 • 14 mins
Facing the Wild: Donnie Vincent on Risk, Gear, and Going Deep Into the Backcountry
On this gripping episode of The Hunt Stealth Podcast, Ryan Uffens sits down with legendary filmmaker, biologist, and backcountry hunter Donnie Vincent to unravel the raw reality of what it takes to survive—and thrive—on some of the most remote hunts on the planet.
Donnie recounts harrowing moments from the cliffs of the Chugach Mountains to brutal seas off the Aleutian chain. From lightning strikes at 5,000 feet to navigating canoe-splitting storms in Northern Ontario, this isn’t your average hunting story—it’s a survival manual forged in real danger.
But it’s not just about close calls. Donnie shares a step-by-step breakdown of how to build a backcountry hunting system, from gear to mindset. He reveals the "system of systems" philosophy that every serious hunter must develop—covering clothing, shelters, clean water, food prep, layering, understanding terrain, and navigating grizzly country. Whether you're bowhunting moose or planning your first solo trip into bear country, this episode is packed with life-saving tips, hard-won experience, and mindset shifts to prepare for the wild.
For new hunters and seasoned adventurers alike, Donnie’s words are a mix of grit, wisdom, and reverence for nature. If you’re ready to stop romanticizing the backcountry and start preparing like your life depends on it—because sometimes it does—this is the episode you don’t want to miss.
🔥 7 Key Takeaways from the Episode
- You’re never tougher than the terrain – Whether it’s cliff edges in Alaska or chaos in the Bering Sea, nature doesn’t care how skilled you are. Respect it—or risk everything.
- Build a system of systems – Success in the backcountry comes down to dialing in your gear, food, water, shelter, and mindset into a repeatable, resilient framework.
- Know the laws better than your buddies – Don’t rely on campfire rumors. Study state regs yourself—one missing archery stamp can ruin a season.
- Predators aren’t monsters—but they are wild – Grizzlies, black bears, and mountain lions need to be understood, not feared blindly. Know their behavior and plan accordingly.
- Prepare for the “unkunks” – From volcanic eruptions to flash floods, the unknown unknowns are often the deadliest. Prepare like your life depends on it—because it might.
- Borrow brilliance, don’t reinvent – Study gear lists from guys like Aaron Snyder and adapt what works. Even seasoned hunters are always learning.
- Anyone can do it—but not without grit – Big, small, fit, or scrappy—if you’re willing to plan, adapt, and put in the work, the backcountry is yours to conquer.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
You're listening to the Hunt Stealth podcast.
Tell me, have you had any experiences where you've been
out there and it's been sketchy and you're going like, what?
What are we doing? Oh, many, man, That's a great
question. I've had that happen to me a
lot. I've had that happen to me
several times on canoe trips. I've had it happen to me.
(00:21):
I've had it happen to me on the sides of mountains.
I've had it happen to me in the middle of the ocean and I was
hunting doll sheep, bow hunting doll sheep in Alaska a few years
ago in October in the Chugach Mountains.
It's a really young mountain range of steep dangerous
mountain range. And it was a lot of lot of snow,
a lot of ice on that particular trip.
(00:42):
And I had to cross some cliffs to get in on a big ram that that
I had my eye on. And it was just very little room
for error. If I would have slipped or, or
one of my guys would have slipped, we would have certainly
lost our lives. So that was, you know, that's
one of those things where you'rejust really, really paying
attention at your, your boot leather and you're looking at
the sole of your boot. You're looking at all the little
(01:03):
edges and your, all the little nooks and crannies and
everything is hyper focused and you're doing everything one
handed because you have your bowin one hand, you're holding on
to the rock for the other hand. And then the photographer, he's
got his camera in one hand, he'sholding on to the rock for the
other hand. And then, you know, we've had
times where we've been in the ocean, winds of Ada comes to
mind. That's we had some really scary
(01:25):
waves, really disorganized waves.
And, and it just felt like if you look on a map, it's the
entire Bering Sea to our N, you look to our South, it's the
entire Gulf of Alaska. There's a couple little pieces
of land in the Aleutian chain. And then the next piece of dirt
isn't until Hawaii. And so it's this massive,
(01:47):
massive area of ocean. You have deep water coming to
shallow water, you have huge winds, you have huge currents.
And it, it results in very disorganized.
You see the waves are kind of peaked out and they're, they're,
it's not like a lake where they're just flowing like this.
They're all over the place. And your boat is skidding down
them and your boat's falling offthe top.
(02:08):
And it's, you feel as small as you could possibly feel.
And you know, it like in the back of my mind like this, these
waves sink or whatever it is, ice accidents like these waves
sink massive crab boats every year or every other year.
And here we are in a little 50 foot boat or whatever.
And you know, so there's been a number of I've been in lightning
(02:29):
storms, you know, I think being on top of a mountain or being in
a boat or being in a canoe in the middle of a lake or the most
revealing, so most, most exposedyou can feel during a, a, a
Thunder lightning storm. And I've had them on the tops of
mountains and somehow, somehow when you're at 5000 feet, it
feels like you're way closer to the lightning than when you're
(02:50):
at zero and, or at 100 or 500. And when you're at 5000, it's
just like, man, is that lightning.
But going through me, like it feels like it's hitting them
out. And it feels like the Thunder
is, it feels like you're standing in the clouds that the
Thunder is going off. And I've, I've had that before.
I've also been crossing huge lakes.
I was in northern Ontario one time crossing this huge lake in
(03:13):
a canoe and there's this really big swell of waves and I was
paddling and the mic canoe was going up the wave and down the
wave and I'm paddling. And then I didn't even notice.
But the huge swell just kept getting smaller and smaller.
And I was like, I didn't even notice until all of a sudden I
was canoeing and I was like, whoa, it's glass, it's flat,
(03:34):
calm, like it's really nice. I was like, wow, it's really
nice. Then I turned around and it was
just hell was coming. The blackest storm had just
sucked all the energy out of, you know, the the lake that I
was crossing. And then, oh, that was, I think
there were tornadoes that came down in that area.
There were trees. And when I woke up in the
morning, there were trees down everywhere.
(03:55):
It was. Yeah, it was.
But many, many times I felt veryexposed.
For somebody that that's going to go out into the new area that
they haven't been into, like what preparations or or maybe
misconceptions would you would you tell people maybe don't
account for as they're preparingto go out on on some of these
(04:16):
more remote huts? Yeah.
Well, first things like if you're going to, you know,
looking into an area, the first thing I would recommend to
somebody, and this seems so obvious, but it changes all the
time, but I've kind of try to become an expert at the
regulations, right? Really what a lot of times
hunters, they'll talk to their dad or their uncle or a friend
or the guy at the bow shop and they'll say, Oh yeah, that's an
(04:38):
over to the counter area. You need a Prairie elk tag for
that. And you can get a lot of rumor
and a lot of misconceptions. So one of the things that I
would recommend is somebody theyreally understand the rules and
regulations, what tags they need, what hunting licenses they
need. One time I haunted in Montana
and I got to this outfitter at the Milk River, Eric Albus at
the Milk River. And he's like, I had all myself.
(05:00):
He's like, you have all your tags.
And I was like, Yep. And he's like, do you have an
archery stamp? And I said Nope.
And he said Yep, the state of Montana requires an archery
stamp and for some reason they don't sell you one when you buy
your tag online. So I had to go get my archery
stamp. So it's just little things like
that. But you know, picking an area
apart via maps and understandingthe weather and understanding
what the extremes are. Like you said, if a thunderstorm
(05:22):
comes in Utah, you might be fromthe Midwest where when a
thunderstorm comes, it's loud and windy and rainy and might
spawn a tornado. But in Utah, it's not going to
spawn a tornado. But you certainly should
probably know about flash floodsand understand that a little dry
Creek red that you crossed five hours ago might be a raging
torrent. Now that looks like something
(05:43):
you could probably cross becauseit doesn't look real.
It just looks fast, but it couldbe a life ending situation.
And so just looking at things like that and then when you're
when you're doing things like I do and going into the
Backcountry or Caribou, moose, grizzly bears, things like that.
If you don't have a guide like for black bear, moose or
Caribou, you really want to start breaking down your system
(06:03):
and understanding, OK, what doesyour camp look like?
OK, I need a tent, I need a sleeping pad, I need a sleeping
bag. What type of sleeping bag do I
need? What temperature ranges am I
look at? How wet is it going to be?
And then you start looking at your stove and the type of fuel
that you want to use and the food that you want to eat and
how you're going to get clean water.
Or you're just dipping your bottle in a mountain stream.
(06:25):
Or are you using a water purifier because your camp next
to a lake that has Beavers in itor a lake that just certainly
has microbes in it. And so then you break down your,
your shelter, you break down your, your clean drinking water.
And then you know, from there, you move on to your clothing and
understand what layers you're going to need, what level of
rain gear you're going to need. Are you going to need something
like Kuyu or Sitka? Or are you going to need
(06:47):
something that if you're in a true deluge or you're going to
need like APVC reindeer or something like from Grunden's or
whatever that's true plastic, you know, that cheap stuff
that's just truly, truly waterproof.
And so you start breaking those,all those things down and, and
then, and then of course, it's understanding the animals.
Are you going to an area that has a lot of bowls, a few bowls,
(07:07):
a lot of females, a few females?Would it be better to get a cow
tag? Better to get a, a bull tag?
And if there is a bull tag, are you buying like a 5 point side
tag to where there's very few five points?
It just really understanding allyour little categorical things
to make your hunt a success. And then understanding the, a
friend of mine calls them unkunks, the unknown unknowns.
(07:29):
So what do you have for weather in the area?
What is really dangerous? Like the I'm, I leave for Alaska
next Sunday or week from Sunday.And the area that I'm going has,
I'm not going to say a lot, but experiences volcanic eruptions.
It can experiences earthquakes on relatively regular.
(07:50):
There's massive, massive bears where I'm going.
And so these are things that I kind of have to understand.
I'm flying in little airplanes. So I have to prepare myself, as
weird as this is, I have to try to keep my gear and my my
satellite SOS device. Like that's something I have to
keep close to me when I'm in theairplane because if I get an
(08:10):
airplane crash, I'm most likely going to lose my life.
But if I don't lose my life, I have to have a secondary process
of getting out of that. So it's literally just, I think
people look at what people look at other people's hunts, my own
or other people's that, whose hunts are a little bit more
public. They look at, you know, like a
big set of Caribou antlers or something.
(08:30):
And they, and they think like, oh man, how do I get one of
those? And really it's about a system
of systems and really starting to break it down into digestible
pieces. Anyone can do it, even big fat
guys, you can do it. You just got to go take one step
at a time. Or little skinny guys that are
kind of, you know, if they're weak, you have to just carry
less gear and make multiple trips.
(08:52):
Like anyone can do it for the most part.
And so it's just breaking down the system of system.
It's really understanding and then being honest with yourself,
right? If you have a crippling fear of
bears, maybe this isn't the areafor you that has giant bears.
Because even though the bears probably aren't going to harass
you, maybe you're not going to sleep at night.
Maybe every little twig that snaps at night, you're going to
(09:12):
be like, what is that? What was that?
What was that? I thought I saw that Bush move
over there. I remember the first few times I
was in grizzly country, it didn't bother me.
But I remember when I would cross through valleys that were
choked with brush, like I felt like I was going to be just
snatched down by grizzly bears. So I would say that's what I
would recommend to somebody is understanding the regulations,
(09:33):
understanding the animals, understanding and then breaking
everything down in systems of systems.
Google other people's gear lists, find out, You know, you
take somebody like my friend Aaron Snyder from Kafaru, you
know, Aaron does a lot of Backcountry hunts.
So Aaron might have, and I've done a lot of Backcountry hunts,
but does that mean I can't learnfrom Aaron?
(09:54):
No, he might have, I might look at his gear list and he says,
hey, for blisters I use leuco tape.
And I sit there and I go, I've never even heard of leuco tape.
So I look up leuco tape and thenI and then I look it up and
figure out how to patch my blister with leuco tape.
And I've taken a little piece from Aaron.
And so I would recommend that people kind of look at other
people's systems and then and then start to formulate their
(10:15):
own on what they can afford and then the type of gear that
they're going to need. Yeah, that's awesome.
You know, you, you talked a little bit about, you know,
being scared, seeing Grizzlies and, and stuff like that, like.
Is there? Any like advice that you would
give to somebody as far as just being aware of like the wildlife
(10:35):
and the habitat as they go into some of the Backcountry type
hunts and and more remote things?
Yeah, I think it's just understanding really what's
there mostly in the United States, really.
Your big, the animals you're really thinking about are
mountain lions would be a significant 1, grizzly bears and
brown bears. I guess if you're going to be
(10:56):
way up in the North, you're going to be thinking about polar
bears. But black bears are less of a
significant. They do kill people.
And everyone likes to quote thisstatistic.
Whether it's true or not, I'm not sure.
But black bears kill about threetimes as many people as grizzly
bears. But people also have to realize
that there are black bears almost everywhere and that
(11:16):
people are around black bears a lot.
And black bears are opportunistic.
They do kill. And it's not just that they kill
little old ladies and little kids, which sometimes happens,
but they have, I know a couple of guys that are were really,
really strong mountain men. And I know one in particular
that was killed by a black bear killed on an archery hunt and
the bear consumed him a little bit.
(11:39):
But but it's understanding like really what you have, like where
I'm going, I've I've not haunteda ton in Montana and I'm not
haunted a ton in Wyoming, but I have friends that have and they
talk all the time about, hey, we're seeing a lot of bears.
We're seeing a lot of grizzly bears and we're seeing a lot of
aggressive bears. And so they were kind of talking
to me. They said, do you see a lot of
(12:00):
bears in Alaska? And I said, well, it depends on
where I am. Sometimes I see a ton of bears.
And then they said, well, how aggressive are they?
And I've been around aggressive bears and I've been around bears
that aren't aggressive. So you just kind of have to feel
that all out. But for instance, where I'm
going a week from Sunday is the biggest bears in the world.
It's the north northern part of the Alaska Peninsula, very
similar to the bears on Kodiak. And Peninsula bears are very,
(12:21):
very large bears. But when I'm there, the salmon
are going to be running. So will I see bears?
Probably. If I have to go and cross some
of these ravines and steep ravines, which I very likely
will have to go through this brush choked.
And I mean, I do mean brush choked.
It's it's head high, 15 feet tall, like impenetrable brush
(12:44):
like you could. You can't even fall down, Ryan,
because the brush catches you ifyou fall.
Like if you stumble and fall, you just kind of go like this.
And then you stand back up and it's nasty.
That's thorns. But those bears for the most
part, are going to be combing the beaches for dead whales,
dead seals, kelp, salmon that have just washed up on shore.
(13:07):
And they're also going to be in the river systems catching fresh
fish and eating them as fast as they can.
So I'm not worried about these bears, even if I, I shouldn't
say I'm not worried. I'm, I'm, I'm understanding that
they are probably busy. And even if I run into them,
they're probably very full. So unless I bump a bear, which
is an entire possibility and to where I scare him significantly
(13:28):
enough that he attacks me, that's, that's the one thing
that I really have in my mind's eye.
And I will, this is a rifle hunt.
So I will have a a bolt action rifle with me.
I don't believe there's going tobe any other weapons with us.
Sometimes I've brought a shotgunfor to keep in the tent if I'll
bring like a slug on it for archery hunting.
(13:50):
I've never carried a pistol. I know some guys carry pistols,
but I've never I haven't been a pistol guy as of yet.
I know, I think somebody just killed a bear with a pistol, was
recently attacked and shot a bear.
But so it's just understanding. And then like mountain lions
also, you're just looking at thebiology of the animals.
So if you're in a, if you're in an area with mountain lions and
almost all these animals like everything, like anything down
(14:13):
from a, a child's fable up to what the grizzly old mountain
man will kind of tell you, they get they, these animals get
turned into monsters, right? They, they get sensationalized
into the blood dripping off their teeth and claws.
And he's a man eater. You hear those terms, right, Man
eater. And once that really tastes
blood, he's coming for you. Well, not nothing could be
(14:36):
further from the truth. Most of these animals are just
going about their business. And even mountain lions, which
do kill people occasionally. You just have to have your wits
about you, right? And you have to be able to keep
looking behind you and just understand what you're dealing
with.
You're listening to the Hunt Stealth podcast.
Tell me, have you had any experiences where you've been
out there and it's been sketchy and you're going like, what?
What are we doing? Oh, many, man, That's a great
question. I've had that happen to me a
lot. I've had that happen to me
several times on canoe trips. I've had it happen to me.
(00:21):
I've had it happen to me on the sides of mountains.
I've had it happen to me in the middle of the ocean and I was
hunting doll sheep, bow hunting doll sheep in Alaska a few years
ago in October in the Chugach Mountains.
It's a really young mountain range of steep dangerous
mountain range. And it was a lot of lot of snow,
a lot of ice on that particular trip.
(00:42):
And I had to cross some cliffs to get in on a big ram that that
I had my eye on. And it was just very little room
for error. If I would have slipped or, or
one of my guys would have slipped, we would have certainly
lost our lives. So that was, you know, that's
one of those things where you'rejust really, really paying
attention at your, your boot leather and you're looking at
the sole of your boot. You're looking at all the little
(01:03):
edges and your, all the little nooks and crannies and
everything is hyper focused and you're doing everything one
handed because you have your bowin one hand, you're holding on
to the rock for the other hand. And then the photographer, he's
got his camera in one hand, he'sholding on to the rock for the
other hand. And then, you know, we've had
times where we've been in the ocean, winds of Ada comes to
mind. That's we had some really scary
(01:25):
waves, really disorganized waves.
And, and it just felt like if you look on a map, it's the
entire Bering Sea to our N, you look to our South, it's the
entire Gulf of Alaska. There's a couple little pieces
of land in the Aleutian chain. And then the next piece of dirt
isn't until Hawaii. And so it's this massive,
(01:47):
massive area of ocean. You have deep water coming to
shallow water, you have huge winds, you have huge currents.
And it, it results in very disorganized.
You see the waves are kind of peaked out and they're, they're,
it's not like a lake where they're just flowing like this.
They're all over the place. And your boat is skidding down
them and your boat's falling offthe top.
(02:08):
And it's, you feel as small as you could possibly feel.
And you know, it like in the back of my mind like this, these
waves sink or whatever it is, ice accidents like these waves
sink massive crab boats every year or every other year.
And here we are in a little 50 foot boat or whatever.
And you know, so there's been a number of I've been in lightning
(02:29):
storms, you know, I think being on top of a mountain or being in
a boat or being in a canoe in the middle of a lake or the most
revealing, so most, most exposedyou can feel during a, a, a
Thunder lightning storm. And I've had them on the tops of
mountains and somehow, somehow when you're at 5000 feet, it
feels like you're way closer to the lightning than when you're
(02:50):
at zero and, or at 100 or 500. And when you're at 5000, it's
just like, man, is that lightning.
But going through me, like it feels like it's hitting them
out. And it feels like the Thunder
is, it feels like you're standing in the clouds that the
Thunder is going off. And I've, I've had that before.
I've also been crossing huge lakes.
I was in northern Ontario one time crossing this huge lake in
(03:13):
a canoe and there's this really big swell of waves and I was
paddling and the mic canoe was going up the wave and down the
wave and I'm paddling. And then I didn't even notice.
But the huge swell just kept getting smaller and smaller.
And I was like, I didn't even notice until all of a sudden I
was canoeing and I was like, whoa, it's glass, it's flat,
(03:34):
calm, like it's really nice. I was like, wow, it's really
nice. Then I turned around and it was
just hell was coming. The blackest storm had just
sucked all the energy out of, you know, the the lake that I
was crossing. And then, oh, that was, I think
there were tornadoes that came down in that area.
There were trees. And when I woke up in the
morning, there were trees down everywhere.
(03:55):
It was. Yeah, it was.
But many, many times I felt veryexposed.
For somebody that that's going to go out into the new area that
they haven't been into, like what preparations or or maybe
misconceptions would you would you tell people maybe don't
account for as they're preparingto go out on on some of these
(04:16):
more remote huts? Yeah.
Well, first things like if you're going to, you know,
looking into an area, the first thing I would recommend to
somebody, and this seems so obvious, but it changes all the
time, but I've kind of try to become an expert at the
regulations, right? Really what a lot of times
hunters, they'll talk to their dad or their uncle or a friend
or the guy at the bow shop and they'll say, Oh yeah, that's an
(04:38):
over to the counter area. You need a Prairie elk tag for
that. And you can get a lot of rumor
and a lot of misconceptions. So one of the things that I
would recommend is somebody theyreally understand the rules and
regulations, what tags they need, what hunting licenses they
need. One time I haunted in Montana
and I got to this outfitter at the Milk River, Eric Albus at
the Milk River. And he's like, I had all myself.
(05:00):
He's like, you have all your tags.
And I was like, Yep. And he's like, do you have an
archery stamp? And I said Nope.
And he said Yep, the state of Montana requires an archery
stamp and for some reason they don't sell you one when you buy
your tag online. So I had to go get my archery
stamp. So it's just little things like
that. But you know, picking an area
apart via maps and understandingthe weather and understanding
what the extremes are. Like you said, if a thunderstorm
(05:22):
comes in Utah, you might be fromthe Midwest where when a
thunderstorm comes, it's loud and windy and rainy and might
spawn a tornado. But in Utah, it's not going to
spawn a tornado. But you certainly should
probably know about flash floodsand understand that a little dry
Creek red that you crossed five hours ago might be a raging
torrent. Now that looks like something
(05:43):
you could probably cross becauseit doesn't look real.
It just looks fast, but it couldbe a life ending situation.
And so just looking at things like that and then when you're
when you're doing things like I do and going into the
Backcountry or Caribou, moose, grizzly bears, things like that.
If you don't have a guide like for black bear, moose or
Caribou, you really want to start breaking down your system
(06:03):
and understanding, OK, what doesyour camp look like?
OK, I need a tent, I need a sleeping pad, I need a sleeping
bag. What type of sleeping bag do I
need? What temperature ranges am I
look at? How wet is it going to be?
And then you start looking at your stove and the type of fuel
that you want to use and the food that you want to eat and
how you're going to get clean water.
Or you're just dipping your bottle in a mountain stream.
(06:25):
Or are you using a water purifier because your camp next
to a lake that has Beavers in itor a lake that just certainly
has microbes in it. And so then you break down your,
your shelter, you break down your, your clean drinking water.
And then you know, from there, you move on to your clothing and
understand what layers you're going to need, what level of
rain gear you're going to need. Are you going to need something
like Kuyu or Sitka? Or are you going to need
(06:47):
something that if you're in a true deluge or you're going to
need like APVC reindeer or something like from Grunden's or
whatever that's true plastic, you know, that cheap stuff
that's just truly, truly waterproof.
And so you start breaking those,all those things down and, and
then, and then of course, it's understanding the animals.
Are you going to an area that has a lot of bowls, a few bowls,
(07:07):
a lot of females, a few females?Would it be better to get a cow
tag? Better to get a, a bull tag?
And if there is a bull tag, are you buying like a 5 point side
tag to where there's very few five points?
It just really understanding allyour little categorical things
to make your hunt a success. And then understanding the, a
friend of mine calls them unkunks, the unknown unknowns.
(07:29):
So what do you have for weather in the area?
What is really dangerous? Like the I'm, I leave for Alaska
next Sunday or week from Sunday.And the area that I'm going has,
I'm not going to say a lot, but experiences volcanic eruptions.
It can experiences earthquakes on relatively regular.
(07:50):
There's massive, massive bears where I'm going.
And so these are things that I kind of have to understand.
I'm flying in little airplanes. So I have to prepare myself, as
weird as this is, I have to try to keep my gear and my my
satellite SOS device. Like that's something I have to
keep close to me when I'm in theairplane because if I get an
(08:10):
airplane crash, I'm most likely going to lose my life.
But if I don't lose my life, I have to have a secondary process
of getting out of that. So it's literally just, I think
people look at what people look at other people's hunts, my own
or other people's that, whose hunts are a little bit more
public. They look at, you know, like a
big set of Caribou antlers or something.
(08:30):
And they, and they think like, oh man, how do I get one of
those? And really it's about a system
of systems and really starting to break it down into digestible
pieces. Anyone can do it, even big fat
guys, you can do it. You just got to go take one step
at a time. Or little skinny guys that are
kind of, you know, if they're weak, you have to just carry
less gear and make multiple trips.
(08:52):
Like anyone can do it for the most part.
And so it's just breaking down the system of system.
It's really understanding and then being honest with yourself,
right? If you have a crippling fear of
bears, maybe this isn't the areafor you that has giant bears.
Because even though the bears probably aren't going to harass
you, maybe you're not going to sleep at night.
Maybe every little twig that snaps at night, you're going to
(09:12):
be like, what is that? What was that?
What was that? I thought I saw that Bush move
over there. I remember the first few times I
was in grizzly country, it didn't bother me.
But I remember when I would cross through valleys that were
choked with brush, like I felt like I was going to be just
snatched down by grizzly bears. So I would say that's what I
would recommend to somebody is understanding the regulations,
(09:33):
understanding the animals, understanding and then breaking
everything down in systems of systems.
Google other people's gear lists, find out, You know, you
take somebody like my friend Aaron Snyder from Kafaru, you
know, Aaron does a lot of Backcountry hunts.
So Aaron might have, and I've done a lot of Backcountry hunts,
but does that mean I can't learnfrom Aaron?
(09:54):
No, he might have, I might look at his gear list and he says,
hey, for blisters I use leuco tape.
And I sit there and I go, I've never even heard of leuco tape.
So I look up leuco tape and thenI and then I look it up and
figure out how to patch my blister with leuco tape.
And I've taken a little piece from Aaron.
And so I would recommend that people kind of look at other
people's systems and then and then start to formulate their
(10:15):
own on what they can afford and then the type of gear that
they're going to need. Yeah, that's awesome.
You know, you, you talked a little bit about, you know,
being scared, seeing Grizzlies and, and stuff like that, like.
Is there? Any like advice that you would
give to somebody as far as just being aware of like the wildlife
(10:35):
and the habitat as they go into some of the Backcountry type
hunts and and more remote things?
Yeah, I think it's just understanding really what's
there mostly in the United States, really.
Your big, the animals you're really thinking about are
mountain lions would be a significant 1, grizzly bears and
brown bears. I guess if you're going to be
(10:56):
way up in the North, you're going to be thinking about polar
bears. But black bears are less of a
significant. They do kill people.
And everyone likes to quote thisstatistic.
Whether it's true or not, I'm not sure.
But black bears kill about threetimes as many people as grizzly
bears. But people also have to realize
that there are black bears almost everywhere and that
(11:16):
people are around black bears a lot.
And black bears are opportunistic.
They do kill. And it's not just that they kill
little old ladies and little kids, which sometimes happens,
but they have, I know a couple of guys that are were really,
really strong mountain men. And I know one in particular
that was killed by a black bear killed on an archery hunt and
the bear consumed him a little bit.
(11:39):
But but it's understanding like really what you have, like where
I'm going, I've I've not haunteda ton in Montana and I'm not
haunted a ton in Wyoming, but I have friends that have and they
talk all the time about, hey, we're seeing a lot of bears.
We're seeing a lot of grizzly bears and we're seeing a lot of
aggressive bears. And so they were kind of talking
to me. They said, do you see a lot of
(12:00):
bears in Alaska? And I said, well, it depends on
where I am. Sometimes I see a ton of bears.
And then they said, well, how aggressive are they?
And I've been around aggressive bears and I've been around bears
that aren't aggressive. So you just kind of have to feel
that all out. But for instance, where I'm
going a week from Sunday is the biggest bears in the world.
It's the north northern part of the Alaska Peninsula, very
similar to the bears on Kodiak. And Peninsula bears are very,
(12:21):
very large bears. But when I'm there, the salmon
are going to be running. So will I see bears?
Probably. If I have to go and cross some
of these ravines and steep ravines, which I very likely
will have to go through this brush choked.
And I mean, I do mean brush choked.
It's it's head high, 15 feet tall, like impenetrable brush
(12:44):
like you could. You can't even fall down, Ryan,
because the brush catches you ifyou fall.
Like if you stumble and fall, you just kind of go like this.
And then you stand back up and it's nasty.
That's thorns. But those bears for the most
part, are going to be combing the beaches for dead whales,
dead seals, kelp, salmon that have just washed up on shore.
(13:07):
And they're also going to be in the river systems catching fresh
fish and eating them as fast as they can.
So I'm not worried about these bears, even if I, I shouldn't
say I'm not worried. I'm, I'm, I'm understanding that
they are probably busy. And even if I run into them,
they're probably very full. So unless I bump a bear, which
is an entire possibility and to where I scare him significantly
(13:28):
enough that he attacks me, that's, that's the one thing
that I really have in my mind's eye.
And I will, this is a rifle hunt.
So I will have a a bolt action rifle with me.
I don't believe there's going tobe any other weapons with us.
Sometimes I've brought a shotgunfor to keep in the tent if I'll
bring like a slug on it for archery hunting.
(13:50):
I've never carried a pistol. I know some guys carry pistols,
but I've never I haven't been a pistol guy as of yet.
I know, I think somebody just killed a bear with a pistol, was
recently attacked and shot a bear.
But so it's just understanding. And then like mountain lions
also, you're just looking at thebiology of the animals.
So if you're in a, if you're in an area with mountain lions and
almost all these animals like everything, like anything down
(14:13):
from a, a child's fable up to what the grizzly old mountain
man will kind of tell you, they get they, these animals get
turned into monsters, right? They, they get sensationalized
into the blood dripping off their teeth and claws.
And he's a man eater. You hear those terms, right, Man
eater. And once that really tastes
blood, he's coming for you. Well, not nothing could be
(14:36):
further from the truth. Most of these animals are just
going about their business. And even mountain lions, which
do kill people occasionally. You just have to have your wits
about you, right? And you have to be able to keep
looking behind you and just understand what you're dealing
with.
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