Ep 150 The Hunting Stories Podcast: Joe Elliston

Send us a text Stepping into the wild with a poorly designed backpack can turn dream hunts into nightmares—something Joe Elliston learned firsthand before co-founding Initial Ascent. His journey from an 86-pound disaster pack to creating one of hunting's most respected backpack companies forms the backdrop for this captivating episode filled with unforgettable stories from the backcountry.Joe's tale of his son Brody harvesting a turkey while half-dressed—camo pants around his ankles, no shirt, and hat backward—brings comic relief and proves sometimes success comes despite our mistakes. But the mood shifts dramatically as Joe recounts a bone-chilling encounter with a wolf pack that surrounded their camp at what was later identified as a wolf "rendezvous point." The pack's eerie, guttural howls continued for hours, forcing them to pack out in darkness with wolves following uncomfortably close behind.Through these experiences, Joe reveals how adversity sparked innovation. The miserable first backpacking trip where his youngest son shivered in soaked sleeping bags became the catalyst for Initial Ascent's mission to build packs that carry heavy loads comfortably. His Bennett Mountain elk hunt story, complete with unexpected access challenges and eventual success, showcases the persistence that drives both hunting and entrepreneurship.Whether you're planning your next backcountry adventure or simply enjoy authentic hunting stories, Joe's experiences offer valuable insights and reminders of why we venture into wild places despite the challenges they present. His passion for sharing the outdoors with his sons and building equipment worthy of life's most meaningful moments shines through every story. https://initialascent.com/ Support the show Hunting Stories InstagramHave a story? Click here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Howdy folks and welcome to the hunting stories
podcast.
I'm your host, michael, and wegot another great episode for
you today.
Today we're actually connectingwith Joe Elliston.
If you don't know Joe, he's oneof the co-founders and he is
the CEO of Initial Ascent.
They make some pretty awesomebackpacks.
I haven't used them before thisepisode, but I was doing my
research because my backpackdoesn't stop squeaking and I

(00:27):
hate taking it out.
I start to hear phantom buglesit's just phantom turkey gobbles
it's just.
The pack has been irritating mefor a few years.
So I'm glad I was able to talkto Joe.
One, because it's cool to hearhis story about how the pack
process started, how they gotinto the industry, but two, he
has some awesome stories,including one wolf story that is
just absolutely phenomenal.

(00:47):
So I want to thank Joe forcoming on the podcast, of course
, couldn't have done it withouthim.
A few listeners, thank you guysfor tuning in.
I hope you guys enjoyed thisepisode as much as I did
recording it.
Beyond that, please review us,please follow us, please share
us with one friend.
Now let's go ahead and let Joetell you some of his stories.
Thank you All.
Right, joe.
Welcome to the Hunting Storiespodcast.

(01:08):
Brother, how are you?

Speaker 2 (01:09):
I'm good man.
Thanks for having me on.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yeah, I'm excited to chat with you, man.
It took a little scheduling, alittle, you know, back and forth
, but we got this thing here andI'm super excited to talk with
you about what you do in thehunting industry as well as the
standard.
We want to hear some of yourhunting stories, man.
So thanks for joining us.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yeah, I appreciate you having me on man.
To your point, it's a busy time, right?
We've got bear season going,we've got turkey hunts going on
right now.
There's a lot of in and out and, matter of fact, half of us are
leaving next week and going toget out and do some more bear
hunting.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
So get out and do some more bear hunting.
So, uh, good, good time.
It worked out, perfect.
So thank you, that's great.
I'm hoping I've actually neverbeen here bear hunting, but I
got a buddy who's invited me upto Idaho and I'm hoping to get
up there in June.
Um, so hopefully I have somestories from that hunt.
But for now, joe, why don't youintroduce yourself?
Why don't you tell the peoplewho you are?
Um, so they know who they'rehearing some stories from today.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yeah, yeah, so my name's Joe Elliston.
I'm co-founder CEO over here atInitial Ascent Initial Ascent
we launched the company back in2018, and it was really built
off of a dream of two guys thatare buddies, that we just felt
like, hey, man, there's got tobe something better.
There's got to be a better wayto build a backpack that allows
you to carry heavy loads morecomfortably.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
And um you know.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
so Dennis and I Dennis is the other owner Uh, we
set out on that journey reallyback in 2015 is when we started
the conversation and starteddiving into it and, um you know,
2015 became 2018 when weactually launched the company.
Took us three years to design,develop our frame, which we felt
like we had to get thefoundation right, which was the

(02:47):
frame to allow us to achievewhat we set out to do, and that
was to carry the heavy loadsmore comfortably.
So we launched Initial Ascentat the Expo in Salt Lake.
I think it was February 8, 2018.
And kind of man just neverlooked back.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
That's awesome.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
It's been a.
It's been a whirlwind trip andyou know me personally.
You know I grew up in Kansas.
I'm a Flatlander, so I was justa little.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
Okay, what parts my wife's from or not?
My wife, my mother and herentire family is from the Larned
area.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
Oh really.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Yeah, so I grew up Kansas City, kansas, in the city
, and I went to school atUniversity of Kansas.
So I'm a KU grad and moved outwest in 1996, I guess is when I
left Kansas.
So I've been gone for a while.
But I grew up hunting.

(03:41):
It was something, even though Ilived in the city.
My dad was an avid hunter.
When he was younger he actuallyhad an experience where he
traveled all over the worldhunting.
I mean, in my office back homeI've got his elephant tusk from
the elephant that he shot andI've got some pretty cool
pictures.
You know he was gosh.
I think my dad was only like 17when he was over there doing

(04:03):
that.
That's crazy.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
Yeah, gosh, I think my dad was only like 17 when he
was over there doing that.
That's crazy.
Did someone, did his father,get him into hunting or did like
what was it?
What got him into that?
Especially like that big, thatAfrica, big game stuff, like
that's back then almost unheardof, right?

Speaker 2 (04:15):
Yeah, I mean, yeah, it's crazy to think, cause he
actually did his hunting over inAfrica and I think they spent
like six weeks over there.
They hunted in somalia andsomalia.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
Today you wouldn't step foot in that place right.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
I mean it's it's, it's, it's pretty dangerous spot
.
But back then they justdeclared their independence, for
lack of better words and um.
So yeah, he had a friend who wasreally into, uh, big game
hunting okay and my dad and himtraveled and that's I think he's
the one that got my dad intothe to the big game hunting.
But yeah, they spent time overthere and you know he's I've got

(04:51):
his lion rug from when he wasout there and you know I look at
some of the mounts like he'sgot a hunter's heart of beasts.
That's in my office, which Iwant to say.
There's only like two or 300 ofthem left in the world now that
are wild, so they're prettyclose to extinct.
And you know that thing, causemy dad now is 83.
So, roughly right, you knowthat's almost 60 plus years old.
It's 60 plus years old.

(05:13):
And you know, all of the mountsare made out of wood, so it's
it's just pretty amazing yeah.
It's just amazing how wellthey've held up all these years.

(05:41):
But I say, all that is you know, hunting was always a.
He taught you know theconservation side of it and a
lot of just hands-on.
So we had guns, we were aroundguns our whole life but we had a
ton of respect for them and youknow, he made sure that we knew
how to use them, we knew how toproperly store them, you know
just how to clean them.
So it was a part of justingrained from the early days on

(06:04):
.
So, um, you know, when I movedout West and I was actually, I
bounced around for a bunch ofyears so I used to work for
Black Decker.
I just retired here in the last45 days, so I was there almost
30 years.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
Congratulations, man.

Speaker 2 (06:18):
Thanks, man, it was uh, it was a great run.
Phenomenal organization wentthrough tons of acquisitions, uh
, just surrounded by people thatwere just phenomenal at what
they did and um, but I retiredback in march and now just
strictly full time here withinitial ascent, but um, that's
what took me out west with blackand decker and it's gonna ask

(06:42):
yeah, when I got out west, um, Ilived in Las Vegas, so actually
my first elk herd that I eversaw in the wild was on Mount
Charleston, which is themountain just right outside of
Las Vegas.
I'd never seen elk before dog upsome trails and I hear all

(07:05):
these rocks coming down on oneside, cause, you know, I'm kind
of on.
You know I've got one hillsidehere, one mountainside here, and
I look and the whole hillsidewas just full of elk.
So probably a lot of peopleprobably don't realize it, but
just a stone's throw outside ofLas Vegas you got elk, which is
crazy.

Speaker 1 (07:16):
Huh, I had no idea.
I mean, I knew they were in thestate, I just didn't realize
they were that close to thisgiant glowing bulb in the middle
of the desert.

Speaker 2 (07:22):
Yep they're right there.
So, and I still wasn't into biggame hunting at the time, but I
had a passion for waterfowl andI remember a buddy of mine.
We were so desperate to hunt inLas Vegas that we literally
went to Death Valley becausesomebody told us that there were
ducks in Death Valley.
I mean, they pulled the woolover our eyes on that one.

(07:43):
If you can imagine, two dudesright in this little tiny piece
of water.
We set up decoys.
It was just like are youkidding me?
We actually did this, but wedidn't get any ducks, but I
didn't get into big huntinguntil I moved to Idaho and I
moved up here in 2004.
And my first experiencebackpacking um, there's a whole

(08:06):
nother story, but I fell in lovewith the backwoods in that
country and because, you know,growing up in kansas you just
never got to experience, youknow nature in that form and um,
to me it was just eye-openingto see god's creation and be in
it.
And man, I just never lookedback.

(08:27):
So that's what started myjourney really out west, that's
so cool.

Speaker 1 (08:33):
Was it your very first big game hunt that you
were like no, we can do betterthan this on backpacks?
Was it like that quick that yourealized that it needed to be
something better?

Speaker 2 (08:44):
It was my very first backpacking trip um, and I'll
tell you the story, man, becauseit's worth sharing because it's
it's really.

Speaker 1 (08:50):
I had never had a backpack on my back ever until
around 2005, and like not forschool or nothing, like no back
like jansports, yeah I mean,yeah, I had the jansports, but
actual you know, huntingbackpack or backpacking type
backpack.

Speaker 2 (09:07):
So I borrowed a friend's backpack it was an rei
backpack, had no idea how to useit, but I was.
I was invited to go out withtwo other fathers and take.
We were going to take our boys,um, and there was a group of
two, five, seven boys that wewere taking on this backpacking

(09:28):
trip up into a high lake, up inuh, just outside of mccall,
idaho, and so I'm all excited.
You know, again, I know nothingabout backpacking.
I know nothing aboutbackpacking gear, um, so I load
literally everything in thekitchen sink into this backpack
and I'm going in for two nightswith my two boys.

(09:48):
They each have a littlebackpacks that I borrowed.

Speaker 1 (09:51):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (09:51):
I got 86 pounds going in.

Speaker 1 (09:53):
Woo, yep, and that's a backpacking, backpack, not
hunting, not with like a frameright?

Speaker 2 (09:58):
No, this is an REI pack and holy cow.
So um, you don't know what youdon't know.

Speaker 1 (10:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (10:06):
And we went in and it was unbelievable.
It's the first time I've everslept in a tent in the
backcountry and I had my boysthere, my youngest boy, ty.
I've got two boys, one that'sBrody, one that's Ty.
Ty's my youngest one.
At the time, ty would have beenroughly right about eight years
old, I'm guessing, okay, andwe're sleeping and it just

(10:29):
starts pouring down rain and itwas a Friday night and it just
dumps and dumps and dumps.
Keep in mind, the only stuffI've got is probably bought at
Walmart 15 years ago.
I got the Coleman sleeping bagsand I've've got blankets and I
literally packed in everything,not knowing what to do, and the

(10:51):
tent that we had actuallystarted leaking terribly bad.
So at one point in the middleof the night I remember just
kind of reaching over because Icould feel Ty kind of shaking.
And I reached over and Ithought, well, I'm just going to
pull him in, you know, so justget a little bit more body heat
around him.
And when I pulled him in I justit was like a giant sponge.

Speaker 1 (11:10):
Oh, no, oh no, poor guy.

Speaker 2 (11:13):
Oh yeah, and that was his first experience in the
back country too.
So the next morning, you know,we get up and I just tell the
other dads I'm like guys, Igotta.
There's no way I can dry thisout.
It's going to take a month todry out Coleman sleeping bags.
So I literally packed upeverything and my buddy Ed I

(11:37):
think he's got a picture of it Ihad so much because it's so
swollen now because everything'sso waterlogged I'm well,
probably over 100 pounds and itlooked like a giant Volkswagen
bug on my back right Becausethere was so much stuff on there
and it's just strapped on, tiedon with whatever.
And we set out on the journeyand I remember Ed just kind of

(11:59):
bending over it was Ed and Randywere the two of the fathers
Ed's sitting there, bent over,just laughing because it's just
obnoxious what it looked like mewalking out of there.
So I knew there had to be abetter way to do this, that was
my very first experience, andthat's what started me down the
path of saying, well, we'regonna figure something else out

(12:20):
my goodness, I can't imagine howmuch your shoulders hurt.

Speaker 1 (12:22):
So I made the mistake of taking like an rei pack that
doesn't have a frame it's meantto hold a bunch of lightweight
stuff, not heavy stuff and I waslike I'm gonna rock with this
and that way I don't get extramiles on my hunting pack.
And I threw like 80 pounds intothat thing and god, that was
like I did it once, never again.
I was like no, I'll put theextra miles on the pack that I
got and it was just miserable.

(12:44):
So I can't imagine, if you had86 pounds with your boys, how
much your shoulders hurtprobably doing all of that.

Speaker 2 (12:50):
It was terrible.

Speaker 1 (12:51):
Yeah, I believe it, man, I believe it.
So we've all made that mistakeonce.
You just had the initiative togo out there and fix the problem
.

Speaker 2 (13:00):
Yeah, that was kind of an eye-opener, gosh, there's
got to be a better way to dothis.

Speaker 1 (13:03):
Yeah, I assume your boys are still into it.
You didn't scare them off withthat first trip.

Speaker 2 (13:08):
No, no.
So my oldest boy, brody, he hasbeen an avid outdoorsman.
I mean, we live on a refuge butwe can hunt it and he's been
out there hunting it since hewas 11 or 12 by himself and, um,
some people think I'm crazy,but you know, again, the gun
safety and everything was justso ingrained into the into my

(13:31):
boys that I never really worriedabout it and um, so, yeah, he
hunts a bunch.
Um, my youngest boy, ty, he'sgotten a lot more into it over
the years.
Matter of fact, he justharvested his first bear this
year.

Speaker 1 (13:43):
Yeah, that's awesome.

Speaker 2 (13:44):
Yeah, it was really cool.
So, yeah, I'm going.
So next week I'm out with agroup of guys from here from the
office, and then the followingweek I'm going back out on
another bear hunt with my oldestboy, brody, and dude.
I can't wait.

Speaker 1 (13:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
Those are, and I know we'll get into some hunting
stories here in a little while.
And those are, and I know we'llget into some hunting stories
here in a little while.
But to me I always tell peopleI've had those trophy moments
hunting and not one of them hasto do with an actual animal up
on the wall trophy it's thememories of being out there with
my kids and my friends.
Those are the memories that aremost important to me.

Speaker 1 (14:20):
Absolutely.
I mean, once you listen to afair amount of these episodes,
you start to realize that peoplecare more about who they're
with than what they're chasing.
And then, on the other end ofthe spectrum, it's the misses.
Yeah, those are like the twobig story categories that we get

(14:41):
.
It's like, oh man, I put in allthis work and then I missed or I
injured or whatever, but moreoften than not, actually the
episode that will come out right.
This one is a gentleman and henever got to hunt with his dad,
but his dad was an avidoutdoorsman and he just had
story after story where, likesomething aligned and it just
felt like his dad was there withhim in spirit, and it's a super
cool episode.

Speaker 2 (14:56):
That's awesome.
He just gave me goosebumps, man.

Speaker 1 (14:58):
Yeah, it's great, and that's the theme, right.
That's what hunting is allabout, so I love it.
So let's dive into it, joe.

Speaker 2 (15:09):
What hunting stories do you have to share with us?
Well, I mean, I guess I'llstart with one of the ones that
when I think about going hunting, it's always like the first
story that comes to mind now,and it has to do with my oldest
boy, brody.
So when Dennis and I firststarted hunting together Dennis
Stokes he's the other co-founderowner of Initial Ascent Dennis

(15:32):
and I we started taking our kidsa long time ago up to northern
Idaho, up around Kamiai, and wewould hunt bears and turkeys and
it was a pretty phenomenalexperience taking the kids up
there into the backcountry andjust getting them to have those

(15:54):
experiences with us.
One of the years I was up thereI think it was the second or
third year that we had done it Iwas up there with my son Brody
Ty wasn't on the trip.
I was up there with my sonBrody Ty wasn't on the trip, and
Brody was probably in, I'mgoing to say, seventh or eighth
grade because he was runningcross country.
And back then you know this is12, 13 years ago Back then the

(16:18):
kids would wear these bright,bright, bright neon type color
running pants.
Right, no-transcript, he's gotthese bright, bright, running
pants underneath his camouflagepants Cause, right, it's chilly
in the morning.
Yeah, and kids have those babyfaces right that are just as

(16:43):
white as a sheet that just glowon the side of a mountain, yep
Right, and that low light,that's just a spotlight, you
know just a spotlight, yeah, andif you can imagine, his hats on
backwards.
So it was.
We had hunted in the morningand then in the afternoons, kind

(17:04):
of.
What we would do is we wouldturkey hunt first thing in the
morning and then afternoons wewould go set somewhere, try to
pull a tom away from the hens.
If the hens were on the nest,we felt like, hey, it's a good
chance, we could maybe getsomething in the heat of the day
, and then most of the eveningwould be dedicated to bear
hunting.

Speaker 1 (17:19):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (17:20):
And so we had turkey hunted that morning, got on some
birds.
We kind of had watched them thenight before, we knew where
they had roosted and nested, sowe kind of had a spot that went
into, but the next morning wejust busted them and they were
gone.
So unsuccessful hunt thatmorning and then it turned

(17:44):
stinking hot.
So we're actually sitting, ifyou can kind of picture, pretty
steep, you know, we're abouteight, nine hundred feet
elevation above the clear waterlake and we're looking at the
clear water river, we're lookingdown, so it's heavy vegetation
up there and we're looking downon the river and it's a grassy
hillside, kind of looking down,and we're facing I guess we're
facing kind of south, if Iremember right and behind us is

(18:07):
all this timber that we hadwalked through and it's a
section maybe call it threequarters of an acre of just dark
, deep timber that we'd kind ofworked through to get on this
hillside.
So we're just sitting there andit is literally a real estate
day.
I mean there's not a cloud inthe sky, it's absolutely picture
perfect, but it's hot, you know, it's like 80 plus degrees,

(18:27):
yeah, and Brody's dying becausethe kid's got his running pants
on underneath him, right.
So next thing, you know, hetakes his shirt off, pulls his
britches down to around hisankles and he's just trying to
cool off because he's sostinking hot Puts his hat on
backwards.
So you got this kid sittingthere that's just glowing right

(18:51):
With these bright neon yellowrunning pants around you know,
his camo pants around his ankles.
Shirt off, hat backwards, and Iget up.
I'm going to go take a leak inthe woods.
I just get up and I'm movingaround because I can't sit still
very good, I'm a terriblewhitetail hunter and so I get up
and I walk back maybe 10 feetinto that timber and I'm taking

(19:12):
a leak and I've got my box callwith me and I just after.

Speaker 1 (19:22):
I did that.

Speaker 2 (19:22):
I said well, I'm just gonna hit the box, call what
the heck?
So I just bam, hit it and dude,I had a response instantly from
tom and he was close, that'sfunny.

Speaker 1 (19:26):
It's always exactly when you like.
Shouldn't probably call thatyou call and they always reply.
I've done the exact same thingman.

Speaker 2 (19:33):
He just hit it back hard.
I'm like, oh man, so I turnedaround, I ran back.
You know the the 15, 20 yardswhere brody was.
I'm like, dude, grab your gun,let's go.
There's a tom coming.
So if you can picture the kidliterally looking at me in that
outfit that I just described toyou, he reaches down, grabs his
shotgun which was a side-by-sidedouble barrel 20 gauge hats

(19:58):
backwards.
He's running up the hill but hecan't run very good because he
has pants around his ankles andliterally runs back up this 15,
20 yards.
And there's just this littletrail area in the timber.
We've got deadfall around and Ikind of had a pretty good idea
where that tom was going to comefrom.
I'm like just lay down righthere.

(20:19):
So he's laying down on hisstomach, no shirt, hat on
backwards face, totally exposedyellow britches, you know, with
the sun hitting the back side ofhim.
And I'm probably almost on theedge of the timber right,
because I'm back about 10 or 15yards from him, and I hit that
box, call and dude.
That tom is coming straight athim and it literally almost runs

(20:43):
right into him.
He kills that thing 10 feetfrom him.

Speaker 1 (20:47):
No way.

Speaker 2 (20:48):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (20:49):
It didn't notice the spotlight right there.
No, that's what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (20:52):
I mean, this camouflage stuff is a joke,
right?
It's not real.

Speaker 1 (20:56):
Oh, that's funny.
That reminds me of oh God, whois it?
Jason Phelps.
Oh yeah, I've seen his YouTubevideo where he's rocking the
Hulk.
Hogan outfit and he goes outand kills an elk who needs camo.

Speaker 2 (21:08):
Yeah, I did a podcast with him a couple weeks ago and
we talked about that story himand Dirk and oh my gosh, what a
riot those two.

Speaker 1 (21:18):
Yeah, God, I've had them both on the podcast.
They are so funny.
I don't know if you've heardDirk's story about finding a
dead guy out hunting and the guywas an arsonist that had been
hiding in the woods for weeks.
It's a crazy story Really.

Speaker 2 (21:31):
Yeah, yeah, I think he actually had.

Speaker 1 (21:34):
I think he's found multiple dead people in the
woods oddly enough, oh my gosh.
Yeah, connect with Dirk on that, because there are some fun
stories.

Speaker 2 (21:39):
He's going to be here , I think, thursday this week,
so I'm going to.
I'll bring that up, thanks, fortelling me that.

Speaker 1 (21:44):
There you go.
Yeah, it's a great story, hello, oh, but that's crazy.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
So ran into him and, um, I just, I just chuckle man,
because it was like you knowwhat.
There's times when things justperfectly come together and
nothing's going to get in theway of it.
Yeah and um, you know, you cansay god's hands in on that if
you wanted to, becauseeverything said no way is a tom
going to come into thatsituation.
He did, yeah, he did, so that'sawesome that's a great story.

Speaker 1 (22:14):
What did your, what did your son think?
Like he's like I'm neverwearing camo again.
I can't imagine laying of it.
Just the whole thing.
It's just a memory.

Speaker 2 (22:39):
Back to what I had said earlier.
Man, that is a trophy moment tome, and it's not the bird.
I could care less honestlyabout the tom.
It was everything else that ledup to that point that sticks in
my head.
I can just picture him as clearas the bright sun hitting this
backside.
I believe it.
I believe it.

Speaker 1 (23:00):
You can tell by the amount of detail that someone
comes with a story.
It's like how beautifully theyremember it, because just
imagine him running up the hill,hat backwards, no shirt, pants
around his ankles, trying to getup to you with his double
barrel.
It's a perfect visual and I cansee any kid doing that.

Speaker 2 (23:16):
Absolutely, absolutely I think it's probably
perfect visual and I can seeany kid doing that yeah?
Absolutely, Absolutely.
I think it's probably one ofhis best memories too, when we
talk about it and laugh about it.
So pretty fun, Pretty fun yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:28):
You'll get to make fun of him for a long time too.
When he's a full-grown man,you'll be like remember that
time you were basically naked,pants around your ankles and you
shot that tom.
Yep, you, pants around yourankles and you shut that tom
like yep.
You'll be able to tell his kidssomeday and they'll be like
what my dad absolutelyabsolutely that's great, joe.
All right, what else you got?

Speaker 2 (23:42):
transitions are always a little weird when it
comes to hunting stories, but soI'll kind of shift gears more
towards kind of an oh blankmoment.
Um, so my buddy, dennis, youknow we talked about earlier, uh
, the other owner of InitialAscent, you know, dennis and I
we were hunting, we were archeryhunting for elk.
This would have been, thiswould have been around 20,

(24:06):
around 2015.
It was before Initial Ascent,but we were into the
conversation of Initial Ascent.
So we're, there was an areathat we had never hunted.
So it's September, middle ofSeptember, and in Idaho in
September you can have some,just some of the most amazing

(24:26):
days weather-wise, you knowwhere it's just absolutely
perfect, and that was one ofthese these days.
So Dennis and I drove up to thisarea that we were going to go
hunt, that we'd never huntedbefore, and I had done some
research on google, um, and Ihad located, hey, this looked

(24:46):
like this would be an area Iwant to go check out.
I had a buddy that had told meabout, he had hunted three or
four miles away from this area,a couple ridges away, got some
really good success, and said,hey, man, if you got some time,
this might be an area to gocheck out.
Just kind of gave me somegeneralities, so started
scouting it on Google EarthFound a place where it's like

(25:08):
you know what?
There's a high lake up here.
We could camp at this high lake, then we've got water.
We know we've got water anddidn't look like there was a lot
of options on where we couldcamp on this high lake, but I
could tell on Google Earth thatthis was a pretty spectacular
place because the little highlake and it wasn't a big one, it
was only about 70 yards across.

Speaker 1 (25:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (25:29):
It sat deep, deep, deep in this canyon and it was
almost like you had granitearound it.
So it was down in this canyonarea.
And so Dennis and I decided youknow what, let's go check this
out.
Let's go spend four or fivedays hunting up here.
We were going, um, but by thetime we actually got up there

(26:01):
and got in, we probably hikedthe last half a mile, getting
pretty dark, right, and we'dnever been there before.
So we're trying to trying topiece our way in there.
And back then you used gps's, um, we didn't have onyx and didn't
have base map and those kind ofthat technology.
So we're kind of working ourway back in there and I and back
then I used to print off maps.
I would literally print theseoff so I had references.

(26:22):
I could kind of look and say,yeah, I think this, this is over
here.
So we were working our way andthen we got to one area, was
like, okay, now we're going togo straight down kind of this
game trail that would take usinto where we thought the high
lake was, where we were going tocamp.
So we start working our waydown there and lo and behold,

(26:43):
yeah, we found the right place,but now it's just almost pitch
black.
You know it's dark.
It's probably close to 9o'clock at night, 10, getting
close to 9, yeah, between 9 and10.
And so we get down there closeto nine, yeah, between nine and
ten.
And so we get down there.
It's like we find this onesection with our headlamps where
we felt like, okay, this willwork well for us setting up camp
.
But it was just a small area.
I mean, it was maybe, maybe a10 by 10 section and everything

(27:07):
else was just deep timber, lotsof rocks and um, so, as we're
setting up camp, know, I went togo and get water for us, so I
took the.
I think back then it was just aplatypus system, you know pump
system, maybe it's a catadyne,and so I'm over there pumping
water and as I'm pumping water,you know there's rocks all

(27:31):
around and I look and I kind ofnotice a big pile of crap right
there and I'm like, well, that abig pile of crap right there.
And I'm like, well, that's wolf.
I'm pretty sure that's notcoyote, it's way too much,
that's wolf.
And when you live in Idaho andyou're in the backcountry,
especially back then, there wasa lot of wolves and they were

(27:55):
very vocal.
I would hear wolves all thetime but I'd never seen a wolf
up to that point.
But I'd heard them half a dozentimes.
You would see trails all thetime, footprints.
I'm just sitting there, I'mlike, oh, that's pretty cool, I
pump away and do that.
We get to water and I go backand I'm telling Dennis, I'm like
, oh yeah, man, I think there'sa big pile of crap over there as

(28:19):
well.
Didn't think anything of it.
And um, so we get ready to goto bed.
You know, dennis is in his tent, I'm in my tent and I just
bought this tent.
So this is a brand new tent.
First time I'd used it.
I'd set it up before just tomake sure I knew what I was
doing.
But I had a brand new sleepingbag as well.
So we're we're off sawing logsand throughout the night I kept
waking up smelling wet dog andyou know, when you're kind of

(28:40):
like half asleep, half awake,things aren't fully registering.
And I'm laying there and I'mlike doggone it.
Somebody bought this sleepingbag, let their dog sleep on it
and they returned it, okay.
So, that's what's going throughmy brain right in the middle of
the night.
So we get up the next morningearly and, um, we start hiking
out in the dark and I'mliterally telling dennis this on

(29:02):
the trail as we're hiking outI'm like doggone it, man.
I think somebody slept, lettheir dog sleep on my sleeping
bag.
It smells like wet dog.
And so we go out, we hunt allday long.
We actually busted literallyfive minutes into the hike we
weren't even back out of thecanyon we busted a decent size
herd of elk and, um, so we can,we hunt all day long.

(29:24):
And again, it's like verysimilar to that day with brody.
It was a bluebird day.
Just, skies are blue,everything's absolutely picture
perfect in september.
All the leaves are changing.
I mean you got, you got aspensthat are just sparkling.
I mean it's just, it's justgorgeous in idaho, you know you
know, fall season.
So we we tried to get back onthat group of elk but we had

(29:47):
lost them and we tried a coupleof areas so we had hiked a fair
amount.
Well, we ended up kind offinishing the first day on the
back side of where that lake isright.
So, or that high lake.
So if you can picture, the highlake sits down in this canyon.
We climbed elevation to get outand we circle around it and
you've kind of got this rockwall that we're kind of is our

(30:10):
backside now, which the lakesits down below that.
So from as a crow flies, it'sprobably's probably.
I mean, if you took a five ironyou could probably chip shot,
if you're really good, over thetop of the mountain down into
the lake.
But to hike back to camp it wasprobably three quarters to a
mile away, right, she kind ofhad to go around yeah, got it so

(30:31):
we're sitting up there and it'sgetting dark, you know, it's
getting close to end of shootingtime, hunting time, and it's
about 7, 7, 15 at night anddennis and I are sitting
together.
I was like, well, let's head onback to camp.
So we literally stand up tostart our hike back down to camp
and I'm not kidding you, dudethe sky erupted with wolves,

(30:52):
howling like a complete symphonyand they were going crazy and
we're trying to figure.
Okay, where's this coming from?
Where's this noise?
I mean, it's, it's unbelievableand I'm so disappointed we
didn't take our phones andrecord it, because yeah it's it.
You know, at times it'severything that you've heard on
tv.
I mean, that's what it soundedlike.

(31:13):
But then there was this onehowl that was so eerie, so
guttural.
I'm sitting there just if youcould see my arms.
I've got goosebumps fromreliving this.
It just literally made the hairon your neck stand up like it
is now as I'm thinking throughthis, and Dennis and I were just
looking and he's like what isthat?

(31:35):
I mean it was so intense.
So we decided, well, let's,let's start heading back towards
camp.
So, as we're heading backtowards camp, it's going on the
whole time.
You know for the next 15, 20,30 minutes Quick question.
Quick question.

Speaker 1 (31:47):
I just want to.
I don't know if you mentionedthis and if you did, I apologize
, but what, uh?
What is like the time of day?
Is it daytime?
Is it still early morning?

Speaker 2 (31:57):
dark time.
Is it still early morning, dark?
What is the atmosphere like?
So it's about seven o'clock atnight.
So it's not dark yet, but it'sstarting.
Within the next hour, hour anda half it's going to be dark.

Speaker 1 (32:04):
So you're kind of on that cusp right.

Speaker 2 (32:05):
So we start working our way back to camp and again
it's only three quarters of amile mile away, so it's probably
20 minute walk.
And as we go back towards wherecamp is we have to turn to go
back down right To where thatlake is and we're probably two
to 300 feet above it.
So we start hiking down thatgame trail to where our camp is

(32:29):
set up and now the noise isgetting loud and loud and louder
.
So now we're like, okay,they're down somewhere down here
.
But our brains were saying, whenwe got down to where kind of
where camp was at first we were,we were literally taking our
binos and we were glassing themountainside, thinking they're
up in the rocks.
Why, I don't know.
And I clearly remember Dennissaying and I'm looking through

(32:53):
my binos and Dennis is like hesays to me you don't need your
binos.
And I look at him and I'm likewhat?
And he goes, look across thelake, and then there they were.
So that was my first time everseeing wolves and there had to
be 10 to 15 of them over thereand I'll never forget, mike.
I was sitting there lookingthrough my binos.
The noise is overpowering whenyou get that many wolves howling

(33:19):
all at once and they didn'tstop.
They saw us.
So everything that I had everheard up to that point was if a
wolf sees you, he's gone, nottrue?
So we're sitting there and itwas kind of like a bucket moment
.
Right, because I've alwayswanted to see wolves in the wild
.
I wasn't afraid at that pointbecause I'm like, oh, they're
way over there.
I didn't think anything of itat the moment and I watched this

(33:42):
wolf through my binos.
He literally lowers his head tothe water and he's looking up
at us and I can sit there seeingthrough my binos.
He's only 70 yards and he'slapping up water and I can just
see this literally each timehe's, you know, lapping it up,
and that's stuck in my brainforever.
Well then, what we start torealize is there's a lot more

(34:05):
wolves back in the timbersbehind there.
So we really don't know is it 15, 20, 30, we don't know.
But we know there's a lot morethan what we see.
So now we're sitting there andit's by now it's getting close
to eight o'clock and they'restill howling.
This is still going.
This has been now almost anhour.

Speaker 1 (34:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (34:21):
And um, and my opinion.
I don't know if this is true ornot, but all of a sudden we see
one wolf just take off and hestarts looping around, coming
towards us, and it was almostlike there was an intention for
him to be sent over.

Speaker 1 (34:37):
That's a whole bag of nopes for me.
You got me uncomfortable now.

Speaker 2 (34:42):
So keep in mind, dennis and I are archery hunting
.
The only thing that we had froma firearm which was a joke, I
don't't even know why we took it, but I had a 38 on my hip and,
I'm sorry, a 380 on my hip andit had five shots in it.
Right, I mean, it's a concealedcarry gun that I've got, and
why I packed that I don't know.
Back then, pretty naive, so, um, that that wolf starts coming

(35:07):
around and he's full trot comingand all the others are staying
back there and the howling stillgoing on, and I said to dennis,
I said I'm gonna fire my pistoland I said they're probably,
they're all just gonna take off.
And this thing got within about40 yards of us, I'm guessing,
and I fired and dennis had theexact same gun, now that I

(35:27):
remember it, so we both had theexact same gun.
I said you fire, or I'll fire,then you fire, or something.
Maybe he went first, I can'tremember, but it was like let's
fire twice so that the animalsknow exactly where we are,
because now we're getting alittle concerned.
And we did that.
Boom, boom.
Well, that one peeled offseveral of them, went back into

(35:49):
the timber, but so they, theydid not leave, and there were
probably three or four that juststayed right there and just
continued to howl and just it'slike we didn't scare these guys
at all.
So now it's getting darker anddarker and darker.
Now it's probably about 830,845.

(36:10):
And Dennis and I made a littlefire and they're getting closer.
I mean they're not leaving andnow it's totally pitch black.

Speaker 1 (36:21):
This goes on until 1030, 11, 1130 at night, and
Dennis and I are finally, justlike they, they're within 15 20
yards maybe of us could youpinpoint the like, the number or
like ballpark it, or it wasjust like one or two or no idea
no, I would get.

Speaker 2 (36:40):
I don't think the pack ever left.
I would say there was probablyexcess of 20, and so we're
getting more and more concerned.
I'll just be honest we werekind of like crap.
What do we do?
Yeah yeah, and so we made thedecisions like, okay, we're
gonna pack up and get out ofhere, because this just ain't
gonna happen reasonable decisionyeah yeah, and it's just like

(37:04):
there's not going to be any elkaround here now with this many
wolves anyway.
So let's pack up.
So we did, and the way we didis Dennis packed up first and he
was.
He's always more organized withpacking his pack.
He packed up, he's ready, andI'm still folding my tent and
trying to get things done, andDennis is ready to go and I get

(37:24):
everything stuffed in and we,like I said, we didn't have our
packs yet and we're probably youknow, this is the beginning of
the trip, so you're probably 45,50 pounds and I remember
rushing and I clipped my beltand it broke and I'm like crap.
I got to pack out now witheverything on my shoulders
because that belt just snappedand so I had a really bright

(37:51):
flashlight because my headlampwas just garbage.
And I remember as we hiked outthat trail to get back up kind
of to the, to the main area, toget out of the canyon, I
literally was hiking outbackwards for the most of it
shining, as dennis was kind ofgoing forward because they
didn't leave.
They continued to kind offollow us for a bit Whoa.
And we finally get on the trail,we bust, butt, get down and

(38:16):
you're just like wired, right.
I mean, you've got so muchadrenaline going through you,
every sense is heightened to the10th degree.
And we come around this bend onthe kind of the trail that we
were on, and, dude, we walkedright into a giant black cow
that was like five feet in frontof us and we about like a moo

(38:40):
cow, a moo cow, right okay yeah,I mean you talk about jumping
through your skin.
Holy cow, lucky we didn't shootthat thing, oh man.
So we finally get back to ourtrucks and, dude, it was an
experience, man.
I don't worry about wolves tothis day in the backcountry, but

(39:01):
you know what?
That was a moment where it waslike ugh.
That was a moment where it waslike ugh.
So we had been to a show overin Cody Wyoming probably three
months prior.

Speaker 1 (39:16):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (39:16):
And there was a gentleman there that was with
Fish and Game and he was thebear-wise coordinator for Cody
and I think at the time he hadtold me he had relocated like 96
Grizzlies.

Speaker 1 (39:29):
What is a bear-wise coordinator?
I don't know if I'm familiarwith that term.

Speaker 2 (39:31):
So he's an expert on bears Specifically it was
grizzlies and Cody, becausethey're such a nuisance over
there but he was also in chargeof large carnivores, or tied
into large carnivores.
So I called him and I'm walkinghim through what had happened,
right, and I'm like why didn'tthey leave?

(39:52):
Why didn't they leave when theysaw us?
Why didn't they leave when wefired the weapons?
And he said oh, I think I knowwhy he goes.
I bet that was a rendezvouspoint.
And I'm like what A rendezvous.
I never heard of a rendezvouspoint.

(40:13):
What are you talking about?
What's a rendezvous point?
He goes?
Oh, chances are those, thosewolves.
They're going to meet up thereevery year.
That's where they all.
That that group came togetherthere and he goes is either that
or they had pups around andthey weren't going to leave the
pups and um, so, yeah, man, itwas, it was.
It was a hair-raising event.
Um, I've seen wolves a lotsince then, but never in that
type of environment.

Speaker 1 (40:32):
That's crazy.

Speaker 2 (40:33):
It was a pretty wild deal, man.

Speaker 1 (40:34):
So the howling was for you.
It wasn't that they had a killor something and they were
excited or anything like that.
They were just trying to tellyou guys, get out, this is our
spot, basically.

Speaker 2 (40:44):
I guess man.
I guess, but it was intense.

Speaker 1 (40:47):
I believe it.

Speaker 2 (40:50):
That basically, I guess, man, I guess, but it was
intense I believe it.

Speaker 1 (40:52):
That's terrifying.
It did not stop until we gotout of there.
Yeah huh, pretty wild.
Um, what other questions that Ihad?
Did you ever lay eye?
You said one in particular wasjust yeah, way scarier than the
rest.
Did you ever lay eyes on thatguy?

Speaker 2 (41:02):
we think so.
It was a black one that wasjust appeared to be the alpha
Okay, right and um.
Man, I just, I so wish we wouldhave recorded that sound,
because it's, it's indescribablehow deep and the only words
that and it's, I think it's thewords I've always used.
It was just very guttural.

Speaker 1 (41:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (41:22):
And it was just this like, just like you, just never
I'd never heard anything like itin my life.
Yeah, just like you, just neverI'd never heard anything like
it in my life.

Speaker 1 (41:28):
yeah, it was that's crazy, you know, it's funny.
There's like two types ofpeople.
There's the type of people thatsomething crazy terrifying
happens, they get their phonesout, and then the folks that
wish they had done it afterwards, like I'm, I'm in the latter
right, I'm the like okay, Igotta solve this situation.
And then after right, yeah, itwould have been great to record.
That sounds like maybe you guysare the same, but there's I had
some people on this podcastthat are like oh yeah, I got a
video of everything and I'm likewhy would you possibly get your

(41:51):
phone out in that situation?
There's so many other thingsyou should be doing instead of
getting your phone out.
I've seen lots of grizzly bearvideos and stuff like that where
I'm like, oh man, not me,that's not me, no me either, man
, my brain was not thinkingabout recording yeah, did you
ask that?
uh, bear wise specialist anyanything else about rendezvous
like?
Is that, how long do rendezvouspoints stay in place?

(42:14):
Go year after year, but is thatfive years, 10 years, 15,
forever?

Speaker 2 (42:18):
yeah, I don't know.
I didn't.
I should have probably askedhim more questions around it,
and you and I talk about it heremakes me think I'm gonna go
look it up and see what I canlearn on it.
But yeah I do clearly rememberhim saying if you ever want to
harvest, probably got a goodchance if you went back there.
They'll be back there yearafter year.

Speaker 1 (42:32):
That was exactly my next question, which is have you
gone back with a tag?

Speaker 2 (42:37):
I haven't, dennis, and I talked about it, though,
and I think you know what.
We should probably go.
Do that.

Speaker 1 (42:49):
And a rifle, a that's a thrilling story.
Wolf stories always get me.
I mean, obviously here incolorado hot button issue, oh
yeah, coming in.
You know half of them die everyyear, but they were coming in
anyways.
In fact, where I hunt theyactually they had wolves
previously.
In fact I've talked to gamewardens there that say there's
grizzly bears.
They just don't like talkingabout it because they don't want
to do the paperwork.
Um, and I understand all ofthat, but like wolf stories,

(43:10):
just they make my hair stand onthe back of my neck.
I've had a handful of good ones.
Mark livesey has a great one,um, britney kitchden, if you
know her, uh, former miss northcarolina, now she's up in canada
but she has a story of wolvescoming through some like hay
fields.
It's like uh jurassic park withthe raptors and you can just
see the hay moving but you can'tsee the wolves.
I was like nope, just a wholebunch of nopes, that's not for

(43:32):
me.

Speaker 2 (43:32):
They just gave me more goosebumps on that one.
I got to see that.

Speaker 1 (43:35):
That would be amazing Wow.
Wolves are special creatures.
I respect them fiercely, but Ithink I'd rather stay away if
possible.

Speaker 2 (43:46):
They're a top predator, for sure.

Speaker 1 (43:47):
Yeah absolutely well, joe, we got a little bit more
time here.
Do you have another story inmind, or do you want to wrap it
up here?

Speaker 2 (43:53):
it's entirely up to you, sir yeah, no, I'll tell you
one other story um and this was.
This was one that I got to toshare with dennis.
Um, so probably around 2017, um, dennis drew kind of a prized
bull elk tag in Unit 45 here inIdaho, which that's up in the

(44:18):
Fairfield area.
It's an area where I thinkthere was only 25 tags that they
do on this and it's an archerytag, so it was an area where we
were going to hunt kind of afamous mountain.
It's called Bennett Mountain,and Bennett Mountain is almost
exclusively private.

(44:38):
The only way that you can getto the public land is it's
literally planes, trains,automobiles and hike your ass
off excuse my language up thesteepest cliffs to get back into
this area.
So nobody goes in there on thepublic side.
You just don't do it.

(44:58):
We decided we're going to do it.

Speaker 1 (45:01):
There we go.

Speaker 2 (45:01):
That's a good start to every story.

Speaker 1 (45:03):
No one does this.
We tried it.
We tried it.

Speaker 2 (45:07):
So Dennis and I go in there oh, there's a couple of
stories with this one man.
So, um, dennis and I go inthere and we start scouting it
just to kind of let get the layof the land.
And so we literally you, wewould, you know, we drove up
there so many miles in.
We unloaded four wheelers, wedrove, we drove four wheelers,
you know, probably six, sevenmiles in, and then we hiked in

(45:30):
probably a good four or fivemiles.
So it's definitely an adventuregetting back in there.
Well, the first time we got upthere, you don't know what you
don't know, and so we're justhiking all over, and by now we
had onyx and base map, thosethings were out.
So we're able to, and youcouldn't do that area, I don't

(45:52):
think, without it.
We're able to distinguish theprivate from the public, and
it's difficult.
But when we're up there, we didfind a couple spots that had a
little bit of water, but notmuch so, and we thought in a
couple weeks weeks, man, thiswater is going to be gone.
There's not going to be anywater up here, which is going to

(46:13):
make it really, reallydifficult, because we didn't
want to have to go up and down1500 to 2000 feet every day to
get water yeah so we made thisdecision we're going to do a
pack-in the week prior and justtake in nothing but water for
basically a 10-day hunt.
And so we had three of us it wasDennis and I.

(46:34):
I think his son Trey went inand my son Brody might have gone
in on that one too.
I can't remember.
But we packed in a crap load ofwater and we got it in there,
kind of got things and we kindof got the lay of the land where
we're going to set up camp.
So the following week dennisand I go back in and we hike in

(46:56):
there and it's like I said, it'sbrutal, it's it's rough terrain
to get back up in there and weget up on top, get all of our
camp set up.
It's the day before the hunt wehad bulls behind us.
Literally we're watching bullsraking trees, big bulls yeah
it's just like oh my gosh, thisis gonna be epic you know, we
busted our butt.
We've been up here week afterweek scouting and um, we get

(47:19):
camp up and dennis, and aresitting there.
We just I literally just put mycrocs on, dennis had his crocs
on.
We're sitting, you know, onthese glassing pads right at
camp eating our mountain house.
Back at the time, and dude, afreaking truck comes driving up
right in front of us.

Speaker 1 (47:38):
You gotta be kidding me.

Speaker 2 (47:40):
Exactly.
We're like are you kidding me?
How is this possible?
And they go about a hundredyards up past us and they get
out, look over this edge.
And they go about 100 yards uppast us and they get out, look
over this edge and they startwailing on bugles.
So Dennis and I look at eachother and we're like let's go
talk to them.
We've got to figure out how isthis possible.
So we go over there and westart talking to the guy.

(48:02):
Well, he gets all upset.
He's saying you're on privateground and we're looking out on
the map and all that.
Well, he gets on the phone withthe owner that owns some land
that he thought we were on, andthe owner's like no, they're
good, they're good.
So he calmed down and ended uphaving a good conversation with
the guy, but they ended upleaving.
He said, hey, we're not goingto hunt for several days, yada,

(48:22):
yada, yada.
But they had access through thisroad from the private landowner
, which needs to be nice, right,must be nice, Absolutely.
We're like can you bring ussome water?
So anyways, the hunt starts thenext day and we get into the
elk quick.
I mean it's, it's prettyamazing.

(48:42):
Again, it's a classic Septemberday in Idaho.
I mean it's like 72, 73 degrees, not a cloud in the sky, and
we're in to the tule.
I mean we're into all the youknow the aspens and just
phenomenal elk and elk arescreaming everywhere.
And so I got one bull torespond really good and he came

(49:06):
busting in.
But then something happenedwhere dennis drawed back but he
couldn't get.
He couldn't get everything towork up.
Just brush was in the way thebull busted and took off.
That happened several times.
Where we had a lot of justbulls were working well okay and
it's it's heavy timber thatwe're in.
So so then we get this otherbull that comes in quiet, just

(49:31):
dead, still quiet, and we lookand Dennis and I are kind of
standing.
I was standing behind Dennis,we had good coverage around us
and this was a big bull.
He comes in totally quiet,though, to the calls and he
starts walking right in front ofDennis and there's this giant
tree that's maybe 25 yards out,probably 20 yards out, and right

(49:57):
when that bull walks behindthat tree, dennis goes to full
draw and that bull comes out andDennis releases it and
something happened and it justsailed right over the bull and
he missed it.
And this is a gorgeous bull,right, and it's the classic

(50:18):
highs and lows of hunting.
Right, we were on these epichighs and now we're on these
epic lows.
Now we're on these epic lows.
And I would say, for guys thatare out there with your hunting
partner, if you're not the onehunting, there's going to be
times where you've got to be thebiggest cheerleader out there,
right, 100%, and rebuildconfidence back into somebody
that just got deflated andDennis was, he was really upset

(50:44):
with himself.
So we're building, I'm buildingback up, really upset with
himself, so we're building.
You know I'm building back up,and by now though I got to
rewind the clock a little bit bynow in the middle of the day my
son showed up, so my son, brody, drove in and we were at a high
enough area where he was about15 miles, 10 miles away, and I

(51:05):
was able to watch him throughthe binos because he was he was
16 at the time.
I remember this as like causepeople thought it was nuts, but
he was 16 years old.
He drove out there and I'mwatching him and he unloads a
four-wheeler out of back of hispickup truck and then I can kind
of watch him do the eight miledrive or whatever it is in, and
then we watched him hike in.
So, all that to be said, so Ibring you up to see my son's

(51:28):
with us and so Brody's with usgoing through all of these
experiences.
So then we kind of get throughthat.
And then I believe it was thenext day we're hunting.
We got some elk responding goodactivity, but they just
wouldn't come in.

(51:49):
We go back over close to whereDennis had missed that elk the
day before.
I think it was the day before,maybe it was the same day, I
can't remember now, but we goback over there and I get this
elk to respond really good and Ihit him right back with an
aggressive bugle at him him kindof a challenge bugle and dennis

(52:10):
is, and it's deep timber.
So I'm over there, I'm rakingwith a big old, broken branch
brody's filming this on hisphone and, um, it's deep, deep,
dark timber.
Dennis is set a standing kindof kneeling in a crouching,
crouch down position in front ofa bunch of timber and all of a

(52:30):
sudden we see this bull startworking his way up and he's
coming quick okay and he comes,and he comes, and he comes, and
he literally gets five to eightyards away from dennis and
dennis can't draw right becauseI mean he could just reach out
and touch him.
he's right right there.
And then, boom, it happens.
The bull realizes wait a second, something's not right.
And Brody and I are about 15 to20 feet further back.

(52:54):
That bull starts to turn to goand he runs just barely, moves
back and I hit him with a cowcall.
Dennis was thinking and he hithim with a cow call too, and
that bull stopped 12, 13 yardsaway and just stopped completely
dead.
and while all this was going on,dennis was able to stand up and

(53:14):
he drew back and he, freaking,launched that arrow and just bam
, I mean just nailed that bullawesome this was his first bull
and, um, my son, god bless himas that as that bull was
charging up, then brody, go,brody, thanks, I can't screw up

(53:38):
this hunt if something happenswith this camera on my phone.
So he stopped it because he wasso afraid that he would mess it
up.
God bless him.
So we got the bull running upand that's it.
And so Dennis lets the animal.
The animal runs it's not far, Imean 20 feet, 30 feet rolls

(54:01):
over and we sat there and wejust kind of took it all in for
a little while before we wentover to the animal.
But I've got this most amazingpicture and it's one that
everybody's common.
You know, you've seen it withpeople where they kind of have
their hand on it and they'repraying.
But it meant a lot to me, right, to be able to share that with
him, to be a part of his firstbull elk and to go through the

(54:22):
highs and lows of the hunt,right, yeah.
And so then here we are, man,we got this bull down and we're
deep, deep, deep back in hereand I remember looking at dennis
going all right, man, what arewe gonna do?
We got to get this thing out ofhere.
So we did all the theprocessing right there.
We hung up everything in thetrees and it was only maybe from
our camp a mile, mile and aquarter, so we're gonna leave it

(54:45):
up there and just let it coolfor the night.
But we ended up taking it allback to camp and hanging it up
in the trees there and the nextthat night we start calling
people and say hey do you guys?
what are you doing tomorrow?

Speaker 1 (54:58):
Yeah, we got a bull down up here and get ahold of
that guy with the truck right,the guy that drove right in.

Speaker 2 (55:04):
Oh yeah, Well actually we did try to get a
hold of him.
He wouldn't respond.
But so we called some friendsand my youngest boy, ty, and all
of his buddies and Brody'sbuddies all these young kids
said, hey, we're coming by now.
We had prototypes of initialascent packs.

(55:26):
So we were given prototypepacks to these kids.
My wife was putting themtogether so that these kids
could come up and help us.
So these kids all show up andthere's like six of them, and
then we had a couple of otherpeople that showed up.

(55:57):
Dennis is one of his businesspartners, from his consulting
business, showed up with hisfather.
We had a team of people and sonow we're packing all this stuff
out, right, and we're doing itin ways we're like, okay, we get
all the meat down and then weget all the camp down.
So we get everything kind ofdown, other than one load, maybe
, yeah, one, one big load left.
And I had all the kids with menow and I'm gonna like, okay,
we're gonna, we're gonna takeall this meat back on the four
wheelers, load, you know,unloaded in the coolers, back at

(56:20):
the truck, and then we're gonnacome back up and help folks get
the last stuff out.
So I take all the boys out, andagain it's like six to eight
boys, I can't remember the exactnumber.
So we get back over and now weare in true idaho.
Flat desert area is where wewere parked, right, where's
nothing but, sagebrush, butthere are a few lava flow

(56:41):
canyons out there that are just,they're just, they're shallow
ones.
So as we're cruising back,we're within 75 yards to 100
yards of the trucks and there'sa cinnamon bear running around
down there and I'm just, and mybrain is like we got to get this
meat on ice.

(57:01):
We got to get this meat on ice.
And we all stop because there'slike four of us on four, you
know, four differentfour-wheelers doubled up, and
this one kid named Mason.
He goes, mr Elliston.
Mr Elliston, I got a bear tag.
Can I kill that bear?
And I'm like I don't know thiskid.
I don't know who you are, Idon't know what your family

(57:21):
thinks or believes, and Iliterally said to the kid, as
I'm continuing to try to get to,I'm like I'm not worried about
the bear, I'm like let's get themeat unloaded.
And I said I would have to talkto your dad.
I got to get your dad'sapproval.

Speaker 1 (57:37):
That's reasonable.

Speaker 2 (57:38):
And the kid takes off .
Next thing you know, I see himon the phone and I'm unloading
meat.
This bear is still runningaround in this lava field and
with all of us running around.
Well, next thing you know, thekid hands me a phone's like my
dad's on the phone, and I get onthe phone with mason's dad and
he's like yep, let my son killthat bear.

(57:58):
He's killed bears before.
I'm like all right.
So my oldest boy, brody, histruck's there.
He's got a 270 rifle in histruck.
Mason grabs his 270 now youpicture these eight kids all
running towards this lava fieldLike a soccer team.
Yeah, and I'm standing on thefour-wheeler going.
This probably is not going toturn out great.
And next thing, you know, masonstands up and he's shooting at

(58:23):
this bear and the bear's runningall over the place.
And he's shooting at this bearand the bear's running all over
the place and he's shooting.
And I remember screaming atMason.
I said lay down and take thatshot, cause he was just 200
yards, 300 yards, standing up,shooting, and he laid down,
prone, and I'll be darned if hedidn't kill that bear.

Speaker 1 (58:42):
There you go.

Speaker 2 (58:43):
So I've got the most, with the whole squad to cheer
for him right With the wholesquad right, I've got this most
amazing picture of these kidscoming out of this lava field.
All they did was just gut thebear down there.
They gutted the bear while I'mdoing all this stuff, Actually,
I ran back, did one more load.
I come back.
They're walking out of the lavafield.
If you can picture six to eightkids carrying a bear like it

(59:07):
was a coffin, right they're allaround it A bunch of pallbearers
.
A bunch of pallbearers coveredwith blood, just white faces,
sunglasses, hats on backwards,and they don't be, darned if
they didn't harvest that bear.
So we got an elk and a bear onthat trip and it was one of my
greatest memories with both ofthose stories.

Speaker 1 (59:28):
That's a great story.
I love the whole soccer teamgoing off bear hunting.
I haven't heard anything aboutthat before.

Speaker 2 (59:34):
That's pretty funny.
It was awesome.

Speaker 1 (59:35):
Well, joe man, this was a lot of fun.
I know we've got limited timehere, so let's wrap this thing
up.
Why don't you tell folks wherethey can find more information
about you?

Speaker 2 (59:52):
Initial Ascent, whatever links you need, and
I'll put everything in the shownotes.
But why don't you go ahead andgo into that a bunch?
So, yeah, I mean, we selleverything, all of our products.
It's at initial ascentcom, umis our website, and we also are
on instagram.
You know, at initial ascent uh,we've got a youtube page.
If you just type in initialascent, you'll find us there, um
, you can find.
Also we've partnered up withcompanies like GoHunt and Black
Ovis.
They sell our products.
But then we're also in Shields.

(01:00:12):
So we're currently in the Idaholocation here in Meridian.
We're also up in Billings,we're in Sandy, utah, we're over
in Reno Tahoe area, in thoseShields locations and we'll be
going into other locations, Iwould suspect, as this year goes
on.
So if you're in any of thoseareas, you can try them on as

(01:00:33):
well.
But hey, if you're looking for abackpack, if you're looking for
a pack that you know is a oneand done, and that's how we look
at it, as we look at it as as alifetime, if we put a lifetime
warranty behind our products and, um, you know, we, we, we can
tell you one thing our packs aregoing to carry heavy loads more
comfortably, and that's reallywhat we do is we carry heavy
loads more comfortably.

(01:00:54):
It's a very simple design, sowhen you're in the heat of the
moment, it's quick to to to packthings up and get moving, and
it's modular.
Any one of our bags works offthe same frame and suspension,
um, but we also have a femaleframe that does all the same
thing, a youth female.
So for the ladies out therethat haven't found a pack that
fits them, because every otherpack is built for a guy, we've

(01:01:16):
got a pack for you as well, andwe'd love to help people in any
way we can.
So if they've got any questions, feel free to reach out to us,
you know, either throughInstagram or they can contact us
directly.
We're here to help them in anyway we can to make their
experience in the backcountryjust that much better.

Speaker 1 (01:01:32):
That's awesome, Joe.
I'll give you a little quickstory here.
I have a backpack not initialascent, it was free.
I won it actually on GoHunt butthis thing will not stop
squeaking and I am fed up withit Like it's to the point that,
like when you're out elk huntingand you just constantly have
this light squeak behind you,you think you're hearing bugles
the whole time.
Um, it's awful and I hate itand I got to get rid of it.

(01:01:52):
So initial ascent is on my list.
But I've been asking everyonelike hey, I got to get rid of my
pack, and everybody saysinitial ascent.
I've got like three buddiesthat have like 15 bags, like
they're bag junkies and they'relike if you're going to get one
initial ascent, um, and then,finally, I'll say that, like
when my beard's a little bitlonger, I kind of have a little
bit of an orange hue and I feellike I look like your logo.
So so there we go, man.

(01:02:14):
Well, joe, man, this was a tonof fun.
Thank you again.
I'll put links to everything inthe show notes for the
listeners.
But go check out, uh, go checkout initial ascent guys.

Speaker 2 (01:02:22):
Thanks again, Joe.
Thank you Appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (01:02:29):
That's it, folks.
A few more stories in the books.
I want to thank Joe again forcoming on the podcast.
I think that wolf story it'llstick with me.
In fact, I recorded this maybetwo weeks ago and I've already
told that story to a few peoplesince the release of this actual
episode.
So thank you again, joe.
I do appreciate it.
Hopefully we can get Dennis,the other founder, on sometime
soon.

(01:02:50):
But that being said, guys, ifyou're looking for a backpack,
check out Initial Ascent.
There's links to everything inthe show notes.
I am going to get one.
In fact, I'm probably going toget two here, one being the
everyday carry, because I justneed an everyday bag for work
and things like that.
And, frankly, I've heardnothing but amazing things and I
know that I'm fed up with thebag that I have.
So check them out.
Links are in the show notes.

(01:03:10):
Beyond that, guys, thank you somuch for listening.
I really do appreciate you.
If you have a story, pleasereach out.
I'd love to hear from you.
I'd love to hear your stories.
If you've got an old timer, gethim on the podcast.
Get him or her on the podcast.
Just