Episode 118: A Field Guide To Safe, Smart Foraging

A cold morning, a quiet road, and a plan that starts before the first bootprint—this is how we turn a chaga hunt into a smooth, sustainable system. We map our routes with Starlink-preloaded Google Maps, carry a Garmin as backup, and treat radio specs with skepticism, because terrain always has the last word. When we grid-walk skidder trails, stop for 360 scans, and use binoculars to avoid false marches, we find more chaga with less wandering and far fewer near-misses at dusk.

We dig into the details that make or break a remote harvest: smart footwear that prevents blisters and plantar flare-ups, energy management that favours stepping around obstacles late in the day, and a drying setup that starts the moment we get back to camp. Chaga is heavy after rain, so airflow and racks matter; losing 40 to 55 percent of weight through curing is normal, and preventing mold is nonnegotiable. We cut clean with a hatchet, use climbing spurs when needed, and always leave live tissue on the tree to keep growth going. The result is a steady supply now and a healthier stand next year.

Local knowledge proves priceless. A midweek dump run connects us with neighbours who point out fresh logging cuts, and those roads open up new access to promising birch stands. We trade notes on graders, trenching, snow buntings skimming the hood, and the way cold snaps lock the ground, letting ATVs push deeper with less damage. We also share a listener’s story of switching from coffee to green tea with chaga and seeing blood pressure normalize—a reminder of why people care about this fungus—along with the caveat to consult a physician about personal health choices.

By the time we’re back in the sauna and the generator hums down, the racks are filling, next year’s GPS pins are logged, and we’ve kept our promise to the forest: take only what we need, harvest with care, and return with better eyes each season. If you love foraging, backcountry systems, or the calm confidence that comes from a good plan, hit follow, share this episode with a friend who needs safer field tactics, and leave a quick review so others can find the show.

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_12 (00:01):
Hi everybody, I'm Angelo Viola.
And I'm Pete Bowman.
Now you might know us as thehosts of Canada's favorite
fishing show, but now we'rehosting a podcast.
That's right.
Every Thursday, Angela will beright here in your ears,
bringing you a brand new episodeof Outdoor Journal Radio.
Hmm.
Now what are we going to talkabout for two hours every week?
Well, you know there's going tobe a lot of fishing.

SPEAKER_00 (00:22):
I knew exactly where those fish were going to be and
how to catch them, and they wereeasy to catch.

SPEAKER_12 (00:27):
Yeah, but it's not just a fishing show.
We're going to be talking topeople from all facets of the
outdoors.
From athletes.

SPEAKER_07 (00:34):
All the other guys would go golfing.
Me and Garchom Turks, and allthe Russians would go fishing.

SPEAKER_00 (00:41):
And now that we're reforesting and it's the perfect
transmission environment toalignment.

SPEAKER_06 (00:48):
If any game isn't cooked properly, marinated for
you will taste it.

SPEAKER_12 (00:53):
And whoever else would pick up the phone.
Wherever you are, OutdoorJournal Radio seeks to answer
the questions and tell thestories of all those who enjoy
being outside.

SPEAKER_07 (01:02):
Find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
get your podcasts.

SPEAKER_04 (01:33):
However, my journey into the woods didn't come from
politics.
Rather, it came from my time inthe bush and a mushroom.
In 2015, I was introduced to thebirch-hungry fungus known as
Chaga, a tree conch withcenturies of medicinal
applications used by indigenouspeoples all over the globe.

(01:55):
After nearly a decade ofharvest, use testimonials and
research, my skepticism hasfaded to obsession.
And I now spend my lifededicated to improving the lives
of others through natural means.
But that's not what the show isabout.
My pursuit is a strangemushroom, and my passion for the
outdoors has brought me to theplaces and around the people

(02:18):
that are shaped by our naturalworld.
On Outdoor Journal Radio's Underthe Canopy podcast, I'm going to
take you along with me to seethe places, meet the people that
will help you find your outdoorpassion and help you live a life
close to nature and under thecanopy.
So join me today for anothergreat episode, and hopefully, we

(02:40):
can inspire a few more people tolive their lives under the
canopy.
Well, as always, we want tothank all our listeners all
around Canada and the States andeverywhere else.
We really appreciate it.
Again, a big shout out to uh theum the bakery in Edmonton for

(03:02):
reaching out to us.
And as always, if people havequestions or comments or
anything, needs any details,just let us know, you know.
And of course, we're a littlebit concerned with our listeners
down in uh the Caribbean uhbecause of the hurricanes going
in there.
And of course, uh we appreciateall the support in the States
and all around the world asalways.
No updates because uh on umAnson Gunner, our chocolate lab,

(03:25):
because he's back at home withDiane and I'm out in the bush
and uh chasing uh Chaga.
And um we are doing what we can,but we've got Garrett with us,
and he's out in the bush, andwe've got Josh and Rolly and Ron
is uh the main group that wehave going, and of course it's
always the usual whining andbitching and complaining in the

(03:49):
camp about this, that, and theother things and what we need
and what we don't need.
But I gotta tell you, the prepwent well, and the rain has
stopped, and we're out picking.
Right, Garrett?

SPEAKER_13 (03:59):
Yeah, it was uh pretty rainy those first couple
of days, but finally cleared up,and you know, uh mud holes are
still sticking around.
But other than that, it's beenpretty nice weather actually.

SPEAKER_04 (04:09):
Well, in and and in the camp, like we said, we
changed all the the sauna, whichis a key to this whole camp.
We go in the sauna, at least Igo in the sauna.
I know Garrett does the same,and so does uh well, Josh does.
Well, Josh is out there nowgetting cleaned up, so he we
don't have a shower or anything,but we just use the sauna and
he's taking a sauna bath kind ofthing right now.
Well, Roley's on the stove, andRon's supervising, anyways, uh,

(04:35):
which is pretty good, but uh hewas helping out, but you know,
and it was the same.
When the rain was coming, hey,Garrett, we loaded up uh Roley's
dump truck.

SPEAKER_13 (04:43):
Yeah, we loaded up, but uh I don't know how many
shovel fulls there was back andforth, but we put a pretty good,
at least a ton on his truck.

SPEAKER_04 (04:52):
Well, quite a bit.
He's got beefed up uh thingsthere.
He's got a dump box on histruck, which is really kind of
nice.
So we did some repairs in thecamp.
We cut down trees, we uh we takecare of the camp pretty good.
I got no we cut uh the sprucetree over here that we cut down,
uh which will be used forfirewood and for sauna wood.
But the uh the the Rolly dumptruck worked out pretty good

(05:14):
because uh we filled up uh uhhis dump with two loads and
filled up a bunch on thedriveway and patched the
driveway, so it's working prettygood.
But now when we get out goingfor uh doing our Chaga picks, um
we start planning our walkingroute.
And one of the things that wealways need to do, Agar, is let

(05:36):
people know where we're going.

SPEAKER_13 (05:38):
Yeah, that's a definitely important thing,
especially when we're out of thewoods and you know, you you take
a wrong turn or something likethat.
At least someone knows exactlywhere you were to start, at
least.
So that way, you know, ifsomething has to happen, then
they have a good point to, youknow.

SPEAKER_04 (05:51):
Yeah, like my my cousin Michelle says, uh, who's
one of the principals in thecamp that we're in, uh, is um
look, we need to know where dowe start looking if you don't
come back and we're startinglooking like tonight.
Who's driving down the roadlooking for Garrett?
Where were you, buddy?
So you made a route there andyeah, so I was just taking a
detour.

SPEAKER_13 (06:11):
Uh there is a new cut there, and I was like, ah,
I'll go check it out.
I still have 10 minutes left ofsunlight, so I went down and
take a look.
And uh, I mean, didn't have totell you, but yeah, I probably
should have.

SPEAKER_04 (06:23):
Yeah, and well, I asked you if you're going back
in.
Of course, Garrett's riding anATV, and I'm in a truck.
So I'm driving the truck, andand I get back to camp.
No, Garrett, where's Garrett?
Like, what the heck's going onhere?
So Garrett's not here, where'sGarrett?
And I asked everybody else, no,Garrett hasn't showed up.
So, where are you going?
Well, I'm going to look forGarrett because he said he was
heading right back.
But there was he went down thisthis new road that uh they've

(06:46):
been logging in to check out andthen see uh whether it was still
light.
And the weather's pretty goodnow, so we did pretty good.
But so you gotta let people knowwhere we are.
And the other thing is the oneof the things that we use, which
sometimes works, sometimes don'twork, is walkie-talkies.

SPEAKER_13 (07:04):
Yeah, I mean when you get like walkie-talkies are
good, but when you get down thehills and up on the top, and you
know, you can't get a signal outbecause you're in the bottom of
a valley and you gotta, youknow, walk up 20, 30 minutes to
go on top of the hill so you canget service to the next person
over.
Yeah, it works then, but whenyou're down the bottom, it's a
bit frustrating because you youget scratches and muffles, and

(07:24):
you're like, you know, at leastI know you could hear me because
you hear the scratch of theradio going off, but at the same
time, it's I can't hear you.
So saying, hey, I went down hereand I can't find you kind of
things.

SPEAKER_04 (07:35):
Well, we've got three sets of walkie-talkies at
our place.
And, you know, look, first ofall, don't believe all that crap
that's out there that it's goodfor 36 kilometers.
Well, I gotta tell you, it'sgood for 36 kilometers if you're
on Lake Ontario and it's 36kilometers straight along, and
the uh conditions are idealbecause you get over one knoll

(07:56):
and these things aren't good forhalf a kilometer.
They aren't come close to whatthey say they are.
But we do have some a little bitbetter success.
Now, first generation, secondgeneration, we're in the third
generation, and we're actuallyusing uh a uh uh we've got um
some with uh look at the wattagethat they put out.
If you're looking atwalkie-talkies to community to

(08:17):
communicate with each other.
So how many watts was the oneyou were using?

SPEAKER_13 (08:20):
Uh I don't know what it runs off of, but there's a
six-watt boost on the one.

SPEAKER_04 (08:24):
Yeah, and then the the one you that was the one
Josh had and the other one was aseven-watt boost, the one you
had, but then the base stationwas a 25-watt, which helped out
quite a bit.
But still, I mean you you'restill a couple K away, and it's
still hard to try and get a goodread.
So you gotta look around.
And and some of the other stuffis um, Garrett, when we're

(08:45):
walking now and we're doing umskitter trails, going down
looking for Chega, and I'mwatching him in front of me, and
he's a young guy, okay.
He's still in his 20s.
Well, I'm not in my 20s.
I'm uh quite a bit older thanthat.
Anyways, he's got his head up,I'm looking down, and so he's

(09:05):
looking for Chagga while he'swalking.
Me, I'm looking where I'mstepping now, and then I stop
and then I look.
But one of the things is alwayslook behind you because when I
turn around, guess what?
Chagger right there.
And I know the other thing isthat uh some of the times when
we need the climate spurs, whichyours truly doesn't use as much
anymore, that um I mark the spotso that we can go back with the

(09:28):
climbing spurs and be able to goup and and pick some of the
taller ones, right, Garrett?

SPEAKER_13 (09:32):
Oh, absolutely.
Like you said, about the wholestop and look behind you kind of
thing.
I I picked that up probablyafter my first or second year of
picking Chaga, but I didn't cluein because usually I'd walk
straight in and now I walk out.
But we've gotten all the youknow more easy access ones.
So now it's actually doing doinggrid searches and stuff like
that.
So when we walk in, I'll walk,you know, 100 yards or 100 paces

(09:57):
kind of thing, and I'll stop andI'll do like a 360 look and take
take a minute or two and I'lllook and up and down every
single birch tree or every treeI see that has potential to look
like a chag a tree kind ofthing.
Yeah, and you won't realize it,but like I've probably found at
least half the chag that we'vepicked um now just by stopping
and turning around.

SPEAKER_04 (10:16):
Yeah.
And and so there's no leaves onthe trees out there right now.
And if we've had some, it'spretty cold nights, it's below
zero where we are.
And we're running on propane anda generator around everything
else, and as saunas are kind ofsour, and a propane stove,
propane lights inside, propaneheater.
Uh so you know, we're in apretty uh it's enjoyable.

(10:37):
But um the uh the amount of timewe spend, and and we have a uh a
room now uh where we are wherewe bring the chag in and we
start to dry it immediately.
Because with all the rain wehad, it's pretty pretty high
moisture content.
And so now we're we're dryingthe chag to to make sure that
it's uh there's no secondarymold growth and things like

(10:59):
that.

SPEAKER_13 (11:00):
Yeah, absolutely.
Like um, you know, and you candefinitely tell the chag is a
little bit more wet than usualwhen we picked it due to all
that rain, because you know,usually I don't complain so
much, but when you get in a goodrun and you come out and you're
like, I'm carrying extra 40pounds, and my dad's on the
radio saying, uh, where are you?
It's taking so long.
He said, You meet me at say noonor something like that.

(11:20):
And I get on the radio and I canget through to a close enough
signal for him and says, I'mcarrying 40 extra pounds for the
bushes.
Give me 10 more minutes.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (11:29):
Quit complaining.
All right, I understand.
But some of the stuff as well, Iyou know, a lot of times when we
when we find a patch, okay,here's a tip for those who are
out picking Chaga.
Leeward side of the hill.
Not the windward, but theleeward side.
And if there's a high moisturecontent like a swampy area or a
small stream or highconcentrations of moisture, seem

(11:49):
to be good in there.
But I always look and I pickwaypoints.
So white pines are usually goodtrees to pick.
So I'll pick that white pinethat's like a kilometer or two
that way, and because you cansee it with all the leaves off
the trees, and I'm heading thatway, and then I line up so I'm
coming back the same way.
But I also I use a uh satelliteGPS um and I make sure there's

(12:11):
new batteries in it.
And it shows you exactly whereyou are.
Now, the one thing that we'vebeen using here is because uh
Josh brought up um Starlink.
And so we've been using Starlinkuh while we're here, but and
I'll tell you this is anothertip.
And for those people that get inthe bush, so long as you have
access when you download, wedownloaded Google Maps, and so

(12:34):
long as you don't close the appin your phone, when you go out
in the bush, you just open it,and surprise, it tells you
exactly where you are.
So there was a lot of drivesthat I was doing going through
certain sections of the bushthat I knew I was coming out to
a road, and I had Google Maps onthere, and it worked spectacular
to let me know exactly where Iwas.

(12:55):
But you gotta make sure yourphones charge, or I have a GPS,
uh I'll tell you it's a Garmin,that uh it gives me uh and I
load uh download the area we'rein on the GPS and it works
great.

SPEAKER_13 (13:08):
Yeah, it helped me a lot, actually.
Um I went down through a newarea that we haven't been before
ever, and you know, I uh get offmy ATV and you know I do my
whole, like I call it littlelittle probes kind of thing of
the bush where I'll go down andtake a look and come back out
and do like uh, you know, 100,200 yards, and then I'll go back
in if I don't see anything.

(13:29):
Usually I'll stop when I seegood good Jaga.
And you know, when you get on,if you find a couple and you
start spreading out and youstart losing your uh exactly
where you entered the bush from,yeah, I put out Google uh maps
there and it showed me exactlywhich way I was or where the
trail I got off of or where thecut line was or something like
that, where there might havebeen different mechanics kind of

(13:50):
thing that you'll next recognizeon Google Maps there.
So it helps you definitely likefocus on where you need to go
back to so you don't get lostwhen you're in the bush there.

SPEAKER_04 (13:59):
Yeah, so so long as you open Google Maps while you
have internet connection, whenyou lose your internet
connection when you're in thebush, it was still working
perfect.
And I I was I was totallyshocked.
I couldn't believe how well itworked.
And and Josh showed us that howhow to use that.
So it works spectacular.
But some of the stuff though, aswell, is I gotta tell you, I
there was one day it wasmiserable, it was cold, we were

(14:21):
out there and it and it wasstill a frost, and I'm wearing
boots, rubber boots, uh, youknow, above my knees because I'm
pushing a lot of bush, and it'srubbing on the back of my left
leg.
And guess who's got a bigblister there?
Now, make sure you got greatboots.
And I got it the one boots thatI really like are these ones
that are uh they're uh a highankle cut boot.

(14:42):
They're not uh like a rubberboot, but they're waterproof,
they're laced up, lightweight,good support, good um uh like a
uh um I put a good uh insole init as well, and they work
spectacular.
When I come out of the bushthen, and I'm I'm pushing, well,
not quite as much as Garrett,although what'd you do today?

SPEAKER_13 (15:01):
Uh here, give me a quick second, I'll just check my
stats here today.

SPEAKER_04 (15:05):
So I did about uh 11 kilometers today, and Garrett is
about 12, 13 kilometers today.
So we we're pretty close.
We're pushing a lot of bush.
And uh what about your boots?
How's those you picked up a newboot on the set of boots on the
way out?

SPEAKER_13 (15:20):
Yeah, I got Irish sellers.
I've liked them.
They were probably my first foodthat you bought me as a kid,
kind of thing, for hiking boots,and I liked them since that uh
you know I went to you know,hiking store out there.
Um pick them up because I I wentthrough a couple, so there was
like sale as Cells hiking boots,and I I went through their sex

(15:40):
selection there and they got ridof their older stuff.
They went to all this newerstuff, and I didn't like the way
they designed, I didn't like theankle support, especially just
to compare like you know, thewhole don't cheap out on boots
kind of thing.
Because when I wear work bootsas well, the guys that cheap out
on their work boots, you hearnothing but sore feet
complaints, you know, theplanner fasciitis right in the

(16:01):
bottom, your soul starts flaringup and everything else goes on.
And I said, look, go buy theexpensive boots, like oh, but
like, oh, they're so expensive.
Like, yeah, but they'reexpensive for a reason because
they're the quality is there andthey're worth this.
So the same thing applies tohiking boots.
You buy the good quality andstuff.
I brought the Irish um Settlers,I think.
Settlers.
Setters, Irish Satters, and umyeah, lightweight, uh good R

(16:24):
support, no issues at all.

SPEAKER_04 (16:26):
Yeah, the only thing, good strong sole, like
the ones I have, short boot.
Now yours are quite a bithigher.
Yours are like a um uh I thinkit's eight inch or ten-inch cut.
Yeah, my mine are just above theankle, and they work
spectacular.
Good strong sole.
I put a good insole with them.
And uh quite uh to be perfectlyhonest, I suffer a bit from
plantar fasciitis.

(16:47):
No plantar fasciitis issues atall, but they they make a huge
difference.
And when I get back, my feet arenot aching and I'm feeling not
too bad.
But the rest of it is like I getone push a day now at the start.
When we first started, we weregoing like crazy.
Now I can do a morning and notin the afternoon.

SPEAKER_13 (17:05):
You know, I'm starting to feel it now,
especially like you know, thefirst couple of days it was
over, I think I did 20, 20,000.
So that'd be 20K kind of thing.
And then 18, 19, 17, and then Ihad one more 20,000, and then
you know, after which when youkind of look it up on Google, is
how much does the average persontake for steps for say for a

(17:27):
half marathon?
It's approximately about 20,000steps.
So when you're doing a halfmarathon every day through the
bush, you get tired after, youknow, day six or seven.

SPEAKER_04 (17:36):
And I gotta tell you, hey, Garrett, uh uh Uncle
Ernie, bless his soul.
He used to say, Okay, we're justgonna we're just gonna go over
this knob here.
And we look at it and we go,knob?
What the heck you talking about?
Down where we come from.
They put chairlifts on them andcall them ski heels, and they're
just little knobs up where weare now.
But that's all part of the funof getting out in the bush and

(17:57):
enjoying the good time we have.
But some of the things that weuse that would be very helpful
is binoculars, because you cancheck out Chagas with the
binoculars and save yourself alot of walking.
Oh, there's one over there, andyou walk over there.
Nope, that's not one, and thenback, so it saves a lot of time.

SPEAKER_13 (18:12):
Yeah, and like I would say, because I've got a
pretty good keen eye for Chaganowadays, and usually you can
tell from pretty far away.
It's like, is it worth it?
Is it not worth it?
Is it gonna be Chaga?
Is it not gonna be Chega?
And if you gotta think about itfor more than say, you know, 30
seconds to a minute, it'sprobably not gonna be Chega,
unless it is one of those reallybig ones kind of thing.

(18:33):
But most of the time I'll findthe Chaga, like I said, you walk
in, you find the one, and thenyou stop, and I'll do like a 360
of the area, and that's where Ifind the rest because I I miss
like two or three on the way in.

SPEAKER_04 (18:44):
And one of the things that I that I really see
out there is a lot of LBBs.
You know what an LBB is?
I don't know what an L B is alittle brown bird.
A lot of little brown birds outthere, and I wish I knew what
they were because it's kind ofneat to uh to uh to see them.
But the other one is is and wejust started now.
We started now, it's we're into10 days now, 10 days into the

(19:05):
pick.
And when we started, there wasnone here.
Today was the first day I'mseeing snow buntings.
You know what snowbunding is?

SPEAKER_13 (19:12):
Yeah, I know somebody's actually got quick
question because I didn't tellyou yet, but when I was uh you
know pushing some bush there, Icame across a bird that had like
a long beat, like a kiwi.
Really?
Like a New Zealand kiwi.
And I was looking at it, like,I've never seen this one before.
What big was it?
It was like the size of like ablue jay, a robin, a crow?

SPEAKER_04 (19:34):
Like uh a raven?

SPEAKER_13 (19:37):
Maybe like a crow, or like say like a grouse or
something like that, or apheasant, a good size like a
pheasant.
Oh, really?
And I was looking through it.
I'm like, I don't know what itis.
I couldn't feel like it wasprobably a pileated woodpecker.

SPEAKER_04 (19:47):
It was walking on the ground.
Oh hard to say.
But you know what I saw?
I I forgot to mention it.
Um bald eagle.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, over in a Deer Lake.
I heard it.
I didn't see it though.
You saw it?
Yeah, I saw it.
Yeah, it was flying right infront of it.
It was kind of neat to see.
But uh, yeah, uh and it was uhkind of nice to see.
But if anybody can tell me whysnow buntings, when you're

(20:08):
driving a vehicle, why they'realways flying in front of the
vehicle.
They'll fly, and of course,we're driving slow, and they'll
fly and they'll stop, andthey'll fly and they'll stop,
and they'll fly and they'llstop, and I just couldn't figure
it out, which is kind of neat.
Yeah, but I gotta tell you onething, Garrett.
Uh, I really appreciate all thetime that you're spending, all
the chagga we pick.
We pick it, we get it intodrying racks right away on the
same day.

(20:28):
And I'm looking now, we've gotuh quite a few racks of uh
filled with chaga that uh we'lltake back and then we'll have a
curing room where we cure it.
We don't use any artificialheat, but uh you've picked a
heck of a lot.
And you know, it's at the startof the week, it was 10 days, uh
10 days ago it was go, go, go,go, go, and the rain was there.
And now I'm looking, okay, allright, am I gonna step over that

(20:51):
log or am I gonna walk aroundit?
Well, in the mornings I can stepover, but in the afternoon, I'm
walking around.

SPEAKER_13 (20:58):
Yeah, I mean, I still kind of sit there and pick
my roots as best I can.
And if I was if I was goodpeople's advice too about
walking through the bush, it'sdon't just V-line it or go straw
straight line or walk to thatthing.
Like, take two seconds and youknow, hey, like I can walk to my
left here for 10 steps and it'dbe easier path down because it

(21:19):
will make a difference,especially if you're going for
not just a short time but goingfor the long run kind of thing.
I would say take two seconds,plan where you're gonna walk,
walk where you're gonna go, andthen just keep a reference point
of where you are because if youdon't know the push at all, it's
very easy to get turned around.

SPEAKER_04 (21:36):
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, we don't get lost anymore.
Um, but uh we get turned arounda little bit.
So we're on the radio with Josh.
Josh, where are you?
Oh, I'm I'm uh I'm about 4K overhere.
Where are you coming out?
Well, I think I'm coming outnear Rolly.
Okay, so yeah, it's easy to getturned around.

(21:56):
Just make sure you get in lotsof time so that's lots of light
there.
And uh we appreciate uheverything that everybody's able
to help out with.
And anyways, uh, but you'repacking in tomorrow, ain't
Garrett?

SPEAKER_13 (22:08):
Yeah, uh pack up and get out here.
Uh kind of thing.
I'm I'm hoping to get out notsuper early, maybe do one more
little thing in the morning.
But other than that.
Do we need the climbings firstfor those seven that you saw?
I I don't think we need maybefor one of them, but if we you
know if we No, we don't getthat, that's okay.
Yeah, it's not the biggest one,but the other ones they're like

(22:28):
they're pretty they're prettybig, so they're they gotta be a
good uh they've been there sincethey uh probably were cut the
tree down from the sapplate kindof thing.

SPEAKER_04 (22:38):
Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_13 (22:38):
They've been growing for a while.

SPEAKER_04 (22:40):
So all right.
Well, thanks a lot, Garrett, andwe want to make sure you
appreciate all that and hope youhave a safe trip back.
Yeah, appreciate it.
Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_08 (22:55):
Back in 2016, Frank and I had a vision to amass the
single largest database of muskyangling education material
anywhere in the world.

SPEAKER_01 (23:03):
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SPEAKER_08 (23:10):
Thus, the Ugly Pike Podcast was born and quickly
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SPEAKER_01 (23:17):
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SPEAKER_08 (23:31):
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(23:54):
you get your podcasts.

SPEAKER_04 (24:10):
Okay, here we are in Lindsay with Bill, who's
actually this gentleman hasgiven blood over 230 times.

SPEAKER_08 (24:18):
233, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (24:20):
233, and that's amazing.
And you've had some success withChaga.
Uh tell us what you're dealingwith and what you did and uh how
you um what you used.

SPEAKER_09 (24:29):
Well, I had mild uh high blood pressure, mild high
blood pressure wasn't veryreally high, but I was on
medication for uh a few years.
And then I uh quit drinkingcoffee and started drinking his
tea, uh, the combination tea,the green and the chaga.
Right.
And uh my medication is gone.

SPEAKER_04 (24:48):
Your medication's gone?

SPEAKER_09 (24:50):
Gone.

SPEAKER_04 (24:50):
And you couldn't give blood during the other
times?
Yeah, I could.

SPEAKER_09 (24:53):
Oh you could?
I could, yeah.
Yeah, so but uh a few times uhthe machine kicked me out.
Oh yeah, so but now it doesn'tanymore.

SPEAKER_04 (25:01):
So you think uh the the green tea in the chaga was
uh helped uh normalize yourblood pressures?

SPEAKER_09 (25:06):
Oh yeah.
Oh very good because it wouldn'tbe just stopping coffee, it
would have to be something else.

SPEAKER_04 (25:11):
And that's the only thing you did different.

SPEAKER_09 (25:12):
Yeah.
Well, we're thank you very muchfor that.
And my blood pressure isprobably that of a 40-year-old
man, and I'm 71.
Oh, very good.

SPEAKER_04 (25:21):
Well, that's good to hear.
Thank you very much for that.
No problem.
Okay.
We interrupt this program tobring you a special offer from
Chaga Health and Wellness.
If you've listened this far andyou're still wondering about

(25:43):
this strange mushroom that Ikeep talking about, and whether
you would benefit from it ornot, I may have something of
interest to you.
To thank you for listening tothe show, I'm going to make
trying Chaga that much easier.
By giving you a dollar off allour Chaga products at checkout.
All you have to do is head overto our website, Chaga Health and

(26:04):
Wellness.com, place a few itemsin the cart, and check out with
the code CANopy.
C-A-N-O-P-Y.
If you're new to Chaga, I'dhighly recommend the regular
Chaga tea.
This comes with 15 tea bags perpackage, and each bag gives you
around five or six cups of tea.
Hey, thanks for listening.

(26:26):
Back to the episode.
Alright, well, we're with Rollynow.
And Rolly is the guy with thedump box that I think I was
talking about when I was gettingcamp ready.
Where his Rolly, what size truckis it you got here?
Is it a half dump?

(26:46):
1500, yeah.
1500.
Well, you gotta boost it up alittle bit, eh?
Yeah, a couple extra springs init.
Yeah, and that's because you gota dump box on the back, and
guess who gets to get theshovels and load the box up so
we can fix those potholes in thedriveways and at the camp.
Yeah but it's always good uhkeeping the camp up and shape
the way it should be, right?

(27:07):
And right now we're doing uhwhat kind of a run are we doing
now, Rolly?
We're doing a shagger run.
Dump run.
We're going to the dump.
We're taking the dump becausethe dump is open once a week
from two to four on Wednesdays.
So we are doing a dump run, andwe picked up Mike, the local guy

(27:29):
that uh picks up, he sellschicken eggs, and you're going
down the middle of this road,which is in the middle of
nowhere, and he sells chickeneggs.
There's always uh we checkedwith him to find out what time
the dump was open.
And we said, Well, we're gonnago tomorrow.
Do you want any stuff?
Yeah, yeah, sure.
But they're doing a pretty goodjob and grading the road, eh

(27:50):
Rob?
Yeah, they are.
That's uh they do an excellentjob up here.
Well, when we first got herethough, the roads were like, oh
my god.

SPEAKER_03 (27:59):
Yeah, the rain.

SPEAKER_04 (28:00):
Yeah, we well it well, it rained for the first
five days we were here, right?

SPEAKER_03 (28:04):
For every truck that goes by logging trucks, and
whoever goes by, they all uhthey all chew up the road.

SPEAKER_04 (28:15):
Oh yeah, and just beat the heck well, shake the
windshield right off.
Well, even worse than that,it'll shake the part of the uh
front vendor.
We're talking about his Ron incamp.
He's got a 95 U gun, and he hedid a repair job, and half the
fender fell off from the roadfrom the shattering on the road.

(28:36):
Oh man, I think he was jumpingsideways on the road when that
happened.
So well, yeah, Ron, he puts thepedal to the metal pretty big
and it pounds the heck out ofthat vehicle, but it shattered
it right off so that uh put halfthe fender right off.
So he spent about an hour lastnight checking out new fender

(28:57):
prices on the internet when wehad Starlink going.
So we're out picking Jagger.
And you know, first five days itwas get out and look and raining
again and go back to bed.
We're not going and slipping andsliding and trying to go through
the bush looking for Jaga and inthat kind of weather, but then

(29:21):
the skies opened up, and theLord said, I shall pick Jagger
now.
It's just like today, the sun'sshining, it's a good day.
But we're on a dump run.
But some of the stuff that we dois and Mike, the guy we just
picked up his garbage to take tothe dump for him, because it's
it's a I don't know, it's quitedeclined to get to the dump.

(29:43):
I mean, it's not like setting itoff at the side of the road.
You're you're taking a I don'tknow, just use a figure of 40,
50 kilometers to get to wherethe dump is here one way.
Anyways.
Um and he was telling us aboutthis section where they were
doing more lager.
And so uh that's one of the keyways that we find the the

(30:03):
Jagger, right, Ro?

unknown (30:05):
Yep, yep.

SPEAKER_04 (30:06):
Well always good to have uh a few openings to get
through.
Yeah, so we um we head downthose roads where they uh where
they're freshly logging becauseit opens up new areas.
Yep.
And you know, when you go alongand you can take these routes

(30:26):
and especially routes, andespecially when it's it's the
rain's not chewing the heck outof the road or it's pretty deep.
And right now it's probablyminus five where we are right
now.
So everything's pretty solid andfrozen up, so we can get down
these roads and start pickingthe Jagga along these uh new
routes, and it opens up lanewaysas well.

(30:48):
Because when they're doing thelogging, they take their uh
harvester, right?
Right, and they will take thoseharvesters and put new put new
roots in the um in the bush thatallow walking areas.
So that's one of the things thatwe do is we uh look for areas
where they've been freshly cut,opening up new roads, and it

(31:10):
kind of tells us where we canpick the chart.
What do they call that?
A forwarder?
Well, no, the forwarder is a bitthat's a harvester.
A forwarder is it it looks kindof like a Tonka toy with uh all
it is is kind of a smallone-person cab in the front with
a cherry picker on the back, andthen it's got a like a perfect
four-wheel, four-wheeler.
Yeah, well, well, that's one ofthose it goes anywhere.

(31:34):
Yeah, and then they take the thecherry picker, picks up the
logs, and puts it in the back,and the they hollow it out with
now.
That's something else that youmentioned as well.
Four-wheeler.
We use four-wheelers like crazy,eh?
Yep, and they work great.
Yeah, it gets you uh it gets youa long ways into the into the uh
bush.

SPEAKER_03 (31:52):
And uh and helps you uh carry the stuff out as well.
So oh yeah.
Well I can't imagine the the theuh you know walking ten ten
miles through the bush with uhthe knapsack full.

SPEAKER_04 (32:08):
Well, yesterday it was only uh um 11 clicks that I
did.
So it's we're now well ten teneleven days up at camp now.
And at the first it's go, go,go, but they're gonna tell you
roll.
It's getting a little tiredwalking all the all that in the
bush, eh?

SPEAKER_03 (32:29):
We're getting old.

SPEAKER_04 (32:29):
Yep.

SPEAKER_03 (32:30):
We're getting old.
We're no spring chickensanymore.

SPEAKER_04 (32:32):
Yep.
Yeah, and it's it's like I saidearlier on, I'm at that stage in
life where I'm wondering, do Istep over that log or do I walk
around it?
Well, at the first of the week,I was stepping over and go, go,
go.
Now I'm thinking twice.
So in the morning I'm steppingover in the afternoon, I think
I'll walk around.

SPEAKER_03 (32:52):
Or you just lay down on the log and one leg over at a
time.

SPEAKER_04 (32:57):
Roll over.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But the ATVs have been a bighelp as well.
I know.
Yesterday, Garrett had walkedinto this spot and he said, um,
I didn't have my hatchet withme, so I couldn't get these
chagas.
But uh he said they're they'respectacular.
So I'm like, okay, well, wegotta get them before you go.

(33:18):
Because Garrett and uh Josh haveleft camp now.
They headed back uh back tosouthern Ontario where Rolly Ron
and I are still in camp.
Anyways, so uh we get there.
Garrett says, Oh, um, we'll takethe ATV in.
There's a couple sections there,of course, that you gotta get
off uh because they're they'repretty steep and they're pretty

(33:42):
rocky, and you're anyways.
So we're going and going andgoing.
It's like 10 kilometers into thebush that we're going.
Oh, that's not a logging truck.
What is that truck?
Well, probably the oneexcavator.
Yeah, for the excavator of thegrater.
Yeah, the greater.
Just so you know, we uh we had asomething you rarely see out

(34:05):
where we are, is a a transporttruck with a flatbed on the
back.
And we're wondering, like,what's it?
Yeah, what's that for?
But that's how they move thegrater in and up on the road, is
they uh drive it up on the backof this flatbed on the
18-wheeler, and they move it todifferent sections to be
greater.

SPEAKER_03 (34:24):
Yeah, take forever.
The grater had to drive it.

SPEAKER_04 (34:27):
Yeah, or too much fuel.
Well, I I must I imagine theyprobably uh could have been too
much fuel.
Or they must have been havingproblems because they used to
leave it right at the side ofthe road.
Yeah.
But anyways, so yeah, so Garrettand I are going, and we're
going, and it's just like Ithink to be honest, it was like
seven or eight kilometers.

(34:48):
The A had walked to find thesechagas before.
We just keep going.
Okay, this is where the ATVends.
Okay, we're just coming up tothe grater now, he's on the
road, so he's grading a newsection of road in front of us.

SPEAKER_03 (35:04):
And oh, look at that.
He's got a grater line there,and he's got the tires on the
back.

SPEAKER_04 (35:10):
Yeah, you know, they kind of yeah, the tires on the
back kind of pack it down afterhe's graded it.
Yeah.
Anyway, so Garrett takes me inthere, and we're we're getting
these chagas off.
And three Chagas roll weigh likea hundred pounds.
Uh huh.
The total of the three.

(35:31):
They are huge! They are and ofcourse, we always leave a bit of
chag on the tree to make sure itcontinues to grow.
Which is which is importantbecause we'll go back and quite
a few of the sites that we'veseen.

SPEAKER_03 (35:44):
They were definitely monsters.

SPEAKER_04 (35:46):
Yes.
Yeah.
And when we bring them back,what do we do with them?
They go into the into thecovered porch.

unknown (35:55):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (35:56):
And dry out a little bit.
Yeah.
Start the drying process rightaway.
And get a little bit of airflowin there.
So you probably didn't noticethe window was open.
Oh, yeah, I noticed.
Oh, did you?
Yeah, this morning.
Kind of cold.
Well, no, since uh the Jag isgone, I closed the window, but I
think that was just because itwas so cold out.

SPEAKER_05 (36:15):
Oh, maybe.

SPEAKER_04 (36:16):
But but yeah, so we get some airflow going through
there, and we start.
I have a bunch of racks in therethat we fill up and take home.

SPEAKER_03 (36:23):
Yeah.
So yeah, it was uh it was niceto see all that uh in there and
uh nice, nice, uh, nice stufftoo.

SPEAKER_04 (36:33):
Yes.
Some good chagas.

unknown (36:36):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (36:36):
So and that's good.
Now, most of the time we uselike a hatchet that uh we use to
uh um um to to get the uh chagasoff, or as in the case for a
couple of them, uh climbingspurs.
Oh yeah.
Yeah, climbing spurs.

SPEAKER_03 (36:58):
So uh is it uh Garrett, yeah.
Looks like uh looks like heworks for the uh either the
hydro or for uh bell telephone.

SPEAKER_04 (37:08):
Yep.
So the high up ones, and youknow, I I met one uh one guy who
was and we've done that a coupleof times.
We take a lot.
Remember we used to take aladder in with us?
Yeah.
Oh yeah, broken ladder in orderto get a little faller, farther.
But you're you're haulingthrough the bush carrying a
ladder around.

SPEAKER_03 (37:25):
Yeah, it makes it a little tough.

SPEAKER_04 (37:26):
Yeah, and especially if you're ATVing it.

SPEAKER_03 (37:29):
Yeah, which you take the first corner, right?

SPEAKER_04 (37:31):
It doesn't make it exactly.
But when you got the truck thatwe're in now, um it uh you throw
the little bit of ladder in theback, and when we're driving
those new roads, yeah, we go up.

SPEAKER_03 (37:48):
At least you get uh you get pretty far in with your
equipment.
Yeah, and then you have to go alittle bit further to get the
machine.

SPEAKER_04 (37:55):
So now, Ro, remember last year we went down mile
seven and they they boulderedoff the end of the road.
Remember, and you talked to theguy because they were cutting a
new, they had a big thousandhectare cut that they were doing
in there.
Oh right, yeah.
You remember seven, and youasked the guy, how can you bold
it up a boulder off the road soyou can't drive down it?

(38:16):
And he said that's so we can itdries out.
Remember, it dries out the roadso it packs it up a bit?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But we haven't been down thatroad just yet.
So we'll we'll take a drive andthen go down there and see if
they've removed the boulders inorder to get the uh cutting
equipment in the harvesters andthe cutters and all that, and

(38:39):
then take it from there.
But and and Roly does something.
Rolly is basically the cook incamp as well.

SPEAKER_05 (38:49):
Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (38:50):
And it it's it's always a big question of certain
things, like uh raspberry jam.
Does it have seeds or does itnot have seeds?

SPEAKER_03 (38:59):
Well, the seeds get stuck in my dentures! Oh,
everybody complains.
There's always somebodycomplaining.
Right?

SPEAKER_04 (39:06):
You can't uh you can't please everyone, but
there's only like six of us orsomething.
Yes, but and the meals are good.
Like last night we had uhbasically we had ribs and and uh
these special carrots that areover here, which are pretty
good.

SPEAKER_03 (39:25):
It's actually something my my mom used to
make, and uh we have thesecarrots and you don't know what
to do with them.
So what do you do?
Go ahead, describe it.
Well, okay.
Um so basically it's prettysimple uh and it's really good.
So you just uh you cut yourcarrots into little uh

(39:46):
medallions, right?
So maybe a quarter inch thick orless, and you uh throw them in
the frying pan.
A non-stick frying pan would bebest, and uh kind of cut a bit
of butter in it, and I mean, youknow, you can cut a a little,
maybe a little an eighth, eighthof a pound or something like

(40:07):
that, just enough to to get thepan good and greasy, and then
you put uh salt and pepper andand a couple of cloves of
garlic.
Now uh Jerry, I guess you gotyou got this garlic, it's from
uh Ontario.
Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (40:23):
Yep, it's absolutely divine stuff.
Well, that's uh Master GardenerBev Delonardo, her garlic uh
that uh she gives us.
She's been on the quite a fewpodcasts.
Good stuff.

SPEAKER_03 (40:35):
Oh yeah, you eat that boy, and your nostrils are
gonna clear out pretty quick.
Yep.
But anyways, uh so we cut it,cut um, I last time I put in two
great big cloves of garlic inthere.
So you put a fair amount in, anduh, and then uh maybe like a
half a cup of water just to makeit uh wet down below, and and uh

(40:57):
and you boil it basically in thefrying pan until uh and you put
a lid on it for the first partuntil they get a little softened
up, and uh and then you put uhyou put uh uh you take the lid
off and let it uh let it all thewater escape, and then you're

(41:18):
next thing you know, you'refrying in that butter.
And uh you fry it to just get alittle bit of color on the
bottom of these these uhcarrots, and of course, uh salt
and pepper.
You need a little salt andpepper.
And um, and it's uh once they'vegot a few little bits and pieces

(41:38):
that are fried, you know,browned a little bit, it's it's
done.
And uh they are good.
Oh, they're good.
I couldn't believe last time Icooked so much of it.
I thought, oh man, we're gonnahave leftovers, and it was all
gone.

SPEAKER_04 (41:52):
Yeah, yeah, it's actually pretty good.
Yeah, but this are the Chaga.
So basically, don't tell my wifethough.
Don't tell her what?
That I I cook I cook well.
Don't worry, we won't tell her.
And she just had a birthday,yeah.
She did.
Yeah, so happy birthday,Lorraine.

(42:13):
Yeah, yeah.
But anyways, uh so back toChaga.
So what we do is we talk to thelocals around, find out new uh
login areas that have been inthe area, and then we'll take
the vehicles to start off withthe trucks and uh the truck, and
then we'll we'll we'll drivedown the login road where you
know you you got your yourtransport trucks that haul the

(42:36):
logs out.
So the roads are pretty wide.
Yeah, they're pretty good.
Yeah, and they gotta have aturnaround, and usually they put
the logs at a landing point.
So it's pretty good to be ableto get access to new areas.
And as some of the shows they'vedone in the past, role, the
first thing that is happens isuh the uh loggers come in, cut
new roads to get into the trees,and this area here they're

(43:00):
harvesting SPF, spruce pine fir,which is uh dimensional uh logs
that they uh cut for uh housebuilding or whatever.
And they also had uh looks likeuh birch veneer and maple veneer
logs as well.
So so anyway, so loggers get in,open up the roads, clear the

(43:20):
trees, and then next thing thatcomes in is prospectors looking
for what they can find in the uhin the new ground that's opened
up.
Yeah, yeah, it's all kinds ofrocks exposed and stuff.
And where we are here, it's it'sit's not much topsoil at all.
It's oh no, gravel or sand rightunderneath.

(43:42):
You go down a couple inches andnow you're hitting sand or
gravel.
That would be a builder's dream.
Yeah, so so we access and thenwe um once we've uh driven those
roads, and you're going slow andyou're walking, and all the the
leaves are off the trees, so youcan see them all, except for the
tamarack.
See them all there, the thelarge?
Yep, they're they're all orangenow.

(44:04):
Yeah, they're all losing theirneedles.
But the leaves are offeverything else, and the stop's
not flowing.
And anyways, but uh with therain that we had, the chaggis
were a little bit heavy still.
And then once we're done withthe trucks, then we'll take the
ATVs in and do the the uhlogging, the skidder trails we

(44:26):
call them, to be able to findspots to go pick.
Yeah, those are a little morechallenging.
After watch what you're doing.
Yeah, it depends.
Each one's a little bitdifferent, yeah.
So they do quite a bit ofmaintenance on this road, eh?
Yeah, there's more trucks here.
This must be the this must bethe year for it.
Well, I know Mike was tellingus, the egg guy, that last year

(44:49):
he got snowed in and theycouldn't clear the road for
three days, so he was stuck inhere for three days.
Oh, look at this, he's got acutter head on there.

SPEAKER_03 (44:55):
Yeah, there you go.
I was always wondering what theywere using.

SPEAKER_04 (44:58):
Yeah, that's a beauty.
Uh so essentially what it is isit looks like a back hoe, kind
of a high hoe for those who knowwhat we're talking about.
Uh track hoe, yeah.
Yeah, swing hoe, whatever.
Swing hoe, and then and thenthey have this huge brush cutter
on to the end of it.
It that would you couldn't twoguys couldn't put their arms
around it.

SPEAKER_03 (45:19):
Yeah, I suppose if you if you if you kind of
describe it, it's almost likehaving a lawnmower on the end of
the on the end of the uh uh thearm.

SPEAKER_04 (45:28):
Yeah, you know, but it's really super heavy duty.
Oh my god.
And they cut all the the treesback here, and then they come
through with the uh trenchers,and they're for the first time I
can't remember seeing them uhtrench out the sides of the the
road here.
And I I've been coming up heresince the 60s.
Of course, you're not looking atthat stuff what when I was then,

(45:51):
but later on in the 80s, I wouldhave started to notice the uh
whether they were trenching itout, but this year they're
trenching it out pretty heavy.
Yeah.
Quite possibly for roadmaintenance reasons, or because,
like Mike said, he got snowed inand they couldn't plow, they
couldn't get plows in.

SPEAKER_03 (46:09):
Yeah, so you need to make room, right?
Yeah.
I mean the trees, right wherewe're going right now, the trees
are right out to the edge.
Like I'm gonna say what 10footers uh tall.
To 12?
Yeah, 10 to 12 feet tall.

SPEAKER_04 (46:22):
Yeah, and they're right in the ditches and and
stuff, so that's hard to pushsnow past those.
Now, mind you, the water levelwas pretty low up here.
All the lakes are pretty low,eh, Ro?
Yes, yeah.
And when the lakes are high, umthe uh the the water just flows
over the road, and we've had anumber of times where what

(46:45):
happened, Rohl?

SPEAKER_03 (46:47):
Well, we got uh we got locked in actually.
But uh the water flowed over theroads and washed uh washed parts
out and uh they what was thecargo?

SPEAKER_04 (47:00):
Oh yeah, yeah.
Um yeah, well it was right downby where we have the garden
there, yeah.
And uh and uh it just uh justcomes up and washes everything
out.
We got kind of landlocked for afew days, so well yeah, and
remember on on one main roadthey washed out the entire
section of it.

(47:20):
Um and they they they had toredo the whole road, so they we
were you couldn't get by untilthey came in with all the
equipment and redid the road.
So we're pretty remote.
But Starlink's working good.

SPEAKER_03 (47:36):
Yep, yeah, it's working weirdly well.
I'm I'm I'm impressed.
Yeah, it is, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (47:43):
Thanks, Josh, for yeah.
Josh, that was uh he bought theStarlink and was paying it
because while he was here incamp, he was still working.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So he was working and then he'dpick and come out with us uh
when he wasn't working firstthing in the morning, uh right
at first light.
Yep, and then uh then becausebut you know, I we see a lot,

(48:04):
we're starting to see snowbuntings now.
Yeah, they they like to fly justin front of you.
I don't know why.
I don't know why.

SPEAKER_03 (48:13):
Why why is that?
So strange.
Like you you're you're goingahead, you think, okay, you're
gonna they're gonna fly out ofthe way, but no, they'll even
pass you and fly in front andland, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (48:22):
And you go, okay, you guys got a death wish or
something.
I don't know.
And then and then yeah, and thenthey get up, and of course we're
creeping along when we're inthese back roads, yeah.
And then they'll fly in frontand they'll stay right in front
of you.
I can't figure that out.
But I haven't seen a lot of ofmammals like red squirrels,
yeah.
Yeah, but you know, in that onearea I was doing um um a walk

(48:45):
through.
There was all kinds of freshbeaver cuts where the beaver had
gone in, and no poplar there,they're mostly birch, is what
they're gnawing away on.

SPEAKER_03 (48:56):
So I I I did manage to hear, I think it was a lynx.
Oh, that's right, yeah.
And um, yeah, it's just uh allof a sudden I could hear this I
don't know, still sounds like areal scratchy old cat, I'll tell
you that.
And uh and uh it was bailingaway there for a long time,

(49:18):
yeah.
And uh but I didn't see it, butat least at least I heard it.

SPEAKER_04 (49:24):
Well in the camp too, my cousin was telling me
that uh they saw a bear all thetime, but we haven't seen any
bear sign or I've saw a lot ofuh fox scat because they will
like marker scat where they theywill leave their droppings to
let other foxes know this is myterritory.
I saw a lot of that, but Ihaven't seen any fox.

(49:46):
I haven't seen anything.
No fox, right?
Me neither, right?

SPEAKER_05 (49:50):
No.

SPEAKER_04 (49:51):
So so we're we're we're picking Chaga and we're
driving along now.
And of course, we're looking outthe sides as we're driving, but
uh on the dump run, and thenwe'll be heading back and
heading into the bush.
Yeah, yeah.
So but the generator's workinggood, the sauna's working good,

(50:14):
the propane's working good, butyeah, I gotta thank you very
much for that.

SPEAKER_03 (50:17):
That sauna works really well.
Uh Jerry Jerry's in charge ofthat.
He uh he makes sure it's stokedup, and uh it's really nice to
have uh something like that whenyou're after you come out of the
bush and and uh you know relax alittle bit and get cleaned off

(50:38):
and warmed up and warmed up anddried up.

SPEAKER_04 (50:41):
Hell yeah.
Uh and then the uh because Iknow um Hugh and Garrett were
stuffed up quite a bit, butyou'd go into the sauna and get
the steam going, come out, andyou wouldn't be stuffed up near
as much.
That's right.
But uh that helps.
Well that helps.
But yeah, it is.
It's it's it's nice to be in thebush.

SPEAKER_03 (51:00):
Yeah, all in all.
It's really nice to be out herein the in the wilderness, and uh
see Mother Nature and God atwork, and and uh it's just
beautiful, it's justoutstanding.

SPEAKER_04 (51:14):
So essentially, so we'll we'll see a chaga, uh,
determine the height of it.
Do we need the ladder when we'regoing in along?
We'll take the hatchet, we'll goaround the uh the the edge of
the uh chagas, and then you'llget it to a point where you can
put the hatchet in far enough,it kind of pops it off, and you
leave enough of the mycelium orthe roots of the the chagga on

(51:39):
the tree, and it'll continue togrow it.
And there was quite a few rollsthat I know I picked quite a few
years ago and looking at them,and they've come back quite a
bit.
Yeah, yeah.
I saw a couple of them myself,yeah.
And uh yeah, they they grew backuh pretty good.
I'm I'm uh I'm glad to see that.
Yep.
Yeah, and then we'll pop it off,put it in a canvas bag, take it

(52:02):
with us, um, and then put it inthe curing room where it starts
to dry right away.
So we don't use any artificialheat or anything.
Uh if the sun's out, that roomgets fairly warm.
Leave the door open a littlebit, let some air flow through.
Because uh they're pretty highin moisture content, and they
lose anywhere from 40 to 55percent of its weight.

(52:23):
Yeah, yeah, it's kind ofsurprising, but they work good.
And the other thing was uh therewas a couple roots there that uh
guess what?
Uh Garrett was out, and uh andJosh was out, and uh they took
pictures of a number of chagasthat we're gonna pick next year.

(52:43):
There you go.
So we already know where nextyear's harvest, because you know
we could take them now, but ifwe don't need that much, why
bother?

unknown (52:52):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (52:53):
So okay, we're at the dump.
They the gates are open, theMinistry of Natural Resources
and all the notice signs andvideo surveillance.
Video surveillance.
Yeah, and uh oh, they got anouthouse here now for the guy
who looks after to it.
You just pull and go to theleft.
What Mike said, brush goes overthere.

(53:14):
Old trailers.
Yeah, I'll go right over to thefar side over there.
We're gonna stop for this fella?
Oh, we'll stop on the way out.

SPEAKER_03 (53:27):
Oh, there's a big rave in there.
Oh wow, look at this nice man.

SPEAKER_02 (53:31):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (53:35):
This is pretty cleaned up over here, like I'm
kinda surprised.
Oh, they got a pit there.
Okay.

SPEAKER_02 (53:39):
Yeah.
A little bit of a pit, thisdump.

SPEAKER_04 (53:42):
Should do uh, to me, it's a little more recycling
would be good.

SPEAKER_09 (53:47):
Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_02 (53:49):
It's uh always the same.

SPEAKER_04 (53:52):
But I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 (53:54):
Should separate it.

SPEAKER_04 (53:56):
Yep.
Okay, we're gonna unload thedump and unload the truck and
then we'll be back.
Okay, we've unloaded uh Mike'sfive bags and our couple of
bags, and it's a pretty deephole they dug, April.
I'm sorry, I didn't hear you.
It's a pretty deep hole thatthey dug.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, so it's pretty deep, andthey um we were uh quite

(54:18):
surprised because I don'tremember last year when we were
when I was here that it was thatdeep, but look at all the
gravel.

unknown (54:24):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (54:25):
The one thing though, as well, uh last year
when I was talking to them,yeah, this guy here.
And uh we can just stop and sayhi.
There's a guy that opens it andhe sits here for four hours.
Everything's all good.

SPEAKER_02 (54:46):
It's uh it'll be Trudeau camp.
It's a Trudeau camp.

SPEAKER_04 (54:51):
Okay, okay.
Oh no, we had Mike stuff.
We had Mike stuff too.
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.

(55:13):
Yeah, it is, yeah.

unknown (55:14):
Hopefully.

SPEAKER_04 (55:15):
Hopefully, eh?
Yeah, that's right.
If there's any left, all right.

unknown (55:20):
Okay, take care.

SPEAKER_04 (55:21):
Have a great day.
Have a good day.
Yeah.
So there's a guy, and and uh hehe checks how many bags, so he
counts the amount of bags thatwe unloaded, and he sits here
for the four hours the dump isopen.
It's it's kind of remote in themiddle of nowhere.
And uh they burned it off there,I guess, because people were
trying to get in, maybe.
I don't know.
Oh yeah, look at that.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (55:41):
No, anyways, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (55:43):
So I don't think they get in there.

SPEAKER_02 (55:45):
Oh, I guess not.
I don't know why they did thatthen.

SPEAKER_04 (55:48):
Oh, but uh maybe it was uh something that uh maybe
somebody tried to drive downthere before.
Yeah, well, I think Mike wassaying at the end of this month
what they do is they willactually um um give him a key to
the dump.
Um because there's a lodge uphere that uh um has a uh that

(56:12):
keeps it open and plows it so hecan use the dump all winter
long.
But yeah, when it was in lastyear, they had all these test
marking things that were goingon in there.
And he was saying the ministrycomes in and checks to make sure
that there's no contamination ofanything getting in the soil, so
they go all around the dump tocheck it out, and it all come

(56:34):
out clean and clear becausethere was quite a few other
dumps around that they've closedthem all, the other two on this
road, and we had to drive up tothis one to be able to get into
it, but that was pretty good.
That was kind of weird.
Well, and you saw thathundred-pound tank in the back
of the guy's truck?
Yep.
Um, the uh there's one of thedumps that we go to at uh my

(56:58):
camp between Halliburton andBancroft, that those
hundred-pound tanks people justget rid of them like that after
they're aged out.
But you can recertify those, eh?
Because those new hundred-poundpropane tanks that we're talking
about, 100-pound tank, 100-poundpropane tank.
Yeah, that uh I can get themre-certified and reuse them for

(57:19):
for 10 years.
And now when we got here, therewasn't a lot cheap either.
Well, yeah, the price has almostdoubled since I bought that one
that we have in camp here.
Yeah, you know, because they hadthis huge one there, it was like
I don't know how big.
Remember that great big tank?
Yeah, and it was costing them afortune.
So that they got rid of that sixor eight hundred liters or

(57:41):
something.
Six or eight hundred liters?
Yeah, it was huge.

SPEAKER_03 (57:44):
I think whatever.

SPEAKER_04 (57:46):
Well, it was bigger than that because uh those
bubbas are that, aren't they?
The bubba tanks, uh, propanetanks.
But anyways, yeah, okay, right.
Yeah, it was a thousand or afifteen hundred liter tank, it
was huge.
Anyways, it looks like a minisubmarine.
Yeah, it looks like a minisubmarine, right?
Yeah.
Ah, shoot, I was thinking aboutthe other ones.
Anyways, so I bought thathundred-pounder that we have a

(58:08):
tank, but when we got here, wecouldn't get a reading on it
because it doesn't have a gaugeon it.
So, what we do is we we pouredwhen it was cold out, we poured
warm water over the tank to seeif we would get a frost line.
And all we did, it wasn'tboiling water or anything like
that, just warm water.
Just warm water, and it kind ofgave us an indication.
So we ran that tank for anotherfour days and five days, and

(58:31):
then took it to town, which is abit of drive, in order to fill
up on the propane, and we filledher up um and then brought her
back out.
But now we're into uh becausethe temperature's so cold and
we're using propane heater, uhfurnace, yeah, propane well

(58:54):
light when it was going, but Iturned it off in order to save
propane, and then um and thenall my gourmet cooking and all
the cooking, yeah.
And the you know, washing thedishes, but yeah, the dishes
aren't as bad now that we'reusing the paper plates and
stuff, eh?

unknown (59:08):
Yep.

SPEAKER_04 (59:08):
Except we got complaints about that, right?
Of course.
Because people don't like thewooden the wooden forks and
spoons and knives.

SPEAKER_03 (59:19):
Well the the forks weren't keeping their shape
after the second mouthful, thethe thing is about as straight
as a board, right?

SPEAKER_04 (59:27):
Yeah, so that's it's like okay.
But and then we have a burn boxwhere we put all the paper and
the burnables in, so we usewe'll use that to light the
sauna with them.
Yeah, and I used a lot of thosewooden uh forks and spoons and
knives as kindling in the uhsauna to get her going.
They'd be good, yeah.

(59:49):
But so when we did a run, wetried to find some uh, but
nobody had any plastic to keepRon happy.
Can we get some plastic for us,please?
But we do.
That because it's less lesswashing.
Well, yeah.
You know, so we're in we findthat uh the less amount of of

(01:00:10):
work that's involved, the morepeople are likely to jump in and
do it.
So anyway, so like they keep thepots and pans down too, you
know.
Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (01:00:21):
You don't uh you don't use every pot and pan
that's in the bloody kitchen.

SPEAKER_04 (01:00:24):
Well that and turn the darn things over.
Yes.
Like otherwise we have to washand rinse and deconduction.
And I gotta tell you what, thefirst time I came to this camp
with a crew was 44 years ago anduh a couple weeks ago.
Yeah.
And Ernie, uh my uncle, that'swho can't it is we're staying

(01:00:44):
at, and in the rinse water inthere, he always put a cap full
of jab acts in it.
Right.
Always and everybody else waslike, do it! You put that in
there! He's a crusty oldbastard.
That was dearly loved.
It would be like one of the Hewould be like one of the

(01:01:06):
muffins, one of those muffins upin Muffets up in the balcony,
those two gold guys there.

SPEAKER_05 (01:01:11):
Yeah, the two gold guys.

SPEAKER_04 (01:01:12):
Yeah.
Yeah.
He'd be like one of those guysup there.
But so Yeah, I used to make usput that uh Javix Javex in
there.
And of course, because that'swhen we're doing plates and
forks, real forks and all therest of it.

(01:01:32):
But when you get the guys, and Ibought a 180 pack, and we're
pretty close to the end of that180 pack, right?
Yeah, because you know whenyou're putting you're making
you're making toast, like Imentioned uh earlier on about
the homemade toaster that he hasthat we put on the burner, it
works good, doesn't it?
Save it from a coffee can.
Yeah, yeah, coffee can and anold coat hanger.

(01:01:55):
Yeah, with a little handle.

SPEAKER_03 (01:01:57):
Wouldn't wooden handle on it, and uh and uh you
drill a bunch of holes in thebottom of the can, right?
Yep, and uh so basically it's uhthat's part of the heater part.
Oh, there's a bump here.

SPEAKER_04 (01:02:11):
Oh my goodness.

unknown (01:02:12):
Here we go.

SPEAKER_04 (01:02:13):
That's not a bump, that's a hole.
They'll lose a Volkswagen inthat one we just drove by.
That's when is that what wassticking out of it?
Yeah, so the the coffee can.

SPEAKER_03 (01:02:23):
Yeah, the coffee can, uh it so basically the
bottom of the coffee can youpunch it full of holes, and
that's what goes on the burner.
And about, I don't know, is thisthree inches high?
Yeah, it's put that out.
Three inches high, and thenthere's a little like uh
basically a cross made up fromthe co hanger, yeah, so that the
toast, you put the toast on topof that.

(01:02:46):
Yeah, and so that those holes inthe bottom make it an even heat.
So and it makes pretty goodtoast, huh?
You know, I I uh I when I wasmaking it uh the other morning
here, the uh the uh I wascounting, you know, you to make
the best toast is you gottacount it.
So it took an 18 18 second, youknow, you just count 18, and

(01:03:09):
then you can flip it over andit's perfect.

SPEAKER_02 (01:03:11):
Yep.

SPEAKER_03 (01:03:12):
So if you do that, but my goodness, if you lose
count, the smoke starts to fly.

SPEAKER_04 (01:03:17):
Oh yeah.
Just catches you, man.
Yeah.
But it works pretty good.

SPEAKER_09 (01:03:21):
Yeah, it does.

SPEAKER_04 (01:03:23):
You know, so you're using plates for that.
You're using plates to cut upbecause we we get back.
I I get a lot of the Mennonitesausage and things like that, or
or some of the suprasadas, andwe'll cut that up and have have
that cheese uh while we'reworking.
Excellent.
Yep.
Oh, nice piece of machinery.

(01:03:47):
Well, that's that uh cutterwhere we're coming back now and
clearing the sides of it beforewe get it.
We got to see the uh the thebusiness end of it.
Yes, this time uh the uh the thethe machine with the claw that
has like a a uh um a cutter, uha big saw yeah, like a mower,
like a saw blade on it that cutsdown all this stuff at the side

(01:04:09):
of the road.
Yeah.
Anyways.
Yeah, so so we'll do uh we'reheading into the bush now.
We'll do the uh another logintrail.
Yeah.
We'll take a drive down that andsee what we can find, see if
there's any more jaggers.
But we're pretty much packed upnow.
I got enough for the year withall the the plants and uh with

(01:04:32):
the other pickers I got.
Should be good.
And if we don't need it, uh weleave it back out there, we just
make marker where it is andcheck it out, and it's uh set
that we know where to start fornext year.
That's right.
Oh, it's good to have a plan.
Yeah, and with uh that those uhdrives or the walks through the
bush that that Josh and Garrettdid, they certainly noticed a

(01:04:53):
lot of chaggers that we'll beable to pick up starting next
year because we know right wherethey are.
Yep.
Did they uh they mark them ontheir GPS?
Is that yeah, yeah, they'll uhthey they've got that uh um GPS
that uh they can they mark, theyput a note where it is on it,

(01:05:15):
and that tells us where to startnext year when we come out.
So we already got a good headstart on next year's pick, which
is a year away.
Yep, yeah, that'd be great.
And you know, in uh the morningin the we have uh Chag and the
morning coffee every day.
Yes, it's pretty good, yeah.

(01:05:35):
It kind of adds it mellows itout just nicely, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_05 (01:05:38):
Yeah, yep.

SPEAKER_03 (01:05:39):
I started off with a bit of a uh I'm gonna say a sore
throat, and uh I was coughing uhcoughing and and uh you know
it's pretty well gone now.

SPEAKER_04 (01:05:50):
Yep, and uh I swear that shake helps it.
Yep.
Alright, well we appreciate uhroll you picking and Josh and
Garrett and Ron and Camp andeverybody else, and now we're
we're heading back into the bushfor uh another pick, but it's

(01:06:11):
just a another fun time outthere under the canopy.

SPEAKER_10 (01:06:45):
And you'll find out about that and a whole lot more
on the Outdoor Journal RadioNetwork's newest podcast,
Diaries of a Lodge Owner.
But this podcast will be morethan that.
Every week on Diaries of a LodgeOwner, I'm going to introduce
you to a ton of great people.
Share their stories of ourtrials, tribulations, and

(01:07:07):
inspirations.
Learn and have plenty of laughsalong the way.

SPEAKER_11 (01:07:12):
Meanwhile, we're sitting there bobbing along
trying to figure out how tocatch a bass.
And we both decided one day wewere going to be on television
doing a fishing job.

SPEAKER_07 (01:07:21):
My hands get sore a little bit when I'm reeling in
all those bass in thesummertime, but that's might be
more efficient than it waspunching.

SPEAKER_10 (01:07:28):
You so confidently you said, Hey Pat, have you ever
eaten a drink?
Find diaries of a lodge ownernow on Spotify, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get yourpodcast.