The Great Moose Hunt

0:00Welcome to the Speak The Language Podcast presented by Ag Up Equipment. I'm Lake Pickle and in this show, my trusty co-host Jordan Blissett and myself are going to do our very best to entertain you a lot and educate you a little. I think that's the right balance anyway. Look, if you like the outdoors, conservation, hunting, wildlife, anything and everything revolving land in the natural world, along with a good hunting story every now and then, we are in the right place. Now, time for today's show. We are recording. Alright, so this week we have a special guest with us and Mr. Josh Thresh. Josh, you have made a name for yourself hanging out with the hunting public boys. Anybody ever run across knows you from watching hunting public?

1:00Yup. Because how did you end up getting linked up together? Well, actually it was the guys who choose to try to feel this morning. Mr. Lake Pickle called me in 2017 and said I got some guys that I worked with at, I believe it was Midwest white tail. They were coming to town and he knew that I hunted over in the National Forest or growing up hunting over there. He wanted to know if I talked to him about turkey hunting over there so I met him at the Home Depot Park in Lott. I believe it was Zach and Aaron. I don't remember who maybe Zach Kersy Eski was with him. We talked a little bit and I gave him some pointers but now that I know them, I know they really didn't need anything that I could tell them. It was a little bit more fun to talk about. We were particularly capable but that started the relationship and they hunted over there and we went and visited. Maybe I think we went over and cook burgers and sausage dogs one night form or whatever and just hung out and got to know them and just created a really cool friendship with

2:04those guys. I tell people all the time I would hunt with them regardless of whether they had the TV show or not because they're all good guys and great hunters. And if they become great friends, we've taken the boys and myself and traveled and hunted with them in other places around the country. So we've really developed a really cool friendship but that was all because of Lake Pickle. Oh my. So he's blind for all this. So if anybody has any questions about who's blind, is it Lake Pickle? Yep. Nobody would have ever known me if it wasn't for Lake Pickle. Well that and a spotlight on Mississippi turkey hunting. Exactly. But you know what? Why we're on subject of hunting public. You know I hear a lot of times that you know they're the down or a part of the reason public land has so much pressure this that and other. But at the same time for me, yes it has made impact. Nobody can deny that. But at the same time look at the impact they've made getting people into hunting.

3:08That's right. I think their positive has very much outweighed the negative side of it because everything has positive and negative. But I think about people I've ran into over the years that have wanted to start turkey hunting or getting and hunting in general from running across their YouTube series. So yeah and you won't find a group of people that they love the sport and they love the resource. And I think the first minute that they think that what they're doing is becoming detrimental to the resource. I think you'll see a group of guys that will be finding something else to do and I always tell people you know when they ask me about that I've hunted, I started hunting the public land over East of us here when I was a teenager. And I took my college visit days, my senior year in Splittlement to, and I had three college visit days and I splittled in half and I went turkey hunting six mornings. What's the college that's where you go visit? Whatever college you think you might want to go to.

4:08I would probably wouldn't as mature as I should have been when I was in high school. So you get out high school to go, to go to be two or in a college, see if that's where you want to go or not. Yep, yep. And I wasn't very serious about college but I was very serious about turkey hunting. So I remember going over to the public land opening day to a spot that you would know not far from where you grew up. And to this day that in 1997 that was the most traffic I've ever seen on public turkey hunting ground in my life. It was opening day spring turkey season in 1997 so that was prior to any YouTube, any social media or any, I mean I don't even know if we had the internet then. But I had never seen as many people as I saw that day. I never will forget that in all my life. It was, had only time I've ever had anybody shoot a turkey out from in front of me. And we had one coming on a string, me and a neighbor and I mean he got shot literally far from here to the, from here to the high off 60-70 yards in front of it scared me to death.

5:09Yeah, I'm that so. But yeah, that's one thing you hear about, I mean I definitely see, in areas I've gone like across the country you see a little bit more pressure than you did years ago when we first started traveling hunting. But far as here, honestly I think the way they've regulated it in the last three, four, five years on public land here is less pressure than it has been in a long time. Yeah, I'm real thankful for our, you know, our game and fish takes a lot of heat for a lot of things. But I think they've done a good job not jumping to the, you know, not jumping to conclusions and just doing things to do them. I think they've been very calculated and very wise about how they've set up our seasons. And I know some of the out of state people don't, don't particularly like it. But, you know, I think, you know, Mississippi, you know, resources need to be protected for Mississippi tax payers first and foremost. And I think everybody else ought to get an opportunity to come here because we go other places and we wouldn't want that to change.

6:09But I don't mind giving up the first week or two of season in other states we go to to the local guys. I don't think that's a bad thing. Yeah, I expect I'm exactly in line with that. I mean, whatever we set the precedent for, I fully expect me to have to run by that rule down elsewhere, wherever I go. That's right. And I've said this before or two, I think, I think Turkey hunting is a little bit of a fad. I think that you will, you'll see it rise. And then I say, I think you'll see it taper off and even off. But that you have to be seen, you know, we'll see the time I'll tell you. Look, if you've listened to this podcast for any length of time, then you know that we love to promote and support local businesses. You know that we love promoting and supporting honest businesses that do good work. That is why if you're a homeowner or a business owner in central Mississippi, you need to know about Dickerson contracting LLC, a Mississippi based company with an experienced team specialized in residential and commercial roofing, roof repairs and construction.

7:13With over 20 years of experience, they are known for quality workmanship, honesty. We all know how important that is. And a top tier dedication to customer service that simply can't be beat. So if your roof needs a repair or replacement or if you have any other construction needs, you might as well get it done right the first time with confidence and peace of mind. Visit DickersonLLC.com and schedule your free quote today. Yeah. So a little bit about you, Josh, you grew up here in central Mississippi and Ranking County where I live at now. We live four miles apart. About that, yeah. And tell me a little bit about how you grew up here. I know I've learned a lot about your dad over the last few months of helping y'all on the farm and just, I know he's got deep roots here and very passionate about it. So you grew up here. Yeah, my mom, my dad grew up in Brandon and my mom grew up right here on this place.

8:14This land and my house is on is actually part of my grandfather's home place. And so when my mom and dad got married in the mid-70s, they, I think they lived in town for about six months and then they bought the place across the road where they lived now and started working on that place and moved out here into a mobile home. And, you know, they bought that original 60 acres. I think they mortgaged about everything. They could mortgage. And actually my great uncle who still read, actually, cut his grass yesterday. He's 86 or 7. He helped them finance that place to be able to get it. He was a bachelor and never did Mary. And he helped them finance to get that place. And they bought that place, I believe, in 1974. Started to build a home and I came along in 1979 and was born and raised right there on the hill across the road, a different home. They built the house right there that they're in now in 1994.

9:15But I was born and raised right here and my dad started buying, obviously, about that place in 1974. And then in the, you know, just started picking off little spots here and there that he could, you know, I think goes. I mean, a spot comes up for sale and he would buy it. I think the first spot he bought outside of the home place was like 59 acres and that's the spot that, you know, I killed my first two or three deer. My first buck was a button buck with a 14 single shot slug and, you know, my first turkey was on that same and that same food plot was a Jake. And, you know, just a lot of fine memory. So I grew up with my dad being a, he was primarily a deer in turkey hunter and we hunted squirrel with dogs and still hunted squirrels and fished. My grandfather was a turkey hunter dating back to the, gosh, he was born in 1930. So he was turkey hunting back in here in all these places. You've been helping me work on the place over the last couple of months. He was turkey hunting back in there in the, you know, in the 1940s as he came of age.

10:18So, yeah. And I was real close to him. He actually, the year we were building our home here, he got struck by lightning down in the bottom where you planted the Chihuapa millet down there for me. Right there in that bottom, he got struck by lightning. It was a direct hit and I actually was the one that found him down there. So a pretty tragic story, but he was just retired and was healthy as a horse and I feel, you know, confident he could have still been alive today. But, so I, you know, just a lot of history. What was he doing? He was trying to get, that was all cattle pasture at the time and he was trying to be to rain and get fertilizer out. He was pulling a buggy with that little 50-30 Kubota that still sits down there in the barn now. He was pretty regularly, but he was trying to beat the rain and if all we know is it was a direct hit and a tractor ran into a corner post, cross-tie, corner post and spun down and I think he was, you know, killed immediately.

11:18Wow. So. That's crazy. Very few people actually get killed by lightning every year, so it was pretty, you know, but hey, I guess if you got a pick, ways to go, that's probably not the worst. They probably didn't know, probably never. I couldn't imagine he would know. Yeah, but he was a turkey hunter and he was kind of an old school turkey hunter. I did get to hunt with him a little bit and he would build log blinds all back in these woods. He would take a chain, saw him cut down a little pine or find one dead and cut it up and make a log blind and he would, he had a before cushion seats were popular. He had my grandmother saw him a cushion seat with dog chain snaps on it and he would snap them to his belt loops and he walked everywhere, shot a Winchester Model 12 and it didn't matter how far back in there it was, he walked. He didn't, he finally bought a four-wheeler, not long before he was killed, but he primarily would walk and he had an old, you know, the old army jacket, army pants.

12:19Because I came of age and knew of him hunting, but I got to hunt with him a little bit, but I can tell you, you better have your rear end condition when you would get with him because he would take a Louis Lamour Western and he would get in that log blind and he's liable to be there, you know. If he got there at noon, he might be there to a dog sit and call every once in a while on a double-sided box call and I mean he was killed, turkey's a patient, you know. Right, man. Yeah, walking everywhere and back in here, I mean this is not the flatest country in Mississippi. That's some pretty rugged hills and hollers considering what's available here. Yeah. It's probably some of the steepest stuff in the state other than like the Mississippi bluff areas and areas. Yeah, it's, we're actually on, if not the highest, I believe the second highest, you know, the fire tower used to be right here before you moved out here, it was on this hill right here and I think they would put the fire tower on about the highest hill in the county. Yeah. The fire tower was here so we're about the highest point. If not the highest, we're real close to it.

13:20I think the courthouse in Brandon is close. Okay. But yeah, he, if you, one unique story I do remember about him, he went back all the way, almost all the way to the south end of where our property is now when he was a young man and called in and killed two gobbler turkeys. I don't know what the limit was but I feel certain the statute of limitations has passed but he killed two gobbler turkeys and I know I remember him saying they were much, much heavier than what he was used to seeing in a while, turkey. But I remember him saying that he would never do that again because by the time he got out, he was just about a puddle, you know, and come to find out they were two tame turkeys. There were a bunch of people that lived back in those woods back in there and come to find out it was a tame turkey, two tame turkeys. Somebody just Thanksgiving dinner. Yep. Yep. So you're a third generation turkey hunter and your boys, you got two boys and a daughter and they're all turkey hunters. So fourth generation, that's pretty special right there for, you know, for, for anywhere

14:24in the country, it could just because the way turkey hunting culture was and began, we went through such a void of turkeys that really the culture died all for a while. Right. Yeah, it's been, it's been a strong culture all of my life. But yeah, there was definitely, you know, that's something that would have been neat. My grandfather would have still been around to be able to talk to him as I've gotten more interested in, you know, management and habitat and, and, and, you know, the resource, you know, you know, my interest there and it would have been interesting to talk to him and get him to tell some history. You know, I've got his brother is the one that I was telling you still alive up here and his younger brother and, but he never really was a hunter. So, you know, he knows a lot of things, you can tell you a lot about these woods back in here, but, you know, the hunting side of it, he wasn't as much into, you know, but, uh, but yeah, it's a special thing to be able to raise the boys and, and Elizabeth here, you know, it's, it's just, it's a very unique life we live living on the property like

15:27this and being able to be so close to it and, you know, they're able to help me a lot, they enjoy a lot of that sometimes when it's cleaning up a new food plot, picking up roots, or cutting limbs out of roads, they don't enjoy it as much, but, uh, I'm just telling you about, we've got a couple of lanes that have some roots and stuff in them, we just made it. Yeah, I think somebody just found them with the section here actually. Yeah, yeah, sure did. But yeah, it's, uh, it's cool times and, uh, you know, one of the things I want to talk to you about too, while we were here is, you know, you've, uh, outside of turkey hunting, weeks sitting here and talking about turkey hunting all day long, while we're getting into the throes of big game season and deer seasons right upon us here, Mississippi. Yeah. And you're, you've, I've got to know you better. I wouldn't, me and even own each other or known of each other probably for a decade now. And I've probably been talking to you and only since I moved in really out here about

16:30three years, two and a half, three years ago. But one thing I've learned about you is you're not scared to go off somewhere and go hunting. Right. And y'all, y'all have taken adventure trips for a long time, you and your dad and just you and, you know, I want to, I know last year you went on a moose hunt and I've been, I haven't asked you questions about it on purpose. Right. Because I wanted to hear it on the story because I think it was a pretty cool hunt. So tell me about, what got you in the wanting to do that? It's been a bucket list of mine too. You know, I've never got the opportunity to do it. I'm going to do it one day. But what drew you to go do that? Well, I like you. It's been a bucket list thing. I've always wanted to kill a big moose. I mean, I love archery hunting and have primarily archery hunted for whitetails and, you know, elk and even, even turkey and other things, pronghorn and mule deer. So I just love shooting things with a bow, love shooting a bow, um, done some, you know, some traditional archery and, and comp, a lot of, a lot with a compale, a lot more with

17:32a compale. Um, but I've always wanted to kill a moose and honestly it probably got, you know, really on my mind when I was shooting traditional archery, you know, because everybody says moose are made to kill with a traditional bow because you can get close and they're a big target. Um, and that's true. But I had, I had fallen off on shooting my traditional archery prior to this hunt and, and so I did take a compale and a buddy of mine, uh, uh, just, mentioned one day, he said, man, we, you know, I want to kill a big moose. We ought to find a good place and go and it was just kind of a snap, you know, a lot of those things you think about and you plan and, you know, it'd been something I'd been wanting to do and just something in me. I just, I was like, okay, let's do it, you know, just kind of, you know, just on a wheel on my most, you know, so I got to, but he's one of those, you don't do that too unless you're serious. So he got to plan and he goes to some of the conventions and things where those outfitters are at. And, um, you know, you can do moose on your own. In fact, I've got some good friends who've done that two years in a row, you know, have gone, um, north and west and, and, and kill moose on their own.

18:36And they've been extremely successful. Uh, in fact, they've gone four for four, two years in a row. Wow. Uh, guys from right here, right here around, around us. But, uh, we decided to go with, uh, Mackenzie mountain outfitters. Um, Chris found, uh, found them and they're a, you know, a historical, um, outfit the guy that, that owns it has been outfitting, uh, since 1978, I believe in he 78 years old, 79. Now he would be right. Gonna take a quick break here, folks, just to remind you that right now in Ag Up equipment, you can own the John Deere compact tractor that you have always wanted, needed or maybe a combination of both with zero percent financing on all one through four series machines. Visit your local Ag Up location or check them out online at agup.com. Ag Up equipment and John Deere built for what's next and, and quiet of character. So we booked with them. And I can't remember how far ahead of the hunt we booked, but our hunt was for mid September

19:38last year, 2025 in the Mackenzie mountains. And, you know, I really didn't know a whole lot and I really didn't do a whole lot of study in prior to the hunt, but they send you their little old school, you know, they send us a list in the mail and it wasn't even an eight and a half by 11 sheet of paper. It was a half of eight and a half by 11. So like a postcard size piece of paper that told us what to bring. And one thing I've learned over the years and hunting without fitters is don't really try to recreate the wheel, you know, bring what they say to bring. And if you've got other personal things that you have to have, you know, bring that, but don't over pack. So I, you know, I got what I needed, which I had to get a backpack, you know, a big backpack. We don't have those much around here like a frame pack. And really I didn't have to have a whole lot more. I mean, I didn't have to take a tent and those type of things. So I had to have the clothes that I needed and obviously my bow and all that stuff. And I did a little bit of work with my equipment. I added a little more weight to the end of my era. I think I did a, I used a 75 grain insert on a carbon era with 125 grain cut on

20:43contact. Hey, and I'm shooting a hoik bow at 70 pounds. It's a 70 pound bow maxed out. So, you know, I knew that would be good enough to get the job done. So, you know, I just really didn't have to do a whole lot. I shot a good bit. I don't shoot a bow as much as I used to shoot, but having a trip like that, you know, I wanted to be ready. So I shot a good bit in preparation and we left me at last, last September. I don't remember the date we left on, but probably about around this time, maybe a little earlier, but we had the later hunt, which was good. You know, we wanted to be there during the rut. And one of the things about this type of trip is the trip is, is, is a lot of it. I mean, shooting the, shooting the moves was a big deal. But getting to the Northwest territories into the McKinsey mountains is quite a feat in and of itself. Was that your first time to go like that direction for us at Thorne, North and West? No, I back in, it's probably been 15 years ago.

21:45I know 18 maybe I killed a Quebec Labrador Caribou in Northern Quebec, Canada, on the Tundra. And I actually, actually killed two of them. One with a bow and one with a rifle. And you can't even hunt the Quebec Labrador herd. Right. They're on their own problems. Yep. Only to the only natives can hunt those. But anyway, we, you know, we flew from, you know, you can't get anywhere easy from Jack's Mississippi. So I think we flew to Atlanta or maybe to Charlotte and then to Minneapolis and then from Minneapolis to Edmonton, Alberta. And you got to do all the swap over going into Canada. I'm sure you've done that before. Yeah. Before that. And from Edmonton before. So, you know, we did all that went through customs and got, got into the, into, into, into Canada, spent the night in Edmonton. And the next day we got on Canada air and from Canada air, we went to, let's see, we went north from Edmonton to, to Yellowknife.

22:46These are like little fishing villages. Oh, God. And the plains, best I remember half the plain is like a cargo area where they can take cargo to these villages and half of them have seats like a regular commercial airplane. So that's pretty unique in it. So if you can imagine the plane is divided in half and half carries cargo and half carries, pretty simple concept. But we would go to these villages and you would get off and go inside the airport and they would offload, you know, whatever people had to get off and other people that had to get on and then they would offload whatever cargo they had to offload. And, you know, from Norman Wells, we flew to Injevic, which is farther north, up closer to the Arctic Circle and other fishing village, same story there. And from Injevic, we came back south to Norman Wells. And Norman Wells is right there on the East edge of the Mackenzie mountain. And again, it's a fishing village right there on the Mackenzie River. And we flew into a big strip there in a big plane, you know, big commercial type plane and offloaded there and had a like a 16 pasture van or like a little short bus

23:52picked us up there with all our stuff and took us down to the, they had a long rectangular lake there that the float planes operate off of. I think it was a right's air, maybe I believe is the float plane group that takes, they work for several outfitters across the Mackenzie's and maybe over into the UConn because the Northwest Territories borders UConn territories to the East and the Mackenzie Mountains kind of divide the two. So we took all our stuff down to a float plane. I mean, it was a pretty, it was a mad rush. So sometimes it's hard to soak these things in because you're just thinking about getting everything that you need to get and getting to the next spot and don't miss the plane. Because if you miss a plane up there, you know, it's not like I'll just catch the next one in an hour or two. It's a whole different scenario. I mean, it could be or you could get, you know, shut in with weather or whatever. So you want to pay attention and, you know, make sure you get your stuff off and

24:54get it on the next plane and get in and get ready and listen to instructions. I've got kind of a funny story about listening to instructions that I'll tell in a minute. But anyway, we get down there to the float plane dock and they're offloading moose meat and they've got the moose meat in these. I don't know what you call these things, but a lot of times chemical or non-potable water comes in these big square plastic tanks and they've got an aluminum like exoskeleton around cage built around them. So they had these cages without the water tank inside and that's what they had the moose meat in. They had it fixed where they could pull up there with a fork lift and pick up these cages and I started seeing the hindquarters off these moose come off this plane and I thought, my gosh. I mean, a hindquarter that, I mean, I'm 64, you know, 250. I'm a pretty big guy and I feel like I can carry a pretty decent load, but I need, I realized then, you know, what we were up against if we got one down had to pack it out. I knew it was going to be a job. You know, and I'd heard that.

25:56But anyway, they got the moose meat and hunters off and, you know, we exchange pleasantries with everybody and the guys that were flying for, for right air. I can't remember if it was North, right? Or anyway, people that have been up there, I'll know because they're a pretty common name up there. But the float playing guys pretty much said, how you need to take your bows out of your bow case and we don't need to take the bow cases on here because the outfit are told us, you know, he didn't like you ought to bring bow cases in. Just for storage purposes, I guess. Yeah. And I thought at that point in time, I was like, man, I don't want to take my bow out of the case and have to, you know, come in, you know, take a chance on getting it, you know, beat up or whatever. So another guy that had been up there a couple times and knew this outfit, or he said, I'm not taking my bow out of the case. He was an older guy and he'd been on, he killed the 27 North American big game. And so he'd been there and done that and he said, I'm just, and I'm not taking my bow out of the case. And I thought, well, if you're not going to, I want to either.

26:59So we didn't. We put all our stuff on there and we had room and it was like eight guys and all our stuff piled in this, in this float playing. And we, we took off off the, you know, off the lake there flying across the McKinsey's was a real treat. I mean, it's, it's just a rugged, just endless rocks. And I mean, I didn't see a lot of green. I mean, it was, it was just a rugged place and it looked like, it looked like prime sheep country to me. I mean, I've not been in, I'm not been sheep hunting, but that's what I could imagine there. Big old doll or whatever. You know, a bunch of shale and stuff inside of mountain. Yep. Yep. A bunch of, a bunch of, just a bunch of rock. I mean, just a lot of water, creeks and rivers and, you know, just very little green is what I remember it was, but it was beautiful. A lot of colors red and gray and, and it just a beautiful fly across there. And I also got to thinking about if we had plain trouble, I was thinking, there is nowhere to light this thing up here. And we weren't that high.

28:01So, but anyway, I think those beavers, that's why they use them is because they're so, you know, so dependable and so strong and carry such a load. But I mean, after about 45 minutes, we, we can see the, the lake and the outfit there. And we, we land and, you know, pretty uneventful land. And then we, we taxi up to the dock there and they've got a group of hunters that are going to get on. And we're going to get off. So we start getting off and getting our stuff. And, and the outfit or he's right there, you know, he's on top of everything. I am not going to say his name, but he, first thing he sees is those bo cases. You know, and here we are. We're a client, you know, and I'm thinking, you know, I have clients. I have a business and I think about how I treat my clients, but that's a whole different world. And I'm sure when you're 78 and you've been doing it for 41 or 42 years, you know, you just don't put up with a lot of junk. And he said, what are these bo cases doing here? And the guy that was there with us that, you know, he was probably in his 60s.

29:03Um, he said, I wasn't going to fly over here without my bo case, my bow and my bo case. And he said, you know, you're not supposed to have that bo case. And they went back and forth a couple of times and I thought they were going to get in a fist fight right there. It was, and, and, and come to find out they were good friends and, and, and, and they were over it just as fast as it started, but it got heated. And I knew right quick that I needed to get my bow out of my case and put my case back on that airplane. Uh-huh. And he had a good reason come to find out because the planes that were going to come in and get us to get out were much smaller than the one we had come in on. Right. He finally told us that, you know, but that was just another lesson to me. When those guys had been doing it that long, tell you something or saying word for you to do something, do it because there's potentially a good reason because I could have been in a situation if we had to get out in a hurry, you know, because of weather or whatever, which ultimately we did. Uh, and I had my bo case, you know, it might have been a situation where I had to leave my bow in the northwest territory because it wasn't room to get it on the plane, just stupidity on my part.

30:05But anyway, that kind of blew over and we laughed about it after that. It was pretty funny. Uh, but, but me and Chris were just kind of standing back just like, you know, oh my gosh, you know, this guy, so guys fixing the, he's fixing to get in a tussle with somebody over this, but he had a neat little camp right there on the lake, you know, Cook's shack was kind of the main central, you know, meet and spot and, um, that's where we, you know, got our tags and licenses and everything and it was built out of logs. I mean, just a, everything you could imagine, you know, with the Mackenzie mountains around you, you're kind of down in a bowl in that lake. And I mean, it's just everything you can, you could imagine it being, you know, when you dream about going on a hunt like this and, um, this guy operates, like I said, he's been in business for over 40 years and for, you know, 30 of those years, he operated out of airplanes. And he had, I think he said he had over 100 places out in the Mackenzie's in his territory that he could land that he knew of. But in the last 10 years, he had switched over to helicopters, bail helicopters and he had

31:07two of them. So that was part of the attraction to go in here is to be able to get out and get in some of the places that he could get in with those helicopters that it would take you, you know, days to walk into. Right. And then the, from what I've heard after my after, once you found a kill wound, you kind of got to be picking, it's usually where you shoot one at. But I guess helicopter kind of takes that out of the equation. Helicopter takes a lot of that out of the equation. I did have a big moose that we would have went after, but you couldn't even have gotten him with the helicopter. Okay. Where he was at just in a unique spot. But, um, I drew the short straw or you can say the long straw or whatever. So, you know, you have to be careful up there. I think there's some room. I don't know exactly what the rules are. Far as flying and hunting on the same day. But I know he wanted me to get my stuff and get ready to get out, being a bow hunter, one of the fewer bow hunters on the trip. He wanted me to have as much time as possible. So he introduced me to my guide, got our licenses and everything and he said, get your stuff ready and get ready to get on a helicopter. So I'm telling you, this is happening fast.

32:08I mean, there's really no time to sit around and, you know, snack or just relax or, you know, I'm getting all my stuff. You know how it is when you go on those trips. You packed all your stuff and you know where everything is, but you want to make sure when you go out to a spike tent, you know, to stay in the, you know, in the, you know, in the bush for three or four days at a time that you've got everything. So I'm making sure I've got all my stuff. What all are you carrying with you? You got a duffel bag and a backpack and a bow? I got a duffel bag and a backpack and my bow and bow case, which I had obviously sent my bow case back. So, but I've got a big duffel bag that I can roll. It's nothing special. It's a big LL bean rolling bag, blue, big blue bag. I'm not much on fancy stuff. All my chemo doesn't have to match. I'm kind of a mix and match kind of guy. If it works, I take it out really care much what it looks like once I get out there. I'm sure if people look at my pictures, that's obvious. When I had a, you know, a nice frame backpack that I bought used from a guy here where our

33:12kids go to school, I was talking to a guy that I told him I needed a backpack. And he said, I bought one for an elk kind of a couple of years ago that I don't use. If you wanted, you can have it. And it was exactly what I needed. So I needed some body and I had that. You know, going out for a couple of days, they had a, they had an old silo up there that they had made into their food storage shed. So an old metal silo, I guess, to keep the bears out because the grizzlies were pretty thick where we were. So you, you know, we went out there and got enough food for, it was nothing super fancy, but it was comfortable. We got all our food for three or four days and, you know, basically threw it in a garbage bag. Just, we're just grabbing, you know, granola bars and candy and, you know, vein asausages and, you know, what are the freeze-dried meals and things like that? You know, we're grabbing all that and my guys kind of looking over what I got to make sure, you know, I've got enough and the right stuff and I never thought I'd get tired of candy bars, but I can tell you after about three days with as many candy bars as I had, I got

34:14sick of candy bars. But we go out, what should you go to? Snickers or a payday or one? I'll remember what they had the little Snickers and I love those and, but they also had some Canadian stuff that I'd never heard of that was good to. So it was chocolate all out there, a lot of chocolate. But, you know, we kind of grabbed all our food and threw it in a bag and, and I put that in my backpack and then I got what clothes I thought I would need, you know, which it wasn't very cold. It was, it was warmer than normal. And you know, it all happened so quick and before I knew it, I mean, I hear the helicopter fire up and, you know, I'm, I'm just kind of going back through my list. I wanted to make Derns sure I had my bow and my arrows and my rangefinder, my binoculars and a release. I had that. I thought, you know, I'd at least have that. And I had to take a sleeping bag and a sleeping pad and I had all that ready to go and he had my tent and everything like that. And, you know, I took an extra puffy jacket, you know, I think I had a sick cupuffy that I actually wear, you know, I like wear it to work and stuff is black.

35:17But it, those things work good when you're glass or whatever is cool in the morning or the wind gets up and then I had my rain gear which fortunately never had to use it very much. Had some really good rain gear and get everything ready. And we jump on the helicopter, you know, and I hadn't been on the helicopter many times, maybe once or twice in my life. I think I took one of those rides around Jackson at the state fire one time and helicopters and other than that, I hadn't been on one but we jump in and I mean, like just like that we're off and we don't go, I mean, it seems like you literally five minutes from the camp but I mean it would have been a two day walk. Right. No question. Especially with the vertical climbs probably. Yeah, up and down and through all the brush, that's one thing you don't realize when you're in the air, you look down and you think that's just ankle high when you get down there at shoulder high. Right. You know, a lot of it is. And so we're flying and he's kind of looking and him and the guy are talking about where they want to go and the guy's got a place in mind.

36:18But we see a bull in a cow before we get there and the outfitters like well, why don't this isn't far from where you wanted to go? Why don't I just drop you right in here? You know, when y'all can hunt them in the morning when you wake up. So is that fair to the helicopter pilot? He is the helicopter pilot too. Oh boy. And he, like I said, flew planes for you and he's got a whole unique story about how he moved up there and started flying for the oil companies and all that. You know, it's a lot different back in the 60s and 70s when he moved up there than it is now. But that's how he started learning how to fly. And then when he switched over to helicopters 10 years ago, he got his helicopter license. He told us in 30 days, 30 days and he said that's all he did. He had a big, a big ag farm back down in South Southern Canada there. So he's a farmer. But he got his helicopter license in 30 days. But he loves to fly. And he dropped us right in there right close to where that he basically made a circle

37:22around him. And he went around a big knob and kind of landed on the backside of that knob and we jumped out and he's gone. And as he flies off, you know, I have that kind of that feeling like, okay, this is, you know, this is it. We're here and we're doing it, you know, now when we get our camp set up or whatever. And it's real close to dark at that point in time. So we know we're not going to, you know, knew we weren't going to hunt anyway just because of some of the rules up there and fair chase laws, you know. So we get all our stuff set up and I think we go up to the top of the hill there and glass or whatever little dark and don't see anything. Don't see the most, the bull in the cow that we, you know, we landed close to, you know, we get in there and spend a night in the, you know, in the tent. I'm in a little TP and he's in a little single man tent right beside me. And there's lots of grizzly bears. And I think he's carrying a lever action 444 or something like that. And I ask him, we were 10 or 12 feet apart and I said, but what if a bear was to, was

38:27to bother us because I'd ask about the bears, I really wasn't that nervous. I said, what do I need to do? And he said, well, you need to do the best you can until I can get out of this tent with his rifle, you know, because they, they, it's the told us, you know, don't bring a gun. The guy don't have the gun. So I'm in a tent 10 or 15 feet away from him with nothing but my bow and some sharp sticks. Do you have one in the electric fence still? No, no, just, just free camping it. Just free camping right out in. I was actually my tent was right over the middle of either a caribou or a moose trail because I put, I put my, it worked perfect because I put my little sleeping pad right down in it. In the divot. And in the divot. And that's where I slept at night. I'm thinking, Lord, I'm, you know, in the northwest territory, sleeping in the middle of a moose or caribou trail. Hopefully one of them, none count this running out there running from something. No kid. And in a floraless tent, so you're sleeping on the grass and it was, you know, it was good. You slept good. I mean, obviously it was quiet.

39:28You don't even hear airplanes up there, you know, going across the sky, other than, unless it's a, you know, cub from, from another outfitter. But we got up the next morning and got up on top of the heel and just right off the bat, saw a bull in a cow, probably the one from the day before. And they, they saw us because we were making a bunch of noise going through this shoulder high brush. And when they saw us, it was, this was, I did not expect this, but they turned and ran like a white tail would run. And completely out of sight. And I thought, that's not what I thought a moose was supposed to do. But they did. And I would just about bet money. They probably had never seen him and before in their life. But they, they, they, they high-tailed it out of there and we did not see them anymore. And from that point, we, I think we hunted that spot two days. We stayed there all that day and then next and did some brutal hikes. And we found a big bull up on the side of a heel.

40:30And he was in some pretty tall brush and it was just going to be, it would, it would have just been a brutal, brutal pack and hike to get there. Just to get to him and then, you know, the guy that I was with basically told me, said even if we kill him up there, he said getting the helicopter in up there would be very, very sketchy. So it just wasn't a place to go after one, but he was a big one. He was what you would have said. You, you went up there for. But we really didn't turn up anything we wanted to shoot in that area. So I think after the second day, we called the outfiter and told him we wanted to be moved and the guy had an idea where he wanted to go. So he came in and picked us up and moved us down onto a, I call it a creek, but it's, you know, exactly what you think of when you think of camping in the Mackenzie Mountains. I mean, we're camping on a gravel bar with this creek flowing around us. I mean, just beautiful. The water was a little murky because it had been raining upstream a little bit, but just one of the most picturesque places and I've got some pictures of it, you know, that you

41:32could ever imagine. I mean, I just, you know, you get water even though it was a little murky, we were drinking unfiltered water right out of the stream. You know, I was a little questionable on that, but after the second or third day, I thought well, when in Rome, you know, I'm still, I'm still alive. Yeah. Yeah, it hadn't affected me yet. I guess the candy bars were killing off all the gritty or whatever. But anyway, we get there on the gravel bar and basically the setup there is, you know, we leave the camp and we would go up a bluff and then we would walk on top of a kind of a ridge system for about a mile and then right before, you know, we get to the end of our walk, we go up, you know, probably an eighth of a mile up on the side of a big hill as basically a big flat top knob and you could see forever. And that was the whole game there. It's good up where you could see and see it and spot. And that's what we did. And we spotted a couple bulls from this spot. In fact, I'll back up just a little bit. The first morning, we get out of the tent and we go right up that first little bluff

42:36and get on top and he hears a bull growing and he's got a decoy with him, Calmou's decoy. And so he starts calling and we call a nice bull into, I think he came into 30 or 35 yards and when he was coming in, I said, what do you think? And he said, I think we can do better. So 30 or 35 yards is very doable on a moose. But I really wanted to close encounters what I wanted and I, despite the fact that, you know, you shoot six to your 70 yards with a compound, especially at a moose, that big of a target, I just wanted the experience of having one at 20 yards. Yeah, possible. That's what I want. Yeah. So he's at 35 and not a very big one and I thought, well, good one to pass. So we let him pass and we went on to the glass and spot and started picking off, you know, moose in the distance, you know, and I don't remember a lot of details for the day or two that we were there, you know, other than, you know, you would have long spans of time

43:38in between seeing moose. I mean, they would, you know, be a cow and two or three, you know, or a couple cows and a bull, you know, in an area and they would, you know, just be doing their thing. It would, you just trying to find one that you thought was callable or stockable and close enough, you know, because you, you could see for miles. In fact, I remember vividly looking way that way up the creek one time, you know, and he told me I believe it was multiple miles, but I saw something that was shining and it obviously the first thing I thought was moose and then I thought there's no way I could see a moose this far because it looked like somebody was holding up to four by eight. I'm a general contractor. So it resonated with me. It looked like somebody was holding up two, four foot by eight foot pieces of plywood. That's what I thought of and they were shining in the sunlight. But it was a bull moose because I told him where it was and he found it in the spotter. I'm looking in a pair of eight by 30 binoculars and I saw it.

44:39And he found it in the spotter and he said, yeah, that's a giant bull and I said, how far is that? And he, I forget if he said three miles or five miles, but it was miles up the creek that you could see this moose. And I'm talking about see it good. You know, you couldn't tell a lot about his body, but you could see those paddles in sunlight. And I just remember thinking, I mean, I know I asked him, I said, is there any way we could get him to come get us and move us up there? Because that's the first thing I think of, you know, you hear a turkey guy, what doesn't matter where he is, you want to go to him. So I saw this moose and and I thought, let's get him to move us up there because that's the one you want to shoot you. No question. He's like, ah, there's, you know, there's going to be some right here. This is a historically good spot we're in. There's going to be some moose here. So we stayed and that's probably what we should have done. We had a good setup with the way the tent was and our spot and heel that we were on and all that. And I guess it was the, I think I ended up killing on the fourth day.

45:41So we were sitting up on the heel. We'd build a fire and it wasn't overly cold, but the wind blowing or whatever built a little fire really just more to have something to do, you know, because you're sitting there a lot of hours just spotting and looking and there's a lot of time going by with nothing going on. But we looked down and there's a little, you know, a little small light below us probably five or six acres and we see a nice moose on the other side of it. And he starts grunting and you can kind of tell after just a few days you can start to tell when these, when these moose might or might not do something. You know, he didn't have a cow with him. He grunted a time or two and the guy kind of grunted back at him and he answered. And he said, he's not a giant. He said, but if he were to play the game right, he said, this might be a good hunt. I said, hey, I mean, let's go. And that's another thing it needs to be said. We were in an area where you could not think you could probably, I mean, we're right next to the Yukon territory, you know, in the Northwest territory. So, you know, it's the biggest of the big moose that you can hunt on the North American continent. Right. It's kind of like going out.

46:42Like for sure. And so, you know, there's a lot of people that would probably wait for, you know, a much bigger animal, but I'm just not one of those. I'm there for the experience. And I wanted to kill a moose, you know, and I really, you know, it's not the one I killed. You know, spoiler alert. It's not a big one for that area. Not a super small one, but not a big one just an average, average nice moose. But anyway, I said, let's go. So we go down the hill, probably a quarter mile and get to a little bench. And he said, I think this would be a good spot. And he calls one time and that bull answers and he's just right over the lip, literally within 50 yards. And so, I get ready. And I mean, just as soon as I get ready, I start seeing the tips of his antlers coming up the hill. And he's to our right. So I start to turn a little bit and get ready. And he's on a path that's going to put him at 20 steps. No question. Right. And I mean, it's perfect. I'm going to hide a couple of trees and then he comes out. And he gets at 20 and I tell him to stop him.

47:43And all this is just happening so fast. I mean, there's really no time to process. It's kind of what you thought of for years and years, you know, as you think about hunting the moose. And as I get up there, you know, it's exactly happening just like you think it would happen. Or it should happen. You know, the bull kind of comes up onto this bench with us. He gets to 20 and I never really even look at his rack to see if he's like, is this one I've got three or four days left that I could hunt, you know. But I mean, I'm just in the game and it's kill time, you know, it's time to do the deal. And I drew back and he gets to 20 and what I think is 20 and being 21 steps. And I just a lot of times, whatever I'm hunting, I'm kind of one of those. I don't remember a lot about the few seconds before you pull the tree. It's almost like I black out and I told people that over the years. I don't know how many people really understand that. I understand that. Yeah, because usually I, they ask me, what happened? I don't know. I think I shot him.

48:43Yeah. I mean, it just, you go into, you go into that mode kind of into a different place and I just really, it was just kind of on autopilot. And I, before I knew it, I had shot him and I knew when I shot him, I was like, that's a little lower than I would have liked. But I immediately told the guy, I was, well, I said, that was a heart shot. And he said, okay, good. So we, you know, excited, celebrating over a good shot and a good hunt. And, you know, we're in some trees. We're not in the open terrain. There were in some trees. And after just a few minutes of kind of the excitement, he said, all right, let's go over and look, see if we can find your area. So we go over and we immediately find my area and it's blood from tip to stern on it. You know, I got a good pass through. Yeah, I was shooting a two blade cut on contact. He had, I think it was a Magnus Stinger. Old school head, you know, been around forever. And it just, I mean, it was like shooting through hot butter. It never even checked up. And it went through him and was covered in blood, just what you want to see. And we pretty much immediately find blood.

49:46And you know, you can tell a lot of times a heart shot, it's almost like, it's almost like your poor blood out of a bucket. It wasn't a lot of blood because of a two blade head. But it was just a constant strain that heart was pumping that blood out. We followed it, picked it up pretty much immediately. If I had it to do over again and if I wasn't with a guy and been by myself, I probably would have waited. But I think in his mind, you know, grizzly bears are a real thing up there. They actually, this camp, how the guy get killed about 10 years ago. And so I think that's always in the back of these guys minds. But you know, good blood trail, we follow it for further than I would have liked. I felt good about it. And we got, you know, I don't know, we probably went 150 yards and he says, I see him up there and he's still on his feet. And I thought, Kylie, you know, I start obviously you're thinking the worst. But immediately back into, you know, just back into auto mode, I grab another air and

50:47put it on and range him and he's 51 yards. Hard quartering away. And I drew and I made probably one of the best shots I've ever made. I mean, you can see the air arc and the air goes in right in front of his hind quarter and comes out right in front of his offside front shoulder. I mean, just from front to back all the way, all the way through was the point of the broad hill is poking out of his chest. And he goes about two or three steps and falls and is done. And you know, just more celebration now that we know he's done. And when we walked up to him, that's, this is one part that I had not prepared myself for. I don't know that it should be in from Mississippi or from the south or where there's not a lot of moves you could ever prepare yourself or the size of those things. But it was, I walked out, I never will forget thinking how long of an animal that was not to mention how tall they are. But he failed kind of sitting up against a tree.

51:49Thank goodness because it allows us to get some good pictures because you're not going to move them. It was all we could do to turn his head around. It was just an enormous animal. I don't know how much he weighed. They said 1,500 to 1,700 pounds and all I can equate that to is a bull, like a beef cow bull that we have here on the farm. But there's so much taller. So much taller and so much longer and just a giant animal. I mean, and it was just a sight to behold. And then the spot where he finally died just had a huge background of the McKinsey mountains. Just made for some phenomenal pictures. And even though he wasn't the biggest bull, it was just a culmination of all the experience that I wanted. And they were able to go off and do that and then to have one down and do it with a bow. It was just a really cool time. But then you start to realize the work begins now.

52:52What they say, I always wanted to hear like, what was that process? Well it didn't take us both long to break him down. I mean, when you've got, you know, and that's one thing I've always taken pride in. We process a lot of our own deer around here. And then nothing against people that do because some people just don't have the place to do it. But when we shoot a deer, we don't take it and haul it to the taxidermis hole or anything. We clean them and we quarter them and we, you know, we process a lot of our own meat. And I've always done that elk hunting or, you know, any other hunting I've done. I clean my own animals and things like that. And that's something I take a lot of pride in. When both of us jumped in and started working on it, you know, I would say within an hour to an hour and a half, we had him broken down and pretty much ready to go. And it was a job and we had to work together as a team. And the guy that I was with was a younger guy and he was in great shape and super strong. Wasn't a very big guy, but he was, I mean, he could total load.

53:52He would not have wanted to get in a wrestling match with him. I can assure you he was Canadian. Just a great guy. Worked his tail off and we got him broken down probably in an hour and a half and had him laid out. And we loaded and there's going to be people that have been moving something that are going to think he's lying. We took every ounce of meat, hindquarters, back straps. I did not keep the cape, but I kept, I did a European mount. So I had meat and horns and he had meat and we took every in one load. We took everything out but the front shoulders. No kid. And I, that for the first time in my life, we had about a mile to go to camp and it was pretty, pretty flat. So did you have the bone, the hindquarters are talking about bone in? No, we deboned. Okay. We deboned everything. I did not have 70 pounds. Probably yes. Yes, but still, I mean, I would say a backstrap from one of those from that moose was probably

54:5250 pounds as much as a sacrif, if I had to compare it to something, that's what I would guess and I didn't weigh it. But I mean they're just huge, everything about them. So our packs were completely full. Plus I had the rack, which was just awkward to carry back through all that brush. And I probably did not have my backpack set up properly. If I had it to do over again, I'd spend some more time on that setup, making sure I had it fit right and everything put together right. But for the first time, I didn't know if I was going to make it out with the load that I had put on my back. I really didn't know if I was going to make it out. And he kind of kept, I told him one time, I was like, man, I said I might have to drop some of this and come back and get it. Because I was struggling and I take pride in trying to stay in pretty decent shape. Exercise a good bit and lift weights and do all that. And again, like I said, I'm a pretty big guy. And he had more weight than I did and like he was just going.

55:55He was worn out at the end of it, but he never slowed down. And it took everything and within me to carry my bow and the rack and all the meat that I had. And I don't even want to guess how much weight we had. I would say he had somewhere between 150 and 200 pounds on his pack. And I probably had between 130 and 175 if I had to guess. Yeah, gracious. And having the rack strapped to it was just made it super awkward because it was swaying back and forth. But finally, got back to the camp. And it's just a huge relief. Of course, we had the front shoulders to go back and get, but that wasn't a big deal. But they're real careful about going back to these carcasses because of the grip. Yeah, I'm sitting there for a little while. Because I'm assuming those bears, they can probably smell a good pile from miles I would imagine if it was a young's ride. Anyway, getting back to camp and it's pretty, you know, it's kind of not much of a story

57:01after that. Honestly, we, I take a few pictures at the camp there and we immediately start to break everything down. And he went ahead and call the outfit or told him and he said, I'll try to get you this evening, but I don't know if I'll be able to. And within about an hour we had word back that he was going to be able to come in and get us. And then within 30 minutes, we could hear the halo coming. And it was, that was pretty much it. We put everything on the helicopter and back out and back to camp in five minutes. And it's just like, when it's all said and done, it's like you just been going wide open for four or five days and it's over so fast. All of the water, huh? Yeah, I mean, it's just like, you just kind of like, did that happen? And then you get back to camp and they've got wide-fired there, obviously. So then it starts, the real world kind of starts to hitch. You start getting all the text and emails and all the things you've missed over the few days because while we were there, I used the satellite text and on my iPhone, which worked really good to keep up with what was going on at home here with Susan and the

58:05kids. And it was really nice. I was able just to text her pretty much like it was a normal day, you know, checking in. And that's nice just to be able to make sure everything's good at home. But, you know, when you get back to Wi-Fi, I'm sure that I think they had Starlink or whatever there at the camp, you know, you start getting all the work emails and all that stuff. And then they start to talk about, you know, looks like weather maybe starting to come in. And we had had really good weather. I mean, it had gotten down just barely had a frost one morning while I was there. And when we get back to camp, they start to talk about it in a couple of days or talking about snow starting to come. And when they start to talk about that, you start thinking about ability to get out and all that. And we immediately start looking at, you know, all right. So we take the next opportunity to get out of here. And we spend two or three days just relaxing. Chris and I talked and we said, you know, hey, if we can get out, you know, while the weather's good, that's all I'd ever heard from people is take advantage of the good weather. If you can get out, you know, get in and get out, don't get caught up in a storm.

59:06Don't take unnecessary, you know, chances like that. I would have loved to have hung around that camp, you know, maybe try to shoot a wool for two or something for a few days, you know, and just relax. We took the opportunity to get our stuff together and basically got right out of camp. How's the process work with getting your meat back home from being out of the country? It's whatever you can, whatever you can tote on the airlines and what I did was I actually took, they have, they give a lot of the meat to the native tribes up there and they really, they really depend on a lot of that meat. They come immediately when they bring airplanes back in with a lot of meat on, they'll come to the, they have a place, they put the meat in a big warehouse there that's cool. They'll come immediately and get the meat. So I took some. That was the same process when we went to Africa earlier this year, the neighborhood's around that area like they were like, all right, when you all, when you all shoot something. Yep, that's the way it was up there.

1:00:10I knew none of the meat would go to waste, that's a big deal to me and I knew it was extremely it was, it would be extremely costly to bring a bunch of it back. So basically what I did is I cut a backstrap up and froze several big pieces of backstrap and I basically brought that back in my boat case. Okay. In fact, I didn't really do enough to study and in paying attention to what you had to do to bring meat back with you and when they asked me when I got back to the airport in Edmonton, they asked me if I had meat in any of my bags I said I did and I thought I was going to miss my plane coming home because that was a whole fortunately. There was a very nice lady there that saw my flight and basically she said, come back here with me, I'll help you get this worked out and went back and filled out the proper paperwork to bring the meat, you know, take the meat out of Canada. And so that's what I, that's what I ended up bringing back home was basically part of a backstrap, I couldn't even bring a whole backstrap back.

1:01:12You know, with all the stuff we already had bringing several coolers of meat it would have cost a fortune. Yeah. You know, to get it back. So I would like to go somewhere at some point and kill one where I could bring all the meat back home because that's something I really enjoy. It's processing our own meat, we do that with the elk whenever we go elk hunting, you know, we always process to eat and take a lot of pride and they add in my family really, really enjoys it and everything about that process. So the trip back home basically rewinded what we did going up there. Not a whole lot of fanfare there. I mean, basically didn't have any trouble got, you know, back into Edmonton, spent the night in Edmonton up the next morning and back home and, you know, it just, it seemed like it was just over so fast. So all in all, you were only going what? Seven, seven days. That's crazy because usually you hear about most of us guys going two, three weeks. I could have been gone, you know, we had it planned to be gone 11 or 12 days if we needed

1:02:12to, but we were, we were going in back in seven days. That's wild. Chris killed a bull too. Chris killed a bull too. Okay, good. He did. He killed a nice bull and he killed a caribou. Oh, wow. And I could have hunted a caribou. That's another thing I could have done, but I had killed caribou back years ago and that's just not something unless we just saw a giant and we did see a couple of nice caribou while we were there of Moosehunt and but unless I had just seen a giant, that just wasn't something that was arrested. Mountain caribou. Mountain caribou. Yeah. Gotcha. Man, that just, it makes me, this list and that story makes me want to just go worse than already wanted to go. I know. I know. And it, you know, I may have spalled it for myself a little bit because that is something I would have liked to have gone back and done multiple times and I'm not saying I wouldn't go back. But I kind of did the pinnacle of all trips, the first go around. Oh, honestly. I mean, it would be neat to go on a DIY Moosehunt like some of my buddies have done from around

1:03:13here. You know, that's probably if I did it again, that's probably the way I would want to do it, you know, something like that. Just a little different, you know, get more of the planning and get more of the equipment and things like that, get in on that and the planning and preparation and all that stuff more so than I had to do on the trip. I went on. When you go on these trips, this, I mean, like you said, I mean, the killing is not everything but it's part of it. But the adventure side of it, you get to experience something you never experienced before and just seeing different country and, you know, if a guy has never been out west and seeing mountains like truly seeing, being in the mountains, you really have no clue what, what God's creation really looks like. So it will blow your mind and like I said, when we flew over the McKinsey's in the float plane, I mean, you know, that's exactly what I, you know, what I think of being from down here. It's a whole different kind of beauty where we live. But, you know, when you go up there and you see the expanse, the guy that we hunted

1:04:16with his concession, I will call it, I don't know what they call it in Canada, but basically his hunt area, they told me it was five million acres. Which is the Mississippi Delta takes up, I think, 4.1 million. The whole Delta on the Mississippi side of the river. Yep, so. Yeah, I didn't know that. That's a good comparison. But, you know, just the, you know, it's just such big area and there's even places in his area up there that they've never even been in. I mean, he's been up there for 40 years and there's places he's never set a hunter out. That's wild. It's just that's, that's hard to think of. How many groups are they hunting at once on that place? I think we hunted six or seven groups when we went. Six or seven groups on five million acres. Yeah, five million acres. But you got to think, I mean, I don't know how far his farthest group was from the base camp, but not that far. Right. You know, I don't think you're going to go as far in helicopter typically as you might in a cub, you know, a super cub.

1:05:17But, you know, and he's got other camps that he's had over the years in different places to, you know, to kind of get you out and away from the base camp, you know, kind of little more remote camps or whatever. But, yeah, it just, it'll blow your mind how big that country is and, you know, you get to thinking about, you know, what if something happened and how would you get all those thoughts that go through your head, you know, but the logistics of putting a camp where that one was and all that. And it was the same way when I went Caribou hunting in Northern Quebec, the logistics. I mean, they floated that Caribou camp up that river in the spring when the river got up to flood stage, they floated that camp up there and built it. And I mean, it's basically a small city on the bank of that river too. And they also had a small bulldozer. And I asked them, I said, how did no world, did y'all get that bulldozer to this camp? Now, this is the Caribou camp and they said, we floated it in just like we floated everything else and you basically floated it, floated it in in pieces and put it back together. Oh, gosh. And I don't have a clue unless they had to, unless they needed to push.

1:06:19I don't remember why they had a dead gun dozer there unless they needed to push like an airstriop or something because it's all rocks and stuff. But just the logistics of putting those camps in places where they put them in the work of getting all that stuff back and forth and the planning that goes into it is just unreal. And that's a lot of the reason to go to a place like where I went, you know, just to be able to experience that. Yeah. You know, all of that. Oh, sure. So, but it was, it was a, it was a lot of fun and I'm glad I went to do it and, you know, I look forward to being able to share more of those experiences in the future with my kids. You know, I get fortunately kids that love to hunt. I have a feeling they're going to be itching to go in probably about 10 years. Well, Elizabeth is a senior this year and she has constantly asked that she was a little girl. She wanted to go on a health hunt. So, maybe make that happen. That is something we will make happen just as soon as we possibly can get a, you know,

1:07:20kind of a time period in school there, you know, got to, got to be in September. I want to take her out west and. Yeah, you got to go to late September somewhere and experience your rut hunt. Yep. Like that's a pinnacle to me. I think she would have a great time chasing out with a bow. But you know, just, just looking forward, that's kind of where my attention's turned and I've already started doing it with the boys in Turkey hunting and we go somewhere every year after school, after school let's out. You know, fortunately we can travel and go in later in May and we've had a lot of fun doing that as something I really look forward to, you know. Yep. Man, I'm glad I waited a year to hear this story about the Moose Hunt. Yeah. But it was worth it. I enjoyed every second of listening to the body. I appreciate it. I appreciate your time today sitting down and talking with us. I'm sure it's not going to be the last time because I have an idea for this fall about once a month or so. But we're going, I think I'm thinking about gathering our troops up between you and Keith Polk and having like a every two, three week deer camp update like what shenanigans we've

1:08:27got into for us hunting goes. And I feel like that would be a pretty entertaining deal if we start doing that. Keith is a superior storyteller. He is a much better at telling a story than I am and he can remember the details all the way back to where he went to Walmart to buy the college. I'm a meat hunter. I started to hunt, you know. I'm a meat and tater storyteller. I tell you the high points. I don't remember the rest of it. That's just the way my brain works. I don't remember all the details. I remember the high points throughout and I just for whatever reason that's the way I've always been. Well I can tell you Keith can tell one and include the day. He always gets frustrated with me. He wants to hear the stories and I kind of hit the high points and I think he's always kind of like, well, is that a yet? I think that's a lot of all I remember. But, yeah, exactly. That'll be fun. That'll be fun to do. Anyway, well I appreciate Josh and anyway we got work to do with Monday morning. Absolutely. Go take care of our business for the week and appreciate everybody listening to this with Ketchow next week.

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