Wyoming Bear Hunt

My wife Ashley and I sat down and kicked off my first episode for Michigan Wild. We both recently went on a spring black bear hunt in Wyoming and wanted to recap the events. Podcast involves my wife’s intro into hunting and our story of our back county hunt. Trip was overall a huge success and we look forward to many more!

Check out the Sportsmen's Empire Podcast Network for more relevant outdoor content!

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[00:00:00] Welcome to the Michigan Wild Podcast.

We're just here walking around. We're going to go sit a tree stand. Don't worry. My dad's weird. He never shot a huge book. I just shot a freaking big buck.

Get that one. Oh, you hit him. Go get that one Henry right here.

The size of that deer. All righty. This is the first podcast officially for [00:01:00] me. Nate, and I have my wife Ashley, sitting in our little room downstairs that we what would you call this room turned into my gun room Mounts podcast. Podcast area. Sure. That sounds good. Do you like it better like this opposed to the whole living room downstairs?

We can walk in the living room, so that's a bonus. Yeah, we have a narrow house, so mounts on both sides of the wall shrinks a room pretty quick. So we're saying we can actually use our basement for other than just my mount storage. That's correct, yes. That's the goal I think that we're shooting for.

But yeah, this is gonna be the first episode that I launch after doing the Passing the Torch episode last week. But I wanna just bring my wife on because we already did some hunting this year. We went on a spring black bear hunt in Wyoming, which was quite the adventure I guess. Yeah, it was quite epic actually.

Yeah. But first I want to go like my wife Ashley. We've been together, we've been married 10 years and now we've been dating [00:02:00] since we were 18, 19, so dang near 15 years. And yeah, I just wanted you to share your experience at hunting before what you met me. What was that like? Yeah, so I've been hunting for a toll probably 15 years now.

Before I met you, it was, it's a funny story. I grew up in the countryside. I grew up in the country as a country girl, quote unquote country girl. We never really hunted though. A long story short, my dad grew up hunting with his dad, and when his dad passed, it was just something that was a little too close to home for him.

So he never went down that hunting path because it was something special that he did with his dad. So therefore, us, me and my two brothers we never really did any hunting. We would fish and we would do that sort of thing, but when I first started dating you, you're like, yeah, I really like hunting.

And I'm like, yeah, me too. But no. So I didn't have any really hunting background until I started dating you. And I was like I don't know if this is something that I wanna do. I love animals and I don't know if I can really shoot one and that sort of thing. [00:03:00] But I went out, gosh, were we at your grandparents when we went hunting that first time?

Yeah, I think so. Like we, yeah. You, we started dating or hanging out and I knew you where you lived, but I had no idea how much property well your family had. You could have left, the selling could led with that, but you didn't the selling point. So no, I think you knew I was a hunter and you, I think you led with turkeys.

Oh, there's always turkeys by my house. That was a thing. I thing had to bail you in somehow. Yes. But you yeah. You guys, you were immersed in the outdoors as a family. Yeah, like your dad and grandpa and stuff. Did a lot of gun hunting and that kind of thing. But yeah, I think the first thing we did was gun hunted opening day of my grandparents' house, which is north about, almost a hundred miles north of where we are right now.

And yeah, I think we You, did you cite a gun in or you never really shot guns or anything? Like you've, your dad would shoot coyotes if he saw 'em or you had guns in the house, the wood chips in the field, the coyotes that were after our, our cabs for the season.

That sort of thing. But [00:04:00] never hunting. No. So I think that first time we went out, we were up in the tree stand in the back yep. Behind my Grandpa Graham's home farm. Yep. And it was so cold I didn't have the right attire. Oh gosh. Yes. And I was so cold and I'm pretty sure my feet w got frostbit, but, I didn't wanna let you know I was a wuss and I think, yeah, I was 19 at the time.

Maybe. Yeah, maybe just 19. You were just 18 kind of a thing. And Yeah, we went and sat in a, a la a double ladder stand. Yeah. They didn't even bring you to a blind with a heater or nothing. Because I feel Yeah. Cuz I was, I had some younger siblings that hunted, so we were. Needing to find some areas to hunt and we're like, let's up man.

I grab our grandma's house and me and my dad set a ladder stand up like, oh, how bad can it be? And opening morning was cold. It was bitter, it was the wind. But yeah, I think that was your first really experience with that. And a dough came out like relatively quick in the morning, right? Yep. And then, yeah, I made a shot it and was a great shot.

It was pretty early. [00:05:00] Cause I think I remember the comment you made was fire out the end of the barrel. It was kinda, but yeah, we got down, took care of that. And then I think I convinced you to go sit back in the ladder for a little bit, right? Because I was like, could be a buck, I think. Or did we go right back to the house?

I just remember you were wanting each, we were back to the house and I think later, I don't know if it was that same day or that it was that weekend at least. We ended up, I decided, I think maybe I can get into this hunting thing. I think maybe I can shoot a deer. So we went to the straw bail blind. Was it, I think your grandpa made it. Yeah, we set up the ladder stand for one side. There's like this ditch, or not really ditch, like a pothole with, big open fields, but there's like ditches that run between them. And there's this I don't know, a couple acres pothole that deer to go through.

Yeah. Yeah. I would say that. So like the ladder stand was like covered one side. And then we did this like little makeshift square, ba blind that did the other side. Is this the same weekend? This all happened. Yep. So I remember she was being really tough oh my goodness, I'm freezing, but not really letting me know.

We, we've been d for a little bit and I [00:06:00] never got back to the house and yeah, your feet were like bricks. They were cold. And but I just want, did you we had shot a gun though before this. Yeah. We, I think I helped you and your dad. We all went and cited it in the guns for the season. So your dad kind helped you, you shot with that, right?

You did that a few times. Yeah. So know that was a thing for you. Like shooting a gun was weird and. Most. Yeah, it was a scary thing. Know lot we're not growing. I mean we grew up around guns, but I wasn't comfortable with a gun and not high powered rifles, like 20 twos and shotguns cuz that was southern airsoft, yeah. Air soft guns. Yes. I was a master at the air soft gun. Yeah. We did that kind of thing. So yeah. Then that night, was it that night that we went back out there? Yep. And then I remember it was over the potholes, down low in the field and we kinda had to walk up over and you're using the the square ba blind was not great.

It was just a few square bas stacked up that were just high enough they could sit down behind them and help hide behind a little bit with no roof or nothing. And I remember telling you my grandpa had planted actually a little strip of turnips that [00:07:00] year on the hayfield, right? Yes. There was turnip Is that what that was?

Turnips down there? Yes. He was pretty proud of 'em. Turnips. But yeah, there was a strip of turnips. So the morning we had seen deer. I think we actually saw Buck go into the pothole that morning, right? We did, yeah. And I didn't wanna shoot it cuz it wasn't quite, this is what I was looking for, but I remember you being pretty excited cause I was like, that thing could be in there and you could shoot it tonight when it comes out.

So whenever we were sneaking there, we were like new to sneak into the spot. And I remember like telling you like, hey, there could be a deer out there. And you're laughing thinking, I'm just joking. And I'm like, no seriously, there could be one. And I poked my head up over the rise and sure enough there's this buck eating in the turnips and I never look going back to you and be like, there's a deer.

And you're like, no there's not. I'm like, no seriously, there's a deer. So we snuck up, we made it all the way to the bale blind. We like crawled. I mean it is not, we army crawled. It is not pleasant out. So this is her first hunt that she's actually gonna be the person to shoot something. And you had a single shot, 2 43, right?

Yep. Single shot. 2 43. [00:08:00] We get positioned. It's probably like what, a hundred yard shot? I would say so, yeah. What did you feel like when you were getting ready, to takeover from there? I didn't know what bug fever was. But I suffer from it pretty bad actually. And I haven't gotten better with it.

I don't know how that, how you overcome that, but no, it was quite exhilarating. I was shaking uncontrollably and I ended up seeing this, if you wanna call it a buck, it had one antler. It was legal buck. Yeah, it was legal. It had one antler, multi two pointer. Anyways, it was the most exciting thing.

This is before APRs up there too, by the way. Yeah. So this was, so this anything was anything with antlers. So it was over three inches is fair game. Yep. So I went and I was like, yep, I got this. I couldn't find it in the scope, so I was like this is fun. So I, struggled for a little bit to try to get in the scope, and when I finally got it in, I was like, yep, this is it.

It felt it, it felt so right. And I shot and I missed. Bad. I didn't even know where she hit. Bad deer didn't know what was going on either [00:09:00] cuz his reaction was head up, run around, no idea what happened. And I believe got closer, right? Yeah. And it ran towards us. Yep. And then started eating turnips again, but at least 50 yards closer.

I don't know. It was quite hilarious. I'm struggling to reload this single shot. So you ended up, I think, ended up having to help me with it cuz I was shaking uncontrollably and I couldn't quite function as a human at that point. So no, I only got that reloaded and I was, got him back in my scope.

Did I miss him that second time? I'm pretty sure I missed him that second time too. Was the second time and darn thing ran closer to us. Yep. So at that point you're like, give me the gun, I'll reload it for you. Yep. I remember I was like, I'm, we're not wasting any time. I'm gonna reload this for you. And so I ended up, we got it back in the scope.

I was like, yep, this is it. This is the time and I knew you sh you shot high the second time. I knew that. Yeah. Like I could tell cuz you know, maybe you're an, you're not anchor, but you're, you weren't quite, had the gun quite perfect on your shoulder. The way you were looking through the scope wasn't quite right.

No, she's [00:10:00] new to this. She's never shot anything and she had a rest, a square bale. But it's not necessarily ideal, we didn't have the bipod death grip where it's set up perfect for you in a blind where you can swivel. This is like her just leaning on a square, be all outta shape.

We're not in the blind, we're on the side of it. This is very, spur of the moment. But yeah, I remember you shot high and I was like, okay, take your time. Just aim low. I've always told you cut the deer in half. And then just aimed that bottom half. And I was like, you're fine. Just shoot that thing.

At this time I think he was only like 20, 25 yard. No, it was farther than that. Are you sure? Cause he was like, through the scope might have been, I was running right at us and we're like, I would say 50 yards. I think your second your third shot and the final shot was probably 50 yards. Was it? Okay.

Yeah. I think you prob well sake of story. A hundred yard. First shot was probably like what, 300 yards? Yeah, 300, 400. Oh, 400 yards. Almost 500 yard. Then it ran to 200 and then, then it got to, 150 and you decided to shoot it Makes me nuts sense. But I never, yeah, I never tell you just, I'm losing my [00:11:00] mind cuz I can't this is the coolest thing ever.

This girl that I'm like, dating and she's gonna, shoot a deer and like my sisters are hunters and they, they're straight up killers too. But this is cool, this is gonna happen behind grandpa grandma's house where not, hunt very much. Not really.

I, I ideal spot to hunt, but. Yeah, you bear down and you smoked that thing, that third shot. You could have I better of three shots later. I was trying. Nope. I was proud of that book. You absolutely smoked that thing. That was the perfect shot. Yep. And I remember we watched it run and then it flipped over a log, right?

Yep. We saw that. We did. And then it was, I don't even know how to explain your reaction. Shoot, that was 15 years ago and I still remember how you were giggling and pumped and excited and then once we got up to it, how'd that feel like knowing that you took that thing's life? It sucked.

Yep. Yeah. No, it sucked. I still get tearful every time. I think it's out of a respect for the animal itself, and just the amount of work. It's not like you just go out and you kill an animal. It's so [00:12:00] much different than that, at least for us. And I know a lot of hunters are the same way.

There's a huge component to maintaining their ecosystem and taking care of their land and our land and living simultaneously. But that moment you take that life, it's not this, I don't know how to explain. It's not like I, I killed this animal for fun, per se. It's something it's almost at a more spiritual level.

You have this kind of moment of silence, this kind of, this deep sadness, but this ultimate respect, not only for the animal itself, but like just the whole experience that you put into hunting, the time you put in, the effort with that. And just, it all comes, full circle at that point.

And then we also tend to eat the deer that we shoot. Another exciting thing too, it's like cool, like I harvested this deer. All the time and effort, like the turnips, going into that fall too, like you helped, Yeah, I bow hunted, but you weren't bow hunted at the time, but, you helped me put tree stands up.

I think we, I don't know. It was right about when we started maybe [00:13:00] doing one trail camera, maybe, but we didn't really have much, but we did a lot of like tree stands stuff. In the summertime on just properties I had up north. We set tree stands. You were, you didn't just come along on a day tight, long shoot a deer.

Like you were actually like, oh, we're gonna go do this, and you go, cause I didn't know if I was gonna, if I was going to enjoy it, so I was like, no, I'm gonna get the full experience. I'm gonna put the work in and yeah. I don't think you climbed a tree stand that first fall, but you did.

You did help me with the, we sat quite a few stands set. Yeah. You cut shooting lanes. Yep. You scouted like that's how I've always been a proponent of scouting. And she was always there with me. We would drive around in the summertime looking for deer. That's how you learn too, yeah. Like I went in as a novice and. Yeah, I've definitely learned a lot over the years just from being present, being with you. Now we have our son coming with us, but there's a lot of cool things that you get to learn from, someone like you just following and Oh, yeah.

Generations of hunting to my family. Just a thing to pass on, but no, so I feel like ultimately it was just a very beautiful experience and it [00:14:00] had its sad components. You're taking this life, but it's so much more than that I guess. You know what, a lot of people don't quite understand.

Yeah. There's more to it than just killing the story that we like to hear is how the killing happened. I had a big buck, but there is so much time and effort and dedication and, or even little buck, like that was a little buck. I know they don't get much smaller for your first one, but I was proud of that buck.

It was. Yeah. I still think you should be proud of that buck. It was a cool experience, but. Yeah, and then like you're talking like the full circle thing I mean you'd seen the circle of life growing up on a farm such Howie Farms, so Correct. Your dad raised beef, like Yep. You guys didn't necessarily eat a lot of meat in your house at the time.

No. So this was I'm like I come from a family of meat eaters. So we meet all the time. And I know that was like a thing for you where you're dabbling back into it. You really liked the idea of going out and getting your own meat and not just buying meat from a store.

So that was a thing that you liked at the time. I do remember. Yep. I've always had the blessing [00:15:00] to have family with meat. So like I never buy meat from the store. Fast food restaurants. That's about the only time we really, even to this day, buy meat. I always have a freezer with beef and.

Chicken and pork and stuff. So like for me, going into it, I was like, this is an odd thing. Like you have a farm with land and you guys are not hunters. What is wrong with this family? But that was the dynamic. I didn't really know right away until that was a thing your dad loved doing with his dad. Correct.

It was, yeah. It was. Spending more time with, it was something special and it was a sacred thing for him. So we honored that. Yeah. And I know I, once I learned that, I was very I didn't just come into this thing thinking I'm gonna hunt all this property. It's a good chunk of property, but it's not like there's hundreds of acres on the woods.

It's just farm fields and there's a lot of deer, which is great, but the cool thing is he wasn't like, no, nobody can help. He's no, it's just something me personal, I just, I, it's hard for me to do it. And now you see him, he'll take my brother, he shot a buck a couple years ago.

Yeah. And he was, he thought that was the coolest thing in the world. So Yeah. You're your youngest brother Hunts and that kind of [00:16:00] thing. But yeah. So from that first, what's fast forward a few years, You start going, you've seen me shoot a lot of deer with a gun. You've seen me shoot a lot of deer.

The bow, you've shot three bucks. Three bucks, right? Three, yeah. Three bucks. Now, you shot, that was kinda the front, it was mostly, 10 years ago or eight years ago. But you did shoot a buck with your bow, so you're very Yep. Bow hunting's, probably your, oh, my bread and butter. I am a, the definition of a Fairweather hunter I just don't do well in the cold.

So bow hunting, it is, I am all about it. Yeah, I can dress semi-warm clothes. I'm up in a tree. It's beautiful out. Definitely my thing. And I love shooting my bow. Compared to a gun. If I could choose a bow or a gun, I would use my bow. Bow. You go 24 7 every Yeah. Correct. And, she's not the if tree stands are hung and she knows how to get there, she goes to 'em herself and she'll climb up 'em, and they're, I've gotten pictures of her Honeywell.

I'm at work, so that's happened, but. Now the last, since our son Henry's seven, you really haven't had the chance to really No. So [00:17:00] do much because Henry was born. Yep. And you're full-time mom and you are, you love you. We both work. So you have chose that your free time you spent with Henry and hunting has been put on the back burner because Henry was born and then once he started getting to the age where he was a little more independent, started going with me doing these things, you decided to go back to school.

So you've had quite the whirlwind of child and then four years of school, two years to finish your bsn, and then two years to get your masters. Yep. So we're just coming out of that. So the past seven years, you haven't really had the opportunity to hunt for yourself? No. We've taken a gun out. You've sat with a gun, but you're pretty picky now.

You've never been a proponent to shoot dos. It's always been bucks. She's picky. She's seen her fair share of deer, but. I'm sure if a giant one would've stepped out in the past few years, you were sitting there ready. But mostly gun hunting for us is just to shoot doze. The thing is too, so it wasn't like I was totally out of it, which was, it was nice because you were still able to hunt, do your [00:18:00] hobby.

And the cool thing is now is we get to see our son, he grew up immersed in this type of not culture per se, but like just the way we are in the outdoors. Our hobbies are now his hobbies, which is super sweet to see. But even though I was, not only working or in the BSN program, clinicals, my master's program, that sort of thing, you guys were still able to go out, we were still able to track deer if you were to shoot one.

We were still able to go scouting, cuz you can only study for so long when you need a break. So I, there are many times when I would go out with you guys and Either hang trail cameras or. Look for deer signs. You're still immersed in all this stuff, but you're just very stubborn.

You are not gonna take your bow into the woods unless you're confident shooting your bow. Oh, absolutely not. And you don't even want to shoot your bow unless you know you can dedicate the time to shoot it. Like you don't wanna, she's not gonna sit there and be like, oh, I'll sling a couple arrows here and there.

It's no, you are gonna pull your bow out if you know you can shoot all summer. Like you're, that's how you were. I know. It's very easy. You're just like, I'm not gonna even try [00:19:00] unless I know I can dedicate time to it. Other than doing that part of it, yeah. Scouting, hanging trail cams, summer stuff.

Go sit in the blind. You've been alongside me for, I've shot deer with you with my bow, cause we have some blinds that we built that we can gun hunt and deer hunt out of. And what even think what last year? Yeah, it was last year. I I had my computer with me. I was typing my papers for my master's class while you and Henry were hunting and I'm here typing away.

But yeah, so just, now you've still been immersed in it. You just haven't really had the chance to do it. Gun season's been your only thing, but you're not like it's, the gun hunting is a little different for you. Like it's for you now because you've shot a couple smaller bucks to your gun.

You told me like, I'm not shooting arm unless it's like big. Correct. And what's considered, like my definition of big is, one thing. What would that be for you? I'm curious cuz we're coming pretty close. It might even be this year that you might get a little more into it here.

Right's, right? No, bow hunting's definitely my passion. If you compare it to, rifle season and that sort of thing, but we're sitting in the blind, you and Henry, cuz we have blinds that are big enough for [00:20:00] that. What size is it gonna take for you to be like, yeah, I'm gonna shoot that. I don't know.

I wanna say it's gonna be quite large, but I know as soon as that buck's in front of me, I'm be like, yep, nope, it's perfect. I'm gonna shoot that one because like we haven't really seen many big bucks go hunt, have we? No, I don't think so. Not recently. It's really decent ones, but not the one spot we hunt.

We're trying, we're not, I mean you're, if you're sitting by yourself mate, it's a little different. But we're trying to shoot, that four and a half, five, half year old deer. Unfortunately for you, with all these years of you not hunting, you've been just watching me pass all these really nice bucks that I wish you would shoot.

But I think you understand that hey, those are the ones we wanna see what they look like next year. But maybe it, we have to get you on a, get you in an area where, who cares? Just come out and shoot another one. Get your feet wet. Cuz you're, are you gonna shoot though, have you changed your mind at all on that?

I might because they have some very tasty meat. We've learned. So I'm not opposed to shooting one of those either, which, that's saying something because you haven't done that. I have not shot one yet, but yeah. And then, [00:21:00] yeah so I guess to lead us into, that's your backstory. You've been immersed in hunting for 15 years.

I've been my whole life, but yeah, you've been, you've been, there's been some sketchy stuff we've done. There's some late night tracks, there's some, brutal weather sits. We've done, you've, we sit all day when we go it might not seem like we're serious gun hunters, but we mean we sit all day like we will, and we do it for the culture, hang out with the family, do all that.

But when we're there, we're hunting, and we're Wes been a lot of deer we've seen, and like bucks we've seen just haven't. It's been that one, the problem is gonna be is that we're gonna sit together and you're gonna be all back into this gun hunting thing and then that's when that one 50 is gonna walk out and I'm going to have to let you shoot it.

And I think I'm gonna be okay with it. I might be sad sacrifice or I'll just have my gun. We'll bring two guns instead of one. Because you know I'm gonna miss the first time, exactly. So I'll have your back up. I got your back. Okay. But also, I just wanted to give everyone kind of the backstory on you as a hunter and family and your experience because [00:22:00] you're done with school and we really want to do something like, we didn't really do anything for a 10 year anniversary because busy life, working full-time school chaos.

And I was, we've talked about her possibly wanting to do an elk hunt or something when she's doing school. Yeah. I think that was our ultimate goal was to do an elk cut and you're like what if we do something else smaller first, and at least make sure it's something that we can enjoy as a couple and go.

More vacation esque opposed to yeah cuz like elk hunting, we don't know. Mountains, we don't know anything. We have friends and family, or Yeah, family I guess out over the mountains, but I don't know anything about elk hunting. So like the intimidation of let's book an elk hunt without fitter because we knew we were gonna have to do that because our friends and family who are in the Colorado, they've been really struggling for the past few years just from pressure and time.

And I was like, I don't really wanna invest all this into an outcome. And then I get pretty singular focused on something and I feel like if I'm got elk tag in my [00:23:00] pocket, I'm gonna be very driven just to shoot an elk opposed to enjoying myself. And we didn't know how we would even like the mountains.

I know. Yeah. Like we didn't know how that was gonna be. And I think the getting in shape part, we're both very active people. I do construction for a job. She's in the healthcare field on her feet all day, we try to take care of ourselves too. We're not like health nuts or nothing, but we can, we're active.

So this Spring Black Bear Hunt popped up. Cause listen to other podcasts like Working Class Bow Hunter. They had the this Bear Hunt. They go on and I've been hearing about this, how beautiful Wyoming is and how fun it is in Back Country Hunt. And this is before I even thought about doing this podcast.

This podcast wasn't even on our radar, like when we booked this hunt. But I approached you and said, Hey here's some pictures, I think. I think I showed you like, how would you like going hunting here? And it's a black bear hunt. I don't care if I shoot a black bear. You don't really, and you said you don't care if you shoot a black bear, but we want to go see what [00:24:00] that's all about.

Yeah and then you could show me the pictures and you kinda explained, and I feel like we either watched a little video or a clip or something from the working class bow hunters. So it's man, I'm sold. Let's go, horseback riding in the mountains, sleeping in a canvas tent, all of this stuff.

I'm like, heck yes let's go. Yeah. It sounds right up my head. Wilderness, like in the wilderness. It was super fun. So we booked that, that was gonna be like our 10 anniversary and like you're done with school. That's kinda we don't have maybe more, a little more less chaotic life, which is never the case.

But, so that's what we did. So we booked this hunt and yeah, we went Memorial Day weekend is when we went. And so we knew, he talked about the horseback riding and mountains that we've heard. We li I think we listened to a couple podcasts that they had done about the beer hunt. Correct. Yeah. So it was nice you were able to hear Trey we went was Gray River Outfitters, like Trey was on some podcasts so you could hear him talk and some of his other guides.

So that was really nice. We did that. But what was your biggest concern going into the hunt? Oh for [00:25:00] sure horseback riding. So I haven't been on a horse since I was, gosh, physically sitting on a horse, I was probably five and at that point I was never actually riding the horse. Someone was leading me.

So at that point I was like, I'm not gonna go hop on a horse on the mountain without any experience. So I had my family friend they actually do horse lessons and they have summer camp for kiddos and it's a super fun setup that they have theirs. So I went and got a couple lessons from them.

So I felt a little bit prepared, to ride horses on the mountain. I was told, these are trail horses, that they, this is what they do all day, every day, and good luck trying to get them off the trail, because they're typically had to butt and they just follow each other and that's all they do.

Cool. And which is sounds, yeah, sounds great. Sounds great. We're not horse people. I've never been on a horse. I never, awesome. I can do that. Yeah. But we had seen the terrain and heard it's steep and narrow and we're going through mountains, so like that was a legitimate concern you had.

And going into it, we didn't really like. Okay. Did you think there was a [00:26:00] chance that you would shoot a bear? No. You, the whole time you were not really stealing it? No I went into it thinking I was just gonna let you shoot a bear. Okay. So I went into it thinking it was a 50 50 shot, so that's, we could use a bower gun.

So I brought a gun because I was thinking that there was, we're gonna get, cause you didn't have to buy the tag till we got there. Which was nice. Which was really nice. Occasionally. Yeah, that was nice. So that's just another expense that, okay, if things go bad, something comes up. At least we want to buy this tag beforehand.

So if we, I don't know if we'd gotten a refund, but at least we went have to spend money on tags, which was relatively expensive. Yeah. Normal non-resident thing. But I seriously thought it was a 50 50. I led up to this, I was shooting my bow quite a bit. Like I was pretty much every day like I was thinking, I'm gonna do this.

Like I'm gonna shoot a bow, shoot one my bow. And then I also saw a gun in because I thought we were gonna get into the mountains and you were gonna be like, yeah, I'm shooting one 'em, I wanna shoot one. So we were gonna let you do it, but you didn't really think you the whole time no, and what I think it was I didn't wanna take the opportunity [00:27:00] from you and I was akay with that.

Like I was more than happy to go get my feet wet, spend time in the mountains, ride the horses, to me like that was just as special as me going to kill a bear. Yeah. And the experience of and watching you kill something is just as exciting as me. And same thing when I see, Henry's the same way too.

Yeah. And to me, watching someone get something is still just as fine. So Yeah. You still get the rush, you still have adrenaline. It's like a team effort. Yep. Thankfully, I did think that you were gonna shoot because I brought a gun, because that was in the back of my mind. But yeah, so we, we get to Wyoming and we drive, we choose to drive because we wanted to get the full effect or the full experience yeah.

And it was a beautiful drive. There's a lot of very what, I don't know, boring is not the right word, but, Yeah, a lot of flat land. There was a lot of nothing to look at. Yeah. Going through lot Iowa, going through, because Iowa's like much greater, like expanse, like flat for longer, [00:28:00] like bigger fields.

But Iowa looks a lot like Michigan, so does Illinois. Yep. Farm fields and, highway and that kind of thing. It's just a little bit more open. In those states, Nebraska was very open, but once we got to that one part of Nebraska, it was like, Here we are. Like, I don't know what that made the black hills or there was those big gullies and like really hilly things and we're like, Ooh, here we go.

And that was like, we were only halfway there. Yeah, I know. But it was still awesome, especially coming from Michigan, we're like, oh, we've never seen mountains like this before. Yeah. So we got to see some of that. But yeah, we drove there, got there and then we we, we stayed a couple nights in hotels.

We really took our time getting there. Cause we didn't wanna be beat when we got there and we had the time to do it. Like I said, we were just like free spirited with going out there and yeah, just the whole adventure of it. But we get there Sunday and then we meet everyone and then we end up driving to camp, which, how do you feel about heights?

So I hate heights. How do you feel about [00:29:00] vehicles that are close to edges of cliffs? Oh, you mean, driving on the edge of a cliff and there's no barrier on the edge of the cliff and then it's just this raging river. Yeah. It's a little spooky for you. Not a big fan. And then we had to do that for what, an hour?

I mean we had a, once we left asphalt, we had an hour and 40 minute drive on these dirt, like Michigan's got a lot, two tracks. These are, it's not a two track, it's wider, but it's very bumpy. It's very like windy, up and down and yeah, you literally, there's nothing but a steep cliff and raging river cuz of all the snow melt.

Yeah. And I would say you could probably only go 30 max. Oh yeah. 30 was like, cause it, and that was pushing it. Yeah. You, the truck would be bouncing a little bit. Oh yeah. She was so bumpy. Yeah, it was incredible though. So that was great. We're winding up in the mountains and there's Yeah, that one burn section where they had a fire and that hill, that whole Oh gas that was like, What you watch videos of.

And of course the whole time. So like you're trying to drive, but also we're looking for elk and bear and Yep. What else can we [00:30:00] see? And so it was pretty cool. We did see a couple moose on our way in, Yep. Which you really wanted to see bad. Yep. And we saw a baby moose and full grown moose jumped in the raging river.

So yeah, that was a little stressful cuz none of us are like, oh, is that baby gonna make it or not? We, it ended up it did. Yeah. We saw it the following day. So yeah, we finally wind up to this campsite and Wow. Talk about, first of all it was way nicer than I anticipated and I guess what did you think our base camp was gonna be like?

I was thinking literally just canvas tents. This was fantastic. So we rolled up and they were canvas tents, but they're canvas tents. They were on wooden platforms with stairs going up to each one. They went side by side. They each had their little stove inside, so it was, yeah, for heat.

It cots, these are big canvas tents. Yeah. Like I could I'm a big dude. I'm six foot 1, 2 50 wide shoulder. Like these are nice canvas tents. Like [00:31:00] I could, we had all of our stuff inside it. We had two cots, nice wood platform. There was an outhouse, which There was an outhouse. Yeah. I prepared you that we gonna probably have a little tent or a little pop-up, something with a whole, but we had an outhouse house.

It was rustic, but like nothing you weren't used to, you've done those things before. Yeah. There was a stream running right through the middle of camp. Like how, oh my, was that my weird, so all night you were sleeping, you didn't even have to have a white noise. Yeah.

Cause I love white noise. But no, we had a crick literally right next to our tent. We rolled up and they had a nice fire going already and we had they made dinner for us that night. It was a beautiful spot. I mean we were in a, I call it a drainage, but what do they call 'em? Yeah, they called 'em drainages too.

I don't know how to really explain it. But we had mountain essentially on both sides of us. Steep, like quick, steep, quick. Yeah. But yeah, they were the 10. It was so nice. Like we, I was thinking we were gonna be this like janky little like area that got cleared and we were, had to walkaways but we could drive the truck right to it, which they couldn't do until five days before we got [00:32:00] there, essentially.

Cause it's so much snow. But, and we didn't know that either. So they were, of course, they did fantastic. I don't know how they did it all in five days, but, so they had to not only get everything set up, bring everything there, they had to bring all their horses, yeah. Horses, seeing them take their trucks and trailers with all these horses down these two tracks.

Blows my mind every time. Yeah. And I don't know how these horses handle it, but they're bouncing and Holy cow. But yeah, I don't know. They're not little trailers. They were, no, they're, I mean they had we had five horses in each 1, 5, 6 horses. Easy. And I don't know if they're maxed out or not, but yeah, it was top notch, like way nicer than I.

And I was like, not that I was I wasn't really worried about it, but I just didn't know what to expect. And I was like, we're gonna be here for five, six days. What are we gonna expect here? And you're there and you're, being a female and all that wanted to be enjoyable. Cause this is like a vacation.

Like we weren't even the whole way there. We didn't even talk about shooting a bear. Like we had no expectation of a bear being shot. That was so far from our brains that we were just like, let's enjoy this. And I [00:33:00] think. I was excited to ride a horse to the mountains cuz never rode a horse before and I'm just gonna give this a shot and you're on the mountain.

It's exciting, right? I was not worried. But yeah. So yeah, first night we got to do all that stuff and meet everyone and topnotch guys, like super. Everyone was super personable. Like you could talk with 'em. Any questions you had. I mean it was great. So then we we woke up the next, so that was Sunday night and then Monday morning we woke up and I guess like black beer hunting.

I know about black beer hunting cuz you know, up here in Michigan, I don't live where there's a lot of black beers, but not far north. There is, and I understand the concept, like you have bait piles and bait stations or whatever, and you need to, you check choke cameras, you see what they're hitting, you try to find a, these guys do this for their jobs.

So like they have areas they know that are good or produce bears. They're spread all over the place. I just anticipated that me and you were gonna just sit in a tree, like they had some tree stands and I brought my saddle platform. And I think it was depending on the tree, either I would just be [00:34:00] in the tree stand, you would be in the saddle off the backside or vice versa.

We weren't really sure And we get there. So that was game plan, like shooting with a bow, like that was thing. Cause I had bought my tag. I was like, okay, I'm bow hunting, like that's my jam. Let's do this. So we wake up the first morning and we had to set some tree stands because like I said, they had only, they, they got there, got camp set up.

They didn't have time to set all the tree stands because they couldn't, they could get in there with snowmobile. They were essentially just snowmobiling around doing the bait stations like, or doing baits. And they're miles apart. I think we had to be, what, 20 miles from camp? That one spot.

Oh. Easily. Not easy miles. No. Oh, no. Long miles far from that. But, so yeah, first day we helped, we went out and helped with that. We had, we were gonna hang a tree stand and do three baits was a, so we all split up. So we each did we, yeah, we each had basically a guide, right?

Yeah. So we went with Brayden, who was our guide, and then we yeah, we go to the first spot and we were hanging a tree [00:35:00] stand and yeah, our first we first hop on the horses. And I guess, how'd you feel when you hopped on the horse for the first time? I was fine initially, but it trains a little.

Yeah. You seem like you were, yeah, the horse lessons helped you tremendously. You like, oh, absolutely. You hopped on the horse and were, you could tell like you were comfortable like sitting there, like reigns and all that stuff. Like you understood the concept. Me, I'm just like, I was the last person to get out.

And I'm like, woo hop. I'm big guys, so it's easy to hop on the horse, but I'm like, cool, here I am. Like, I'll follow all you guys. But then we started, I'm, IM on the worst highway. Then we started the horse. So talk about that. We, then, we started the trek and the first little bit of that, how long did it take us to get to that?

Oh my gosh. Almost an hour. Probably. Gosh. I would say closer to hour and a half. But it was funny. So we're going up, I think the whole time. Most of the time it was uphill, which is fine. But it's one of those things, it's the horse is lag behind a little bit. But no, we gotta sprint [00:36:00] until we catch up to the other horses and I can't tell you how many times that they decide they're gonna sprint, but man it rocks you.

Yeah. Know how to riding Gallup, or is that considered something else? I don't know what they, it wasn't really like you're kinda trotting, but it was fast. A little bit faster. You're, and it's like the grade, they're not fast. Like you're trying to like. It was weird for me cuz I didn't know how to like, use my feet or how to sit.

I just took it like a champ. I just got wrecked and I'm just smiling on a beautiful train. But yeah, we finally get up to that spot and it was, we had cross some streams. We had to do some things and there was some point we were literally on a cliff side and there was the path that the horse was on was literally the width of their hoods.

And I'm just like, this is how I die. Yeah, it was, it was, you put your feet side by side. It wasn't much, it was about that width. Yeah. There there was no, I got size 13, 14, but it wasn't that much wider. There was no room for air. I'm like, this horse better know what she's doing.

But, but they always say too that horse wants to fall less than what you know you do. Yeah. They don't wanna fall. [00:37:00] Yeah. So I was like, all right. At that point I literally closed my eyes. I'm like, just go let the horse do her thing. So like the first two minutes into the horse ride, I would consider it like, Very easy to be like stressed, yes, muscle, like use muscles, never used like you're expending energy like instantly.

And we're at 75 8, 7500 to 8,000 feet of elevation. We live at 200 maybe, I don't even know maybe a hundred I have. We might live at sea level. What are you doing now? I have no idea. It was steep hill around here. It was just a feet was a lot different. Yes, it was a lot different. It felt different. So we get there and we hang this, we get to the first bait site and it is like just the prettiest spot.

Like it's so pretty. I just remember this whole time, I cannot believe I'm here in Wyoming. So like we, there was no after that first drive, after the drive there and that first morning getting to that spot, I was like, I have zero regrets like this. The money we spent on this, it made the trip worth it.

Just in those moments, you just. You look [00:38:00] out, like you said, we got to the top of that mountain. Not necessarily the top, but I mean you can see far and wide. And it was a little bit open spot, but man, I just couldn't get over the beauty of it, and it was still in the transition period where I was going from winter to spring.

Yeah. But still holy cow. The wild flowers were popping, the trees were starting to get their leaves and so there's still a lot of green. Yeah. And you got the seal of snow in the mountains in the distance, which made it like, look really cool. Like it was incredible. Breathtaking. I don't know of another way to describe it besides breathtaking because I, you can't even take a picture to give it justice, right?

Yeah. Like it was just, the pictures suck. I know. I know we try, everyone's oh, you need to send a bunch of pictures or, send us stuff. And we would snap a picture and it would just be like, look, it's disapp disappointing. Yeah. You're like, it's just kinda up on that. Maybe it's because we're not the best photographers.

Who knows? But. So I know there's a few things I took away from, I love the horseback ride up to that spot. I was like, the horses are cool. This is great. There's no, and like the whole time like [00:39:00] there's no way I could have carried a tree, stand back here this far, this quick. Like I would've and I would've been beat beyond beat.

And it wasn't quick. That's the thing, it took mean, took an hour. An hour or maybe even more. I just don't know what else would be quicker and in that terrain. Oh gosh. And we get there and okay, here's the bait. And I look around and I'm like, all these trees are like, I think they're Jack pines.

I'm not sure what they are. They're some sort of pine tree. I don't know my trees very well, but they all have lots of branches and they're not like, it's thick and they're like a lot of 'em close together. But there's not it's not oh, you can just climb your way through the tree. You have to cut tree branches to climb up cuz they're small and there's a lot of 'em.

So we hung that first tree stand and the whole time we're thinking we're on the side of a mountain, we're like a side of a drainage. And, you hunt bears at night and the whole thing Here I am using like my whitetail stuff like okay thermals, pulled down the hill, sun's beaten now.

So like what happens when that thermal pole comes down? So you have to set up down from the bait so that we don't, you don't want the bears to get anywhere near you to smell you or your foot,[00:40:00] where you walked, you, from the human set. Cuz they're like a big buck essentially. Like they, they see you, smell you, they up.

I guess I wasn't expecting that and I knew I should, but I didn't. No. Cuz the bears of around here don't really care. And I'm wondering if that's why we went in, not necessarily expecting that, but man, they are smart. They can smell you. They can sense you. So it's like hot in a big buck. It is and like here in Michigan there's like pockets of a lot of bear and they're used to people and I think there's more bears maybe.

So like they compete for bait piles like. They I really want that donut. I don't really care that a human was here because if I don't eat these bear or I'm not, it's gonna get ate before I can get there. There it's like a bear takes over the bait and there's so few of 'em.

It's so vast that this is my spot. Go find another spot. And they just go do their thing and they're not overpopulated by any means. So I think that's kind of part of it. You're dealing with a bear or two maybe per bait pile and that's how you get to kill that one. And they will just sit there and wait until you [00:41:00] leave to go to the bait.

We found that out and it's funny. Yeah. So the guys that would hunt, they would pull the cameras the next day and sure enough they leave that tree stand, that bear comes, what, 15, 20 minutes later. Hits that bait pile, but they wait. They literally wait for you, the human to leave. Yeah. And I think that was we figured that was like a sight thing to an extent because the guys did a good job setting up the tree stands in a spot.

Where like thermals helped like maybe, the wind swirls. So I think it was one of those things where like the bears would get within a zone of that bait and hang out and you couldn't see him cause it was too thick. Oh, heaven snow. Yeah. And they would just, that wind just would swirl and then they would just, oh, he's there.

I'm just gonna chill. Cuz there's a strong thermo pool once it was like 45 minutes before dark. Like you could just Oh, absolutely. Like when we walked up that one spot in the middle of the night, you could just feel the air hitting you in the face, walking up that drainage. Yeah. But no, we so right away I was like, man, it's gonna be really hard to hang a saddle and a tree, like to do a tree stand and a saddle.

Like we're going have to get somewhere and I'm gonna need an hour or [00:42:00] more to be able to cut more, shoot more spots to get up in. Because at that point, we're thinking like, oh, it's gonna be, we could do it here in Michigan. No problem. Yeah, it's just, it's different.

The trees are different, yeah. Trees different. There's a lot of branches. Yeah, we do a lot of double sets, like no big deal. Like we've been doing that for a long time You sit here, I'm gonna hop on the seat and I'm gonna swing around the tree and I'm hunting there. That's just what we do.

So I never tell Brayden who was our guide, I said, Hey man, like wherever we go, I'm gonna need to be there early because it's gonna take me a minute to get set up, like to get a platform and platforms. And it wasn't because, and that was the mindset, knowing that I wasn't gonna shoot on that platform just for you to sit in.

So that was like right away okay, hey, we're gonna need some time. So that was in the back of my head. So then we leave that spot and that's when the fun began. The fun began for you. So we start going down this hill. So what happened? It's on the hill. It's a mountain. Okay. So we're going down Mountain.

I'm mountain. Eh, yes. Anyways, so my horse, all of a sudden, would you, I think sh the [00:43:00] saddle underneath her was itchy. Yeah. So she started shaking like crazy. I swear she almost threw me off. Just from shaking. Yeah. She did a big like Yeah. Shiver. Kinda like a shiver. Yeah. I was like, whoa.

That was fun. And I laughed. So we, we kept going on our way and all of a sudden her front legs buckle where I thought they buckle. I'm like, is she tripping? What is going on? No. She decided right now is the perfect time to lay down and roll on my back. So what do I do? I have to jump off.

I just got my foot out of the the stir up before she started rolling. And then, so I'm like, what the heck happened? And then Braden, our guides like, Holy cow. We've never had a horse do that before. And before we could even think Doug, the guy in front of us, his horse didn't Doug from work class ball.

Yeah. He, his horse also decided, I'm gonna roll right now as well. But his horse didn't give him a warning at all. No. Just boom down. Yeah, just boom down like pork brains I don't know what's going on. What is this? And he's got his horse he's [00:44:00] on and he's got a haltered or whatever he is got like the tag.

Yep. The, yep. The pack horse. The pack horse. So he's in charge of his horse and he is one's following him. And then we got three horses. So there's just five horses and also two of'em are like, people are off the horses and rolling on the ground. So he was like, what is going on? But. Okay. How big are you?

You're like, how tall are you? Five two. 5 2, 5 2. You think you're five two. I'm five three on a good day, whatever. Five, two. On a good day, I would say, okay, five two. I'm five. Two five. What's a good day? Three inch heels, then you're five three. Yeah. But no. So you're, you vertically challenged to an extent.

So like hopping off that horse is not it's no joke. Yeah. You, yeah. You had to like, I guess work for it like I did. It wasn't like you could just swing your leg. You had electric chip. I launched off that horse. I'm like, you're not rolling on me today. So then you got back on the horse.

Everything happened. Although it's funny cuz brain's like, all right, ready to hop back on. I'm like, you're gonna make me hop back on this horse? We were not close to the truck. No. [00:45:00] So I did, this is like an hour, down the mountains a lot quicker. But to walk, that would've taken a long time.

That would've taken forever. And we still had to get to two more baits. We were hoping. So yeah. He's here you go. Hop back on. And you did. I did. You did. And what we don't realize is how much quicker these horses walk down the mountain. Yep. Then when they go up, because they also wanna get back to the trailer and not on the mountain side.

Yeah. They're like, and this was their, we found out like this was their, they haven't been all so usually surprise. Yeah. Surprised. Usually they use all the horses to do the baits. Yeah. Before the hunters get there. Because there's so much snow. They've been using snowmobiles. So these horses had on their back since fall.

Yeah. So first time out. So we kinda, yeah, we, that's why we signed those waivers, because if we were more experienced, I think you probably, that probably wouldn't have happened. Probably you think do you think if you were a more experienced horse person, you probably would've stopped that from happening maybe?

Oh, for sure. Or knew kinda like the telltale signs for sure. I think a lot of stuff would've happened if I wasn't a [00:46:00] novice because she knew. She knew I was a novice. So she's like seeing what she can get away with then. Yeah, there's certain things that I just wasn't strong enough to pull back on her, and the horse, when I did my horse lessons, I had a saddle that fit me. The stirrups were at the right length and I fit in my saddle. The reins were the right length, so nothing fit me on this horse. Everything was too big. Yeah. Because where you did your training, they do the kids and that kind of stuff, not many wives and five foot two hunters go through to correct a Wyoming back country bear hunt. And their defense like, no. And not at all. That was so you kinda born and tried. He's man, I can't make this any short. Yeah. They had their smallest one for you. Knowing that they did save the smallest horse for me, so I appreciate that.

The short horse was shorter. The this, yeah. All that stuff. But yeah. So you're scared going down the mountain, like here? Heart rate's up, I could tell. Oh, of course. And how was we get back to the truck. How did you feel like physically, like where were you at [00:47:00] physically? I was whipped. I was, we to like You're definitely your inner thighs ache.

My knees ached. I think I was more emotionally fatigued after I was like, that's what I was gonna ask. Yeah. This is cool. I had a horse rollover on me today. Yeah, you were definitely tested like mentally. Yep. And in the way that we I guess we knew it was gonna, you, that's why I asked you what you were worried about going to the trip.

You were worried this whole time, like the whole trip. That was the one thing, like I'm freaked out about the horses. Like I really, but it was weird because you wanted to do this trip because there was horses. Correct. And I think that's why there's a thing a form of therapy that they use horses, horse therapy, there is a certain sense. You hop on this horse, this thing is massive, this thing is it's its own thing. It thinks for itself and there's a whole lot of confidence that you really need to have when you're on top of that horse. So I can see why horse therapy is something beneficial to somebody.

Because you on there, me, I'm not necessarily a most type A personality. I can be a little timid. And I [00:48:00] hop on that horse and you better believe, I feel about this big, so the horse knew that. So you had to really face your fear oh, for sure. Like you already had a fear that you're facing which you like.

That's not, you're never, you never have let fear keep you from doing things. You like to be able to do things. That's, I was shooting a mt, I did er nursing nurse. Yeah, you always put yourself in these positions that are just crazy because you don't want fear to, rule me. I don't want it to rule me.

So yeah. So you were staring that right in your face this horse flipped, like it was very, I think it could have been worse, but it definitely wasn't like you had all day, like it was like horses down. She's you gotta get off me right now. Cause I'm rolling. And you just get off and pH She's rolling.

Yeah. Okay. So let's just we get to the, we get back down and we have to go to the second spot. And right now we're like, we realize that that took a long time. That was back there. Ways like, okay, let's hurry up, get the second spot. And brain's by the way, We have to cross a river.

And it was up to my feet when I crossed it earlier in the week. And I was like, what? And I was like, which river? The one we've been driving by. He's yeah. And I'm like, [00:49:00] there's like rapids the whole time. I mean there's there's, I'm just like half expecting people to go like down the river on a raft doing Yeah.

White water rafting, right? Correct. It was not lit. We didn't see that. I, we were like, would not been surprised. So he told us that and that was like, what? So we get to the second spot. How worried were you about crossing that river? Cause we could see the river. It was right by where we parked.

I was, I feel like I was okay. I got my horse outta the Were you more scared about that or were you more scared about the, like what made you freaked out more? The cliff edge walk-in or like crossing the water? Probably the cliff edge. Okay. That's kinda what I thought. I feel like you didn't like, I felt like that wasn't near to me.

I was more intimidated about the water for some reason because I just really didn't want to get in that water. Cause I just could imagine how cold it was. I was like, man, all this snow melt, like last thing I wanna do is Get soaked and then have to like, cuz I'm not gonna be a wuss and make everyone bring it back to camp, I'm gonna have to go do all this.

We I was actually a little bit more I really hope I don't get soaked doing this by something stupid cuz am I gonna do the wrong thing? That was what I was worried about. But no, [00:50:00] Bray was like, this is what you do, you point the horse this direction, do this. You might have to give him a little kick, with your heels or whatever.

So we're like, okay, cool. So we're all focused on this river and what happens? We like drop down this ditch your horse. Yes. You, so we parked on the side of this not road per se, the two track? Yeah. It was a pull off. Yeah. Whatever. It was a little pull off spot and it's this dip down before you get to the river.

So the horses is yeah, we would slide down it like if we had a walk it, we would sliding. They kinda like the horses were sliding down. But my horse had a lovely habit of hugging trees whenever we would walk by 'em. Or going through, low hanging trees.

But no, this time she decided she was also going to do that, going down this nice slope into the river. And I got nailed in the face by a branch. Bad, like bad. Like I, it almost knocked me off of her. It knocked my hat off, it knocked my glasses. So I took glasses off. Oh. I had abrasions all across the side of my face and [00:51:00] my ear was bleeding.

It was good time. Yeah. You got smoked and it was like, but I stayed on the horse. So you stayed on the horse. Yep. That was my ultimate goal. So you got a horse. It was a rough, like 45 minutes horse roommate. It was an hour, I think by the time. Probably got to their spot and got out. Yeah, I got here. Horse roller rolled on you and then you got hit a branch and then it's like we got cross deep water and I was like, okay, a lot's going on.

But you and I could tell you were freaked, not like petrified or like that, but I could tell like I guess I was over it. Yeah, you were like, this sucks. Like I love this. I'm not having fun anymore guys. I'm not having fun. And we let him make it to the second bait. But the funny thing is, so this was the first, gosh, probably the second time the horses were on this trail.

So it was a new trail for the horses too. And at one point there was a wrong turn and it got hairy cuz we were going up a mountain sign, there was no trail. And all of a sudden we have a basically a pileup of horses in the, in these kind of yeah. Cause Brad Brayden could have made it probably where he was taking us, but then he's gotta think about novice people and [00:52:00] horses behind him.

So I think he kinda was like, Ooh, I can't, I don't want to go this way with these guys. So then we had to turn around and like horses, when they go up a steep and climb, they don't just walk, they like lunge like cuz they're imagine a dog running fast. Like how they like crouch and go horses do that go up hill.

So they're like, you're on it like moving forward on a steep angle. Oh my gosh, we have to stop, turn around. So we, but we. We get up to the bait finally. And there's a, these horses go over goods size, dead falls. Oh oh, nicely, right? They step over. Yeah. They get too old. They step over and they do a little hop.

So we get up to one right by the bait. And were you the last one lying at this point? Yes. So Bray's horses go Perfect. Doug goes, mine goes. And then we like go and then we like look back and we're like, what is going on with Ashley over there? And we're like looking and your horse is oh, this is where everyone else crossed.

I'm gonna stop right here and then I'm gonna turn and go over the double dead fall and I'm just gonna launch itm. Just gonna, were trying send it. Yeah. And you were trying to like steer her cuz that's was, we had, we [00:53:00] did. So horses did really good job on the trails. It was tight.

It was super tight. So like the horse, you're trying to steer this horse in this very tight area, so they're they wanna walk the trail, but also but there's not, had to pull the rain sometimes and be like, no, not there. Like here. Yes, because we're up high and we can see.

Because these trails are defined but they're not like super defined. So yeah. So are you trying to steer the words? Trying to steer and then they're panicking because like they don't wanna turn there or it's just too tight. They don't feel comfortable doing that. But yeah, your horse is I'm just going to send it and just freaking launch it and over that did and she did.

You see them doing videos like whatever Competi is like I competition is might as well have just went on a competition and Yes. Did Dolly's Horse, horse we're like, and you are like you were, my eyes are probably the size of like sauces you're over Before you were super over it at that.

I just remember, I don't swear, but I was like, holy shit. Yep. Did you see that? Yeah. We're like yeah. Braden's hey, you stayed on. Yeah. So we do the second bait. It's beautiful. Another beautiful spot that not, we didn't have a, [00:54:00] we only brought one tree stand, but there was no tree stand there. But we're, I really like that spot.

I was like, this is nice. I was like, me and you could totally hunt like this was a gun. Cuz that's what I was thinking like, If we had to later in the week or something we weren't sure, like I'm just, we're just going out this is gonna be a five day thing. Like let's go. Yeah.

So we're like really liking it. We baited it, Barry had hit it. So then we are like, we were already out for a long time and we're like, we gotta get back to camp. Yeah. We're out there probably half a day. Yeah. So Braden was like, we're not doing the third ba we don't have time. So we had almost an hour, just a drive Oh, gotcha.

To get back to camp. So we start going back down. So now you've had a horse roll on you once you. Get a branch that just, I mean like your face was bloody all week. I mean you got scratch men in the ear. You had blood like coming out your wound. Like it wasn't like stitches or anything like that, but I mean it was like a deep, it wasn't just super, I don't want to use medical terms cause you'll correct me, but it was like good enough that you had blood like coming out.

Like it wasn't just a red scratch. So like you got you pretty good and then he did this whole [00:55:00] jump thing on the side and it's not like she just jumped and had fallen flat ground. It was no side of a mountain jump. Like it was just nuts. So we get back, we're going back down, everything's going good.

Like we get, we didn't ride the steep part cuz Bray was like, after what you went through and everything we're just walking down this, I think everyone was like, okay, cool. Yep. So we all walked the horses down, which didn't take long. Cause I mean it was probably quarter miles maybe. Yeah, I would say quarter mile, probably maybe a little longer.

But like it was an easy walk cause it was straight down. And hop back on the horses and After we got through that, there was a little bit of weird, like terrain, but there was no really steep cliffs. I was like, no, it was a pretty, it was a pretty leisurely, I felt like walk. And I told you, I was like, okay, how are you doing?

You're like, good. I'm like at least the walkout, the only thing I worry about is the river, right? You're like, yes, that's great. Unbeknownst to us, we get over halfway and then what happens? My horse is side, she wants to lay down again. Again. And this time there was no shivering. There was nothing like, I'm just gonna lay down.

And so I just got off. But it was crazy because it, we were on a hill a little bit. So like when I jumped really far down [00:56:00] and I was like, yeah, this horse is gonna roll on top of me. Yeah. Like the hill was sideways, like we were side hill and it so when you jumped, you went to the downward.

Correct. And you hit the ground, kinda ran down, like to your like left. So then of course you're like, all right. You're, we're still far from the truck. Like you have to ride this thing out. Cause I have no choice. Braden's what in the world is going on? And I watched you pull in the reins and you're just too short.

That's the, I can say I know, like I said, I, it wasn't set up for a short girl. Yeah. If I know maybe if I was able to fit a little bit better, it might have been a little different. Yeah. But I get some spurs on, so you're getting kicked. So at that point I was like, oh, I hate this horse.

I hate this so much. Yeah, you were, you had to get back on. So I did. So I made sure I grabbed a hold of her. I'm like, don't move. No. I told her, I was like and she let you Yeah. And she let you get down every time. And she was fine. She wasn't like this grouchy horse, but I, at that point, she knew how she could get me off her back.

By laying down, right? Yep. And you're not, and you're, like you said earlier my wife's small stature, you don't have a deep voice. You are, soft spoken. You've never been like, [00:57:00] you're not like a Like loud, obnoxious person. You yell at the dog just looks at you.

Cuz it doesn't, it can't tell that you're mad because it's just, the only time you really can tell you're mad is when you're mad at me. But I'm the one that gets the pleasure of that, but but so you're not intimidating person. Like I think if I that happen, it probably brain was like happened to you maybe one time, one time brain's dude, kick that horse and pull those reins hard out.

I would've been like, alright, boom. And I'm ripping that bit back cuz I don't know any different and I'm a big dude sure. So yeah. So you have to get back on, hop back on, yeah, we're going down. And then for the, just like your third shot to kill your buck. The third time the horse lay down on me again.

And this time it's going down. So when you hop off the side, you have to run downhill all the way down. Yeah. Like you, there was no walking it was like steep enough for like in your kid and you're like, I'm gonna run down this hill. It's gonna be great. As you start going, you almost lose it.

Like you were about ready to lose it, but then you caught yourself. You were running and we're still not that close to the truck. And you, what did you do? [00:58:00] You got back on Yeah. Back on that stupid horse. And you did it, you did do it. Yeah. And then thankfully after that point it was fine.

The terrain was tighter. It was a tighter space. Yes. So every time we Yes. So I think that made sure that she wasn't laid down. It was too narrow, laid down a roll, right? Yeah, thankfully. Cause I think she would've laid it down and again I think she was hundred. That last time she looked at me, yes.

She turned the last two times she did ask, she turned around and looked at me and then went down. If you're horse people, you'll get this and think it's funny, but we're not horse people, so we're just kinda what is this? What's going on? Yeah. They're so personal. So I don't think it was a malicious attempt.

It was just no. Doing that. She wasn't. But you're done with horses. I was done. We crossed the river. She stopped in the middle of the river too. But you got her go through she was just like yeah. She's I'm gonna drink. I'm thirsty now. Right now. Yeah. I'm thirsty now. But you did good.

You got in the middle of a raging river and eventually I was able to get her to go. So we got back to the truck, got load up. Bray was like, Hey, 10 out 10 for dismount. I was like, score. She's sweet. So there was two spots that were by camp that you could walk to from camp? Yep. So [00:59:00] we got to the truck and I was like, how you feeling?

She's I'm done with horses and I didn't blame you. You're done. You're beat like you're little just getting pounded on the mountain for, at this point, I think we'd been at it for six hours. Six, yeah. Six hours. And I was like, Hey, that's fine. We get back to camp. We, let's go by one of those places that are close.

There's no communication with anyone because there's no service. We're just us four. The other group of guys are doing their thing, so we don't know what's going on, but we get back to camp. Everyone's hunting but one. Person, like I think Eric from working class also Yeah. Was the only other one that wasn't hunting already.

Other than Doug with us. But he was going to a spot with Devin Leonard. But we get to camp and the other guys are all at the spots where they could walk too. So I was like, okay. And we could tell that everyone was scrambling because they were shorthanded and like I said, we were running, we were back to camp two hours later and we're supposed to be right.

And we didn't get the third spot painted. So they were like, we don't know anything about that spot. We didn't, we were supposed to, cause they couldn't check the trail cameras to see if that was even [01:00:00] hit. Cause we get there, so they don't wanna waste. Anyone sick. They didn't wanna waste the time to get out there for no reason.

So we get to camp and we're me and Ashley are talking and I was like, what do you feel? She's I'm not going back on a horse. And I was like, are you sure? And she's not happening. And I did not blame you cuz that was rough. That would've happened to me. I would've been like, I was like, I'm emotionally spent and I'm done.

Yeah. And yeah, so I was just tired. And I was like, okay, what do you want me to do? And you were like, you just go you can go wherever. So I told brain, I was like, Hey, I'll be the last person to go tonight. You get everyone else situated, I'll just go along for the ride. If we get somewhere cool.

If not, I don't care. My goal is not to shoot a bear. My goal is just to have fun. Enjoy this. And I think I, what do you think? You think I would've not hunted if you asked me not to that night? Oh, for sure. I feel I wasn't gonna do, I'm, I've never been that kind of person. No, but you didn't get like the feeling for me that I was like, I'm hunting no matter what.

Like I was Right. I'm gonna go kill a bear. No. White tail hunt at that white or elk hunt would've been different. It would've been different story. Mean pretty much anything. Mul, deer, anything I would've been like, I'm hunting, I don't care about you. You can sit there and do your thing. Like I'm gonna go [01:01:00] kill something.

But this is just different. Like we just, it was just a different mindset for a hunt. But yeah. So everyone else gets situated like, alright, we have no tree stands cuz we didn't get to the set. The second one cuz didn't happen. I think maybe one tree stand was, I'm trying to think how that worked.

I feel like everyone else had got, had bows and were in the tree stands that first night, except for me and Eric. Because we didn't have any other tree stands. There was other spots, like there was more than six spots, but there was not more than six tree st stands. Cuz some were gun spots, some were both spots.

Yeah, both. Every spot was gun. Every spot was gun. But then they had, yeah, correct. They had tree stands but they just couldn't get to it. So I was like, Hey dude, let's get rid those situated. I have a gun. If you think we can go to that one spot that we didn't bait today. And sit there with a gun. Let's do it.

Like I'm down and I'm just chilling. So I was, Brayden gets everyone situated. Trey did also. And then me and Brayden were like, and then you were just like, I'm [01:02:00] cool. I'm hanging back. I'm hanging out at camp. Let me tell you, it was glorious. I was able to stay back at camp, read my book by either I made a fire, I helped, I stocked everybody's their wood piles and that sort of thing.

But no, I got to read my book. In and out, in next to like arick. It was pretty glorious. Yes. You liked it. I was not complaining. Nope. So you got to do that? I went and then we had to cross the river again. To get to the spot we were going. And you were like, yeah, no. So me and Bra, we tapped out at the Yeah, we tapped out.

But no, so we get everything set up and I wanna say it gets dark, let's say nine 30. Nine 15, I don't know, pretty late. But something like that. So me and Bra finally get out there and we had to cross the river, go through some sketchy stuff, like narrow stream crossings, all this it was not delightful.

And we tied the horses up and he's I'm just gonna sit with you because I don't got time to go back and do anything. I'm just gonna handle with you. I'm like, dude, heck yes. I have a gun in my hands. I get someone to sit with me. How often do I sit with a gun by myself? I'd say 80% of the time I [01:03:00] hunt.

Maybe 90 with a gun of any sorts. I'm with someone. Either Henry or a brother or a sister, or you like family member friend. That's gun hunting to me is you take advantage. It's not a. Something I'd do by myself. Bow hunting is more of lone wolf, do that. But even now I don't really, Henry sits in a tree stand with me know.

So like we do that kind of thing. We have blinds that we hunt out of. But yeah, so like I was really pumped about that. And then we just get set up. I had a climb this mountain, no horse to do it. And I was a beat and I was, elevation was getting me like about three o'clock that day. I was like, Ooh, I got a headache and I can't breathe.

And this is rough. I feel like hot garbage, but I was like, I'm hunting like this is great. Kept the positive attitude. But yeah, we ended up climb hiking on the mountain and got to a spot and just this beautiful spot. If you wanna hear a little bit more about Mike, my version of this, just tune into the working class Bow Hunter podcast.

We did one with them guys and it broke down like my hunt a little bit. So I don't wanna spend too much time on that right now. But I ended up sitting there for an hour, maybe less, [01:04:00] 30 minutes before dark, 45 minutes before dark. Look across this canyon, 200 yards away. Boof, there's a bear. Holy moly.

Looking at the bear. No cubs sweet. It's bigger than the 55 gallon drum. And my whole time I didn't wanna shoot a bear that was the size of a dog. I wanted to shoot something that was as big as me or something that could do some damage. That was the only thing I really had in a color face. I wanted to color face cuz that'd be cool.

But if you would've asked me what I thought if I was gonna shoot a bear in term like no, I'm probably not. There's a 30% chance I'm gonna kill a bear is probably how I felt. Because A, we're gonna have two people in a tree. B I'm double the people like that kind of thing. Like I'm never gonna be the guy that's gonna be like, you need to put me on a bear.

Like I didn't really care. I don't think we cared. No. But I was also very like positive, so every spa I would've went to, no matter what I do. I'm like, yeah, it's gonna happen. I think to us too, us being there was half the trip, if not more. Being in the mountains.

Just, hanging [01:05:00] out. Yeah. Doing that thing. Yeah. The bear comes out bigger than the drum. Yes. The size one. Smoked it like perfect. Shot the gun across the canyon. Boom. Got it. Found the bear did all this stuff. It took forever. Like he was, like I said, you can listen to their podcast, but got to camp super late.

Gotcha. The bear Gotcha. That you guys rolled in we're like 12:31 AM something like that. Cause everybody else was back. They're like, either something happened or he got a bear. And I think, was it Doug? He's are you worried? Are you worried about your husband right now? I'm like, no, not yet. Yeah. I was like, I'll know when I'm ready to worry about.

I was like, I'm not worried too yet. And you're like, he shot a bear. I was like, what you guys don't know about him is he's a lucky dude. So I got a horseshoe in my butt. This is what some may say, but no. So yeah, I shot the bear. Got it back to camp. Awesome. Pumped up. This is great.

So yeah, it was disappointing that you weren't sitting there with me, but also you were very content with that. And Yeah. Other, then the next day we got to help packt tray's bear out. He shot one of the bow. So even though I didn't get to [01:06:00] see you shoot and skin the bear I was able to still help with.

Yeah. Cause blood trailing and like getting the deer outta the woods is like, is my favorite. You're pissed if I don't have you help. It's one of my favorite things to do. Yeah. So the second night being able to do that was pretty awesome. We didn't use horses so that was a bonus. But we walked a long ways and it was rough.

We climbed rough, rough and it was dark in middle of the night, but we did it. That's more, I talked about that a little bit more on the thing, but yeah you did it. I think that was another thing, like you climbed a mountain in the dark like and I didn't get mauled by a bear. Yeah. Of bonus. It's like you got to do that.

You got to see a bear. You got to, we brought a light up there. Yep. And we got to skin the bear and you got to see all that as, which is quite similar to a deer. There are a lot of, there are some differences too, but Yeah. General concept. Yeah. It was very nice. And then we, yeah, we hiked out of there.

So you got in two days. Got the full experience. Sure. Did. Like beer hunting, like back country beer hunting, full experience with horses, with all that stuff. More than we bargained for probably. So then then after that we were [01:07:00] designated like how we know we could, oh, I was gonna say beer runs going to town.

We made everybody's, we made everybody's fires. So their intent to be warm. And I would say like you were the only girl. So we, like I, you were prepared that you might be, we didn't know if Trey's wife was gonna be there or not. But yeah, it's not normal for a wife to go on that hunt.

Like all the guys are great too, like they treated you well. Yep. They probably were almost a little too timid around you. I know, right? You're quiet, that's the thing. I know you're quiet, you're not, if they knew your humor and knew that kind of thing, it'd be one thing, but you're not gonna be able roll in there dropping, f-bombs and talking dirty, like you'll laugh and stuff.

But they were very respectful, I think. Still did those things and yeah, I think you handled that very well for what you had, being the only chick there, but. It was hard on you. Yeah. So anyone that does end up doing a hunt like that with their wife, just there's some things to repair for, if she's the only girl there, it's very possible.

And it's still very, like you eat together, like the whole group eats together. We hang out with a fire together. It's not like me and her were doing our own thing during the day, [01:08:00] but it's a very like team-like atmosphere, which I really liked. It's, it is. That's great. Yeah. Remind me of Deer Camp when we go down hunting a little bit.

Like just our family. That's how that ishmm. Cause you all meet at the end of the night, sit around the fire, you drink beer. Yeah. Same. You get to talk about same your day, what you saw, what you didn't see, tell stories. And that kind of stuff. Do that. But yeah, so we did that for a couple days.

We got to go on a couple like little walks and just drive around the countryside. Yep. Couple hikes. We went and looked for elk. Yeah, we drove. That was around a little bit. Yeah. It was really relaxing, it was really nice. No itinerary. Sweet. But yeah, then we had left today early because it was raining.

And also we were like, Hey, we leave Friday morning that gives us until Sunday night to get home. And so we both worked Monday too. So we're like, we don't wanna get home super late and then get up to go to work. Yep. So we did that, which was really nice. I mean we ended up bringing him, Doug's bear home for him.

And Doug and Eric's stuff we brought. So like we got to break up our trip with that. But yeah, overall what a, what an amazing, I know, and it's funny, even now, it's been how many weeks? Yeah, [01:09:00] that was Memorial Day week is when I shot my bay Memorial Day. So then we got back home like a month ago today.

A month ago yesterday, I think. Yeah. There I still find myself every now and then. Like longing to be back in that setting. Yeah. Hands down. Would I do it again? A hundred percent. Would I get legit horse lessons into a full course of horse training? Absolutely. Yeah. I think. I don't think I would do, I don't think I would really need horse lessons.

I would do them, but I think there's a couple things I would do to be in maybe a little better shape. Not from it's not like strenuous, but getting beat on by the horse. Like I don't lift weights. Like I, I do construction by me, I wear tourig and I frame and I side and I build houses.

Like those kind of things. But there was muscles that were like, who? We had muscles there, right? Who? Like maybe I should do some like squats or deadlifts or something like, or just wear a heavy backpack and climb I don't know, find a hill to climb just to get my legs used to it cuz that elevation kicked the crap out of me.

It wasn't that too, yeah. Cause I was sick on day three. You were sick day three. Yeah. But yeah it's just, it's weird when you're [01:10:00] breathing, you're walking up to the outhouse and you're out of breath. You're like, what is this? Yeah. Got, when we got back in flatland sat, was it Saturday?

Yeah. No, Friday night. Oh yeah. And we were like, yeah, oh, we're in the fourth floor of the hotel. And she's if you don't mind walking stairs, you can park right by your door. And just walked straight up. And I was like, sure. We walked up those four flights of stairs, like it was no big deal. I was like, nice.

Excuse me. But that, yeah, that only lasted for a day. But yeah. Back to being outta shape. But no, I think it's a trip that I'm really happy we got to do, I would do it again in a heartbeat. Yeah. Elk though, right? We didn't try to do it. Do an elk back, country elk hunt maybe. Who knows The preference point thing's so weird.

I know. And we're not really sure what we're gonna do, but they're lofty goals for the future. So are we gonna try to do a hunt together every year? Yes. And am I gonna be able to do hunts by myself on top of that? Yes, you heard it Here. I can go on whitetail hunts and go on hunts with my wife. I got it made.

But no. What do you think about the podcast thing? Like how [01:11:00] do you, I guess moving forward, what do you think? Cuz you were actually the reason I'm doing this, I talked about that with the Passing a Torch podcast last week. Yeah, it was funny. We were at our way back from Iowa. I it sounds like we go to Iowa a lot.

We really don't. No. But we went for my son's birthday. Our son's birthday. John Deere museum cuz he is a big time farmer kid. He wants to be a farmer when he gets older. So naturally went to the John Deere Museum, but we were on our way back. I'm like, so when are you gonna start your podcast? Yeah. And then that I was like, oh, and she's been like telling me that.

She's you already talk about this with all your buddies. You just record it. You see the texts, you hear the phone calls and I was like, I don't know if that's what I want to do. And then that night Dan Johnson from Nine Fingers was like, Hey, wants to take over Michigan podcast on like a story or something.

I happened to see it and I was like, I went to you and I was like, she's you have to reach out. And that was March. And now look, here we are. First podcast. That's right. It's been like been, I mean it hasn't been like hard to get to this point, but it's just been time. Like I had to finish this room in my [01:12:00] basement.

It was a storage room. I converted the laundry room into a laundry room and storage. Now this is my office slash gun hunting mount room. Just to free up some space cuz we have some, our lives are changing, like with things that we gotta do. And I'm home a little more than I used to be because we're both working, we've always worked both.

But it used to be we have school to pay for, we have this to pay for. So I worked a lot of hours. You worked a full-time job, but then at school, so you were committed for a lot of hours. And then now where it's like we both just have our full-time jobs, we don't really need to I don't need to work a hundred hour weeks anymore, so no.

No. So I'm able to supplement with my income as well, which is nice. Yeah. Which is why I did the whole nursing thing, right? Yeah. I wanted to have you home more. Yeah. And get your masters. I think that was a really big motivation for that. You worked your butt off to get to that point. But yeah, so now there's a little more free time.

So I it's helped me doing this because I'm used to being gone a lot and working a lot and that's just, I'm busy body. So I think this is gonna [01:13:00] be a good way for me to keep me sane to an extent. Not drive you crazy, start knocking off some projects that I've been put construction worker and my house is always lasting the list.

So getting through some of this stuff and now I had to work my way upstairs, get outta the living room, get out of this dining room slash living room downstairs. And we do have a really pretty kitchen. Our back splash has pretzels on it. We have some baskets. It's. It's awesome. It's probably not gonna get done this fall cuz Iowa's this fall in Illinois and this, but I'll work on it.

Get that going. But no, I think this is gonna be a cool thing and hopefully you guys enjoy this this podcast and I, yeah, I think, I mean you're gonna do some more with me. Hopefully you shoot a deer with your bow or you're gonna have to get on then. I know you're gonna have to, right? I mean is this the year that you're gonna bust the bow out somewhere?

You haven't done it yet this summer cuz it's been chaotic with the trip and coming back and, you're in a job transition right now, but Mean I'm hoping so. I'm hoping right here you can put, you [01:14:00] can say it and it'll hold your feet to the fire's. You're gonna bust your bow out.

That's right. I hope to get my bow out and start shooting it soon. I think things once, yeah. Causes July 8th right now. Yeah. So things should start settling down now. Henry's outta surgery. The trip's done. We kiddo had tonsils out, so that was a two week and a half thing. A lot of time. I just wanna know, are you gonna bow hunt this fall?

Yes. Ooh. So that means we have July, August, September, you got three months. Is that gonna be, that should, I feel like that's plenty of time. Yeah. I think it'll be fine. But are you comfortable with that time? Yeah. Yep. Okay. Are you gonna shoot I shoot probably not that dedicated, but I'll do my best.

You'll do your best? Yeah. It's, if I don't, if I don't shoot a lot of arrows, if I don't feel confident, if I don't feel confident, I'm not gonna shoot anything. Correct. But what is like I, I'm sure down the road I'll talk more about it, but I don't shoot a lot of arrows every day.

I just try to shoot every day almost. I don't shoot every day, but there's more days a week I shoot my bow than I don't for sure. And sometimes it's three arrows, sometimes it's one arrow, sometimes [01:15:00] it's 10 euros. It just kinda depends on how that goes. Man, are you gonna hunt out of a saddle or are you gonna hunt out of a, hang on.

Cause you like the saddle. I think I'm gonna do the saddle. Okay. That means you get to buy one because you're not taking mine. Actually, you can take mine out. Sharing is caring with the new Right? True. I fit really nice in yours. Yeah, I bought one that was universal, that you could do multiple sizes.

So I haven't bought a, I haven't, I bought a used saddle, so like I haven't really bought a new one yet. I've the used thing, but Cool. We got three months to figure that out. That's right. Is there anything else that you wanted to say? No, thanks for having me. It's exciting to do your first one.

It's history, right? It is history and you're an important part of this. So I think that being able to do what I love to do and have this be a lifestyle for me, you and Henry, you're a very important piece of that and I think that's that's an important thing for people to hear. And maybe you can encourage other wives or girlfriends or females to get out there and enjoy it.

We're both proponents for getting as many people out to doing [01:16:00] anything. You really cannot have a bad day when you're out in the woods. And you spend a lot of time out in the woods. And that doesn't include hunting correct. You tag along, we go rabbit hunting with beagles.

Yep. Waterfowl hunting, we don't do ducks very often, but geese hunting in fields. That will be another fun story for different things. Yeah, that's different day. We got some, we got stories, but No, we got ice cream tonight. Pretty soon we're gonna be getting ice cream and doing the loops to see how big the our bucks are. That's a tradition to do that at least once or twice a week to see what's going on. So yeah, we're kind on the full swing of things. But yeah, thanks for tuning in guys and I, I don't know if I really have a clever out outro yet for what I like to say, but anytime you can get out there and enjoy outside with your family, if you have a family, do it.

And even if you don't have a family, just bring a friend along or do something. It's a lot of fun doing things by yourself. Like I get the peace and want to do that, but being able to share this. Lifestyle with other people is very rewarding. Like that hunt in Wyoming would not have been as special if you weren't there.

It's, flat out, like it was still special even if those [01:17:00] guys are there. But it's a little different. It was different, right? Different having, you there. Same as one day when Henry goes and does things, our son, or any friend, yeah, get outside. Enjoy creation and yeah, look forward to doing some more of these for you guys.

Thank you.[01:18:00]

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