FFN 077： How to Fight a Grizzly Bear
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Summary
In this episode of The Order of Man, Ryan Michler sits down with a man who has survived not only one, but TWO grizzly bear attacks in his life. Todd Miller was in Tahoe, California at the 2017 Spartan World Championships when he was attacked by the same bear he had been attacked by on the same day in October of 2016. He was able to survive not only the first attack, but the second one as well.
Transcript
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You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest, embrace your fears, and boldly chart
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your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time, every time.
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You are not easily deterred or defeated, rugged, resilient, strong. This is your life. This is who
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you are. This is who you will become. At the end of the day, and after all is said and done,
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you can call yourself a man. Gentlemen, what is going on today? My name is Ryan Michler,
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and I am the host and the founder of this podcast, The Order of Man. Guys, this is a show dedicated
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your business, your community, just a better man in life in general. And that is my goal as well,
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to become a better man. If you haven't already done this, guys, make sure that you subscribe
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You are not going to want to miss. This is growing each and every month. And it's a testament
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that growth. Uh, if you've been part of the order for some time, you know, this guys, you are listening
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to our Friday field notes. Uh, we do host another show, which is released each Tuesday where I have
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the opportunity to interview some incredible men. I know a lot of you guys have listened to all 200
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episodes now. Uh, but on Friday, I typically share some thoughts, some ideas, just some things that are
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bouncing around in my brain, some thoughts from throughout the week, but this one, this one's a
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little different last week. I was invited to the Spartan world championships in Tahoe. And while I
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was there, I had an opportunity to sit down with Todd or some of you might recognize that name. Most of
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you have probably watched his viral video. Uh, if you don't know who this guy is, this man survived not
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only one grizzly bear attack, but two grizzly bear attacks on the same day in October of last year,
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Todd was hiking in the mountains. He spotted a grizzly bear, uh, the grizzly bear and him both
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made eye contact. The bear ran off. He thought he was in no trouble. Uh, only a few minutes later,
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he turned around and found that bear charging towards him. So he pulled out his bear spray.
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He fired and then collapsed as he found himself in a life and death struggle against this grizzly bear.
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Not only did Todd survive again, a lot of you guys have seen his story, but on his way back to his
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vehicle, he was attacked by the same bear again in a second life or death struggle.
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So I figured I'd share this conversation with you. If you would please disregard the background noise.
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It was a little noisy where we were at the Spartan world championships, uh, but you'll hear an amazing
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conversation with me and this amazing man, uh, might sound like just another conversation between
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two guys, but listen closely, listen very closely. If you do, you're going to extract some extremely,
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extremely valuable life lessons from a man who has cheated death twice.
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All right guys, welcome back. Uh, as you know, we've been, we've been recording, uh, all day
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today at the, uh, 2017 Spartan world championship. I'm here with Todd or Todd. We, uh, we were able to
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connect. I know you weren't on the schedule, but I wanted to fit this in, man. And we had a mutual
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friend that, uh, actually connected us on Facebook. Uh, yeah, I don't actually know him. He's kind
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of, Oh, you don't know him. He's a mystery Facebook friend. Oh, is that right? Oh, that's funny.
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Well, either way, I'm glad that he, yeah, well, I bet, I bet, I, I bet, uh, things over the past
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year probably changed around a little bit for you. They have, it's been a little crazy the last,
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uh, 12 months. Actually it'll be a year on Sunday. Yeah. Is that what it is? A year on Sunday?
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October 1st, 2016. I can't believe that story, man. And for those of you who don't know,
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well, I don't, I don't want to say it. I want to let you get right into the story. Uh, but I,
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but I remember watching this video and just the thing that really stood out to me was your level of,
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of calmness and collection and how cool you were in the moment. Was that your personality? Is that
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shock? Is that what it, what was that attributed to? Well, I, after the whole situation, which we
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haven't even told you, at the end of the whole ordeal, um, I'd had 45 minutes to, you know,
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walk out of the woods and to think about it and to relax and calm down. And when I got back to the
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truck, I was, I felt pretty safe. And at that point I'm like, well, I just got to share this with a
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couple of buddies. I had no idea that video would go viral. Oh my goodness. So, so let's talk about
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this story because last year you were attacked by a grizzly bear twice, twice on that same and
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same day, about 10 minutes apart. Yes. So just, just take us from the top. I know, were you out,
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were you, were you hunting? Were you hiking? What is it you were out doing? Yeah, I was not hunting.
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I was just scouting for elk before hunting. Okay. All right. It was during the bow season,
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but I was sure for a hike and just wanted to get up in the back country, look for some elk and just kind
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of get an idea where they're going to be for a few weeks later. And based on what I've seen,
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I mean, you know, this is bear country. You're, you're prepared. You've got, you've got your
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firearm with you. You've got bear spray with you and you're even calling for bear at this point,
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knowing that there's probably bear in the area. I know there's bear in the area. I mean,
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the Southwest Montana has got grizzly and black bear and I see him on a regular basis. I'm out there
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in the woods for work. I'm out there for recreation, for play and going to run into,
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going to run into bears occasionally, but hopefully or usually they run the other
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direction. They see you, they want nothing to do with you. Kind of wrong, wrong day,
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wrong place, wrong bear. And, uh, things went sour. Why do you think this particular bear?
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I mean, cause if I remember right, at what, at what, how, what was the distance when you initially
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saw it was a female, right? It was a sow. Yeah. Yeah. Grisly with two cubs. Right. And I saw her
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maybe 80 yards and she was at one end of the meadow. I was at the closer end and, uh, and she,
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we saw each other at the same time and she just took off and I'm like, this is a good bear.
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She doesn't like people. There's not going to be an issue. She's going that way. I'll just head up
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the trail the other direction. So I waited, you know, like a minute. Then I started up the trail
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and just took a few steps and I heard a noise and kind of looked over my left shoulder and she had
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come all the way around the ridge and came in behind me. Why did she do that? I mean, that's not normal
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bear behavior, right? That's not normal behavior. Um, apparently, you know, maybe just, just her
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threatened maybe with her cubs there. Um, there was a situation the week before in that same drainage
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where a bear had charged a couple of hunters on horses and they had actually shot at her
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and she charged the horses. So she could have been wounded. That's a possibility. And either way,
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she, uh, she came around the ridge and I heard the noise turned. She was 35 or 40 yards, um, behind me
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coming down the ridge in a full charge. And so you grabbed your pepper spray first or your bear spray.
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I had my bear spray on my chest right there close and a shoulder holster with a pistol. And I just
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instinctively grabbed the bear spray. That's more effective. And that's usually what I'm going to
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have with me in the woods all the time. Sure. And so I just instinctively, instinctively grabbed the
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bear spray, pulled it out of the holster, pulled the safety clip and look back up thinking, you know,
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likely a bluff charge threatening me that she's going to go back to her cubs. And here she was still
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coming wide open. She never changed her charge. And I just at 30 feet just started spraying and just
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her momentum coming downhill just carried her right through that spray. I'm sure it was in her sinuses and
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everything, but it took a couple of seconds for it to really affect her. And that was just enough
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time for her to be on top of me and get four or five good bites out of my right arm and shoulder.
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Did you feel those bites or were you in shock or what did this, what did this feel physically like
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at this point? I mean, could you feel the teeth sinking into you at this point? Yeah, I definitely
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could on this. And it happened so quick that you really wasn't time to think about it or really,
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but it just like then five seconds, she's bit me a half a dozen times. And yeah, I felt the first bite
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for sure. And then your adrenaline starts to hit and then it happened that quick, it was over and she
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was gone. And I was just like, wow, I stood up and I'm like, I just survived a grizzly bear attack.
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This is crazy. And I looked at my arm and I got, you know, I'm bleeding and I got some puncture wounds,
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you know, pretty deep puncture wounds, but I'm like, all right, I survived. I can get out of here and
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head to the hospital and get some stitches. I thought that was the end of it. So I started hiking down the trail.
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Do you remember what it was like when she hit you? Uh, it was, well, I had, I sprayed and then
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she was just a few feet away. And so I just started going down to my knees. So you fell in the, yeah.
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So I basically felt down, fell down and she was on top of me. It was the second attack that is when
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she actually knocked me down. And that was even, that was a lot worse. But so you, so you started
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walking back and about how far were you before you heard her come back? Uh, well, it was just like
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five minutes down the trail, a few hundred yards. And I'm kind of walking along the Creek and it's,
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it's pretty noisy with the water there. And I didn't hear anything until I heard a noise the
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last second turned. And she was maybe 10 feet behind me coming wide open again. And at that
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point I didn't even had bear spray in my hand, still had my pistol right there, but there was,
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there was no time to even do that. It was basically corner of my eye, turned my head and she's knocking
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me down to the ground and I'm on my face again. I'm trying to protect the back of my, my neck and
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I'm curled up in a ball, protecting my face, my vitals. And this time she's mad. And her first bite
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is in my left arm. And I heard the crunch of the bone and just felt the nerves and the
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tendons getting torn. My arm went numb. And, uh, I, I just made like this wincing sound kind
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of like, ah, as she bit is the pain and the sound of it. And that just triggered like a
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frenzy attack. She was just on top of me at that point, had me pinned to the ground. She
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bit my right shoulder and arm probably 25 times, had a claw rake the right side of my scalp and ripped
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a five inch gash. My eyes filled with blood. Um, her claws are digging into my lower back
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and she's just picking me up, slam me around, trying to flip me over. I'm just using every
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bit of strength I had to hold that right and keep that position to protect my vitals.
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Was she picking you up by your clothes, by your flesh, by your arm? Like how was she attempting
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All of it. Yeah. She had, my backpack was pretty trashy. She picked me up on my backpack. She
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had me on the shoulder. She ripped my arm around a few times and kind of pulled it away
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from where I was protecting the back of my head. At one point she bit me in the side
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and luckily she didn't rip. She just bit in a release. So I've got canine marks front
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and back on my side of my ribs. But when she bit me in the side that time, it kind
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of turned me and I right there, like six, eight inches from my eye is her eye and
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looking right, right there in her face. And just like, just imagining her, she just
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turning, like take my face out. Just every bit of core strength I had to pull back
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into that super crunch on the ground and try to keep from getting rolled over and
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flipped. What was her strength like? Was it just, I mean, obviously you're, you're
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going through this and to say it's amazing would not be the right word, but what
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is, what is, what is her strength like? Yeah. You can't, you can't imagine it. I
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mean, a bear is so much stronger. I mean, they can take down elk and deer or moose or
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whatever it's there. You know, you can't imagine it. And it was just the strength
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and the weight, you know, she's maybe a 400 pound grizzly bear. She's got me pinned to
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the ground. She's just picking me up, slamming me down. My face is getting smashed
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into the dirt. My chest is getting smashed into my knees and almost knocking the wind
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out of me. Just getting thrown around. She ripped the backpack off. She ripped my pistol
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off. I'm just getting trashed around in the dirt. It was, and the whole time I'm just like
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knowing that you can't fight back. I have no chance. So I just have to try to play dead
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and be a non-threat and hopefully she'll leave and go check on her cubs.
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Was that, that notion of, of laying there, playing dead, protecting the vitals, was that
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training? Was that instinctive for you? Where did that, that idea come from?
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I think that's what saved my life. And over the years, I've spent my life in the woods.
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And so I've read the stories. I've had some bear safety classes. I've, you know, I know
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a little common sense, you know, you know that you can't run from a bear. You can, they run
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up to 40 miles an hour and you don't have a chance with that. And plus if you run, it's
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kind of a trigger response for a carnivore to chase its prey. Things that you just know you
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don't do. I think the key is that I had thought about this. I spend, you know, like I said,
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I'm in the woods every day. So you think about, okay, what if I was in this situation? What
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do you do? What do you, and you run it through your head and it's kind of like a muscle memory
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thing. It's like, if you think about enough, if you practice pulling your bear spray out
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and practice, um, not actually spraying, but pulling the safety clip and know, and just
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run it over and over. Then if it actually happens in a surprise situation, you do it
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automatically about it. You don't panic and run or scream. I didn't think about pulling
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my bear spray. It just, I automatically pulled the bear spray and then all of a sudden I'm
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like, Oh, now I got to use it. You know? So yeah, you taught, I mean, you talked about
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that. You said I, I instinctively did it. I'm like, well, has he been attacked by a
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bear before? But, but what you're saying is you train this stuff.
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Yeah. Just training, the practicing it and just knowing what you should and shouldn't do
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and running it through your head. You know, if you've never thought about it, the first
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thing when something surprises you, you scream and run. Cause that's just an automatic response.
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But if you've already thought it through a hundred times and I'm in the woods
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thinking about it, what if this happens today? What am I going to do in this situation? Do
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I have a tree to climb? Well, that's maybe not a good idea. What do I have? I have bear
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spray. I got to play dead. So I stayed in that position and just, I felt that on that second
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attack, I felt the pain of that first bite and just that crunching sound. And then, then
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it was like adrenaline running and will to survive. Okay. I know that if I'm moving or making a
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sound, she's going to keep eating on me. They're chewing on me. So I just need to play
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dead. I need to be a non-threat. So I just held that position and a thousand times through
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my head. I'm just like, don't move. She's going to leave. Don't move. She's going to
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leave. And I said it over and over and over. And it's also, I couldn't feel the pain, but
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all my other senses were heightened. I could feel and hear like the crunch of like her teeth,
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you know, inch long canine going right into your muscle and you can hear it and feel all
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of that. But I didn't feel the pain, just the pressure and the sound. I could smell her.
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She just reaped so bad. And then it's kind of at the end of that, she's just not moving and
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she quit biting and she's just got me pinned to the ground, got her claws or dug into my lower
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back. And she's just sniffing the back of my neck. And that was maybe the earliest part.
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I can't imagine that. You can feel her breath right there and you can hear it. And then she'd
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sniff and you're just like, oh, don't bite my spine. It'll be over. You know, that's one
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bite and she could kill me. And all of a sudden, oh, and she'll bite my shoulder or she'd bite
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my arm and she'd sniff again. And finally she determined that I wasn't a threat anymore
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because I wasn't moving or making any sound. And she stepped off. She was gone. And so I'm
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just laying on the ground there, still hunkered down. And I'm like, okay, is she 10 feet
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away or did she go over the ridge? I don't know. If I move, is she going to come back?
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My arm's useless. Like I'm defenseless at this point. What do I do? And so I was thinking,
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okay, I'm just, don't move. Don't move. And I got to thinking, well, if she checks on the
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cubs and then they're still up a tree or something, and then she decides to come back again, I'm
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not going to survive a third. It's like, I need to protect myself or get out of here. And
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but I'm scared to move at the same time if she's still there. So I really slowly pull the
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hand from behind my neck and reach for my pistol. And it's like, where is it? It's not
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there. And so I reached it. I'm like, okay, it's there. Reach again. It's like, it was
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gone. It had been ripped off during the attack. She had broke the strap and ripped the whole
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holster off. So now I felt completely defenseless. My bear spray had been knocked away. And so
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I'm like, I just got to get out of here. So I really slowly reached up, wiped the blood
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from my eyes and looked each direction. And she was gone. I saw my pistol laying there.
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I grabbed that real quick, hammer back just in case. Didn't see her. Picked up my stuff
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and like, all right, I just got to get distance between her and I. I got to get down the trail.
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Yeah. Which is, I mean, even, even if it was a bigger gun, their head is shaped kind of
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missile shaped and on an inside thick bone and there's likely just ricochet off. You're
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never going to get to the brain from the front or rear. You need a side shot or rear shot,
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but a bear's charging at you. You don't have that. You can shoot her in the front, you know,
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in the shoulder, maybe you'd hit a lung or it'd just be luck. And plus when you're in
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that kind of a stress situation and it's charging it that fast, you don't even know if you're
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It's a whole different, everybody says, well, I had two seconds to draw and shoot. You get
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a couple of shots off. Maybe you hit it. Maybe you don't. Maybe you hit her in the shoulder.
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Now she's wounded and really mad. Maybe the bang scares her off. You don't know.
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Right. Do you get criticism for the way that you handle this situation?
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Oh, they say, oh yeah. I had to just unloaded her on her with my 45.
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45, yeah, 15, 13 shots or whatever. And you know, yeah, maybe it started at a hundred
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Then you're shooting at a grizzly bear. That's not necessarily a threat. If it's at a hundred
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yards and investigation comes around and you get a $10,000 fine and you can't hunt for
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You don't want to shoot one if you don't need to. Plus she has cubs. I don't want to kill
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a sow with abandon cubs if I don't need to. And 99% of the time, a bear is bluff charging
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or they're just checking you out. Or if you're backing out of the way, they're like, all right,
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I'll get out of here. You know? And it's just like, this is one of those rare situations and you
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don't, I didn't know it was coming. And I just pulled that bear spray, you know, had
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I pulled the pistol, I would have had maybe one or two shots. Maybe it would have worked.
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Maybe not. Everybody says I would have done that. It's like, you might've just crapped
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That's true. That is definitely what I would have done. Yeah, man, this is crazy. So, all
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right. So obviously you're thinking you're going to die. I don't want to put words in your
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mouth, but I can't imagine you're thinking anything other than that. Is that right?
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Yeah. That second attack, I really was, you know, my life flashed before my eyes. I thought,
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okay, you know, what am I going to do now? I've got a really mad bear. She's not leaving
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this time. She's just chewing me up. I can't see anything. So I've got blood in my eyes.
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I don't know how bad my wounds are already because I can't feel any pain. Yeah. But I
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know I'm getting chewed on pretty good. Jeez. And so, yeah, I'm just thinking I could die
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here, but I'm, but you're just like telling yourself, it's like, don't move. You can ride
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it out. Every bit of survival and strength you have, keep that position, do it. I know I have
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to do and just hoping that something's going to change. She's going to leave.
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Did your thoughts at all go deeper than that? Like, Oh, cause I know, I think, are you,
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are now, are you married or, or have a girlfriend? I had a girlfriend at the time. Okay. I'm not
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married. I mean, does it go deeper than that? Like I'm thinking about her and how she's going
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to respond if I die. Like, does it go deeper than that?
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In just that split second or two, that runs through your head, your parents, your family, your,
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your siblings, you know, girlfriend or whatever. Yeah. It runs through your head and you're like,
00:17:49.900
is this the, you know, what, what did, or didn't I say to somebody in the last week or day or
00:17:54.720
whatever? What should I have said just to, and you just never know. It's like, this is it. What
00:17:58.720
is left undone in my life that I wasn't prepared for? You know, what kind of things did you feel
00:18:03.040
like was for you that, that I feel like these are things that are undone that I, if I survive this,
00:18:08.180
I will do. Well, during that whole attack, I wasn't thinking. Sure. That makes sense.
00:18:12.240
Looking back, you're just like, Oh, I wish I would have done more enjoy things. I enjoy in my life,
00:18:17.240
you know, take, instead of being a workaholic, get out and hike a little bit more and play and
00:18:20.800
take more vacations. But you're just pure survival, focusing on just trying to keep it together and
00:18:26.080
keep that bear from flipping me over and get to my face and rip it and I out or my throat or vitals
00:18:30.900
or whatever. So yeah, she'd finally, she'd left then. And I was like, all right, I got to get out
00:18:35.400
of here. I got to head down the trail. And so how far was that for you? It was three miles down to the
00:18:39.580
trailhead and then a half hour drive to town to the hospital. How long did it take you to cover that
00:18:44.400
three miles? Like 45 minutes. I was walking pretty fast. I stopped a couple of times after I got a
00:18:48.820
little bit of a distance and kind of assessed the wounds. I'm looking at, looking at my arms,
00:18:52.960
like, okay, I'm bleeding. I got blood dripping and my shirt soaked with blood, but I don't have
00:18:57.120
any severed arteries. I'm not going to bleed to death. I'm not going to go into shock. So I just
00:19:00.920
want more distance. I just wanted to get back to the truck where I'd be completely safe.
00:19:04.900
When was the point where you felt like, okay, I'm in the clear? Was that when I got in the,
00:19:11.140
No, it was probably like halfway down the trail. I'm like, uh, it's been 20, 30 minutes and I'm a
00:19:16.420
mile and a half away. And it's like, she's not going to follow me. You know, she has cubs and
00:19:20.300
she's gone the other direction. She's not going to chase me down or anything. But then I got to
00:19:23.720
thinking, it's like, okay, I still got a mile and a half and I'm in bear country.
00:19:29.000
You know, and I can't defend myself at all now. And I'm still, my arms are cramping up and I'm like,
00:19:33.160
yeah, you could run into another bear, but luckily nothing else happened. I made it to the trailhead.
00:19:37.420
But one of the things I was impressed with is that you had enough presence about you,
00:19:41.300
if you will, to consider leaving a note, even for some other vehicles, I think that were there.
00:19:46.120
I got, I got to the trailhead and there was one other truck. There were some hikers,
00:19:49.220
but it's Saturday morning during bow season. And I'm like, I know there's going to be some
00:19:52.800
more people coming up here to go bow hunting this weekend. And it's just, you know, it's eight
00:19:56.340
o'clock in the morning and there'll be some people coming in. So I'm like, I need to leave a note on
00:20:00.040
the bulletin board there at the trailhead that says, uh, you know, bear attack or aggressive
00:20:06.220
bear in the area, something just to warn people. And so I'm trying to get in my truck. My left arm
00:20:10.480
is useless. My right one's got 25 bite wounds in it. So it's hard to even move. And I'm trying to
00:20:15.640
get up in the truck, find a sticky note and a pen and, and write a little something to put on
00:20:20.340
something bleeding all over. I can't get the console open. You know, I finally had to give up. I'm like,
00:20:25.160
this is going to be it. Not, you know, it's not eligible either. I gave up on that idea and just
00:20:28.920
figured I just tell, tell fish and game when I got back to town and they could come close the
00:20:32.660
trailhead or do what they thought was necessary. So what did they do? Uh, they sent a fish and game
00:20:37.900
and the interagency bear study team came up the next day, I believe with horses and just looked to
00:20:42.380
see if they'd run into her. And they, as far as I know, they never did see her. She's, she's still
00:20:46.780
out there somewhere. Interesting. Interesting. So you get, you get buckled up in your car,
00:20:51.760
you head back down to town. What's, what's that like? What do you do? Well,
00:20:54.680
before that I got to the trailhead, couldn't write the note. I'm like, all right, time to head to
00:20:58.480
town, but I should record this for my couple of my hunting buddies. Right. And so I've got a couple
00:21:02.940
of friends that we always share, like at the end of the weekend, it's like, God, did you see some
00:21:06.480
elk? How was your, you're like, I got, I got the best story of all time today this weekend. I got
00:21:11.320
you guys beat, you know, I'll take a quick couple of photos of the wounds, do a little 30 second video
00:21:16.180
and just show a couple of friends. I had like two buddies in mind, but knowing there's a few more to
00:21:19.760
luck to see it. So then I headed town, got into the hospital and they spent about seven or eight
00:21:26.200
hours doing stitches on both arms, had a doc on each side, putting stitches in a bunch of x-rays
00:21:31.320
to see what was wrong. And I had a chip out of my arm, the bone in my left arm, two tendons that
00:21:36.260
were sticking out of the, my arm. And so the doc's like, yeah, this is going to take an orthopedic
00:21:40.700
surgeon to try to figure out how to reattach these. And he's like, I'll just push them back in. So
00:21:44.720
stitch over it, you know, for now, and you have to see a doc tomorrow. So he's trying to shove these
00:21:49.080
tendons back in my arm and they're, they're just keep popping back out like three times. He pushes
00:21:53.820
them in, they pop out, finally gets them held in, gets them stitched in. So I'm just covered in
00:21:59.320
stitches and blood. And, uh, that's had a five inch gash in the side of my scalp and they got all
00:22:04.440
they, do you still have a scar there? You've got a hat on right now, but it's underneath the hair.
00:22:07.880
So you can't see it. And someday when I go bald, it'll be sticking out. I thought about it. I
00:22:11.660
should just shave a little strip right there and just show that big scar. Well, that's what I was
00:22:16.500
going to ask. I mean, you seem, you seem like somebody who has taken this in a positive, in a
00:22:22.800
positive way. Yeah. Well, I mean, I don't want it to change my life. I live in the outdoors. I work
00:22:27.640
in the outdoors. It's everything I know is an outdoor activity. And so I don't want it to scare
00:22:32.880
me away. I don't want to scare other people away. You know, it's just one of those rare things that
00:22:37.080
happen, wrong place, wrong time kind of thing. And, but I'm still going to be back out there. I've been
00:22:41.400
out there. I've been working in the woods. I saw a sow and a cub grizz this spring at about 40,
00:22:46.600
50 yards. She ran the other way, stood up, looked at me a couple of times and the whole rest of that
00:22:51.360
day, I was pretty anxious. I bet. Did you stay out there that day? I did. Yeah. Wow. I was still
00:22:55.340
working. She went one direction. I actually went up the trail a few miles before I was actually
00:22:59.900
working, but they can be anywhere. Every turn there could be something you don't know. Jeez. But so it
00:23:04.960
was, it was kind of crazy and stitched me up and got, had to go in a surgery like two days
00:23:10.480
afterwards and get, uh, some exploratory surgery in my arm, try to figure out what's going on.
00:23:15.860
They had to reattach those two tendons, uh, considerable nerve damage still. The part of
00:23:20.780
my forearm, I still don't have any feeling. You can't feel it. But I got, you know, 90% of my
00:23:25.040
motion back. I get a lot of my strength back doing most everything I need to do. So I'm feeling
00:23:29.380
really lucky, really, you know, I survived something that was incredible and it's, it changed me in a way
00:23:35.580
that I'm, I'm a little more nervous out there, a little more cautious, but I'm also looking forward
00:23:41.240
to doing other things that just cause you just never know. It's like your life is fragile and
00:23:45.400
you're, you sit here and we worry about little things in our lives and they really don't matter
00:23:48.780
because the next second it could be over. It's like, you got to get out there and take advantage
00:23:52.380
of the things that really matter to you. Yeah. Let's some of the, blow some of the little stuff
00:23:55.840
off, get out there, enjoy your life, take some more vacations, take some more time for yourself.
00:24:00.040
You just don't know. Things just creep up on you and you could be put in a life and death situation,
00:24:04.080
just, you know, heartbeat. Uh, I'm curious about, and this is something I was really interested in
00:24:08.920
asking you about is, is this being an outdoor guy? Is this like, is this a badge of honor now?
00:24:13.580
How do you wear this thing? You know what I mean? How do you wear this experience? Uh, I don't think
00:24:17.840
as a badge of honor or anything, I'm just still the same person. I'm just happy to be out there
00:24:23.420
sharing my story and I'm just to help other people. I mean, tell people, get out and practice
00:24:28.780
your, with your bear spray, pulling it out. You know, if you've got an expired one, actually
00:24:32.240
practice spraying it with the wind, not into the wind, but yeah, practice spraying it. So you know
00:24:36.760
what it feels like, how it shoots, it kicks a little bit, you know, how it aims and just be ready. And
00:24:41.280
the more you do that, the more, the better your odds are, if you get that situation of doing the right
00:24:45.660
thing. And so I just want to share my story, hopefully educate some people, help some people out
00:24:50.300
and I'm meeting a lot of great people at the same time. So I'm here in Lake Tahoe, beautiful place
00:24:55.320
and meeting some incredible athletes down here as well. And this is great. Yeah. Isn't this a cool,
00:24:59.780
this is a very cool venue here in Tahoe with the Spartan races and man, I'm honored. They'd,
00:25:03.780
they'd, uh, bring me up to do this. And of course the privilege to talk with you. I, I, uh, like I
00:25:07.980
said, I watched the video about a year ago and man, just, just pretty incredible. Again, I always,
00:25:13.120
the thing that always stood out as somebody who just has a lot of presence and you kept your calm
00:25:18.440
and composure and coolness. And I thought that was pretty incredible considering the circumstance.
00:25:22.540
Thank you. Yeah. Just, I think spending your life in the woods, being around that kind of a
00:25:25.740
situation and thinking about it and just knowing, hoping it doesn't happen, knowing it could
00:25:29.980
and being prepared both mentally and physically for it. And when it happens, you just have to deal
00:25:35.180
with it and you got to move forward and you don't need, everybody's going to be different. You never
00:25:38.900
know how you're going to be in that situation. But luckily I did the right thing, I believe. And I'm
00:25:43.420
here to tell the stories. Well, and man, that's, that's proof that you did the right thing,
00:25:46.460
right? Cause any, I mean, you, that's the thing. You change any variable and you have these guys
00:25:50.780
who should have done this and should have done that. You change any variable and it kind of could
00:25:54.240
have gone drastically different. Absolutely. Yeah. I think I did the right thing and I survived it
00:26:00.520
and I've learned some things too. So it's, uh, it was an experience, something I don't ever want to
00:26:05.200
do again, but, uh, I think it, it, uh, was for the better, better for me. Yeah. I'm curious about,
00:26:10.360
you know, we didn't talk about this very much or at all, but, uh, I don't, I don't know if
00:26:14.700
you're a religious person or if you felt like there was some sort of divine guidance or protection,
00:26:18.700
or if it's just your training, I'd be really curious about your thoughts with that.
00:26:21.840
Well, I think there's always something over, you know, someone overlooking there and just,
00:26:25.740
you know, looking over you and making sure that, uh, keeping you safe at times. So I definitely
00:26:29.380
not going to roll that out. And I think it's a combination of that and, and being prepared
00:26:33.900
is a big part of it too. And a lot of luck or unlucky. I get unlucky to attack twice,
00:26:39.120
but lucky to survive on both. Sure. Very cool. Well, Todd, I appreciate you. I appreciate
00:26:42.800
taking your time and honored that we could have the chance to talk. And, uh, we'll be sharing this,
00:26:46.720
of course, with the guys. And, uh, I appreciate you sharing your message. Thank you very much.
00:26:50.180
Thanks, man. Bye-bye. Gentlemen, there it is. My conversation with Todd Orr at the Spartan
00:26:56.220
World Championships in Tahoe. I posted the video that he referenced. If you haven't seen it,
00:27:00.920
or you want to see it again on the show notes for this episode, which can be found at orderofman.com
00:27:05.980
slash FFN as in Friday field notes. So it's FFN 077. Uh, if you'd like to see that. And if you want
00:27:14.300
to connect with Todd, you can do that at the Todd, T O D D or O R R. So it's the Todd or.com. And last
00:27:23.060
thing, guys, make sure that you subscribe to this show. Like I mentioned earlier, uh, leave us if you
00:27:27.040
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00:27:32.940
slash groups slash order of man until next week, gentlemen, take action and become the man you
00:27:38.880
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00:27:44.020
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