The Joe Rogan Experience - Joe Rogan Experience #566 - Sue Aikens

00:00:02.000 You gonna play the music?

00:00:03.000 Okay.

00:00:15.000 All the way from how many miles above the Arctic Circle?

00:00:19.000 They are saying it's 197 miles north of the Arctic Circle.

00:00:23.000 I say it's a few more.

00:00:25.000 God!

00:00:26.000 So somewhere around 200 miles. 1.00

00:00:28.000 Jesus fucking Christ. 0.99

00:00:28.000 Yeah. 0.99

00:00:30.000 What led you, folks who are just tuning in right now, Sue Akins from Life Below Zero, which is one of my favorite shows.

00:00:38.000 Love that show.

00:00:39.000 It's the realest, out of all those shows, it seems to be the realest.

00:00:44.000 There's so many of these shows that they'll do, like these subsistence living shows, but you know that they're setting up fake scenarios.

00:00:51.000 You know that there's some producer fuckery involved. 0.82

00:00:54.000 Yeah, there are some shows out there that are, I would say, very heavily scripted.

00:01:00.000 Yeah.

00:01:01.000 You know, you're told what you're going to be doing.

00:01:03.000 But this show, and it's one of my things in my contract, I don't do scripted anything.

00:01:08.000 I never want to hear how, oh, wouldn't that look great if you fell through the river? 0.99

00:01:11.000 Because I'll be like, jump fucker, see how it feels. 0.99

00:01:13.000 I'm not doing it, you know? 0.99

00:01:15.000 There's enough interesting stuff that happens naturally.

00:01:18.000 That you don't have to script a lot of action.

00:01:21.000 Yeah, I would imagine.

00:01:22.000 I mean, where you're living is one of the most bizarre remote places on Earth.

00:01:28.000 For folks who have never seen the show, it follows a series of people that live in some pretty incredibly remote locations in Alaska.

00:01:38.000 But you are the most remote.

00:01:40.000 You're the gangster of the gangsters.

00:01:41.000 Yeah, I'm the queen of the badassery when it comes to remote.

00:01:45.000 You know, my closest city where you could find a Walmart is 500 miles south.

00:01:50.000 And when you take a plane from Fairbanks to camp, once you hit the air, that's it.

00:01:55.000 You don't see another building until you get to my camp.

00:01:58.000 What led you to this spot?

00:02:00.000 Even when I say in preschool, in kindergarten, in the early to mid-60s, when they ask you, what do you want to be when you grow up?

00:02:08.000 For a girl at that time period, it was pretty standard, wife and mother. 0.80

00:02:13.000 For me, it was a lighthouse keeper.

00:02:15.000 I've always craved extreme isolation.

00:02:18.000 This is just an extension of that.

00:02:21.000 Why?

00:02:22.000 What's the attraction?

00:02:24.000 I'm really happy.

00:02:25.000 I like myself.

00:02:26.000 I crack myself up all the time.

00:02:28.000 I'm really comfortable in my own skin.

00:02:30.000 I like challenges.

00:02:32.000 If there's no challenge in the way that you're living, You're not really living.

00:02:38.000 You're just kind of...

00:02:39.000 You're doing a script.

00:02:40.000 So it's just this attraction to isolation is almost like a natural part of your personality.

00:02:46.000 It is.

00:02:47.000 It is.

00:02:48.000 I really bond with the animals around me.

00:02:52.000 You know, and I don't feel that just because it's brown it has to go down.

00:02:55.000 I do hunt for the meat that I eat, but, you know, I find...

00:02:59.000 Where else are you going to go?

00:03:00.000 My main pack of wolves has 22 in it.

00:03:02.000 They're not always out to eat me, so I get to see some pretty amazing things.

00:03:07.000 Two, three winners in a row, you always have a couple of bears that wake up out of season.

00:03:11.000 They either didn't store enough fat, they woke up for some reason, but once they wake up, they're straight-up killers.

00:03:17.000 And the past couple of years, I've been able to watch a pack of wolves take down a grizzly.

00:03:21.000 Whoa! 0.71

00:03:22.000 And, you know, like this last year, they just have to get him running, because within a mile or two, he's used up all of his calories, and there's no way he's going to survive. 0.99

00:03:30.000 So when they came running through camp, crashing into my building as they go, I'm sitting there on the inside, you know, with my gun going, yeah, come through the wall, fucker, I'll get you, you know, but not until they do. 0.98

00:03:40.000 And they went right past, and boom, they took him down on the end of the airstrip and ate him. 0.99

00:03:44.000 So those are things that I get to experience that for an adrenaline junkie, somebody that's always pushing the limits, that's pretty skookum.

00:03:54.000 That's pretty good.

00:03:55.000 What was that like?

00:03:57.000 That had to be insane.

00:03:59.000 Watching a pack of wolves take out a grizzly.

00:04:01.000 Well, it is because it comes at the time of the year when I have 24-hour darkness.

00:04:05.000 So I only have a limited amount of space where I can see them, and then it's gone.

00:04:11.000 I don't know if they're gonna come around and come back inside.

00:04:14.000 I don't know if they finished it.

00:04:16.000 I don't know if there's a couple of rogue wolves waiting for me to come out.

00:04:19.000 So your own existence then becomes quite limited to inside until you know that it's clear.

00:04:26.000 What a fascinating way to live life.

00:04:29.000 Yeah.

00:04:30.000 24-hour darkness, too.

00:04:31.000 I didn't even think of that.

00:04:33.000 Yeah, well, my sun is going to set for the last time this next week.

00:04:38.000 And in Barrow and Prudhoe Bay, they get a little bit more sunshine or a few more sunsets just because of their location.

00:04:45.000 They're not around mountains or hills.

00:04:47.000 I've got a mountain to the north, the south, and a mountain range to the east.

00:04:51.000 So I lose it a couple weeks before they do.

00:04:53.000 And then I won't have another sunrise until March.

00:04:56.000 Wow.

00:04:58.000 So, did you, you saw these wolves or you heard them chase down the bear?

00:05:04.000 Like, how do you know what took place?

00:05:05.000 Did you put a spotlight on it?

00:05:07.000 You get a little bit, during this particular time frame that it happened, you get a little bit of ambient light.

00:05:13.000 You don't actually have the sun, but your sky will lighten a little bit.

00:05:15.000 And even when the moon is out, it lights up.

00:05:17.000 It's an all-white landscape.

00:05:19.000 It lights it up.

00:05:20.000 And I routinely, even in winter, as long as it's not blowing a gale, I go up on my rooftops and I'm always looking around.

00:05:26.000 You always want to give yourself as much advance notice on anything coming in.

00:05:30.000 It could be a food source for me.

00:05:32.000 It could be a predator.

00:05:35.000 It doesn't matter.

00:05:35.000 I want to know what's around me.

00:05:37.000 And that's where I saw something going on there and I saw a big red splotch.

00:05:42.000 Or what I assumed was red.

00:05:44.000 And so I know something was bleeding, something was attacking something, and then I could make out as it got closer that was a bear running and the wolf pack was in the river and down.

00:05:53.000 There's 22 wolves and they just tag him to keep him running.

00:05:55.000 Once he wears out, they've got him.

00:05:58.000 Wow.

00:05:59.000 They're so clever.

00:06:01.000 They are, they're top predators, and they're top predators for a reason, and they live in that.

00:06:08.000 They genetically are predisposed to succeed.

00:06:11.000 So, you know, for me as a human being, being there, yeah, I've got guns, I've got other things, but, you know, left to your own devices, I mean, we are nowhere near top predator.

00:06:21.000 And they are the only predators that are that size that act in a pack.

00:06:26.000 Yes.

00:06:27.000 Yeah, they think together.

00:06:28.000 They chase people into a funnel.

00:06:30.000 They chase animals into a funnel.

00:06:31.000 And there's a hierarchy.

00:06:33.000 You have the alphas who control the whole thing.

00:06:36.000 They control who's going to mate, who's not going to mate.

00:06:39.000 And if you go against the rules, you're kicked out of the pack.

00:06:42.000 So then you have rogue wolves.

00:06:44.000 So you've got your solitary units.

00:06:47.000 Wow.

00:06:48.000 And you're living in these houses that you're living in, they seem like they're made out of cloth or something.

00:06:55.000 They're Quonset tents.

00:06:55.000 They are.

00:06:57.000 Now, for clients, in order for me to be there, as a Caucasian, I'm not allowed to own property on the North Slope, so for me to have a lifestyle there, I have to lease land from the state and have a profitable business.

00:07:09.000 If the business stops being profitable, they have the right to eject me.

00:07:13.000 And people say, oh, it's reverse discrimination, and you have to stop right there.

00:07:17.000 There is no forward or reverse.

00:07:19.000 It is a fact.

00:07:20.000 I knew that going in.

00:07:22.000 So it's a challenge.

00:07:23.000 It just becomes a challenge.

00:07:25.000 The clients can stay in the trailers.

00:07:28.000 There's bear-proof, sound-proof trailers they can stay in.

00:07:31.000 Now, if I stay in that, it's a very small amount of head space for me.

00:07:34.000 I don't like that.

00:07:36.000 The door is open to the outside world.

00:07:38.000 You have to get your life down to all of the doors.

00:07:42.000 My final door going to the outside world opens inside.

00:07:44.000 Because I guarantee 15, 20 times a winner, I'm going to open that door and it's a wall of snow.

00:07:49.000 I have to dig a tunnel so I can get out and have an open space.

00:07:54.000 If I had a door that opened to the outside world, I wouldn't get out.

00:07:57.000 So I've trapped myself.

00:07:59.000 But the tent that I live in, I'm not allowed a permanent structure, so I have a tent.

00:08:04.000 You're not allowed a permanent structure?

00:08:06.000 No, because I'm leasing the land and everything has to be mobile in case they, for whatever reason, tell you your lease is up, you need to leave.

00:08:14.000 So everything either is on tracks or it's a tent that you can take down or something you're willing to throw a match on and burn.

00:08:20.000 You're not allowed to have a permanent structure.

00:08:22.000 That's a strange set of rules, isn't it?

00:08:24.000 I mean, it seems like no house is permanent.

00:08:26.000 They knock down houses all the time, and even the term permanent is kind of weird.

00:08:31.000 Yeah, but Alaska still, I mean, if you want to break it down, I mean, we still have squatters' rights.

00:08:36.000 We still have, you know, if you're allowed permanent structures, then perhaps you're allowing a squatters' rights situation to develop.

00:08:44.000 I don't really care about the background rules.

00:08:47.000 Just tell me what the rules are, and I'll meet the challenge.

00:08:50.000 And so you're in these tents.

00:08:53.000 How easy would it be for an animal to get into the tent?

00:08:56.000 One swipe.

00:08:57.000 It's just, you know, figure your Coleman tent, maybe a little bit thicker material, and that's it.

00:09:02.000 Well, it's like the bear that I got this last year.

00:09:05.000 The background of that, my dog was outside in her house, and the bear came up, tore her little house out, hockey-pucked it around the pad, tried to eat her, chased after some kids that were camping.

00:09:16.000 So it became...

00:09:18.000 After the bear attack that I had a few years ago, there was a certain fear factor.

00:09:23.000 I did not aggressively go get bears.

00:09:25.000 I waited, hey, if you come through my wall, I'll take care of you, but there was a fear factor.

00:09:30.000 Well, now as an owner, I can't afford to be passive.

00:09:33.000 This bear presented a danger to my dog, but also, more importantly, to clients camping.

00:09:39.000 So I had to go proactive.

00:09:44.000 It was 16 and a half hours of tracking, belly crawling over 800 yards, and then I coughed and he turned on me.

00:09:51.000 Well, the long and short of that story was I just got the hide back.

00:09:55.000 Now, his claws are five and a half inches long.

00:09:58.000 So, one swipe and it's done.

00:10:01.000 Five and a half inches long.

00:10:03.000 And he's almost nine foot.

00:10:04.000 Wow.

00:10:05.000 And his measurements, from what I understand, he's number five in the world for Inland Grizzly.

00:10:11.000 And people wanted me to, you know, there was a push to do the Boone and Crockett thing, and I'm like, he's number five.

00:10:17.000 If he's one or two, I'll do it.

00:10:18.000 You know, number five.

00:10:19.000 Yeah.

00:10:20.000 Still pretty damn impressive.

00:10:21.000 Yeah, he was an impressive specimen.

00:10:24.000 He was over 34 years old.

00:10:25.000 Wow.

00:10:27.000 This was a bear that was probably getting closer to the end of his shelf life and was going to attack anything.

00:10:32.000 When they get ready to den, it's almost a certain insanity that they reach where they're going into hibernation and all they think is, I've got to eat, I've got to get fat, I've got to eat, I've got to get fat.

00:10:44.000 If you are...

00:10:46.000 I always say don't act like a pork chop.

00:10:48.000 If you're acting like a pork chop, you're in their sights.

00:10:51.000 So...

00:10:52.000 You were attacked by a bear.

00:10:54.000 Yep.

00:10:54.000 And was that in a camp?

00:10:56.000 That was at Kavik.

00:10:58.000 And I don't talk a whole lot about it.

00:11:01.000 I mean, people always ask about it.

00:11:02.000 You just immediately got emotional when I brought this up.

00:11:04.000 You could tell.

00:11:05.000 You know, I try to talk about it in the third person.

00:11:07.000 I get my water from the Kavik River.

00:11:10.000 And at a certain point, the water's going to freeze over.

00:11:12.000 Well, I had one more shot at getting some water, so I went down.

00:11:15.000 And what I have to do is get a pump...

00:11:17.000 Both hands have to be used to get it in the river and start it up.

00:11:21.000 And I had a juvenile bear that had been, every night he'd come and he'd go to my helicopter pad, dig it up, bury his food, and run off.

00:11:29.000 I could see where he was going and where he was coming from.

00:11:32.000 And when a bear does that, he's trying to claim your territory.

00:11:35.000 As a juvenile bear between three and seven years old, You know, he's not hot enough.

00:11:39.000 The chicks don't want him. 1.00

00:11:40.000 He's not alpha enough. 0.99

00:11:41.000 He's not kicking any other bears butt. 0.93

00:11:42.000 But I have this prime territory.

00:11:44.000 No matter how careful I am, it always smells like food.

00:11:47.000 It has cool dens you don't have to dig.

00:11:49.000 It's a prime place.

00:11:51.000 And so, it's an alpha push.

00:11:53.000 The first step on the alpha ladder is subjugate something and take over their territory.

00:11:59.000 And so, the long and short, I was getting my water.

00:12:01.000 I sat down my rifle, and he was hiding in the cup bank and snatched me up.

00:12:06.000 And, um...

00:12:10.000 You know, he rolls with you. 0.94

00:12:12.000 He'll open his jaws, put it on your throat.

00:12:14.000 You can still feel here and here where I ended up having to sew my head together.

00:12:18.000 He tore the hips out of the sockets, and then he ended up going back in the river.

00:12:23.000 An older bear or a female would have just eaten me, and I accept that in my lifestyle.

00:12:30.000 I knew I was injured, did not remember I had a rifle by the river, got myself back to camp.

00:12:35.000 I knew my hips weren't in good shape, and he was going to come back and finish the job.

00:12:39.000 What he did was kick me out of my property.

00:12:41.000 Then I am lower than he is on the totem pole and he has my territory.

00:12:45.000 So I got my gun belt, ratcheted it on the hips.

00:12:49.000 I remember calling one person.

00:12:51.000 I was told I called more than one person for help.

00:12:54.000 The troopers, I got their answering machine because they're out doing other things.

00:12:59.000 I called some other people.

00:13:01.000 I don't remember that.

00:13:02.000 I tried to get a hold of the oil companies to say I'd been attacked and they did not help.

00:13:07.000 But I went back, got a rifle, found where the bear was, shot him, GPSed it.

00:13:11.000 I don't know why I did that, but it was important at the time.

00:13:14.000 And then the hips gave out on the way back over, so I drug myself to the camp, and I laid there 10 days until somebody found me.

00:13:21.000 Whoa! 0.71

00:13:22.000 Ten days?

00:13:24.000 Yeah.

00:13:24.000 And it's a memory I don't...

00:13:26.000 I mean, that's going to be with me forever.

00:13:28.000 I had to be flown out.

00:13:30.000 Once I was found, they flew me to Fairbanks, then they flew me to the Lower World for immediate surgery.

00:13:35.000 And my kids did get to see me in that shape.

00:13:38.000 And that was hard on them, too.

00:13:41.000 That definitely brought it into perspective that I may be the first in the family to go.

00:13:46.000 And so they had to deal with that.

00:13:49.000 Did you have any thoughts of abandoning that lifestyle when that happened?

00:13:56.000 You know, it became, because I was working for the company that I later bought the camp from.

00:14:03.000 It was a workman's comp case.

00:14:04.000 They put the hips in, they had to do one twice, and they took a couple of discs out, and then the insurance company said, well, we're not going to do any more work, you've got to get a lawyer.

00:14:13.000 And I'm like, why? 0.99

00:14:15.000 I'm not arguing, the company's not arguing, neither is the fucking bear, he's dead. 0.99

00:14:19.000 And they said, that's just the way it goes. 1.00

00:14:21.000 And my personality was, well, how about if you go to hell, I'm going home.

00:14:25.000 So I called the owner.

00:14:27.000 He said, yeah, if you think you can do it.

00:14:28.000 And I said, there's only one way.

00:14:30.000 I had to accept that there's 83 tag grizzlies within 10 miles of camp.

00:14:34.000 At any point, they can decide to charge camp or come in aggressively.

00:14:40.000 It's only a matter of time before I do get charged again.

00:14:43.000 So that's my test.

00:14:45.000 When it happens, how am I going to react?

00:14:46.000 If I hesitate at all, I have no business being there.

00:14:50.000 I can't perform the job it takes to be there.

00:14:53.000 But when it did happen, I was able to.

00:14:55.000 I took care of the bear.

00:14:56.000 It was just automatic response.

00:14:58.000 So I knew I would be okay.

00:15:00.000 But how many injuries do you have?

00:15:03.000 When your head stops being able to get in the game and take care of it, then that's when I have to leave.

00:15:09.000 You said that they had to take some discs out?

00:15:12.000 Yeah, I've got several discs spit out.

00:15:14.000 Of your back?

00:15:15.000 Yeah, on the spine.

00:15:17.000 And I still have more.

00:15:18.000 There's more work to do, but not to diss the workman's compensation thing, but it's really not set up to help the people.

00:15:27.000 It's set up to help the insurance companies.

00:15:29.000 So I've just gone without the medical attention, and I know I can't twist and bend very often.

00:15:35.000 I know what some of my limits are, and I try to work around it.

00:15:38.000 So, do you have bulging discs?

00:15:40.000 Or when you say discs went out, like...

00:15:42.000 Yeah, there's spit out.

00:15:43.000 There's one that spit out pretty hard.

00:15:46.000 Twisting into the right is not good.

00:15:47.000 I have to, when I lift things, I have to be careful because when the bear got me...

00:15:55.000 Yeah.

00:15:55.000 He's twisting, and your body's just not meant to do that.

00:16:00.000 It's an outside force applying pressure and twisting.

00:16:03.000 It's not a good thing.

00:16:05.000 But as with anything, it's like for me, I was later, a couple of years later, working on the overhead electrics and fell straight down from 22 feet, broke both ankles and the bones in my right leg.

00:16:16.000 And that's where, at the beginning of the episodes, you see that I'm having surgery and coming back to camp.

00:16:22.000 I've since had a few more things that I've had to look at.

00:16:25.000 You know, you beat up your body so much, and I'm not a spring chicken.

00:16:28.000 I mean, I'm not the Crypt Keeper, but, you know, I'm going on 52. At some point, my body's going to say, Bitch, you want to do that, do it on your own, because I'm checking out. 0.99

00:16:38.000 Right. 0.98

00:16:38.000 You know, so you must, if you're going to do this lifestyle, you must always assess, reassess, and be extremely honest with who you are, what your limitations are, and how can you work within those. 0.98

00:16:49.000 It's just such a strange life to be drawn to.

00:16:52.000 Not just to be isolated like that, but to be isolated in this really vulnerable way where you're in tents.

00:16:59.000 It's so crazy.

00:17:00.000 It's not for everybody. 0.99

00:17:02.000 It's, fuck yeah, it's not for everybody. 0.99

00:17:04.000 Yeah. 0.99

00:17:05.000 I would imagine it's for one of the smallest percentages of people on the planet.

00:17:11.000 But you're very personable.

00:17:14.000 You're very friendly.

00:17:16.000 You're very smart. 0.99

00:17:17.000 So you're not like this fucking Ted Kaczynski wacko living in the woods. 1.00

00:17:23.000 Jacked and he's shining. 0.99

00:17:24.000 Yeah, you know what I'm saying?

00:17:25.000 You seem like a person who enjoys being around people.

00:17:28.000 I do.

00:17:29.000 People assume that because I live alone, I am antisocial.

00:17:34.000 Or I'm running away from something, and that's not the case.

00:17:37.000 You know, I run to a lifestyle that I enjoy, and I really enjoy being social, but I'd like to know when it's going to start and when it's going to end.

00:17:45.000 I don't want to live extremely social, but I love engaging in it, and then, you know, like a hit and run, I know when to leave.

00:17:54.000 Right.

00:17:55.000 So you'll come into town, hang out with people, talk, and go, okay, you guys take care.

00:17:59.000 I'm just going to be by myself in a tent.

00:18:02.000 Well, and then, you know, no matter where you live, it's a good idea.

00:18:02.000 Yeah.

00:18:08.000 When you're in a social situation, learn what's healthy for you and what's not.

00:18:12.000 There may be people that you are quote-unquote friends with, but they're toxic.

00:18:16.000 I mean, cut the toxicity out of your lifestyle and enjoy it.

00:18:16.000 Right.

00:18:19.000 Yeah, without a doubt, that's great advice. 1.00

00:18:21.000 But aren't bears fucking toxic as shit, too? 1.00

00:18:24.000 Bears are bears, you know? 1.00

00:18:26.000 They don't wake up and say, oh, that Sue, I think I'm going to knock her around today. 1.00

00:18:29.000 Right, right.

00:18:30.000 I mean, they are animals, and there's an instinct, and there's a drive to survive.

00:18:34.000 And sometimes I get in their way, and I'm in their sights.

00:18:38.000 Like this summer, the troopers even came by several times and said, we need to know that you have an emergency plan.

00:18:44.000 This is going to be one of the worst aggressive bear seasons ever.

00:18:47.000 How do they know that?

00:18:48.000 Because the numbers are so high.

00:18:51.000 You know, as man decides it's going to like the caribou herd size, they count it and they go, oh, there's too many caribou.

00:18:57.000 Let's up the amount that people can harvest. 0.94

00:18:59.000 Well, when they do that, it went from two a year to five a year.

00:19:02.000 In the villages, it's ten a day.

00:19:05.000 So you're putting all these bones and gut piles out there while your predators are going to eat those and then their numbers are healthier.

00:19:13.000 They reproduce more. 0.68

00:19:15.000 And then all of a sudden, like this year, the caribou migrated out a full five, six weeks early.

00:19:20.000 And so their main food group left the North Slope.

00:19:23.000 So then you have all these bears roaming around and nothing to eat.

00:19:26.000 But here I am walking around like a little pork chop.

00:19:30.000 But the bears this year, I had eight that were circling camp just religiously every day.

00:19:35.000 But they never did anything...

00:19:40.000 They weren't dickheads. 0.52

00:19:41.000 You know, they didn't come through the walls. 0.95

00:19:43.000 They didn't ransack.

00:19:44.000 You know, I'm very careful with garbage and everything else.

00:19:47.000 Whatever I have to have in camp, it has to be flown in.

00:19:50.000 Well, it's a protected ecosystem.

00:19:51.000 You can't just go bury your garbage or leave it in bags.

00:19:54.000 I, by law, have to take all of the garbage and even human waste, separate the liquids and solids, burn everything to its lowest ash, bag it up and send it to town.

00:20:04.000 So you have to burn poop?

00:20:05.000 Yes.

00:20:06.000 That's hilarious.

00:20:07.000 Well, only if you're not doing the job, because I don't laugh when I'm doing it, man.

00:20:11.000 I'm just saying.

00:20:12.000 Do you have, like, a furnace?

00:20:13.000 I have a big incinerator.

00:20:15.000 Yeah, I mean, it's not the greatest job on the planet, but it's a job.

00:20:15.000 Oh, okay.

00:20:18.000 Right.

00:20:19.000 You know, I mean, I don't go cook food right afterwards.

00:20:22.000 I clean up.

00:20:23.000 You have a profitable business up there.

00:20:24.000 What do you do up there?

00:20:26.000 Kavik used to be an old oil camp.

00:20:30.000 My goal is to...

00:20:32.000 I want to be the first 100% green camp in the middle of the oil field.

00:20:35.000 So I've turned it into sort of a twisted bed and breakfast.

00:20:39.000 It's not a hotel like you'd find here where you have so many story buildings and these really cool rooms.

00:20:43.000 They are soundproof, bear-proof containers like a trailer on tracks that you can stay in.

00:20:52.000 And that's a measure of safety.

00:20:55.000 But I rent those rooms out.

00:20:56.000 If you want food, I'll cook it for you.

00:20:58.000 It's always chef's menu.

00:21:00.000 You don't get a menu and get to pick from it.

00:21:02.000 It's whatever I feel like cooking that day.

00:21:04.000 But that's how I make money.

00:21:06.000 Now, for me to be there, it's not inexpensive.

00:21:10.000 The dollars that it takes for me to be there, even to heat, there is no wood.

00:21:15.000 I can't do wood heat.

00:21:17.000 So everything has to be oil.

00:21:18.000 So my interest in going, you know, I've got a certain amount of alternative energy now.

00:21:22.000 This winter I'm working on a big project, and hopefully by next year I'll be 100% green and not needing any fuel.

00:21:28.000 So, is it possible to be solar?

00:21:31.000 I mean, when you say 100% green, like what?

00:21:33.000 Well, I've already got some solar panels and wind turbine.

00:21:38.000 But solar, eight, nine months of the year, doesn't do me a whole lot of good.

00:21:41.000 Right.

00:21:41.000 So wind is the major one.

00:21:43.000 So I'm adding in new large-scale wind turbines, more solar.

00:21:48.000 I will always have to have a generator as a backup.

00:21:51.000 But like, for example, when I first got there working for the other company, They used a 100 kW generator 24 hours a day every day.

00:21:59.000 And there's also 150 kW.

00:22:01.000 Well, that's going to be over 100 gallons of fuel a day just for the generator to provide electricity.

00:22:07.000 Wow.

00:22:08.000 And so, you know, the actual per day, you're talking between 1 and 200 gallons a day.

00:22:12.000 I've got that down to 6 to 10 gallons a day.

00:22:15.000 So I've already made a huge stride in making it better.

00:22:18.000 And how have you done that?

00:22:19.000 I switched.

00:22:21.000 I changed all the electrics.

00:22:22.000 There used to be a theory in the oil fields because some of those companies have a lot of money to spend.

00:22:27.000 If they don't spend their whole budget, they don't get a new great big budget.

00:22:30.000 So there's a theory that you don't need to be more efficient.

00:22:33.000 You obviously just need a bigger gen and more power cords.

00:22:36.000 So every time you plug in a power cord, you have what's called line loss.

00:22:40.000 You know, and that's, I guess, one of the neatest things about the lifestyle I have is, you know, I wasn't born knowing how to do diesel mechanics, and I tell people, you know, the only thing I used to know about it is how to bake bread.

00:22:50.000 In other words, I knew nothing.

00:22:53.000 But I'm learning.

00:22:54.000 And it's just like electricity.

00:22:55.000 I don't like electricity, but I have to learn how to do it, so, you know, you learn line loss.

00:23:01.000 If you plug in, keep plugging in extension cords, you may have 100kW when you start, and you only get 80kW at your final ending point because you've lost so much of it along the way.

00:23:10.000 So I improved the electrics, did more direct wiring, fell and hurt myself in the process, but got back up and did it again.

00:23:18.000 Learned wind power.

00:23:20.000 I have a big battery bank, and I can store power and use it later.

00:23:24.000 That's my entire internet system that I put in 12 years ago.

00:23:28.000 It runs off the battery bank.

00:23:30.000 When you say internet system, how does that work?

00:23:33.000 Back when I first got there and I was working for the other company, I said, hey, we got to get internet.

00:23:38.000 The analog phones, there's two types of signal for cell phone usage or phones.

00:23:43.000 You have an analog signal and a digital.

00:23:46.000 Analog travels much further than a digital.

00:23:48.000 Digital only goes 27 miles.

00:23:50.000 Well, I'm 83 and a half miles from Deadhorse.

00:23:52.000 No matter what I do, I can't get it, throw the signal again.

00:23:55.000 It's still not going to reach me.

00:23:57.000 Well, the government took away the analog signal and privatized it for themselves, so I knew you're going to have no communications other than a satellite phone, which is horrendously expensive.

00:24:07.000 So I told the owner, I said, you need the internet out here, you know, and he says, yeah, no, at this point, you know, technology where it was then, you have to get over the curvature of the earth to clip the satellites.

00:24:18.000 So he said, if you want it, you're going to pay for it.

00:24:20.000 Well, alright, there's a challenge.

00:24:22.000 It cost $8,000 to get the dish, fly it up, get the tech, and I worked with a geologist to find the bedrock, and I bounce a signal off the bedrock, and I haven't lost signal yet.

00:24:31.000 Wow.

00:24:32.000 You bounce a satellite signal off the bedrock.

00:24:35.000 I catch it as it bounces it off the bedrock.

00:24:38.000 Rather than people that point it where they think the satellites are going to go, like here, I point it directly down.

00:24:43.000 So as the signals are hitting the bedrock, I get it.

00:24:49.000 And it was a risk.

00:24:49.000 Wow.

00:24:50.000 How did you calculate that?

00:24:52.000 I brought the geologist in.

00:24:54.000 I'm great with ideas, but I don't know if they're bonehead ideas or plausible.

00:24:54.000 I had an idea.

00:24:59.000 Is anyone else doing something similar, or is this just completely your original invention?

00:25:03.000 They may now.

00:25:04.000 Nobody was then.

00:25:05.000 But you just came up with it on your own.

00:25:06.000 Yeah.

00:25:07.000 Yeah, I knew what I wanted to do.

00:25:10.000 I know the basic mechanics of what needs to happen, and then I apply SU technology and come up with a SU fix.

00:25:17.000 But I do check with people that are trained in that, and they go, yeah, that might work.

00:25:23.000 Well, okay, it's worth eight grand for me to check it out.

00:25:27.000 And what kind of, like, download speeds do you get up there?

00:25:30.000 Can you, like, watch a YouTube video?

00:25:32.000 I can, although the way they sell the internet up there is, you know, your bandwidth.

00:25:38.000 You get so many gigs or whatever of bandwidth.

00:25:41.000 When I use that up, then it's really expensive.

00:25:45.000 Prohibitively expensive.

00:25:46.000 But for me, to go back to being Jungle Jane, I am a mother, a grandmother.

00:25:52.000 For me...

00:25:54.000 To do this, you know, I work very closely with the kids.

00:25:57.000 We have a loving relationship.

00:25:59.000 But, you know, I like in having children to, I mean, you're dropping these little seeds and they've got to grow.

00:26:04.000 Well, my personality can throw a pretty big shadow.

00:26:06.000 Not many plants grow in the shade.

00:26:08.000 I needed to step back so that they could get the sunshine.

00:26:11.000 But one of the turnarounds is I need to know that I can communicate with people.

00:26:15.000 You can't run a business if nobody can tell you they want to show up.

00:26:20.000 To me, it was the wave of the future.

00:26:22.000 I had to get it figured out.

00:26:24.000 If the only thing standing in my way is money, well, I'll go out and make it.

00:26:29.000 That's such a strange contradiction.

00:26:31.000 Isolation, but yet you want a connection.

00:26:33.000 Yeah.

00:26:33.000 Connectivity.

00:26:34.000 Yeah, I need to know for myself that the kids and grandkids are okay.

00:26:38.000 And we have a system of talking to each other, social media.

00:26:41.000 I throw up ten fingers, ten toes, they know I'm okay.

00:26:44.000 Six fingers, four toes, they know there's a problem.

00:26:46.000 You know?

00:26:47.000 It's pretty basic.

00:26:48.000 And then they also, we have a phrase, and I won't say what it is, but there is a key phrase, an if- If the kids or grandkids ever say that to me, that means drop what you're doing, get here ASAP. And how long does it take you to get to civilization?

00:27:04.000 Depends on the time of year.

00:27:05.000 To even come down here and do this, I had a previous engagement in New York City.

00:27:10.000 I've been trying on last, a week ago Monday, I called and I said, you need to pull me now.

00:27:15.000 We're going to get a bad storm.

00:27:16.000 And, you know, my original flight out was Saturday.

00:27:19.000 And they're like, well, we got days.

00:27:21.000 And I was like, no, you really don't.

00:27:23.000 We got a system coming in.

00:27:24.000 I need those weather days.

00:27:26.000 Well, if somebody in the real world, you know, they need to get to the airport a little earlier because maybe it's bad traffic.

00:27:31.000 They're talking hours.

00:27:32.000 Well, today is day 13 of this major blizzard up there, and I just happened to have a window, a three-hour window, where a plane could make it in.

00:27:41.000 Three-hour window.

00:27:42.000 Yeah, and we just hit it right and I got out.

00:27:45.000 But the turnaround for me is when I get home, I'm calculating that Saturday I'm going to have another window.

00:27:52.000 And I hope so, because that's my way to get back in.

00:27:55.000 Right now, I've got a wolverine that's just been acting like a real creep around camp, trying to get into things, and so I don't know what he's doing while I'm not there.

00:28:05.000 I can't afford to lose all my water and let everything freeze up in my tent, so my heat is still going.

00:28:11.000 If that animal gets into my building, he's going to knock over my heater and burn my camp down.

00:28:16.000 I don't know until I get there what I'm dealing with.

00:28:19.000 And that might be happening right now?

00:28:20.000 Could be.

00:28:20.000 Can you go to Google Earth and look at your camp?

00:28:23.000 I suppose you could, but you're going to get a delayed picture, I believe, with Google Earth.

00:28:26.000 But I do have two webcams.

00:28:27.000 And I did check this morning.

00:28:30.000 I can see the dining hall into the east.

00:28:32.000 They're actually for the pilots, so they can see the mountains and see where the sky is.

00:28:38.000 And then I try to update it as I can.

00:28:40.000 But I was able to see, okay, I still have a dining hall. 0.92

00:28:43.000 Tits.

00:28:44.000 So do you see this wolverine? 0.89

00:28:46.000 Uh, you can't.

00:28:46.000 It's not a live feed on my webcam.

00:28:48.000 No, do you ever see him?

00:28:49.000 Oh yeah, I see him almost daily.

00:28:51.000 Almost daily?

00:28:52.000 Yeah.

00:28:52.000 Now, you know, like with me and the animals, if I need the fur, I'll go ahead and get him.

00:28:56.000 Right now, for needing the fur, it's only, like, I think it was five below zero.

00:29:01.000 I think five or ten below zero is the coldest I've gotten so far this year, not counting windchill.

00:29:05.000 So, it's not really cold enough for me.

00:29:08.000 If you're going for a furbearer, then get him when the fur is prime.

00:29:13.000 And his fur is not prime.

00:29:15.000 He's just being a wolverine.

00:29:16.000 He hasn't attacked me as a person.

00:29:18.000 He's tried to mangle one of the buildings, and I do what I can to dissuade him.

00:29:22.000 What do you do?

00:29:25.000 Wolverines, if they've ever been injured or you've ever angered them or they've ever gotten trumped on a hunt, they'll remember that like a GPS coordinate and they come back and they keep trying to attack it.

00:29:35.000 I guess it's a challenge.

00:29:37.000 So, for whatever reason, this Wolverine has picked one trailer as his nemesis.

00:29:41.000 And he goes and he rips the angle iron off and twists it into a little knot.

00:29:45.000 So what I've done is I've tied a little piece of angle iron down there and he takes that and keeps re-tearing it up.

00:29:53.000 So that's his enemy?

00:29:54.000 Yeah, for whatever reason, that trailer pissed him off one year.

00:29:57.000 And I don't know why.

00:29:59.000 And it may...

00:30:00.000 I can't afford to lose...

00:30:02.000 You know, for me to try and replace it is an ungodly amount of money.

00:30:06.000 If he doesn't get with the program and leave, then, you know, we're gonna be like this and I have to deal with it.

00:30:12.000 But right now, he can't help being a Wolverine.

00:30:16.000 I can't help not wanting him to ruin my stuff.

00:30:18.000 So it's...

00:30:20.000 Do you enjoy having them around in some sort of strange way because it gives you something to think about?

00:30:25.000 I mean, do you have, like, a connection with these animals where it's almost like a part of your drama?

00:30:31.000 Well, you know, it's not, you don't connect with a wolverine.

00:30:34.000 I mean, well, you could, I suppose.

00:30:36.000 I've seen a show where there's some guy petting them.

00:30:38.000 That's not my gig.

00:30:39.000 But... 0.99

00:30:41.000 I don't think, you know, it'd be like somebody, if there was a race of people that, you know, bigger than we are, and they come in, and I'm drinking my coffee, and he tags my ass. 0.99

00:30:49.000 I mean, that would be a bum day. 0.99

00:30:50.000 I don't see any reason to shoot an animal simply because it exists.

00:30:54.000 So what I can do is, hopefully, I'll just keep dissuading him, and he'll go, wow, she's crabby, and he leaves.

00:31:02.000 Or it'll come down to, yeah, I've got to take him out because he's now costing me revenue.

00:31:06.000 So he might start tearing up a different tent.

00:31:09.000 Yeah, yeah.

00:31:10.000 Or he's going to go in and, you know, he attacks the walls.

00:31:12.000 I mean, I can only let it go so long, but I'm willing to bet that if I keep, you know, he keeps trying to come in and I keep dissuading him, sooner or later he's just going to say, wow, whatever, and leave.

00:31:23.000 But I do...

00:31:26.000 I do enjoy the animals in their natural habitat.

00:31:29.000 I enjoy, you know, I've been able to see one of the moodiest grizzlies up there.

00:31:36.000 She's tagged, and her name is Marty.

00:31:39.000 Well, a couple of years ago, and she is, what, 38 years old or something like that now, or she was then, but she ended up popping out a couple of babies.

00:31:47.000 Now, she's the worst mother on the planet. 1.00

00:31:49.000 You know, she'll let them get two miles away from her. 1.00

00:31:52.000 Wow.

00:31:53.000 Which, for a hiker, it's really easy to get in the middle of mama and cubs.

00:31:56.000 So I try to warn people, but I was sitting up there on the roof of my, I call it the perch, and I'm watching, and here's Marty crawling up the hillside, and there's still a snowfield, and she goes, whee, and slides down.

00:32:08.000 Here come the two cubs, whee, and they just all day long played, and they were so loving.

00:32:13.000 So it's really, you know, it's a dichotomy.

00:32:15.000 I see the aggressive side, but I also can appreciate the maternal, natural side.

00:32:21.000 Yeah, and you're dealing with the same species that almost killed you. 0.71

00:32:26.000 You're watching them play.

00:32:28.000 Well, you know, and even to do the lifestyle at all, and I don't care what part of the world, if you're going to go this remote and immerse yourself in their territory, you have to be comfortable with your own death.

00:32:40.000 Not the same as having a death wish, but like with my kids and grandkids, we do one big meal a year, and whether it's over the Skype or whatever, I tell them, tell me three things you can't stand about me.

00:32:51.000 What did I do that really pissed you off?

00:32:53.000 But tell me three good things.

00:32:56.000 And I do the same for them, and it's just a very honest relationship.

00:33:00.000 I have accepted that I may die due to either conditions or animals out here, and I'm okay with that.

00:33:06.000 That's a roll of the dice I'm willing to accept.

00:33:09.000 But we each year tell each other, I love you for this, I think you're a douchebag for that, but you know what, I'm going to miss you when you go.

00:33:18.000 And, you know, over my life, I have this big chest.

00:33:22.000 And I've been filling it.

00:33:24.000 All the cool, crazy things they've ever heard about me.

00:33:26.000 And some things are pretty, I mean, there's some things in my life, even as a very young person, that were really fantastic.

00:33:32.000 And so I take the photographs or the proof or whatever, and I stuff it in this box.

00:33:35.000 So when I go, they're going to be able to open that for the first time and see, oh my god, that really happened. 0.97

00:33:40.000 Oh shit, look at that. 0.88

00:33:42.000 But it'll be a pretty cool chronicle. 0.99

00:33:45.000 Your life, do you find it really rewarding to be out in this incredibly wild environment?

00:33:51.000 Like when you come to a city, like you go from that to New York City, is New York City just like a cool little vacation for you?

00:33:58.000 And then do you appreciate the wild?

00:34:01.000 Or do you appreciate New York because of the wild?

00:34:05.000 Or both?

00:34:07.000 Does that make sense?

00:34:08.000 You know, my lifestyle, the challenges I face, and overcoming that...

00:34:16.000 There is such pride in yourself that, oh my gosh, I did that.

00:34:19.000 How cool is that?

00:34:22.000 When I was really little, I mean, I'm terrified of the dark.

00:34:26.000 But now I live in a place that's dark for nine months out of the year, you know?

00:34:30.000 I mean, there are always challenges.

00:34:31.000 Know yourself, better yourself, you know?

00:34:35.000 When I go to a city, a bear, I know exactly what he wants from me.

00:34:42.000 You know, pretty much.

00:34:44.000 He's either going to eat you or he wants something here or he's just passing through, but it's a pretty honest relationship.

00:34:48.000 He wants to eat me, I don't want him to.

00:34:50.000 You go to a big city and I'm used to seeing my horizon.

00:34:53.000 I'm always checking things.

00:34:54.000 There's no trees, there's no buildings, there's nothing to mar my horizon.

00:34:58.000 I go to New York and you can't go 8 feet and you've got a 60-story building.

00:35:01.000 How the hell do you check your horizon?

00:35:03.000 How do you know what's coming at you?

00:35:05.000 You see people, but you cannot be guaranteed.

00:35:08.000 When I see a bear and he's charging, I know he wants to attack me. 0.99

00:35:11.000 You see a person walking down the street, you don't know whether he's going to pull a gun out of his pocket, shake your hand, pinch your ass, or wave goodbye. 0.99

00:35:20.000 You don't know. 0.99

00:35:21.000 So that's a predator that I'm pretty impressed people want to be around.

00:35:27.000 And when I got here, I look at all these lights and all these people, I'm like, oh my god, and they're here on purpose.

00:35:32.000 Wow.

00:35:34.000 I always appreciate L.A. when I leave and go into the wilderness.

00:35:39.000 Whenever I go into the wilderness, I love being there.

00:35:42.000 Like, a couple times a year, three times a year, I go hunting.

00:35:45.000 And when I come back, I always really appreciate the city.

00:35:50.000 Flush toilets are just, like, cool.

00:35:52.000 Oh, yeah, but just being warm and, like, dry and sitting on a couch and watching TV. Yeah.

00:35:59.000 Yeah, there is...

00:36:00.000 It is not saying that I've never lived in a social setting or a city.

00:36:04.000 I certainly have.

00:36:05.000 You know, the kid's father, biological father, you know, he tried to make it in Alaska, and it wasn't the way I live.

00:36:11.000 It wasn't his gig.

00:36:12.000 So, you're married.

00:36:13.000 I went down there, tried to make it in the city.

00:36:14.000 Boy, that wasn't my gig for very long.

00:36:16.000 You know, we were married 17 years, and then one day we're laying in bed, and he's cracking up, and I said, what?

00:36:21.000 And he says...

00:36:22.000 It's real simple.

00:36:23.000 You're more Grizzly Adams, I'm more John Wayne. 1.00

00:36:25.000 This shit ain't going to work anymore. 0.99

00:36:27.000 So we stayed the best of friends until he passed away. 1.00

00:36:31.000 But we developed, and that's part of me.

00:36:35.000 Don't sit there and cry and be sad because it ended.

00:36:38.000 We were still best of friends and realized, yeah, you're John Wayne.

00:36:42.000 Go get your horse, cowboy.

00:36:43.000 I'm going to go over here and get a bear.

00:36:45.000 And we made it work.

00:36:46.000 Were you always living like this?

00:36:49.000 What did...

00:36:50.000 How did you meet it?

00:36:51.000 Well, I was born in Chicago.

00:36:53.000 And at a very early age, my mom was leaving my dad.

00:36:58.000 And back then, divorce still wasn't very popular, but she left him, brought us up to Alaska, and then she left to go do her own thing. 1.00

00:37:05.000 So, very quickly, I had to get used to living in a tent, hunting.

00:37:14.000 And I finished school very early.

00:37:16.000 I graduated high school just before I turned 13. Why'd you have to get used to living in a tent and hunting?

00:37:21.000 I don't get into that part of my life very much.

00:37:24.000 Because, you know, I love my mother to death.

00:37:27.000 I've never walked a mile in anybody's shoes, let alone three feet.

00:37:30.000 So, what made her decide to go from Chicago to Alaska and then leave us to our own devices and go to something else?

00:37:39.000 I don't know.

00:37:40.000 And how old were you when this was going on?

00:37:41.000 Young.

00:37:42.000 And, um...

00:37:44.000 But she's still alive.

00:37:46.000 I've never held anything against her, you know, and that's the thing.

00:37:48.000 I mean, when people, they hold grudges on other people or they let it affect their lives, you know, how many people are in therapy saying, when I was 10, this happened? 0.99

00:37:56.000 Well, fuck you, it's 40 years ago. 1.00

00:37:58.000 Get over it. 1.00

00:37:59.000 You know, I mean, you have to move forward.

00:38:01.000 If you have one foot in the past and one in the future, the only place you're not living is today.

00:38:05.000 Some people wallow.

00:38:06.000 They enjoy being upset.

00:38:09.000 Well, being a drama queen's fun, I suppose, you know, for some people, but, you know, it's not my style.

00:38:15.000 Obviously not.

00:38:19.000 Drama queens really wouldn't be back in Alaska after getting almost killed by a bear.

00:38:24.000 Well, you know, is your life then going to be run by your fair, and where does it stop?

00:38:32.000 Fair is a desperate creature that grabs as much turf as it can get. 0.68

00:38:36.000 So once you start letting it run your life, you better have a good pair of sneakers, because you're going to be running the rest of your life.

00:38:42.000 That's an excellent description.

00:38:43.000 It really is.

00:38:44.000 That's very, very accurate.

00:38:46.000 You looking for the nicotine again?

00:38:47.000 Yeah, I saw it.

00:38:51.000 Do you anticipate living there for the rest of your life or would you be interested in a similarly sort of isolated but different environment?

00:39:02.000 Or do you have a personal like...

00:39:04.000 I don't plan that far ahead.

00:39:06.000 I currently am enjoying the hell out of the challenges and thriving with what I'm doing.

00:39:13.000 But I have kind of a raven personality.

00:39:15.000 There is going to be another shiny thing on the horizon and I'll be like checking it out.

00:39:22.000 A lot of people don't know, you know, I've traveled a lot in my life.

00:39:25.000 I mean, there are so many awesome things to see on the planet. 0.99

00:39:28.000 And I don't want to die, be sitting there in the grave, my little soul lifting up and go, fuck, I wish I would have done that. 0.99

00:39:34.000 I want to be lifting it up saying, Got it! 1.00

00:39:37.000 Nailed it!

00:39:39.000 So there will be other things that catch my eye.

00:39:42.000 My body is getting older.

00:39:44.000 I've beat the hell out of it.

00:39:45.000 I'm probably not going to stop doing that.

00:39:47.000 When I can no longer function at Kavik and make it safe for people, then I don't have any business being there.

00:39:57.000 There's so much to see and do.

00:39:58.000 And is that how you've always run it?

00:40:00.000 You've always run it as sort of a bed and breakfast?

00:40:02.000 Yeah, the company that owned it before, I know the person that used to own it, the company, they were friends of mine, and they came looking for me.

00:40:10.000 I used to have a 400-mile trap line along the Jim River and had a bunch of sled dogs, and that's how I lived for a long time.

00:40:15.000 Wow.

00:40:16.000 You go 400 miles up, sending your traps, 400 miles down, checking them.

00:40:19.000 All by yourself?

00:40:20.000 Yeah.

00:40:20.000 And then I did marry again.

00:40:22.000 That did not work out as well as I would have liked.

00:40:26.000 Did you marry another trapper?

00:40:28.000 Yeah, he's somebody I knew when I was little and I ended up in Alaska.

00:40:32.000 He was going to come up there.

00:40:33.000 And we used to joke around because he used to say, I'm going to marry you.

00:40:36.000 And I'm like, yeah, I'm never getting married. 0.99

00:40:38.000 Sorry, sucker. 0.98

00:40:39.000 But on his way up, he got two avalanches. 1.00

00:40:42.000 He turned around, married somebody else.

00:40:43.000 And I'm like, well, a real man would have made it.

00:40:47.000 But it ended up, it was not a good thing.

00:40:50.000 He went a little bushy up there in Kavik.

00:40:52.000 Bushy?

00:40:53.000 Yeah.

00:40:54.000 What's that?

00:40:54.000 You lose your perspective.

00:40:56.000 You know, when you're all alone, there's no social.

00:41:01.000 There's nobody saying, ooh, you can't wear, like in the winter, I wear my long johns and jammy pants as long johns all winter long.

00:41:08.000 I try to gain 20 to 30 pounds minimum to go into winter, because when I get stuck at 50 below...

00:41:14.000 In a blizzard, working hard, I'm going to lose pounds every day.

00:41:17.000 I don't want to come out being unhealthy, so I go in being a little junky.

00:41:21.000 Wow, that's interesting.

00:41:22.000 So it's a strategy.

00:41:23.000 Yeah.

00:41:24.000 What do you eat to ensure that?

00:41:26.000 Whatever I want.

00:41:27.000 Just eat a lot of cake and pie?

00:41:28.000 Well, you know, my body, if you listen to your body, it's going to tell you what it wants.

00:41:33.000 Even a pregnant woman, when she's craving pickles and ice cream, she probably needs salt, potassium, and calcium. 1.00

00:41:39.000 So you break down your craving into what's in there.

00:41:42.000 Oh, okay, and you can eat something else, but it's going to give your body what it needs.

00:41:45.000 Your body can only remember where you last got it from.

00:41:48.000 So it's going to throw all these wacky things together and say, eat chocolate bananas with raisins and, you know, some steak.

00:41:56.000 So break it down.

00:41:57.000 You need iron, you need calcium, you need potassium, you know, you need niacin, so go grab it.

00:42:02.000 Do you ever have any vegetarians try to stay up there with you?

00:42:04.000 I do.

00:42:05.000 Really?

00:42:05.000 I cater to, you know, I do vegan, vegetarian.

00:42:08.000 Really?

00:42:09.000 Yep.

00:42:09.000 Gluten-free, diabetic, any nutrient diet, other than there's some people, there was only one group, and I don't know what they call themselves, but they will only eat something, an apple that fell to the ground.

00:42:22.000 It has to commit fruticide or something, and I'm like, yeah, no, I can't do that one. 0.96

00:42:27.000 Oh my god, people are so crazy.

00:42:30.000 It must be very difficult to get vegetables up there.

00:42:33.000 I try to do a garden every year, but for me at my location, when I used to do the...

00:42:33.000 It is.

00:42:42.000 Oh my god, I'm having a hard time putting that out.

00:42:45.000 Visqueen.

00:42:46.000 It's a type of plastic, but it has a very oily smell.

00:42:48.000 Bears are attracted to oil.

00:42:50.000 And so every time I'd make a visqueen greenhouse, it would start going good, and then the bear comes up and tears it apart.

00:42:58.000 And my area is much, much, much more volatile with the weather.

00:43:03.000 I will get snow and ice at least once a month.

00:43:08.000 This year I got my first big blizzard the third week in August and it never went away.

00:43:13.000 The caribou migrated out and that was it.

00:43:15.000 I froze up.

00:43:16.000 Third week of August?

00:43:18.000 Yeah, I have four or five feet of snow now.

00:43:20.000 And, you know, I've already dipped into the 510 below zero range, probably 20 below zero with a windchill factor.

00:43:26.000 What's the lowest it ever gets up there?

00:43:28.000 My thermometer only goes to 100 below.

00:43:30.000 And I peg it every year.

00:43:33.000 You know, and that's the real temperature.

00:43:35.000 You add some wind on top of it and it gets psycho.

00:43:37.000 Oh my god.

00:43:41.000 And then you'd start compiling that you're in a tent with a thin piece of fabric.

00:43:45.000 How do you keep that warm?

00:43:47.000 Yeah, how do you keep that warm?

00:43:48.000 Um...

00:43:51.000 Sometimes you're just going to have to put on the gear.

00:43:53.000 There's been times where, you know, the wind is your biggest enemy.

00:43:56.000 So as the winter goes on and you're building snow up the sides of the building, I try to let it get six, eight feet deep because that's a form of insulation.

00:44:03.000 But where the wind hits your fabric, it's going to wick away the heat as quick as you can make it.

00:44:08.000 So I have battery-operated fans to convect the air, and then sometimes you're just going to wear your winter gear for a week or two until the temps come up.

00:44:16.000 100 below zero.

00:44:18.000 That's incredible.

00:44:19.000 I do this thing called cryotherapy where I step into this chamber.

00:44:23.000 It's 237 degrees below zero.

00:44:26.000 You do it naked.

00:44:27.000 It's where your underwear.

00:44:28.000 You stand in it for three minutes.

00:44:29.000 You get out.

00:44:30.000 You warm back up and then you go back in for another three minutes.

00:44:33.000 And it's...

00:44:35.000 Improving your circulation.

00:44:36.000 Yeah, massive for anti-inflammation, for any injuries you might have.

00:44:41.000 It's incredible for the healing properties and for soreness. 0.81

00:44:44.000 If you're sore from working out, it straightens all that shit out right away. 0.72

00:44:49.000 But that's just three minutes. 0.95

00:44:52.000 Yeah.

00:44:53.000 I'm not sleeping.

00:44:54.000 Well, it's like for me, you know, the equipment that I have, I have a mile and a half long runway.

00:44:57.000 If somebody wants to land in the winter, I've got to get out and work that runway.

00:45:01.000 Yeah, how do you do that?

00:45:02.000 I have a bobcat.

00:45:04.000 I'm not the proud owner of a piece of equipment that's all enclosed and heated.

00:45:08.000 Whatever it is outside is what I'm experiencing.

00:45:11.000 So, like, for me to even get out on my two to three hour window, I had to go out there, clear it, and then sit there for an hour and a half until, boom, the plane landed.

00:45:21.000 And so, Ermie, my dog, and I jumped in the plane and left.

00:45:25.000 A hundred below zero in a bobcat. 0.99

00:45:28.000 What the fuck is that like? 0.99

00:45:30.000 It's not good. 0.99

00:45:32.000 Your face is exposed or are you wearing a mask?

00:45:35.000 Yeah, you're covering as much as you can.

00:45:37.000 I'm not the biggest fan of Polypro.

00:45:39.000 It's, in the end, a plastic product and it will, at a certain temperature, instead of keeping you warm, it's going to turn hard and then it's going to conduct the cold.

00:45:50.000 So I'm not a big fan of Polypro.

00:45:52.000 I like natural materials, fur.

00:45:55.000 It depends on what the temperatures are.

00:45:57.000 I do have two fur outfits, one with the fur facing in, one with the fur facing out.

00:46:02.000 At those temperatures, you're going to wear both.

00:46:04.000 And you get out there and you just get your work done.

00:46:07.000 The fur facing in and the fur facing in?

00:46:09.000 So you have like several layers of fur?

00:46:10.000 Yeah, yeah.

00:46:11.000 You make these yourself out of bear or...?

00:46:14.000 Usually caribou.

00:46:17.000 And if you go back to the very first episode when the oil and everything got stolen, a lot of my things got taken too.

00:46:24.000 So I am in the process of making new outfits.

00:46:27.000 Who stole your oil?

00:46:29.000 I'm not going to get into that.

00:46:30.000 But you know a person did it.

00:46:32.000 I did find out who did it.

00:46:33.000 And for me, the legal battle, you know, so sure, I go out and I sue them and I say, hey, you took this amount of money and fuel.

00:46:41.000 Well, they have more money than I do as a company, and they're going to be able to stand the battle longer than I can.

00:46:47.000 So I'm going to spend four times as much to get back a little bit of money.

00:46:52.000 The North Slope is a place that even if we don't live anywhere close to each other, word spreads like wildfire.

00:46:58.000 That company is having a hard time even getting business now.

00:47:02.000 Because they stole it from you?

00:47:03.000 Good.

00:47:03.000 Mm-hmm.

00:47:04.000 When you lose, you know, respect is something that is absolutely earned up there, but it's lost so easily.

00:47:11.000 Why would they do that?

00:47:12.000 Why would they steal oil from you like that?

00:47:14.000 Just because it was there and they could get away with it?

00:47:17.000 They thought they could, yeah.

00:47:18.000 And they did.

00:47:23.000 Now, the camp is mostly ecotourism and ology.

00:47:27.000 That's the majority of the money that comes through.

00:47:29.000 Bird watchers, Northern Lights viewers, scientists trying to get their groove on.

00:47:33.000 But August and part of September, that's when the hunters show up.

00:47:37.000 And when I had to leave to have my surgeries, shut down the camp...

00:47:42.000 This company thought, hey, this is a great way.

00:47:44.000 I can bring people in.

00:47:45.000 I don't have to pay for anything, and they're going to be warm, and they're going to use the equipment.

00:47:50.000 But I did find a bill of lading that they left behind.

00:47:53.000 They threw away their garbage.

00:47:54.000 They did not burn their garbage.

00:47:56.000 So I went through the garbage.

00:47:59.000 But in the end, what is it worth?

00:48:01.000 How long were they out there for?

00:48:04.000 I would say they ran people through for a solid month.

00:48:08.000 Wow.

00:48:09.000 Yeah.

00:48:10.000 But, you know, the point is, for me... 1.00

00:48:13.000 What a bunch of fucking shitheads. 1.00

00:48:15.000 Again, a choice. 1.00

00:48:15.000 Do I choose to live in the negativity of that and drag myself through several years of court over it? 1.00

00:48:20.000 Or do I just go, beyond it?

00:48:23.000 Right. 1.00

00:48:23.000 You know, they have to live with being a dickhead. 1.00

00:48:25.000 I've moved past it. 0.96

00:48:26.000 So, you say August and September you have hunters up there in your camp?

00:48:31.000 Uh-huh.

00:48:32.000 And is it because of the caribou migration?

00:48:34.000 Uh-huh.

00:48:34.000 Yeah, three of the major herds migrate right through camp.

00:48:37.000 The Kavik River Valley is, if you go into the different geologic papers, professional papers, even in the late 1800s through the mid-1900s, the Kavik River Valley is very unique among the watersheds there.

00:48:53.000 My variety of plant life is far different than it is in other ones.

00:48:56.000 Well, the type of lichen that a caribou eats and moss that they eat to gain the most fat for their journey out is right in that valley.

00:49:05.000 Lichen is that white stuff.

00:49:07.000 I've seen that stuff on the ground before.

00:49:08.000 Yeah, I mean, it's multicolored, but yeah, they eat lichen and moss, right?

00:49:11.000 And that's where they gain their fat.

00:49:13.000 Well, I have a high concentration of it in that valley, so they want to migrate through. 0.51

00:49:18.000 No guarantees implied, because like this year, they just lifted their collective cow heads and moved out.

00:49:25.000 And really unusual that they did.

00:49:27.000 Now looking back at it, winter hit with an iron fist and hasn't left yet.

00:49:32.000 So it was a smooth move.

00:49:34.000 Somehow they knew it was coming and they left.

00:49:37.000 Yeah, go figure that one.

00:49:39.000 But I pay attention to my plants.

00:49:41.000 Sometime in August, I start peeling the bark off the willow.

00:49:43.000 If it's easy to peel, the plant still thinks there's going to be plenty of good weather.

00:49:49.000 Once it starts to really get tough and it's sucking up to the skin, well, all the sap is being reserved and that plant's getting ready for winter.

00:49:56.000 It may be 80 degrees outside, but the plant is telling me to get the hell ready.

00:50:00.000 So, you know, meteorologically speaking, I can get on the internet and look at the weather systems and say, oh, I think this is going to happen.

00:50:07.000 But I go outside and look at my plants and my animals and I know what's going to happen.

00:50:11.000 That's amazing.

00:50:12.000 So you could tell by just pulling the bark off of a plant?

00:50:17.000 That tells me that those plants are getting ready for weather that I may not be thinking is coming, but they do.

00:50:25.000 That's amazing. 0.99

00:50:26.000 How the fuck do they know? 0.99

00:50:27.000 I don't know. 1.00

00:50:29.000 Million dollar question.

00:50:30.000 They know and the caribou know.

00:50:33.000 Everything knows.

00:50:34.000 All of a sudden, like there was one year and all the bears, rather than, like they'll dig their dens into the side of the bank, and when the water starts to rise, it comes in and wakes them up, and a bear's favorite food is cub.

00:50:46.000 So the boars wake up the male bears usually first, and they run around, find the other dens, and eat the cubs.

00:50:53.000 But then one year, all of a sudden, the bears came up and about 3,000 foot level, 2,000 foot level started digging dens.

00:50:59.000 And I'm like, I called Fish and Game, and I'm like, wow, what the hell's up with that?

00:51:03.000 And nobody's ever there but me, so I'm like, dude, I see this going on, and what's happening?

00:51:08.000 And they said, I don't know, but all the bears, the ones that are collared, they're all moving up. 0.99

00:51:12.000 And I was like, oh shit. 0.87

00:51:13.000 So I try to get everything set up in camp because that usually means an excessively high amount of snow, which means an excessive amount of water and flooding in the spring. 0.99

00:51:22.000 So I try to get everything ready by watching what they're doing.

00:51:25.000 I can set camp up differently to be protected from a flood in the spring.

00:51:29.000 That is amazing.

00:51:31.000 That is so amazing that they know that an excessive amount of snow is coming.

00:51:37.000 How they figure it, who knows.

00:51:39.000 But they will adjust and readjust their actions, you know, based on something that they feel.

00:51:46.000 I can adjust what I do based on what I see.

00:51:49.000 That's so bizarre.

00:51:50.000 I want to go up there now.

00:51:52.000 Well, get up there.

00:51:53.000 I want to go up there.

00:51:54.000 I want to come up there and hunt caribou up there in August, September.

00:51:57.000 That's the time?

00:51:59.000 What I tell people, I mean, I cannot guide without a license, but I can look at trends.

00:52:07.000 Sometime between August and the middle of September, that's when they're going to be there.

00:52:11.000 Now, it opens up in July.

00:52:13.000 Our hunting season goes from July through July.

00:52:15.000 But, you know, for so many months out of the year, they're down south having a vacation in Palm Springs.

00:52:20.000 So you have a 12-month hunting season?

00:52:21.000 It's just open all year round?

00:52:22.000 Pretty much.

00:52:23.000 The animals, depending on the species, our hunting season starts in July of any year and then goes through the winter.

00:52:31.000 And depending on the species, you have to shut down the season so that the animals can give birth and raise new babies.

00:52:37.000 They have to have a safety zone.

00:52:39.000 But in July, it opens up again.

00:52:43.000 Wow.

00:52:44.000 So when you shoot these bears, like when a bear comes in, are you eating these things?

00:52:48.000 Mm-hmm.

00:52:49.000 You eat the back straps?

00:52:50.000 Yeah, spring bear is always better than fall bear.

00:52:53.000 The gamey taste, if you will, is more concentrated in the fat.

00:52:58.000 A brown bear from down south is eating a lot of fish diet, and you are what you eat, so it's a very fishy-tasting product.

00:53:04.000 I don't care for that.

00:53:06.000 But up by me, I like to tell people that the bears eat berries and slow tourists, so I'm cool, you know?

00:53:12.000 But yeah, the bear that I got, what you don't see in that episode is, you know, I shoot the bear, I make sure he's gone.

00:53:18.000 It was an emotional thing.

00:53:20.000 But I start skinning him and I start getting the meat.

00:53:22.000 I got about 300 pounds of meat off of him while here's another bear, another grizzly.

00:53:26.000 Start circling in and getting real tight.

00:53:28.000 So I had the four-wheelers, I brought them up and boom, the fog came down, it went totally dark.

00:53:34.000 And so now you can't see.

00:53:36.000 So the safety dude for the filmies was there with his weapon and we put the headlights all out and you'd see this bear come in and sideswipe the four-wheelers.

00:53:44.000 Well, after 300 pounds of meat and harvesting the fur, I just had to say, it's time for me to back off.

00:53:53.000 The bear can munch on this, which will buy me the time to get away.

00:53:56.000 It's weird that bears are such cannibals.

00:53:58.000 They're opportunists.

00:54:00.000 I'm sure they don't look and say, oh wow, that was Marty.

00:54:03.000 It's just an opportunity to fill their beaks. 0.65

00:54:06.000 And survival at its basic.

00:54:08.000 The cub thing, though, is really creepy.

00:54:10.000 It is.

00:54:11.000 It is.

00:54:12.000 I don't know what started that with bears, but it's a sure bet.

00:54:17.000 In an area where the caribou may not have migrated out early enough, and when the bears wake up, they're fairly sluggish, they walk around like drunkards, their muscles are atrophied, and there's not a lot of food.

00:54:27.000 But it's a sure bet that the mothers with cubs tend to wake up later, so they just go in, dig it out, and it's an opportunity for food.

00:54:36.000 Still, it's just so crazy that an animal would almost instinctively and naturally cannibalize.

00:54:43.000 It is.

00:54:44.000 You know, I mean, from a human's perspective, it's a little creepy. 0.99

00:54:48.000 But from an animal perspective, if you want to survive, you're going to find what food's available.

00:54:53.000 But it seems like they're one of the rare animals that cannibalizes on a regular basis.

00:54:58.000 Like, that's a staple of their diet.

00:55:00.000 I don't know about that if you've ever had a kid that had a gerbil as a pet.

00:55:04.000 Oh, that's true.

00:55:04.000 Just saying.

00:55:05.000 Yeah, that's true.

00:55:05.000 I actually had hamsters and they ate the babies.

00:55:08.000 We had to watch it and we're like, what the...

00:55:11.000 They had a disease, though, called wet tail.

00:55:14.000 There's some disease that hamsters get.

00:55:16.000 When the babies get a disease, the mother will eat the baby. 0.96

00:55:18.000 But, you know, our cute little hamster that we love was just chowing on its baby's head.

00:55:23.000 You know, it was like an open coconut. 0.99

00:55:25.000 I was like, what the fuck is wrong with Fluffy? 0.99

00:55:28.000 Yeah. 0.99

00:55:30.000 Bloody mess inside the hamster cage.

00:55:33.000 But I think that was more, like I said, because they were sick.

00:55:37.000 It wasn't like she was really hungry.

00:55:38.000 She had plenty of hamster food.

00:55:40.000 Yeah, I don't know.

00:55:41.000 I don't know either.

00:55:42.000 I'm just guessing.

00:55:43.000 But it's just, it's one of the weird things about bears, like bears particularly, that they will...

00:55:49.000 Yeah, they will survive at any cost.

00:55:51.000 Yeah, and they actually, as you said, they actually go out looking for the cubs.

00:55:56.000 It's one of the things they say.

00:55:57.000 Yeah, the boars that wake up early.

00:55:58.000 And Marty, actually, the bear that I mentioned earlier, She is old enough that she acts a lot like a boar.

00:56:03.000 A boar is a male bear, and a sow is a female.

00:56:06.000 Old as she is, she digs her duns where she's going to get hit with the water to wake her up first, and she'll do the same thing. 1.00

00:56:13.000 Wow, she'll go out looking for cubs. 0.99

00:56:15.000 Yep.

00:56:16.000 Whoa! 0.71

00:56:17.000 Jesus.

00:56:17.000 Yeah.

00:56:18.000 When I was in Alberta, the camp that I was at, the guy who was there, this guy John, his son, saw a bear kill the cub, attack this female, kill the cub, and then ate half of it,

00:56:35.000 left, and the female came back and ate the rest of her cub. 0.99

00:56:39.000 And he was like, wow, that's a first.

00:56:39.000 Yeah.

00:56:41.000 I've never seen one eat their own cub.

00:56:43.000 But I guess once it's dead, it just becomes meat.

00:56:46.000 It's food.

00:56:47.000 Yeah.

00:56:49.000 We watched these bears go at it, too.

00:56:50.000 It was crazy watching these, like, ultimate fighting championship of bears.

00:56:55.000 They just started going to battle because the male kept trying to come into camp, and the female would send her cubs up the tree and try to chase off the male, and he would deal with it for a little bit, and then he would come back in, and then they would start fighting, and they were standing on two legs and going at it.

00:57:10.000 It's amazing to see even the wolves or the wolverines Now, you know, I've seen a wolverine.

00:57:17.000 Now, when I say wolverine, yeah, they're like a badger.

00:57:20.000 Mine are about three and a half, four foot at the shoulders, 120 pounds.

00:57:24.000 But I've seen them take on grizzlies and come out on top.

00:57:27.000 That's a big wolverine, right?

00:57:29.000 Yeah, so the wolverine's up by me, and even the wolves, they're considered to have, they call it a throwback to the Mackenzie River breed, and they're averaging about 200-250 pounds.

00:57:39.000 The wolves?

00:57:40.000 Yeah, I used to have state record for the state of Alaska on a trapped wolf.

00:57:43.000 It was 9'6", nose to tail, and I had it in Kavik, you know, in the dining hall.

00:57:48.000 9'6".

00:57:49.000 So the wolves I'm dealing with are not these little tiny shih tzu things.

00:57:54.000 You know, they are Shih Tzu things. 0.98

00:58:00.000 Wow, that's crazy.

00:58:02.000 And you're getting like a pack of 20 plus that are actually taking out a bear.

00:58:07.000 Yeah, usually a wolf will...

00:58:10.000 They adjust their pack size according to how much food there is and opportunity there is.

00:58:16.000 Well, there is enough by me that they've actually, they never split the pack.

00:58:20.000 They're still, and I used to say 21, and then the people that do the air censuses, you know, he called in and he says, hey Sue, it's Andy here, you know, you always say 21 wolves, and I'm like, yeah, so what is it, 18?

00:58:31.000 It looks like 21 to me, and he says, no, 22 plus pups.

00:58:35.000 And I'm like, dude!

00:58:36.000 And he says, yeah, they've actually dug a permanent den now, which is unusual.

00:58:40.000 They follow their food source, so to dig a permanent den shows me that my ecosystem is changing enough that the wolves feel they can stake a territory and stay there.

00:58:52.000 It's not just everything migrates out, you follow it, it comes back in, you follow it.

00:58:55.000 They feel that there is now a good enough food source that they can stay year-round in one place.

00:59:00.000 Besides the time where they chased the bear and the bear brushed up against the tents and they took him out, how close did they get to you?

00:59:08.000 Pretty close.

00:59:10.000 Back when I first started at Kavik, you know, it was set up differently, different buildings, everything.

00:59:15.000 But the desk was in the dining hall.

00:59:18.000 I used to live in a corner of the dining hall.

00:59:20.000 And so you have a window out here on the wooden end cap.

00:59:23.000 And I'm doing the stuff for work.

00:59:26.000 And you just had a feeling something was behind you.

00:59:28.000 And I turn around and I'm nose to nose with the big black wolf.

00:59:31.000 His head was stuffed right through the window.

00:59:32.000 Oh! 0.60

00:59:33.000 So I go to reach the gun, and he just slipped down and ran.

00:59:37.000 So he kind of had a feeling that you were going to shoot him?

00:59:41.000 Yeah, he just needed to get the hell out.

00:59:43.000 You were making a move that was probably a bad thing for him.

00:59:45.000 Yeah, I was doing a shady move, so he needed to get out, but I don't know how long he was back there, and he certainly could have chewed me up, but he was as curious about me as I was about him.

00:59:54.000 And it seems like if they're making a den and having, they probably have a steady supply of food.

01:00:00.000 Yeah.

01:00:01.000 Fairly.

01:00:01.000 Now, you know, am I on that food group?

01:00:03.000 Probably.

01:00:04.000 Do they normally go, oh yeah, let's find a city and start attacking people?

01:00:08.000 No.

01:00:08.000 But I'm not a city, I'm an individual.

01:00:11.000 But like when my granddaughter, when she first came up there to visit, and she was six, five or six, and every time she got more than ten foot away, here out of the riverbank, the big gray wolf would start slinking.

01:00:21.000 So I had to tie a rope from her to me, and she couldn't get more than ten foot away. 1.00

01:00:25.000 Which frustrated her, so I took her for a walk down to the old fox den, where the little babies were, and all the little bodies are there, and bones are there, and the wolf had gotten in and eaten them.

01:00:35.000 And she was all bummed out, and I turned her around to walk.

01:00:38.000 Now we had not even two minutes there, and here's a wolf track about this big, and I have a picture of her hand next to it, and it was right in her footprint.

01:00:45.000 And I said, okay, and she says, he is stalking me.

01:00:48.000 And I said, yeah.

01:00:49.000 So what does that tell you?

01:00:51.000 I said, where is he right now?

01:00:52.000 And then her eyes got big and all she sees is brush.

01:00:54.000 And I said, yeah, we need to get the hell out of here.

01:00:56.000 You are a Scooby Snack. 0.91

01:00:57.000 And you're carrying a gun the entire time you're doing this?

01:00:59.000 Oh yeah, yeah.

01:01:00.000 You don't go anywhere without a gun?

01:01:01.000 Nope.

01:01:01.000 And when the kids get up there, you know, I teach them with little weapons first.

01:01:04.000 You know, they get a 410 shotgun and a 22 single action.

01:01:08.000 And they learn gun safety.

01:01:10.000 And then like my grandson this year, he came up and for the first time he got to take down a couple of caribou and feed his family.

01:01:16.000 You know, I helped him prepare the meat, and he took it back down south.

01:01:19.000 So, my granddaughter, though, you know, that's the difference in, I have to celebrate who she is, not who I am, when I'm with her.

01:01:26.000 And after her first year there, you know, I asked her as I was bringing her home, I said, so are you going to come up and visit, you know, Nathan, my grandson, he's all booyah about coming back.

01:01:35.000 And I said, so do you want to come back up and see Grandma?

01:01:38.000 And she said, well, Grandma, you know I love you, right?

01:01:41.000 And I'm like, Yeah, and she says, but I'm going to go visit Uncle Jesse and Aunt Megan, because they do mani-pedis and they like to shop.

01:01:47.000 They do mani-pedis.

01:01:49.000 So, for her, she's a girly girl.

01:01:52.000 Anything sparkly, shiny, and pink is on her hit list.

01:01:55.000 So, I told her, I said, well, okay, you can't bum out at your brother when he gets to come up, but when I do take a break, I'll hook you up, we'll go to Laughlin, and we'll go get big-ass sunglasses, drink virgin Mai Tais, and go shopping for dresses and get mani-pedis.

01:02:11.000 So I have to celebrate who she is, not necessarily who I am or who I think she should be.

01:02:16.000 Right.

01:02:17.000 Well, good for you.

01:02:18.000 Now, you live in a place that doesn't have any trees.

01:02:21.000 Mm-mm.

01:02:22.000 No, I'm several hundred miles above the tree line.

01:02:24.000 Is that because it just gets too cold?

01:02:27.000 The weather's too harsh?

01:02:28.000 Well, yeah.

01:02:28.000 I don't have soil.

01:02:30.000 There is no soil.

01:02:31.000 You have ice, permanently frozen ground.

01:02:33.000 You have rocks on top of that.

01:02:35.000 Maybe a little silt, but that's a round rock.

01:02:37.000 Silt is a round rock.

01:02:38.000 It's not soil.

01:02:40.000 And so it's very difficult for things to grow.

01:02:42.000 And with the growing season and the cold temperatures, things grow very slowly.

01:02:46.000 So it's just not a climate that trees can grow in.

01:02:51.000 So this is an incredibly inhospitable environment to a lot of animals.

01:02:56.000 So why do animals live up there?

01:02:58.000 What keeps them coming back?

01:03:01.000 No matter where you are on the planet, whether it be a form of bacteria, look at an asteroid.

01:03:07.000 You've got bacteria and viruses that grow.

01:03:09.000 Why?

01:03:10.000 Who knows?

01:03:11.000 Life finds a way.

01:03:13.000 Wow.

01:03:14.000 And life finds a way 200 miles above the Arctic Circle.

01:03:19.000 I just...

01:03:20.000 I have a hard time...

01:03:22.000 I just don't understand what compels you to choose that isolation.

01:03:26.000 When you can choose an isolation more like in an area where you maybe have more trees and, you know, you could...

01:03:33.000 That may be one of my next steps.

01:03:35.000 I mean, when I want a softer, easier way of life, I'll go down where there's trees.

01:03:38.000 Softer and easier is to live in the forest.

01:03:41.000 That's so hilarious!

01:03:43.000 Now, how the hell did they find you for this TV show?

01:03:47.000 The creator of this show also created another show called Flying Wild Alaska, and I used those pilots to fly for me, and so I appeared on a couple of those episodes.

01:03:58.000 Sarah Palin also did a show, and she came out there to hunt.

01:04:02.000 And now I already had a family out there at the time.

01:04:05.000 It was very early in the hunting season, not a lot of animals around, so I flung her in a little plane further out because I had an 8 and a 10 year old girl that were hunting for the first time out there.

01:04:15.000 But they had seen me do these other shows, so when he created the Life Below Zero concept, He called and he says, I've got this idea.

01:04:22.000 Do you want to do it?

01:04:23.000 And they came out and I said, well, I never do anything scripted, period.

01:04:27.000 I don't want to hear how you think it'd look cool, then go do it yourself.

01:04:30.000 I mean, there's enough natural stuff that happens.

01:04:32.000 That's what we stick to.

01:04:33.000 And that's what the show does.

01:04:36.000 I mean, if we swear and go psycho, I mean, that shows it on TV. If we pooch it and don't stock enough of something, well, it's going to show that.

01:04:45.000 Or if you get hurt or whatever. 0.99

01:04:48.000 So anyways, they did the sizzle reel and asked me and I said, alright, as long as you don't ever ask me to do something stupid, you know? 0.99

01:04:54.000 Did you have any reservations about exposing yourself like this? 0.98

01:04:59.000 About putting yourself on television and about showing this lifestyle?

01:05:04.000 I don't have any reservations about showing what I do.

01:05:07.000 There are some things, you know, privacy is privacy, and I do expect a certain amount of it, and I'm certainly, I treasure my alone time, so I can sometimes get an attitude about sharing that.

01:05:19.000 There is a trade-off.

01:05:20.000 You know, for me, doing the show and the premise that it does it on, one of the cool things for me is, you know, sooner or later my number's gonna be up.

01:05:29.000 You know, I've looked all over, there's no expiration date I can find, I just simply know what's coming.

01:05:34.000 Now, I may not ever get to meet my great-grandchildren, but if they want to know who I was, pop in a DVD, they see who I really was, not who they thought I was.

01:05:43.000 So, that's a pretty cool trade-off for me.

01:05:46.000 Occasionally, there is some unique territory that comes with Being in a social setting, there are... 0.98

01:05:55.000 Go to some of these sites and, you know, I've had people send me emails, why don't you just die? 0.99

01:05:59.000 I hope a bear does eat you. 0.99

01:06:01.000 You know, it's like, oh, thanks. 0.99

01:06:03.000 Well, whenever people have access, just any kind of access to people, there's going to be a certain amount of shitheads that are going to do things like that.

01:06:09.000 For me, there's far more people that are positive, curious...

01:06:14.000 And it's cool to touch this kind of a lifestyle.

01:06:17.000 You know, some people romanticize the Grizzly Adams thing and this is a way for them to experience it without having to actually outrun a bear.

01:06:26.000 Yeah.

01:06:27.000 Yeah, that's how I feel about that show.

01:06:29.000 I don't have a desire to live a subsistence lifestyle, but I really enjoy watching all these guys do it, and you do it.

01:06:37.000 But you're very different than anybody else on the show, because everybody else on the show, they live in a place where there's woods, and they have a house, and like I said, you're the gangster of the gangsters.

01:06:48.000 They're all pretty gangster.

01:06:51.000 There's a unique set of challenges for each and every group.

01:06:55.000 Yeah, it's just such a weird way to live life.

01:06:59.000 And I think there's a trend that's going on right now where a lot of people feel a bit disenchanted with urban life.

01:07:07.000 Have you seen the Werner Herzog documentary, Happy People?

01:07:11.000 No.

01:07:12.000 It's called Happy People, Life on the Taiga, A Year in the Taiga, the Taiga River in Siberia, and it's about these guys who are just hunters and trappers, and they live this subsistence lifestyle in Siberia, and they're incredibly happy.

01:07:27.000 They're always joking around and smiling and laughing.

01:07:30.000 And that's one thing, maybe on the series you don't get to see, I'm a really big goofball, and I laugh a lot, and I dance a lot, and I... But you do it by yourself, though.

01:07:39.000 Yeah, yeah.

01:07:40.000 Well...

01:07:41.000 There's a lot of footage, because every time they do a time lapse, I, oh, what are you doing?

01:07:46.000 Oh, that's been done for a little while, we're just letting it run out.

01:07:48.000 Well, I go out there and I do these songs and dances, and there's one really good video that they did.

01:07:56.000 But, you know, I swear too much, so I can't go on the air.

01:08:00.000 Why don't they do an internet version?

01:08:02.000 Yeah, yeah.

01:08:03.000 Like put uncensored clips, give a little warning so you know when you're clicking on it.

01:08:07.000 I'm pretty goofy.

01:08:08.000 It's like me, you know, for the hunting sequence because, you know, for me, any of us when we go out hunting and there's a camera right behind you, you know, the very first episodes were learning experiences for us all.

01:08:19.000 You know, I'm out there trying to get the ptarmigan. 0.96

01:08:21.000 And they're all flying away, flying away, and I'm, you know, bitches, you know, what the hell are they doing? 0.57

01:08:26.000 Well, I turn around, here's a six-foot-something guy in a bright blue outfit going, dude, there are no six-foot blueberries in the winter out here. 0.99

01:08:32.000 Can you fucking get it down, you know? 0.98

01:08:33.000 And so we've all learned. 0.99

01:08:36.000 But so for the hunting sequence, me and my hilarity, you know, I went and got Cornish game hens, and, you know, what kind of a trail do they leave?

01:08:43.000 You know, big sludge and the thing.

01:08:44.000 So I have this whole thing, where are they found?

01:08:46.000 On the shelf.

01:08:47.000 So I did this whole hilarious sequence of, you know, hunting the Cornish hens.

01:08:52.000 But, you know, all of us have a unique set of challenges.

01:08:56.000 Part of the challenge is still being in love with your lifestyle at the end of the day.

01:09:02.000 I think the cure to this sort of aimless life that a lot of people find themselves in when they're stuck in a cubicle, they're working for a company, the end of the day, they just go to sleep, they get up again, they have to do it all over again.

01:09:13.000 It doesn't feel like they're connected to what they're doing, or it doesn't feel like they have a passion for what they're doing, and then they see people that are living the subsistence lifestyle, and it has this romantic quality to it, this sort of throwback.

01:09:26.000 Well, you know that society today...

01:09:28.000 Both people are going to have to go out and work.

01:09:30.000 They're going to have to work a lot of hours, they're not raising their own children, and they're eking out enough money just to pay the electric and the water and do it all over again.

01:09:40.000 Are you living life or are you just getting through it?

01:09:43.000 And is that the fault of the government?

01:09:45.000 Is that the, you know, I mean, are you over-governed?

01:09:47.000 I mean, where is the break?

01:09:49.000 Where's the profit margin on the companies gonna fall down short enough so that the money a family makes, you get your two weeks vacation and you go play in the woods with your kids?

01:09:58.000 Right now, people can't do that.

01:10:00.000 So I think these shows go, look, you know, these people, we're governed by the same law.

01:10:06.000 We're just a little lawless about it.

01:10:08.000 Yeah, I think the over-competitive nature of a lot of people has led us to all agree to this really ridiculous life where you're working 50 plus hours a week and you don't really have a life outside of work.

01:10:22.000 Well, I can't imagine having to set my alarm clock and punch a clock for somebody else anymore.

01:10:29.000 Well, I know I own a watch.

01:10:31.000 I don't know where I put it.

01:10:31.000 I lost it a few years ago.

01:10:34.000 But for me, in the winter, I know when I get my first sunset again in late August, I know I'm about a month before I don't see people.

01:10:42.000 And then I don't even worry about the clock.

01:10:44.000 I wake up when I'm not tired.

01:10:45.000 I go to sleep when I'm tired.

01:10:46.000 If I'm hungry, I eat.

01:10:48.000 If I don't expend a lot of calories, then I'm not hungry.

01:10:51.000 I don't take it in.

01:10:52.000 What do you do to entertain yourself all throughout the dead of the winter?

01:10:56.000 Snow is the gift that keeps giving.

01:10:58.000 You can always dig and move snow.

01:11:00.000 Try to keep the paths open.

01:11:02.000 The outhouse is a quarter mile away from where I'm at.

01:11:04.000 What?

01:11:04.000 When you've got to go, you need to...

01:11:08.000 Wait a minute.

01:11:09.000 Lord forbid you get the trots, because you've got a long way to go, and you could be in a blizzard.

01:11:13.000 Wait a minute.

01:11:14.000 Your outhouse is...

01:11:15.000 It's about a quarter of a mile away from my door.

01:11:19.000 That's insane.

01:11:20.000 So every time you go, you have to go a quarter mile?

01:11:23.000 Yep.

01:11:24.000 I mean, when nobody's there, I mean, I can just go outside, drop my drawers, and take care of business.

01:11:29.000 I can get a five-gallon bucket and do it there, because who's watching?

01:11:32.000 I can walk around naked all day long, and the window's open, you know?

01:11:35.000 I mean, if that's what I want to do.

01:11:37.000 But I'm setting the tone of my life, not somebody else.

01:11:40.000 Why is the outhouse so far?

01:11:43.000 Well, they can.

01:11:45.000 I'm not allowed.

01:11:46.000 It's a protected ecosystem.

01:11:47.000 I can't dig a hole in the ground and have you go in it.

01:11:50.000 Because human waste is considered potentially hazardous.

01:11:53.000 People take chemicals, they take drugs, they do whatever.

01:11:55.000 So it has to be in a bin that is collected, which I then have to separate the solids and the liquids and burn it to its lowest ash.

01:12:02.000 It can have an odor that some people don't like.

01:12:07.000 Therefore, you don't want it right next to the dining hall.

01:12:10.000 But a quarter mile is really far.

01:12:13.000 Not when the next city's 500 miles away.

01:12:16.000 Right, but when it's 100 below zero...

01:12:16.000 It's all relative.

01:12:19.000 Then I can always grab a bucket and do it in a bucket.

01:12:22.000 Yeah, I understand.

01:12:23.000 Yeah, I mean, you just adjust to your own lifestyle.

01:12:26.000 And you don't mind in the summer walking a hundred, you know, whatever it is, how many hundred yards?

01:12:31.000 How many hundred yards is a quarter mile?

01:12:33.000 Well, a quarter of a mile is 5,000 in jump change, so you got, what, 1,200?

01:12:37.000 It's a 1,500 foot that you're going to go, so 500 yards?

01:12:41.000 Yeah, you walk...

01:12:42.000 I don't mind that.

01:12:43.000 Why would I? I got a leg cannon on, you know, something jumps out at me, I'm going to jump back.

01:12:48.000 A leg cannon?

01:12:49.000 Yeah.

01:12:49.000 What are you, like a.44 Magnum or something?

01:12:51.000 Well, I've got a couple of.44 Mags, some have shorter barrels, some have longer barrels, and I just got a.454 pistol, so with a chest harness, there's something I'm going to be doing here in the near future where I felt I needed something a little bigger, a little closer to the chest, because I'm going to need hands-free.

01:13:07.000 What are you doing?

01:13:08.000 Can't tell you?

01:13:09.000 Is it a part of the show?

01:13:10.000 Yes.

01:13:10.000 Okay, well, I'll tune in and I'll watch.

01:13:12.000 I'll learn from that.

01:13:14.000 Do you anticipate, like, do you have a plan of, like, how long you want to stay in this place or are you just merely, like, by your feelings?

01:13:24.000 For me personally, no, I don't plan.

01:13:27.000 You know, when I, like I say, Raven personality, there may be something awesome that I find out about or I see or I want to do or maybe I want to go gold panning for a while.

01:13:36.000 I don't limit myself.

01:13:38.000 My vision is my own, not anybody else's.

01:13:41.000 But because I am only there through the grace of having a lease with the state and a profitable business, If that turns around, or the state, or anybody else says, look, there's been a land swap.

01:13:53.000 It's no longer owned by the state.

01:13:54.000 These people don't want you there.

01:13:55.000 It may be out of my control when I leave.

01:14:00.000 And that's something that I have to reconcile.

01:14:02.000 I'm also not a spring chicken.

01:14:04.000 Not that I'm the cryptkeeper, but my age and my body is starting to wear down, so I need to read the signs.

01:14:12.000 You need to plan for the future.

01:14:14.000 Yeah, I mean, life happens.

01:14:15.000 What if I... What if I can't see well anymore?

01:14:19.000 Then hunting my own meat probably isn't going to be real successful.

01:14:22.000 What if I break another couple bones in my body?

01:14:25.000 I just had some more foot surgery.

01:14:26.000 I've got to have the feet worked on again from when I broke them.

01:14:31.000 I had a difficult time walking this summer.

01:14:34.000 So I had one procedure done and I'm going to have a couple of more.

01:14:37.000 What if that doesn't come back?

01:14:39.000 Are the bones just, do they heal in a proper way?

01:14:42.000 I have a lot of scar tissue.

01:14:43.000 The tendons reacted poorly.

01:14:46.000 The level of pain, I mean, I did it for a while, but I was barely, you know, walking.

01:14:52.000 So they did.

01:14:53.000 I went down just to see the doctor.

01:14:54.000 He ended up doing surgery on both feet.

01:14:56.000 So that was kind of a trip.

01:14:58.000 But he wants to do some more procedures to try and help the situation.

01:15:02.000 If it doesn't get better, I have to change what I'm doing.

01:15:04.000 And then you also have the downtime after surgery where you can't do anything for a while.

01:15:08.000 Yeah, I didn't take downtime.

01:15:09.000 I couldn't afford it, so I just dealt with it.

01:15:11.000 Wow.

01:15:12.000 This time I'm going to try to give myself two or three days of downtime, but life keeps happening whether I like it to or not.

01:15:19.000 I can't let all of the chores go.

01:15:22.000 I have to, whether I like it or hate it, I have to keep fueling my heat tank.

01:15:26.000 If I don't have fuel or oil in the heat tank, I don't have heat.

01:15:30.000 The longest I've gone without heat up there is two months and I just covered up in all my winter gear and waited for a fuel delivery.

01:15:36.000 Two months?

01:15:37.000 And what time of the year was this?

01:15:39.000 That was in January, February, the coldest time for us.

01:15:43.000 And it was not pleasant and I didn't enjoy it.

01:15:47.000 And I don't necessarily ever want to do it again.

01:15:50.000 If I have to, I have to.

01:15:51.000 But I don't want to.

01:15:54.000 But you don't know what's going to be thrown at you.

01:15:57.000 What if a blizzard sends something...

01:15:59.000 You know, if somebody dropped a pop can on the tundra and I don't know about it, in an 80, 100 mile an hour breeze, that's going to become a missile that might take out my tent.

01:16:07.000 So I have to have several places, another tent that I can go to and live in.

01:16:10.000 That gets taken out, a trailer that I can live in.

01:16:12.000 And you also have to be able to get to those tents, so you have to be able to make a path.

01:16:17.000 I tie ropes.

01:16:18.000 Wow.

01:16:18.000 But to get through the 8 foot deep snow...

01:16:21.000 You tie ropes.

01:16:22.000 You can tie it to the roofline, you can tie it to the bottom.

01:16:25.000 And you wear snowshoes and just walk on the top of it?

01:16:28.000 You know, when an emergency happens, you don't get to pick what you're wearing.

01:16:33.000 Well, how do you get through eight foot deep of snow, though?

01:16:36.000 It depends on the type of snow.

01:16:37.000 If it's hard pack, you walk on top of it.

01:16:39.000 If it's soft, you swim.

01:16:41.000 Wow.

01:16:42.000 Swim through the snow.

01:16:45.000 How much has changed since you've been doing this television show?

01:16:49.000 Has the attention of the show changed your lifestyle in any way?

01:16:53.000 Has it changed how you interact with the people that are coming into your camp?

01:16:58.000 Um, no.

01:17:00.000 I mean, I am who I am.

01:17:02.000 You know, I smoke cigars, swill single malt, and swear a lot.

01:17:07.000 It doesn't change who I am.

01:17:09.000 The basic needs of the camp are set.

01:17:11.000 Now, some people, I don't have a lot of people that come in just because of the show.

01:17:17.000 Kavik is extremely remote.

01:17:19.000 The dollar value it takes to get to me precludes some people from being able to do it.

01:17:26.000 But there has to be some crazy dude out there that's in love with you.

01:17:28.000 That's my gal! 0.93

01:17:30.000 Is that what you're getting at?

01:17:31.000 That's my gal! 0.63

01:17:32.000 Yeah, there was one that showed up this year.

01:17:36.000 And actually, for a couple of years, I've been trying to set up, you know, and it was, you know, bringing the family out to hunt, whatever.

01:17:42.000 And then it was like, ah, they can't make it.

01:17:44.000 Can I still come out?

01:17:45.000 Well, yeah, it's going to cost this much, you know.

01:17:47.000 Assign their room to them.

01:17:48.000 I'm busy working, come in, and this person had moved into, I call my personal building the Twinkie.

01:17:53.000 It's long, yellow, and filled with goodness, right?

01:17:55.000 So I come in and here's this dude laying in my bed and has decided that we're in love and he had his whole thing going on in his head.

01:18:03.000 And he got very upset when I told him to get the hell out and he laid hands on me, put his hands here and was holding the knife.

01:18:08.000 So I had the gun on my hip and put it in his chest and said, you just brought a knife to a gunfight, you lose.

01:18:13.000 What?

01:18:14.000 So I had military people, some of the SEALs were there and they held the guy.

01:18:14.000 Wow.

01:18:18.000 I called the plane and kicked him out.

01:18:20.000 That's it?

01:18:21.000 Just kick him out?

01:18:22.000 Yeah.

01:18:23.000 Why don't you just feed him to a bear? 1.00

01:18:25.000 Seems like that would be the best way to get rid of him.

01:18:27.000 I wouldn't want that guy coming back. 1.00

01:18:28.000 Fuck that guy. 1.00

01:18:30.000 He's got a knife. 1.00

01:18:31.000 All of the Bush companies have a no-no list, and they know this person or that person or this.

01:18:35.000 Nobody flies in unless they ask me.

01:18:37.000 Right.

01:18:38.000 And the troopers know that should I feel threatened, I'm not going to shoot for the kneecaps. 0.96

01:18:44.000 I'm going to take him out.

01:18:45.000 Does anybody keep tabs on this fella?

01:18:48.000 I don't know.

01:18:49.000 That's a bad human being.

01:18:50.000 You should have just fed him to the bears. 0.73

01:18:52.000 Yeah, you know, that's not my...

01:18:53.000 My gig is just getting him out.

01:18:55.000 Yeah.

01:18:56.000 You know, it's like anything.

01:18:59.000 You neutralize the threat, kick them out.

01:19:01.000 Chances are, I mean, they've got to live with themselves, and they're probably not going to want to embarrass themselves again.

01:19:09.000 Some people have an amazing ability to distort reality in their head to the point where it's not living with themselves. 0.99

01:19:16.000 The rest of the world's fucked up. 0.99

01:19:17.000 I get interesting emails sometimes, and men in prison seem to find me awfully sexy. 0.99

01:19:23.000 But, um...

01:19:25.000 And none of them, they're all innocent, I'll tell you that much.

01:19:28.000 I bet.

01:19:28.000 They're like, if I just get out, I could live with her up in the middle of nowhere.

01:19:31.000 Yeah, there's one.

01:19:32.000 He's done 27 years of four consecutive life sentences for killing his wives.

01:19:36.000 He didn't do it.

01:19:37.000 How many wives? 0.99

01:19:39.000 Four wives. 0.99

01:19:40.000 He killed all four of them? 0.91

01:19:41.000 Well, he didn't do it, obviously.

01:19:42.000 Yeah, he's been framed.

01:19:42.000 He's been framed.

01:19:44.000 But he and I belong together.

01:19:46.000 And I'm like, whatever, you know, it's a...

01:19:49.000 Well, just don't marry him and I think you'd be good.

01:19:51.000 You know, conjugal visits are probably not going to happen.

01:19:53.000 Yeah, no marriage. 0.98

01:19:55.000 Just say, listen, you seem to be killing wives.

01:19:58.000 The key to this relationship.

01:19:59.000 Let's just keep it platonic.

01:20:02.000 You know, you could do your own show, like, really easily.

01:20:06.000 And I enjoy the show Life Below Zero, but you're such a powerful personality. 0.99

01:20:12.000 I mean, I guarantee you there's a lot of people that are just like, fuck all the rest of these people. 0.98

01:20:16.000 I want to find out what Sue's up to all day. 0.99

01:20:18.000 You're such a very rare human.

01:20:22.000 Yeah, that's probably a good thing for some people.

01:20:24.000 That you're rare?

01:20:25.000 Yeah.

01:20:26.000 Well, I don't know.

01:20:26.000 Why not?

01:20:27.000 We could be alright with a bunch of you running around.

01:20:27.000 Yeah, I don't know.

01:20:30.000 I mean, it probably wouldn't happen, but, you know, have you thought about doing your own version or another show that just kind of entirely focuses on you?

01:20:40.000 You know, that's not something I would think about.

01:20:43.000 That would be something that a network might present.

01:20:46.000 They must be, like, looking at you and realizing that this is this incredible personality that's attached to...

01:20:51.000 I know you probably don't like to think about yourself that way, but...

01:20:54.000 No, like, you know, people say...

01:20:55.000 There are some people that say, oh my gosh, you're a star.

01:20:57.000 And I go, no, I'm just a fat chick, you know, living on the tundra, you know.

01:21:01.000 I mean, don't put yourself on a pedestal unless you like falling from high places.

01:21:06.000 Sooner or later, a honey boo-boo is around the corner and you're done.

01:21:09.000 So if you put yourself on a pedestal, that's a pretty big drop.

01:21:13.000 Yeah. 1.00

01:21:13.000 No, I agree, but I just think you obviously enjoy some aspects of being on the show, otherwise you would have told them to fuck off. 1.00

01:21:21.000 I do occasionally. 0.99

01:21:22.000 We all go through our diva moments.

01:21:25.000 So you do kick them out sometimes?

01:21:29.000 We have butted heads a few times, and I call it putting them in time out, and I just lock myself in the Twinkie and I don't come out.

01:21:38.000 But they've been very, very respectful.

01:21:42.000 Occasionally, it's too much social time for me, and I have to get my alone time just to get it back in perspective.

01:21:50.000 And how much time do they spend filming?

01:21:53.000 Do they only come in the summer?

01:21:54.000 Are they only there for a couple months out of the year?

01:21:57.000 No, throughout the year, because if you notice, there are winter episodes and then there are summer episodes.

01:22:02.000 So throughout the year, they're very respectful.

01:22:05.000 They call and they say, hey, what are you up to for, I don't know, from now until the 25th of November? 0.98

01:22:11.000 Well, I'm going to do this, this, and this, and this is going to happen, and fuck, I didn't get that done. 0.88

01:22:15.000 Well, hey, do you think we can come and cover this and this and this? 0.97

01:22:17.000 And I'll go, no, I want to do this by myself because I might bonehead it.

01:22:20.000 Don't need that on the air.

01:22:22.000 But, you know, I go, yeah, we can do this.

01:22:24.000 That'd be cool.

01:22:25.000 Yeah, you can tag along.

01:22:26.000 And so they're respectful of asking me, what am I doing?

01:22:29.000 Do I mind having company?

01:22:30.000 And let's get it together.

01:22:32.000 So there's no real set shooting schedule.

01:22:35.000 It's essentially just they decide.

01:22:38.000 Let's say Kate and Andy may be doing something.

01:22:40.000 You know, everybody else's location is vastly different.

01:22:46.000 Temperatures, you know, than I am.

01:22:48.000 I'm way up there.

01:22:50.000 So my winter is much, much longer.

01:22:52.000 My freeze-up is much, much different.

01:22:55.000 They may break up before I do.

01:22:57.000 So, I mean, we all have to be given the respect of our individual areas, and the show does that.

01:23:02.000 That's amazing.

01:23:03.000 Well, listen, you've got to get out of here.

01:23:05.000 I know you've got some other stuff to do, but thank you so much for doing this.

01:23:08.000 I really appreciate it.

01:23:09.000 I really enjoy you on the show, and I just think you're awesome.

01:23:12.000 Thank you so much.

01:23:12.000 I love talking to you.

01:23:13.000 Okay, get up there for the caribou. 0.98

01:23:14.000 I would love to.

01:23:15.000 I would love to.

01:23:16.000 And everybody, you can follow Sue.

01:23:18.000 She's on Twitter.

01:23:19.000 It's Sue Akins on Twitter, and the show is also on Twitter, Life Below Zero TV. Thank you so much.

01:23:27.000 Thank you.

01:23:27.000 That was awesome.

The Joe Rogan Experience - October 23, 2014

Joe Rogan Experience #566 - Sue Aikens

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