Ep. 727: Backpack Hunting for Alaskan Black Bears

Steven Rinella https://www.instagram.com/stevenrinella/?hl=en talks with Evan Felker of Turnpike Troubadours https://www.instagram.com/turnpiketroubadours/?hl=en, Rick Smith https://www.instagram.com/ricksmith_media/?hl=en, Seth Morris https://www.instagram.com/sethmorris_45/?hl=en, Austin "Chilly" Chleborad https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2gmgTko9kU, and Conrad Piper-Ruth. Topics Discussed: Chilly’s a rifle man; all of Rick’s nature filming credentials; flipping your day because darkness never comes; getting sticky at night; don’t drink the till; how the Fiirst Lite Brooks Down Vest https://firstlite.com/products/mens-brooks-down-vest.html?lang=en_US&srsltid=AfmBOorrZHckQKiGDLDdKGBlw2eToqi2vf951aQTQbU1EUm9Xe1Mu8q2 packs to the size of a man’s scro; training dogs to hunt morels; Evan Felker’s cool cowboy guitar; Evan performs "The Red River" by the Turnpike Troubadours https://turnpiketroubadours.com; and Season 3 of our Kids podcast is out https://www.themeateater.com/listen/meateater-kids, so subscribe to the feed and listen, thanks! Connect with Steve https://www.themeateater.com/authors/steven-rinella and The MeatEater Podcast Network https://www.youtube.com/@MeatEaterPodcastNetwork Steve on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/stevenrinella and Twitter https://twitter.com/stevenrinella?lang=en MeatEater on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/meateater, Facebook https://www.facebook.com/StevenRinellaMeatEater/, Twitter https://twitter.com/MeatEaterTV?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor, and Youtube https://www.youtube.com/@MeatEaterPodcastNetwork See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.

• 0:04Steven Rinella?

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• 0:46Steven Rinella?

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• 1:14Steven Rinella?

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• 1:56Steven Rinella?

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• 2:10Steven Rinella?

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• 2:53Steven Rinella?

  This is the Meat Eater Podcast, coming at you shirtless, severely bug bitten, and in my case, underwearless. We hunt. The Meat Eater Podcast. You can't predict anything. The Meat Eater Podcast is brought to you by First Light. Whether you're checking trail cams, hanging deer stands, or scouting for elk, First Light has performance apparel to support every hunter in every environment. Check it out at firstlight.com. F-I-R-S-T-L-I-T-E.com.

• 3:24Steven Rinella?

  Welcome to the Meat Eater Podcast. We're, uh, we're, we're, you wouldn't call it broadcasting. We're recording in a airplane hangar.

• 3:33Speaker 03

  Airplane hangar, yeah.

• 3:34Steven Rinella?

  Next to a 206. If you guys, if this was a better show, we'd let you look that way. I argued in setting up that that is, is way more interesting than over here.

• 3:49Speaker 03

  It's busy.

• 3:50Steven Rinella?

  Yeah. Well, if you could, if you, if they had done it the way I thought,

• 3:56Steven Rinella?

  and you're watching on, you're watching the video on YouTube, you'd be looking at a big old welding project where there's like a frame of a cub getting all welded together, and it's held up on this kind of jig apparatus to support the whole thing. And there's all kinds of tools laying around and just...

• 4:17Steven Rinella?

  Looks awesome, but instead you got just a regular old plane.

• 4:22Speaker 04

  Still pretty cool.

• 4:23Steven Rinella?

  Pretty cool plane.

• 4:23Speaker 03

  It's a good looking plane.

• 4:24Steven Rinella?

  It's good. There's nothing wrong with that plane. I'm just telling you it's better over that way.

• 4:28Speaker 03

  Coolest part about that plane that people can't see is it says forestry on the wing.

• 4:32Steven Rinella?

  Mm, okay. Uh, joined today by Evan.

• 4:36Speaker 04

  So cool.

• 4:36Steven Rinella?

  Joined today by Evan Felker who's on the show for the second time. Yeah. Do you remember, what did we call the last time you came on? What was the name of it? Yeah. I, I can't remember. You did a good job on that one. Oh, thanks. Um, I keep wanting to sing my new song about chili just to show people that it's not like that big of a deal.

• 4:56Speaker 03

  What's not that big of a deal?

• 4:58Speaker 04

  Writing a song.

• 4:58Steven Rinella?

  Just writing songs, whatever. Listen to this one. Listen to this one.

• 5:03Steven Rinella?

  Chili's rifle man gonna make his final stand. See how far I got on that?

• 5:08Speaker 04

  It sounded like you almost forgot the second line.

• 5:11Steven Rinella?

  The second line was, I just repeat the first line. It was Chili's a rifle man, Chili's a rifle man. Oh. Rifle in his hand, gonna make his final stand. Now, you're hooked dude because you know, you're hooked because you're like, tell me more about the final stand.

• 5:28Speaker 04

  But knowing, you probably won't, you probably won't write anything more to it. I'd say, I'd say it's more of like a, a marching or hiking cadence.

• 5:36Steven Rinella?

  That's, that's what I wanted. Well, we were hiking when I came up with it. We were fixing to hike when I came up with it.

• 5:40Speaker 03

  It took you about seven days to come up with that, so.

• 5:45Steven Rinella?

  Or it takes time. Yeah. Um, so my song, my song is faltering and, uh, that's that. What I want to do though, so we're coming from, we're in this here aircraft hangar and we're coming from, uh, spending,

• 6:01Steven Rinella?

  oh, four or five days? I think six nights at least. Six nights? Nights. Six nights, um, doing like a little backpack based flying airplane hunt.

• 6:14Steven Rinella?

  And when we got into it, we, we had this argument about, I was, I was taking like, I was playing devil's advocate on this argument where, uh,

• 6:24Steven Rinella?

  The guys here were talking about looking at packing lists. Okay, talking about looking at packing lists and I was just for no reason at all.

• 6:34Steven Rinella?

  Assuming the position of someone who didn't think that was constructive.

• 6:41Speaker 03

  You just felt like arguing.

• 6:42Steven Rinella?

  Yeah, I felt like arguing. There's nothing, there's nothing like big to argue about. Rick hadn't said anything like totally stupid.

• 6:51Speaker 05

  Did you bring your eye mask? That's the question. Did you bring your eye mask?

• 6:54Steven Rinella?

  No, no. So, so I think what I was saying was this. I was saying it's very subject, it's subject, highly subjective. Yeah. Cause there's like things that work for people and things that don't work for people. And I was saying how I could go online and trick you guys and make a packing list for something that's coming up and then put crazy stuff on it. And then laugh when you brought it.

• 7:14Speaker 03

  Yeah. Well, I was trying, I was trying to tell you that I have the ability in my mind to be like, that'll work for me, that won't, type thing.

• 7:22Speaker 05

  Well, oh yeah, that's a good reminder. I should bring that. It doesn't get dark.

• 7:26Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's a, I didn't, wasn't thinking that, I should probably take that.

• 7:30Steven Rinella?

  So that's the attitude with which you approach packing.

• 7:32Speaker 03

  Yeah. Not like if I was watching yours and you're like, oh, I have a,

• 7:36Steven Rinella?

  I was gonna put down to bring a push broom.

• 7:38Speaker 03

  Yeah, push broom.

• 7:41Speaker 05

  Clean out your tent, just like one of those little guys.

• 7:43Speaker 03

  Might be nice.

• 7:44Steven Rinella?

  Totally normal list and then buried right in the middle of this is like a push broom.

• 7:48Speaker 03

  Keep a clean tent.

• 7:48Steven Rinella?

  And see if people bring it.

• 7:50Speaker 05

  See Conrad did not look at the list and he used a sock to cover his eyes while he was sleeping.

• 7:56Speaker 03

  Tucked into the hat.

• 7:59Steven Rinella?

  So what I, what I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do a gear thing for a minute. What I wanna do is, um, not what you brought. Not what you brought, but if everyone can think real quick, you can raise your hand when you're ready. Not what you brought, but like, so, so backpack hunting in June, in the mountains, in east central Alaska.

• 8:21Steven Rinella?

  Spring bear hunting. More like early summer bear hunting. Because like it starts turning to winter again in a couple of months. Um, you know, like September it'll snow, right? It'll, well, it'll snow in August.

• 8:33Speaker 03

  It's like early summer in the valley.

• 8:34Steven Rinella?

  Yeah.

• 8:35Speaker 03

  Winter up tops.

• 8:36Steven Rinella?

  Yeah. Um, not what, not, not what you brought that you like, what do you, what, what, what was the thing you wish you had done different packing? Something you'd, you'd change, should have brought, like a packing insight.

• 8:53Steven Rinella?

  Well, if you're ready, because I can go, I had time to know that I was gonna do this.

• 8:57Speaker 05

  I brought really ultra light rain pants.

• 9:00Steven Rinella?

  Can you first give your credentials?

• 9:01Speaker 05

  My name's Rick, I'm one of the camera guys.

• 9:04Steven Rinella?

  Well, I'll do it better than that. When you're watching a nature documentary and there's like some crazy thing happens, you're like, how in the world did they ever film that? Rick did it.

• 9:14Speaker 05

  No, I, no, I've, I work on this show more than I work on nature documentaries.

• 9:18Steven Rinella?

  But you do work on nature documentaries?

• 9:19Speaker 05

  Occasionally.

• 9:20Steven Rinella?

  Don't be modest, his brother's doctor.

• 9:22Speaker 05

  Yeah, that's right. Morgan, this is your podcast shout out, all your, your buddies up there in hell.

• 9:30Steven Rinella?

  Rick's parents are very proud of his brother.

• 9:36Speaker 05

  Oh, yeah, ultra light pants.

• 9:39Steven Rinella?

  No, I want to get back to your credentials.

• 9:41Speaker 05

  Alright, well, I've been working on this show since 2016.

• 9:45Steven Rinella?

  Yeah, you've been working with us for a million years, but sometimes like, remember when you went to that golf course and you had to just wait there forever, waiting for a coyote to kill a duck or something like that?

• 9:52Speaker 05

  BBC, BBC Natural History Unit shoot, so.

• 9:55Steven Rinella?

  Okay, and you just spent, you just spent a boatload of time waiting for a bunch of wolves to kill a moose?

• 10:00Speaker 05

  Yep, up for a Disney Plus show with Bertie Gregory, so, yeah, some wildlife, wildlife stuff.

• 10:07Speaker 03

  You film polar bears, which is cool.

• 10:09Steven Rinella?

  Film polar bears?

• 10:10Speaker 05

  Yeah, yeah.

• 10:11Steven Rinella?

  Where?

• 10:12Speaker 05

  Um, in the Hudson Bay, south of Churchill.

• 10:15Steven Rinella?

  So like I was saying.

• 10:17Speaker 05

  Yeah, so.

• 10:17Steven Rinella?

  When you watch some animals do something, Rick probably filmed it.

• 10:20Speaker 05

  Well, or, yeah, or I'm filming the guy filming it, you know, I'm in the.

• 10:23Steven Rinella?

  Yeah, he's in the mix.

• 10:24Speaker 05

  In the mix, yeah.

• 10:25Steven Rinella?

  Okay, now, you wish you would have brought?

• 10:28Speaker 05

  Well, I was, you know, the weight, we have to carry just a lot of batteries, so then you try to like go ultra light on everything else. So my rain pants were very thin. And I brought puffy pants, thinking, oh, you know, those will keep me warm if we go up high. But I think I should have just brought thicker rain pants, as wind protection, and not, not bothered with the ultra light little ones. I mean, going through the alders, if it was wet, it would have been, uh, those pants wouldn't have survived.

• 10:59Steven Rinella?

  So no puffies?

• 11:00Speaker 05

  No puffies, yeah, I had, I had one too many insulation layers.

• 11:07Speaker 05

  I can, you know.

• 11:08Steven Rinella?

  Yeah, when it's my turn, I'm gonna do something that I have dialed and something that I don't. So go ahead and hit something that you think is something in your pro- your general program that's dialed.

• 11:17Speaker 05

  I think my using, uh, I sweat a lot and so it's humid and I use a synthetic. Like, uh, that first layer is synthetic and then the rest of my stuff's wool. So I think that's the, like, when you, when we hike, we generally hike super fast and hard. And Steve's still wearing like all of his layers and his gloves. And I'm in a, like, a t-shirt.

• 11:40Steven Rinella?

  Mm-hmm.

• 11:41Speaker 05

  Sweating and, uh, so I think I got my, my base layer game suitable for me.

• 11:48Steven Rinella?

  I didn't have you pegged as a sweaty man.

• 11:49Speaker 05

  Oh, God. Just if I just start thinking too hard.

• 11:53Steven Rinella?

  Break out and sweat.

• 11:54Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 11:56Steven Rinella?

  You know, we hike hard and we sit hard, Rick.

• 11:58Speaker 05

  That's, that, this, this is the thing. So if you look at, if you look at like ultra light hiking lists, they're all made for hiking, stopping and going to bed.

• 12:08Steven Rinella?

  Yeah, that's a good point.

• 12:09Speaker 05

  We, we do this thing where we hike really hard and then we sit in spots that you would never camp in because they're cold and they're windy.

• 12:16Steven Rinella?

  Yeah.

• 12:16Speaker 05

  Uh, and you're exposed and you're not in your tent and you're not in your sleeping bag. So you have to bring more insulation layers than, than somebody that's just doing like a fast through hike.

• 12:26Steven Rinella?

  Yeah.

• 12:26Speaker 05

  Situation.

• 12:27Steven Rinella?

  Yeah, you're, you're right. You get all worked up and then you sit and then all of a sudden a while later you're like, I'm freezing my ass.

• 12:33Speaker 05

  Yeah, and you're not normally, if, if it gets cold and you're through hiking, you're just, you're sleeping in like your little comfy

• 12:41Steven Rinella?

  Mm-hmm.

• 12:42Speaker 05

  sleeping bag. We're just sitting out on a knob glassing for a couple hours.

• 12:46Steven Rinella?

  Yep.

• 12:48Steven Rinella?

  So that's what you got dialed?

• 12:49Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 12:50Steven Rinella?

  Okay, who wants to go next? We're saving Evan for last. Evan's still formulating his. I got. You got one already? Um. Cause he's, you're still. That was chilly. Oh. That was chilly. Oh, I thought that was you. Cause, cause Evan's still acclimating to the, um, like, you're like a horse guy. Yeah, I had, I haven't ever backpacked before. So you're, you're still acclimating to all the, like, the fancy materials. Yeah, but it's, it's nice. I mean, it's like, oh, yeah. It's a lot less stuff to deal with. Okay, keep stewing on that. Okay, working on it. If you can put it into like a song form, it'd be great.

• 13:24Steven Rinella?

  Like a limerick.

• 13:26Steven Rinella?

  Okay, chilly, go ahead.

• 13:27Speaker 04

  Uh, I think the oversight, the one thing I would have done better, like, I wasn't, I kinda knew, but. Didn't really fully grasp like the fact that, you know, how it would affect sleeping like with the sun being out all, all night.

• 13:43Steven Rinella?

  Yeah, talk about just how bright it is. Like what activities could you do all night?

• 13:48Speaker 04

  Whatever you do during the day.

• 13:50Steven Rinella?

  You could shoot a rifle.

• 13:53Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 13:53Steven Rinella?

  At any distance all night.

• 13:56Speaker 03

  Yeah. Yeah. If you wanted to, you could, uh, go completely, you could flip your day completely.

• 14:02Steven Rinella?

  Yeah.

• 14:02Speaker 03

  Like if you wanted to bear hunt from 6pm to, you know.

• 14:08Speaker 04

  4am.

• 14:08Speaker 03

  4am.

• 14:09Steven Rinella?

  You know, that'd be no different.

• 14:10Speaker 03

  You could do that and then sleep all during the regular day hours.

• 14:14Steven Rinella?

  That laid out.

• 14:15Speaker 04

  Yep. And so with that, like the effect that the sun had on the tent, like when we were sleeping, kinda, it wasn't like terrible, but it kinda made it like a little warmer than what you would get, or a lot warmer than what you get if you had like actually darkness. And so I found that, um, when I'm in my sleeping bag, it got a little humid and like my legs would like, it'd get kinda sticky, cause it kinda sweat a little bit. So if I had to bring something, um, would be like a pair of like boot top long johns. So like my legs wouldn't stick together. I hate, I like absolutely hate that.

• 14:49Steven Rinella?

  You got sweaty thighs is what you're saying.

• 14:51Speaker 04

  Yeah. Uh, yeah. Yeah. So, and I, I'm a pretty light sleeper and anything that's wrong like will wake me up or make me, cause me to move. So,

• 15:01Speaker 04

  uh, yeah, I probably would have done that. That was my thing, but it, on the flip side, the thing that I think I did really well, was like my sleeping system setup was like, you know, like had, I had one of those Nemo accordion pads on, and then I had a Nemo, or a ther- thermares inflatable pad. And that was a prob- and like plus my nice, uh, sleeping system. That was pretty dialed. Actually, my sleeping system saved your ass.

• 15:28Steven Rinella?

  I'll get to that.

• 15:29Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 15:31Steven Rinella?

  That's my, that's my oversight. Yeah.

• 15:32Speaker 04

  Saved Steve's life.

• 15:34Steven Rinella?

  So, hold on, I forgot what you got dialed.

• 15:35Speaker 04

  The sleeping, my sleeping setup.

• 15:37Steven Rinella?

  Oh yeah. Which is what I don't have dialed.

• 15:39Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 15:40Steven Rinella?

  Yeah. Yeah, you know what you're talking about, like that feeling you get of everything sticky inside your sleeping bag after a few nights? I wear those. I sleep in those arrow wool. Boot top ones? Boot top, super thin arrow wool boot top LJs, because it keeps you from getting that feeling like you're glued to the Yeah. fabric of your bag. I hate that.

• 15:59Speaker 03

  And Seth, that's the way Seth was, uh, we shared a tent and he had those on. I'm like, uh, every night I just get jealous.

• 16:09Steven Rinella?

  I also sleep in an arrow wool top.

• 16:13Steven Rinella?

  Yeah.

• 16:13Speaker 03

  I did, yeah.

• 16:14Steven Rinella?

  So I don't stick all gluey to my bag. Lightweight top, yeah. Same. Thanks for sharing, Chili. You're welcome.

• 16:20Speaker 03

  I'm ready.

• 16:21Steven Rinella?

  Okay, go ahead.

• 16:22Speaker 03

  I did not bring gators on this trip.

• 16:25Steven Rinella?

  Ooh.

• 16:26Speaker 03

  Which?

• 16:27Steven Rinella?

  Oversight?

• 16:28Speaker 03

  Oversight. I just forgot them. I, I.

• 16:31Steven Rinella?

  So it sounds like someone's reading a bad packing list.

• 16:34Speaker 03

  Well, it was on the packing list. I just, I actually had them set out and then I just forgot them. Um, gators would have been nice. Um, and another thing that I.

• 16:43Steven Rinella?

  We gotta give like a why, right?

• 16:45Speaker 03

  Well, stream crossings, it rained half the time, over half the time.

• 16:50Steven Rinella?

  Yeah, there was a 48 hour rain stretch.

• 16:52Speaker 03

  Yeah. Um, you're going through thick alders and willows and you just end up with wet pants. Um, so I wish I had gators. And then I wish I would have brought the lightweight at like orange atlas gloves. For the rain rainy days.

• 17:11Steven Rinella?

  Oh.

• 17:12Speaker 03

  Cause I soaked out my leather gloves.

• 17:15Steven Rinella?

  That's a good point, man. That's a good point.

• 17:17Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 17:18Steven Rinella?

  I've done that in the past on rainy rainy stuff, but yeah, you'd bring like rubber commercial fishing gloves.

• 17:22Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 17:23Steven Rinella?

  And just be like, screw it now, dude.

• 17:25Speaker 03

  Yeah. It's like, they're not super heavy to where you're like, you know, too, too hot, but they're, you know, just enough to take the edge off and you just don't get your gloves wet.

• 17:38Steven Rinella?

  When I publish my gear list, I might put that in there.

• 17:40Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 17:42Speaker 05

  Yeah, we'll read it. Seth and I will probably read that year list a couple of times.

• 17:44Speaker 03

  And the thing that I dialed was my water system, I think.

• 17:48Steven Rinella?

  Tell us more.

• 17:49Speaker 03

  Liter and a half Nalgene bottle.

• 17:52Steven Rinella?

  Okay.

• 17:53Speaker 03

  And two of those collapsible like platypus bottles.

• 17:59Steven Rinella?

  No big ol' MSR bladder.

• 18:00Speaker 03

  Nope. Nope. Just two of those and I would steri- like the stuff that I felt like I needed to steripen, I would just do that in the, in the Nalgene. And then the two, um, platypus bottles were like my dirty water bottles. So I would fill those up and then fill up my big bottle. And then I would steripen in that and then the, as I needed, I would take from the, the platypus bags dump into the Nalgene bottle and then.

• 18:30Steven Rinella?

  And you're happy with that?

• 18:31Speaker 03

  Yeah. But I, I mean, a lot of the stuff we drank from, we didn't, didn't need to.

• 18:35Steven Rinella?

  I didn't purify a thing the whole trip. We were higher than the beavers.

• 18:39Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 18:40Steven Rinella?

  And we're just drinking water out of a glacier.

• 18:42Speaker 03

  That stuff that came out of that side drainage that we went up, that you said was like the, the Grayling stream?

• 18:48Steven Rinella?

  Yep.

• 18:49Speaker 03

  That stuff was just seemed so pure.

• 18:53Speaker 05

  Yeah, it did.

• 18:54Speaker 03

  The, the Glacier River had a little bit of like siltiness, cloudiness to it.

• 18:57Steven Rinella?

  Oh yeah, it had a lot of that. And you know, I was bringing this up and I, I shouldn't even bring it up because I'm not, I'll bring it up with the, with the caveat that I don't, don't know if this is true. I feel like guys that live up here have told me that there's like, that it's, that drinking too much of that, that it's not good to drink too much of that glacial till.

• 19:16Speaker 03

  Mm-hmm.

• 19:17Steven Rinella?

  Or they just don't like it. So when I'm with my brother Danny, they'll bring a,

• 19:23Steven Rinella?

  they'll bring a, like a, you know, picture like a big collapsible dog bowl.

• 19:27Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 19:28Steven Rinella?

  Like, like it's like a, like a duffel bag that's made out of that. What the hell's the material I'm trying to think of?

• 19:35Speaker 03

  Like a.

• 19:36Steven Rinella?

  It's like a duffel bag bucket. I don't know what the hell you call it.

• 19:39Speaker 03

  Just like a waterproof.

• 19:40Steven Rinella?

  Yeah. Like a waterproof bag bucket.

• 19:42Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 19:43Steven Rinella?

  And they'll dip, he'll dip out of that three, four gallons.

• 19:48Steven Rinella?

  At night.

• 19:49Speaker 03

  And then let it settle.

• 19:51Steven Rinella?

  And then drink it in the morning. And in the morning, when it's not being agitated by flow, in the morning, it's just like a eighth of an inch of just clay.

• 20:00Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 20:01Steven Rinella?

  Laying on the bottom of that stuff. They'll set it out at night just to let it settle, to not drink it. But I feel like they were telling, someone was telling me something about that it's not just like, that you shouldn't do that too much. But I could be making that up.

• 20:15Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 20:15Steven Rinella?

  So don't stop drinking Glacial Till Base. I'm telling you, do your own research.

• 20:19Speaker 03

  Maybe, maybe looking back, I would, I would have probably liked to have had a filter for that stuff instead of.

• 20:26Steven Rinella?

  Just to get the till out.

• 20:26Speaker 03

  Just to get the till out.

• 20:28Steven Rinella?

  Well, you run it through your underwear.

• 20:29Speaker 03

  Well, you add more till.

• 20:34Steven Rinella?

  Scroll, yeah, he has scroll till.

• 20:35Speaker 03

  Scroll till.

• 20:36Steven Rinella?

  Oh, man.

• 20:40Speaker 03

  Yeah, but no, that's, that's all I got.

• 20:44Steven Rinella?

  If you spend a lot of time outdoors, you got dogs, you got kids, you know how hard it is to keep the floor of your rig clean. A thing we do in our, in our little fleet of vehicles that I have in my household, if you go look, open the door on any one of them, they all got WeatherTech. We get a car, we throw the mats out and put in WeatherTech. Cause that way, when there's a mess, it's like your kid's fault, your dog's fault, it's the weather's fault, doesn't matter. You take them suckers out and hose them off and you're back to being good as new. I'm telling you, if you got a vehicle, put WeatherTech in there, you're gonna be happy you did it. And check this out. American-made floor liners and cargo liners, okay? They laugh in the face of all weather. Go take a look for yourself today at weathertech.com.

• 21:24Steven Rinella?

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• 21:54Steven Rinella?

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• 22:20Speaker 02

  One Pay is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided by Coastal Community Bank or Lead Bank. Members FDIC. Builder Card results may vary and aren't guaranteed. Learn more about banking through One Pay at onepay.com/podcast.

• 22:36Steven Rinella?

  Conrad, give your background. You've never been on the show before. I've never even met you before.

• 22:39Speaker 06

  No, first time. First time on the Mediator Podcast.

• 22:43Steven Rinella?

  But Brad Brooks has been on the podcast.

• 22:44Speaker 06

  He has.

• 22:45Steven Rinella?

  And you're his friend.

• 22:46Speaker 06

  Yep. I'm an old climbing buddy of Brad Brooks. I grew up climbing with him for a number of years. Started filming with him, some of his hunts, a couple of years ago. Never hunted before. He was like, you want to go film some hunts? And I know you can keep up. And I was like, yeah, let's do it. And went out for about a week and a half on a rifle elk hunt. And I thought it was just awesome. Just running around in the woods. It's great. And then had been filming with him for a couple of years. And then got connected with you guys through Brad. And then.

• 23:29Steven Rinella?

  Oh, so he's not pissed that you're with us?

• 23:30Speaker 06

  No, I told him and he was like, oh yeah, that's awesome. He connected me with Sam. And then my buddy Drew Smith is brothers with Dirt.

• 23:40Steven Rinella?

  Yep.

• 23:41Speaker 06

  And he connected me with Dirt and had a good conversation with him. And we have a lot of the same background. He fought fire. I fought fire. We were a year apart in Neets Bay in Alaska. I worked up there in a hatchery and he was on a boat up there. So yeah, here I am and it's awesome. I kept calling him Dirt 2.0. Yeah, Sam called me that a couple of times too.

• 24:10Steven Rinella?

  Yeah.

• 24:11Speaker 06

  Yeah, and he recommended me and I had never met him. So that's awesome.

• 24:16Steven Rinella?

  Well, that might be like a.

• 24:18Speaker 05

  Garrett did the vetting, so you know.

• 24:20Steven Rinella?

  Or didn't, it sounds like.

• 24:24Speaker 06

  We had a 30 minute conversation. He was like, he was like, yeah, I'll, I'll, I'll put in a good word for you. And I was like, man, I've never worked with you. You don't have to do that, but I, I, I really appreciate it.

• 24:33Steven Rinella?

  I'm glad, I'm glad he did this, but it was a fun hangout.

• 24:35Speaker 06

  Yeah, super fun.

• 24:36Steven Rinella?

  Okay, hit me with your, um, hit me with your insights.

• 24:38Speaker 06

  Yeah, uh, I forgot Long John's this trip. Um, I, I.

• 24:43Steven Rinella?

  Well, I wish you'd have brought it up.

• 24:44Speaker 06

  Well.

• 24:45Steven Rinella?

  When I get to my thing, you'll know why you should have brought it up.

• 24:47Speaker 06

  Okay, well, I forgot Long John's. I realized it on the, on the, Steve's gonna be like, I had too many Long John's.

• 24:56Speaker 06

  Uh, I realized it on the, on the drive.

• 24:58Steven Rinella?

  Why didn't you say anything?

• 24:59Speaker 06

  Dude, I, I told Sam and she, and she was like, whoa, do we need to get you Long John's? I said, ah, no, I'm not, I didn't want to complain. I was just tough it out. Uh, but anyway, um, should have brought Long John's. Um, uh, and I probably would have brought an extra base layer for the top just for sleeping.

• 25:18Steven Rinella?

  Mm-hmm.

• 25:19Speaker 06

  Uh, with all this wet weather, uh, it's nice to get in your bag and have, have dry clothes. Um, so those, those are the two things I would have, um, would have brought.

• 25:29Steven Rinella?

  And then what do you, what, what, what, like what thing in your pack and thing feels like just totally tight?

• 25:34Speaker 06

  I think my sleep, sleeping system, um, earplugs because I'm sleeping with Rick and he snores.

• 25:40Steven Rinella?

  Yeah. Sweaty, snoring all over.

• 25:43Speaker 05

  Yeah, it was to me and I did not know this.

• 25:45Steven Rinella?

  I didn't know that about you, Rick.

• 25:48Speaker 05

  It's developed recently.

• 25:49Speaker 06

  But a night, a nice tent, nice sleeping bag, good, good pad. Uh, sleeps, sleep for me is super important after big, long days. So the more sleep I can get, the better.

• 25:59Steven Rinella?

  Blow up pad.

• 26:00Speaker 06

  Blow up pad, yeah, exo pad. Uh, and our golly sleeping bag, 20 degree bag, super warm. And then our golly, uh, uh, 2P tent.

• 26:10Steven Rinella?

  Got it.

• 26:10Speaker 06

  Yep.

• 26:11Steven Rinella?

  And that's like the, the new fandangled floorless, single wall tents.

• 26:16Speaker 06

  Yep, single wall, um, super waterproof, got a little condensation problems when it's, when it's raining out, but every tent has that. Um, yeah, we didn't, we, me and, me and Rick were throwing back and forth if we needed to bring an insert. And when we came up here and saw that snow, we didn't bring an insert and just rolled all floorless. And it was a pound to carry around in your backpack, so.

• 26:40Steven Rinella?

  That's nice.

• 26:41Speaker 06

  Yeah, that is nice.

• 26:42Steven Rinella?

  Okay. You ready? You know, you don't, you don't have to do yours yet, cause I'm gonna do mine. Or you can do yours if you, if you're, if you're just getting nervous, you want to get it over with.

• 26:49Speaker 07

  Let's do it. Let's do it.

• 26:50Steven Rinella?

  You want to hit it?

• 26:51Speaker 07

  So the thing that I, the only, the only thing that I missed when, uh, when I was up there because you guys told me what to get or got, got me rigged out. Was I wished I had some shoes to walk around camp in. Wish I brought that.

• 27:06Steven Rinella?

  Camp shoes.

• 27:07Speaker 07

  Yeah, if I could get away with it. Yeah. But just because putting your boots on after you've been in them for a while, which the boots were honestly, I was talking about it yesterday. They're good, like pretty comfortable boots, but still kind of dread putting them back on to slip around to go do whatever you need to do around the camp. And, uh, as far as being dialed in, I was not dialed in, but I had, I did wear, um, I, I, I can't take credit for being dialed in. Um, like I had, as far as my layers went, they were, they were good. I had, or long johns the whole trip. And two sets of, like a tee shirt over the long johns on top. And pretty much slept in my clothes.

• 27:52Speaker 07

  And brought like a couple pairs of socks to dry one and, and do the other gaiters and stuff like that. It was, I mean, I, I can't think of a time I was particularly like the temperature or rain was bothering me, you know?

• 28:06Steven Rinella?

  No.

• 28:06Speaker 07

  And if you got cold, you could put that extra layer of, uh, rain, rain gear on and you could stay pretty warm, even sitting still.

• 28:14Steven Rinella?

  And you didn't blow up your sleeping pad till the third night.

• 28:16Speaker 07

  No, I didn't know how to do it.

• 28:21Speaker 07

  Sleeping on the ground. It was, it was pretty good, but like the sleeping pads real, real good.

• 28:30Speaker 07

  I got in there. I got in there and I, I didn't see the, like the, the blow up bag and I was trying to blow it up with my mouth and I was like, oh, this is not going to work. So I just like slept down, just defeated, laid down in a hole in the ground.

• 28:44Steven Rinella?

  Again, man, all you gotta do is yell over to my tent area and

• 28:49Speaker 07

  but it, it, uh, it all worked out.

• 28:52Steven Rinella?

  Well, that's good.

• 28:56Steven Rinella?

  Here's, here's my problem.

• 29:00Steven Rinella?

  I used to never use inflatable pads. Sleep pads, but the best thing in the world until. So I got mine real, I was kind of in like a little puddle for a while and I went to dry my bag and got some, not even embers dude, like ash.

• 29:18Steven Rinella?

  Put some, burned some holes in my pad. Well, I was trying to dry my pad and I burned some holes in my pad. Couldn't find all the sons of bitches. Found one one night, found another one the other night, still one thing in it. And you realize that, uh, um, you put a lot of faith in those.

• 29:36Steven Rinella?

  You put a lot of faith in something that's pretty fallible. I mean, they're great, but they're fallible. And Rick was carrying a blow up pad and he had.

• 29:45Speaker 04

  A little halfy.

• 29:46Steven Rinella?

  A little Z-Rest, Ridge-Rest, one of those Z-Rest, I guess.

• 29:49Speaker 04

  Yeah, Z-Rest.

• 29:50Steven Rinella?

  Yeah.

• 29:51Speaker 04

  Just in case.

• 29:52Steven Rinella?

  Just in case.

• 29:52Speaker 04

  You can use it as a pad when you're glassing.

• 29:55Steven Rinella?

  But you said in case.

• 29:56Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 29:57Steven Rinella?

  My thing.

• 29:58Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 29:59Steven Rinella?

  Yeah. I don't like, I don't usually pack with a ton of in cases.

• 30:02Speaker 04

  But those.

• 30:03Steven Rinella?

  On do, you know, do, it's like, oh, I got two sleeping bags in case something happens in this sleeping bag.

• 30:08Speaker 04

  And it is sort of the, in case is the problem with packing. If you bring all the stuff in case, then you just have too much shit.

• 30:14Steven Rinella?

  Yeah.

• 30:14Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 30:15Steven Rinella?

  But the, the blow up pad is a vulnerability. Chili brought a blow up pad and a under pad.

• 30:22Speaker 04

  Yeah, I mean, cause I didn't, I don't have a tarp, like where like, or like a footprint to lay down, um, like on the, just on the ground in between you and your, and your blow up mattress or blow up pad. So, uh, instead of just going to buy one sporadically, I just, I had this accordion Nemo foam pad, the one that we all used to kind of sit on the ground when we're glassing. Just a full length one. And I was like, well, I'll just use that on the ground. It's like six, seven ounces or whatever it is. Just drive it to the bottom of my pack. Like it's not gonna, the footprint of it's not gonna like cause me to have to get a bigger bag or anything. So,

• 31:02Speaker 04

  yeah, that was kind of my thinking and it worked, it worked great. And, um, luckily Seth had like a little plastic thing as well. So I could throw that down and, um, yeah, it's just kind of just like a tarp, if not comfort, more comfortable.

• 31:15Steven Rinella?

  Yeah.

• 31:16Speaker 04

  Yeah, I brought a little chunk of, before I left, this was like the last thing I grabbed was just a little chunk of plastic that I used to like cover my garden when it frosts.

• 31:24Steven Rinella?

  Hmm.

• 31:25Speaker 04

  And I threw that in. I was like, ah, just in case, like, I need to put something under my sleeping pad or whatever.

• 31:32Steven Rinella?

  Yeah.

• 31:32Speaker 04

  And then Chili ended up grabbing me a footprint from the storage unit, but, um, so I still had that and I gave it to Chili.

• 31:39Steven Rinella?

  Uh, what I got dialed is over the years on backpacking, over the years I have, I have pretty much eliminated any changes of clothes, extra clothes.

• 31:50Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 31:50Steven Rinella?

  With one exception, um, I keep in a dry bag, the extra set of base layers. Extra set of thin base layers, I keep the dry bag and like this never touched them. As much as it rained, I'd left them in there because it's like, I leave them in there being like, if something bad happens, I can get in my bag, which I keep in a dry bag. I can get in my bag with dry stuff at night. But I've gotten over carrying any kind of extra anything.

• 32:22Steven Rinella?

  Well, I carry a pair of socks.

• 32:25Speaker 03

  Just one, just one extra pair of socks.

• 32:26Steven Rinella?

  I carry one pair of socks. Cause worst case, you wash a pair in the creek, put them on your bag to dry. I, I got rid of all that kind of junk. Like, oh, I'm gonna have extra pants or I might want to change my shirt. I just, I have the one thing I'm wearing and like, you just get used to it. It's funky. You get over it and I don't carry any kind of extra clothes, except for those,

• 32:47Steven Rinella?

  except for those LJ's that I have as an insurance policy. Or should a camera guy forget his LJ's?

• 32:53Speaker 03

  Well, now I know.

• 32:54Steven Rinella?

  I would have happily given you my extra LJ's.

• 32:56Speaker 03

  I brought an extra like mid-layer wool, wool mid-layer and I never touched it.

• 33:01Steven Rinella?

  Yep. Yep.

• 33:03Speaker 03

  It was like the one thing I was like, I should have just left this behind.

• 33:06Steven Rinella?

  Cause what, what happens when you do, when you bring extra clothes is there was mornings when I was like, to myself thinking, man, I don't want to put them clothes on. But then you would put the other ones on and then those ones are messed up too. And then now you just got whatever you go.

• 33:21Speaker 03

  Dirty laundry with you, yeah.

• 33:22Steven Rinella?

  Yeah. Instead of one pair of pants that are now dry, if you wore them, now you got one wet ass pair of pants in your backpack. It just, it like, I, I just got rid of all that junk.

• 33:31Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 33:32Steven Rinella?

  I kind of think what's the coldest it could get, have what's appropriate. So I had like a, like a air wool top, um.

• 33:42Steven Rinella?

  Synthetic hoodie, Brooksdown vest, or Brooksdown jacket and a Omen Storm Shelter rain jacket. That was it. Same thing on my, same thing, pants, the arrow wool pants, a pair of pants, and then the lightweight rain pants.

• 34:00Speaker 03

  Um, you mentioned Brooksdown vest. I brought one of those and that's like, that's a hot tip, in my opinion. It's like very compact, very tiny.

• 34:10Steven Rinella?

  Yeah, it's like the size of a scrotum.

• 34:11Speaker 03

  Very lightweight. And it's like, it's just enough to like, take the edge off and like, keep your core warm. It's, it's a great piece of gear.

• 34:20Speaker 04

  I, I forgot, I kind of messed up. Um, pro tip, when you're in the backcountry, don't forget a spork or a spoon, because then you might be left whittling one. And then your buddies might come up after three hours of whittling saying, I got two extra spoons.

• 34:36Speaker 07

  You made a really good spoon.

• 34:39Speaker 04

  I made a nice whittled spoon too.

• 34:40Speaker 07

  You were having so much fun, I hated to ruin it.

• 34:43Speaker 04

  By the way, Charlie, I got one.

• 34:44Speaker 05

  Oh yeah, I need, I need to get my little spoon back.

• 34:46Speaker 04

  Yeah, well, it's mine now, so.

• 34:48Speaker 05

  But it's too short.

• 34:49Speaker 04

  It is too short. Yeah, get a long one. Get a long spoon.

• 34:52Steven Rinella?

  Oh yeah, they make the long dogs just for eating freeze dried.

• 34:55Speaker 04

  Yeah, yep.

• 34:55Steven Rinella?

  Yeah. So give me, give me your, give me your impressions, man. Like your, uh, you're, you're just your general impressions.

• 35:02Speaker 07

  Um, that is like the prettiest country I've ever seen, or as pretty as anything. It's more interesting seeing that glacier and like seeing, we, we saw more wildlife on this trip than, uh, a bunch of stuff I'd never laid eyes on. Um, but as, as far as the camping part of it.

• 35:20Steven Rinella?

  Let's recap what we saw for, for, we, we hit all the.

• 35:22Speaker 03

  We hit six.

• 35:23Steven Rinella?

  Yeah, so we had, we saw a caribou.

• 35:25Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 35:26Steven Rinella?

  Doll sheep.

• 35:27Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 35:27Steven Rinella?

  Amoos.

• 35:29Speaker 03

  Mm-hmm.

• 35:29Steven Rinella?

  Wolves, grizzly, black bear.

• 35:33Speaker 03

  Yep, I think that's it.

• 35:34Speaker 04

  Saw a porcupine.

• 35:35Steven Rinella?

  Oh, porcupine.

• 35:36Speaker 04

  Porcupine today.

• 35:39Speaker 07

  Yeah, and you got caribou, huh?

• 35:41Steven Rinella?

  Hmm.

• 35:42Speaker 07

  Yeah, that was interesting, man, to get to see all that stuff, get to see that many sheep like. I feel like not that many people get to even see those things.

• 35:51Steven Rinella?

  Yeah.

• 35:52Speaker 07

  That was, that was really neat to me and just being there, being in that, that kind of a environment is, is something that you.

• 36:03Speaker 07

  It's easy to spend a lot of time like making excuses and not getting it done. Like, I'm really happy that I got to go and had a reason to go because it's like really reignited my love for this stuff. Just because you, you just procrastinate and put it off and then don't get back on the horse, you know?

• 36:19Steven Rinella?

  Mm-hmm.

• 36:20Speaker 07

  And this was a good one, like a really, really good trip.

• 36:25Steven Rinella?

  Yeah, cuz you, you, so you, you were born in Oklahoma and spent your life in Oklahoma.

• 36:30Speaker 07

  Mm-hmm.

• 36:30Steven Rinella?

  And I remember you telling me that at one point in time, you and your dad took, took your horses and, and went out and you guys did some western type hunting.

• 36:40Speaker 07

  Yeah, we went.

• 36:41Steven Rinella?

  But just kinda just went and did it all.

• 36:42Speaker 07

  Yeah, yeah, he and I, which my dad knows quite a bit about, about packing and, and really about hunting in general.

• 36:50Speaker 07

  And he took me up there and, and showed me, taught me a whole lot and really gave me like a, a love for the. We had a great trip, you know, we were in the elk and we didn't come home with anything, but it didn't matter, you know, it was like we were so close, we had opportunities, we were seeing stuff and it was like it was the wildest place I'd ever been at that point in time, everything just feels so.

• 37:15Speaker 07

  I mean, there's, it's easy to be

• 37:19Speaker 07

  hunting places that are easy to access and feel like it's not authentic enough for me to feel like I'm doing anything sometimes, you know?

• 37:27Steven Rinella?

  Mm-hmm.

• 37:27Speaker 07

  And when you get back into this stuff that not a lot of people get to see, it just feels more special to me. And it's just got another, it's just another level and more of an experience. But, uh, yeah, I, I love this stuff, like I've never dreamed that I'd get to. Flying on a super cover, be in one. Ever have a reason to be in one, you know? So it's.

• 37:47Steven Rinella?

  You know, well, the thing I didn't know about, the thing I didn't know about you from when we, when we spoke before and have just communicated over text message and whatnot is I didn't know that you got into coon hunting for a while.

• 37:58Speaker 07

  Yeah, I was a coon hunter. Uh, that was my, that's what we did for a long time. Um.

• 38:03Steven Rinella?

  And so that was the kind of dogs you brought up?

• 38:05Speaker 07

  For the first dogs I really had, that were my first hunting dogs. Yeah. Um, we had, had a few different kinds of coon hounds. I had some, I had a pretty good plot hound and I, and I had, um,

• 38:19Speaker 07

  a couple of blue tick dogs that were tri-a-coon and I was, you know, I was 15, 14 to 16 probably when I was really, really into it.

• 38:28Steven Rinella?

  So like in your high school years, you're going out at night?

• 38:31Speaker 07

  Oh, yeah. Yeah, going out, me and, I had two or three buddies that, that hunted and we'd go. Every night we could.

• 38:39Steven Rinella?

  And that was like before the quail thing, huh?

• 38:41Speaker 07

  Yeah, I tried, kind of traded that for, for quail hunting.

• 38:44Steven Rinella?

  Yeah.

• 38:45Speaker 07

  I went, I, I had one good hunt. With, in front of a good dog in the hills and we, we killed birds. I think I might, I don't think I shot a quail in, in a timber for a year after that, trying to. I mean, I had to learn how to shoot because it's, it's tough shooting. And I just, it was hard and I fell, you know, fell in love with it and I had, I've still got dogs on my place that are descendants of that dog that I went on my first quail hunting.

• 39:13Steven Rinella?

  Was that right? Yeah, yeah. How many dogs you keep now? How many bird dogs?

• 39:16Speaker 07

  The bird dogs, I, me and my buddy Phil, he's actually training on, on some right now, but I've got a, I got one wire haired dog that, that is mine that I've done everything on and then, uh,

• 39:30Speaker 07

  we've got two, two pointers because I sold, sold one. So it's just some guys that needed one.

• 39:35Steven Rinella?

  Did you ever get into squirrel dogging?

• 39:37Speaker 07

  Yeah, I went and I had, we had some dogs, you know, we, we did a whole lot of that riding, uh, on like horseback riding, shooting with like.

• 39:45Steven Rinella?

  Squirrel hunting?

• 39:45Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 39:46Steven Rinella?

  Oh, really?

• 39:46Speaker 07

  Training with a dog. And we did a lot of it. It was a lot of fun.

• 39:54Speaker 07

  We had friends that had a one really good dog. And but I never had. I never really had any.

• 40:02Speaker 07

  That I can think of. Not on purpose.

• 40:08Steven Rinella?

  And then you do you use your same dogs for waterfowl hunting?

• 40:12Speaker 07

  I have the, yeah, I have a versatile hunting dog that those drawtars. Just the German bred. Uh, wire hairs are a. All of them will get in the water, but those are specifically, you know. Made to do everything like they've been breeding them pretty tight for a long time.

• 40:29Steven Rinella?

  You know, everybody's been training up their dogs to do now, which kind of like bums me out, but it kind of makes me jealous is um. Got all these dogs now finding morels, man.

• 40:38Speaker 07

  Now, how did they? Yeah, that that's interesting to me.

• 40:40Steven Rinella?

  Little tin, looks like a chew tin with a bunch of holes in it. Put some morels in there.

• 40:45Speaker 07

  So you want a point dog on that? You don't want, you don't want a flush dog.

• 40:49Steven Rinella?

  I wish it was. It's like just yet another thing that demystifies the morel. But it's yet another thing that demystifies the morel, like them learning to cultivate morels should be illegal. Should be illegal to find them with a dog. But since it's not, no, it's killing me that I don't have one of them dogs. My brother Danny went out hunting morels and he said they filled a bucket with a dog and he says, dude, if that dog wasn't there, it would have been like you, it would have been like a two or three, it would have been a two or three morel day.

• 41:16Speaker 07

  Really?

• 41:16Steven Rinella?

  Yep.

• 41:17Speaker 07

  There's probably a lot.

• 41:18Steven Rinella?

  He's a big mushroom hunter. He said it would have been yet another. Two or three morel search. He said the dogs is like bing, bing, bing, bing.

• 41:26Speaker 07

  You know, there's a bunch of gun gunshot dogs that you could probably turn into a morel dog. There's, that's probably a good job for a bunch of. Sensitive dogs.

• 41:34Steven Rinella?

  I'm wondering if my dumb little dog could.

• 41:36Speaker 07

  Probably.

• 41:36Steven Rinella?

  Tab, take that out.

• 41:40Steven Rinella?

  That's nice.

• 41:41Speaker 03

  That dog knew how you talked about it, wouldn't do shit for you.

• 41:44Steven Rinella?

  Well, here's what the dog does do. Like, it finds, that dog is very good at finding red squirrels. And once it finds one and sees it, it's not leaving, but it doesn't notify you that it found one. So the morel dog that my brother Danny was out with, doesn't notify you that it found a morel. It just stops doing anything and it stays there. He said, you could probably teach it to bark, I don't know. I don't know if you can teach dogs to bark.

• 42:09Speaker 03

  It's hard.

• 42:10Steven Rinella?

  But, he said that dog just finds morel after morel after morel after morel.

• 42:15Speaker 03

  That's cool.

• 42:16Steven Rinella?

  I know, I kind of, it's like...

• 42:19Steven Rinella?

  But then you're keeping a dog for 50 weeks...

• 42:23Steven Rinella?

  For two weeks of action.

• 42:26Speaker 03

  Yeah, see, he could have a second job. Some people just like having a dog.

• 42:30Steven Rinella?

  Because where are you gonna put it the rest of the time?

• 42:35Steven Rinella?

  Where are you gonna keep it? The 50 weeks out of the year that you're not hunting mushrooms?

• 42:38Speaker 03

  On your couch?

• 42:42Steven Rinella?

  If you spend a lot of time outdoors, you got dogs, you got kids, you know how hard it is to keep the floor of your rig clean. A thing we do in our, in our little fleet of vehicles that I have in my household, if you go look, open the door on any one of them, they all got WeatherTech. We get a car, we throw the mats out and put in WeatherTech, because that way, when there's a mess, it's like your kid's fault, it's your dog's fault, it's the weather's fault, doesn't matter. You take them suckers out and hose them off, and you're back to being good as new. I'm telling you, if you got a vehicle, put WeatherTech in there, you're gonna be happy you did it. And check this out, American-made floor liners and cargo liners, okay? They laugh in the face of all weather. Go take a look for yourself today at weathertech.com. In military families, service is more than a job, it's a legacy.

• 43:26Steven Rinella?

  At American Military University, that legacy can help open new doors through education. If someone in your family served in the military, you could be eligible for reduced tuition. Take the next step with flexible online programs built for real life. Learn more at amu.apus.edu/military.

• 43:52Steven Rinella?

  What if you could save up for that new car or vacation just by buying the stuff you're already buying? With the One Pay Banking App, you earn 3% cash back on up to $150 in monthly spending in categories you choose. So it's easy to save. So what are you saving for? Maybe you've got your eyes on a new truck, or a new boat, or you're saving up for your first house. Download the One Pay App, or visit onepay.com for banking that gives you more for what matters.

• 44:23Speaker 02

  One Pay is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided by Coastal Community Bank or Lead Bank, members FDIC. Cash back is earned as points. Go to onepay.com/rewards/terms for redemption options and additional details.

• 44:39Steven Rinella?

  So tell me, tell me what's going on. Tell me what, give me some, give everybody some Turnpike Troubadours.

• 44:45Speaker 07

  We put out a record, which was kind of a quick turnaround for us. We put out a record in April.

• 44:55Steven Rinella?

  What makes a quick turnaround?

• 44:57Speaker 07

  Less than two years.

• 45:00Speaker 07

  You know, or sometimes we've gone like six or seven years between records, so that, that's pretty speedy after that, right?

• 45:06Steven Rinella?

  Very quick turnaround. I was surprised, so when you guys made this album, I was surprised you go in and you kind of like, it's like a very intense two weeks. And you come in, like you got your ideas and your basics, but you're really like building it over two weeks.

• 45:21Speaker 07

  Yeah, it's like a, got a pretty good shell of a song, and then like an idea, and exactly, you know, sometimes I'll have a lot of lyrics and just be sort of trimming them, just editing. And then sometimes it's, I come, because like sometimes in those high-pressure situations, if you don't have to come up with just tons of material, or you're just buried in, like feeling like you're not gonna make it, you can come up with one idea and complete it really quickly, and it's a good, you know, has been in the past for me, a good.

• 45:56Speaker 07

  Good idea, like a good song. So, uh, yeah, we, we went in with just like iPhone recordings of

• 46:05Speaker 07

  eighty percent of it, ninety percent of it, and

• 46:09Speaker 07

  um, would just walk in the studio, flesh it out, and play it, you know, and hopefully I didn't have to sing it that day. So I could, I'd sing like a rough track or hum a verse or whatever, and then I'd go back and make sure that the lyrics were exactly how I wanted them.

• 46:28Steven Rinella?

  And then, uh, I hadn't asked you about this till now, I was kinda waiting till now, about the, you'd contacted me at one point, and you were looking for a picture of a deer in velvet for the album cover.

• 46:39Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 46:39Steven Rinella?

  I never said why?

• 46:41Speaker 07

  Yeah, it was, so there's like, there are some animal images in that song, it's called On The Red River. And, uh,

• 46:53Speaker 07

  I thought, we were looking for themes for, um, for artwork while we were in the studio.

• 47:02Speaker 07

  And I thought, well, what the hell, you know, so let's just put these images up, and like, I mentioned a kelpie dog in that song, which is kind of a not the most well-known animal in the world, and, uh, so I thought, well, I'll put one on the cover, so when people ask what it is.

• 47:23Steven Rinella?

  It's easy.

• 47:23Speaker 07

  It's easy, it's on the cover.

• 47:25Steven Rinella?

  Yeah.

• 47:28Speaker 07

  And then I thought, well, I'll build off that, you know, and we've, so we used the imagery from that, that stuff, um, and, uh, put it, put it there in sort of like an old, like, kinda like the Wild America, like, filter on it.

• 47:42Steven Rinella?

  Yeah, yeah, like the Marty Staufer.

• 47:43Speaker 07

  It looks like, yeah, it looks like a Marty Staufer stuff, yeah.

• 47:47Steven Rinella?

  I got it, yeah. And then that's been, uh, that's out, and everybody can go check it out, and you guys are gonna start touring soon.

• 47:54Speaker 07

  Yeah, we'll go on like a real tour, we're gonna do some stuff in, uh, in the UK, and then we come back over here and we do. I wanna say it's, I told you it was more dates than it is, I think it's twenty something dates all over the US, so.

• 48:10Steven Rinella?

  So if people wanna come check you out, they can come check you out.

• 48:13Speaker 07

  It should be something to see.

• 48:14Steven Rinella?

  Dude, I'm gonna make one of them, I'm gonna make one of those dates work and come out.

• 48:18Speaker 07

  Hell yeah.

• 48:18Steven Rinella?

  So my wife's dying to come see you guys.

• 48:20Speaker 07

  It'll be fun.

• 48:21Steven Rinella?

  And I'll go along.

• 48:26Steven Rinella?

  So I'm gonna fly out and check out one of the shows.

• 48:30Speaker 07

  Try to let you know what's, the ones that I know are

• 48:35Speaker 07

  best sonically or best to hang out in.

• 48:37Steven Rinella?

  Oh, yeah, I don't want to catch when you got like some town with a bunch of cousins and stuff in it. I need to, I need to find a town where there's no one gonna be talking to.

• 48:44Speaker 07

  No cousins.

• 48:45Steven Rinella?

  No cousins.

• 48:45Speaker 07

  No cousins allowed.

• 48:48Steven Rinella?

  Yeah, man, I want to come see it bad. So you guys are going to Europe and you, sometimes you tour and you're with other bands, but your tour is gonna be like a Turnpike Troubadour tour.

• 48:57Speaker 07

  This will be our headline.

• 48:58Steven Rinella?

  Like headline tour, yeah. And when you go to Europe, you go, you do, you're part of a broader thing.

• 49:03Speaker 07

  Yeah, we'll do a few headline and bar shows over there and then we'll be opening for Zach Bryan, who's, draws huge over there.

• 49:11Steven Rinella?

  Got it, got it. And you brought like a ukulele with you?

• 49:13Speaker 07

  No, it's an old, cool cowboy guitar. So like a Marty Robbins. It's a Martin guitar. It's pretty cool.

• 49:20Steven Rinella?

  Yeah, tell me about that, man.

• 49:21Speaker 07

  It's like a 40s model Martin that, uh, my, a guy that works with me, um, named Sherman, had this guitar and he said, hey, you, you should start using that because it's easy, easy to fly with. And then I, he wound up selling it to me, but it's a, I think Marty Robbins played one of these on some of those recordings.

• 49:44Steven Rinella?

  So it's your traveling guitar?

• 49:45Speaker 07

  But yeah, it's just one I take, can take everywhere because it's so small.

• 49:48Steven Rinella?

  Got it. Now, you're gonna play something?

• 49:51Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 49:52Steven Rinella?

  You gonna play the Red River?

• 49:53Speaker 07

  I think so. I think that would be appropriate.

• 49:55Speaker 05

  And I got a mic, uh, move that camera.

• 49:57Steven Rinella?

  Go. Before you start, can I tell you something funny?

• 50:02Steven Rinella?

  I've walked next to a million dudes singing a million songs out in the woods. It was so weird to hear dudes singing a song who's like, like, uh, like really like a singer.

• 50:14Steven Rinella?

  Cause I'm always like, you don't need, you don't need your money.

• 50:19Steven Rinella?

  Yeah, there's a lot of that that goes on these shoots and you're like, should be nice to have a real singer here. I was like, take it away, Evan. I'll take a break for an hour. You sing us a little something.

• 50:35Speaker 00

  There's a mid-July white tail and velvet

• 50:40Speaker 00

  Red as your old Chevrolet

• 50:46Speaker 00

  And I was sixteen when you acted and we Were lucky, we both walked away You could day work and scrape out a living

• 51:02Speaker 00

  The work for which you'd been born

• 51:07Speaker 00

  You were quick, with a laugh and forgiven And tied hard and fast to the horn We had kelpies and good quarter horses We had wheat pasture yearlings tied down You learned pain is the price of admission And you're never done paying it down

• 51:40Speaker 00

  Back on the Red River, not hard to remember When your daddy would never get old Well, I saw the world from up on your shoulders I remember the view when you lived like we did Death doesn't leave with the best part of you

• 52:11Speaker 00

  On days off, we'd help out our neighbors We worked and we sweated for free And you'd earn every drink with your labor And I'd sleep on your front seat till three And you'd call it a cure for a snake bite And you'd reach for a fiddle, old crow Some medicine should get your head right When the symptoms were starting to show

• 52:56Speaker 00

  Back on the Red River, not hard to remember When your daddy would never get old Well, I saw the world from up on your shoulders I remember the view when you live like we do Death doesn't leave with the best part of you

• 53:53Speaker 00

  Now the car's lined up down the driveway Haven't really been gone for two years And I'd be on my fur on a good day Down the last bottle of beer

• 54:14Speaker 00

  This Saturday started without you And I knew before I got the call Now the red July bucks are in velvet I'll tell you all about 'em this fall

• 54:38Speaker 00

  Back on the Red River, not hard to remember When your daddy would never get old

• 54:49Speaker 00

  Well, I saw the world from up on your shoulders I remember the view when you live like we do Death doesn't leave with the best part of you Gotta look at the world from up on your shoulders

• 55:32Steven Rinella?

  All right, man.

• 55:33Speaker 03

  I think it's good.

• 55:34Steven Rinella?

  Thanks, dude.

• 55:38Steven Rinella?

  All right, catch them when they head out on the road. Turnpike Troubadours heading out when? I think in July. It's in July sometime. Coming up. Yep. Coming up. Okay. Oh, there's a thing I gotta, I gotta do my own little deal here. Oh, so season three, this is hot from Corinne. Season three of our kids podcast, Meat Eater Kids is out. So if you don't remember, the way Meat Eater Kids podcast works is it's a three act show. There's like a history lesson, wildlife lesson, whatever comes out in the beginning. I've done them. Clay's doing a round right now. So it's like history and wildlife according to Clay. Act two is for your kids, we start building that we find animals that have like a wide, wide array of vocalizations.

• 56:21Steven Rinella?

  And we start laying in the vocalizations, like real recordings of real animals doing vocalizations. We start giving clues until you build up until where kids guess them. So if your kid's real smart, he'll guess it right away. If he needs help, it'll take him a while to guess. You can tell it's a way to suss out how well your kid's doing in his outdoor education. Then three, it's kids trivia. So kids or gang of kids doing kids trivia. The objective is to, for them to work together to work up a pot of money which goes to a conservation, outdoor conservation group that benefits kids. So that's the kids podcast. Season three is out now.

• 56:59Steven Rinella?

  The season dropped on June 30. You can get episode two out today. So go listen and subscribe on the new Meat Eater Kids podcast feed. And then go buy your tickets to go see Turnpike Troubadours. Now, when you get your bear rug back, you can have that all laid out on stage. Is it gonna tour with you? It's too nice to take on the road. Okay, it's not on the road. So when you go, don't be surprised if you don't see a new bear rug out.

• 57:24Steven Rinella?

  Doesn't mean he ain't got one. Evan Falke, Turnpike Troubadours. Thanks for going on the show, man. Thanks, Evan. Thanks, buddy. Get your gear packed right and uh, blow your air mattress up, but don't pop it.

• 57:37Steven Rinella?

  Thanks again.

• 58:05Steven Rinella?

  If you spend a lot of time outdoors, you got dogs, you got kids, you know how hard it is to keep the floor of your rig clean. A thing we do in our, in our little fleet of vehicles that have in my household, if you go look, open the door on any one of them, they all got WeatherTech. We get a car, we throw the mats out and put in WeatherTech. Cause that way, when there's a mess, it's like your kid's fault, your dog's fault, it's the weather's fault, doesn't matter. You take them suckers out and hose them off and you're back to being good as new. I'm telling you, if you've got a vehicle, put WeatherTech in there, you're gonna be happy you did it. And check this out, American-made floor liners and cargo liners, okay? They laugh in the face of all weather. Go take a look for yourself today at weathertech.com. In military families, service is more than a job, it's a legacy. At American Military

• 58:50Steven Rinella?

  University, that legacy can help open new doors through education. If someone in your family served in the military, you could be eligible for reduced tuition. Take the next step with flexible online programs built for real life. Learn more at amu.apus.edu/military. What if you could save up for that new car or vacation just by buying the stuff you're already buying? With the One Pay banking app, you earn 3% cash back on up to $150 in monthly spending in categories you choose. So it's easy to save. So what are you saving

• 59:33Steven Rinella?

  for? Maybe you got your eyes on a new truck, or a new boat, or you're saving up for your first house. Download the One Pay app, or visit onepay.com for banking that gives you more for what matters.

• 59:46Speaker 02

  One Pay is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided by Coastal Community Bank or Lead Bank, members FDIC. Cash back is earned as points. Go to onepay.com/rewards/terms for redemption options and additional details.

• 1:00:01Speaker 04

  This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.