Cameron Hanes - Keep Hammering Collective - KHC 055 - Roy Story, Inmates & Ben Blankenship

Episode Date: January 26, 2024

Follow along: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cameronrhanes Twitter: https://twitter.com/cameronhanes Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/camhanes/ Website: https://www.cameronhanes.com Thank you to our sponsors: Blokes: https://blokes.com/cam use code CAM for 20% off labs MTN OPS Supplements: https://mtnops.com/ Use code KEEPHAMMERING for 20% off and Free Shipping Ketone IQ: https://hvmn.com/CAM use code CAM for 20% Leupold: https://www.leupold.com/ Black Rifle: https://www.blackriflecoffee.com/ Use code KEEPHAMMERING for 20% your first Order Hoyt: http://bit.ly/3Zdamyv  Timestamps: 0:00:00 Intro: Ben Blankenship 0:03:49 Inmates: Oregon State Penitentiary 0:08:51 Messages to the Inmates 0:12:32 Cam’s Goals for the OSP Inmates 0:17:02 Takeaways from Visiting OSP 0:18:33 Roy Roth Story Time: “Bou’s & Bears Don’t Mix” 0:23:40 Shooting Carp with Recurves 0:26:31 Roy’s Caribou Hunt 0:32:28 A Trophy Caribou 0:34:03 The Packout: Bear Bells 0:35:43 The Charging Grizzly 0:39:12 Outro

Every step I take, I move my truth. Every time they tell me stop, I use. Every comment hate that makes my feel, gather up my energy and boom. I hear them talking, saying the way that I move is so reckless. That is a part of my mind I've been blessed with. Giving my blood so I am relentless. All right, welcome to the Keep Hammering Collective. This is Cameron Haynes, and we're going to do a solo podcast today.

Today's topics, this is a little note for Macy. She does My Reel. She's a creative and real goddess. So Macy, here's the topics. Let's make a cool reel regarding Ben Blankenship, my prison visit. We're mentioning Jelly Roll. Jelly Roll was kind of, I talked to him about kind of my strategy for going and talking to the guys, the inmates yesterday up at the Oregon State Penitentiary.

And then lastly, we're going to have a Roy Roth story time. So those are the topics of today. We'll start off with Ben Blankenship. Ben is a runner here in Eugene. He's an Olympian. He's a world record holder. And I've been running, you know, people who have fallen along. I don't know if you guys follow me in social media. The guys that listen to the podcast, I would assume so. I've been running Spencer's Butte because Piscuit's closed down and trying to get my best time and trying to, you know, whatever, just get faster and push harder. So yesterday I was over there with my wife, not really going for a PR, just kind of getting a workout in. We're coming down. and here comes Ben Blankenship up the trail. So I stopped and talk to him. And I said, I said, hey, so what's your, how fast can you get up this? Because I wanted to just see how I can compare.

I mean, I told my wife, I said, any time I think that I'm running well and feeling pretty good about myself. And then I run with somebody like Ben, I instantly think I have no business even calling myself a runner. So point is, I asked Ben, I said, so what's your time? up where'd you start this and that and he's like i said do you park down here at the lower parking lot he's like well that's not the lower parking lot he goes it doesn't it doesn't count running the hill unless you start from the valley floor so i'm up probably about halfway off the valley floor to start my climb up to the top of spencer's bute and uh he of course is one-upping me and probably running much faster also or i get guaranteed running much faster um he's getting ready for his first 100

I learned he had done, I think, three summits of Spencer's and one of Baldi, which is another neighboring peak, all from the valley floor. So who knows how many miles he got in, but probably 20 or 30 with, you know, three Spencer summits would be from the valley floor would be about, I don't know, 4,500 feet of gain plus the other one, probably 5,000 foot of gain yesterday for him. So props to Ben Blankenship. I know he's going to crush his first 100-mile, or I think he told me it was 40-some days or 30-some days out or maybe 50-some days. We were both counting on doing the spike camp. My brother was doing a run on Piscay on the 28th,

but the storm here that we've had sabotaged that, and it was going to be as many summits as you could do in 12 hours. So Ben was going to do that. I planned on doing it for a big push tune-up into racing season. But yeah, so follow Ben Blankenship. He's a badass. He can frickin' run. He's, I think he's qualified for the Olympic trials maybe three different times.

And I know he made, he went to Rio. But world record holder in the relay, he ran the last leg, I think, of the 1600 meter relay. So just a stud under four minute, miler. Yeah. So we're going to get together and run. been I got a sightache already in anticipation, so that's good. And then next, I, as I mentioned, I wouldn't talk to the inmates yesterday at the, at Oregon State Penitentiary with Wayne Indicott. This trip was set up by, it's called Agap Families. And what that is is, it's a group that

helps the children of incarcerated parents. So these kids, their mother and dad, or maybe both are in prison and so the kids are you know left to fend for themselves essentially other i mean i'm sure there's family stepping in or maybe foster parents but uh without their mom and dad it's you know that's a challenge it's it's a challenge being a kid just in general but if you don't have your your mom and dad at home even harder so this group focuses on helping those kids. They set up this trip. Elijah Wheeler was the contact I made. I saw him over here at Gates family tradition meets when I was dropping off a kill that I had. I was going to get it processed and he was there too. And so he asked if I'd ever be interested in talking to the inmates. And yeah, I mean,

I'm always wanting, I mean, to me it's a huge opportunity to be able to go and hopefully positively influence others regardless of where that is, whether that's at the bow rack or that's at a sports show or a race or on the mountain just on an impromptu training run or in a prison. I'm trying to make a positive difference and so that was my goal. I talked to Jellyroll about it because he was in prison himself and he's made such an incredible transformation back into society which is difficult for inmates. Jelly Rolls has went from being, and he'll say in his own words, very selfish, you know, a drug dealer, served his time, missed, you know, a lot of life while he was in there, but he got out. Now he's, I think, 38 years old and nominated for a Grammy.

So we can learn a lot from somebody like Jelly Roll, and I asked him, you know, we were back listening to him play at the opera and I said I had this trip coming up. And I said, do you have any advice? And he says, yeah, just go in there and shoot it to him straight. Just be honest and just be yourself. And yeah, just give them some stories. And so that's what I did. I went in there and I mentioned jelly roll to the guys. Of course, everybody loves jelly roll.

And they know his story. And, you know, specifically his song, Save Me was a song, a number of the inmates mentioned yesterday. But I went in there and spoke to those guys and you know I can't judge their past behavior or actions. I don't know I got some backstory after the fact, but face to face these guys seemed great. Of course, I don't know. Everybody has demons. Everybody makes mistakes. And when I look at some of those guys, it's one mistake. It's one mistake, one bad break. And I can't look down. down on men like that because I've been probably in similar situations of some of those guys and I got lucky and I can think of, you know, I drove drunk a number of times. I totaled,

I totaled at least one truck and should have probably been seriously injured in that one, rolled over, speeding, hit a bank. It was, you know, should have been a, I mean, it could easily been a tragic accident. So, but it's self-induced. I got lucky it was just me, but if I would have drifted, because I do, you know, you look at the tire marks, I drifted into the other lane, over-corrected into the bank, slammed, rolled, this whole thing. If another car would have been coming in the other, from the other direction, and I would have hit them and who knows, family, a person by themselves, whatever, I could have easily killed somebody because I was impaired and I was driving. If I would have, if that would have been my bad break, I could easily be serving time

or have served time. This was, you know, a number of years ago. But could you imagine somebody getting hurt or killed because of me driving drunk? So I can't, and maybe some of those guys, that's why they're there. I don't know. But all I know is like, I've been lucky in life and I haven't been perfect. When you're not perfect and you're not living a healthy lifestyle, you make a mistake, that's how you pay. That's how our society is set up to make people who make errors like that pay. And so when I talk to these guys, man, I know they're clean and sober now because they're serving time. And the guys in this group, I will say Wayne Indycott was also speaking to and he was, he's incredible, his testimony, he was pretty much born to preach. It was,

It wasn't a gospel-type group of people, but I'm sure a lot of them are Christians, read the Bible, find strength and faith. So I know Wayne's words resonated, his testimony resonated, and he's very good at it. He could easily be a preacher, it seems like, to me. He's like just so confident in his faith and what he's saying. So I was greatly inspired by Wayne. I was, I'm not, I'm not that good like that. I mean, I can tell stories. So I would just, I got up there.

I listened to Wayne. I was, you know, I was moved by his testimony, as were a number of the inmates. But me, I don't know. It's just like writing. I'm not, you know, Wayne is so serious and so, tactical and just precise in what he says. And I'm more of like storyteller. I like when I write, I like adventure.

And so I would just get up there and I would just tell stories to the guys and just say, you know, my message was, you know, there's different times where we can influence others. Those guys are in a position now where maybe they can't have a positive influence on the world, right? maybe they can't necessarily even impact their family, but they can positively impact the guy sitting next to them or their cellmate or the people they spend time with, maybe training because some of these guys train

and they have a CrossFit thing coming up that hopefully I can be part of up there. But they can positively impact the guys there. So as I said, it's like if we're not making a positive difference in this world, what are we doing, right? And sometimes that positive difference, Maybe if you're lucky and you have this reach and you can touch people in different areas of the world, maybe you can make a difference to even people you'll never meet.

Or maybe it's just your friends and family and like your actions, your discipline, the way you carry yourself maybe elevates others, right? And that's a win. That's what we should do. But those guys aren't in position to do that right now. But they can make a positive difference in their own environment in prison. They can. And so that was the message I gave them.

You know, it's, my story is a keep hammering story. It's, you just show up every day. You can't control yesterday. You don't know what tomorrow holds, but you can control today. So what are we doing today to get better? What are we doing today to make a positive difference on those we love or spend time with? And so that was my message. That's what my book Endure deals with.

That's what keep hammering. The mantra, I think, represents. It's just showing up. You know, I tell the stories, talked about my boy. They loved hearing the stories about my boys and what they're up to, the pull-ups and the bench competition that Tanner wins every year. And I was told him about Truitt and his pull-ups. And I said, I'm not talking these kipping pull-ups. I know you guys talk CrossFit.

I'm not talking kipping pull-ups. I'm not talking chin-ups. I'm talking pull-up pull-ups. And I said he did 8100. And they're like, you know, clapping and all fired up. And I talked about our bench press competition. Everybody loves everybody knows that 225 feels like a lot of those guys are lifters. So I said Tanner busted out 20 reps this year and Trude did 18 and they were they were all fired up.

So they want they want me and the boys to come and train with them and my goal if I had if I had a goal as I said I want to impact others. If I could do anything my goal would be able to take wild game meat up to the Oregon State Penitentiary feed those guys some elk meat because I said they talked about supplements and if they're going to get protein in there and different. things and I said you know there's no no better supplement than elk meat and I would I would give anything to be able to share elk meat with the inmates up there and we can't do the lift run shoot the whole full meal deal because we can't be shooting bows in prison but I do want to go up there and run and train with them so that's my goal and I want to share my kills with them I want to I want them to know what just a fellowship of sharing a like an outkill that I worked hard for and took care of and brought home and it's out of my freezer.

I want, you know, hunters are providers and we provide to our community and those inmates are part of the community, you know, in a certain way. And so just like anybody else, I'd love to provide a good meal for them and share some fellowship. So that's my goal. You know, a side goal would be, God, could you imagine if we get jelly roll up there to play music? They said they used to have music back in the day. There's a guy I talked to who had been in there for 31 years and he said years ago they used to have concerts at the penitentiary up there and you know they haven't. I think there was an incident. Something happened but my dream would be for somebody like it'd be great jelly roll just because everybody loves them because they have that kindred spirit with him about

he's been an inmate himself. So that would be my my incredible dream to uh, You know, and just to distract them from their situation for a little bit of time. I mean, hey, everybody needs to serve their penance. Everybody, you know, you make mistakes. You have to pay. That's how life works. But I hope last night was a distraction. I hope last night gave them something else to think about.

And I want these other events to do that same thing. I'm not saying that they shouldn't have to pay for the mistake. they made. I'm just saying I would like to be able to give them a little snippet of time to think about something else. Maybe it's music. Maybe it's lifting. Maybe it's elk meat. Maybe it's just good stories. Maybe it's just how can I positively impact the man beside me who also made a mistake. So it's a it was, I don't know, I'm like, I don't really know how to process it other than it was empowering. it was it was an honor for me

they seemed like great guys every person I talked to you know seemed like good people I mean I don't know I don't know their past you know I know that they're clean and sober now and looking into clear eyes

was I've I don't know I enjoy talking to the guys so So, yeah, I have a lot of sympathy. You know, I can't, I don't want it to sound like the victims aren't suffering. But I have, I just have empathy for people who are both the victims and the perpetrators, I guess, in certain situations.

I just, it just sucks. It sucks that, that, you know, there's evil in the world. but it doesn't last forever. So we need to be able to forgive and move on at some point. People pay what they owe for their sins. And, man, I just had a good time up there talking to those guys. And I don't know, I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. So I wanted to mention it here.

So I don't know. That was my experience there. I want to take Jellyroll for his, for his advice. And, you know, as I told them up there, he was very selfish, self-admittedly. Now he's very generous, the biggest heart. And also there was some, there was two guys who went with us who served an extensive amount of time in that penitentiary.

And now they're out and they're both married and they're both doing great. So reform does happen. And there are success stories. two of those guys went with us yesterday or in our group. Wayne and I were the only ones who spoke. But there's other guys that used to be inmates, and a lot of the inmates knew them. And, you know, it's a success story.

It's good for the inmates to see somebody who's served their time went out, and now they're successful members of society and they're flourishing. So that's, you know, it gives people hope. I think that's the number one takeaway from it is let's give people hope. I think everybody deserves a second chance, and I think everybody deserves to believe there's hope in this world. So that's my takeaway from it.

I want to thank Agat families for the opportunity to get up there and hopefully make a positive impact on those inmates. And I want to thank Wayne for being such a strong leader, not only in this community, but for everybody else who know him as a herd bull on my lift run shoot series. Wayne is, he's an incredible leader. So, Herd Bull, thank you. Thank you for everybody who made

that possible last night. It definitely enriched my life. So the final part of this solo podcast here is it's going to be story time. Roy and I loved story time telling hunting stories or I would write stories about his hunts and that's what I did. I wrote this story. about an incredible hunt he had. This was in full-drop bow hunting. This was, the year was, what is the year here? Man, it should say somewhere. Oh, 1999, looks like. So it's been a little while ago. 1999. Yeah, so this story here, let's see, I had it. But this is one of, I think, Roy's best adventures. He, you know, he was always looking for,

a lot of times hunting Alaska is about logistics. And so this trip required, he drew an awesome caribou tag up there, which a lot of caribou tags in Alaska are over the counter. You just buy them. But there are some premium draw areas that just hold trophy bowls because it's managed more for trophies for, it's not managed for opportunities.

So anybody wants to hunt can go there. It's more managed for trophies. So they limit the number of opportunities, the number of tags. It allows the bulls to get older and maybe larger. So Roy drew this good caribou tag, but to get to the country he wanted to hunt, it took some planning and logistics.

So let's get into the stories. This is a full-dra adventure is what it says. The title of the article is Bowes and Bowes. Bears don't mix. So Bose is kind of short and slang for Caribou. Bowes and Bears don't mix. B-O-U. The subtitle is, how quickly does it take for jubulation to change into sheer terror? And how long it takes about how, about as long as it takes a sow grizzly to charge from the Alaskan bush, God. Hopefully I can read the rest of the article better than that.

But anyway, you get the gist. So here we go. What on earth could possibly rival the adrenaline rush of one experiences, the adrenaline rush, one experiences when arrowing the new number two Pop and Young Bering Ground Caribou? How about facing the prospects of stopping a charging grizzly, mere feet from engulfing a loved one? Now, either one of these experiences would cause most of us to suffer an adrenaline overload. But a couple of these incredible happenings together on the same hunt, and one could probably measure adrenaline levels on the,

Richter scale. God. Luckily, I can write better than I can read. So I did write this article, believe it or not. Yeah, so that's the gist of it. Roy goes up, kills the number two caribou. He hardly ever entered anything in the book. This was a giant caribou, and he killed it with his recurve to top it off, and then had this grizzly that charged. So we'll get into it. When my hunting partner, Roy Roth, left for his first caribou huntsons, moving to Alaska four years ago, I had no doubt he would return with many memorable, and noteworthy experiences. You see, Roy and I used to be inseparable,

hunting partners prior to his big move to Alaska. And if I don't know anything, I do know that when Roy goes afield, he gets results. Although I insistently poke fun of the carp bow he uses for hunting. That's what I'd call the recurve. Because we used to go fish or shoot carp with the recurve. And back when you could bait bears here in Oregon, we'd go and we'd shoot carp out here at Fern Ridge,

It's kind of low water. You'd get warm in the summer, and those carp would come in there and spawn in the spring. And we'd go and kill a bunch of carp, and then we'd haul it out and use it as bear bait because those carp stink. And to get a bear bait going, you need, we'd say we need some stink.

And stink just meant rotting fish. You put rotting fish in a gunny sack, maybe 20 foot up a tree where the bear couldn't get it, and then that scent is going to go up and down the valley for miles or the draw, whatever they're in. and a bear will come and then we'll have better bait, you know, because the stink only gets you so far. They like the sweet stuff too. But we would rely on carp to get those bear baits going.

Well, we used a recurve to do that. I've never hunted with a recurve, so I would make fun of Roy when he switched to a recurve because he's having target panic with his compound, right? So the recurve kind of cured that target panic because recurve is not the anticipation of hitting the trigger and releasing an arrow. The recurve is like much like throwing a baseball. It's just instinct. You just kind of judge. You see what you want to get that ball to like a mitt or whoever you're throwing it to. And you just throw it.

Just instinct. Well, that's recurve. So you just pull back and you just shoot with instinct. So it kind of, it'll correct target panic. And it's not really addressing target panic. It's just like bypassing it. Roy switched to recurve, had great success and then came back to compound. But that's another story.

So get back to the article here. Although I incessantly poke fun of the cart bow he uses for hunting, a black telly elite custom recurve, and he throws the occasional barb toward my string gun. That's what he'd call my compound. At this time, it was a PSC Carrera is what I was shooting. It was a good bow for back in the day. I respect no one else like I do, Roy,

for his toughness, woodsmanship, and consistent archery success. Roy has been there from the beginning. In fact, as he was the one to get me started in the wonderful world archery I reciprocated by prodding him into the extraordinary world of photography. I always love taking photos. So anyway, Roy turned into a great photographer also. Back to the article. I was there when he arrowed his first bull elk. He helped me trail my first bear. You get the picture. If anyone has ever had a hunting partner, Roy was mine and I was his. Sure, we have shared hunts since. There was a Sitka Black Tohunt in Kodiak last fall,

the spring bear hunt, and the Chugatch Mountains of Alaska before that. But now it's more than the exception than the rule than when we share hunting camp. As a result, I now live Roy's hunts vicariously through his stories and photos. I believe the story of Roy's caribou hunt is one for the ages, which has inspired me to put his narrative into written prose. It is as follows. On the inauguration of this hunt, Roy was accompanied by his father, Ray, and 16-year-old nephew, Chris, who would help pack in camp, stay a night or two, then leave Roy for the

remainder of his two-week vigil before returning to help him pack out. Roy did a considerable amount of homework, research in an area that held a good number of pop and young bowls that received little or no hunting pressure. Again, this is, he would get further away. That was our key to success on anywhere, even back here in Oregon. We just want to outwork everybody, get to country. Nobody else wanted to go to, or it was too much effort to get to, so we could have hunting, basically pristine hunting on our own, these animals, hopefully hadn't seen many

humans and that was the goal because it's different when you're hunting animals that are hunted by every other i would say tom dick and harry i mentioned in my book but when you're competing against everybody else and have to overcome the senses and the survival instincts of the animal it's very tough we would try to eliminate competition by going further that's what roy did here eventually roy did find a region on the keeney peninsula that fulfilled his pretty determined mandate And although this territory was renowned for producing trophy class caribou would also require a ridiculous amount of effort to get gear and pack animals into this isolated area. But this is what sets Roy apart from every other Tom Dick and Harry packing a bow. For Roy, no effort is too great.

You know what? I hadn't even read this article yet in years, but I remember I'd always talk about when we were competing these other guys. I always mentioned Tom Dick and Harry. And voila, it's in this article as well, if you can imagine. So that was just must have been, I think I wrote my book where I mentioned that in 1999, which is when I wrote this article. So we go through phases in our life where we have these references and we'll just use them all the time during that period and then we're on to the next. Well, case in point right here. So I'll continue. The trip began with a four-hour drive from his home in Palmer. Then there was three separate trips of gear and pack llamas and raised jet sled

25 miles across a large glacier fed lake that had all the qualities and appearance of the ocean itself. From there it wasn't enough. The Regent Roy planned on hunting was eight miles inland. The pack trail that led across the tundra was very wooded with tall grass providing mostly ground cover. This trail paralleled a small strain though so full of salmon it appeared as so one could walk from bank to bank without getting their feet wet, packed with salmon, and their backstick up above the water in this place. So as I said,

it's like you could walk across on top of fish to get to the other side. As unique of a site the salmon stream was, it was also a bit unnerving. Anyone who has spent time in Alaska knows that where there are salmon, there are bears. However, Roy, Ray, and Chris were reassured by Alaska Fish and Game biologists that this area held a low number of resident grizzlies, and in all likelihood, the only bears they would potentially have to contend with

were black bears. And heck, everyone knows that even if there are a few grizzlies around, they're more afraid of you than you are of them, right? That's rhetorical. After packing for approximately eight miles, the trio found an old moose hunting campsite, which they decided to use as their base camp. Caribou season had commenced a couple days prior,

so Roy and Chris decided to go afield. for a quick evening hunt to familiarize themselves with the areas race out of camp. Roy and Chris had scarcely begun their trek when they spotted a caribou sporting extraordinary headgear. The bull's position could not have been any more perfect for Roy to try and sneak into cart bow range, I mean bow range. This caribou was behaving in an atypical manner compared to the others of his lineage. By that, I mean he was by himself, whereas caribule are historically hurt animals. This bull is slowly plotting along all by himself nibbling on brows. Not to mention the train.

He was in consisted of small patches of alders and rolling hills, which is very conductive to a close quarter's approach. While Chris served sentry from afar, Roy quickly closed to within about 30, excuse me, Roy quickly closed to within about 60 yards, thanks in large part to an ideal conditions. From there, he switched to super slow mo as he inched on his butt towards the unsuspecting monarch. By using the crust of a hill as a shield, he kept his eyes on the bobbing crown points of the bull as he nibbled on the bunch grass while uncurrici-couristically. Still didn't sound right, but you know what I meant. Slowly plotting forth. Time seemed to stand still as Roy rose from his half-crouch and while he cleared the uppermost tentacles of the brush grass, his line of sight ever changed.

changing, the bull's vitals became increasingly exposed until Roy had the opportunity he needed. Reaching full draw, Roy's middle finger settled firmly into the corner of his mouth. That's his anchor point right here as he visualized his money spot behind the bull's shoulder. Roy's arrow cut through the 30 yards of air in a beautiful arc that only an archer could appreciate and instantly disappeared in the caribou slate gray hide. Just like that history was made. Roy had taken his first caribou and the new number two, Pope and Young bearing ground velvet category caribou.

The bull also qualifies for Boone and Crocket record book. Not bad for a beginner, but as I keep telling him, Roy, how do you ever expect to take a world record animal if you keep shooting the first thing you see? That's tongue-hung-cheek. Number two of all time. Are you kidding me? So, incredible. So the velvet category, it's, yeah, I had the number one. not this is a different species but I had the number one on Quebec Labrador Caraboo

the Velvet category only lasts for two-year scoring period unless they've changed it this one was the number two of all time in the Velvet category of Barren Ground so not really sure how that works now but at that time it was a giant bowl over 400 inches which if people who know a caribou know that's incredible as Roy quickly approached a fallen caribou he he realized what an awesome trophy he had down this was by far the biggest caribou who had ever laid eyes on it was well after sundown by the time roy and chris completed the skinning and boning of the bull ray was waiting up anxious to learn about the cause of their tardiness spirits were high as they filled ray in on the hunt over dinner and made plans

for their departure in an effort to salvage all the meat early next morning the trio took the lamas back to the harvest site to load up the bone-down meat that roy had hung in nearby trees to cool. With the llamas loaded up, they headed back to base camp where they enjoyed caribou backstrap cooked over the campfire. The mood was one of merriment. As camp was disassembled, llama packs were filled and finally Roy Ray and Chris wrestled their heavy pack frames into their familiar place on each of their backs. And with one last look around camp, everyone fell in line and the A-mile pack-out began. The pack-out was going according to plan, the llamas performing admirably and so on. The trail was disturbingly full of

bear sign and sound macarcuses will strewn all about however granted it was not unexpected and the group was prepared but it was still unsettling both llamas and the hunters sported bear bells and the group made an all-out effort to be noisy on the pack-out so it was not to start all any bears so they had a collar for the llamas with bells on it and that generally will spook you know animals can hear so much better than us and a bell on the tundra is not a normal sound. So generally that would always spook a bear well before you'd ever see it. All the llamas had bear bells.

Ray was in the lead with about 70 pounds of meat and gear on his back with Ray's grandson Chris wearing a 45 caliber Colt Revolver and a holster on his hip behind him leading the llamas. Roy brought up the rears. He struggled with an awkwardness of packing those gigantic caribouin antlers along the narrow brushy trail. Chris dutifully unsnapped his holster as a trio

continued towards the trailhead, all the while ringing their bear bells and singing silly songs for additional noise. Roy would just be singing anyway. It had nothing to do with bears. He just loved to sing. But it probably would help spook Bear also, along with the bells and not a great singer,

but enthusiastic. So I'm sure that generally would work to run bear off. As they entered an area with very tall grass, the aroma of fresh fish filled the air in a matter of seconds a living nightmare unfolded before their eyes as a large sow stood up above the grass a mere 25 feet in front of Ray and unleashed a half roar, half bellow that shook the woods.

The bear seemed to zero in on Ray, emitted another roar and shook her head furiously, saliva flying all about her muzzle. The bear, with clear intent, charged full bore. Ray's first instinct was to run, but he simply was packing too much weight to react. As a sow charge, Ray realized his only option was to dive out of Chris's potential line of fire and assume a defensive position. With cat-like reflexes, Chris responded immediately to the charging bear. His first shot missed, but Chris coolly connected with the second shot, the bullet hitting the bear directly above the right eye and exiting behind the left shoulder.

The grizzly died instantly and dropped a mere five feet from Ray and a short 10 feet. from Chris. The whole episode lasted no more than a few seconds. In fact, because he was behind the llamas, Roy never even saw the grizzly. He heard a roar, and then the two shots almost simultaneously. As Roy sprinted past the llamas towards the commotion, his mind race. He figured that Chris and Ray had run into a black bear and being ever the cautious ones fired a couple of warning shots to spook the animal. Needless to say, he was very surprised as he stared incredibly at the aftermath that lay before him. Ray spayed out in the tall grass to the side of the trail, virtually pinned by the weight of his pack. Chris stood slack-jawed with the 45, still spewing a thin line of white

smoke from the end of the barrel, and an eight-foot grizzly sprawled out in the trail. Sitting in the wet grass, they all stared blankly and silently as if shell-shocked. If Chris's shot would have done anything but dropped the bear in his tracks, Ray would have likely been mauled, and as anyone who knows anything about this will tell you, dropping the world's largest. carnivore in his tracks is truly a rare feat. Grandpa, yeah, so I said in quote, little Chrissy, Chris was only 16 and, you know, grandpas have nickname for their grandkids. So being Chris is young, he was actually very tall at this time. I always remember Chris had big hands. He was just a great kid,

hard worker, big strong hands. And as 16 years old, old just as, I mean, can you imagine performing like that at 16, what it takes to make that shot in such an intense moment? And Chris did it. Missing it the first time, dropping it, that hole right above its eye, saving his grandpa's life essentially for the most part. So much respect. So little Chris, he as his grandpa calls him during lighter times, deserves a lot of credit for single-handedly averting a sure disaster. Obviously, the sow wasn't bluffing or charged, and in one cataclysmic moment, Chris, at 16 years of age, excelled in a situation where many grown man would have fled, failed, or folded like a cheap suit. Chris, ever the humble hero,

tells me, matter of fact, that I did what I had to do. Being a man of strong Christian faith, Ray is convinced that the Lord directed Chris's shot, and he thanks and praised him for protecting him and his family. He is also thankful he has a grandson with a cool head and a brave heart. Incredible story. One of many from Roy's

time in Alaska. I mean you spend enough time in the woods with grizzlies and brown bears and even black bears. You're going to have close encounters and Roy had a number of them. You know, I've talked before about when I killed my, I guess it was my second brown bear.

We had a sow charged just like this and Roy had to kill her. So it happens. But for a 16-year-old to be able to come up in the clutch like that and save his grandpa, incredible. So, you know, sadly, both Ray and Chris are both gone now. You know, Chris, there was, Roy had cabins that we used to go and stay at in Black Bear Hunt.

And going up, one of the cabins was 75 miles up the Big Sioux. And that river is wide. There's a lot of channels on it. Sadly, one time, it was, I had Tanner up there on a bear hunt. And Chris was coming up. after we had just left, he was coming up. And a willow, there's like these little, these willow trees that kind of grow in the river

because there's so many deep channels and shallow channels, different things, but you're kind of weaving in and amongst the willows. Well, a willow tree had caught on the front of the boat and the momentum of the boat carried the willow branch, the willow tree forward and then it snapped over the, the bow of the boat and hit Chris in the neck and ended up killing him as going up to the bear cabin so Chris this was years after that I think he was uh 21 or 22 when that happened

but much too young to die much too young to die I mean I'm thankful he was there for this experience when he's 16 because he saved his grandpa and Ray is still alive and that's Roy's and Roy's mom, Shirley, they're, you know, doing great. So without Chris there, who knows what would have happened to Ray. So I'm thankful for that. It's, you know, it's bittersweet because Chris was so young and, you know, relatively speaking, Roy was young when he fell and died too at 49. But you can't explain life sometimes.

You can't explain life and death. And that's, you know, it's not for us to understand fully. the time. But yeah, I wanted to share that story. I wanted, I'm going to share more Roy's stories on here. And just because I think they deserve to be talked about. I think Chris, you know, he's been gone for a number of years now. He died before Roy did. And, you know, on Roy's boats on those jet sleds, they had a memorial for Chris the dates, you know, when he was born and when he died. And, you know, died and so we're always trying to honor their legacy. Roy did that when he was still here, you know, after Chris had passed and we're still going to do that with Roy and Chris respectively.

So tragic loss of both of them, my heart still likes for their families. And yeah, so that's an incredible story of an amazing hunt that I wrote about with Roy. And I'm going to share more of them here but that's today's that's today's podcast um hope you enjoyed it i hope people can learn something from these experiences and these stories and thank you for tuning in in the meantime keep hammering i'll catch you on the next one