The MeatEater Podcast - Ep. 727: Backpack Hunting for Alaskan Black Bears

Episode Date: July 7, 2025

Steven Rinella talks with Evan Felker of Turnpike Troubadours, Rick Smith, Seth Morris, Austin "Chilly" Chleborad, 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 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; and Season 3 of our Kids podcast is out, so subscribe to the feed and listen, thanks!  Connect with Steve and The MeatEater Podcast Network Steve on Instagram and Twitter MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YoutubeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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is the latest addition to the Bear Gryse feed on Meat Eaters podcast network. Together, we'll seek out a deeper understanding of wildlife, wild places, and the people who dedicate their lives to conserving both. After all, you can't love what you don't understand. Search Bear Gryse on Apple, iHeart, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast and hit that follow button to enroll in Backwoods University now.

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Firs t L I T e comm Welcome to the meat eater podcast where we're we're we're you would call broadcasting we're recording in a Airplane hair plan hangar. Yeah 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 way more interesting than over here. It's busy. Yeah. Well, if you could, if you, if they had done it the way I thought, and you're watching on, 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 in this kind of jig apparatus to support the whole thing and there's all kind of tools laying

around and just looks awesome. But instead you got just a regular old plane. So pretty cool. Pretty cool plane. It's a good looking plane. It's good. There's nothing wrong with that plane. I'm just telling you it's better over that way.

Coolest part about that plane that people can't see is it says forestry on the wing. Mm. Okay. Uh, join today by Evan. So cool. Join today by Evan Thelka, who's on the show for the second time. Mmm. Uh join today by Evan. So cool. Join today by Evan Thelka who's on the show for the second time. Yeah. Do you remember what we call the last time you came on? What was the name of it? Yeah. 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. What's not that big of a deal? Writing a song. Just write a song or whatever. Listen to this one. Chili's rifle man, gonna make his final stand. See how far I got on that?

It sounded like you almost forgot the second line. The second line was, I just repeat the first line. It was Chili's a rifle man, Chili's a rifleman. Oh, rifle in his hand. Going to 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. 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 marching or hiking cadence. That's what I wanted.

We were hiking when I came up. We were fixing to hike when I came up. It took you about seven days to come up with that. Or it takes time. Yeah. So my song is faltering and that's that. What I wanna do though, so we're coming from, we're in this here aircraft hang hanger, and we're coming from,

uh, spending four or five days, six nights, at least six nights, six nights. Um, doing like a little backpack based fly in airplane hunt. And when we got into it, we had this argument about I was I was taking like I was playing devil's advocate on this argument where? The guys here were talking about looking at packing lists Okay, someone looking at packing lists and I was just for no reason at all Assuming the position of someone who didn't think that was constructive. You just felt like arguing. Yeah, I felt like arguing. There's nothing like big to argue about. Rick hadn't said anything like totally stupid. Did you bring your eye mask? That's the question. Did you bring your eye mask? No, no. So I think what I was saying was this. I was saying it's very subjective.

It's highly subjective because 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. Yeah. Well, 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. Well, oh yeah, that's a good reminder. I should bring that.

Yeah, like, oh, that dark. Yeah, that's a, I wasn't thinking of that. I should probably take that. So that's the attitude with which you approach packages. Yeah, not like if I was watching yours and you're like, oh, I have a TV. I was gonna put it down to bring a push broom. Yeah, a push broom.

Like, wow. Clean out your tent, just like one of those little guys. Might be nice. Totally normal list, then buried right in the middle of the list is like a push broom. Keep a clean tent. And see if people bring it. See, Conrad did not look at the list,

and he used a sock to cover his eyes. Which worked out pretty well. Sleeping. Yeah. It's hardcore. Which worked out pretty well. Sleeping. So it's hardcore. So what I want to do, I want to do a gear thing for a minute. What I want to do is, 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 backpack hunting in June in the mountains in East Central Alaska. Spring bear hunting. More like early summer bear hunting.

Because like it starts turning to winter again in a couple months. You know, like September, it'll snow, right? It'll snow in August. It's like early summer in the valley. Yeah. Winter up top. Yeah. Winter up tops. Yeah. Not what you brought that you like.

What was this thing you wish you had done different? Packing. Something you'd change, should have brought, like a packing insight. Oh, if you're ready, because I can go. I had time to know that I was going to do this. I brought really ultra light rain pants. Can you first give your credentials? My name is Rick.

I'm one of the camera guys. Well, I'll do 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. No, I work on this show more than I work on nature documentaries, but you do work on nature Don't be mine. Yeah, his brother's doctor Morgan this is your podcast shut shout out all your your buddies

Parents are very proud of his brother Yeah parents are very proud of his brother. Yeah, ultra light pants. No, I'm gonna get back to your credentials. All right. Well I've been working on this show since 2016. Yeah, you've been working with us for a million years. Yeah, 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? Yeah, BBC natural history unit shoot. Okay, and you just spent a boatload of time waiting for a bunch of wolves to kill a moose. Yep, up for a Disney plus show with Bertie Gregory.

So, yeah, some wildlife stuff. You film polar bears, which is cool. Film polar bears. Yeah, yeah. Where? In the Hudson Bay, south of Churchill. So like I was saying. Yeah, some- when you watch some animals do something, Rick probably filmed it.

Well, yeah, or I'm filming the guy filming it. You know, I'm in the... He's in the mix. In the mix. Yeah. Okay, now, you wish you were to broad. Well, I was... The weight, we have to carry just a lot of batteries.

So then you try to go go ultralight on everything else. So my rain pants were very thin and I brought puffy pants thinking oh, you know, those will keep me warm and we go up high. But I think I should have just brought thicker rain pants. As wind protection and not bothered with the ultralight little ones. I mean going through the alders if it was wet it would have been those pants wouldn't have survived. So no puffy's? No puffy's. Yeah I had I had one too many insulation layers. I can you know. 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 your general program that's dialed. I think my using the I sweat a lot and so it's humid and I use a synthetic like that first layer 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 it like a t-shirt mm-hmm sweating and So I think I got my my base layer game suitable for me. I Didn't have you pegged as a sweaty man. Oh god Just if I just start thinking too hard Break out and sweat yeah

You know we hike hard and we sit hard, Rick. That's, yeah, this is the thing. So if you look at like ultra light hiking lists, they're all made for hiking, stopping and going to bed. Yeah, that's a good point. 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. Yeah windy 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 and then somebody that's just doing like a fast through hike situation. Yeah, you're right. You get all worked up and then you sit and then all of a sudden a while later, like freezing my ass. Yeah. And you're not normally if it gets cold and you're through hiking a wild lady like, I'm freezing my ass. Yeah, and you're not, normally if it gets cold

and you're through hiking, you're sleeping in like your little comfy sleeping bag. We're just sitting out on a knob, glassing for a couple hours. Yup. So that's what you got dialed. Yeah. Okay, who wants to go next?

We're saving Evan for last. Evan's still formulating his opinion. I got it. You got one already? Cause you're still acting. I was Evan's still formulating his opinion. You got one already? Cause you're still acclimating to the, like you're like a horse guy. Yeah, I haven't ever backpacked before. So you're still acclimating to all the fancy materials.

Yeah, but 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 a song for me, great. Yeah, Limerick. Okay, Chillie, go ahead.

I think the oversight, one thing I would have done better, like I wasn't, I kinda knew, but didn't really fully grasp the fact that, how it would affect sleeping like with the Sun being out all all night. Talk about just how bright it is like what activities could you do all night? Whatever you do during the day. You could shoot a rifle yeah at any distance all night.

Yeah. Yeah. If you wanted to, you could go completely, you can flip your day completely. Yeah. Like if you wanted to bear hunt from 6 PM to 4 AM. You know, it'd be no different. You can do that and then sleep

all during the regular day hours. That light out. Yeah. And so with that, like the effect that the Sun had on the tent, like when we were sleeping, kind of, it wasn't like terrible, but it kind of made it like a little warmer than what you would get, or a lot warmer than what you get if you hadn't like actually darkness. And so I found that when I'm in my sleeping bag, it got a little humid and like my legs would like,

it'd get kind of sticky because he kind of 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. You got sweaty thighs is what you're saying. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, and I, I'm a pretty light sleeper in anything that's wrong, like it'll wake me up or make me, cause me to move. So yeah, I probably would have done that. That was my thing. But on the flip side, the thing that I think I did really

well was like my sleeping system setup was like, you know, like I had one of those Nemo accordion pads and then I had a Nemo or a Thermarest inflatable pad. And that was a problem. And like plus my nice sleeping system. That was pretty dialed. Actually my sleeping system saved your ass.

I'll get to that. Okay. That's my oversight. Saved Steve's life. So hold on, I forgot what you got dialed. The sleeping, my sleeping setup. Oh yeah, which, I forgot what you got dialed. The sleeping, my sleeping setup. Oh yeah, which is what I don't have dialed. Yeah.

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 cause it keeps you from getting that feeling

like you're glued to the fabric of your bag. I hate that And Seth that's the way Seth was we shared tent and he had those on I'm like every night I just get jealous I'll sleep in an arrow wool top Yeah, I guess yeah, I don't stick all gluey to my bag. Lightweight top. Yeah. Same. Thanks for sharing, Chilly. You're welcome. I'm ready. Okay, go ahead. I did not bring gators on this trip. Which?, it was on the packing list. I just, I actually had them set out and then I just forgot them. Gators would have been nice.

And another thing that I give like a why, right? Well, stream crossings, it rained half the time, over half the time. Yeah, there was a 48 hour rain stretch. Yeah. You're going through thick boulders and willows and you just end up with wet pants 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 oh

because I soaked out my leather gloves that That's a good point, man. That's a good point. Yep. I've done that in the past on rainy, rainy stuff, but yeah, you'd bring like rubber commercial fishing gloves. Yep. And just be like, screw it now, dude. Yeah.

It's like, they're not super heavy to where you're like, you know, too hot, but they're, you know, just enough to take the edge off and you just don't get your gloves wet. When I published my gear list I might put that in there. Yeah. We'll read it Seth and I'll probably read that gear list. The thing I dialed was my water system I think. Tell us more. Liter and a half Nalgene bottle and two of those collapsible like platypus bottles. No big ol' MSR bladder. Nope. Nope. Just two of those and I would like the stuff that I felt like I needed to SteriPen I would just do that in the Nalgene and then the two

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 as I needed, I would take from the platypus bags, dump into the Nalgene bottle and then. And you're happy with that. Yeah. But I mean, a lot of the stuff we drank from, we didn't need to.

I didn't purify a thing the whole trip. We were higher than the Beavers. Yeah. And we were just drinking water out of a glacier. That stuff that came out of that side drainage that we went up that you said was like the the Grayling stream. Yeah. That stuff was just seemed so pure. Yeah it did. The glacier river had a little bit of like silty, cloudiness to it. Oh yeah, it had a lot of that. And you know, I was bringing this up

and I shouldn't even bring it up, because I'm not, I'll bring it up with the caveat that I don't know if this is true. I feel like guys that live up here have told me that there's like, that drinking too much of that, that it's not good to drink too much of that glacial till. Or they just don't like it. So when I'm with my brother Danny, they'll bring a, they'll bring a, like a picture like a big collapsible dog bowl. Like it's like a duffel bag that's made out of that. What the hell's the

material I'm trying to think of? It's like a duffel bag bucket. I don't know what the hell you call it. Just like a waterproof. Yeah, like a waterproof bag bucket. Yeah. And he'll dip out of that three, four gallons at night. And then let it settle. 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 laying on the bottom of that stuff. So they'll set it out at night just to let it settle, to not drink it.

But I feel like someone was telling me something about that it's not just like, you shouldn't do that too much, but I could be making that up. So don't stop drinking glacial till based on what I'm telling you Do your own reason maybe maybe looking back? I would I would probably like to have had a filter for that stuff instead of just to get the till out just to get the till Out we run through your underwear Wow, he had more till

Scroll yeah, yes Yeah, but no, that's all I got. You searched for your informant who disappeared without a trace. You knew there were witnesses, but lips were sealed. You swept the city,, but lips were sealed. You swept the city, driving closer to the truth, while curled up on the couch with your cat. There's more to imagine when you listen. Discover heart-pounding thrillers on Audible.

Ever wonder what happened to the hundreds of thousands of buffalo that used to call the Eastern United States home or what caused the rise and fall of Bob White quail? Backwoods University, hosted by me, Lake Pickle, is the latest addition to the Bear Gryce feed on Meat Eater's podcast network. Together, we'll seek out a deeper understanding of wildlife, wild places, and the people who dedicate their lives to conserving both. After all, you can't love what you don't understand. Search Bear Gryse on Apple, iHeart, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast,

and hit that follow button to enroll in Backwoods University now. Conrad, give your background. You never been on the show before I don't even matter he met you before. No first time first time on the Meteor podcast. But Brad Brooks has been on the podcast. He has. And you're his friend. Yep I'm a 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 years ago. Never hunted before. He was like, you want to go film some hunts? I know you can keep up. I was like, yeah, let's do it.

And went out for about a week and a half on a rifle elk hunt. 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 years and then got connected with you guys through Brad and then... Oh, so he's not pissed at you with us? 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 and he connected me with dirt and had a good conversation with him and, and, uh, we have a lot

of the same background, he fought fire. I fought fire. We were a year apart, um, at a, uh, in Neitz Bay in Alaska. I worked up there in a hatchery andery and he was on a boat up there. So yeah, here I am and it's awesome. I kept calling him dirt 2.0. Sam called me that a couple of times too. Yeah, and he recommended me and I had never met him. So that's awesome. Well that might be like a... Garrett did the vetting. Or didn't, sounds like. We had a 30 minute conversation.

It was like yeah 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 really appreciate it. I'm glad he did this but it was a fun hangout. Yeah, super fun. Okay, hit me with your insights. Yeah, I forgot long johns this trip. I wish you'd have brought it up. When I get to my thing, you'll know why you should have brought it up. Okay, well I forgot long johns.

I realized it on the... Steve's gonna be like, I had too many long johns. Damn it. I realized it on the drive. Why didn't you say anything? I told Sam and she was like, well, do we need to get you long johns? I said, no, I didn't wanna complain.

Was just toughed out. But anyway, should have brought long johns. And I probably would have brought an extra base layer for the top just for sleeping with all this wet weather. It's nice to get in your bag and have dry clothes. So those are the two things I would have brought. And then what thing in your packing thing feels like just totally tight? I think my sleeping system, earplugs

because I'm sleeping with Rick and he snores. It's used to me and I did not know this. It's developed recently. But a nice tent, nice sleeping bag, good pad. Sleep for me is super important after big long days. So the more sleep I can get, the better. Blow up pad. Blow up pad, yeah. Exo pad. And our Golly sleeping bag, 20 degree bag, super warm. And then our Golly 2P tent. Got it.

Yep. And that's like the new fan-angled, floorless, single wall tents. Yep. Single wall, super waterproof, got a little condensation problems when it's when it's raining out but every tent has that. Yeah we didn't we mean me and Rick were throwing back and forth if we need to bring an insert and when we came up here and saw all that snow we didn't bring an insert and just rolled all floorless and it was a pound to carry around in your backpack.

That was nice. Yeah, that was nice. Go. You ready? You don't have to do yours yet, because I'm gonna do mine. Or you can do yours if you just get nervous you wanna get it over with.

Let's do it, let's do it. You wanna hit it. So the thing that I, the only thing that I missed when I was up there, because you guys told me what to get, or got me rigged out, was I wished I had some shoes to walk around camping. Wish I brought that.

Camp shoes. Yeah, if I could get away with it. Yeah, 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 as far as being dialed in, I was not dialed in, but I had, I did wear, I can't take credit for being dialed in. Like I had, as far as my layers went, they were good. I can't take credit for being dialed in. As far as my layers went, they were good. I wore Long Johns the whole trip and two sets of, like a t-shirt over the Long Johns on top

and pretty much slept in my clothes and brought a couple pairs of socks to dry one and do the other, gaiters and stuff like a couple pairs of socks to dry one and do the other gaiters and stuff like that. It was, I mean, I can't think of a time I was particularly like the temperature or rain was bothering me, you know? And if you got cold, you could put that extra layer of rain gear on and you could stay pretty warm,

even sitting still. And you didn't blow up your sleeping pad till the third night. No, I didn't know how to do it. Sleeping on the ground. It was, it was pretty good, but like the sleeping pad is real, real good. I got in there and I didn't see the, like the blow up bag and I was trying to blow it up with my mouth and I was like

Oh, this is not gonna work Defeated like Yeah, man, oh yeah, do is yell over to my tent area and But it it uh, it all worked out. Well, that's good Here's here's my problem I Used to never use inflatable pads Sleep pads, but the best thing in the world

until so I got mine real as a Kevin like a little puddle for a while and I went to dry my bag and Got some not even embers dude like ash got some, not even embers dude, like ash. I burned some holes in my pad. 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 you put a lot of faith in those. 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 a little Z rest, a ridge rest, one of those Z rests I guess. Just in case. You can use it as a pad when you're glassing.

But you said in case. Yeah. My thing. Yeah. I don't usually pack with a ton of in cases. But those. On dupe, you know dupe is like, oh I got two sleeping bags in case something happens to this sleeping bag.

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. Yeah. Yeah. But the blow up pad is a vulnerability. Chili brought a blow-up pad and a underpad. Yeah I mean because I didn't I don't have a tarp like where like or like a footprint to lay down like on the just on the ground in between you and your blow-up mattress or blow-up pad. So instead of just going to buy one sporadically, I just had this accordion nemo foam pad, the

one that we all use to kind of sit on the ground when we're glassing. Just a full length one. I was like, well, I'll just use that on the ground. It's like six, seven ounces or whatever it is. Strap it to the bottom of my pack. The footprint of it's not going to cause me to have to get a bigger bag or anything so yeah that was kind of my thinking and it worked it worked great and luckily Seth had like a little plastic thing as well so I could throw that down and yeah it's just kind

of just like a tarp if not comfortable more comfortable you know yeah I brought a little chunk of, before I left, it 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. And I threw that in, I was like, ah, just in case like, I need to put something under my sleeping pad or whatever. And then Chili ended up grabbing me a footprint from the storage unit, but, so I still had that and gave it to Chili.

What I got dialed is over the years on backpacking, over the years I have pretty much eliminated any changes of clothes, extra clothes. Yep. With one exception. 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. Well, I carry a pair of socks. One. Just one extra pair of socks.

I carry one pair of socks. Cause worst case you wash a pair in a creek, put them on your bag to dry. 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 have the one thing I'm wearing and like you just get used to it. It's funky. You get over it. I don't care any kind of extra clothes except for those, except for

those LJs that I have as an insurance policy or should a camera guy forget his LJs. Well now I know. I would have happily given you my extra LJs. I brought an extra like mid layer wool, wool mid layer and I never touched it. Yep. Yep. Like the one thing I was like I should have just left this behind. Because 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. Mm-hmm. 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 get. So now I'm already laundry with you. Yeah. Instead of one pair of pants that are now dry, he wore them. Now you got one wet ass pair of pants in your backpack. It just, it like, I just got rid of all that junk. I kind of think what's the coldest it could get have what's appropriate. So I had like a, like a air will top, um,

a synthetic hoodie, Brooks down vast or Brooks down jacket and, um, Omen storm shelter rain jacket. That was it. Same thing on my same thing. Pants, the arrow will pants, a pair of pants, and then the lightweight rain pants. 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. Yeah, it's like the size of a scroll to hold it. Very lightweight, and it's like, it's just enough to like take the edge off and like keep your core warm. It's a great piece of gear. I forgot, I kind of messed up. Pro tip, when you're in the back country,

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. You made a really good spoon. I thought chili was a good spoon. I made a nice whittled spoon too saying I got two extra spoons. I'm like, you made a really good spoon. I made a nice whittled spoon too. You were having so much fun, I hated a rune. By the way, I got one.

Oh yeah, I need to get my little spoon back. Well, it's mine now. But it's too short. It is too short. Yeah, get a long one, get a long spoon. Oh yeah, they make the long dogs just for eating freeze dry. Yeah, yeah.

So, give me your impressions, man just for eating freeze-dried. Yeah. Yeah Yeah, so I have a give me give me your give me your impressions man like you're you're you're just your general impressions 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 a Bunch of stuff. I'd never laid eyes on but as far as the camping part of it. We hit all the... We hit six. Yeah so we had we saw a caribou, doll sheep, a moose, wolves, grizzly, black bear. Yep, I think it's it. It's not porcupine. Oh, porcupine. Yeah, and you got caribou, huh? Mm-hmm. 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. Yeah. That was that was really neat to me. And just being there, being in that kind of environment is something that you, it's easy to spend a lot of time 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 really reignited my love for this stuff.

Just because you just procrastinate and put it off and then don't get back on horse you know and and This was a good one like a really really good trip Yeah, cuz you you so you were born in Oklahoma and spent your life in Oklahoma And I remember you telling me that at one point in time you and your dad Took you took your horses and went out and you guys did some western type hunting. Yeah, we went.

But just kind of just went and did it all. Yeah, yeah. He and I, which my dad knows quite a bit about packing and really about hunting in general. And he took me up there and showed me, taught me a whole lot and really gave me like 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, I mean, there's, it's easy to be 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, and when you get back into this stuff that not a lot of people get to see it, it just feels more special to me and it's just got another, it's just another level and more of an experience. But yeah, I love this stuff.

I've never dreamed that I'd get to fly in on a super cover. Be in one, ever have reason to be in one, you know? So it's cool. Well, the thing I didn't know about you from when we spoke before, and just communicated over text message and whatnot, is I didn't know that you got into coon hunting for a while. Yeah I was a coon hunter that was my that's what we did for a long time. And so that was the kind of dogs you brought up? For the

first dogs I really had, they were my first hunting dogs yeah. We had had a few different kinds of coon hounds. I had some, I had a pretty good plot hound and I had a couple of blue tick dogs that would tree a coon and I was, you know, I was 15. 14 to 16 probably when I was really, really into it. So like in your high school years you're going out at night? Oh yeah. Yeah, going out, I had two or three buddies that hunted and we'd go.

Every night we could. And that was like before the quail thing, huh? Yeah, I kind of traded that for quail hunting. I had one good hunt in front of a good dog in the hills and we killed birds. I don't think I shot a quail in in the 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. I had I've still got dogs on my place that are descendants of that dog that I went on my first quail. Oh, is that right?

Yeah, no, how many dogs you keep now? How many bird dogs? The bird dogs, me and my buddy Phil, he's actually training on some right now, but I've got one wire haired dog that is mine, that I've done everything on, and then we've got two pointers, cause I sold one, so just some guys that needed one. Did you ever get into squirrel dogging? Yeah, I went and I had we had some dogs, you know

We we did a whole lot of that riding on like horseback riding shooting with like squirrel hunting. Yeah Oh really with a dog and We did a lot of it It was a lot of fun We had friends that had a one really good dog and But I never had I never really had any that I can think of. Not on purpose. And then you do, you use your same dogs for waterfowl hunting?

I have the, yeah I have a versatile hunting dog that those draw tars. It's just the German bred wire hairs are 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 You know everybody's been training up their dogs 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 now how do they yeah that that's interesting these little tin looks like a chew tin with a bunch of holes in it put some morels in there so you want to point dog on that you don't want you don't want a flesh dog I wish it was

it's like just yet another thing that demystifies the morale yeah but it's yet another thing that demystifies the morale like Like them learning to cultivate morale should be illegal. Should be illegal to find them with a dog. But since it's not not 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

morale day. Really? Yep. There's probably a big mushroom hunter he said it would have been a yet another two or three morel search he said the dog is like Bing Bing Bing Bing you know there's a bunch of gun gun shy dogs that you could probably turn into a morel dog there's that's probably a good job for a bunch of sensitive dogs I'm wondering if my dumb little dog could probably take that out. That's nice. That dog knew how you talked about it. It wouldn't do shit for you. 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 Morrell dog that my brother Danny was out with doesn't notify you that it found one. So the Morrell dog that my brother Danny was out with doesn't notify you that it found a Morrell it just stops doing anything and it stays there. He said you probably teach it to bark I don't know I don't know if you can teach dogs to bark. It's hard. But he said that dog just finds Morrell after Morrell after Morrell after Morrell. That's cool. I know I kind of it's like but then you're keeping a dog for 50 weeks for two weeks action

hey some see you have a second job some people just like having a dog because we're gonna put it the rest of the time we're gonna it? The 50 weeks out of the year that you're not hunting mushrooms. On your couch? You sailed beyond the horizon in search of an island scrubbed from every map. You battled Krakens and navigated through storms your spades struck the lid of a long-lost treasure chest while you cook the lasagna there's more to imagine when you listen discover best-selling adventure stories on audible so tell me uh tell me what's going on tell me what give me some give everybody some Turnpike Troubadours.

We put out a record, which was kind of a quick turnaround for us. We put out a record in April. What makes a quick turnaround? Less than two years. Or sometimes we've gone like six or seven years between records. So that's pretty speedy after that. 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. Mm-hmm. And you come in like you got your ideas and your basics

but you're really like building it over two weeks. 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 and 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 to where 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, good idea, like a good song. So yeah, we went in with just like iPhone recordings of 80% of it 90% of it and Would just walk in the studio and 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 verse or whatever and then I go back and make sure that the lyrics were exactly how I wanted them. And then I hadn't asked you about this till now it's kind of 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. Yeah. I never said why. Yeah, it was, so there's like, there's some animal images in that song. It's called On the Red River. And I thought we were looking for themes for artwork

while we were in the studio. 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 so I thought, well, I'll put one on the cover. So when people ask what it is,

It's easy. It's easy to put on the cover so when people ask what it is. It's easy. It's easy to put on the cover. Yeah. And then I thought, well, I'll build off that, you know, and we've so we use the imagery from that stuff and put it there and sort of like an old, like kind of like the wild America like filter on it. Yeah, like Marty Stouffer. It on it. Yeah, it looks like

yeah it looks like a Marty Stauffer stuff. Yeah I got it. Yeah and that's been uh that's out everybody can go check it out. You guys are gonna start touring soon. Yeah we'll go on like a real tour we're gonna do some stuff in in the UK and then we come back over here and we do I Want to say it's I told you it was more dates than it is I think it's 20 something dates all over the US So so if you want to come check you out. Yeah, there's a shit. It should be something to see you I'm gonna make one of them. I'm gonna make one of those dates work and come out. Yeah My wife's dying to come see you guys. It'll be fun and I'll go along

Hell yeah. So my wife's dying to come see you guys. It'll be fun. And I'll go along. So I'm gonna fly out and check out one of the shows. Try to let you know what's the ones that I know are best sonically or best to hang out in. Oh yeah, I don't wanna get you when you got like some town with a bunch of cousins

and stuff in it. I need to find a town where there's no one gonna be no cousins Yeah, man, I want to come see it bad so you guys are going to Europe you sometimes you tour in your with other bands But your tour is gonna be like a turnpike troubadour tour. This will be our headline headline to yeah Yeah, when you go to Europe you, you're part of a broader thing. Yeah. We'll do a few headline and bar shows over there and then we'll be opening for Zach Bryan who draws huge over there.

Got it. Got it. And you brought like a ukulele with you. No, it's an old cool cowboy guitar. So like a Marty Robbins. It's a Martin guitar. It's pretty cool. Yeah, tell me about that, man. It's like a 40s model Martin that a guy that works with me

named Sherman had this guitar and he said, hey, you should start using that because it's easy to fly with and then he wound up selling it to me. But it's, I think Marty Robbins played one of these on some of those recordings. So it's your traveling guitar. But yeah, it's just I think Marty Robbins played one of these on some of those recordings So it's your traveling guitar, but yeah, it's just one. I take it can take everywhere because it's so small got it Now you're gonna play something. Yeah, you can play the Red River. I think so I think that would be appropriate and I got a mic. Yeah camera go Before you start I tell you something funny

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 really like a singer. Because I'm always like, Yoni, Yoni, Tramoni. There's a lot of that that goes on these shoots. 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.

He's singing us a little something. I read as your old chevalet And I was sixteen when you rekted and we were lucky we both walked away You could day work and scrape out a living, the work for which you had been born. 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 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 remembered the view when you lived like we do Death doesn't leave with the best part here On days off we'd help out our neighbors We worked and we sweated for free You'd earned every drink with your labor

I'd sleep on your front seat You'd call it a cure for a snake bite You'd reach for a fifth of old crow With some medicine that should get your head right When the symptoms were starting to show 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 Now the cars lined up down the driveway Have really been gone for two years And I'd be on my third on a good day Down to the last bottle of beer This Saturday started without you And I knew before I got the call How the red July bucks are unveiled I'll tell you all about them this fall 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 remembered you when you lived like we do Death doesn't leave with the best part of you I've got to look at the world from up on your shoulders And I remember the view when you live like we do Death doesn't leave with the best part of you. All right, man.

That's good. Thanks, dude. All right, catch them. When they head out on the road, Turnpike Troubadour is heading out when? I think in July it's in July It's coming up. Yep coming up. Okay. Oh, there's a thing. I got I got to 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 lesson, whatever comes out in the beginning. I've done them. Clay's doing a round right now. So it's like a 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 and we start laying in the vocalizations like real recordings of real animals doing vocalizations and we start laying in the vocalizations like real recordings of real animals doing vocalizations we start giving clues until you build up to where kids guess them so if your kids real smart he'll guess it

right away if he needs help he'll take him a while to guess you tell it's a way to suss out how well your kids doing in his that outdoor education then three it's kids trivia so kids a gang of kids doing kids trivia, the objective is 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. 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 turnip like Troubadours. Now, when you get your bear rug back, you can have that all laid out on stage. Is it going to 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 when you don't see a new bear rug. Doesn't mean he ain't got one. Evan Felker, Turnpike Troubadours, thanks for going on the show, man. Thanks Evan. Thanks buddy. Get your gear packed right and blow your air mattress up, but don't pop it. Thanks again. Music Ever wonder what happened to the hundreds of thousands of buffalo that used to call the eastern United States home? Or what caused the rise and fall of Bobwhite quail? Backwoods University, hosted by me, Lake Pickle, is the latest addition to the Bear Gryse feed

on Meat Eaters podcast network. Together, we'll seek out a deeper understanding of wildlife, wild places, and the people who dedicate their lives to conserving both. After all, you can't love what you don't understand. Search Bear Grease on Apple, iHeart, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast and hit that follow button to enroll in Backwoods University now. This is an iHeart Podcast.