EP 19: Lessons Learned with Zac Griffith

My body shut down. I blacked out. We had to get him life-flighted off the mountain. Turned out he did break two or three vertebrae in his back. And my whole back of my hand has blood running down my fingertips. Anything to do with Western big game.

Welcome to the Epic Outdoors Podcast, powered by Under Armour. Hey everybody, Jason Carter here with the Epic Outdoors Podcast. I've got Adam Bronson, who's also an Epic Outdoors partner here with us. And we've got a super special guest with us here, Zach Griffith. How you doing, Zach? I'm good, guys. I appreciate the opportunity to let some air out. Okay, sounds good. We're super excited to get started on this with you. Before we do, I do want to take a minute and thank Under Armour for the sponsorship they give, Epic Outdoors, and some of the different programs we're doing with them, including but not limited to this Epic Outdoors Podcast. So, super appreciative of them and all the support that they give our hunting industry. So, anyway, I know there's been some things happen in your life recently, Zach. We do want to get into that pretty heavy here in a minute.

But maybe to kind of tee it up, just maybe give us a little bit about your background, like where you grew up and kind of how you got to where you're at today. Okay, man. So, I grew up in Salt Lake. I was always, you know, just the typical Utah rifle hunter, hunted two to three days a year. I consider myself hardcore. I moved to Phoenix in 2005 and moved into next to a guy that's probably one of the best bow hunters I've ever met. His name is Matt Lillenquist. I'm sure you know him well. You bet. And I learned real quickly that I didn't know a damn thing about hunting, especially bow hunting. And luckily, he was humble and, well, not humble, but what's the word, willing to share some of his knowledge on me. I was the humble one because I got humbled. So, Matt kind of opened my eyes to glassing with 15s and, you know, bow hunting, spot and stalk. He showed me that it could be done.

Just basically like, you know, he gave me the keys to the truck and said, good luck, you know. And I think from there, I just kind of developed my own obsession, passion, confidence, et cetera, from my own hunting field experience, you know. But he got me, my dad, of course, lit the fire. I would never want to take away, diminish his role. But Matt kind of got me bumped up a notch. So, moved back to Utah a couple years ago. I'm a passionate bow hunter. I'm absolutely addicted to fitness and taking selfies of myself in the gym. And just have zero filters to saying that I believe wholeheartedly that there's a correlation between your physical preparation in the offseason and how fulfilling, enjoyable, and successful your hunts can be. Obviously, I'm not advocating that everyone needs to use self-tanner and wear tank tops and, you know, go to the gym.

But I'm saying, you know, at some level, if I can nudge guys to just get in there and, you know, make any type of improvement whatsoever, how is that ever a bad thing? So, you know, does it make me a better hunter? Yeah. I'm still not a good hunter, but it stepped me up from where I was. And that's the key. It's all relative to the individual. We're not competing, even though we're all a bunch of alpha males. Your success in the field does not deteriorate or take away from my success in the field. And that's the problem. I think guys are insecure and sometimes they feel like, you know, I'm saying I can hike further than you, so I'm a better hunter. No, I'm saying I'm a better hunter than I was yesterday. It has nothing to do with somebody else.

So that's kind of my, oh, I guess my platform in general is just train, take care of your body, hunt your butt off, smile the entire time, stay positive. You know, I just try to avoid negativity like the plague. Yeah, I think you're right 100%. Like everybody has their niche, you know. Sure. And kind of what keeps me cranking and going is totally different than somebody else. But there's not a right or wrong in this industry. Never. I always say, Jason, I think if you're smiling, you're doing it right. And it's unique to the individual. So it's like what floats your boat is one thing and what floats mine is another. I've actually talked to good buddies like Sean Morgan, you know, and he's an elk and mule deer guy. I don't think he's killed an antelope or a coos deer or an awdad or any of these other critters that I'm obsessed with. And you know what?

He loves doing what he does and I don't question that. You know, to each his own. It's just like celebrate each other, you know, for being individual and for having their unique background and life experiences that mold their character and whatever drives them to just keep going. But at the end of the day, we're all just hunters, you know. Like just have fun with it. It's supposed to be fun. So what do you do in terms of, I guess, we all know that you can't just get paid to hunt and fish. You know, we all maybe think we want to do that. What do you do on a daily basis? I mean, I don't know you very well, Zach, obviously, maybe at all. So tell us a little bit about what you personally do versus, you know, hunting being your passion and hobby, if you will. But what do you do in terms of employment and things like that? Yeah, sure. I'm actually a loan officer. I do VA refinancing.

So I work up in Lehigh, Utah for a good buddy of mine that's a hunter and Jason Yates. And I've just had a this is a great job for a guy like me that's flexible with hunting schedules. It's heavily commissioned based job. So you obviously get, you know, you reap what you sow. And I've always been self-employed my entire life and self-motivated. So these types of jobs I tend to thrive at. But I do really enjoy working with veterans. They're a different class of people. They're extremely respectful. They're very prompt. They're up early like me. And I can get a lot of things done before seven, eight o'clock in the morning. And it's just it's a great job to fit my personality, lifestyle and obviously financial goals. You bet. You know, and Jason, I know him. He's a hardcore hunter. I just barely kind of got to know him a year ago or so. He's always, you know, spoke highly of you.

And so anyway, super good guy. I know he's going to be doing some hunting himself quite a bit this year. Oh, yeah. Yeah. He's a monster. He gets it done everywhere. Yeah. So anyway, I know you kind of came out with this little video series, the hit list. It was kind of cool. I didn't know a lot about it. Of course, you know, you came over to my house and videoed a few things. And it was kind of kind of cool. I had to, you know, check out your website and see what the heck it was about when you first hit me up. I just hadn't really known much about it. Of course, I think it was kind of in its infancy at that moment. But it was really a cool spin on kind of the social media. You know, not a lot of guys are doing that kind of thing. Of course, quite a bit of YouTube and going on. But this was a total different angle on all of that.

And I've enjoyed some of the different hit lists that you've done. No, I appreciate it. It's something I've always loved to do. I've relished just like checking guys stuff out and looking at their setups and seeing their bows and seeing their trophies and seeing their sheds and seeing their grandpa's first buck. And there's just like this. I've always had that. I love it. I love cruising over to people's houses and seeing their stuff. And I thought, wow, what an easy way to just kind of show guys off that aren't really, they're not like vocal. Like most of the guys, Jason, are like you. You get it done. You don't go out there and post selfies. You get it done. And people know that. But I don't think many people realized how successful you are. And I was like, dude, I want to see his stuff anyway. So why would I not capitalize and film it and show everybody how badass Jason Carter really

is? Yeah. No, I appreciate that. But I mean, I've definitely, you know, worked hard at it. Of course, my wife's given up a lot of time and days in her schedule and to, you know, to allow me to go do it. And, you know, nothing comes without sacrifice. Of course, you know that. So anyway. All right. So you grew up. We know you're kind of a, you know, a long guy. But I don't know if that's what truly drives you. You know, it seems like, of course, you're heavy on social media. I don't know when you started that, but you've got quite a huge following. And anyway, maybe, you know, is that, are you always going to be in lending? Or is it something where you've got a plan with the social media? Or do I dare ask? No, that's fine, man. I'm one of those guys. I've just, you know, I just kind of go. It sounds kind of very responsible. But I am kind of day to day with everything.

I just, life's handed me a few curveballs like anybody. And I've learned to just kind of just roll with it. And so this job is absolutely a career. It's something I should do till I'm 75. It's a fulfilling job. It sounds cliche and cheesy, but I actually love to work here. And I feel like I'm helping guys out. And I feel like it's a good thing. The hunting wise, you know, I've never put all my cards into the summit. My social media game. It's always just been a hobby for me. It's always, I'm absolutely monetizing it in every way possible. And trying to establish, you know, financial relationships and other avenues to hunt more. Essentially, I mean, every nickel I drive or, you know, create from summit, I'm going to roll right back into hunts. So that's what it's for. Tell me what summit is. This is Adam. So summit productions. I started summit productions, LLC.

And it started off, I was going to make a DVD set. I didn't care about actually making a big profit. It was more just about recouping costs and expensing, you know, just like any business, just getting started. So I did that for a couple of years. And then I got audited, of course, because I wasn't showing profits or income in general. And so the IRS says, this is hobby related. We're going to, you know, back charge you all of your deductions, et cetera, unless you make this a viable business. And so that's when I said, okay, I got to wrap this up. So build a website, create an apparel line, trademark some, some logos and branding and try it another avenue. And then luckily between that sponsor relations, YouTube, you know, all of that stuff. I've just figured out little ways to monetize and create an aggregate of income. That's, you know, it's derived from a lot of sources.

Unfortunately, you know, this as well as I do. There's no handbook on how to create income in social media. It's almost like this, this brand new developing flower that like, there's just so much opportunity, but at the same time, there's no proven methods or, you know, no one to follow. You've got to kind of just go at it and say, oh crap, that worked really well. Like that didn't work. And that's kind of where Summit has become. It's my social media platform slash brand. Tax write-offs, all that. Tax write-offs, hunting money. I mean, it's like supplement partnerships. All these things that I do anyways, I've learned to just say, you know, I'm going to pay for supplements. Why don't I find a good supplement partner and actually use the product I believe in, et cetera. You know, that's kind of where that's all derived from. Well, that totally makes sense.

I think it's, you know, kind of smart on your part and you're right. The social media thing's fairly new, you know, really new, you know, to me, but fairly new, I think, overall. And who knows where it's going to head and lead. And that's why, you know, your hit list thing was interesting. Of course, we're doing these podcasts. I didn't even know what a podcast was until probably Christmas time, you know. Amen, man. And so all of a sudden, here we are doing them. And, of course, huge, huge, you know, support for that. And so how about the sponsors? Like, are you starting to develop sponsors? And where are you actually going to move forward with this pretty heavy? I mean, you've kind of got a plan of attack on that for the social media. Or is the social media just something to help supplement, you know, the hit list or, you know, traction to that? Or what do you think?

You know, I just kind of roll with it. I feel like partnerships for me are far more about belonging. And being appreciated than they are about a check. Yeah. You know, I guess it's an ego thing. I want to be a part of these brands that I'm so proudly representing. I want to be able to give my feedback. I want to be able to give my insight. I want them to say, Zach, what do you think? And the reason I feel that way is just I feel like I get out there and grind. And I feel like I have some invaluable insight to product improvement slash development. And so those are my partnership relationships are far more about that to me because I have a job. I have an income. I have my bills are paid. This is this is more about like deep down, deep rooted passion and absolute obsession with having fun out there and improving my success rates and helping others do the same. Yeah. Yeah. OK.

Well, that totally makes sense. You know, and who knows what's going to come of all. And that's the same thing here at Epic. I mean, we have the magazine and of course we have a membership. And but we add to it. We're doing a little bit on YouTube. And mostly the social media thing for me was there was big animals out there being killed. And I wasn't aware of them because people put them on social and assume that everybody's seeing them because they're out on social. And so, you know, I wasn't seeing them. And I'm like, crap, I freaking want to see these deer, you know, and elk. Yeah. But I do want to I don't want anything to slip under the radar. I mean, people are posting trail cams and all that kind of stuff. I want to be a part of that. I want to see them. And and of course, you learn it's just part of the, you know, another media, whether it be a magazine or or social media outlets.

It's just awesome to be able to see all that stuff. And of course, you're you're taking it to a whole different level with, you know, it is like figuring out how to monetize that. And there's probably 100 ways that we're not even thinking of, you know, to be able to do that. So well, in retrospect, we'll all look back and say, why didn't we think of that sooner? But at the end of the day, I feel like all of us are just driven by passion more than money with this. And I think that's why it's slowly evolving as opposed to, you know, when you got to grind to pay bills, you get things done that day. With this, it's like, yeah, I'll try that out for a month or two. Well, so I appreciate that background. That gives us a lot of, you know, groundwork.

So now, you know, part of the reason we probably called you today is, well, the other thing is we're up here working our guts out this morning, early in the morning and can't help but hear about or see about an incident that you're involved in this last, I guess it was the last week. I don't know exactly when it was, Zach, but and you've obviously been through it in a few different ways. But tell us, I guess, briefly about an incident you had on the mountain here, I assume in the last week or so, right? Yeah, it was Saturday, man. You know, Utah had a shed delay this year. There was super, you know, late storms. The winter were, the winter ranges were smashed. Deer were hurting. And they just said, hey, guys, shut down sheds till April 1st. So I'm normally up looking for sheds and watching them hit the ground. And that's always been my way. I stand back. I don't push deer.

I glass them across the canyon. But I'm looking for specific bucks in my general garbage, quote unquote, public unit that are my special deer that I've been filming and having a relationship with. So I'm not a shed guy. I like picking up sheds off a deer that I personally have chased. And these are not 200-inch Jason Carter type deer. These are 170s. But they're six- or seven-year-old bucks that I have history with. So I have a passion for that. And so this year I was cooped up till April 1st. Got out April 1st. Had a great idea where to go. I found a matching set on about a 185-inch buck that I've been trying to kill that's just, it blew my mind. And ever since then, since April 1st, I've been hitting it three to four days a week. And I'm covering country that's just, it's just rugged, nasty stuff. Even though I'm familiar with it, it's just big, rocky, you know, desert high country.

So this last weekend, just a typical lapse in judgment. We've all been there. Saturday afternoon after work, I said, I'm going to go up and look for sheds. I got a few hours. My dad and I will burn up there. He'll go up one road and I'll go up on top and go up in the nasty stuff. There was two fingers I'd missed. I didn't have time to get to. And I, they were literally four hours, three hours back there. But I thought, okay, if I pack light, I can get up there in two hours and just check those. They're just knobs. I mean, literally go 50 yards, 50 yards, 50 yards, and I'm done. So I had a very, very, the plan was clear. Thought I'd pick some up on the way. But anyways, I just leave my pack at the truck. I've got an ExoMountain 5500. I wear it religiously. Every video I've ever made, I'm wearing this big frame pack full of camera gear, water, food.

Supplies, trekking poles, jackets, you name it. I'm a, I'm a Sherpa. I always over prepare. I've been teased about it since the beginning of time. This day, ironically, I said to hell with the pack. I'm going light and I want to burn up there. So I took my little hip panniers I have. They're like a fanny pack that ties around your hips. I threw in some water bottles. I put three on each side. So I've got six bottles of 16 ounce water. I started hiking at about three o'clock. About 645, I would say, I got to the top. And I was zigging and zagging the entire time. So I wasn't burning right up the ridge, but I was just covering country. So I'm four hours into this hike. I find a big brown, big single, big old heavy buck I've been looking for. And I got extremely emotional, extremely excited. And I was filming the whole thing and showing you guys.

And the second I picked up that shed, a switch flipped. I left my pack. I left everything right there on the shed. And I said, OK, I've got to go up that left ridge. Well, that left ridge is south facing. The snow had been melted off of it for months. And so I figured that's where the deer would be. So I dropped off the top and started side hill and kind of spider manning across this cliff face. It's not super high, but it was, you know, took all fours to get across it. I've done it with a gun and a pack before. It's not like it was that risky. But what happened was I reached up with my left hand to kind of just navigate to the, you know, laterally. And when I just hooked my forearm and pulled that whole rock, which was as from my knees to the top of my reach. So probably four or five feet tall, just a giant slab of rock started pulling off the hill.

And I turned and put my hand up to stop it. And within a millisecond knew that it was going. So I turned and just jumped blindly off the rock and turned around. And that rock hit me right in the forearm and landed right on my thigh. And I thought the second it hit me, I just dislocated my hip or broke my femur because it absolutely my thigh took 100% of that rock. My arm just got scratched because it was up there kind of like blocking my face. But my leg just got stomped. I mean, it felt like a sledgehammer. So I start hopping in circles, cussing the storm up. And I said, okay, okay, okay, that's okay. I can put weight on it. It's okay. It's just bruise. It's just a dead leg. It's okay. And I've still got adrenaline from that big shed I just found. And so I start kind of just hobbling up the hill looking for more sheds. I picked up six, like 50 yards. You know how that is. This is after.

This is after. This is immediately after, Jason. I'm still like, I'm still not thinking. I'm just like, okay, I'm good. It didn't break my leg. I'm fine. I reached down to grab this matching set of little four by fours. And there's little kickers on them. It's a little 16-inch buck with kickers. It's cool as hell. I reached down to grab it. And my whole back of my hand has blood running down my fingertips. So I was like, oh, geez, my arm's worse. And I looked over. And there it is. I'm cut from my tricep to my forearm. It's about eight inches long. And I can see the bone all the way down. So I said, okay. Let's see. So just not to slow your momentum down because you're cranking it. And it's an awesome story. But you're videoing. So what I'm seeing on YouTube, you're videoing this. And I see you reach down and grab these sheds. Of course, there's blood on the sheds.

I mean, was this live? Is this the point on the video? Are we talking about that exact point? Or did you pull out the camera? Right after. Right after. It was right after. Okay. All right. And Jason, now that I'm watching this video in retrospect, it's kind of surreal because I don't remember filming. I don't remember taking the time to vlog it. It was like it just shows you how out of whack my head was. I've got an arm that needs at least a pressure bandage at some level. I don't need maybe a card kit. Well, too, it's like almost like an immediate response for you just because you're doing this basically for a living. And so you're videoing everything you're doing. And so it's a natural reaction. You may not remember it, but you just video your whole life. You guys are videoing yourselves all the time. That's all I do, yeah. And it's natural to me now.

It's like, oh, I've got to grab my camera. Oh, this is a good camera moment. Yeah, right. So that's what happened. You can see my countenance. If you look at the video, my face is white. And I'm talking two minutes after this happens. I'm already pale. So I'm just not paying attention. I'm not thinking. My arm was bleeding really bad, but I was so excited about my sheds. I thought it was kind of funny. I'm like, it's my arm. I'm not going to die. A classical Utah line, it's a long way from your heart, buddy. You're fine. Yeah, walk it off. Walk it off. Walk it off and go find another six sheds. Thank you. That's what happens. You're right in the middle of. All of this emotion. I'm not thinking blah, blah, blah. Well, the bottom line is, man, I had my leg amputated when I was 20 years old at Lake Powell. I got hit in a jet ski accident, tore my left leg right off. Bones were exposed.

I was in a wheelchair for months. I have skin grafts and orthopedic rods. And my legs were. So when I see my own blood, anyone that knows me, whether it's a broadhead cut or a needle prick, I pass out. Blood, my own blood freaks me out. I have. Doesn't bother. Doesn't bother with animals. No, not at all. No. And that's a good question. It's not about gutting. It's my own blood and I can feel it leaving my body. And the fact that I cut my arm like I did and didn't go into that mode, it just shows you how out of, out of touch I was. Cause normally even my wife will tell you, I mean, I'll skin in a buck and I'll cut my fingertip and I'll have to sit down and take a breath. Cause I'm just, I can't control it. My body does not like to bleed. So you were, so let's see, you cut it. You basically said you could see the bone, like the bones or whatever you cut deep enough

into the bone or whatever. Oh yeah. It just, it just like a, like a dull hatchet just chunked me right in the elbow. So basically the boniest part of my elbow got cut open and then my tricep was just really meaty. I could see the muscle tissue in there and I knew it's going to need a pile of stitches. And again, I've been cut before, man. I mean, it was like, okay, this sucks, but let's keep, let's go get some more sheds. Yeah. Right. So I grabbed the sheds, my legs throbbing like a mother. I call my dad. I'm like, look, dude, my dad's down eating a hamburger in town. He just, my dad typically quit after an hour and went back. So he's just waiting for me. I said, dad, I'm hurt, but I'm fine. So I'm heading down this Ridge. You know where I'm at? I'm up in the rocks. I'm above that spot where we gutted that buck that one time, you know, typical family. This is our stomping grounds.

My dad says, cool. Keep me updated. I said, I'm going to be slow. I am, and I'm extremely sore, but I'll just hobble down the hills, you know, two, three hours tops. So anyways, two hours into the hike, I'm out of water. I'm still bleeding. I haven't addressed my wound yet. But I, so you've hammered six 16 ounce water bottles. You, I mean, they're gone. Yeah. I hammered them. I, I, I covered some ground, man. This was, it was a lot, you know, three or 4,000 vertical and probably four miles back. So it was a pretty good hike. So I got around seven 38 o'clock. It's almost dark. And I start realizing I'm not going very fast. And sure enough, my brain and my body starts telling me, dude, you're about to pass out. And the second that happens to anybody that's been there, you have zero control. Yeah. Zero control. It's like, I can't stop this.

I'm a tough guy and I'm on the side of a mountain and I'm, I'm going to fall down. And literally I woke up. I don't know if it was five minutes. I don't know if it was 15, but I was face down in a bush, bawling my eyes out. And laying in my own vomit. So I wake up and I said, okay, I'm hurt a lot worse than I thought. I was pre-med. I went to, got into, you know, went to do dental school. I understand physiology. I'm in bad shape. You don't pass out, um, from a little bit. You pass out from blood loss, dehydration, shock, whatever. And I literally couldn't get my phone out of my pocket. I was shaking so bad. So I called my dad. I said, dude, this is, this is bad. I'm a long ways from where I said I'd be. I'm out of water. I'm dehydrated. I have no trekking poles. I think my leg is either broken or my femur or something is dislocated, et cetera. I might be bleeding internally.

I have no idea why I'm passing out, et cetera. Well, I made it about 50 yards further and was completely my body shut down. I blacked out. I called my dad, called my wife. I said, dad, this is, this is a scary. And I mean, I'm, I could stop. I was, my eyes were watered up. I was dry heaving. It was just convulsing. You name it. I, I just, I just, a combination of a whole bunch of factors came together and they absolutely leveled me and there was nothing I can do. My dad finally got up to me, uh, an hour later, I would say he just kind of zigged and zagged and crossed my path. And both of us said, you know, this is too much. They were too far from the truck. I can't, I, we don't have heat. My dad didn't have water. There's just nothing. We're not getting you off this mountain. And by the time the paramedics get here with the gurney, you're, you're an out another hour and a half.

And he said, screw it. Let's let's call the life flight. And at the time I didn't have any say either way. I was out of it. My dad said I was having panic attacks. I'd pass out. I couldn't breathe. I mean, the whole night was a blur, but how late's it getting in the evening? But is it dark? Oh yeah. Pitch black. Oh no, no. I, I quit hiking way at dark. So it was maybe an hour after. Um, and guys, I, I, I'm, I'm very aware of what a life flight costs, you know? Well, I was going to ask you that. I just didn't want to, now that you've teed it up. I mean, I'm not aware of it. Like, is it, what is it? 10 grand? I don't know. Five grand. Yeah. My Lake Powell, uh, amputation when I was 20 was in 2000. It costs us 29,000 to go from Lake Powell to Flagstaff medical. So I'm telling my dad, you know, or I'm in my head thinking this is half that I would assume

cause it's to salt, you know, university of Utah. It's the last thing I wanted to do, man. I I'm a cheapskate. Not to know where you, not to know where your shed spot is, but. Are we talking like they would land and like coast right down to the hospital or is it a, you know, an hour flight or half hour? I mean, I, I believe it. I would guess at a chopper speed, I mean, around a hundred miles an hour, I bet you could get to university of Utah in 20 minutes. 20 minutes. Okay. Yeah. Is there a flat spot up there they can land? Like, no, Jason, that helicopter pilot is a, he's a Jedi. I don't know how he landed where he did the, the, the, the, the feet were on a 45. It looked like he'd landed on a side hill. Wow. And they had to still come up to me a few hundred yards to gurney me. And I, I can remember, I mean, they jabbed that morphine into me so quick and shut me down.

And I was back raced. They didn't know if I had neck trauma. They thought my leg was dislocated. I mean, it was, you should see how swollen it is. It's just silly looking. No one knew what was going on. And it was just a matter of like, I was helpless. I was scared. And I said, dude, this is, this is out of my hands. My dad is a grown, smart, intelligent human being. And he, he said, we're calling a helicopter. This is not, this is serious. And that was it. To hell with the money. Get you. And Jason, I would have paid 50 grand on that mountain to get off. Holy cow. I was in a dark place. So is it something, do you have insurance? I mean, is it something insurance would call, would cover? Yeah. I'm a self-employed guy. So, you know, I've got a major medical plan. I'm sure I'm going to have to sell some quads or one of my kids to cover it, but you know, whatever. But it's worth it.

You can have more kids. Yeah. I agree. I'll make another one. You just said that. You might want to go back and cut that part. All right. I'm just tough. We're having fun. That's all. So I'm not talking about selling your firstborn on this deal. Oh, no. Well, it's not my firstborn, Jason. I've got three, so I can sell any of those. Oh, all right. Maybe the second one. All right. All right. So, all right. And so do you remember getting in the chopper? Part of it, yeah. There was a, one of the medics was a shed guy. He said, dude, that's a big brown. Nice job.

It's weird. If you've ever been in a really serious situation, you remember. Blips, but a lot of it's a blur. And I'm telling you, it's really strange. Like, it's a flash. It's almost like a psychedelic trip where it's happened to me twice. And both times were very similar, but very different. I mean, you just, you remember tidbits, but you don't remember much. And I just remember that guy was really, really cool. And I, I just remember, obviously, once those drugs kick in, everything just, you know, everything gets good. Everything's good. But I almost started crying because I was so calm. I was like, oh my gosh, just finally, like, I can just, I can, I'm going to make it. I'm just going to breathe, you know? And it was, that's all it took. And, uh, you know. Yeah. Did your dad get a ride with you or did he have to? No. Those choppers are bare bones. Double your price if you do that.

Yeah. Holy cow. Well, uh, so we'll come back to that. I know Adam. So Adam's on the front right here with me. Um, you know, and he guides some of these sheep hunters and stuff. And, and he's had a couple of life flight experience. I just wanted to maybe invite him to, you know, tell us a story or two and just kind of, you know, how they're similar and whatnot. And, uh, you know, that you are dealing with some serious stuff out there where the, and maybe a guy thinks about ice, you know, I need to buy some more minutes on my sat phone, but, you know, carry a sat phone or spot unit or something like that. And, um, anyway, but, uh, but tell us about it a little bit. I, you've experienced everything from guys having a heart attack to. Yeah, I've had a few of these, um, and they're not fun to go through. One of them, we were down on the Henry's scouting deer in the summer.

So it was, I don't know, July or August. And a good friend of ours rolled, rolled his four-wheeler over the top of him. And, you know, we, he was mostly disoriented, but we could tell he had some internal issues and he wasn't moving. We figured, didn't know if he's paralyzed temporarily, whatever. It was the point that we had to get him life flighted off the mountain. Turned out he did break two or three vertebrae in his back. And, and yeah, it was broken. Broke his back. Yeah. Broke it in like four or five spots, you know, vertebrae wings. I don't know what all that means. It's not like he's severed his spine. He's fine. He's recovered. I'm sure he's going to have a bad back when he gets older, but he survived. And then I did have another one, a sheep hunter. We were, we were actually stalking a ram to kill it. It's about a thousand yards away.

We'd already covered about two miles to get to there. And we're stalking the ram in a canyon and walked around a little rock shelf. And my brother went around and Hunter was between me and my brother. And when he walked around, it was just like an elevator, the slab of slick rock about five feet long and about two feet, two feet thick broke and just fell like an elevator. And he went with it and he fell 15, 20 feet straight. And I saw him whiplash and hit his head. And that was my first reaction. I thought, geez, he hit his head hard. And then rolled over and we're just standing there kind of in shock, looking down at him, realizing, did we get away with this or are we in a bad spot? And he lifted his leg up and it's just dangling, turned 180 degrees the other direction. And our heart sunk because, you know, he's got a once a lifetime desert sheep hunt and just

terrible fracture in his leg. And we knew it was over. And we're miles and miles from anywhere. And I, you know, you make the sickening call. You get a same helicopter from Page, Arizona to come pick us up and flew him to, I think, Price at the time. And then they got him to Salt Lake. But, yeah, he had a lot of plates and pins and stuff put back. Holy cow. And it's like, I remember kind of like what Zach said, you know, a guy joked around. I said, yeah, that's a nice brown. I remember the guy landing there in the Red Rocks of Southern Utah. And these pilots, maybe they don't, I don't know, maybe they don't get on many of these missions. But he asked us if we were hunting moose down there in Southern Utah. It's 100 degrees. Oh, it's desert sheep. And I, you know, if I'd have been not as shook up with sending my hunter away, you know, and

I'd have maybe been a little quicker on my feet and said, no, you know, it's caribou down in this country. But, you know, it was one of those days that, you know, fortunately, you know, we did get it. The wildlife board was gracious enough to grant him the tag extension for next year. He came back, killed the ram, grand slam ram on his birthday the next year. So it was good. I did have another client. I've had a lot of clients, so I don't want to turn anybody away from everyone. Everybody that goes with you has got a problem. Yeah. I don't want to. This is like one in a hundred. I'm just, the odds are not in your favor that you're going to have something bad happen. But I've had a few. We've had another client kill that stalked a ram, killed an awesome ram, shot it. And it was going to be a hike to get over to it. Told, he said, hey, well, let's, I want to tell my wife.

And I'm like, okay. And we didn't have great coverage there. So I said, I'm going to hike out and try to get a hold of my guys, tell them we're done. So we walked about two, three, 400 yards over on a ridge where we got a little bit of service. Didn't even, hadn't even walked over to his ram yet. And anyway, we regrouped after about five minutes and he's sitting down on the rock. His head's down. He's pure white, sweating. It's, you know, early November, mid November. So it's cold. It's first light in the morning. Well, he's sweating profusely and pale white. And I said, you're having a problem. He goes, oh yeah, I'm having a heart attack. And I said, is that, are you for sure? Or did you just eat something bad for breakfast? And, but I knew, you know, cause you're in a spot that, you know, this is deadly. You're deadly when the guy's having heart issues. He's just upper sixties.

It's not like it's, you know, a 20 year old saying, ah, I'm just lightheaded and I'm not feeling good. I drank too many or monsters this morning or whatever. It's like, he's in trouble. And I said, well, we're not going to go over to your ram. We've got to get you off the mountain. He goes, Hey, that's what we need to do. And, um, he, uh, I, I said, well, we've got to at least get you off this side hill because if we've got to get you off the mountain in a helicopter or whatever, we're going to have to get you down a little bit. And, but I says, the minute you start having problems, I've got the sat phone right here and I'm calling a helicopter. Uh, well, we, we fortunately, one of my guides was carrying aspirin. I don't carry aspirin, but I do now. You should. I do it now. Aspirin is kind of one of those old school drugs, you know, that when you didn't have

anything else, ibuprofen, Aleve, all these newer over the counter things. Most people carry Lortab now. Yeah. Or something hard. Yeah. From when they had a root canal, they have a root canal. You keep a few extras, you know, that you don't take them all. Save them. But anyway, um, you know, he had them and it was amazing within literally we put them, he just sucked on them. And within two to three minutes, he started feeling a little bit better, but it's not like an aspirin makes a heart attack go away and yet go climb the sheep mountain again. You know, we knew how to get him off, but we limped him down to the truck. And once we got him in the truck, I said, uh, yeah. All right. I told my guide, get him to town, which this was in Nevada, get him to Mesquite. You could get him there. You'll get him there faster than a helicopter could get deployed and pick us up. But he drove them there.

They threw him the ambulance, reds and blues up the canyon to St. George. He spent three days there. So as soon as he was in the truck going away, I had a very sobering realization. I'm by myself. With a dead ram. With a dead ram. And you didn't have a tag. And I don't have a tag. And my hunter might be dying right now. I don't know. Jeez. And so I had to walk up there. I did take some, I did take some selfies, Zach. I did. Because I was by myself. Impressive. You probably didn't have a stick though, Zach. You didn't do it right. No. I had a makeshift tripod on my pot pack. But I, anyway, and it was kind of, I didn't know whether I should smile on the pictures. It wasn't my ram. But I'm thinking, well, maybe, maybe somebody will Photoshop him. I didn't know what to do. It was just kind of like, you know, you got to honor the animal and take some pictures of it. It's a 40 inch or two.

Oh, 40 inch desert sheep. Giant. So I did that. Took care of it. Got it off the mountain. And he didn't see his ram until the parking lot of Dixie Regional Medical Center like two days later when I got there. I had to go to Arizona. Well, it seems like you got it checked in and they already knew you were probably coming. Yeah. They'd heard. Dispatch on dispatch. They'd heard the whole thing about, we'd called in and said, hey, this is the road we're coming on. If we have a problem, we're going to call you. You're going to have to come and land on the freeway. So anyway, don't mean to digress too much. But the point of this is crap can happen. I've had some serious stuff with some hunters and it's not fun to go through. And we learn from them. I never go anywhere without sat phones. Me, dad, brother, we all carry satellite phones, all full of minutes, all the time.

I know there's other things, spot units, different things like that. There's a lot of technology out there. Fortunately, it sounds like, Zach, you had cell service at least, which, you know, in this instance, you weren't too far away from at least getting a hold of somebody. Yeah, exactly. What would you do different? You were talking about that it was all, it was your fault and you've learned from it and all these things like, well, how is it your fault? Like, what would you do different? What, I mean, what can you take away from what you've experienced?

Just, just, just always hunt and hike like you're going to stay there for, you know, the night minimum. I just, there's no point not to. How many times have you spotted a big muley and left your pack? I'm going to go stalking without it. Then you'll get out there like, damn it, I need my water. Why did I do that? Like, we pack our packs for a reason, guys. Like, you know, we forget that because we're, we go out so, so, so confidently, so oftenly and everything works out. But at the end of the day, like we prepared for the worst case scenario, which shouldn't happen very often. Or should have prepared, right. Should have prepared for. So, you know, my, my point is this, it's just don't ever look for reasons not to be prepared, you know, just, just take it. Well, you, I mean, again, I don't, we may have met Zach. We, I don't think we have, if we have, I apologize. But I know.

No, not at all. From what, what I've seen, and a lot of it's been just recently, I know you, you're way into fitness. You work out a ton. You've said it earlier in this podcast that that's a huge motivation in your life and all that. So, I mean, obviously, in a situation like this, none of that mattered. I mean, you, you, you got hurt. And when I say it didn't matter, I don't want to make too much light of it. But, I mean, maybe it would have been worse if you weren't as physically fit or whatever and trained like you do. But there are certain things, it doesn't matter what you, what condition you're in, how much you're benching or squatting crap can just go wrong. Am I right? 100%. 100%. There's no, there, I made a disclaimer video after. I mean, this is kind of how I communicate. Jason just mentioned that, you know, like I film everything.

I just, you know, if someone asks me a question, I make a video to respond. I don't write a letter. You know what I mean? It's the new age. And a lot of people said, was it your diet? Was it your supplement company? And I said, no, and no. Like, I ran out of water. I lost two units of blood. What else do you want me to say? Like, I don't care how ripped you are. I don't care how prepared you are. I don't care how many times you've hiked that ridge. I've hiked that ridge 40 times. And I killed deer. I killed deer with my bow on that ridge. Like, it's my, it is my, it's my stomping grounds. And I'm telling you guys, I got humbled. I just got taught a lesson. And I'm so grateful that I can go hunt still. And still, you know, get back up there. Because I very easily could have gone the other way. And I have no problem admitting that. Yeah.

Well, and I think, too, it's like, you know, to me, I don't even know, like, as much as just not looking for sheds. Like, you know, tourniquet that thing off and get off the mountain. And, of course, you're still, you know, kind of dealing with the sheds and still taking videos and all that kind of stuff. And at some point, I mean, no matter what was in your pack, I think more or less, you know, maybe the takeaway that I'm taking away from it is to get off the mountain. Yeah. You know, Jace, if I had a partner or a buddy with me or my wife who's always faithfully, my wife gets around up there. Any one of them would have said, hey, dude, do you not see your arm? Do you not see it? Stop. Yeah. Get everything figured out. Don't slow down. And that's I needed that outside influence. I just I wasn't seeing clearly.

And that's why the video itself is is kind of creepy for me, because I don't remember any of that crap. And I don't remember acting that way and feeling that way. That just proves to you how out of it I was. And I wasn't going to even post the video. I could have swept this under the rug, guys. Like no one knew it happened. Well, and I could see I could see taking your wife up there, but I can't see really taking a buddy because then your buddy is going to compete with you for the sheds. He'll find all the browns. I mean, you know, he's going to probably tell his buddies. And now it's not your original. That's why I love my dad. He's like the best hunting partner ever because he will not kill anything. He doesn't like to kill deer. And he just literally this goes everywhere I go, but doesn't ever kill anything. So it's like having a buddy that does the perfect buddy, Zach.

It's the perfect. He's the wingman. I call him the wingman. Hopefully, hopefully these pilots and, you know, these guys that came and got you aren't hunters, aren't shed hunters. Well, the one guy was. Yeah, he knew you had a brown. He's already crushed the place. He's been back up. For that 20-minute flight that you had with him, you and him probably had a heart-to-heart saying, now, dude, I don't want to see you here again. I mean, just take me home safe and let's forget this ever happened. The guy's like, not only do you owe me $29,000, Mr. Griffith, you now have lost your shed hunting spot, and I'm going to go crush the place while you're in the hospital. Give me your sheds or I'll put this on my social media where you work. He had me under medically induced coma, too, so he was able to get a lot of info out of me that my normal state of mind wouldn't allow. Oh, yeah.

Who knows what you told him? Who knows what you told him? Yeah, you don't even know what you told him. He gave me a cocktail, a special cocktail to get me talking. Oh, geez. So they got you back to, I guess you said U of U, medical center. Maybe I misheard that. Yes, yeah. But then you got put back together. It was obviously night, so you spent the night there, and they patched you back together, and you're doing good. Yeah, just fluids. Yeah, fluids. I don't know if I was transfused at all. I just, you know, they fixed my arm. They recognized the leg. They x-rayed my femur. They x-rayed my rib cage. I did a CAT scan. I mean, it was, the bill on this thing is going to be through the roof. But at the end of the day, like, I guess, you know, you have to take those precautions because none of us really knew what had caused it.

Well, now looking back, it was just a combination of a whole bunch of little things piled up and made it into a really bad mess. Wow. Well, that's crazy.

On a little side note, this keto diet, like I didn't even know how to spell keto. I really don't still know how to spell it. But somebody explained it to me. It was basically just Atkins, which I really get Atkins. You know, that was kind of my era. You like meat. Yeah, just meat. Meat and green stuff. But anyway, how's it going? Are you still on it? Give me the lowdown real quick. Yeah, sure. As crazy as it sounds to most people, I'm absolutely fascinated with diets and how my body reacts to them. So I use myself as an experiment, and I control the variables. And I literally just try diets. I've done bodybuilding competitions. So I've cut my body fat down into this 5%, 6% range. I don't know if I've ever been that lane. I just think it's fascinating. So the keto diet is one I heard about, and I heard you don't have to eat as often.

And I said, well, that could be really good for hunting because I'm that guy that has to stop every 45 minutes and nibble on something because my blood sugar is out of control. So I got into keto just, you know, for just all, just state of being. It's not about losing weight. I don't need to lose weight. I'm on top of that. It's more just about being healthier, eating less often. They said there's some cognitive benefits in brain function, digestion, you know, anti-inflammatory. I mean, it just sounded fascinating. And so I had never eaten a diet like that, guys. I've always been the rice, broccoli, and chicken guy. That's just the bodybuilder diet. What's the basics? What's the basics of it? Because I'm ignorant of it. No, yeah, the keto diet is actually, it's derived in the 1920s. It was used to treat epileptic kids that weren't responding well to medication.

So they figured that somehow blood glucose levels were directly correlated with epileptic, you know, outbursts or whatever. So they removed sugar, they moved carbs from their life, and they fed these kids. The actual protein or the macronutrient breakdown was 80% of their caloric intake came from fats. 20% or 15% came from protein and only 5% from carbs. And they saw amazing response. They're, you know, they're whatever, they're, they're, they're, the occurrences and their epileptic conditions were minimized. And that's, that's where it came from. Then this John Atkins guy comes through in the, in the 90s and basically a marketing genius just takes an existing diet platform and just adds his name to it. Kind of reinvented the wheel, if you will. But it was, the Atkins diet was a lot less regulated. It wasn't as restrictive.

It was almost like eat whatever you want as long as it's not a carb. Yeah. The keto diet is something where you do need to measure and monitor what you're eating and where it's coming from. But it is extremely high fat, very moderate protein and very low carbohydrate. Once your body gets into ketosis or becomes keto adapted, as they say, your body no longer recognizes carbohydrate or sugar as a fuel source because it's been deprived of it. So what it does is your liver immediately starts to convert fat into fatty acids and a byproduct called ketones. So the ketone is the keto. That's what that is. And that's an energy source, just like carb is, but it's derived from fat. And for some reason, your body, and I personally feel this way, your body does better, is more efficient.

And everything I can possibly think of is improved with this diet because I believe that we are historically and evolutionary keto eaters. The cavemen didn't have rice and beans. They had rotten flesh. They had crickets. Meat and seeds. Not just going to go to California and grab some rice out of the patties. Yeah, exactly. There was no banana trees in Utah. These guys were eating crickets all summer. Right. That's what we ate. Protein, nuts, seeds. So the keto diet, if you look at it, it's just, it is. It's of the earth. It's nuts. It's meats. It's fats. All of the things you need. And what's amazing about it for, you know, to sum it all up, you literally do suppress your appetite. So I eat a big breakfast and then I eat dinner and I maybe nibble on some almonds during the day. And that is not normal. So that's an awesome way for hunters because you're cruising around.

You don't have to stop and eat. You can, you know, it's just more efficient. Yeah. Well, you got to remember, you know, back in the day, those people's life expectancy wasn't as long. As long as ours. No, that's a good point. It's a great point. They ate too much fat. Well, but they didn't, they couldn't brush your teeth. I mean, an abscessed tooth or something could kill you back then. That's a good point. You can get blood poisoning from an abscessed tooth. That's right. So anyway, well, I'll never probably be able to do that because it sounds like a lot of work. And I'm like, the Atkins is like, eat meat. Okay. I get that. Like, that's really easy. My freezer's full. No problem. Yeah. I've got plenty of that. Yeah. That's why he was so successful is because he simplified it. Um, it's just the ketosis part of it.

If you really want to get into that, where your body's more efficiently running on a different fuel source, you kind of have to be a little bit more restrictive with your dietary, your intake, you know, but, but at the end of the day, you know, every diet, you know, the best diet out there is the one that you respond best to. So you've got to just try, try them all and find a happy me. And, you know, I don't want to tell you the diet we've been on right now. It involves white monsters and, uh, monsters, rock stars, mountain, dude, and diet coke. That's so bad for you. Way too early a morning, you know, for multiple weeks on end, but we're alive and, and we're almost got light at the end of the tunnel, which is why we're doing a lot of our magazine research. It's been brutal.

But tell me, I guess, before we wrap things up here, Zach, I mean, it seems like you've experienced, I don't know, backlash for whatever lack of word there is regarding this instance. And I know you said you just about didn't post it. Tell us, I guess, why you did and what you can say about the haters that, that's, you know, for just lump them into that term, I guess, because I don't know what else to call them. Yeah. I don't think they're haters. Well, whatever. They're following him. Yeah. They're, they're love. They like and love and follow, I guess. But, but tell us about that, I guess, in terms of why you posted it and why you felt it was important to, and, and your response to them. So my, my post was, you know, as cocky and as arrogant as my delivery may be sometimes, I'm actually a humble guy.

I can recognize my shortcomings and I can recognize mistakes and I have no problem admitting them because I feel like part of moving on is just, it's almost like penitence. You just got to get it out there. Hey guys, I screwed up. I'm going to, I'm not going to do it again. I feel like when you socially admit to a commitment to change, I feel like you're more accountable because you feel like more people are going to pressure you to do it. So I've always been that way, whether I'm going to go to medical school or I'm going to start a diet. I always like to tell everyone to make an announcement so that everyone knows that I've committed. And with this, for example, I completely screwed up. I put other people at risk. I put my family at risk. I stress people out. I, I, I was not prepared. I made a bad decision. I absolutely, without a doubt, screwed up.

And I wanted everyone to know that I had done that. And my whole motive behind it was to a, never repeat and be hopefully at some level nudge guys to be a little bit better prepared and possibly prevent something similar from happening in the future. Um, it was never a, uh, a platform for empathy or attention. Um, when guys, uh, derive that or decipher that from my message, I just, I just want to choke them because it's just not how I am. Um, I can get attention other ways. That's not how it works for me. I literally got shocked. But you gotta agree. There is no bad publicity when you're in the social media world. You know, there's not Jason, but as much as it's hard for you probably to believe, I'm actually extremely sensitive, man. Yeah. Yeah. I don't understand why everyone's just not happy and positive. I don't get it. But Zach, you gotta understand.

Let's say you have 60 comments, you know, 10 of which may be like on the line. You have 68 some odd thousand followers. I don't even know. You might even be up over 70 the time we, you know, I don't know, but that's not like percentage wise. I mean. Yeah, you're right. Come on. I mean, it's not. You're being, you're being analytical and that's how I should be, but I am emotional about it. So even the one guy, it's like, why bro? Yeah. Why? Yeah. Where, where, where are you getting, where, where are you getting the energy in your life to publicly attack somebody else or, or take the time to post a meme? It's like, dude, you're such a, you're such a coward. Yeah. Yeah. No, I understand. Move on. But you're, you're gonna, you know, you're gonna get more of it because you're in that social. Well, social media. You're in the realm. It gives everybody a voice. Everybody. It does.

And, you know, some people just get up angry, you know, in the morning. And, and so, you know, and you're kind of in that, you and Rocky, I mean, you know, I talked to you at length when we were doing the Hit List stuff and just, you know, it's kind of what you kind of want to do is put your, put your life out there, you know, for the public to see. And when you do that, like you do open yourself up for every little critical, you know, portion of. No, I appreciate that. It's absolutely true. And I have to learn to stomach it, period. Well, is there anything else that we're missing that maybe we should, you know, want to talk about today? It is Friday. It's kind of a nice day out there, really. You know, not necessarily. I, I'm honestly just completely honored and stoked you guys had me on. I think you guys are top tier.

Like you guys actually walk the walk and there's no one out there that does it better. And I, you guys, you, you, you made it sound like you kind of half-assed your YouTube content, but I'll tell you right now, your productions are some of the best hunting films for point of view and just realistic. This is how it goes down. I've watched every video you guys have posted. So, I mean, hats off. I freaking think your content is top tier, man. We sure appreciate that. We've, we've worked hard at it. And Chris Peterson here in the office, he, uh, he's actually, you know, kind of mans the podcast too. He's just got a super good talent for, you know, videography work, production work, all of these kinds of digital type stuff. And we're sure, sure lucky to have him on board. And, and, uh, yeah, I don't know. It's just, we're just out there. Another dimension of what we kind of do. Yeah.

Add to it. Yeah. We're just out there trying to harvest good animals and, and work hard at work hard at doing it. Of course, this, this time of year, we're just super jealous of you guys going out and shed hunting, even though that particular trip wasn't so great. We, uh, this office hasn't been so great for the last five months. I'll tell you that right now, you know? So anyway, we'll, uh, we're going to start finally being able to, you know, see the light of day here in the next week or so. So we're kind of excited about that, but well, the deer, they're putting their horns on for him for you too. So you could hear it. Cause I wouldn't know.

Take your word for it, buddy. Yeah. My time's coming though. Our time's coming. Give me about June 15th or July 1st. And we're just waiting for those sheds to turn white so we can see them a little better Zach. That's right. Hard to see a button out there. We want to make sure the whole shed's white. So all right. Well, we appreciate it, buddy. Glad everything turned out well. Thanks for taking a little minute of your time to spend with us today. We usually are pretty serious content on our, on our, uh, podcast, but, um, you know, as we come kind of toward the end, we're going to have a lot of different hunters on and talk about a lot of different, you know, experiences we've had, maybe even talk about specific animals and hunts and whatnot. And so it won't just be state derived and a lot more lighter, funner, exciting scouting hunts and, uh, stuff like that coming up too.

So it should be great. Appreciate your time today. Thank you guys. I'm honored again. Thanks again. Have a good weekend, man. Likewise. All right. Talk to you later. Well, Adam, as you can tell, like, I mean, you know, Zach's experience and some of those experiences you've shared. And of course you and I've been out in the Escalante desert, drier than dry, run out of water and can't find a water hole. And I mean, and on, I did that with my dad too, out in the middle of the Escalante desert is kind of some crazy, well, that was actually San Juan desert sheep hunting. But anyway, that you just never know when that stuff's going to happen. Yeah. I remember that trip with you and June. I don't know what we were thinking. You had a tag that year, wasn't it? You had a tag and we just thought, let's go. You find out late May. Hey, got a sheep tag. Let's go.

And it hadn't rained for probably three months. Yeah. And some of the water holes that were, you know, sand pots. Yeah. They were just tanahas, just, you know, potholes. They were dry and we banked our whole trip on having water there. And we pushed all afternoon to get there. And remember, we got there and it was maybe two in the afternoon, brutally hot. We're out of water and we realized we're, we got to go out. We got to get out of here because you don't have enough energy and time to go search for the next one. But anyway, not to digress, but yeah, things can happen. I shared a few during the interview with Zach that have happened to me personally. It's, it's not fun when you're in the middle of it, when something's a crisis. You know, I've had, like I said, some pretty serious ones that have made me now prepare, carry a sat phone. I'm serious. On every hunt.

When we can't get ahold of each other on cell phones, we use them for just phones sometimes. Yeah. But it's a nice peace of mind. I mean, I know your wife, I'm sure as well as mine. They like to know that there's some way that, because they don't, that's true. We don't leave a note on the kitchen counter every time when me and I go out. No. We're going out way too many times. Well, and the other thing is my chance, my plans change. Yeah. While you're out there. You know, from half hour to half hour. I mean, I don't know. You go somewhere and someone's parked in the canyon. You're like, well, I'm not going there. You go somewhere else. But anyway, just, just use good common sense. Go order, you know, don't, don't exceed your limits. Things like that. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. Good reminders. Things like this. Can't be too prepared.

And sometimes there's just going to be stuff that happens that you just can't control. And it is what it is. And it's not going to stop us from going out and doing it. No. No. So be prepared. You know, take care of yourself and keep crushing it.