EP 294: Epic Survival - Stranded During the Colorado 2nd Season Mule Deer Hunt With Justin Finch

Anything to do with Western big game.

Welcome to the Epic Outdoors podcast, powered by Under Armour.

Hey everybody, Jason Carter, Wyatt, Cash, and John, how y'all doing? Good. Good. Just hanging out. Good for being a Friday and in the office, how about that? Yeah, one of our first Fridays back. Yeah, how do you like working Fridays? Kind of unusual, but hey, the normal working folk do that. Wyatt, how do you feel? Yeah, getting back into the swing of it for sure. It's been a good fall, so it's about time. Yeah, it actually feels good, doesn't it? It does. Yeah, that's what I want to hear. It feels good to be in the Epic office. Cash, do you agree or no? I agree. Of course, you don't dare say no, but anyway. John? Yeah, doing good, doing good. Yeah, it's been good. Everybody's been out in the hills a ton. Of course, we're working four tens usually up to the hunts, and then who knows after that.

We just try to come and go and clean the office up and clean our desks up here and there as best we can, but we're supposed to be in the hills. We're paid to be in the hills. That's part of it. So anyway, John, we mounted a scope for you today. You guess that's good timing, huh? You're going to leave for a hunt here in about four or five days, probably ought to have a scope on your gun. Yep, got to go sight it in.

Kind of time to do that. But this is actually backup gun, so. Oh, that's good. Or it might, depending on how it shoots, it might be the primary. I haven't shot it yet. So this particular rifle, it's a fierce 7PRC shooting factory ammo, and mine, we took it out just for a good time and got it all dialed, and it's unbelievable. Cash, you were there. Yeah, man, it's a tack driver. It's unbelievable. With factory ammo. Yeah, so I let the boys have it out there on the General Utah, and they're out doing their thing. And, of course, they want all dad's wazoo, you know, products that I never had at their age, and so smart range finders and pretty crazy guns. And so anyway, I let them, I'm like, okay, you can take this fierce out, you know. Hadn't killed anything yet with it. And the 175 grain ELDX factory ammo, but it's just unbelievable. Anyway, they take it out, and I show them.

There's a smart range finder, right? You get the range. It tells you how to dial. It's dialed in mills. So, you know, it's like 14 layers deep for kids. I showed them how to dial, and they're out there. They don't find a buck they want. They're kind of passing some smaller bucks and stuff. Anyway, Sean calls me, dad, dad, dad. We had a dog out there at 900 yards, and I'm like, oh, boy. He doesn't call me unless he's pretty darn excited that way. But anyway, I guess he got down on a pack, and they probably, I don't know. I usually don't shoot coyotes in my honey holes. Do you guys? No. No. Steer clear of it. Okay. But hey, I have when I was younger. So here they are. They just get, they got to make something die. And so anyway, they get on the pack and hit the range finder. Justin's on it. Justin can't quite get him found in the scope. Can't get him found.

And Sean's like, move over, move over. I got him, you know. So anyway, Sean gets on the scope. Dial, adjust the dial slightly. And anyway, ended up touching it off, and it's 900 yards. A coyote at 900 yards. How big is the kill zone on a dog, you guys? Like eight inches. Yeah. Square or maybe? Tiny. Maybe. And if you hit him somewhere with a big enough bullet, maybe he'll end up being done for. So anyway, touches it off. Looks at Justin while Justin's looking through the scope. And about two seconds later, you hit it. I can't believe you got it. Anyway, sends me the video. I say, go up there and take photos. Prove it. Anyway, there's blood everywhere. So pretty impressive. First shot they have ever shot out of that rifle. And nails it. At 900 yards with a smart range finder. And anyway, it's amazing what the gear has done for people. So now it's their gun, right? Yeah. Hey, da, da, da.

We'll put this in our truck. So anyway, they've been packing it nonstop. I did reacquire it. It's now in my safe. And we'll see. I'm going to work up some. Justin and I are going to work up some loads for his Remington out of the box gun. And, you know, they're great guns. And you can still, you know, use a bullet app and a normal range finder and plug in your, you know, average elevation temperature and whatnot. And really be close and be awesome. And that's what's going to happen in Colorado. So anyway. Speaking of killing a coyote in your honey hole, we just released a video. Devin on a Nevada mule deer hunt. And he shoots a coyote, like, yards from a bed of deer. And the deer didn't move at all. The coyote goes to die and tries to go where the deer is, turns around, and then, you know. I contend. So go watch that. Devin finds dumb deer. That's how he's killing them.

Devin hunts dumb deer. Well, it's like all animals are dumbed down around him. The coyotes come right up. The turkeys. I mean, everything comes right up to him. How about the owl looking into his soul? Yeah, the owl. He's like, yeah, the owl's circling around him in his camp looking into my soul. No, owls don't look into your soul.

It's some kind of special connection he has. I leave every hunt going, man, that animal is brilliant. Devin. Yeah, I can't find a single thing. Devin, they're tracking him down.

Must be the little chicken nugget. A little furry chicken nugget running around. I don't know. Owls are meat eaters, man. I wouldn't want one staring into my soul. Anyway, kind of interesting, but it's kind of fun. Of course, we've worked over some loads. Devin and whatnot. Everybody here has pretty much done some range time. Cash, you've got a great shooting rifle. Cash, I want to save your story for just a minute because we do got to call a guest. But you've had some success and I want to hear all about it. I also want to hear about your rifle and whatnot. So anyway, we do have a guy we want to give a holler to. It's Justin Finch. Quite a great story. Wyatt saw this on social media. I saw it but didn't realize the gravity of it all because Instagram didn't have as much information as Facebook, it seems like. But Wyatt, you put me on to it.

Kind of give a quick rundown of what you've heard. Yeah. So from what I've heard, he was in Colorado on a mule deer hunt out there. Not sure of the unit, but I know he was above 11,000 feet and had a snowstorm come in. Yeah. And it sounds like things got pretty sketchy from there. Had a couple of llamas. Anyway, killed a great buck and then it was spiraled straight down from there. Yeah. Probably let him tell the rest of that story. Yeah. But very aggressive. Kudos to him. I mean, usually on second, people are trying to be on the winter range and hitting the bucks as they appear on the winter range. Because the winter range is generally easier to access and has good road access usually. And you're hunting some BLM, either the BLM or the BLM forest boundaries and stuff. So, and, you know, flirting around private and whatever.

So, anyway, but he went straight to the top and there's bucks that will push snow up there chest deep. And so if he finds a great buck, we'll kind of let him talk about it. But interesting. And this just happened. So the second season is still in process right now. And he's home now safe. But all of this happened the first part of the second season. Yeah, I believe this last weekend. Yeah, kind of crazy. All right, let's give him a call and kind of hear something crazy here. Hello, it's Justin. Justin, Jason, and Wyatt, Cash, and John here. How are you? Good. How are you doing? Good. It's good to hear your voice. You know, it's good to be heard. It is good to be heard. For sure. Yeah, for sure. Well, I guess to start this off, we sure appreciate you spending some time with us. And kind of to start it off, just give us a little of your background and then some of your experience.

Because you're an experienced woodsman. You've hunted a grundle. Maybe even some of your Colorado experience. And then dive into what your plans were for this year and how it all developed. Yeah, absolutely. So, I'm 32 years old, born and raised right here in Utah.

You know, I've been hunting since I was a little kid. You know, since I was eight years old, I've been hunting with my dad. As I got older, you know, I really got into like the backcountry type style hunting. Just trying to get away, trying to find that, you know, next age class of deer. And I'm mainly a deer hunter. I do a little bit of elk hunting. In fact, I had an elk tag this year and quickly realized that apparently my arrows are muley arrows and they're not elk arrows. I like the muley arrows. You know, like the muley arrows, like they find the mark with that elk hunt this year in September. Man, I just, I got the fever so bad. And it's just a totally different experience. But, yeah, so I'm mainly a mule deer hunter. I've been hunting specifically Colorado for, I think, the last probably 10 years.

I always try to do like an early season hunt there, whether it's archer or muzzleloader. Looking forward to just like a zero point unit that I can hunt every single year. Really learn the area. This year, being different, I knew I was going to draw an elk tag. An archery elk tag. So, I was like, you know what? I cannot live with myself if I don't hunt Colorado. That's the way everybody feels it goes there. Oh, yeah. No matter the state of the deer herd or not, you still will never quit going. Oh, for sure. Right? Like, you'll do anything you can to get a tag. And typically, I usually hunt alone. And the reason for that, you know, and I don't advise that. I love hunting with friends. It's just, you know, me and my friends, we're in a different state of life. I have three kids. Some of them don't have any kids.

And sometimes I got to go out, you know, Friday late after work, drive through the night, which I don't advise either. Yeah. But, you know, get to the trailhead at three in the morning, then you hunt till Sunday late, and then you might have to drive back for work. So, you know, I just, I hate putting people out. And so, and that's how it was this year. So, I put in for a second season mule deer tag in Colorado in a unit that I've never been to before. I've hunted all around the area before. It's in central Colorado. Big wilderness area. So, I knew the surrounding units had some good deer in it. So, I was, anyways, I was able to get this tag with zero points.

After my elk hunt was unsuccessful, unfortunately, I was looking forward to this hunt. And typically every year, I used to hunt a lot more before I was married, like all of us, I'm sure. So, I've kind of not, she doesn't limit me at all. My wife's amazing. But I usually do three hunts. I do Utah, Colorado, Idaho. Those are, I do those three every single year because you can basically get those every year if you want. And then, obviously, if you draw an extra tag, then now you're going to Wyoming. Now you're going to Nevada. So, it's usually between three and five hunts. So, going into this hunt, I felt, I guess I should say, you know, I'm stubborn. You know, nothing's going to stop you from going where you want to go. Right. Because why would it? Like, if you're 20 miles in, like, you're going to get out. No matter what you're going to do, you're going to go. Yeah. And you're 32.

You're fit. You're 32. You have the gear. Yeah. We have electronics. We feel safe. We have electronics. We can call out. Like, we're good. Yeah. Like, there's no reason to ever worry. And even my wife, I mean, she's gotten to the point where she doesn't worry about me. She knows I'm fine. And what's funny is, and I know I'm kind of jumping all around, but the previous week before going out on this hunt. So, the hunt starts on the 20, I believe it was the 28th. It was the last Saturday of October this year. Yeah. And just to give some backstory, because this will come into play as I kind of get into this story. The weekend before, I took my kids camping on the Idaho's deer hunt. And we had a good time. We had these great big oversized sleeping bags that they sleep in. And, you know, and I had given them some hand warmers when we were camping. And I didn't think anything of it, you know.

So, just remember that as I get into this story later on. Because it comes into play pretty big. The hand warmers. Yeah. The hand warmers is key here. So, leading up to the hunt, I'm looking at weather forecast. And my dad was originally planning on coming with me. And he calls me. He's like, hey, you see the weather forecast? And I said, yeah, what's up? He said, I ain't going.

So, I'm just like, hey, I don't blame you. You know, he's getting older. Ever since he's, in the last couple years, he's gotten to the point. He's always hunted with me. So, I've started taking llamas recently. And one of the main reasons for that is, you know, I like hunting with my dad when I can. And the only way he can get back in there is not having gear on his back, you know. Is he 60-ish or whatever? Yeah, he's 50. High 50s. Yeah, high 50s. Okay. And honestly, he's selfish. Like, it's great. If you guys have used llamas or even horses before, like, they're just getting that weight off the back. I'm just afraid to get – I'm afraid of getting spit on. That's all. Oh, that definitely happens. That definitely happens. Does it? Does it really happen? Oh, yeah. I haven't been spit on, but I've been in the crossfire.

For sure. They're ignorant. They're just ignorant. Oh, yeah. Yeah, and they're not like a horse. Like a horse, I feel like you have that kind of companionship where you can, you know, kind of pet them. Yeah. You go to pet a llama, and they just, like, back up, look at you. Like, what the hell are you looking at? They're not – they don't want to be petted. Yeah. What kind of animal does that? Just load me down. Oh, yeah. Totally. But, yeah. How much weight – before we leave that, like, how much weight are you putting on a llama, like, roughly? Yeah. So, going in – okay. So, max capacity, and this probably depends on the llama, but I use – it's Wasatch Front Llamas Mason. And his llamas are very trained. Okay. Coming out, he doesn't like you to have more than about 90 pounds on llamas. Okay. And that obviously depends if you're going straight downhill or if it's more flat.

But 90 pounds is kind of that general idea. Okay. Still a fair amount of weight. That's a llama still. Yeah. No, and it's like – especially when you're – yeah, and especially when you're solo. I mean, I'm – so, going into this hunt, I brought so much gear. Yeah. Because, you know, technically I have – I'm okay packing. I can put the gear on my back. So, technically – You got 60. You got 60 or 70. They got 90 a piece or 85, 80, whatever. Yeah. Totally. Yeah. You're loaded. Yeah. So, like, gear was an issue, like, saving weight. So, I just brought – I brought everything on this hunt.

The weather forecast was supposed to be 10 to 15 inches, which, like you guys know, like, I hear that, and I'm like, that's gear killing weather, baby. Yeah. Yeah. We're going to – You know, like – Smash one. Yep. Oh, yeah. For sure. You know, and I was probably going a little too high in elevation, but that's just my style. I, you know, I figured I'd start high and maybe work my way low once I could get visibility. And I figured I'd be fogged in for the first two days. And then – and I had Friday – I was going in Friday morning, and I was going to have to be home by Halloween. You know, I got three kids, and the wife made it pretty clear that, you know, as long as you're home for Halloween, you know, I can go back out after. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So, the weather was supposed to clear up Monday, but, unfortunately, it was supposed to be super cold.

I think it was projected to be like negative three Sunday night. So, I knew what I was getting myself into. Well, apparently not. I thought you did.

Yeah, so I leave Thursday night to central Colorado. I get to the trailhead in the middle of the night, sleep at the trailhead, wake up early, load the llamas up, and I hike in. And as I'm loading the llamas up, I've actually brought two sleeping bags. I brought my regular mommy bag that everyone knows, like, they're never fun to sleep in. Hate them. And so, oh, absolutely. And then I have this oversized bag from when I took my kids camping. And so, I'm looking at my gear. I'm like, well, my dad was supposed to come, but now he's not. So, I mean, I have so much extra weight on these llamas. So, I'm like, you know, I am going to throw in that oversized bag. That'll be nice and comfy. So, I throw that bag on, and I head in there. I always tell my wife and my dad where I'll be camping.

And I go in, and it was six and a half miles, about 2,400 feet of vertical over the six and a half, so not too bad. And then that's where I was planning on camping. I get there about noon, about three and a half, four hour hike. And when I get, I take all the gear off the llamas, and before I set up camp, I run to the top of the ridge, and I glass. You can just see like these two huge beautiful basins, and I'm looking about two and a half miles as the crow flies, you know. And of course, the farthest flipping ridge you can see, I see this deer. And at that distance, even with the spotting scope, you know, all you can see is barely a frame.

And so, I'm thinking, well, you know, and by the way, there's no snow. It is clear blue skies. Dry ground. On the north facing, there was like old snow that was maybe like 10 inches on only north facing. What elevation have you made it to at this point? I'm at 11,200. So, 2,400 gain, but your trailhead was fairly high too. Yeah, trailhead was fairly high. Exactly. So, I'm at 11,200, which is about as high as I was planning on going. And so, I'm looking at this deer, and I'm thinking, well, just by his frame, I wasn't going to be super picky anyways, just being solo and kind of limited on time. So, I'm like, well, I'm not going to camp here. What am I going to do? And I hope no one's offended by this, but me and my buddies, we always call it the next ridge syndrome, where you just go. Especially being solo, it gives you the flexibility to just do your own thing,

I don't have to answer to anybody, so I know my abilities. If I'm with my dad, we're going to camp there and guard this, and he might sit at camp in glass for me. Yeah, sure. You'll just hike over there and hike back or whatever. Exactly. It wouldn't be bad. So, I load the llamas back up, and we drop, and I have to drop about 800 feet into that basin, and then go into the next basin and drop 200 more feet to find a flat camping spot, which is ultimately going to be my demise. It's coming out of that isn't easy. So, I go into their set-up camp by about 4 p.m. Then I run up the ridge to get eyes on that buck. And when I see him, you know, I was thinking he was gonna be like a 50-60 buck, but he was a little bit better than I thought. So, I was like, yeah, I'm gonna try to kill that sucker tomorrow. So, I put him to bed, watched him feeding on the south-facing ridge,

I run back down to camp. I get back down to camp at, I don't know, it's dark at like 630, so 645 or so I'm at camp. And I go to bed, I wake up to just a blizzard, and it's only snowed maybe six inches or so. So, I'm there to hunt, so I just get out of my bag, and I know he's in this little finger canyon, and I figure maybe that snow has him just sitting in bed and waiting for me, you know? What do you use for a tent when you're in with the llamas? Yes, so typically, I have...it depends on the hunt. I usually just have like a King's two-person backpacking tent. For this hunt specifically, I knew it was gonna be super cold, and usually I'm hunting the bow hunt or the muzzleloader hunt. So, I actually borrowed a tent from my

My good buddy, Jared, one of those Argali four-person stove tents. So, I mean, I had a nice stove going inside my tent. I had a bunch of dry wood sitting in my tent. Like, to be honest, I feel like I had the right gear going into this. Yeah. So, and honestly, I feel like a teepee tent does pretty well in the snow, just obviously the shape of it, without it collapsing. Okay. Yeah, so I leave at first light Saturday morning, hike up this ridge, and I can't take the llamas with me just because it's, you know, Colorado. It's pretty steep, and now there's snow on it. I just didn't want to risk them slipping and falling. So, I leave them at camp, and I wrap up this ridge, and I'm trying to glass. You can only see like 200-300 yards, and then it clears up for a bit, and that's when I'm like, okay, this buck's got to be here.

And I'm, at this point, like an idiot, I'm just skylined, standing there. Sometimes you just don't even think. And I'm looking across Canyon, and all of a sudden I look straight below me, and there's that buck, just bedded under this pine tree, kind of weathering the storm. And he's looking straight up at me. And I'm like, oh, snap. And typically, I love to film my hunts. I try to as much as I can. And in that situation, I couldn't get the kill shot, because he's looking at me, and I'm thinking he's going to go. So, I just lay down prone, shooting straight, kind of, I don't know, two, three hundred feet in elevation down below me. And I just put it right on him and bedded down. It was one of those where I shot, and he didn't even move. His head just dropped. Just perfect. Yeah, just dead. And that's where it sucks hunting solo, because you don't have nobody to celebrate with.

Yeah, you let out a little hoop, and then you look around and feel weird. I've done it. Yep, yeah, exactly. And you're like, oh, yeah. Now it's just work. Yeah, now it's just work, and I'm like, oh, that would have been nice to have the llamas up here. And you guys know this probably better than I do. The bodies on those Colorado deer, I don't know what it is, but they are just huge. Yeah, they are. They're made for the weather you're gonna endure. Yeah, exactly. Yep. So, I go over there, get some pictures. I always bone out my animals, just based on how far in I am. Obviously, that takes a few hours. Then I put it on my pack, take it back to camp. I get to camp at about 4 p.m. Saturday night. At this point, there's about a foot of snow. Nothing to even worry about. Being solo, I have nothing else to do.

So, I'd crawl in my tent, get the little stove going in that Argali tent, and then I ate dinner. But the problem was, you know, when you physically exert yourself, you're just not hungry. Yeah. Like, you can't, at least I am. I can't eat a lot. Really? You need to eat double or triple what you normally eat. Yeah, exactly. It's like you've got to force it down. Are you on Mountain House dinners, or what do you...? Yeah, so I usually do peak. So, two of my best friends work over there at peak. Okay, so same thing, you're using backpacking food no matter... Yeah, no matter what, I'm using backpacking food. Well, actually, the night before, on Friday, I actually packed in two big old New York strip steaks. Yeah, that's what I was talking about. Okay, you're my kind of people.

Oh yeah, oh yeah. I told my dad that because I was trying to convince him to come with me. I was like, hey, I'm bringing a pan, you know. We're gonna eat if you'll come. We're gonna eat good. Yeah, exactly. So, I think I was still full on that from the night before or something, but I think I had like a Snickers bar and then a swig of water, and then I was just tired. So, I went to bed like way early. So, my last food was 4.30 p.m., same as my last drink. And the plan was, I'm gonna wake up early, and at that point, I'm ready to go home, see my kids. Yeah. So, I wake up in the dark, maybe at 6 in the morning, and I wake up, and this is where things just start going south. I wake up in the morning to my tent covered in white feathers, completely covered in feathers. I'm like, what in the world? I opened my tent, and what happened? I woke up to three feet of snow.

And in that little tent, it compressed the teepee. And I went to bed with the stove going, and I have a down jacket. And it pushed my down jacket into the stove, and just melted my coat. And you slept through all that? Oh yeah, I was out, man. So, you can imagine waking up and there's just feathers everywhere. And I'm like, what in the world? A flamingo around here. Oh yeah. So, I had brought, I think, two outfits or something. The outfit before was obviously soaking wet from the day before being out with my deer and hiking back, and those are just like solid rock, you know, just because they were wet. So, luckily I had a long sleeve shirt, I had a light hoodie, and then I had a rain, just a thin rain jacket.

Yeah, yeah. So, that's what I was wearing out. At this point, you're not even worried, because I'm making it back. I'm about nine miles, by the way. Nine miles from the truck at this point is where Basecamp was. Jeez. So, I start getting all my stuff. Oh, and then I keep missing details. I apologize. I was going to start a fire that morning, and I don't know what it is. I've never had this issue with my lighters. I had three lighters. I brought three of them, and I'll talk about the, at the end, I wanted to just highlight some things I've learned. Leave them in a package. Like, I leave my lighters in a package, a hard package, so they can't get depressed accidentally or whatever.

Yeah, and I think that's what happened. I don't know if it was a combination of elevation. It can't just be elevation, because I've never had problems with lighters, but I think it was the extreme cold as well. Nothing would light. Like, I couldn't get my lighters to work at all. Like, the lighter wouldn't light the butane or whatever. Like, the spark was not lighting the lighter. Yeah, exactly. So, I'm not sure why, but I think it was a combination of them being a little wet, extremely cold, so maybe it was the butane doesn't work at that elevation when it's that cold. Just little things like that where I couldn't start a fire, so I was like, well, I'll just get hiking. That's why I started so early in the morning. So, I load up all my stuff, and I have a ton of water there. I think I came in with like 300 ounces of water. And what do I do? I'm leaving. Dump it out.

Oh yeah, you dump it out, right? Dump it out, and I leave 100 ounces. Because in my mind, I'm like, I'll be out in six hours. You always think I can just eat snow on the way or whatever. Yeah, you'll be fine. So, I put 100 ounces in the panyards, and then I put a day's worth of food in the panyard as well. So, I get hiking, and I'm a little worried about the north face, the summit of this mountain that I got to crest over, where I originally was going to camp, where I glassed that buck from. Because I knew I had to gain 800 feet of elevation, and now there's three plus feet of snow, plus on that side. The wind. The wind, and it already had 10 inches of snow being on the north face. Well, I get hiking, and I made it to that face, which is about two miles, which should have taken me, should take anyone less than an hour. I mean, it was five hours getting there. Wow.

Just pushing, I mean, you know, it's like in between your waist and your belly button. And with the llamas, they just sink. And so, like, I have to just, you take a step, and I have to take, like, a couple side steps and make this trail through the snow for them. Well, I'm wearing rain gear, and like you guys know, at least my rain gear, it's not meant to be super breathable. It doesn't breathe. No, so I am just soaking wet with sweat. And it's free. At this point in the day, I think they said it was like five degrees, so it wasn't like in the negatives, but it was super cold. Snow's still coming down, I think, and it ended up at like three and a half feet plus on top of whatever was there. And so, I'm dying of thirst. I reached back at about noon to get a drink, and the last drink I had was last night at 4, 4.30.

And my friends, my dad, they always give me crap because I'm like a camel. You just get something in your mind like, oh, I'm going, and then you forget to take a drink. Yeah, for sure. It just happens, and I go to get a drink, and my water's gone. I'm like, what in the... Look, my food's gone. The food's gone. What had happened is that snow was so deep, and it was pushing the panyards up, and I had put it in the front pockets where they're kind of open-ended. Pushed everything out. Yeah, and it just pushed them out. So, they're lost somewhere in the last two miles in snow. There's no way you're finding them. So, here I am, having had a drink in, whatever, 18 hours. Can't start anything to melt. Can't eat enough snow to matter.

Yeah, so this is all just a trickle effect of how I got to where I was. But still, even then, the thought of, oh, I'm screwed never comes to your mind. You're just like, well, that's fine. I'll just keep going. Yeah, whatever. Never had problems before. I still have cell service. Whatever. Yep. Well, so yeah, and I never did have cell service. Okay. Yep, so, not, and typically I usually do, and I should mention that at the beginning, my dad had got me one of those Garmin in-reaches back in, before my elk hunt. He had, it was his, he had it for a couple years. I love those things. Oh yeah, and he never used it, because he was always just hunting with me, and so he gave it to me, he was like, and I didn't use it, but then I finally in September, so just, you know, a month and a half ago, I got a membership. I'm like 10 texts or something a month, and then 50 cents for every text after that.

But I've never used it. I bring it, and it's in the bottom of my pack, and it's one of those things where it's like three days into a hunt, I'll be like, oh, I should probably let my wife know I'm alive. Yeah. So, I never have it in my pocket or anything. So, that's ultimately what saved my life. Anyways, I'm going up this north face, and I can't go straight up it, so I kind of have to side-heal it. And as I'm side-healing it, I'd make it about 20 yards. And anybody familiar with that spin-weller and livestock, like, at least llamas, when they slip off the trail, they can't get back on the trail because the snow's so dang deep that I had to just go back down to the bottom of the basin and then get on the trail again and then try it again. And so, I was just plowing away through, and I'm trying to get to this mountain pass,

because in my mind, if I get there, then it's slightly downhill for six and a half, seven miles to the truck. Yeah. So, I think, oh, I just got to get to that pass, and I get another like... And then it's good. We can make it after that. Yeah. Yeah, which is laughable, because later on, I realized how much snow there really was. Like, that wasn't, yeah, gonna happen. But I do this two or three times, and on the third try, like, when they slipped off, they just slipped into this, like, I mean, they sunk to, like, the middle of their neck of snow. Geez. And they just look at you. Yeah, they just look at me, and I'm, like, pulling on the rope, like, come on! And I was just so physically, this is at about 3 p.m. now. I've been hiking since about 6.30 in the morning. And I'm just, I don't feel good at all. Like, lack of food, water, sweating. No energy, man. You have no gas in the tank.

Yeah, no gas in the tank. And this is where, like, my decisions, and people ask, like, why didn't you do this? Why didn't you do that? Like, I was already so gone mentally that, like, you don't think straight. And that's, I can't stress enough, like, you can't wait till you're at that point. It's too late. Yeah. So, I was stunned. I couldn't dig them out again. There was probably 20 times I had to dig their feet out, so that way they wouldn't dare to take another jump. So, I made the decision, I got to get out of here. I'll go to get the trailhead, and then from there I'll call Mason, who owns the llamas, and we'll get some horses or something. We'll figure it out to get his llamas out in my gear. So, I leave them, and I just go. And then… What did you take with you?

I took… So, I'm trying to think. I had a little dry bag. I grabbed… Oh, I took my sleeping bag off, just in case, because this is where it doesn't make… Like, I wasn't thinking straight. Left your sleeping bags with the llama? No, the llama… So, the sleeping bag's on top, and that's basically what I took. It was this, like, soaking wet sleeping bag, which, like, what the heck are you… It doesn't even make sense. And all of my gear was buried with these Llamas, basically. And so, that's why I didn't even think it would take so much energy to dig these out. It was a possibility to dig out more gear. Yeah, and in hindsight, obviously I should have. In hindsight, at this point, an hour ago, I should have been like, you know what? I'm over this. This ain't gonna be possible. I'm over it. I should have went down to the bottom of the basin, set up my camp.

Got my sleeping bag, and then it would have been like calling for help. It would have been like, oh, if you can't be here for a day or two, take your time. I'm chilling. It would have been a different story. So, did you take the mummy bag, or is the mummy bag stuffed down in, and you took the big sleeping bag? I took the big sleeping bag. I left, yeah, the trailhead. I decided, you know, I'm going to take the big one, the one that my kids used. So, I start hiking, and man, I made it 20 yards. I go 20 yards, and I just sink up to like my, just past my belly button, and I'm standing there on this, it's like a third, you know, super steep, 30 degree type angle slope, side hill, and worst avalanche spot you could think of. Like right in this avalanche chute, there's like a cliff band below me, so at this point, I can't just like go downhill, I'd have to like backtrack a ways.

So, I'm standing there stuck, and I go to take another step, and both hip flexors, and every single muscle in my legs completely just... I don't know if you guys are crampers. They cramp. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I got that from my dad. Yeah, like... I physically could not move, and I sat there forever just trying to get unstuck and take another step, and I'm I'm just like in excruciating pain, and that's when I sat back and I'm just laying in the snow, and I'm like, wait, what am I doing? And my hands are just uncontrollably shaking. I can't hold still, and that's when I realized I was screwed. Yeah, you're in trouble. That's when I realized I was in trouble, yep. So, it took me a minute to try to get myself unstuck. My sleeping bag is just back behind me a little ways, just sitting in the snow.

It doesn't make sense what I was even thinking. And the first thing I think of is I need to get in and try to get warm. I need that tent set up. I need my lighters to work. I need that tent set up. Yep. And so, what do I do when your mind's not working? I lay my sleeping bag down, no ground pad, right on the snow. I don't know if that's the worst decision you could ever make. You get it, and you got in it. And I got in it. And it's wet. This is the wet one. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And it's just wet. I'm soaking wet. Stephen back's wet, and it's just one of those cotton flannel type Stephen backs. Yeah, comfy, you know. One of the comfy ones. Oh yeah, the comfy ones. Well, your mummy bag is probably warm wet. Like the mummy bags, when they get wet, they're, you know. Yeah, they hold their value a little bit better. Yeah.

For sure. So, I'm laying on this hillside, kind of on the path that I had made, and I just lay in there, and it took all I could do to be like, do I, like, I don't, I'm not going to be able to, I'm like, I'm, I don't know what to do. Because I know I brought a Garmin inReach, but it's somewhere in those bags in the saddles that are buried. And I don't know how you feel, but I have, like, what point do you think, I have no pride anymore, I am hitting the SOS button? Like, I've got a lot of pride. Like, I could die before I hit that button, maybe. For sure. And if you ask any of my friends, I'm the most stubborn person that they probably know, because I was, that thought never even reached my mind. It doesn't even come to your mind, because that's not how I work. In that moment, I can't move, and I'm literally already hypothermic to the point I can't even think straight.

That's when I'm like, and I'm looking for my phone, even though I don't have service, and I reached my pocket, and there's my phone, and I'm laying in the sleeping bag, and next to my phone, and you can believe in miracles or whatnot, And my GPS unit, the inReach, is literally in my pocket next to my phone. Wow. And I think what happened is when I was cleaning up camp that morning, I had seen it laying down, and I put it in my pocket. I was like, oh, I'm going to put it in that pannier. And I just forgot, and it was just in my pocket. Wow. So, I pull that thing out, and you have to, it's like a three-step process where you have to push the button, swipe, and then like confirm. And I'm sitting there just like, do I really push this? Like, there ain't no going back, you know.

So, and then I just, there was, I physically couldn't move, and I knew how cold it was supposed to be that night, and how hypothermic already was. So, I pushed that button, and right after I pushed the button, I'm using my phone. I don't, if you got anybody that has a memory. It's the EarthMate. It's the EarthMate app? Yeah, the EarthMate app. So, I set the unit just outside my sebum bag, just like in the snow, and then I have the sebum bag all over my head. I'm just like, literally, uncontrollably shaking as I'm texting my wife to say, I didn't want to freak her out, but I wanted her to know that like, hey, I just sent an SOS. It is serious.

Like, it's not a... This is no joke if they call you. Yeah, yeah. So, typically, when you click that, what they do is they immediately call my wife and my dad. Those are my two emergency contacts. And they ask them, hey, if this, if he were to push the button, like, how serious is he? Yeah. My wife knows me. I've been doing this my whole life, and I kind of go pretty hard in the paint. And so, she knew. She was like, if he's pushing that, you need to get your ass there. Yeah, yeah. Like, you got to go now. He would not do that. So, I'm laying there, and SOS basically messages back and says, what's your condition? And they let me know, like, based on where my position was, they can't get a helicopter there. They're afraid, apparently, I'm in a bad avalanche danger, so I either need to move, or they need to bring someone in to extract me to the ridge.

And me moving wasn't an option. Like, at this point, it's hard to explain. Yeah, you've already done that. That's why I'm pushing this button. Yeah, exactly. Like, I can't move. Even if I tried, like, yeah, there's no way. So, they let me know that help is on the way. They got a team of three guys that are going to have to backcountry ski into there. And at first, it was like, this is 3 p.m. They were like, hey, we're going to be there by 9. I'm like, I don't know if I have till 9. Did you tell them that? I did. I just said, I don't think I have more than a couple hours. And I've been cold before. Like, I've been on a lot of cold, cold hunts. This was different. It wasn't good. And so, I just wanted to stress, like, I need help ASAP. Well, then it was like, hey, we're into more difficulties. They couldn't get to the trailhead.

So, now they've got to find snowmobiles to just get to the trailhead. Anyways, it ended up being, hey, we're going to get there at 1130. And they didn't realize the microburst of storm that was there, because I think in town they only have like a foot and a half. Yeah. And so, I'm thinking they're gonna get there at 1130. I'm kind of texting my wife, I text some of my close friends, basically like, hey, this situation, man, like, love you guys. You know, I'm not gonna go, like, I'm gonna get out of this, like, I love you guys. And I sat there in that sebum bag just shaking uncontrollably, shivering.

And then at about 11.45, it comes around. They don't show up. And at this point, I'm thinking, your mind's just racing, because I'm just like, well, they forgot about me. They ain't gonna come. And now I'm not shivering. It was the weirdest thing. I'm just like, oh, I feel good. And apparently, that's not good. Yeah, it's not good. Like, you hear about people like that, like... Now you're not even protecting your core. You're not even in a fetal position. You're just... Oh, exactly. Yeah, you're spread out. Yeah, and so I'm like, you hear these stories of people that like, take their clothes off, and then, like, what were you doing? And like, yeah, you get to the point where you're just like, oh, yeah, I'm good. Wow.

So, they ended up finding me at 4.30 in the morning. The hours between 12 and 4 were dark times. They were—it was no longer thinking about family. It was—and I don't know if there are studies that have been on this or—I don't know. But I honestly felt if I didn't have something to live for, I could have just died. I know it sounds really weird, but you're laying there and like half my brain is like, hey, you're good. Just go with it. Why are you fighting it? And so I kind of like let my body like not sleep. It was like it kind of felt like sleep, but it was like I knew I was going to die if I let go. And so I kind of like let my body just kind of start going, and then I'd be like, no, I've got to fight for the kids. And I kept thinking of my – I have an eight-, six-, and two-year-old. I kept thinking of my two-year-old boy. He ain't going to remember me.

It was like this super mental battle just trying to stay alive. And the one thing that kept me going, that gave me a glimmer of hope is just after midnight, I had been hearing this rustling sound down in my sleeping bag. And mind you, I'm laying on the slope, and multiple times, snow would roll over me, and so it's hard to hear anything, but I kept hearing a wrapper in my sleeping bag. And I've been laying in that sleeping bag now for eight hours, and I finally get the energy to reach down the bag, and I grab this thing. And I kid you not, there's four unopened hand warmers sitting in my sleeping bag. So, I freaking open those up. I put one under each armpit, the other in both hands. I just sit there, and that's, it was like the, when the darkest moment, all of a sudden these hand warmers, it like gave me a glimmer of hope, if that makes sense. No kidding. Wow.

So, yeah, I mean, it came down to it. Like, my kids don't even realize, like, do you realize you, like, saved my life? Like, the fact you left those hand warmers in there from the week before camping trip. Like, and I've never used a sleeping bag in my life on a backpacking trip. So, it's just so many weird little miracles like that that ultimately, I feel like, saved my life. Anyways, I'm laying there, and all of a sudden, my phone would go off, maybe 2 in the morning, and I'd hear my phone go off, and I'd grab it. I'm like, oh, my wife Kate texted me, and I'd look, and it'd be like 45 minutes ago. I'd be like, what? That's just that? And then all of a sudden, my phone would go off again. I'd look, and my dad texted me. It'd be an hour and a half ago, and I'd be like, I was just lethargic, man, like so slow to process things.

So, I'm laying there, and all of a sudden, I just hear, and I'm having this mental battle, and I hear, Justin, Justin. And I'm thinking it's my mind, and I'm like, am I dead? Wow. And it keeps getting louder and louder, and finally, I roll my head back, and it falls out of the top of my suit and bag, and there's this light right in my face, and it's search and rescue. And the guy's like, Justin, Justin. And my wife talked to Search and Rescue after, because I can't remember this, but apparently the guy asked me, this was my response, and he says, Justin, do you know where you are? And I was like, too far from the road. I am now a road hunter for the rest of my life. Yeah, exactly. Apparently, you can be out of it and still be a smartass. And then he says, do you know what time it is? And I'm like, too late. Like, I was just out, and the best moment

ever though was, and apparently because I'm in an avalanche danger, and maybe you guys know us, but I guess it's protocol, they can only do one at a time. That way, apparently And only one of us dies while somebody else can save us from an avalanche. So, the other two guys are back getting supplies ready. They're up on the ridge. Yeah, exactly. And one guy goes down into you. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I don't know nothing. I'm going to stay in the desert for the rest of my life. I mean, that's the way to do it, for sure. So, this guy's down there. It took about 45 minutes to get me to sit upright because my body's just completely shut down. And the best moment of my life is he pulls out this 32-ounce thermos of hot chocolate, gives it to me, and I'm, you know, I hate to admit this, but I'm sobbing and just bawling as I'm chugging this 32-ounce thing of hot chocolate. And man, my hit, it broke.

It's got sugar, it's got heat, it's got water. Yep, it was like life was coming back to me. No. So, he gives me that. He's giving me little things to eat, and man, in that state, you have to force it down. You're not hungry. I mean, I should be hungry, but you don't feel hungry. And as I'm doing this, he's going through my stuff, and he's just like, bare essentials only. What do you have? And I point to where my gear is. He goes and uncovers it. He grabs like… They brought a tent, but when he found out I had a tent with a stove, he grabbed that. And this is where you don't think straight. Apparently, I had warm thermals, or not warm, but dry thermals in that bag, and I had a dry hoodie. So, he grabs that, and that's where just your mind's gone. You're not even thinking straight. How did he get down to you? Did he ski? Oh, yeah. He skied?

Yeah, so they, have you heard of skinboarding? It's skiing, but it's basically, it's cross-country skis that they have this skin on the bottom, like grip tape. Okay. And so, what they did, they had to get on snowmobiles to the trailhead, and from trailhead, they cross-country skied in, and then when they go downhill, they can just take the skins off. It just helps them climb up the hills better, and then you can actually connect it like a snowboard. Wow. So, these, yeah, so, oh, and they make it very apparent, which I'm totally fine with, where they're like, we know that your feet are cold and you might lose your feet. But we're here to save your life, which I totally get, but in the moment, I'm just like, Oh, damn, you don't have any warm socks. What kind of search you're going to be? What kind of lightweight operation is this? Exactly. I'm like, come on, guys.

So, that was, I thought that was funny, but I totally get it. Their mission is to save your life. You know, we need to bring your core temperature up. Well, they physically brought themselves up 2,400 feet from the truck. You had llamas on dry ground. I mean, you know, it's amazing. These must be some pretty physical dudes. Yeah, hardcore. Oh, totally, totally physical. Like, honestly, my hat's off to Search and Rescue. Like, they are some badass dudes. Well, Search and Rescue here versus Search and Rescue in the middle of Colorado and those 14ers. Yeah. You know what I mean? Oh, totally. Yeah. Yep, so, but yeah, so he brought snowshoes and ski poles for me, or trekking poles for me. And that's another thing. I always have trekking poles. And of course, when I got to the trailhead, it's one of those moments where I'm like, gosh dang it, I knew I forgot something.

I didn't have trekking poles the whole time. That just helps so much with muscles, stability. Extra legs is what they are. Yep. So, he asked me, he says, hey, Do you think, with my help, that you can manage to hobble to this, it's about 300 yards to this ridge line where we can get a helicopter? And at this point, it's been like over an hour. I have food in me, hot chocolate, and I'm like, yeah, like, I'll do whatever it takes to leave. Yeah, I'm ready now. And this is where it blew my mind. Did he put the warm thermals on you yet, or no? No, no, not yet. So, he was going to wait until we got to the ridge line with those other guys. I'm still soaking wet, but at least I have some hot chocolate in me and some food. He puts on the snowshoes for me, and he just kind of basically guides me 300 yards, and it's still dark. He guides me to this ridge line. And that blew my mind.

Had I had snowshoes... Little, and they make... I've got a pair. They're little, and they could go on them llamas no problem. Oh, yeah. They're not like giant like you guys normally think. No. They don't weigh a lot either. They weigh nothing. And so, that blew my mind immediately. I'm like, where do I buy these? Why did I not? Yeah, but then again, I thought it was only be 10 inches of snow, or maybe 15 was like the worst forecast I could find. You can hike in 15 inches. Where were you getting the forecast? Was that for down low in town? Both, yeah. Or do they forecast 11,000 foot snow? So, there's a ski town, and I think the elevation at the base of that ski town is like nine-something, and that's the forecast that said it was going to be 15 inches. Oh, okay. Because I was like, that's probably most accurate, because it's like 15 miles away, and it's similar elevation, kind of.

So, I wish I would have had snowshoes, because the llamas would have been stuck regardless, but I could have easily got out of there in snowshoes. And then I wouldn't be physically dead either from pushing snow. So, it would have been a game changer. So, anyways, I get to this ridge line, and when I get there, they basically put on the dry stuff. And then they had four mountain houses sitting there cooking. They gave me one, and then I'm sitting there, and they just shoved the other three up my shirt and zipped up my jacket. So, I'm just like covered in this hot mountain house, you know. And that just heats your core up so fast. Yeah. And at this point, I'm feeling like, obviously, I'm going to live. And they get the shelter set up. And right as we're about to get into shelter and also get my stove going, someone comes on the radio and they say,

Hey, look at the coordinates. They look at the coordinates. They're like, Oh, yeah, it's 400 yards down this ridge. And they said, All right, we're going to have a chopper there in 30 minutes. So, we're like, we gotta go, go. And so, it takes forever, but we make our way to this semi-landing spot in these little opening in these pines. What time is it, roughly? Right now, it's 8 in the morning. Okay, so you made it to the ridgeline. Yeah, found you at 430. You're there for an hour. It takes another hour to get to the ridgeline. Whatever. Anyway, now we're at 8. Yeah, now we're at eight in the morning. Helicopters are supposed to come, and man, there is so much red tape when it comes to choppers. They'd get back on the radio and say, hey, they haven't done their daily routine maintenance. It's going to be an hour delay.

And then they'd get on, and it was like some other, there was like some other accent, and because I'm like stable now, they were like, this other accent now, Life Flight has to like go and get them. And so, before you know it, it's about noon, and still no chopper. And then finally, a different helicopter said they were going to come. And this whole time, by the way, the only thing I took that I could take of mine is, because it's easy, I just threw my rifle over my back, and I had to leave everything else. And when this helicopter was coming, the search and rescue said, hey, by the way, you can't take a rifle on the helicopter. Which I guess I understand, because I mean, I guess you could be like a terrorist or something that's pretending to get picked up. It's a good excuse to get a new gun. Yeah, exactly. So, he's like, you gotta stash it. And so, I'm like, find a place to stash this.

I'm like, I already have, I don't even know, I have thousands of dollars I've left on this mountain already. I'm like, son of a gun. So, I start stashing it, and then all of a sudden, the guy gets on the radio and says, hey, that one can't make it. National Guard with a Blackhawk is on their way. And then the guy looks at me and says, National Guard, you can take a gun. I was like, yes! I was like, oh, thank goodness. I'm like, I am so glad that our National Guard has their head on straight. I mean, they obviously don't care because they show up and they have, I mean, what's my rifle going to do against the guns that they got, you know?

So, they end up coming at, I believe it was like 1.15 or 1.30-ish. And, man, I don't know if you guys have been under a Blackhawk, but they're way more powerful than like a regular helicopter. And the guy was, the search and rescue guys were trying to brace me. They're like, you need to control your breathing, you need to, and everyone has to lay on their packs. And I can send you guys a video, a Facebook video of the Search and Raster Guide video as it was coming. Man, it was like a snowstorm. You can't breathe. You're laying there and you're just hyperventilating. It's like 70 mile an hour winds in a snowstorm. Oh, yeah. And the trees are going crazy. So, I'm laying there, and you can't even tell if the helicopter's down. And they kind of semi-landed with half the skis down. Yeah. And then all of a sudden, this army dude in full camo comes over, picks me up, and is like,

Justin, let's go, go, go! And he points to the chopper, and I held onto his back, to his army guard stuff, and we just ran to this helicopter, throws me in. This other army guy pushed me back, puts the four-point harness on me, and then all the other search-tremester guys jump on, and they're a little twist with their fingers. Everybody gets a ride out. Everyone gets a ride out, and then we go up. At that point, I was like, oh my gosh. I couldn't say thank you enough to all the people on there. We turn, and we go basically along the same, heading straight south. So, I can look down and see the trail that I had to, even if I would have made it to that mountain pass, where I had to go to get the trailhead. I just laughed. I'm like, even if I would have made it to that, over that mountain pass, there was no way.

Yeah, no way. No way I'm hiking out of there. No snowshoes. Yeah, snowshoes are getting out of there, for sure. But without snowshoes, every step's up to your waist, there's just no way. So, I get down, and my brother-in-law, my wife, and my mom are sitting there waiting at the helipad. I land, and yeah, that was a good time of giving my wife and mom a big hug. And then immediately, you know, you got to get in the ambulance, check all your vitals. And I may or may not have lied about a couple things in the ambulance, because they basically say, you know, if there's anything wrong, we got to take you to the hospital.

And my family's right there, and I'm like, I just want to see my family. So, he's asking about, like, hey, what color is your pee? If it's orange at all, we need to look into it, because I wish I remembered what it was. He named three things. I can't remember what it was. Like, your liver's shutting down, and I'm not going to lie, like, it was like a dark orange. You were dehydrated. That's what all dehydrated people pee. Yeah, exactly. So, that's why I'm just like, oh, it was a little yellow. I'm just like, I want to go see my family. I'm just, let me out of here. So, they look at my feet, and luckily, I don't have any crazy frostbite, which is a miracle, and I attribute that to my feet were dry. You know, I wear those crispy boots with some gaiters. Had my feet been wet, I would have been screwed.

But unfortunately, I guess the nerves in the bottom of my feet, especially my left foot, he said it could be years or never. Yeah, so they're like, it could be years, might be never, but I can feel pressure. But now it's like, if my wife tickles my foot, I couldn't tell her where she was tickling. Are they tingling? Like a constant tingle all day long? Yeah, constant tingle all day long, which, you know, and I've had before on my toes, but it's still so weird to have it like all over my foot, you know? So, that sucks, but it is what it is. Like, the fact I made it out with all my limbs is a miracle. And then, so I get out of the ambulance, sitting there with my family, and then the president of search and rescue comes over, and this is really cool.

And you guys probably knew this, and I don't know, you know, the full legality of it, but he comes over and says, hey, you were deer hunting, right? I said, yeah, I said, can I see your license? And when he asked me this, let me rewind. When the search and rescue guy came, he sees my deer with all the meat sitting there. And I get it, I totally understand, but he says, obviously we can't take that deer, but just know you will be getting a ticket for wanton waste of that animal. And so, I'm looking at him, I'm like...

It's gonna freeze solid, I might eat it in the spring. Yeah, exactly. So, I tell him, I just laugh, I'm like, if I gotta pay a ticket, let's get out of here. I get it. He was just, I think, he was just telling me, letting me know, like, hey, when we land, you're probably gonna get a ticket from the sheriff for this. But I'm just like, okay. In the back of my mind, I'm thinking, excuse my language, I'm like, if there's, if someone's that big of an asshole to do, I will take that to court to show I did everything I freaking did. Yeah. Bones it out. It's not wasted yet, by the way. Exactly. So, the fact he said that was weird, but I get he's doing his job. Super nice guy, nothing bad about him at all. But when the president of search and rescue is talking to me, and he asked for my deer tag, that's what I'm thinking.

He's standing there with the sheriff. I'm like, oh my hell, if they're really going to do this. So, he comes over, he takes a picture of my deer tag, and I was like, can I ask why you're doing that? Oh, so, the reason I do that, and he's talking with me and my family, he's like, in the state of Colorado, because you have a hunting license, any damages and costs occurred to this is, we refer to this, your Colorado ID, you won't even get a bill for any of this. It's that search and rescue fee on your license. Yeah, exactly. I think it's a quarter or something. You always see that on your license. I'm glad it finally went to good use.

I know. So, in the moment, you don't think about that at all, right? Like, you're not thinking price, because when you're pushing that button, like, your life's online. You think you're 20k, 30k, 40k into this thing. Oh, yeah, at least. I mean, I know people that fly their baby to the NICU just down the road, and it's like 80k sometimes. So, who knows what a Blackhawk search and rescue, National Guard, and all this would have cost. So, I thought that just felt really good to my family. But yeah, so, all is good. And then, to top off the story, as of this was last night, the very next day, Mason, who owns the Lums, he got with his buddy. And I can't remember what type, it was their hat, they had three horses, half Clydesdale, half something, just those giant horses. Half draft.

Yeah, and so they took him up there, and he said, that last mile getting up to the top, he said they'd go like 10 feet, and the horse would just stop and pant, pant. And they'd just like be breaking the snow, and it took them forever to break the snow to get in there. They couldn't make it to the llamas, but they made it to that top pass, and then they brought shovels, and for over a day, they sat there and shoveled a four-foot-wide, four-foot-deep trail from that pass to the llamas in all my gear. And a cool part of the story is they ended up getting the llamas out. They were severely dehydrated, the llamas were, but they're doing fine now. They were able to get all my deer out, my gear. So, everything's back as of last night, and all is well in the world. Wow. No ticket? You got your deer meat? No ticket. Got my deer meat, like no ticket. So, I'm just like, heck yeah.

So, yeah, I feel lucky to be alive, and there's just so many... It's weird how things can go from the hunt can go from just, you know, regular hunt to, oh, this is kind of bad, to immediately I'm screwed. But, and I've been, you know, thinking back on the experience and some of the things I learned, and one of the reasons I, you know, I wanted to have this call with you is just I wanted to share just things that maybe somebody Nobody else can learn, so they're not in the same situation. So, when I think back, the number one thing I would say is, if I could change anything, assess your surroundings and situation. Don't be stubborn about getting out.

Like, had I stopped an hour before that and just actually thought, rather than just putting my nose to the grindstone and just like go and go and go until it's too late, I should have stopped and assessed and said, okay, even if I make it to that pass, there's no way I'm getting out of here. You know, and then I would have just, I wouldn't have been so hypothermic, I would have just set up my tent in the bottom and then called LifeLite and if that would have been two days, who cares? But you might not have pushed that button for another couple days past, right? Oh, for sure. Yeah, exactly. Oh, maybe the Clydesdale's come in instead of searching. I don't know. Yeah, or yeah, I probably would have texted an outfitter or someone that could get close to me.

So, just assessing your surrounding situation. And then, obviously, the better fire starter, I'm not sure why not a single one of my lighters are working. A mix of extremely, oh, it ended up being negative nine that night I was laying on that snow. Wow. It was like the coldest day they've had, and I'm like, of course it would be. Yeah. Of all the days. How many days have gone by since they flew you out to today? We're talking like four days? Yeah, I got out, yeah, four days ago. Let's say Friday, yeah, four days ago. I got home Monday at like midnight. Yeah. Yep. And then, obviously, if there's snow, man, snowshoes, it'd be their weight and goal, just having snowshoes. Number three that I would have to say would be stay hydrated, force yourself to eat, don't be like me, and just be like, going and going, and all of a sudden you don't feel good, and it's too late.

You just, man, I just, and I've always been a cramper too. Like, my friends always make fun of me there. We were bear hunting this spring in Idaho, and every like hour and a half they'd be back like, all right, have you taken vitamins, Justin? Just like giving me crap. Do you have your mustard packets? I just have always been a cramper. Yeah, throw a bunch of mustard packets in, that'll help. Yeah. And then obviously, just expect, having that, The Garmin inReach, I mean, if anybody does any type of hunting far away from a road, man, without that thing, I'm not here today. There's no way. So, get yourself a Garmin inReach, obviously, and then just expectations with it, right? Like, you can't wait till it's the last second. I mean, and I get it, like, I never, and you're the same, Jason, like, you're not gonna push that until it is the last second.

But you just need to have the expectation that, like, you push this, you might have to survive for 15 hours, you know? Yeah, yeah. Like, don't, just be careful that way, and then end with the family, you know? Every time you go, just let your family know where you're going. Which I never do. I just, I mean, I do. They know roughly, but... Yep. It's just like you pushed it to the next ridge, or whatever. Like, you just, you know what I mean? Yeah. Yep, exactly. Like, I got there. My family knew kind of where I was going to camp, but man, when you see that Muley over there, you go. Like, you don't even think about it. Like, never in my life would I think, like, nothing's going to stop you. And that's just how stubborn I am, I guess.

It was a good-looking deer. What did the deer end up going? You said you thought he was in the 160s when you initially, and then you realized he was a little better. I still haven't taped him. He's just over 26 wide, 17 inch twos. So, he'll be mid-70s, high 70s maybe. I'm just based off his width and his twos. But yeah, just a solid deer, especially, you know, and that's what's cool about Colorado. As you guys know, you don't need a lot of points to really find a unit to make things happen. And I hate to say that publicly, because I I love the colorado. But, yeah, so I'm not super pumped about that. If you have to do it again, I mean, you're in there again. Llamas and all, just smarter or whatever. Chalk it up to a freak storm that was a little heavier than expected.

Yeah, because honestly, I feel like I had the right gear going in. I would go in with more of an emergency fire starter instead of just the lighters. Or some emergency matches or something in case I needed it. And then, yeah, I honestly, like, there's nothing... I'd be doing it again. It's just... I wouldn't put myself so far gone. I would set up camp, and then if you have camp set up, it might take you a couple days, but I could have dug my way out.

Or if you were camped on that ridge, you could have done, you could have probably bowled your way, because it's slightly downhill all the way. Yeah, exactly. And that's what I was telling my dad, like, had I not seen that deer, I would have camped there and I would have been fine. I mean, it would have sucked. It totally would have sucked, but I would have got out. But it's just that climb 800 feet in that amount of snow, that kills you, man. So, and I'm not saying I'm in the best of shape. I like to think I'm in good shape, but that killed me. That was brutal. So, yeah, I kind of feel dumb for pushing the button, but at the same time, I had no other option. You never think it's going to be you, and then when it is, you're like, okay, I can see how things just add up. Yeah, we've talked about it a little bit here and there, but the crazy thing is now in this

day and age with a lot of cell service and electronics, I mean, most people don't even have a compass in their pack anymore, a manual compass. You have your phone, and there's a compass on your phone, and you don't even, you know, we have OnX or one of these other mapping apps, and so you never even, you feel invincible. Do you ever feel like you're going to get lost? Do you ever feel like you're going to get lost? But yet, you could lose your phone,

Yeah. And you'd be totally lost. Yeah. You know, so I'd be... Nobody fills anything anymore. Like, nobody... We're not even... Yeah. It's amazing. I mean, you had to eat, and so you needed to start a stove and stuff, but I mean, a lot of people would venture to bet on day hiking or just, you know, their random day pack don't even have a lighter. Right. You know, I'm not gonna get lost. I don't... No, for sure. Don't even know anybody that's gotten lost in the last 14 years, you know, as an example. Oh, yeah, like, it doesn't happen. Yeah. So... Yeah. Yeah, it's funny. I get home and people are talking to my wife like, I heard your husband got lost. And I'm just like, that is such an insult. I knew where it was. The entire time. Yeah, I could have got out of there with my eyes closed if I had the strength. Gosh dang it.

But just showing you how far we've come as a society with technology and stuff, you know, I'm just illustrating the getting lost with that, You just don't think of some of the real necessities anymore as fire, food, water. You know what I mean? So, you're more prepared than what most guys would be in this day and age, it seems. Yeah, it feels that way. No, for sure. Eat the llama if you had to. You know what I mean? Oh, yeah. And honestly, and this may sound morbid, but like... Climb inside that thing. This is where it doesn't make sense, because I'm 20 yards from these llamas. The whole time, I'm just like, oh, I would have shot one, for sure. Yeah. Got it and climbed up inside, yeah. But in that moment, when you're already so stiff in your bag, that 20 yards seemed like it was miles. It doesn't make sense at all. That just goes to show how far gone I was.

It would have taken me two seconds to get up, walk over there, and that would have helped immensely, but it just wasn't even an option. That's why I look back at this, and I'm like, man, how did my mind get so gone? You could have even gone over there and hugged one of the ornery suckers. Yeah, exactly. I should have laid my seat back right in between them. Yeah. Geez. This is actually funny, and I forgot this as I was saying it. And I thought I was delusional, but then we confirmed it when we were hiking out. I'm laying in my tent, and I never see black bears, right? Like, you rarely see bears. I'm laying there, and I keep hearing snow, because little snow things would fall onto my sleeping bag. And honestly, it probably helped insulate me, the more I think about it. But just because I was on that steep hillside. And so, I'd hear the snow falling, and I'd kind of brace myself,

and I'd kind of get hit a little bit. And I hear the snow, like this, like, whew, whew, whew. And I'm like, what the? And this is like at 7 p.m. So, it's dark, but up there in that high country with the snow, you can basically see like it's daytime, you know? Yeah. And I put my head out of my sleeping bag, and out coming from that mountain pass, there's this bear that's just, and he's not coming to, this is where it's funny with, your wife should probably say, but when I found this out, she's like, oh my gosh, there was a bear. I'm like, it wasn't coming at me. It was just coming down the ridge, and it looked like it was swimming, because it was just the The snow's so deep, and it's going straight downhill. So, it looked like it was like freestyle swimming. And apparently, I texted my wife, I was just like, hey, I just saw a bear swim

by. So, she was like, he's dying, guys. He is gone. He is not himself. In the moment, I didn't even mean to say that to her. It was just like, I don't know what the heck I was thinking. But, as we were going out to the search and rescue, it looked like a bowling ball had been rolled down the mountain, just like his track. Like, his whole body track. So, I was like, wait, I think that really happened. So, who the heck knows, dude, if I was delusional or if it actually happened, but like that. I thought that was kind of funny. I can laugh about it now. That's so funny. Well, alright, we're glad you're safe. Congratulations on the buck, and congratulations on getting out. I appreciate it. I already have plans for, I have a little, so it's just gonna be a Euro mount, but you know, I got my hand warmers. Yeah. Put the hand warmers on the pedestal, do something. Make it special.

Do that, and maybe a couple of them chintzy lighters. Yeah, exactly. You know, some of that, like, that's raw and real, and he'll be there for 30 years from now. Like, it's awesome. Yep, exactly. So, yeah, I'm happy to be here, and I appreciate you guys taking the time to listen to the story. So good. Just know, you know, we're not invincible, even though I still kind of feel that way, but be smarter. Yeah, well, good stuff. Sure appreciate you taking the time, man. And I'm glad everything's good, and keep pounding Colorado, you know. Will do. Will do. There's a lot more hunts to go this, you know, late season hunts to go. That's right. Good luck to all you guys, and appreciate all you guys do. Okay. All right. Sure appreciate you, Justin. Yep. Thank you, guys. Appreciate it. You betcha. Take care. Bye.

Wow. What a crazy story. Where do you go from here? Yeah, man. I'm not going to lie, when he said he was telling people he loved him, I kind of got a little watery there for a sec. Yeah, I did too. I'm like, oh, geez. You get to that point, I mean... It's all heavy. Geez, I can't even imagine having something like that. Yeah. You know, the delusional thing, I think, you think you're prepared, but you hear that on, you know, all the, like, Mount Everest stories. Things like that, that people just, they can't, their brain doesn't work anymore. So, that's, I think, even if you are prepared, it kind of gets scary. Mm-hmm. Then work yourself to the point of exhaustion there, just trying to get out, trying to get those animals out and your gear. I mean, it's got to be a hard choice to leave everything. Mm-hmm.

Back in my college days, I had something like that happen, but I don't really want to talk about it at the moment. It wasn't like, it was just, you know, back prior, pre, even cell phone bricks, you know? Yeah. So, anyway. Well, Kay, let's see. That brings us to, we're not going to be much longer. That was, it took up a lot of time, but well worth it. I can't thank Justin enough. And congratulations on everything. Everybody's out. The second season's still going. Cash, you came back from the second. I did. You want to give us a quick rundown? Oh, man. I didn't have nearly the adventure Justin had, but man, between bent A-arms on the side-by-side, broken windshield, all kinds of stuff, we ended up... We got back Monday? Monday or Tuesday. Killed a buck. I had my father-in-law and his brother and my buddy Dylan there with me.

They were trying to get back for Halloween, had just a couple hours left in the morning, and decided to smash a buck. Yeah, good buck. Not really. That's a nice four point, dude. No, he's okay, just a buck. First blood you've drawn with that gun. Yeah, that was one thing I really wanted to do on this hunt, was to kill a buck with that gun, and with a rifle. I haven't killed a buck with a rifle for nine years. Nine years. It's fun to smash one of the rifles once in a while. I really wanted to poke one at like six, seven hundred yards, but it was like two hundred. You can spook it. Like, hey, run across the ridge over there. Let me reach out. Well, your rifle's definitely capable of a pretty dang good shot. I can't believe how well that thing shoots. It was fun, yeah. I really wanted to just to kind of test it.

You know, banging steel at 700 is a lot different than smashing a deer. So, I really wanted to see if, If things are really legit, and if I could really do it after nine years, I can hit steel, but having a deer or something else in there is a little difference. So, I really wanted to do that, didn't do it, but I might go back next year for vengeance on the unit. It was a tough hunt, but a little dry, full moon, things like that weren't great. It's second season. Second season, yeah. It would either be incredible, best season of the year, or the toughest season of the year. Right, right. All this weather, people kind of thought that it would be incredible, and it's been overall pretty tough. But I think a lot of it is just, you know, people are coming, you know, reality setting in that the age class is a little different than it was 10 years ago. You know what I mean? Absolutely.

But you didn't have the weather as much. No, I was actually pretty dry. It was about one day of rain, and it just made roads greasy, is about it, but nothing, it didn't do anything to the deer. So, tell us a windshield story. Oh, man. How does a guy just break a windshield? Well, I actually broke with my father-in-law's head. Okay. And we didn't get in a fight, I promise. No, we were going up this wash. There was an onyx marked, well, it is a road. It used to be a road. It probably hasn't been used for a long time. No. So, it's kind of a disappearing road. It goes up this canyon. I was looking at it, and would zoom in. I could see the road, clear up this canyon, and it came up on this plateau. And I figured, well, if we can get to there, that's the quickest way from camp to get to this area where we want to hunt tomorrow, or whichever.

And so, we kind of ventured up there, and the road kind of starts to dissipate a ways after a while, and get through some really tight spots. We're like, well, we might be through the worst of it, and so we'll see how this next section is until it goes up that plateau. We're really close to it. And so, we're probably 100 yards from it, and I'm going like four miles an hour, like barely moving. I'm just trying to keep an eye on the road and whatnot. I glanced down at Onyx to make sure whether it's going to cross the wash or stay on this side. And I glanced down, and I go to hand it to my father-in-law as I'm looking back up. I look back up, and there's this little two-foot wide by two-foot deep little wash that had come about. That we've all hit in our lives. Yeah, we've all hit one. And then you sell the vehicle the next day. Right, exactly.

And I see it. I'm not going fast. I smash on my brakes right as I enter into it. Front tires whack down into it, and the back end of the side-by-side goes up. We smashed the front, and I look over, big old spiderweb right in front of my father-in-law's side, and I'm like, what happened? He's like, I think I hit it with my head. I was like, what? Because I smashed the top, our knees smashed. I mean, the glove box, I mean, that was all smashed in, came off, whatever, and so... Jeez, what a good hit. Yeah, it was like, we might have been going faster than four, maybe, like no more than like seven. Come on, dude. Not fast. That photo, you can't even see it. I'm going to pee through the spiderweb. Let me show you guys this stuff. Yeah, it's pretty bad. I'm just like, what? And so, it's Polaris' lock and ride system, so it just clamps on the back.

So, it just squeezes the bar, and it pushes the windshield into the bars, and then squeezes on the back. I don't know how, but the windshield's broken, and everything else looks intact, nothing bent, and that windshield will push out like an inch and a half, and just like wobble. What is it doing? Nothing looks bent or anything. I can't figure it out. But, I found out a couple days later that we didn't even know, but the steering was kind of messed up, whatever, and then we got looking. Of course it is. One of the A-arms just bent like a 45 when it should be straight. Look at this. It's pretty bad. My phone's freezing. Oh, wow. Yeah. So, yeah, that was fun. So, we decided after that, we're like, yeah, we're just gonna flip around. You know, that's our evening, I guess. So, we'll go hunting elsewhere in the morning. Yeah, there we go. But anyway, good experience overall?

Yeah, it was good. It was good. I wish, looking back, I wish I wouldn't have smashed that buck. Really? And I wish I would have kept hunting. Really? I had a couple days. I mean, I... You would have just, they would have left, went home, and you'd have been by yourself. Yeah, I would have been solo. And we had another buck that I kind of had just in my back pocket in a different area, but I would have had moved camp completely, and it was like two hours to do it. Yeah. Like an hour and a half drive, and then a half hour, whatever. I could have went and smashed this other buck, most likely, depending on how far he'd moved. Yeah. But he was still just a decent buck. Yeah. Better than the one I killed, but... But you might have seen something different, too. Yeah, and there was a couple different deer that had moved in a little bit, but not substantial. Kind of crazy.

Wyatt, you spent some time on the Pontsagant here in Utah. Yeah. Crushed it, lots and lots of deer. Yeah, good year over there. So, I mean, a lot of deer just started rotting right there at the end. It was fun. Mostly helping, you know, some clients and guys that had tags, and so just being out. Did you see anything crazy or anything? I know you guys smashed a really heavy deer. Really good. Yeah, no, nothing too crazy or out of the ordinary. Just, you know, a lot of good bucks and just a good time. You know that country really well. Like, that's one of your favorite times of year. Yeah, it's a hard hunt to pass up. It's just a fun time to be out, and when that migration's going and the deer are moving off really good, it's pretty awesome. There's nothing like it. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, anyway, I think that kind of brings it. I want to talk, I guess,

just really quickly about Muley's Matter. The Muley's Matter has its own little sub-website or website. It's linked to epicoutdoors.com. Go check it out. We've got a fax You can go kind of read through it, and any questions you got on there, you need to register it and then send in your unpunched tag if you didn't kill one. And on that page, on the Muleys Matter page, is a list of the states and tags and different things. There's limited draw tags, there's general tags that we'll take for just people that are hunting, general They're all type units, you know, and then obviously doe tags. And so, if you had a doe tag and you didn't fill it, you saved a doe, which now you've, you know, fostered deer populations by twins multiple years hereafter and exponentially. It's pretty awesome. That's kind of what we're trying to do, is just do our part to a degree.

I mean, we don't get to choose all the rules, regulations, and we can obviously have a say, a small say, you know, as sportsmen. But, you know, tag quotas and things like that, and overall management, you know, is decided by people bigger than us. And so, at times, you know, you just feel I feel like, well, if we don't kill deer just to say we killed one and we save a young buck or a doe or whatever, then maybe that's the smallest thing, you know, one of the things that we can do, one of the things that we can actually do to make a difference the way we see it needs to be made, personally, as sportsmen. Yeah, I'd like to give a shout out to the sponsors. We kind of tallied up what we have, and there's been over $50,000 in prizes donated. Wow. Yeah, there's over $50,000 in prizes. We've got quite a few people registered, and so tags are coming in daily.

We're going to run this drawing as close to December 1 as we can. It's going to take a minute to get it ready, segregate the prizes into the different bins. And so, anyway, so there's a proportionate amount of prizes given to limited draw tags, Draw tags, general tags, and doe tags, and whatnot, and then just get everything ready in the bin, segregate them out into the different categories, and then be able to actually run that draw. This is no joke. It's like very time-consuming and more than you would think to put it on, do the website, make up all these, you know, the fact sheet and whatnot. But it's awesome, and it's kind of fun to watch it all come together. We can't tell the donors

We appreciate how much we appreciate them enough. It wouldn't happen without you. And then also, the public support is off the charts. It's incredible. We even have Utah Division of Wildlife employees submitting unused, unpunched tags. These guys, a lot of them don't necessarily make the rules either, and they actually like the program. And so, anyway, those are coming in. We appreciate them. We feel like we have a good working relationship with them. Although we, you know, often times don't agree on things. There's plenty of ways to skin cats, and there's plenty of different management techniques and theories and ideas and plans and proposals and whatnot. So, anyway, voice your opinion, get involved in the process, and that's what we've done. We've definitely done that in other areas of game management.

But, doing this Melee's Matter type program is just something more we can do that we can actually do. We can actually make a difference here. And we're not telling people not to kill stuff. Like, if you want it and you're proud of it, then you should absolutely shoot it. Maybe just don't shoot one last day just to shoot one, just a two-by-two or two-by-three or whatever. Maybe you let it live if you don't have to have it. Yeah, or need the meat or whatever. But, yeah, one of the things that is covered on the frequently asked questions is you do not have to be a member of Epic Outdoors to participate in this. Yeah, there's no stipulation on anything like that. It's a free entry. You have to put a stamp on an envelope to get your tag here. You have to go take a minute on the website and select the prizes in the order that you would like to receive.

Because when you pull a name out of the hat, there's going to be certain prizes that are taken. And what, you know, we've got to go to the next one, and then there's some people that may not want a tattoo, and there's a tattoo in there, right? Like, I don't know, there's just, just for a quick example, some people may not like whatever prize, or may not be able to utilize a certain, maybe they already have a, you know, an Elon Musk satellite system or whatever. Like, I don't know, right? So, anyway, get on there and select those prizes. That's all that's asked for this. Yep, you choose which prizes you want to be in the drawings for, so. Yeah. Kind of cool. You guys have anything to add on that? No. It's a very unique opportunity, and you don't see it every year.

No. You know, and it's a time where the deer need it. Yeah. You know, after all these drought years, and coming to a good wet year, the deer need it. Yeah. And so, it's a good thing. Yeah, on top of, you know, in some parts of the country, we're dealing with drought here, and that's on our mind, but you're also dealing with winter kills and things, abnormal. Right. Abnormal drought, abnormal winter kill. It's kind of interesting. It's kind of crazy. And so, anyway, that's kind of the scoop. There is a dedicated hunter program here in Utah.

We're not including the dedicated hunter program in the Mealies Matter. One of those three tags you get in a three-year period has to be unpunched. It can't be punched. It's part of the program. And so, to manage all that and deal with that, and then also you've got to return your tags to show that you didn't harvest and things like that. So, there's some stipulations there. We just don't want to complicate it and have a policing issue there of dealing with that. And so, we did have the DWR come in the office and visit about that a little bit, and they felt the same way. Well, I do have one anecdotal story. Someone called me and said their son passed on a small 2x3, and he killed a deer before, but this year he passed on that and wanted to, you know, donate his tag if it wasn't exactly what he wanted. So, he purposely did and got some satisfaction out of passing a deer.

Might get a rifle out of it. Might win something special. A bow, who knows? So, anybody can be put in to this, except for Epic employees. So, y'all can't submit your stuff. But anybody else, if you want to call it competitor out there, any competing businesses, I mean, we actually get along with all the industry. Like, we have no issues. So, anybody out there can submit these. And, you know, if you have unpunched tags, I'd like to see you in the bin. It's going to be fun rolling that bin with all the colored tags and all the different state tags. Pretty fun. It has to be an original state tag. It cannot be an e-tag. How do you do that? You're going to put a piece of paper in there, and then people question the viability of the draw. It's just not. It's going to be an original paper tag, and that's part of

And so, that's kind of the end of it. And what we're going to do there, we're kind of really excited about it, actually. It's coming to a head. This is the month of November. December 1 is the deadline. Get them in. If we get tags in past December 1, we haven't run the draw yet, we are going to put you in the bin. Any tags that we get when we run the draw, I can't tell you exactly. We're going to run it within seven days of December 1, But it takes a minute to get everything finalized. I'm sure there's going to be a lot of mail at the end of the month. And so, we'll just do the absolute best we can, and it's going to be awesome. It's kind of fun. I'm kind of excited for it, actually. And then we'll also go through on the next few podcasts, we'll talk about the donors, and absolutely want their businesses to do better because they're supporting the initiative like this.

I want everybody listening to support these businesses. They're supporting us. They're supporting you. We should support them, and that's the way I feel about it. So, anyway, you guys have anything else? Nope. I think we're good. It's Friday. It's Friday. Wyatt, you've got dad duty coming up. I do. So, let's talk about the dad duty for a bit. Wyatt, you look like you got some bags under your eyes. I'm just wondering how the night's sleep been going.

Things have been good. My wife's taking care of most of it. Okay, she's a good one. Yeah, she's taking care of a lot of it, but I do have had some sleepless nights. But I can't complain, because I've also been hunting a lot lately. Make this clear, Carly. He is not complaining. Yeah, she's been home handling it. He's very tired, but he's not complaining. But it is my first night alone with the kid, or I guess first night. Tonight, you are going to be

Taking care of the kid. Yeah. Okay, so, if you need help, like Jana's good with kids. Yeah. And John offered as well, too. I know. Yeah, we're gonna power through it. Well, hit that SOS button. If you need to, you hit that button, we're gonna have our ringers on. Okay. All right. All right, everybody, we wish you the best out there. As these seasons are coming to a close, we got some late elk hunts, late deer hunts. A lot of the rifle hunters are just getting ready to get going.

We'll go on over there in Colorado and head over there. Of course, we got Arizona rifle deer hunts and even a few left in Nevada and a few things like that. A few here in Utah. Some late season stuff up in Idaho. We just love to see your successes and hear stories even if you're not successful. If you see a giant, of course, we want to know about it. It's nice to know there's a few of them out there. And I know there's been some guys doing really well. Deer, elk, sheep, things like that, and anewelps. So, anyway, best of luck to you all, and if you do need any help, give us a holler. Epic Outdoors, 435-263-0777, 435-263-0777, www.epicoutdoors.com. And I guess we'll go from there. You got anything else, John? John, you got to go sight in a rifle. I do. You got a hunt coming up. It's time to put it on paper, boss. All right, get out there.

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