There I Was Grizzly Story

It's too grouchy to even answer the phone, I understand, that's not exactly festive right now. Your team went down today, man. And I'm telling you, at home, Carolina come in there and actually they just outplayed them. Mike, who goes for it on fourth and eighth on the 12 yard line instead of taking three points? Fourth and eighth on the 12th. And let's go for it. What a moronic thing. And lose by three. And lose by three and your kicker misses a field goal. Exactly. I saw the seven to six and I'm like, that's a bad omen right there. Yeah, but it wasn't fun to watch. It was fun to watch. What's the latest with Tucker Craft? I don't know. I don't know. I got to look at the news on that. It didn't look good, though. I thought somebody said or something. I heard it was a possible ACL. And if it's a torn ACL, then he's out for a year. Yeah, well, it was non-contact. He was pulling the block. And he twisted it. And he was kind of down in the pile. I thought maybe somebody rolled up on him in the back. No, nobody rolled up on him. He was actually on the top of the pile. He wasn't even in. Uh-huh. That's crazy. Yeah. They don't want that. And then the Vikings somehow go up and Pat McCarthy is just throwing Hail Mary's everywhere and they're catching them. Yeah, that's the only good thing that happened for the Packers today is the Lions got beat. Yeah, the Lions got beat. And the Bears actually, did they finally win that game? They did. Good Lord. Every time I turned around, it was up, down, up, down. And they scored a touchdown. Sorry. And Joe Blacko, he's already on Medicare and he's slinging it all over the place. Did you see that? Did you see the Hail Mary he threw at the end? I did, I did. It went about 25 yards. Did you see that hail before he threw it? It went about 25 yards. I did first. I coaxed the bomb. It was like 65. He's got all the receivers in the end zone of the jail. Paul landed on the 15. Okay, fellas. Okay, fellas, go as hard as you can. I'll stroke as hard as I can. And I'll meet you at the end zone. Yeah. That was one of the funniest things I've seen. I saw him launch it and it was like a fizzler. It landed on like the 15. Gotta get some air under that one, Joe. Wasn't pretty. It seemed like one of them weekends. South Dakota State got whooped. Northern State got whooped. Everybody got, my wolves got beat by Augustana. Did Montana win? Montana did. It was funny because I think Michael said that, I think the spread might have been 23, the greatest by 23 against Weber State. I think they only won by 21. As far as he was concerned, it was a devastating loss. Fun. Yeah, but I lost all $5. Five play dollars because I don't let him do it for real. He thinks it's real. But it's not. But someday he's going to tell me. I'll just go out and take a check for it. All that and cash out. I'm going, shut up. I don't let him. He thinks that my schizo, I don't know, bipolar, schizophrenic, everybody says all kinds of shit. But he's actually pretty solid. He's smart, lives by himself. He still thinks he's, he got mentally sick at 19 or something. 19 or 20 and he still thinks he's 18. All the girls think he's hot. He's 69, I think. No, 67, 67. Is he that old? Yeah. Yeah, but he just turned 68 this year. Wow. And he's still going at it because he drinks a gallon of water at least a day. And he's got him a gallon water canister, one of them five gallon bottles in his apartment. And he calls it getting drunk. Still lives in Missoula on the river there? Yeah. Yeah, still there. Still there and still, still, still goes and gets, still gets over to McDonald's and gets his two cups of coffee. Yeah, he still does ice coffee. And he slugs on right there and throws it in the trash. He might get home with it. McDonald's is about a block from his house. And he rarely gets home with both of them. So he's just hauling up. But he don't drink. He don't smoke. I can't complain too much about it. But anyway, he calls me his legal guardian, which I guess that would probably constitute Sarah and I. But anyway, he's a, he says he's a professional wagerer because Mike, his brother-in-law is licensed in the state of Nevada where gambling is legal. And he tells people that, yeah, he's my bookmaker. Okay. Okay. Yeah. And he says, I always put one and one together and come up with 11. Nobody bullies me. Okay. Sounds good, coach. I call him coach. But anyway, now he just called me. The World Series has been over a day. And now he's already calling me about college basketball. I'm like, putting on college basketball. I'm like, good lord. That's all he's got, Mike. That's it. Yeah. And he goes and reads. He reads journals. Like he'll read the entire 1972 business week. And he goes and gets each journal. And he packs them home. That's called his work. He's homework. But he comes up with, like I said, he averages 200 and some pages a day. Wow. So, yeah, that's good for him. But, yeah. So, I was telling Frosty that I don't know any funny stuff. But then Sarah said, well, tell us one of your spooky bear stories. I'm like, okay. So, Mike, I'm looking over the cast of characters here. You've got Lizzie Bear and Sugar Booger and Leroy Onehorn and Fuzznuts. Actually, I've got, and I can probably, let me get more of that. See if I can get myself dialed in. See if I can remember. I've been prepping for this by binging on Yellowstone for the last hour and a half. I was going, what's the Seattle game doing? I don't know. I got looked into Yellowstone and I just can't turn it off. Seattle and the Redskins. And that great Zabel kid. He's the one that was 25th first pick in the draft. Or 25th pick in the draft. He's that kid that, Mark Zabel, the kid that I played ball with at Northern. He was my age, but same school, same class. But he didn't, he never did. He was on the practice squad and he got roughed up a couple years in a row. And then he finally said, you know what? Nah, I think I'm tired of just getting dressed on the home games. I'm sure it kind of sucks. But, I mean, everybody, I made the bomb squad as a freshman, so I actually traveled. But there's a lot of those guys that get run over by a bunch of road graders for a season or two. And they go, nah. Anyway, Mark Zabel's kid, Gray Zabel. Actually, I think he went to Fort Peer High School. But then he went up to North Dakota State. And he's number 76. He's that guard that's playing for Seattle right now. Left guard. And he's a big boy, like 6'6", 3'30", or something like that. And runs a sub 5'40". I mean, a real athletic dude. And he's just a big old road grader. But he played at North Dakota State. So, I was actually going to watch him. And then I got in a wardrobe closet. Octagon tissue and said, no. So, now I'm looking at it. That one that says Mickey Gilly. Yep. That Mickey Gilly one. That's pretty funny. He was actually military. And he claimed, I don't even remember what his real name was. But he was in Cox Creek. And he came in with a couple other military buddies. That's, I remember right. But he was the only one that was fancying himself as a sniper. And he had a real long gun. Is this the camouflage guy, Mike? Yeah. The Mickey Gilly dude. Yeah. He's the one that Dixon can remember. How the tacks fly. And how you walk through the saddles out into the crow where all the riding horses are saddled. And he comes. We're all out there saddling. It's after breakfast. We saddle everything and all the stocks there. And there's probably six, seven hunters. So, there's three guides. Three or four. Yeah, three guides. And anyway, there's a dozen head of horses there that have had their pellets. And their heads are sleepy. And their heads are down because we pellet them before we ride. And we've been in eating breakfast. And we come out. And the horses are all sleepy. And we pull the cinches and put bridles on. And then the hunters, all they have to do is come in, put their lunch in the saddle bags that Dixon made them. And they put their lunch in the saddle bags. And sling them, put their rifle in the boot. And sit there until we're ready to get on. And all they have to do is get on him. And off we go. Well, this dude comes in after, it's probably the second day of the hunter show. This dude comes out. And nobody really paid much attention because it's, you know, 430 in the morning, 5 o'clock. So, it's pitch pitch black. Well, the lantern is right there. You remember the lantern Dixon right there in front of us? Yeah. The old Coleman fuel lanterns. Yeah. The old Coleman pumpers. Yeah. Exactly. And I was the master of those things. Half the time, somebody will get burned. No. They're persnickety. They're old, man. What? Those old up there. Those wood stoves, those ground stoves are paper thin. The reason that they're easy to pack is they're light. And they're hotter than hell. Because all they do is barely keep the wood together in the stove. Yeah. One of them's got a bunch of birdshot holes in it from where I shot a pack rat. Blew the front of it off. Yeah. Yeah, that was a good shot in the middle of the night. My stuttering buddy, Glenn, said, I'm on the mic. I would prefer no more gunplay in the tent. It was 3 in the morning. And this pack rat was scratching around in the wood stove. So I got my headlamp and stalked him, sat there with him for an hour. And finally, he gave it to me. And I shot him with my Judge .45. And in an 8x10, 10x12 tent. And a 10x12 with three guys in it, it tended to wake everybody up. Yeah. Back to Mickey Gilly. This dude comes walking out. And right in the middle of this round corral of horses that are half asleep. And he looked like he had a ghillie suit on. And we all know her lap strips of a typical ghillie suit. And this dude comes walking out. It looks just like a tumbleweed coming at you. And he walks out. And everything was cool until he reached down and he threw his headdress back like poof. And it's a human face coming up out of that shit. And those horses just started hogging. And rails were snapping. Horses were flying back. And half the stock went down through the tallyway. The other half were in the tug of war with one of the rails. And Rocky and I are screaming. And Rocky got the Mickey Gilly. He said, you get that son of a bitch off. I don't ever want to see that ever again. You put that in your saddle bag and it stays until you're on the mountain. And we all kind of got lined up after we got all our stock put together. And Rocky comes to me, the boss, and says, he's yours. I go, why do I have to take him? I can help you with this. I said, OK, I'll take him. So I say, he said, take him up on Cat Mountain. Put him on the rock. OK, I'll do that. So it's a four-hour ride up to Cat Mountain. So I get him up there and get him up on what we call the rock. It's a blind where it's kind of a handmade thing where you can sit there. It's basically just a rock cabin kind of looking. It's a blind. Anyway, you've got a pass. There's a saddle down there between Cat Creek and Bear Creek. And you can sit there and they all cross through. And it's like a 300, just a little over a 300-yard shot. So I thought, OK, Mickey Gilly, this is you. So I took him over there and I said, you sit in here. All you're doing is watching that pass. And don't move. He goes, oh, I don't know. I said, OK, well, don't move. And sit still up there. And don't be silhouetting yourself. Don't be walking. Sit still. And we're talking this guy's supposedly a military sniper. I'm thinking Colonel Tafcock kind of stuff where 75 kills. A guy that can sleep can sit for 22 hours before he gets shot. Anyway, I'm thinking sniper. So then I take another one of the hunters and go around the bottom of Cat Creek. Come around the top of Cat Mountain, which is kind of the way we drive out through the pass. And I see I had an odd bull kind of going a little bit down there. And knew he was headed for the pass. And I knew he had some cows with him. So I'm thinking, this ought to be good. And about a half hour later, I'm thinking, man, any time now, old Mickey Gilly ought to be able to poke this one. And I'm on the tracks of a little skiff of a snow. But I'm on this bull track with three cows. And I'm like, man, he's going right through the pass. No, no, nothing, nothing, nothing. And I'm like, I'm within 200 yards of that pass. And I'm in the heavy timber. And I'm like, what the hell? Ain't nothing going on. So I go, I sneak out. I sneak farther ahead to where I can get my glasses on the rock pile up there. That dude, Christ, there ain't even nobody sitting in that blind. And I'm like, and I'm a half a mile away. And I'm glassing it. And here I see him over there. Looks like he was trying to find a spot to take a shit or something. And he's up there on the ridge, just moving around. And I'm like, oh, God. So I'm like, all right. So I take these tracks right through the pass. So then I go up. And I told my hunter, I said, I got to go do this. I got to go check on Mickey Gilly here. I said, eat your lunch. So I go huffing it up there. And I'm roughing it up there. And I get about this hunch over because the elk have already gone through the pass. So I get up there. And I'm about maybe 30 yards from him. And I'm walking right at him. And he goes, psst, over here. I'm like, what? I'm looking right at this dude. He's got his Gilly Bullshit on. And he's sitting there tangled up in them rocks. And I'm looking at him. And I stop and look at him. And he goes, psst. He does it again. I'm like, oh, my God. Stop this place. You got to be shitting me. I walk right up to him. And he throws his headdress back and goes, gotcha. I go, OK, gotcha. Did you see that? How come you didn't shoot that bull that went through the pass? He goes, nothing went through that pass. I go, really? You want to go on down there with me and look at the tracks that went through the pass? Can you tell a bull track from a cow track? There's a bull and three cows went through it. He goes, nobody went through that pass. And his buddy, the other hunter, decided that he didn't want to sit there and eat lunch. He comes up and up there behind him. He goes, oh, yeah, there was a bull and three cows I saw. I saw the tracks, too. And the guy kind of got a little stuffy. I said, well, this hunt's over. You can go over and sit with the horses on and make another loop. And so I took that other hunter. And by the time I got back, Mickey Gilly was already kind of looking at his horse like I want to go home. So I rode him four and a half hours back down the hill and told the boss, tomorrow he goes with somebody else and not me. So I think we put him with Spike. Spike was one of them that had to drop the reins. He goes, I'm so lost in the fog up in that same drainage. Spike, one of the rookie guides, was calling on the radio, Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, what the hell? What is that? Yeah, we have radios that we call and wrangling and stuff. Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. I'm like, yeah, Spike. He goes, cowboy, I'm Ned. He goes, Ned? I said, what's up, Spike? He goes, I'm so fucking lost. I have no idea. And then you hear these hunters in the background go, what? You don't want to talk like that. Fuck your guess. Anyway, all of a sudden, they're all screaming. He's got two guys with him, two hunters with him. And they hear him say he's lost. I go, Spike, take your phone, take your radio, and take it for a walk. And we'll talk. And so he's still walking. But those hunters, it's foggier than hell down there. I know where he's at, or roughly where he's supposed to be. And it's like, can you hear me? And it's like, can you find your horses? No. What's to your left? I can't tell. It's fog. I said, well, walk 50 steps to your left. And walk 50 steps back. And then 50 steps straight. It's snow. You can tell if you're walking in a straight line. Because it started going uphill. And then I turned around the other way, and it started going uphill again. I don't know where I'm at. But there's no doubt it's all up. And now I know exactly where he's at. And the boss comes on the radio. He says, Spike, can you find your trucks? Those are the horses. He goes, no. I don't know where they're at. Spike, OK, sit still. I'll be there. And Rocky, in about 40 minutes, he'd come, 45 minutes, he'd come driving through. He knows he's in the bull. And I know where he's at. But Rocky's closer to go get him. So he gets him. And he picks up Spike and his two hunters. He says, can you follow this back truck? Are these two mules he was leading? Yeah. OK, follow them. We'll go to your horses. Took him to his horses. And got the guide back to his horses. Imagine culture. Not even those guys that's with him now. Good lord. Anyway, he takes him to the horses and says, get on your horse. While you get on your horses, I'm not even going to put your headscarf on. But if I do, you drop your reins. What? Yeah. That way you can make sure you get back to camp. And it's just pitch fog. And sure shit, he drops the reins and they walk two hours back to the trail. I mean, they walk back to camp in fog, drop the reins. Yeah, they're incredible animals, that cow. They've got it so figured out. Especially when they can go just a few times and they got it totally dialed in. Yeah, they're incredible. Wow. That Mickey Gilly thing was pretty amazing. The guy never did actually get nothing because he was too busy moving. And he was supposed to be sitting still. And jacking around on a skyline, too. Lucky somebody didn't already whack your ass, but they had. And the only other, the bare one that I was going to say was, do you still have your map, Frosty? I'm looking right at it. Okay. And do you see, if you're on the, let's go to Augusta. If you find the town of Choteau and go south to Augusta, the Rocky Mountain front, we'll take a ride here. If you get to the town of Augusta. Yep. Yeah, okay. And then you're going to go straight west from Augusta to Gibson Dam. There's a reservoir there. If you go straight west. Okay. And it's right up against, not quite yet, the tail of the Gibson. At the tail of Gibson Dam, the west fork of the Sun River is coming in. And the north fork is coming down. And the south fork of the Sun River, all three converge and dump into Gibson Dam. Okay. So you see, do you see Gibson Dam? Yep. Right on. If you go to the tail of Gibson Dam and you hook up past, there's going to be Arsenic Creek. Arsenic Creek is the last one on the, you're going to see Big George. These are drainages. Mortimer, Big George. And then you're going to go to the back to Arsenic Creek. These are all on the right, on the north side of Gibson Dam. And then you're going to hit this north fork of the Sun River. And you turn and go up the north fork of the Sun. And you see a trail there. The north fork of the Sun River is at the very end of Gibson Dam. Okay. At the tail. Yep. Yep. Okay. And you ride north on the north fork of the Sun River. And it's about 13. You can ask Sarah, because her ass was sore. She rode there. She cooked for us. Only a couple times, but she's been there. Anyway, if you go up north fork, you're going to go past. The closest one you're going to see is Whiskey Creek. And then you're going to see one. You're going north. And you're on the east side of the Sun River, the north fork of the Sun. You're going to go up. And you're going to go through two sections. Whiskey Creek, Circle Creek. Whiskey Creek, Circle Creek. And then you're going to hit Cabin Creek. And Cabin Creek is straight across from Moose Creek. And Moose Creek is the one that's coming from the west. And it's dropping down. As you're going up the north fork of the Sun, you can look like 20. What is it? 17 miles. It's 22 miles. 17. No. 25. 5. 17. That's 42. Yeah. It's 17 miles up Moose Creek. You'll see the Chinese Wall. And that's all Bob Marshall across the Sun River. So if you go, if you find Cabin Creek, that's day one when we ride. It's 18 miles from basically the Gibson Dam is where the outfit was I was working for. Sun Canyon Lodge. You've been there, Dixon. Sun Canyon Lodge. Yeah. Yeah. So we would leave Sun Canyon Lodge and ride these 118 miles into Cabin Creek, which is that one that Paul's looking at right now. Yep. And then in the morning, they're like, oh, that wasn't too bad. And then we kick their ass out of bed in the morning at daylight. And now it's 25 miles. Now it's 17 miles up Moose Creek. And you get 17 miles up Moose Creek to the head of the Chinese Wall. You hang a right. And you go 5, 17, and 5, 20 up. You go 5 miles up straight north across with right underneath the Chinese Wall. And you're headed for, you get to the head of Moose Creek. And you're going to take a right. And that trail goes straight to Larch Hill Pass. And you can probably see Larch Hill Pass. Yep. Okay. So then you drop and you go through Larch Hill Pass. And right there at Larch Hill Pass is where, what is that one coming up, Rocky Creek. You can see Rock Creek. Rock Creek and Moose Creek are the two major drainages that go up to the Chinese Wall. And they both converge right at Larch Hill Pass. So you go through Larch Hill Pass. You go 3 miles down. And now you're going on the other side of the divide. You go 3 miles down. You're going to hit a trail down there. And you're going to hang a right. And there's going to be a place called Juliet Creek. Yep. And it's 3, 3 1⁄2, 4 miles down there. And now you're going to turn at Juliet Creek and just go. It's a little short drainage. But it's in a big old bowl. It's in a bowl up there. And that's where camp was. And now you're officially 17 miles to Cabin Creek. Now you're 17 miles up Moose Creek, 5 miles over. That's 22, 3 miles down. Now you're 25. Now you're 42 miles back. And these hunters are bleeding out of their buttholes. Because now they've ridden 42 miles in 2 days. And they're not ready to go hunting. And that's when you throw them the worst bag of corona. Bag bomb. Every old good farmer knows what a bag bomb is. You throw it to them. Because their nut tracks are on fire. From riding that far. Dixon knows what we're talking about. That's a long way. Anyway, they all pass the bag bomb. But from right there in Juliet Creek, if you look straight, it would be kind of north and west a little bit. You'll see the Wall Creek Cliffs. Yep. And then Bungalow Mountain. Yep. Okay, so the Wall Creek Cliffs. The first day of the hunt, I take these 2 guys from Seattle. Anyway, these 2 hunters from Seattle. We come around the bottom of the Wall Creek Cliffs. And we start going up through. And up through one of the timber slides you can see there. It's rugged, rugged country. And we're going up through there. And all of a sudden I see, breaking out of the timber, I see this wolverine. And you know, I've only seen 2 wolverines in the wild myself. Really? 2. 2. And here comes this one. And they run kind of like otters. Kind of a swoopy looking run. Anyway, this thing is going up the hill. And up the rock slide going right up the Wall Creek Cliffs. And we're on the south slope of the Wall Creek Cliffs. Because the Wall Creek Cliffs, right at the very top, you can see how they really pile up straight, steep. And we're coming up the backside of it through them strips of timber. And because I had seen some elk up there the week before. Anyway, we get going up there. And here comes a wolverine. And I stop at these 100, and I'm like, shit, a wolverine? And they're like, I can't. And one, they're just shot because it's big country. And it's steep. But they could care less. They're just trying to get their hair. And it wasn't even 2 or 3 minutes later, I'd gone another, I don't know, another 100, 150 yards. And here comes this sow grizz, huffing and puffing behind this wolverine wall. They must have got run out by my hunters down in the drainage down below. So I got these two hunters with me. Now they're 100 yards behind me. And I'm up above them. And this sow grizz goes up the same trail that this wolverine went. And she's got cubs. Another 50 yards behind her is two cubs. And she's going pretty fast up the hill and sliding right up the hill. And them cubs are kind of laboring. And they, all of a sudden, the sow goes up to the, almost to the top of the Walker Cliff that you can see right there. And she starts side-hilling, going east. I guess it would be going east towards camp, towards Juliet Creek. And I'm kind of in the middle of that rock slide. That sow goes across there. Well, these cubs think, well, we'll just meet her at the other end. And they start bawling and huffing and puffing. And they're 200-pound kids. I mean, they're not babies. But they're last year's cubs. But anyway, because a sow grizz fends her cubs once. And then she has other ones. And then she boots those yearlings out at the end of that year. So at one time, she could be having two to four kids. One of them, you know, one of them a year old. One of them an infant. And anyway, these youngsters are cheating across the hill. Well, they happen to be side-hilling right at me. And I'm like, holy shit, this ain't good. And that sow is right above me. And she kind of stops because she got my wind. And my wind's going right up at her. And she smells me. And it's like perfect. She knows that I'm off limits. And she's sitting there. And she smells me. And she's only about 100, 150 yards above me. And the hunters are about 100, 150 yards below me. But my eyes are on that sow. And now my eyes are on those two cubs that are side-hilling right at me. I'm like, holy shit, this is going to get busy fast. And this is before I even carried a gun. I carried a gun, too. And I helped people. And I never carried nothing, not a pistol, not a rifle, nothing. I just thought I was too tough. Anyway, I'm watching these two cubs come at me. And they side-hill right across. And they come across me about maybe 30 yards above me. And this, we're talking a rock slide. You can see it right there, Frosty, that Walker and Clint. There's no timber right there. It's a bunch of open rocks. And the top of the lines are tight because this is steep, steep country. You've got the top of the lines. And you see the top of the hill where that cliff is. You're on the Walker cliffs. Perfect. So these cubs come across me. And they're about 20, 30 yards above me. And they get my wind. And all of a sudden, that sow that's up there, I think 3D to her, looked like I was a monster kid. Because they can see, but they can't see really, really well. Anyway, that bitch thinks I'm with her cubs. And she sets out a bomb. And she comes smoking down that hill. And it takes her all of five seconds to come storming down that Walker. It comes right smack at me. And she is coming hard through them rock slides. And I'm like, holy shit, this is happening so fast. And I'm dead meat. And she comes blowing through those cubs. And as soon as she blew through her cubs, she's only like 10 yards from me now. But she's 10 yards in front of her. She's between her and her cubs, between me and her cubs. And now all of a sudden, she knows that I'm not with her cubs. So she stops. And she gets down into this hackle thing. And she starts popping her jaws. And it's like, it sounds like a .22 pistol going off. And this bitch is 10 yards from me. And she is popping her jaws and swatting rocks and stuff at me. I kid you not. Swatting shit at me. And I'm like, wow. And all I can see is the hair, the hackles. And her hair is just going on her back. I'm like, holy shit, I'm dead. And she swats a few more. And when she let out this big old wolf, I think I shit myself. I can't remember exactly. But I know one thing. I thought that was when she let that wolf out. It's like all I could do is I couldn't take my eyes off of her. And for any of those guys that want to curl up and buckle up and play dead, bullshit, this cowboy is staring right at her because it's like, this is fourth and goal. That's a big pullback. And she's going to blast me. Anyway, she lets out this wolf and sent her cubs up the hill. And she goes right behind them up the hill. And I perceived a meltdown. I'm sitting there. I'm sitting there really shaking and gathering myself. And here comes these two hunters. And they're going, Mike, Mike, holy shit, that was a grizzly bear. That was a grizzly bear. I'm like, jeez. You guys are 150 yards below me. And I'm 10. They said, we thought she was right on top of you. And, you know, I think his name was Bob, Bob or Bill. He said, I was going to try to take a shot at her. But all I could see was you in the crosshairs. That's when I lost my cool. You didn't mean to tell me. I've got a grizzly bear staring at me. And you've got a crosshair on my back. You sons of bitches, this hunt is over. So I go smoking off that hillside and leave my horses at the bottom. And I go smoking off the cliff and come from the cliff. And I drop down to Juliet Creek again. Mike, you're breaking up. Dixon, can you hear me? I got you, yeah. Okay. Mike, we lost you. I don't know if you can still hear us. I got you, but I don't have Mike. Okay. Maybe he's having a phone battery issue or something. Maybe. I'll give him a minute here. Yeah. Anyway, I was telling you that my bullshit session is about over. Well, I got a quick question for you, Mike. Were you on horseback or on foot when that fall came at you? On foot. We tied our horses up down in the bottom of Wall Creek where there's timber. And we were at the bottom of Wall Creek. Actually, the Wall Creek itself is on the other side of those cliffs. And we had come in from the south. So the south side of Wall Creek is where all the cliffs are with the south slope being strips of timber. And the other side is just a cliff. And when I got back to camp, the hunters finally went moseying in. And Linda, the cook at that time, was telling them about this beautiful grizzly bear with cubs that came off of the cliffs up above camp. And our camp is only about a mile from the cliff. And she said it was this huge grizzly. And she was pitching at her cubs. And they were mauling and carrying on until she took them right off the cliffs and straight down. It was beautiful. And the hunters were like, that's the one. That's the one that just fought Abe and Mike. And she's like, what? And we even walked away from our horses. Mike just, we couldn't hardly keep up with him. He goes, where's he at now? And I'm listening to the whole thing. I'm laying in a tent. It's starting to melt down. And the hunters were like, yeah, and it was amazing. Because we couldn't do nothing. We felt so helpless because Mike was between us and the bear, and we couldn't shoot at it. I'm like, oh, Christ. So, the outfitter at that time was Sunk Canyon Lodge outfitter. He'd have to report all encounters. So, sure, should I come out after a 10-day hunt? And Mike Madel, the bear expert of the Rocky Mountain Front, is there to interview me from a bear encounter and asks me how it is. And it's like, did I lose you? I don't know. Nope, nope, you're still there. Yeah, so this Mike Madel says, wants to know the whole thing. I tell him the story. He goes, did you make eye contact? I said, I never took my eyes off the bitch. And he's shaking his head. He said, you didn't get in a defenseless position? I said, hell no, I was in a linebacker stance. I thought she was going to blast me. She's just giving me this, uh-uh-uh, shaking his head. And he goes, you're lucky to be alive, sir. And I'm like, that's when I melt it down. Like, how many heavens bears have you been 10 yards from that are swatting rocks at you and chopping your jaws? Were you in a ball of shit, balled up and hoping to live? No, you wouldn't know. Anyway, classic example of everything done wrong. So then they're documenting all that shit. Encounters are lucky to be alive. And it's like, if that lady wants you, if that bear wants you, she'll get you. You didn't even have time to toot your little whistle, did you? Exactly. I didn't have time to grab my bear spree. You know what? I think that bear spree stuff probably has its deal. It's just that, like I said, after I got that one guy got sprayed, old skinny Mike and one on Gary. I never really got a bear spree guy, but I did. I did find him in Letterman saddlebags and stuff that his manager put in there. And I'd take them off because first thing it's going to do is somebody's going to hit it. Won't spray the shit out of them and their horses. So I never did do much with it. But that Mike Madel was a classic example of an encounter gone wrong. And I'm like, yeah, whatever you have. And then for the next probably, I don't know, it was a few months before, Sarah thought it was good therapy. And we watched that Anthony Hopkins, that edge. Have you seen it, Dixon? I have. That bear that was hunting them? Yeah. So she said, well, just watch that. That'll be good therapy. Every time that bear popped its jaws or roared, it would make me jump. And I'm sitting at home. She's like, we're going to watch it until you quit jumping. I said, you know what? It's a big time. That was too early for the Revenant. Oh, man. And even the Revenant, I was dead serious watching that one. I was like, holy cow. And the difference from the edge to the Revenant, that was a full-blown cool guy watching a private riot. Yeah, exactly. Or taking my Navy SEAL buddy that wanted to go to that Mark Wahlberg one, lone survivor. Yeah, I've seen that. He said, I want to go with you, or I want you to go with me. And I'm like, you sure? Let's get him, you know, Navy SEAL stuff. Anyway, he goes in and he's going, you got my six? I'm like, six, let me think, six. That's your back? Okay. Yeah, I got your six. But we're sitting at the top. We're at the top row of chairs, and his back's against a wall. And it's like, so I can't really get back behind your six because we're against the wall. But that knife that you carry on that necklace thing is probably, he's got like a bloody knife behind his shoulder blades. I'm like, holy cow. Yeah, we're going to watch the lone survivor. This guy might tip over and blow out of here. He's the one I was telling you, Dixon, that I got in a fishing match with one of the neighbors down around, and he got, yeah, I need an address. Here comes my Navy SEAL buddy. He's got a PTSD a little bit. I think he's been shot at a few times. Anyway, he shows up at my house, Frosty, and he goes, I need an address. Are you okay? I'm like, okay, what do you got? He goes, are you okay? I go, yeah, I'm good. I don't even know what the hell he's talking about. And he goes, I need an address. So I'm like, an address. For some bitch that just tried to molest you or accosted you or some fancy word, I'm like, no, no, no. That dude is just a tweaker that was a drywaller that was working at an address over here. He's already done been cops already drug him out of there because when the HOA manager went by that dude, he was already twitching because they'd already hit him with them fishhook bills that they shoot into your body, and they can seize him. So this dude is already sitting at the wheel well of his vehicle, and he was still twitching from them. They got fish lines on them. Like, that's what my HOA manager said. He said, no, he was hooked up to these things that they shot him with. I thought that was all BS, but they actually shoot people with, like, fishing line that hooks them. They're phasers. Phasers. And they've got the joystick in their hand. Yeah. So you want some more of this, kid? Hey, you want some more? So they can just blow him up if they need to. Anyway, this dude was twitching, and he was not ready to talk or fight, and he didn't really do anything to me because I just kept telling him to get closer because I was in my golf cart, and I can't obviously stand up or walk. So I was just telling him to get closer, closer. And he kept going, huh, huh, getting closer. I was just thinking if I get one hand on him, I'm going down with him, and I'll bite the shit out of him. I don't know what else. But that was the plan. And the guy finally said, get out of here, old guy. And I tried to get in. If you only knew. Anyway, so then I didn't think twice about it. I was like, whatever. But then word got around quick because the cops, the dude was actually a subcontractor that had been holed up in this guy's house and would come and tell the landowners, the homeowners to beat it. And he'd go lock himself in the bathroom and talk or do whatever the shit he was doing. Anyway, so the cops had come, and he'd gotten shitty with the cops, and that's when they must have lit him up with them fishhooks. And I thought he just, like, hit him with the taser. But these things, this guy had lines, like, shoot like a harpoon at him. I don't know how. Yeah. Haven't you seen, Andy, what's that movie? Haven't you seen Hangover? You know what? I think I have. Where'd they get tased? That's right. That dude that's a goofball, that goofball at the classrooms. Yeah. Oh, that's right. Those are them deals. Exactly. That's right. That's right. Shitty with them. So this dude had two of them. The manager said, oh, no, he didn't need none of them. He didn't need none of them. He was in season. He was in season. And then once they got him done like that, then they'd probably just roll him into the cop car. Say, Dixon, you had that book title. Did you find it? I just sent you a picture of it. Oh, great. Okay. I was going to tell you, too, Dixon, is that Coach Eckmark, Doug Eckmark was the guy that recruited me from day one. My freshman year, he was our head coach. And then he was gone after that. But Coach Eckmark called me out of the blue the other day, and we were talking. I can't remember what he was. He was referring to something that we had talked about on the call. Anyway, he had said, because he's a Republican stuck in a conservative dude stuck in Minneapolis. And he said, if you really – and one of his daughters is a conservative. She lives in Florida. His other daughter is a conservative. But she runs the election where those – those kind of people, whatever, in Minneapolis. She runs that district, that voting district. And she said she's seen the corruption. But she just – he didn't go there. Anyway, he said, you want to see what really happened, what really happened with that George Floyd thing? He said, get on YouTube and find Linda, like, The Burning of Minneapolis or something. And it's by Linda Collins or Lisa – the last name Collins. But I thought of you, Dixon. You like looking into that stuff. And, hey, I love these historical things that you're sending us. Give me all kinds of little known tidbits. Cliff Clavin. For you only us, only us old guys know who Cliff Clavin is. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so Dixon's been sending us nuggets of good history stuff. Anyway, that's about it. Check out that thing on YouTube. I never looked at it, but it's what really happened with the George Floyd thing because that thing was all just a racket. That was just – he said it was just an excuse to get people to burn. Wanted to riot. Yeah, they sure did. He said that was bad news. Okay, boys, I'm not as mad or as ornery as I was. Good. I'm going to take a shower and go to bed. All right, guys. All right. Good talking with you guys. Love you. Thanks. Bye-bye. Bye. All right, brother, Dixon, love you. Bye.