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The Hunting Stories Podcast
Elk. Bear. Hog. Turkey. Deer and More. Hunting Stories that will make you laugh or maybe cry; real life chronicles from the field.
The Hunting Stories Podcast
Ep 150 The Hunting Stories Podcast: Joe Elliston
Stepping into the wild with a poorly designed backpack can turn dream hunts into nightmares—something Joe Elliston learned firsthand before co-founding Initial Ascent. His journey from an 86-pound disaster pack to creating one of hunting's most respected backpack companies forms the backdrop for this captivating episode filled with unforgettable stories from the backcountry.
Joe's tale of his son Brody harvesting a turkey while half-dressed—camo pants around his ankles, no shirt, and hat backward—brings comic relief and proves sometimes success comes despite our mistakes. But the mood shifts dramatically as Joe recounts a bone-chilling encounter with a wolf pack that surrounded their camp at what was later identified as a wolf "rendezvous point." The pack's eerie, guttural howls continued for hours, forcing them to pack out in darkness with wolves following uncomfortably close behind.
Through these experiences, Joe reveals how adversity sparked innovation. The miserable first backpacking trip where his youngest son shivered in soaked sleeping bags became the catalyst for Initial Ascent's mission to build packs that carry heavy loads comfortably. His Bennett Mountain elk hunt story, complete with unexpected access challenges and eventual success, showcases the persistence that drives both hunting and entrepreneurship.
Whether you're planning your next backcountry adventure or simply enjoy authentic hunting stories, Joe's experiences offer valuable insights and reminders of why we venture into wild places despite the challenges they present. His passion for sharing the outdoors with his sons and building equipment worthy of life's most meaningful moments shines through every story.
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Christensen Arms
Christensen Arms makes the best hunting and long-range rifles in the world. Made in the USA.
Howdy folks and welcome to the hunting stories podcast. I'm your host, michael, and we got another great episode for you today. Today we're actually connecting with Joe Elliston. If you don't know Joe, he's one of the co-founders and he is the CEO of Initial Ascent. They make some pretty awesome backpacks.
Speaker 1:I haven't used them before this episode, but I was doing my research because my backpack doesn't stop squeaking and I hate taking it out. I start to hear phantom bugles it's just phantom turkey gobbles it's just. The pack has been irritating me for a few years. So I'm glad I was able to talk to Joe. One, because it's cool to hear his story about how the pack process started, how they got into the industry, but two, he has some awesome stories, including one wolf story that is just absolutely phenomenal. So I want to thank Joe for coming on the podcast, of course, couldn't have done it without him. A few listeners, thank you guys for tuning in. I hope you guys enjoyed this episode as much as I did recording it. Beyond that, please review us, please follow us, please share us with one friend. Now let's go ahead and let Joe tell you some of his stories. Thank you All. Right, joe. Welcome to the Hunting Stories podcast. Brother, how are you?
Speaker 2:I'm good man. Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm excited to chat with you, man. It took a little scheduling, a little, you know, back and forth, but we got this thing here and I'm super excited to talk with you about what you do in the hunting industry as well as the standard. We want to hear some of your hunting stories, man. So thanks for joining us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I appreciate you having me on man. To your point, it's a busy time, right? We've got bear season going, we've got turkey hunts going on right now. There's a lot of in and out and, matter of fact, half of us are leaving next week and going to get out and do some more bear hunting.
Speaker 1:So get out and do some more bear hunting. So, uh, good, good time. It worked out, perfect. So thank you, that's great. I'm hoping I've actually never been here bear hunting, but I got a buddy who's invited me up to Idaho and I'm hoping to get up there in June. Um, so hopefully I have some stories from that hunt. But for now, joe, why don't you introduce yourself? Why don't you tell the people who you are? Um, so they know who they're hearing some stories from today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, so my name's Joe Elliston. I'm co-founder CEO over here at Initial Ascent Initial Ascent we launched the company back in 2018, and it was really built off of a dream of two guys that are buddies, that we just felt like, hey, man, there's got to be something better. There's got to be a better way to build a backpack that allows you to carry heavy loads more comfortably.
Speaker 1:And um you know.
Speaker 2:so Dennis and I Dennis is the other owner Uh, we set out on that journey really back in 2015 is when we started the conversation and started diving into it and, um you know, 2015 became 2018 when we actually launched the company. Took us three years to design, develop our frame, which we felt like we had to get the foundation right, which was the frame to allow us to achieve what we set out to do, and that was to carry the heavy loads more comfortably. So we launched Initial Ascent at the Expo in Salt Lake.
Speaker 2:I think it was February 8, 2018. And kind of man just never looked back.
Speaker 1:That's awesome.
Speaker 2:It's been a. It's been a whirlwind trip and you know me personally. You know I grew up in Kansas. I'm a Flatlander, so I was just a little.
Speaker 1:Okay, what parts my wife's from or not? My wife, my mother and her entire family is from the Larned area.
Speaker 2:Oh really.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I grew up Kansas City, kansas, in the city, and I went to school at University of Kansas. So I'm a KU grad and moved out west in 1996, I guess is when I left Kansas. So I've been gone for a while. But I grew up hunting. It was something, even though I lived in the city. My dad was an avid hunter. When he was younger he actually had an experience where he traveled all over the world hunting. I mean, in my office back home I've got his elephant tusk from the elephant that he shot and I've got some pretty cool pictures.
Speaker 2:You know he was gosh. I think my dad was only like 17 when he was over there doing that. That's crazy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, gosh, I think my dad was only like 17 when he was over there doing that. That's crazy. Did someone, did his father, get him into hunting or did like what was it? What got him into that? Especially like that big, that Africa, big game stuff, like that's back then almost unheard of, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, yeah, it's crazy to think, cause he actually did his hunting over in Africa and I think they spent like six weeks over there. They hunted in somalia and somalia.
Speaker 1:Today you wouldn't step foot in that place right.
Speaker 2:I mean it's it's, it's, it's pretty dangerous spot. But back then they just declared their independence, for lack of better words and um.
Speaker 2:So yeah, he had a friend who was really into, uh, big game hunting okay and my dad and him traveled and that's I think he's the one that got my dad into the to the big game hunting. But yeah, they spent time over there and you know he's I've got his lion rug from when he was out there and you know I look at some of the mounts like he's got a hunter's heart of beasts. That's in my office, which I want to say. There's only like two or 300 of them left in the world now that are wild, so they're pretty close to extinct. And you know that thing, cause my dad now is 83. So, roughly right, you know that's almost 60 plus years old. It's 60 plus years old.
Speaker 2:And you know, all of the mounts are made out of wood, so it's it's just pretty amazing yeah. It's just amazing how well they've held up all these years. But I say, all that is you know, hunting was always a.
Speaker 2:He taught you know the conservation side of it and a lot of just hands-on. So we had guns, we were around guns our whole life but we had a ton of respect for them and you know, he made sure that we knew how to use them, we knew how to properly store them, you know just how to clean them. So it was a part of just ingrained from the early days on. So, um, you know, when I moved out West and I was actually, I bounced around for a bunch of years so I used to work for Black Decker. I just retired here in the last 45 days, so I was there almost 30 years.
Speaker 1:Congratulations, man.
Speaker 2:Thanks, man, it was uh, it was a great run. Phenomenal organization went through tons of acquisitions, uh, just surrounded by people that were just phenomenal at what they did and um, but I retired back in march and now just strictly full time here with initial ascent, but um, that's what took me out west with black and decker and it's gonna ask yeah, when I got out west, um, I lived in Las Vegas, so actually my first elk herd that I ever saw in the wild was on Mount Charleston, which is the mountain just right outside of Las Vegas.
Speaker 2:I'd never seen elk before dog up some trails and I hear all these rocks coming down on one side, cause, you know, I'm kind of on. You know I've got one hillside here, one mountainside here, and I look and the whole hillside was just full of elk. So probably a lot of people probably don't realize it, but just a stone's throw outside of Las Vegas you got elk, which is crazy.
Speaker 1:Huh, I had no idea. I mean, I knew they were in the state, I just didn't realize they were that close to this giant glowing bulb in the middle of the desert.
Speaker 2:Yep they're right there. So, and I still wasn't into big game hunting at the time, but I had a passion for waterfowl and I remember a buddy of mine. We were so desperate to hunt in Las Vegas that we literally went to Death Valley because somebody told us that there were ducks in Death Valley. I mean, they pulled the wool over our eyes on that one. If you can imagine, two dudes right in this little tiny piece of water. We set up decoys. It was just like are you kidding me?
Speaker 2:We actually did this, but we didn't get any ducks, but I didn't get into big hunting until I moved to Idaho and I moved up here in 2004. And my first experience backpacking um, there's a whole nother story, but I fell in love with the backwoods in that country and because, you know, growing up in kansas you just never got to experience, you know nature in that form and um, to me it was just eye-opening to see god's creation and be in it. And man, I just never looked back. So that's what started my journey really out west, that's so cool.
Speaker 1:Was it your very first big game hunt that you were like no, we can do better than this on backpacks? Was it like that quick that you realized that it needed to be something better?
Speaker 2:It was my very first backpacking trip um, and I'll tell you the story, man, because it's worth sharing because it's it's really.
Speaker 1:I had never had a backpack on my back ever until around 2005, and like not for school or nothing, like no back like jansports, yeah I mean, yeah, I had the jansports, but actual you know, hunting backpack or backpacking type backpack.
Speaker 2:So I borrowed a friend's backpack it was an rei backpack, had no idea how to use it, but I was. I was invited to go out with two other fathers and take. We were going to take our boys, um, and there was a group of two, five, seven boys that we were taking on this backpacking trip up into a high lake, up in uh, just outside of mccall, idaho, and so I'm all excited. You know, again, I know nothing about backpacking. I know nothing about backpacking gear, um, so I load literally everything in the kitchen sink into this backpack and I'm going in for two nights with my two boys. They each have a little backpacks that I borrowed.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:I got 86 pounds going in.
Speaker 1:Woo, yep, and that's a backpacking, backpack, not hunting, not with like a frame right?
Speaker 2:No, this is an REI pack and holy cow. So um, you don't know what you don't know.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And we went in and it was unbelievable. It's the first time I've ever slept in a tent in the backcountry and I had my boys there, my youngest boy, ty. I've got two boys, one that's Brody, one that's Ty. Ty's my youngest one. At the time, ty would have been roughly right about eight years old, I'm guessing, okay, and we're sleeping and it just starts pouring down rain and it was a Friday night and it just dumps and dumps and dumps.
Speaker 2:Keep in mind, the only stuff I've got is probably bought at Walmart 15 years ago. I got the Coleman sleeping bags and I've've got blankets and I literally packed in everything, not knowing what to do, and the tent that we had actually started leaking terribly bad. So at one point in the middle of the night I remember just kind of reaching over because I could feel Ty kind of shaking. And I reached over and I thought, well, I'm just going to pull him in, you know, so just get a little bit more body heat around him. And when I pulled him in I just it was like a giant sponge.
Speaker 1:Oh, no, oh no, poor guy.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, and that was his first experience in the back country too. So the next morning, you know, we get up and I just tell the other dads I'm like guys, I gotta. There's no way I can dry this out. It's going to take a month to dry out Coleman sleeping bags. So I literally packed up everything and my buddy Ed I think he's got a picture of it I had so much because it's so swollen now because everything's so waterlogged I'm well, probably over 100 pounds and it looked like a giant Volkswagen bug on my back right Because there was so much stuff on there and it's just strapped on, tied on with whatever. And we set out on the journey and I remember Ed just kind of bending over it was Ed and Randy were the two of the fathers Ed's sitting there, bent over, just laughing because it's just obnoxious what it looked like me walking out of there.
Speaker 2:So I knew there had to be a better way to do this, that was my very first experience, and that's what started me down the path of saying, well, we're gonna figure something else out my goodness, I can't imagine how much your shoulders hurt.
Speaker 1:So I made the mistake of taking like an rei pack that doesn't have a frame it's meant to hold a bunch of lightweight stuff, not heavy stuff and I was like I'm gonna rock with this and that way I don't get extra miles on my hunting pack. And I threw like 80 pounds into that thing and god, that was like I did it once, never again. I was like no, I'll put the extra miles on the pack that I got and it was just miserable. So I can't imagine, if you had 86 pounds with your boys, how much your shoulders hurt probably doing all of that.
Speaker 2:It was terrible.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I believe it, man, I believe it. So we've all made that mistake once. You just had the initiative to go out there and fix the problem.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was kind of an eye-opener, gosh, there's got to be a better way to do this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I assume your boys are still into it. You didn't scare them off with that first trip.
Speaker 2:No, no. So my oldest boy, brody, he has been an avid outdoorsman. I mean, we live on a refuge but we can hunt it and he's been out there hunting it since he was 11 or 12 by himself and, um, some people think I'm crazy, but you know, again, the gun safety and everything was just so ingrained into the into my boys that I never really worried about it and um, so, yeah, he hunts a bunch. Um, my youngest boy, ty, he's gotten a lot more into it over the years. Matter of fact, he just harvested his first bear this year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was really cool. So, yeah, I'm going. So next week I'm out with a group of guys from here from the office, and then the following week I'm going back out on another bear hunt with my oldest boy, brody, and dude. I can't wait.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Those are, and I know we'll get into some hunting stories here in a little while. And those are, and I know we'll get into some hunting stories here in a little while. But to me I always tell people I've had those trophy moments hunting and not one of them has to do with an actual animal up on the wall trophy it's the memories of being out there with my kids and my friends. Those are the memories that are most important to me.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I mean, once you listen to a fair amount of these episodes, you start to realize that people care more about who they're with than what they're chasing. And then, on the other end of the spectrum, it's the misses. Yeah, those are like the two big story categories that we get.
Speaker 1:It's like, oh man, I put in all this work and then I missed or I injured or whatever, but more often than not, actually the episode that will come out right. This one is a gentleman and he never got to hunt with his dad, but his dad was an avid outdoorsman and he just had story after story where, like something aligned and it just felt like his dad was there with him in spirit, and it's a super cool episode.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. He just gave me goosebumps, man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's great, and that's the theme, right. That's what hunting is all about, so I love it. So let's dive into it, joe.
Speaker 2:What hunting stories do you have to share with us? Well, I mean, I guess I'll start with one of the ones that when I think about going hunting, it's always like the first story that comes to mind now, and it has to do with my oldest boy, brody. So when Dennis and I first started hunting together Dennis Stokes he's the other co-founder owner of Initial Ascent Dennis and I we started taking our kids a long time ago up to northern Idaho, up around Kamiai, and we would hunt bears and turkeys and it was a pretty phenomenal experience taking the kids up there into the backcountry and just getting them to have those experiences with us. One of the years I was up there I think it was the second or third year that we had done it I was up there with my son Brody Ty wasn't on the trip. I was up there with my son Brody Ty wasn't on the trip, and Brody was probably in, I'm going to say, seventh or eighth grade because he was running cross country.
Speaker 2:And back then you know this is 12, 13 years ago Back then the kids would wear these bright, bright, bright neon type color running pants. Right, no-transcript, he's got these bright, bright, running pants underneath his camouflage pants Cause, right, it's chilly in the morning. Yeah, and kids have those baby faces right that are just as white as a sheet that just glow on the side of a mountain, yep Right, and that low light, that's just a spotlight, you know just a spotlight, yeah, and if you can imagine, his hats on backwards.
Speaker 2:So it was. We had hunted in the morning and then in the afternoons, kind of. What we would do is we would turkey hunt first thing in the morning and then afternoons we would go set somewhere, try to pull a tom away from the hens. If the hens were on the nest, we felt like, hey, it's a good chance, we could maybe get something in the heat of the day, and then most of the evening would be dedicated to bear hunting.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And so we had turkey hunted that morning, got on some birds. We kind of had watched them the night before, we knew where they had roosted and nested, so we kind of had a spot that went into, but the next morning we just busted them and they were gone. So unsuccessful hunt that morning and then it turned stinking hot. So we're actually sitting, if you can kind of picture, pretty steep, you know, we're about eight, nine hundred feet elevation above the clear water lake and we're looking at the clear water river, we're looking down, so it's heavy vegetation up there and we're looking down on the river and it's a grassy hillside, kind of looking down, and we're facing I guess we're facing kind of south, if I remember right and behind us is all this timber that we had walked through and it's a section maybe call it three quarters of an acre of just dark, deep timber that we'd kind of worked through to get on this hillside.
Speaker 2:So we're just sitting there and it is literally a real estate day. I mean there's not a cloud in the sky, it's absolutely picture perfect, but it's hot, you know, it's like 80 plus degrees, yeah, and Brody's dying because the kid's got his running pants on underneath him, right. So next thing, you know, he takes his shirt off, pulls his britches down to around his ankles and he's just trying to cool off because he's so stinking hot Puts his hat on backwards. So you got this kid sitting there that's just glowing right With these bright neon yellow running pants around you know, his camo pants around his ankles. Shirt off, hat backwards, and I get up. I'm going to go take a leak in the woods.
Speaker 2:I just get up and I'm moving around because I can't sit still very good, I'm a terrible whitetail hunter and so I get up and I walk back maybe 10 feet into that timber and I'm taking a leak and I've got my box call with me and I just after.
Speaker 1:I did that.
Speaker 2:I said well, I'm just gonna hit the box, call what the heck? So I just bam, hit it and dude, I had a response instantly from tom and he was close, that's funny.
Speaker 1:It's always exactly when you like. Shouldn't probably call that you call and they always reply. I've done the exact same thing man.
Speaker 2:He just hit it back hard. I'm like, oh man, so I turned around, I ran back. You know the the 15, 20 yards where brody was. I'm like, dude, grab your gun, let's go. There's a tom coming.
Speaker 2:So if you can picture the kid literally looking at me in that outfit that I just described to you, he reaches down, grabs his shotgun which was a side-by-side double barrel 20 gauge hats backwards. He's running up the hill but he can't run very good because he has pants around his ankles and literally runs back up this 15, 20 yards. And there's just this little trail area in the timber. We've got deadfall around and I kind of had a pretty good idea where that tom was going to come from. I'm like just lay down right here. So he's laying down on his stomach, no shirt, hat on backwards face, totally exposed yellow britches, you know, with the sun hitting the back side of him. And I'm probably almost on the edge of the timber right, because I'm back about 10 or 15 yards from him, and I hit that box, call and dude. That tom is coming straight at him and it literally almost runs right into him. He kills that thing 10 feet from him.
Speaker 1:No way.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:It didn't notice the spotlight right there. No, that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:I mean, this camouflage stuff is a joke, right? It's not real.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's funny. That reminds me of oh God, who is it? Jason Phelps. Oh yeah, I've seen his YouTube video where he's rocking the Hulk. Hogan outfit and he goes out and kills an elk who needs camo.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I did a podcast with him a couple weeks ago and we talked about that story him and Dirk and oh my gosh, what a riot those two.
Speaker 1:Yeah, God, I've had them both on the podcast. They are so funny. I don't know if you've heard Dirk's story about finding a dead guy out hunting and the guy was an arsonist that had been hiding in the woods for weeks. It's a crazy story Really.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I think he actually had.
Speaker 1:I think he's found multiple dead people in the woods oddly enough, oh my gosh. Yeah, connect with Dirk on that, because there are some fun stories.
Speaker 2:He's going to be here, I think, thursday this week, so I'm going to. I'll bring that up, thanks, for telling me that.
Speaker 1:There you go. Yeah, it's a great story, hello, oh, but that's crazy.
Speaker 2:So ran into him and, um, I just, I just chuckle man, because it was like you know what. There's times when things just perfectly come together and nothing's going to get in the way of it. Yeah and um, you know, you can say god's hands in on that if you wanted to, because everything said no way is a tom going to come into that situation. He did, yeah, he did, so that's awesome that's a great story.
Speaker 1:What did your, what did your son think? Like he's like I'm never wearing camo again. I can't imagine laying of it. Just the whole thing. It's just a memory.
Speaker 2:Back to what I had said earlier. Man, that is a trophy moment to me, and it's not the bird. I could care less honestly about the tom. It was everything else that led up to that point that sticks in my head. I can just picture him as clear as the bright sun hitting this backside. I believe it. I believe it.
Speaker 1:You can tell by the amount of detail that someone comes with a story. It's like how beautifully they remember it, because just imagine him running up the hill, hat backwards, no shirt, pants around his ankles, trying to get up to you with his double barrel. It's a perfect visual and I can see any kid doing that.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely I think it's probably perfect visual and I can see any kid doing that yeah? Absolutely, Absolutely. I think it's probably one of his best memories too, when we talk about it and laugh about it. So pretty fun, Pretty fun yeah.
Speaker 1:You'll get to make fun of him for a long time too. When he's a full-grown man, you'll be like remember that time you were basically naked, pants around your ankles and you shot that tom. Yep, you, pants around your ankles and you shut that tom like yep. You'll be able to tell his kids someday and they'll be like what my dad absolutely absolutely that's great, joe. All right, what else you got?
Speaker 2:transitions are always a little weird when it comes to hunting stories, but so I'll kind of shift gears more towards kind of an oh blank moment. Um, so my buddy, dennis, you know we talked about earlier, uh, the other owner of Initial Ascent, you know, dennis and I we were hunting, we were archery hunting for elk. This would have been, this would have been around 20, around 2015. It was before Initial Ascent, but we were into the conversation of Initial Ascent. So we're, there was an area that we had never hunted. So it's September, middle of September, and in Idaho in September you can have some, just some of the most amazing days weather-wise, you know where it's just absolutely perfect, and that was one of these these days.
Speaker 2:So Dennis and I drove up to this area that we were going to go hunt, that we'd never hunted before, and I had done some research on google, um, and I had located, hey, this looked like this would be an area I want to go check out. I had a buddy that had told me about, he had hunted three or four miles away from this area, a couple ridges away, got some really good success, and said, hey, man, if you got some time, this might be an area to go check out. Just kind of gave me some generalities, so started scouting it on Google Earth Found a place where it's like you know what? There's a high lake up here. We could camp at this high lake, then we've got water. We know we've got water and didn't look like there was a lot of options on where we could camp on this high lake, but I could tell on Google Earth that this was a pretty spectacular place because the little high lake and it wasn't a big one, it was only about 70 yards across.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It sat deep, deep, deep in this canyon and it was almost like you had granite around it. So it was down in this canyon area. And so Dennis and I decided you know what, let's go check this out. Let's go spend four or five days hunting up here. We were going, um, but by the time we actually got up there and got in, we probably hiked the last half a mile, getting pretty dark, right, and we'd never been there before. So we're trying to trying to piece our way in there.
Speaker 2:And back then you used gps's, um, we didn't have onyx and didn't have base map and those kind of that technology. So we're kind of working our way back in there and I and back then I used to print off maps. I would literally print these off so I had references. I could kind of look and say, yeah, I think this, this is over here. So we were working our way and then we got to one area, was like, okay, now we're going to go straight down kind of this game trail that would take us into where we thought the high lake was, where we were going to camp. So we start working our way down there and lo and behold, yeah, we found the right place, but now it's just almost pitch black. You know it's dark. It's probably close to 9 o'clock at night, 10, getting close to 9, yeah, between 9 and 10. And so we get down there close to nine, yeah, between nine and ten. And so we get down there. It's like we find this one section with our headlamps where we felt like, okay, this will work well for us setting up camp. But it was just a small area. I mean, it was maybe, maybe a 10 by 10 section and everything else was just deep timber, lots of rocks and um, so, as we're setting up camp, know, I went to go and get water for us, so I took the.
Speaker 2:I think back then it was just a platypus system, you know pump system, maybe it's a catadyne, and so I'm over there pumping water and as I'm pumping water, you know there's rocks all around and I look and I kind of notice a big pile of crap right there and I'm like, well, that a big pile of crap right there. And I'm like, well, that's wolf. I'm pretty sure that's not coyote, it's way too much, that's wolf. And when you live in Idaho and you're in the backcountry, especially back then, there was a lot of wolves and they were very vocal. I would hear wolves all the time but I'd never seen a wolf up to that point. But I'd heard them half a dozen times. You would see trails all the time, footprints. I'm just sitting there, I'm like, oh, that's pretty cool, I pump away and do that.
Speaker 2:We get to water and I go back and I'm telling Dennis, I'm like, oh yeah, man, I think there's a big pile of crap over there as well. Didn't think anything of it. And um, so we get ready to go to bed. You know, dennis is in his tent, I'm in my tent and I just bought this tent. So this is a brand new tent. First time I'd used it. I'd set it up before just to make sure I knew what I was doing. But I had a brand new sleeping bag as well. So we're we're off sawing logs and throughout the night I kept waking up smelling wet dog and you know, when you're kind of like half asleep, half awake, things aren't fully registering. And I'm laying there and I'm like doggone it. Somebody bought this sleeping bag, let their dog sleep on it and they returned it, okay.
Speaker 2:So, that's what's going through my brain right in the middle of the night. So we get up the next morning early and, um, we start hiking out in the dark and I'm literally telling dennis this on the trail as we're hiking out I'm like doggone it, man. I think somebody slept, let their dog sleep on my sleeping bag. It smells like wet dog. And so we go out, we hunt all day long. We actually busted literally five minutes into the hike we weren't even back out of the canyon we busted a decent size herd of elk and, um, so we can, we hunt all day long. And again, it's like very similar to that day with brody. It was a bluebird day. Just, skies are blue, everything's absolutely picture perfect in september. All the leaves are changing. I mean you got, you got aspens that are just sparkling. I mean it's just, it's just gorgeous in idaho, you know you know, fall season.
Speaker 2:So we we tried to get back on that group of elk but we had lost them and we tried a couple of areas so we had hiked a fair amount. Well, we ended up kind of finishing the first day on the back side of where that lake is right. So, or that high lake. So if you can picture, the high lake sits down in this canyon. We climbed elevation to get out and we circle around it and you've kind of got this rock wall that we're kind of is our backside now, which the lake sits down below that. So from as a crow flies, it's probably's probably. I mean, if you took a five iron you could probably chip shot, if you're really good, over the top of the mountain down into the lake.
Speaker 2:But to hike back to camp it was probably three quarters to a mile away, right, she kind of had to go around yeah, got it so we're sitting up there and it's getting dark, you know, it's getting close to end of shooting time, hunting time, and it's about 7, 7, 15 at night and dennis and I are sitting together. I was like, well, let's head on back to camp. So we literally stand up to start our hike back down to camp and I'm not kidding you, dude the sky erupted with wolves, howling like a complete symphony and they were going crazy and we're trying to figure. Okay, where's this coming from? Where's this noise? I mean, it's, it's unbelievable and I'm so disappointed we didn't take our phones and record it, because yeah it's it.
Speaker 2:You know, at times it's everything that you've heard on tv. I mean, that's what it sounded like. But then there was this one howl that was so eerie, so guttural. I'm sitting there just if you could see my arms. I've got goosebumps from reliving this. It just literally made the hair on your neck stand up like it is now as I'm thinking through this, and Dennis and I were just looking and he's like what is that?
Speaker 2:I mean it was so intense. So we decided, well, let's, let's start heading back towards camp. So, as we're heading back towards camp, it's going on the whole time. You know for the next 15, 20, 30 minutes Quick question. Quick question.
Speaker 1:I just want to. I don't know if you mentioned this and if you did, I apologize, but what, uh? What is like the time of day? Is it daytime? Is it still early morning?
Speaker 2:dark time. Is it still early morning, dark? What is the atmosphere like? So it's about seven o'clock at night. So it's not dark yet, but it's starting. Within the next hour, hour and a half it's going to be dark.
Speaker 1:So you're kind of on that cusp right.
Speaker 2:So we start working our way back to camp and again it's only three quarters of a mile mile away, so it's probably 20 minute walk. And as we go back towards where camp is we have to turn to go back down right To where that lake is and we're probably two to 300 feet above it. So we start hiking down that game trail to where our camp is set up and now the noise is getting loud and loud and louder. So now we're like, okay, they're down somewhere down here.
Speaker 2:But our brains were saying, when we got down to where kind of where camp was at first we were, we were literally taking our binos and we were glassing the mountainside, thinking they're up in the rocks. Why, I don't know. And I clearly remember Dennis saying and I'm looking through my binos and Dennis is like he says to me you don't need your binos. And I look at him and I'm like what? And he goes, look across the lake, and then there they were. So that was my first time ever seeing wolves and there had to be 10 to 15 of them over there and I'll never forget, mike.
Speaker 2:I was sitting there looking through my binos. The noise is overpowering when you get that many wolves howling all at once and they didn't stop. They saw us. So everything that I had ever heard up to that point was if a wolf sees you, he's gone, not true? So we're sitting there and it was kind of like a bucket moment. Right, because I've always wanted to see wolves in the wild. I wasn't afraid at that point because I'm like, oh, they're way over there. I didn't think anything of it at the moment and I watched this wolf through my binos. He literally lowers his head to the water and he's looking up at us and I can sit there seeing through my binos. He's only 70 yards and he's lapping up water and I can just see this literally each time he's, you know, lapping it up, and that's stuck in my brain forever. Well then, what we start to realize is there's a lot more wolves back in the timbers behind there.
Speaker 2:So we really don't know is it 15, 20, 30, we don't know. But we know there's a lot more than what we see. So now we're sitting there and it's by now it's getting close to eight o'clock and they're still howling. This is still going. This has been now almost an hour.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And um, and my opinion. I don't know if this is true or not, but all of a sudden we see one wolf just take off and he starts looping around, coming towards us, and it was almost like there was an intention for him to be sent over.
Speaker 1:That's a whole bag of nopes for me. You got me uncomfortable now.
Speaker 2:So keep in mind, dennis and I are archery hunting. The only thing that we had from a firearm which was a joke, I don't't even know why we took it, but I had a 38 on my hip and, I'm sorry, a 380 on my hip and it had five shots in it. Right, I mean, it's a concealed carry gun that I've got, and why I packed that I don't know. Back then, pretty naive, so, um, that that wolf starts coming around and he's full trot coming and all the others are staying back there and the howling still going on, and I said to dennis, I said I'm gonna fire my pistol and I said they're probably, they're all just gonna take off. And this thing got within about 40 yards of us, I'm guessing, and I fired and dennis had the exact same gun, now that I remember it, so we both had the exact same gun. I said you fire, or I'll fire, then you fire, or something.
Speaker 2:Maybe he went first, I can't remember, but it was like let's fire twice so that the animals know exactly where we are, because now we're getting a little concerned. And we did that. Boom, boom. Well, that one peeled off several of them, went back into the timber, but so they, they did not leave, and there were probably three or four that just stayed right there and just continued to howl and just it's like we didn't scare these guys at all. So now it's getting darker and darker and darker. Now it's probably about 830, 845. And Dennis and I made a little fire and they're getting closer.
Speaker 2:I mean they're not leaving and now it's totally pitch black.
Speaker 1:This goes on until 1030, 11, 1130 at night, and Dennis and I are finally, just like they, they're within 15 20 yards maybe of us could you pinpoint the like, the number or like ballpark it, or it was just like one or two or no idea no, I would get.
Speaker 2:I don't think the pack ever left. I would say there was probably excess of 20, and so we're getting more and more concerned. I'll just be honest we were kind of like crap. What do we do? Yeah yeah, and so we made the decisions like, okay, we're gonna pack up and get out of here, because this just ain't gonna happen reasonable decision yeah yeah, and it's just like there's not going to be any elk around here now with this many wolves anyway.
Speaker 2:So let's pack up. So we did, and the way we did is Dennis packed up first and he was. He's always more organized with packing his pack. He packed up, he's ready, and I'm still folding my tent and trying to get things done, and Dennis is ready to go and I get everything stuffed in and we, like I said, we didn't have our packs yet and we're probably you know, this is the beginning of the trip, so you're probably 45, 50 pounds and I remember rushing and I clipped my belt and it broke and I'm like crap. I got to pack out now with everything on my shoulders because that belt just snapped and so I had a really bright flashlight because my headlamp was just garbage. And I remember as we hiked out that trail to get back up kind of to the, to the main area, to get out of the canyon, I literally was hiking out backwards for the most of it shining, as dennis was kind of going forward because they didn't leave. They continued to kind of follow us for a bit Whoa.
Speaker 2:And we finally get on the trail, we bust, butt, get down and you're just like wired, right. I mean, you've got so much adrenaline going through you, every sense is heightened to the 10th degree. And we come around this bend on the kind of the trail that we were on, and, dude, we walked right into a giant black cow that was like five feet in front of us and we about like a moo cow, a moo cow, right okay yeah, I mean you talk about jumping through your skin.
Speaker 2:Holy cow, lucky we didn't shoot that thing, oh man. So we finally get back to our trucks and, dude, it was an experience, man. I don't worry about wolves to this day in the backcountry, but you know what? That was a moment where it was like ugh. That was a moment where it was like ugh. So we had been to a show over in Cody Wyoming probably three months prior.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And there was a gentleman there that was with Fish and Game and he was the bear-wise coordinator for Cody and I think at the time he had told me he had relocated like 96 Grizzlies.
Speaker 1:What is a bear-wise coordinator? I don't know if I'm familiar with that term.
Speaker 2:So he's an expert on bears Specifically it was grizzlies and Cody, because they're such a nuisance over there but he was also in charge of large carnivores, or tied into large carnivores. So I called him and I'm walking him through what had happened, right, and I'm like why didn't they leave? Why didn't they leave when they saw us? Why didn't they leave when we fired the weapons? And he said oh, I think I know why he goes. I bet that was a rendezvous point. And I'm like what A rendezvous. I never heard of a rendezvous point. What are you talking about? What's a rendezvous point? He goes? Oh, chances are those, those wolves. They're going to meet up there every year. That's where they all. That that group came together there and he goes is either that or they had pups around and they weren't going to leave the pups and um, so, yeah, man, it was, it was. It was a hair-raising event. Um, I've seen wolves a lot since then, but never in that type of environment.
Speaker 1:That's crazy.
Speaker 2:It was a pretty wild deal, man.
Speaker 1:So the howling was for you. It wasn't that they had a kill or something and they were excited or anything like that. They were just trying to tell you guys, get out, this is our spot, basically.
Speaker 2:I guess man. I guess, but it was intense.
Speaker 1:I believe it.
Speaker 2:That basically, I guess, man, I guess, but it was intense I believe it.
Speaker 1:That's terrifying. It did not stop until we got out of there. Yeah huh, pretty wild. Um, what other questions that I had? Did you ever lay eye? You said one in particular was just yeah, way scarier than the rest. Did you ever lay eyes on that guy?
Speaker 2:we think so. It was a black one that was just appeared to be the alpha Okay, right and um. Man, I just, I so wish we would have recorded that sound, because it's, it's indescribable how deep and the only words that and it's, I think it's the words I've always used. It was just very guttural.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And it was just this like, just like you, just never I'd never heard anything like it in my life. Yeah, just like you, just never I'd never heard anything like it in my life.
Speaker 1:yeah, it was that's crazy, you know, it's funny. There's like two types of people. There's the type of people that something crazy terrifying happens, they get their phones out, and then the folks that wish they had done it afterwards, like I'm, I'm in the latter right, I'm the like okay, I gotta solve this situation. And then after right, yeah, it would have been great to record. That sounds like maybe you guys are the same, but there's I had some people on this podcast that are like oh yeah, I got a video of everything and I'm like why would you possibly get your phone out in that situation? There's so many other things you should be doing instead of getting your phone out. I've seen lots of grizzly bear videos and stuff like that where I'm like, oh man, not me, that's not me, no me either, man, my brain was not thinking about recording yeah, did you ask that?
Speaker 1:uh, bear wise specialist any anything else about rendezvous like? Is that, how long do rendezvous points stay in place? Go year after year, but is that five years, 10 years, 15, forever?
Speaker 2:yeah, I don't know. I didn't. I should have probably asked him more questions around it, and you and I talk about it here makes me think I'm gonna go look it up and see what I can learn on it. But yeah I do clearly remember him saying if you ever want to harvest, probably got a good chance if you went back there. They'll be back there year after year.
Speaker 1:That was exactly my next question, which is have you gone back with a tag?
Speaker 2:I haven't, dennis, and I talked about it, though, and I think you know what. We should probably go. Do that.
Speaker 1:And a rifle, a that's a thrilling story. Wolf stories always get me. I mean, obviously here in colorado hot button issue, oh yeah, coming in. You know half of them die every year, but they were coming in anyways. In fact, where I hunt they actually they had wolves previously. In fact I've talked to game wardens there that say there's grizzly bears. They just don't like talking about it because they don't want to do the paperwork. Um, and I understand all of that, but like wolf stories, just they make my hair stand on the back of my neck. I've had a handful of good ones. Mark livesey has a great one, um, britney kitchden, if you know her, uh, former miss north carolina, now she's up in canada but she has a story of wolves coming through some like hay fields. It's like uh jurassic park with the raptors and you can just see the hay moving but you can't see the wolves. I was like nope, just a whole bunch of nopes, that's not for me.
Speaker 2:They just gave me more goosebumps on that one. I got to see that.
Speaker 1:That would be amazing Wow. Wolves are special creatures. I respect them fiercely, but I think I'd rather stay away if possible.
Speaker 2:They're a top predator, for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah absolutely well, joe, we got a little bit more time here. Do you have another story in mind, or do you want to wrap it up here?
Speaker 2:it's entirely up to you, sir yeah, no, I'll tell you one other story um and this was.
Speaker 2:This was one that I got to to share with dennis. Um, so probably around 2017, um, dennis drew kind of a prized bull elk tag in Unit 45 here in Idaho, which that's up in the Fairfield area. It's an area where I think there was only 25 tags that they do on this and it's an archery tag, so it was an area where we were going to hunt kind of a famous mountain. It's called Bennett Mountain, and Bennett Mountain is almost exclusively private. The only way that you can get to the public land is it's literally planes, trains, automobiles and hike your ass off excuse my language up the steepest cliffs to get back into this area. So nobody goes in there on the public side. You just don't do it. We decided we're going to do it.
Speaker 1:There we go.
Speaker 2:That's a good start to every story.
Speaker 1:No one does this. We tried it. We tried it.
Speaker 2:So Dennis and I go in there oh, there's a couple of stories with this one man. So, um, dennis and I go in there and we start scouting it just to kind of let get the lay of the land. And so we literally you, we would, you know, we drove up there so many miles in. We unloaded four wheelers, we drove, we drove four wheelers, you know, probably six, seven miles in, and then we hiked in probably a good four or five miles. So it's definitely an adventure getting back in there. Well, the first time we got up there, you don't know what you don't know, and so we're just hiking all over, and by now we had onyx and base map, those things were out. So we're able to, and you couldn't do that area, I don't think, without it.
Speaker 2:We're able to distinguish the private from the public, and it's difficult. But when we're up there, we did find a couple spots that had a little bit of water, but not much so, and we thought in a couple weeks weeks, man, this water is going to be gone. There's not going to be any water up here, which is going to make it really, really difficult, because we didn't want to have to go up and down 1500 to 2000 feet every day to get water yeah so we made this decision we're going to do a pack-in the week prior and just take in nothing but water for basically a 10-day hunt.
Speaker 2:And so we had three of us it was Dennis and I. I think his son Trey went in and my son Brody might have gone in on that one too. I can't remember. But we packed in a crap load of water and we got it in there, kind of got things and we kind of got the lay of the land where we're going to set up camp. So the following week dennis and I go back in and we hike in there and it's like I said, it's brutal, it's it's rough terrain to get back up in there and we get up on top, get all of our camp set up. It's the day before the hunt we had bulls behind us.
Speaker 2:Literally we're watching bulls raking trees, big bulls yeah it's just like oh my gosh, this is gonna be epic you know, we busted our butt. We've been up here week after week scouting and um, we get camp up and dennis, and are sitting there. We just I literally just put my crocs on, dennis had his crocs on. We're sitting, you know, on these glassing pads right at camp eating our mountain house. Back at the time, and dude, a freaking truck comes driving up right in front of us.
Speaker 1:You gotta be kidding me.
Speaker 2:Exactly. We're like are you kidding me? How is this possible? And they go about a hundred yards up past us and they get out, look over this edge. And they go about 100 yards up past us and they get out, look over this edge and they start wailing on bugles. So Dennis and I look at each other and we're like let's go talk to them. We've got to figure out how is this possible. So we go over there and we start talking to the guy. Well, he gets all upset. He's saying you're on private ground and we're looking out on the map and all that. Well, he gets on the phone with the owner that owns some land that he thought we were on, and the owner's like no, they're good, they're good. So he calmed down and ended up having a good conversation with the guy, but they ended up leaving. He said, hey, we're not going to hunt for several days, yada, yada, yada.
Speaker 2:But they had access through this road from the private landowner, which needs to be nice, right, must be nice, Absolutely. We're like can you bring us some water? So anyways, the hunt starts the next day and we get into the elk quick. I mean it's, it's pretty amazing. Again, it's a classic September day in Idaho. I mean it's like 72, 73 degrees, not a cloud in the sky, and we're in to the tule. I mean we're into all the you know the aspens and just phenomenal elk and elk are screaming everywhere. And so I got one bull to respond really good and he came busting in. But then something happened where dennis drawed back but he couldn't get. He couldn't get everything to work up. Just brush was in the way the bull busted and took off. That happened several times. Where we had a lot of just bulls were working well okay and it's it's heavy timber that we're in.
Speaker 2:So so then we get this other bull that comes in quiet, just dead, still quiet, and we look and Dennis and I are kind of standing. I was standing behind Dennis, we had good coverage around us and this was a big bull. He comes in totally quiet, though, to the calls and he starts walking right in front of Dennis and there's this giant tree that's maybe 25 yards out, probably 20 yards out, and right when that bull walks behind that tree, dennis goes to full draw and that bull comes out and Dennis releases it and something happened and it just sailed right over the bull and he missed it. And this is a gorgeous bull, right, and it's the classic highs and lows of hunting. Right, we were on these epic highs and now we're on these epic lows. Now we're on these epic lows. And I would say, for guys that are out there with your hunting partner, if you're not the one hunting, there's going to be times where you've got to be the biggest cheerleader out there, right, 100%, and rebuild confidence back into somebody that just got deflated and Dennis was, he was really upset with himself. So we're building, I'm building back up, really upset with himself, so we're building. You know I'm building back up, and by now though I got to rewind the clock a little bit by now in the middle of the day my son showed up, so my son, brody, drove in and we were at a high enough area where he was about 15 miles, 10 miles away, and I was able to watch him through the binos because he was he was 16 at the time.
Speaker 2:I remember this as like cause people thought it was nuts, but he was 16 years old. He drove out there and I'm watching him and he unloads a four-wheeler out of back of his pickup truck and then I can kind of watch him do the eight mile drive or whatever it is in, and then we watched him hike in. So, all that to be said, so I bring you up to see my son's with us and so Brody's with us going through all of these experiences. So then we kind of get through that. And then I believe it was the next day we're hunting. We got some elk responding good activity, but they just wouldn't come in.
Speaker 2:We go back over close to where Dennis had missed that elk the day before. I think it was the day before, maybe it was the same day, I can't remember now, but we go back over there and I get this elk to respond really good and I hit him right back with an aggressive bugle at him him kind of a challenge bugle and dennis is, and it's deep timber. So I'm over there, I'm raking with a big old, broken branch brody's filming this on his phone and, um, it's deep, deep, dark timber. Dennis is set a standing kind of kneeling in a crouching, crouch down position in front of a bunch of timber and all of a sudden we see this bull start working his way up and he's coming quick okay and he comes, and he comes, and he comes, and he literally gets five to eight yards away from dennis and dennis can't draw right because I mean he could just reach out and touch him.
Speaker 2:he's right right there. And then, boom, it happens. The bull realizes wait a second, something's not right. And Brody and I are about 15 to 20 feet further back. That bull starts to turn to go and he runs just barely, moves back and I hit him with a cow call. Dennis was thinking and he hit him with a cow call too, and that bull stopped 12, 13 yards away and just stopped completely dead.
Speaker 2:and while all this was going on, dennis was able to stand up and he drew back and he, freaking, launched that arrow and just bam, I mean just nailed that bull awesome this was his first bull and, um, my son, god bless him as that as that bull was charging up, then brody, go, brody, thanks, I can't screw up this hunt if something happens with this camera on my phone. So he stopped it because he was so afraid that he would mess it up. God bless him. So we got the bull running up and that's it. And so Dennis lets the animal. The animal runs it's not far, I mean 20 feet, 30 feet rolls over and we sat there and we just kind of took it all in for a little while before we went over to the animal.
Speaker 2:But I've got this most amazing picture and it's one that everybody's common. You know, you've seen it with people where they kind of have their hand on it and they're praying. But it meant a lot to me, right, to be able to share that with him, to be a part of his first bull elk and to go through the highs and lows of the hunt, right, yeah. And so then here we are, man, we got this bull down and we're deep, deep, deep back in here and I remember looking at dennis going all right, man, what are we gonna do? We got to get this thing out of here. So we did all the the processing right there. We hung up everything in the trees and it was only maybe from our camp a mile, mile and a quarter, so we're gonna leave it up there and just let it cool for the night. But we ended up taking it all back to camp and hanging it up in the trees there and the next that night we start calling people and say hey do you guys?
Speaker 2:what are you doing tomorrow?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we got a bull down up here and get ahold of that guy with the truck right, the guy that drove right in.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, Well actually we did try to get a hold of him. He wouldn't respond. But so we called some friends and my youngest boy, ty, and all of his buddies and Brody's buddies all these young kids said, hey, we're coming by now. We had prototypes of initial ascent packs. So we were given prototype packs to these kids. My wife was putting them together so that these kids could come up and help us. So these kids all show up and there's like six of them, and then we had a couple of other people that showed up.
Speaker 2:Dennis is one of his business partners, from his consulting business, showed up with his father. We had a team of people and so now we're packing all this stuff out, right, and we're doing it in ways we're like, okay, we get all the meat down and then we get all the camp down. So we get everything kind of down, other than one load, maybe, yeah, one, one big load left. And I had all the kids with me now and I'm gonna like, okay, we're gonna, we're gonna take all this meat back on the four wheelers, load, you know, unloaded in the coolers, back at the truck, and then we're gonna come back up and help folks get the last stuff out. So I take all the boys out, and again it's like six to eight boys, I can't remember the exact number. So we get back over and now we are in true idaho.
Speaker 2:Flat desert area is where we were parked, right, where's nothing but, sagebrush, but there are a few lava flow canyons out there that are just, they're just, they're shallow ones. So as we're cruising back, we're within 75 yards to 100 yards of the trucks and there's a cinnamon bear running around down there and I'm just, and my brain is like we got to get this meat on ice. We got to get this meat on ice. And we all stop because there's like four of us on four, you know, four different four-wheelers doubled up, and this one kid named Mason. He goes, mr Elliston. Mr Elliston, I got a bear tag. Can I kill that bear? And I'm like I don't know this kid. I don't know who you are, I don't know what your family thinks or believes, and I literally said to the kid, as I'm continuing to try to get to, I'm like I'm not worried about the bear, I'm like let's get the meat unloaded. And I said I would have to talk to your dad. I got to get your dad's approval.
Speaker 1:That's reasonable.
Speaker 2:And the kid takes off. Next thing you know, I see him on the phone and I'm unloading meat. This bear is still running around in this lava field and with all of us running around. Well, next thing you know, the kid hands me a phone's like my dad's on the phone, and I get on the phone with mason's dad and he's like yep, let my son kill that bear.
Speaker 2:He's killed bears before. I'm like all right. So my oldest boy, brody, his truck's there. He's got a 270 rifle in his truck. Mason grabs his 270 now you picture these eight kids all running towards this lava field Like a soccer team.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I'm standing on the four-wheeler going. This probably is not going to turn out great. And next thing, you know, mason stands up and he's shooting at this bear and the bear's running all over the place. And he's shooting at this bear and the bear's running all over the place and he's shooting. And I remember screaming at Mason. I said lay down and take that shot, cause he was just 200 yards, 300 yards, standing up, shooting, and he laid down, prone, and I'll be darned if he didn't kill that bear.
Speaker 1:There you go.
Speaker 2:So I've got the most, with the whole squad to cheer for him right With the whole squad right, I've got this most amazing picture of these kids coming out of this lava field. All they did was just gut the bear down there. They gutted the bear while I'm doing all this stuff, Actually, I ran back, did one more load. I come back. They're walking out of the lava field. If you can picture six to eight kids carrying a bear like it was a coffin, right they're all around it A bunch of pallbearers.
Speaker 2:A bunch of pallbearers covered with blood, just white faces, sunglasses, hats on backwards, and they don't be, darned if they didn't harvest that bear. So we got an elk and a bear on that trip and it was one of my greatest memories with both of those stories.
Speaker 1:That's a great story. I love the whole soccer team going off bear hunting. I haven't heard anything about that before.
Speaker 2:That's pretty funny. It was awesome.
Speaker 1:Well, joe man, this was a lot of fun. I know we've got limited time here, so let's wrap this thing up. Why don't you tell folks where they can find more information about you?
Speaker 2:Initial Ascent, whatever links you need, and I'll put everything in the show notes. But why don't you go ahead and go into that a bunch? So, yeah, I mean, we sell everything, all of our products. It's at initial ascentcom, um is our website, and we also are on instagram. You know, at initial ascent uh, we've got a youtube page. If you just type in initial ascent, you'll find us there, um, you can find. Also we've partnered up with companies like GoHunt and Black Ovis. They sell our products. But then we're also in Shields. So we're currently in the Idaho location here in Meridian. We're also up in Billings, we're in Sandy, utah, we're over in Reno Tahoe area, in those Shields locations and we'll be going into other locations, I would suspect, as this year goes on. So if you're in any of those areas, you can try them on as well.
Speaker 2:But hey, if you're looking for a backpack, if you're looking for a pack that you know is a one and done, and that's how we look at it, as we look at it as as a lifetime, if we put a lifetime warranty behind our products and, um, you know, we, we, we can tell you one thing our packs are going to carry heavy loads more comfortably, and that's really what we do is we carry heavy loads more comfortably.
Speaker 2:It's a very simple design, so when you're in the heat of the moment, it's quick to to to pack things up and get moving, and it's modular. Any one of our bags works off the same frame and suspension, um, but we also have a female frame that does all the same thing, a youth female. So for the ladies out there that haven't found a pack that fits them, because every other pack is built for a guy, we've got a pack for you as well, and we'd love to help people in any way we can. So if they've got any questions, feel free to reach out to us, you know, either through Instagram or they can contact us directly. We're here to help them in any way we can to make their experience in the backcountry just that much better.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, Joe. I'll give you a little quick story here. I have a backpack not initial ascent, it was free.
Speaker 1:I won it actually on GoHunt but this thing will not stop squeaking and I am fed up with it Like it's to the point that, like when you're out elk hunting and you just constantly have this light squeak behind you, you think you're hearing bugles the whole time. Um, it's awful and I hate it and I got to get rid of it. So initial ascent is on my list. But I've been asking everyone like hey, I got to get rid of my pack, and everybody says initial ascent. I've got like three buddies that have like 15 bags, like they're bag junkies and they're like if you're going to get one initial ascent, um, and then, finally, I'll say that, like when my beard's a little bit longer, I kind of have a little bit of an orange hue and I feel like I look like your logo. So so there we go, man. Well, joe, man, this was a ton of fun. Thank you again. I'll put links to everything in the show notes for the listeners. But go check out, uh, go check out initial ascent guys.
Speaker 2:Thanks again, Joe. Thank you Appreciate it.
Speaker 1:That's it, folks. A few more stories in the books. I want to thank Joe again for coming on the podcast. I think that wolf story it'll stick with me. In fact, I recorded this maybe two weeks ago and I've already told that story to a few people since the release of this actual episode. So thank you again, joe. I do appreciate it. Hopefully we can get Dennis, the other founder, on sometime soon.
Speaker 1:But that being said, guys, if you're looking for a backpack, check out Initial Ascent. There's links to everything in the show notes. I am going to get one. In fact, I'm probably going to get two here, one being the everyday carry, because I just need an everyday bag for work and things like that. And, frankly, I've heard nothing but amazing things and I know that I'm fed up with the bag that I have. So check them out. Links are in the show notes. Beyond that, guys, thank you so much for listening. I really do appreciate you. If you have a story, please reach out. I'd love to hear from you. I'd love to hear your stories. If you've got an old timer, get him on the podcast. Get him or her on the podcast. Just
