Roy Story, Inmates & Ben Blankenship | Keep Hammering Collective | Episode 055

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Timestamps:
0:00:00 Intro: Ben Blankenship
0:03:49 Inmates: Oregon State Penitentiary
0:08:51 Messages to the Inmates
0:12:32 Cam’s Goals for the OSP Inmates
0:17:02 Takeaways from Visiting OSP
0:18:33 Roy Roth Story Time: “Bou’s & Bears Don’t Mix”
0:23:40 Shooting Carp with Recurves
0:26:31 Roy’s Caribou Hunt
0:32:28 A Trophy Caribou
0:34:03 The Packout: Bear Bells
0:35:43 The Charging Grizzly
0:39:12 Outro

#keephammering #cameronhanes

My blood so I am Relentless all right welcome to the keep hammering Collective this is Cameron Haynes and we’re going to do a solo podcast today today’s topics this is a little note for Macy she does my real she’s a creative and real goddess so Macy here’s a topic let’s make a cool reel regarding Ben blankin

Ship my prison visit mentioning jelly roll jelly roll was kind of I talked to him about um kind of my strategy for going and talking to the guys the inmates yesterday up at the Oregon State Penitentiary and then lastly we’re going to have a Roy Roth story time so those

Are the topics of today we’ll start off with Ben Blankenship uh Ben is a runner here in Eugene he’s an Olympian he’s a world record holder and I’ve been running you know people have following along I don’t know if you guys follow me on social media the guys that listen to

The podcast I would assume so I’ve been running Spencer’s but cuz piss gets closed down and trying to get my best time and trying to you know whatever just get faster and push harder so yesterday I was over there with my wife not really going for a PR uh just

Kind of getting a workout in we’re coming down and here comes Ben blankin ship up the trail so I stopped and talk to him and I said uh I said hey so what’s your how fast can you get up this cuz I wanted to just see how I can

Compare I mean I told my wife I said anytime I think that I’m running well um and feeling pretty good about myself and then I run with somebody like Ben I instantly think I have no business even calling myself a runner so point is I asked Ben I said so what’s your time

Up where’ you start this and that and he’s like I said did you park down here at the lower parking lot he’s like well that’s not the lower parking lot he goes it doesn’t it doesn’t count running the hill unless you start from the valley floor so

I’m up probably about halfway off the valley floor to start my climb up to the top of Spencer’s but and uh he of course is one uping me and probably running much faster also or I guaranteed running much faster um he’s getting ready for his first 100 mile he had done I think

Three summits of Spencers and one of baly which is another neighboring Peak all from the valley floor so who knows how many miles he got in but probably 20 years 30 with you know three Spencer Summits would be from the valley floor would be about I don’t know 4500 feet of gain

Plus the other one probably 5,000 foot of gain yesterday for him so Props have been blankinship I know he’s going to crush his first 100 mile I think he told me it was 40 some days or 30 some days out or maybe 50 some days we were both

Counting on doing the spike Camp uh my brother was doing a run on piss gun on the 28th but the storm here that we’ve had sabotaged that and it was going to be as many Summits as you could do in 12 hours so Ben was going to do that I

Planned on doing it for a big big push tuneup into racing season um but yeah so follow Ben blankin Chip he’s a badass he can freaking run he’s I I I think he’s qualified for the Olympic trials maybe three different times and I know he made he went to Rio but

World record holder in the in the relay he ran the last leg I think of the 1600 meter relay so just a stud under four minute Miler um yeah so we’re going to get together and run Ben I already I got a sight ache already in anticipation so

That’s that’s good and then next I uh as I mentioned I wouldn’t talked to the inmates yesterday at the at Oregon State Penitentiary with Wayne indicot this trip was set up by uh it’s called agap families and what that is is it’s a group that helps the children of incarcerated

Parents so these kids their mother and dad or maybe both are in prison and so the kids are you know left to F for themselves essentially other I mean I’m sure there’s family stepping in or maybe foster parents but uh without their mom and dad it’s you know that’s a challenge

It’s a challenge being a kid just in general but if you don’t have your your mom and dad at home even harder so this group focuses on helping those kids they set up this trip uh Elijah wheeler was the contact I made I saw him over here at Gates family

Tradition meets when I was dropping off a a kill that I had I was going to get it processed and he was there too and so he asked if I’d ever be interested in talking to the inmates and yeah I mean I’m I’m I’m always wanting I mean to me it’s a huge

Opportunity to be able to go and hopefully positively influence others regardless of where that is whether that’s at the B Rack or that’s at a a sport show or a or a race or on the mountain just on an impromptu training run or in a prison I’m trying to make a

Positive difference and so that was my goal I talked to jelly roll about it because you know he wasn’t prison himself and he’s made such an incredible transformation back into society which is difficult for inmates and trelly rolls has went from being and he’ll say

In his own words very selfish you know a drug dealer um served his time missed you know a lot of uh a lot of Life while he was in there but he got out now he’s I think 38 years old and nominated for a Grammy so we can learn a lot from

Somebody like like jelly roll and I asked him you know uh we were back listening to him play at the Opry and I said I had this trip coming up and I said do you have any advice and he says yeah just go in there and shoot it to

Him straight just be honest and just be yourself and um yeah just give him some stories and so that’s what I did I went in there and I mentioned Joey roll to the guys of course everybody loves Joey roll and they know his story and you know specifically

His song save me was um was a song a number of the inmates mentioned yesterday but I went in there and spoke to those guys and you know I can’t judge their past Behavior or actions I don’t know I got some backstory after the fact but face to face these guys seemed great

Of course I don’t know everybody has demons everybody makes mistakes and when I look at some of those guys it’s one mist mistake it’s one mistake one bad break and I can’t look down on men like that because I’ve been probably in similar situations of of some of those guys and

I got lucky and I can think of you know I drove drunk a number of times I totaled I totaled at least one truck and should have probably been seriously injured in that one rolled over speeding hit a bank think it was you know should

Have been a um I mean it could easily been a tragic accident so but it’s self-induced I got lucky it was just me but if I would have drifted because I I do you know you look at the tire marks I drifted into the other lane over corrected into the bank slammed rolled

This whole thing if another car would have been coming in the other from the other direction and I would have hit them and who knows Family a person by themselves whatever I could have easily killed somebody because I was impaired and I was driving if I would have if that would

Have been my bad break I could easily be serving time or have served time this was you know a number of years ago but could you imagine somebody getting hurt or killed because of of me driving drunk so I can’t and maybe some of those guys

That’s why they’re there I I don’t know but all I know is like I’ve been lucky in life and I haven’t been perfect when you’re not perfect and you’re not living a healthy lifestyle you make a mistake that’s how you pay that’s how our society is set up to make people who

Make errors like that pay and so when I talk to these guys man I know they’re clean and sober now because they’re serving time and the guys in this group um I I will say a Wayne indot was also speaking to and he was he incredible his

Testimony he was pretty much born to preach it wasn’t it wasn’t a uh a gospel type group of people but I’m sure you know a lot of them are Christians read the Bible find strength in faith so I know Wayne’s words resonated his testimony res resonated and he’s very

Good at it he could easily be a preacher it seems like to me he’s like just so confident in his faith and and what he’s saying so I was greatly inspired by Wayne I was uh I’m not I’m not that good like that I mean I can tell stories so I

Would just I got up there I listened to Wayne and I was you know I was moved by his testimony as were a number of the inmates um but me I’m I don’t know it’s just like writing I’m not you know Wayne is so uh serious

And so tactical and just precise in what he says and I’m more of like Storyteller i’ like when I write I like Adventure and so I would just get up there and I would just tell stories to the guys and just say you know my message was um you know there’s different times

Where we can influence others those guys are in are in a position now where maybe they can’t have a positive influence on the world right maybe they can’t necessarily even impact their family but they can positively impact the guy sitting next to them or their cellmate

Or the people they spend time with maybe training cuz some of these guys train and they have CrossFit thing coming up that hopefully I can be part of up there but they can positively impact the guys there so as I said it’s like if we’re not making a positive difference in this

World what are we doing right and sometimes that positive difference maybe if you’re lucky and you have this reach and you can touch people in different areas of the world maybe you can make a difference to even people you’ll never meet or maybe it’s just your friends and

Family and like your actions your discipline your the way you carry yourself maybe elevates others right and that’s that’s a win that’s what we should do but those guys aren’t in position to do that right now but they can make a positive difference in their own environment in prison they can and

So that was the message I gave them you know it’s it my story is a keep hammering story it’s you just show up every day you can’t control yesterday you can’t you don’t know what tomorrow holds but you can control today so what are we doing today to get better what

Are we doing today to make a positive difference on those we love or spend time with and so that was my message um that’s what my book endure deals with that’s what keep hammering the Mantra I think represents it’s just showing up you know I tell the stories talked about

My boys they love hearing the stories about my boys and and what they’re up to the pull-ups and the bench competition that Tanner wins every year and you know and I was told him about Tru it and his pull-ups and I said I’m not talking these Kipping pull-ups I know you guys

Talk CrossFit I’m not talking Kipping pull-ups I’m not talking chinups I’m talking pull-up pull-ups and I said he did 8100 and they’re like woo you know clapping and all fired up and I talked about our bench press competition everybody lovev everybody knows what 225 feels like a lot of those guys are

Lifters so I said Tanner busted out 20 reps this year and tro did 18 and they were they were all fired up so they they want they want me and the boys to come and train with them and my goal if I had

If I had a goal as I said I I want to impact others if I could do anything my goal would be able to take wild gay meat up to the Oregon State Penitentiary feed those guys some elk meat CU I said they talked about supplements and if they’re going to get

Protein in there and different things and I said you know there’s no no better supplement than elk meat and I would I would give anything to be able to share elk meat with the inmates up there and we can’t do the lift run shoot the whole full meal deal because we can’t be

Shooting bows in prison but I do want to go up there and run and train with them so that’s my goal and I want to share my kills with them I want to I want them to know what um just a fellowship of sharing a like an elk kill that I worked

Hard for and and took care of and brought home and it’s out of my freezer I want you know Hunters are providers and we provide to our community and those inmates are part of the community you know in a certain way and so just like anybody else I’d love to provide a

Good meal for them and uh and share some fellowship so that’s my goal you know a side goal would be God could you imagine if we get jelly roll up there to play music they said they used to have music back in the day there’s there’s a guy I

Talked to been in there for 31 years and he said years ago they used to have concerts at the penitentiary up there and you know they haven’t I think there was an incident something happened but my dream would be for somebody like it’d be great Jelly Roll Just because

Everybody loves him because they have that kindered spirit with them about he he’s been an inmate himself so that would be my my incredible dream to uh you know and I just to distract them from their situation for a little bit of time I mean hey everybody needs to share serve their pentant

Everybody you know you make you make mistakes you you have to pay that’s how life works but I hope last night was a distraction I hope uh last night gave them something else to think about and I I want these other events to do that same thing I’m

Not saying that they shouldn’t have to pay for the mistakes they made I’m just saying I would like to be able to have give them a little little snip at a time to think about something else maybe it’s music maybe it’s lifting maybe it’s elk meat maybe it’s just good stories maybe

It’s just how can I positively impact the the man beside me who also made a mistake so it’s uh it was I don’t know I’m like I don’t really know how to process it other than it was empowering it was um it was a it was an honor for

Me um they seemed like great guys every person I talked to you know seemed like good people I mean I I don’t know I don’t know their past you know I I know that they’re clean and sober now and looking into Clear Eyes was uh

I I don’t know I enjoy talking to the guys so um yeah I have a lot of sympathy you know I can’t I don’t want it to sound like the the victims aren’t suffering um but I have I just have empathy for people who are uh both both

The victims and the perpetrators I guess in certain situations I just it just sucks it sucks that that you know there’s evil in the world but it doesn’t last forever so we need to be able to forgive and move on at some some point people pay their

Pay their what they owe for their sins and um man I just had I had a good time up there talking to those guys and uh I don’t know I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it so I wanted to mention it here so I don’t know that’s

That was my experience there I want to thank Joey roll for his uh for his advice and uh you know as I told them up there he was very selfish self- admitted now he’s very generous very the biggest heart um and also there was some there

Was two guys who went with us who served an EXT extensive amount of time in that Penitentiary and now they’re out and they’re both married and they’re both doing great so reform does happen and there are success stories and those two of those guys went went with us yesterday or in

Our group uh Wayne and I were the only ones who spoke but there’s other guys that used to be inmates and and a lot of the inmates knew them and you know it’s it’s a success story it’s good for the inmates to see somebody who’s who’s served their time went out and now

They’re successful members of society and they’re flourishing so that’s you know it gives people hope I think that I think that’s the number one takeaway from it is let’s give people hope I think everybody deserves uh Second Chance and I think everybody deserves to believe there’s hope in this world so

That’s my take away from it um I want to thank AAP families for the opportunity to get up there and hopefully make a positive impact on those inmates and I want to thank Wayne for being such a such a strong leader not only in this community but for everybody else who

Know know him as a herd bll on my LIF run shoot series Wayne is uh he’s he’s an incredible leader so herb thank you uh thank you for everybody who made that possible last night it definitely enriched My Life um so the the final part of this uh solo podcast here is

It’s going to be Story Time Roy and I loved story time telling hunting stories or I would write stories about his hunts and that’s what I did I wrote this story about an incredible hunt he had this was in full draw bow hunting this was uh the year

Was what is the year here man it should say something where H oh 1999 looks like so it’s been a little while ago 1999 yeah so this this story here let’s see I I had it but this is one of I think Roy’s best Adventures he you know he was always looking

For a lot of times hunting Alaska is about logistics and so this this trip required he drew a awesome Caribou tag up there which a lot of caro tags in Alaska are over the counter you just buy them but there are some premium draw areas that just hold trophy Bulls

Because it’s it’s managed more for trophies for uh it’s not managed for opportunities so anybody who wants to hunt can go there it’s more manage for for trophies so they limit the number of opportunities the number of tags it allows the Bulls to get older and maybe

Larger so Roy Drew this good Caribou tag but to get to the country he wanted to hunt it took some planning and Logistics so let’s get into the story this is in uh this is a full draw Adventure is what it says the title of the article is Bose

And bears don’t make so Bose is kind of shortened slang for Caribou uh bows and bears don’t Mi boou the subtitle was how quickly does it take for jubilation to change into sheer Terror and how long it t about how about as long as it takes a sa Grizzly

To charge from the Alaskan BR B Bush God hopefully I can read the rest of the article better than that but anyway you get the gist so here we go what on Earth could possibly rival the adrenaline rush of one experiences the adrenaline rush one experiences when arrowing the new

Number two Pope and young Baron ground Caribou how about facing the prospects of stopping a charging Grizzly mere feet from engulfing a loved one now either one of these experience would caused most of us to suffer an adrenaline overload but couple of these incredible happenings together on the same hunt and

One could probably measure adrenaline Lev adrenaline levels on the RoR scale God luckily I can write better than I can read so I did write this article believe it or not hey guys I’m going to tell you something a little personal I got my labs done by a company called Blow

And found out that maybe they could help me in order to keep grinding hard I figured it was time for a check under the hood BLS helped me do that they sent someone to my home for a blood draw never seen that many vials I had a

Consultation with a clinician to go over the results and they sent me a 40-page functional report we went through stress markers hormone markers did a full thyroid workup looked at heart health and a lot more we came up with a plan personalized to me based on my

Biomarkers and my goals they sent me supplements and therapies to my door BLS looks at Health differently than any doctor I’ve ever been to before it’s a proactive approach it’s in-depth I think they are disrupting the sick care system and I’m happy to support companies like

Them BLS is doing all they can to keep me hammering day after day they’re offering you 20% off Labs if you use code cam at checkout b.co cam that’s b.co Cam for 20% off your Labs Ketone IQ is my podcasting superfood I’m no Andrew huberman so talking for hours actually

Takes a lot out of my brain power which I feel like Ketone IQ actually helps with Ketone IQ is a clean energy boost without caffeine or sugar it increases your blood Ketone I’m not on a keto diet but by taking Ketone IQ I can achieve the desired focus and energy for

Explosive workouts that ketones typically provide those in ketosis you can find Ketone IQ at your local Sprouts or online at hmn.com and use code cam cam for 20% % off your first order yeah so that’s the gist of it Roy goes up kills a number two Caribou he he hardly ever entered

Anything in the book this was a giant caribon he killed it with his recurve to top it off and then had this grizzly that charged so we’ll get into it when my hunting partner Roy Roth left for his first Caribou hunt since moving to Alaska four years ago I had no doubt he

Would return with many memorable not noteworthy experiences you see Roy and I used to be Inseparable hunting partners prior to his big move to Alaska and if I don’t know anything I do know that when Roy goes a field he gets results although I incessantly poke fun of the C

Bow he uses for hunting that’s what I’d call the recurve because we used to go fish car or shoot karp with the recurve and back when you could bait Bears here in Oregon we’d go and we’d shoot karp out here at Fern Ridge it’s kind of low water youd get warm in the

Summer and those carp would come in there and spawn in the spring and uh we’d go and kill a bunch of carp and then we’d haul it out and use it as bear bait cuz those carp stink and to get a bear bait going you need we’d say

We need some stink and stink just meant rotting fish you put rotting fish in a gunny sack maybe 20 foot up a tree where the bear couldn’t get it and then that scent is going to go up and down the valley for miles or the draw whatever

They’re in and a bear will come and then we’ll have better bait you know cuz the stink only get you so far they like the sweet stuff too but we would rely on carp to get those bare baits going well we used a recurve to do that I I’ve

Never hunted with recurve so I would make fun of Roy when he he switched to a recurve because he’s having Target Panic with his compound right so the recurve kind of cured that Target panic because recurve is is not the anticipation of hitting the trigger and releasing an

Arrow the recurve is like much like throwing a baseball it’s just Instinct you just kind of Judge you see what you want to get that ball to like a a m or whoever you’re throwing it to and you just throw it just Instinct well that’s recurve so you just pull back and you

Just shoot with Instinct so it kind of it’ll correct Target panic and and it’s not really addressing Target Panic it’s just like bypassing it Roy switched to recurve had great success and then came back to compound but that’s that’s another story so get back to the article

Here although I incessantly poke fun of the cart bow he uses for hunting a black Elite custom recurve and he throws the occasional Barb toward my string gun that’s what he’d call my compound at this time it was a psse Carrera is what I was shooting it good bow for back in

The day I respect no one else like I do Roy for his toughness woodsmanship and consistent archery success Roy has been there from the beginning in fact as he was the one to get me started in the wonderful world of archery I reciprocated by proding him into the extraordinary world of

Photography I always love taking taking photos so anyway Roy turned into a great photographer also back to the article I was there when he arrowed his first bull elk he helped me trail my first bear you get the picture if anyone has ever had a hunting partner Roy was mine and I was

His sure we have shared hunts since there was a sitco blacka hunt on Kodiak last fall the spring bear hunt and the chugat mountains of Alaska before that but now it’s more than the exception than the rule than when we share hunting cap as a result I now live Roy’s hunts

Vicariously through his stories and photos I believe this the story of Roy’s Caribou Hunt is one for the Ages which has inspired me to put his narrative into written Pros it is as follows on the inauguration of this hunt Roy was accompanied by his father Rey and 16-year-old nephew Chris who would

Help pack in Camp stay a night or two then leave Roy for the remainder of his two-e vigil before returning to help him pack out Roy did a considerable amount of homework research in an area that held a good number of Pope and young bows that that receive little or no

Hunting pressure again this is he would get further away that was that was our key to success on anywhere even back here in Oregon we just want to outwork everybody get the country nobody else wanted to go to or it was too much effort to get to so we could have

Hunting basically pristine hunting on our own these animals hopefully hadn’t seen many humans and that was the goal because it’s different when you’re hunting animals that are hunted by every other I would say Tom Dick and Harry I mentioned in in my book but when you’re competing against everybody else and

Have to overcome the the senses and the survival instincts of the animal it’s very tough we would try to eliminate competition by going further that’s what Roy did here eventually Roy did find a region on the Kenai Peninsula that fulfilled his predetermined mandates and although this territory was renowned for producing

Trophy Class caribo would also require ridiculous a ridiculous amount of effort to get gear and pack animals into this isolated area ah but this is what sets Roy apart from every other Tom Dick and Harry packing a bow for Roy no effort is too great you know what I never I hadn’t

Even read this article yet in years but I remember I I’d always talk about when we were competing his other guys I’d always mentioned Tom Dick and Harry and waa it’s in this article as well if you can imagine so that was just must have

Been I think I wrote my book where I mentioned that in 19 1999 which is when I wrote this article so we go through phases in our life where we have these references and we just use them all the time during that period and then we’re

On to the next well at case in point right here so I’ll continue the trip began with a 4-Hour drive from his home in Palmer then there was three separate trips of gear and pack llamas and raised jet sled 25 miles across a large glacier fed Lake that had all the qualities and

Appearance of the ocean ocean itself from there it wasn’t enough the region Roy planned on Hunting was 8 mil Inland the pack trail that led across a tundra was very wooded with tall grass providing mostly ground cover this Trail paralleled a small stream that was so

Full of salmon it appeared as though one could walk from bank to bank without getting their feet wet packed with salmon and their back stick up above the water in this place so it as I said it’s like you could walk across on top of fish to get to the other side

As unique of a sight the salmon stream was it was also a bit unnerving anyone who has spent time in Alaska knows that where there are salmon there are bears however Roy Ray and Chris were reassured by Alaska fishing game biologist that this area had held a low number of

Resident Grizzlies and in all likelihood the only Bears they would potentially have to contend with were black bears and heck everyone knows that even if there are a few Grizzlies around they’re more afraid of you than you are of them right that’s rhetorical after packing for approximately 8 Miles the trio found an

Old moose hunting campsite which they decided to use as their base camp Caribou season had commenced a couple days prior so Roy and Chris decided to go a field for a quick evening hunt to familiarize themselves with the area as race setup Camp Roy and Chris had scarcely begun their track when they

Spotted a caribou sporting extraordinary headgear the Bull’s position could not have been any more perfect for Roy to try and sneak into cart bow range I mean bow range this caribo was behaving in an atypical manner compared to the others of his lineage by that I mean he was by

Himself whereas Carib are historically heard animals this bull is slowly plotting along all by himself nibbling on brows not to mention the train he was in consisted of small patches of Alders and Rolling Hills which is very conductive to a close quarters approach while Chris served centry from

A far Roy quickly closed to within about 30 excuse me Roy quickly closed to within about 60 yards thanks in large part to an ideal to ideal conditions from there he switched a super slowmo as he inched on his butt towards the unsuspecting Monarch by using the crust

Of a hill as a shield he kept his eyes on the bobbing Crown points of the bull as he nibbled on the bunch grass while UNC unar God D unartistic still sound right but you you know what I meant um slowly plotting forth time seemed to

Stand still as Roy Rose from his half Crouch and while he cleared the uppermost tentacles of the brush grass his line of sight ever changing the Bulls vitals became increasingly Expos exposed until Roy had the opportunity he needed reaching full draw Roy’s middle finger settled firmly into the corner of

His mouth that’s his Anchor Point right here as he visualized his money spot behind the bull shoulder Roy’s Arrow cut through the 30 yards of air in a beautiful Arc that only an Archer could appreciate and instantly disappeared in the caribo Slate grey hiide just like

That history was made Roy had taken his first caribou and the new number two poping young bearing ground velvet category Caribou the bull also qualifies for Boon and Crockett record book not bad for beginner but as I keep telling him Roy how how do you ever expect to

Take a world record animal if you keep shooting the first thing you that’s tongue and cheek number two of all time are you kidding me so incredible so the Velvet category it’s uh yeah I had I had the number one not this is a different

Species but I had the number one on qu Quebec Labrador Caribou The Velvet category only lasts for twoe scoring period unless they’ve changed it um this one was the number two of all time in the Velvet category of Baron ground so not really sure how that works now

But at that time it was a giant bowl over 400 Ines which if people who know Caribou know that’s incredible as Roy quickly approached a fallen Caribou he he realized what an awesome trhy he had down this was by far the biggest caribo who had ever laid eyes on it was

Well after Sundown by the time Roy and Chris completed the skinning and boning of the bull Ray was waiting up an to learn about the cause of their tardiness Spirits were high as they filled Ray in on the hunt over dinner and made plans for their departure in an effort to

Salvage all the meat early the next morning the trio took the llamas back to the Harvest site to load up the bone do meat that Roy had hung in nearby trees to cool with the llamas loaded up they headed back to base camp where they enjoyed Caribou backstrap cooked over

The campfire the mood was one of marryt as Camp was disassembled llama packs were filled and finally Roy Ray and Chris wrestled their heavy pack frames into their familiar place on each of their backs and with one last look around Camp everyone fell in line and

The a mile packout began the packout was going to cord in plan the llamas performing admir ad admirably and so on the trail was disturbingly full of bare sign and Salon carcasses will strewn all about however granted it was not unexpected and the group was prepared but it was still unsettling

Both llamas and the hunter sported bear bells and the group made an allout effort to to be noisy on the pack out so it’s not to startle any bears so they had a collar for the llamas with bells on it and that generally will spook up

You know animals can hear so much better than us and a bell in the on the tundra is not a normal sound so generally that would always spook a bear well before you’d ever see it all the llamas had bear Bells Ray was in the

Lead with about 70 lbs of a meat and gear on his back with with Ray’s grandson Chris wearing a 45 caliber Colt revolver revolver and a holster on his hip behind him leading the llamas Roy brought up the rear as he struggled with an awkwardness of packing those gigantic

Caribo allers along the narrow Brushy Trail Chris dutifully unsnapped his holster as a trail continued towards the trail head all the while ringing their bear bells and singing silly songs for additional noise Roy would just be singing anyway it wouldn’t had nothing to do with bears he just loved to

Sing but it probably would help spook bear also along with the bells and the and the not a great singer but enthusiastic so I’m sure that generally would work to run bear off as they entered an area with very tall grass the aroma of fresh fish filled the air in a

Matter of seconds a living Nightmare unfolded Before Their Eyes as a large s stood up above the grass a mere 2 5 ft in front of Ray and Unleashed a half Roar half Bellow That Shook the woods the bear seemed to zero in on Ry emitted another Roar and shook her head

Furiously saliva flying all about her muzzle the bear with clear intent charged full B Ray’s first instinct was to run but he simply was packing too much weight to react as the S charg Ray realized his only option was to dive out of Chris’s potential line of fire and

Assume a defensive position with cat-like reflexes Chris responded immediately to the charging bear his first shot missed but Chris cooly connected with the second shot the bullet hitting the bear directly above the right eye and exiting behind the left shoulder the grizzly died instantly and dropped a mere 5T from Ray and a

Short 10 ft from Chris the whole episode lasted no more than a few seconds in fact because he was behind the llamas Roy never even saw the grizzly he heard a Roar and then the two shots almost simultan simultaneously as Roy sprinted past the llamas towards the commotion his mind

Raced he figured that Chris and Ray had run into a black bear and being ever the cautious ones fired a couple of warning shots to Spook the animal needless to say he was very surprised as he stared incly at the aftermath that lay before him Ray sped out in the Tall Grass to

The side of the trail virtually pinned by the weight of his pack Chris stood slack jawed with the 45 still spewing a thin line of white smoke from the end of the barrel and an 8-ft Grizzly sprawled out in the trail sitting in the wet grass they all stared blankly and

Silently as if shell shocked if Chris’s sha would have done anything but drop the Bear in his tracks Ray would have likely been mauled and as anyone who knows anything about this will tell you dropping the world’s largest carnivore in his tracks is truly a rare

Feat grandpa um yeah so I said in quote little Chrissy Chris was only 16 and you know grandpas have nicknamed for their grandkids so being Chris as young he was actually very tall at this time I I always remember Chris had big hands he was just a great kid hard worker big

Strong hands um and as 16 years old just is I mean can you imagine performing like that at 16 what it takes to to make that shot in such an intense moment and Chris did it missing it the first time dropping it that that hole right above its eye

Saving his Grandpa’s life essentially uh for the most part um so much respect so little Chrissy as his grandpa calls him during lighter times deserves a lot of credit for single-handedly adverting a sure disaster obviously the S wasn’t bluffing or charge and in one cataclysmic moment Chris at 16 years of

Age excelled in a situation where many grown man would have fled failed or folded like a cheap suit Chris ever The Humble hero tells me matter of fact that I did what I had to do being a man of strong Christian faith Ray is convinced that the Lord directed

Chris’s shot and he thanks and praised him for protecting him and his family he is also thankful he has a grandson with a cool head and a brave heart incredible story um one of many from a from Roy’s time in Alaska I mean so so you spend enough time in the woods

With Grizzlies and brown bears and even black bears you’re going to have Close Encounters and Roy had a number of them you know I’ve talked before about when I killed my uh I guess it was my second brown bear you know we had a s charge

Just like this and Roy had to kill her um so it happens but for a 16-year-old to be able to come up in in the clutch like that and save his Grand grandpa um incredible so you know sadly um both Ray and Chris are both gone now um you know

Chris there was uh Roy had cabins that used to go and stay out in Black Bear Hunt and going up one of the cabins was 75 miles up the the big Sue and um that river is wide there’s a lot of channels on it uh sadly one time um it

Was I had Tanner up there on a bear hunt and Chris was coming up after we had just left he was coming up and a a willow there’s like these little these willow trees that kind of grow in the river because there’s so many deep channels and shallow channels different

Things but you’re kind of weaving in in in amongst the The Willows well a willow tree had caught on the front of the boat boat and the momentum of the boat carried the willow bran Willow Tree forward and then it snapped over the the

Uh bow of the boat and hit Chris in the neck and ended up killing him as going up to the bearer cabin so Chris this was years after that I think he was uh 21 or 22 when that happened but Much Too Young To Die much too young young to die I

Mean I’m thankful he was there for this experience when he was 16 because he saved his grandpa and Ray is still alive and that’s Roy’s dad and Roy’s mom surely they’re you know doing doing great um so without Chris there who knows what would happened to Ry so I’m

I’m thankful for that it’s um you know it’s bittersweet because Chris was so young and you know relatively speaking Roy was young when he fell and died too at 49 um but you can’t explain life sometimes you can’t explain life and death and that’s you know it’s not for us to understand

Fully I guess all the time um but yeah I wanted to share that story I wanted uh I’m going to share more Roy stories on here and uh just because I think I think they deserve to be talked about I think Chris you know he’s been gone for a number of years now

He died before Roy did and uh you know on Roy’s boats on those jet sleds they had the memorial for Chris the dates you know when he was born and when he died and um so we’re always trying to honor their legacy Roy did that when he was

Still here you know after Chris had passed and and we’re still going to do that with Roy and and Chris respectively so um tragic loss of both of them my heart still Lakes for their family their families and uh yeah so that’s uh an incredible story of an

Amazing hunt that I wrote about with Roy and I’m going to share more of them here but that’s today’s that’s today’s podcast um hope you enjoyed it I hope people can learn something from these experiences and these stories and thank you for tuning in in the meantime keep hammering I’ll

Catch you on the next one stuth tell stop I use every comment hate that makes my feel gather up my energy and boom I hear them talking saying the way that I move is so reckless that is a part of my mind I’ve been blessed with

Giving my blood so I am Relentless my fault they want someone to blame they sent their hate it fuels my Pace I am Roy tough I am the change the F in dirt feeling like cams