Also, are there not birds besides an occasional grouse? I live on the edge of town and most of my property is surrounded by woodland farm and I have birds everywhere. If I go for a hike in the numerous forest preserves in the area I'd have to try really hard to not see one single bird.
One of the contestants mentioned spotting a grouse. I think he missed the moment. They are there but this area is really sparsely treed and populated. From looking at the area the trees are recent second growth, most likely from fire and disease. You can see the evidence of landslides and some logging. That means precious few animals. They need trees for cover and food.
That's a great point! A motorboat on a lake, unless it is especially quiet, would be heard. It could be they are far enough away. As far as other boats I can only imagine that the areas are blocked off while the show is being filmed. Imagine being alone and a pair of hikers come across them.
Grizzly bears are absolutely terrifying, as shown in this "release" video by Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks:
I grew up in Northern Ontario, 60 miles more or less from where this occurred. Black bears normally mind their own business, not this time. They can move a lot faster than any human can in the wild as you can see in this video. I never had any run ins only the odd sighting and evidence that they were around the house.
Holy S**T Mama bear was a beast. I wonder how he escaped a full on mauling. Like you I grew up around them for a while but never had a serious encounter.
He startled the bear, that's why it charged him. Prior to him yelling at the bear it didn't even know he was there. Bears have poor eyesight, they see motion much more than shapes. I too grew up in N. Ont. My grandfather, and then father ran a hunting lodge,which included major bear hunts each year, lots of experience with black bears. None with grizzly bears.
Guaranteed the bear could smell him and he did exactly what you're supposed to do when a black bear approaches you, make noise, make yourself as big as possible, never turn your back and run.
In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments, there are consequences. Day 26. 5 people remain Oregon Biko decides to build a door for his shelter. And he lugs stones up a steep hill to shore up his fire place. And in doing so he found some clay. Penn Rose puts hot water in an empty bottle she found. Then she finds a bear trap. Before she gets to set it up a bear circles her. She's terrified. I'm scared for her. Alaska Colter dries mushrooms. Lots of them. And he insulates his shelter roof. Looks like a hobbit house. He shows us the chewed up food. In his mouth. Pretty sure i hate him now. But he won't give up. So he fishes. Successfully. Idaho Clay uses every part of the deer he caught. And he stuffed the head. He uses deer brain to help tan the deer skin. He is woken in the middle of the night by something large. Snapping branches. So he sets up an air horn trip wire to frighten off any predators. This guy is going to win. UK Theresa forages for berries and roots before winter comes. And gets lost in the woods while doing so. She found a bounty of berries. So she built a raft. And she uses that raft to nearly freeze to death. She warms herself by the fire. So much so she received first degree burns. First sign of winter. It snowed. While pretty. It also reveals all the recent bear tracks. Everyone is tired. Everyone is dragging. They're cold. And they're hungry. This isn't a good time. Not even, really, for the viewer. It's day 30. 5 people remain still.
Today's episode, in this season, is the first that did not have precious people dominating the air time...and for that I am thankful. I am somewhat dubious about the "found" bear trap. Maybe it is still in that nice of condition after laying in the woods...but that seems doubtful. Theresa getting lost felt dubious too. While it is easy to get disoriented in the woods when you have no reference point, there was fresh snow on the ground making me wonder why Theresa did not simply find her tracks and follow them out. As mentioned earlier, something drastic must have happened in these woods for there to be so little wildlife. I have more rabbits, squirrels, and birds in my back yard, and this is the suburbs. If I venture into the woods in my area it is noisy with wildlife, and you can't go more than 30 seconds without seeing something moving around. Maybe the bears are eating EVERYTHING. The snow and cold will change things quite a lot, some better, but mostly for the worse. I am wondering how much longer the bears will be out and about before hibernation?
Theresa in the lake was a bit scary. She was really messed up when she came out. I kept thinking she was going to fall in that fire.
I can't say with certainty but a bear trap is probably made of cast iron so it shouldn't wear too much, even in extreme weather.
This was my thought, too. I happened to watch a Grizzly bear program where it showed a section of a river teeming with salmon. There were dead salmon everywhere along the banks, the majority barely touched. Apparently, because of the plentitude, the bears were going for the brains or eggs and leaving the meat. The even more interesting thing was that they concluded in many cases, it appeared that many of the kills were just because they could, not necessarily for subsistence. Killing for sport. How human of them!
Wear is one thing, rust is another. She pulls the found bear trap out of the grass and it is very clean and non-rusted for the most part. Depending on the metal, and length of time it has been in the woods, it could be in that great of condition. I think the area they were in allowed bear trapping until 2016. If this is true it could be a new trap was forgotten, and has been in the woods for only five years. I'm not going to lose sleep over it, but it does seem a bit odd.
I was doing some things while watching the episode so I missed why Theresa went into the lake in the first place. I will say, from a survival standpoint, it is NOT a good idea to go into the cold water when you do not have a warm dry place to escape to, are alone, and have no readily edible food to generate energy. I think Theresa made a rather large mistake going in the cold water period, let alone for 30 minutes....She got lucky, but she is not totally "fine" yet because she has not fully recovered from an energy used standpoint. That 30 minute swim may have cost her a weeks worth of stored energy she is not getting back without ample food, rest, and dry warmth.
summary. Rose isn't allowed to use the found trap since grizzly bears are off limits in BC since 2017. Looks like Idaho Clay will be have a close encounter of the worst kind in the next and I think final episode, my listings don't show an upcoming EP 9. Finally someone catches a rabbit.....it only took a month!!! UK Theresa...what the hell was she thinking, lesson learned I hope. Sometimes big risks payoff in this case I think it will be a huge calorie expenditure that will cost her. on to week 8.
I hear you concerning next episode being the last....something in my gut says things will close quickly based on many things. Lack of attainable food. Impending colder, harsher weather. Bears getting bolder every day. Concerning the bear trap....As long as Rose does not use the trap to harm a bear I think she could use it however she sees fit. I can imagine many ways to use that trap. Just think of the possibilities of using the spring system as part of your snare/trap set up for other critters. Maybe use the trap to make a home defensive mechanism...it would certain have the power to move and rustle a large amount of stuff if rigged properly, and this could scare off the bears....hopefully. One thing I have learened with bears is they are tenatious. Once they think there might be something edible....they never stop until they eat that stuff, or prove it is not edible. You can watch videos of bears smashing windows and eventally tearing van doors off to get at the cooler full of food inside...They smell it and they want to eat it...PERIOD. When you have a super sensitive nose and you are made of teeth, claws, and have 600-800 lbs of muscle being driven by a natural need to pack on the lbs before hibernation you pretty much get to do what you want to everything that is not able to overpower you directly. NOBODY on this show has a bear proof dwelling. The only thing keeping the bears out at this time is a lack of desire to get in...yet.
And the further it gets into winter, the more desperate and food aggressive any bear still not in hibernation becomes.
It was interesting to listen to Theresa's discussion on foraging and calories. It explains a lot of what she and apparently Colter have been doing. They are both experts at the craft. Still that is not going to save them. Neither have enough to go a few days once snow really sets in. Good thing Colter got fish. Theresa is clearly articulate and intelligent on her subject of outdoor survival. I picked her to last to three people but she doesn't have that innate skill to thrive that Clay seems to show. Theresa is now finally understanding she has to get fish and her first approach is to do the riskiest and seemingly complex way of getting fish. Having said that I found her getting lost and disoriented perfectly normal and I felt bad for her. She became focused on one thing then lost her bearings and clearly panicked. When the brain doesn't have resources to operate as usual this can happen. There are stories of trappers, hikers and experienced outdoorspeople getting lost all the time. Heck I've done it within a couple of miles of my home. I think Rose is next to tap out unless there is a serious injury with someone else. Talk of family is coming up, she had one bad night with a bear and was ready to call it. I'm glad she trapped a rabbit so maybe that gives her encouragement. Hope she doesn't make a tiny mask out of it. Good point about the bears eating everything. They are ahead of the contestants on the best places for berries, grubs and other things and they can go out further for fish. Or they can just take stuff, sorry Colter. I think Clay's smokehouse will hold unless Yogi figures out a way to open the door. BTW when Clay built an air horn warning system was anyone else concerned about what would happen when a bear comes near him? I suppose he could use the flash bang thing. I find it totally understandable that Rose would find a bear trap. It could have been there for decades. I live in a rainforest and on hikes in the wild I've come across things from many years back. The Chilcotin area is in the middle of BC and it's drier overall than the coast so metal objects can last a long time. I like Biko's house. Not as elaborate as Theresa's but he understands how to construct a simple fireplace so he doesn't get smoked out. He is playing to last out everyone else not live there for a year. Hope he catches a fish every so often I have to presume that if a deer came by Clay, all the contestants potentially had opportunity to come across one. You can say it is luck but I think more accurately that was Clay's background and experience meeting opportunity. We saw the same thing in season 7 with the ultimate winner.
The more I think about it, I think it's inevitable that Theresa will get pulled. There's no way she recovers enough quickly to continue.
Theresa clearly is losing her marbles. I mean, first she nearly freezes in that polar bear challenge, then follows that up with first degree burns. Bye bye dear. Clay was giving me Texas Chainsaw Massacre vibes with the deer skin. Pretty amazing that bear didn't smell the smoking meat.
Rose just about chased a bear to her death. First she tracks it and sees it 150 yards ahead. It doesn't appear to know she is there, it's walking the other way. Somehow she thinks she should start yelling at it and blowing the horn etc. Gee, it noticed her. She is lucky it didn't charge.
