Episode 138: How Joe Robinet Built A Bushcraft YouTube Legacy

One mistake can end a survival challenge. One accident can erase weeks of memory. One loss can change the shape of a whole family. We’re joined by Joe Robinet, a Canadian bushcraft and camping creator who helped define outdoor YouTube long before it was a career path, and he brings a rare mix of hard-earned skills and hard-earned perspective.

We talk through Joe’s early life in Windsor, Ontario, chasing wilderness without a mentor, and the way online forums and a trusted teacher helped him become a legit outdoorsman. From there, Joe breaks down what actually built his channel: switching from “how-to” clips to story-driven canoe trips and tarp camps, staying honest on camera, and learning the unglamorous realities of the algorithm, thumbnails, titles, and audience feedback.

Then we dig into Alone Season 1, including the tryouts, the pressure to film for airtime, and what it’s like to get dropped in a cedar swamp with tides, soaked wood, and no sunlight. Losing his fire steel on day two ends the run, but it also lights a fire that pushes him to outwork the setback and redefine what success looks like.

The second half gets even deeper: bear safety and food storage, why hypothermia is a bigger threat than most people admit, and the story behind his CBC documentary Nerve, including a dirt bike crash, traumatic brain injury, and three weeks in an induced coma with vivid “memories” that never happened. Woven through it all is grief for his brother Isaac, and the lesson Joe wants to leave behind: learn from our mistakes before they become your pain.

If this conversation hits you, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs it, and leave a review so more people can find these stories.

Transcript

Cold Open Alone Disaster

SPEAKER_02 0:05

I got dropped in a cedar swamp and I'm from Ontario. We have no oceans, we have no tides. The my spot was flat, and the tide would come up six, eight feet, however much, and it would flood this whole area. I had to get back so far, like a couple football fields away from the water. I was in this dark, dank, swampy, cedary area that got no sun because it was so far back into the woods, and like I had no firewood. The diameter that I could chop would all be sponge because it would soak up all the water, right? So like it was really hard. I even ended up moving sites. I finally got some dry wood, got a fire going, and lost my fire steel day two, and I had to call the chopper in. That was that was what she wrote for me.

Meet Joe Robinet

SPEAKER_07 0:43

This week on the Outdoor Journal Radio Podcast, Networks, Diaries of a Lodge Owner, Stories of the North. I'm your host, Steve Ned's wiki, and today we dive into the remarkable journey of Joe Robinette. Joe is a true pioneer of outdoor content, one of the original YouTube OGs in bushcraft and survival, and with nearly a quarter of a billion views, he's inspired us all to thrive in the wild. On this show, we unpack Joe's incredible path, his time on the first season of Alone, and how years later, the loss of his brother and a devastating bike accident changed everything. We talk about his powerful CBC documentary nerves, and how the weight of those experiences, the grief, the physical struggle, pushed him to redefine his path. It's a story of perseverance, how survival, both in nature and in life, became his anchor. So if you're drawn to extraordinary people, real stories of grit, loss, and resilience, join me as we walk alongside Joe through hardship, healing, and the wild that's never let him go. Welcome folks to another episode of Diaries of a Lodge Owner Stories of the North. And today we are blessed to have a very special guest on today. Um, and his name is Joe Robinet. And uh Joe is uh is a person who um I've uh I've I've watched briefly on YouTube, but listen, guys, this guy has uh he's uh he's the OG man. Um and uh with like a million and a half subscribers, uh there's uh there's uh some weight that comes with that. But Joe, I'm interested um uh in uh in your beginnings, but first of all, thank you, thank you very much. I'm uh I'm full of gratitude to have you on the show, and I'm sure the diaries listeners are excited.

SPEAKER_02 3:03

Of course, man, thank you very much for having me. I'm I'm excited to do it.

SPEAKER_07 3:07

Yeah, yeah. So um let's kind of let's kind of go back a little bit to when you were young and and um what um gave you the motivation to become a bushman and get onto YouTube and figure out all of this stuff.

SPEAKER_02 3:30

Man, I was uh a city boy born and raised in Windsor, Ontario. Anybody is familiar, it's like the neighbor to Detroit, Michigan, where a car a car factory city type thing, tool and die. Uh not much wilderness at all. None, no wilderness at all. Some little bushlots in like a farm field, if you're lucky here and there. Yeah. Like uh the grass is always greener, you always want what you don't have type thing. So I was born and raised there, me and my mom, no dad, no, no, no outdoor experience, no outdoor mentor, no out no didn't even really know it was a thing. You know what I mean? Um, for a very long time in my life until I started watching things like well growing up, I would watch Grizzly Adams and Fred Penner and him crawling through that log and just exploring the wilderness and the woods was uh very cool.

SPEAKER_08 4:20

Fred Penner, I gotta tell you, I haven't heard that name in years. That that dates you to just about me.

Forums Mentors And First Uploads

SPEAKER_02 4:27

Yeah, yeah, I'm up there. I was born in '84, you know what I mean? That was uh it was a good, good little uh uh glimpse into the what could be in the future. So like little little house on the prairie, same type of thing, man. And then um yeah, later on in life, I I I was introduced to Survivor Man, Les Stroud, Ray Mears, all these guys that I would just watch on TV and understand finally that like, oh man, like this isn't just something you can do, this is something you can make a career of if you're lucky. And um uh yeah, that's what I started doing. I I actually went to to school up in Sault Ste. Marie, took the 12-hour drive through Canada to get up there in 2007 and took a natural resources program where I met like-minded individuals, and it was it was an eye-opener for me, big time. Um, the uh the whole YouTube thing came into play because I was on this forum, this outdoor forum called Bushcraft USA, back in the day before bushcraft was a common term, before anybody even knew what it was. Yeah. And uh it was all these grown-ass Americans, like uh all uh military dudes and stuff like that. And I just I I felt like I had something to prove to be being on there, and YouTube was the catalyst that I used to put videos onto that forum.

SPEAKER_07 5:42

So I wanted to engage in competitions and so yes, yeah, you were using YouTube to post your videos onto that forum for it.

SPEAKER_02 5:53

Exactly, because that was there was yeah, there was no option to just post a video right onto that forum. You had to use YouTube as the the little catalyst to get there. So I was doing that, and that was the only reason that ever that I started YouTube. It was like I wanted to be known and I wanted to be it. I wanted I always thought pictures could be faked and video couldn't, so I wanted to be known as being a legit outdoorsman, and I was still learning, I was in my infant stages of it, but I I I took it very seriously and and I liked it a lot. And I liked the camaraderie and I wanted to be taken seriously. So that's the only reason I started YouTube was to do that. I didn't even care about YouTube at all. I didn't look at the comments on YouTube, it was strictly for that forum. Then I kept that up for a little while. Like this was like 15 years ago, you couldn't get you couldn't make a cent. There was no money involved at all. It was all for the it was for the enjoyment for the pure love of it.

SPEAKER_07 6:41

Now, with with that um website, um um growing up, you said you didn't have a father. Uh, was there any kind of um uh mentor there that that helped you along, or were you kind of searching this website and and uh looking at what these guys were doing and trying to figure that out by yourself?

SPEAKER_02 7:05

No, there was definitely a mentor, uh a couple of them, but the a couple names that stand out to me, biggest name by far is Terry Barney, aka Iowa Woodsman, who was a former sear instructor, and the dude was like salt of the earth, like uh just butts your chops like crazy, but give you the shirt off his back type thing. Like you're just happy to teach.

SPEAKER_07 7:26

Um was on that forum?

SPEAKER_02 7:28

Yeah, he was uh one of the the main dudes on that forum. There was a couple other guys I really connected with and stuff, but he was he's my mentor by far. I learned 90% of my outdoors type stuff, like skills type stuff from him. Um, yeah, so it was just uh just for the love of doing that is why my YouTube started.

SPEAKER_07 7:48

Yeah, that that's great. And um you've also just completed well, let's let's let's chronologically work through this. So um you started uh the YouTube once you kind of you were already familiar with YouTube because that was the that was the ramp that you used on the forum where these guys were. And do you still keep in touch with them today?

SPEAKER_02 8:14

No, not really. It's been many years. Uh that forum is still going, I think, but it's like uh it's all cyclical, like it's all everything just keeps getting, you know what I mean? It's all the same threads and stuff like that. So kind of grew out of it, but like uh we we you talk on Instagram every now and then, just like their stuff. But uh no, I really don't. It's it was it was there for a long time, and I thought that I would have been doing it for the rest of my life type thing. But things you think and things you learn and things that actually happen are are are different.

Storytelling Takes Off On YouTube

SPEAKER_07 8:43

Yeah. So explain what you were doing in those early days. Once you once you kind of use the YouTube as as the as the conduit to uh post videos on on that forum, talk a little bit about when um you kind of figured out, wow, YouTube is something that people are actually, you know, what what was that? What tell me about that moment?

SPEAKER_02 9:10

Yeah, it was like a few years after I started. I was putting those videos out doing all they're all skill videos. I I used to put like a lot of Pearl Jam and Eddie Venner over my my just chopping with an axe and stuff like that. Back when you could do that without getting copyright and flags and everything. Uh yeah, it was all a bunch of that stuff. But uh yeah, it was all skill videos, you know, all very short five-minute video type things. And then uh one day I just I decided to go out. It was called the I still remember the video specifically. It was called Overnight Bushcraft Camp with my dog. And me and my old dog Scout, the guy who helped me start the whole channel and everything, he was with me all the time, a great German Shepherd. Um, we went out and camped under our tarp. It was like a 20-minute video. I just showed the experience of it instead of like this is how you chop wood, this is how you make a fire type thing. And uh it quote unquote blew up for me at the time. It got a lot more views than it ever did before. And I was like, hmm, maybe this is kind of I'll just show my experiences more than doing the skills type stuff because again, it was beat to death at that point for me. And this was like so very many years ago already. Yeah. Um, yeah, that I thought that that's what I would do. And I started doing that a little bit, a little bit here and there, and I would get like attays and like call good, good, good comments about it. Still get trolls back in back in the day, but like it didn't really matter. It was just like more of like people excited to see the progression and the actual trip itself out there. And then one day, many years later, like probably like five years after I started, six years after I started, um, I saw this button on YouTube and uh it said monetize video, and I was like, what is this? I didn't even hear hear about it or whatever. So I hit the hit the button, and I think that month I made 50 bucks. And I was like, Oh, this pretty cool, baby. I can pay for my food to go out, you know what I mean? Something's cool about that. And a month later goes by, a couple months later, and I see a button that says uh monetize all videos. So I hit that button, and that month I made I think I made 200 bucks, and I was like, oh my goodness, there's something to this. You know, yeah, holy shit. Yeah, I grew I grew up paid and even like for a long time, paycheck to paycheck, you know what I mean? My from my mom all the way over to like when I'm now living by myself or living with my wife, like girlfriend at the time, uh busting our ass just to work, you know, for minimum wage and stuff. And then it's like I just made 200 bucks off of my videos having fun. Like that, this there's something to this, you know?

Family Values And Losing Isaac

SPEAKER_07 11:32

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's uh that's amazing. Um, and uh listen, we've mentioned somebody t a couple of times. I I I would love to have you tell me about your mom.

SPEAKER_02 11:45

Yeah, she's a great woman. She uh raised me by herself, her, my nan, my grandma. Um yeah, from Windsor. She worked worked her ass off all the time, and my nan would watch me, and then um yeah, she got married when I think when I was six to a guy and uh had a brother and sister through that, and then that guy didn't stick around for too long after that, and they kind of had the same upbringing as I did without a dad, which I really didn't want for them. Yeah. So I kind of I kind of took that role, at least for my brother, who was 10 years younger than me. I kind of stepped in that role a little bit and helped raise him and stuff. Me and my sister are still tight. Um, unfortunately, lost my brother a couple years ago. Uh it was a it was a big blow to me, but uh, and my mom, obviously. But uh yeah, no, my mom uh I a lot, a lot, lot, lot, I owe her, I owe her a whole lot. She was uh an amazing woman, she still is, and she's an amazing grandma to my kids. And she's born again Christian, so I was raised in the church, and um it wasn't uh uncommon for me to hear her speaking in tongues and all sorts of crazy stuff, but uh she's salt of the earth, man. She she's a great lady.

SPEAKER_07 12:55

That's amazing. That is amazing. And listen, um, I'm really sorry to hear about uh about your brother. Did you want to talk a little bit about him? I can't imagine uh being a young boy and uh and having a mentor like you being uh out in the bush and and um you know I um uh it would uh it would be amazing. His name was Isaac, right?

SPEAKER_02 13:19

Yes, sir. Yeah, Isaac, he uh yeah, like I said, ten years younger than me. Um very happy kid, very, very, very happy young man. And um like I said, unfortunately didn't have a dad, and that that that played a toll on him as as well as it did on me and my sister, and uh I I again I didn't want that for them, and I kind of me and him were tight, we were more than froth fr brothers, we were friends, and I I again I I had a little small hand in raising him too, you know what I mean? So like um unfortunately Isaac had uh psychosis and um he dealt with it the way he did with substances and stuff like that, and we all know that that's not the way to do it, and but that's what he did, and yeah. But he he didn't define him, he was a great guy, he he was an amazing uh he was so generous, he'd give the shirt off his back to anybody. He was a great uncle to my ne but to my nieces and to my daughters, so very kind. Never heard him talk bad about anybody, do anything bad at all. He just kind of was very uh introverted and sucked to himself, and uh Yeah.

Keeping Videos Fresh For Years

SPEAKER_07 14:22

Yeah, he uh he had it you know it's one of those things where it just it is what it is, right? And and there was nothing that you could do about it. Um and um and you were uh I can tell by um who you are and and the the the way that I've kind of come to know you through YouTube in the last little while, especially since um Jake um um introduced us um that uh you were a blessing. And and for you to have dealt with um a lot of that is um is very difficult. But uh, you know, before we before we come kind of back to to that, um let's let's jump into your your bushcraft videos. Um I gotta say uh the the quality of the um of the the the work your of your work the camera the the uh the sound quality especially in some of the uh later um uh entries is excellent. Um how how do you number one think of new content and um and uh and go out and execute in a way that uh in the way that you did?

SPEAKER_02 15:48

Yeah, it's uh it's different these days, you know what I mean? Like I said, a lot of it's like people have watched me camp for now 15 plus years, right? So it's it's it's kind of difficult how to come up with new things these days or whatever. I'm still doing it, you know what I mean? I have to think about it quite a bit. But back in for growing it for a long time, it's like I always I'm lucky enough to live in a place where the seasons change. We have four seasons a year, yeah. So it's like I can change with the seasons. I can do winter camping, I can go bust my balls, carrying a sled, pulling a sled through the snow, dig a snow shelter, uh, or just camp right on the ground or bring a hot tent in the winter, and then I could switch to spring and go canoe tripping and spring fishing and building shelters in the fall, the colors are out. And it's just I was able to adapt and change with the seasons. And I thought I think for a long time that's how I was able to stay relevant for for such a long time. And big, big audience of mine is American, and they don't see the winter that we have, so a lot of it was like shock value to them, and like, oh my goodness, look what this guy can do or does out in the middle of the wood bush in the wintertime type thing. Skinny little Canadian guy running around in the woods and stopping trees down. And um, yeah, no, it that that helped a lot. Um, no, and then it became more personal for a little while too. You know what I mean? I always let my personality shine as much as I could in the videos because I I got good feedback from them. Bad feedback too, don't get me wrong, but good feedback mostly from that, and uh, and I like that. And I've always tried to keep myself honest and real and raw, and uh, and and that's that that sells. I've always tell people whenever they ask me like pointers for YouTube, it's like just let your personality shine. Doesn't matter if you're a dick, doesn't matter if you're a good person, whatever. People will pick up on that, and people who like that will keep following you.

Beating The Algorithm Reality

SPEAKER_07 17:30

Absolutely. That that's um uh another uh uh another question that I have. Um how what is one of the most important things that you've learned? Because honestly, there's not a whole lot. Uh there's not a lot of people that have been doing this as long as you've been doing this. Um, what are some of the key um factors that give you success on YouTube? I think you touched on probably the most important one, but I'll let you take it from here.

SPEAKER_02 18:00

Yeah, personality is a big one, but like staying current, listening to your subscribers, don't ever shut your comments off because you're afraid of what people will say. You know what I mean? You got to take that criticism, whether it's constructive, whether it's horrible, regardless, and and and apply it. You know what I mean? I've I've learned so much about myself just from reading the comments, and it's like, yeah, no, like that's true, you know what I mean, or I need to do this differently, or whatever the case may be. Um, don't be afraid to show your mistakes. That's been a huge mantra of mine because I'm full of mistakes. Um and like you can you can learn from it, but people who are watching obviously still do make mistakes themselves, and it's like, oh, this guy isn't afraid to show it, and maybe I can learn something, or maybe they just pick up on that and are and are accepting of it because of that. You're or you're a real person, right? Um, thumbnails and titles are huge these days. You know, I started my channel before the algorithm was around. I started to be way before that, way before uh AI was around. Yeah, so it's like I learned how to I brought my channel to the one of the not even one, the top outdoor YouTube channel for quite a few years. I was there's no doubt in it in my mind, um, without the algorithm, right? And then when the algorithm came along, it it's kind of screwed things up for me a little bit, and I didn't stick with the times. That's another thing. You gotta you gotta always stay current, stick with the times. It's like I had a chip on my shoulder. I felt like maybe I should just be grandfathered in because I'm Joe Robin, you know what I mean? I started with all blah blah blah, but it's like no, that's a bad, bad attitude to have. You gotta stay on top of shit and you gotta stay current.

SPEAKER_07 19:32

And so what what do you mean by staying on top of it? Was it um changing changing the way that you were uploading? Like, I mean, I'm pretty archaic when it comes to thinking about this stuff.

SPEAKER_02 19:44

Me me too, honestly. I I am too, and it that's part of my problem. So it's like, yeah, keywords. Um if you're tired, if you're camping, if you're if your video is like outdoor, uh overnight bushcraft camp, then your your first three words of your description need to be I was in the overnight bushcraft camp, you know what I mean? Just so it all aligns, right? Which is like so silly to me. It's like, why do I have to play these games? I'm putting out decent content if you want to watch it, just watch it. But the algorithm will not push it unless it's the proper way done the proper way, right? Yeah, and they're like, maybe maybe even doing all the sponsors I was doing for a while isn't good because like then if you have to put a sponsor in your video, they need it within the first five minutes, and you know that it's a two-minute sponsorship integration within the first five minutes, right? Some people will see that and just skip ahead. They won't even click off the video, but they'll skip ahead and to get past that sponsorship, which is totally understandable. But if they do that, the algorithm picks it up, like, oh, people aren't interested in this because they're skipping ahead. I'm not gonna push this and promote this to other people, right? So it's like this vicious cycle, which I didn't know. I had no idea. I stayed away from all of that for so many years. I was just camping. I my whole life was just camping and thinking about the next camping trip. Yeah, that's all I focused on. And then you come home, I would come home and I would have to edit for two days straight to get my video out and then think about the next trip and then be gone again, especially when I lived in Windsor because it was like a an eight-hour drive to anywhere decent where I could shoot a video.

SPEAKER_09 21:06

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 21:07

So it's like you can't just doing the videos is one thing, but you can't just stay on that. You have to do the videos, do all the back end work, make the thumbnail pop, make the title work with the thumbnail, potentially put text on your thumbnail, which I never did either before. And it's like, yeah, that's that's exactly what I mean by keeping up with the times. Like uh, that's a huge thing. Very huge.

SPEAKER_07 21:30

Yeah, yeah. It's it it just listening to it because you know, I um with the podcast, I I'm thinking about YouTube and a couple of other YouTube projects and and uh being involved with uh the Fish in Canada television show as a as a co-host. I I I see the pain that uh that the boys go through um uh managing the the website and uh the YouTube and and it's just uh it's feels very daunting sometimes for sure, you know, for a country fellow like me. Um but um I'm sure that uh I'm sure that that it's something that you can learn. I probably could just ask my you know 14 and 16 year old daughters you know and they'd they'd straighten me out pretty quick. But 100% dude. That's uh that's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 22:23

So in in on in all those years um what are some of the most memorable uh times yeah like creating the channel itself with my dog Scout huge huge memory big memories on that like uh great memories he was an amazing dog that the dog saved my daughter from being attacked by another dog just i i love being able to look back on those videos that are from like 14 13 years ago yeah to see me just out there with the dog throwing sticks and like people still comment about him and like talk about how he used to carry sticks around and steal my firewood and all that stuff um watching my kids grow up my eldest especially on videos like I have a video called Camping with a kid and it's just me and her as like a three or four year old out in the middle of the woods camping and like like I'll have that forever now you know what I mean that's like that's the you can't you can't buy that like it's it's it's precious it's super important to me. Yeah um yeah like and then even just like learning how to fish for trout again I was from Windsor man and there was like I was lucky if I got like uh could go to Detroit River and and hold on to my lure for as long as I could because the freaking current takes in maybe I'll pull out a a sheephead you know what I mean if I'm lucky but like uh yeah then then and finally learning how to catch trout going up to Algonquin Park on my first solo canoe trip you know what I mean in like five days of nonstop rain and like uh just all these a lot of hardships that I uh that I captured and a lot of uh memories and enjoyable parts like I have a video about my million subscribers when it comes rolling through like that's that's memorable too many cool yeah for the most part it's it's having those memories of my family my dog and just like integral parts of my life that I will have forever because of YouTube which is which is huge.

SPEAKER_07 24:19

And and was this your primary occupation or did you have another job?

SPEAKER_02 24:25

Yeah no for quite a few years I worked this and I worked at the University of Windsor Great Lakes Environmental Research Department where I was lucky enough to have a job like netting fish and electric electrophishing and like just all for science right and then I would be able to come back to the lab and do and do extractions on them and and experiments and stuff like that. But that was a a very like their job gave me a lot of freedom. Yeah so I was able to do that and the YouTube thing put a lot of effort into YouTube at the same time. So yeah for quite a few years I I did both and then I went on the TV show alone and I had a hiatus from work because of that and YouTube because of that because I had to sign this thing like we couldn't be done alone and come back and me posting videos when people and then people would know like you didn't want to you had to have a non-disclosure. 100% yeah so I wasn't allowed to make videos for like a half a year for that and then I had to obviously take time off my work.

Alone Season One Tryouts

SPEAKER_07 25:18

So when I came back from the alone well let's talk a little bit about alone because that's very interesting. I love that show uh and I'm I'm and um uh you were on season one correct yeah yeah we were the guinea pigs yeah so um let's go back and um because I had uh an experience uh not the same but kind of the same um uh I was on a uh reality TV show in 2004 called the last cull and uh the last cull was um uh um was a production put together by Angelo and Reno Viola and that's kind of well that is where I met um Ange for the first time and um um I'm very interested to to hear your story about you know how did you apply how did you hear about it how did you feel when you found out that you were a contestant yeah dude the alone uh sorry again um bushcraft USA was where I saw I first saw somebody put it on there the the advertisement for it before like it was anywhere I didn't see it anywhere I saw somebody post it on there and I was like that sounds right up my alley for the longest time any bushman that's exactly what they want to do how can I how long can I survive with like a backpack out in the woods right like that's that's the epitome of being like a quote unquote man and and that's what I or that that's what I thought back in the day and that's really what I wanted to do.

SPEAKER_02 26:51

And um so I I I applied for it and you had to send in at the time you had to send in a video and then they sent you back like requirements and questions. So then instead of just sending them back texts I thought well I'll just answer their questions in another video. So I ended up sending them a couple videos and uh they said that I was in the running and they were humming and hawing for a couple months and then when I finally got the they were supposed to pick 10 guys and then eight of those guys were going to be on alone. And I think they ended up picking 16 applicants to go out to New York to try out so when I I got that email accepting me to go to New York I was ecstatic obviously so we go there and there's 16 guys and I'm again small skinniest little Canadian guy. There's only a handful of Canadians with all these big old buff like army dudes from the States and like like the lots of experience and lots of years on me I was uh 28 I think when we did the show they said I was 32 for some reason.

SPEAKER_07 27:51

I don't know why but yeah yeah were you a little intimidated looking I'd like I mean I would have felt so intimidated.

SPEAKER_02 27:59

I really was and I didn't have half the experience in the outdoor not not even the outdoors but like the real outdoors I thought because I'm from Windsor right I got I'm out playing playing bushcraft in the farm field and these guys are like you know what I mean out in Afghanistan and a living life right like so I just uh not that it's the same thing at all but like that's I was certainly intimidated and uh we had to do all sorts of interviews and we actually went out to Bear Mountain in New York and they made us camp out well had us camp out and do all these extreme challenges and things like that. And one of them was uh they made us jump they they said at all times at the beginning of they're like all times have your survival kit in your pocket. And like day three of it or whatever they were calling us one by one each up and uh as I was walking up I could see like the ground was wet going a different way. I was like oh no I know what's gonna happen. And they were having us jump in the lake again supposed to have your survival kit on you jump in the lake and then they'd send us off and be like all right go start a fire make a shelter you're spending all night out here so we do that and I'm like the eighth guy out of 16 guys do to to jump in and I remember I had my Mylar blanket with the buttons on it and I'm digging up the thing I got and I got a a fire built and all that stuff and the survival experts are coming around and I'm the eighth guy I remember and they say to me they're like you're the first guy to get a fire and shelter out so I was like boom whatever that blew me off like so much. I was so excited about that right that again I had good experience good uh good training from Terry Barney Iowa Woodsman in this exact type of thing again him being a seer you know improvise so I had it going I even caught a little salamander that used for fishing bait later on if that if that was the case or whatever. Turns out that they didn't make us stay out there overnight by ourselves. That was just what they were telling us and stuff like that. But uh it was very cool. I was so excited I met a lot of I met some other guys that I looked up to uh that were YouTubers there and um they ended up picking 10 guys for for the first season uh and I was I was a shoe in I wasn't uh even like a maybe they they emailed a couple a month later or whatever like yeah you got it then we got ready to go and you got that email yeah buddy how was how how did that feel I thought that this is it this is my chance you know what I mean I'm gonna again live in paycheck to paycheck and the and the they told us that the the pay would have been five hundred thousand dollars if you won and back then to me that's like I'll never have to work again I thought you know what I mean 500 well what year was it I don't even remember it was yeah but it was early 2000s 2000s anyway. Yeah yeah yeah half a million bucks it'd buy you two houses back then in Windsor I yeah in Windsor for sure I thought I thought that was the be all end all I thought that was my chance to get my family uh set you know what I mean and I I was so excited I was like this is gonna blow my YouTube channel up even more and I thought it was just nothing but good things to come and uh I had I had false uh expectations of potentially winning now yeah I was stoked but like the size of me I weigh like a buck 40 soaking wet and you're out there I think the w the the winner Alan lasted like 50 something days uh eating slugs and not even moving around and it's like I don't have the reserves for that I didn't have the knowledge for that at all.

SPEAKER_07 31:16

I thought I I thought I was set and I I really I was not prepared enough but um wow and the and the problem too is you were a contestant in the first season so you didn't have the uh the the advantage of being able to look back on two or three seasons and see how the the the contestants were bulking up before they started and you know very low movement and eating whatever right a hund a hundred percent and like I'm not a low movement type of guy and I already have a YouTube channel and I'm and I'm back in the day I was like super all about getting different angles and all those sorts of stuff and one of the things they told us was like if you don't film you don't get airtime and I wanted airtime and I wanted to come across as a guy who not can only survive but can film himself well.

Fire Steel Loss And Backlash

SPEAKER_02 32:04

Again Survivor Man Lestro being a huge inspiration who would do that who do who would do that level so like I'm running around getting all these sorts of different angles with multiple cameras just busting my my ass and like super uh dehydrated already at the beginning and energy spent off right so it was like yeah I I was off to a rough start and not only that again I'm not trying to make excuses but like I got dropped in a cedar swamp. We were in northern Vancouver on Vancouver Island and it was the rainy season. We were the guinea pigs like I said. So like they told us we were going to go out in like August and it didn't end up going out till October they even had people fly out there and they had to fly them back before because they were not ready. They did not have everything all squared away with the indigenous people who we uh use their land on we had to use indigenous land because we were hunting and trapping doing all this stuff that you're not allowed to do unless you're on their land. So yeah I was uh I was I was busting my ass filming and and doing all sorts of stuff that I shouldn't have been it shouldn't have been doing when I should have just been laying around and and collecting calories and things like that. So I got dropped in a cedar swamp and I'm from Ontario we have no oceans we have no tides so my my my spot was flat and the tide would come up six eight feet however however much and it would flood this whole area I had to get back so far like a couple football fields away from the water I was in this dark dank swampy cedary area that not got no sun because there was no because it was so far back into the woods and like I had no firewood that that was anything the size that I could chop the diameter that I could chop would all be sponge because it would soak up all the wood right all the water right so like exactly it was it was super difficult and I had no experience with it I had no idea so I yeah it was it was really hard I even ended up moving sites and finally got a beach site and like we didn't get to pick the sites we were dropped off at right like it was already predetermined which mine shouldn't have been a site like it was set up to fail but uh I don't want that to be coming off as me making excuses like it's just what it was and I found and I found uh a a beach site and I moved there and yeah I finally got some dry wood got a fire going and lost my firestel day two and had to call the chopper and that was that was what she wrote for me. Oh my God how was that um on your mind it would have been a nightmare it was so depressing I looked for that that fire steel for like hours I was scout the sand is black out there my fire steel is black I set my fire steel on my rain jacket excited that I finally had it and then picked up my rain jacket it went ass over a tea kettle into the either the ocean or in the sand scouring it rake in the sand with my fingers couldn't find it and uh having to make the decision to finally call the chopper and dude I was like man this is the worst thing ever that that could ever happen to me I was I was so visibly upset I I made like five or six takes on on the camera filming filming the outtake of why what happened just because I just wanted it to be real and perfect but like all the while thinking like I I screwed everything up you know I mean I'm going home empty handed my everybody's is gonna be so bad. Yeah it was really bad and I dwelled on it for a long time and I got flamed like crazy. I got trolled like so very bad from it when it finally came out and it was it was a contention point for a long time for me. But looking back on it like a lot of the things in life when they seem to be the worst things going for you they end up having a silver lining they end up being a good thing in the long run. It's like if I didn't lose that fire steel and for some reason I won for some reason and I won that 5000 I would have thought that that was a be all end all I would never have to make another cent in my life and I would have sat around being happy spending money or whatever. What it did for me because I lost so bad and because when I was gone I had to sign that contract that I wouldn't put out videos for for months and months it's like I saw all these younger channels than I was the ones that I had even inspired I know it because they told me um blow up and surpass me. And I was like no wait a minute that's not what I want at all you know what I mean so I got when I was allowed to finally put out videos again I busted my ass and I tried to become the number one channel which I successfully did for quite a few years there. And that propelled my channel farther than winning the alone would like the winner from from alone Alan tried to start a channel didn't work. You know what I mean he did a couple little things you don't hear from him anymore anywhere. He's gone. Not to say anything bad about the dude it's just that's just what happened. He was a good guy. But like me having that fire lid under my ass because I did so poorly and wanting to prove myself and wanting to make a go of it it made made it work for me and it I blew up and it and a lot of people think the only reason that I ever my channel ever did well was because of a loan. That's completely false.

SPEAKER_07 36:51

It it hurt me people were uh trolling me like I said like crazy uh I just had the initiative in the gumption to keep at it and and after a couple years after that is when it happened it wasn't right away by any means the way that it helped you is it gave you that motivation it gave you that fuel to go out and not only just survive but to thrive with your channel you know I remember um kind of parallelly if that's a word similarly um when I was thinking about buying the lodge I was a sheet metal mechanic and uh worked in Brampton. I live in Shelburne Ontario and um when I started telling people that I was going to buy a lodge and and when I told people I basically had already made the decision. There were so many people behind my back especially that would say that that were saying he's crazy. There's you know and and I and and to be fair um I had um three well two kids at the time my my two boys and um and one on the way and and Melissa is a teacher and and uh and I'm buying a fishing lodge moving four hours north um you know so um I understand what motivation is um the the first couple of years you know I remember vividly and I've told this story that the Diaries family have heard it on on on multiple episodes but um and this will be just short but there was one moment where I had a group of of gentlemen they were masons from uh Bradford and um Damien was the fella and they were all standing out in front of the the main lodge and um I was booking it across uh in front heading to a a cottage at like 1130 because I forgot to take one of the ladies an extra pillow that she had asked for and and Damon looks at me as I'm as I'm trucking across the front and he says holy shit Steve do you ever stop working? How do you do it? And I looked at him and I said Damon you'd be surprised what you can do when you're scared for your life because I had her all on the line you know so that's the motivation that that it gave you.

SPEAKER_02 39:29

100% man and it's like uh yeah I didn't want to be that and I didn't I didn't want to be a laughing stock either anymore. I wanted to to show that I actually did have skills and it's like uh yeah I I will I wouldn't be where I am right now if I didn't lose so horribly on a loan.

Would He Return To Alone

SPEAKER_07 39:45

I know that for sure well and and the thing is um all of those trolls out there the the this is what pisses me off about about people and especially about people like that they can they can look at something while they're sitting on their their fat ass on their couch and not know what it's like to to get out there and experience it not know uh what the skills are and then have an opinion like it it it it it it the whole th the they don't understand the situation and nobody does until they're in your boots right really easy to judge somebody who puts themselves out there you know what I mean when you're uh when you don't have that uh when you're not there yourself yeah like you're saying 100% 100% and and um um but i'll tell you there's the the people that are willing to put it all on the line and put themselves out there are are 99.9 in my opinion and and folks everybody knows that this is just my opinions uh here because sometimes my opinions aren't aren't um uh aren't uh represented by the uh the uh outdoor journal podcast uh you know the radio podcast uh uh counsel there but there uh and just and just pretty much on on board with me but uh I have I have opinions and and my opinion is that when you find somebody that's willing to put their ass on the line whether it's financially whether it's morally whether however those are the best people on this planet and we need more of them and we need more people like you and um um to to have gone and and and done that I I I think that you you uh to to draw all the positives and you know what uh you're right it's an experience and those trolls can go stick it right up their ass and and what you what you learned there made you the person you are today and the success too yeah man no I'm happy for it I'm happy that uh like now now looking back I'm it was supposed to happen the way it happened you know I mean I don't don't get me wrong I would have loved to win you know what I'm saying but like it it it it it played out the way it did as many things do in my life. I got a question. Have you tried to get back on the show and would you try it again?

SPEAKER_02 42:26

So I get that question. So one year um I don't know maybe five six years ago uh there was supposed to be like a reunion or not reunion show uh uh a retry show a redo season and they actually reached out to me and I said yes like let's do it or whatever and then I they just ghosted me I don't know why but like that was the last I heard of them ever heard from them ever and uh I don't know I don't know now now if I would it's like I know that I would do better now not even losing a fire still just in general I'd be able to do better now than I did before I've done things now that I never did before I went on a 19 day solo trip last year I've spent a lot of lot of time by myself whereas I never even did that before and that would have been a big uh point for me not even being able to be alone who knows um I know I can be by myself and be comfortable and be fine for a long time now it depends on I think it would depend on a few things um where it would be at in the world you know what I mean like that that rainforest is something I never dealt with before I and I'd have to make sure that I didn't get dropped in that kind of same area in that cedar swamp type thing. But like yeah in all reality I probably would I probably would because I it's like I would like to at least last a couple weeks and show myself that I can do it. You know what I mean I wouldn't go in wouldn't go into it expecting to win again because I have no fat reserves and I've tried to put weight on in my life and I just can't do it. It's like that'd be more difficult than winning I think for me.

SPEAKER_07 43:53

But uh yeah no I I wish I had that problem.

SPEAKER_02 43:56

I did uh I gladly trade you know I gladly trade trade but I feel like uh I I feel like I would try it out.

SPEAKER_07 44:02

I I'm 90% sure that I would yeah well like I mean I last year I did a 40 day water fast and uh and survived you know it's uh um but uh you know that was that was with um magnesium and and um all kinds of different uh supplements but um I think that uh I would love to see you on that again and for uh for anybody out there listening I think we should be putting uh we should be pushing uh Joe's uh um applications to uh a loan you know uh get you a buoy knife you gotta get a get a bison like um I forget what the fella's name that stayed out uh that uh made the hundred days on a loan uh but uh I think you've got legit shot dude like I think uh um the the the key for you would be finding sustenance and and uh yeah you're a smart dude i i would i would love to see it let's just leave it at that welcome to two rivers lodge where we know that our hard work and determination creates your best experiences you'll arrive as a guest family surrounded by a multi-species fishing mecca like no other our elite cabins and professional staff are ready to make your stay unforgettable experience the difference because the two rivers every cast is a story and every guest is a part of the family as the world gets louder and louder the lessons of our natural world become harder and harder to hear but they are still available to those who know where to listen to I'm Jerry Olette and I was honored to serve as Ontario's Minister of Natural Resources.

Wildlife Worries And Bear Smarts

SPEAKER_00 46:20

However my journey into the woods didn't come from politics rather it came from my time in the bush and a mushroom in 2015 I was introduced to the birch hungry fungus known as Chaga, a tree conch with centuries of medicinal use by indigenous peoples all over the globe. After nearly a decade of harvest, use testimonials and research my skepticism has faded to obsession and I now spend my life dedicated to improving the lives of others through natural means. But that's not what the show's about my pursuit of this strange mushroom and my passion for the outdoors has brought me to the places and around the people that are shaped by our natural world. On Outdoor Journal Radio's Under the Canopy podcast I'm going to take you along with me to see the places and meet the people that will help you find your outdoor passion and help you live a life close to nature and under the canopy.

SPEAKER_07 47:21

Find under the canopy now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever else you get your podcasts one of the things that um like I mean never mind just watching alone but being in the bush and and um um I can imagine that the wildlife aspect of things was kind of difficult or not difficult like as far as bear goes or you know wolves or anything that uh that um um I think that the one uh the one alone they were and and this just doesn't doesn't apply to alone this applies to all of your videos have you ever been out there and in at night been worried about wildlife no no I for some reason that doesn't bother me at all like I had one experience with a bear who was in the but just in the bush line huffing and puffing at me like crazy.

Hypothermia And Layering Lessons

SPEAKER_02 48:22

There was no mistake he was right there I was on the on the shore and I and I was cooking up sausage for breakfast and like the smell is wafting right to him and I and I of course was playing it up for the video but I'm like taking a bite and I'm just yelling at him talking shit to him you know what I mean like yeah yeah I just I honestly that doesn't bother me um the like especially wolves or anything like that. The the one thing that would concern me is like a rogue bear like a a habituated bear to a camp area. Like like say you go camping in Algonquin Park and there's all these city guys who go there all the time and aren't aren't bear wise and they leave their trash in the fire pit and bears can get habituated to a site. That's a definite thing or even in the in the far north it when they have outpost cabins bears get habituated to those cabins because there's fish scraps around people go there all the time and just toss. So it's like that's the that's the situation where I would think otherwise where it could be a little potentially dangerous and I wouldn't want to have my family there with me. But like I feel like I'm pretty bear aware pretty bear smart and I know what to do when they're around and stuff. And I just I honest to God for the I haven't even carried bear spray I don't carry any kind of thing. It's just like be smart be be aware of them you know you don't run away from them you make yourself bigger than you are and just I I just it's not one thing that worries me in the bush at all. What does worry me my biggest concern is in the bush hypothermia and getting crushed by a tree in my in my tent at night when I'm sleeping a tent fall a tree falling down and just crushing me. There's no fighting that you have no chance and hypothermia I've had and it's like if I didn't have people with me man I couldn't even think I couldn't even think that hypothermia hit me so bad. It's like um since then have had had fallen in the what in the water on a spring canoe trip in a blizzard got out and dealt with it and knew what to do and it was I was fine but like yeah being crushed by a tree in your sleep or hypothermia can be uh those those are my issues those are my fears. Wow um so for uh people out there that that um um are interested in maybe trying to spend a night in the woods in it or in the bush um you say what are what are the things that people should do um with bear in particular yeah yeah I would say um be careful about your food uh at night it's a smart idea to hang your food uh like six feet away from the trunk of the tree about like you know 20 feet up if you can and then but like off that limb that you're hanging your food off that has to come down as well a good amount of ways that's why I'm saying about 20 feet up because you have to drop that food six or so feet down from that limb because bears can get out onto that limb potentially and reach down. Not only bears but and reach down or yeah or and raccoon too raccoon could shoot me down that thing and get and get into your food. What I do especially up in the north in the in the like the real bush near Thunder Bay, Wabakimi, Woodland Caribou Quetico type areas is like I use this thing called the Ursac and Ursa is obviously uh Latin or French for bear. So it's a Kevlar bay and you just tie it because up there there's not those big oak trees or big white pine trees where they're they're huge. They're just all the basically all the trees are like wrist to five thickness the trunks of them. So it's like finding a substantial branch to hang off of it isn't really an option up there. Yeah because the branches are even thinner. So these Ursacs you tie around the base of a tree and you tie it with a double knot or whatever and then I would the Kevlar keeps the bear from being able to rip through it and it gets so tight that the mice can't get can't get into it too which is a big issue mice. But then I put all my stainless steel frying pans cookware or titanium whatever you're using on top of it. I I pile it loosely on top of the food bag so that if something comes along and I it clamors down and scares them away, wakes me up and I have a chance to hey there get up you know what I mean. And up there like there's not a lot of habituated beer sites like there there's less actual campsites or more Crown land camping and there's less people there. I think Wabakimi or Woodland have like 500 visitors a year compared to Algonquin where it's like two million you know what I mean it's a complete different store. And then Crown land is even different than way different than that you camp from wherever you want it's not even a campsite right so there's no habituated bears to a site. Yeah so being being able to scare them off and then I like to bring a little air horn as well as opposed to bear spray bear spray can go one of two ways it can work or it can blind you know depending on wind direction and a lot of people don't take that into consideration. But I have always liked the idea of sound to scare them off. So a little air horn when you hear that type of stuff. So like yeah that's what I would do I tie my food to the base of a tree even if it's in a barrel I just clip the barrel to the tree pile all my stuff on top so that's gonna make a noise and I can potentially scare them away. But if you are camping in more habituated sites more more overly used sites and stuff like that. And even in the South Algonquin areas you do have those trees you have the big white pine where you can hang them off a big sturdy branch 20 feet up that's the move. Hanging your hanging your hair your your your food is a move for sure. And then not leaving scraps in the fire pit not leaving your wrappers of granola bars in the fire pit not uh cleaning a fish right at your campsite and just and you know I mean having it all stink all over you uh on your cutting board whatever the paddle whatever you use it's a smart idea to maybe kill the fish in the in the in the canoe away from your site get all the guts and stuff out of there get all the main stink out of there or even like paddle over to a little exposed rock or an island somewhere away from your site to clean the fish throw the scraps in the water leave them for the birds on a rock whatever you want but away from your food away from your campsite and clean up after yeah that's uh wise wise words that's awesome now um you talked about um hypothermia um tell us when you when you when it hit you you said it hit you really quickly um what kind of situation was that and how dicey did it get yeah so it was uh it wasn't quick it was over the course of a day that it slowly crept in but then once it got there it was boom you know what I mean so I was on I was in a provincial park canoeing this is like 10 years ago or something like that one of my first real canoe trips in Killarney Provincial Park and uh it rained that day for like nine hours we traveled for like eight hours that day and it was early May it was very cold and I didn't know have enough know-how back then that I I I didn't know that I would needed long johns, pants and rain pants in order to keep my warmth onto me even though I was soaking wet because like once you're sitting in a canoe paddling for however many and we don't get me wrong we're portaging too and you get a little bit of warmth when you're portaging which is a blessing. Yeah but like I'm sitting in a canoe paddling for hours at a time and the water just pooling in your lap you're getting wet there's no rain gear in the world that's going to keep you dry. Absolutely you know what I mean you know it doesn't matter how much it costs and back then I didn't I didn't have expensive type stuff. So it was like Walmart rain gear, thin pants and my skin. And then the wind would come and whip that any kind of heat I had just completely away from me. I was so out of it by the end of the trip by the end of the day that we had actually support touch back one lake because there was no campsites on that lake and I don't even remember doing that. With four guys including myself get soaked all day and just kept going because I didn't want to be the guy to say oh I need to stop or whatever. That would have been the move and those all guys were good guys there would have been no issue with it. But like just kept going trooping on or whatever we get to camp and I'm just standing there shivering my buddy sets up a tent gets me into it and he's like here's your range here or here's your stop I take out my back my my sleeping bag, my sleeping pad I just stare at it. I'm just sitting there shaking staring at it knowing that I should do something with it but not knowing enough and having any energy or smarts to be able to unroll it get into it right so he's out there cooking up a cup of soup gives me the cup of soup and after I had that into me I was able to like get enough know how in me to lay out my sleeping pad, sleeping bag and get into my sleeping pad. It's uh it's very it saps you from energy it saps you from mental fortitude. You can't even figure out what to do at all. So it's like that really really really instilled in me like I need light layers upon layers upon layers when it's going to be that when I know it's going to be that throughout the day. And since that trip I've I've lasted five days by myself in complete rain every single day soaking to the bone and being able to still function and not get hypothermia by having those amounts of layers on me and wool is a big part of that too wool long johns keeps you warm when wet but having the the multiple layers where whereas the wind cannot just whip it away from you the heat is huge. And then even after that closer to the closer to now a few years ago I fell in it stupidly not knowing how to do any kind of white water in a blizzard in like April in a river and was able to okay as soon as I fell in I got out pulled everything to shore set up a tarp right away had enough know how knowledge that there was a a highway next to me I know my wife could come get me but it was blizzarding and I didn't want her and my children my young kids to drive to get me with them in danger. So I I texted them on the in reach them told them that got into my my into my tarp into my sleeping bag got completely naked into my sleeping bag and just warmed right up right away I think I did all that before I texted obviously but um had enough know how and skills and knowledge to do that where I was like oh I lost my paddle that's why I couldn't continue on. That was the story. Yeah yeah yeah I had my bag and my canoe and everything with me but my paddle's downriver now it's gone. But like um yeah being able to get in there and enough knowledge to be able to do all that it really showed me the difference between that and my first one of my first trips where it's like I had everything with me and guys with me and still just kept going. It's like you need to get out if you're feeling that way and uh and completely get warm and getting naked and getting to my sleeping bag was it was the safe was the key. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_07 58:36

It didn't yeah it didn't matter if it was uncomfortable or I was running around naked and none of that mattered you know I mean getting in there and getting that's right that's right and that uh that first experience um uh it was a blessing that it happened with uh with friends right so you're you weren't out there by yourself 100% dude and like again again show me like it's like a blessing in disguise it's like you gotta learn smart enough learn from your mistakes type thing.

Cameras Audio And Editing Workflow

Nerve Documentary And Bike Dreams

SPEAKER_02 59:01

Yeah yeah did you have the second fall on uh on video was it uh one of the on that the whole the the whole video about I didn't get the actual uh cap size on video but the the before and the and the aftermath for sure yeah yeah and then I got a then I made a video a year later where I went back to the same river in the same time of year and was able to do all the white water and stuff. Nice nice let's get a little technical um what kind of cameras do you use and um how has that changed uh well let's not just say cameras what kind of equipment do you use to bring yourself to the to the world and how's that changed over the last you know more than a decade my first videos were shot on this like flip out camera type thing that took like double a batteries and I didn't even have like my in-laws got it for me for Christmas it must have been$20 you know what I mean like and it had a flip turnaround thing it was like a pixelated 480 at the max quality and I didn't even have a tripod I would set it up on a log in the woods and do all my take in one take do my whole thing in one take and if I messed up because I didn't know how to edit at all I used Windows Movie Maker which was a free uh thing uh software and I I didn't even know how to edit anything so if I messed up I would just shut it off turn it on again and do the whole damn thing all over again until I got it right in one take and that's like again 15 years ago or whatever right so and I and I never took a class I didn't have any kind of mentor in that and no learning in that except for trial and error. So through the course of that after that I learned and I got a little DSLR uh Nikon D5500 and I use like a a 50 mil lens always with like uh in manual with the f-stop of 1.8 for some reason I just always wanted that blurred blurred background all depth of field type thing so like half my shit was like way out of focus because like I couldn't go up and fix it or didn't know if it was in in focus when I was doing it or like because it was because it was manual the sun would come out behind a cloud and like everything would just white it look like a nuclear holocaust you know what I mean and I just left it all like I didn't even care or not that I didn't care I just didn't that's how it was you know what I mean but like learned slowly and slowly and slowly and uh and finally nowadays it's like I got it down pretty good where it's like I have a couple GoPros and the new GoPros are phenomenal. There's no getting around it. I got um uh a Nikon Z Z6 or something like that. It's a mirrorless uh camera which does wonders for me. I uh I actually dropped that in the lake a couple years ago and it spent about five minutes underwater because it was early springtime and I had to get enough courage to get into the water I was where be where I couldn't reach it. Like it fell off like noob oh no I had to go in and get it and like a couple months it in in rice fixed everything fixed. It's still a little weird but uh fixed it works yeah for the most part um yeah so now I I I run a GoPro a couple GoPros I have a drone I have my icon I even have like I've I've messed around with the DJI uh action cameras which are really good as well and I have a little a little osmo type thing that that works for for gimbal with it and and my my editing stuff yeah those osmos are they're they're amazing yeah they they they do a lot uh mine even has a little tripod on it it's it's it's a good one um yeah now I use uh Cyberlink Power Director for editing I've used that for like 10 years I think like I haven't upgraded that one at all just because it was super easy to learn and I uh I need to stick with what I know on that end but uh yeah the the filming equipment changed dramatically and the way I filmed changed dramatically and yeah it's uh that's been a process you love it you love it I can tell I can tell that you love it that's uh that's amazing uh and then um so coming a little bit um uh more present day um I I watched your documentary uh um yeah Nerve and uh it was it was uh um first of all the production quality is is outstanding I um being with Fish in Canada and Ang being very anal about uh production quality and and what we what we do um I I felt it was it was excellent and uh it was moving um it was very moving and um I just I would I would love to talk a little bit about um the day that you got on your bike and and where uh start with the love of uh of of the bike and and um your idea um that you were going to you were gonna take it camping with you right yeah I had for when my mom married Ron when I was six years old uh he was a motorcycle rider and I thought like back then I thought like that was the epitome of being a quote unquote man and I really loved the idea of running a motorcycle I've always wanted to since then he used to take me for rides every now and then and uh I always thought it was very cool. So uh a few years ago I finally when I I had some money from YouTube I I finally bought a motorcycle I bought a Honda CD500X and that was like a an on-road off-road bike that had saddlebags it was set up for camping like I thought I could go and do like these these tours these trips where I like and I live up in the area for it now too I could ride up highway 129 or whatever and find a little spot on the side by the by the by the river and camp out and I thought that could be a new avenue for my channel right like again for sure while you're looking for new avenues and and looking to bring other people in uh and and absolutely exactly what I was thinking. And it's along the lines of what you were saying earlier it's like how do you come up with new new ideas and stuff well I thought that was a new idea. I thought that would have been a cool uh grab some new audience like you said and still stay true to my roots camping and and do best of both worlds and I I like motorsports and I I have for a long time. And uh again it's something newer to me because from Windsor and never really had an experience with it other than going on a couple of motorcycle rides with my quote unquote dad at the time. But um yeah so I bought that motorcycle and I was extremely excited to use it. But being a YouTuber and a camper and loving ISO season and then everything just turns around goes back to camping going on camping trips and thinking about the next thing I never had time for it. I never had time to learn it and I never had time to go on a motorcycle course uh to learn because again I'm so busy with with keeping the channel up and if as a youtuber if you don't put out a YouTube video every every at least on my end every every week like you get lost left in the dirt you know left in the dust and you forgot it.

SPEAKER_07 1:05:54

And the algorithm the algorithm doesn't like that.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:57

So I'm just trying to keep up with it all right so I have the Motorcycle is sitting in my garage for many years, quite a few years at that point. And what one one winter, I'm thinking I'm looking at it, thinking, like, maybe I'll just buy a dirt bike and I'll teach myself how to ride a motorcycle with the clutch, and then I can move on to that from that without taking the course. And it'll be uh I won't waste any time. I'll be able to do it. And so I bought uh uh Kawasaki Kalex 300, uh, which ended up being a taller bike than my motorcycle, and it is a it's a real dirt bike, there's no question about it. But uh it's a 300, not a 500, so I'll be able to ride it, right? That's what I thought. I did. I taught myself, and uh, and I loved the thing, and I was like, yeah, man, I felt I felt one with the bike. I felt really uh experienced even after only a couple weeks after teaching myself because I taught myself, you know what I mean? This is what I thought.

SPEAKER_10 1:06:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:49

So I'm riding it, loving it, and I'm like, yeah, I'm gonna go camping off this thing, and uh it'll be it'll be good. And I even ended up riding my motorcycle a couple times, but really had an affinity for the dirt bike, and the dirt bike can get more places than the motorcycle can. So I thought, yeah, this is what I'm gonna do. So I uh made a video talking about it, all happy with it, and blah blah blah, really good. Spring comes around, and we're uh we're having a barbecue outside, and I'm just uh waiting for the coals to die down of fire to make to make the food because that's how I barbecue with real wood. And looking over at the bike, and I'm like, you know what, I'm gonna take that for a rip around the block. And uh yeah, I never came back, man. It was like um I don't know what happened. I thought I think thinking back on it and looking, I've been at the site a million times now. I think I dipped down into a ditch expecting to just pop back up like you do on a sled. You know what I mean? And uh it was a dewy night. The sun was going down, it was very wet ground in the spring, and and there was long grass and there was these big boulders hidden by the grass. And I think what happened was I hit it too quick and uh hit a boulder, a hidden boulder, and I think it just jerked my steering completely to the side, and I flew like Superman off that bike for like 10-15 feet and uh cracked a rock open with my face, and uh and that was it for me.

SPEAKER_07 1:08:10

I uh I don't really remember my ass is puckering thinking about it.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:14

It was bad, man. It was really, really bad. And stupidly I didn't have a uh helmet on because I was just you know just riding around the block. It's all good. I don't just jumped on it like an idiot. And uh wish I didn't do that, but um my buddy who was here never heard me come back and hopped on a motor, uh hopped on a four-wheeler and came looking for me and found me just KO'd, man, and the bike so far away from me, mangled, and my face just as mangled as the bike, so 10-15 feet away from it. And uh they had to call. I live in a rural spot, they had to call the ambulance, took them 40 minutes to come. My wife ended up coming down and pulled me because I was shivering, I guess. And uh I was just out of it, I don't remember it. Any anything. This is all from what they've told me.

Three Weeks In A Coma

SPEAKER_07 1:08:55

Yeah, yeah. Wow, you were in a coma for was it in an induced coma or was it uh coma?

SPEAKER_02 1:09:01

Yeah, I was in induced coma because I started coming too a little bit, I guess, and I was very combative. They said I wouldn't get on the stretcher, and they they had to, anyways, they uh yeah, they they took me to the Sault Ste. Marie Hospital, they couldn't do anything for me. They airlifted me, they induced my coma, and then they airlifted me to Sudbury, and uh I stayed there in a coma for three weeks, and um they were telling my wife all sorts of stuff. They they told her not to expect me to come out of it. They were telling my mom and my wife that I was gonna die, that I was gonna be a vegetable, that even if I did come back, I was gonna be very aggressive and not be able to my my my had a traumatic bra I had a TBI, I had a traumatic brain injury. You know what I mean? So that they were expecting the worst and they tell my wife to expect the worst and stuff. And uh yeah, it was uh it was a whole thing.

SPEAKER_07 1:09:47

So when you open your eyes three weeks later, um how do you feel? Like um I I can't even I can't even understand what that must be like.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:04

Yeah, me either, man. It was uh I asked, why are we who are we visiting? Who are we visiting in the hospital right now? That's my first words. Initially they couldn't wake me up and I was combative like crazy when they would try. I like they were giving me everything, like fentanyl and everything like that to keep me out and and and and whatever. But so I was all messed up from that and messed up from my traumatic brain injury. And um the way that I actually woke up was that my wife had a recording of my half my husky doing his little husky howley talk. And uh I I actually ended up calling him it while I was still half asleep or whatever, calling them here, bud, whatever. And that's what took me out of it at first. And then uh a few days later, I actually woke up, woke up, and uh they called my wife in and she's in there and and and I'm asking her why who are we visiting? Why why are we here? And like was they're like Joey, you she calls me Joey, not Joe. Joey, you're you're it's you like you you you you crashed your bike. No, I was camping. I was I was in Lake Superior camping. I was like so confused and trying to tell her, like, no, I that didn't happen. Like I was on a canoe trip, I was fishing. I I can see it still. I I know I was there.

SPEAKER_09 1:11:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:14

But no, that's not the case. I I lived lives in a coma. I lived multiple lives in a coma, and one of them, I can still, man, I some things still bring me back to it.

SPEAKER_07 1:11:25

So you you actually have memories that didn't happen um in real life that you lived while you were out.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:34

Yeah, I wouldn't even call it like I wouldn't talk about that. I wouldn't even call it a dream. I wouldn't even call it a dream because I have it happened. I lived it. I can so I can smell something one day and it'll bring me right back. I can vividly see the thumbnail of the video that I made while in a coma fishing on Lake Superior, like it which never happened. None of these things happened, but I can vividly see it in my head. Like it's like I can describe it, but it doesn't matter. It's it's the the the the the thumbnail, but it's like I I can these things happened. You know what I mean? And it's like, do you remember that that Canadian TV show from when we were kids called The Odyssey? That that that happened, dude. I lived a whole other life in a coma for a long ass time. You know what I mean? I was out for three weeks, but I lived these lives for years. Like it was I was uh it was so vivid, it was so so real. And one of one of the lives I lived had to do with gasoline. Like uh for some reason I was in a this is weird, but this is what it was. I was in a in a cabin on Lake Superior huffing gas with this guy to get high, you know, for which is a weird thing, but it was what it was. And when I woke up and told my wife and and and was talking about this, a nurse came in and was like, Oh, yeah, we had a gas leak in the hospital. No shit. Yeah, so my brain was like connecting reality that I was hearing and like this other world or whatever, and was like combining the two for some reason. And I was saying, and I've obviously felt high on fentanyl and stuff like that, so it was like maybe that's what it was. I don't know. Yeah, you know what I mean. I've never done it, I've never done it in real life.

SPEAKER_07 1:13:08

I could promise you that. Yeah, well, your brain, it sounds like was taking the the actual stimuli that you were feeling while in the coma and then interpreting it in these other lives and memories.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:24

Yeah, it was crazy. It was it was crazy, and like I I I for a long time it was very emotional for me, the the realizing that I didn't actually live these lives, and like I'm I have memories that never happened. You know what I mean? And like Lake Superior Lake Superior is a special place, and I was there with some indigenous people too, and like learning a lot about them. And like there was this one dude that I he runs a tourist thing around here, and it was him. For some reason, it was him that that was in and it was I can vividly see that it was him there, like talking to me about camping and tripping on Lake Superior with my dog and stuff like that, and like going through these. Yeah, man, it's crazy. I've never even told the guy. Like, I talk to him every now and then. I haven't haven't mentioned it to him that it was him because I don't know him well or anything like that, but for some reason it was him. Uh yeah, it was it was very, very emotional to me that um these things happened and they actually didn't happen. And and that like I put my wife and my kids, my daughters through this. Like they thought they all they had to prepare for the worst, like that I was not gonna be around anymore. And like me growing up without a father is the last the last thing I wanted is my kids to grow up without a dad. And I almost did that to them, you know what I mean? So uh I dwelled on that for uh for a very long time.

SPEAKER_07 1:14:36

Well, listen, um you can't dwell on that. That's uh it was just something, it was a freak accident that happened. It's uh it it it's uh that that's you can't dwell on that. Um but I couldn't uh like the one the one thought that come to my mind is that that would have been difficult is is while you were in the that that state in this other world, you built relationships with people in your mind. And then to wake up and then and then not have those relationships and realize that it wasn't real must have been very difficult.

Grief Trauma And Protecting Family

SPEAKER_02 1:15:17

Yeah, it was. It was it was very difficult. And uh another very difficult thing was that I thought my brain didn't let me remember that Isaac had died. I remember I came back and I and and and everything came back to me. I I checked myself out of the hospital after day three. I was just done with it, and I was not in the right frame of mind. I shouldn't have done that. You know what I mean? I had extreme nerve damage, my hand was stuck, I couldn't bend my fingers, I couldn't use my hand, I had zero strength in my hand, and they could have helped me rehabilitate it maybe quicker than it came back. But the biggest thing was like, I thought I heard Isaac, my brother, in the hallway uh when I was there, and I was like asking people to go get him so I could talk to them. I I my brain was fixated on me warning people that I love to be careful because my my my shit happened in in one second, and I realized that I it could have been avoided, and I wanted everybody to be careful and be safe. And the person that I needed to warn most was Isaac, my brother, because I knew how he lived and I was concerned about him. Like my biggest fear of forum actually happened a year prior to my accident. And that was part of the reason I was in the state I was in before the accident. Um he he died, and my brain knew some reason that I couldn't handle it. Coming back from my accident and and and knowing that he died, it blocked it from me. Seriously. I I am not exaggerating at all. I remembered everything. I at first I could only remember I had one daughter, then it came back to me, I had two very quickly, and I started to remember everything very quickly. I thought I heard Isaac in the hallway, man, and nobody would go get him for me. They didn't want to to obviously they couldn't go get them, but they they just, oh no, it's not him, whatever. And I just thought they wouldn't get them for me.

SPEAKER_07 1:16:53

And they didn't want to upset you at that point because you were you were showing aggression while waiting for you.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:59

I was so confused about everything, and they just didn't want it to be another thing that I was upset about, confused about, whatever. So I came, I came home and my mom, my poor mom, uh it's her baby. It was her baby, and and her and Will, my wife, had to tell me that Isaac had previously previously died. And I had to, I don't even want to say relive that because really that's the first time that I remember hearing it then. I remember it now. I remember the funeral week and everything now. I actually got shingles from it and everything. I remember it completely, but I didn't remember it at all. And but at that point, so I had to learn it, and it was like devastating, obviously, and devastating for me thinking about having my mom have to relive it and explain it to her oldest that her youngest had died, right? And it was just a whole bad thing. Um, yeah, man, the brain is an amazing thing, you know what I mean? It was it's like a self-preservation mode it went into.

SPEAKER_07 1:17:54

Yeah. I'm so sorry for for those experiences. Um that is uh that's difficult. And um it's it's so difficult for for somebody to go through that kind of stuff. Uh you know, I can't even imagine. And um but for you to stay to to to come here and talk about it openly and um and share your experiences with with people, um that is probably one of the strongest traits that anybody can carry with them. Um and uh and I'm very, very grateful for for that. Um because it's not easy.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:41

No, it's certainly not easy, man. It's uh this this year marks year three since he passed, and it's uh it's painful for sure. But um I I more than anything I more than anything want people to just learn from my mistakes and learn from what has happened to me, so that maybe they can prevent it in people that they love or they are the person who's who's hurting and they and they can stop it themselves. I uh that that that's important to me now.

SPEAKER_07 1:19:16

Yeah. Wow, and and it's uh it is a message that is so worth uh talking about. And um for me, I I had an experience fair the experience that I have that that um that's kind of somewhat like that, um my best friend on the planet. Um we worked together, we we holidayed together, we did everything together, fished together, we went to high school together, we um everything. Uh even when when uh before it he passed before I got married, but everybody joked that uh that Eric was my um was my my girlfriend and uh and Melissa should be uh should be uh jealous. Um but um one night Eric uh you know we worked down in Brampton and and at a sheet metal shop and he was uh at a different place for a long time and come back and and uh the boys went out for for a few drinks at uh noon because we got off at noon on Friday. And you know, Eric uh he wasn't one to uh to want to stay um and got behind the wheel and uh he didn't make it home that night. The only blessing was that it was uh it was a maple tree that uh that took his life rather than a vehicle full of other people. Um but he was he was heavily impaired and and I was the last one that he talked to. Um he was supposed to come home, and um I I had just built a house in Shelburne and I was finishing a basement apartment, and he uh he was he was gonna come home, bring case of beer and and uh be there at two o'clock in the afternoon, and and he called me at like nine o'clock that night and said, Stever, I'm on my way. I'm sorry I'm late, I'm gonna grab a uh case of beer, da da da. And I said, buddy, just stay with Dale. Uh he was one of our other co-workers. Just stay down there, don't worry about it. And um uh I hung up the phone and uh the next phone call was uh was Ray, Eric's dad. Uh, you know, he uh he called me at level 12 one o'clock in the morning, and and um he said uh Stever were you at work? I said, no, no, why he said uh where's Eric? Do you like he said something to that effect and I said I don't know I talked to him at uh at five o'clock or eight o'clock. He said, Wow, he's dead and he hung up the phone. He was in shock, and um that affected me for for years, you know, we rode together, and I thought I constantly kept saying over and over in my mind that you know if I had a just gone to work, if I had a went to work, we would have rode together, and then we would have come home together because I needed to get this done and he'd still be here.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:43

I'm sorry, man. I'm very sorry. I uh I know exactly what you mean though. Like um we moved away. We moved uh 12 hours away, and I he was the I was the one he would come to when he was having a an up an episode. I was I was the one he he told everything to and leaned on, and I I could have made him come live with me. You know what I mean? I I could have tried. I could have been there and I feel really bad.

SPEAKER_07 1:23:13

Wow. The one the one thing that I will say um about it, uh Joe, is you can't make people do anything. And and uh like Eric Eric died um Febru sorry February seventh of 2003. Well over twenty years and there's moments of it like that. But honestly you come to grips with it you you feel better about it and and you know you realize that that um the Lord has a plan, right? And and you accept it and um and it and it gets better. It doesn't sound like it right now, right? But it does. And you remember the good news. You're you're definitely right.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:16

Like um Isaac he needed to go. You know what I mean? He couldn't uh he couldn't handle it here anymore, regardless, and he's not in pain anymore, so it's like it's dumb. It's just me. It's me, it's me, it's my mom, it's selfish. It's we we are hurting, you know what I mean? Because we don't have anymore. But hundred percent. He's where it needed to happen. Uh and I understand that.

SPEAKER_07 1:24:40

Uh yeah. You're absolutely right. And and you go on and you live your life, and you remember, you remember him, and his memory lives on. And um you know that's that's uh that's all you can do, that's all you can ask. And um you you you remember. You remember. And your your documentary um was uh was a wonderful um uh testament to that. And I gotta tell everybody out there that um it was a very heartfelt and great um experience. And it's not it it what is it, about a half an hour?

SPEAKER_02 1:25:29

Yeah, it's just half an hour. I I agree. Those guys did a really, really good job uh filming it and editing it. Um I'm very pleased with it.

Making Nerve With CBC

SPEAKER_07 1:25:37

So um uh who who um who dealt uh who did that for you?

SPEAKER_02 1:25:42

Uh well uh the producer, sorry, the the the director, the main camera guy, Adam Peterson. I actually met in Algonquin Park on a canoe trip uh years ago, and then he just he stayed in contact a little bit and then wanted to do a documentary about it. So him and his his his cousin Dave were the only two film guys on the whole trip. We flew into uh some Crownland up near Wabikimi, up near Thunder Bay type thing, Armstrong. Yeah, and uh it was just us and my dog Wolf, and uh they filmed it all. The CBC actually ended up buying it.

SPEAKER_09 1:26:16

I saw that.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:17

Yeah, which is pretty cool. And uh so it's yeah, it's C BC Gem or it's on my my channel or the nature of things YouTube channel, you can watch it on. But uh yeah, I uh I'm I'm proud of it. I'm very proud of it. I'm I'm happy that we were able to immortalize Isaac a little bit uh more in the in the in the dock.

SPEAKER_07 1:26:35

That's uh that's uh like I say, folks, go and uh and watch it. Uh just uh uh Google uh Joe Robinette on uh YouTube, and it's one of the first that that come up. Um actually, I think I uh I think I um I I searched um uh Joe and nerves and and it come right up. Um and it it's worth the watch.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:00

Thanks, man. I appreciate that. Yeah, I want a lot of people to see it. You know, I mean it's it's done some good numbers already, but it's like there's messages in there that I that I would love for people to to hear. Um yeah, that's again, I'm proud of it. I'm very proud of it.

SPEAKER_07 1:27:14

Good for you. Good for you. And listen, I've got a place on the upper French River, so anytime you want to come and and relax up there, you let me know or or um uh uh use the uh the expanse of Crown Let's uh in and around that area. Uh it is a wonderful spot.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:32

Yes, we I will definitely take you up on that.

SPEAKER_07 1:27:35

Yeah. Well, listen, Joe, I um I really, really appreciate you uh doing this with all of us and uh getting to know you on a different level. And um I'm grateful to know you. And if there's anything that I can ever do to help you out, just let me know. And uh again, we should spend a little bit of time on the French River this year.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:00

Sounds good, man. I'm uh I'm all up for always always uh like tripping with new guys and uh meeting people you seem like a decent dude. I I like your vibe. So I and I and I like to get out, you know what I mean? So I I'd love that I'd love that.

Listener Feedback And Closing

SPEAKER_07 1:28:12

Yeah, that's awesome. That's awesome. Well, like attracts like and positivity attracts positivity, buddy. Definitely. Thanks again. All right, thanks, dude. And uh folks, listen, thank you so much for getting to this point in the show. I really, really appreciate it. And um uh let me know what you think about the content. If you've got ideas, send them through. You know how to get a hold of me at steve.n at fishingcanada.com. And while you're thinking about fishingcanada.com, head on over to the website and check things out there. And folks, thus brings us to the conclusion of another episode of Diaries of a Lodge Owner, Stories of the North.

SPEAKER_09 1:28:59

I'm a good old boy, never meaning no harm. I'll be don't you ever saw been reeling in the hog since the day I was born, bending my rod, stretching my line. Someday I might on a lodge and I'd be fine. I'll be making my way the only way I know how working hard and sharing the north with all of my plows. Well, I'm a good old boy. I buy the lodge and live my dream, and now I'm here talking about how life can be as good as it seems. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:56

Back in 2016, Frank and I had a vision to amass the single largest database of musky angling education material anywhere in the world. Our dream was to harness the knowledge of this amazing community and share it with passionate anglers just like you. Thus, the Ugly Pike Podcast was born and quickly grew to become one of the top fishing podcasts in North America.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:18

Step into the world of angling adventures and embrace the thrill of the catch with the Ugly Pike Podcast. Join us on our quest to understand what makes us different as anglers and to uncover what it takes to go after the infamous fish of 10,000 casts.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:32

The Ugly Pike Podcast isn't just about fishing, it's about creating a tight-knit community of passionate anglers who share the same love for the sport. Through laughter, through camaraderie, and an unwavering spirit of adventure, this podcast will bring people together. Subscribe now and never miss a moment of our angling adventures. Tight lines, everyone. Find Ugly Pike now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever else you get your podcasts.

SPEAKER_06 1:31:01

Hi everybody, I'm Angelo Viola. And I'm Pete Bowman. Now you might know us as the hosts of Canada's favorite fishing show, but now we're hosting a podcast.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:11

That's right. Every Thursday, Ans and I will be right here in your ears, bringing you a brand new episode of Outdoor Journal Radio.

SPEAKER_06 1:31:18

Hmm. Now, what are we going to talk about for two hours every week?

SPEAKER_01 1:31:21

Well, you know there's going to be a lot of fishing.

SPEAKER_06 1:31:23

I knew exactly where those fish were going to be and how to catch them, and they were easy to catch. Yeah, but it's not just a fishing show. We're going to be talking to people from all facets of the outdoors.

SPEAKER_08 1:31:33

From athletes, all the other guys would go golfing. Me and Garkin Turk, and all the Russians would go fishing.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:41

The scientists. But now that we're reforesting and anything, it's the perfect transmission environment for license.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:48

Chefs, if any game isn't cooked properly, marinated for you will taste it.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:54

And whoever else will pick up the phone. Wherever you are, Outdoor Journal Radio seeks to answer the questions and tell the stories of all those who enjoy being outside. Find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.