Karie Lee Knoke: Off-Grid Life & 75 Days Alone in Canada's Wilderness

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In this episode of The Adventure Diaries, host Chris Watson sits down with wilderness expert and Alone Season Nine finalist, Karie Lee Knoke. Karie takes us on a journey from her suburban childhood to living off-grid in a 30-foot yurt in Northern Idaho. She shares her incredible transformation from a corporate IT professional to a wilderness survivalist and teacher, offering insights into her time on Alone and her deep spiritual connection with nature. Discover how Karie’s passion for the wilderness led her to create the Sacred Cedars Wilderness School, where she teaches the art of sacred living and survival skills.

Key Takeaways:

• Childhood Roots: Karie’s love for the outdoors began in her suburban neighborhood, where she spent afternoons exploring green spaces and playing in tree forts.
• Career Shift: Despite a successful career in IT, Karie felt drawn to the wilderness, leading her to leave the corporate world and pursue her passion for nature and survival skills.
• Wilderness Survival: Karie’s experience on Alone was both a survival challenge and a spiritual journey, where she connected deeply with the land and tested her skills.
• Sacred Cedars Wilderness School: Karie founded this school to teach others wilderness skills and the “art of sacred living,” blending physical survival techniques with spiritual practices.
• Positive Mindset: Maintaining a positive attitude is crucial for survival, as it helps manage energy and resilience, something Karie practiced throughout her time in the wild.

Call to Adventure:

• “Do your dream. Follow your heart. You might have some crazy dream that nobody understands, but if it’s your passion, the universe will back you up.”
• “Get out of your mind, because that’s when the universe is going to back you up.”
• “If you’re living from the heart and living your dream, your passion, which is all about the heart, everything around you will support you.”

Pay It Forward:

• Support Scholarship Funds: Help others pursue their dreams by contributing to scholarship funds.
• Support Nonprofit Schools: Many nonprofit wilderness schools operate on minimal funds; supporting them helps children and others find their passion.

Featured Guest:

Karie Lee Knoke is a wilderness survival expert, energy medicine practitioner, and founder of Sacred Cedars Wilderness School. She gained national recognition as a finalist on Alone Season Nine, where she survived 75 days in the harsh wilderness of Labrador, Canada. Karie’s deep connection with nature and her passion for teaching others to live in harmony with the land is at the core of her work.

Connect with Karie Lee Knoke:

• Website:

Chapters

• 0:00 Follow Your Heart: Embracing Your Dreams
• 0:58 Introduction to the Adventure Diaries Podcast
• 1:20 Meet Karie Lee Knoke: Wilderness Expert and Survivor
• 3:47 Karie Lee's Early Life and Love for the Outdoors
• 5:51 Transition from Corporate Life to Wilderness Living
• 8:22 Living Off-Grid: Embracing a Primitive Lifestyle
• 15:32 Journey to Alone: Application and Preparation
• 30:04 Berry Picking and Bear Encounters
• 32:20 Fishing Challenges and Strategies
• 34:44 Hunting Difficulties and Emotional Struggles
• 36:51 Profound Dream and Spiritual Connection
• 39:15 Gratitude and Survival
• 41:08 Final Days and Decision to Leave
• 46:52 Energy Medicine and Wilderness School
• 55:48 Encouragement to Follow Your Dreams
• 58:45 Conclusion and Future Plans

Transcript

 You might have some crazy dream and nobody's going to understand it. But you're like, that's what that's, that's it. That's my thing. And you never know, like some might contact you and say, Hey, do you want to do on this, a blah, blah, blah show.  And you just never know what's going to happen. But I really feel like when you're living from the heart. 

And you're living your dream, your passion, which is all about the heart. Get out of your mind  because that's when universe is going to back you up. Everything around you, people will come up and say, Hey, you'll find those connections, those people who are maybe sharing that dream now as a collective dream.

So just. Do your dream and you're going to find the right place and it might not be easy. It might, you might have to change friendships and relationships,  but you're on the right path and you just have to believe that you're on the right path. So that's really what I would like to instill in people. Do your dream, do all your passion, follow your heart.

Welcome to the Adventure Diaries podcast, where we share tales of adventure, connection, and exploration. From the smallest of creators to the larger than life adventurers, we hope their stories inspire you to go create your own extraordinary adventures. And now your host, Chris Watson.  

Welcome to another episode of the Adventure Diaries.

Today I'm joined by Katie Leigh Kinoki.  A remarkable finalist from Alone Season 9, where she survives an astonishing 75 days in one of the harshest climates and locations to date on the show, set in Labrador, Northern Canada, and doing so with an ever present smile.  But Keri Lee's story goes much deeper than that.

Keri Lee holds a degree in both psychology and computer science.  And she's made a significant life change, deciding to live more intentionally, immersed in nature, and now lives beyond the grid in a 30 foot yurt in Sandpoint, Northern Idaho. Carrie Lee also runs Sacred Cedars Wilderness School, where she teaches primitive living skills and wilderness survival. 

Kiraly integrates energy medicine and spiritual practices into her life and her teaching, emphasizing the deep connection with nature.  Today we discuss her experiences on her own, and how she turned her childhood dream into a reality, and why she believes everyone should be following their passion, and how immersion in nature can help with that. 

So settle in for some wisdom from the woods and enjoy this fantastic conversation with Kerry Lee Kinoki.  Welcome Kerry Lee Kinoki to the Adventure Diaries podcast. How are you?  I'm great. How are you, Chris? I'm great. I'm great. Thank you. Yeah. As I said, thank you very much for your time. I really appreciate you giving some time to talk today.

As a way of an introduction, you're notable for being the finalist on Alone season nine.  But I think more important, uh, certainly for me, you're in a wilderness school as well, uh, Sacred Cedars, which we'll come on to. You're also a certified energy healing practitioner. And interesting to me, you've got a degree in psychology, but also computer science.

And I think the fun part about this, which I want to get into is you live off grid.  Don't you in a, in a 30 foot yurt in Northern Idaho. So it's quite clear you've got a passion for the outdoors, primitive living, teaching wilderness skills as well. It's incredible. And I believe you have a book in the works as well.

Is 

that correct? 

Yeah. Good. You've been asked this probably many times before, but where your inspiration for the outdoors actually began and what drew you to the wilderness? 

Yeah, I  just have to say that back in the day, cause I'm a  little bit older,  but when I grew up in the suburbs and when back in that time, there was a lot of green space and a lot of woods when we came home from school.

All the kids in the neighborhood, we'd go up out in the woods and we had a tree fort up there and  we just spent all afternoon just playing and riding our bikes and  our bikes through the woods to get to the candy store. And now they have 21 speed bikes with helmets and go mountain biking. But when we were going, we had one speed bikes.

And maybe if we were lucky, we would have a three speed bike to do the same thing. But  we have that incentive of candy instead of our face.  My parents. Uh, we're avid backpackers,  so we would go out on the weekends, either backpacking or we would, when we got older, we would go canoeing. We'd take a canoe down a Class 3 river, like, no big deal.

That's just what we did.  And I think that's really where my love for the outdoors comes from, is the fact that I got to spend time  with my parents and my dad, who has gone working a lot. That was a valued time for me.  

Awesome. So did you grow up in Idaho or was it, where did you kind of childhood form? 

Yeah, I grew up in the Bothwell, Kenmore area, just north of Seattle.  And my grandparents moved to Sandpoint, Idaho in 70. or I think or 76  around that time. So I would come over here to visit them in the summertime or in the wintertime to go skiing.  So I had some roots here and been very familiar about this place.

I didn't actually move here till 1997.  Yeah, 

excellent. Go back to your, so obviously you're very academic and psychology and computer science. So that must have taken you off into the corporate worlds.  

Yeah, I sure did. I had this.  Thing in my head that, and it's interesting how in high school I had, we took the SAT test to see what we would be best at as an adult.

And my top three were electronic engineer, auto mechanic, because I'm very logical minded.  And the third one was, uh, uh, park ranger, because anytime there was a question about being outside, I was like, yes.  But as a young adult, I grew up a little on the poor side, especially when we were younger. My dad started a new business and we were  growing up on just fumes of  money. 

And that changed as I got older, but  I wanted to have a family. I didn't want to be poor. So my goal was to make money for my family. And  so I went to college and I did all those things that we're supposed to do. And. I ignored the park ranger part of myself and said, no, I'm going to go into psychology.

And then I found out 13 years of college and you got to get your doctorate. There's an easier way. I went into computer science because my dad was an electronic engineer, high tech, very high tech.  And so that was. And it was just really easy for me. So that's the direction I went  until  five,  I was a computer consultant for five years and being stuck in traffic in Seattle and doing all this stuff.

And  that was against my grade of my being. And then weekends, I'd go out and do my hiking trips and do all that. And I was like,  I promised myself as a child, I would never live in a city that had pollution  and being stuck in that traffic in the nineties, I'd realized that And this was the great recession time.

And in Seattle, it was booming because of Boeing and Microsoft.  So everybody, the rest of the nation was moving to Seattle and it boomed. And I just sat on that freeway going,  I have to move. There's all this smog and it's not going away.  And it was really mad and heartbreaking to leave your home  that I've grown up in my whole life and say, I can't live here anymore.

That's when I made that movement of moving to Sandpoint.  Finding a new way of life.  

Awesome. So did you go straight from IT then straight to the outdoors? Was that your transition then in a life of  outdoors and wilderness skills? It's such a  That sounds a bit like drop shock as they say, like that must have been the  complete polar opposite to what you're doing. 

Yeah, I remember when I made the decision I actually traveled for three years trying to decide what am I gonna do? Maybe I can make a living off my art and I traveled around Being a bohemian and  my mom sent me a card saying  she's super supportive always supportive The day she let her sensible hair down and I actually still have this card that she sent to me and it was like,  so endearing because I take after my dad, but yet here's my mom that totally supported me, even though I was diving off the board and I sang,  Screw you, the rest of the modern world, I'm going to go do something else.

And after three years, I settled living to Sandpoint, but my first year here, I was a bartender at a bar,  uh, and a ski lift operator. So I was making like 50 a day. I had been making much more money than that,  but I was okay with that. I was okay with that until  I met the man I'm working for now with the pesticide research stuff, Dr.

Charles Brandbrook, and I've been working for him ever since on a  part time basis and  a lot of flexibility in my own schedule. So I created the life that I really wanted so I could do the things I wanted to do, but yet I was still able to make  some good money to support myself. So it's a balance,  yeah.

Amazing. I take it you don't look back on the computer science life with any regrets?  

No. At 

what point in the 90s, what point in the 90s, Carrie Lee, were you involved? Because it was software, wasn't it? Was it software science  computers that you were involved with? 

I was a systems analyst. Systems 

analyst.

Systems 

analyst, so I would go in and, Uh, interviewed my clientele, figure out what they would need and then design a number of systems of what they would need it. Like, how do we get the accounting software to talk to the inventory and management,  manufacturing, all that. I, I put the puzzle together and then. 

Do you like program analysis 

and, 

um, and some programming as well?  

Excellent. So as a problem solver. Yeah.  Which probably lends itself to some of the stuff we've seen on the show and some of the skills and the teachings that you've got in your wilderness school as well. Yeah. So  obviously you've moved on it and you settled in Idaho then, so the build up obviously to  How long were you living? 

outside the computers and outside of the corporate world before you go into a loan? Were you quite established? Were you establishing your skills or are these things that you had when you were a child or how did that come to be?  

Definitely, I would say all of the above,  and as a child, I read My Sight of the Mountain, and that book was about a boy who ran away and lived in the Catskills Mountains, and ever since I read that, I was inspired to like, Oh my God, nothing but my knife to survive, and so even as a child, I'm, any little bit of information, oh, that's edible, or this, But that, and I didn't have any mentorship, so there was a lot I did not know, but I had that hunger for it.

Yeah. If anything, get my hands on, I would like, Oh, got that.  But it wasn't until I moved to Sandpoint, I'd been off grid since the  year 2000, bought my yurt and been living off grid since then. And  so I'm really comfortable without all those amenities and living outdoors a lot. So in my 30 foot year, a lot of people would ask me.

Do you live in your yurt all winter? Of course, that's the only time I'm living in my yurt. In the summer time, I'm outside. That's awesome. It's just there to house my clothes and my cooking, my kitchen.  It wasn't until, yeah, I really didn't have that mentorship until  2006. I did have a couple of friends that were into wilderness skills.

And then there's this one weekend that someone put on called Back to the Future.  And then I met a person that I did my first bow drill player.  And then a week later I was doing brain tanning and he told me about these primitive skills gatherings that are. All over the West Coast and now they're all over the country.

They're very popular now.  And so I went in 2007. I went to my first gathering and second gathering. Can I teach drumming? Like I so much, this is my tribe and I so much wanted to be a part of it. I made the mistake of saying, yes, please, can I teach something? I can do beading. And then I learned how to do Native American beading from a friend of mine.

And I probably should have just waited and just taken a lot of classes, but I just had to step in and start teaching right away. So that was my tribe and that's where everything, that's where I really began to flourish. And now I'm hunting and I incorporated, I had that.  A life  challenge, one of those life changing events that happen where you get the quote unquote opportunity to redesign your life again. 

I decided to incorporate the primitive skills into my lifestyle.  Treating my yurt as if just a big,  huge canvas tent, but  just bringing in all those skills and harvesting my own food and  doing as much as I could do to live a primitive lifestyle, but I still have that connection to the modern world. 

Sometimes they call us bush hippies.  But I still had a connection. Yeah, I had, I had my laptop and computer. 

Yeah, you could say I'm a bridge walker. So I live one way, but then I'm still like earning my money through the computer.  

I take it you're not in Europe at the moment, are you? Or are you? 

No, I'm in my office. This is where I do my healing energy medicine work here in town. I don't quite have the right, um, internet service at the land yet.

I'm working on that.  

Okay, 

understood. 

Just  a bit of an interesting thing you said about the book, The My Side of the Mountain. I actually interviewed Clay Hayes from, uh, Season 8.  Uh, and he referenced that book as well.  That's, which was part of his early childhood memories, so that's, that's really something actually.

It's a book I haven't heard of, and I've got a little girl I'm trying to get more into the outdoors and stuff, so it might be something that I purchase to, to give to her.  

Yeah, it's a great book. And Disney made a movie out of it, but I recommend the book, because there's diagrams in there and then. 

Getting to the topic. Of Alone, Season 9, Labrador, Newfoundland, Canada. You survived 75 days.  And what was described as one of the harshest climates yet on the show. I think there was risks of predatory polar bears and stuff. How did you come to apply for Alone in the first place? Because it's madness thinking about going into that environment. 

Yeah, they, they actually reached out to me originally for season three, but when we were going, we had one speed bikes and maybe they did it through messenger. And at the time, cause I'm a little behind on technology,  I still had a flip phone and I didn't get the message all of a sudden, like, what is this?

So they messaged me in January and April, I got found it on my phone.  But it was too late because they had already just launched in Patagonia.  So they interviewed me for the next season, which was the season for the duo. And I was like, no, I don't have a significant other. I don't have a family member. I'd want to do this with,  and she was, wow, you're really slated for a loan, aren't you?

And I was like,  yes, thank you for validating my life.  Unfortunately, yes, I am.  So season five was the playoff redemption show. And then I played for season six and I was really close. It was in the top 100 that went to the History Channel.  And uh, almost made it.  They have certain casting. And Wonia applied at the last minute, and then she went on the show instead, and I gave up.

I had worked really hard, and I asked for feedback, and they said, We're looking for big per The History Channel's looking for big personality.  I'm quite a person, that's really just not me.  And, uh, well, Nia did awesome on the show, and I'm a really good friend, and I'm so happy for her that she went on the show.

But I gave up, and then a couple seasons went by, and  I got a call back from  the casting producer, and she said, The History Channel's really realizing that the people with the birth Big personalities are the first off the show. Will you please reapply? We need women with skills. And I had just purchased the property.

I just closed two weeks before she called. And now I'm 57 years old and I just bought a huge piece of property and you want me to go do what?  So I reapplied and had to, still had to go through all the hoops and whatnot to get there, but.  

Yeah, because  there's quite a bit of a selection process, isn't there?

Because they whittle it down from, is it hundreds they whittle it down and they take you away and you go through tasks and stuff? Yeah, 

10, 000 people apply for a season and granted, yes, there's less women that apply,  but still there's a huge number of people that apply for the show now.  And then they whittled it down to a hundred and then they get submitted to the History Channel.

They whittle it down. 25. And then you go to a bootcamp, they test your skills. You have to do all this stuff, a week long bootcamp,  and then they pick the final  contestants.  And then you have about two months to prepare. Yeah. 

Okay. That was my next question. So what is the bootcamp?  Was that in Canada or was it in a similar territory to what you were going into or?

Pre COVID, they would go to New York.  But we were during COVID, so we had to do ours online,  which is really unfortunate because  When you're all together in person, you get to meet all the everybody and sit around the campfire and you chit chat, it's a lot of fun. So, we did get to sit online and talk to each other and chit chat, but end of the day, we hang out and go back home as opposed to sitting around the campfire and telling awesome stories.

You 

weren't making Bowdrills live on webcam, were you? Bowdrill fires online?  How were they testing your skills remotely?  

Oh, yeah, that was tricky. Yes. 

Yeah. 

We had to videotape ourselves to do a swim test. I'm not sure if I can really talk about what we,  what they put us through.  All right. 

No problem.  So obviously the location, had you ever been to Labrador before  

in Canada?

Not at all. In fact, I'm from the other side of the continent.  I've been in Alaska and spent a lot of time up north and all they would really tell us, they didn't tell us  that we were even going to Labrador for quite a while. They just kept saying,  prayer for a wet, cold climate,  as opposed to Green St.

Slave Lake is a cold, dry climate. We had to be prepared for wet  and that really affected me as far as decision making because I want to wear my buckskin and  look at my buckskin shirt here a second ago.  I really wanted to wear my buckskin and have a cool buckskin coat like all Teresa and Callie and Juan.

Yeah. 

But, but, 

but when they said when I'm like, that's like death, buckskin in the rain. It's death. I had to kind of technical gear.  

Yeah. Did that change your strategy at all when you found out  was it any sort of preparation that you had to pivot? Yeah. as a result of that.  

Definitely. Yes. I'd be prepared.

Like all my gear had to be super waterproof because like I said, I lived in Alaska. I know what that means.  It's, and I grew up in Seattle, but it's not just a rain. It's usually like melting rain and not for five minutes, but for days.  So I had to prepare for that kind of weather knowing,  and it's a lot of humidity.

So  you really have to think about what's going to dry fast. You really need to choose your clothing is everything.  

Yeah, what kind of impact did that have on your 10 items then? Did you have a view on your 10 items before the location was delivered and then changed it up at all?  

Yeah, I really considered taking a tarp.

I bought a tarp and  the last minute I decided not to take the tarp.  I wasn't sure what I was going to give up. I have more ideas of what I would do next time  to save in my pocket now. 

Yeah, I do hope I go back at some point,  but yeah, really,  you have to be really mindful of what your final selection is going to be and you can take. multiple items with you, but, and you don't have to decide what you're going to take till the day before the launch.  So at the last day I was like, do I take an axe?

Do I take a saw? I don't really think I need both. So it's like all these decisions, of course you're really nervous because it could be the wrong decision,  but yeah, there's a lot of things you have to consider.  

Any regrets about the things that you chose?  

Not really. There are some things I would do differently. 

Maybe I'll take a saw next time than an axe. I was happy with my axe.  Because that's going to help you like chop through ice if you need to do that.  Yeah, I might do things a little differently. The one, if you'd asked me what my 11th item would be, I would say a shovel.  And I didn't know that before launch, but when I got out there, I,  Jessie was considering taking a shovel and I thought she took it, but she didn't.

At that last minute, she decided not to take a shovel.  And when I was out there digging it, I closed like, man, I could really use Jessie's shovel right now. 

I think two contestants on season 10 took shovels and they're learning from us every time. 

Yeah. Awesome. That would have rocked my 

world event.  

What was it? So  on the day then when you arrive at your location, what is it like? Because I've heard the term drop shop.  Described by some contestants before.

What was your experience like when you were dropped off at your location? What went through your mind  when the helicopter disappeared?  

Yeah, it's really nerve wracking, especially waiting for your turn to be launched. It takes about 30 to 40 minutes between each person. It takes a while to get everybody.

So 

you're all sitting together, then you're launching at the same time, literally at the same day.  

Yeah. We're all in a seal for us. We were all in a sealed, waiting our turn. We're packed. We've been, they've gone through our gear and searched us and made sure we weren't taking anything we weren't supposed to. 

So it's really nerve wracking and you don't know if you're next or not. And  Terry and then Benji was second to get launched.  And. You'll see Benji on the show that he's wandering around during his recon mission, and then the storm sneaks up on him. He was launched probably four hours before I did.  And while the remaining, I think I was number six. 

And while we're all sitting there waiting,  we could see the big black thundercloud rainstorm coming in. And I'm like, Oh my God, I gotta go. I gotta get launched now or I'm not going to be launching in the rain.  So by the time I went,  that's all I could think about was. This impeding rape storm that was coming. 

And I estimated I have about an hour to get ready. So once I got dropped. Yes, I tripped,  I tripped on the stick,  they made it look really dramatic. It's not, it's not the way it happened. I tripped on the stick. I'm really, I'm okay, but it made a really funny opening scene there.  But all I could think about is, okay, I just got to get out of the wind, out of the wilder weather.

Where am I going to go to be sheltered in? I got to get a tarp up ASAP. So my drop shot was like, okay, here we go, go.  But at the same time, nobody knows this, but I had the flu,  a really bad flu. My head was like a basketball. I'm 25 pounds overweight, which is a lot for me.  And just feeling like a bumbling idiot. 

You're nervous.  It was really, did  you get any medication? I mean, I didn't have that shock so much. It was more like, okay, go. This rain is coming. Boom. Here we are. Yeah. It's all different for me.  

Yeah. That is tough going in.  with the flu. I assume you didn't get any medication for that, no? You just going in and toughing that out?

Oh 

no.  No, yeah, I toughed it out. And I was sick for two weeks, my first two weeks. I was really sick. And a couple of the other participants also caught the flu, but were able to fight it off. And I think I was exhausted  from day one. I was exhausted before we launched. Oh,  I actually didn't even really start my journey till day 14.

They show me moving into my shelter on day 14, but it was actually day 21. I started my shelter day 14. 

Ah, okay. That's because I was so exhausted.  Huh?  I was going to say, that must be the, that must be the amount of editing and stuff they do. Cause it didn't really come across like that watching it. Yeah, it was.

Yeah.  Yeah. I must admit show be blowing 

my nose all the time.  , 

I must admit you always came across as bubbly and I think you're probably the, the iest happiest. I think you, you and Kylie maybe are probably two of the most upbeat contestants I think that have been, that, that I've seen on show. You didn't seem to let much phase you.

There was a lot of, I like your morning routines, your songs and your, your cheer penis. Was, was great to see.  Even though you had the flu. Yeah, but  

that, that also helped me to help me to stay. I'm an energy medicine worker. I know what it takes to keep your energy up and to stay resilient. So I worked with myself a lot  to stay in that place because when your energy's up, everything's easier when you're happy and you're long.

And I was totally in love with what I was doing. Life is easy when you're struggling, life becomes really a far, so I worked really hard to just.  Yeah, I'm exhausted, and that's okay. This is what we're doing.  Stay focused.  

Yeah. Excellent. So,  so you obviously had some great strategies to deal with it mentally and deal with the isolation and keep yourself upbeat.

But what about the kind of hunger side of things and the hunting and the foods? Talk us through some of your strategies there because It's muskrat, muskrat, even turned that into a Halloween costume from what I remember. So what were your highlights and strategies are in the hunting and gathering?  

Yeah, initially I was, my plan was to focus on fishing. 

I struggled that first week. One, I'm sick and two,  I didn't have a good fishing spot.  Getting down to the river was really challenging and I would look. Because they launched us on a hill and there was just so much bramble and brush even to get to the river. I didn't have a nice beach to go to.  And I would look at the river and there was, that first week was a lot of wind.

And I would just look down there like, I don't really think fish are biting right now,  that's where I focus, and I was sick. So I really  didn't fish as much as I would have liked to. And that may have hurt me a little bit just right from the get go, but I did get too grouse  in that first week. So that was like, okay,  we're good. 

My strategy, I was.  I didn't set traps right away. I  did focus on fish and did all right with the fishing.  And I was setting myself up. We could hunt for bear at night. We could hunt at night. And so I did try that. I did everything to try and set myself up for bear.  I didn't see any, I did see the bear scat,  but bears are going to go where the food is, and that's either the fish. 

For the berries, and I had hillsides of berries because I was in a wildfire burn. So my strategy was to, and I felt guilty about this, actually. I had so many berries and I was sitting on the hillside and the sun would be setting because that's when the bears are going to come out. Right. So I'd be sitting there just picking berries and just being really low to the ground and quiet, just a bear would.

And I'd pop my head up. Nope, no bears.  Roll over, keep on picking berries. So.  But I was like, this is too easy, there's so many berries.  My presence and the bear presence, berry picking, our, our um, I could tell when they came through,  I knew they had been there, but we didn't coincide, our berry picking journeys didn't collide, unfortunately,  on that, yeah. 

So did you not have any  bear encounters, polar or grizzly or black bear encounters, or did you see any on your.  

Yeah, there are no grizzlies in this area and I did not see a polar bear. Thank God, they will hunt you. It's no lie, but though you do not, I did not want to see a polar bear. I know Juan Pablo was really excited when he thought he saw one.

I was like, Oh my gosh,  that's crazy. I did, I was told later after I came in that I did have two young male black bears in my site, in my area.  

Okay. 

And like I said, I could tell they had been there and they'd moved through because  easy picking berries were gone and all the berries that were left were the ones that were under logs and brushes where big bear heads couldn't get through. 

Yeah. 

Did you have any, did you  

have any constraints or conditions on what you could hunt?  You know, some of the shows there's certain times that you can or can't use gill nets or you can't hunt berry, can't hunt. Yeah,  

for our area,  the fishing, we could only actively fly fish with barbless hooks.  So we couldn't use the gill net.

We couldn't even make traps or build a weir or anything like that. We had to be,  we couldn't even set  lines out and lead them.  So we had to actively be fishing the whole time. And to be honest, I,  we could catch  the wild salmon. It was a Wannanichi salmon,  but not the Atlantic salmon.  And there were three times where I had caught something really heavy and I'm sure it was a salmon.

And the first one got off cause it was on a barbless hook and it caught me by surprise, I was expecting a little trout. And  again, it happened again. And it took my lure. And the third time I put 20 pound test on, I'm like, I understand I'm not there, I'm going to put 20 pound test on, I'm going for it. And I, third one broke that line as well. 

So that's unfortunate, I didn't get those.  For muskrat and beaver, which are traditionally caught by trapping, we weren't allowed to,  excuse me, we weren't allowed to trap  the beavers or the muskrats. They had to be shot at the bonnet or  hit with a stick or. Some other way,  that was a challenge. And that's why I made that arrow and I had lashed  my arrow to my fishing reel, to my bow, so that if I did shoot into the water.

If I miss, at least I get my arrow back. But if I hit it, I can reel in the animal. And now, because I'm on a river, I'm not going to go swimming downstream to go get my meal. And that, that was, that took some ingenuity. That was part of the problem solving for figuring  

out the 

logistics.  

I do find it really curious that this is a proper wilderness show.

And if you were out there in the proper wilderness and it wasn't a game show. It would be, you would be doing whatever you could to, to trap and hunt and fish, weirs and nets and everything else, but you're constrained a little bit and it kind of changes by season as well. So I do find that a little bit added pressure  to the contestants. 

Is there any moments that you had severe doubts because of the food situation? Did you think that would bring your time to a close at any point?  

There was, I went through a period of time where, and I think it started  when there was a squirrel that I actually hit.  But I didn't pull that bow back enough and it was so close and I hit it and it fell off the log and went underneath and  underneath this little tree thing. 

And I thought I was dead, but then, so I just sat there and waited. And then all of a sudden,  when I went to look, it was gone. And I saw another little bush run and I thought, Oh shoot, I just injured it. And that kind of really broke my heart. One, not because I just lost a meal,  two, because now I've just injured it.

And I don't know, is it going to crawl under a log and die? Did it get away? Did it live? Was Just, it hurts so bad,  and it took me a few days to let that go, and I went down like a fox, and I was digging underneath all the moss, and maybe it's under here, and I just never did find it.  But after that, there was a period of time where  I was missing squirrels, shots. 

So I was getting tired, I would shoot a squirrel, miss it, and instead of saying, Oh, for every squirrel I get is one more day I get to be here. My story in my head turned into every squirrel I miss is a day I don't get to be 

here. 

So now my cup is now from half full to half empty.  And after a while, I was really weighing on myself, like, maybe I'm not good enough to be out here.

Maybe I'm not a good enough huntress. And squirrels are hard to get. When I came back in, we started laughing, like, that was really silly because everybody has trouble getting squirrels because they have lightning quick reflexes.  Yeah,  that did weigh heavy on me for a while, for sure.  

Were there any other moments in the show that might not have made it on air that had a profound impact on you, either positively or negatively?

Because we don't get to see everything, obviously, that  happens.  

I had  a very profound dream.  And this was on the night of day 52, the morning of 53. I had just talked about the rites of passage and my miscarriage. And there was a bigger conversation I was having about the rites of passage. They showed the miscarriage part. 

And so that night I had this very profound dream  and had to deal with rites of passage. But in the end,  I got two messages out of that. But in the end.  The message I got was  to be  proud. And I actually went through this energetic thing because I am an energy medicine practitioner. In the dream, there was this blue turquoise ribbon shirt as a native shirt.

And I put that energetically put that shirt on. I imagined  I take the shirt and I went, I am proud of who I am. I am proud of what I've done so far.  I'm humble about it and practicing the art of humility.  And at that moment on, I could laugh at myself. I could laugh at the fact that I had black teeth, which I was really embarrassed about, really embarrassed about. 

And now when I'm out hunting, I'd hit my squirrel, I'd shoot at my squirrel, I'd miss, I'm like, I'll get you tomorrow. Don't worry, I'll be back. And it was just like, me mon, and I could get back into that happy place. And that shifted my reality.  I may not have, I may have tapped out a lot sooner, had that dream had not come to me at that time. 

So that was really super profound.  

Do you think that you just accepted the experience and accepted yourself and it wasn't more so much a game but more just an experience and you were starting to tick down to being ready to come out?  

Yeah.  

Yeah. It was definitely  more for me about the experience. One to satisfy this childhood dream I had, but two, my adult self had this intention of wanting to see how spiritually deep I could connect with the land because that's what my book is all about, right?

The art of sacred living is about.  Moving in connection with the land  in survival or not in survival, but it's all about  how we can connect,  how deeply we can go. So it's a spiritual experiment for me. And I actually took time where I offered prayers. I made offerings. I sang my songs. I did everything I could to be grateful for what I was doing. 

And then  I was like, okay, this is going great. Okay, let's stop this for a week or a few days and see what happens. And I didn't catch any fish.  Things just changed  and I was like, wow, this is  starting to struggle here. Oh yeah, wait, I haven't been grateful. And I had to remember of that. Oh yeah, I got to do this stuff.

And so I took the time, I made a prayer to the water and within five minutes, boom, I got a fish. 10 minutes later, I got my second fish and they were big trout. Thank you. Okay, here we go.  

And 

I heard a lot of that from the camera, actually. It's on the very end when I realized like, I'm actually doing pretty good.

And I need to let people know what it is that I'm doing out here.  And so that's what I started sharing. And you lose your filters anyway, you can't hide from the camera anymore. He was like, these all your filters.  And, but the editors took my secret adult intention and put it in episode one of Carrie's out here to connect with the ancestors of land and the deep way or whatever they said.

It was like, okay, they're telling my, they really are telling my story.  I'm happy about that. 

I  

didn't want to see.  

Yeah, you could see that. I said, what I see at the end of it, you could see that I think you were very happy. There was a kind of sense of gratefulness and gratitude that you spoke about living your childhood dream and you could see that you were doing that.

I think you were just ready come the end. It didn't matter if it was day 75 I think it was, you had given and gotten what you wanted from the experience and it was time to wrap up.  So what was it like coming up to Day 75  and then coming out of the experience? Can you just touch on that?  

Sure. We got our second three day blizzard.

So the first one happening  right before the D8960,  which I'll just have to say, I was  so in tune with what was going on that I was able to predict that snowstorm a month ahead of time.  And I even told production that this storm was coming. But they'd probably think I'm really weird. And then it did exactly to the day.

I actually almost,  after that experience, thought about coming out. Timogen came out and I was thinking the same thing cause the snow was so overwhelming. Oh my God.  And then I asked myself like, Oh, what do we do in Idaho when it snows as much? We play.  So that's when I had the snowball fight with myself.

I'm just, I'm going to take the day off.  But, uh,  the second snow blizzard  came and it was another three day storm.  And  I knew that I had already spent the 24 hour period being really dizzy. I was walking around trying to find this snowshoe hare. I was tracking it  and they showed it. They didn't really show that. 

I don't know if I even said to the camera that I was dizzy, but  there was a moment there where I was tapping my heart and saying, don't cry. And that was because I was so dizzy and I'd wandered. I realized that I'd wandered too far from camp. Sun was setting and I had to get,  I knew that I was in danger and I needed to get back.

So it was like keep positive. I needed every little strand of energy to get back.  So  I did, but I knew that  I needed to, I still had, I tried to fast  and I knew that I couldn't fast. I needed, I have low blood pressure. So I need.  To keep  my electrolytes up. And so I ate food, I ate, I doubled two bites of pimmickin instead of just one bite.

I ate more berries. Just, and then I was fine.  But when I came out of that storm and realized how weak I was. I really wanted to stay one more day. I was making some Roy Croft snow skis.  And I, all I needed to do was tie them together.  But I also knew that my body was done  and that the helicopter could only get me on a nice day.

They can't come during a storm. High winds, no clouds, we're at night.  And so was this is your opportunity to go and I could stay one more day, but what if another storm comes in? I don't know if I want to stay here out here for another three, four or five more days.  So I had to make that decision for myself. 

Be honest, I was waiting for my med check, because I thought I was in fourth. Was my med check coming soon? Because I'm really ready for you guys to come get me.  But they weren't coming, because now I know I was in second, and they didn't want to come get me. They wanted me to make that 

decision. And they were, to be honest, were really grateful that I did. 

My blood pressure was really low and at that point I'm just injuring my body. And I didn't want to do that to myself and Juan Pablo's 30 and his vital signs were strong. And unless he was in an accident, I would not beat him. But that was a hard, really hard decision 

because my 

soul, my heart, my whole being wanted to be there.

I did not want to.  My body was like  bone bra,  warm bed, warm bed, hot shower. My body was like. I need that.  No, we don't want to go. We don't want to go home.  Like a little kid.  It 

was a 

struggle. It 

was a really hard struggle.  They can't help.  

Yeah. You think about it, you lasted  75 days and Clay, Clay Hayes, he won on 74 days.

And I know that as quite binary, there's a winner and then there's everyone else that runs up. But I think as cliche as it sounds, they hate myself for even seeing this. Everyone is a winner. You guys and girls are doing stuff out there that's really pushing your limits and living the kind of dream that you've always wanted to do and doing that in front of national and worldwide audiences with no filters  is quite something in its own, in its own right.

So,  yeah, it is great to see. Yeah, it was a 

wonderful experience, but if I won, I mean, I was  Yeah, I'm doing everything I can to win and I just have to say one thing about  kind of energy medicine how we take care of ourselves  It's  you know I do a whole energy routine while I was out there is doing acupressure points and all this stuff energetically to my body and you get tired and we do this at home when we get tired and You don't want to take care of ourselves And it's just so easy to do and not take care of ourselves when I was out there  Tired I really want to get up and go do this There's 50,  500, 000 on the line.

That was my dangling carrot.  And it was interesting to me of like, why do we need that much money or carrot  to take care of ourselves? Why do I need that much of an incentive? So coming home was like,  I came home and it was like, do I, okay,  I still need to take care of myself. I thought it was just an interesting thing we do as humans, like  how easy it is for us to not 

care of ourselves.

Yeah.  And was it going to take?  

Yeah.  Thanks for letting me share 

that.  

Yeah. So on that very topic then, just pivoting ever so slightly, Kiraly, so on your energy medicine practices, so tell us about that. For the layman, what does that actually mean?  For what I was doing out there or just in general? Just in general.

Yeah. And how did that relate to, to, to your time on the show?  

Yeah. That's a very good question. Everything is energy, right? Yeah. Absolutely. So scientifically, we could explain it this way, but our bodies are electromagnetic beings, our presence is an electromagnetic planet,  and  we are like  magnets, we have a North Pole and a South Pole, and  our bodies, we have our physical bodies, but we also have, we have an electrical system, we have nine different energy systems in our whole body, electromagnetic, 

and 

We have our aura and our chakras and all this stuff that comes from  different cultures, like the chakras are from an Eastern tradition or  excuse me.

And meridians is from an Eastern tradition and the chakras. Oh wait, sorry. I got that backwards,  but it goes into the South American tradition. Yeah. So, um, but it's, it doesn't matter what tradition it's all there. 

And yeah, 

and with this from the beginning of time, right.  And I am slightly disliked. It's like for massage or working with a physical body, but.

Yeah, a lot 

of what I do is based on Chinese medicine. I'll do like acupressure. I don't do acupuncture, but  acupressure, working with all of those different  energy systems that we have.  And that's what keeps you, that brings that joy and that life, uh, love and  passion and bringing that into you. And that's when your whole body lights up, which is what was happening to me out there.

I was in a euphoric state. I had to follow it up.  So that's what I do. I help people to,  when you have some trauma or.  Negative impacts in your life, whether it's physical or emotional, that hangs onto your body. And so, as a practitioner, I help facilitate people to help them walk through their story. They do the healing, and I'm just there holding that space, and they get to a moment of, Okay, here's where I'm stuck, it's okay, and I'll guide them to push through that. 

Yeah, and  through that and then bring something in new like what's your new story? This is your old story done with that Okay, let's burn that and let's put in a new story. Where do you like go? What's your true passion? And that's really what the art of sacred living is about to  is allowing people holding space  For people to find who they truly are, shedding that identity, who are you truly and how can you step into what makes you passion?

How can you thrive internally?  Because everything else is going to shift around you. If you're thriving internally, your world's going to thrive outside.  

Awesome. And those are some of the strategies that you were using on yourself, I assume, in the show to keep yourself neat.  

Yes, I was doing when I was,  passionate about. 

So I just had to live through it.  

Yeah. 

Yes, exactly.  

Yeah, fantastic. I want to just again pivot back to Sacred Cedars Wilderness School. You said just before the show you had actually purchased the land. So just tell, just talk us through your, your wilderness school, what it's all about and what we could expect if we were to undertake any sort of classes. 

Sure. Thank you for asking. So at this moment in time, last year, throughout this whole last year, we've been, I've been working with the land and creating a space for the, for people to come to the school. So I have a campground set up. We have an outdoor kitchen and my yard that I've been living in for 23,  two years  is now moved to the land.

So the 30 foot yard now, instead of me living in it. It is dedicated to an indoor classroom. In the wintertime, we have five months of winter up here in Northern Idaho. Not all summer is conducive to doing outdoor classes unless it's winter skills, but I have a space where we can go inside and do crafting kind of projects.

That's all set up and I'm really focusing the land towards the school, but I also need a place for myself to live. Right now I, I don't have a structure for myself to live in.  So I'm camping out, you could say for the summer  and, but I would like to eventually be able to build. It's a lot of work for a single older woman to do this all by myself.

And so this is where I'm creating opportunities.  I have, I call it energy exchange programs or work trade programs, creating community, uh,  getting the help I need to make the school come to fruition and have a place for myself to retire to our loans at Yen Hsien Fui. And. At the same time, exchanging for learning skills, whether the hard skills, uh, fire and the hard skills of survival, and then incorporating the self skills of survival, which is the art of sacred living and everything you saw me doing on the show,  being in gratitude and having a positive mindset because a positive mindset is a very  important survival skill.

You have to have that. Even  

the military 

bottom line, positive mental attitude. And you have to have faith.  Who cares how you pray, but you have to have faith.  

Bottom line. Mental fortitude. Yeah, mental fortitude. I think that's the one thing that comes across in all of these interviews. Mental toughness. Can I ask it, were there any experiences or  skills that you took from the show  that you've brought into your wilderness school that have helped shape any of your teachings? 

You mean that I  got from my experience and then brought it home?  

Yeah, exactly. Pushed her.  

Because like I said, it was a virtual experiment, so everything that I was, that I'm writing about in my book, I put to the test.  And  all the stuff I know.  But in this modern world, we get so distracted and responsibilities.

It gets so distracted. So this was a period of time where there was no distraction. It's just me and nature and the camera. I really had to put it to the test. It  was very profound experience out there. And so now coming back, I want to share that because I feel like I, I feel like I'm a bridge walker and I can help people to,  that's my goal. 

Take, I'm also taking my healing practice outdoors. I'm available one on one, but I  really want to take a group of people out, shed those layers of the outside world of responsibilities and the internet and all that,  and help guide them to that place where they have their own profound  experiences.  I can see the pathway. 

Every individual is going to have their own experience because they have their own past. Their past is not my past.  My future is not their future,  but again, to help guide them to really connect and find,  find that deep place from within  and learn some really cool, awesome survival skills as well.  It's really, yeah,  

excellent. 

I just hold 

this place of everybody's doing what they're truly passionate about. How would this world change?  There's this higher purpose that I'm really trying to help facilitate and support. 

Yeah, couldn't have said it any better. That's part of the core values of what I'm trying to do with this show as well.

Interesting stories of adventure and exploration, but also just trying to encourage people just to go out and connect. Disconnect a little bit from the always on IT, the scrolling on the phone and get out. Whether it's even, A micro adventure or something more grand that you're doing on in your wilderness school.

It's just taking the time to get out and  therapy that nature provides. It's  really is something and it's things that we need to do more of.  Excellent. We're almost coming up on time and I do want to be a bit respectful of your time, Keri Leigh. So  in terms of wrapping up the conversation on a loan, how, how would you like your time to be remembered  by us, the viewers, the audience of Keri Leigh Kenoki on a loan? 

Yeah. I'm so glad you're asking that question because that was something that I very  obviously needed to think about, but just was, you Nobody's asked me that question before. I was like, wow, I really want to encourage people to do your dream. Like I had that  bumper sticker, it was actually a bubble gum machine sticker I'd gotten years ago for 25 cents for.

And I took that out there and sent my family picture to remember for me when times got tough, why am I out here? And then I had my song too, that also helped me out a lot when times got tough.  But that doing your dream  is really what I want people to take away from this.  Yeah, it could be, your life might be. 

You may have some crazy dream and nobody's going to understand it. But you're like, that's what, that's it. That's my thing.  And you never know, like some crazy reality TV show might contact you and say, Hey, do you want to do on this? A blah, blah, blah show.  And you just never know what's going to happen. But I really see like when you're living from the heart. 

And you're living your dream, your passion with all about the heart, get out of your mind because that's when  universe is going to back you up. Everything around you. People will come up and say, Hey, you'll find those connections, those people who are maybe sharing that dream. Now it's a collective dream.

So just do your dream and you're going to find the right place. And it might not be easy. It might, you might have to  change friendships and relationships.  But you're on the right path and you just have to believe that you're on the right path. So that's  really what I would like to instill on  people. Do your dream, do what you're passionate about. 

Follow 

your heart.  

Yeah, awesome. So that kind of, that straight into our call to adventure where typically it's two closing traditions, the call to adventure and pay it forward. The call to adventure is for you to give a suggestion and a recommendation to the listeners, but I think you've done that  with just follow your dream.

Just get out your, get outside and yeah, 

yeah,  paying forward. And there's something that even  I'm, I'm seeing like my, my friend who had cancer and she was no longer able to do what her dream was, but 

yeah.  

You're always able  to support somebody else, like scholarship funds or support some of these, well, there's a school, there's so many non private schools that are running on it, Dime or Nickel or Penny,  and  supporting them is going to let a child or somebody else be able to find what they're passionate about.

That's  obviously a good way to pay it forward, but  yeah.  

Awesome. Awesome. Thank you.  Thank you.  And that's bringing us up to the end of the show. Where can people find out more about Cary Lee Kinoki and  all things wilderness? 

Yeah, um, my website  is caryleekinoki. com and it is a little complicated to spell. 

The school is Sacred Cedars Wilderness School and it is part of that same website. So you'll find everything about the Wilderness School, everything about my time on a loan.  The store and also my energy medicine is all on that same  encompassing website  

muscle on Instagram 

and  

excellent. Thank you. We'll, we'll get that listed in the show notes.

We'll get awareness to all of that, get it linked.  And so what is the deal with your book? Is that a work in progress or do you have a target date for launch?  

I started the book  four or five years ago. Actually while I was doing my videos, casting videos for season six. I've had this.  Vision for a long time.

And now that the shows I've had this experience on the shows. Okay. We got to get this out. And the show is, excuse me. The book is really  the art of sacred living, but it's also about a year long program that I'm  working towards to offer towards the school.  So it's not just one course, but a whole year's worth of going down that journey  here and, uh, as I described earlier. 

So hopefully. And hopefully this winter I'm going to get it finished and out by next spring because I'd really like to start the year long program next spring.  

Excellent, excellent, good luck with it and I'll keep an eye out and I wish you all the very best with it. And I think that brings the show to a close, so very much.

Thank you. 

Thanks for tuning in to today's episode for the show notes and further information, please visit adventurediaries. com slash podcast. And finally, we hope to have inspired you to take action and plan your next adventure, big or small, because sometimes we all need a little adventure to cleanse that bitter taste of life from the soul until next time, have fun and keep paying it forward.