#020 Beyond the Bear: Part 2 - Tyler Johnson

In Part Two of this wide-ranging conversation, Manny finishes his conversation with Tyler Johnson for a story that takes an unexpected and unforgettable turn.

After surviving a life-or-death grizzly bear attack, Tyler shares another wild moment from his life in the Alaska wilderness—this time on the remote Aleutian Island of Adak. What began as a demanding caribou hunt with his father turned into an emergency when an injury left them stranded in brutal weather, facing isolation, hard decisions, and the reality of self-rescue in one of the most unforgiving landscapes on earth.

As Tyler recounts navigating exhaustion, fear, and responsibility while helping his injured father survive the night, the story builds into something no one saw coming: a strange and unexplained experience in the skies above Adak that leaves both host and listeners questioning what was really happening out there—especially in light of the island’s military history and real-world geopolitical events unfolding at the same time. Aliens? Chinese Spies? You be the judge. 

This episode isn’t just about survival. It’s about trust between father and son, staying calm under pressure, the weight of decision-making in the wilderness, and how these moments shaped Tyler’s purpose moving forward, fueling his mission to help others experience Alaska safely, responsibly, and deeply connected to nature.

It’s raw, funny, unsettling, and uniquely Alaskan—and it sets the stage for what comes next in Tyler’s journey.

Follow Tyler: 

Instagram: @grizzlylife907

Facebook: Tyler B Johnson

Transcript

The State I Am In (00:25)
Hello and welcome to the state I'm in where every conversation points north. Here we discuss the topics that Alaskans and perhaps everyone should care about. I'm your host, Manny Coelho a fellow Alaskan and your guide to the conversations that Alaskans want to hear from the individuals who are leading the way.

My guest today is Tyler Johnson. Tyler grew up in Sterling, Alaska. He was raised in the outdoors and heavily influenced by his dad, a game warden, and spent much of his life hunting, fishing, hiking, and honestly doing what a lot of us just consider normal growing up here on the Kenai Peninsula. He's the kind of Alaskan who knows the trails, respects wildlife, and feels most at home out in the woods and sharing it with others. Until one day, everything changed.

So last August, Tyler was out hiking and hunting with his dad when a routine day out in the mountains turned into a violent life or death encounter with a grizzly bear. What followed happened in seconds, but it reshaped everything, how he views the outdoors, personal safety, and a new found purpose for what he's working towards now. In this conversation, we talk about growing up Alaskan, the realities of wildlife encounters that most people just only read about.

what actually happens in a bear attack and how preparation, training and calm decision-making can be the difference between life and death. This story made worldwide news, but it doesn't just stop there because Tyler's story isn't just about I survived. It leads somewhere unexpected into an idea, a mission and a project that could change how people safely experience the wilderness moving forward.

This conversation ended up being so big and took such a wild turn at the end that it became a two-part episode. And trust me, the ending of part one sets up something you won't see coming in part two. And now part-two conversation with Tyler Johnson.

Tyler (02:15)
Yeah, hopefully I don't have any more experiences to give back to you like the bear. Unless you want to talk about Adak that's another one. hey, that's for another time maybe.

The State I Am In (02:25)
No bears, no bears involved in Adak?

Tyler (02:27)
Dude, no bears on Adak, just ALIENS but other than that. Wait a second, what did you just say, bud? Wait,

The State I Am In (02:34)
Hold up.

This guy just said aliens two hours into the podcast.

Yeah, bro, it's been like two, a little over two hours. Time flies when you're having fun. ⁓ But, now you, I gotta know now. Now you said it, now I gotta know.

Tyler (02:48)
man, I know.

The State I Am In (02:57)
Well, give me the short story version of what happened on Adak because you did mention you saved your dad's life or your dad said that you saved his life then and it seems like the favor was kind of returned later on ⁓ on the resurrection trail ⁓ due to what happened on Adak.

Tyler (03:03)
Yeah, I did.

Yeah.

Adak, not the best vacation place just I have one one out of five stars man there the room in there is not up to par. It really looks like Chernobyl honestly it's actually crazy that place is nuts it's just like everyone just left except for these 30 people that for some reason are here. ⁓ So yeah they put caribou on that island for World War II super interesting history.

I mean, I think you talked about it. It's a World War II base. Attu was the island that was trying to be invaded by the Japanese. And that was the island after, or I think there's one more in between that. But anyways, they put a military base on Adak. they put Caribou.

The State I Am In (03:59)
Yes.

Tyler (04:09)
on Adak to supply the troops in case there were supply chains cut. Okay, checks out. ⁓ And after, you know, 75 years, there's a shit ton of caribou on there. Not that I saw, but they're on the other side of the island. By the way, this island is freaking huge, you know. I don't know why I do this to myself, but whenever I'm like, I'm gonna go somewhere, I don't do any research because I like being surprised.

probably need to change that in my future because boy was I surprised when I got an Adak because it is mountainous, is grassy, is cliffy, it is nuts. Beautifully, beautiful as it is, dangerous. The birthplace of wind. dude, I can go on about Adak. Like you can go into the military base. You go in there,

⁓ anyways, i'm going to move on from that if you want the short version ⁓ so we've been there for about a Like five days we probably put on about 70 miles of hiking around there ⁓ and some of the guys were worn out except for my dad Don and I and we wanted to go out the furthest that we have Because we went in and out a few times, you know

You can find foxholes there and like, like it's cool, but shitty. ⁓ and we head out that day, ⁓ that morning early and it was raining like, like, like, it felt like icicles hitting you because it just like super fast. ⁓ so I had my head down the whole time because I've been on, there's a section that I've done a few times where you're going side-hilling through this cut. That was like a

The State I Am In (05:35)
Hmm.

Tyler (06:00)
foot by two foot deep cut and then if you look over to your right it is a hundred and twenty foot fall a fall to these rocks and then like that's like two feet of rocks and then just into a lake deep lake can't see the bottom it's crazy and so we we start hiking out there and we have our head down we're following dawn out there and we're heading to this place where apparently it's like a bowl

The State I Am In (06:12)
Hmm.

Tyler (06:28)
Yeah, you go up a mountain, down a mountain, up a mountain, down a mountain, you go up on top of this mountain, and then there's this beautiful overlook. That's this bowl where potentially there might be some caribou. Maybe. And so we spent all day head down, like my socks are soaked. I always bring extra socks so my feet get ripped up. And I went through all my socks on the way there. It's just gnarly. And about an hour or...

before we started ascending on the last like mountain ⁓ mountain side we stopped and had lunch at this place that was just like an open area like a plateau in between two mountains and then a canyon on the other side and ⁓ you know the sun comes out it's like wow this is actually beautiful so then we pack up lunch and we go up the side of this mountain get to the top and we can see the end where we're going to stop

I think it was around two o'clock, three o'clock. We were just hiking since the wee hour of the morning. And it was raining all day, like I said. And Don's in front of me. He goes down this little hill and then runs off ahead and he's walking towards the end. So we're actually like picking up pace, like, yeah, we made it. I go down this hill, starts picking up pace. My dad goes behind me, goes down this hill and he slips. And when he slipped, he planted his leg down.

The State I Am In (07:32)
Hmm.

Tyler (07:55)
when he planted his leg down, his quadricep tendon, just like I don't know if it was a complete tear or what. But I can't remember if it balled up right there. But I've never heard my dad scream like that. And it was it was just like behind me. All right. It's just this. Oh, fuck. Oh, God. You know, and I was like, what just happened? Like what's happened behind me? And my dad's grabbing his leg screaming. And

I run over, I'm like, Hey, was like, Hey, Don, what's going on? And he just, just grabbing his leg. And so, ⁓ we try to, you know, he calms down. He's just, he's punching the ground. You know, he's that guy that's just tries not to show emotion at all. And, ⁓ we, it takes a little bit to gather what's happening and we settled down and Don and I are just like, okay, ⁓ let's try and make it as comfortable as possible.

Trying to assess the situation and move forward, right? A little triage, right? And my dad's now starting to a little shiver. You know, he might go in a little shock. And so we pull off that space blanket, wrap him up, get him secured, put his hoodie on, put the little bunny hat on, get him real cozy. And we start realizing the wind's picking up a little bit. So we start making a shelter for him out of shell rocks, make it about two feet high.

going right by him so that wind just kind of lifts right over the top of him and doesn't be brisk on his side. yeah, so we made a little chain thing right there and it starts settling down a little bit and we start to realize like, okay, so how are we going to get out of here? And like I said, my dad, he's a search and rescue guy. He rescued people that are due what just happened to us.

The State I Am In (09:22)
Yeah. That's smart.

Tyler (09:47)
I see him with the in region his hand. Maybe I can just see it. It just him contemplating like, do I have to do this? He doesn't want to do that. He doesn't want to send SOS out. Like I'm in trouble. He doesn't want to admit that he's in trouble. Cause he just liked that. He's always like, self self safe. Right. But dude, you have, yeah. Your leg is

The State I Am In (10:07)
Yeah, self extricate. Yeah.

They're not going anywhere.

Tyler (10:13)
Nah, you can't move. He tried to stand up and boy, that was just painful to watch. And so he does the SOS. He's like, all right, you can see him take a deep breath. He's like, oh fuck, I'm going to do this. Okay. And so he does it and we get, we get a message back. I can't remember if it a coast guard or the Navy or the troopers or like, um, we'll be there, um, tomorrow. Okay. That's fine.

That's fine. You'll be there tomorrow. We'll suck it up. All three of us. We'll tell jokes and be merry and eat our MRE that we brought with us.

The State I Am In (10:55)
Like I said earlier,

like Adak, and I've heard these stories like proceed Adak stories is people when they're trying to get out, they can't get out, let alone when you need to get out. SOS call, it's gonna be 24 to 48 business hours.

Tyler (11:05)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yep, yeah, yeah, we'll get back to you in 24 to 48 business hours. Hang tight. So, so we get that message back and we start, you know, preparing for a night on top of a mountain on Adak with, ⁓ you know, my father and, ⁓

The State I Am In (11:16)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, jeez.

Tyler (11:33)
We get another message that's like, hey, actually, it's not going to be tomorrow. It's going to be a few days. And I think we got that like 30 minutes after that one. can't, it's hard to remember. I'll have to, I have it all, who would have thought? I have it all documented. I have it all recorded. Well, not that part. It was afterwards. And Don was like, all right, dude, I'm going to go back. No, he's our friend.

The State I Am In (11:58)
Which is Don, is Don like your guide or is he your friend? Like who's Don? Okay,

Tyler (12:03)
Don

The State I Am In (12:03)
okay.

Tyler (12:04)
is our little leprechaun friend. ⁓ What's up, Don? man, what a cool guy. ⁓ And ⁓ so he's like, you know what? I'm going to go back and get supplies and come back. So it's in hindsight probably wasn't the smartest idea because then who would rescue him if he slips?

The State I Am In (12:31)
Hmm, yeah,

Tyler (12:32)
What happened to Don? Not to mention, even when he got to the end of our trail that we took, we took a truck there, we got dropped off, there's another eight miles walk back to Adak on top of that. So he had a nice little 14 mile hike, maybe more. All the way back, he didn't get back till like dark dark apparently. And then he came back and like, Chris is in trouble, help, you know.

The State I Am In (12:42)
dang.

and not an easy terrain either.

Tyler (12:59)
Yeah, and not to mention, ⁓ I'm not sorry to say this, the outfitters there, they don't look like they hunt, at least the ones that we took. I think it's called a adoc adventures. Like they just they just have a shack there. And that's their thing. They just shack. They like here's a shack. Hunter, go do your thing. And then the people that are supposed to rescue you there.

telling us to go to Husky Pass and that was just a incredible journey to do and they were take a four-wheeler and get my dad out of there and we did that hike the day before. No, not happening. ⁓ So yeah, because they don't want to come back there. They know what it's like back there. They know the hell no I ain't going back there. ⁓ Yeah, they know better. And so Don leaves and so my dad and I

The State I Am In (13:43)
Mm. Yeah, they know better. Dang.

Tyler (13:54)
You know, we sit next to each other and we I pull out my phone and I put on Neil Gaiman North mythology to pass the time. It's something that my father and I listen to when we go hunting. Like if we get rained in on top of a mountain fogged in, we go in the tent and we listen to Neil Gaiman or any whatever. And we got probably about one chapter in and we hear to like look down at the end reach.

No one's coming to get you self-rescue.

The State I Am In (14:25)
Dang.

Tyler (14:27)
What just happened? Okay, and then my dad looks at me and he's like

What do want to do?

I have never been put in this position in my life. My father.

Who? By the way, I've said this on multiple occasions, he is my fucking hero. Like, the guy. Man. I hope I'm like that with my son.

And to have that, that experience of someone you look up to now helpless, and now you're in that position to save them or to make that decision of what's going to determine what's going to happen to them, more or less. That's in my hands now. I look at my dad, said, I'm going to get you out of here. So.

The State I Am In (15:23)
Yeah.

Tyler (15:31)
We had, uh, this time we had a tourniquet that was a, one of those rubber, those thicker rubber ones. Uh, you know, and, um, we had a couple of black diamond trekking poles. So what we did, we made a makeshift splint for my father. Um, put two of them on each side of his leg, wrapped it up in that orange, um, tourniquet, tourniquet, put it on tight. And I gave him the other two trekking poles. So he would lean. he had essentially he'd be putting all his weight.

The State I Am In (15:37)
yeah, yep.

Okay.

Tyler (16:00)
on his left leg and his two trekking poles and the other leg will be like a straight leg hanging out. And the idea was to go ahead of him. Like I said, on the way there, my head, all of our heads were down. We, we, this, the land that we just traversed ⁓ I mean, we, we were going to figure out to get back, you know, all three heads put together, but now it's just me.

And it's just rain wet slippery grass is slippery when it's wet and out there in the Aleutian Islands. I think it was September. The light starts to go away pretty fast and boy, you know what dark is ahead of Adak. No light pollution. And ⁓ so I would run ahead of my father. Look at the terrain. OK, how am I going to get them here?

The State I Am In (16:44)
now.

Mm.

Tyler (16:59)
Where do we need to go next? I'm like, okay, you need to go here, here, here. This is the best way for you to get to this spot for you to get over here. And I just, guided him through this whole thing. ⁓ in one time when we were coming down off that, that, that mountain, I ran too far ahead of them. And, ⁓ there's, there's a couple of hills and I wanted to get my eyes on that Valley that we were at.

for lunch. And whenever you're moving fast in a place where you're not familiar with you want to have something to reference point of reference right? Take it from me don't reference the moon ever. Don't do it. I don't do it. Because God damn, I was a moon that got it.

Boom, and I took off running. went up this hill, down this hill, up this hill, down this hill, up this I actually was out of wind because I was like, I'm going to do it, going to it, I got it. Okay, hey, there it is, I see it. And then I turn around, the clouds covered everything. I panicked and guess what? The wind picked up. You would yell, gone. Like you couldn't, I couldn't, I couldn't yell 10 feet in front of me. No one could hear it. And everything looked the same. So I actually had a panic moment, right?

The State I Am In (18:09)
Hmm.

Yeah.

Tyler (18:24)
And this was one of my first learning experiences of, ⁓ got to keep calm in these situations because panic won't help you at all. No, that won't help you. And that's kind of what I took into the bear experience. And I sprinted in one direction, which you just shouldn't do. I think it's that way. and I actually, I was lost for about 10 minutes and I didn't tell my dad that. So, and I finally got back to where he was at and I remember looking, was like,

The State I Am In (18:38)
Yeah.

Tyler (18:53)
There's the, I kept on, I called him the cripple. was like, you know, trying to keep the, trying to keep the, mood a little bit light. And, ⁓ so he comes down off the side and I'm like, okay, we gotta go this way. And, ⁓ I get him after just, there's obviously stuff that happened in between this before I move. ⁓ I get to where I can see the trail or kind of live in the trail. It's just where we had lunch. And I'm like, I can find my way back, I think from that spot. So we get down there right when it just.

The State I Am In (18:59)
Yeah.

Tyler (19:23)
It's like someone turned off the switch. So like it went over, it's like a cartoon, just gone. And we get down to that spot and I'm just like, oh man, good if we made it. We made it to the spot, so we sit down, we take a breath.

The State I Am In (19:25)
Hmm.

Tyler (19:39)
And as I sit down, I know I felt, it was just a weird, a weird feeling, man. Like in the place where they call it the birthplace of wind, in an area where you're almost in like a bowl, you know, kind of like you're ⁓ in a mountain valley in between two mountains. Like I can look up and see where we're at, where we just were kind of like Silhouette Mountain because of the moonlight.

And I didn't feel like I feel more draft in the room that I'm sitting in now than I felt out there at that point in time. I could have heard a mosquito fart from five feet away. Like it was just dead quiet, right? Just, it was just weird. And, and boy, the stars were just out. And I remember I was like, I look back and there was a light that caught my eye.

The State I Am In (20:21)
Yeah.

Tyler (20:34)
caught my eye I was like what is that you know I was like maybe it's a satellite I watched it it and that damn thing shot like a rocket like I just went like from far away and went right and it stopped

And I knew where we were just at. And it stopped right above where we put our SOS out.

The State I Am In (20:50)
Bro.

Tyler (20:56)
And I was like, what was that? And I'm looking at it and then it goes over to the side. It goes.

The State I Am In (21:02)
What?

Tyler (21:06)
disappears I was like Dad did you and he was just he was like looking at because we had ⁓ We had you know the Garmin in reach and it kind of like showed kind of where you're at and so he was like trying to his bearings like Dad, did you not see that? He's like what? and then three of them Comes back just like in a triangle just right there And I'm like, ⁓ my phone my phone I'm gonna grab it. I was like try to take a picture and then it's like

The State I Am In (21:08)
Thank

What the heck?

Tyler (21:36)
no battery or no storage space, no storage space, blurred, blah. The typical story, right? This never happened. And I'm like, do you see this? And I watched these things, these orbs, just like they move in such a way. And my dad's like, ⁓ it's the search and rescue. They're coming to get us. They just said they're not coming to get us. And if they did say they're coming to get us, they weren't going to get us until the next day.

The State I Am In (22:05)
Yeah, and not moving at the speed of light.

Tyler (22:08)
And not, but that, yeah, that not, but

you know what the weirdest part was though. It wasn't that they were moving that fast. It was, I turned to my dad. was like, do you hear anything? Like I said, I was a hotshot for awhile in and out of helicopters. My dad searching rescue in and out of helicopters. was like, do you hear anything? The air around is dead. There's nothing. There's no sound except for the sound of my dad and I breathing. And there's these things.

The State I Am In (22:35)
Hmm.

Tyler (22:37)
that are just floating above where we were just at. And my dad, he grabs his camera and he goes, SOS, I'm like, nope. I was like, no. And you know what's funny though? He denies it to this day.

The State I Am In (22:52)
Because those viewers were

looking around where the last SOS was sent, right? Yeah. You're like, don't do that. This is how that movie ends and it's not good.

Tyler (22:56)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

So I tell him, was like, stop that. Don't do that. I was like, I don't want to be anal probed right now. And he's, and he even says, it was like, no, it's not aliens. But I was like, you know, it's funny though, dad, because I said, I don't want to be anal probed and you stopped doing SOS. So if you thought it was, wouldn't you keep on doing that? Yeah, I got him. So I was like, I'm out of here. I was like, we're moving.

The State I Am In (23:28)
my gosh.

Tyler (23:30)
And long story short, ⁓ that whole night was shitty and treacherous and scary and awesome all at the same time. And we ended up sleeping in these bushes. was just clear. It was clear. Like you can see the Milky Way. It was crazy. And what comes with clear nights? Cold nights. That was the coldest I ever was in my life and wettest.

I was, and we curled up next to each other, ⁓ in the bushes, just in the tweets and shivered or I shivered myself to sleep for about five minutes. A few times in and out. I don't know how well my dad slept. When we woke up, we had frost all over us. and, that was just cold as miserable. And then I, and we walked him all the way to the lake that we started and we found a way down to the lake. No wind.

And, ⁓ they got a Zodiac, Zodiac across the lake, picked my dad up. That sun came up over the mountain, shined on that lake. And it was the most peaceful, perfect way to pick up your dad. Heading out, you just saved your dad. And there he goes on his Zodiac out to get picked up by, ⁓

I don't know what they made the doctors they have there or whatever, but yeah, that's, that's the, ⁓ down and dirty Adak story. And by the way, I had to go back the next day. ⁓ because we left our guns up there because we couldn't, I don't want to care. I didn't want to care anything. Like, and, that night it ended up being a trench or a rainstorm. And I've never seen a waterfall that was trickling one day. And then the next day I have a video of Don

The State I Am In (25:02)
no! Yeah, yeah.

Tyler (25:17)
in front of this waterfall and he's just like like I my the leprechaun he's he's like looking up at this waterfall that we have to go around and he's just like ⁓ shit you know like it was just mad it was just perfect that that night I got it you got to find like the beauty in this that night was probably the best night that that could have happened the next day would have been shit so that's that's don made it back don did yep

The State I Am In (25:40)
my gosh, man. And Don survived. Don made it back. ⁓

Tyler (25:47)
and he got us the Zodiac.

So, Don, thank you.

The State I Am In (25:50)
Okay, he was the one that kind of got the zodiac to you guys. Okay. Dude.

Tyler (25:52)
Yep. Yes, he did.

The State I Am In (25:58)
That is nuts for so many reasons.

Tyler (26:01)
I know.

The State I Am In (26:03)
⁓

Tyler (26:05)
They're...

The State I Am In (26:05)
It

does make it even cooler that on the the back end of it, you know, with this other crazy experience with your dad that, you know, he was the one that he's the one that helped bail you out. ⁓

Tyler (26:16)
Mm-hmm.

The State I Am In (26:19)
The whole alien thing though, man, it's pretty freaking crazy. if you were gonna just like, I don't know, if I was an alien and gonna just kind of mess around with the earthlings, I would probably pick a location like Adak. Well, you low risk of being seen or documented or whatever like that. That's pretty nuts. Especially that it's a location where you'd sent that.

Tyler (26:44)
So.

The State I Am In (26:47)
at the, where you guys send that SOS. It makes it even more fishy.

Tyler (26:50)
Yeah, was a location

that we sent the SOS, but the plot thickens because you know how they said they weren't coming to get us, right? Or I said, you said it. Who said that? I said that. I said that. They weren't coming to get us. No explanation why, right? We got back to the mainland, Soldotna ⁓ the motherland, and there's big news all over.

The State I Am In (27:00)
Yeah.

Tyler (27:20)
about you probably remember this how China had their battleships just off the tip of the Aleutian Islands and they were intruding on US ⁓ water space and it was a big deal and so they weren't probably more than a couple hundred miles away from us but it was multiple battleships that were there and you know this is just me sitting with my cup of coffee just you know like mulling over like why were they there

The State I Am In (27:33)
Okay. Yeah.

Tyler (27:50)
Why couldn't they come? Why couldn't the Coast Guard come get us? Why was China there? Like, why was that? And then I'm seeing this. Like, what was going on out there? And on a supposedly decommissioned World War II base. Like, I don't know, man. I'm just a guy that survived a bear attack. I don't know much. But that is some sketchy stuff, bro. That's pretty sus, guys.

The State I Am In (28:05)
Yeah.

Totally. If I remember

right, it's the same story. I think they were ⁓ doing some like, they said they were doing like war games or something like that out there. That could have been a different, I could be making that up, but I thought I remember something like that to where they were like doing some type of exercise out there at scale and it was a little too close ⁓ to us. But dude, that's crazy. That is crazy.

Tyler (28:41)
Yeah.

The State I Am In (28:44)
Definitely when you're back in Alaska, hit me up so that perhaps if future crazy things happen, I could partake. Just to say that, it sounds like you have an affinity for doing this like crazy stuff or these things happening to you. But man, what a wild story. It's, ⁓ you know, you got all the pieces to, you you say like certain key words and like Rogan's ears pop up.

Tyler (28:53)
Yeah, hey, I'm going to be I mean, I want to be a Yeah.

The State I Am In (29:14)
⁓ Aliens is one of them. So if you're looking to get your story ⁓ blasted from ⁓ the rooftops, he blows everything that dude touches seems to blow up. yeah, a couple of hashtag aliens Joe Rogan might get you where you need to be for the spotlight for the sound barrier device and all these other crazy stories that you got going on, man. It's super cool.

Tyler (29:40)
He's my neighbor, he's right

down the road in Austin, right?

The State I Am In (29:43)
That's right, he's freaking right down the road, man. He is right down the road.

Tyler (29:46)
Yeah.

Yeah, we'll see.

The State I Am In (29:50)
Crazy. Well, I'm pumped for you and I'm looking forward to what happens next. ⁓ Man, I'm serious. This is probably the most fun that I've had on an episode to date. So thank you for that. ⁓ Just your stories, your personality, the way that you talk, interact. It's enjoyable for me just as someone hosting this thing to...

to talk to you and I appreciate you coming on here and hanging out with me to share these crazy life experiences that you've had and this awesome new goal that you have, this kind of, you know, new alignment for your, you know, your kind of purpose in life based on those experiences. It's exciting and easy to get behind, you know? I feel like people are gonna listen to this and be on board ⁓ with what you got going and be invested, not only following along, who knows, freaking maybe

Tyler (30:26)
Yeah.

The State I Am In (30:48)
putting their money where their mouth is and investing or being there when you're on Shark Tank or ⁓ a Kickstarter pops up or something like that. I think that would be something that Alaskans would definitely be on board ⁓ with supporting for, like I said earlier, just a bunch of different reasons. People have different reasons for going out into the woods. And I think what you have developing kind of checks a lot of those boxes for them and it's appealing to a variety of people. ⁓

Tyler (30:57)
Mm-hmm.

The State I Am In (31:18)
Really looking forward to what comes of that. But did you have anything else that you wanted to add? Anything ⁓ before we wrap up that maybe we missed or you wanted to clarify or anything like that?

Tyler (31:32)
yeah, I think I talked your ear off. No, thank you. No, really. Thank you. do this. This is so much fun. You're a great host. Your your background makes me smile. I love it. I love it, man. ⁓ I think about Alaska daily. Daily. I just it's just.

The State I Am In (31:47)
Appreciate that.

Let's go. Let's go. I know I'm proud of that.

Tyler (32:02)
my heart and I have to, have to spread my wings for a little bit and I'll, I'll be back every year. I'm going to be like, I want to be a guide. ⁓ you know, I have my job at ACS. ⁓ ACS has been super good for my family and it's been great. ⁓ my, my real, my, my, my job I want to do, like I said, I'm in line with what I want to do and that is I want to bring people.

The State I Am In (32:30)
Huge.

Tyler (32:32)
to the wilderness, bring awareness to nature and bring them out there and have everyone that I, what I experience, I want them to do it in a safe way. I want to show them how beautiful it is out there. And I want to guide, I don't want to be a hunting guide. I want to bring people out there just to go out there. Fuck, come out here with me. Look at this glacier, bud. Isn't that glacier cool? Look at that.

The State I Am In (32:51)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Tyler (32:57)
Look that little animal, whatever that thing is chirping over there. That's pretty neat. I don't know. just, man, it's Alaska. Yeah.

The State I Am In (33:06)
We need it. We

need it. I bet you in Austin, that seems foreign to a lot of people.

Tyler (33:12)
I'm yes, I actually ⁓ There's a lot of foreign stuff going on here, too For me So

The State I Am In (33:20)
Yeah, I bet.

Cool, man. Well, thank you so much, Tyler Johnson, Sound Barrier. Remember that and make sure to look them up. I'll make sure all of the ways to follow Tyler are in the show notes. You can find them on social media and expecting big things from this guy. So Tyler, thanks for coming on. And ⁓ I can say this with confidence, man. We'll have you back once the next chapter is wrapped up and you let us know what's going on next.

Tyler (33:57)
Yeah, I'll be happy to be back and you might want to reach out to my father if you want someone else with some crazy, that guy has some crazy stories of just being a game warden, dude. Like.

The State I Am In (34:08)
You know, you

just remind me, always, I forget my own thing. I usually ask people who's another Alaskan or someone with a unique Alaskan story or experience that you'd want to see on the show. Yeah, dude, your dad sounds kind of like, kind of like a Billy badass in the outdoor.

Tyler (34:25)
Dude,

dude, that guy. So he was fish and wildlife for 34, 35 years and then they mandatory retirement. So the troopers picked him up. So he went through the trooper Academy at 58 and did trooper for three years. And now they wanted him to move somewhere else. And he said, no, I love Soldotna too much. So the, the parks picked them up a state park. So yeah, he's out there at Morgan's landing at that beautiful little cabin.

The State I Am In (34:53)
Heck yeah, yep. I exactly where that's at. That's awesome. I'll hit them up. Tell them I'm coming.

Tyler (34:54)
Yeah, he doesn't stop. Yep.

I will, actually.

The State I Am In (35:03)
All right, man. Thank you so much. ⁓ You have a great night. Thanks for spending ⁓ your evening with me. And ⁓ like I said, can't overstate this. I'm looking forward to what's next for you and everything from your storytelling ability to ⁓ the places that you'll go with this sound barrier device to the good that you're gonna do for people that love the outdoors like you do. So excited for you,

Tyler (35:30)
Awesome.

Manny (35:31)
If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to support the show by following and sharing it on social media, subscribing on YouTube and leaving a review wherever you get your podcast, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, wherever. It really helps more Alaskans and people everywhere join in on these conversations.

Because now, more than ever, I believe sharing the voices of our fellow Alaskans matters. And I will continue to do this work for as long as there are people willing to sit down and share meaningful conversations. Keep North Alaska. And thank you for joining me on the state I'm in.