Episode 28: Tod Sebens; What If You Treated Your Life Like A List

Something is off about a guy who can casually mention getting lifted by a humpback whale and then move right along to the next story. Tod Stevens has spent decades stacking real adventures the hard way, through mechanical skill, odd jobs, and a stubborn willingness to try things most of us only talk about. We sit down and follow the thread from growing up between Virginia and California to joining the US Army as a marine diesel mechanic, including the pride of helping train the first woman to become a senior marine diesel mechanic in his track.

From there, the conversation veers into the kind of lived history you can’t fake: basic training incidents that still haunt him, a cross-country breakdown that turns into a lesson in human kindness, and a surprising stint promoting country music shows that puts him face-to-face with famous performers in unfiltered backstage moments. Then Alaska takes over with Talkeetna bush life, small-town stories, and a six-month sail around Mexico where boat repairs pay the bills.

We also get into the Haines years: starting Denali Boatworks, directing community theater, upgrading DMX stage lighting at the Chilkat Center, and doing special effects work on the film White Fang before heading south again. Tod’s Antarctica seasons with the National Science Foundation bring the scale up to eleven, from McMurdo to remote camps, deep ice cores, and the weird reality of color deprivation. Along the way, we talk risk, recovery, shark conservation, solo bicycle travel, side-scan sonar and ROV work, whale disentanglement, and the wake-up call of surviving sepsis and double pneumonia.

If you like Alaska stories, Antarctica jobs, whale watching, hands-on trades, and travel that doesn’t gloss over the danger, this one is for you. Subscribe for more conversations like this, share it with a friend who loves a good true story, and leave a review with the moment that surprised you most.

Transcript

Welcome And The Adventure List

0:00

Welcome to this episode of Doug Hats Questions. Today, my guest is longtime Haynes resident, and somebody's been all over the world. When I talked to him about this, he he told me he's been creating a list over the years of all the cool things he's done. I don't think we're going to get to all of these, but we're going to try. Todd Stevens, welcome to the show. Thanks, Doug. It's good to be here. I did this, as I told you, because my memory wasn't so good many years ago, and I didn't want to forget these things. But as you've probably learned through owning a business, that helps your memory improve. Yes. It has to. Yep. Yeah. So. Yeah, no, I'm glad you wrote it down. I think that this gives me a template to work off of. And uh I've just reading it. Probably 90% of the things in there, I had no idea you had done. Right, right. Everybody else, they might we might get to about 20% of the list. Everybody else is gonna have to wonder what that other 80% is. To stop me on the street. Stop it out. What did we miss? Yeah. Well, yeah. Well, we'll get to

Growing Up Between Virginia And California

1:03

that. But first off, where'd you grow up? I guess the majority of it had to be Falls Church, Virginia. I still say y'all once in a while. Um my dad worked uh with in the government. He was administrative assistant to two different congressmen. So we went back and forth quite a bit between California or the congressmen, they had two districts there, and DC when he had to be in office with them. Um but that was my yeah, elementary school through high school pretty much. And were you you had Mark as your brother? Still is. Still is. Yeah. Had still your brother. Any other siblings? Yeah, our sister Pam lives here. Okay. Yeah, she lives in Hell. She's not in Hal, St. Lucie's. Oh, I did not know you had a sister here. Yeah, Pam. And then we have two brothers, two other brothers, Bobby and Scotty. Uh, people get a kick out of this. Scotty, he was a male dancer for Chippendales. Um, and Bobby, he was the only one who became really rich. He created Horrow Bicycles. Seriously? Yeah. So, but he doesn't own it anymore. So Dang. And then we have one other sister, Karen. She lives in uh Mexico. Okay, so out of the, let's see there, out of the six, right? Right. Where are you, where are you in the pecking order on that? Let's see. Pam's oldest, then Mark, then me, then Bobby, Scotty, Karen. That must have been quite the active household with the six of them. Well, we always lived together at the same time. That was pretty rare. Uh only one time did we, when we were in Sacramento, California. Uh, there were nine kids. Yeah, nine kids, and my mother and stepfather, and they rented a big mansion. It was like 56 rooms. Holy cow. We lived along where Interstate 5 now is, but they were just building it while we lived there. Do you remember the old TV show The Untouchables? Yes. So they came by the house. They wanted to rent the place. Uh, they offered to put us up in a hotel and pay for any damage, but my mom had to say no because she couldn't get a hold of the landlords. It was a rental, she couldn't allow them. Um, but yeah, there were nine kids there and this great big old mansion. That was fun. A lot of fruit trees in the backyard. Yeah, we'd go wild. So what was uh so if you're back and forth between California and Virginia, were did your parents get split when you were split up when you were younger, or what age were you when that happened? Uh it happened a few times. A few times yeah, it wasn't just once. Okay. I have two stepfathers and my real dad and uh one stepmother and my real mother. Well, family. Yeah, it was a bit confusing. Uh yeah. So going back and forth were you in Virginia when like when your dad's back there, but that's kind of a full-time gig. So how would how did that work? What was the time frame on going back to California and being in Virginia? I don't remember that part, Doug. That's all right. I mean, I don't remember why, yeah, all of a sudden we'd go back to California um to be with my mom, and then I guess when Congress was in session or something like that, he had to go back to DC, so we went with him. You went with him? Yeah. So what what'd you do out of high school?

Army Diesel Mechanics And A First

4:40

Uh messed around for a few years and joined the army in 774. I guess uh I was lucky. They pulled the last troops out in 75, but I went in in 74 and got out in 77. What was your specialty? I was a senior marine diesel mechanic, worked on LCM eights, the boats that you know run up on the beach, the bow comes down, troops go running off. Yeah. Yeah. So it was your job to keep them running. Yep. And you said here in your list here, first of all, you had the that Vietnam veteran, but then also um you trained the first woman. Right, Lynn Henley. She wanted to be a she was a junior marine diesel mechanic. She wanted to be a senior marine diesel mechanic. So I went to the uh chief warrant officer and told him that. And he said, Well, if you want to take the time, that'd be fine. So she became the first ever female senior marine diesel mechanic in the army. Yeah. Well, pretty cool. Yeah. So what were your what were your days like on that? Are you just wrenching the whole time or no? Pretty much it's just overlooking the 13 junior mechanics to make sure they do it right. And was that something when you were younger that you did a lot of mechanics stuff, or was this your first because since then, I mean, you do a lot of that now. You're with boats and a lot of things you got on this list. I did a lot of it, but I don't I I went into heavy equipment mechanicing. Yeah. Being a heavy equipment mechanic after that and worked for John Deere and Caterpillar and Detroit Diesel, Lugger. But I just give advice now. You know, Mark comes to me with his equipment out of the gold mind, Todd, it's doing this. I told him one time, Doug, I said, Mark, it's not the boost pressure, it's not this, it's your injection pump. For three years, he didn't listen to me. It was the injection pump? Yeah. Yeah. Finally he took it, sent it in, had it fixed. It works great. For some reason, siblings don't always listen to their other siblings. Right, I know. I know my sister would say that about me too, that I don't always listen to the good advice that she gives me. No problem. We don't. So out of the army, in your were you for one company and then traveling to do, or were you working for cat and working on cat stuff and for lugger and working on lugger? Well, with lugger, that was mainly back when Mark and I owned Denali Boatworks. Okay. I went ahead and got lugger certified because a lot of the boats were getting those. Um the others, like uh Detroit D DAC and Cat ET, that was just through the years because I worked on a lot of different equipment, you know, so you have to learn how to, as equipment became more computerized, you had to learn how to diagnose the issues. Yeah. So then what any memorable events other than training the first senior female diesel mechanic while you're in the service? Memorable events pertaining to what? While you're in the service. Oh, while I was in the service. Any cool places that you got to go that really stood out? No, I was pretty much based at Fort Eustace, Virginia for the whole time. Um I

Basic Training Stories That Still Sting

7:50

remember basic training at Fort Knox, Kentucky. Uh they have three hills there. They're called Misery, Agony, and Heartbreak. And it's hot and humid in Kentucky. And you gotta march up those hills in full gear. And seriously, Doug, people were dropping out, just passing out from the heat and the exhaustion. Uh I felt fortunate I made it, but it was tough. Um you know, we had one guy in basic training at Fort Knox. He got shrapnel from a grenade all in his side because you know, you're supposed to pop the pin, lean back, throw it like that, while this guy he pops the pin, whoops, grenade goes behind him. And these are 100% live grenades, and the drill sergeant or instructor, he just yelled at everybody, you know, lay down. That you don't have time to run. And this one guy was pretty close, so he just, you know, covered himself like that and he got shrapnel. And he was lucky he lived. He uh got an honorable discharge under medical conditions. And then we had another guy, he didn't live. He didn't, um, it was during rifle training, and they didn't have, you know, the shells would come out the right hand side of the rifle. Well, some lefty got up there, and they didn't have a left-hand brass deflector at the time. So he fires the gun, the brass went right down his shirt real hot, and he jerks it, goes, ow, boo! Kills the guy right next to him. Oh man. Yeah. So I'm glad I wasn't there that day. Yeah. Oh, that's gotta be a tough one. Yeah. It'd be tough to live with. Yeah. So in 77 you get out of the army. What's

A Triumph Spitfire And Strangers’ Kindness

9:41

the next what's the next step? Gosh, what did I do right after that? Um I think my girlfri I think that was when my girlfriend and I drove across country in my 68 Triumph Spitfire. Um I remember we broke down in Tucum Carrie, New Mexico. Uh, no money, not enough money to fix it. And we went into this restaurant, and you know, the waitress comes over and says, Would you like something to eat? And I'm like, Yeah, but we don't have any money anymore. And so she asked what the problem was. I told her, and she went away, and then she came back just a few minutes later and said, My boss would like to speak with you up at the window. So I go up there and there's these, oh, and I offered to do anything. I said, Look, I'll sweep the parking lot, you know, just to get some food for us. And um, so I go up there and there's these two beautiful plates of food with pork chops and corn and mashed potatoes and everything, and I'm looking at them. Um and her boss said, These are for you. My waitress told me what the problem was. And so I'd like for you to take these. I pick them up and there was a $20 bill under there. And I just told her, I said, Look, I don't know, I'll never see you again. I don't know how to thank you, but I was able to make a phone call and get some money that was owed to me from somebody. I worked for a country and western and bluegrass promoter, uh Jim Clark, and he owed me a fair bit of money, so I had him send it. Got us out of there. And my girlfriend, God, she she could have, you know, we got stopped by the police, and the police, they were gonna write us a ticket for faulty equipment. I think I had a bubble on the inside of the tire, one tire, and he goes, it was like the perfect, you know, Midwest uh sheriff. Yeah, if you're a little lady there play a song on that guitar, I'll let you go. And Kathy was too shy. She's like, I I said, Kathy, sing happy birthday. It doesn't matter. She wouldn't sing, she wouldn't. To get you out of a ticket. Right, three blind mice, anything. Yeah. So, yeah. Dang. How how how how long did you keep her around, or did you find another one that would sing for the police officer? No, we eventually married. We were married for a little while. Yeah. Yeah. So during this time that you're saying you're going across country, you're helping with uh Country Western Band? No, that was oh God, I see. This is this is my issue with timelines. Yeah. I'm trying to remember if where was I? I was in Virginia at the time. So it had to be before. I guess it doesn't matter to the timeline. Tell tell

Backstage Country Music And Party Tales

12:35

us what that was like. What was the band? No, it was all different bands. All different bands? Country and Western, you know, Conway, Twitty, Loretta Lynn, the Osborne Brothers. Um, Jim would line up these shows at various venues. And uh, and then my job really was doing the advertising at all the radio stations and putting posters up and then being at the concerts because he had, you know, hundreds and hundreds of records from whoever was singing plus others, and um, so I'd sell records. Okay. Yeah, so I you know, it was nice. I got to meet all these country western singers. You know, I met Chris Christofferson and Rita Coolidge sitting on the toilet in the bathroom. They were not using the bathroom, that was their break room. So Loretta Lenz sitting uh Loretta Lenz sitting on his lap. Wait, who did I say? Rita Coolidge. Yeah, Rita Coolidge. Rita Coolidge is sitting on his lap, and yeah, it was just high. And then um got to party with Jerry Lee Lewis, you know, it was just Jerry, myself, the other guy that worked there, Paul Birch, my good buddy. And yeah, drinking tequila, partying with Jerry Lee Lewis, having a good time. So that was so you're in your early 20s at this point in time. Yeah, I could party. And so, well, besides that, you're you get to go out, you're working to help promote these shows, get people in, you sell some sell some records before and after the show, and then you get a party with all these top singers. Right, yeah, it was fun. So it at that time was was that a time when Chris Christofferson was already, was he on his way up or was he was already up. He was already up, yeah. They were already at the top of the heap, and yeah, yeah. And I was a big fan, which I I don't like to use that word, but I really was. I was a big fan of John Pride. Mm-hmm. Uh, and so I got to meet him a couple times. But yeah. So fun years. So what when did you first get to Alaska? 1983.

Talkeetna Life And The Bachelor Auction

14:45

83. I moved up to Talkeetna, and I moved up there, Doug, because I wanted to live way out in the bush. Okay. Just something I wanted to do. And so I stayed in Talkeetna for five years. I joined the Talkeetina Bachelor's Society. I went for the second highest bid one year of $38. I mean, now it's a joke. They're going for you know, five, six, seven thousand dollars. But uh So give us I'm not aware of what the Talkeetna Bachelor Society is. It sounds like this is an auction for guys up there. It is, but it's back then, and I can't tell you how it is now, but back then it was very respectable. Uh-huh. You know, the women would come from Anchorage and Fairbanks, or they'd drive there, they'd come on the train, whatever. We'd meet them on the train, either with dog sleds or a snow machine, and take them around on a tour. And um, so then when it came time for the auction at the Fairview Inn, you would have to, each bachelor had a number, and you'd have to do a little poem or sing a song or a funny joke or whatever, whatever you wanted to do, basically. And then the women would vote. They'd write on a piece of paper, like if I was number 22, they'd write that. And whoever got the three that got the most votes, um how would they decide? The three that got the most votes. Oh yeah. Um then whoever the girl was that bid the highest, then they'd start bidding on those three. Whoever bid the highest, um the woman would win the guy. But all it means is a drink and a dance. Okay. We were very good about that. Yeah. And in fact, it was uh pretty serious if you went beyond that with a woman. You know, we wanted the women to come there. We didn't want them to be afraid to. So And was this a uh annual thing or a monthly thing or how it was annual. Annual? Yeah, and they had the Tol Keatina Bachelorette Society too. Yeah. Well, to be fair. One of my favorite stories about some of the people in Tol Keatna was this guy, his name was Grog. Gives you an idea of his character. But he was a uh and I never saw him sober except one time. And he was a very intelligent guy. It turns out he had like a PhD in something, but he was always drunk, so you'd think he was, you know, just graduated from first grade. Um so these two school teachers came to the Fairview Inn, and I'm in there having a drink, and Grog is somewhere over there, and so I've been talking with these two school teachers for an hour or two, having good conversation. And Grog comes up and he stands behind one of them like this, and I look up and I go, Hey Grog. He just kind of grunts. And I continue talking to the women, and out of nowhere, Doug, he just reaches down, reaches down her blouse. And I'm like, Grog! And she's like, and uh and so she pulls his hand out and he just goes, hmm, walks away. That was grog. Oh, geez. A little forward. Yeah. Did they did they uh did they at least continue talking to you, or were they like, we're out of here, you got weird friends. They continue. I apologize, I explained grog to them a little. Yeah. Odd jobs. Odd jobs? Whatever I could find, just whatever paid the bills and firewood. I did eventually wind up going to Anchorage because my son was with me and I had to feed him. And so I wound up going to Anchorage uh for like two weeks on, a week off. And I worked at Anchorage truck and trailer, which I did not like because I don't like working on trucks. Just heavy equipment. Um so yeah. So when did uh Haynes come into the picture?

Sailing Mexico And Fixing Boats For Cash

18:51

When did you make 'cause your brother had been here since what, late 70s when Mark was in Haynes? Yeah, he got here definitely before me. Um I was on my way down to San Diego to visit my mom. Excuse me, and I called mom to let her know I'd be there in four or five days or whatever. And she said, Oh, well, your brother's here. And Mark had not too long before that lost his eye in an industrial accident. And he was given a certain amount of money by workman's comp and he bought a sailboat. And he got on the phone and he said, Hey Todd, you want to sail around Mexico? I went, Well, Mark, I don't uh, you know, I just brought enough money with me to get down to visit mom and back up to Talquita. And he goes, My treat. Okay. All right, that changes the I was single, yeah. What the heck? So we sailed around Mexico for about six months up into the Sea of Cortez. And uh I I did earn money along the way, you know, because I could work on boats, so I'd get on the radio and say, you know, if you have an issue with your engine or something, I can fix it for you. So I'd get calls and I'd yeah, make some money that way. Um, but that was a fun time. Good trip. Mary Jean joined us for a short while. This was when Mark and Mary Jean were together. Yeah? Yeah. So six months on a sailboat around Mexico. That's yeah. Good way to spend six months. Yeah, my Spanish got pretty good, but I've forgotten a lot of it. So is it after that trip then you came to Haynes or was it later? Um Or had you been down, had you visited Haynes at all when Mark was here before you before you moved here? No, I didn't. I hadn't. When Mark and I were sailing, we talked about starting a business here. And I told him that, well, I, you know, really wanted to get back up to Tolkien now. But we talked about it more and more, and we decided to start Dinali Boat Works because Mark is really good at fiberglassing and boat wiring, and I'm really good at hydraulics and diesel engines. So it seemed a good combination. Pretty much covers all you need on a boat. Yeah, and we did that for about five years. Yeah. So did you enjoy working with your brother? Yeah, yeah, I did. I mean, other than there was one issue. He wanted to know everything I was doing. I'm like, Mark, this is a co-ownership. I don't I don't ask you what you're doing, how the fiberglass job is coming. You don't need to ask me. If I have an issue, I'll probably come talk to you. Yeah. That got a little heated though. So when when you were here, is that when

Directing Plays And Upgrading Stage Lights

21:33

you started? Because you're you volunteered at KHS over the years, your director and actor with Lynn Canal Community Players. Did that start during that first segment or did that start later on? Okay, you're talking a timeline again, Doug. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Um You know, the first I I do remember the first thing I did was I joined at some point LCCP as the The Mountie in Lust for Dust. Oh, yeah. That was the first thing I did for a while. And I wish somebody had told me earlier that I couldn't sing. It was terrible. I saw a recording, I went, Oh my god, why didn't somebody say something? Um, but then I decided to try directing at some point, and I I looked back on the first one, and yeah, I think it was a failure, but that's okay. So I think you've got it in here. How many plays have you directed now? Oh, I think maybe 20 or something. I think that was on there. Yeah, about 20 plays. Yeah. And then that led to you know 204,000 in Grant work to install the new DMX lighting sound for the Chilcat Center. Right, to bring it up into the 21st century. Yeah. Was that uh because you're still active with that? You're still there directing, you're still working at the Chilcat Center. Working the lights. What being that involved in that building, what is that because I'm a lot of people that are here in this probably know that that building was originally pulled over from Pyramid Harbor or whatever, um, and and set up and then it's been added onto and everything. And I think that kind of fits your story too, that you know, you're Jack O, you've done all these different things. It just seems fitting to me that you're directing in that building with its history. Do you see any connection there yourself? No, I don't guess. You don't? I just think what I don't know. Yeah, I just think it's really cool that you take this building and you make this something really cool out of it, but as a director, you're taking these people and then you're you're making something, you're creating something out of it with your you know, you take it, there's constant maintenance on that building, fixing it up, you're fixing diesel mechan your diesel mechanic, you're fixing things. Um I don't know. I just think there's some symbiotic attitude there between some cosmic connection between you and working in the Chilcat Center. Maybe, I don't know. I do like doing the lights. Um, I enjoy it. Um I'm not really a um avid computer person, but I enjoy this and I I try and encourage people in the community to get in touch with me. I'd love to teach more people how to work this DMX lighting. It's pretty cool. Yeah, it's not like the old stuff. So this is all you're doing this all off of a computer with setting up the lights in there. Yeah, yeah, changing the colors, uh focus, everything. Yeah. So, yeah.

White Fang Special Effects In Haines

24:41

So we're gonna backtrack a little bit. I think we're back, or it's about the same time. When we talked about this with Tom Andreess and White Fang. Mm-hmm. You were working with White Fang, you're an actor in White Fang. What was and so that was because if you're you probably hadn't been in town very long. A couple years when White Fang came here, huh? What year did that happen? Do you remember? I think it was 90. Was it 90 or 91? So I got here about mid-80s. Mid-80s? Somewhere maybe mid to late 80s. Okay. So you've been here for a little bit. Yeah. Um I I didn't really do any acting in White Fang Doug. It was, you know, in the very opening when the dog is coming off the ship and there's two people on the rope, I'm on the ropes. Yeah. And I was in the dog fight scene. Um, I've I I look at anybody that's in a movie, if they're if their face or their body shows up, they're actors. Oh, okay. That's my definition of an actor. If you're in a movie, they're whatever, they're a play, and you're even if you don't say anything, you're just standing on the stage, you're an actor, you're doing a heck of a job standing there. Um but I did work, Mark and I both worked special effects in the play. And I I felt really bad for the the guy that originally was doing special effects in the first unit. Mark and I were working with John, who was uh the manager of special effects, uh, but we worked second unit. And then one day uh somebody came around and asked John if they could take one of us for first unit because the guy who was normally doing it had to go away somewhere on some call or whatever. And so I said, sure, I'll do it. That day, and I was only on first unit one day. That day, this woman came around asking everybody's name and what they do, and I said, Well, I'm Todd Sebens, I'm doing special effects first unit. I had no idea that it would mean that I would be in the credits. Oh. And and I felt bad for the guy because that's you know, that's a star on his resume. And he wasn't there then. He wasn't there, yeah. So I didn't mean to steal it from him. Yeah. Just happened. So doing special effects for for White Fang, what kind of what kind of things were you working on? Because this is obviously pre-CGI and all this other stuff, so pretty much everything they're putting on there, you guys are creating. Yeah. Um, Mark being the fiberglass person, he built this uh, you know, the um the dog sled that comes down the hill. Mm-hmm. That was out at Mosquito Lake, and he built um a fiberglass sheet under the bottom so that it would slide down really well. Um, we did the filming of uh Ethan falling through the ice in the pool that was all wax on the top. Um and we'd do bullet hits on the cabin so that there'd be these little explosions. Uh we helped set up the snow making machines because it was a terrible year for snow here in Haines when they needed it. So yeah, things like that. The fire. Did that did that give you any bug to follow that and do do more of that going forward? Or you're just like, okay, you guys are out of here, we're um on to the next adventure. Yeah, it was fun. It was fun, but it didn't give me a bug. And they they with pretty I'm sure with pretty much everything, they paid really well. Uh they wanted to use my snow machine to go out somewhere, I don't even remember what, and I said, No, I don't want to do that. I'll you can rent it with me, because I don't want these people from down south running it and racing around and tearing it up. And they said, Well, we'll give you 400 a day. And I said, That's way too much. Just 150, I'm happy. So I'm not out to make a killing off somebody. Yeah, they must have loved you after that. They're like before they're getting anything else. Dod, do you have one of these that we can rent from you? Let's ask him for more stuff. We can pat our expense account here. We can make some money off of this guy. Yeah. So the when did you start going to South Pole? Started

Antarctica Work From McMurdo To Remote Camps

29:03

going to Antarctica. I think he wants a year again. Doesn't matter. Decade. 90s, 2000s? I'm gonna say mid to late 90s. And how did that come about? I think I heard of somebody else that went there, and I just thought, well, I'll look into that. That'd be a good experience. Um, Margaret and I were married, and I talked to her about it, and she was fine with the idea. You know, I'd be gone five months or so. But I applied and I got a job as a heavy equipment mechanic in the shop at the main base, which is McMurdo. And I did McMurdo for two seasons, and it was too many people for me, Doug. It was like twelve hundred people. And twelve hundred people at McMurdo in the summer months. Holy cow! Yeah, but I had no idea there's that many people down there. Yeah, but it was fun in ways. I mean, we had instead of wood stock, we had ice stock, and uh they had a bowling alley, two lanes. Uh one of the lanes had so many frost heaves, the ball would do this all the way down. Um but then after that I put in for remote bases, and so I got stationed at a place called Ciple Dome, which had about 35 people, and that's where they were doing deep core ice drilling. Um when you say deep core, do you remember how deep they were going? No, but I know I have I still have an algine bottle that has water now, but it was a chunk of ice from uh 800 feet down. Okay, and so they told me that that was snow that fell basically uh when the Vikings were on the planet. So I've taken that to schools along with the slideshows, and the kids are like, Wow, have you ever tasted it? And I'm like, No, it's I don't want to drink it. I got water in the faucet. Um, and then my last year, I went to uh a new base that nobody had been to before. There was this girl, Sarah, and I, we were stationed at um downstream Bravo, it was 250 miles from the South Pole, and we were basically a a you know a fueling station for planes going to and from the South Pole that ran low on fuel. Okay. So we had a big 10,000 gallon water tank there, I mean fuel tank. Uh and SOR was a company that was doing subglacial mapping of the area. So they stop there often and get fuel. And uh the funniest story I can remember from there, I got I got the wool pulled over me so good. Somebody pulled a good joke on me. Sarah did, she was the camp boss. So when it came time to tear the base down, it was the end of the season, they sent in five people to help tear it down and put it away for the winter. And it had to go up on um, you know, 55-gallon drums with platforms, and the whole thing would go up there so that the snow and the wind could blow under it. So this plane came and um we had pretty much everything done except for the fuel bladder, and the fuel bladder still had some fuel in it. And I said, Sarah, I want to be on that plane out of here. I was so ready to get out of there to see some color. You really get colorblind. Yeah, color deprivation is a real thing. And she said, Okay, well, if we can get that plane to take the rest of the fuel, you can get on it. This girl who was in the crew, there were like three guys and two girls that came in on the construction crew. This one girl said, I know how to get him to stay. And she'd already done exhibitioning in several places around Antarctica. She was a little famous for it. And so she starts stripping all her clothes off because it's a Navy crew on the plane. Uh-huh. Um, oh, I have to preface it with one more thing. Sarah had already been on the plane talking with the crew about what the plan was. Um, so Sarah knew who was on there. So this girl, she's getting ready to trot around the plane, and Sarah goes, There's a couple of female crew on the plane, too. I'm ready to get out of the plane. Let me out of here. I need color. And so this girl and I, and I, you know, I wasn't hiding it from Margaret at all. Somebody took a video and I said, I want to copy that. I want to show my wife. And so we just slowly go trotting around this plane, nothing but bunny boots on, and the plane stays and takes all the fuel. And Sarah says, Okay, go ahead and grab your bag. I get on the plane, Doug, nothing but guys. I don't know who gonna get one. And so I met this girl in Gustavus, I can't remember her name right now, but we started talking about Antarctica, and I told her this story. And she's like, You I'm like, Yeah. And she said, Oh my god, you're famous in Antarctica. What? She said, Yeah, somebody did a painting, and it's the plane and the girl, and she's got a like a floaty around her, which she didn't have, uh-huh, and it's still hanging up on the wall there, I guess. So said I want that picture. I want that picture, right? Yeah. So that was your last year? That was it. After that year, I I don't want to do it anymore. Yeah, it was a great experience. Um, you know, I got to go under the Ross Sea Ice Shelf, I got to go to the South Pole, um, a lot of interesting people, uh, fascinating weather. Um, yeah, and and even though it's like 10 degrees out most of the time, where I was at downstream Bravo, I could go around without a shirt on because the sun is so intense you're warm. Really? Yeah. Yeah. Got to go to the Penguin Rookeries, went into Scott's hut and uh uh Amundsen's hut. Uh yeah. So it was a good experience. Yeah. Yeah. Tried bowling on the train. Yeah. Well did you get close to a 300? Not at all. Were there some people there that had mastered the curves and could bowl that lane pretty well? You know, I wish I had asked. I wish I had tried to find out what the highest score ever was. It would have been interesting to see if somebody had kind of been there long enough that they had it dialed in. Yeah. And for some reason, uh what's the name of the company that is well known for making bowling lanes? And yeah, I've got no idea. They're real funny. I'm not enough, I'm not an avid bowler, so anyway, they the company offered to put new lanes in. And I don't know why, but Antarctica turned them down. Said nope. Yeah, I don't know why. I mean, they were gonna do it for free, just to be able to say we have lanes in Antarctica. Antarctica. Yeah. So at those stations, are those government stations owned by the U.S. government that you're down there working at? National Science Foundation. National Science Foundation. Right. They're operated by the National Science Foundation. Oh, one of the big things, I don't even think I wrote that on the list. I'm in the heavy equipment shop one day, and these two well-dressed men come in and they gather around us and say, Yeah, we're looking for a volunteer because we're gonna make the first uh cross Antarctic trek by caterpillar bulldozers, the rubber tire rubber track ones. And my hand went up like a little first grader in school. Me, teacher, pick me, teacher. And they did. And I thought, oh my gosh, I'm gonna be taking going on a cat train from McMurdo all the way to Vostok Station on the other side. How long a trip is that? I don't know. It's long, it's quite a ways. But the interesting thing about Vostok Station is it holds the record for the coldest temperature anywhere on the planet. And not wind chill, but temperature. Temperature. Minus 126 temperature. Holy cow. Yeah. That's cold. Yeah, it wouldn't have been that cold when I went there. It might have been down to, you know, minus 20, minus 30, something like that. But anyway, so I'm just all jazzed, and we had a few brand new cat bulldozers here with the rubber tracks. And every time we got heavy equipment in new, it had to be named. And everything had a woman's name. Go get Betty and fix uh hydraulically, go and, you know, whatever. And so I put Margaret's name on one, Maggie, uh-huh, which is which is what I called her quite often. And I called her and said, Margaret, you're you're gonna be famous, kind of, you know, you're on the first bulldozer going across Antarctica. Anyway, about a week before it was time to go, they came in and they said, We're really sorry, but it's been cancelled. And I'm like, No, no, but it was. You can't give my hopes up like that. I know crush them. So yeah, didn't go. That was awful mean of them. It was. They didn't chuckle when they said it, but no, but still. You can't leave a guy hanging like that. No, that would have been a great experience. That would have. Yep.

Ice Falls, Canoe Wrecks, And A Sinking Boat

38:37

So let's let's talk about get back to Alaska. Okay. You've got stuff all over in Alaska. You know, you partially through the fell through the ice on the Susitna River during Alaska winter. You hit by uh um well, that's a different one. You worked on the North Slope, edge of Beaufort Sea. Yep. Treat by a bear at night, followed by three bears while hunting deer on Chichkoff Island. Ran dog sleds, fell in the Talkeet in the River from a capside canoe during breakup. Yep. Uh on a boat with Bob Busby that sank in Astrolo Bay in the Gulf of Alaska. Astrollibee Bay, yeah. Astrollaby. Yeah. Luckily rescued by the Coast Guard. Yeah. What's the deal with you and water? You seem to be falling into it quite a bit. I don't know, dog. I never thought of that. Well, like fall partially falling through the ice. So my dead dog saved me that time. Your dead dog? My dead dog did. Uh, middle of winter. My dog jumped out of the truck, female dog in heat, went running across the road, boom, we got hit by a truck, dead right away. So he froze stiff, and I remembered that there was an opening in the ice on the Sousitna River down the tracks, half a mile, three-quarters of a mile. So I put him on a um a sled, hauled the sled down to this hole in the ice, and uh from the top of the embankment, I thought I could just shove him, off he'd go into the hole. And I said my goodbyes to him, gave him a push, and he stopped about a foot short of the hole. I'm like, oh man. So I shimmied down the hill, and right as I was getting ready to push him, my leg went through the ice, and there's no openings anywhere. You know, and the water's running underneath there, and I thought, this is not good. There's nobody around to call for help. And so I just sat frozen for a moment and thought about it, and then I spread my weight out on him because he was frozen solid, and pulled my leg out, shimmied up the hill, and said, Thanks, buddy, but That's as close as you're gonna get to the river. You're gonna have to wait for breakup. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. Well, that was nice of your dead dog to save your life. It was. And then the capsized canoe. That was with my friend Rodney, Rodney Hardy. And it was always a challenge to see who could be on the rivers at breakup in a canoe, see who could be the first. And Rodney and I wanted to win, and it's just bragging rights that you don't win anything. So we get out on the let's see, it's a Susitna, Chulitna, and Tolkitna River. They converge right there. We got out on the Chulitna or one of the others, and it was pretty open, and we get to where the three converge, and there was still ice over the center. So I said, okay, Rodney, we're gonna use the canoe, just kind of straddle it and walk along the ice in case it breaks through. And we did. We got through that safely. And then we got a little farther down, and there's these big chunks of ice float floating in the river, and Rodney lost his paddle. And so we had not very good control at all. And we hit a chunk of ice, it turned us sideways, and we were probably I'm guessing a half mile, three-quarters of a mile from town. We were able to get to shore and pull a canoe with us, but we were heavy and soaked and cold, and I said, Rodney, let's go. We just ran all the way back to town trying to stay warm. Uh, made it, obviously. Is that April then? Probably April, beginning to May. Yeah, whenever breakup was breakup was. Yeah. And then the last one with water was, yeah, with Bob Busby. Uh we were out in um, does it say the name of the bay? Because we were right near Latuya Bay. Astroloby. Astrology. Yeah, we were in Astroloby Bay. We just made um, I think our third halibut set, and the wind was blowing really kind of gently offshore, 20, 25 miles an hour, and then it stopped. And then it started coming in from the ocean, and it got stronger and stronger and stronger. And I, you know, I don't know the exact number, Doug, but I'm guessing it was probably close to 70. It was really how one. And the waves built up really bad. Bob dropped anchor, and I started putting big lead balls on it so it helped keep it down. Um, and Bob had a heart condition, he was taking nitroglycerin pills, and so I was worried about him. And at one point he said, Cut the line. Because I figured we just power out, get to where the wave. weren't breaking and just ride it out there. But he gives me this dull knife, and this line's pulled as tight as a wire. And I'm trying to cut it and I'm like, that won't work. And so I rounded up a machete or a hatchet and they just bang. I went into the wheelhouse and I was reading the depth sounder while Bob's trying to navigate. But even though we were disconnected, Doug, he never powered out. He'd just kind of ride the wave. Ride the wave. And I'm like, Bob, get out of here. And I'm going, you know, twenty feet, twelve, eight, six, and then finally, boom. And I knew I had seen Astrology Bay in the daylight. So I knew there were rocks, big rocks, all on that side, all on that side, and a narrow sandy beach in the back. We were lucky we hit the beach. And Bob got a call off to the Coast Guard. And we just kept riding it out until the boat finally turned on its side and we basically walked off and um went up to the rocks there. We had a bunch of halibut in the hold and a few bears came down in the morning and they were feeding on the halibut that washed out. And the Coast Guard came and got us the next day. Come in a Jayhawk or they come pick you up with a boat? Jayhawk. Jayhawk. Yeah. Yeah. So have you been back commercial fishing since? Uh yes. Just once. I pulled long line from a skiff over near uh excursion inlet. Mm-hmm and Doug I slept for 18 hours straight. I was so tired. Pulling long line by hand? Oh I did like that is I did like five or six sets in 35 fathoms and and the last one I was just going. But I made a thousand bucks for a $50 investment. That was good back then. That's that's a good return on investment but that's a heck of a lot of work pulling that many holy cow. Yeah and I had my clothes stolen I after I took an 18 hour nap on the picnic bench there at Excursion Inlet I went to take a shower and when I got out of the shower my clothes were gone. I had them all hung up there. I'm like what the heck and I go outside and there's these two girls out there and I said hey did you see somebody come out of here with some clothes and they go those were yours like yeah the guy they're in the shower she said they're up there there they put them up on the flagpole. They thought I was somebody else I said yeah I need double could you could you go bring those back to me please that's that's got to be a little uh interesting where uh you come out and your clothes are on a flypole. I don't I can honestly say that's never happened to me and I hope it never does. Yeah. So now we've got um sleeping in a Visqueen tent in the interior of Alaskan minus 45. Oh my gosh yeah was that a one night thing or yeah just one night it was again it was with Rodney and I were good friends and we went sounds like you and Rodney together are a little bit of a trouble. Right. We went way out in the bush 35 40 miles out we had both had snow machines and uh it got late got real late and so we said well let's just camp it and I had you know really good winter gear full parko with the hood and good boots and everything and so we set up a Visqueen tent because that was all we had and we had our sleeping pads sleeping bags and I got into my sleeping bag and boots and everything. I did not take anything off and in the morning I could hardly light a fire. I mean even even as well covered as I was it was just like yeah yeah so I won't do that again either as a friend of mine used to tell me when I'd make mistakes Doug what'd you learn from this learned I never want to do that again. Yep definitely so did you get a fire going though? Yeah okay eventually and you guys warmed up a little bit and then headed back yeah so yeah it would have been a cold ride back if you hadn't warmed up first no yeah I wouldn't have been able to work the work anything holding on to the animal bars. Yeah yeah so now we're going to one of three finalists for the job of lead hydraulic technician on the space shuttle's satellite retrieval arts oh right um when I still lived in Virginia they had advertised for that job and I knew hydraulics really well at that time and I thought well heck I'll apply what the heck I'm glad I didn't get it in hindsight because I don't want to live in Maryland which is where they were doing the repair work but uh yeah they gave me a call and said hey you know you're one of three finalists um we'll let you know okay and they never called back so I'm glad I didn't get it. You're assuming since they didn't call back somebody else got the job. Yep. And so that would have just been when the space shuttle comes back you would have been fixing the hydraulic arm for the next flight? Yeah they probably wouldn't have sent me out there. Yeah. Although that would have been cool that would have been cool as hell fixing a hydraulic system in outer space. Yeah. I don't know. How do you keep the oil from just floating away that would have been a I think that would have been an issue. Yeah. Okay now we're gonna get into some so you got run over by a truck from foot to hip and then hit by a tandem semi-truck doing 75 while on a motorcycle in New Zealand.

Getting Hit, Shocked, And Somehow Walking Away

49:54

Mm-hmm so the truck getting run over by a truck that happened in Virginia I worked on a construction site and my job that day was to what's called shoot grade. For the grader I would have a thing I'd look through at the stakes that are in the dirt and I'd tell them okay up three inches or down two or whatever and I've got this thing up to my eye and I'm kind of crouched down and all of a sudden I hear this motor right by me and I just have time to look and the bumper hits my shoulder and I go down and this leg goes under like that and I'm on my side and it's a good thing this leg went under. If it hadn't been it would have snapped it sideways because he went all the way up to my hip and my biggest fear was that he was going to gun it all of a sudden thinking he was on a pile of dirt or something. Yeah. And so I twisted my body real hard and in case he did he'd go running off that way. Um well he he didn't because somebody yelled at him and he rolled back off me and I kind of watched everything flatten out. And that's while he was on me I remember there really was no pain then but when he got when the tire rolled off me that's when the pain hit because what I had done it turns out is I ripped a cartilage off my rib cage when I turned so hard to get out of the way. Okay. And a couple funny things about that so it did did it not do any damage to your legs? It was just the rib cartilage off your just the rib cartilage. Really? I was in good shape. You know but I had tread marks all up and down my leg and um it was kind of the last straw in my marriage too I was married to uh Kathy at the time and I remember she came into the hospital and I mean what would you say to your partner if they'd just been run over by the truck and you go to see him at the hospital? Your first words first word would be are you all right I love you are you looking at you gonna not those were not her first words? Oh my gosh. She goes how are we going to pay the bills? Oh my gosh Kathy go away go away um I don't mean to dissonor but um oh yeah and then I never saw the guy that ran over me. If I ran over somebody well you know hopefully they live and they're gonna be okay I'd go in and go God Doug I'm so sorry I didn't see you there you know yeah um but never saw him he never showed up never came by and they sent their nicest he did have insurance and they sent their nicest insurance lady Mr Stevens if there's anything you need you just let us know we'll take care of it. I said I'm not the type to sue the guy didn't do it on purpose I just don't want to have to pay for a single aspirin and I would like my paycheck while I'm all for it. Yeah and she said done no problem okay and then the one in New Zealand with the semi truck um Margaret was on that too it was when I I don't know if it was my I think it was my third year in Antarctica maybe Margaret flew over met me in New Zealand we rented a motorcycle we were gonna tour the island you know it was beautiful weather nice place to visit and I knew the roads in New Zealand really well. I mean well enough to know they drive on the opposite side so I was very familiar with that and we'd already been riding around for I think about a week we came out of this side road and this traffic of course is going that way and that traffic is going that way. We come out of the side road and got a full helmet on I look nothing nothing nothing start to go here's the front of a semi truck right in front of me going about 45 and I can't hit the brakes because there's gravel under us will go under the wheels for sure so I just kept making a turn as much as I could and I remember thinking God I hope it's not a tandem and it was here comes the second part of the truck and sure enough the back wheel caught us ripped the ripped the handlebars right out of my hands and you know how thick a peg is on a motorcycle? Yeah it busted the peg off under my foot because it hit my foot and busted it off and the best way I can describe it is my foot felt like an elephant had just gone but there were no broken bones. I went to the hospital had an x-ray they said no nothing's broken but it's gonna hurt for a while and it did and swelled up I couldn't go bungee jumping I mean it would have come my the the strap would have come off my foot it was so swollen so that's what you take what's that that's what you take out of that you're bumpy you couldn't go bungee jumping have you gone back have you made a second trip back to New Zealand so you can go bungee jumping? No I can do that sometimes you still you still got time yeah you can still go bungee jumping I got years yeah like you got plenty of time to do that as long as we're talking about you being in the hospital and stuff here bullet fragment ricochet in the face stabbed with knife and left hand electrocuted with 220 volts knocked unconscious so that was uh at a restaurant I worked at were any of these with Robert oh with uh oh no uh Rodney Rodney that was a completely different place uh the electrocuted with 220 that was in Virginia I worked at a restaurant and you know those type of grills griddles where it has the like chain that goes through and you put the bread or on it or whatever and then it has all the heat lamps above it. Well I had looked earlier and I noticed there were three or four heat lamps that weren't working. So I unplugged it, waited for it to cool down took those heat lamps out put new ones in so were you working for the restaurant or were you working for a maintenance company that was fixing stuff at the I was working for the restaurant. Okay yeah and so I plugged it back in turned it on leaned over a little bit to look inside wanted a better look put one hand on top of the machine the other one on the counter and I made a connection and boy did my arms just boom fortunately they were bent so it straightened me I pushed me away yeah I wasn't grabbing anything and just threw me against the wall and uh next thing I know I'm waking up and there's people give them room give him air you know I was like oh God yeah that was that one to what how how'd you get stabbed in the left hand with a knife? That was Miller Military School. I went to military both Mark and I went to Miller Military Academy for one year maybe two and that was in Albemall County Virginia and some guy was messing around two guys were and one of them had a a pen knife and he's got it you know close to the guy and he's like oh you know we're at Russell and the guy yells hey Todd help me so I come and I grab a guy by the shoulder and pull him off him and the knife comes around right towards my head and I put my hand up like whoa and got me and uh yeah but that wasn't a big deal we just put a butterfly bandage on it and off you go. And where were you at when you're getting a rico bullet fragment ricochet in the into the face? That was in Falls Church, Virginia I worked at a plant nursery and a friend of mine had a 22 rifle and he was doing a little target practice this I think it was after hours we were closed down and I was kind of standing definitely not in front of the gun but off to the side and he hit a rock and it got me right here in the cheek. Fortunately it was in the cheek because it's awful close to the eye could have gone right in yeah so yeah and that I didn't I didn't even know that happened Doug I did not know. Um I walked by a truck and I guess the the reflection or something I looked and I went what the and I looked in the mirror and there's blood all down like what you didn't feel it dang. Nope

Africa Elephants, Shark Diving, And Conservation

58:25

all right now we're gonna get charged by a bull elephant in Africa. Ah okay when I turned 50 um I decided to treat myself to go great white shark diving and do some other things in Africa and I un I shouldn't say unfortunately I told my younger sister that I was going to do this and she's like oh I want to go she's a loud tourist so but anyway it turned out fine. We went and um she treated me to a a hike in Kruger National Park and they have you have two armed guides and you stay way out in in the bush in this um fenced in area with um grass huts and everything but they're set up really nice and there's a cook there you eat well and so there were about seven of us in this group and one night we hear this really strange noise or I guess it was more evening because we could see out still and we all went out there and the guides came out and there were like three elephants just outside the perimeter. The fence isn't very high it's only about like that and he explained later it's not to keep the animals out it's to keep you in you know yeah and so this elephant um comes charging at us and the guy he just goes out and he's like and the elephant backs away but then the elephant went over and pushed over this big tree. You know I said why is he doing that? Well he's showing you how tough he is and I almost did a dug I saw a little tree up near me and I was on the watch I'll show you but I thought I'm not gonna tease the elephant probably a good thing not to tease the elephant. Right. Yeah so is that a little bit of a restless night knowing the elephants are right outside there and could come back in just figured they had it taken care of? Yeah the weirdest thing was I I don't even remember the name of the animal but it was a horrifying sound um a repetitive sound but it was really loud and he said oh it's just this type of deer or whatever that's in eight oh okay well she needs something bad yeah okay so while we're in Africa you were diving for or no that's no cage diving with great white sharks in South Africa then you also started diving for sharks or you went diving for sharks with Fabian cast Custeau Jacques Custeau's grandson off the court Florida Keys. Right. How'd that come about um well I I I'm really into sharks I I'm a member of I'm a sh um shark savers conservancy so I've done presentations about sharks in various places and Fabian Cousteau was doing one in Key West and Margaret and I were in the Florida Keys at that time she was doing her her college um you know she had to work at the job for a while in order to finish her degree and so I thought well heck I'm gonna go see this learn more about sharks and I think it was a raffle raffler number was drawn and seven people could go with Fabian to go shark diving. And I got lucky and was able to do that. And it was mainly like uh nurse sharks and things like that pretty harmless ones that we went diving on um and but we went down to the maximum depth I remember that 120 feet. Yeah so it was pretty cool. So what what brought up about this love and fascination for sharks? Because I hate to see anything really killed needlessly and so many people kill sharks in especially in other countries just for shark fin soup which is bad for you to begin with because it's high in mercury content. Um it's tasteless they have to add flavoring to it. Um it's a status symbol that's all when you serve shark fin soup at a wedding yeah and it's cruel because they'll just cut the fins off dump the shark back in the ocean while it's still alive. Yeah yeah so yeah I just don't like it at all totally understandable yeah yeah that was one of the things I was taught if you're gonna harvest an animal you use as much of it as you can eat it to you eat the whole thing. My son Steve while he was with me in Tolkeet now he went out and he said Dad I'm gonna take the shark then and go get some grouse okay Steve yeah bring them home he comes back with a couple of stellar jays those aren't grouse he knew what a grouse was I said why'd you shoot those I couldn't find any grouse you're having Stellar J for dinner tonight yep yeah he didn't like it I've not had Stellar J, but I imagine they're not that good. Probably not I know it wouldn't kill him but it's a lesson. That is a lesson yep if you shoot something you eat it. Yeah yep did you eat that buffalo I did not shoot that but people that did shoot it did did eat it yes yep yep okay now here's one that's gonna get a lot of guys' attention massaged Heatherlock Lear's legs ah yeah that's a memory that I bet it is those are some very nice looking legs yeah well this was back when she was about 21 years old so I don't think she was she might have been on the road to fame but uh I I had never heard of her before so I lived in Thousand Oaks California I rented a room at this big house and this house had like four rooms around the courtyard and I was over on this side and uh there was a girl that was on the other side her name was also Heather not Heather Lockleer but Heather and we just became good friends she'd come over I'd go over we'd have a beer talk whatever and so one night I'm over at her place in the evening and this girl comes in and she's in her jogging pants just you know tired and worn out and uh Heather introduces me. She said this is my friend Heather Locklear and I said hi how you doing and um she's just like oh God my legs are so sore I need a massage and I'm like well sign me up. No I said I'll give you leg massage if you need it and that's all it was it wasn't anything. No yeah just a leg massage and she's like wow thank you so that was my massaging Heather Locklear's legs. Nice haven't washed them since work 10 years porcupine gold

Gold Mining With John Schnabel

1:05:35

mine with John Schnabel yeah and Parker probably too and Payson and Payson when they were little get the little ones up there. Yeah. So that was pretty much summer job. Yeah and I enjoyed working with John I I know you know I think I only we only had one difference one time. I found him very easy to get along with. I know other people haven't but um Yeah, I it's kind of a funny story, Doug. I mean, I jumped in his face. Because you know what a grizzly shaker is? The for shaking the rocks and everything? Yeah, it's a pretty heavy thing. It's got tire, I don't know, I'm sorry, train tracks in it. And so we had to lift it off to replace the springs. And John's running the loader. I'm up there hooking the chains up. And you just you never touch the hydraulics when somebody's doing some work over there. You just don't. You just sit back until they give you the signal. Yep. And so I've hooked all the chains up. I'm just on the last one, and I just snap it, and all of a sudden it goes BAM! Pulls tight. I went over, got down, went up the loader. I said, Don't you ever touch that? You don't do that until I tell you to. It's the only time I ever yelled at Jimmy. Sorry, sorry. Um, but I enjoyed working out there. Yeah. I remember his best day. Uh it was like 36 or 38 ounces in a few hours. I mean, we hit a pocket. Uh-huh. And uh, but he, you know, it was one of the few times I saw him really smile. Because my job was to take care of the equipment and run a recovery plant and collect the gold. Yeah. And so I bring up this gold pan full of gold. I said, You did good today, John. Good day. Yeah, and he's like, Well, yeah, okay. That's that's gotta be I think I think mining is one of those things because it's such instant feedback. Mm-hmm. Right. It is instant gratification. Instant gratification. You know if you had a good day. If you're if you're doing cleanup ever at the end of every day, or whenever it is, once a week, once a day, you know really quickly if you're doing well or not. You do, yeah. You know what we cleaned up at the end of every day, so we knew. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And every was it every month? No, it was once a year. When Mark worked out there too, John would let us pick out one day, and we could have the biggest gold nugget up to an ounce on that day. Okay. So I learned how to read the material since I ran the plant. Uh-huh. And if you see a lot of olivine, which is a green rock coming out, and if you see a lot of black sand, and if you see a lot of kind of a a dark muddy water. I'd say, today, John. Today's the day. It worked. Yeah. Yep. So do you still have the nuggets that you got from him? No. Sold them all? Yeah, they're gone, or I gave them away as gifts. Yeah. And another interesting thing is seeing all the gold. I mean, I never had gold fever, I don't think. I just never felt it. Um, but I'd find some very interesting shapes. So I found one that was a natural cross. They're small. One that was the letter J, one that was an M. Yeah. So I have a few of those. Okay. Yeah.

Lifted By A Humpback Whale

1:09:14

Okay, now we're getting back to the water. Did I almost drown again? No, this one here you got a humpback whale lifting you out of the water a couple feet and a 16-foot zodiac. Oh, right, yeah. And Bogie was in the boat. Really? Yeah. She was 10, maybe, 10 or 11. So this is between Pleasant Island and the Gustavus Dock. And you know Denise Sherman? Mm-hmm. She worked with me that year, a couple years, and her two kids, Parker and Walker, were also in the boat. They wanted to go fishing, hell of it fishing. So we go out in the middle between there. So you got five of us in five of you in the boat? Yeah, two adults, three kids. Yeah. And they've got their lines in all the way to the bottom. And I've got the anchor down, the little anchor, so we didn't drift. Um and I see a whale, but it's really, it's like half a mile, three-quarters of a mile away, way down there. I thought nothing of it. And the kids are being really quiet. I don't know why, Doug. You know, the fish aren't gonna hear them, but they're like, next thing I know, this whale breathes right next to the boat. And the boat comes up a couple feet and then comes back down, and we're all holding on. And my biggest fear was that the whale was gonna go, you know, what the heck? Yeah. And and throw us all into the water. But Denise pulled out her knife because the kids' fishing lines were all just going zzz and I jumped up to cut, you know, ready to cut the anchor line. I didn't want it to rip the front of the zodiac out or anything, but it missed it. But I was like, and uh I think it was which one's younger, Walker or Parker? Parker is. Parker, he never wanted to get in a boat again. He was so and I I can I get it. I can totally understand that. Yeah, yeah. But I was like, wow, Bojie, isn't that so cool? How many people can say they've been lifted by a whale? So she's okay with it. She'll get it. That was a good way to spin it, but I would have been real hesitant to get back in a boat after that. That would have been there's I've had a couple close calls in boats, but nothing like that. Yeah. So that was that. Fortunately, we didn't go in the water. Okay, so now we've got a long list of countries into various things. You have

Solo Bicycle Travel And A Sepsis Wake-Up Call

1:11:48

been all over the place. Yeah, quite a few. Is that just uh like New Zealand that was on a trip coming back or on a break from Antarctica where Margaret met you there? Right. On these others, you know, Bulgaria, Netherlands, Madagascar, Ghana, Cuba, Nicaragua, Tunisia, Japan, Vietnam, Morocco. Some of those were to bicycle because I usually go on a solo bike trip every year. Okay. I don't know if you knew that. I did not know that. Yeah, so I mean the ones I've bicycled are Cuba, Madagascar, a little of Vietnam, Tunisia, Morocco, and Ghana. Um Ghana was the one I just finished, and it was the first one I ever went with somebody else. I asked my friend Freya if she wanted to go along, and she jumped at it. And we had a good time there. It was fun. Um but I how long have you been doing these bike trips? I mean, is it is like an every year thing or as much as often as possible. As often as possible? I couldn't do it this past winter. Uh well, yeah, because this past winter, near death from a combination of sepsis and double pneumonia plus two broken ribs. That put a little bit of a damn. That would make it hard to ride a bicycle somewhere, Todd. Yeah. How in the heck did that come about? I have no idea. Um, I was at my girlfriend's house down in Peallop, Washington, feeling great. It was Christmas Day, you know, Christmas Eve, we're all opening presents, her family's all there, and we're all having a good time. Next morning, well, I don't even know if it was morning, I'm laying in between the bed and the nightstand, with my arm up like that, just stuck there and can't move. Um, yeah, broke a couple ribs, and when the ambulance came, one of the guys looked at my girlfriend and said, you know, ninety ninety five percent of the time when we find people like this, they're already dead. You know, not a good thing to say. No, but no, when they're coming to pick you up. Right. Yeah. So I I missed the grim reaper that time too. Um it took me I was in the hospital about five days, but it took me probably three or four weeks to really feel like myself again. It wipes you out. And no idea what brought that on. Um I did some research, Doug, and one of the things that can bring on sepsis is pneumonia. Okay. For women mainly, but a lot of it is UTIs. Um, some kind of bodily infection, and it brings on sepsis and then it just attacks your organs. Yeah. Um, I'm glad they got there before you were dead so you could be here talking to us today and continuing on with the other things you do. Me too. So I'll try I was gonna bicycle Malawi this past winter, but I'll try maybe this coming winter. So was this just something that you decided it's like, hey, this is gonna be a fun way to see a country? Yeah and just Cuba was the first one. Now, is that what did you have to sneak into Cuba? Was that a time when we had relations where you could travel directly to Cuba, or did you have to go through Mexico or somewhere else in Central America? We still had the embargo going on, so it wasn't really legal to go into Cuba. Uh-huh. But the Cubans, they they want the tour. They want they want you there. It's the US government doesn't want you to go there. Right. Yeah. And there's several legal ways you can go to Cuba, and I did one of the legal ways, and so I wasn't worried about getting in trouble or anything. Um, but when I came back to the U.S. and I can't remember which port I came through, but I, you know, filled out the paperwork where it says, you know, list the countries you've been to, and I put Cuba and Mexico, and I get to customs and hand it to the guy, and he goes, Welcome back. And I don't you want to see my paperwork that I I did all this. Right. I spent all this time and effort to get the paperwork, and you don't even care. They don't care. Yeah, it's just our government. What what was Cuba like? I enjoyed it a lot. Um, I think it helped that I spoke some Spanish, but the people were really friendly. Uh it was a a fairly inexpensive country to travel in. Um with good weather, good temperatures. Yeah, I would do it again if I could find a different route. I don't like doing the same route twice. Yeah. Do you do you bring your own bike then? Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Because you never know what you're gonna get in the room. That's what I was gonna say. So is it the same bike that's done all these trips? No, I had a heavier bike. I don't know why I started off with a steel bike. Uh huh. So this is a nice trek 920 aluminum. Um you didn't get your brother to hook you up with a Harrow? No. He doesn't make an aluminum bike. Doesn't make an aluminum bike? Nope. Um, the hardest country I've had, and I'm I'm 71, so I don't do hills or minimal. Minimal hills? Minimal hills. And you get you an e-bike. You can't take the batteries on the plane. Ah, good point. Yeah. You have to pay a lot of money because the e-bikes are heavier. Yep. Um, my bike bag, it doesn't go over 50 pounds. I put the bike in it and then a bunch of other stuff and keep it 50 pounds or less. But Madagascar was the toughest one. I I thought I did my research real well. I thought it was basically a fairly flat plateau of an island. Doug, it was. I mean, I took, I remember taking a couple pictures because I'd come around a bend and oh my god, a flat road. I took pictures of a flat road. And it was hot. There's one town called Ranamafana, which is basically hot springs town. And when I got there, you know, I remember somebody at at the hotel or bed breakfast that I stayed at. The owner said, You want to go to the hot springs? And I said, It's 98 degrees out. Why would I sit in a hot spring? No, thank you. Yeah, that's what we do when it gets cold outside. Right. Yeah. So you just plot that so you just had a different different town each night and you just figure out how far you want to ride each day? Pretty much. I mean, I have my tent with me, and I've had to tent it a few times, which is fine. Yeah. Yeah. So Malawi's gonna be this winter? Hopefully. Hopefully. I don't know. Life's changing a little. Uh huh. You know, yeah. Hopefully we'll make it happen. Yeah. So then the the people you've met, President of Bulgaria, Georgie Provanov, Sir Edmund Hillary, Norman Vaughn, John Preen, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chris Christopherson, um, Rita Coolidge, Sammy Wynette, Dolly Parton, and many more. You've had some pretty cool interactions with people, haven't you? Yeah, I think so. Just kind of being in the right place, right time. Well, and Norman Vaughn, I mean, that wasn't probably the most interesting one. Because have you ever heard of the Antarctic snow cruiser? No. Oh, there's a whole story behind that. I was gonna go after that because it was built for Admiral Richard Byrd's third expedition to the pole, to Antarctica, and it was a monumental failure. Um, a guy named Dr. Thomas Poulter designed and built it in Chicago at his company, and they only tested it on the sand in Chicago because they they reasoned that the sand is pretty much the same characteristics as the dry Antarctic ice or snow. Is that the one with like these big huge wheels? Oh, yeah, and it carried a twin de Haviland on its back. Okay, I've I've seen some pictures and some stuff on it. Yeah, and I knew the approximate location where it was. Um, having worked at downstream Bravo and these other places, and I got to know the scientists and the researchers, and I talked to them about the ice movement where Little America West was, because this machine was abandoned three miles from Little America West, and Norman Vaughn was one of the last people to ever be on it. Okay. Um, they came across it. Doug, they had to dig down a little ways, and they went inside of it. Um, but anyway, so I was already putting together a team. A friend of mine, Samantha Magazzino, who worked for Soar, she was doing subglacial mapping of the Antarctic continent. So she would use um this equipment that could penetrate the ice and snow to see the um layout of the rocks. And so I knew she'd be able to locate it if we could fly a grid. Anyway, long story short, Doug, um I want to add that I knew that the machine was about 70 feet b beneath the surface. And 70 feet is roughly where the fern layer starts, where snow gets so compacted it starts to turn to ice solid. Um and I knew the approximate location it should be by how fast the ice moved in that area. But so I get this uh um letter when I was still in Antarctica, a friend of mine found this news clipping and it said Little America West was spotted adrift in an iceberg, you know, where it tapped off and there was part of the base there. And I'm like, oh no, it's gone. It's gone, it's gone. So no telling where it is now, the bottom of the ocean somewhere. Yeah, yeah. Oh, and I'd contacted the Smithsonian because my goal was to completely rebuild it where everything worked, every switch, every light, donated to the Smithsonian. I'd raise the funds and all that, but it was gone. Kind of hard to do that when it's the bottom of the ocean somewhere where you don't know. Yep. Yeah, that would have been a tough restoration project. Yeah. Okay, and then Met and stayed with Ella O'Dwyer in South Africa. She was one of four female ex-IRA members sentenced to 14 years in prison for helping with the bl with planned bombing in Britain. Right. Released. Released after four years due to the Good Friday Accords, banned from Britain, Ireland, and USA. Yeah. So when I was going uh Great White Shark Diving down in um Umcomas. Umcamas, South Africa. Um after that I started working my way up the coast by bus or whatever, and I came to this little town. No, it was Hansbai, where I went great white shark diving. She lived in Umcomas. So I got to Umkamas and went to the dive master there, the dive shop, introduced myself and said I'd like to go shark diving or whatever. And then I asked him, is there a uh place to stay here? And it was a small village. And I think him, the dive master, he was Rasta, very Rasta hair, myself and Ella were like the only white people in town. But God, everybody's so friendly in these villages, they really are. And I I guess I'm stressing that because there's so much fear among people. There really is. It's like, oh, I would never do that because they're just friendly, friendly people. I mean, it's like here. Somebody from Africa comes here, I'd be like, hey, how you doing? There's cool people all over the world. Yeah. Yeah. Governments. Anyway, so um I asked him if there was a place to stay, and he said, Oh, you come stay at my house. Um, my landlady there, she doesn't mind, it's a big house. And so that's where I met Hello Dwyer. And I didn't talk to her about her uh involvement with the IRA. Uh that's a private part of her life. And I just found out she passed away several years ago. But um but we did talk. Did you know that about her when you met her? Did you know she was did you recognize the name, or was that something you found out later? It was something I found out from the Dive Master. Dive Master told you? Yeah, okay. And but you'd think this ex IRA member would be like a pretty tough woman, you know, but she wasn't at all. At least not at this age or whatever. And so we could go walking around town, which she was kind of hesitant to do, and she'd hold on to my arm like you know, real close. And I don't I never figured out why she was so afraid. Yeah, that baffles me still. Well, it could be she thinks somebody's looking for her. Well, it could be, but I mean she's she's not I don't know that she'd be hunted in come off South Africa. Anyway, yeah, interesting. About how old do you think she was at that point? In her 70s or 60s? She's probably in her late 40s, early 50s. Oh, really? Okay. And uh she wrote a book um called Under the Rising Moon. And it's all about the history of and her involvement uh in the IRA, and I got a copy of it. But this woman has like a master's degree in writing, and I could not follow that book, and I'd have to back up and go and and you know there's so many people involved in it. You'd have to write out of everything chronologically to try and figure it out, I think. Yeah. Okay, we talked about this, and then um 16,272-mile road trip around the US in 10 weeks and 200 December 10th to December 21st, 2017.

Side-Scan Sonar, ROV Work, And Lost Gear

1:25:41

Well, that came about because I um I had just bought this ROV and the side scanning sonar, and I wanted to get lessons on it to make sure I knew how to operate, especially the side scanning sonar. And it was built, the manufacturer is in Taunton, Massachusetts. So I thought, well, you know what? I'm just gonna drive there, and I think I'll do a circuitous loop around the U.S. all the way up to Massachusetts and visit friends and family along the way. Um that's why it's such a long trip. So that's that's a roundabout way to get to learn more about the side scanning route sonar. But I had the whole winter, why not? Yeah, you know. No, that's awesome. Yeah. And so now you're owner-operator Crosstown Express Whale Watching on the Taz, right? This is my 20th year. Twenty, twenty years now. Yep. Yep. But then you're also during that because you're a member of the whale disentanglement program in Southeast, helping to free whales, cotton fishing gear, and other lines and ropes. Right. And then you're also now the thing that you were just before you came here, um, you were doing a presentation at the library because you've been working with Toxinook Watersheds Council to use your side scanning sonar to find old lost crab and trip pots. And actually, just to clarify, Tracy Weirac is doing the presentation. Okay. I was just there to, if anybody had questions about the side scan how it worked and things like that. Yeah. So how did how did what are some of the things you've done with the what brought on the desire to get the side scanning sonar? And then what are some of the cool things you've done with it since you purchased it? Well, this is the first job. This is the first job? You had it for a couple years though, haven't you? I've had it for several. And I I did have two other places contacted me. Do you remember when that um, I think it was a Medevac plane out of Sitka went down? Mm-hmm. And they contacted me to to help try and locate it. But my first question to them was, Well, how deep do you think the water is in that area? And they said, probably about 1,500. And I said, I'm sorry, I can't, um, limited to a thousand feet. And it turns out the plane was, I think, at like six 650. So I could have found it. You could have found it. Yeah, they just misjudged. Yeah. And then Barrow, I think it was Barrow that contacted me. They have two one million gallon water tanks for drinking water and dishes and all that. And they wanted the inside inspected, but but they didn't want a human to go in there for obvious reasons. So they were asking, you know, well, can we sterilize the ROV and get videos of the inside? And I said, sure. That's all doable. I gave them an estimate, you know, of shipping the equipment there and myself and putting me up and all that. And I never heard back from them. I mean, I I don't think they would have assumed it would have been cheap. Yeah. You know, it costs a lot to fly equipment to Barrow and me and everything. But um, so yeah, then Tracy approached me last year with the plan to do this job, and it'll probably happen again next year. They'll do some more searching. Yeah. So what what was this what was your desire to get this? Looking at it as a business opportunity? Yeah, just totally just thinking I'm gonna make some money off of this. Yeah, another business venture. Um and so have you done practicing with it bes before this? I mean, have you been out there towing it behind the Taz, I'm assuming? Well, you can't really use the Taz for it. The Taz idles at like six or seven knots. Okay. This needs to be towed at one or two knots. Okay. Um, but I do have a zodiac and you can do it in that off the zodiac. Yeah, just practicing to get images and using it right and dialing it in, you know, gain and far gain, near gain, all that. Have you found anything cool when you're practicing? No. Nothing? No, and I've taken the ROV, which has forward and reverse cameras and retrieval arm and stuff like that. I've taken that to the uh Chilcoot River when the hooligan are running and set it in there and just watch them all coming around the camera. That was fun. That'd be some cool video. Have you posted that anywhere? No, I deleted it. What? It's just fish. I know, but that'd be kind of a that'd be a cool perspective to see with the hooligan swimming at you like that. I probably should have saved it. You should still do it again. Hooligan are about ready to show up again. Yeah, I hope so. I bet you I bet you Reba at the visitor center would think that was really cool if you brought her some video of the hooligan coming up the river like that. Yeah. Marty, you have an underwater camera, right? Yeah. So with the with the Taz in Cross Sound, where is this just sightseeing out of Gus Davis?

Whale Watching In Gustavus And How To Book

1:30:33

It's whale watching. Whale watching. Primarily. I also do remote kayak drop-offs. Um uh people can charter the boat to go like to the Indian Islands to the Hobbit Hole. Uh we have some trips there this year again, and we have a couple trips to Elfin Cove. Um, and then up into I can't even remember the name right now. We don't go into Glacier Bay really, Doug, because you need that special permit. Yep. And it doesn't interest me. Especially for whale watching. They have different restrictions there. Where I go, it's a hundred yards up in the bay, it's what, an eighth of a mile from any marine mammal. Okay. And plus, you know, we shut the engines off a lot. I'm surprised I haven't burned through twenty starters by now, but we shut them off a lot so we don't disturb the whales, they can come by us. Um, and there's just more whales over Point Adolphus area. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And so g operating out of Gustavus, do you pick up anybody off the cruise ships in Juna or do you just somebody wants to take you out on a charter, they gotta go to Gustavus? No cruise ships. No cruise ships. I've had two people off a cruise ship in 19 years, and they actually came from Haynes. Either duh uh either Drake or Paul flew them over to Gustavus. Okay. They got on my boat, went and saw whales, and then flew back and got on their ship. Um in Glacier Bay, nobody gets off a cruise ship. The only way you get off a cruise ship is if you're Medevac D off. No, I was thinking uh if going across to Huna, picking them up at Icy Strait. No, that'd be cruise ship passengers. Plus, that's an hour and 20 minute run just to go over. Just to get over there. So no, it's all all the lodges in bed and breakfast in Gustavus sell my tour and Glacier Bay Lodge does too. Yeah. So that's where I get all my business. So it's all booked from them. If somebody wanted to, if somebody was planning to go to Gustavus, is there a way for them to contact you ahead of time to book that? How's that? They can book online. Book online? I have Peak Pro. Have you heard of that? No. It's a booking online booking system. Okay. So do they want to go to um what's your website? Um www.tazwalewatching.com. TazwaleWatching.com? Yeah. There you go. Yeah. Hopefully a bunch of people book. Yeah. We'll see. Hope so. Yeah. Yeah.

Final Thoughts And Next Adventures

1:32:58

So I think we've covered most of what's on the list. What else you got? What else is new and exciting that we we haven't covered on here, Todd? No, the latest adventure was the sepsis and double pneumonia. And that is that's a heck of an adventure. Yeah. It's amazing how much I I mean, you don't know anything. You don't even know you're alive when you're unconscious with sepsis. Yeah. It's how many days did you lose before you f before you were conscious again and kind of figured out what was going on? I don't know. You don't know? I don't even know that. I called my girlfriend twice. I called her Nurse Ratchet. And I don't do that. She wanted to put a and all these things, I didn't know I called her that. I mean, I apologize profusely, but all these things, the only reason I know them is because she's told me them. Yeah. Um, you know, she wanted to put a cold rag on my forehead because my temperature got up to like 105.6. It was up really high. And after a while, I just went, no more nurse ratchet. Yeah. Um, there's some other things I did, but I'm not gonna go into those. No, that's quite all right. That's got I that's just crazy that from one night everything seems to be going great, and then the next morning they're calling the ambulance or sometime in the night calling an ambulance, come pick you up. It was quick. And you have no there's no notice at all. I mean, I didn't feel sick, I didn't feel anything. I maybe it happened while I was asleep, and that's why. Mm-hmm. You know, just to sleep and then basically you pass out. Because this virus is taking over your brain, your liver, your heart, everything. Yeah. Dang. Yeah, that's what I said. Dang. Well, if you don't have anything else, we can wrap this up, or if you've got any other stories that we don't have on the list. Not that I can think of. I try and keep it fairly updated so I don't forget them. Well, I I appreciate you sharing those stories with us. Oh, thanks for having me on here, buddy. I've known you from for since the early 80s, you know. Steven was, I think, a year behind me in school. Oh, so was he, okay? Yeah. Yeah. So going to school with Steven and stuff and knowing him over the years and and knowing you and your brother. Um, you know, it's always it's always cool to hear what adventures you're up to. Yeah. And there's a lot more that I didn't know about that were on this list. But I think it's kind of cool when somebody just when you have time to explore, you go and explore. Oh, yeah. You're always out looking for doing something else. And that's that's a really cool trait. And I I hope you continue that for many, many more years. I do too, Doug. I hope I'm able to. Yeah. And I and I hope this time next year you hear talking about your bicycle trip out of in Malawi. Right. Maybe I'll have you know 10, 20 more things on the list. Add some more stuff and we'll update it. Yep. Thanks, Todd. Appreciate it. Thank you, Doug. Yep. Good talking with you. Yep, great talking to you.