Mountain Men (2012) s04e07 Episode Script

1 [Animals howling.]
NARRATOR: Previously on "Mountain Men" Marty discovers a windfall in Alaska Whoa, what's this? That's a lynx track.
Well, I didn't expect this.
A good sign of things to come, hopefully.
NARRATOR: while in Montana, Tom gets a lucky break before the winter has him beat.
TOM: Oh, we got one.
I need to get my pelts coming in.
We need to be making some money here.
Just what I needed.
NARRATOR: And the guardian of the valley RICH: Oh, man, that's fresh.
NARRATOR: strikes back against a new nemesis.
RICH: This is a dangerous wolf.
If I don't get this wolf, these ranchers are in trouble.
Get back! Get back, get back! And be a simple kind of man winter is in full force, with overnight temperatures plunging to 15 below.
But the bitter cold isn't stopping Rich Lewis.
He's on a search-and-rescue mission to locate his dog Brandy who's been missing for eight hours.
RICH: Brandy didn't come to the door last night to come in the house, so I'm just out here looking for her.
I got to try to find her.
She's been out all night, and I'm worried about her.
Brandy! [ Hoots .]
Brandy! I let her out to run around and enjoy life.
She's always just come back when she wanted to come back in and get warm by the wood stove.
I'm not sure what's going on.
NARRATOR: Brandy has never strayed from Rich's property before, but at the advanced age of 15, her eyesight is failing and she may have become disoriented in the dark, which makes tracking her extremely difficult.
RICH: Her nose is still exceptional.
She might have smelt a lion, started following a lion track or a bobcat.
She might have forgot which way to go, you know? Her memory is going on her.
Here's a dog track right here.
It's got to be Brandy.
They're going up the road.
NARRATOR: Brandy's tracks lead away from the house and into the bush.
RICH: I'm hoping she didn't pick up a lion track because she can't see that well.
If she runs into the lion and, you know, he'll kill her.
I mean, this is a bad deal.
She might be a couple miles away from here and she doesn't realize how to get back home.
I need to go back to my truck and get a couple dogs, see if I can get her.
NARRATOR: Far north in Alaska a bitter cold front settles in over the Revelations.
But Marty Meierotto is on a hot streak.
In just one week, his new trap lines already produced a healthy haul of marten fur, and now it's promising an even bigger payoff.
MARTY: I was very surprised to see lynx tracks this high up, because the lynx need rabbits.
That's what they eat.
There's more rabbit sign here than there was last year.
It's a good sign of things to come, hopefully.
NARRATOR: Lynx are rare, making their pelts harder to find and more valuable.
A single lynx fur can bring in up to $500.
Now Marty's heading out to hunt for the right bait to help him lure in one of the elusive cats.
Lynx hunt by sight more than anything else.
Their nose isn't that good.
If you can get some kind of visual attraction that catches their eye, they're gonna come check it out.
So, if you can have, like, a grouse wing kind of fluttering, that really is an attractant for lynx.
NARRATOR: Grouse are large game birds common to Alaska.
They survive the harsh winters by seeking shelter in evergreen trees and eating pine buds.
I've shot grouse out of these types of trees a lot in the past.
I think I'll just take a little stroll back there with the .
22 and see if there's any sitting back in a little deeper.
I use a .
22 to shoot grouse.
If I used my big rifle, it'd just blow them apart.
Now, this is just the kind of -- kind of stuff the grouse really like.
They sit in this regrowth like on the inside corner where the hardwoods and brush are kind of creeping in.
And they can be anywhere in here.
NARRATOR: Grouse have white, speckled feathering to camouflage them in their surroundings, making them difficult to spot in the snow.
Well, nothing in here.
I guess I'll head back to the snow machine and keep cruising along.
Maybe I'll spot something.
Grouse can be hard to spot in the trees sometimes.
They can blend in pretty good.
[ Engine turns over.]
Lots of times, you'll see ruffed grouse sitting on the edge of a slough or a river in these trees, you know, picking buds.
Every grouse I get, I can get more sets.
It extends that bait.
That helps.
Plus, I get to eat it.
That's a bonus.
I just got to keep my eyes peeled.
There's a grouse right in the tree here.
I'm gonna try and get him.
[ Gunshot.]
NARRATOR: Back in the lower 48, Western Montana's Bridger Mountains stretch across 40 miles and rise to nearly 10,000 feet.
Tom Oar has traveled 400 miles to get here.
He's come to hunt the large elk population that's known to roam these peaks.
It's an unusual journey for Tom, but a string of setbacks have him playing catch-up this winter.
Running seriously low on meat, he now needs a fresh kill more than ever.
TOM: I haven't even had time to hunt, so now I'm just back trying to catch up again, make it through the wintertime.
There's lots of work waiting for me at home.
So, I need to get after this and shoot an elk.
A good-size elk will weigh close to 700 pounds.
One elk would last Nancy and I till next season.
NARRATOR: Elk need 20 pounds of food a week to survive and can travel up to 10 miles a day.
TOM: The object of all this is to spot one what might be two miles away, you know, but then to put the stalk on it and to get close enough to make a good kill shot.
Hunting elk, it's a real challenge.
These suckers have senses that keep them alive, and they learn lots of things about being hunted from hunters, and they know that man's after them, especially this time of year, you know? Ooh.
Lookit here.
Elk tracks in the snow.
Tells a whole story.
When there's fresh tracks in the snow, it's like a storybook laid out for you, you know.
You can find out where the animals are as long as you can read tracks, know what kind of animal makes them.
There must be 20 elk in this herd, and these are within, I'll bet you, an hour or two hours old.
I can smell them.
You can smell it.
They got to be close by here.
They'll be up in there someplace, probably.
I've just spotted like 25 kind of elk, and they're moving up a hillside and over the top of a hill.
And I got to get going to try to catch up with them before they get over the hill and are gone.
NARRATOR: In Alaska's Revelation Mountains There's one.
[ Gunshot.]
NARRATOR: Marty is on the hunt.
All right.
He dropped.
Grouse, lots of times, they're in a family unit.
If there's one grouse, usually there's probably another one pretty close.
Okay.
There's one more up there.
And that'll make great lynx bait.
And it'll make great dinner.
[ Gunshot .]
Oh, he went down.
Let's go get him.
He should be down in here.
There he is.
There's one.
See if I can find the other one.
There he is.
All right.
Dinner and trapping bait.
Can't do better than that.
I'm gonna pull the meat out of the birds, and then I can use the carcass for bait for lynx.
All right.
Good deal.
These are ruffed grouse, too.
Rough grouse are white meat.
They're real good.
I'm gonna clean them right now while they're still warm.
I don't gut grouse.
I just fillet the breasts off and I can take the leg meat.
Beyond that, there's really no meat on a grouse.
They're good eating.
Always nice to live off the fat of the land, as they say.
We'll set it in the snow there.
And I got all this for bait.
I got what's left of the legs.
The tail will work.
You can stretch one grouse out to make five sets if you want.
Okay.
I got some meat off it for dinner, and I'll just grab these grouse, and I can go make that lynx set and see if I catch any lynx.
[ Engine turns over.]
NARRATOR: In New Mexico's Dead Horse Canyon, Kyle Bell begins his winter's work.
He'll spend the cold months here at an elevation of 6,000 feet, preparing these 50 raw acres to support a new business venture.
KYLE: My dad's a rancher down in Texas, and the drought has been bad down there the last couple years.
He has to let go of a few cows.
He's offered to let me and Ben have them.
These cows are gonna calve in the spring.
I've got so many things that need to be done if I'm gonna put cattle in here.
I'm gonna be spending a lot of time up here this winter.
NARRATOR: Kyle's goal today is to build a camp that will be the base of his operations.
To find the right spot, he has to read the land.
Dead Horse Canyon is right between two big mesas.
It makes a natural funnel for that north wind to come through.
This time of year, as cold as it is, the wind can be deadly.
This looks like a pretty good spot.
It's gonna take a little work, but I think I can make that a good spot for a camp.
Back in there will be protected.
Facing the southeast, this time of year, that's where the sun's gonna be coming from, so I want to get as much sun as possible.
I'm looking for shelter where I can take advantage of some brush to block the wind but not be in the shadows all day long.
NARRATOR: Kyle will build a primitive lean-to shelter using the brush as a windbreak.
KYLE: It's not gonna be something you're gonna live in year after year, but it might save your life.
I've got to get the framework up to start with, and that's the most important part of the lean-to.
It's gonna have to be stable enough to support the weight for everything else.
NARRATOR: To construct a free-standing lean-to, Kyle fashions a three-sided backbone out of two standing trees and a ridge pole.
That'll work.
NARRATOR: To brace the frame, Kyle uses pine boughs that will make the lean-to more durable in the winter winds.
Yeah, that'll work.
KYLE: Now that I got the framework up, I'm weaving in some of the smaller branches to stabilize the whole thing.
Gonna need a little more cross-bracing to make this stable enough.
These horizontal pieces will stabilize the whole structure and make it a lot stronger.
With snowstorms coming in like they are this time of year, you need a little bit more protection.
I feel pretty good about the framework.
It looks strong enough to do the job.
That'll do.
Now it's time to get the roof on.
I brought in this tarp to use to put over the framework to make my basis for my roof.
It's light, it's also waterproof, and it'll protect me from the snow and the wind.
I'm gonna start placing these branches at the bottom, just kind of intertwine them, and I'll work a layer all the way across, and then I'll come up and work the next layer.
And then probably up here where the tarp is, it's not gonna have to be so thick.
The tarp's my foundation, but I like to add the juniper branches because they add insulation.
Plus, those juniper branches are gonna make a whole lot stronger windbreak.
Well, that'll slow the wind down.
That tarp will stop the snow and the rain.
It ain't no log cabin, but it'll keep me warm and dry.
Some people might have gone to a lot more trouble to bring a bigger camp in here, but I wanted something that was light and easy to handle.
This lean-to's gonna be my home away from home for a lot of nights this winter.
NARRATOR: 5,000 feet up in Montana's Bridger Mountains, Tom Oar has tracked a herd of elk over five miles of mountain trail.
If he can take down just one, he'll score enough meat to last the rest of the winter.
NARRATOR: Tom needs to move in close for a clean shot, but too close and he could spook the herd.
There's the elk.
I've spotted a cow elk, and it's up on top of a ridge.
It's about 200 yards up there.
My heart's beating.
It's a chance to put meat on the table.
NARRATOR: A shot to the hindquarters will likely wound, not kill, the animal, and the crack of the rifle will scatter the herd.
TOM: I want a good, clean killing shot, so I need this elk to turn around.
I've got one shot at this, and there's no guarantee with hunting.
Usually, you get that one chance, so I need to make a good kill shot.
NARRATOR: In Montana, Tom has a quarter-ton elk in his sights that could provide him with enough meat to last the winter, but he can't find his shot.
TOM: The elk's rump is facing me.
I've got a big body to shoot at, but I want a good, clean killing shot, and I wouldn't shoot it in the rump.
Over 200 yards, I don't feel safe about the shot at all.
I just can't take a shot like that.
As it turned out, the bad shot at the cow that I had was soon gone.
The elk went up over the top of the ridge and out of sight.
So, I'm gonna circle around the bottom of the ridge, and hopefully, I'll be able to catch it when it comes out the other side.
They got to be here close.
There's an elk head.
It's a cow just with its head sticking up.
Just its head sticking up.
[ Gunshot.]
NARRATOR: In the Cimarron Valley, Kyle is carving out a home away from home in the rugged brush.
To survive here during the winter, he'll need shelter and access to fresh water.
KYLE: The creek that's my water supply, where my cattle will be watering this summer, starts all the way up here under the rim rock.
Almost there.
[ Sighs .]
Damn.
[ Grunts .]
Well, not gonna be near enough like this.
It is absolutely critical that I get the water flowing up here as strong as possible.
If I don't get the water going up here, nothing's gonna work on the rest of this place.
Well, I remember the first time I saw this spring.
It had a lot more water coming out of it then than it does now.
But maybe with enough effort, I can get it flowing like it used to.
It's gonna be a chore.
I'm gonna start out by cutting this brush back, because it's encroached into the spring so tight, I don't even have room to work on the spring without getting this damn brush out of the way.
NARRATOR: The scrub brush isn't just a blockage.
It also absorbs vast amounts of water, causing the creek to dry up.
Anything that I can do to clear the area around the spring more than likely is gonna help the flow of the spring.
[ Grunts .]
Well, this is it.
This is where the whole thing starts from, out from under this rockslide.
NARRATOR: Here the water rises directly from the bedrock, but years of debris has reduced the flow to a trickle.
KYLE: So, getting the rock out of there and then getting the debris out of there are all necessary parts of the process to get the whole spring going like you want it to.
[ Grunts .]
Tell you what, these big rocks are heavy, but you got to pry them out of there, you can hear the mud kind of [slurps.]
like that, you know, and you finally loosen the rock enough that the suction turns loose.
I'm already starting to see the difference that it's making.
Starting to increase coming -- Hey, man, now.
All right.
Now -- Yeah! That's bringing some water out of them rocks now.
One last rock, and it made all the difference in the world.
It was the keystone.
It was just like turning the faucet on.
Look at that.
Hey, man.
That's what I'm talking about.
That's coming out of solid rock.
That's even better than I expected.
Having a spring like this running year-round makes all the difference in making this place work for me and my family.
But I still got more work to do.
It ain't near done for today.
NARRATOR: In the Revelation Mountains, Marty's following fresh tracks to what he hopes will be an unexpected windfall.
The grouse he hunted earlier should lure the lynx that's been leaving sign in the area, bringing him a potential $400 payday.
All right, that lynx track is just right back there, so I'm gonna make a cubby set right against that birch.
NARRATOR: Marty tailors his trapping strategy to each animal.
Lynx hunt on the ground, so the most effective way to snare them is a cubby set, a barrier of sticks that funnels the cat towards the bait.
First thing I'm gonna do is kind of prep the site.
I'm gonna use this birch as the backing, and it'll be open to the trail, so if the lynx was walking on the snow-machine trail, he'll see it.
And I'm gonna make it so he has to come in over the trap to get caught, and I'll do that with these spruce right here.
On a lynx set, I'll try and find some kind of a backing, and then I'll just lay sticks or branches up in kind of a "V" so that he can't come in from the side.
This is basically the cubby.
So, he can't come in from the back or reach around.
It's all kind of fenced off a little bit.
So, he'll come in straight to the bait, over the trap, to get caught.
NARRATOR: Lynx rely on their acute eyesight to detect prey.
The more visible the bait, the more the odds tilt in Marty's favor.
Lynx hunt by sight more than a lot of animals, so I'm gonna hang a wing so it kind of flutters.
That catches their eye, and they're gonna come check it out.
And then, if the wind blows, there's any movement, that thing's gonna rock and it's gonna catch the cat's eye.
And then I'm gonna use the rest of the bird up, and I'll put him right here.
Then this is a -- what I use for a lynx trap.
To catch a lynx, you need a bigger trap, a different size trap, 'cause obviously, they're a bigger animal.
Real big lynx's foot is almost as big -- like that.
So, you need a pretty wide jaw spread for the trap.
All right.
Well, it's getting late.
I'm gonna head back to camp and let this baby work for me.
Hopefully have a cat when I come back.
You never know.
That's what makes trapping neat.
You never know.
NARRATOR: In Montana's Ruby Valley, Rich's search for his lost dog Brandy enters its 10th hour.
He's followed her tracks two miles from where she was last seen, but so far, they're the only sign she's left behind.
Some dog tracks here going up the road yet.
If she smells a mountain lion, 'cause that's her passion, she's gonna follow those tracks, and, you know, there's a good chance a lion, I mean, could kill her.
Even a bobcat -- She can't hold up against bobcat, as old as she is.
Brandy! [ Hoots .]
Let's go! Look.
She went off the road right here.
NARRATOR: Tracks leading into the brush are a signal that Brandy caught a scent and decided to follow it on her own.
Get that dog.
NARRATOR: Now Rich will have to rely on his hunting dogs to track her.
Come on.
Come here.
Come on.
Come on.
She went over here.
Where's she at? Smell her? Good boy.
Here.
Look.
She went right through here.
Right over here.
Over here.
Come on.
NARRATOR: Rich's dogs are trained to hunt lion, so he maintains a tight leash to keep them focused on Brandy's scent.
Right here.
Hey.
Right here.
Right here.
Right here.
Right here.
Right here.
Right there.
Come on.
Dog track right here.
Brandy! [ Hoots .]
If she's going up here to this bare ground, I'm gonna lose the track.
Hope she didn't go over that ridge.
They're smelling her.
I just hate to turn them lose, but my only chance is having them pick her up.
And maybe they'll think they're hunting with her.
I'm running out of time here.
I got to find her.
NARRATOR: Off-leash, the dogs are more likely to get distracted by lion scent, but it's also the fastest way to close the gap on their missing leader.
RICH: Now the sun's out.
I can't waste any time.
When the snow melts, the scent dissipates into water and then just -- It's all gone.
It's real difficult to find tracks right now, and it's hard for the dogs to smell and track anything.
Capone! Where's Brandy at? Where's Brandy? Come on! Where's she at, Capone? [ Dogs barking .]
I can hear the dogs.
They're up over that way.
NARRATOR: The dogs are trained to howl when they treed a lion, but these barks signal something unusual.
[ Barking continues .]
RICH: Oh, man.
This was my biggest fear.
That's what I was worried about.
NARRATOR: In the Ruby Valley, after a 10-hour search [ Dogs whimpering .]
RICH: Oh, man.
NARRATOR: Rich confronts his worst fear.
RICH: When I came across Brandy, my heart dropped out of me.
I didn't want to admit it, but I had to face the facts, and it just put a chill down my back.
At least you were out here in the woods.
That's the way I want to die, just like you, Brandy.
I think Brandy died just from exhaustion.
You know, her age caught up with her.
She was 15 years old, so I think she just probably laid down and passed.
Gonna miss you, Brandy.
Well, let's go home.
As I was walking back, I was thinking, you know, I need to show respect for her.
And so, to me, it was a spiritual thing to put her on the hood and bring her home.
She loved riding on the hood.
It's where you belong, Brandy.
I don't think I would have ever found Brandy without my dogs.
I'm impressed with them, and I'm sure Brandy is, too.
NARRATOR: In the Revelation Mountains, Marty returns to camp with fresh meat for dinner and the promise of a big payoff in the days ahead.
Long day.
Got some lynx traps set.
I got a grouse.
I'll get a fire going here and cook it up right away.
Part of living in the bush is being prepared, and part of that is you live off the land as much as you can.
'Cause you can always supplement food with stuff you shoot.
It should taste pretty good.
Get a little smoke flavor on them.
It was encouraging to see those lynx tracks.
I put in some sets.
It'll be interesting to see if they pay off or the lynx were just moving through.
Not bad.
Lynx are worth a lot of money, so having lynx here is a bonus.
But it's trapping, so I don't expect anything.
I just work at it every day 'cause that's the fun of it.
Hot food tastes good after a long day.
NARRATOR: In New Mexico's Cimarron Valley, there's one final job for Kyle at his Dead Horse Canyon campsite.
So far, he's setup the survival basics -- a shelter and a water source.
Now he'll need a food cache to protect his supplies from hungry predators like coyotes and mountain lions.
A cache is just an all-purpose storage unit.
It's nothing fancy.
This cache will help keep the scavengers, such as coyotes or porcupines, away from my food when I'm not in camp.
I'm gonna dig a hole in the snow.
I'm gonna put a rock floor in it and then surround the walls with rock.
That's big enough to hide my tools in if I need to.
Still got plenty of room to cache some food in there.
Plenty of snow.
Carry me a few rocks in here to make it a little more stable.
Don't take much.
When I'm not in camp, that's gonna be a safe place to put everything -- food, tools.
Whatever I don't want to have to carry back and forth with me every time I make a trip will be safe in that cache, if I build it right.
It'll keep my food that I leave cold and frozen, just like a freezer would, and safe from scavengers.
Hell, that'll work.
All I got to do is put a top on it, and we'll be good to go.
NARRATOR: Kyle uses strong cedar limbs to build a lid for the cache.
KYLE: I'm making this lid for my cache heavy enough where most scavengers aren't gonna be able to pick it up or get under it.
If the bears were out, this would be useless, but since they're asleep right now, it'll help keep the coyotes out of there, at least.
Better see if this thing's gonna work.
Man, that door is heavy.
Ain't no coyote gonna be able to lift that up.
It's gonna work just right.
Nothing's gonna be able to get in there.
It feels really good to have my base camp set up.
Now I've got a place to work out of.
No matter what the weather throws at me, I'll be able to stay up here this winter, make this place ready to bring my cattle in this spring.
There's a lot work down the road.
This little valley has got so many opportunities for somebody that's willing to roll their sleeves up and go to work.
They don't make any more country like this, and the fact that part of it belongs to me and my family is overwhelming to me.
I'm thrilled to death to have it, and I'm willing to invest the time that it's gonna take to make it even better than it is now.
NARRATOR: Across the country, in Montana's Ruby Valley, Rich lays to rest a loyal friend and partner in the hunt.
I would sum up Brandy's life -- She was one of the greatest dogs that ever lived.
I've caught so many lions and bobcats with her, and I mean, I seen her do so many things, people wouldn't even believe them if I told you.
Brandy was such an exceptional dog.
I just can't say enough good things about her.
Thank you, Brandy.
You gave me a lot of good memories.
NARRATOR: Next time on "Mountain Men," Eustace faces an uphill battle.
There we go.
EUSTACE: This is some steep, dangerous stuff right here.
Let it go! [Bleep.]
Oh [bleep.]
NARRATOR: And in Alaska, Morgan fights to survive.
[ Gunshot.]
MORGAN: I'm looking for any kind of critters that might fill out my food bag.
[ Grunts .]