Documentary, Ben Fogle New Lives Wild S05E04 Selkirk Mountains, British Columbia, Canada
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00:00I'm Ben Fogel and over the next few weeks I'm going to live with different people who
00:08inhabit some of the most remote locations on earth. There is nothing here. From the
00:14mountain forests of Northwest USA to the freezing Mongolian tundra, the barren
00:20Hungarian countryside to the wild African bush, a Mediterranean island and the deep
00:27Canadian wilderness. These are the people who decided to make a massive life
00:34change. I said so what do you think should we just do it give up everything
00:37and she said okay. Are they daring or just downright crazy? Come on Ben. We didn't
00:46even know where Mongolia was. This is who I am it's not who you want me to be. I want
00:52to find out what happens when you quit the rat race. If the whole world folds up my
00:57pension is here. And create a new life in the wild.
01:10Today I'm heading to a vast wilderness home to mountains glaciers and grizzly bears.
01:18West of Canada's Rocky Mountains I'll be living with bear guide Julius Strauss and
01:24his wife Kristen. A couple for whom the wild has not just become home but also their refuge.
01:32When I came here I was in a mess. I mean in the end I could barely go out on the street
01:37on my own. I'll learn how against the odds they found a way of surviving in the wilderness.
01:42It doesn't matter how many degrees you had because if you can't chop wood you're useless right.
01:49And how together they're facing a new battle. That's almost certainly a hunter and that really
01:56pisses me off.
01:57Yeah. My journey begins over 7,000 kilometres away in Vancouver, Western Canada.
02:06It's then a further 11 hours east to Meadow Creek in the Selkirk Mountains.
02:15This vast landscape surrounds me. Canada is the second biggest country in the world 40 times larger
02:27than the UK but with half the population. That is a lot of unpopulated wilderness. If you want
02:35to escape this is the place to come.
02:44Arriving deep in the forest I can't help but feel I might be being watched.
02:51I'm very aware. This is grizzly bear country. Wow look at this. That is quite a river.
03:00The only way to meet my host is to cross this old military bailey bridge.
03:04I don't know if I want to fall in there. It's in desperate need of repair. I can see why
03:11I had to leave the car behind.
03:13Julius!
03:17Hello Ben.
03:18What a place to bump into an Englishman.
03:20Good to meet you.
03:21Hey, how are you?
03:22Really well.
03:23I don't know if I want to fall in there right now.
03:25You haven't seen anything yet. We're going to be taking a raft now.
03:27A buddy of mine's got a raft and that's how we're going to get down to the ranch.
03:30Seriously?
03:31Yeah. Come this way.
03:33This is amazing. Look at this. And we're bear country. So there could be bears now?
03:36Totally. There could be bears either side of us or in front of us.
03:40You can go ahead then.
03:4448 year old Julius Strauss was born in London.
03:47After college he became a journalist for the Telegraph and by 27 was a foreign correspondent sent to war zones.
03:58He had a £40,000 salary and generous perks.
04:02But ten years of reporting on the front line began to take its toll.
04:10Julius became ill and in 2005 he and then girlfriend Kristen quit their jobs, left Europe, bought an old camper van and drove across the wilds of Canada.
04:24They stopped at a remote ranch and never left.
04:27It's here where they now offer a unique wilderness experience to visitors.
04:44That certainly woken me up, thank you.
04:47And pause again please guys.
04:49And Julius is now one of North America's top bear guides.
04:53And stop, take a break.
04:54Take a break.
04:56So we're getting near now Julius.
04:57Yeah, that's it there.
04:59Oh, look at that.
05:01That's the branch on the right outside, yeah.
05:04Wow, this is incredibly beautiful here.
05:09The property covers 32 acres with a main house and six small guest cabins.
05:17This is absolutely beautiful.
05:20Has all of this changed a lot then from when you first arrived?
05:22Have you done all this yourselves?
05:24We've done a lot and it's very different from when we arrived, yes.
05:28So it looks very different from ten years ago.
05:31Yeah, absolutely.
05:32And have you had to put a huge amount of effort in here then?
05:35We've had to put a huge amount.
05:36It wasn't just that.
05:37Right at the beginning we didn't have the money to buy what there was.
05:41We had to take this enormous risk.
05:42And what we did is we collected all the money we had.
05:46We put it down and it came to just under half what the previous owners wanted for it.
05:52So we promised them that we would get the other half of the money together within six months.
05:57And it took us five months and about nine days.
06:00And by the end of it we were getting a little bit hot under the collar.
06:02So we almost lost all our money and this place but then finally last minute it all came together.
06:08The couple still use all their old sheds for storage and an outdoor toilet.
06:13And three of the cabins are still painted in their original engine oil.
06:18But their main house made from fir tree wood is their pride and joy and took six months to build.
06:25So we come in.
06:28Thank you very much.
06:29This is very cosy in here.
06:31Oh wow.
06:33So did you start with like a very basic structure here and build up?
06:36Very basic.
06:37Very basic.
06:38There's a little log cabin here.
06:39No foundation.
06:40No upstairs.
06:41Nothing.
06:42Just a simple log cabin.
06:44And for eight years Kristen and I slept in that little space right there.
06:48And then a couple of years ago we decided to turn it into what we wanted.
06:51Ripped out that wall.
06:52Put in some glass.
06:54And this is what you see now.
06:56Now that massive gamble you were saying that you took, you know, 50% promised later on.
07:02What kind of figure are we talking?
07:03I mean there's a huge amount?
07:05The place cost us around £150,000.
07:08So we put down £75,000 which was everything we had.
07:12And then, yeah, the balance came a lot later.
07:15Just in time.
07:17I love your smile there.
07:18Yeah.
07:19Was that quite a nerve-wracking period?
07:21Yes, it was.
07:22Because I remember when we got the mortgage, we went out and we got really drunk.
07:28Just being happy that we made it and that we got the place.
07:32Otherwise we would have lost everything.
07:34We got so drunk we forgot the name of the place that we bought.
07:38Solar panels provide electricity.
07:41There's propane gas for cooking and a water well.
07:45Julius and Kristen stay connected to the outside world via satellite dish for the internet and telephone.
07:51But other than that, they're on their own.
07:54We don't have any services from the outside.
07:57We have no garbage pick-up, no mail service, no fire cover.
08:00It's not all as posh as it seems.
08:02Yeah.
08:03We've got composting toilets and to make it look this smart, there's a lot of work that goes in behind the scenes.
08:08But basically, yeah, you can have everything out here that you can have in a town.
08:12You just have to work a bit harder.
08:14Come on, Karo. Bring your ball.
08:16The start of the new tourist season is a month away.
08:19So until then, I get a cabin of my own.
08:22I have to say, I don't think I've ever stayed in a wilderness that's quite as comfortable as this.
08:27Is that because of the guests?
08:29Yeah, I mean, we had to, you know, we've had to put all the, every cent we have into this place, basically.
08:34You know, if we're going to ask people to come here, it has to be nice.
08:37So we've really tried hard.
08:39Is this really going to be my home?
08:41This is going to be a home right here.
08:42Oh, thank you very much.
08:44The cabins have metal roofs as protection from flying ash during summer bushfires.
08:49But in winter, there can be four feet of snow.
08:52So they all have wood-burning stoves inside.
08:54Everything here, you know, a lot of thought has gone into it.
08:59And I like it because I am in the middle of a wilderness, make no mistakes about that.
09:04And although it looks like you have everything, you're still relying on the wood that you chop down to create the heat.
09:13So everything is still sort of self-produced.
09:16This is the quintessential, off-the-grid, luxurious cabin in the woods, surrounded by bears. It's great.
09:25The work my hosts have done and the environment might look picture-perfect.
09:31But I'm curious to know what things were like for them in the beginning.
09:34We were so useless when we arrived. We didn't know how to do anything.
09:38We didn't know where the water came from.
09:40I remember going to Chris and I said, where does the water come from?
09:44And she said, it comes out of the tap. And I thought, yeah, it comes out of the tap.
09:46And then two days later, we're like, well, where does that come from?
09:49We were really useless. And we did have a big dream back then, you know, the dream of living in the bush.
09:55And with the tasks around here, is there anything that either of you are particularly bad at?
10:01Money. Money. Money. Money.
10:04Absolutely useless.
10:05So who does it?
10:07Well, I was hoping that Kristin would be the responsible one.
10:10We encourage each other of being bad.
10:13If one of us was clever financially, we'd probably have a much more profitable business.
10:18But neither of us are. But the great thing about that is at least we agree on things.
10:22Yes.
10:25Deep in these forests at night, the wildlife is active.
10:29I'm told it's not safe to go back to my cabin alone.
10:33So do you often take guests back, escort them like this?
10:36Yeah, last year in the autumn, we had to do it every night because I think we had six different cruises around.
10:42Really? In camp here?
10:44Yeah, during that 10 days. So we were getting a bit worried about our guests' safety.
10:48So yeah, we escorted them back every night.
10:52What do we do if we do come across a bear now?
10:53We should stand still, be calm, not run.
10:58And that's it. And wait for it to go away because it doesn't want to have anything to do with us.
11:03Well, thank you very much for escorting me back to my cabin safely.
11:07I'm actually rather disappointed there aren't any bears, if I'm to be honest.
11:10Well, who knows? They might be sitting right there.
11:12Maybe in the morning. Maybe in the morning.
11:13Kristen, thank you so much. Sleep well. I'll see you in the morning.
11:16Good night.
11:17Good night.
11:20Fascinating couple. Most of the people that I've spent time with in the wild have shunned finances.
11:26They've cut themselves off from the grid in every sense of the word, especially the financial grid.
11:30But here is a couple who have, I don't know whether I use the word embraced, but they've got themselves tangled up in finances.
11:40They've got themselves a wilderness mortgage.
11:43That's a pretty unique situation to find yourself in, which is kind of counterintuitive to coming to a place like this.
11:49I'm in the Canadian wilderness home of Julius and Kristen Strauss.
12:02A remote lodging they've created, attracting visitors hoping to see bears in the wild.
12:10I slept very well. The noise of the river is just amazing. The window open. So beautiful.
12:1632 acres here, so something tells me there's probably quite a lot of tasks and jobs to do.
12:24The first guests will arrive next month.
12:27So Kristen, who's in charge of accommodation and food, has me busy in the garden.
12:32Do you grow fruits as well? No, we can't because of the bears.
12:36It would be a huge attraction, so that wouldn't work out.
12:39They would probably just call their way in, would they? Yes, absolutely.
12:41And if a 300 pound pair goes up the tree, you can imagine they just break in half.
12:48A local farm supplies meat, but it's the forest that's their real larder and where they forage.
12:54I'm still a bit suspicious about it. Are you?
12:57It is a berry that I know I'll pick it and it's a mushroom I know I'll pick it, but here people do that a lot.
13:02Yeah.
13:03Yeah, yeah.
13:05The garden itself takes six hours to mow, and then there's the maintenance of the cabins.
13:12Julius is the hiking and bear guide, so before the start of the season, he makes essential checks on the river rafts.
13:19What's the big black thing underneath?
13:22Those things there are the wings for my old airplane.
13:24What happened to it?
13:25What happened to the rest of it?
13:26I had a mishap.
13:27A mishap with an aeroplane is never good, especially when there's any one wing left.
13:31No, the two wings, the two wings, yeah. The body didn't survive, but the wings are still there.
13:36I bought it from a logger in Oregon, and he made it himself. It wasn't the best.
13:41A homemade aeroplane?
13:42A homemade aeroplane, and I crashed it the second time I flew it.
13:47Julius's attitude to life is fascinating.
13:51Very elegant.
13:52I'm keen to know more about the path that took him from frontline war journalist to wilderness bear guide.
13:59Ten years of war really chews away at your head, and some of my friends were killed.
14:05A lot more had problems, alcohol problems, some had drugs problems.
14:10And I thought I was all okay, and then one day, I was in Sierra Leone in 2000, and I got hit by...
14:15I didn't know what I got hit by at the time. I just felt this horrible dread and sense that I was going to die,
14:21and my balance completely went. And I think in retrospect, it was probably what we would now call PTSD.
14:28And do you think coming to Canada, was this your way of overcoming your post-traumatic stress?
14:35Ultimately, I think it was. I mean, what happened was, I'd just met Kristen.
14:40I'd been battling with this sort of whole post-traumatic stress thing for two or three years, and still working.
14:45I still went to Iraq and Afghanistan, and I was trying to manage it.
14:48And then in September 2004, there was a horrible incident in southern Russia, in Beslan, where more than a hundred children were killed.
14:58And I was there. And I came out that afternoon, and I had just met Kristen, and I thought,
15:04this has got to be a changing point in my life. I can't do this anymore.
15:07I've just, you know, completely regressed in terms of all the progress I've made over the last two or three years.
15:13I've got a woman that cares for me, loves me, wants to be with me, so maybe it's time for a change.
15:18And so Canada, the idea of Canada came up.
15:21This involved a 1,500-kilometre adventure in an old camper van.
15:26But it took its toll on the new couple, until Julius remembered an advert he'd seen about this secluded ranch.
15:32And I thought, oh, that's going to be a good diversion. I need a diversion before she leaves me and buggers off back to Europe.
15:40So I stopped at the Internet Cafe, I looked it up, and I found it. And I phoned out, it was for sale.
15:45I phoned out the real estate agents and said, can we see it?
15:48And he said, are you serious potential buyers?
15:51Oh, absolutely, definitely. I had no intention of buying anything.
15:54And so that's how we came out here, and we were absolutely smitten.
15:57And we left after an hour, an hour and a half, set off down the road.
16:00And I remember I turned to her and I said, so what do you think, should we just do it, buy it, give up everything?
16:05And she said, okay, let's do it.
16:10The couple had everything to learn.
16:13They thought they'd bought a ranch with a viable bed and breakfast business.
16:17But after three months, no guests and no inquiries.
16:21They realised they'd been had.
16:23I sat down with Kristin, and we looked at each other, and we suddenly, I think we were a bit slow on the uptake.
16:29We looked at each other and we were like, there was no business, was there?
16:32And she's like, no, there was no business.
16:35So that was when we suddenly thought, shit, we've got to start from scratch.
16:39We're going to do something new.
16:42Today, we're fixing a rotting fence with five-pound wooden posts.
16:46But in the early days, they could barely afford to stay here.
16:50So how did you turn it around?
16:51Slowly.
16:53We almost went bust the first winter, and I got a job in Alaska, luckily.
16:57A friend of mine called me up, who'd been offered the job, and he couldn't do it.
17:00And he said, look, there's a job going teaching journalism at the University of Alaska.
17:04Do you want to do it?
17:05And I'm like, yeah, I definitely want to do it.
17:08So we went up to Alaska for four months.
17:10I taught there, came back in the spring.
17:12And that gave us just a little bit of money, and that allowed me to go off and train as a grizzly bear guide.
17:17Kristen trained as a chef, and together they gained the skills to actually create the business that had never existed.
17:25I think for Julius and Kristen, just moving here in the first place is pretty brave.
17:30You know, they've come from a totally different world, and they've come to the Canadian wilderness, an extreme wilderness at that.
17:35And then to take on a business that then transpired to be a non-business.
17:41You know, they're ballsy risk-takers, but they also work really hard to make sure that that risk pays off.
17:50So far, it's Julius who seems to be the driving force behind the risks they've taken.
17:55But he did meet his match in Kristen.
17:58While at university in Estonia, she married a diplomat.
18:02She was part of the country's new elite, and had a successful career of her own as a leading news agency.
18:08But Kristen wasn't in love.
18:11Can I say this is the neatest pile of wood, and the largest pile of wood I think I've ever seen.
18:17Presumably, though, this is life out here, especially when it comes to winter.
18:20Yeah, you have no choice, because we only have wood-burning stoves, so this is what we do.
18:23This is the only way to heat for us.
18:26Hey.
18:29Do you remember the first time you met Julius?
18:33Yeah, so I do remember it very well.
18:36And I remember that I didn't like him very much, actually, the first time I met him.
18:42What did you think?
18:44I think he was really cocky, actually.
18:46Did you?
18:47But a year later, everything had changed, and when we met a year later, yeah, he was much nicer.
18:55And what did your family think when they first met you?
18:57They thought I was crazy.
18:59Did they make their opinions known to you?
19:01Yes, especially my mum.
19:03Yeah, but actually my dad liked him right away.
19:06So that made my life easy, and right now my whole family adores Julius, because he's probably the most emotional person we have in the crowd.
19:14And obviously you were actually married when you met him as well.
19:18Yes, yes, I was legally. So was he, actually. Nobody has mentioned that.
19:23Yeah, we both were married to somebody else, but I think both marriages were actually at the end of the day.
19:28They were both crumbling anyway.
19:30Yeah, absolutely. So, otherwise it wouldn't have happened, right?
19:33Of course.
19:34Yeah.
19:35We both had kind of quite fancy lifestyles, and I think it was very healthy for both of us to be removed from that status world and just make it work here.
19:50And as you are as good as you are here, it doesn't matter how many degrees you have or how much.
19:54So, you know, and I remember that it's really healthy for a person to just, the self-importance will disappear very quickly because if you can't chop wood, you're useless, right?
20:04Yeah.
20:06On that note.
20:07It's spring, and the snow melt from the mountains means the river's level is at its highest.
20:17Upstream from the ranch, Julius has asked me to help him with the most dangerous job he has to do.
20:24Armed with a chainsaw and a life jacket.
20:27Fallen trees can create dams in the river, but this can be extremely dangerous for rafting.
20:34If the boat gets caught, it can be dragged underwater by the force of the current.
20:41So, we have to clear the blockage.
20:44Doing this on your own is not something you would want to do, so it's good there are two of us here.
20:48So that's why I've got this for, so this is basically your safety harness.
20:51You're going to clip it onto me, and you're going to hang onto me for dear life, and when I do go in...
20:54You're actually going to trust me with your life, you only just met me.
20:57When I go in, you let go of me, that's the deal.
21:00Okay.
21:01Or you follow me in.
21:02Okay, go on then.
21:04Just make sure you have one foot safe before you go onto the next one.
21:12Of all the jobs I thought you'd have out here, this is the last thing I thought I'd be doing, standing on a raging Canadian river with a chainsaw.
21:19This is usually like the biggest hazard.
21:20Well, this time last year I went straight into this river, running chainsaws.
21:24Now you told me.
21:25High water.
21:26Yeah.
21:27So this will be my first time out since then, so you're a brave man, Ben.
21:37Okay, I've got it.
21:38Got it.
21:40Cutting too quickly, and the strength of the current could snap the tree and throw us into the river.
21:46You happy, Julius?
21:47Happy so far.
21:48Okay.
21:49Here, the water's 10 feet deep, and it's flowing at 15 kilometers an hour, twice the speed of an average river.
22:07When Julius first arrived here, he was told these waters were far too dangerous to raft.
22:20See how tensile it is?
22:21I can hear it starting to snap.
22:24So that's the danger with these things, is that there's so much pressure on it that we're not even going to get much of a cutting before it's going to go.
22:31Before it goes.
22:32Yeah.
22:33So it's going to...
22:34Let's go back just a little bit.
22:35Yeah.
22:46Whoa.
22:49She's close to going, isn't she?
22:50Yeah.
22:51Yeah.
22:52Okay.
22:53You okay?
22:54Yeah.
22:55Well done.
22:56Whoo.
22:57Good job.
22:58Good job.
22:59Look at that.
23:00Look, it's going to be sucked under, I think.
23:01Half of the 30-foot tree is finally released downstream.
23:02Look at it go.
23:04Julius, I'm so impressed with that.
23:07Look, it didn't do anything.
23:08I'm quite impressed with that.
23:09Look, it didn't do anything.
23:10Yeah.
23:11Yeah.
23:12Yeah.
23:13Yeah.
23:14Yeah.
23:15Yeah.
23:16Yeah.
23:17Yeah.
23:18Yeah.
23:19It's an adrenaline rush.
23:20It's an adrenaline rush.
23:21Do you still need that adrenaline rush?
23:22You do.
23:23Do you think?
23:24I can't answer that question.
23:25But it strikes me.
23:26I mean, I know you need to do all of this, but I can see the smile on your face now.
23:27I mean, that's...
23:28It's total relief.
23:29It's fantastic.
23:30Is it relief?
23:31Yeah.
23:32No, no, no.
23:33It's, yeah.
23:34Certainly your heart rate goes up a bit.
23:35I don't know if I'd need an adrenaline rush, but life is a bit more interesting than that.
23:48Interesting that way.
23:51I could see there was genuine fear, genuine nervousness there.
23:56If one of those trees had catapulted us both into the water, as happened the last time he
24:01was there, that's quite a nerve-wracking thing to take on again.
24:06But it seems to me that this is part of the drive of his life.
24:11He is a risk-taker.
24:13Bears haven't even come into this yet.
24:14You know, they're still the big invisible lurking mystery around us.
24:19And that's the big thing that keeps him here.
24:23And undoubtedly, with bears come risk.
24:26I'm deep in the Canadian wilderness.
24:33The climate here can hit extremes.
24:35But in springtime, it's very similar to home.
24:39Do you have a favourite season here?
24:41I mean, obviously it gets very cold in the winter.
24:43Autumn.
24:44Autumn.
24:45When the grizzlies are out.
24:46It's all about the bears.
24:47It's all about the bears.
24:48When the leaves are changing, the grizzlies are out.
24:50That's my favourite season.
24:51At this time of year, the bears are still high up in the mountains.
24:56So we're packing essentials for a hike up into the woods.
24:59Obviously a lot of people are quite scared of bears.
25:02Are you fearful of them, or is it just the beauty that you're focusing on?
25:07I think you should never lose your respect for bears.
25:10I probably have about one run in a year with a bear, which is usually my fault
25:15and something I've done slightly wrong.
25:17And they are very tolerant and they will allow you to get away with things.
25:20But statistically, you know, you could get mauled.
25:24You could get mauled.
25:25There was a guy that I knew of.
25:27He spent 30 years in Yellowstone filming bears, and he was mashed up twice by bears.
25:31And I think that's about the statistical average.
25:33If you do it every day of your life for 30 years, things are going to go wrong at one point.
25:37But, you know, having the stuff with you and being sensible will mitigate the risk a lot.
25:47Upstream, we need to cross the river and head further into the woods.
25:56Wow, look at this.
25:57What do you think?
25:59This is incredible.
26:02That is being incredibly resourceful to make this.
26:08You sure it's sturdy enough?
26:10Trying it out.
26:11That is amazing.
26:12So that's literally just a tree that has either fallen naturally or someone's helped it?
26:17We helped it.
26:18That must have been hot.
26:19How did you do that with the water?
26:20The water was a little bit lower.
26:22And at the time, I could just about scramble across.
26:25This is amazing.
26:26This is like Indiana Jones now.
26:28It is.
26:29Indiana Jones in Canada.
26:30Has a bear used it yet?
26:31I don't know.
26:32I'd like to know the answer to that question.
26:33That would be cool to see a bear using your bridge.
26:35Totally.
26:36We head up out of the valley along tree-covered slopes.
26:43Right now, this should be prime bear viewing habitat.
26:46But it's not.
26:48The Canadian government extended the spring bear hunting season.
26:53So trophy hunters roam these valley forests looking for grizzlies.
26:59Now, it's not safe for Julius and Kristen to take guests out to view bears.
27:04They're campaigning to get the hunt banned.
27:07And we're going in search of new ground where the hunters can't reach.
27:14We had a bear last year called Apple.
27:16We've been watching for ten years.
27:18We watched her bring up cubs.
27:19And she was shot last spring.
27:21Now, I don't know if she was shot within the extension part
27:23or the basic part of the season.
27:25But it's upsetting.
27:27It's upsetting when something like that happens.
27:28From a business point of view, it's not totally disastrous,
27:33but it certainly means we're not going to make any money.
27:35I mean, we might survive, but it's going to be tough.
27:37And is it expensive to kill a bear?
27:39If you're a resident and all the bears shot around here are shot by residents,
27:43it's going to cost you $88.
27:45$88?
27:46Yeah, that's less than £50.
27:47$88 to kill a bear, to take a bear's life.
27:50Are we doing a big grizzly now?
27:51Yeah, that's a grizzly bear.
27:53What? What planet are they living on?
27:55I know.
27:56Seriously? I thought you were going to say thousands.
27:57No, $88.
27:58Do you feel in some ways that you're in the midst of a war then now?
28:03Yeah, I mean, if we could get the Grizzly Hunt banned,
28:05that would be something we could be proud of.
28:07And it would be a legacy.
28:08I mean, whatever happens to us, happens to us.
28:10We may be here for another 10 years, 20 years.
28:12We may be here forever.
28:13But it would be a legacy if we could leave behind something
28:16that was meaningful and hopefully permanent.
28:19So, yeah, it would be a huge deal.
28:22I think part of the reason we came here was to get away from politics
28:25and some of the worst of human nature.
28:27And what you find is that everywhere you go in the world,
28:30it doesn't matter where you are,
28:31there's politics and there's human nature.
28:33You can't really get away from it.
28:34You just have to deal with it.
28:40There are nearly 15,000 grizzly bears in British Columbia,
28:44about a quarter of the entire North American population.
28:47Julius thinks there may be several hundred in this area alone.
28:52So, what do you look for for good bear habitat?
28:56This. This is exactly what you look for.
28:58You look for avalanche slopes.
29:00Yeah.
29:01I mean, they're unlikely to be on the snow itself,
29:03but just on the sides where the fresh green stuff is beginning to come in,
29:07that's the best place to find grizzly bears at this time of year.
29:11And when you say fresh green stuff, I mean, berries latterly, later in the year.
29:16Later in the year, berries, but right now, it's literally, it's grass, it's forbs,
29:20it's young flowers, glacier lilies, all that kind of stuff.
29:23Things that have got, they don't look like much to us,
29:26but in quantity, they're just enough to keep the bear surviving through the spring.
29:30What do you think it is about bears that captures people's imagination so much?
29:35I mean, you were saying you've got people that come here, big, grown, tough men,
29:40and when they see a bear, you know, you see tears.
29:43It's totemic.
29:44It harks back to an era of something that's mostly been lost in this world, the wild.
29:49You know, the wild out there, but also maybe the wild inside us as well.
29:54Something we yearn for deeply, even if we can't quite express that always.
29:59I think there's something quite deep there.
30:06After two hours of hiking, we're now on an abandoned logging trail
30:10and spot our first sign that we're not alone.
30:14This is what we're after, isn't it?
30:16Mmm, yum, yum.
30:23You wouldn't want to pick this apart with your hands if it was fish,
30:25but because it's vegetation, it's fairly safe.
30:28So that's some kind of maybe skunk cabbage or something like this.
30:33And any idea what kind of bear this might be? Black, grizzly?
30:37It's really difficult to say.
30:39You can't tell definitively.
30:41You can guess on the size and you can guess on what they've been eating.
30:45I couldn't tell you, actually.
30:47Could go either way. It could be either.
30:49Did you ever think when you were in Afghanistan
30:51that one day you'd be picking through bear shit?
30:53Could you have bear hands?
30:54No, no, I never thought that.
30:56In the pouring rain.
30:57Not in my wildest imagination did I think that.
30:59Strange how life takes its twists and turns.
31:01Yeah.
31:02OK, well, we know bears are around.
31:04This is good.
31:05We certainly do.
31:08It's amazing to see it's like a detective
31:10looking at all the scat along the way.
31:12And you can see he's really kind of...
31:14We're in the world of Julius and the Canadian wilderness now.
31:28Finally, up ahead on the track, we spot a black bear.
31:33He or she is gone.
31:40We attempt to track it.
31:45So just up here on the left.
31:47We may miss him again, but we'll just have a look.
31:50He went in about here, but he might come out further down.
32:00Or he might go up.
32:02OK.
32:03Yeah, look at the tracks.
32:04Awesome.
32:05Look at that.
32:06That's great.
32:07Isn't it?
32:08So black bear, any idea of what sort of age?
32:09Youngish.
32:10But you can see from the tracks definitively it's a black bear.
32:11Even if we haven't seen that ourselves.
32:12Yeah.
32:13You can tell from the tracks it's a black bear.
32:28I would say four, but it's a bit of a guess.
32:33Let's walk up to the corner.
32:34We might still see him.
32:36This is fun tracking bears.
32:37This is nice.
32:38This is nice.
32:43Yeah, he's still in front of us somewhere.
32:45Yeah.
32:47There he is.
32:48Yeah.
32:58So the bear's just having a little think now.
33:04Making a bit of a calculation.
33:06He doesn't really want to leave this nice feeding zone.
33:09But he's not quite sure about us.
33:11Whoops.
33:12And he's gone.
33:16Wow, that was pretty awesome.
33:22Amazing how such a big creature can just disappear like that, isn't it?
33:28It shouldn't be this difficult, but...
33:30But do you think one of the things that's made it harder here is,
33:33because it's the hunting season, do you think they're much more skittish?
33:36Absolutely.
33:37I mean, really, bears have no reason to be scared of us if it wasn't for hunting.
33:41Yeah.
33:42We're not, you know, they don't naturally predate on us.
33:44We don't naturally bother them.
33:46So this behavior is unfortunately brought about for the hunting.
33:49Yeah.
33:51But still, we saw a bear.
33:52Listen, I've seen my black bear now.
33:55Yeah.
33:56Just a grizzly.
33:57No, we just need a grizzly.
33:59OK.
34:04It's ten hours since we left the ranch,
34:06and Julius decides we should set up camp before nightfall.
34:12Dusk and dawn are the main times when bears are active.
34:17Are we going to be attracting bears with these?
34:19We might.
34:20We'll have to eat them and make sure we clean up properly.
34:22So if you were to have a big pile of bacon and you got it all over your T-shirt,
34:26you definitely wouldn't want to go and sleep in that same T-shirt in the tent.
34:31All those years that you spent in those pretty tough situations,
34:35seeing things that some of us can't imagine,
34:38do you think that has had a long-lasting effect on you?
34:41Do you bear the scars?
34:43Yes, the scars will always be there.
34:45I mean, ten years ago, when I came here, I was in a mess.
34:49You know, no two ways about it.
34:51Psychologically, I was in a mess.
34:54I mean, in the end, I could barely go out on the street on my own.
34:57I couldn't drive a car for nearly two years.
35:00I had problems with my balance and there was a feeling of dread.
35:05And then coming here, it still lasted for quite a while,
35:09but it got less and less and less as time went by.
35:12I still have the odd flash of something,
35:16a sort of remnant of whatever it was,
35:19but most of it's gone.
35:20So I think this place has been good to me.
35:32In the remote mountains of British Columbia,
35:35my host, Julius, and I are up early
35:37on our mission to track grizzly bears.
35:41So it's about...
35:46Five in the morning or so.
35:50I'm hoping they're foraging somewhere.
35:53200,000 berries a day, apparently, they eat.
36:03We head further into the wilderness.
36:05Julius thinks that over the past few decades,
36:08only a handful of people have ever ventured here.
36:12In terms of southern Canada, this is about as remote as it gets.
36:15Really? Yeah.
36:16I love looking up at the peaks here
36:18and imagining there are places where no human has ever set foot.
36:22You know, I've thought about that a lot.
36:24You know, you could almost go 100 yards into the bush there
36:27and with some certainty the same thing.
36:29Isn't that amazing?
36:30Yeah.
36:36Finally, there's evidence that we're in grizzly bear territory.
36:39Whoa, look at that.
36:40So that is one of the biggest bear turds I have ever seen.
36:49Wow.
36:50Big grizzly?
36:51It's almost worth feeling the temperature on it.
36:53It's cold.
36:55Yeah, big grizzly bear that.
36:57And if you look at the shininess and the greenness of that,
37:00it is cold but it's got to be today.
37:04I'm loving your enthusiasm for turds out here.
37:07It's great.
37:08It's just such a good turd.
37:13At this time of year, the grizzly bears are in danger from trophy hunters.
37:17The new extension in the hunting season means there's huge conflict
37:21with those who simply want to view bears in their natural habitat.
37:28We've trekked to 6,000 feet to avoid the hunters.
37:32But Julia spies something in the valley below.
37:37So we've got a vehicle right down there.
37:39Good spot.
37:41Let's just have a little look.
37:43That's almost certainly a hunter.
37:47So from our perspective, you know, not only we're going to see less bears
37:51than we otherwise would, but also these guys are out to shoot the bears
37:54that we're trying to view.
37:56So that's pretty infuriating.
37:59Pretty. I mean, I can see that.
38:01Anger, emotion, everything kind of seems to...
38:04Yeah, yeah. I mean, we've spent 10 years trying to do this
38:05and then somebody can just turn up and blow that bear away.
38:09And that's the end of that.
38:11For $88.
38:14It doesn't make me happy.
38:15I kind of want to go and suggest slashing their tires.
38:19That would be your call.
38:21You know, to be honest, we're trying to...
38:23We've been through all those emotions
38:25and we're trying to win the argument rationally now
38:28because we just want people to listen.
38:29It's really, really irritating.
38:32Because presumably if you're a bear, you're going to scarper any sign of...
38:35Yeah, and so it'll hurt our chances anyway because these guys are up here in general.
38:40But the fact that they're up here today is definitely going to hurt our chances.
38:44Yeah.
38:46I'm curious, how much revenue can they actually bring in if it's $88 per bear?
38:51As you said, which I'm still shocked by.
38:52How does that compare to tourism, for example, what you guys are doing?
38:57I mean, if you're a foreigner, you pay a bit more to shoot a bear here than the locals do.
39:02But total, total, total for the province, best case scenario, they bring in about $2 million a year.
39:08The hunters.
39:09The hunters.
39:11And bear viewing right now, our best estimates are $40 million, $40 million a year.
39:18And it's a small growing industry.
39:20So there's really no...
39:22So there's no argument even that the money from bear hunting is superior or that it could go back into conservation.
39:31In fact, it's even worse than that.
39:32People in the ministry tell us that they spend more money regulating the hunt
39:37than they bring in an income from it.
39:40Now, that's true.
39:41It means that as a British Columbian paying taxes, I'm subsidising what's going on down there.
39:46And that really, really pisses me off.
39:50Yeah.
39:54In the autumn, when there's no bear hunting, the grizzlies are spotted in huge numbers here.
40:00But after my 24 hours in the bush, they remain elusive.
40:04I think what was more significant for me was what we didn't see.
40:10And that's what Julius really wanted to kind of drive home to me that this extension of the hunting season,
40:17the hunters, they're having a huge impact.
40:20And for someone like Julius and Kristen who rely on those bears for tourism, it's got a massive impact.
40:26And for the bears themselves, you know, the bears are retreating to the deep wilderness.
40:33But, you know, I still saw that black bear and it's a magical experience to see one of these creatures.
40:41It's so rare that you actually get to see one that close up on foot.
40:47It's amazing.
40:48It's almost time for me to leave.
40:54But there's one last job Julius and Kristen need help with.
40:58It does feel good putting the sign up.
41:01We're kind of proud of what we do, you know, we're not ashamed of it.
41:05Do you think there's a part of you that, you know, we know that there's hunters out there?
41:08Yeah.
41:09They're going to be coming up and down this road, aren't they?
41:10Yeah.
41:11With their guns and things.
41:12They're not going to like what they see.
41:14But, you know, we have a right to be here too.
41:16And if the hunt's banned, that's different.
41:17But right now they have a right to do what they do.
41:20So, for the time being, we'll just do what we do.
41:24In the dream world, if I come back in, I don't know, five, ten years, do you,
41:28I suppose you hope that you might have helped change policy out here?
41:33Yeah, I think so.
41:34I think five, ten years is a realistic target for us, actually, to have the bear hunt banned.
41:38Absolutely.
41:39I hope it'll be sooner than that.
41:40Yeah, me too.
41:41And we're trying hard.
41:42But I mean, this is being conservative here.
41:43Yeah.
41:44It's five to ten years should be realistic as well.
41:46Do you think it will happen?
41:47Yeah.
41:48It will happen.
41:49It will happen.
41:50It's just a question of time.
41:51Absolutely.
41:52It looks great.
41:53Well done.
41:54Thank you very much.
41:55It looks brilliant.
41:57I don't doubt you both.
41:58There's something rather special about spending time with two individuals that love where they are.
42:09Wow.
42:10You know, here's a couple that have taken huge gambles.
42:13But, you know, sometimes if you don't take a risk in life, you don't stand to benefit.
42:19Those who take the biggest risks stand to benefit the most.
42:23They're still tied to the financial model, but that's the beauty of what they've done here.
42:29They've shown and demonstrated to people that you can do this if you're willing to take that gamble.
42:39Can I say, guys, this has been the most amazing, amazing trip.
42:42I'm not going to forget that black bear.
42:45It's been awesome.
42:46It's been incredible.
42:47Give me a hug.
42:49Look after yourself.
42:50I will.
42:51Thank you, Kristen.
42:52Thank you so much for everything.
42:53And thank you for coming.
42:54Good luck with everything here.
42:55Bye, dogs.
42:57Remind me where I left the car.
42:58Bailey Bridge.
42:59That way.
43:00That way.
43:01I bet I'm going to meet a grizzly on my way out, aren't I?
43:04Let us know if you do.
43:05A little smirk on your face.
43:07I kind of hope I do.
43:08Listen, guys, thank you so much.
43:10Take care.
43:11Thank you, Ben.
43:12Thank you for coming, Ben.
43:13Bye, guys.
43:14Bye.
43:15I think what's really interesting as well from my perspective is that I've always known that the wilderness is a great form of therapy.
43:23That the wilderness can heal people, the wilderness can educate people.
43:28And it's fascinating to see how much Julius has benefited in particular from a wilderness like this.
43:36This is a circumstance where I'd go as far as to say, you know, the wilderness saved his life, really.
43:42Next time, I'm in Ibiza, living with a man who's built a home from junk.
43:54It's all really good material.
43:55It's not garbage.
43:56Leading a wild tribe.
43:58I'm going to be funny.
43:59On a mission to build a community before time runs out.
44:03If nothing changes, I think we've got five years left and it's all over.
44:06Five years.
44:07Before the S hits the van.
44:10And New Lives in the Wild is back next Tuesday at nine.
44:17Now, set this to record now.
44:19Ian Glenn is back on the case as Irish investigator Jack Taylor.
44:23Catch the season premiere Thursday night at nine.
44:26But brand new next, we meet the incredible shaking woman whose university dream was shattered by a nightmare illness.
44:32After the break.
44:33Oh, yeah.
44:34We'll be back with you.
44:35Yeah, yeah.
44:36Hear the sound of the great rain and victory.
44:38I can't wait.
44:39Go ahead.
44:40Go ahead.
44:42Go ahead.
44:43Matt, go ahead.
44:44Hope, wait.
44:45Go ahead.
44:46Go ahead.
44:47Go ahead.
44:49Go ahead.
44:50Go ahead.
44:51Go ahead.
44:53Go ahead.
44:54Go ahead.
44:56Go ahead.
44:58Go ahead.
45:00Go ahead.
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