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The Green Way Outdoors Season 3 Episode 1
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00:00A land of towering pines and frozen lakes, where winter grips the earth with relentless force.
00:10The terrain is as rugged as it is breathtaking, a wild beauty carved by ice and time.
00:17But hidden beneath the snow in time itself a mystery awaits.
00:22Deep in the wilderness colossal iron giants rest in quiet decay,
00:26left behind by the logging empires that once ruled this frozen frontier.
00:31On this episode of The Greenway Outdoors, our journey takes us off the grid.
00:35Ski-doos carry us across the ice and snow as we chase the story of these mechanical relics.
00:41But the adventure doesn't stop there.
00:43Beneath the frozen surface, native trout and landlocked salmon await, and the bite is on.
00:48Epic battles below the ice, forgotten history above it,
00:52and an adventure through one of the wildest landscapes in America.
01:01I'm Kyle Green.
01:02I travel the globe with my best friends hunting for wild game and dynamic conservation stories.
01:07Join us on our adventure as we escape the shackles of the modern world
01:11and gain a deeper understanding of where our food comes from.
01:14Welcome to The Greenway Outdoors.
01:17Maine is over 90% forest, the most heavily wooded state in the country.
01:25With brutal winters and rugged backcountry, it's built for adventure.
01:29Before we start our journey, we stop at Ride North Recreation to load up on skidoos
01:34that will be imperative for our journey ahead.
01:38The initial drive landed us squarely in a blizzard.
01:48Driving through this goshsaking town
01:53Don't you ever quit trying to get out
02:00Don't you worry about me
02:07It all turns out just fine
02:11Before we disappear into the wilderness, we need to make one last stop in the final real town along the way
02:18to stock up at the local bait shop for our ice fishing adventure.
02:21One of the things I'll do when I'm fishing a new lake is go to the local bait shop
02:28because they always know the most about what's going on in the area and how to catch the fish.
02:33This is a golden shiner. Golden shiner, if I had one bait to use the rest of my life for ice fishing,
02:38especially for tip-ups, it'd be the golden shiner because basically every species seems to bite it.
02:42Pike, bass, in Michigan. But here, I'm fishing lakes that I've never fished before.
02:47What are the species that I'll probably run into?
02:50You're going to run into brook trout. You're going to run into some brown trout.
02:53Landlocked salmon would be your smallmouth bass.
02:55Okay, that's good to know. I appreciate your insight.
02:58It's always best to go to the local bait shop and have a conversation with somebody.
03:01You know what I mean?
03:02Yeah. I appreciate it.
03:03Of course.
03:04After a few more hours on the road, we finally made it to Allagash Headwaters Lodge,
03:08which would be base camp for the next few days.
03:10My friends Jeff and Chuck were ready to fish right away,
03:13so we jumped on our sleds and headed towards one of the many lakes in the area.
03:17I've got some coyote tracks here. That's not exactly a good sign for fish, but...
03:20Maybe we can bring the rifles out and try that later.
03:23Oh, we've got a visitor.
03:24Oh, geez. How are you?
03:25I'm good. How are you guys?
03:27Good. Are you DNR?
03:28My name is Alyssa. I'm a park ranger in the Allagash Wilderness Waterway.
03:32Awesome. Are we doing anything wrong yet?
03:35You haven't done anything wrong yet?
03:36You haven't done anything wrong yet, but what are you looking to do?
03:37We're going to ice fish.
03:38We're going to ice fish.
03:39So, we're going to ice fish.
03:40We're going to ice fish.
03:41We're going to ice fish.
03:42We're going to ice fish.
03:43We're still got a long way to go.
03:44I've got some coyote tracks here.
03:45That's not exactly a good sign for fish, but...
03:47Maybe we can bring the rifles out and try that later.
03:48Oh, we've got a visitor.
03:49Oh, geez.
03:50How are you?
03:51I'm good. How are you guys?
03:52Good. Are you DNR?
03:53My name is Alyssa. I'm a park ranger in the Allagash Wilderness Waterway.
03:58Awesome. Are we doing anything wrong yet?
04:01We haven't done anything wrong yet, but what are you looking to do?
04:04We're going to ice fish.
04:05So, good thing I caught you here.
04:08So, you're just over a line, there's a red post here.
04:11And straight across on that side, there's a red post.
04:13And you're not supposed to fish on this side where we are right now
04:17because it's spawning grounds for brook trout.
04:20We can just take you down not too far and you guys can fish on that side.
04:24So, would you recommend us starting shallow and then working our way out deeper?
04:28Like, what's the best option?
04:29So, what are you looking to fish for? Brook trout or...?
04:32It'd be cool to get a big brook trout.
04:33Okay, yep.
04:34So, if you go down this way, stick to the shoreline pretty much.
04:37It's really only not that far down, just a few feet.
04:40Really?
04:41Drill some holes.
04:42People have been doing well in the shallows.
04:44So, by the way, how long are you guys going to be out here for?
04:47Um, I'm hoping like five, six hours.
04:50Okay.
04:51Well, if you want, if you're up for some history lessons after your fishing session,
04:55I've got spots I can bring you and point you in the direction of.
04:58Really? Here?
04:59Right here, not far from where we are.
05:01Well then, yeah.
05:02If you want to come over, you know, just before dinner time or something, grab us.
05:05We'll go with you.
05:06Sounds good to me.
05:07All right, thank you.
05:08See you in a bit.
05:10I have to admit, Alyssa made me curious about what cool historical sites might be around this area.
05:16In the meantime, we focused ourselves on drilling holes, putting down baits, and setting up the shanty
05:21so we could hopefully catch some brook trout.
05:23It wasn't long before Chuck yelled that he had one on.
05:28Is it big?
05:29I don't know.
05:30Hard to tell.
05:31It definitely hit hard.
05:33Oh, it's a big brookie.
05:35Big brookie.
05:36Nice.
05:37Nice.
05:38That's a perfect fish.
05:40Good job, Chuck.
05:41Thanks, brother.
05:42Dude, you're using a steel leader.
05:45Chuck's using a steel leader.
05:48So, like, steel leaders you use for pike and things like that.
05:51And, I mean, you can use them for anything, but everyone was like,
05:55oh, the brook trotter line's shy, and you have to be careful.
05:58You can't use real thick line, and you're using a metal wire as your line, and you still got this.
06:04I didn't have any sinkers, so it's the best I could do.
06:06Perfect fish.
06:07Okay.
06:08Oh, yeah.
06:09Measure it out.
06:10Pinch the tail.
06:11He is 15 inches, so he's over 14.
06:14Nice.
06:15So, that's one inch over 14.
06:17You're allowed one of those per day out here.
06:19That's a great fish.
06:20Yeah.
06:21Look at that thing.
06:22Good for you, Chuck.
06:23Dinner is served.
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06:43Your adventure starts here.
06:45We have been ice fishing remote lakes deep in the Maine woods.
06:52Now we're meeting back up with park ranger Alyssa to uncover the history that is hidden beneath snow and time.
06:58The first stop is a decommissioned trestle that once acted as a passage for trains to go over the lake.
07:04I get the hint, this hasn't been used in a while.
07:08Since 1926, so almost about 100 years.
07:11Geez.
07:12And now it's really only used as an otter toilet or the occasional links will cross it.
07:17Otter toilet?
07:18Like, are they peeking up on a rock and using the toilet and then hiding it?
07:22They're doing everything you would do, just right on the rocks.
07:25Okay.
07:26Yep.
07:27Yep.
07:28One and two.
07:29Yeah, so 1926 it was built.
07:30The locomotives, both of them, would come on their 13-mile trip across Allagast Stream here,
07:33behind us is Chamberlain Lake, and they would make their way this way to Umbazuskas Lake,
07:39and that's where they would dump off all the pulpwood,
07:42and it would ultimately go down towards the west branch of the Penobscot.
07:46And the pulpwood would make, like, paper?
07:48Yep.
07:49So Great Northern paper owned the trains, and that's what they were doing.
07:54So where are the trains now?
07:56So they are that way, and they are going to be on the western shore of Eagle Lake,
08:01and if we head towards the northeastern shore of Chamberlain, you can cut through,
08:04past the tramway, on your way to the trains.
08:06They're just chilling there?
08:07Yeah, just ghost trains.
08:08When the Great Depression hit around 1933, they had only been in operation for six years,
08:14and they decided it was cheaper to leave them there and just shut the doors and walk away.
08:19Why do they call them ghost trains?
08:21Because you don't think that walking in the wilderness you're going to come across the history of the logging industry.
08:27Right.
08:28So it's probably more like a poltergeist then.
08:31Yeah?
08:32Pretty close.
08:33To be clear, there aren't ghosts, right?
08:35No.
08:36You might hear the occasional cello in the middle of the night, but yeah.
08:40Here, show me real quick so we don't get lost.
08:42Alyssa pointed us in the direction of the ghost trains, and we headed towards their deep woods burial grounds.
08:48I was excited to lay eyes on locomotives that hadn't been operational since the 1930s.
08:54These relics are just sitting there as the world drastically changes around them.
08:58I find myself thinking about the folks that operated these machines and what their life was like.
09:03Would they be fascinated by our curiosity about these trains?
09:06Or would they think it's strange for even caring?
09:09I wonder if the guy, the last conductor, the one that parked these trains right here,
09:14knew when he was parking them that it was going to be the very last time he would be parking this?
09:20Or if he thought like, yeah, I'm going to work tomorrow.
09:24Everybody knows conductor goes down with the train.
09:27Oh, he died here like Titanic?
09:30Yeah.
09:31I climbed up here.
09:32I feel as though I've acquired tetanus.
09:35There's a lot of rust.
09:36You look like you've acquired tetanus.
09:38Thanks.
09:41The next morning we hit the road again, chasing a new adventure on a different lake.
09:45This time for landlocked salmon.
09:47We were met with treacherous roads, frigid temperatures hovering around 5 degrees Fahrenheit,
09:52and wind gusts up to 40 miles per hour.
09:55On a wide open lake, these conditions are brutal.
09:58But the chance to catch a landlocked Atlantic salmon makes it all worth it.
10:08Today we're going to be fishing for Atlantic salmon.
10:10But when I say Atlantic salmon, I'm actually referring to landlocked Atlantic salmon.
10:16So Atlantic salmon in the ocean are actually endangered right now.
10:21Pollution, overfishing, and dams have actually blocked their migration paths.
10:27Just a lot of things have completely wiped out the species near the end of the 1800s.
10:32And because of that, there are not any fishing seasons that you can do for the migratory ones.
10:39We still have a few here left in Maine.
10:41But this is pretty much the last place on earth where you're going to see those fish.
10:45That said, we're still able to fish for the landlocked version of them,
10:50which are just fish that were either locked into the lake system through the dams
10:54or they were stocked by the Department of Natural Resources here.
10:57All I'm going to be using is just a basic hook with a sinker and smelt.
11:01That's like their favorite fish.
11:03The ride down to this lake was by far our hardest yet.
11:06There were almost no tracks on any of the trails we had to take to get to this remote lake.
11:11Once we were there, the wind was whipping so hard that just setting up the shanty proved to be extremely challenging.
11:17But once we were inside, I have never appreciated a shanty more in my life.
11:22After four and a half hours, we had all but lost hope of catching a salmon.
11:27We didn't have one bite.
11:29Jeff, the wind is howling worse than before and packing up is going to be treacherous.
11:33I hate to conclude this part of our trip by not getting a fish, but I just don't see what can be done at this point.
11:41We're not getting any bites.
11:43The problem is I don't think the tip-ups will be able to even know if there is a bite.
11:47Everything's getting blown in. It's like a blizzard.
11:49Exactly.
11:50So I think we pack up. Don't move.
11:52What do you mean, Dash?
11:54Are you serious?
11:56Yep.
11:57Shut up.
11:58Are you serious?
11:59Dude.
12:00Oh.
12:01Oh, God.
12:02He's in a new pool.
12:03He's in a new pool.
12:04Oh, God.
12:05Did he splash me, bro?
12:06So this is an Atlantic salmon, landlocked, and it looks like he's probably...
12:08About 12.
12:09Yeah, about 12 inches or so.
12:10They have to be 14 to keep.
12:11They glisten, man, don't they?
12:12They do.
12:13It's crazy to think that if he could just make it to the ocean, you wouldn't be allowed to catch it.
12:24That's true.
12:25I don't know if this was a stocked fish or not.
12:27It looks like he's got one fin clipped, which leads me to believe he probably is a stocked fish.
12:32I just don't know which ones they clip here, but he's missing one right there, so he's probably a stocked fish, meaning they raised him from a baby and then let him go for fishermen to catch.
12:51Unfortunately, he hasn't lived long enough for us to be able to eat this one, but at least we got to see this fish up close.
12:56We actually got to look at him, and I feel like our journey was well worth it now because that was pretty treacherous.
13:01Fish was never caught before.
13:02You want to let him go since you've done him?
13:04Okay.
13:05Get bigger and tell your friends to come over here.
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13:30We are in Maine and just arrived at a new lake with only a few hours left of daylight.
13:43But we didn't need much time to start catching fish.
13:47So I'm just trying in a couple different spots.
13:50This is about three foot of water as well.
13:52Sometimes these fish will move in like patterns around the lake.
13:57So it'll be like you'll get wham, wham, wham, wham, wham, wham, tons of hits and then nothing for a little while.
14:01And then wham, wham, wham.
14:04And by moving around.
14:05That is awesome.
14:06There you go.
14:07We're in Maine right now.
14:08But this is actually Michigan State fish.
14:09So I feel like they're finally cooperating for us just out of the fact that we're one of theirs.
14:25I'm just pumped about it.
14:26This is really cool.
14:33Oh, I just had a hit, I think.
14:34Or weeds.
14:35This is, uh, it's not the most attractive name for a lure, but a lot of people know this as a Swedish pimple.
14:42Or a fish zit if you're from Michigan.
14:44That's not really a Michigan thing.
14:45I just made that up.
14:46That's a big fish.
14:49Oh, wow.
14:53Oh my gosh.
14:55Oh, look at the colors on this one.
14:59Oh, wow.
15:01That is a gorgeous fish.
15:03Yes.
15:04That is awesome.
15:06That is awesome.
15:08Oh, that is cool.
15:11Was that worth losing the holes?
15:12Yeah, I would say so.
15:14The deeper is better.
15:15Definitely.
15:16And he swallowed it.
15:17So we're going to be eating this one.
15:20Wow.
15:21What a great fish.
15:22That is awesome.
15:23Yes, dude.
15:24I think that's the most vibrant orange I've seen in one of these.
15:26It's like peach colored.
15:27So like as they get into breeding season, which is in a month or two, they will start to get these really vibrant colors.
15:35Kind of like their mating colors and become a little bit more aggressive.
15:38It's the reason why on a lot of the lakes you're not allowed to fish the actual breeding grounds themselves.
15:42You have to stay on that far side of the lake like we did on the other one because they're just so aggressive at this time.
15:48But what a perfect fish.
15:49I don't normally like to see this spinning.
15:55Might have been a light hit.
15:58The line's straight up and down.
16:03The fish is there.
16:06Oh, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho.
16:11No siree.
16:16They're like little snakes.
16:18So they don't have scales like a normal fish would.
16:20Instead, they've got like this slimy coating that actually is like their protective barrier.
16:25And that's why when you're going to let a fish go, you want to handle it the least amount possible.
16:29So you don't scrape a bunch of that off because it makes them susceptible to like infection and things like that.
16:34But that's their escape.
16:35That's their armor.
16:36They slip away from everything.
16:37So we're going to let this guy go.
16:39He wasn't hooked bad at all, so he'll survive.
16:44Let him go on to continue to breed.
16:46The Greenway Outdoors is brought to you by Ram Trucks.
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16:52And by Bass Pro Shops and Cabela's.
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17:03Rufus Teague, seasoning, sauces and snacks.
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17:10Summit Tree Stance, hunting, elevated.
17:14Blokes, modern men's health.
17:23I like a simple recipe where the only thing you actually have to cook is just roasting a little bit of corn.
17:27Incorrect.
17:28I had to spend an hour and a half smoking this fish.
17:31And then spend another hour and a half flaking it and checking it for bones.
17:35Put the corn in the bowl.
17:36Well this is all I had to do.
17:38So I got the idea for this recipe on my honeymoon, believe it or not.
17:42And I had a smoked lake trout dip.
17:46Or as the French call it, a rillette.
17:49Okay.
17:50And it is a great combination of fish.
17:51You've got some Greek yogurt in there.
17:53You've got some butter.
17:54You put that butter in there.
17:55You've got an onion element.
17:56In this case we're using shallot.
17:58Some tang with some mustard.
18:01And then we're going to take all that.
18:03Mix it with some lemon zest.
18:05Which helps brighten it up a little bit.
18:07Make it a little fresher.
18:08And then what I thought it was missing was corn.
18:11Which it gives it a little bit of crunch.
18:13You can char it.
18:14Adds a little bit of extra flavor in there.
18:16And we're going to take this.
18:17And we're going to put it on top of sourdough bread.
18:19Sourdough bread.
18:20Okay.
18:21Is sourdough bread actually healthier for you?
18:23Is it just something people say?
18:24I like to tell myself that.
18:42Cheers.
18:43Cheers.
18:44Okay.
18:48That corn did exactly what I wanted it to.
18:51Gave it a little bit of extra crunch.
18:52It was great.
18:53I would eat this all the time.
18:55It was great.
19:01This trip to Maine was more than just an ice fishing adventure.
19:04It was a journey deep into the wilderness.
19:07Miles of frozen trail on skidoos.
19:10Chasing stories older than us.
19:12And when we finally stood in front of those ghost trains
19:15half buried in the snow in time.
19:17It was like touching a piece of history.
19:19Most people will never get to see.
19:21And yeah.
19:22We caught some fish too.
19:23Hard earned.
19:24Cold fingered.
19:25And well worth the wait.
19:27Trips like this remind you that the real reward isn't just at the end of the line.
19:32It's the effort.
19:33The unknown.
19:34And the people you share it with.
19:36Like in the book of Galatians it says don't get tired of doing the right thing.
19:41If you keep going the payoff will come when the time is right.
19:45This trip was tough but it's one I won't forget.
19:48I won't forget.
19:49I won't forget.
19:50We know where do I fit down.
19:52It was but to see the dead man.
19:54There were many metals and you were not yet.
19:56I know my lanç it wasn't.
19:58And it was just at the end of the line.
19:59And identifying for the Yongatians a heavy object with you.
20:01You have to burn on the ground.
20:02But I can get people through that.
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