If I hadn't of found fly fishing, I know I definitely wouldn't be the person I am today.

You can see something that man made by getting in a car.

But if you want to say something that God made, you can get on a horse.

In this episode of Outdoor Idaho, we travel across the state and through time to bring you a collection of stories that show what roots Idahoans to this place.

I think that there's a little something special about this town, that we can bring the past to the present and look to the future, Our history is so rich and so full of stories we stand to lose them all if we don't hear them.

Meeting people who find meaning outside.

you're going in there to teach yourself.

You can do hard things and those hard things can lead to great outcomes and feeling better than where you were before.

Come along as we discover how Idahoans across the state.

Stay rooted outside.

It’s just a beautiful place.

It's one of my favorite places in the whole world.

Funding for Outdoor Idaho is made possible by The Laura Moore Cunningham Foundation.

Committed to fulfilling the Moore and Bettis family legacy of building the great state of Idaho.

With additional support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and contributions to the Friends of Idaho Public Television and viewers like you.

Thank you.

[Music, nature sounds] [Bruce Reichert] Silver Creek, spring fed, crystal clear, and home to some of the nation█s best fly fishing.

It's a hypnotic body of water that winds its way through Idaho's Wood River valley.

Ernest Hemingway was a frequent visitor.

He loved hunting and fishing here.

[Amanda Bauman] Silver Creek is a really special spring creek in this central region of Idaho as well as across the West.

There's really not another ecosystem quite like it.

[Bruce] Amanda Bauman is a conservationist and a professional fly fishing guide.

She grew up just down the road from Silver Creek.

And it's one of her favorite places to fish.

[Music] [Amanda] We are really fortunate to have this spring creek that just originates right here out of the triangle in southern Blaine County and flows out to the desert into the Malad.

It's been protected for a long time from the ranchers and farmers down there.

They have done a lot of great work stewarding.

We have the Nature Conservancy that has the Conservancy upstream.

When you think about this region with how little water we have, our resources are immense when it comes to fishing.

[Bruce] Amanda attended the University of Montana in Missoula.

And that's where she fell in love with fishing.

[Amanda] I started fishing as a hobby to pick up when I was wildland firefighting, a calmer activity.

And then came back home after college and really dove in headfirst.

I chased people that were really good at fishing.

I found some of the best in the valley, followed them around as much as they'd let me.

And then really started learning our home waters from a guide█s perspective, so that I could be really competent when it came to getting out on the water with other people and give them the best experience possible.

Fly fishing has given me so much throughout my career, and being able to be a guide in this valley.

It also led me to conservation through Trout Unlimited Hemingway chapter here locally.

And now I run a nonprofit called Project Big Wood.

[Bruce] Project Big Wood focuses on the restoration and health of the Big Wood River ecosystem, which includes Silver Creek.

It's made up of folks passionate about the environment and giving back to their community.

[Amanda] I really think it█s it█s important for us to to take a strong stance to protect those ecosystems and not love them to death, but love them forever.

Yeah.

[Bruce] Amanda is smart, she's dynamic and she's dedicated, to Project Big Wood and to honing her craft.

[Amanda] Yeah, see all the bugs?

They haven█t lifted yet.

I really love all the intricasis of fly fishing, the entomology, knowing how to read water, really getting intimate with nature and it cycles, understanding what happens in the winter versus the summer, Spring versus the fall.

All of it, when it comes together makes for just a really perfect day.

So, really identifying your own rhythms within the sport, I think is something that is very unique to fly fishing.

Your casting style is your own personal rhythm.

And there's rods that suit those, from a softer rod to a faster rod.

And then there's your reel.

Everyone likes a little different reel.

I like a really quiet reel.

I don't like a it to screem at me when I have a fish on.

So, really identifying your own rhythms within the sport, I think is something that is very unique to fly fishing.

[Bruce] The science of fly fishing may be captivating to some.

But one aspect of the sport is intoxicating to every angler.

[Amanda] The tug is the drug.

The tug is the drug refers to the feeling you get when a fish grabs.

And typically, for new beginners, it is all about the tug.

And it's really exciting.

Your heart rate instantly goes up because you know you have something on the other end.

[Fly Fishing Teacher] There you go, that█s the perfect way to hold it, just like that.

[Music] [Bruce] One of Silver Creek's biggest draws is its consistently cool waters.

For much of the year temps run in the 50█s which makes for good trout fishing.

[Amanda] I can't think of a place that's as magical as Silver Creek.

It comes from several spring heads that originate along highway 75 and highway 20.

So, those spring heads, then collectively flow together and they create what we know is Silver Creek proper.

For all of us, it█s the level up for for most fishing in our area.

[Bruce] That's especially true in late Spring during the Brown Drake hatch.

Brown Drakes are one of the largest mayflies in North America.

[Jeff Ingalls] Silver Creek is, one, it█s a very small creek so, with really big fish, which is generally fairly rare.

But one time of year, during the Drake hatch, the fish get a little more reckless, and all the big fish will come out at the same time, which never happens otherwise.

So that's what makes this time at Silver Creek really special.

You have a real shot at a really big fish, 23, 24 inch plus.

[Amanda] The Brown Drakes are a really iconic hatch for Silver Creek.

And they correspond with the opening for fishing.

I'm always pumped and hyped to get out here.

Really, it's one thing we look forward to.

It's our biggest bugs of the year.

And besides Trico█s it█s one of our most prolific hatches.

I don't go during the hatch.

It's my time.

We█ve just opened up.

I got to get the willies out before I'm taking other people out.

[Bruce] When Amanda█s not on the water you'll often find her tying flies, mostly for herself, but occasionally for her clients.

[Amanda] I think it's important to stay connected to fishing year round through fly tying.

Otherwise you fall out of this rhythm with nature.

You fall out of understanding when bugs are more dormant, when they're not, when fish, how they're responding to the ecosystem, when it's lower water, cold water versus hot water, high flows.

So I think it's really important to stay engaged year round.

[Bruce] A passionate conservationist and a died in the wool angler, Amanda Bauman has found here comfort zone, right here, where she grew up, in Idaho's Wood River Valley.

[Music] [Amanda] You know fishing for me has never been about how many fish I catching in a day.

It's about learning our local ecosystem first.

Closing out the day on the water is always one of the most beautiful ways ways that you can end the day, I believe.

The repetitive motion of fly fishing really relaxes you.

If I hadn't had found fly fishing I know I definitely wouldn't be the person I am today.

I feel so fortunate to be working in conservation within our valley, giving back to this community.

But then also sharing a love of something that I feel so deeply with, people that I've come to care about.

I want to see at Christmas.

I know their birthdays.

So it's given me so much more than catching a fish.

You know, I have a much larger community because of it.

And joy, so much joy.

Yeah.

Well, there are some some coming out The emergence is beginning.

[MUSIC] BONNIE EWING: It's not a place to feel anger or anything, you know, it's kind of a place for healing.

I've had people say, I'm so sorry.

I'm so sorry.

I said, don't be sorry, you didn't do anything.

You know, we're all here.

You know, we learn by our mistakes.

So, let's just all enjoy what we have.

[MUSIC] RODD BAXTER: For me, you can see something that man made by getting in a car, but if you want to see something that God made, you can get on a horse.

BONNIE EWING: I think when you put our kids on horses, they seem to sit up, you know, that pride, you know, I'm Nez Perce, I'm, I'm who I am, and this is me.

This is my culture.

[MUSIC] BONNIE EWING: The trail was too important for just me to go through and just let it go.

It was time to get our youth involved.

They have to learn.

They have to know what our ancestors went through.

LUCY SAMUELS: When I was younger, Bonnie Ewing, she's my granny, I was always around her getting prepared to come on this trail ride with all this youth and I always wanted to come.

And she's kind of like my role model, so I've always wanted to do stuff that she's done.

CIAHNA OATMAN: My Auntie Lucy, she got me into horses at a really young age, and I'd always like beg her to go ride horses.

Around 12, I'd always ask to go, and Granny was about to let me go, but she was like, no, you're too young.

So, I waited the extra year.

Everything that my Auntie Lucy does.

It does inspire me.

SAMUELS: I was 14 when I started so this is my 18th year on the trail ride.

I started in Joseph, Oregon in 2004.

I got my 13-year plaque at Bears Paw, in 2016.

LUCY BOHNEE: I'm excited to accomplish this because I think I'm the first girl in my family to do something like this.

MIKE EWING: You watch these kids that come from troubled homes or they come from, they just don't know, have a purpose, and they just react to these horses so quick and it gives them a purpose, and they come out and really bond with these horses.

It's, it's an amazing interaction.

This is pretty cool and their self-esteem just goes out of the roof and they get confidence and it's pretty sweet.

BONNIE EWING: What a horse teaches a young person, it teaches them so much.

Our students went from maybe skipping school, low attendance, bad grades, to excelling.

OATMAN: When I'm on the trail, I compare and think about and how good I have it compared to back then.

That kind of humbles me to stop pouting on my horse.

[LAUGH] And it's always great to see more of my homelands.

LUCY SAMUELS: I feel like as a Nez Perce tribal member, like we're really taught our history.

Like it's very embedded in us, and just to be proud of who we are.

But like, being able to like actual ride onto like the battlefields.

I don't know how to explain it.

There's a connection there, if you feel it, you feel it.

Like I, it's the best I can explain it.

[LAUGH] BONNIE EWING: There's portions of this ride where we're on original trail, and that's really meaningful.

You know it if you're going through those places, you just kind of be quiet and enjoy and reflect at those times.

[WATER FLOWING] On this ride, I don't think there's a divide.

I think we're all here because of the ride, the horse, you know, we all share something, everybody here is here for the same reason.

[MUSIC] RODD BAXTER: It changes when you're out here, because you are taking 80 horses, you're taking 80 people and comfort levels, and the intensity, the nervousness, the energy, it's all changed for when you get here.

And then you have to adapt and adjust and do the best that they can.

But it can be exciting, it can be nerve wracking, but we make it work.

[CHATTING] MIKE EWING: Myself, I like just being on the horse and just visiting with people as we go along.

[CHATTING] GENE MERRELL: I like the horse.

From the first ride, it was always about the horse.

I just love them.

They're dependable, they're smart, generally good health.

I just love them.

BOHNEE: I like how they're just a very like, vibey animal.

Like if you feel scared, they feel scared.

But I just love how much power they hold and how sensitive they are.

Like, you just never know how sensitive they are until you actually ride them.

OATMAN: Horses can change you because I think that it's changed me.

And I felt like I never really had I guess like a calming place or somewhere I can like, feel at peace or at ease.

And it's given me that aspect.

[MUSIC FADES] MIKE EWING: When I ride a horse and I train horses, and when I'm training, especially, I don't think about another thing except being on my horse, and it just kind of turns off the rest of the world.

BAXTER: For me, it provides the sanity that I need from things that go on in everyday life.

So when you're out here, yes, you can focus on your horse, but if you've made that connection with your horse over the time that you put into it, you're able to sit back and relax, allow your horse to do what it does, but you can look around and, and see the things that are out here, and it's absolutely beautiful.

VIVIAN BOBBIT: Well, it's just like our honeymoon really, wasn't it?

because we never had much of a honeymoon.

So, this is our honeymoon every year.

[LAUGH] To be together and no TV, no cell phones, you know.

And we can visit, enjoy each other.

MERRELL: It's a place with beautiful horses, beautiful scenery, and pretty good folks.

[CRICKETS CHIRPING] BONNIE EWING: This is my family, I can count on my hand, you know, the number of close, close friends I have other than my immediate family.

But here, we're all family, you know, you see it, people that I've ridden with for years.

SAMUELS: When you come on the trail ride, you meet different people from all over the nation and they just kind of slowly become your family.

And so that's what I love about it.

It's just really, I feel like I'm really surrounded by family a lot of the time.

BONNIE EWING: I can't speak for the tribe, I'm just me.

I do what I do and the Appy is the most important part of my life.

The horse and the kids, you know, that's my thing, that's what I know.

And I think all Nez Perce have a connection to the horse in some way or another.

There's all family stories, everything that goes with it.

It's all there, you know, just sharing it.

[MUSIC] [NARRATION] This is Sun Valley, Idaho, home to world-class skiing, fine dining, abundant hiking trails, and sheep?

{SHEEP BLEATS} {UPBEAT ACOUSTIC GUITAR} [LAURA MUSBACH-DRAKE] Welcome to sheep country.

My name is Laura Musbach-Drake, and I'm the executive director of the Trailing of the Sheep Festival.

{UPBEAT ACOUSTIC GUITAR} Sheep have been here for over 150 years, and there was a time when sheep outnumbered people here six to one.

We have a lot of newcomers to our community, and they do not know the history of sheep in our community, and that's exactly why our festival exists.

[NARRATION] In the mid-1990s, the local recreation district wanted to put in a bike path to connect the nearby communities, but the route happened to be the same one ranchers like John and Diane Peavey used to trail their sheep in the fall.

[DIANE PEAVEY] Our sheep ended up on the bike path, and they just happened to leave a little droppings here and there as they moved.

We had all sorts of phone calls at home about "Get your sheep off our bike path."

And they didn't realize it was a shared right of way, essentially.

John has always been very good at bringing people into what we do with the sheep and why it matters.

[JOHN PEAVEY] And we'd answer questions and tell folks what the sheep industry would do here.

And, gosh, we had enthusiastic people, went out and helped us move the sheep.

And it has gotten bigger and bigger every year.

[LAURA] So officially in 1996, the festival was born, and it really was born out of a true need, which was to educate people about the history and culture of sheep ranching and herding in Idaho, particularly in the Wood River Valley.

{UPBEAT BANJO} [NARRATION] Since then, the Trailing of the Sheep Festival has grown into a five-day event that includes dancing, cooking classes, vendors, dinners and storytelling, all leading up to the Big Sheep Parade on Sunday.

{CROWD NOISES} I'll tell you, when you see those sheep coming down Main Street for the Big Sheep Parade, there's just nothing like it.

It's Idaho living history.

{UPBEAT BANJO, CROWD NOISE} [SUSIE WILSON] This is the most fun event we do all year, and we just love to come here.

And we're big supporters of Trailing.

The biggest fans west of Idaho.

We really are.

[HENRY ETCHEVERRY] The friendliness of people and the sincerity that they want to know what we do, I hope it enlightens people.

And it's a heritage.

You know, it's historical.

It's an important part of the state.

{MUSIC} [LAURA] Our festival continues to be authentic in celebrating the Basques, Peruvians, and Scottish who historically have made the industry work.

{RHYTHMIC SAXOPHONES} {BAGPIPES FADE IN} Music brings people together and music tells its own story.

{BAGPIPES AND DRUMLINE SWELL} [ALBERTO URANGA] Just looking this way?

{LAUGHTER} Oh, looking at you.

I am from the Basque Country.

I've been here for many, many years.

I came to Idaho in 1968, and I was a sheep herder.

[XOLE URANGA] My dad had never seen a sheep before.

He had never been on a horse, he'd never shot a gun.

He came from a small fishing town.

And he came out and went to Gooding, Idaho, and they handed him a gun and they gave him a horse and they told him to go out into the mountains and to watch the sheep.

And that's what he did.

[ALBERTO] It taught me about life and being positive, positive all the time, regardless.

I am an immigrant, Basque immigrant, son of a tuna boat skipper, doing the sheep business.

It's part of myself.

It's part of me.

[XOLE] The only reason I'm here is because my dad came over as a sheep herder.

And that's really important to me.

And I just think that people are interested in other people's stories.

And that's what's so great about this festival, is that we really focus on the individual within the sheep herding industry and why it's important to them.

{HEARTFELT ACOUSTIC GUITAR} [TAHNIBAA NAATAANII] I'm TahNibaa Naataanii, and {NATIVE INTRODUCTION} I'm Mini Hogan Clan and I'm born for Coyote Pass Clan.

My maternal grandparents are the Mexican Clan and paternal grandparents are the Steep Rock Clan, and I'm from Table Mesa, New Mexico.

I was invited to Trailing of the Sheep Festival to to share my way of life as a weaver and as a rancher, sheep rancher.

For my family, having sheep is part of our tradition.

It's part of a long-year heritage on the Navajo Nation as well.

And I've been weaving full time and diligently for about 20 years now.

And I find that that is my passion.

When you are weaving, it's like a prayer.

It's like a meditative prayer that you're doing.

And so for me, I need that.

I've discovered that.

And that's, that's what feeds me and I think that, the biggest connection that we all have is we love our sheep.

We, we love this way of life, this ranching way of life.

{HOPEFUL ACOUSTIC GUITAR} [DIANE] Our history is so rich and so full of stories that we've, we stand to lose them all if we don't hear them.

[LAURA] I think that there is a little something special about this town that we can bring the past to the present, and look.

to the future, both, of all of our history with the animals and the land and the stories.

[XOLE] Sheep are cool.

They were here long before we were.

The sheep industry is an important part of our history, and it's still happening today, and there has to be a way where we can merge our relationships and get along.

[JOHN] The community has kind of adopted the festival and they're really, really supportive.

I mean, you couldn't ask for a better partner, really.

[DIANE] Yeah, it was their bike path.

It was our sheep.

It's now all of our festival and all our celebration of this valley.

Which has been the best part of it all.

{ACOUSTIC GUITAR SWELLS} GRANT BEBEE: Think about your typical fire that we have in the West now.

It almost always spreads.

If it's any size spreads across jurisdictional boundaries, it█ll move from the Forest Service to the Bureau of Land Management, the Fish and Wildlife Service, to the state, to the county, to some private landowners land.

So really the NFCI concept is that since fire doesn't respect borders, the fire response organization should also kind of not respect borders.

And we should be free to share resources among different agencies and different, you know, government organizations and non-governmental organizations and then enlist the support of all the resources the nation has to bear on on fire management.

So NFCI has been here since the late 60s.

Originally it was an a really an arrangement between the U.S.

Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the National Weather Service to start looking at fire as more of a cross landscape, impactful event, rather than something that happens within the borders of somebody's land.

So we're the national, the national folks who send it to the local folks who are making the on the ground decisions, but the local folks will be calling us saying we need help.

(CHATTER) CLAY STEPHENS: It takes everybody.

It takes all these different agencies and folks and groups working together, and the folks that are just delivering supplies, right?

The bottled water and the different things that have to come in to make all this work, the food and the just the, the group of people that come out to support these events is it's an incredible undertaking.

And between the state agencies and the federal agencies, between federal agencies, with each other, with our local cooperators, the rural fire departments, rangeland fire protection associations, those relationships are key because it takes all of us to make this work right.

It's just a long duration can be explosive at times.

If everything lines up right, you just need everybody and that and not just fire resources, law enforcement power companies, all those different folks that come into play to help work together to get these things corralled.

(RADIO CHATTER) BEBEE: Some of the thought is that fires are big catastrophic events in some cases, and nobody really has the, adequate resources to manage that stuff on their own.

And so we can be efficient if we actually combine our resources and, and look at things, you know, with a, with a partnership lens rather than a this is my landscape lens and I'm going to do everything myself.

(NATS FORKLIFT) STEPHENS: When we don█t have the need here, we try to send as much out as we can and last year we had over 50 engine assignments to help other places outside of here and trust that if we have that need, we can say, hey, we need two engines and a dozer and then that system works for us as well.

So it takes all of us to to work together to make these things happen.

(NATS AIRPLANE) BEBEE: It started among three partners, now its nine major partners with Department of Defense.

All the big federal agencies that do, wildland fire, we're all here.

We all work together to make sure that we're coordinated in our response to fires.

We pool our resources.

We go to the going fires.

We redirect stuff to priority areas and this is where it all happens.

It's a coordination center as much as anything else where we really kind of direct, the nation's resources to the highest priority fires and, you know, protecting life and safety, you know, and property.

Some of the top priorities for us as partners.

This is where really the nation figures out how to send stuff.

SHERI ASCHERFIELD: This is the Great Basin Cache.

It's one of 16 caches throughout the United States, and they support the geographic areas around the country.

But this place has anything from hoses to big, huge 2000 gallon dipping tanks for helicopters to tents.

And so really, it has everything that a fire community might need for anywhere from 8 to 10,000 people.

We're one.

We're all in this together.

It takes every one of us to do the job that we do, and we're all passionate about it.

We all, love what we do coming to work every day.

It is a special place to be.

BEBEE: This is one of those cases where government actually functions incredibly well.

And we had to because fire.

Fire really is a is a charging force.

You have to respond to it now.

You can't wait.

You know, even though I've got a logo on my shirt, it's kind of meaningless here.

It's like we are all partners and we all share resources and we offer our input into decision making.

I think part of the part of the reason things succeed here is that we don't have a lot of time to dither, right?

We got to make a decision.

We got to get stuff where it needs to go.

We got to respond to fires.

And so people cooperate amazingly well.

They drop their defenses, they drop their allegiances to their home organization.

They work as a team regardless of who's paying their salary.

Idaho should be incredibly proud of this place.

REICHERT: While some Idahoans huddle inside when winter arrives, these ladies are out, as they are every Tuesday, every week, every year for more than three decades, regardless of weather.

“Well you sure picked the weather!” (NATS CHATTER) JUDY HARDING, AGE 76: It doesn't matter.

It's Tuesday.

Tuesday you go.

You don't look at the thermometer.

You just pack up and come.

SHERALEE LAWSON, AGE 76 Fresh air.

Sunshine.

It just helps with winter blues just to get out and get moving.

(nats river) REICHERT: It's an unusually mild winter in Island Park.

Black lava rock peeks through a thin layer of snow as icicles drip and the river thaws.

(NATS RIVER FLOWING) Up higher among the trees, there's no trace of the area's legendary ski hill, but the ladies remember it.

MARY FRAN JEPPESEN, AGE 80: There was a ski lodge here.

REICHERT: Bear Gulch Ski Basin cut through these pines from the 1930s through the 1980s.

It was Idaho's second ski resort, following Sun Valley.

JEPPESEN: I learned to ski here.

REICHERT: There's lingering evidence of locomotives too.

A train route, including old trestles, belts the curve of the ridge.

The rail turned trail doesn't host trains anymore, but the travel method is not forgotten.

JEPPESEN: When I was in grade school, we rode the train from Sugar City to West Yellowstone for a field trip and then they bused us back.

So that was a really fun experience, and, you know, kids nowadays they don't have that opportunity.

And that was a great opportunity.

REICHERT: These women started gathering for weekly outdoor adventures in 1991.

HARDING: I had a friend.

Her name is Shan Summers and you can attribute all of this to Shan.

With Shan, she just wasn't content with, like, going out on a mountain.

Well, we were going to the Butte.

The Butte was our starting point.

REICHERT: She's referring to North Menan Butte near Rexburg.

At 10,000 years old, it's a prominent remnant of Idaho's volcanic past.

HARDING: And so we went to the Butte and then she said, well, that's kind of fun but if we enjoy hiking the Butte, maybe we would enjoy running.

So then she got everybody running and then running wasn't enough.

Now I needed to do the cross-country skiing, and then from cross-country skiing we went snowshoeing.

And then, well, what are we going to do in the summer?

Let's start of biking.

So we did road biking and then she got us scuba diving.

I mean, it was always let's have one more adventure.

REICHERT: The group's founder, Shan Summers, winters in Arizona now, but the trekking tradition continues.

CATHRYN FARR, AGE 59: But I tell you, it's sacrosanct.

You're not supposed to.

schedule any hair appointments or any dentist appointments, nothing, on Tuesday.

Don't let anything interfere with Tuesday.

To keep a group going for 35 years you have to have something set in stone and Tuesday set in stone.

REICHERT: They rack up memories and miles right along with years.

FARR: But we always each other so that█s the thing.

REICHERT: Mary Fran Jeppesen biking in the green coat, is 80 years old.

As the senior member consider her, the trail matriarch, JEPPESEN: Perfect, perfect!

I have a really hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that I█m 80 because I don't feel like I'm 80 and I don't want to be 80.

I've had some really good experiences here, and I love the scenery.

I love the river.

I spent time with family and friends here and I just really enjoy it.

In fact, my plan is when I'm old...er and I'm ready to pass away, I'm going to come up here and sit under pine tree and go to sleep.

REICHERT: But that ‘sit█ is for another day.

On this trek forgiving weather offers more sunshine than snow, and it's energizing, a swift pace.

FARR: We love the outdoors.

It's so beautiful out here.

It rejuvenates us for the next week.

JEPPESEN: You just feel good, you know, it's something to look forward to and it's a good positive.

There's nothing negative and it's just just good.

Just fun.

REICHERT: Poles pick at shallow snowpack, glasses shade alert eyes from glare and the excited chatter moves through the pack.

LAWSON: You know, there's no gossiping.

We don't do any gossiping.

It's just, positive, uplifting fun, therapy sessions, you know, for when we're going through tough times to have somebody to listen to and to encourage you and build you up.

JEPPESEN: We're all kind of on the same page.

We all have the same beliefs.

We don't have any contention.

It's just a fun group.

We just have a good time.

REICHERT: No gossiping and no gripes.

LAWSON: They don't want someone that's going to be, a baby, a wimp.

And there's been women that have gone on hikes that haven't gone back.

JEPPESEN: We do some pretty hard stuff.

We do some, you know, kind of crazy stuff sometimes.

And I think it's just not their cup of tea, not what they really enjoy.

So they choose not to do it.

REICHERT: This group doesn't leave room for negative vibes on the trail.

However, there's all kinds of space for free therapy sessions FARR: Our group is full of a lot of very dynamic women, and we all have lives that have trauma and distress.

A lot of needs, and we get to discuss those with each other, or at least we can.

We understand each other and we listen.

The trail gives you a lot of time to listen.

All of us have a bunch of kids and grandkids.

We've all had different health situations fears, anxieties, worries, concerns, and we get to share with each other in those.

And it really builds a lot of camaraderie, a lot of, just heartfelt relief.

REICHERT: There are 17 people in their group texts.

Their enthusiasm takes them out of state on occasion.

HARDING: Well, the first year I started with them was quite a summer, and they were training to do the Grand Canyon from Rim to Rim and then back.

And so we went over the Teton Range about three times 20 mile hikes.

And we also did the Middle Teton.

That was how I got initiated to this group.

(LAUGHS) REICHERT: But most of the time they recreate in the Gem State, preferring to stay closer to home where the options seem as endless as their determination.

HARDING: Way back, we were called the Mothers of Nature, and then it went to the Grand Mothers because so many claimed The Grand.

But now it's just that group, oh, you belong to those ladies.

That's what it is now.

That group of ladies.

We've had a special opportunity to be such a wonderful group of friends.

But the other wonderful opportunity is because we live here in Idaho and we enjoy different adventures, and Idaho has allowed that.

REICHERT: They keep adventuring to fend off nagging boredom and to stay ahead of aging bones.

LAWSON: We're getting old and so just getting out and moving and keeping the old body still going is really fun.

I enjoy that.

FARR: You decide what your life and what your health will be like at 80 when you're in your 40s and 50s.

So when you start there and you keep going, then you can keep going.

REICHERT: To encourage others to keep going, local author Cathryn Farr, member of the group since 2017, wrote a book about these ladies.

Their shoes are huddled together on the cover, and the title...The Last Mile is Always Three.

FARR: It's kind of like having a baby.

You kind of forget how bad it was and then you, you get back on trail and you█re like, oh, this is so glorious until it's not, you know, until the end, and you're going down into like the last mile is always three.

It always feels like three.

The last mile is so hard, but the last mile is always three also includes the idea that the those last years of your life from 70 to 80, from 80 to 90, those miles are long as well.

You know, our trials just everything gets, we get slower in the trials and the trials get heavier.

And so our backpacks are heavier as we get older, we're carrying more stuff and and we're just moving slower.

And it just takes longer to keep traveling and to keep going up the hill and figuratively and literally.

REICHERT: The book captures the essence of these explorers, these mothers refusing to let Father Time join their party.

FARR: “Wake up early.

Hoist a backpack.

Step on all rock or all sand.

Never sand on rock.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Choose the highest peak.

And rejoice that you are exhausted.

All of us began hiking in our 40s and 50s.

It's never too late to do hard things on the trail and in life.

The last mile is always three.

Find some friends.

The mountains are calling.” (MUSIC) [CAMERON LABAR] My name is Cameron and I like to come down to the Boise River to cold plunge.

40 degrees.

{DRAMATIC AMBIENT MUSIC SWELLS} {ARPEGGIATED STRINGS CRESCENDO} {MUSIC CONCLUDES DRAMATICALLY} {AMBIENT ORCHESTRA CONTINUES} {DEEP EXHALE, MUSIC STOPS} {RIVER RUNNING, BIRDS CHIRPING} Yeah.

So I got kind of a mental note of where I'm at here with my feet and everything.

It's going to take me a little bit to warm up here with the, with the talking.

{LAUGHS} Alright.

When I was nine I was diagnosed with anxiety, OCD, Tourette syndrome, and very early on we were trying to find things to, to help.

I was always looking for ways to cope, always looking for ways to self-regulate.

And, I had moved up here about three and a half years ago for work and pretty quickly fell into a, just depression.

And I was looking for anything, anything and everything to to try and get my mood better and to feel better and to to want to enjoy life.

And I had a buddy who came to visit me one time and he saw how close I lived to the Boise River here.

So we did our first ice bath and that just, that really, really stuck with me because I noticed this feeling for two to three hours afterward of just mood improvement of like a central nervous system reset of just feeling calm, relaxed, yet energetic and, and happy.

And that was appealing to me in the beginning because I was trying to get over thoughts and I was trying to move past feelings and moods and and I knew that I could come out and I could sit in the water and all of that would go away because this water was 38 degrees, right, and I couldn't possibly think about anything else.

There was nothing else to think about because I was just trying to survive.

{PIANO SWELLS} {DEEP EXHALE} {GURGLING WATER} {DEEP BREATHING CONTINUES} That initial drop into the water is always, always the hardest.

It's a shock to your system.

So your heart rate spikes, your breathing gets real tight, real out of control.

Feels like you're struggling.

And that's when it's just so important to override your breathing, your mindset, and keep the muscles loose.

Don't tense up, don't clench the jaw {INHALES DEEPLY} and slow the breathing down.

The sooner you can slow it down, the sooner your heart rate drops {EMOTIONAL PIANO SLOWS, BIRDS CHIRP} It is exhilarating in the moment because all of those things happen and you go into just a very solitary focus where everything else just kind of seems blocked out.

And so it becomes this active fight almost between your brain and your body and you're trying to understand who's in control.

{BIRDS CHIRP} It was kind of a hard one today.

Hard to get out here, but it's been so important.

Been so important for my mood, so important for how I feel on a day-to-day.

And it's just been a really good tool to help me learn to adapt with stress and for the unexpected.

So here I am.

It's kind of just my own little place, my own little happy place.

{ORCHESTRAL MUSIC BUILDS, HALTS} You're barefoot, you're grounding with the earth, you're getting sunlight.

I love birds.

{LAUGHS} You know?

You just feel so good after.

It's like a whole central nervous system reset just, mind goes clear.

It's like you wake up from a really, like, a really good nap.

I think we're conditioned as human beings, especially today, to, to hate the cold, to immediately see it as like evil and, and to, to tense all of our muscles and to huddle and to have a very short breath.

And yeah, that's kind of the point though, is you're going in there to teach yourself you can do hard things.

And those hard things can lead to great outcomes and feeling better than where you were before.

It took something as extreme as this to just convince myself, like, something's got to change, something's got to change.

{ORCHESTRAL MUSIC SWELLS DRAMATICALLY} Bruce Reichert: After more than three decades behind the camera and in the edit suite, our friend Pat Metzler is preparing to retire.

I don't know what the place will be like without him.

Pat had the instinct of storytelling that you couldn't teach.

He knew how to shoot, how to edit that material, and he could take ordinary material and turn it into something extraordinary and unforgettable.

Pat Metzler: I started in 1989, so that'll put me at 37-years, come April.

I have worked here for more than half of my life.

When I first started, we were still shooting on three quarter inch tape.

The camera that I used a lot in the early days.

It was the biggest, bulkiest camera that we had, but it was like this, much better than some of the other ones.

So that was the one I carried.

That was the time where you'd go out and you'd have to have a box full of tapes in your backpack, 4 or 5 batteries.

And one of the two things was going to happen.

You're either going to run out of tape or run out of battery, and either one ends the trip.

2007 was when we got our first HD camera.

Goes back to the “Trial of the Century” show.

Well, that was our first HD show.

The very first shoot was when we went out in the middle of the night, in the winter, and did the scene of Steunenberg getting assassinated.

We weren't afraid of doing anything in the day.

I guess I call it a docu-drama because we had to rely on actors.

And, you know, Joan Hill Yost, I think, was in charge of the costuming.

That first morning...you know, our first shoot when the jury came out and, you know, and they were decked out is like, oh my God, this is going to be great.

I think we probably at one point had a cast of 50 people.

Yeah, we had to keep track mentally of a lot of different things, and we had to organize a lunch because if...had we stopped and turned people loose, we wouldn't have gotten our audience back.

You know, I was proud.

Aaron Kunz: I've had the opportunity to work with Pat over the last 15 years.

During that time, he's seen lots of changes.

Cameras have gotten a lot smaller, lighter, and even better.

In fact, we used the very first generation of GoPros to film the incredible journey of Idaho█s salmon.

Metzler: We had one stationary, and we were trying to funnel salmon to where they would swim over it, which they did, and it looked awesome.

Kunz: Pat was always willing to go the extra mile, even when all he has is a cheap dry suit Bruce bought online.

Metzler: Well, the funny thing about that dry suit was it didn't seem to have a problem holding air, I was trying to get the air out of it so I could sink and I had weights on.

We were just putting cameras on the bottom.

I just swam down, you know, planted them.

Then we would wait a while and then move them to a different spot.

Well, each time I had to go down and it was yeah, it was really cold and that suit was leaking.

I was shivering, my jaw was chattering.

Recently and editing some of these shows that I have shot my own historic footage.

The 1990 centennial trip in the wooden scows down the salmon River.

That was a historical event, now, when you hear people talking about it.

Sunshine Mine was another one.

You know, we were trying to tell a story of the Sunshine Mine.

It was the 50-year anniversary of the big disaster there that was just horrible.

You know, so we were telling a story about what that area has been like since then.

You know, it was kind of a progression through time.

And I had a lot of footage I had shot up there.

I spent a whole day underground shooting stuff back in the 80s as we went.

I had used old film when we were talking about the really early days and then, you know, some of the stuff I shot that was new at one time.

I needed stuff like the old and I had it.

Having worked here, I've been I've been able to do things and go places like “One Water, One Air, One Earth”.

Here you have a documentary about a Shoshone medicine man.

And we went to Sweden.

Aaron and I went to Houston together.

We were in the actual control room that landed the first moon mission.

And if you look at any of the historic footage, you can see the things on the wall that nothing has changed.

Yeah.

And then Aaron was when he was doing his “Pioneers of the Air” show, we got to go to Wisconsin and we've got to fly in a replica...that was a swallow.

That was the plane that opened up the the mail routes in Idaho.

If you have never flown in a biplane, you are missing out.

I was just looking through some pictures the other day.

I saw a picture and it it was on a Selway River trip.

Somebody said, there's a rattlesnake in my tent.

And I'm thinking, yeah, right, there's probably a snake.

So I went in there and sure enough, it was a rattlesnake.

caught it by the tail and then grabbed it by the head, you know, and I didn't realize that somebody had taken a picture of that.

And I found that just recently.

Reichert: Pat was one of my favorite people to work with.

He was more than an editor who just pushed buttons.

He brought to the table a sense of curiosity and a vision of what could be.

He had an eye for detail, and he understood pacing and emotion and whatever project he worked on, he turned it into a masterpiece.

Metzler: But I look back at some of those old shows that we did, and I am amazed that I was able to do that.

When you look at all the different things that go into making a show, and you start looking at all the variations, you know, there's a million different possibilities in how a show can be put together.

That's the part I like.

That's where everything has to come together.

And just because there are so many different ways, it really, I can steer something the way I want it to.

Funding for Outdoor Idaho is made possible by The Laura Moore Cunningham Foundation.

Committed to fulfilling the Moore and Bettis family legacy of building the great state of Idaho.

With additional support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and contributions to the Friends of Idaho Public Television and viewers like you.

Thank you.