Tuesday, July 19, 2016

ALONE: Last Four Episodes- Thoughts and Comments

I know I have been absent from the blog for a couple weeks and needed to catch up on the weekly show thoughts and comments. So in the four weeks I have been absent we went from four participants down to a single winner. This years final four were out longer than last years winner, Allan Kay, but you need to keep in mind that last year the participants started several weeks later limiting their long-term food options to what they could bring in from the ocean. Shelters this season were much more substantial, there was a limited amount of storing meat for long-term consumption and trapping seemed to be at a higher level this year. Yet with the added time and more opportunities for food it seemed that some of the participants were always hungry whereas Alan always had a pot full of food every night, granted it was limpets, bull kelp and seaweed. I still can't figure out where the wolf on the beach footage came from as it wasn't shown in any episode and I've been looking forward to that the entire season. Overall this was a great season and I'm glad Nicole made it as long as she did, we got to see all of the projects Mike and Jose came up with and a hike up a mountain to raise awareness for Military suicide prevention.


“The world breaks everyone and afterward, some are strong at the broken places” -Ernest Hemingway

“To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.” -Friedrich Nietzsche

“You're never more alive than when you're almost dead.” -Tim O'Brien

“Endurance is not just the ability to bear a hard thing, but to turn it into glory.” -William Barclay

Build Your ALONE Survival Kit? Start Here:
 

Nicole:
Day 35-
-Hasn't heard any salmon in her stream since she let the last one go.... now see why I was a advocate for taking all the fish you can and smoking them while the getting was good?

Day 37-
-Had a good sized salmon in her gill net but it was eaten by a seal before she could get to it

Day 38-
-More seal trouble and this time they ripped a massive hole in the net.

Day 50-
-She moved the gill net and the seals are still eating her fish.

-Going to go check out the bear trail and see if she can steal some of their left over food. Getting a strong feeling that there is a mountain lion near her but more that likely its due to her lack of food/energy and it's effecting her mental state.

Day 52-
-Missing her sons 8th birthday, this is the first time she has ever missed any of her kids birthdays and you can tell it is weighing on her heavily.

-Fishing has dried up 100% and her main plant based edibles are all dead because of the weather turning cold on her.

Day 54-
-Going out on a hike to look for some mushrooms in the forest as all of her other sources of food have ran out. Ended up finding a single huckleberry.

Day 55-
-Down to eating just limpets as her only food source.

-Really starting to miss her family since her sons 8th birthday

Day 57-
-Nicole has decided to tap out after nearly two months on Vancouver Island. Says she can feel it in her gut that her kids need her and she is torn because she loves living on the island. In the end she found out what her limit was and that was missing her kids.

-”I might have MS, but it doesn't have me!”

Jose:
Day 35-
-Boat with outrigger is working extremely well. Headed out to try to find a salmon run and ends up with a leak in his kayak and forces his hand back to shore.

-He is going to try to heat the plastic to try to reseal the hole.

Day 38-
-Has his boat fixed and wants to get his gill net out so he can catch as many salmon as humanly possible before the salmon run is over.

Day 39-
-He says he was using an approach that he tells his students not to utilize. He says he was too focused on the boat and trying to catch the salmon run that he skipped exploiting the resources close to him. With this acceptance he built a setup to start jigging for fish and caught a good sized fish pretty quickly.

Day 51-
-Says the night was quite cold due to the humidity and its getting too cold to kayak because all the time he spends in the boat he has wet feet.

-Found a large blue plastic container while he was out placing a line based line in the bay. Ended up being a big barrel with a net that has a ton of mussels on it (red tide could have potentially poisoned the muscles and eventually cause death). He decided to go ahead and eat the muscles and take the risk as he needed the food.
Day 52-
-He had no ill effects after a few hours so most likely the mussels were not effected by the red tide.

Day 56-
-This was the final day of season 1 where Allan ended up winning the show.

Day 57-
-Got a couple small fish in his gill net, but he hasn't had a large meal in awhile. Says its the worst shape he has ever been in his entire life and called himself a walking bone rat.

Day 58-
-Not a kayak kind of day as the rain would fill his kayak quite quickly.
-Has a pulley system for his gill net that Is quite interesting and allows him to check his net when the tide is up.

Day 59-
-When trying to reset his gill net he somehow flips his kayak and ends up in the cold water a good ways from shore. Current water temperature is 47 Degrees F.

-He ends up pushing the tap out button while still standing in the middle of the bay with his kayak and is still there when the rescue party arrives to help. The first thing that comes out of his mouth is a n apology to his wife saying he tried.

-100% of his clothing is soaking wet so he didn't feel he could make it through the night. I would have tried to get a roaring fire and dried out my clothes but you never know until you're in that situation yourself.

Larry:
Day 38-
-Hasn't been filming much lately as he has been pretty board and just tending the fire.

-Going to attempt to make a spoon, his spoon turned out pretty well and he added a little hook on the opposite end to taking his pot lid of the pot when its hot.

Day 40-
-Making limpet stew

-Daily agenda is, cut firewood, check traps, process any food, make a fire, boil water, cook any food, eat dinner, make some tea, wait for darkness, craw in sleeping bag and go to bed.

Day 42-
-It's a struggle to get up in the morning as time is barley dragging by

Day 46-
Just sitting here watching the world go by! Says he goes to bed dreaming about and wakesd up thinking too bad I'm still here.

Day 51-
-Still bored and still doing his daily routine

-Starting to worry about his wife and wondering what she is doing back at home.

-Wrote her a very sweet I love you message on the beach to be televised nationally, can't get more romantic than that brother.

Day 53-
-Getting some decent size hail in his camp, he seems to be wearing his headlamp and keeping it on 24/7 these days.

Day 54-
-Not much going on thanks to the rain and cold weather but ends up finding a dead mouse to eat for dinner.

-Doesn't want to eat slugs due to the potential of getting a brain eating amebia, but I'm pretty sure that you cant get those from eating a slug.

Day 57-
-Getting sick of the sound of the ocean and prefers the sound of rain now.

-Fish are simply not biting for him now as the water is getting colder. So he decided its time to just quit fishing and is not just going to eat whatever he finds on the shore. Now he is saying his situation is sheer hopelessness as there is no hope to have a better food supply.

Day 58-
-Says his will has been broken and he has had enough. Starting to have a bit of a breakdown in his spirit, looks as though he will be taping out very soon.

Day 59-
-Seems to be in a little bit better mental state but I foresee a tap out coming soon. Says he is going to burn all of his fire wood, eat a little and just go home then he has a moment of clarity and decides to get his head back into the game!

Day 60-
-Starting to talk to the potential $500k Check that he can see he is just a little ways away. “You go till you die if you don't have a tap out button right?”

-Giving his editorial of his journey on the island so it would seem that David will be this seasons winner as it looks like they are preparing the audience for his departure.

-Resolves to me a more positive person after this experience.

Day 65-
-Larry ends up tapping out on day 61 and breaks down a bit mentally as the crew arrives to pull him out of camp. Says he tapped because he was going to die due to a lack of calories. Says he did his best and left it all out there.

David:
Day 35-
-Has a nice little seesaw setup with that log.
-He is getting pretty good at catching fish and crab theses days. Three decent sized fish in one quick setting.
-Tough break on loosing the fish on the stringer, that's why I always anchor mine to the shore to keep them fresh and in the water.
-Lol Canadian Eagles don't recognize that he is a patriot and are stealing his dinner.

Day 36-
-Caught a couple fish to use for crab bait and as he is casting it out to fish he lets go and loses his line. He then instinctively follows it into the water which is apparently cold (50 F which to me isnt that cold I have done several swift water rescues in with shorts and a t shirt).

Day 51-
-Has mink running around his camp and they are not in the least afraid of him.

-He is looking for new fishing grounds within his cove area and is looking for additional resources. Ended up finding a tidal pool with several crabs which made for a great day of fishing and a huge pot full of crab.

Day 53-
-Getting warm is the activity, It has turned a little cold out so he is having a bit of a lazy day curled up in his sleeping bag in the shelter.

Day 54-
-Needs to make a few pitch sticks. Found the mother load of spruce resin and was able to come up with over a pound of spruce resin. Using an old shell to melt the resin and then adds the ceder bark to the pitch to get a very flammable fire starter.

Day 57-
-Found himself a large nail and made himself a a pink handled prison shank.

-Caught himself a large fish and it looks like a good 5lbs or more of fish and another 30 minutes later he catches one more and into the pot they go!

Day 58-
-Starting to get really lonely and says he needs a hug as he explains Pavlov's hierarchy of needs.

Day 59-
-Isolation is starting to get to him and he is missing basic human interaction. Starting to wonder how long is long enough.

Day 60-
-Starting to have a ton of aches and pains on a daily basis.

-While fishing he has a fish that is trying to get away and he jumps to save it and ends up hurting his knees on the rocks he jumped on.

Day 61-
-His knees are starting to hurt pretty bad, this seems to be a trend this year as Justin also had a knee injury on his climb up the mountain on day 22 of this season.

Day 66-
-Doesn't have any fat reserves left, but doesn't want to disappoint his kids as he has no other way for them to go to college.

-Caught himself a decent sized fish for his last meal on the island.

-Camera crew comes out under the guise of a routine medical check to tell him he has won the competition. Then his daughter starts sneaking up on him from behind to let him know he won!

-Gets to give his daughter the grand tour of where he has been living and what he has been up to. He and his daughter get to take her first helicopter ride to finish their experience off together.

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