Transcript

Travis Bader: [00:00:12] I’m Travis Bader and this is The Silvercore Podcast. Join me as I discuss matters related to hunting, fishing, and outdoor pursuits, the people in businesses that comprise of the community. If you’re new to Silvercore, be sure to check out our website, www.Silvercore.ca. Where you can learn more about courses, services, and products that we offer, as well as how you can join the Silvercore Club, which includes 10 million North America wide liability insurance to ensure you are properly covered during your outdoor ventures.

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[00:01:05] This episode was recorded on March 26 and I’m speaking with a BC Parks employee and local Hunter Education business owner about rafting, kayak hunting, as well as the effects of COVID-19 on our work as well as their plans for fishing and hunting. This is Silvercore’s second remote podcast and I’m, I guess I can’t say I’m sitting down with, but I’m sitting in front of my computer with Dylan Eyers of Eat Wild. Dylan, welcome to The Silvercore Podcast.

Dylan Eyers: [00:01:34] Hey, thanks so much. Of course, we’re in this totally unique times where we’re managing for the social distancing measures of, you know, obviously not socializing and being in the same room as people. So on one hand we have a bunch of time to like, you know, maybe get together and try and talk about some of the things we’ve been trying to talk about for awhile.

[00:01:54] Hey, I was thinking about when you said remote podcasts, I was like, okay, yeah, that makes sense and I’ve got a great remote podcasting setup. I thought we were gonna go sit in a park together, six feet apart and like, and like have a mic and cross-sterilize our mic’s. So this makes a lot more sense. Yeah.

Travis Bader: [00:02:08] For that matter, we could’ve just met at the studio and sat 6’ apart and done this podcast. But you know, we’re rolling now. I kind of feel like when the, Flintstones and the Jetsons get together and they have a bit of a crossover. And we got the, the Eat Wild crew and the Silvercore crew doing a bit of a podcast.

Dylan Eyers: [00:02:25] So who, so who gets to be the Flintstones? Who’s the, who’s Jetsons?

Travis Bader: [00:02:30] Yabba-dabba-do. You know, my very first podcast I ever did was with you. About, what? Well, that was what, a year ago, right?

Dylan Eyers: [00:02:39] Yeah, we got really good response for that.

Travis Bader: [00:02:41] That was on the Eat Wild Podcast.

Dylan Eyers: [00:02:43] Yeah, yeah. We talked about gun care and maintenance and there was a lot of positive feedback from that one. People really, I mean, I learned a lot hanging out with you, and I think, the audience learned a lot. That was a lot of fun.

Travis Bader: [00:02:54] I had a ton of fun on that one. Now we’re sitting in the midst of the COVID Pandemic and people more than ever are looking for some sort of respite from the, the daily confinement and social isolation. And I’m looking at different ways that we can bring some information, some positivity, and maybe share a little bit about what’s happening in the firearms business world, the hunting world.

[00:03:21] Of course, you’ve got Eat Wild, by day, you are a Park Ranger, so you’ve got a perspective from that side as well. How do you find COVID’s been affecting? Well, let’s, let’s start with Eat Wild, how has it been affecting there?

Dylan Eyers: [00:03:35] Well, I think it took for all of us, it took a little while for us to sink in as to what it meant to socially isolate and what measures we were going to take to, you know, reduce the potential for the spreading of the virus throughout our society.

[00:03:49] And I think it took a little while for, first of all, to just sort of acknowledge that this is, these are big measures that need to happen. And then it happened for a long time. So like, initially, you know, you’re almost like pushing back courses by, you know, 2 or 3 weeks thinking hopefully that maybe things will pass in a couple of weeks and, and you kind of have that, that initial, you know, hope that things would be improved.

[00:04:11] But then I think as we kind of got a little further down the road in my, you mentioned like, I’m in my work life, as a park manager, you know, really, that kind of took over my big crisis, obviously for, for all of us. And in my, one of my work roles as a park manager, I’m sort of front lines for, you know, working to keep either parks open or closing parks.

[00:04:33] And the parks I manage are here adjacent to the Lower Mainland zone. So I would have thousands and thousands of people, you know, looking for ways to get outside to, you know, especially when they’re being asked to socially isolate. But then they’re going stir crazy, hanging out in their house with their kids and stuff. So parks are an amazing place for that potentially and then on the other hand, where it’s just seems incredible crowding.

[00:04:54] So my work life became very big, like I did a very deep dive into the realities of how to manage for COVID and so really for Eat Wild and the courses that we had for the next little while, it kind of almost paled in comparison to some of the challenging decisions and information that I was sort of processing for park work.

[00:05:14] So what I, it almost seemed easy just to kind of cancel everything through till, you know, May and hoping for the best for me. But I’m not optimistic that we’ll really be bringing people into classrooms or doing workshops for, you know, for a few months here. So how about you?

Travis Bader: [00:05:28] We’re in unprecedented times. I don’t think I’ve ever seen demand, particularly for the firearms courses, like what we’re seeing right now. We’ve got people throwing money at us or at least trying to throw money at us and say, look, I want to get my course. I want to get a firearm. I want to learn how to hunt. I want to be able to be self sufficient in care for my family and all of these great things.

[00:05:57] And all we can do is say, no, sorry, we can’t, we can’t. We shut down our, our school last week and when it became very clear that we wouldn’t be able to continue operating the classes and maintain responsible social distancing, and that hurts, it hurts the instructors. I mean, we’re scrambling, we’re looking at different areas that we can expand the business into while still being socially responsible.

[00:06:24] So that the staff can continue to have work. So far we’re being successful, but it’s a hell of a lot of work.

Dylan Eyers: [00:06:32] Yeah, yeah.

Travis Bader: [00:06:34] How about on park side?

Dylan Eyers: [00:06:36] We’re still fairly like, I mean, everybody’s, it’s all hands on deck right now to manage for the challenges of evaluating the public use and then, you know, we’re monitoring what’s going on.

[00:06:48] We’re, we’re kind of actively managing for the risks that are in front of us and trying to, you know, encourage people to social, you know, meet those social distancing guidelines and, and efforts and like, you know, we’re, we’re kind of responding every day to the direction of the political direction at the Prime Minister’s level and the Premier’s level and really trying to, you know, while balancing out this, there’s lots of sound rationale to have people still out there, trying to get out and getting some nature time in.

[00:07:13] Right, and how do you, you know, really, I’d like to be able to say to people, ‘Hey, like go out, you know, every, everybody can take their turn for one hour out in the park, maintain your 2 meters, and then go home and let somebody else come in’. Right. That, that, that’s kind of ultimately where I’d like to get to.

[00:07:29] I don’t know. That’s, there’s a daunting thing to try and do with our society and certainly see just regarding the concepts of social distancing and what we’re trying to accomplish. And, and unfortunately, as, as, as things go with, you know, it’s hard to, hard to manage for the masses when there’s a few bad apples that just aren’t getting it.

[00:07:48] So, so anyways, we’re still in process, we still have some of our parks open. I’m optimistic that there’s still some opportunities and, and our staff are busy trying to manage for all aspects of that and their contractors do, so.

Travis Bader: [00:07:59] I had a email from a friend of mine in Spain, and they’re about 5 – 7 days ahead of kind of what’s happening over here and he gave me a heads up and of course, different situation, different population density over there, but it’s ugly.

[00:08:15] And then I’m talking with people in the Netherlands and they’ve got a different approach that they’re looking at herd isolation. Let’s just secure all the at risk, immunocompromised, elderly, and quickly get everybody else infected.

[00:08:30] If I’m following the herd, I heard immunization model properly, and then once they reach about a 60% infected and recovered rate, then bang back at it, right? So when we look at the different models, one has everybody socially isolating for a pretty extended period of time. If you look at the mathematical concept of planking the curve, which you’re hearing more and more.

[00:08:56] And if we continue down that path, obviously there’s lots of different repercussions, but one that our listeners I think might be interested in is, got spring Bear coming up. We’ve got some hunting considerations, right?

Dylan Eyers: [00:09:13] Well it’s not just spring Bear. I like, I mean, right now this is the, you know, for me, this is the planning time of year. I mean, for one thing, it’s the doldrums of the wind rolling out of the winter and you’re still dealing with these dark rainy days and you’re just, you’re just itching to get out on an adventure and reconnect with nature.

[00:09:29] And, you know, unfortunately, like, yeah, Bear season’s around the corner, for some people it’s Turkey season and, then fishing season comes after that, like, but you know, really like for me, I, I’m talking about our, our sheep trip and our Elk trip and.

[00:09:44] These other adventures that, you know, I, I really enjoy having some type of adventure trip in the forefront, you know, to have something to think about, to kind of get me through these dark days and something to plan on and giving me something to research. And man, it’s a bit, it’s difficult. Like I said, there’s a lot of things that are sort of showing up that are, the reality of planning for hunting season is that things are going to be different this year.

[00:10:06] Like, you know, for one thing, like, you got your hunting partner and depending on how well you’re, you know, if you’re taking three months off work right now, what are the chances you’re going to be able to go and bugger off and go chase Elk for three weeks? And what are the chances you’re going to be able to, you know, go fly into the mountains in the middle of nowhere and look around for Sheep and, and gosh, are we even by, you know, July, August?

[00:10:28] Is it realistic to think that we’re going to be able to go and, you know, go into these small communities and you know, bring our whatever potential risks that we might bring if it, if this hasn’t passed. So all of these things are pretty, you know, coming into focus here pretty quick and pretty darn scary.

Travis Bader: [00:10:44] I think the last one that you focused on, there was one that is a point of consideration. You’re going into a small community. These people are isolated they’re doing their self isolation, we were going to assume, and all of a sudden you have out-of-towners coming in and stayin in their hotels, motels, and visiting their different establishments. That’s a point of consideration.

Dylan Eyers: [00:11:08] So do you think it’s going to be a provincial directive to not go run, run around in the forest and as a of April 1st?

Travis Bader: [00:11:16] You know, somehow I think you would probably have better insight on that one than me, but.

Dylan Eyers: [00:11:21] Well, to be honest, it hasn’t like, I mean, I think when you sort of table that in front of someone and you start, you know, and, and a decision maker has to go, gees, you know?

[00:11:31] Yeah, you’re right, I mean, this is people starting to move around the province for different purposes. Whether it’s fishing, hunting, you know, I don’t know, selling an encyclopedia door to door, I dunno. But like know, all of these things are, are really on the table for evaluation.

[00:11:45] And I think everyday, like certainly in the response that we’ve been working towards and, and, and you as a business owner, like you’re probably discovering things everyday that you hadn’t really thought about. They’re like, Oh gosh, yeah, that’s a reality.

[00:11:57] And how am I going to respond to that? Like, and you know, this is super unprecedented times. It’s like, well, what’s next? And so I think you’re, you’re probably spot on there by sort of acknowledging that that might be something. And it’s also important to, you know, how, how big of an issue is it? A few people driving in solo vehicles, around the province, looking for a bear might be the best thing for a lot of people.

[00:12:22] And I think that’s something you could easily practice in self isolation. And you know, the current guidelines still allow for, you know, one or more people to be in a vehicle together. I mean, you know, again, that may change here as we move towards the next steps of what’s happening right, but you know.

Travis Bader: [00:12:39] So you’re going to prepare for a spring hunt?

Dylan Eyers: [00:12:42] So with respect to, yeah, Bear hunting, like I had a bit of a project plan in the works to go film a bit of a, more so a foraging adventure with one of my friends Jodie. She’s a, she’s like a forger and my friend Mark is, is a chef and my friend Jenny is an avid Bear Hunter, well she’s an avid Hunter, and she happens to hunt Bear as well.

[00:13:02] But the four of us were going to go to the West Coast and do some fishing, you know, may do some foraging, maybe shoot a bear if it presented itself, and then have some meals on the beach and some buddies of mine were going to film it. Some other buddies of mine were going to come and kind of facilitate another vessel so we had two vessels on the water.

[00:13:20] So we had this kind of a great plan set up so it’s kind of heartbreaking because the plan was coming together nicely. And, and of course, I don’t think it’s a reality because we were looking to do it towards the end of April. So,

Travis Bader: [00:13:30] All right.

Dylan Eyers: [00:13:31] So, so maybe, so that was, that was like a group effort to go for an adventure, so maybe to revisit hunting, you know, maybe it’s a solo or one or two people, you know, total and separate vehicles or something.

Travis Bader: [00:13:43] Okay. When we talked yesterday, you had plans to get out and maybe do some solo adventuring. Were you able to do that today?

Dylan Eyers: [00:13:51] Yeah. Well, I went out, yeah, yesterday afternoon they, so, so one of the things about, I mean, this whole socialize, social isolating, is being, is, you know, a lot of, lot of the foundational pieces that keep you well, like keep your mentally, mentally good and, and for me it’s, you know, I like having dinner parties with my friends and I cook probably twice a week for friends.

[00:14:17] So it’s very much, keeps me in good health, good mental health and, and keeps me connected to my community and like, that’s out the door. Like I’m not doing dinner parties twice a week. And then I also play soccer three times a week with a group of, of, of people, and that’s out the door.

[00:14:34] And I go to yoga, you know, once or twice a week and that’s out the door. So, you know, it’s like, it’s, you know, for someone who suffers from depression and anxiety and, and, you know, mental health stuff, like those are the things that allow me to stay positive and healthy right.

[00:14:47] So, so, yeah, so anyways, so now it’s like all hands on deck to what’s next, right? So.

Travis Bader: [00:14:53] Well didn’t you tell me that you got yourself an inflatable kayak at some point?

Dylan Eyers: [00:14:58] Yeah, so that’s, that’s the, that’s the next thing that I’m working, so, so I’m socially isolating on, on rivers by practicing like, this, this, these alpaca kayaks, they are like this blow up, Inflatable kayak system. They’re very burly. They’re very light and burly while they’re there, they’re advertised to be very burly.

[00:14:58] So we’re, Jenny, my hunting partner and I are, are, are, we’ve got a couple of these boats and we’re, we’re rafting the rivers and the sea to sky corridor and this is sort of the new, like my way of getting out in nature and developing a new skill and, bit of exercise and it’s a very limited contact.

[00:15:36] So we’ve worked it out that we’re, our program is to like meet at the river pullout spot and we, and then we like hand sanitize and we’ll be like, share a vehicle drive and who drives leave a truck at the, at the pullout and we drive up to the top and then we like drive, leave, and then we’d blow up the rafts at the top of the river and then drift down.

[00:15:54] And you’re independent in the two rafts right, so you’re, you’re meeting your social isolation standards and having a good time. And then you don’t, when you get to get to the bottom and tear down the rafts and have a little barbecue on the beach, and maintain our social isolation and keeping it clean and then, and then we’d go home.

Travis Bader: [00:16:11] She said, you said Jenny from Chasing Food Club?

Dylan Eyers: [00:16:13] No, no.

Travis Bader: [00:16:13] Different Jenny?

Dylan Eyers: [00:16:14] Different Jenny yeah. Jenny, Jenny, she is a, she’s been out a couple of my podcasts and we hunt together, and ski together and fish. So she’s

Travis Bader: [00:16:21] Oh very cool.

Dylan Eyers: [00:16:22] Present on my social media and stuff and she was on the Bison hunt that we did. So if you, if you’ve suffered through the 6 hours of the Bison Epic on the 3 podcasts, then you’d know Jenny real well, so.

Travis Bader: [00:16:32] The, the kayaking. Have you done much of that in the past?

Dylan Eyers: [00:16:37] This is a new thing for sure. Yeah, like I started out with a few years ago, we did a, we drifted a couple rivers. I, I, so we invested in like, like actual 14’ rafts with rowing frames on them.

[00:16:51] And we get a bit of an expedition for Elk a few years ago and, did a couple different Elk trips with the raft and, and it’s super cool. It’s, and you, we, we, one, one trip we like, there’s a few spots that you can like, you know, drive to the top of the river and then put the raft in and then drift down.

Travis Bader: [00:17:09] Yeah.

Dylan Eyers: [00:17:09] And then there’s some spots, it is a handful of spots you can fly in with, with the raft and then like, drop the raft off on an airstrip and then pack it down to the river and then have a long drift back out to the highway. So, so we did that a couple of years ago and that was it a fun trip. It was, it was unproductive.

[00:17:23] It was a challenge that we, we, kinda, the weather was, it was really hot that year. And,

Travis Bader: [00:17:29] Okay.

Dylan Eyers: [00:17:30] They’re just, we saw a handful, we saw a couple of Elk early in the trip and it was just too hot to take an animal because we still had a long way to go and then by the time that things cooled down and we were kind of what down in the river and there wasn’t much going on for Elk but, but the rafting was the fun part.

[00:17:44] We actually all kind of said like, shoot, we almost do this again. Like we’d almost do this again and not even worry about hunting cause the cause just like

Travis Bader: [00:17:51] It’s so much fun, isn’t it?

Dylan Eyers: [00:17:52] Yeah. like rafting around, have you done it? Have you rafted much?

Travis Bader: [00:17:55] So in my early twenties I started on the Chilliwack River and I went out, had a $20 Sevylor Canadian Tire inflatable raft and took a case of beer and put it in a backpack and tied it to the raft. And me and my friends would go down the Chilliwack River in these little inflatables right, and have a lot of fun.

[00:18:20]  And these things would rip and we had be in some pretty dangerous situations without even knowing it’s being dangerous. Then I got myself a job, I was doing marketing for a Corona Beer. It was through Mark Anthony brands and I was doing, traveling around doing stuff with Corona Beer and one of their giveaways was a larger, still kind of like a Canadian Tire inflatable, take it to the beach raft.

[00:18:42] And I thought, ‘this is perfect, this is way better than any of the other cheap ones I’ve been using’. And I took it out, again to the Chilliwack River, and there’s a section called Tamihi through the rapids and my buddy says, ‘you know, I’m not going, I’m not going down here’. It’s, and this was, the river was running, it was running high, and there was kayakers that were scouting the river and they’re like, yeah, we’re not going in, it’s not safe.

[00:19:07] And I, we drove all the way out there. Young, dumb, ego, and I tell my buddy, I said, ‘you know what? I tell you what, I’m going to go through the roughest section of the river here and I will show you how safe this is and then we’ll just, you know, have a nice leisurely drift down the rest of the river afterwards’.

[00:19:27] And he’s like ‘all right, not a problem’. And I, at that point, digital cameras were new but I borrowed the, the Corona digital camera that we’re using and. So he sets up on the river and he figures, he’ll take some pictures of me going down through Tamihi. I put the thing in the water, and at this point, because I’d actually done a few other rivers, real rafting actually at one point, because what I do is I’d put in with a commercial rafting company, was putting in and hope that if I got into trouble that their safety kayaks with would help me out right?

[00:19:56] So at one point they just said, ‘look it, we got this old life jacket. We got some old farmer, John wetsuit, just take it, just put these things on’, cause I’d go down without a life jacket or anything right? So the, there I am on a Chilliwack River, going to go down, Tamihi wearing a life jacket an old rio rafting life jacket and my farmer John wetsuit.

[00:20:17] And I put, I put the raft into the water and it was cold and the boat kind of deflates a little bit when it hits a cold. I got my goofy little paddle in my hands and I had it all figured out the line that I was going to go on, but the river was going way faster than I was used to and I couldn’t get on the line and really quick, I was really gettin to put my, my hands and feet in the water and paddling and trying to get onto my line and I get sucked into a recirc and my buddies got the.

[00:20:44] Digital camera and he’s taking pictures the entire time and there I am, sucked in, sucked in and every time I get out, I didn’t want to lose the raft, but the raft just kept sucking me in and finally I get out of this one and, I’ve got pictures, I should post them up, right before I get sucked into this one.

[00:21:02] I think they call it Tombstone, and when I got sucked into that one, it’s just a big looking black hole in the one side as a water is going over the edge and very highly aerated whitewater on the other side, and even with the life jacket and my farmer John wetsuit, I get pinned down to the ground and I’m trying to get out and they say, you know, make every letter in the alphabet, start moving your body, make A, B, C right?

[00:21:30] And try and touch some green water and I’d get up and I’d just about get out and bang him back down again and just getting recirculated through. And it’s funny because people say, don’t panic, right? When you’re in a situation like that, don’t panic. And in my head, I’m not panicking. I’m calm, I’m cool, I’m just going to work as hard as I can to get out.

[00:21:52] So all my efforts going to be to try and get out and finally I started, I guess I’m a quasi passing out due to lack of oxygen and I’m sorta hallucinating down there and thinking of newspaper clips of a body floating down the river

Dylan Eyers: [00:22:08] Oh my goodness.

Travis Bader: [00:22:09] And I said, no, this isn’t for me. Anyways, I ended up getting out, I ditched the raft. In my head I was just going to swim as hard as I could until I got it, originally I was going to start on one side of the river and get off on the other side, that was where the line took me. I looked to my left, that seemed closer. Started swimming as fast as I can, and then I said, I’m not going to stop until I hit the shore.

[00:22:30] The second I got around a little bit of a break, my body just collapsed and my buddy took me out and I’m throwing up water and a feels like I’m sure I didn’t, but it feels like I inhaled a whole bunch of water and I lost the raft. Had to tell Corona ‘I don’t know what happened to the raft, who knows?’ Right

[00:22:48] It’s, maybe they misplaced it right. And after that, me and my buddies said, ‘tell you what’, I think I was about 20 at the time, ‘Tell you what, let’s invest and get a proper raft’. So we’ve got a 14, like you, we’ve got a 14’ Hypalon Achilles raft, and a rafting company went out of business and so we just had the frame and had a, another guy, I think his name was Ken Greeley, we all called him Kenny G, and he built a self bailing flora.

[00:23:16] So I actually still have that. It’s sitting upstairs at the, the Silvercore classroom. I’m going to build a rowing frame and I’d love to do a hunt with that raft. So maybe, maybe I’ll pick your brain a little bit about some places.

Dylan Eyers: [00:23:31] Sure, off the podcast though.

Travis Bader: [00:23:32] Yeah, there you go.

Dylan Eyers: [00:23:35] I’m going to a couple of them, but yeah, I’m excited about these other rafts because they’re, they’re called pack raft, right? So they’re, they’re designed to be able to be rolled up and, and they’re, you know, I think we’ve got a couple there. One’s about 10lbs. Other ones, maybe a little bit more. But I mean, they

Travis Bader: [00:23:48] That’s not bad.

Dylan Eyers: [00:23:49] They’re packable. I mean, there’s, they’re not like, you know, w w one of the reasons why we’re getting out this time of year with anticipation of maybe doing a Sheep or an Elk hunt for one, just building confidence with them and competency, but also like I like we’re going to put what amounts to, you know, and Elk’s worth of meat between the two rafts and see if it works and then run it like, so we’re kind of building up our confidence.

[00:24:11] And so first of all, learning to work these rafts in, in the, in the whitewater or class two plus water. And then the next step will be to like weigh it down and see how it, how it feels so that when we’re, you know, you know, a 150 miles into wilderness with no support to look at a piece of water and go, yeah, we got that. Or, no, we don’t know if we can do that. Let’s, let’s reconfigure and figure something else out right, so.

Travis Bader: [00:24:40] That’s a funny thing. So Elaho ? and Thompson, Chilliwack, a lot of the bigger rivers and the, the commercially rafted river is, is kind of where I got my chops because

Dylan Eyers: [00:24:53] Yeah.

Travis Bader: [00:24:53] I would just put in at the same time as the commercial people and just cross my fingers that they would feel some sort of obligation to

Dylan Eyers: [00:25:00] That’s hilarious.

Travis Bader: [00:25:00] To step in if, if we’re in trouble. But, some of the remote areas that you can get to that would otherwise be nearly inaccessible when you traveled by river are wicked. And I can remember just going down the Thompson and the number of times you just see Sheep all down the side right there. It’s, yeah, it’s pretty cool.

Dylan Eyers: [00:25:22] Yeah, I’m pretty pumped about it.I, I like, I, yeah, I’m pretty interested in it. I gotta I’ve got to see, like as I’m going down the river, I’m like, Oh, I could do this, this river. I can get to that place. I can do that trip. I think that the real limitation though with their pack crafts is that like, is it, you are still super vulnerable.

[00:25:40] Like there’s not like running a 14’ raft down a river where you’ve got a frame and you’ve got oars and like you can pretty much.

Travis Bader: [00:25:47] But it’s better than Canadian Tire Sevylor raft.

Dylan Eyers: [00:25:50] It is a lot, well, it’s a little better. Yeah, it’s,

Travis Bader: [00:25:52] It’s a lot better, c’mon!

Dylan Eyers: [00:25:53] Yeah, it’s a lot better. But it’s a hoot, and I think the skills, like anything else and for the time, and you can reduce the risk, I think the risk is going to still be there.

[00:26:01] And you know, so we’re definitely looking at doing this trip with 4, 4 rafts if we can just, cause if something happens, a one raft, we can manage our weight and have, you know, get down the river with, and if we get, if we lose two rafts, we might be, have a real problem, but.

Travis Bader: [00:26:16] And if you can buddy up in those rafts?

Dylan Eyers: [00:26:18] We’re, yeah, I think, I think a little bit, not like, the.

Travis Bader: [00:26:23] Riddin’ nuts to butts down the river?

Dylan Eyers: [00:26:25] Well, I bought the first raft, they bought, we hit the spot that we, One of the places I hunt Elk, there’s a, there’s a pretty nice look at hillside, but it’s across a fairly like challenging river. Like it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s got a pretty good rip on it and, and I have packed my wa, I’ve got, I’ve got a few, I’ve got a 14’ raft and I got sort of this 9 footer that’s got a little Rony frame on it.

[00:26:50] It’s actually pretty cool unit, maybe it’s a bit bigger now, but it’s, it’s, it’s almost packable. So you, I mean, packable as in, I think, I think the, the, the boat weighs like maybe 90 lbs or something like that total, so you can, you can get the whole thing down somewhere if you had to on, maybe on a car or something.

[00:27:06] So I packed it down. I wish we, we rode across this river in it. We ended up shooting Elk on, on the other side of the river and the raft was big enough that you could throw, you know, the Elk and, and row it across and dump the Elk off and then go back, get your buddy and our packs and come back right. So that wasn’t too bad.

[00:27:24] But I bought this pack raft thinking ‘OK’. Cause it was a bit of, it was a bit of a mission, trying to get this wrapped all the way down there. This, this, this bigger raft, so, so I was thinking this is like, you know, 9 pounder, it would be a lot more comfortable. So we got ‘er down, we got it down there, pumped it up.

[00:27:38] They jumped in it with my day pack and I went to cross the river and I, I had, our plan was because, you couldn’t, definitely couldn’t put two people in the raft comfortably and, and their gear, like you couldn’t put two day packs, two rifles, two dudes that don’t, like you, maybe you could have, but I wasn’t ready for that yet.

[00:27:56] It was relatively new to me. So we ended up, so the, the thought was, and this is a terrible idea, but it was, thought it was good idea at the time, I was going to cross the river with a, with a line, and I had tied a line to the bow of the boat and, and had a big spool of, of like three quarter or the, quarter inch poly.

[00:28:17] Pretty good stuff, and the thought was, buddy Mark was going to stay on the bank and he was gonna spool out the line. I was gonna crossover and get to the other side and then we had, we had, we would tie the rope off, to the side of the river, and then we put the boat on a carabiner and just clip to the line and the, and then the boat would swing across the river, and then Mark would jump in the boat with his gear, and then you could swing the river, swing the boat back across the line right.

[00:28:44] And then the, and the, and we actually were, we were, I mean, we had, we had seen a six point Bull on, on the other side of the river, so we were pretty confident we’re gonna go shoot a Bull. So really, we were just setting things up because we were going to go shoot this Bull, and then we’re going to have pack loads of meat coming off here.

[00:29:02] So we wanted to make sure we had the system dialed in the, in the case that we were shuttling meat across the river in the raft. So that was our, that was our concept. Anyway, so I started across the river and Mark’s spooling across the line, and I’m paddling like mad to get across and like I said, it’s a pretty quick river and like, it’s, that’s fine crossing, but I, I’m just, I just get to the other side of the river.

[00:29:24] And I’m just, the, the rivers cooking pretty good, but I just, I go to reach for the bank and I kind of grabbed a rock and just then the whole boat just pulls away from me and starts to like want to go down river and I’m now, I’m kind of like a bailed out of the boat, but I’m holding onto the raft with one hand.

[00:29:40] I got my gun and my pack and I see the paddle like flip off the side of the boat and go down the river below me. And in my mind I’ve realized what’s happening. What’s happened is the, the line that that is between the Mark and the boat has now caught the current and as being driven down stream with the, with the drag, which is totally obvious, but at the time it didn’t occur to me.

[00:30:05] And so I’m fighting like a hundred feet of line in the water, which is a fair, fair bit of force. And Mark has no id, doesn’t quite know what’s going on except that you can see that I’m like struggling on the bank and things are going sideways and the boat’s pulling away from me and I can’t actually hold on the boat.

[00:30:22] But in my head I’m like, okay, well if I let go of the boat, the boat is gone, Mark will still have the boat, but he won’t be able to get back across and get me. And we’re in the middle of nowhere in the middle of up North. Like there’s no coming to get me like without a paddle. So, so I’m like, well shit. Okay, I got my gun, I got my pack, I still have ahold of the boat, I’m just gonna like, just like launch myself back into the boat.

[00:30:43] And then, and then the boat kind of swings down stream and now it’s 100% up to Mark to like yard me back up out of the rapids and like pull me back up stream. And like, I have no idea. I mean, this is, the rope is tied to the bow of this boat, which is like. I don’t know how, you know this, some pretty strong adhesive there. The one little loop on the front of the boat right.

[00:31:05] That was a pretty near deather actually that, well, it was a near disaster one and it was a disaster. It could have just been a lot worse. So anyways, Mark managed to like yard me up till I hit the other side of the river and another bank and then anyways, these things are dangerous. So you know, that was loud

Travis Bader: [00:31:18] Thank god for Mark.

Dylan Eyers: [00:31:20] Yeah, thank God for Mark.

Travis Bader: [00:31:22] You know the one thing about rafting that always kind of stuck with me is you can see the gnarliest rapids, big whitewater rapids. Throw on a life jacket, be safe, go for a swim, and you generally pop over the top of them and you can see this water that’s just going down the river and it looks, I don’t know, pretty safe.

[00:31:43] And it can pose massive danger to you. You can have a strainer, a tree going across, and if it gets stuck under that, you can have a recirc like what I got stuck into, and it’s these little things that you don’t really think about that really pose a ton of danger. And then the really scary looking ones, not a problem.

[00:32:01] Jump in, you’re good. Now anyone that listened to that? Take that with a grain of salt, but that was just my perspective, I guess looking at it, the real scary ones were turned out to be the ones that you’re pretty much safe.

Dylan Eyers: [00:32:12] Well, so one of the rules at jet boating, cause like you’re often, I have, I have a little jet boat. When you run up these rivers, you’re always looking for where there’s water, right? You want to make sure you’re running over the water, not the rocks, right?

[00:32:23] So you can be sure, if you see a standing wave of, you know, six inches or a foot, in order for that wave to become a wave of six inches or a foot height, there has to be six inches or a foot of water underneath it. So when you’re jettin’ up a river, like there’s often glass calm water to the, to the next to a rapid, but there you, you might, there might be a rock there and if you hit a rock, then it’s devastating right?

[00:32:52] So you’re better off running up where you can see rapid because you know, if you see a wave, you know that at least it’s, you know, six inches deep or eight inches deeper depending on the height of the wave right? Cause the wave has to have, the height is the same. You know, it’s as tall as it is deep. Right?

Travis Bader: [00:33:09] Ahh.

Dylan Eyers: [00:33:09] So for a wave to, so, so when you’re those giant rapids that you see when you’re driving the Fraser Canyon, where there’s these huge waves that are like six feet high.

Travis Bader: [00:33:18] I’ve swam through those.

Dylan Eyers: [00:33:19] Yeah, you’re actually safer to go through those because

Travis Bader: [00:33:21] That’s right.

Dylan Eyers: [00:33:22] You’re thinking, you think, ‘oh I’m gonna hit a rock’. Well, actually you’re probably, I mean. If you have, if you see a six foot wave, then there’s six feet of water underneath, there isn’t a rock, right? It’s the rocks that are sort of a next to it and, and water go around rocks and go over rocks, but they don’t create six foot waves when they go over a rock. You got to have six feet of water underneath.

[00:33:40] So, so sometimes, yeah, just go on for the deepest. Oh, the biggest rapid is actually the safest spot in the river. Well, I shouldn’t say that, but without a caveat, that’s.

Travis Bader: [00:33:49] Again, knock on wood, take it with a grain of salt.

Dylan Eyers: [00:33:52] With a grain of salt, yeah. But one of the many things, and that’s what’s fun. I mean like learning, learning, water, learning, I mean, it’s just another thing. So anyway, my current, my newest pastime is trying to figure out kayak, river kayaking and pack rafting so.

Travis Bader: [00:34:05] I didn’t realize you had a jet boat.

Dylan Eyers: [00:34:08] Nah, it’s a very small jet boat. It was a gifted to me by my hunting partner that’s a kind of coming to the end of his jet boating time, he’s a little older. Well, Jeff Forcefield is a good, good, good friend, good hunting partner, and, and, a lot of the trips that we’ve done together in that little jet boat, he’s just not really physically able to do, so he’s kind of pass it on to me to, so I can keep doing those trips and.

Travis Bader: [00:34:30] Have you ever taken a boat up Pitt River? The reason I ask is because, so Pitt Lake, I think it’s the largest tidal Lake in North America, so I mean it, it moves up and down with the tides that we get here and can actually get pretty nasty on the North end later on in the day. But if you take your boat, I’ve done this before, to the far end of the Lake.

[00:34:54] There’s a logging road up there, and the only way that the vehicles can get to that logging road is they barge them in and out. Take my bicycle, and I think it’s about 20 or 22 K up the logging road, and they have beautiful, pristine hot Springs up there. It’s just wicked. But after biking for 22 K, up a slight incline the entire way, and it’s not enough of an incline to kind of coast on back. It struck me, if somebody had a jet boat, you could get up there pretty easy. 

Dylan Eyers: [00:35:24] You don’t have access, obviously.

Travis Bader: [00:35:26] Yeah.

Dylan Eyers: [00:35:27] I have a friend that’s invited me on that trip and they, and they, and they paddle the Lake in canoes with their bikes and then they ride their bikes out there, spend the night, and then come back the next day and, and, and she’s like, you got to come on this adventure. It sounds great, I’m like, ‘okay, you know what, I got a jet boat. I’ll see you up there. I’ll bring the beer’.

Travis Bader: [00:35:44] And you know there’s actually an anchor point for your boat on the river. They’ve built up a bit of a concrete wall on it, I’ve been told it’s the, it’s, it’s one of the cleanest hot Springs, cause I guess they can be subject to a lot of algae.

[00:35:57] This one is pretty pristine, so it’s, anyone, anyone who wants to go on a bit of a bike ride, Interesting thing though, last time I was there, saw one Cow Elk and we saw three Black Bears and the last Black Bear was about, I dunno, half a kilometre away from our destination and it didn’t want to leave.

[00:36:19] I was there with another fellow and If I’m, well lets, I’ll try and spook it out, lets scare it, and it wouldn’t leave and it was just stayin in the road, middle of the road. All right, well let’s, let’s just go back a little bit and wait and come back and poke our head around wondering, is it, is it leaving or is it getting closer?

[00:36:34] Well, it’s getting close and thinking, Oh, great. Of course this is going back a number of years, but didn’t bring a, didn’t really have anything with us. Other that a pair of swim trunks for the hot Springs, and reached the point when we thought, well, we can either turn around and leave and go the 20 some odd K back and just call it a day.

[00:36:54] Or maybe we can just walk by this Black Bear, like maybe we can get this thing away. So it was, it ended up on a bit of the side of the road, put our bikes between us, being young and dumb and walked past the thing. As soon as we got close enough to it, it spooked up a bit into the side and we got on with our day. But yeah, neat area up there.

Dylan Eyers: [00:37:14] Yeah, he just kind of added another hunt idea that to my list here. That’s already pretty long. But yeah, the, I hadn’t thought about running the jet boat up there, but yeah, that’d be a fun, fun spot for maybe a spring Bear hunt, so.

Travis Bader: [00:37:28] Yeah.

Dylan Eyers: [00:37:29] Spring Bear hunt. Soak in the tub.

Travis Bader: [00:37:32] Beautiful.

Dylan Eyers: [00:37:33] Yeah. Hmm. All right, Travis, good idea.

Travis Bader: [00:37:35] There you go.

Dylan Eyers: [00:37:36] Yeah, yeah. I thought, yeah, well, I’ve run up there a bunch of times for, I manage the parks on either side of that, of Pitt Lake. So I’ve been, I’ve been, I’ve been up that Lake to the Marine, Marine sites a bunch of times, and I’ve, been on my list.

[00:37:49] There’s, there’s a, there’s a good Steelhead run up there. Yeah, there’s also, Coho is supposed to be pretty good, but I mean, these years, I don’t know, things change year to year for the quality of Salmon fishing for sure. There is, I think that limited entry odds hunting for Pitt Lake, something like 400 to 1 for the Elk draw.

Travis Bader: [00:38:11] Who-hu-hu-hu.

Dylan Eyers: [00:38:13] Which is weird because there, I guarantee you. Of those 400 people that are applying for that one draw, and there’s, I think there’s probably three or four tags. So there’s, you know, probably 1600 people that apply. I bet you most of them, like they just see Pitt Lake or Pitt River and they think, ‘Oh, I drive over the Pitt River everyday on my commute to work’. Right, there’s Elk there, I’ll go get one.

Travis Bader: [00:38:35] Nope.

Dylan Eyers: [00:38:25] Yeah, I don’t think they’re really thinking that they’ve got to, that they’ve got the logistics of it, of, you know, having to have a jet boat ‘er. You know, having to coordinate a boat access and having to coordinate a vehicle because of course the upper Pitt is not, there’s no vehicle access to the upper Pitt. That’s what makes it more complicated to hunt it or hang out there.

Travis Bader: [00:38:54] Believe they used to have a barge service that would take people back and forth, like your friends who would take their bicycles and they barge them back and forth. But last I checked, I don’t think they’re doing that anymore. You kind of have to know somebody who’s got a boat.

Dylan Eyers: [00:39:08] Yeah. Yeah. Well, no, it’s fine, that’s, that’s, that’s a good one. I, I actually have a friend that is a truck up there too. So I, I, I was going to go up there, Black Tail hunting a couple of years ago with a buddy of mine, but I just haven’t, haven’t been able to have enough time left in my hunting bank to, to make that one happen, but never seems that inviting to like go up to the headwaters of the Pitt in November.

[00:39:31] I think a lot of other places in British Columbia I’d rather be hanging out.

Travis Bader: [00:39:34] I hear ya.

Dylan Eyers: [00:39:35] So I think one thing that’s probably worth talking about and worth like, so here we are, we’re talking, we’re scheming about hunts. We’re thinking about like, Oh, well let’s go Bear hunting up the Pitt and take the jet boat up there and let’s go for river rafting adventures and all these awesome things that like are so critical to our, you know, our way of life right.

[00:39:53] And our mental wellness and like, and we’re all going to be dealing with a really difficult question here coming up in a little bit, which is like. It’s, it’s August 1st, am I allowed to go Bear hunting or its coming into Turkey season, am I allowed to drive into the Kootenays and go Turkey hunting?

[00:40:08] And you know, I’m sure this is, you know, kinda hittin’ across our hunting community as to how, how, can we do it? And can we do it in a way that, you know, we’re, we’re, doing it safely and we’re, we’re meeting the provincial health guidelines for social distancing and what would that look like? And I, I think that’s probably something that we should, you know, kick around a little bit.

[00:40:29] And. I think we should just pay some mind too. But do you have a Bear hunt planned for this year?

Travis Bader: [00:40:34] A couple, yeah. A couple.

Dylan Eyers: [00:40:37] What was your plan, like in broad strokes though?

Travis Bader: [00:40:41] I’m fairly self-contained when, when hunting right. And the only places I’d need to stop off at would be for fuel on the way.

Dylan Eyers: [00:40:50] Yeah.

Travis Bader: [00:40:51] And provided we don’t go the route of some of the European countries, like my buddy’s telling me, giving me updates in Spain of what’s happening over there, and I can’t see us going down that road, just, it’s just our population is so spread out. It’s a different ball of wax over here. Something tells me I can’t see people limiting access to, to crown land. I’m going to continue to plan and continue to move ahead as if it’s going to happen until, until we’re told otherwise.

[00:41:22] I think that’s the, the healthiest way to at least to proceed, and I’m not ready to give up on these things yet.

Dylan Eyers: [00:41:29] You’ve kind of a solo kind of Hunter as it is?

Travis Bader: [00:41:31] Well, my approach and my, my look at it anyways is we’re looking at social distancing, not social isolation, and there’s a level of responsibility obviously on the individual. And I get, there’s, there’s two parts, right?

[00:41:43] Number one is, you want to be doing the right thing. What, whatever that is, we trust the experts said they’re giving us information that we, we abide by. But number two is, the social perspective of it, because it doesn’t take long to get on to Facebook or Twitter.

[00:42:00] And you can see everybody rattin’ their neighbour out because they saw them too close to somebody else. So I guess there’s, there’s two battlefronts here that people have to be aware of. From my perspective, go out in crown land if it’s permitted, great. Practice social distancing, great. I can bring my tent, I can bring my trailer set up, just stay away from everybody else, and I’m just as socially distant, if not more so on my hunting trip than I would be here in the Lower Mainland, hold up in my house.

[00:42:33] So that’s, that’s my approach until things change. And we obviously were monitoring, monitoring that on a day by day, hour by hour basis. But I’m planning as if hunting is still, go ahead. How bout you?

Dylan Eyers: [00:42:49] You know like I said, like I think things have to change. I mean, we had a, you know, an eight person expedition plan with cameras and boats, and obviously that’s just not reasonable in the, in the context and staying at a lodge and all that kind of stuff.

[00:43:00] So that, I think that’s one end of the spectrum and that’s something that we can’t do for awhile. On the other end of the spectrum is, you know, hopping in your truck by yourself and grabbing your Bear tag and Turkey tag or whatever you’re going to do and, and, go spend some time in isolation and, and be on the crown land base.

[00:43:16] And provided there isn’t any, you know, change in regulation around, you know, us, you know, traveling around the province. I know that some communities are now socially isolating and there’s an order for, if you move into a community or come into community. I believe there’s a requirement to be in quarantine when you come into a community I believe.

Travis Bader: [00:43:33] Oh, I wasn’t aware, ok.

Dylan Eyers: [00:43:35] I, I, maybe, I’m misinterpreting something I heard from a friend. But in any event, I think it’s, you know, conscious of the fact that, you know, we’re coming from the city, which is the centre of the epidemic. And if we’re going to go and pull into a small town and stay in a hotel that probably not a reasonable choice right now.

Travis Bader: [00:43:52] Yeah.

Dylan Eyers: [00:43:53] But I think it’s much more reasonable if we’re, you know, if you’re staying in a tent, and you’re not, and you’re not interfacing with people along the way and, and not spreading out any potential exposure that you have from the city.

[00:44:04] So, I mean, you know, so I think we’re really, the question is going to be for me is like, is it, is it a solo vehicle expedition or is it, are you going to jump in the truck with somebody else? And you know, yeah. Up til now I’ve kind of managed, you know, I have my friend Jenny and I have sort of, you know, we’re both socially isolating, but you know, we have our rafting day where we spend, you know, half an hour in the truck together.

[00:44:29] And I think lots of question whether that’s appropriate for a longer trip and maybe we take two trips. And those are the kinds of questions that were, or two trucks I should say.

Travis Bader: [00:44:39] Yeah.

Dylan Eyers: [00:44:41] That we’ll be considering if we go Bear hunting or go or go solo. And then I think there’s probably some precautions around, you know, cooking and you could probably limit your exposure for sure. Like, you know, maybe it’s not the time to like, have big, like prepared meals that you would normally do.

[00:44:57] And if you’re, you’re, if you’re hunting with me, there’d be a nice meal every night with, you know, lots of, lots of good stuff going on. But that requires like cutting boards and knives and fresh vegetables and unlimited water supply.

[00:45:08] And so maybe it’s boiling a bag kind of meals, and you just look for every opportunity to reduce the exposure and transfer of, of germs between people and do your best to kind of meet the expectations of our, of our provincial health guidelines right now.

Travis Bader: [00:45:22] Yeah. Well, I’ll be hunting with other people, but I’m very, very fortunate in the fact that my three favourite hunting partners all live in the same house as me, that’s my wife, and two kids.

Dylan Eyers: [00:45:34] Yeah.

Travis Bader: [00:45:34] Even more fortunate, is the fact that my wife’s a professional chef by trade, so that, that really, really does help out. So we’re still planning on doing our hunts. We’ve got a few family hunts that we’ve got keyed up, and if things change, they change. But until then, I’m just gonna, I’m going to play it as if we’re going hunting. I think that’s the healthiest way for me to look at it.

Dylan Eyers: [00:45:54] Yeah, exactly. And there’s, and there’s, and there’s important things I can get known outside and like maintaining that, you know, mental balance with like the stress that we’re all dealing with. I mean, I can’t imagine the stress that you’re, as a man, you know, as someone who owns a company that is responsible for people’s lives and

Travis Bader: [00:46:07] Oh it’s crazy.

Dylan Eyers: [00:46:08] You know, try and, it’s a lot of stress

Travis Bader: [00:46:10] Yeah.

Dylan Eyers: [00:46:11] And that can be discounted and you gotta make sure you take care of yourself and do the things you need to do to stay well in this time.

Travis Bader: [00:46:17] Everyone’s going through it. Everyone’s got lots of stress. But I think on the other side of it as well, there is a lot of positives that can be pulled out of this. I mean, depending on how we look at it, it’s a good check. Are we prepared if something else happens in the future?

[00:46:33] If the big one hits, are we prepared? Right? And people are now turning their heads to, can I, can I forge in my backyard? My wife does the food contributions for Anchored Outdoors, and it’s crazy the amount of food that she pulls up, just from our backyard that other people would call weeds right?

[00:46:51] And I, I think there are a lot of positive things in that respect and as much as people say that times like this can be bring out the worst in people. You see the toilet paper hoarding and reselling the sanitizing sprays, and it also brings out the best in people and you can see everyone gathering around and we’re all fighting a shared cause and there’s a sense of solidarity and unity that, that’s derived from that.

[00:47:18] So, I, I think, you know, they always say it’s all perspective, it’s all how you look at things, but it couldn’t be, it couldn’t be truer here and from the business front. Yeah, I mean, we had to cancel all our courses. We’ve had the lay off the instructors, that sucks! That’s our bread and butter, it’s what we do.

[00:47:38] But in the same breath, day in, day out, 24 hours a day, I’m always thinking about work, now, even more than ever, and the amount of connections that we’re making just in the last two weeks, the amount of people that are reaching out, even this, right? You and I getting down, being able to do a podcast together.

[00:47:54] To me, this is a really positive thing. I enjoy speaking with you and this is fun to get it on a get it recorded here. That’s my take.

Dylan Eyers: [00:48:01] This format that we’re working on here, I, I just haven’t taken that step in to figuring out how to record a conversation remotely.

Travis Bader: [00:48:12] And now you’ve done it, and it only took us 20 minutes.

Dylan Eyers: [00:48:15] The magic for everybody. Even someone who was like, Oh, I’ve never used DoorDash or these delivery services. You’re like, you kind of do it once, you’re like, well, that was easy. And then you kind of like the whole world’s gonna change because people who have sort of discovered. Groceries get delivered or Amazon or like these, these are the large scale things that people are going to like go, wow, that was kind of easy, I think I’ll do that again, like and.

Travis Bader: [00:48:45] Well, business is gonna change.

Dylan Eyers: [00:49:47] It kind of pushes us a little bit. Yes, this is going to drive in some areas. It will be interesting and.

Travis Bader: [00:48:42] The adversity tends, in me anyways, it brings out the best in me and maybe, I mean there, there’s, I could concentrate on the doom and the gloom and all the, all the difficulties that are out there. People ask me, how are your kids taking this. And they’re doing great.

[00:49:16] I mean, since birth, they’ve been gently prepared for something like this. Not in a crazy weird prepper way, but at this point they’re thriving. Being able to use all the things that we’ve essentially been working and training towards and being able to use that to help your neighbours and your friends or whatever capacity you can.

Dylan Eyers: [00:49:23] It is kinda important for us all, like, whether it’s your personal systems for certain, you know, for how to cope with something like this. And I do think it’s incredibly important that we’ve done this. Like, you know, I’m hopeful that COVID, this, this COVID, you know, you know, we can minimize the impact it has on our society, but as we, you know, as you can imagine, there could be a lot worse than it could be the type of virus. It could be much, much harder on human population, not disregarding the impact that’s going to have on many, many people and many families.

[00:49:52] But, like, this is sort of a, this is a great, this is a great exercise for us to go through this and see what we, you know, what we have to do if this happens again. And, and, and then also how do we cope with it and the systems that we need to have in place and how we need to be prepared. And, and then from a work perspective, like in all the things that I’m working through in my day to day work as far as managing for public safety and in parks is like, it’s a great.

[00:50:19] It’s a really good effort to see how we all come together and work together and, it’s been, it’s been interesting. So there’s gonna be a lot of positives come from it. I think we’re going to be better off as a society, but I think we got some challenges to come and then I certainly know that some families, and we’re all going to be affected here.

Travis Bader: [00:50:41] The biggest thing I took out of what you’re saying there is, everyone’s coming from different areas. Some people are capable and able, some people have issues with mobility. Some people are struggling with mental health, and the biggest thing that we can do right now is show compassion. I mean, the person who’s hoarding all of the toilet paper, maybe there’s something else going on that we don’t quite see, right?

[00:50:59] Just having that compassion and taking care of yourself. Take care of your friends, take care of your neighbours, as much as may be fairly done without injury to yourself and your family, and we’ll all get through this. Anyways, Dylan, it was really good. Thank you very much. Let’s give it a wrap here and then we’ll try another one in the future.

Dylan Eyers: [00:51:18] Just want to say like all the best to you and your listeners and, and, anybody else’s, catches this podcast to hopefully, you know, we’d get through this together and stay healthy and support each other.