Kayaking the Huron River, Bassquatch Hunter, and AuSable canoeing | Brother Nature

Welcome to this week's edition of Brother Nature. We're giving you a live look up at Houghton Lake, a little far north of us, but also just a little far south of where the annual canoe marathon race is going on down the Ausable River. We're gonna have a whole lot more on that coming up in just a little bit, but first take a look at these wild action waves going on up at the Straits of Mackinac. This is the scene out of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. The memorials swim across the mighty Mack Straits gives you actually the coolest vantage that nobody's ever seen of the bridge itself. As I understand it though, the lake was a bit of a bully this time around and unfortunately for a lot of our swimmers, they needed a little bit of rescuing to get back up there, but everybody made it across unharmed with a little bit of help and of course safety is the most important part about all of that. Why not just make sure that it's all working out in the end for everybody participating. Now on to the main event for this week's edition. I'm here with Howard Mitchell. Howard, how you doing? I'm doing great. How are you doing, Jack? I'm so happy. What are we about to show our viewers? Well, last Monday we had a great opportunity to go out onto the Huron River, right? Yes. Yeah, the Huron River. I couldn't remember the name of the river. It's the Huron River. Yeah, the Huron River out in Dexter and, you know, we were able to capture some pretty cool video that we were able to shoot while we're out there on the river. We were in a dual kayak, which was really funny because I did not help you at all. So yeah. Well, without further ado, everybody, take a look at our little trip down the Huron River. Oh, that's a tree. I'm underneath the tree. I bet you're wondering how we got here. Well, let's rewind. All right, here we're on the shore of the Huron River at Dexter-Huron Metropark. I'm here with Abby. Abby, what are we about to do today? We are going to be kayaking from Dexter-Huron Metropark all the way to Delhi Metropark. And maybe we'll also avoid tipping over, but if not, you will definitely find out along the way, right? Yeah, it's going to be exciting. All right. Well, let's get to it. So you're holding it kind of like a spoon. So you're holding it out like this and it'll look like a spoon. Like a spoon? So yours is flipped. Oh. So you're holding it like that. Yeah, exactly. I knew I was going the wrong way. You're doing great. What is along the Huron River? Yeah, so we're called the Huron Clinton Metroparks because we're a part of two watersheds. We're a part of the Huron River Watershed, which we're in right now, and the Clinton River Watershed. So in the Huron River Watershed, the big body of water that it flows into is Lake Erie. You getting this, Howard? You getting this shot? Breaking news. We are 60 miles from Lake Erie. So while we're kayaking today, we'll hopefully see some wildlife. Kind of depends on how quiet we can be. But in general, you'll see turtles. You'll see fish. We'll have some macroinvertebrates, which are aquatic insects that are at the top of the water and the bottom of the water. And then also hopefully some birds. We're coming up to our first rapid. So what we're going to do is we're going to go down the rapid one person at a time and then you lift your paddle up like this and you just go down the rapid. You're going to follow my kayak and you go down the rapid just kind of like you would a natural slide. You're just not going to put your paddle in the water. You're just going to lift it up and slide down. You got that, Howard? Camera up. Yes, it's tracking. That wasn't comical at all. So as you can tell, audience, we're not novices here. We're professionals. All right. Unfortunately for my photographer Howard and I, the branch waiting for us at the bottom of the first rapid trapped our kayak. Fortunately, the Huron River is shallow enough we could get out and free ourselves. And that was the last branch that we ran into. And we're still recording. Well, almost the last branch. Now let's catch back up to Abby. He's stuck. Try looking at some cool turtles. Oh gosh, this guy's stuck. Should we help him? Um, normally we're just going to let them be and he'll figure it out on his own. We don't want to touch turtles. We don't want to just keep them in distress. But he should be able to slowly move his body out. Yeah. I feel like I did that. Yeah. Yeah. In general, we want to leave wildlife be, let them be natural, let them be in their own space. I love that people are empathetic to animals specifically in the wild. But in general, you know, we want to let them be in their habitat and be safe. And it will actually distress them more if a lot of humans are trying to touch them. It's like someone came into your house and picked you up and grabbed you. That's how I like to describe it to a lot of people. Are you ready? We are ready. Okay, I'm going to go first and you're just going to follow my lead, okay? Let's take two. Good job. So one thing I'm always pitching people to do is get the Merlin bird app because wherever you go on the river, well really anywhere, you're going to hear some really cool stuff. So let's see what we can find. Oh, we caught an American goldfish and a song sparrow. Not necessarily rare, but also pretty neat that you're hearing them just out here. Up here, you'll see a little bird that has a red wing. So that's a red-winged blackbird. Red-winged blackbirds live near bodies of water. So they'll live in the marsh and the river. And they have that call, mainly the males, where it's, look at me, look at me, look at me. And they're trying to distract for their mates that actually blend in with cattail because they make their nests out of cattail. So they'll live near the Huron River. They'll live near the marshes in the Huron River. And when they're flying, you can tell it's a red-winged blackbird because it has that very distinctive red wing. I liked when you got attacked by that tree. I liked when we saw that turtle struggle, as mother nature will make us all fight for, the inevitable struggle that is survival. But mostly I like that we got to do this just down the road from the station. Really, it's just down the road from anywhere. And I can't think of a better way to spend a Monday or a Tuesday or a Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday morning, afternoon or evening doing it. So I first got to start things off with, because we're doing a little bit behind the scenes here. Howard, have you ever kayaked before? I have kayaked. It's been a long time since I've kayaked, but I have kayaked in the past. I probably wouldn't have, you know, if I was actually helping you, I wouldn't have steered us into, you know, that tree that you did so gloriously. Yeah, well, what's a little bit of outdoor recreation without getting a little wet, you know? That wasn't wet, that wasn't being impaled by a tree. It just missed me, man. Coming across my lap like a seatbelt. You know, what was weird is I actually didn't realize until well afterwards, there was a bunch of water in the boat. Oh yeah. Did you feel that? Oh yeah, right on my tush. Yeah. I felt that. I didn't feel it until later on, I'm like, oh no, is my phone, is my, like what just got soaked? There was no electronics harmed in the making of this film, but we got to use some pretty cool ones along the way. Introduce the Osmo for us. What is this thing? So it's a smaller camera, and what it is, it's kind of like a Steadicam, but it's, the camera's literally about this big, and you know, I had it attached to like a selfie stick, so I could get those shots where it was high up in the air or off to the side over the water. I got those great shots of our partner, what was her name? Abby. Abby, you know, on the boat when we were interviewing her. It was able to give us all, the only downside to the Osmo is the zoom function on it is not very good. So, but it's great for like POV, you know, just getting, you know, bird's eye. I can lock it on you and kind of, you know, point it out and get a really good shot of you. It was a lot of fun to use. I loved, honestly, the shots where you're like holding it off to the side, and we're both going. Well, I'm rowing. Yeah, you're rowing. You're holding the camera. But you kind of get this sort of like side view, and then in the background, you have the shoreline as well. Yeah. There's so many sights and sounds on the Huron River, and big thanks to Skip's Canoe Rental, who will usually facilitate all this. Well, Skip's was great. They took us right out to where we needed to go to, you know, to get into the river, and they helped us launch and everything, and then they helped us get out of the river at the end. It was really good. Yeah. Were you surprised at the turtles that you saw? I was, especially the one that you got stuck on the stick there, that poor little guy that, you know, you refused to help. Well, according to Abby, we don't, we empathize with nature, but we don't want to get too involved with it. I get it. And that is sort of the coexistence that we have with it, which I get a kick out of, because you're kind of trying to, you're going by, and him, I mean, he would have tried to escape, because every time you get close to a turtle, they'll jump off into the river. They're just sunbathing there. Yep. They're hanging out. That guy got caught. His shell was too wide for the fork and the sticks, and I really hope he did get back on balance. I think he, you know, he got himself free, you know. Yeah. I like to say that. Yeah. You know, instead of you putting him into peril. Um, what else? So, uh, did you have any visions for when you actually came on this shoot with me? So, um, what I was hoping for was something that would be fun to shoot, which we accomplished that. Um, what I didn't expect is how relaxing it all was. It was so relaxing. It, um, you know, being able to go down the river, and Abby was so informative about everything that we were seeing, and everything we were doing. Um, you know, uh, the only bad part was, is that, you know, me having to run camera, I couldn't help you paddle. So, but, um, you know, other than that, I just, I really enjoyed being able to do this story, where you just kind of went down the river, and, you know, kind of, and that's what I love about the package that we put together, is it was just, we, we took you on a little trip, you know. We took you on a little trip down the river, and it was a lot of fun. Yeah, and frankly, the cool thing about the Huron River is, uh, both of the liveries that kind of do canoeing and kayaking down it, uh, they either will take you to the top of the river, and you go down and meet them where they're at, or you will go down yourself, and they'll bus you back. But either way, the current is what's taking you, so when you say it's really, really relaxing, uh, you're spot on, which is so crazy, because people think about all the exertion and the work it puts, you have to put in to even get to these really, really cool spots, but along the way, it's kind of, I guess the work is done for you, you know. Yeah, and there was no place where we had to get out of the river. When we saw the train, that was really, really cool, the train going above us. That was a lot of fun to see, because that thing was booking, you know. You're not, you're kind of not expecting it to go so fast, and then all of a sudden, uh, I actually didn't, I don't know if I've ever really seen Amtrak in the wild, you know. So the timing of that was kind of amazing, uh, but then again, it's also just, you know, it's the effort to try and coexist with nature, and, and human involvement trying to move past it. Uh, Howard, if we were to do something like this again, where would you want to go? Oh man, I mean, the places in Michigan, there's so many things to do in Michigan, that's kind of the great thing about it. I mean, the lakes that we have here, the forest areas, I mean, shoot, talk about the UP. I'd love to go to the UP and do a couple of stories from up there. So, Tom Carr just told me in my ear we should jump out of an airplane. You're on your own, brother. Yeah, I'll shoot it from the ground. I'm not going up there. That's Howard Mitchell, he's editor and photographer extraordinaire, helping me out with this week's package. Uh, thank you so much again, sir. No problem, man. All right, we've got a whole lot more coming up after the break. Stay here for more. We're back here on Brother Nature. So much more going on this time of year, especially if you're out hiking and looking around. So, for not the first time in history, but kind of rare, we did have a snake bite down here in Michigan, a venomous snake bite, actually. This is from the Eastern Massasauga, a 41-year-old. He was actually at Proud Lake Recreation, uh, walking around, saw this thing, uh, he got a little too close and got bit by the hand. Now, he's doing okay. He did get, uh, he had some anti-venom, uh, provided to him at the hospital, but this just kind of goes to show that you got to be careful. And also, turns out, we have poisonous snakes in Michigan. Venomous, rather, venomous snakes. So, I spoke to Stephen Parrish, who is at the Botanical Gardens at the University of Michigan, for a little bit more on our only venomous snake. Take a look. Tell me what you were doing in that video that the Botanical Gardens shared. I forgot to bring my snake tongs, uh, which I usually use. And so, often when I'm out, uh, I was out with our media specialist and a couple of my interns. With a stick, I was just trying to part the grasses and, and sometimes you can just, um, tap around, uh, and, and have just a much better range and then still have, uh, that can trigger, um, a buzz. And sometimes it's not going to be what you see, it's what you hear when you're tracking the Massasaugas in particular. Uh, it's kind of the, the buzzing of a cicada. Now, I don't know who decided to make snake week in July. Uh, I would not have put snake week in July, maybe, but I believe it's like a, a global thing. So maybe in some part of the world, July is great to find snakes, but not great in Michigan. We didn't see a single snake. We didn't see a single snake the next day, uh, when I, when I'm looking for them during snake week. Uh, if I, if I were to make Michigan snake week, I would make it like in May or September. Michigan is kind of a stronghold for the Massasauga and there are some sites within Michigan that are probably dire in, in, uh, you know, probably a couple of years away from extirpation, which is a local extinction, uh, um, of this, of the animal, particularly, um, but it could be a plant or, or an animal or whatever, but extirpated is that local population is no longer, uh, and there are some sites that are, um, uh, you know, habitat loss is probably the biggest reason why the snake is now on the endangered species list, you know, for 10 years but there are, um, a, a, a, a, a major threat would be, uh, invasive species, namely, um, woody shrubs and trees, uh, buckthorn, honeysuckle, autumn olive, um, a number of other ones, but if the snake does not get enough sunlight or if its habitat is, um, kind of reduced, uh, degraded, then it won't be able to find its prey. They need proximity, uh, to water. Uh, now we at the Botanical Gardens here have Fleming Creek runs through the middle of the property. We have a pond and a couple of brooks and several fens and so it's a great variety of wetland habitats and we will find them within those habitats. Let's say I'm walking around in, in, in habitat that, uh, a massasauga is going to be in. Whether I know it or not, um, what might be some precautions I could take, uh, just to avoid alarming them and appearing threatening to them? Sometimes you'll see them, like, lying just, they're basking. They, they, they need to be thermoregulated, so sometimes you'll just be lying in the middle of a trail and so they'll, they'll be perfectly visible. Uh, I would just say walk slowly, walk with closed-toed shoes and, and long, uh, like jeans are, you know, perfect. It's, you know, big enough, stout enough material that this, the fangs won't get through. All right, so we had a poison, a venomous snake bite earlier this week. Also, I actually got to go to the Detroit Zoo for a little bit of a recap on what has become one of our environmental success stories here in Michigan. The piping clover, it's rebounded. Now, how is that going on? Well, I spoke to Charlie Ramsey for a little bit more on that. Ridiculous. I think, didn't Pixar do, like, an animated short? Yeah, Piper. The Piper, yeah. Uh, is that a piping clover? I think it was just a generic shorebird. This week on Brother Nature, we're featuring one of the cutest birds along our Great Lakes shorelines, the piping clover. And boy, oh boy, this adorable little, uh, little aviary is having the time of his life. Certainly this year, they're having the best season in a while. Charlie Ramsey with the Detroit Zoo. First off, how you doing, sir? I'm doing well. How are you? Absolutely amazing. Uh, first of all, you're the curator of birds here at the Detroit Zoo. Start us off with what are we standing in right now? Right now, we're standing in the Matilda Wilson free-flay aviary. Um, we've got about 30 species of birds that live in here, about 150 total birds. Dang, and they all coexist pretty okay? Yeah. Any piping clovers, though? No, no piping clovers in here. And tell us, why might we not find any in this interior area here? Sure, well, this isn't really a suitable habitat for a piping clover. They like, uh, more sandy dunes and cobbled beaches on the Great Lakes shores, and we don't have that here. The Great Lakes piping clover is having a record-breaking year right now. They've got nearly 100 pairs in the wild. For people who don't know what a piping clover looks like, uh, tell us a little bit about what this cute little bird can, can appear to the naked eye. Sure, well, they're quite small. Um, they're very adorable. They've got a sandy coloration on their back, a lighter plumage on their bellies, uh, yellow-orange legs, uh, same colored beak with a little black spot on it, um, and then there's a little black marking on their forehead. The Great Lakes piping clover, um, back in 1986 was down to just 12 pairs in the wild, all located in Michigan, and since then, um, due to the work of many partners in this program, um, they have spread to just about every Great Lakes state and province, um, and their populations have rebounded massively, so, um, the Great, the Detroit Zoo, we manage the captive rearing side of things, um, and we've been doing that since 2001. Oh, 2001. You guys have been at it for 25 years then. Uh, before 2001, what was the status of their population like? Well, um, it was still rebounding from just being down to 12 pairs in the wild. 12 pairs. Yep, yep. How do you have enough diversity at a species with 12 pairs that you can grow it back up to almost 100? Yeah, well, it takes a lot of work, um, by a lot of dedicated people, so every piping clover in the Great Lakes region is banded by, uh, nest monitors. The nests are observed throughout incubation and chick rearing. Um, if ever a nest is, uh, abandoned due to predation of one of the adults or if it's a high water year and the nests are washed out by the shore, or by the surf, then we will take the eggs in to the, uh, University of Michigan Biological Station and, um, we incubate the eggs, we'll raise the chicks, and then when the chicks get old enough, we'll release them back into the wild to join their cohort. Because they have such an active presence online, uh, Sleeping Bear Dunes is one of our most visited spots in Michigan, maybe on the Great Lakes. Uh, how do you balance the tension of their popularity with also making sure that we don't get too close and disrupt their process? Sure, so the National Park Service, who manages Sleeping Bear Dunes, um, they do a great job with, um, they call them Bark Rangers, so they're dogs in dedicated Bark Ranger gear, um, and they're, they're there with their people to educate the public on, um, all things Great Lakes piping clover conservation and respecting the species and the space. Um, they'll also set up exclosures around nests to keep predators out, um, so there's, there's, uh, various methods in which we can deploy to share space. Happy shoreboard story, and also, if you can, please check out Piper on Pixar. It is such a cute little short and also does a really good job of just expressing how adorable these little birds are. All right, stay here for more, we got a whole lot coming up after the break. All right, we're back here on Brother Nature, and with some sound effects as well. Thank gosh for Tom having me aboard. So, we're going to run through some quick videos here, because we've got a whole lot more coming up, uh, but inside this show, first of all, who poaches a sturgeon? This was found over on the west side of the state in Muskegon County. According to DNR, it was likely hooked, uh, at the, uh, what was it, the White River. Um, if anybody ever accidentally catches a sturgeon, you're supposed to release these guys. If they're not still around, uh, rather, if you do catch them, release them. If, uh, there's only some, a very few spots, actually, where you're even allowed to hook them, and only during some very specific seasons. So, if anybody knows who might be involved in this, this was, uh, late last week, give the poaching, uh, hotline a call. The DNR would like to hear from you, because, my goodness, I don't even know. I mean, this is such a waste of, like, of such a waste of a precious resource of a beautiful fish, and especially, I mean, if you're, you're going to poach it, why would you discard it like this? I don't get it, Tom. All right, moving on. Michigan's big wild has gotten a little bit bigger. This is over at the Pigeon River. The Black Ranch has actually, uh, they sold off a bunch of lands in the DNR. This is real big wild country in the northern section of the lower peninsula, uh, and cool enough, actually, is you do have elk herds up there. Very rare in Michigan to actually have some wild elk herds, and I don't know if anybody knows about trophy hunting in Michigan, but you can hunt them. If you do get a license to hunt an elk, it's your only one for life. That should give you an idea about just how cool, beautiful, and wild this country is up there. Pretty freaking neat. And then finally, uh, Line 5, uh, construction on this potential tunnel that would basically encase the gas pipeline going underneath the Straits of Mackinac. It has not started yet, but the DNR and the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, have both essentially re-approved the permits to build this construction. That would be pretty big, kind of a big loss for environmental folks that say that this is, uh, just asking for trouble, but also for people who are hoping for a little bit of cheaper energy costs, this would be good for that. Uh, Enbridge is not big. Enbridge and the state of Michigan have been going back and forth on this for a while. Construction hasn't started as a result because they've only just now decided where the jurisdiction for the court battle will play out. This story is not done yet, folks. All right. That's our quick VOs for this, uh, this week. We got a whole lot more coming up, including a big fun interview with my friend, Mike McKinstry. Stay here for more. All right. We're back here on Brother Nature. I have a very special guest with me, Mike McKinstry. He is the host of Bass Squatch Hunter. Uh, and that's not the end of the night. Fish out of water, right? Is that got that right? Right. How are you doing, sir? I'm doing great. And, uh, I gotta be honest. I'm really happy to be here too. This is a, it's a great program. Hey, man. Well, thanks for being on the show. So your show is on Discovery Channel. Tell me a little bit about the inspiration behind this. So about 10 years ago, I'll try to give you a short version. Uh, about 10 years ago, I was fishing on the weekends and it was kind of my escape from my day job. And I feel like a lot of us work all day, all week, just to be able to do what we really want to do on the weekends. And after a while, I got kind of burned out and I was like, why don't I just do the fishing part? Like, why do I do the work part to be able to go fishing? I'm like, if the fishing part was my work and I could do it the whole time. So I started a YouTube channel and I had no idea what I was doing. I was terrified and started a YouTube channel. Two weeks later, I quit my job from terrified to, to something else. It sounds like, well, I have this theory that I've been kind of following and living for the last 10 years now. And I guess I had it before, but if you're afraid to do something, you got to force yourself to do it because, you know, you never get to level two if you don't get past level one, no matter how bad that, you know, if you think about like in the video game world, how bad that boss battle is in level one, like you have to get past it to get to level two. Um, and if you give up on level two, you'll never see level six. So I've had this theory where even though it's hard, it's scary. I, I just want to try it. And it led me down this crazy career path where went from YouTube to streaming to TV. And now, um, we're the first kayak fishing show to win an Emmy as of last year. And, uh, just throwing that in there a little mildly. No, man, that's, you're giving good, good, good vision to, to a really poor, like a, this, this whole beat needs a bit more coverage, you know, and good coverage like that. Well, it's just about, like I said, it's about following your dreams and not being afraid of it. And if you are afraid of it, push past it because you never know where it's going to lead. And I preach this all the time to the point where it almost feels like it almost feels like it's a, what's the word like scripted, I guess, at this point, because I say it so much, but I always say, if you, if you jump and you're afraid to fly, then don't worry, because you could be a good climber. And I, I like, I've always said like flying is easy. Like that would be the easiest way to get over a big hurdle. Right. But I'm like, I prefer to learn how to climb because you're going to fail. And, uh, you know, one of the pieces of advice I've ever gotten was from a guy in the Savannah bananas coach rack on Savannah bananas. I asked him one day, I said, uh, and just mildly plugging someone who I think is incredible, by the way, uh, I asked him, I'm like, what's the best advice for kids that want to chase their dreams? Like if I, if I were to share more advice to more kids, what would you say? And best advice I've ever heard. He's like, get really good at losing. And when he said that it was like an explosion went off my brain. Cause I was like, oh my gosh, I got it right away. I was like, I get it because the majority of chasing anything you're passionate about is losing. It's failing. It's making mistakes. It's recovery that you have to be good at. And it's in any sport, you have to be good at the recovery part, not the winning part. And that's what I've done with my show is every time I try something that I think is a little crazy, I'm like, well, if I fail, if I fall, I know how to climb. I've done it enough, you know, but it's been a lot of fun. So you say crazy, uh, and I, the promo for season four here, I gotta say I I'm having, I'm trying to figure out what exactly is the genre of bass squash Hunter. Also, if you want to enlighten us the actual name, where'd you come up with that? So I'll start there. Cause that's honestly my favorite story as hell about the show's origin is the name. And I had this weird thing when I was younger where I would just go fishing and I would catch a huge fish. It was pure luck. I had no idea what I was doing. I still feel like I don't know what I'm doing sometimes. And fishing is so much more luck than people think. But I just had this thing where even when I got older, I would go out fishing on a new Lake with a bunch of friends and it'd be their home Lake or their home spot or be a new species somewhere like in Texas or in the Gulf. I'm like, Oh, I've never been red fishing. My first redfish is the biggest one of the day. And my first bass at this new Lake was the biggest bass of the day. And everyone was just like, how do you do that? I'm like, I don't know. So we were talking about this with a bunch of friends one day. We're watching one of my favorite fishing shows at the time. And what was the show? It was called Dave Mercer's facts of fishing. I've never heard of that. He's from Canada. Awesome guy. I love Dave Mercer. Great guy. And I told him to his face plenty of times now that my name came from him because he caught a big bass on his show. And he goes, look at this bass squash. And literally when that happened, this was 12 years, 11 years ago. We all looked at each other in the room. There's four of us in the room. And we're like, that's it. Like you're like the guy that hunts the bass squash. So I started my YouTube channel and it was called the bass squash hunter. And when I first started, I was just driving around the country, like to New York, Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana. I was just driving around and trying to find the biggest fish in every area that nobody's ever caught on camera. And that's where the name came from. It was that one elusive fish that you don't get on camera, similar to a Sasquatch and the legend of Sasquatch. And that evolved into me meeting new people. And that became my favorite part of adventures was meeting new people. And when I started meeting new people, that's when everything changed. And I say this a lot too. Everything changes with the first cast. And I don't mean that just for fishing. I mean that with taking a chance on anything or anybody. And in my show, everyone is so different from each other. There is no genre. There is no, there is no like path I follow. And there's no similarities of any of my episodes, except that we all chased our dreams and we're all trying something new. So that's where the bass squash hunter name came from. And that's where the fish out of water name came from is that I bring guests in that are celebrities or athletes or, you know, we've done a weatherman episode. We've done bus drivers. We've done WWE. We've done monster trucks. I'm going to be a lifeguard in the Gulf and Alabama next week or in two days, actually. We bring out people that are not fishermen usually and bring them into my world and teach them how to fish and get their first fish on camera. But then I have to go in their world and I got to try whatever they do for a living. So if they're an Olympic figure skater, guess who's throwing up a girl in the air and trying to be a figure skater for the day, which I did, which was incredible. I fell a lot, but I pick yourself up, right? Exactly. I did great. Um, I had so much fun. I made some lifelong friends. I think everyone on the show, um, would agree with this, that we've all became really good friends after we, we have that bonding moment on the water and we just keep in touch and you know, whether it's Savannah bananas or whether it's a bus driver, we consider ourselves like family or friends, I guess, right afterwards. Cause we have this moment, you know, and you know, whatever they do for a living and they're passionate about when I go in their world, I get to see them fall in love with it all over again too. Because a lot of times I hear my guests say like, I kind of forgot, like I do something that's so mundane every day that I forget how cool this really is. I forget how much fun it really was, but seeing you for the first time, not only how bad you are at it, cause it's actually harder than I thought it was, but also like to see you like enjoy it and like be amazed by the simple things, like things that I take for granted every day. Like it makes the guests fall back in love with their passion again. But then I do the same thing in my world because you only get your first fish once, right? My first fish, I was so young. I really don't remember the feeling of catching my first fish. It just, to me, it's normal to me. If I go out and catch a fish, I'm like, Oh, it's an, I get excited no matter how big the fish is, but I've seen all the fish, you know, like I've seen it's hard for me to find a species I haven't seen yet, but watching my guests get their first fish or their first kayak experience or their first new species, watching them go crazy over a bluegill, you know, that's something I don't get to do anymore. So I'm like, you know what? This is cool. You know, catching fish is fun. Like I forget. So the show has taken on so many forms over the years, but at the same time, it's been true to our mission from the beginning. We want to inspire people to chase dreams, find new adventures, meet new people, and honestly, just learn how to climb. You know, when you have a tough spot in life, we've all done it. We interview guests that gave up on their passion, second guessed everything in life and then pushed through. And now they're at a huge celebrity level that they never would have been at if they gave up at level one or two. And you know, our Atlanta Braves pitcher, we filmed with Dylan Lee, great guy, amazing guy. He almost gave up on baseball at one point. Like he wasn't getting drafted. His career wasn't moving quick enough. Three months later, he's pitching in a World Series game. He's got a World Series ring now. He's an amazing pitcher, huge athlete, a huge asset to the Braves this year. I think this year is one of his best seasons. He never would have been there if he would have gave up when things got tough. So that's what our show is about. That's what our format is. And, you know, looking at the season four intro that you showed there, there's a lot of variety. We have Savannah Bananas with Mr. Beast. We have, you know, Thailand episodes. We have Gibson Guitar Factory. I mean, A Country Singer. I mean, there's huge variety in every episode of our show. So I always say, if you don't like one episode, it's okay. Just watch the next one, because they're all different. Yeah. You know, I think the part that you bring up, I think, that at least resonates with me the most is when you put someone who is an expert at something, who is a professional, they thrive off of one specific hobby or activity, and you get them in their element, in their moment. You see what it does to them. You see how excited they get about it. And in my opinion, when you find people who have found their essence and they're sharing it with someone else, I mean, that's like the best thing you can capture on camera, you know? Because in the end, it's like, that's what you're trying to chase after is the activities are fun and cool and visual, but the people that embody them, that's what great TV could be, you know? Yeah. And a lot of, and I agree with you, but a lot of feedback we get from viewers is they see their favorite celebrity or athlete in a totally different world. They see them out of their element, but they get to hear the stories that, how they started, some of their obstacles, some of the struggles, the things that you don't get to hear. So we always say in the show that once you're on the water, all of your celebrity goes away. Like your viewers don't matter. How many clicks you have on YouTube don't matter. Your championships don't matter. Whatever your day job is no longer exists. Now you're in my world. Like now you're in the world of peace, of fishing, of nature, and then the adrenaline and chaos of fishing at the same time. But then when we go back into your world, then it's like, now you're in a happy place. You're like, it's almost like the old saying that like you professional baseball players have to remember what it was like to play catch with their dad in the driveway in order to get their passion back. We get to see that happen now. Like for real though, like I've seen that happen. When Dylan Lee from the Braves showed us the bullpen where he spends a lot of his time, he's a relief pitcher, he like, we saw something change in him where he was telling us about the people he gets to meet in the bullpen, the friendships he makes, the guys that he gets to play with all the time, and how he like is so comfortable like being in that environment. And it's just, it was like watching him open up. It was almost like, it was almost like watching growth happen in front of you where, you know, I was just sitting there watching him smile and I forgot we were filming. And I do this a lot in my show where I get sidetracked and my producer's like, hey, like we're filming, like you got to get back on track. I'm like, I'm sorry. I was in a moment. Like, you know, there's times where I look around where I get to go in the show. And I'm like, I can't believe we're here right now. And you know, seeing the person we're with just like have a moment. I'm like, this is like, this is bigger than the show, but we get to capture it. And that's, I think that's the beauty of what we do. It's all reality based. We don't script it. We don't plan it. And we just kind of try to make the best out of whatever we film, you know. Unscripted is sometimes the best format for doing it. Tom, we got more time. What are we doing here? Take a break. All right. Mike, thank you so much for this. Stay around. We've got a whole lot more. Okay. And we're back here on Brother Nature talking to Mike McKinstry, host of the Bass Squatch Hunter, Fish Out of Water. Mike, what's going on in this upcoming season? So the season that's airing right now, I always say it's kind of cliche. It's our biggest season yet. Every season is, but that's our goal is to make every season bigger than the previous one. So this season, last weekend, this last Saturday, the episode that aired was with Savannah Bananas and Mr. Beast. It was an incredible episode. It was so much fun. I spent two days learning dances and trick plays, which is something I never thought I would do with baseball. But I will say though, the Savannah Bananas organization and all the players were some of the most amazing people I've ever met. Best people ever. Great time. Remained friends with most of them. We just met up with them a couple of weeks ago, actually, again. Great episode. But then we have Gibson Guitar Factory airing this year, which was also a once-in-a-lifetime experience. We have a famous country singer. What did you do with the guitar? Did you actually make the guitar? So even better, I got to take someone that's very high up in the company out fishing and learn about the history of Gibson, the legend of Gibson. Then I got to go visit their private vault, all their very, very high-end museum guitars. I got to touch them and see them. Then we did a factory tour of how they were made. I got to meet everybody who had their hands in building it. Then they made me a custom Gibson Les Paul that I designed from scratch myself. And they made me this one-of-a-kind showpiece of a guitar. So I didn't get to make one, but I got to keep one, which was pretty amazing. We're also doing the same thing with Martin Guitars in September in Pennsylvania, which is the oldest guitar company in the country, the oldest family-owned company in the country as well. And that's going to be the same idea, but I get to actually get my hands on and build a guitar in that one. Okay. And it'll be incredible. Well, audience, check out Mike McHistory on this show. This is going to be such a cool season, sir. Thank you so much for joining us here. I really do appreciate it. Thank you so much for having me. All right. Should we just cue this next one up, Tom? All right. This is from a little while ago. We spoke to the, well, organization heading off this canoe marathon. Take a look. We learned a hard lesson. The biggest challenge of the Assault River Marathon is getting to finish first. Winning it. Overcoming the kind of the fear of the unknown. We might tip over. We're going to hit stuff. Well, I hope my body holds together again this year. And it's eight hours of nighttime paddle. It's the toughest canoe race there is. And we are back here on Brother Nature taking the second half of the show inside. And my goodness, what a preview of an event coming up this weekend we've got. This weekend is the Ausable Canoe Marathon. And boy, oh boy, do our canoers have quite the race ahead of them. I'm joined by Kate Reitz. And this weekend of canoeing, what are they about to face? Well, this week is full because on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, right here behind us, they practice their sprints, which is much like NASCAR pole position for the starting position on the road. That's right. I said on the road a quarter mile away where they're going to run to the river. And one hundred and three teams are going to jump into this river. And as you can see, it's not very big. So it's it's a traffic jam, it's sure. And then they're off in the night for one hundred and twenty miles portaging hydroelectric dams, feeds and everything else throughout on the way to get the Oscoda. I this is I think I saw it's one hundred and twenty miles. Are they going nonstop from the moment they kick off on their run here till when they reach Lake Huron? Yeah, I mean, absolutely. The only time they stop is when they're getting out the portage, the dams and run them. They don't walk them, they run them. So after when they leave here, miles, the first dam that's like seven hours away, that's the first time they're trying out their legs. You get some pretty interesting tiptoe walk, the cramp. So then you get back in and you keep going through the night. I think I I have to wish them a lot of luck because this seems like one of the most exhausting experiences imaginable. What is it actually like to be on the river, maybe at the beginning, but also near the end when you can finally see the finish line? Well, when the gun goes off and they run to the river, it's just it's fine tingling. It's numbing this whole area is like an amphitheater. So there's ten to twelve thousand people here at the start. You can't hear yourself. And then as you're getting through town here and you're bumping and banging and trying to get yourself, you've got to remember, I got one hundred and twenty miles. Get your breath under control. Let's go keep it together. And what a lot of the paddlers will do is break it into three and four hour chunks so they can mentally process it. If you start here and go, I'm 16 hours away, that's a big thing. I tell people try to sit for 16 hours and read a book or drive for 16 hours nonstop. Now make it physical. And in the dark, you've got the marathon. Yeah. So canoeing in the dark. I mean, I have a hard time just doing it in the day when I'm running aground. I'm curious what sort of obstructions they might find along the way and how difficult it is to navigate that. Well, they all have light, you know, of some sort. They all do different things. And the interesting thing, guys, is with the high water we had this year, a lot of the obstacles, whether it be tree trunks and stuff like that, have moved and stand bars that weren't there are now there. So the river, as they knew it last year, is different this year. So it's a brand new race. And tell me, I understand that spectating this is also quite the experience. And I won't say that they're as committed as the canoers themselves, but what's it like just watching this thing kick off? Actually, even some of the paddlers themselves will tell you that spectating or feeding the race is as hard, if not harder, as actually paddling. You know, that's a question I commonly ask paddlers at the finish line. And they say, oh, no, it's way easier to be in the boat. So the Asaba River Canoe Marathon is known as the world's toughest spectator sport. There is a reason for that. It is 120 miles by river. It's a little less than that by road. But you're navigating some of the same sorts of obstacles that you would, you know, as a paddler, the night, the weather, the elements, you know, got to get keep yourself fed, fueled and, you know, beat the crowds. It's a lot of things to navigate even as a spectator, same as it is as a paddler. We try to make it a little easier for folks that can't be here on the river. I'm not gonna lie, being here in person is the best experience. We say it only takes one Asaba River Marathon to get you hooked. And, and that's the truth. It is an experience like none other. But if you're not able to follow it along the riverbank, we do our best to bring you a really stellar experience being able to follow online from wherever you are. So I mean, people, I don't know if they get really addicted to this, but I have to imagine you say they're hooked once they once they do it for the first time. How often are people repeating both the experience of spectating as well as canoeing? Generations. Yeah, this is very much a, it does. You say addiction, you use the word addiction, and maybe that's too strong. I think it's not too strong. I think you would hear that from both paddlers, spectators, volunteers, committee members. It really is. You can't experience something like this from any of those perspectives anywhere else in the world unless, you know, it's a family. It's a tradition. It is passed down through generations across all those different types of people. And we have, let's see, Lynn Witte. She's done 45, doing 46 this year. Billy Tarango has done 40, going to do 41. So it is addictive. And I will say, you know, there's some folks, it's a race. It is a race to Oscoda. But once all 103 teams get in the river, it's the challenge of getting to Oscoda. It's you versus the river. And that's where the fans root you on. They pick you up at the bridges and at the dams. They're cheering. And you get another jolt of energy. They want everybody to succeed. And that's where I think the fan participation is really cool in this sport because they hear you. They will say, I heard you at so-and-so. You made me smile. You busted me up, you know. And so when you hear that, people want to follow their teams, any teams, out-of-town teams, if they're struggling. Come on, you guys, you can do it. Let's go. The same thing every last weekend in July for the 40 years, and have their own established traditions and nostalgia that goes along with it.