225: David couldn't find the cabin

What Was That Like - True Stories. Real People.

Scott Johnson & Glassbox Media

True Crime, Documentary, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.6 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 8 August 2025

⏱️ 101 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

My favorite author is Jack London. His style of writing paints a very vivid picture in my mind. As I read his stories, it feels like I’m right there in the middle of it. One of his most well-known works is titled To Build A Fire. This is the opening paragraph of that story. Day had dawned cold and gray when the man turned aside from the main Yukon trail. He climbed the high earth-bank where a little-traveled trail led east through the pine forest. It was a high bank, and he paused to breathe at the top. He excused the act to himself by looking at his watch. It was nine o’clock in the morning. There was no sun or promise of sun, although there was not a cloud in the sky. It was a clear day. However, there seemed to be an indescribable darkness over the face of things. That was because the sun was absent from the sky. This fact did not worry the man. He was not alarmed by the lack of sun. It had been days since he had seen the sun. There’s something about the quiet, dark, biting cold of northern Canada that really fascinates me. I’ve lived in cold climates, but nothing like that. When the outside temperature gets to be well below zero, the constant thought is just what you have to do in order to survive. My guest today is David. He and his partner in this adventure, Scott, dreamed of spending time in those conditions. But what they encountered just in the first few days had them - from one hour to the next – wondering, what else could go wrong? Video of David and Scott returning to cabin site in 2014: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YHloQli_Gs History of the Doc Forgey cabin: https://www.docforgeycabin.com/ David’s book, Paradise Creek: A True Story of Adventure and Survival – https://www.amazon.com/Paradise-Creek-Adventure-Canadian-Wilderness-ebook/dp/B08KTXZ4S6/ref=sr_1_1 David’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidrscott/ Full show notes and pictures for this episode are here: https://WhatWasThatLike.com/225 Scott’s podcast: https://notrealart.com/ Graphics for this episode by Bob Bretz. Transcription was done by James Lai. Want to discuss this episode and other things with thousands of other WWTL listeners? Join our podcast Facebook group at WhatWasThatLike.com/facebook (many of the podcast guests are there as well) Get every episode ad-free, AND get all the Raw Audio exclusive episodes to binge, by joining the other listeners at What Was That Like PLUS. Try What Was That Like PLUS free: iPhone: at the top of the What Was That Like podcast feed, click on “Try free” Android: on your phone, go to WhatWasThatLike.com/PLUS and click to try it free on any app Sponsor deals: If you’re 21 or older, get 25% OFF your first order + free shipping @IndaCloud with code [WHATWAS] at https://inda.shop/[WHATWAS]! #indacloudpod Go to ThriveMarket.com/WHATWAS to get 30% off your first order, plus a FREE $60 gift just for signing up. Go to Quince.com/whatwas for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns! Get 15% off OneSkin with the code [WHATWAS] at https://www.oneskin.co/ #oneskinpod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	My favorite author is Jack London.
0:05.0	His style of writing just paints a very vivid picture in my mind.
0:11.0	As I read his stories, it feels like I'm right there in the middle of it.
0:16.0	And one of his most well-known works is titled,
0:20.0	To Build a Fire.
0:22.8	This is the opening paragraph of that story.
0:28.7	Day had dawned cold and gray when the man turned aside from the main Yukon Trail.
0:36.1	He climbed the high earth bank where a little traveled trail led
0:40.8	east through the pine forest. It was a high bank and he paused to breathe at the top. He excused the
0:49.4	act to himself by looking at his watch. It was 9 o'clock in the morning.
0:55.6	There was no sun or promise of sun, although there was not a cloud in the sky.
1:02.7	It was a clear day.
1:05.2	However, there seemed to be an indescribable darkness over the face of things. That was because the sun was absent
1:15.0	from the sky. This fact did not worry the man. He was not alarmed by the lack of sun. It had been
1:24.4	days since he had seen the sun.
1:30.7	There's something about the quiet, dark, biting cold of northern Canada that really
1:38.4	fascinates me.
1:40.5	I've lived in cold climates, but nothing like that.
1:48.1	When the outside temperature gets to be way below zero,
1:53.8	the constant thought is just what you have to do in order to survive.
1:58.1	My guest today is David.
2:03.6	He and his partner in this adventure, Scott, dreamed of spending time in those conditions. But what they encountered, just in the first few days, had them, from one
	...

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