Welcome to the Huntback Hunter podcast as we are continuing in this series picking five of our favorite episodes from the past five years of the podcast.

Hopefully you guys have enjoyed these first couple of episodes as we've taken a look back.

And today we're taking a look back to a conversation actually two parts of a conversation.

This is going to be two episodes back to back all in one as we replay it for you guys today with Billy malls.

The modern day mountain man is he has been called but Billy as you will hear is a guide in Alaska who has been at it for I think 20 plus years now.

A ton of experience on multiple species in Alaska and at the time that we had this conversation Steve and I were preparing for our Alaska caribou hunts.

Steve at that time had already been to Alaska prior for both a moose hunts and a caribou hunt and I was preparing for my first experience in Alaska which I got to have this past fall.

Alaska is special for sure there's no doubt about it.

It's one place that many of us have wanted to go to dreamt about going to and I will say that's in my experience having taken two trips to Alaska now.

It essentially lives up to the hype man like it is a next level super cool adventure that I would encourage everyone to go on if they can make that happen.

And I think you can make it happen it might take years of planning or saving but if you make plan and start saving you can do it.

And I think it's worth it.

So this conversation not only just applies to hunting Alaska and that's most of what we talk about but Billy just has some great perspective on really hunting in general we get a little philosophical if you will and talk about how the hunting experience itself the challenge in the adventure and all of that is greater than the kill it's greater than just filling the tag.

Billy talks about how on a challenging hunt you can find out truly who you are and what you're capable of and that can apply to hunts in Alaska no doubt with the unique challenges that Alaska has to offer but those types of challenges and adventure can be had in many many places outside of Alaska.

So again we do talk nitty gritty on hunting Alaska getting into species and meat care and bear encounters and all that stuff that you would want to know about hunting Alaska but there's a lot more in here to so Stephen I thoroughly enjoyed these conversations with Billy appreciate his perspective and knowledge and excited to share it with you guys today hope you enjoy this one here is Billy malls.

Billy welcome to the hunt back country podcast thanks for joining us.

You bet you're happy to join you.

Yeah we're excited Steve how's it going today man really good yeah excited to talk to Billy here I think talking about care boo and Alaska it's obviously we're going on that hunt next year so it's kind of selfishly excited to learn a few things.

Yeah for sure so Billy just kind of give listeners context if you just introduce yourself and talk about what you're up to you know your experience with Alaska as well as just you know the general I know you put out videos and books and you guide I mean you're a super busy guy in the hunting space but just go ahead and give us kind of that background context.

Okay yeah I guess who I am I'm born and raised on a farm in Wisconsin I still live in Wisconsin to this day grew up you know like like a lot of hunters just kind of fascinated by nature started trapping at a young age my grandfather was a professional trapper in addition to being a farmer he would spend he'd go to northern Wisconsin spend six months out of the winter build a log cabin and he'd trap all winter long come home in the spring time cell is first use that money to buy seeds.

Started new farming season all over again so his pictures his stories his lifestyle really inspired me my dad I was eight years old I kind of basically recall her like it was yesterday we milked the cows one Saturday morning and threw a roadboat in the back of our truck and a pile of rusty traps and some older sticks and went to this little creek light and creek just three miles down down the road from my house.

We shoved into the slow sluggish current and we ordered away from the road and then I saw the road disappears we rounded the bend pretty soon Henry Heinz's house disappeared the telephone line disappeared and then I was surrounded by nature and I just it was like a lightning bolt moment almost I just instantly right there I knew this is how I wanted to live my life I wanted to live my life in totally remote untouched places where there's no evidence of man something in me came along.

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