- Hey, I'm gonna sing you my bear song.
- [Mark] And sing it.
♪ Fuzzy bear on Montana mountain tops ♪
♪ Cookin' marshmallows on the prairie ♪
(laughing)
♪ Fire ♪
♪ A fire on the mountain ♪
(cheerful banjo music)
What's going on, Coyote Pack?
And welcome back to Base Camp Montana edition!
- That's right, again real fire, real mountains
and today real marshmallows.
- Ooh! - Yes!
- Are you guys ready?
- Yes. - Here you go, Mario,
Let you start us off here.
- Alright, let's grab some.
- I got some nice skewers. - Here you go.
- Thanks, buddy.
- Nice retractable, this is like fancy.
- I know, we didn't even have to carve these with sticks.
- Here, Mark. - Thank you.
- Yummy. - You washed your hands,
right, Mario? - Of course.
- Hey, give me one more. - There you go.
- Gotta get one out there for the camera team.
There you go!
- Mario, I'm down one. - Here you go, bud.
- Alright.
- Roar roar roar! - Hey, hey, hey, easy.
- I get ferocious for marshmallows and deservingly so,
because today's episode is all about
somebody who actually loves marshmallows.
Do you know who I'm talking about?
- Oh yeah, he's got a big sweet tooth.
- Big, 750 pounds big.
- A Grizzly big.
- That's right, guys,
we're going back to the episode called Grizzly Attack,
which was amazing, we got to work with Adam,
a 750 pound male Grizzly bear
to show you guys what to do, or not to,
if you ever find yourself in that worst case scenario,
where you come upon a Grizzly bear in the wild.
- So cook s'mores now or after we do the work?
- No, Mario, stop!
No, first we have to do our work
and then we can have our snacks.
So let's review the video and then it's s'mores time.
- Alright! - Okay.
- Sounds like a plan. - Here we go.
This episode of Breaking Trail is brought to you by
the Buypower card from Capital One.
- Gotta have those campaigns sometimes, they really help.
- Well, it's not easy to work with a Grizzly Bear, or cheap.
(laughing)
There's your pine cone shot.
Back up real quick,
hold on a second. - Oh, man.
- Just so you guys know, - Oh, man.
- Mark loves to try to get pine cones in shots,
but it's gotta be the perfect pine cone,
it has to be the perfect frame.
So we figured, you know, let's get an epic pine cone shot
and it kicked off the Grizzly bear video.
- Yeah, and then, it's a little bit of a process,
- Yeah. - you gotta scour
the whole forest for the perfect pine cone.
- That's a good looking pine cone!
- And then the right beam of light.
I'm pretty proud of that one, I've got some other ones.
- Yeah. - That shot may have
won the award. - Is that the reason?
Oh, let's not, we'll talk about the award afterward,
- Okay. - and we'll do that,
while we're cooking s'mores.
It was a good shot though, thanks.
- [Coyote] I'm Coyote Peterson--
Selfie stick in action, look at that.
And we tend to forget that in the wilderness,
we are no longer at the top of the food chain.
- Oh! - Oh, buddy!
- I tell you what, - Oh!
- [Mario] some of those shots, epic.
- [Coyote] So pause it for just a second.
- Epic. - We're gonna get into
how we got those shots,
but getting bear shots is a lot tougher than,
- Yeah. - probably anybody thinks.
- Oh, yeah. - It's a lot of movie magic,
and it takes a lot of courage, right?
- Yes. - It's actually
a little dangerous.
- Very dangerous. - Absolutely.
- Keep rolling!
- Okay.
- I've got a lot of marshmallows.
- [Coyote] You see we've got the bear tracks
in the animation here with some elephant tracks,
old logo. - Yeah, retro logo.
- [Coyote] There's no wilderness greater
than the back country of Montana.
- [Mark] That's beautiful, the clouds were epic this day.
- [Coyote] Yep.
That is home to some of North America's
most incredible animals.
Every year thousands of adventurers--
- [Mark] Actually those shots are from right back here
on the property. - Yep.
Escaping the confines of everyday life--
So first time we ever put
a specialty camera underneath a car.
I remember being like, man, I hope we don't hit the camera,
because we only have one specialty camera,
that's the camera that's on the front of my selfie stick.
- Bear country. - Yeah,
actually pause that right there, go back to that shot.
What's cool is that's a real sign,
- Yeah. - we didn't put that there.
- No. - We didn't print this
and hang it up on something,
- No, we were hiking. - those were everywhere.
- Do you think people realize,
that you're actually in the shot,
you see, around the corner,
- Yeah. - you're like walking by.
- It's like a Where's Waldo shot.
- How many of you out there saw that?
If you really saw that, before I mentioned it,
tell me in the comment section,
I'm curious to see how many people
pick up on those little details.
- Where's Waldo, Where's Coyote?
- Yeah. - Yeah
- But yeah, we were hiking and we saw that
and we had to read it and obey the, you know, to be safe.
- [Coyote] For you is a common instance that can happen,
when hiking out here in the back country of Montana.
That was such a cool shot. - Pause that,
pause it right there.
That was epic, - Yeah.
- that shot. - Yeah, go back to that shot.
- Yeah, I mean, Adam,
he's roaring, - Yeah.
- and you got Coyote there with a hat,
like that's just epic.
I remember we actually printed those out
and made some like cards and stuff.
- Yeah, we had some cool photographs
and screen grabs from that
and I'm really close to that bear,
- Yes. - with like mouth full open,
giving you that display and it's nerve-racking,
that's for sure. - Yeah.
You got a little hornet friend hanging out here.
- Yeah, so-- - That's okay,
it's only a two on the Insect Sting Scale.
- We're out here, obviously outdoors
and we have some yellowjackets,
that are attracted to the marshmallows.
- Yeah. - So you know,
if this becomes a sting segment, that's okay.
- We already did that episode, so we're good.
- We'll be opportunistic. - Well,
Mark needs to get stung. - What about you?
- No, you. - We'll let Coyote pick.
- Keep it focused on the bears, guys.
Here is Adam, now Adam was raised in captivity
and he's a bear that's used for educational purposes
and as an ambassador for his species--
- [Mark] How nervous were you right there?
- Pretty nervous,
that's the closest I've ever been to a Grizzly bear,
first time I'd ever worked with a bear of this size
or any bear for that matter.
Scenario number one and best case for you
is if you stumble upon a Grizzly bear
and it doesn't see you, stop--
- This has happened to you.
- I mean, we've done the real thing,
- Yeah.
- and I've used this exact scenario before in the wild.
- You've used your own advice, huh?
- Yep.
You turn a corner and all of a sudden,
it's you and a Grizzly bear,
you see the bear and the bear sees you.
Now this is the most dangerous situation.
I love that shot there of his eyes,
he's like, "I'm watching you."
Look how well it blends into the environment.
- [Mario] Yeah, it really looks amazing there.
- That's a good one to talk about.
So that roar, right there. - Ah, a little movie magic.
- Yeah, let's do it one more time.
Did Adam really make that roar?
- Adam does not make that roar.
- No. - That's a huge misconception
about all bear films. - That's right.
In order for the trainers to get them
to open their mouths in a nonaggressive way,
it's actually food induced. - Yeah.
- Yeah, basically you wave a marshmallow
in front of Adam's face and he opens his mouth,
because he's gonna catch that marshmallow.
- Yep. - That's right,
and he does get it. - He does get it, yeah.
- He gets a lot of 'em.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
- Adam ate a lot of marshmallows that day.
- That's right. - Sure, but as Mark mentioned,
you see tons of films or documentaries,
where they add in that sound effect after the fact.
- Hm-mm. - Bears actually don't roar.
- Not unless they're really angry and aggressive,
if a bear is roaring at you in your face for real,
you're in a lot of trouble.
- Yeah, and that's not something that you want to happen,
when you're making a video about educating people.
- No. - We certainly don't wanna
antagonize the bear to get it to roar,
so it's a little movie magic,
thought we'd clue you guys in on how we did that.
- And the care and the comfort,
that goes through making something like this,
so that the crew is safe and the animal is safe
is of the utmost importance. - Yeah,
Adam was never upset during the filming.
- No. - He was actually very happy
and getting tons of marshmallows.
- Whoa, bear, whoa, bear, whoa bear!
If that bear feels threatened--
- [Mario] I love that perspective there.
- Hm-mm.
Back up into the forest,
once you know that the bear is out of eyesight,
you huff it to your car
or wherever it was that you came from--
- [Mark] I think he's looking for a marshmallow
right there. - He probably is.
You're always nervous when there's a bear on set.
- Oh, man. - It's just,
having a 750 pound animal next to you
is quite intimidating. - Right.
- Now, what happened there, Coyote?
- Back it up a little bit.
- Adam swatting at you, how was that done?
- That's one of Adam's commands.
What's amazing is that Adam has actually been featured
in a number of different famous movies
and also television commercials.
He, just like you would train a show dog
or you know, a canine
used, working with a police unit,
these bears are so smart, you can actually train them.
So he had different movements,
that like, they could do this or do this
and he would go woo, woo, like that
and swing his paws, he would put his ears back.
Amazing how smart he was.
- Yeah, and I think Adam was so well behaved,
so well trained, that and you tell me how you felt,
but to me, it's almost like Adam was a big dog,
- Yeah. - and after a while,
it was like you kind of lost the sense of intimidation,
because he was so well behaved.
- I didn't, I didn't lose. - Yeah, well.
- Dude, when you're on the ground like that,
that bear is literally about four feet
from me swiping his paws with full on bear claws,
I was super nervous to do that.
- You know, he was so big, his presence was so big
and sometimes when he was doing his commands,
yes, it's intimidating,
but then he's got this look in his eyes
and his ears are kinda like normal,
he does look, you know, gentle,
but you don't wanna get too close.
- I got close, super close.
- We could tell. - Yeah.
- [Mark] Whoa!
- [Mario] And that noise there, that you hear,
that's real, - Yeah.
- [Mario] he was actually making that noise.
I wanna get off my pack, throw it to the bear
and try to distract it, so that you can get away.
Bad idea.
This pack on your back, this is your barrier.
That's what most people think,
throw your backpack at the bear.
- Like a distraction? - You do not wanna
throw your backpack at the bear.
Get in the fetal position as quickly as possible.
Get down here like this, tuck in,
press your arms against your legs
and most importantly, get your hands behind--
Oh, I remember getting those shots.
- So that's the closest? - That's the closest.
So actually hold there on that.
So you see this, when he's right there,
I'm holding that specialty camera,
that's how we got some of those shots
with like that drool coming down.
So I'm holding a camera next to my face,
one of the most nervous situations I've ever been in,
that bear's nose and jaws, - Yeah.
- up against your neck and your head,
look how big his muzzle is next to my head.
- And you said you could feel him
breathing on you. - Does it happen in the video,
where he knocks your hat off?
'Cause I remember a couple, do we pause or cut this?
- I don't remember if that's in there,
but it is in some takes, where like,
- Yeah. - he would brush my hat off
and he's sniffing around, I mean,
the size of that bear's head,
my entire head could fit in his mouth, if he wanted to.
- I mean, that's like Revenant style right there.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
I don't think Leo used a real bear though.
- [Mario] No.
- [Coyote] I used a real bear, Leo, just saying.
- [Mark] That was my favorite shot.
- He might take a couple of bites,
he might take a couple of swipes.
That shot, these were so tough to get.
By about 90%.
- [Mark] You could actually,
hold on, that's kinda funny,
you can see here, see that little mustache?
- Yeah. - Yeah.
- [Mark] It's from all the marshmallows. (laughing)
- [Coyote] That's a marshmallow mustache right there?
- [Mark] Marshmallow mustache right there.
- Yeah. - But he looks so angry
and aggressive there, - Yeah.
- and again, getting those shots,
what we did is multiple camera angles,
actually the specialty cameras out sort of on sticks
and they would command Adam to do these swipes,
we kept 'em from a low angle
and a couple of times, he hit the camera,
- Yeah. - I mean,
but he was having a blast. - Yeah.
- And it's not like a stick to,
actually the sticks had a little marshmallow
on the end of them, so kinda like this.
- Right, and he'd swipe at him.
Survival by about 90%.
Wow.
- [Mark] How did Adam's breath smell?
- [Coyote] Like marshmallows.
(laughing)
I just gave you three great tactics
for surviving a bear encounter,
but there is one other thing that could save your life,
bear spray. - Bear spray!
- Don't go in the back country without it.
It is one of the safest things
you can take with you into the back country,
but you're gonna be real close to that bear
to have to use that bear spray.
- That's a last resort. - Yeah.
- Sort of worse cast scenario.
Man, that was intense.
- [Mark] I think avoiding the attack altogether
- Yeah. - is the best play.
- Paying attention to all the warning signs,
or when you're hiking, be in groups, things like that.
- Being loud. - Yeah.
- Singing songs. - Yep.
- You like to sing songs. - I sing lots of songs.
♪ Yo, bear on the mountain top ♪
That's one of my favorites.
Bears use their noses to follow their prey.
What I liked about this episode
is this is one of the first ones we did,
where we then transitioned from just like experience
into like educational presentation,
- Yeah. - made this episode
a little more girthy, gave it more substance.
- Yeah, this is like a very real moment in the video,
where Adam wasn't really supposed to be
like coming closer to you in the grass,
- Yeah. - and you can see,
when he moves his paw closer, how uncomfortable you get.
Watch this.
- [Coyote] Look at these quick moves.
(laughing)
- Ooh! - Yeah.
- [Mark] You were like, "Oh, boy!"
- [Coyote] So you may wonder, what is Adam eating here?
He's actually eating the grasses,
he loves to just chomp down on these sweet grasses.
- [Mark] Yeah, they're omnivores, right Mario?
- [Mario] Yeah, Grizzlies are omnivores.
- One feature about this bear that is incredibly impressive
is those front paws.
He's huge!
Absolutely enormous and at the ends.
The thing that's important to note
is that Adam is 750 pounds as a Grizzly bear,
now this is sort of the lower United States,
Grizzly bear variety, you go further North into Alaska
and you get into like the Kodiak bears,
they're well over 1,000 pounds.
- Oh yeah, sure, you get bears,
that are bigger than that for sure.
- The Grizzlies also have incredible hearing
and that's why you don't often see bears in the wild,
because they can hear you coming from miles away.
They're way more afraid of you,
than you really should be of them,
unless you stumble upon one. - Sure.
- [Coyote] Look at him, he's just nestled down in the grass.
- This is pretty cool. - Yeah.
- [Mark] Our editor, Chris actually put this together.
- [Coyote] Yeah.
- [Mark] A nice little territory shot.
- They've been pushed to near extinction
here in the lower 48,
only 800 Grizzlies still live here in Montana
and about 600 in Wyoming,
all of whom live in Yellowstone National Park.
Yeah, bears.
Completely awe inspiring
to be in the presence of a bear this size.
(laughing)
Look at him, - So big.
- [Coyote] he's just like sitting there.
It's something that hopefully you never find yourself in.
He did sort of do that Winnie the Pooh sit sometimes.
- [Mark] Yeah, yeah.
- [Mario] And he would scratch himself, I remember,
he'd kinda just start scratching himself.
I'm Coyote Peterson, be brave, stay wild.
- He's like, "I want more marshmallows."
- "Where's my marshmallows?"
- "Are we done yet?"
- Yeah, man, I wish we could even go back
and do another Grizzly episode - Yeah.
- With like an epic voiceover outro.
I'd love to like just get to work with Adam again,
take him out to the wild and really spend some time
getting some epic B-roll shots
- Sure. - of him just acclimating
and interacting with the environment
and again, for Adam to go out, we were quite a ways away
from where Adam is actually kept in his enclosure
and that's his natural sort of routine,
to go out, explore, eat berries, eat grasses,
great exercise for him. - Some exercise for him,
yeah. - Well, that's pretty cool,
definitely one of the most epic episodes we've ever made.
It is cool that it came in the first season
of Breaking Trail, - Yeah.
- we went from Snapping turtles to Grizzly bears,
- Yeah. - it was pretty big.
- It definitely set the bar,
I mean, it was by far the most ambitious video
of season one, that we tackled
and you know, it also won us a pretty cool award.
- Yeah. - Mario, do you remember that?
- Yeah, it's an award winning segment.
- Emmy award winning segment. - Emmy award winning segment,
it was before all the other awards, the very first one.
- Well, we didn't even have 100,000 subscribers
yet on the channel, so this was pre-silver button,
pre-gold button, pre-diamond button.
Hey, I went for the big trophy first, an Emmy,
- Yeah, why not? - pretty cool.
- Yeah. Why not? - Yeah.
- Now, speaking of big things,
I think it's about time to roast these marshmallows.
- That's right, I would say that the work is done,
other than the outro, you guys ready for that?
- Yeah, let's do that. - I'm Coyote Peterson.
- And I'm Mark Vins. - I'm Mario Aldecoa.
- Be brave.
- Stay wild. - Stay wild.
- We'll see you on the next Base Camp adventure.
It's s'mores time!
- So do you burn yours, or do you like to go
for a really like nice and even roast?
- Hot diggity dog, I do, I like these marshmallows to burn!
This is Montana fire!
- Nice and juicy.
- I'll tell you what you don't wanna do
is shake this marshmallow,
same way you wouldn't wanna shake a bear.
- Never shake a bear. - They're all on fire!
That one's good to go.
Quick, graham cracker me, somebody!
- Graham Crackers! - Grahams!
- Crew, graham cracker! - Toss it!
- Yeah. - Are they melted?
- [Mark] The chocolate,
you're just gonna have to kind of like.
- Smear it on your cracker, man!
- Shhhmear it. - Chocolate sauce!
Alright, I'm digging in, you guys ready?
- Yeah. - Alright, here we go.
- Oh, man, here we go!
Oh, it's hot! - Oh, my God.
Mmm!
- Oh, my God, oh, that's good!
- Mm. - Delicious.
- [Mark] Oh, yeah.
- I tell you what guys,
you really can't beat having a s'more on a Montana fire.
You know what this would look like,
if we were in the office?
A huge mess. - Yeah.
- Plus we'd probably get ants.
- Good graham. - Oh oh, man down.
- Woo! - Oh!
- I'm making a mess guys, but,
- I got a little toast. - it's delicious.
- Adam, this one's for you, old bear.
- [Mark] For you, Adam.
(light guitar music)
- [Coyote] Filming Base Camp in the wilds of Montana
was a fantastic change of setting
and if you missed the first episode,
make sure to go back and watch,
as we review our classic encounter
with the one and only Pine Marten
and don't forget, subscribe!
So you can join me and the crew on our next big adventure.
(light jungle music)