Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome back to another edition of the Redleaf Fitness Podcast, a show dedicated to bringing you stories, interviews and conversations about living a healthy, resilient and productive life. I'm your host, sean Blinch, and I want to thank you for making time to listen to this episode today and, if you like what we're putting down, we would love it if you would follow, rate and share this podcast. All right, now let's get down to business. Welcome back to the Red Lee Fitness Podcast. On August 19th at 9.48 in the morning, I am sitting here with Trent and Michelle. How are you guys today?

Speaker 2: 0:44

Good, how are?

Speaker 1: 0:45

you, I'm doing very well. Today we have a very special podcast. We are going to be talking about a project that Trent and I dreamed up years ago. That actually took place over the last four days. So it'll be a lot of fun, and that project is the Redleaf Crucible. So, in a totally unstructured way, trent and I, via our most excellent foil, michelle, are going to do our best to bring out some of the best stories heartwarming moments, soul testing, you know tests.

Speaker 3: 1:34

Not too soul testing, but moments, but moments.

Speaker 1: 1:39

And so we'll do our best to sort of extract the best.

Speaker 3: 1:43

So what was the crucible?

Speaker 1: 1:45

Yes, good question.

Speaker 3: 1:49

You can answer that.

Speaker 1: 1:52

One needs to get deep in thought.

Speaker 2: 1:53

Trent Got it, so I feel like this one should be like video recorded as well.

Speaker 1: 2:03

So what? What does it sound like? The crucible is what. What do you hear from us?

Speaker 2: 2:09

okay from someone who is not and has not been really part of like the planning process.

Speaker 3: 2:15

So I come our stupidity yeah, that's always on display that's always you won't go down that road, sorry.

Speaker 2: 2:26

It sounds like like the first thing that pops to my mind is this like mental, physical, emotional challenge, and I'm not ever really sure where it goes from there, but that's where my brain, that's how I hear it every time. Is that on the right track?

Speaker 1: 2:44

Yeah, what do you think about that?

Speaker 3: 2:47

I agree. I think I think our ambition was maybe something was more physically and emotionally taxing and maybe you can't plan, maybe you don't want to plan for that, but ultimately, what we've been wanting to do is take our experience riding, running in the gym and get into the wilderness, exactly, and picking up off of the hikes that Kevin and I did last summer and creating our own experience in Ontario, which ended up being four day canoe trip for people in Algonquin park.

Speaker 2: 3:23

Yeah, was did it when you guys started dreaming? How long have you been thinking and planning, even like loosely talking about this?

Speaker 1: 3:31

Well, I think it probably started when Trent would tell me about his horseback adventures as a kid and that kind of spurred my sense of adventure and wanting to go and do that with him. And then then there was this idea of him and Kevin doing it. And for those that don't know who the, you know the the Kevin is. Kevin is a near and dear member of red leaf who now lives in the United States and is a from the United States but moved back there. But it was also a very close to Trent, michelle and I. He's a big character in our lives.

Speaker 3: 4:08

He's a mentor, yeah.

Speaker 1: 4:12

And so the idea was that they were going to go on this horse trip and I was going to come, and then the two of them went on these really, really exciting and incredible hikes called the Traverse, and then I think, sort of through all that on bike rides, trent and I were just like trying to think of some way that we could give back, and him and I are on totally different trajectories but we're also very keenly interested in becoming executive coaches and life coaches, in addition to what we do and how we're arriving there is very unique, but so this ties into a bit of that as well.

Speaker 1: 4:56

And the crucible. I think the name came up on a bike ride and we were both like, oh, this is so cool, we had all these ideas and we talked about it, talked about it, and then um, and then, and then we went and did it. But if I was caught in an elevator right and someone was like okay, what's? The red leaf crucible. Yeah, the one liner that I would give you is that it's a. It's a leadership and mentorship trip out in Algonquin.

Speaker 3: 5:30

And I think the challenge is to turn that ambition obviously into reality, but to take just a canoe trip.

Speaker 2: 5:38

Right.

Speaker 3: 5:39

And say, okay, anybody can go on a canoe trip. But how did we make this more? And I think we're still working on that? But it was four gentlemen who had, you know, loose connection to it. We all didn't know each other, which I think adds to the experience. We had varied degrees of experience paddling, which add I think that was, first and foremost, the biggest challenge is okay. And then all the camp craft about. Okay, we're going camping for two nights, three nights. We need gear, we need a menu, we need campsites, we need routes, we need kind of how does this all work?

Speaker 3: 6:16

And I think the ambition going forward would be to take that and spread that, and we did. We spread that responsibility around One person. Pat was in charge of menu, and it was incredible. And spread that, and we did. We spread that responsibility around one person. Um, pat was in charge of menu, and it was incredible. Finn was in charge of fishing, and it was incredible. Yeah, and Sean and Trent were the mules and we just packed everything. Everybody carried their fair share, except Sean and Trent had to push it a bit and say, no, we're going to carry more. Yeah.

Speaker 3: 6:43

Cause? Of course we did, because, of course we did, because of course we did.

Speaker 2: 6:46

But that's cool, Like it's not just like it sounds, like it's not just when you're in Algonquin, but the part of the process is the planning and having to work together with, like you said, like four people who are like loosely connected. But I don't, Sean, you hadn't met Pat before right.

Speaker 1: 7:03

No connected, but I don't. Sean, you hadn't met pat before right. No, I haven't. I've heard of pat for years as this like really cool guy who's great friends with trent since high school yeah, so that's a.

Speaker 2: 7:11

That's a whole other layer as well. Like how do these four loosely connected people plan for four days out in in the wilderness?

Speaker 1: 7:21

you know, yeah, there was so much planning. Trent, I think, did uh the. Trent and Pat definitely had the lion's share of the planning. I get you know in different respects. So Trent had, uh, he bore the weight of the the. Where are we going? How far are we going? What's it going to look like? And luckily he had some experience in that side of Algonquin, albeit long time ago, but he was able to draw upon a bit of that. Pat is an exceptional cook, huge foodie, and he was able to think through. Like the two of them as outdoorsmen was a total treat to watch you should have seen it in action.

Speaker 2: 7:57

It was incredible that photo of Trent and Pat is it the? Fish that belongs in a magazine somewhere.

Speaker 3: 8:06

It's such a good photo yeah.

Speaker 1: 8:08

That's pretty cool.

Speaker 2: 8:09

It was stuff like that.

Speaker 1: 8:10

Like it was just all day long. You know, I um, but one of the things that I want to mention is just that you know, Trent, and I kind of overthought it Like we were like okay, we can do this and we can do this and then,

Speaker 2: 8:27

we can land on the moon, and then we should. You know. Well, that's not characteristic, yeah.

Speaker 1: 8:30

But, um, I think we both knew that we needed some sort of beta where we needed to go out, see what happens, you know, and and let it come to us Right, and it did, and I think one of my main pieces of inspiration that I walked away with was certainly that there doesn't need to be a fitness element on top of how physical it already is. What are you thinking?

Speaker 3: 9:05

was probably going to be swimming, because you can't run in the, there's no trail, so so that was Sean, which Sean did on the end of the first day went out for a long swim in this shallow gross lake, um we had tons of ideas.

Speaker 1: 9:12

Right, I was like, oh, I could teach them to swim. But my, I think my main idea, what it would have been some sort of like push up, pull up, carry, some kind of teamwork thing, uh, which is a good idea. But I mean, when you go and you've when you like, what was our distance on the first day?

Speaker 3: 9:32

How many kilometers? 10, 10 to 12.

Speaker 1: 9:35

When you do 10 kilometers plus portage, you're good. Yeah, that's. That's the workout. Everybody had a nap yeah.

Speaker 2: 9:43

That's the workout, yeah, plus it's new.

Speaker 3: 9:46

I think that the newness and the uncertainty of, okay, is this the right campsite? We're all paddling together, is everybody together? Yeah, two portages getting used to doing. I think the newness, which also speaks to the crucible bringing people, we can all go if we all know each other and we can kind of create the team, but creating the team ad hoc in the. Moment was super cool.

Speaker 2: 10:09

It was super cool how you kind of figure out what to do next yeah, yeah, it was like I feel like that's such a big part of it because I think about, like when we do group stuff everybody, when you know each other, you all kind of in almost like inadvertently, fall back into your role. Like when Sean and I are doing stuff, we, we naturally fall into our roles that we have existed with for 15 years, right, when you don't know each other and you don't have that plan, you almost you also almost get to be somebody else. Yeah. Like you, a different. You get to showcase a different part of you.

Speaker 1: 10:43

It's really organic. Yeah, yeah, that's the word, and and one of the things that is is very clear to me was just okay, what is the format of this thing? And Trent and I were talking um in his session this morning that I think we both understood the size of it. Both understood the size of it. So, essentially, what we're likely looking at is going to be a maximum of six.

Speaker 1: 11:17

It's currently going to be focused on men, and that's not to say that there isn't going to be a women's version of this or a co-ed version, but I think right now, in its early iteration, that's going to be our focus and it will likely look there'll be a leadership team, and so it'll be me and Trent and whoever, whatever adult or whatever person, is going to be part of that leadership team.

Speaker 3: 11:42

Appreciate being considered an adult in this moment.

Speaker 1: 11:45

As do I.

Speaker 2: 11:46

It's a low bar guys.

Speaker 1: 11:48

That's when we get to be Michelle can challenge that so you get to try different roles. Some of the stories we'll tell will challenge that. I think We'll talk about the bear. I want to talk about the bear story.

Speaker 2: 12:00

Can I ask you, because I know about it, like why did you want to do maybe that's an important almost story to tell like where did this thing come from? Why did you guys think this is important?

Speaker 3: 12:14

what's your version sean, I got a version. I know my version. Go for it what you?

Speaker 1: 12:18

why don't you tell yours first, and then I can share mine?

Speaker 3: 12:21

um, you know, I think, all of the things that we learn and experience through the gym, through red leaf, in terms of physical capacity, we're out riding. You've encouraged triathlon. It's sort of expanding your physical and mental capacity into the world. So I think this for me was an extension of, you know, my love of being in the outdoors and sort of taking what I love about being on a bike, which is that sort of effort, solo, a little bit solo, but always within a group. And let's go back in the bush and let's go paddle for a reasonable distance. Let's, as we said earlier, experience all of those things around a canoe trip that give that stress you around.

Speaker 3: 13:09

You don't know what's next, you don't know what the weather is going to be like. You know, is the route going to be okay? What are the portages going to be like? Sort of all of that camp craft and uncertainty. You know how do we prepare for the weather, how do we prepare for bears overnight, all of those things that, if you've been in the bush a long time, kind of uh flow, but in a group it's always like how is this going to work? Is everybody?

Speaker 3: 13:33

going to be okay, are you going to? You know you're going to have the right amount of food you know, that's that was my version yeah, and not dissimilar.

Speaker 1: 13:43

The reason why this spoke to me so much is that I went on a really transformative canoe trip with my brothers and my dad Like three years ago. I didn't know existed and it's the. The only way I can explain it is the proximity to the source, right, uh, and that means something that gave me a wick to burn. It gave me, it, gave me length, it gave me a bandwidth. You know, I think bandwidth is a good term that people use right now to understand their ability to do anything in life right now. And going out there gives me incredible bandwidth to come back into the real world and be me. It also seems to drive up my self-esteem. It drives up my self-confidence, it drives up my identity and who I am. These are all things that I crave and I seek out, and that's why I go to hell and back in Ironman, because I'm looking for these things.

Speaker 1: 14:57

But if you look at all of the things that I do to find those things, they have a very yang nature they burn. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1: 15:07

And my life wouldn't be as good without them. But there is something about going into nature that delivers me this proximity to the source. That is like to the source. That is like some people find it in God, Some people find it in some kind of hobby or in yoga or in a long walk, or people find it. For me it was there and I think the best it's like okay, we'll define that. What is that? It's understanding how little I actually need to be happy, yeah, and how close I am to. That is so powerful and important, Uh, okay. So that's reason number one. That was really long with it.

Speaker 1: 15:55

I meant that to be a lot shorter than it was.

Speaker 3: 15:56

Tomorrow. Yeah, get on to the reason number two.

Speaker 1: 16:00

Yeah, uh so. And then the other reason is uh, as a kid, this is something that I really wished I had some kind of ability to go out and be near guys like Trent and Pat and just and just see how they talk, what's important to them, how do they respond to each other, what are the things that they're thinking about, and just be around that kind of leadership and just provide that to kids. Now, and that's the other thing about what I didn't say earlier what the crucible is.

Speaker 1: 16:37

So there'll be a leadership team of three and then they'll be. They don't have to be necessarily kids or teens or whatever, but their eligibility and their willingness and their hunger to go out and kind of find these things, that's what matters. Right. As far as their eligibility to be selected to come out on the next crucible. So is that?

Speaker 2: 17:03

Yeah, that answers it. Okay, yeah.

Speaker 1: 17:05

Yeah. So I think that's kind of what the crucible is, and then why both of us just love to do it or had dreamed it up and just you know, did it, had a great time.

Speaker 3: 17:16

And we really lucked out sort of geographically. We were thinking of going to Killarney and I missed the window to get campsites by a week. It was back in March.

Speaker 2: 17:26

Oh wow, crazy. Yeah, that's crazy.

Speaker 3: 17:28

And so I quickly realized okay, I need something relative, we wanted something isolated. So Sean's got experience.

Speaker 2: 17:35

Like removed away from Not.

Speaker 3: 17:36

Canoe Lake in Algonquin, which gets tons of traffic, and I knew that the Northwestern access through North T Lake was pretty remote. So, I thought, okay, there's a good chance. One, we'll have campsites. Two, there's not going to be a ton of people. And it's really cool because there's two outfitters on this the Lake Cowboy way mug Just before.

Speaker 1: 17:57

There's two outfitters.

Speaker 3: 17:58

Yeah, there's one on the far end which would have been crossing the whole lake, so we had the shorter one, which was great and it was a bit more isolated. So we kind of drive up there, spend the night and then the first thing the next morning, load the canoes, head down the lake and into this oxbow like whatever hour, paddle around really tight corners, over two beaver dams.

Speaker 1: 18:20

Oh cool. Did you know there were beaver dams when we first saw those?

Speaker 3: 18:25

yeah, because well yeah, and you can tell that they're beaver dams.

Speaker 1: 18:30

I had no idea yeah, I just, I just they were like a water feature.

Speaker 2: 18:34

So yeah, water feature we should explain that way.

Speaker 1: 18:37

so so we, we come up and, by the way, I'm super green at paddling and and at this point I'm working way too hard he's sweating buckets.

Speaker 1: 18:48

Like you're muscling it yeah burning Like I had done canoeing, but I've never been properly. No one's really refined me the way these three, like even Finn, who's with us, 17-year-old, just his camp craft. He taught me a lot, so they're you know, they're teaching me shit as we're going through and we get up to this. It looks it almost looks like like a mini waterfall, and there's two of them and there's white water rushing over top of these things. I had no idea they were frigging beaver dams.

Speaker 3: 19:18

Well, they're white water in kind of one specific spot, right, kind of one specific spot, right, yeah, and the rest is a dam. It's a dam, it's sticks and gets. When we came back, we had to pull ourselves over it, which is another story, but you know, there's an elevation to it, there's a structure to it. It's like, wow, these animals have built yeah, they're brilliant, they're incredible.

Speaker 2: 19:34

Yeah, they're there.

Speaker 3: 19:35

But going over them was pretty cool, man, it's hard to under play how challenging the paddling is, because you can get used to paddling in one direction and the person behind is sort of adjusting. But we're kind of basically doing figure eight, so you're constantly, you know, spinning around a corner and trying to get the canoe and it's like a lot of work yeah, which is why, and sort of managing.

Speaker 3: 19:58

So it's a great sort of warm-up to paddle and then then the next was two short portages and that's a whole other experience of getting you know, landing the canoe, getting the gear out. Okay, who's going to take what? Sean putting the canoe on his shoulders, putting a canoe and away. You go up the hill and not run into trees or fall on your knees and it became certainly on the way back.

Speaker 3: 20:22

It was okay. What can we add to this? So we put the heaviest packs we could on our bags and then put the canoes on you should have seen trent.

Speaker 1: 20:30

It was such a proud moment as, as you know, as a trainer, to see you know it was, it was exceptional, okay. So trent and I had the two biggest packs. We were the ones carrying most the gear, particularly trent. Uh, I guess the other heavy one would have been the food barrel at the beginning yeah and so, on the way there, we split up the work and we just did, you know, just canoe. But on the way back, um, I don't know. I don't know what got into us you know what?

Speaker 2: 20:59

always gets it over. We're all you know same thing that's like.

Speaker 3: 21:03

Everything's a competition, convers, competition, conversational pace conversational pace so 400 miles an hour yeah.

Speaker 1: 21:10

So so, trent, you know um I. I was like Trent, I'm doing my backpack and the canoe. I was like what are you doing?

Speaker 2: 21:17

He's like not that next thing I know, on goes his backpack and the canoe and his backpack.

Speaker 1: 21:23

is it a 50 liter dry bag?

Speaker 3: 21:26

Oh no, it's because the bigger barrel is 60 liters. So, that dry bag's 120.

Speaker 1: 21:32

Huge 120 liter dry bag with straps. This thing had fucking everything in it.

Speaker 1: 21:38

It was probably 60 pounds 60 pounds, hoped out over his back, grabs a canoe. That goes on his shoulders too, and we went straight up a hill. It was incredible and my pack was a little bit lighter than Chad's and it was tough, but I love that feeling, that feeling of that. You know the yoke so the middle part of the canoe is called the yoke and that feeling on your shoulders feels like a back squat and I just I really enjoy how that makes my muscles feel Right and so, but it was really frigging hard.

Speaker 3: 22:12

Your traps get, and by the end of it we're sitting in the car coming home and it's like, oh man, Yep.

Speaker 1: 22:17

I can feel that. Burn it and you try to balance the canoe.

Speaker 2: 22:23

You get the sweet spot then you lose it and then you lose it. It tips just a little.

Speaker 1: 22:30

And so I get down, I dump the and I see Trent coming up over there. I'm like, ah, trent, nice you know. And so that was great, that was a highlight, that was cool to see.

Speaker 3: 22:43

So we get to North Tee T and the plan was day one sort of go two thirds of the way down, sort of, from West to East on North T Lake. I had some, a couple of campsites in mind, I didn't know what they looked like, I just location wise. And then the next day we would go with that a portage to a lake called Manitou, sort of far end. They were kind of like eight to 10 kilometers each day and then come back the third day, 20k.

Speaker 2: 23:09

Oh God.

Speaker 3: 23:10

Which luckily we didn't do for a bunch of reasons. But we found, yeah, the first campsite. We kind of went oh you know, lunch, maybe we should just take a break. And it was like one o'clock and we'd been going since nine.

Speaker 3: 23:26

I was like ah, this is enough when you found a campsite actually really nice campsite. It was a bit shallow but it was great, kind of from a wood and space for tents, and everybody was like, yeah, we're done, let's all just chill, relax, get. It was a hot day, so that was set up camp. Of course, finn immediately goes fishing.

Speaker 2: 23:51

Does he love, like, love to fish, like, is there a fish? I think that's an understatement. Oh really, yeah.

Speaker 3: 23:56

I think he sits in the bathtub and fishes.

Speaker 2: 23:58

Oh, really yeah, Like he's that into it.

Speaker 3: 24:00

Oh yeah.

Speaker 1: 24:01

Yeah, and he's very good, he's very knowledgeable as well, and I, you know, I think he, him and his friends have that sort of fishing. They all share it okay, so they're all quite good at it. That's cool um, but you know I'll, I'll put in that, uh, we were sort of downplaying his the ability to find fish, because the area we were going in is not really like somewhere where people go and fish, right, and he was like screw you guys, like don't, don't, uh, you know don't limit me don't discount me don't count me out yet, I'm fine and we're like all right, whatever.

Speaker 1: 24:35

and even people we met finn would always ask he would always gather some intel on like, okay, what did you catch anything out there? What are you seeing? What are you you using? Yeah, what lures? He asked that guy, that fisherman, what are you using? And so he was always trying to set himself up for fish. And lo and behold, son of a gun.

Speaker 3: 24:59

Catches a four pound bass.

Speaker 2: 25:01

Come on.

Speaker 3: 25:01

And a three pound bass and another pound bass that Sean lost but it wasn't Sean's fault, definitely it was Sean's fault.

Speaker 2: 25:09

Did you guys have like food planned for dinner? Or we had a little bit of food, but like if you didn't catch fish, were you still eating.

Speaker 3: 25:17

yes, okay, yeah, yeah, pat, day one was a um thai green curry on rice made from scratch oh, made from scratch like curry uh shallots like that at home.

Speaker 3: 25:33

Oh no, this was curry shallots green, yeah, green paste what else? That at home? Oh no, this was curry shallots, green paste. What else was? In it. He brought curry paste. He brought curry paste. What was it? Bok choy oh my God. Bok choy onions, like they were all raw, cut them up, put them, stew them, and there was about 400 gallons of it and we ate it all.

Speaker 2: 25:56

This is amazing. We crushed it, the bok choy, all of it.

Speaker 3: 26:00

All of it, and then coconut chicken. Of course that it had frozen and it was all wrapped up in newspaper and stayed frozen and it was so good, it was so much food.

Speaker 1: 26:12

It was, and we needed every calorie, I think.

Speaker 3: 26:16

Yeah, there was nothing left we weren't leaving anything for the bears.

Speaker 2: 26:19

This is amazing yeah.

Speaker 1: 26:22

It was. It was unbelievable.

Speaker 3: 26:24

Then we wake up day two and it's okay, we're going to go to Manitou, so we start paddling pack up everybody. And day one was Sean and Finn, cause they knew each other, and Pat and I because we knew each other, and then we switched it up just for variety. Yeah, and my sense was that.

Speaker 2: 26:41

So who went with who?

Speaker 3: 26:42

I went with Finn and Finn preferred bow. I like being in the stern Sean.

Speaker 1: 26:49

Which side of the boat is that, though For folks that?

Speaker 3: 26:53

The front of the boat is the bow.

Speaker 2: 26:56

Back of the boat is the stern back of the boat is the stern.

Speaker 1: 26:58

I didn't want to ask that question, but well, they're that they were talking and I had, I was like okay what like my front or the back?

Speaker 3: 27:02

yeah yeah, and then, yeah, how often you switch. And so, yeah, the content, we'll get into the contrast of paddling styles, um. But I said, okay, pat, you go in this because sean was still learning, we'll leave him at the bow. The the front, cause it's just pull, yeah, and then the back is all the steering adjustments. So Pat's got more experience with that. Uh, and I figured over time, you know, the risk was, as Sean figures it out, cause he's so powerful, they were just going to take off, so that more or less is what happened.

Speaker 3: 27:36

But, um, so away we go. Okay, we're going to manitou and I screwed up, went down the wrong channel it was the best thing, though I'm so glad that happened yeah, we ran into some people and we came back and as we're coming back, all of a sudden we realized we've left finn's fishing rod at the previous camp.

Speaker 2: 27:54

Oh shit.

Speaker 3: 27:56

And he's like, okay, well, we'll get it tomorrow, right, it'll be there, no one will take it. I was like, yeah, that's okay. And he said the only thing is, you know, if I lose it, I lose it. But I really that the real was his dad's and he really we're getting that today and I thought here's an opportunity, because I sort of said when we get to where we're going, sean and I will go for a little paddle and we'll work on technique. I said, well, here's our opportunity. We're going to stop at this point, sort of correcting our course. We're back on the right course. Drop the canoe or pad and Finn. At this point unload all the canoes and Sean and I motor into the wind like 20 minutes back to the camp, grab the fishing rod, jump back in the canoe, motor back.

Speaker 1: 28:44

So I bowed, I sterned going, I was in the back going up there work on technique, and might I say we motored into the wind like a couple of. I was at the bow like Ragnar Ragnarsson you know who's that. Famous Viking.

Speaker 3: 29:01

And then we were trying to adjust. One of the things is to make the catch vertical and not sideways. The problem with that is you adjust your upper body. Sean learned about slamming his fingers against the gunnels, oh it hurts.

Speaker 3: 29:14

Crush crush, crush, which is a little bit painful. And then, coming back, sean got a chance to work in the stern and just try and work Ideally, and that's the experience like when you're paddling and then you have to make the big adjustment. You don't want it, you want little micro adjustments so that that's both suddenly not going 45 degrees to your course and you crank it over because you lose so much momentum, so you're trying to just paddle like that. So work on that it was.

Speaker 1: 29:43

Yeah, I'm so glad that it was the best thing. So I had asked trent that morning. I said, hey, like when we get to our campsite, would you mind taking me out?

Speaker 1: 29:50

and teaching me how, like, teach me how to stern, and because it's it's pretty refined, like so you have to take a stroke and then sort of just slightly curve your, your uh, your paddle in the J, in a J, and then that way you do that, and so you have to do that with the beat of the person in the bow or the front, and so it's it. There's a lot of technique there, and so Trent did it while we went into the wind and then, while we had the wind with us, gave me the chance to go in there and sort of figure it out, and by the end of it I understood the physics of it Right. So it was super helpful. I'm glad that happened.

Speaker 3: 30:31

Yeah, the famous J stroke, yeah, yeah. And then we, so I'll just keep going, is that right? Yep? So we keep paddling and we're like, okay, our ambition is still get. Oh, and because we'd run into by making a mistake, we ran into somebody and they said there's two portages into Manitou Lake. There's a short one and a long one. Take the short one. And the guy says no, no, no, no, take the long one. There's a surprise, and it's going by sort of for some rapids, and I was like, oh, it must be a nice view or something, and then we'll get into the next camp and we'll get next lake and keep going. So we get to the long portage. We've had a pretty good paddle. We've added an hour because of my mistake.

Speaker 3: 31:16

But it's a beautiful day, we're paddling away, just, I think you know, going back to the concept of the crucible and just that zen of paddling yeah and just the pace and the conversation and the quiet. We could talk forever about that and we're sort of sitting, so pat sean and myself are kind of unloading canoes because finn's got to go out and fish. He goes booting down the, the trail and he comes back, finn does.

Speaker 3: 31:38

Finn does. And he comes back and he's like so excited he says you cannot believe what I found. You got to come and see this. So we kind of go down, drop everything, we walk down the trail. There's this beautiful campsite, overlooking this waterfall, or series of waterfalls. And it's all big chunks of rock. That's all flat and slab. Oh, wow.

Speaker 3: 31:58

And it just sort of flows drops, flows, drops, so it's not huge volume of water, but it's beautiful sound and it looked so cool and there was this perfect campsite. I was like, yeah, we're staying there.

Speaker 2: 32:09

Is that where you stayed?

Speaker 3: 32:10

We're like we're not going any further, plus 450-meter portage over a hill. It's like, oh, we don't want to have to. The idea was to go into Manitou, not go very far, and so we would do that portage twice. And we're like, nah, maybe we don't want to do that, and this was just so beautiful.

Speaker 1: 32:26

It was unbelievable, is this the video that you had. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 32:30

Of the waterfall. That's where you guys, yeah.

Speaker 1: 32:32

Oh wow, right on those waterfalls.

Speaker 2: 32:34

Wow. Yeah.

Speaker 3: 32:36

So yeah, Finn went off fishing, so we didn't see him for three hours. Yeah. Then Pat is a really expert birder and he's very knowledgeable about the forest, so he went for a wander looking for birds and, of course, Trent and Sean had to play in the waterfall.

Speaker 1: 32:52

Oh yeah, we got into it the videos of you guys. It's like we were flipping around in that. We were like there was no end, like we tried every single, like water feature and like you, sat under every single absolutely upside down, right side up, face first, face down.

Speaker 1: 33:15

And we found. Trent found it. I was too freaked out. So in this one particularly fast whitewater section there was a couple of dropouts and I didn't know what was in there. I thought there might be some sort of ancient creature that I would open Snapping turtle ready to eat you yeah that I was going to awaken simply. It had been waiting a million years to wait for me to slumber.

Speaker 1: 33:38

And so, anyways, trent goes in feet first, right into these, you know. And it turns out it's this, perfectly formed like chair, which we called the throne Not that kind of throne, but yeah. And you sit in it and there's white water just crashes all over you and it just bangs you around it's like a full body theragun yeah, wow.

Speaker 2: 34:00

Is that, is that the video where you guys are sitting? Is that where you're sitting?

Speaker 1: 34:04

he, he wasn't in the throne, but it was beside that, okay. But yeah, like you'd sit in that thing and there was so much force that that water would have just taken your swimsuit and flung it down the we, we both had to tie up our suits?

Speaker 3: 34:17

Probably definitely. It was like get in and get out.

Speaker 1: 34:19

My ass came flying out immediately.

Speaker 3: 34:22

There's a famous series of waterfalls You've probably seen on tourist movies in Jamaica where you climb up and you work your way. I don't know if you've ever seen that.

Speaker 2: 34:29

Maybe no.

Speaker 3: 34:30

This is just because it was all block, it was perfect stone because it was blocks. There were sort of cracks at sort of four foot intervals. Yeah, it was layered and it just yeah it was very cool, it's an old.

Speaker 3: 34:44

What's amazing about Algonquin too is you sort of, is this pristine wilderness? But in the 1800s it was fully logged, so there's remnants actually at that campsite of a place. They sort of avoided that series of waterfalls and they created a flume for the logs to go down and there's still pieces left in the rock of the hardware. So all over Algonquin's like that and you think, wow, it's sort of a weird man came in here and destroyed it and then, nature put it back together again.

Speaker 1: 35:14

It's crazy to think about that. Yeah, nature put it back together again. It's crazy to think about that. Like it's hard enough for us to navigate those harsh elements. Imagine what the hell they went through to do that.

Speaker 3: 35:26

Oh yeah, Like 100 years ago, 150 years ago, they didn't have all the fancy gear Right. Imagine canvas and wool sweaters and you're soaked and yeah, that's pretty cool. We saw bald eagle coming back.

Speaker 1: 35:42

You know, just the wildlife and the birds and then we we heard the call of the bald eagle yeah you know, in like the movies where that sound of their sort of shriek, yeah, echoing in the distance, that's a real thing. It's not a sound effect. I didn't know that.

Speaker 2: 36:00

I never thought about it.

Speaker 1: 36:01

Yeah, it was.

Speaker 3: 36:03

You sort of look around and it was, and all of a sudden it landed in this tree and it just sort of sits there and looks at you.

Speaker 1: 36:08

Huge. Yeah, we saw it. We didn't see them. I wanted to see a moose, but we didn't get to see that, but we did see a lot of cute muskrat, fish turtles.

Speaker 3: 36:19

Yeah, coming back the last day, back through that really windy river, because the river is like no wider than this room. You're paddling along, so the shoreline's right there. So between me and you there was a mom and a little baby muskrat sort of munching away on something.

Speaker 1: 36:35

Just hanging out in the water. Oh, so cute. Yeah, they're just, they're otter-like, yeah.

Speaker 2: 36:41

Oh, otters are too much yeah.

Speaker 1: 36:43

So cute, so I feel can I Go for it. I want to tell the story about how Finn finally caught his fish. Yeah. It's one of the absolute highlights of the trip. So it's night two. We're pretty hungry. Pat is at work, master craft in the kitchen and he's cooking. What was it?

Speaker 3: 37:10

It was called dan dan, which is a noodle, and it was TVP sauteed mushrooms. They were fresh mushrooms sliced, sauteed with tvp, and then a szechuan peanut sauce on noodles with scallion and, uh, chickpea garnish of course it's a garnish oh, two garnishes in the woods yeah

Speaker 1: 37:32

it was amazing so pat's working away at this, while yeah, and, and finn just sort of takes off and dinner is coming to being ready and, uh, it smells really good. And I'm, I'm, I walk over to my tent to go put something away or something and I see an out of breath finn running up the path and he's like. He's like come, I need your help, you got to come now. And I'm like, so we, I follow him, I go, I don't even tell trent now he disappeared, yeah, I just go flying.

Speaker 1: 38:03

Because I actually thought at first he was hurt or someone was hurt yeah and I was like there's no time to.

Speaker 1: 38:09

And then so I'm like, so what do we do? What's going on for what's? He's like I, I caught so many fish. You're not going to believe this. And I'm like, oh shit, I should have told Trent we were going all right, let's go, let's go, hurry up. And so we get there and he's so excited he brings me over to this tiny little, almost like aquarium tank he built out of rocks at the shoreline of the launch there and then he starts teaching me how to fish. He's like, oh, you're gonna do this and you just throw it. And uh, and the in the one is. First of all, he. We weighed through the water to get over to a special place and he found where two currents met is where there were probably 50 huge bass. Oh, wow.

Speaker 1: 38:57

Yeah, huge. There were four, five pounders, small mouth bass. In case you're wondering what size of mouth they were.

Speaker 2: 39:05

That was my next question. They were small mouth.

Speaker 1: 39:07

Okay, yeah, and he's-.

Speaker 3: 39:11

Not like Sean's mouth.

Speaker 1: 39:12

Yeah, not like big mouth Sean, not like Sean's mouth, yeah, like big mouse Sean. And in in the cast that he puts out to teach me, he ends up catching the biggest one of them all and he fights like hell real in that soccer and I'm seeing it flip around and I'm, you know, I didn't really grow up fishing it's it's something that's really foreign to me. So I see it was super exciting and to see him do it right, yeah.

Speaker 3: 39:39

No.

Speaker 1: 39:39

And to do it, like you know, because all he wanted to do was catch a fish for the group Right. To see him be able to succeed doing that was really special. And we pull them all in. And then Trent comes marching down.

Speaker 4: 39:53

He's like he looks he's like guys dinner, let's go. What?

Speaker 1: 39:57

Trent comes marching down. He's like he looks, he's like guys dinner.

Speaker 3: 40:00

Let's go. What are you messing around? Fine gramps, you got to come home and eat dinner.

Speaker 1: 40:03

And then Finn's like no, no, look, look down there. And then Trent's like oh okay, and then realizes, and then we're all kind of, and then Trent goes into, like you know, fisherman mode basically, and we figure out how to transport them.

Speaker 2: 40:21

And I lose one of them. Where'd you lose it?

Speaker 3: 40:23

He picked it out of the aquarium and it was sort of slippery.

Speaker 2: 40:26

Is it alive?

Speaker 3: 40:26

still, they were ostensibly dead, yeah, except this one wasn't dead. Okay, so it kind of wiggled in Sean and he drops it and he's kind of chasing. It was like this comedy. Sean takes a step, reaches down, grabs it, swims out of his hand yeah. Takes a step, reaches down, grabs it, swims it and then it's gone. It's like which was a blessing, because we had 400 pounds of fish.

Speaker 2: 40:46

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 40:46

Plus 400 pounds of dinner Right.

Speaker 1: 41:02

So we get back, you know, carry it, and Finn's carrying it by the teeth and he's carrying it by the gills, and we're yeah, we had fuck, we had more fucking fish than jacques cousteau on his maiden trip to northern maryland, like there was just tons of fish, you know, and we had to eat it.

Speaker 2: 41:07

Like what are you, yeah, yeah, what are you gonna do? What are you gonna do? You've already killed it.

Speaker 1: 41:08

You killed it, yeah so now we're gonna clean it and we're not gonna, you know, have fish sitting around the camp no but it's like the big neon come on, bears, free fish but the thing is like when you carry, you've got to carry it by its mouth, and so, you know, finn sort of sets it up. He's like okay, now put your thumb in there. And I grab it, like, and it starts like chomping on my finger. I'm like nope I'm not carrying fuck, that thing goes flying.

Speaker 1: 41:35

I thought it was dead so I was gonna be able to just go pick its gross ass up again, and you know, and then, and then it starts flipping around. I'm like, oh, it's probably gonna swim away, I definitely gotta, oh, let me just reach for that whoops it's got it away. Guess you two are carrying the other ones, and so you know Trent's thumb goes actually no, did Finn carry them?

Speaker 2: 41:56

You go back to the chicken.

Speaker 3: 41:57

I think Finn carried them both.

Speaker 4: 41:58

Yeah, one of them was on the line we offered to carry one. Yeah, anyways, yeah, fish.

Speaker 1: 42:04

Fish. We march them back, and I'm going to share my favorite, one of my favorite lines. So we march them back and we're trying to figure out whether the fish goes in the dish or not, and so Finn elects us to eat the dinner, and then we were going to have the fish after for dessert. So we end up eating so much of the Dan Dan that we are stuffed to the gills. Pardon the pun.

Speaker 3: 42:32

And there's still noodles left, tons of noodles left. And I was I, because we asked Pat, and pat and I are like okay, I'm not that hungry. And I'm like I'm not hungry, but finn and sean like oh no, we're hungry. So it's like pat tells me okay, put as many noodles as you can into the three liter pot which we did, which meant there were 400 pounds of noodles. And then they're like oh, we're not that hungry. I was like what?

Speaker 1: 42:57

I didn't realize how many noodles we were going to bust out of there. I thought it was going to be like the rice Right, so everybody's eating noodles. Yeah, and so we, yeah, so everybody's stuffed. And then, I don't know why, but Trent produces this line that sends me into a giggle fest for 48 hours. I couldn't handle it so. So trent goes, everybody save room, save room for bass I lost my mind that funny but it was, it was the way he said.

Speaker 1: 43:36

It just you know, of course, like the line you know save room for dessert. Yeah, never in my entire life have I ever heard save room for baths. It's just so ridiculous I lost my mind.

Speaker 3: 43:54

So we have to clean them and then fillet them. So, Pat and Finn. Finn had an okay he had admitted it wasn't the best filleting knife because it's got some serrated edges which aren't good. So he was working away on one fish. And Pat had a pretty good his kitchen chopping knife which was quite small but it had a great blade for doing fish. And Finn was just so excited about opening up the stomach and there was a crayfish in there, so he's pulling out the bits of the crayfish. He's got the jaws.

Speaker 1: 44:23

Sean's like get me out of here. Do you want to see? Let me show you a picture of this. But you should have seen Trent with the fish. It was exceptional.

Speaker 3: 44:32

Kissing, no, that's yeah, Trent has this weird ritual to kiss the fish. No, I filleted a lot of fish. That was easy. And then, yeah, the technique of getting it off the rib cage. So now you've got two fillets with skin. And then there was conversation like, well, you don't eat bass skin unless you can descale it. Salmon, you can eat the skin Bass, I don't know what other fish but you have to scale it because it's got these little hard scales. So theoretically you could scale it. Ew, that's a gut shot.

Speaker 1: 45:15

Right now I'm showing Michelle a picture.

Speaker 3: 45:17

Of an eviscerated fish.

Speaker 1: 45:19

Of the fish with its like gut open and Finn is pulling out. That's gross Of crayfish, that the fish had eaten and of course he couldn't break down the.

Speaker 2: 45:33

The crayfish.

Speaker 1: 45:34

Like the claw. Yeah, did you see it?

Speaker 3: 45:38

I saw it live, actually believe it or not, I don't need the picture. But then there was a whole technique about getting the skin off, so I was showing Pat how to do it. So that was fun, because what you do is you cut it along the head, at the very back, near the tail, because you've cut it off the tail, have you?

Speaker 2: 45:56

cut off the head.

Speaker 3: 45:58

Yeah, you've pulled it off the head, so all that's left of the fish is the carcass with the ribcage, guts, head and the tail, and you've sliced off all the meat and so now where the tail end of it was, put a little incision down to the skin and then turn the knife. Now it's between the skin and the meat and you just go shh.

Speaker 2: 46:17

And it comes right off, it comes right off, especially if you have a good knife. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 46:24

So that was sort of a learning moment for everybody. And Trent's knife he had his multi-tool, his Leatherman, which I could only imagine that was a freshly sharpened knife by you. Oh, yes, yeah, yeah oh, yes, yeah, yeah, and so trent was.

Speaker 1: 46:34

Just I would never take a dull knife into them yeah manic about sharp knives it was exceptional to to watch and I just sat there like for me getting getting involved in in all that wasn't, you know, like I'm way more keen and we're getting involved in other areas, but for me just to sit back and kind of watch that kind of stuff happen was really neat.

Speaker 3: 46:57

We were lucky to. Yeah, I think you couldn't have asked for a broader variety of experiences in terms of geography, animal life, the fishing, you know.

Speaker 3: 47:08

And then you know, finish dinner, do the dishes, and now it's going to rain. So now we've got to set up for rain. So what are you going to? You know, we're going to get a tarp out, we're going to wear it's our gear. It's sort of there's this constant of not evolution constant series of rituals that you do when you're in the bush to make sure that when you wake up the next morning it's not a mess, right?

Speaker 3: 47:34

Oh, and you's far away from your as far away from your camp as possible, Sort of all of that arrangement and doing that in a way that you just chill, it's not like. It's not like oh no, or it's we're working too hard, or it's like con.

Speaker 1: 47:47

It was just we could just hang out by the camp and, yeah, it was a really and if you, you volunteer for a job like what, what I thought was really neat, and what happens a lot on trips like this is, there becomes this culture of who can help the soonest. You're always trying to think ahead of what job needs to be done, and someone's always keen to get at it, which is nice, and so I tried to help where I can.

Speaker 1: 48:18

When you watch Trent and Pat just work a campsite, you try to find areas where you can fill the gap and they're very good. They'll be gracious and ask for help in here and here and here, so I always made sure that we had water filtered, did dishes when I could, but ultimately it was Trent and Pat who did most of the work, right Especially after Dan Dan, when I just was, I passed.

Speaker 2: 48:45

Were you in a coma, total coma yeah.

Speaker 3: 48:50

Finn's got his fish, whatever, whatever, over overdose, and he's baked, so he's gone to bed. And then Sean's like this is it's eight o'clock, it's two hours past my bedtime, I've got so much food in my belly I can't move. I got to go to bed. It's like, okay, good night. And then Pat and I are looking at each other Well, I, old guy, is going to put the camp get ready for the rain, we're going to hang up the food, we're going to put the tarp up. It's like yep, I hope those little kids have a good time in their bed tonight yeah yeah so I owe you one for that night, that's for sure and of course, it rained.

Speaker 3: 49:30

You know when, after we went to bed, yeah, and it stopped raining before we woke up. It was brilliant, yeah, yeah, and you could really tell you know Sean's point about. I think that's your objective especially bringing experienced and inexperienced people together would be to watch the evolution of that team working together and the contrast between, as we, as we left, as we headed out in the first two portages, and the paddling and all that sort of stuff, versus going back. There was this and I think that's for me the sweet spot of you know, I think, especially if you ride with Sean at conversational pace, there's no conversation and you don't really see the road. You don't see. You know. Yes, I try and look around once in a while, but in a canoe, especially when you're going to canoe for three and a half hours, you just find that pace, that you can keep going.

Speaker 2: 50:23

You can like settle into it, you settle in and you're just aware of the world around you.

Speaker 3: 50:27

And we had this beautiful morning of calm lake, no wind, wasn't too hot, and we were all talking about that sense of you know, when you're riding, there's rollers and there's you know, you don't. You can sort of see ahead maybe a kilometer or something barely, whereas you're sitting on a lake, you can see four kilometers down the lake and you're sort of paddling away and it looks like we're never going to get there. You paddle for an hour and it looks the same. You paddle for another hour and all of a sudden, oh, it's closer, and so it's that that kind of moment, all meditative moment, of there's a bit of conversation, there's a bit of silence, there's a bit of paddle, there's a bit of you know, stop, get quick snack, um, and just keep going, and sort of that you know, you sort of think about it.

Speaker 3: 51:16

We were paddling on one side for three hours, so it's not a lot of things we do. And it's your shoulders and arms. It's not you know, think about the strength in your legs but the mechanics of that paddle on your arm for three hours and being able to do it. And it's not a physical effort, it's more a mental and an emotional effort.

Speaker 1: 51:37

Burn, burn in your shoulders and it just starts to fade, or you just stop noticing it.

Speaker 2: 51:43

yeah, smash your fingers against the gunnels yeah yeah, but you don't really have a choice right. Like it's not, like you can be, like we're tired of paddling, so let's just be done right now.

Speaker 3: 51:54

You know, and you have to paddle together.

Speaker 1: 51:58

That's yeah that's a tricky part too I think one of the my favorite things about what you just said was just the evolution of the team starting to work together, and that is so, uh, at the core of exactly what we want crucible to be about. Uh and just and, and how you take that into the greater world after is is key. The skills that you learn that are quite silent because it's not like you know. We we set up a PowerPoint that happens in real time and you're learning those lessons. They're critical.

Speaker 3: 52:32

And you're not being. It's not, you're not stuffing it down, it's no agenda, right, a PowerPoint, or here's the skill that we're going to take off. It's like no, you're just going to go out there and it's sort of this natural evolution of how do I get better. For me it's also humbling because we put a lot of effort into helping each other get better. But I really admire the ambition of. There was tons of people we passed coming in because it was Saturday morning who were coming in on their journey down this little winding path and it's just all manner of paddling styles and gear and it's like wow.

Speaker 3: 53:09

I encourage people to say you know little kids, you know families with little kids, which is so cute and the kids were just having a blast right on the portages and in and out of them, but then people that couldn't paddle at all and I was like, wow, like you have a long day ahead of you, but good on you like you're trying it yeah, they were, and they were looking at us and going wow, those guys, yeah, they know what they're doing you should have seen us.

Speaker 1: 53:34

We were like a dragon boat team by the end. Uh, at one point I abandoned these guys. So I I went back to go get like the, the nicks and nacks, the paddles and whatever, and I stopped to help this, this family, because the kids just totally won me over. Like these were nine, ten year olds and they were picking up these probably 40 to 50 pound huge set backpacks and putting them on their back. They were so heavy, these kids were toppling over and they looked like a like, a like a beetle upside down and like I would go and pick them up and I would like all right, does that feel comfortable?

Speaker 1: 54:13

we put the sternum strap on and I was like, okay, I want you to lean forward now. And I was just having so much fun and the dad was coming up with the canoe on his on his back and you could just see how thankful he was yeah thank you.

Speaker 1: 54:26

It was like don't even, of course, like it was just so fun to see this crew coming up, and he ended up saying like we didn't expect these kids to give us this much help, but they're all excited and so they got part of it and so that was really cool and helped them and then eventually got back to you guys. Yeah, it was cool to see.

Speaker 2: 54:49

I feel like it would be really cool when you guys like take out a couple of people maybe like their confidence is low or they're not like naturally inclined to try things and see how just like what you're saying the evolution of their willingness to like be courageous or work together or try something new, try to just like figure it out, cause you kind of don't really have a choice.

Speaker 3: 55:10

Yeah, yeah, or blow up and then have to figure it out, yeah.

Speaker 1: 55:15

There's an element of self soothing, and I don't know if this happens to you, but there are. There were moments on that trip where I'm like homesick and I'm like like I'm out here, and there are times I don't want to fucking be right here, my back hurts, I'm hungry, I'm cranky, fucking this stupid paddle, I'm smashing my fingers and and then, and then that moment's gone, and but you, you, there is no escape valve no you're there, yeah, up, you know well, that's like very similar to like, I think, when you start like cycling and stuff for a long time and a lot of the stuff that we talk about like as as like I get going longer and longer.

Speaker 2: 56:00

It's like you, if you can just sit with it for long enough and there is no exit strategy outside of, you're either going to force it out of your brain and or you're going to just sit with it for a bit, you know. And then you, you get those moments where it's like, okay, well, let me ride that thought through and then I carry on.

Speaker 1: 56:18

That reminds me of what you said in our last podcast it's not too hard, it is hard yeah, it just is tons of moments like that, and that's that's really important for people to go through.

Speaker 1: 56:28

And doesn't matter how old you are, because a lot of us get into this, these modes of automaticness with our, the comfort within our lives, and, and while that's very good, I don't we none of us want to get rid of our, you know, the comfort things in our. It's not. It's it's good for you to get out of that and then return to it.

Speaker 2: 56:46

Yeah, you met. I think putting yourself in that scenario where you, you truly don't have a choice, like you guys are out in the middle of a lake If you get tired of paddling, well, you're kind of shit out of luck, like, okay, you can sit and sulk about it for a bit, but you still have to go somewhere.

Speaker 1: 57:01

You're in the middle of a lake.

Speaker 2: 57:02

Like what's your plan?

Speaker 1: 57:03

You know you're up shit lake with a paddle and you're going to. You know. Yeah, you're actually there, yeah.

Speaker 2: 57:09

You know and like, you fabricate these scenarios. Where you get to like, rise to the occasion.

Speaker 3: 57:15

And the last yeah, the last day was a probably a 15 kilometer paddle.

Speaker 2: 57:21

Right. And like if you're like I don't want to do it, yeah.

Speaker 3: 57:24

And it finished with the really windy river, which is really a pain. You know, the the the lake paddle was fantastic and it was great because everybody was up early ready to go camp packed.

Speaker 2: 57:35

And it's like zoom zoom, zoom.

Speaker 3: 57:36

Everybody kind of kicked into. What do I need to do to help? How do we get on the water? How do we get off the water? Away we go.

Speaker 1: 57:43

So we got three minutes just to keep us on schedule. But what was funny about that is my balancing of these guys shutting down camp and me just going into a coma. Leaving them to get ready for rain was I was going to get up early, so I ended up waking up at 6.30 and having power up. Breakfast was going.

Speaker 3: 58:08

It wasn't 6.30, it was 8 o'clock.

Speaker 1: 58:11

Was it 8?

Speaker 3: 58:11

No, it was after 7.

Speaker 1: 58:13

Was it after 7?

Speaker 2: 58:14

When was the last time you slept until 7? 10 years ago, sean came out of the tent.

Speaker 3: 58:19

He's like I slept so well, I'm not even awake yet, and I walk over.

Speaker 1: 58:24

First thing Trent does is hand me a cup of black coffee.

Speaker 3: 58:27

It's like this was your job.

Speaker 1: 58:28

Yeah, and I was like Trent, you were up too early. Go back in there, get back in your tent.

Speaker 3: 58:43

There was also a moment at the beginning, because sean and I love to drink coffee. Pat had done all the provisioning and he's less of a coffee drinker. And so we were at our house and we were putting the food into bags and stuff and we looked at the pound of coffee and we're like, oh no, there's not enough coffee oh, that's not enough coffee.

Speaker 2: 58:53

And there was, there was, there was, there was lots, I was, and then I felt badly for pat it's like no, no, it was fine it was fine because pat didn't drink coffee.

Speaker 3: 59:00

He had one, the one cup, the first day and said no, I won't drink anymore.

Speaker 2: 59:03

No, no, it's okay either.

Speaker 3: 59:04

Oh, like he was trying to ration it for you and finn was like I'm not drinking coffee and it's like no, it's okay, we'll be fine, but we well, you had your requisite three cups. I had two every day. I had two, but we were so much to do we had to get going. Yeah, but it was but that moment we both look, he's like oh no, fuck, what are we gonna?

Speaker 1: 59:25

do pat. Pat nailed it. Yeah, you know, one of my takeaways from pat is just he's, he's just he. He has a super quiet wisdom about him he's kind yeah, you would love him. Um, he, it was a real treat to share a canoe with him and we had I what I felt I, we had great chats. Uh, oh, shoot, was I just gonna say I, yeah, I think I was just that. Just I felt like he nailed it oh this is what I was gonna say.

Speaker 1: 59:59

So he said to me something we were talking about gear and I'm obsessed with gear and he's like oh, are you? A big gearhead is trying. I was like I'm probably bigger and he's like you know, it's not about the gear you have, it's about the right gear that you brought. And I was like that's that's right, you. It is about the right gear for the right job. So I remember that one so real fast. Can I please tell them the bear story Go ahead, okay, you sure.

Speaker 3: 1:00:33

It's your podcast. People will be grossed out. This is the edited out part of it.

Speaker 1: 1:00:41

Okay, I'm going to tell this the real fast version. Okay, so I don't know where I got it. I have a slight fear of bears because and we didn't see one- Seems fair. Yeah, and they're essentially. I haven't. I've never heard of a bear attack or negative encounter in Algonquin. Okay.

Speaker 1: 1:01:01

Maybe, somebody listening to them was like, oh, I have, but I anyways Algonquin's very safe by the numbers. So but I still have this fear of bears and uh, and I start, in a very vulnerable sense, start telling Trent about this. I'm like, oh, you know, I could tell Trent he's going, he's gonna you know, treat that fear with care and he's like, oh yeah you know the thing about bears is what they do is they chase you down, snap your spine and eat you from the ass first and they eat you alive and I.

Speaker 3: 1:01:37

I just look shocked at Trent and he's staring at me, just get used to it, it's going to happen.

Speaker 1: 1:01:42

And I'm just like, I'm like, for fuck's sake, trent, the fuck was that.

Speaker 2: 1:01:49

He's like what it's true.

Speaker 3: 1:01:54

Then we looked it up, but it's not really true.

Speaker 1: 1:01:58

Well, we couldn't find evidence. But of course you did. You went and found. What did you send me yesterday?

Speaker 3: 1:02:03

I sent you a video of a bear eating a deer A moose From the ass.

Speaker 2: 1:02:08

I saw that yesterday. Yes, exactly.

Speaker 1: 1:02:10

Yeah, you saw that. On that, I did.

Speaker 2: 1:02:13

Yeah, because you yeah we both share the dark side of nature video. I think it's. That's an amazing account, yeah, yeah. So so when, so when you need to share some vulnerability.

Speaker 1: 1:02:27

Go to trent, yeah, and so pat goes. He's like you know, he's like in a very like tender, genuine. He's like. So, sean, where do you, where do you think you, picked up that fear and I said I don't know, but I'll tell you where I advanced it. Snap your spine, eat you by the ass.

Speaker 3: 1:02:45

I'm here to help.

Speaker 1: 1:02:48

That's the crucible welcome to the crucible folks.

Speaker 3: 1:02:51

Yeah, seriously we're gonna take your fears and amplify them.

Speaker 1: 1:02:58

I'm so glad you let me tell that story, absolutely. Yeah, that save room for bass were some of the peak trends that weekend.

Speaker 1: 1:03:08

But in closing, like why don't we just sort of let's summarize exactly, you know what the, what the crucible is and what we hope that it's going to turn into, and then hopefully you can sort of add your closing you know what the um, what the crucible is and what we hope that it's going to turn into, and then hopefully you can sort of add your closing you know comments on what the what the weekend meant, but uh, so in essence, the crucible is a project that trent and I uh are have launched, and it's a a leadership trip designed to take people out of their comfort zone and have them connect with nature and gain all the glean, all the benefits that being close to having nothing and still being able to feel happy, content, confident and confident and everything else that comes with that and bring that back into the real world via the test of the distance that we cover in the canoe and the portaging.

Speaker 3: 1:04:10

Yep and sharing the peace and humility of being in nature. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:04:17

Learning skills. Learning skills You're comfortable, You're not. For me it's always been. Anytime I've been in the bush, peace and humility of being in nature, yeah learning skills.

Speaker 3: 1:04:19

Learning skills that you're comfortable. You're not. For me it's always been. Anytime I've been in the bush it's not. I'm surviving the bush. I want to thrive and be comfortable in the bush.

Speaker 1: 1:04:29

Yeah, and just like you know it's for a guy like trent who grew up, uh, in in the wild, right. You know you hear some of trent's stories about how he grew up. To be able to transfer some of those skills from his early childhood and teenhood to now and be able to put that into Finn and I is super.

Speaker 2: 1:04:51

It's quite special. Yeah, you get to share that.

Speaker 1: 1:04:53

To learn that from him and also from Pat, is really, really great. So that is the spirit and the essence of what was is and how I love it.

Speaker 2: 1:05:08

It's such a great experience there you go, thank you.

Speaker 1: 1:05:13

Thanks guys.