Episode 97: Peter Barela with Barela's Alaskan Outfitters

1:03- Podcast start and intro Peter Barela from Barela's Alaskan Outfitters coming to you from the Western Hunting & Conservation Expo in Salt Lake City, Utah. And a thank you to Wilderness Athlete & HHA Sports.

2:31- Peter and Brandon catch-up since the Pope and Young Biennial Convention last year and talk about some funny stories about Peter‘s son Pete. Peter also talks about his other eight children and Brandon and Pete talk about the similarity of each of them having nine kids.

7:01- Peter talks about his guiding service and what animals he guides for including brown bear, moose, mountain goat, caribou & black bear. Peter talks about how he got started in guiding in Alaska in 1994 and the story behind his start. He also talks about what it was like to learn how to guide.

10:56- Peter talks about getting his pilots license and his first experience with guiding for herring and tells a crazy story of being a copilot with hundreds of boats and hundreds of planes in the air at the same time.

16:02- Peter talks about how he got into bowhunting in Colorado when he was younger and how that eventually lead to guiding. He also talks about his life before guiding, traveling around the country and ending up in California for some wild and crazy times.

22:05- Peter talks about giving up the crazy life in California and moving to Alaska. He talks about his reasons for moving to Alaska and how he met a man while getting his EMT certification that was a safety coordinator at a fish plant in Alaska. The man knew of an open EMT job in Alaska & told Peter to apply & that's where his crazy story began.

27:17- Peter tells his crazy story of going to a festival in Steamboat Springs, Colorado and then ending up in jail the night before he was supposed to get on a plane to head to Alaska. He talks about staying in jail for a while until eventually getting on a plane and then the plane being stopped and finding himself being questioned by 2 police officers.

35:38- Peter talks about eventually going to Alaska and some of his first encounters of being a guide. He talks about adjusting to guiding and realizing the responsibility that is behind being a guide and making sure that somebody is ethical and responsible all while harvesting an animal.

39:01- Peter talks about the first animal he harvested as a guide, a moose, and the story behind it. Peter also talks about a story of guiding for bear and and almost freezing to death.

46:11- Peter talks about what people can expect these days when they hire him as a guide and how he is all about comfort. He talks about now eating great food as opposed to freeze-dried food, sleeping in tents on cots and the importance as hunters, to learn their limits and use tools such as knowing the best places to set up camp, how long to hunt, and knowing the weather, to hunt smarter not harder.

49:09- Peter talks about all the amazing animals he has helped people harvest over the years including goats, brown bear and moose and how fortunate Peter is to be able to hunt on the land that he loves.

51:38 – Peter talks about the hunt that he donates every year to Wishes For Warriors and the experience he has with these hunters who are veterans and how important it is for him to give back to them for everything they have done for our country.

55:58 – Wrapping up.