Boondock Nation: Season Recap, Bizarre Questions & Rumors, A Shocking Ending

Welcome back to another Sledder Cast podcast. We're in Rexburg, Idaho, at our HQ, and we've got a couple of guests in the shop today. We caught them a day before Dylan's heading out. Tomorrow, right? The party is just about over, so it was today or no day, and we wouldn't be seeing you guys again until Hay Days, probably. So we're glad you were able to carve out some time. I know we kind of had it on the calendar, but appreciate you guys coming in.

We've got a running order of questions for you guys. We are drilling you with questions, so we're going to jump right in and go down the list. I think it's going to be some pretty good content, because selfishly it was a lot of things I wanted to know and learn about you guys. So I hope there's at least one other person out there.

Yeah, I'm excited to talk about some of these topics. We haven't really had a chance to go into depth on a lot of this stuff, so I think it'll be cool.

Should be cool. Thank you for having us on, Trevor.

Appreciate it.

OK guys, we're starting things off with a season recap. Like you said, the party's over, basically. Give us a really quick season recap: when did the season start, any new faces you got to ride with this year that are memorable, all the different places you rode. You did your tour all across North America, coast to coast. So give us a brief recap of how the season went.

Yeah, sure, we'll try and keep it brief. There's been a lot. We've lived a lifetime this season. This is season 9 of Boondock Nation that we've been filming. We do a half-hour broadcast TV series that airs in the fall, and that's how Boondock Nation started. We can get into that later. Each year we set out with the goal to film in different snowmobile destinations, and this year we picked several new destinations across North America. We chronicle the whole journey on YouTube with our weekly series, and then in the fall the broadcast season comes out. So that took us all over the place. You want to start with December and us coming out here?

Yeah. Our winter chronological riding videos start December 1st. That's our first day in the snow. We take two days to drive out here, because it's like 22 hours from Wisconsin, have a couple of days to move in, and then we start shooting and going as hard as we can with whatever snow we've got. We got out here, rode with Dave McClure, and we were staying at his place when we moved out in December. We took advantage of some of the early snow, but then, as you know, it was a dry spell for most of December.

Yeah. So we found great snow over in Teton Valley. We were riding out of Steven Clark's Teton base camp quite a bit towards the end of December and doing the rest of our sled builds there. We had so many sleds this year. I ordered three sleds, Dylan ordered two, Jordan had two, and we were just cranking on wrenching every night throughout December, trying to get the sleds built up and ready. So December didn't include much travel outside of our local area here, but we were bouncing all over trying to find those little isolated pockets of good snow.

Yep. So once we get the sleds shaken down and built in December, we head back to Wisconsin, where we're from, for Christmas with the family, and then come right back out after New Year's. We got a nice dumping of snow right at the beginning of January, and that's when the tour began. We finished up any work on the sleds, then hit the road and headed to the central part of Idaho and rode with Willie Elam in the Fairfield area.

Like the Sawtooths? I've been to the Sawtooths in the summertime and it's amazing. Is it the same way in the wintertime?

We have yet to get up to Stanley and Sun Valley, the proper Sawtooths that I think everyone really knows, and that's definitely on our list. But the Fairfield stuff, it's a long ways to get there, but you're riding in them, and it's cool. There was a surprising amount of snow when we were there, the consistency was good, and no tracks too, because it's so remote.

It's still the middle of nowhere.

Yeah, middle of Idaho. And Willie Elam is a friend of ours that we've gotten to know over the years. He's a freestyle guy on moto and sleds, an X Games medalist, another FLY Racing rider, super cool dude. So it was cool to check out his backyard.

From there we continued on to Oregon, and that was the West Coast side of the coast to coast tour. We went out and rode La Pine, which was cool. We were just out of Mount Bachelor riding all these volcanoes, and there's lava rock piled up all over in there. So there were jumps through the trees, which we really liked, and all kinds of features and poppers.

Yeah, and we did a lot of weird cave hopping. It rained while we were there, I remember that. We got like over an inch while we were riding, and the next day they were supposed to get like two inches, so we opted out of that one, since our gear didn't dry out even overnight. But it was extremely cool, and despite the rain and poor snowmobiling conditions, we had a blast. We saw a lot of good stuff, and I think it left a really good taste for us to come back and get some more this coming season, hopefully.

You're literally riding in the tops of volcanoes. You come up to the top and you're riding in the crater. They're treed up now because it's been so long, but that was super neat.

We were there for the Oregon State Snowmobile Association convention. They do it pretty differently in Oregon. Trail grooming is funded by fundraising and by the individual clubs, not by the Forest Service, so the grooming is actually really good. They do a lot for the snowmobile community, and a lot in Washington, DC, even, fighting for our sport, taking it to that level of advocacy. So we went and spoke at the convention to share our experience growing Boondock Nation from a grassroots thing of us in the Midwest to what it is today, and how avalanche safety has been a huge part of our mission and what we do, getting the awareness side out there. I think we're seeing that culture progress too over the past few years, so that's been awesome. And it was cool to meet an entirely new community of people. It felt like home, honestly. They were so accepting of us. It was great.

Sweet. So that was Oregon, and that was all before...

That was all in January.

We crammed it all in in January for sure.

A lot of stuff. We should have mentioned Out West Sled Fest before that.

Well, you guys went to Oregon right after Out West Sled Fest, correct?

We left like the next day.

So Out West Sled Fest, Island Park, Idaho. You guys are there. It's becoming a big event, and the whole community has kind of jumped on board, so there's something different going on every night throughout the week. Lots of people come to town now for that event, and we've got some big plans for that next year, just based on the success we've had the last couple of years.

Yeah. When we talk with our people, it's like, if you are planning a trip out west, this is the week to do it, because you're going to get the biggest bang for your buck. Other people who you may know or be familiar with are going to be in town, all in one centralized place. If you're going to go to the Island Park, Teton, West Yellowstone area, that's the week to do it for sure.

That is true. It's very unique seeing all of those people from the industry in one spot. That doesn't happen very frequently.

And lots of newcomers each year too. This year the snow wasn't the best in Island Park, and the event was still a huge hit.

There was better snow pretty much everywhere.

But to me that proved that snowmobilers are out there for the community as well. You can have great riding and epic snow, but it really is all about who you ride with. So getting to meet new people, not only us but all the people that are there, getting to network with others and make new riding groups and friends, I think it's a really cool opportunity.

So that was January. February threw us a bit of a curveball. We headed down to Colorado to do a tour through Grand County. We were going to hit Kremmling, Granby and Grand Lake. Kremmling is known for Rabbit Ears, obviously pretty legendary. But then we headed out to ride the burn from the East Troublesome fire back in the fall of 2020. This burn covered like 125,000 acres, a ton of public land and a ton of private land too. They lost a ton of homes, and it had been closed to access for safety reasons over the past couple of years, because of falling trees and everything that can happen with a big burn like that. But this year it opened up to riding, so, pretty epic.

I can imagine it just cleans the ground right up, right?

Yeah. They have access to places that they said were never ridable before, so there's a lot of cool terrain, and they're definitely making the most of it down there. It's starting to get a little bit of positive light that way, which is great.

So we did two days in each of those destinations, and then we were going to leave straight from there with the truck and trailer to drive back to Wisconsin and Michigan and ride the U.P. of Michigan. But there was no snow. Literally no snow. Trails never even opened back in the Midwest this year.

Here in Wisconsin?

Yeah, in northern Wisconsin. I asked my 95-year-old grandmother, who's lived up there most of her life, if she's ever seen a winter like this, and it was a resounding no. We just don't have that. I've rarely seen the trails not open at Christmas. It's usually the beginning of December. So it was definitely a hard hit for a lot of the businesses up there, and that was the only thing we weren't able to accomplish this year.

Out of your control, though, right?

Right, still a bummer. But we still had an event to go to, and we want to see our family. We're out here for a long time. Dylan's got a wife, you know, it might be nice to see the wife at least one time. So we had a change of plans, drove back up here, hopped on a flight and flew back for a week or so, and then from there we flew out to the East Coast and began the East Coast mission.

Yep. We had a lot of travel, just flying, obviously, to get out to the East Coast. We flew into Portland, Maine, got in after some delays at about 10 p.m. Chet from Backwoods BMP picked us up, and then we drove 12 hours north up to Quebec to ride the Gaspé Peninsula there with the Sled Den. I don't know if you're familiar with the Sled Den at all. They got a lot of snow. They had a big nor'easter come through three days before we were supposed to leave. We had our tickets planned out in advance, so we just extended the trip a little bit on the back end, got up there and made it happen. It was really cool.

It looked like you guys were in some tight windows.

Yeah, it's really tight trees. You find an opening about this big, it's kind of a little honey hole. It's tight and tough, and there's all different size trees. Their regeneration there is really different. Out here you'll have stands of consistent size trees. There, it's all different, so there are all kinds of little trees, and there are air pockets around them. The snow consistency is wild. Your tracks set up really quick because of the humidity. Those were all adversities we weren't expecting, I guess, but the reward was there. There's 4,000 feet of elevation change in some of these mountains. We were staying at like 20 feet elevation, right on the ocean, and then you ride up to like 4,000 feet. So there's real mountain riding there.

Yeah, there's just nothing above tree line. It's all tight drainages and stuff like that. Probably not the ideal place to learn how to ride off trail, but for an experienced rider it's a fun challenge. And I'm sure when you get the day after the big dumping, it's all-time riding up there. It's really cool. They said they were down about 6 feet of snow. They had 6 feet on the ground, and they said they usually have over 10. So I'm sure it would have looked a lot different with that extra snow, a little bit more clean on the bottom, probably.

Yeah. That was something that not many people get to experience. We were having a great time up there. It's totally foreign. Well, you are in another country, we're in Canada, but everybody's speaking French, and you're in these little coastal towns up there on the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It's pretty wild.

Well, you had mentioned something like, it's crazy to be on a snowmobile on a mountain with the Atlantic Ocean as your backdrop. You just don't see that very often.

Yeah, definitely a once-in-a-lifetime type experience for sure.

Yep. So that was a highlight of February, and that wrapped up February for us. Then we headed back out here and took a trip to Cody, Wyoming, to Top of the World Resort. That's kind of north of Cody, between Cooke City and Red Lodge. They close the road up there on Beartooth Pass, and we park where the road ends and ride in to Top of the World Resort. That was a cool little retreat to check out up there, with Mason Miller and his family. They've got a really cool deal going on. So that was cool, once we got back out in the West, to explore yet another new area. And then we rolled into the Jackson Hole Hill Climb, and you know how that is. Tons of people come to town for that.

We were doing some pretty cool rides around here then. If you were to plan a trip out here and you only got one shot, that's probably the next week to plan, because you've got the Jackson Hole Hill Climb attracting a lot of people to one spot. And if you can extend it or stay a week, you can even tap into Spring Fever down in Utah, with what you guys do.

Exactly. And March just seems to always deliver. This is our seventh winter out here, and in the seven years that we've been out here, March is just always epic.

You get big powder, probably, for sure.

Yeah, and there's plenty of coverage. So I definitely recommend that to people. When winter is over elsewhere, it's still on out here. So the Jackson Hole Hill Climb is always cool. We never miss it. We've got a ton of friends that come to town for that.

And then Spring Fever. Spring Fever was a new event and a great success. The beater cross race we had out there was extremely fun, and we're hoping to ramp that up in a big way for next year. The lodge is great. It was like a chalet-style setup out there. Everyone's hanging out, riding around the track, it's nice weather. In the evening on Friday night we were out there flipping burgers and just having a good time. It was really cool, music going, great vibe. It's definitely going to grow.

Yeah, no doubt. Huge shout out to everyone that came out this year. There were quite a few people there, and I know the sky's the limit with that event. Beaver Creek Lodge is just so cool. So we took care of everyone with some T-shirts that came through, and we're stoked to roll into next year and ramp that one up big time.

Nice. So that's the end of March.

And then April is kind of just wrap it up. Where there's snow, let's go chase it until it's time to go home, pretty much.

Yeah, we like to take the last couple of weeks of April, like you said, and go chase the snow around here. There's a lot of big country to get into that we don't really ride any other time of the year. You can't really do it, so we're always antsy to go do some of that stuff, and then end it on a high note for sure.

Cool. So that was your in-season recap, right? If we could talk about May, June, July, August. I think a lot of us get to see where you are and what you're doing during these months, but what are you doing in the month of May? You guys go home, right? What do you guys do?

We immediately start breaking down this whole season and planning out next season. We're already planning next season. We've already met with the team at Out West Sled Fest at Sawtelle Mountain Resort to plan for next year, and we've done that with some of our other partners that we're working with to make next season happen. So that work really begins now. We're lucky that our minds never really leave snowmobiling. We learned a lot this year too, just being on the road more than ever and filming more than ever, so there's a lot to break down from the entire season and how we can optimize for next year. Plus we've got all those broadcast episodes to edit too, for the fall.

Yeah, so May is a lot of the results reporting, renewing a lot of our sponsors. And then Jordan is working in the background, honestly, throughout the entire summer, to edit all these eight broadcast episodes that Jack was talking about, and any other digital stuff that we have held over that we plan to release in the fall, that we already shot.

Do you guys save some stuff for the broadcast? You don't publish it on your YouTube, you hold on to some of that stuff for the broadcast? That's got to be hard.

It is hard. We save some of the best shots for broadcast, actually. All these videos we released this year were so awesome, some of the best content we've ever done, but it's like 90% of what it could be. So we save the sexiest stuff for the broadcast, and that's the most polished content we have. It goes into audio engineering and professional color grading and all kinds of things that are needed for broadcast. So they're masterpieces when they're done, in my opinion.

Awesome.

Yeah, and that's evolved a lot over the years, but it's become a big part of what we do, even though broadcast, like TV in general, is all changing.

We also do distribution, which I guess a lot of people don't know, on a ton of different networks now. Our goal is to get snowmobiling out there to as wide of an audience as possible.

So when you say distribution, you're taking your broadcast content and getting it distributed on different networks?

Yeah, as well as our digital content too. We developed a Boondock Nation Plus app that's on Roku, Amazon Fire, Apple TV, basically all your smart TV platforms, and Vizio. Vizio is unique, where it's standard on every television. So if you have a Vizio, you can go on your smart home screen, and it's under the sports and fitness category. We're like a top five app in the sports and fitness category.

So who's putting this stuff on there? Are you guys going home and just coding away, or what?

No, we're not coding away, fortunately. We have a little bit of support. My family's background is in media and marketing and ad placement and stuff like that. We've got a couple of other television series in the Midwest that we've been doing for like 35 years, so we have a lot of experience behind us, and support where we need it. We have access to some resources there, but other than that, we're standalone. We do it all ourselves out here.

So the app has been a focus, just because TV is changing in that way, so we want to have that out there. But also MAVTV is nationwide in the US, and they've picked up our broadcast stuff, so that airs occasionally on there. There's a mountain TV network over in Colorado that we're giving a ton of episodes to on a quarterly basis. Even PBS has picked up our show on a bunch of channels, the whole public TV side. So we're really just trying to cast a wide net. Even in Canada, REV TV Canada covers a lot of Canada, and there are a couple of others overseas. We're just trying to get snowmobiling out there to as many people as we can.

OK, so that's all happening May, June...

June, July a little bit. And then we start to work on a lot of our trade show planning in July.

You've got Hay Days creeping up.

Honestly, yeah, we're already talking about it. It's a conversation that seems to come up earlier and earlier every year, but a lot of July is focused on that. And then August, making sure we've got everything tidied up for sure. We've got merch to design, any promotions that we want to get together for Hay Days, and all of our booth layout. There's a lot of planning that goes into it.

Yeah. September hits, and we roll. The show sleds arrive, and then we're back out here in December.

Cool.

There is some fun stuff in the summer too. Well, it's all fun stuff, but we do some summer things as well. Dylan just bought a dirt bike again after a three-year hiatus.

Coming out of retirement. It's time.

There we go. So you're going to add a snow bike kit to it and add that to the fleet?

No snow bikes, I think.

I think I've heard you guys talk about the snow bike stuff. Probably not your thing.

We're snowmobilers. We'll leave it at that. If you were in the Chic-Chocs, snow bikes would be sweet, and in the U.P. of Michigan, honestly, they're pretty cool. Lower elevation, more power, tighter terrain. But we love the power wheelies that the 850 turbos have out here. But anyway, I do a bunch of water stuff in the summer too, like slalom skiing, surfing, jet skiing, and then we do quite a bit of musky fishing and other fishing too.

Awesome. That's one thing, we don't go out your way to the Midwest very often, and so when we started going to Hay Days we were like, there are a ton of lakes. There is so much water everywhere. You just creep up on it, because there are trees, and all of a sudden it's lake, lake. You pull up your Google Maps and it's just everywhere.

In our county back home, where we're from, there are over a thousand lakes. It's over 60% water. I live in Land O' Lakes.

Land of Lakes. Yeah, there's a lot of lakes.

So, as far as videos go, we'll talk just YouTube. If we literally pulled up your YouTube account right now and we're deleting every one from this season except for one video, you get to keep one video. What video are you keeping on there?

That's really tough. It might be our most recent video.

Yeah, the most recent one is really cool.

We set out into a zone we hadn't been in in years. We'd maybe only been in there once or twice, and we ended up unlocking a route to another area that is just going to blow our exploration wide open. I can't talk in too much detail without giving it away to the locals that know, but it was the coolest, biggest terrain. We made a sweet loop. We had to take the lake back to our trucks. We went up one canyon and came out another. Some of us actually hitchhiked to get to the trucks.

Oh, wow.

We were just out of fuel. But that was involved in that ride, in that video, and it's definitely one of the most memorable ones.

Good shots in that video. You're going to see big jumps, scenic terrain, just epic scenery, and some of the coolest drone shots we've gotten all season.

Sick. Who's the drone flyer, guys?

Mostly Jordan. Jordan and our friend Matt Baker in this one. He just got the DJI Avata 2. He was at the release in New York City and then flew back with it, and we had it on the snow the next day for this. So that was pretty cool. And I fly the drone occasionally. Not so much this season, but in the past I did a lot more.

I kind of skipped over this question, but I didn't mean to. If I am new to Boondock Nation, let's say the last two years I picked you guys up and started following you, is there a really big change? What did I miss out on from the early, early days of Boondock Nation? Is there one or two things you can pinpoint as far as big changes in your operation now?

I think our biggest focus in the last two years has been our consistent YouTube digital content. We used to release some YouTube videos throughout the season, but we've really made an effort to make it every single week from Hay Days till now. So that's been one of the biggest things, consistency. It's hard to do. It's hard to plan out all the time. And this year we also ramped up and shot eight unique broadcast episodes. In the past we've always shot four that repeat.

So when you guys are shooting your broadcast, is it like, hey, today's a broadcast day? Or is it, today's just the day, and we're going to pull some stuff for broadcast and then go YouTube with the other stuff?

It depends on the mission, but there are a lot of days where we're doing both. The talking points just look a little bit different. When we're vlogging, Jordan will just throw the camera in our face and we'll just go. But for the broadcast it'll be more polished: two camera angles, definitely miked up, a little outline of what we need to accomplish.

Yeah, more direct talking to the camera about what's going on, instead of just real time, like you're there with us. So it's kind of maintaining that fourth wall on the broadcast, versus on the digital stuff we just let you in completely on the action.

Awesome. So there are lots of cameras in your guys' faces. What's the most questionable thing you have got on camera but did not publish, for whatever reason, that you can talk about?

Yeah, without having the cops show up.

Without going into too much detail, we filmed some stuff to mess with our friends. It'll be like a classic, normal outro that we're doing for a video or something, and we'll twist it into something completely profane, usually, and targeted towards some person, and send it out to them directly. So they think they're just watching one of our videos, and then they're like, what the heck? So we call out our friends that way. Stuff that can never see the light of day, for sure.

Jordan, make sure that's deleted.

Hey, what do you guys think about the ending to this video? So we do a bit of that. But there's nothing to hide, really. Most of what we do ends up in the video. It's completely natural. Even that's one reason we remain brand agnostic when it comes to sleds. We ride them all, and we aren't sponsored by Polaris or Ski-Doo, because crazy stuff happens with our sleds too. I've put a sled in the drink, sunk a sled in a waterfall. We've had sleds start on fire, explode, just random stuff that, if we were getting paid by one of those companies, they probably wouldn't want us to show. So that's one thing we're pretty proud of with Boondock, that we are very transparent with everything that goes on.

There are two videos. I don't think we'll have time to show the videos here, but dude, these two videos. The waterfall video.

My kids and I were watching that, going frame by frame, like, how the heck did this happen? Because so many things were so lucky. The snowmobile didn't land on you. And if you haven't seen this video, it was two seasons ago, right?

Two seasons ago, yeah.

You're with the Black Cats, and you're trying to take the side of a waterfall. You hit it kind of funky, and it puts you not over the waterfall but in the waterfall, and then you fall backwards into it, and the sled takes a drink.

It did, and I did too.

We were sitting around there for a while, trying to convince each other to jump over it.

That was our question. The first time up there, did you think you were going to do this, or was there some thought and planning around how you'd pull this off?

There was definitely some deliberation. I was really pushing for Kyle Saxton to jump off this pillow above it and land where I went up. I used that as a landing, but there's a hole down there below it that he probably would have gone right into. So we were all trying to convince each other to do different things, and I somehow got convinced to try and sidehill above all of it. Like, oh, it's going to be such a cool shot, with the water and the sun, and you sidehilling this super steep thing. I'm like, OK.

So I came in thinking, I just have to be light over that tree, because if my track spins on that tree at all, it's going to slide down and I'm going to wash out across this steep spot. I just need to get my ski into Cody's track. It's not that far, and I'll be home free. I'm coming up, thinking, don't think about it, just do it. And then I noticed this stump that I didn't notice at first, so I had to come maybe six inches or a foot out from the trees. I lightly went over that tree like I planned to, and all of a sudden I feel the sled just drop out from underneath me.

And then your stomach dropped too.

Yeah. When I grabbed the sled to turn and my face hit the panel, I knew it was all over. I had lost it. So I let go, and my next focus was just get on your feet and get away from this thing.

Did you know how much water there was? Could someone see, like, hey, it's probably three feet of water down there?

We didn't realize it was that deep, for sure. We thought we could see some rocks and stuff, so we thought it was just a foot deep or something. It was almost up to my neck. I was standing on the side of the tunnel and I was still up to my knees or so. So that was eventful. They got me out, I started to get cold, and I got back to the truck.

Cody, a local there, has got a lot of friends, but his guy was in Boise for the day, so we thought we were coming back the next day to get it. I get back to the Airbnb, put on dry clothes, and I get a text: we got a heli. OK. I get back to the parking lot, and the sled's there. It was that fast. I never even met the guy. I just Venmoed him for the extraction. And then I immediately got to work taking that thing apart and drying it out.

And the sled ran after that?

Ran great, actually. I cleaned it all out. I pulled out all the stops. But yeah, that was very eventful.

The other one, we watched it here because we were like, how are you still walking? I forgot where you guys were at, but you hit that knob.

There was a tree or something, and then you basically just did a flip in the air.

The Superman, yeah.

That one. That was scary to watch. A lot of time in the air, not on the machine. How was the landing on that? Because it seems like your shoulder... OK, let me back up. Cats always land on their feet, right? Supposedly. It seemed like your body naturally knew what to do to not land on your head and neck. You maneuvered in the air and took it on your shoulder.

I had never had a feeling like that. I had never been in a situation like that before. What had happened was, on this particular jump there's almost no lip. You just ride off it as fast as you can, and it's a tabletop to a pretty sweet landing. We've hit this jump probably 50 times before.

All the time. A very familiar jump to us.

But there's a bush in the takeoff that has grown over the past couple of years, so as we've been hitting it more and more, this bush became exposed. Dylan hit it a couple of times. I came in on my 146 turbo and caught the perfect traction through his rut, and I've got my suspension set to be pretty rebounding at this point, because there's no lip on that jump. I hit the bush with my track and it just bucks me.

Popped the back.

Yeah, and I feel my feet and hips go weightless. Next thing I know, my feet are above my head, and all my head wants to do is go to the ground. It felt like I was diving off a boat house in the summer, except I'm 40 feet off the ground and this is hard snow I'm going to land on. So I was kind of freaked out. But something happens when you're in those situations where your prefrontal cortex shuts down and you go completely subconscious, like a flow state.

You were in flow state up there, dude.

Completely. It's amazing. It felt like I thought an hour's worth of thoughts in a matter of two seconds, and your body somehow figures these things out. I actually read a book about this not too long ago called The Rise of Superman. It was recommended to me by a friend after I had a gnarly bail about a year ago and broke two ribs in my back. They talk about near-fatal falls and how your body goes into this state of crazy amounts of thought, and you're able to do things that there's no playbook for. They talk about big wave surfers, when jet skis were invented and guys were getting towed into 80-foot waves, or the dude that jumped the Great Wall of China on a skateboard. It's not like ball sports or league sports where there are standards. These are completely unprecedented things, and your body's able to figure it out. So, pretty fascinating. You can tap into that in other ways than near-fatal falls.

But for me, to walk away from that was remarkable, because I seriously thought I was breaking my neck. I was able to get away from the sled, get my head around and roll onto a shoulder, and I felt almost no pain from it. I rode the rest of the day and had a little bit of muscle soreness the next day. But it could have ended very badly. I seriously thought I was breaking my neck.

Well, obviously glad you didn't. You watch that video over and over and you're just like, how did he walk away from this?

Yeah, scary moment this season for sure.

We're still rolling here, boys. Sweet. We've got a tough one. You ready for this one? You guys spend a lot of time together. Have you ever calculated how much time?

Maybe we've tried to calculate how much time we've spent in the truck before, but it's not math you want to do.

Lots of time.

Tell us about the time you guys had your biggest blowup disagreement with each other, because no one sees that on camera. Maybe you guys are a yin and yang here, but is there a time you can recall, like, yeah, that was our biggest blowup?

I don't know if there really has been, honestly.

No. I mean, back in the day... Jordan can attest to this. I think we communicate pretty well, and we don't argue much at all, which is wild, because we spend every waking moment together in the winter.

That's the thing. We're living together, but also working on the same projects, and we're equally invested in these projects and problems and solutions. It's not even like a spouse, where you have separate jobs most of the time. We're literally working on the same thing morning till night, spending all this time together and being on the road too.

And constantly filming each other too, and being filmed. You just don't really think about it, I guess. We're always just doing our thing. Maybe when we were teenagers, 17 years old or something, when we were first becoming adults and trying to figure this thing out.

Now you're grown men.

We're grown, and like I said, we're invested in this together. We have the same mission and vision, and it's smooth sailing. I think we're very lucky.

Yeah, and I think that does come a little bit with maturity too. If this isn't going to matter in five years, is this issue at hand really worth arguing about and burning the whole house down? We're both working towards a common goal, so even if there are bumps along the road, sometimes you just have to put your own feelings aside to get through that. And look at where we are now. It's all worked out great. So that's one thing I keep in mind too.

But yeah, we do spend a ton of time together, so it's a really unique relationship. In a lot of cases partnerships in business don't always work, but we've definitely got a unique relationship, and despite all the adversity we've faced over the years, and despite all the travel and tensions being high at times, we've done a really good job of keeping it together.

Well, kudos. That's impressive. I would have thought there would have been some moments.

Back in the day, perhaps. There were also two more of us to help egg it on. We started with four originally. Colin and Ryan were co-founders of Boondock Nation, so on some of our early trips we were always messing with each other.

Nice. OK, here's a fun question for you guys. If you had to, Polaris or Ski-Doo, not which side do you want to take, but one each.

Like each of us?

Yeah, I'm going to ask this question.

OK, I'll take the Polaris side.

I'll take the Ski-Doo side.

OK. So if you were a key major decision maker at Polaris or Ski-Doo, you hold the keys, you're the lever puller on big decisions, what would be one or two of the most immediate changes you would make today about the machine you're riding?

I think the machines are pretty refined to where they are today. They seem to be reaching their peak form, in a sense, on the engineering side. Kind of like a cell phone, figuring out the optimal size, the optimal battery life, this and that. I think snowmobiles are getting there, but there are definitely a few things that could be resolved. I think in the name of profitability, some quality control issues have come to light, especially since COVID. This could be for a variety of reasons, but I think that's something we're starting to see, and you're seeing more and more warranty claims, at least it feels like by the seat of the pants, with some issues that really shouldn't be issues.

So I would look at some of the costs that have been pulled out of the machines over the past few years, and maybe look at making things stronger in the first place, so to speak. You look at the clutch issues that Polarises have had, and the billet spider that came out. Maybe that should have been done in the first place. Was it a cost-saving measure to cast it in the first place? I don't know. But it just seems like we've seen that among machines in the past few years. We're paying a premium for these sleds. I hate even saying it, but I would rather pay a little bit more to have a machine that I know isn't going to have quality control issues like that.

Sure.

I think the Ski-Doo is such a reliable machine. Being on them for the last few years, I love a lot of the creature comforts, for sure, especially the SHOT start. Obviously that's not new, but it's just so nice having. But the technology, compared to the Polaris 7S, I think. The screen, it's cool, but it's not useful necessarily. And it would be extremely cool if all the screens worked together. That's the future. If you go out fishing, you're using your waypoints, you've got your maps of the contour of the lake, and you can track your route and all of that. You know exactly what point has what. You do the same thing hunting on your map. Your sled should be able to do that too, and to be able to talk with each other is the future for sure.

That's a great idea.

Yeah, maybe something like all the companies working together to not only improve that, because that's a major thing, but safety in the backcountry in general. I see that as a safety thing for sure, keeping track of your group and not getting separated. Who knows how many lives that could save down the road. And then also taking that to the avalanche safety side of things, because that threatens our sport, in a sense, and threatens the people that do it. The sleds are getting more and more capable each year, and people are getting further and further into the backcountry each year. So some sort of contribution to the common good as snowmobilers, from all angles, would be awesome.

Cool. I've got a little surprise for you guys real quick.

Oh boy. We like those.

Got a couple of surprises. Let's see which one we're going to pull out first. We're going to pull this one out first. You guys take art class in middle school? Choose your color.

Go green.

OK, do a test real quick. Let's make sure we can see that. Colors looking good? Yep, perfect. OK, this is going to be a rapid fire, how well do you know each other round.

Oh boy.

I'm going to ask you guys questions, you're going to write it down on there, and then we're going to show them and see how they align with the two of you. We've got cameras rolling. Hopefully it doesn't glare too bad on there, but we'll read them out loud in case. We'll start easy. When and where was the first time you guys met? And no peeking. We're going to go quick through these. You guys ready? One, two, three. We've got middle school, and PMS. I'm guessing that's the name of your middle school.

Middle school. Seventh grade football.

So you both did football in middle school?

Yep.

There you go, ladies and gentlemen, we've got football players right here. OK, you've got to be quick here, we're rolling. How many siblings does each of you have?

Is this answering for the other?

Yeah, so you write how many. Sorry. Two, and zero. Are we correct?

Yep.

Only child, I am.

There we go.

Yep. And my real name is John. That's something you probably didn't know.

John?

We already had one of these. My real name is Richard.

Are you kidding me right now?

No. Dylan's my middle name. I've been called that my entire life.

So that's not new. Yeah, I'm John the fourth, so that just gets a little redundant.

We're going to call this guy John IV from here on out. You got that? Write that down.

What's each other's favorite food? How well do you know each other? You guys spend all this time together, you should know what the go-to on the menu is.

That's tough. At home when you're cooking, it's a variety.

I'm struggling with this one.

I don't know either. I'm sending it.

Wait, we've got a redo. OK, Mexican food and venison. How close are we here?

I eat Mexican food like three times a week at least, so I agree that it's probably my most common. I don't know if it's my favorite, but it's my most common.

I always bring a deer out here from hunting season for the winter, so I eat a lot of venison.

We love wild game.

That sounded really funny. Just so you know, I always bring a deer out here.

In what form?

Well, the frozen form.

The frozen form, there we go. OK, we're going to get into some toughies right here. You ready for this? What is each other's biggest superpower? Meaning, Jack, what is Dylan the best at, and vice versa. What's the best trait, when they are the best at this thing? Dylan's writing a book over here. OK.

So Jack is saying Dylan's superpower is organization and stability.

Yeah. Just getting us on track and staying on track.

That's kind of the vibe I get from you guys. And you said social media and promotion. So you're the one out here that is the big dreamer, let's go, let's see if we can pull this off. And Dylan's like, OK, check, step by step, this is how we would actually do this thing. Is that kind of how it works?

I think so, yeah.

I think we complement each other nicely that way.

Just naturally different tendencies, in a sense.

OK, we're going to flip the script. That was the biggest superpower. What's the biggest weakness? What are you the worst at? And no offense is going to be taken here. We've got people checking cameras, and we're still rolling strong here, guys. Love it.

I had terrible handwriting, so apologies.

Biggest weakness, here we go. So Jack is saying Dylan is a late nighter. Not a late nighter, the biggest weakness, and maintenance? His bedroom, or what?

No, just the machines. It's not all the time, but at the end of the season, you've got three machines, it's not hard to let them go.

Yeah, it piles up. A lot of late nights in the shop, and I just get burnt out.

Rightfully so.

He's done more maintenance than anyone I know.

The last few years have been bad.

OK, so now you're going to answer for each other again. I'll use Jack's name for the example. If Jack wasn't part of Boondock, what would he be doing? And vice versa. If Boondock Nation did not exist, what would you be doing? You ready?

He'd be doing something with fishing. He'd be fishing all the time, I think.

And then Jack.

Sorry, I put Bent's Camp on there. Jack's always at Bent's. I didn't know which context to take it, but Jack spends a lot of his time in the summer at Bent's.

So you would end up spending more time there?

Yeah, who knows, I'd maybe even own the place by now. No, that's a cool creative outlet for me too. I do a ton of wearables and merchandise there, and the marketing and event planning. We're doing some pretty cool things, so it's a bit of a passion project as well.

Cool. OK, so you're answering for each other again. If you could pick one person and one person only to ride with for one day, who would it be? Let me back up. There are going to be two names on your boards: your person, and who you think the other person is going to choose. So if you could only ride with one person, answer for yourself, and who do you think the other person would choose?

Wow, that's tough. You only get one.

And it can't be each other. We're calling someone out right here. And it can't be Jordan either. This is someone who you have ridden with.

This is tough. This is so hard.

You guys ready? You've got 10 seconds. OK, we'll start with Jack over here. So, Jay.

Love riding with Jay.

And he thinks Dylan would choose Joel.

That's pretty good. Not bad, I guess.

And Dylan, you would choose to ride with Bo, and you think Jack would pick Jay. There you go, that's who you picked.

I spent some time with Jay back in the Midwest last summer and the summer before, and both of us have gotten to know him and Blaine really well over the years. And Joel, he's an OG and he's ridden with us a ton. We love Joel. But Bo, my first ride out here ever, once I moved out here, was with Bo. We were just getting together for dinner Friday night, and he came out to my wedding.

A homie for sure. He's a good time on the snow. It's just infectious. How did I not think of Bo?

OK, now answering for yourself. If you could have dinner with one person throughout the history of time, who's that person? You get to bring them back and have dinner with them, or it could be someone in the present. And let's take family out. Like, I'll have dinner with my grandpa. Let's take someone of significance. No offense to the grandpas out there. And we'll excuse wives too, just so you don't get in trouble.

I don't even know. I'm drawing blanks right now. This is wild.

It's too much of a question. You're on the spot, like, do I even know anyone?

OK, you have one? You ready, Jack? Who do we got? Marcus Aurelius. Oh, I just watched that movie with my boys.

Really? Yeah, I've read the Meditations recently. I think it's really relatable, despite that guy living almost 2,000 years ago. The most powerful man in the world, but he adopted a stoic mindset. It would be very interesting.

OK, Mr. Joe Rogan.

Yeah, that would be an interesting one. That dude knows a lot of stuff about a lot of things, and has heard a lot of stuff about a lot of things. I'd like to get snowmobiling out there through his channels too.

He's becoming the wisest man in the world through his podcast. It's pretty cool.

OK, that was fun. Here's an interesting one. You ready? What is the most bizarre rumor you've heard about yourself?

I don't know if I've ever heard a rumor about myself. I mean, I had to have.

Do we write it down?

Maybe you don't need to write it down, if it's kind of a sentence.

I suppose. I don't know. People ask if we're gay.

I guess that's one for both of you guys.

Definitely not.

Definitely not. You can put that in there or not. But that's probably the wildest rumor.

That's what the question was, the craziest rumor. OK. What's the strangest talent you possess? Answer for yourself. And while you're answering that question, I've got another little surprise cooking up here, boys. I hope technology works.

I don't even know what to say here. Strangest... drums. Rhythm. Playing the drums.

I don't know. Fishing. I'm obsessed with fishing in a weird way, probably more than most people. Extremely into it.

So snowmobiling and fishing.

I'm always tapping on the steering wheel, tapping on my legs. My internal monologue runs on a beat. It's just a huge part of my life, so I'm always doing rhythmic stuff.

OK. All right, so I'm working on something right here real quick. Let's see if we're going to make this work. You ready for this? Maybe. OK, let's see. Yes, it saved it all. You guys hear that? Who do we got here, boys? Who are we calling? Any guesses? I didn't tell you.

I have no idea.

Fingers crossed. Come in, come in. Oh my goodness, we got someone. Hold on, let's see if we can go FaceTime. Any guesses who we've got here?

Oh, I wouldn't mistake that voice for anyone.

I know who it is.

Hold on, hold on. Hey, can you hear us?

I can hear you loud and clear. Can you hear me?

Yeah. No funny business yet. Hold on one sec, I'm going to put this down before I run it over.

I'm frozen, I think.

Not in my book. There we go. OK, boys, who do we got on the line here?

Sounds like Chet from Backwoods.

Yeah. So I was talking to Chet, we were having some guys coming in tonight, and he said, I've got some questions for those guys. So I don't know what he's going to ask. I thought maybe we would chat about a couple of things. One would be, if there was any behind-the-scenes stuff that didn't make the video when you guys went out there, because it sounds like the trek, the journey in general, was pretty wild.

And the other thing, Chet, you obviously weren't piped in here, but a lot of snowmobilers are down this year. They took a beating. If we could talk about Hay Days, and maybe what some potential plans are that could be popping at Hay Days to get people stoked and fired up to come back to snowmobiling and be excited for the upcoming season. What would be those things that Chet and Dylan and Jack would say to get people stoked about Hay Days?

Yes, we've got a lot of amazing stuff in the works. All of us, dude, Chet, Jack, myself, we're all working on this stuff. We've got Power Hour coming hard and strong, bigger and faster than last year. That was new last year, and we kind of pulled it off, getting a bunch of creators involved: Caleb, Kyle, Matt the Muskoka Freerider, Turcotte. That was super cool, and that was just the test run.

We had to make sure the baby could fly.

Exactly. And one thing I've been thinking about too: a lot of people didn't use their sleds as much as they usually would this year, so maybe instead of ordering a new sled, they're just going to dial up their sled for next year. So at Hay Days, if you come to the Power Hour, you've got a chance to win a bunch of sweet stuff for your sled. Chet was throwing out golden tickets like candy last year. $1,000 this, $1,000 that, bumpers here, bumpers there. So you may have a chance to dial in your '24, or whatever sled you're keeping for another year, at Hay Days, at Power Hour, through the giveaways and whatever we've got going on in our booth too, with giveaways or discounts and all the other promos going on that weekend.

Yeah, every time we get together, we always joke, we're only going to scratch the surface, let's not dive in too deep. We're all chomping at the bit to come up with ideas, which is easily my favorite part of hanging out with you guys, and now Trevor has the same influence too. But yeah, I'm excited for the potential there. It's going to be bigger next year than last year, that's for sure. We were able to learn a lot.

It's really good to see you guys.

You too.

That looks like a new building, dude.

Oh yeah, my bad, I just keep this thing on all the time, so it shows the other side from what I'm looking at. But yeah, we're getting moved into the new digs.

Last time we were in that building, we were smashing snowmobiles.

Oh yeah.

Hey, actually, while we have you online, Chet, I was going to ask you this, and there's no better place to do it than a public setting like this. When you guys published that video, there were like three other people who trashed their sleds and were saved by Backwoods. Chet, is that just really good marketing? Did you guys plan that?

Are we talking about in the shop, or the guys out in the wild?

The guys out in the wild. Levi Green, I think, and then who was it with Muskoka, McMurray. Those were all the same week you guys were out there doing these.

That's what was funny, because our reference point, we did some quick calculations, we had Chase and Jack going back and forth, and it was a reference point for what we took those videos of. And then all of a sudden you see these guys out in the wild. Those were big impacts, man, and those weren't nearly as hard as what I believe we were creating in the shop. So it's nice that we took it to one level, just bored one night, a Sunday, scratching our heads going, what are we going to do tonight? And then to see it in action, one after the other. I hope it's not some type of voodoo doll, where we do this to a snowmobile and it happens to other people's snowmobiles. But no, we didn't plan it. That was a good time.

That was awesome. Not everyone was OK, but great for the brand, dude.

For the brand, anyways. Well, you never know what's going to happen when you're hanging out with Jack and Dylan and the rest of the crew, for sure. That whole trip, having those guys, was killer. An incredible experience for sure.

One thing, back to your first question, that people didn't really see in the video was us getting picked up by Chet at 10 p.m. from the airport, and then driving with like three Monsters in the cup holder, 12 hours through the night in this Wagoneer. I think Chet was reading the kilometers per hour signs up in Canada as miles per hour, because we were going like 80, pulling this two-place trailer on the Canadian roads. We're trying to sleep, heads banging off the window, so no sleeping. We roll into town groggy as ever, and Chet's just fired up. We go and jump in the ocean, and then head out to ride.

That seems like the proper way to get yourselves woke. You guys had no idea what was going down.

It's so funny, because you're right, Jack. When we go back to the episode, there's the cut scene between me picking you guys up, and next we know we're on that coastline view. People don't understand the amount of work that goes into all of your guys' productions, not just this one. A lot definitely happened, and you guys were extremely trusting of the whole event, which I wholeheartedly appreciate. I remember I grabbed the wheel and said, don't worry, boys, I'll be your captain tonight, I'll get you there safe.

And we trusted.

That was when it all started. After that, 12, 13 hours later, 30, 40 hours later for you guys, or however long.

Yeah, 30 hours of straight travel.

That's how I knew. I was a little self-conscious about the whole thing with the low snow, and I didn't know what was going to happen. We were shooting from the hip the whole time, but you guys never second-guessed anything. You flew there, you drove there, it was yes, yes, yes, let's go. You really brought the energy, and it just made it that much more natural and that much easier.

I would follow you into the gates of hell, Chet.

Amen to that.

That was fun. It was so fun.

Cool. Well, hey, Chet, we've got some work to do. Two of our cameras just died, so we're dealing with that right now.

Glad to see you guys together. This is good right here, scheming. Friends with friends. Keep in touch, I hope to hear from you all soon.

All right, hey, thanks, Chet. Thanks for being available.

Sounds good.

See, that was awesome. Is that my Spotify? Jeez. What is this? That was a nice little way to send him off, huh?

OK, we end every podcast, gentlemen, the same way. We ask the same questions to our guests. There are two questions that we ask, and they are... are you ready? I'll give you the questions so you can think about them, and then we'll ask them.

New sled. You only get three mods you can make on this machine. First off, what machine is it, and what are the three mods you're going to add to it? Let that sink in and crank. And the last question is, what is that big secret that no one listening to this podcast knows about you, and you're letting everyone in on that secret on this podcast? Make sense?

Yep.

OK. But guess what, we've got another little twist for you guys.

Oh boy.

What was the first thing you guys did when you got to location on the East Coast?

Jumped in the ocean.

Yeah, like a little ice bath. A cold plunge. So guess what the twist is, boys.

Are you about to bring out a cold plunge?

We've got a cold plunge right here, boys. I've got three of them.

Wait, are you serious?

So we are going to answer these questions in the cold plunge. And I've got swimming suits for you. We've got Walmart right next door. So we're going to let you guys change.

Not what I was expecting. I love it, though.

That's what's under those boxes.

That's what's under the boxes. That's the shipping stuff.

Oh my gosh.

Maybe we can grab this camera right here. We're going to let this noise settle down for a second. Actually, walk with me, and we're going to set this on that cart right there, and then we can move this around while we get in.

Dude, no way.

Dylan's got a long drive, so we've got to spike the system a little bit.

I can't believe this. This is great. This is actually going to play into one of my answers.

Heck yeah. We've never pulled anything off like this, so if the audio and video actually stay and work, it'll be just awesome. So let's get the ice going. Without the ice we were sitting at, I think, 54, but we're going to try and get this down to about 40.

A little warmer than the Atlantic Ocean, I do believe.

OK, this is great. Let's take the headsets off, and you guys go get your suits on.

All right, so we are doing a temperature check here. Let's see what we're sitting at. She's dropping fast, boys.

It won't be bad.

They all should be about the same. I think we're mid-40s, so we should be perfect. Yeah, we're mid-40s, 45. We're good. Tub of preference? Do you have a tub of preference?

This one right here.

OK, so this is mine, that's Jack, and this is Dylan. Dylan, you go in here. Don't hop in yet. Put your mic on.

You wanted the middle, I thought.

Yeah, middle, right here. Not that it matters. Try and keep this out so we don't get electrocuted.

All right, boys, here we go. Ready?

This ain't bad.

You guys remember the questions, right?

Oh, there we go. Just like that. Oh yeah, it's relaxing. Got to get the shoulders in.

The thing with the ice is, this is going to get colder, right?

Yeah, I think so. OK, so, the questions.

Yep. So I ordered a 2025 Freeride 146 turbo for next year, and the three things I'm going to put on it. First one, Raptor ACE coilover suspension. I can't handle the torsion springs. Two, handlebars. The stock bars are too high, even for a guy that's 6'4" like me. And number three, a Monster finger throttle.

Dude, my hands are numb. I'm shaking.

Breathe.

I would also do the Monster finger throttle. That's mandatory, just like what Jack said. I love the 3D Logic brake levers as well, and then a shorter bar riser, like a 2-inch bar riser. And a Freeride 154 3-inch turbo.

There we go.

And then I would say one thing nobody knows about me is that I'm extremely fascinated by the human body, wellness and longevity. I'm not just training for snowmobiling anymore. That's a huge part of what I'm doing, but I'm completely into wellness on the eating side. We love eating wild game, locally sourced food, knowing where our food comes from, organic vegetables. We're actually working with a company that provides whole food nutrition through protein bars and powders. A friend of ours introduced us, and they've got a sweet organic farm in our home state of Wisconsin. So I take that stuff very seriously. We all do at Boondock Nation, and I think that's something that's often overlooked, and not many people know about us.

You guys doing all right? Dude, Jack doesn't even have a stutter in his voice.

Jack's trying to be the man right now, and he is.

Go beyond the pain.

It's bad. I do a cold plunge maybe twice a year, just to remember what it feels like.

It's a lot.

Well, we're almost done. What's your thing, Dylan? What does no one know about Dylan? What's that secret? Hey, hold on, his hands are literally purple. His knuckles are purple.

I've got terrible circulation. No one knows about me, probably, just the amount of time I spend outside pursuing animals and fish and the wildlife. I love the outdoors, and I take every single chance I get, even if it's just a couple of hours or an hour, to go fishing or hunting or do anything like that. So that's my biggest passion outside of sledding, for sure.

OK. Well, this has been an awesome experience.

Trevor, thank you for having us. I don't know if we'll do this again, end it this way, but we figured, hey.

Starting to acclimate now, though, a little bit, honestly.

Maybe we should. I've got a couple more questions.

You should be begging. No, I'm just kidding. The dopamine is surging.

We appreciate you guys stopping in. Are you driving back? You take off in the morning?

Yep, taking the trailer back.

So drive safe. And I guess for us here, we'll see you guys in a quick four months at Hay Days.

Yeah. Get out for a ride next winter.

Yeah, we will. OK, all right, thanks, guys. Hey, hold on, you're not getting out of this. Take those headsets off. We're going full dunk.

I'll go full dunk.

Full dunk right here. Hold on, let me get this up close. Are we ready? Three, two, one. Oh baby. That's a wrap.