Jordan Jonas on Hunting Moose and Lugging Cameras on “Alone”

So that's the crazy thing, right? Like you're not just doing something, but you're also self filming. Yeah, trying to film. So you gotta like, you know. Do they give you tips on how to film? Yeah, they give you film tips before you go out. I actually found, like this wasn't everyone's experience, but I found it was like kind of nice to have a camera because when I'd been like fur trapping in Siberia, it's like you're just alone, alone. And everything you do just feels like nobody's ever going to know about it. You know, like you do all these cool things and you... I remember like I'd been out there for a few weeks and I came into like this beautiful woods in Siberia, you know, and I remember being like, wow. And then I was like, oh weird. That was the first time I've spoken out loud in like three weeks, you know, so I was like... So I was just saying wow. Yeah, wow, like caught my attention. Oh, that was my voice, you know, like and then of course, your mind's really active, but it's just all in your head. But on the show with the cameras, you know, it's like you're constantly like, hey, buddy, buddy, talking about stuff. No, wow. So it kind of made me feel like I wasn't quite as alone. So when they tell you, when they give you the camera equipment and tell you to go out and film yourself, how much battery life do you have? Well, you get this big like car battery size pack that you can like recharge your batteries with and then they'll occasionally come on like med checks to see, make sure you're not too skinny or something like that. Really? Yeah, yeah. How often do they check on you? It varies sometime around 10 days-ish or something. Every 10 days, oh, he's dead. Yeah. Have they had people die out there? Not yet. Fortunately, they- Did they give you a bell to ring or something? Do you have a thing that you like, it's the thing you would give up with, like if you were ready to tap out a red button. Is it like a Garmin or something? Yeah, it's like you can send texts on it. Oh, okay. And then so you text them every morning and night and basically say, I'm okay. Oh, wow. And so they know you're okay. If you don't do that, then they'll come probably see if you're alive still. Oh, wow. And so are they- I would imagine their show is entirely dependent not just on you succeeding but documenting everything. Yeah, I think that when they were very clear with us, like you guys have to document everything. We need eight hours of footage a day minimum. You know, like- Wow. And when you're out there- Do you have a solar charger? No, no, so but you know, probably wasn't a lot of sun up there that time of year. But that big battery block and then you got a lot of little packs, battery packs. And it's kind of what restricts where you live is that you have a hundred pounds of gear. So when you're swinging an axe at this Wolverine, you got all that on film? Yeah, it's like- Even the shot? Yeah, well, you can see me. It's like I'd like, because I heard him coming. I heard him coming and because my cans were a long ways away, you know, a ways away and it's like clank, like I was like, so you have a tripod. So I just ran out with my tripod. My camera set it on. Oh my God. Because he had a trail. So I knew generally where he'd be coming. So I just set my camera up, put it in that direction and that's kind of where it came. That would be a giant distraction. Yeah. That would make it so- Because I know that happens- I missed the first moose because there was a different moose that I had shot at that I totally missed. But big giant dinosaur of a moose. It was so cool to see. But I grabbed my bow and arrow and my camera and ran out there, set the camera up, took my shot and I was like, oh, I didn't grab my quiver. And so my first shot, I misjudged the distance and dropped the arrow between his legs. I was like, oh, oh no, I only grabbed one arrow because I grabbed my stupid camera. Oh. Did he run when the arrow came near him? No, I like dropped between his legs. He looked around. I totally would have had time for another shot. It was a real kick in the pants. So then I- Oh my God. He kind of took out, trotted off and I was just like, man. Did he know you were there? Was he aware of you? Not too aware. Like I took a shot. He like heard it, knew something was up. What had happened is I had set again like those cans up as a warning system and I heard him like in the morning hit the cans and I figured that would just warn me. You know, if something hit the cans, it would wake me up and I could go out and try to hunt it. What actually happened is he went through the cans, scared himself and ran like perfectly in my direction and turned around and looked at the cans. Like broadside to me, like I came out and it was just a perfect shot, but it was 40. I paced it off afterwards 43 yards and he was such a big animal that I thought he was closer. So I put him at like 30 yards guessing, you know, and I missed my first and only shot. I was like, ah. Did you call him in? Yeah, I've been calling Moose like every day. I would just pick berries, call Moose. It's like, oh. Yeah, yeah, yeah, good one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's very good. I think they'd come. Yeah. Get in your lungs. I learned that from my friend Mike Harkridge. Yeah. Now when you're doing that, you're waiting a long time, right? You're calling him and then you just sit out waiting. Literally, it was like I'd find a good berry patch, just sit there and eat berries and call, and eat berries and call. And yeah, that's all I would do. And I think both the bull moose that I saw came into that calling because it would always, but it would take them a long time. So I'd call all evening and then they would usually come in in the morning, which was interesting. So it's not like they. They come from miles. But yeah, they must have come from a long ways away. They come huffing and puffing and all in the rut and stuff. Like, yeah, it's so cool. I could just hear it going. It's weird noises. They're so vocal. Yeah. And it's nice you can mimic their voice with your voice. It's the nice thing about moose. Right. It's not like an elk where you have a tube. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can actually make the horny cow moose noise. Yeah, exactly. Just got to get into it. Was it in the rut? Yeah. Oh, that's lucky. So it was made of fun. Was that by design for them? Yeah, they want to give you a chance of getting something. Yeah, yeah. Now you shot that moose. How did the other people survive and how many people made it? A lot of people just through toughness, you know, like just starving out like dude, you know, that you were pointing out. Yes. Just catching a few rabbits here and there, you know, like fishing is a big thing, you know, like but yeah, it was it was nice to have the moose for sure. I knew I had to. It was like that. I'm not going to have a chance if it was starving. I would have been out of there so fast. Did anybody else get a moose? No, I assume someone would but I mean again with a recurve, it's pretty hard. Plus you haven't ever scouted your territory. So you don't know how things are going because I was so focused on getting one right from the bat. Like right when they dropped my helicopter off. It was like I went out and scouted like where might moose come in and bring binos. No, you can't take those but I just I just put my shelter where the wind would always be blowing my scent out to the sea, you know, out to the and taking into account all those little things, you know, like yeah, building my shelter away from where moose might walk by so that I wouldn't blow up a spot, you know, all that kind of stuff. So how did the other people what did they eat? Yeah, it was I mean a lot of them after it was someone made it to 77 days before they quit 72 or three. So you go an extra four days. Yeah, because the storm came in and they couldn't get out there. Did you know about it? No, I have no idea. Oh, wow plugging along out. So who the fuck made it to 72 days? It was a girl named Wonea and she and another guy named Nathan made it on you know, this is shelter burnt down and I was kind of in for him. Both of them made it right up to 71 72 days. His shelter burned down. He said I'm not making another one. Yeah, I mean it was cold at that point be pretty tough girl. Yeah, you know, she caught something with her bow game pheasant or something. Oh and she said she's happy. I think happy to finally eat. Yeah, then she cooks it up. Wow. Just chopping it all up. Yeah, and so yeah, they would eat, you know, as everybody did but that is you just eat everything crazy or read that bird's meat is that's nuts. It looks like a like a beef. You know, I mean it looks like a venison bird doesn't it? Yeah, it's crazy. Look at her so happy. Oh, I'm so happy. So she almost almost made it. Yeah, she did really well, but some fucking ballsy people to do this. Yeah, it's pretty intense. You know like good for everybody that tried to do get like yeah, but they don't get shit. They get zero. Yeah, you got 72 days of star red. I know it's rough and one guy walks away with a half a mill. Yeah, that's crazy. How much moose did you have left at the end of the show? Couple hundred pounds, you know, like I still had a lot. You were good to go. How many pounds of it were you eating in a day? As much as I could. I was just so hungry. Plus I was having fish so I would have fish for lunch and then breakfast and like dinner. I would eat moose and I was just I basically had a lot of I basically I told myself well, I can't quit until I finish this whole move. I'm eating as fast as I can.