The Illegal Burial of Ed Abbey & The Fight for the Yellowstone Grizzly - Doug Peacock #grizzly #Patagonia

Doug Peacock's award winning book is: WAS IT WORTH IT? A WILDERNESS WARRIOR'S LONG TRAIL HOME

Doug Peacock is an American naturalist, author, and filmmaker who is best known for his work in conservation and activism on behalf of grizzly bears in the American West.

Here is my VIDEO version of the interview with Doug:
https://youtu.be/eYltXSGI0LM

MORE about Doug Peacock here:
https://dougpeacock.net/

You need a copy of this book! Find it here:
https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwib0r3V1_T9AhW55uMHHbI6BeoYABAAGgJ5bQ&ae=2&ohost=www.google.com&cid=CAESbeD2gisjHru--HzCA31EZbLWoOjL2LZNCxv7-JvbcbdvpqS-3BR21xD02Vv6iOCbNlPelaHdP_9dBSpiconV54SaT4JUr-pB1ppmpYRmIOPVsGSOgOOFWTp8rHa03NWVwSegv5bHzOr_XObSlck&sig=AOD64_3wNJ38YXKpxymm7aJok3Bgvg9OVA&q&adurl&ved=2ahUKEwi897TV1_T9AhUkjIkEHTejBXsQ0Qx6BAgGEAE&nis=8&dct=1

For the audio only version of this episode please use this link:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/268133/12507653

Doug is the founder and chairman of the board of Save the Yellowstone Grizzly. During his service as a Green Beret medic in the Vietnam War. After the war, Doug suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and found solace in the wilderness, much like he did when he was a boy growing up in northern Michigan, exploring swamps and forests and remote places - After the war he devoted himself to observing and documenting grizzly bears in their natural habitat.

Doug was a long time friend of the late Edward Abbey, who wrote THE MONKEY WRENCH GANG, where Peacock’s essence and spirit and passion was immortalized in the character known as George Washington Hayduke. 

Sir Doug, is the author of several books, including "Grizzly Years: In Search of the American Wilderness”..... He has also worked as a consultant on several documentaries, including "Grizzly Country" and "In the Path of the Grizzly."  Doug says bringing a gun into grizzly country will get you more into trouble than out of it…just look at the cover of his book, need I say more on that. Suffice it to say, grizzly bears saved his life…he has devoted his life to protecting theirs. 

Doug is a dog lover, a cat lover, father of two children - his amazing wife and life partner Andrea founded Elk River Books with cousin and friend Marc Beaudin….in Livingston, Montana - where, bye the way, my brother had previously lived, making complete the connection of how Jeff and Doug were pals. …you know, if Jeff had never left Livingston I’d be willing to bet a nickel he’d still be alive….

Doug continues to work desperately towards protecting grizzly bears and their habitat through his writing, speaking engagements, and activism….and…talking to guys like me who read his book….and just had to tell everyone about it

Here’s my inspiring conversation with Doug Peacock about his book WAS IT WORTH IT: A WILDERNESS WARRIOR’S LONG TRAIL HOME  published by Patagonia.yes that Patagonia


Thank you for visiting. Please consider becoming a Channel Member for access to perks and to become part of a growing community:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEk3e_XGyNnqwK2ZlxH7fEA/join

If you've been enjoying the podcast and find value in the content, we'd be incredibly grateful for your support. Your monthly contribution helps ensuring that we can continue delivering great content for you to enjoy.

Click on the link below:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/268133/support

Thank you!
Thom Dharma Pollard

Transcript

Thom Pollard: 1:05

I read a book. Well, I read a lot of books, but this one is different. I don't usually feel compelled to tell everybody about a book that I read. And so I'm going to tell you today about the book called Was it worth it? A wilderness warriors long trail home by Doug peacock. Today I have Doug with us on the happiness quotient podcast, which is also a special episode I'm showing on my Everest mystery YouTube channel. So why there or why here if you are seeing this on the Everest mystery? Well, in not such a sneaky way, my Everest mystery channel isn't exactly about Mount Everest. I use Mount Everest as a portal to talk about things like doing the right thing, following your passions, taking care of each other, and the planet. That's really what it's all about. And that's why I'm bringing that here to you today. I can bet you my bottom dollar that this conversation, and his book may very well change your day and could change your perspective on life. And in this conversation, Doug himself answers the question. Was it worth it? Spoiler alert, stay tuned. Doug was a friend of my brother Jeff's. And because Doug was such a legend in my mind already. I always thought my brother was be asking me when he told me that he used to go fly fishing with Doug in Livingston, Montana. So now about Doug. Doug peacock is an American naturalist and author and a filmmaker who is best known for his work in conservation and activism on behalf of grizzly bears in the American West. Doug is the founder and chairman of the board of Save the Yellowstone grizzly, and I'll share the link to that and many other links that might interest you about Doug and his books. In the notes under the video and this episode. Dogs love for grizzly bears began during his service as a Green Beret medic in the Vietnam War. And after the war, he suffered from PTSD and found solace in the wilderness much like he did when he was a boy growing up in northern Michigan, exploring swamps and forests and remote places where there were no people. After the war, he devoted himself to observing and documenting grizzly bears in their natural habitat. Dog was a longtime friend of the late Edward Abbey who wrote the monkey wrench gang where peacocks essence and spirit and passion was immortalized in the character known as George Washington. hayduke. Sir Doug, as I like to call him is the author of several books including grizzly years in search of the American wilderness. He's also worked as a consultant on several documentaries, including grizzly country and in the path of the grizzly dog says that bringing a gun into grizzly country will get you more into trouble than out of it. Doug's book is described as a collection of gripping stories of adventure. Doug peacock loner, iconoclast, environmentalist, and contemporary of Edward Abbey reflects on a life lived in the wild. Reflecting on the question many ask in their twilight years, was it worth it? Suffice it to say grizzly bears saved his life, he has now devoted his entire life to protecting them. Doug continues to work desperately to protect the grizzly bears and their habitat through his writing, speaking engagements and activism and talking to guys like me, who read his book and just had to talk to him. Here's my inspiring interview with Doug peacock about his book. Was it worth it? A wilderness warriors long trail home, published by Patagonia from his home in the desert, so let's try this. Doug. Thanks. I really appreciate it.

Doug Peacock: 5:18

Yeah, no problem.

Thom Pollard: 5:21

Okay, do you remember my brother Jeff at all from Earth member

Doug Peacock: 5:25

Jeff? I was just thinking about his favorite fishing hole on the Yellowstone River where, you know, he was near his house, he could walk down there, there were some riprap and but, you know, there's a backwater before the river bifurcates into two channels and there was a giant fish in there that started about dusk it was start jumping in some 12 pound frown probably. Anyways, it was a story of legend. You know? He,

Thom Pollard: 5:59

he loved those stories and I think sometimes if if I wasn't there, he would have said it was a 14 pound Brown for sure. Because he loves to. He would never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

Doug Peacock: 6:13

common trait among certain

Thom Pollard: 6:16

is fishermen, especially I think they're

Doug Peacock: 6:19

famed friends.

Thom Pollard: 6:21

It's crazy. I know, this is an immediate off the off the starting line tangent, but it's really amazing when you lose a friend, or like, in my case, my brother and not that I didn't, you know, expect that maybe he was going through troubled times and things like that. But it's such a shocking reorient in terms of your life when you lose somebody.

Doug Peacock: 6:47

Oh, god damn right. Yeah, it even though even the ones that don't surprise you, it doesn't really matter. It's loss. And, yeah, love it through way.

Thom Pollard: 7:00

I think that's probably why in in your book and your most recent book that I was, so I you know, I if I had to read it aloud right now, I wouldn't be able to get through certain sentences because I'd also choke up and have tears coming but but just in, in the great reverence you have for friendships, and the people that you cared for and loved, and how you recognized their passing. And in so doing it was by honoring them, like the way you prepared for it Abby's Memorial. And I'm, of course, speaking here to Doug about his longtime and very close friend, Edward Abbey, the author, essayist, and environmental activist who passed away and entrusted Doug and a few very close friends with his burial. Is that is that did that get taught to you? Or is that just who you are?

Doug Peacock: 7:59

And no, I, I kind of grew into that one, because I had a lot of death in my life at a fairly early age. And, you know, one of the last things you can do is, is, especially when your friend who is dying, and has, you know, has requests of you if you take them very seriously, including illegal burials and all kinds of shit.

Thom Pollard: 8:28

Illegal burials are the best, would you? Would you just tell me ever so briefly about the illegal burial? I love that part of the book.

Doug Peacock: 8:38

Well, you know, I was with him, the last days of his life, and I was alone within the last night of his life. We, you know, me and Clark's brother in law, and father and Jack left lever, were taking turns, you know, attending to add, you know, it's sitting with him and I had the last shift from midnight until the next day. And at the end of that period, he left us and the last time Edie smiled, you know, and I was there doing what I could, you know, shooting them up with morphine and compass in another worthless drugs because he had esophageal varices, which you usually get from cirrhosis of the liver. He didn't have it. He had it, you know, he had a ganglia from acute pancreatitis, it blocked the portal vein. So it's the same physical condition, just a different cause. And last time, at mildest when I told him the name of the mountain range, he was going to be buried you know, that was

Thom Pollard: 9:49

amazing.

Doug Peacock: 9:50

Yeah. And we went out there, you know, we had to get our shit together in a hurry. But, so, we all loaded up AED and, you know, dry ice and sleeping bag and body bag and threw them in the back of a pickup and drove a couple miles through where I am talking right now, you know, and several days walk west of here. You know, we didn't find a place all that day. You know, my friend Jack was adamant about putting him up on you know, a promontory of someplace in the cap rock of the mesa was with, you know, Crystal and hard limestone in on a pickaxe to just bounce off it. And so I finally found a spot the next morning and we went down and and Steven I took turns digging, digging the grave, but everybody wanted to had a chance to lay down and when I laid down in it, seven buzzards passed over circled back there. We're joined by three more. So there's 10 buzzard. And of course, all Ed wanted to come back as a turkey vulture. So I thought it was the right place, you know. And, you know, I talked to Clark cabbie yesterday and she asked quite been awkward this year and said, No, I hadn't. And last year, you know, I went out there but I stayed back. I didn't I didn't want to you know, I usually go leave something a bear effigy or something like that, that, but this last time, I got it within a couple 100 feet where I could, you know, see the the country and and let my son go down here. And it's my son's birthday today. So, yeah, he's up in judo.

Thom Pollard: 11:48

Amazing. Amazing. Wow, cool. Born on February 2. That's a pretty cool today. Yeah, in Legend and lore, I suppose so. So I loved your book. And I had heard so many stories about you from my brother. And I will honestly admit, I thought he was, I still didn't know if he was full of crap. If he really had spent time with you. I'm like, peacock is probably thinking, Who the hell is this? Thom Pollard guy and who was his brother? But now I believe my brother. He told me a lot of shit over the years that I'm sure was, you know, like stories. Yeah, but your book was, it was exactly what I needed. What What it did was it made me realize that I it the importance of kind of telling your story that you leave behind, you know, I've got two kids, or we're adults now. 21 and 25. And it's like, you know, they know me. But but if I were to leave something behind, like a book, you know,

Doug Peacock: 12:58

ya know, it. That might be the last book I write. But sure, came out easy. No, I wrote murdered in record time. And it was effortless to write. I don't know. So I think I was waiting to you know, I've got a lot of stories in my life that I could tell, but I am told some of them and this is these are a bunch of of often trips where some significant happened like finding sign in the last Mexican grassy that needs to be in the record. And, and I hadn't published that, and it needs to be out there and sent him in the tiger trip and a few other things is, you know, hadn't had a book publishing anyway. And so I just crammed it all in. But the running of it was remarkable. And I've tried to read it since and it's it's pretty good shit.

Thom Pollard: 14:03

So when, so you went just with a clarity of mind, you had something to tell? And yeah, a lot of it revolves around, you know, you get back from Vietnam. And you're kind of purging demons, if you will, living with, as they say, you know, PTSD, and you discovered, you know, this, this kind of this intimate connection with the grizzly bears and counting them and finding them and observing them. And that's turned into become really a theme of your life like 50 plus years, as you said, just really protecting them and hoping to protect not only the bear but the wilderness tracks that are vital to their survival and and protecting them from people trophy hunting them as well, I suppose. But how are we with that in the world today? Are we completely screwed? Or have has there been any progress as far as you can see it with the work that you've done? Well, I

Doug Peacock: 15:44

you know, it's full time work right now. And I'm still running this organization, which I have no business running, but my executive director a couple of years ago, just flicked up and short and, um, I did. Patagonia, you know, and I'm doing a bunch of stuff. I'm making another movie which you know, I will produce and you know, I've got a freeway underpass of i 90. That's a very serious project I'm working on and you know, and I'm suing the goddamn feds. And actually Patagonia gave me 45 grand yesterday to help with illegal work, you know, that's the I don't make any money. I got no money but you know, they they keep me hobbling along. In this book has been good too. You know, I want all kinds of fucking prizes. Yeah, I got I got enough beer money from the American Academy of Arts and Letters last for a whole year, you know?

Thom Pollard: 16:47

Oh, yeah. Well, if I show up, it's going to be one less month of your year, I

Doug Peacock: 16:51

thought, oh my god, well, that's what it's for. And, you know, and I got another prize a couple of days ago from Patagonia told me my butt to some, you know, some bullshit. I mean, it's a testimony, Patagonia did a very good job producing his book. So they got a proper layout and also won the National Outdoor Book Awards. Winner for nonfiction. It didn't come with any beer money. So I was whining, but somebody held my bag, your money, fill it up, someone

Thom Pollard: 17:29

will buy you a beer for that award. So it's kind of like a card like it has credit. And I guess

Doug Peacock: 17:37

that's okay. I didn't set out trying to be a writer, but I've had to use writing to just record my life and leave a record behind minute count counting to. So you know, there's a half a dozen books now. And they, I can't imagine writing another one. But the last one went real fast.

Thom Pollard: 17:59

I know, I'm kind of reaching out at a bunch of different things, but a few things that really stood out to me in it. One, you said. Solitude, you talked about the importance in your life, especially of solitude, and is the deepest Well, I've encountered in life. I think that there's a lot of people in the planet right now, at least in this crazy society that have no freaking clue what solitude is, and how beneficial it could be for them.

Doug Peacock: 18:31

Yeah. That's in the first few pages of the book. Yeah, I mean, read this quiz. You know, and Abby and I shared great long walks across Cabeza Prieta, which is just, you know, 20 miles to my west right now. And, you know, it was the greatest currency we we ever shared, I think. So it finished one and attempted another, even after he began to die. So with three friends, I buried him out there. Solitude is a deepest Well, I have encountered in this life. And I found most of it either down here in the desert, or from grizzy country, introspection arrives, easily blowing off the two needle pines, or on the desert breeze. It's also a human luxury, best indulged in before your children before my long, west to east walks down here, were often taken during the holidays. And I had to give him up cold turkey, once my kids were old enough to know what Christmas was. But, but what trips, they were looking across the creosote bajada towards the nearest water in a distant mountain range 40 Impossible miles ago, and then just walk in there. And you, you start thinking like that, you know, walk there doesn't matter of which three or four days I could walk to Montana, you know, if I had enough time from here.

Thom Pollard: 20:03

Amazing, amazing. Doug, you also said the those in the so called civilized world. There are two camps either believe in human life has more intrinsic value than the bears, or you do not. And, and I love that because you talk about like, so if you have a gun and a bear is charging you where do you actually shoot? Like, what's that line of demarcation? And I think it's fitting that the cover of the book is you with the spear so we know how close the bear needs to be before you roll your weapon. But could you talk about that? You know, you're you're so passionate about the survival of these beasts that I guess not not in a crazy man's way, but you're probably be willing to be devoured by one if it might help their species. Yeah, I think that was page 171 on your book that I read.

Doug Peacock: 21:01

Anyway, here. You know, there's there's Tompkins and Rick Ridgeway and Barton Lewis, an old friend of mine, were on a beluga whale expedition where everybody was scared of polar bears. I was at polar bear guy. And, you know, so we went we flipped to summer. We flipped resolute which is just a little nothing there. And the weather was lousy. So we had a few days before we could find a bush plane to fly us out to uninhabited island summers and islands. And you know, so finally we get up there Finally we land next to the fjord on Somerset Island, the scientists assembles his tent and camping gear, while the rest of us unload to Beaver bush plane, the plane departs and I put together my Polar Bear spear, soaking the snow in water, inserting the iron spear head into the slot, and then lash in tight with what Rawhide they should dry and shrink. Last touch is a screw has sharp metal point into the end opposite to spear point where it can anchor on the frozen groan or ice like a pike. You know, the government disagreed with my plan. Of course, it's like you have to carry a gun up there and I wasn't gonna do it. And they assign the Inuit 100 campiness was a gun. Once the Inuits Hunter checks up my spear, he decides I'm serious and we become friends. As the midnight sun headed in the West, he shares of beldam Canadian whiskey from a flask would mean I hadn't tried out the spirit of a bear yet, but anyone had once. When this guy was 13, a polar bear wandered into his village and the boy and his cousins unchained the dogs and when after a while, a dog circled and nipped at the big bear the boys thrust with their spirits, my Inuit pelts finally through His Spirit was given credit for the kill the Inuit Ponte polar bear fur, fur and food, one of the few remaining traditional peoples who intentionally and regularly seek out big predators. You wouldn't want to try to without some really good dog. And, you know, incidentally, might I have two Collie dogs here, you know, the older one passed. He's a grizzly bear dog, I trained him. I went and collected the grizzly bear shit from the valley that Jeff and I lived in. And and when he was a puppy just got him comfortable around the smell of it. We ran into a mother Grizz and her yearling cub neared the side of Glacier Park. And he was perfect. He sat He wiggled his nose, but otherwise didn't make a move, didn't bark. And he's got a younger brother here, that's a couple years younger, it's a predator would have gotten if killed.

Thom Pollard: 23:53

Dogs so to me, toward at the end of the book, you went back to Michigan, I believe it was with your nephew or maybe

Doug Peacock: 24:03

my cousin lived there. He, he was he just left this house driving my car to San Francisco two days ago. Wow. So I mean, he's still there. He and Andrea. He moved out Livingston, and help. Andrea and I build a house in the so called Paradise Valley, Paradise, mostly to the real estate industry, of course. And he and Andrea own the bookstore together, you know, books is still around. But yeah, I went back there as void. I looked for arrowheads and had a collection. And I decided that I had to rebury repatriate everything. And so this is just a piece of that, you know, the greatest honoring of the smell of archaeology, I think is, is less the amount of science you can squeeze out of it than just a sense of awe and wonder for another world, you know, that we came from, but don't know anymore. And really, as a young man, that was so good for me to try to imagine the lives of other people how they lived on the land, what they were thinking, you know, and

Thom Pollard: 25:22

yeah, it's it's such a good scene, you know, you put it back where it belonged. And break the law to, to put it back, right. Yeah.

Doug Peacock: 25:33

I was there wearing camo, you know, because some of the places I found arrowheads were sand ridges, they're just full of burials, about 4000 years old and things like that. But, you know, people had failed houses on those things, or the cornfields maybe had townhouse development plopped on it. Most of the places were as I first found them, because I'd like to go to remote places. But anyway, there I was wearing camouflage with a garden crawl low crawling through the shrubbery of some stranger's house, trying to get as close as I could to where I found a spear head or something and digging a hole and putting it you know, that could have been shot on site.

Thom Pollard: 26:15

I've got a garden travel, not afraid to use it. So I suppose the ultimate question is then if to kind of bring it full circle. You know, you asked the question, Was it worth it? And I guess we don't, we might not really know until the day comes that we close our eyes for the last time and then You know, if your work was worth it when you have whatever, your life review or whatever, but so did you do good is in terms of when you look in the mirror and now you're like, way to go oh man, like nice job.

Doug Peacock: 26:54

Yeah, I don't and then try to fool myself but, you know, at the end of the book, the last session was, it was worth it you know that that's a chapter of many about sorry state of our planet and climate change is firstly, you know, I was lucky enough to see some wonders of the wild, especially the animals, you know, and in so many places and you know, it was a truly, I was lucky I got to places before they went away. And you know, I knew how to do that and I worked hard to do it. But, you know, the guy Doug services guy called me last night, he's the one that had BART to bear that grizzly and Legends of the Fall In Love was, was anyway, he had never seen a wild grid. So I took him up to the grizzly hills. You know, and, once taking Doug Seuss to the grizzly Hilton, and the two of us watching the circle friend, tightly gather around a small waterhole for Swain, Mother Grizzlies for bear cubs, a yearling and two silver dog. Grizzly bears, you know, teenagers a prior litter, one of the moms science doesn't admit the spectrum of behavior. The bears were dancing. It was worth it.

Thom Pollard: 28:25

So good. That is so good. Ah, dog, hopefully it's many, many months, many years off in the distance. But have you have you told your closest friend what you want them to do with you when that day should come?

Doug Peacock: 28:46

No sooner than we want. I actually, I'm on oxygen sometimes here and the oxygen machine broke this morning. So I hope Andrea doesn't have to go out and look for my truck in the desert and find me sprawled out there with the dogs keeping the coyotes away from eating. But, you know, if I last this year, and it'll be good, you know, and that's okay. I kind of made my peace with that a long time ago. And Andrea can just neighbors got a backhoe. And we've got some, you know, family pets, cats mostly buried in the backyard, just put me alongside them.

Thom Pollard: 29:31

So you really, you really feel that that maybe

Doug Peacock: 29:35

I'm not gonna I'm not gonna live forever. I've you know, I've got a I have a terminal disease. Simple. As you know, I've got some degree of congestive heart failure, they can't figure out exactly what kind or if it's treatable or not. I've got to I've got to find a place that can give me an MRI, cardiac MRI, because I've got a pacemaker. Not every place can do it.

Thom Pollard: 29:59

Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's the one that would have gotten you killed with the bear.

Doug Peacock: 30:07

Yeah. I mean, oh, he's a sweetheart and but this is his older brother. And no. Oh, my God. That's your cat buddy over there. I have to hang out here and take care of the animals. Well,

Thom Pollard: 30:27

that's beautiful. Well, your dogs and cat need you for at least careful. So Doug, I'm gonna I'm gonna let you go, my friend. It's it's it's an honor getting to know you stay warm and healthy. Okay, Tom.

Doug Peacock: 30:46

Thank you,

Thom Pollard: 30:46

Doug. I can't thank you enough for taking the time to speak with me. Please, please live longer. We need people like you on this planet. I say that from the bottom of my heart. And I mean it to every fiber of my being. When I read your book, Doug, I had told you that I fold over pages of things that I want to remember. And in this book, I folded over so many pages that I had to double over some of the corners folded over. This one is a keeper. Anybody who hasn't read it or hasn't known about it, please go look up this book. Was it worth it? A wilderness warriors long trail home by Doug peacock published by Patagonia, an amazing book. When it figure that Simba makes an appearance at the end. I think Simba might have heard The dogs barking. In the notes of this episode, you will find links to where you can look up Doug peacock where you can find his book, and where you can find a link to some of the organizations that he champions that he founded and continues to work for. If you like what you saw or heard, I welcome you to subscribe to the podcast or to this YouTube channel. If you don't want to, that's fine as well. But I do urge you to do what Doug asks all the readers in this is to challenge the reader to make certain that the answer to the question at the end of one's life. Was it worth it? Is Yes. Thanks for being here. I appreciate you. I appreciate Doug peacock and thank you very much. Look forward to seeing the next time around