Mountain Men : Marty's snow machine nonsense…

There is a camera crew with him. They got there on snow machines.

And we are to believe that he is stranded in the wilderness when his machine breaks down?

My 8 year old son figured this out immediately.

"Can't he just get a ride back with the camera guys dad?"

The whole idea is if there were no others around that Marty would be screwed. Obviously, that is not the case. The bigger problem I see that Marty is taking a bigger risk than what is reasonable in trying to continue his season putting the new snowmobile at risk of failure. I guess the counter-argument to that would be the History Channel is picking up the tab on that so it does not matter. I got to give Tom a little heck, too. Is it worth your back as an oldtimer to portage a canoe to make a measly couple thousand dollars? If he keeps that up he will being going to live with his son in Florida. Then again we could assume that Tom and his brother did nothing more than pose for the camera and then the camera crew did the portage instead.

Can you imagine the environmental shock Tom would suffer if he moved from Alaska to Florida? I don't know if he could stand it. But then, he's a tough old coot.

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You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and YOU WILL ATONE!

Yeah, Tom would just nonchalantly go from catching martin and beaver to catching python and whatever else is left in the swamps. I have to rag on Jason, also. Is a 160 year old wood framed building a good place for a blacksmith operation? Sparks fly after all. He needs to cobblestone off a room. That or use sod.

Going by the landmarks mentioned during the last few episodes such as Rainy Pass, Dalzell, etc., I believe Meierotto is following the Iditarod Race route. He even mentions at one point he is on a known trail. Given that, he had to know the general trail conditions before setting out especially since he is a smokejumper and would know exactly which fires would impact snow cover if his route passes through a burned area.

I think his base operations for his mountain escapades is the Tatitna airstrip and in the vicinity of the Rohn Roadhouse.

For a guy who preaches simplicity in his equipment, a $10K snowmobile with reverse, electric start (which I don't think can be started manually), water-cooled, and fuel injected is a pretty complicated machine to be taking out to the Bush. Nothing like using $10K worth of snowmobile to catch $4K-6K of fur. Good product placement for Ski-Doo though.

Lastly, if he were traveling solo or without a film crew, how does he propose to get back home or resupply? Does someone fly in to pick him up and bring his furs back or bring in supplies? Has he told someone to pick him up on a pre-arranged date and time?

"The whole idea is if there were no others around Marty would be screwed"

That's my entire point.

There obviously ARE others around, making the idea that he is actually stranded completely laughable to anyone with more intelligence than a third grader.

And then to be able to capture an alleged engine failure on film! What luck!

I wouldn't put it past the producers to have Meierotto go easy on the oil in the premix in order to have the engine "seize".

I don't think he is seriously trying to sell anybody on the notion that he is truly alone. I don't think that anybody believes that any of the guys were alone.

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I don't think he is seriously trying to sell anybody on the notion that he is truly alone. I don't think that anybody believes that any of the guys were alone.

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But the producers are definitely trying to sell the idea that Beasley is alone and that is not the case. He has a partner helping him build a cabin and barn as well as plant a garden. He solicits construction help on his website to help him further his "wilderness" business.

He has solar panels to produce electricity. He recently purchased another 30 acres of land. They want viewers to believe he is doing everything by himself.

Meierotto going on a solo 350 mile trip to deliver a snowmobile belies common sense. Even he would seem to choose traveling with a companion in that situation for safety reasons.

Any viewer would question the premise of certain scenarios presented as being something someone would undertake by themselves.

I agree. Like most reality shows, it's actually heavily scripted, and most of the issues that they deal with are not "real." I would be willing to say that very little of what these guys do and find on camera is actually random or legitimate. I am not saying that they don't live certain parts of this lifestyle, but it is greatly exaggerated for TV.

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Meierotto going on a solo 350 mile trip to deliver a snowmobile belies common sense. Even he would seem to choose traveling with a companion in that situation for safety reasons

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He did have traveling companionsThey call it a camera crew.

Looks like he bought a new one. He must do some sort of off-season work to pay for this. In fact, that goes for just about all of them. One minute they are saying a few thousand bucks is a successful season..next thing you know, you see new equipment and so forth. The lines aren't meeting here.





Ignoring: QuesterJonesV, MythicCDXX, Creeping Jesus/Judas, RonPaul_Lies, Digby (and aliases), ibestupid, Holiday_Hobo, sharon_18, TilaMoo, Okie-from-Muskogee/boo321, NorCalNik, Nullifidian

Marty is a forest fire fighter for the State of Alaska according to posters on this board and supposedly makes very good money. So trapping is a hobby that has potential to do more than break even for him. Tom is retired and must have some type of retirement income to compliment the trapping money but evidently needs both firing on all cylinders to avoid financial difficulties. I am thinking that Eustace bought his land when upland ground was 100-200 dollars per acre before all the rich people on the East Coast decided they had to have 50 acre hunting compounds and paid 1000=1500 dollars per acre to convince somebody to sell their land.

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Tom and Nancy make their living from tanning hide; the couple also create traditional buckskin moccasins, pants, shirts, and jackets. [Tom competed in rodeos and was a horse trainer.]

When discussing his craft with American Cowboy, Tom says that he pretty much does what the Indians did over 200 years ago. He braintans buckskin, which is tanned with animal brain and it's almost like cloth rather than leather. The moccasins are lightweight, and allow your feet to breathe so they don't get sweaty. Almost all of Tom and Nancy's products are sold at rendezvous, which are get-togethers that mirror 1840s fur trades.

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Tom was 35, and Nancy 30 when the two decided to move to a remote area of Northwest Montana.

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At each rendezvous, the couple makes up to $4,000 by selling their tanned hides.

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Info from other articles:

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I never made any money my whole life, said Tom. I hadnt paid any taxes since 1968 and when I turned 65, I went to see about getting my social security, I was pretty excited. I went to the office and they told me I hadnt paid any in so I couldnt draw any out! Now, Im 71-years-old and on TV paying more taxes than ever.

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His wife worked at a moving company before moving to Montana so maybe she qualified for SS benefits.

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Oars work of hunting, trapping and tanning, along with some odd jobs for the Forest Service, has always been the familys main income.

Its just been a meager thing, Oar said. We never made $20,000 in a year.

But that was enough to get by.

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I'm disappointed that Tom thought he could receive "my social security" when he never paid into the system. I thought he had more sense than that. Must be a Democrat.

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You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and YOU WILL ATONE!

I'm researching Conway's land acquisitions over the decades. What I have found so far will bring new meaning to "making a LIVING off the grid". Stay tuned.

I for one am interested in what you find out.

In an article about Conway he states he bought his first 107 acres of the Turtle Island Preserve in 1987. Given that:

According to Watauga County records, since 1989 Eustace Robinson Conway IV has acquired 550.77 acres for a total purchase price of $896,000. The properties are valued between $2,517,700 and $3,684,200. Most of these properties (land only) are located in Elk Township while the properties with houses are located in Elk, Blue Ridge, Stony Fork, and Meat Camp Townships.

The break down by year:

1989 5.00 acres (one property) $8,000

1994 33.00 acres (two properties) $21,500

1995 25.98 acres (six properties) $76,000

1997 412.74 acres (five properties - one has a house) $26,500.00
33 acres - $26,500.00; 379 acres - $0.00; the 379 acres represent the BULK of Conways portion of the Turtle Island Preserve; he owns 500 acres that are part of the preserve neighbors adjacent properties make up the other 500 acres of the 1000-acre preserve.

1998 5.51 acres (one property) $19,500

1999 5.91 acres (one property) $6,000

2007 16.91 acres (one property) $0.00

2009 2.81 acres (one property) $0.00

2010 13.91 acres (four properties) $0.00

2012 11.16 acres (three properties) $20,000.00: 6.16 acres - $20,000.00; 5.0 acres - $0.00

2013 3.13 acres (four properties - one has a house) $70,000.00: 1.78 acres - $70,000.00; 1.35 acres - $0.00

2014 13.55 acres (nine properties - five have a house or condo) $466,000

2015 1.82 acres (two properties - one with a house) $182,500

UNK 1.06 acres (one property) $???.??

Some records showed the purchase amount as zero dollars or was blank. I have no explanation why the sale price is listed as zero dollars for some purchases. Digital property records are often incomplete or missing data.

he was talking the new one up so much I would guess he got it for free or at a discount from the manufacturer in exchange for saying how great it is.

All "reality" shows are crap. Sam Kinison did jokes in this year's before with the starving children commercials. "Ask the cameramen for a candy bar.

it is part of the silly dynamic of these shows. same with tom's truck not starting.., "if I can't get it started I will have to walk 50 miles home through the blizzard." yeah or the crew could jump start it

or the constant claims that "if I get hurt out here I'm on my own and will die." no the crew will help you or use their sat phones to call for rescue.

the only show where the guy is truly more or less on his own is survivorman. and even in that one I'm sure he has a sat phone or emergency beacon and could get help within an hour from a standby crew if it were a real emergency.