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NARRATOR: In the far Northwest,
filmmakers from National Geographic Channel
are following an off-the-grid pioneer named Mick Dodge.
MICK DODGE: Do you hear that?
NARRATOR: Living in the wild for decades,
his ears pick up on sounds most can't even hear.
MICK: If you pay attention, and walk with awareness,
your senses can pick up on the smallest sounds or sights.
Did you hear that?
[laughs]
Hello?
Oh, yeah?
Really?
[laughs]
Well, I've tried.
I know, I know.
Right, yeah.
Alright, well, I'll let you talk to him, then.
Alright.
It's the corporate office.
When you're done speaking to them,
hang it back up on the phone.
NARRATOR: 25 years ago,
a man named Mick Dodge left the modern world behind.
Mick ventured deep into the wilderness.
He made his home in trees,
hidden in the moss.
And to this day, he's still out there.
In a remote corner of the United States
lies the Olympic Peninsula,
home to the largest temperate rain forest in North America.
Here, black bears and cougars
are at the top of the food chain.
But sometimes, it's the smallest of adversaries
that can take a man down.
[coughing, hacking]
[groaning]
MICK: I feel like crap.
Got the runs and...
Bitter chill in the night.
My muscles ache.
Could be beaver fever or...
something I ate.
NARRATOR: Beaver fever is a common nickname for Giardia--
a microscopic intestinal parasite
that causes severe abdominal pain.
MICK: I want to curl up and just lay down.
Can't afford that.
Need to do something about it.
NARRATOR: Surviving out here requires Mick
to always be in top form.
So over the last 25 years he's learned he has to recover fast
from situations like this, using the resources all around him.
MICK: Whenever I get sick,
I know the pathway to getting better fast.
I use the forest to heal myself.
Going into the Earth and asking her for healing
is like walking into a doctor's office.
You walk into a doctor's office and you go in with an ailment,
and then they bring up their cures.
The Earth is the same way.
So many different plants have so many different healing powers.
I've learned to go deep into the mountain itself
and say, "Hey, show me the path."
And it works every time.
NARRATOR: As Mick sets out on his road to recovery,
he's got a plan to flush the parasites
from his body in only days.
[dog barks] MICK: Come on, Gabu.
NARRATOR: First stop, the office of a fellow forest dweller
Mick turns to in times like these.
DOC: Ha ha ha!
[chuckles]
This is really nice.
Hey, Mick!
MICK: There are tree hangers and tree huggers.
[laughs]
NARRATOR: This is Doc Gair.
And it goes without saying that he's not your typical doctor.
On the Olympic Peninsula,
Doc's got a reputation as a gifted homeopathic healer.
MICK: Hanging upside down puts your grin back, huh?
DOC: Hey, hey, buddy!
I've been living in the woods for, gosh, 40 years.
And when you live in the woods,
you find out that the woods is just full of medicines
and things to keep you healthy.
That's the truth.
MICK: Yeah, life's been good to you?
DOC: Yeah, well, life's been pretty good.
MICK: Uh-huh.
Gabu, come here!
NARRATOR: Though Doc knows all about plant medicine,
for Mick, it's his bedside manner that sets him apart.
DOC: You are a ham!
MICK: Doc has a real relationship
with the plants in the forest.
That a girl.
And he has a laughter that just brings a great healing quality
to what he does.
MICK: I come flying into your emergency room.
I got beaver fever.
DOC: Eat some bad food or drink some bad water?
MICK: I may have.
[laughs]
Turning in the stomach, you know,
and I got consistent diarrhea.
DOC: Yeah.
Well, we'll have to do something to help dry you up.
NARRATOR: Doc's got a treatment for just about anything.
MICK: Well, lead the way.
NARRATOR: And he knows how to make a leaf tea
that will begin purging the parasites.
DOC: This way.
NARRATOR: To get started,
they'll need to track down three plants right in Doc's backyard.
DOC: The Devil's Club likes it near water.
Yeah, I see a number of them.
This Devil's Club, it's a tonic, like ginseng.
Gives you energy.
It's called the Devil's Club
'cause if you hit somebody with that thorny bush,
it feel like the devil hit you.
I've got a great root.
MICK: Oh, nice!
DOC: Oh, just right.
MICK: Look at all those little babies.
DOC: Now wash that before you chew it.
[laughter]
NARRATOR: Devil's Club is the main ingredient in Doc's elixir.
But they need a few more things to finish off the brew.
DOC: With your condition,
nettle's real good for diarrhea and sore stomach.
MICK: Good batch.
DOC: Good!
Good nutrition, good minerals and vitamins in that.
And there's plantain.
It's an antiseptic.
And it'll kill the infection.
MICK: Let's get it done.
NARRATOR: With ingredients gathered
from the old growth pharmacy,
it's time to cook up the medicine.
Mick uses flint, steel, and a little black powder
to spark the fire they need.
MICK: Oi, oi, oi, yeah.
DOC: Watch your hair.
MICK: I was gonna ask you about your beard.
It's sure a lot shorter.
DOC: It is.
MICK: How come?
DOC: Burning brush.
[laughs]
MICK: You caught your beard on fire?
DOC: I did!
I did, man, it was, it was on fire.
MICK: That's how I get mine trimmed.
[coughs]
NARRATOR: Whenever Doc treats a patient,
he passes along more than medicine,
offering his wisdom as well.
DOC: To make leaf medicine, you just want to bring it to a boil
and then take it off easy.
If you overboil something like nettle leaves,
then that kind of destroys the medicine in it.
MICK: So I sure thank you for the mending.
DOC: Hey, it's what I do.
MICK: Ah, the little guys are crawling out of me already.
[laughs]
Well, I'm gonna let this juice take hold, get some sleep.
DOC: Hey, it works for me.
Your bed looks so good, I just might make one like it.
MICK: You didn't say sleep on my bed, did ya?
DOC: No, no, no, no.
MICK: Yeah, alright.
DOC: You snore too much.
[laughs]
NARRATOR: Mick takes a short rest.
But soon, he's back on the move,
heading to pick up a stash he needs to continue the purge.
[groans]
Unfortunately, he doesn't make it very far.
MICK: Stomach's really churning.
Yeah, yeah, I'm feeling it.
Got to go visit the woods.
[whimpering]
MICK: Can't a man get a little peace?
There's nothing like fern to wipe your butt with.
NARRATOR: It's clear Mick's hurting.
But he's not the type to show it.
It isn't long before he's back on the trail
to pick up the stash he needs.
MICK: I got a special tool stashed up here.
I can already feel its energy calling to me.
It's an ancient tool, used by a two-footed animal
for thousands and thousands and thousands of years.
This is it.
Ah.
Just the tool I'm looking for.
Yup!
Medicine tool, holds a flame.
Strong as iron.
NARRATOR: This ancient, rusted relic is Mick's secret weapon.
MICK: There it is.
NARRATOR: In the far Pacific Northwest,
off-the-grid pioneer Mick Dodge is battling a stomach parasite
called Giardia.
MICK: Strong as iron.
NARRATOR: To flush it from his system,
he's dug up an ancient iron stove
he keeps stashed in the forest.
MICK: Let's do it.
Yeah, this'll work great.
Set my stove up here, make me a wet wood sauna.
Get a good, hot soak.
My work hat.
NARRATOR: To construct an effective wilderness sauna,
wet logs are the key.
Heat from the iron stove will pull moisture from the wood,
helping Mick sweat the toxins out.
MICK: Me, I...
make my own.
Get the base started.
NARRATOR: Five years ago,
Mick built a sauna like this one.
MICK: See how it comes together, it's like a puzzle.
NARRATOR: But a few months back, it collapsed.
When this one's done,
he plans to leave it as long as it'll stand.
MICK: I'll leave it up for others.
It'll be kind of a little outpost
to come into and warm up, get a good night's sleep.
Now's time for the roof.
Yeah, that's just right.
Moss is really good insulation.
Seal off all the little air holes and pockets,
and keep the heat in.
NARRATOR: Fully insulated,
temperatures inside will reach over 130 degrees.
MICK: It looks like a place I would call home.
NARRATOR: And with it complete,
Mick's sauna is open for business.
MICK: Yeah.
Now let's see if the U.S. Postal Service can find me here.
Yeah, I needed this. I needed the heat.
It's already making me feel better.
This is such a beautiful little stove, listen to it roar.
This is heaven.
NARRATOR: As day becomes night,
Mick bakes inside his iron stove sauna,
fighting the parasites in his body.
[owl hoots]
[laughs]
MICK: I think the sun probably makes that same kind of roar.
Huge roaring sound.
And it's just this deep, deep flame.
NARRATOR: By morning's first light,
Mick's nearly back to fighting form.
But there's a pressing matter in need of immediate attention.
MICK: Man, I'm thirsty.
NARRATOR: Giardia dehydrates the body.
And after a ten-hour sweat, Mick needs water in a hurry.
MICK: I'm looking for the Hoh Valley drinking fountain.
And here it is.
NARRATOR: With his immune system already compromised,
Mick's come to the spout of this underground spring
for the cleanest water in the forest.
MICK: Water fed deep
from thousands and thousands of years.
There's one real fear in drinking--
parasites and stuff will get in the water.
Most of them are in my belly, you know,
you kind of get used to it, flushes you out once in a while.
You were given from birth a little cup
you can form with your hand.
First time I ever drank into this water,
two days later all my hair and beard popped out.
Woof!
And here I had this hair and beard, you know,
and I became known as the short Bigfoot.
The other Bigfoot's seven feet tall.
I'm one of the shorter ones, kind of along the dwarf lineage.
NARRATOR: Hydrated, it's time for one final treatment
that'll deliver the knockout punch.
To battle his remaining symptoms,
Mick's headed to a glacial-fed river not far from here.
En route, he spots one of the Hoh Rain Forest's
many alien-like inhabitants.
[laughs]
MICK: So many different forms of life.
NARRATOR: These are the remains of a mass of salamander eggs.
But for Mick, they're a dance partner.
MICK: Makes you think of a jellyfish, doesn't it?
It teaches you that wiggle.
Yeah.
So much variety out here.
NARRATOR: Leaving his friend behind,
Mick's getting closer to the glacial-fed river
he's targeting.
But before he gets there,
he's planned one special stop on the way.
MICK: We're almost there.
NARRATOR: Over the years, many men have sought Mick's guidance.
MICK: Let's go find Will, huh?
NARRATOR: But the inhabitant of this cabin
is one of only a few to make the cut.
NARRATOR: In the Hoh Rain Forest,
off-the-grid pioneer Mick Dodge
is headed to a glacial-fed river...
MICK: Alright, Gabu, let's go on.
NARRATOR: ...to treat lingering symptoms of Giardia.
MICK: Let's go find Will.
NARRATOR: But before he gets there,
he's making a special stop to pick up a close friend.
MICK: Yoosh!
WILL: Oh-ho!
MICK: I thought I'd find you out here.
WILL: Dodge himself.
MICK: How are you doing, brother?
***, good to see you again, man!
No hands.
We got this together, back bend.
Argh!
Like the, like the dwarves!
[laughs]
WILL: How you been, man?
MICK: Good, good.
NARRATOR: As the legend of Mick Dodge continues to grow,
many men attempt to seek him out for guidance
and to follow in his footsteps.
MICK: Yeah, what happened to that hair, huh?
WILL: I cut it off, you know?
I figured coming out in the woods,
I don't want a mop like yours holding me down.
[laughs]
NARRATOR: This man, nicknamed Will of Stone,
is one of only a few Mick's allowed to find him.
MICK: Last time my head looked like that
was in the Marine Corps.
Man, they forced it on me.
Shaved it, shaved my beard.
WILL: About three years ago, you know,
I started hearing these legends of this mystical figure,
this kind of forest spirit.
I heard of people calling him Treebeard,
and I'd heard him called the Barefoot Sensei.
And I was looking for someone who could kind of give me
some instruction and give me some guidance.
MICK: How are the feet doing?
WILL: Feet are good, feet are toughening up.
MICK: Will, he's strong.
I call him the Will of Stone.
I shared some of my knowledge and skills with him,
they've been passed on from my mentors
and I'm passing on to him.
WILL: So what are you up to, Mick?
MICK: Well, I come down with beaver fever
and I need to make a run down to the river for a healing.
NARRATOR: Whenever Mick stops by,
he doesn't even have to ask Will to join him on his adventures.
WILL: I've been meaning to get more running in.
You are the man to run with.
NARRATOR: Will's always up for the teaching
as he begins his own journey away from the modern world.
WILL: I feel myself moving towards a more primal place,
a more wild place.
A big draw is to get away from the noise.
We live in a world that's way noisier
than we were ever meant for a world to be.
Mick just knows these woods,
and so to kind of see the forest through his eyes,
that's the way that I learn.
NARRATOR: With his apprentice in tow,
the final push to the glacial-fed river begins.
But first, Mick wants a little intel from his own kind of GPS.
MICK: Yeah, I get a little bit higher,
I can see from the top of the trees the lay of the land.
Slam me your back up against here.
WILL: You need a boost?
MICK: Yeah.
Let's make it happen.
Hup!
NARRATOR: He's scouting for a spot
where the water runs deepest and most wild.
Closest to the toe of the glacier.
MICK: Yeah, find you a tree.
WILL: Alright.
[branch snaps]
MICK: Be careful with that branch.
WILL: Noted.
How's the view?
MICK: Ah, it's beautiful! [laughs]
What I'm looking at is, you see the top of the trees?
WILL: Uh-huh.
MICK: You see how that makes that long dip
like there's a valley that runs in the top of it?
WILL: Yeah.
MICK: Water cuts through the ground,
the trees start leaning in towards it.
WILL: Yeah.
MICK: So that's where we need to head to.
WILL: Okay.
MICK: Now the trick is, when you get down on the ground,
is remember what you saw up high.
WILL: Right.
MICK: Alright, let's get on down and get moving.
NARRATOR: Though he's still not feeling 100%,
Mick picks up the pace,
eager to reach the wild water they're targeting.
MICK: Yoosh!
WILL: What's going on, big guy?
MICK: You hear a river?
WILL: Mm-hmm. I smell it, too.
NARRATOR: Just a stone's throw from here,
Mick will employ his last trick
to try to flush the parasites away.
MICK: Yeah, I'm finally getting close.
NARRATOR: He'll bathe in 38-degree glacial waters.
A practice he learned from men who came before him.
MICK: John Muir, he used to say when he got a flu
or something like that, he jumped in the glacial rivers.
My granddaddy called it kissing the foot of the glacier.
You know, you jump in a cold river,
your muscles squeeze up real tight.
There's this deep massage that can take place
and flush out your body.
WILL: Woo!
MICK: Woo, woo!
Yoosh!
WILL: Woo!
MICK: Goo!
WILL: Woo!
MICK: Yoosh!
NARRATOR: The men can only stomach minutes
in the Hoh's 38-degree water before retreating to the bank.
But they plan to continue their cold plunge
as long as they can handle it.
[laughs]
MICK: I bet you them little Scottish nuts of yours
are swollen to the size of peas.
[laughs]
I still got my male right now.
[laughs]
NARRATOR: The duo spends the rest of the day's light
bathing in the ancient Hoh River,
and Mick's pain is all but gone.
WILL: I love the Hoh!
[laughs]
NARRATOR: Though it'll still be a few days
before he feels as good as new,
Mick Dodge's trusted healing system soon has him
back on the trail,
grateful as always for the place he calls home.
MICK: Can the Earth hurt you?
Can a cougar in the woods out here come out
and say I want you for a meal?
Absolutely.
Take me, but let me warn you,
I'm gonna be a hard thing to digest,
'cause I love living just as much as that cat.
♪ I don't need no war, what are we fighting for? ♪
♪ No color TV or SUV ♪
♪ What I need and really want ♪
♪ It's so simple, let me tell you, son ♪
♪ All I really want is a chocolate chip cookie ♪
♪ It's hot and sticky and gooey inside ♪
♪ It's made with love, and lots of chocolate ♪
♪ Oh, man, oh, man, wouldn't that be grand? ♪