Eight out of the initial group of 10 survivalists remain in the competition as History’s Alone season 10 episode four begins. This season’s survivalists struggle against inhospitable conditions in the remote islands throughout Reindeer Lake in Northern Saskatchewan, Canada, with a lack of food taking out two competitors (Lee and Ann) in episode three.
Episode four, “Lake of Thieves,” features Cade, Wyatt, Taz, Jodi, Luke, and Melanie. By the end of episode four, two more season 10 survivalists have tapped out.
Cade Cole, Age 27, Crowheart, Wyoming
Day 17 – Cade begins the day out hunting, still determined not to give up after losing all his arrows. He finds a handful of berries and then spots some fresh bear scat. The bear must be close by.
Cade gets to work on a new arrow that he plans on heat treating. He found some beer cans and used them to create sharp broadhead arrows. Cade’s hoping they’re sharp enough to take down a bear. A bear kill would be his ticket to a win.
Cade’s 10 Survival Items:
Knife
Multitool
Shovel
Fishing Line and Hooks
Sleeping Bag
Bow and Arrows
Ferro Rod
Snare Wire
Cooking Pot
Bar of Soap
James “Wyatt” Black, Age 51, Ontario, Canada
Day 17 – Wyatt’s shelter is complete and so he heads to the water to reset his gill net. He spots a couple of otters in the lake and asks them to catch him a fish. Wyatt hasn’t seen any fresh signs of moose or bear, but he’s been doing great catching fish.
He knows fishing is key and casts with his homemade rod and lure (nicknamed “hellfire” and made of spruce wood and wrapped in yellow snare wire). Nothing’s biting at this spot, so he moves to a different spot and reels in a lake trout. Wyatt places this fish in a livewell to keep it alive and confined until he needs it. Not much later, he snags another trout, and it joins the other fish in the livewell.
He doesn’t have enough time to smoke his fish tonight, so he hopes they’ll be okay overnight. Wyatt thinks the livewell might attract otters, but he believes he’ll hear them if they try and take his fish.
Day 18 – The fish are gone. Wyatt swears he won’t make that mistake again. He just lost four days worth of food and can’t make that error again.
Day 19 – Wyatt’s sitting by the lake when the fish thief runs around nearby, seemingly unafraid of a human. Local regulations make trapping martens illegal, so the animal has no reason to fear Wyatt.
Wyatt begins fishing and notes that he won’t allow the marten to steal his catch again. He reels in a three-pound lake trout using his homemade rod and lure, and he believes it’s a sign that he needs to be in this competition.
The fish is delicious after a couple of days without protein. “I’m like a kid at Christmas,” says Wyatt, describing the meal.
Wyatt’s 10 Survival Items:
Cooking Pot
Axe
Saw
Ferro Rod
Sleeping Bag
Snare Wire
Paracord
Fishing Line and Hooks
Bow and Arrows
Multitool
Luke Olsen, Age 39, Maui, Hawaii
Day 18 – Luke’s pleased with the way his bear den shelter’s coming along and heads off to fish. He raps while he fishes, and it doesn’t take long before he reels in a trout. Luke thinks this is his 16th fish, and as soon as he casts, he gets another trout.
Back at his beach house, he’s got almost too much food to cook. He’s got a lot of smoked fish hanging by the beach house.
Later, he works on carving a fireplace into the side of a berm in his earthen shelter. As he builds it, Luke informs us that he’s been married for 18 years and has a 10-year-old son who is currently in an outdoor school that’s survival-influenced.
Luke’s happy about his new fireplace. It’s working exactly as he hoped it would.
At 10pm, he’s got a blazing fire going and thinks his shelter might win Alone Cribs. Unfortunately, his stomach’s rumbling, and he’s hoping it’s just food poisoning. He’s eaten two-day-old fish, but this feels different from food poisoning.
Day 20 – Mid-day, Luke’s still burping and has a bubble gut. He’s felt gassy for a few days and has had diarrhea. Luke even made a mess in his sleeping bag. (TMI, Luke, TMI.)
Luke’s been drinking water straight out of the lake, and that could be why he’s feeling sick.
A few hours later, Luke tries to relax and nap by his beach house. He believes he’s got giardia – he’s had it before – and knows it will probably only get worse. This could be the beginning of the end for his time on Alone, but he’s torn about tapping out because he thinks he has more to accomplish.
Luke’s on the verge of making the call when he spots a bear. He decides to put off the call and go after the bear. He takes a shot, believing that if he gets a bear and gets over his illness, he could win this. He misses and then spots another bear, taking a shot from a better area. That shot also misses, which is a good thing as Luke realizes this is a female bear and her cub. That’s against the rules. Also, as Luke explains, it just feels wrong.
“What a beautiful sign. That cub showed me what was really going on,” says Luke. “Time to go home to my mama bear and my cub.”
He’s incredibly thankful he didn’t make contact with an arrow.
Luke is the third person to tap out of season 10. The decision feels right, and seeing the bears overwhelmed him with the feeling of parenthood.
Luke’s 10 Survival Items:
Block of Salt
Sleeping Bag
Cooking Pot
Gill Net
Snare Wire
Bow and Arrows
Multitool
Saw
Fishing Line and Hooks
Shovel
Tarcisio “Taz” Ramos Dos Santos, Age 35, Becket, Massachusetts and Sergipe, Brazil
Day 19 – Taz eats a little and then checks his gill nets as Alone informs us he’s caught five grouse, four fish, and one squirrel thus far. He adds to the count with a lake trout full of eggs caught in his net.
Taz has enough food for the next 10 days, and he takes the latest fish back to his teepee-style smokehouse/kitchen. (It’s 300 feet from his shelter.) One of his biggest challenges now is keeping his food away from hungry predators.
He hangs a couple of fillets and plans on eating the head and heart tonight.
Day 21 – Taz sets up a new snare and then checks his other snares for squirrels. He’s set up quite a few, and one catches a squirrel. Taz heads to the lake to clean it, recalling his childhood was full of hunting and fishing.
When he returns to his camp, he discovers an animal stole half of his trout. He’s not sure what animal did it but knows he needs to continue his battle to protect his food. He follows a trail of feathers the animal took from his grouse and finds a footprint. It’s probably a pine marten, and survivalists aren’t allowed to harm them.
Taz realizes he needs to figure out a better way to keep his food safe. He scrapes bark off a tree so animals can’t climb it, and then he makes a wooden box with a lid that he’ll place up in a tree. That will keep his food away from martens, jays, and bears.
Taz uses a makeshift ladder to put the box out of reach.
Day 22 – The winds were strong overnight and Taz checks his gill net. It’s no longer where it’s supposed to be and he searches for it, hopeful that he can locate it because it has weight to it.
He uses a branch to try and find it and then snag it. It was part of his main survival strategy, and he needs it for fish. It was better to use the net than actively fish and use energy.
Taz can’t locate the net and the water’s too cold to keep looking. He heads back to his shelter to check his food stash. His wooden box hasn’t been touched and still contains three trout and half a pike.
Taz’s 10 Survival Items:
Sleeping Bag
Ferro Rod
Cooking Pot
Axe
Multitool
Fishing Line and Hooks
Paracord
Snare Wire
Bow and Arrows
Tarp
Jodi Rose, Age 45, Worland, WY
Day 20 – Her house is a mess (her description), and she has a nice stack of firewood along with moss ready for chinking. The shelter’s not done yet, but today she plans on getting the roof on her cabin.
20 days in and Jodi’s only eaten berries and reindeer moss. She’s determined to finish her shelter before she worries about food, burning 600+ calories an hour while working on her cabin.
She cheers when she places the final log on her roof. Next up, putting moss on top of the wood. To do so, she has to climb on top of her cabin to spread it out, and as she does she reveals her father just had a heartache and the timing isn’t great for her to be on Alone. Her kids and husband will take care of him while she’s gone, and she recalls that her dad told her not to let what he does stop her from living. It’s because of him that she’s on Alone.
Jodi draws a lot of strength from her dad, and she pauses to look at the beauty around her.
Day 21 – Snow’s on the ground and Jodi’s happy her roof is on and has kept the snow out of her cabin. She believes she could last the whole winter if she had to and names her shelter “Lost Cabin.” This environment’s magical, and Jodi thinks she has everything she needs.
Jodi’s experience thus far has proven to her that she’s strong and resilient.
Putting on the door will be the final step of finishing up her cabin. After she finishes the cabin, Jodi knows she’ll have to come up with other projects to keep her mind busy. She’s worried about her parents and feeling guilty, but believes she needs to stay and win the $500,000.
Day 22 – Her cabin’s cozy, but she needs protein. She eats a little cooked spruce bark which tastes like celery and has about 500 calories per pound. Jodi’s not eating much and has lost 27 pounds.
She had a dream that her mom was outside her cabin calling out her name and asking for help. When she woke up, the dream stayed with her.
Jodi has five children and wants them to be proud of her. She’s realized this cabin is also a prison, and the pull to go home is incredibly strong. Family is the most important thing.
Jodi makes the call to tap out. She knows her family needs her, but this has been a life-changing experience. This experience is just part of the journey – not the end.
Jodi’s 10 Survival Items:
Bow and Arrows
Fishing Line and Hooks
Cooking Pot
Paracord
Multitool
Snare Wire
Saw
Axe
Sleeping Bag
Ferro Rod
Melanie Sawyer, Age 54, Essex County, NY
Day 21 – Melanie’s decided to build a large woodshed separate but near her permanent shelter. She’ll use it to keep her firewood off the ground during rain and snow.
She describes herself as a proponent of carpe diem-ing, which is just like her mom. Her mom took off on adventures when she hit 50, including a 15-year stint in Bali. She returned to England after becoming ill and ultimately died gracefully. Melanie would talk with her mom while she was in hospice, and her mom taught her to let go of her fears.
After finishing her building for the day, she heads off to fish using a lure made from her wool sweater and snare wire. She’s only had berries and inner tree bark since being dropped off, and unfortunately, a fish steals her lure right after she casts.
She’s spent 10 years fishing, and it’s driving her nuts that she can’t pull a fish out of this lake. She makes a new lure using a Band-Aid wrapper and pink from her underwear. Melanie tries again as a raven flies by, and she thanks it for watching over her. And, apparently, the raven has brought her luck as she catches her first fish – a pike.
Her main skill is to adapt and survive, and she’s a very positive person. She believes people tap out because their heads get to them.
Melanie’s 10 Survival Items:
Bow and Arrows
Snare Wire
Fishing Line and Hooks
Saw
Multitool
Sleeping bag
Cooking Pot
Ferro Rod
Food Rations
Food Rations
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- Alone Season 10 Episode 5 Recap: “Spirit Bear”
- Alone Season 10 Episode 6 “King’s Gambit” Recap
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