History’s Alone season 11 episode nine takes the action from Day 40 through Day 53, with just four competitors remaining in the survival challenge. The weather’s turned harsh, the river’s freezing over, and food has become even more difficult to find. Episode 11 begins with Timber, Sarah, Dub, and William battling the elements and hunger, and ends with just three survivalists still in the running for the $500,000 grand prize.
Recap ahead with spoilers – you’ve been warned!
Timber – Age 35, Salem, Indiana
Day 40, 8:59am – Timber’s built a cabin that rivals any shelter built over the previous 10 seasons. After filling it with smoke in episode eight, episode nine begins with Timber explaining that he’s used his remaining moose skin to trap and conduct smoke out the chimney. He films another skit, playing two characters discussing “hair” versus “hare.” Surprisingly, it’s also one of the better skits on the series.
As he leaves to check his snares, Timber reveals that the mice in his cabin are out of control. One even fell on his head last night while trying to get to his moose jerky. Timber confesses his teeth are sore from chewing on the jerky, but he’s rationing his fish. He’d really like to get some more fresh meat, but his snares are empty.
He’s going stir-crazy in his shelter and goes for a walk to the spot where he killed the moose. Timber finds its ribs covered with snow and decides to use them for craft projects.
Day 42, 1:27am – Timber confesses he’s sleeping less now, even though the nights are longer. (Alone says nights are now 14 hours long.) He built a deadfall trap on Day 40 to catch the mice that have been running amok in his cabin, and he’s stationed himself to watch for their activity.
Day 45, 2:11pm – Timber’s decided to make gorge hooks from the moose’s rib bones. He describes gorge hooks as like a big splinter. If these work, he’ll be in good shape. If not, he only has four hooks left out of his initial 25.
4:08pm – He chews on jerky as he checks his snare line while admitting he thinks this season will go beyond 70 days. He believes Jake, William, and Dub are tough and could still be in the competition. (He’s right on two counts.)
He’s caught a large hare with a snare and dispatches it with a stick. Timber’s grateful to have gotten a hare and Alone says this hare equals about 2,000 calories. He believes between the moose lard and the hare, his odds of remaining in the competition have increased.
Timber takes a moment to honor the hare and honor life.
6:18pm – He’s cooked the hare and is feeling pretty comfortable. As he eats, he explains that he’s a humanitarian aid worker who grew up believing the government would steal kids away from their families. And then his brother, John, was shot by a gang while delivering pizza. John survived, but the shooting changed Timber’s life.
When he visited the spot where John was shot, there were buckets of blood on the ground. At that moment, Timber realized there is more to life than living in fear. He was offered a mission trip through his church to Ukraine and visited orphanages. It was there that he saw people loving others less fortunate than themselves. Love helped the orphans’ fear disappear.
Now, he goes to countries where people don’t have as much – even countries where it’s illegal to help. “I want to see fear go away from somebody’s eyes like it went away when love found me,” says a tearful Timber. (Can I just say I’m now firmly #TeamTimber.)
Day 51, 11:29am – He casts his lines with his gorge hooks and returns to his cabin to work on furry foxes for his boys. He promised his nine-year-old he wouldn’t tap just because he missed him.
Timber’s lost 30 pounds since Day 1, even though he’s eating.
He heads down to check his lines and spots a mink. His line is straight out, and he pulls in a fish. It was caught using a gorge hook from a moose bone, and Timber celebrates the win. He opens its mouth and shows the bone sticking out the side of its mouth, making it impossible for the fish to escape.
It’s been a great day and he’s happy living out there like a wild beast. His wife told him to have fun, and that’s what he’s doing.
Sarah – Age 48, Skwentna, Alaska
Day 41, 10:28am – She’s happy to see the sun and decides to heat up her soup. Sarah’s a bit dehydrated and cooks the broth, made from dock roots and sweetvetch, while wondering how the other survivalists are doing. “I may not be great at what I’m doing, but I’m stubborn enough to keep trying,” says Sarah.
After hydrating, she cuts firewood until she feels a pain below her rib. She’s forced to take numerous breaks because she’s uncomfortable. It’s probably because her body is depleted, and she needs more nourishment.
Day 42, 4:22am – Sarah’s left kidney is hurting and she can’t sleep. It feels like a knife is plunging into her kidney, and she’s worried about long-term damage.
11:23am – She’s pretty sure it’s a kidney issue that kept her up all night. Despite the pain, she heads out to try and find a bird. Her brain’s spinning and she wonders what she ate or drank that’s causing this pain. Sarah’s aware she could be causing lasting damage if she doesn’t get medical attention.
She returns to camp and makes the call to tap out. The pain is of the sort that she can’t just suck it up. Sarah knows an organ issue is a valid reason to tap. Alone has been challenging her mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, and she’s proud of what she accomplished.
She slayed a few demons while in the wilderness and feels like she’s walking out a better person.
Dub – Age 44, Frederic, Michigan
Day 41, 11:38pm – Dub wakes up hungry and digs into his stash. He puts a fish head on his bed, prepares it, and then tosses it on the fire to cook. He goes off about having food on his bed for midnight snacks, and it’s obvious he woke up in a weird mood.
His gillnet’s calling to him and admits he doesn’t check it often enough. Even though it’s the middle of the night he heads down to the river with his light. Wolves are howling nearby, and he pauses to listen, admitting it’s spooky. He hopes they don’t come through his area and continues to walk toward the river.
He was going to look at the stars but discovers his glasses are broken again, forcing him to return to his shelter.
Day 42, 2:39am – Dub heats up the paracord to mend his glasses. It’s as good as a weld, and he uses snare wire to attach reattach the arms. The glasses look funky but are functional.
Day 47, 1:36am – Dub can’t stop burping and feels nauseous.
Day 50, 12:32pm – Dub finally feels a little better and it turns out he’s been really sick for three days. All he’s been capable of doing is checking his lines and gillnet. He’s had diarrhea and isn’t sure why. Dub boiled reindeer moss he had inside his shelter and ate it, and that helped some. He also ate charcoal.
His gillnet is empty and he admits it’s rough out there. “This is hell out here,” says Dub. He’s hungry, tired, and worries every night he might get visited by a bear. A burbot he caught on Day 47 is next on his menu to cook and has been continuing to force himself to eat. He’s lost 35 pounds since Day 1.
His energy level is down, and he hopes the fish won’t make him sick. As he’s chewing, he realizes there are worms in his fillet. Tapeworms can infect humans, but he’s considering eating the fish anyway. It’s the best-tasting fish he has, and he thinks he can boil it more and not get sick. But he’s just getting over being ill and his body won’t survive another round of nausea. Dub also realizes the day he caught the fish was the day he got sick.
11:43pm – Dub confesses the tapping urge is building. He understands why people tap out when their stomachs hurt. It just gets worse when you don’t have food or water. He hates this feeling and isn’t sure how much more he can take.
Day 53, 10:57am – His gillnet caught its first fish in a while on what’s probably its last day of usefulness. He pulls in a coney and can’t get over its size. It’s probably a week’s worth of food, and Alone says it’s 38 inches. Dub cleans it while talking about his rough childhood and being picked on. Tough as it was, he wouldn’t change a thing.
1:26pm – He’s finally feeling normal again and throws his fish into the cooler back at his shelter. When he does, he discovers a mouse has been eating and defecating all over the fish. He tosses the pike he caught on Day 37 out of his shelter and doesn’t know what to do with the 50 pounds of fish he has stored up. The pike shows signs the mouse has eaten its insides and pooped inside of it.
He can’t eat any of this and realizes that’s why he’s been sick for a week. He’s been eating mice poop that contains salmonella. Dub’s entire food stash is trash.
Dub examines it closer and decides he can save the pike’s tail but nothing else. He mistakenly believed the mouse crap was dirt. Now, he has to toss out all of his food.
“If I wasn’t so stubborn, I’d tap right now,” says Dub.
William – Age 49, Happy Valley Goose Bay, Labrador
Day 42, 3:44am – His mind’s been racing, thinking of everything he wants to do. His shelter’s in good shape. His family photo’s right above his head so he can look at it whenever he wants.
Day 43, 5:08pm – William’s had issues with a marten robbing his food cache, but fortunately nothing got to his beaver. He retrieves a hind leg and leaves the rest for later. The hind leg is high in protein, potassium, and iron, according to Alone.
6:40pm – He’s already hauled in his gillnet since the river’s about to freeze over, so the beaver is his main source of calories right now. After boiling it, he shows off the fat on the paw and enjoys a small meal. When he’s done with his dinner, all that’s left are the claws.
Day 45, 10:33am – It’s 21 degrees when William leaves his shelter. First up, he checks his snares but they’re empty. He heads to his food cache and discovers marten tracks by his hiding place.
12:37pm – The marten stole his beaver! He piled large rocks on the remaining beaver, but somehow the marten got to it. William’s shocked, certain there’s no way the marten could have gotten through the rock barrier. Unfortunately, it did, and the beaver’s all gone. Even the tail.
William admits this is the worst state he’s been in since Day 1. He is completely out of food.
Day 46, 10:37am – William knows that it’s how you handle trouble that counts. He’s not going to cry over the beaver’s disappearance. Instead, he’ll try to ice fish. He works on building a ladder to make it to the center, realizing it’s quite risky. He uses paracord to tie the rungs together, certain he can’t fast much longer.
12:51pm – Two grouse fly over as he’s working on his ladder. He counts a total of four and decides to grab his snare pole. They land in a nearby tree. He has to stay quiet and move slowly as he nears the tree. He reaches out with his stick and places the snare in front of one. William snags it on his second attempt.
He feels incredibly lucky and blessed as he plucks its feathers. He even breaks out in a happy jig as he celebrates having food. This bird will buy him time until he catches fish. William blows up the grouse’s crop and explains they hang these on Christmas trees back home.
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This post was last modified on September 5, 2024 6:53 pm