Alaska Experiment - What happened?

batosai117 · Jul 21, 2009

I haven't been in here in a while, so I hope this hasn't been covered already.

After reading up on the expedition africa thread, I realized that I don't remember if the most recent Alaska Experiment show on discovery channel ever had an official "ending."

I watched every show and waited anxiously for the new one every week, but when they threw in that Man vs. Wild with will ferrel, it bumped the Alaska show out of sync and I don't recall if they ever officially finished it or just left it off as a cliff hanger

I never saw anything of it after that and couldn't find anything on the discovery channel site (that I'm aware of). So any and all help is appreciated.

Take care, J.

cmdionne · Jul 21, 2009

They finished it. They started some hiking and one person quit. A few miles later they ran across a deserted town (alot of summer cabins and whatnot), then on the outskirts of town they found some railroad tracks. They decided to wait for a train instead of pressing on, and a train miraculously showed up within a few hours and took them to a train station where all their friends and family were waiting.

KuRUpTD · Jul 21, 2009

cmdionne said:
They decided to wait for a train instead of pressing on, and a train miraculously showed up within a few hours and took them to a train station where all their friends and family were waiting.

Pretty amazing ... wasn't it ? :barf:

Timing is everything !

WolfTracker · Jul 21, 2009

That's funny as balls!

texastonydobbs · Jul 21, 2009

kind of a let down... the end was so fake . I was really disappointed

Bubbanumber1 · Jul 21, 2009

texastonydobbs said:
kind of a let down... the end was so fake . I was really disappointed

What was fake about the ending? If you walk out there where they did the train will stop and pick you up. Its the last flag stop in America and has a few communities built on the rail line just south of Denali and Talkeetna.

Overall the show gave a pretty good impression of people not from Alaska showing up with lower 48 ideas and having a hard go starving themselves. They walked right by most of the food opportunities and were not prepared at all for large game which is the single most important thing in the bush.

texastonydobbs · Jul 21, 2009

to me I think the train was kinda staged/fake,I understand the railroad being the life line for remote locations,I think the RR ran east & west & just happen to be traveling in the correct direction and stop at a depot where family & friends were fresh as daisy waiting... all their struggles every episode and the end came together to easy just my view of the show.

ZombaiO · Jul 21, 2009

It was a nice show.One of the women was a good hunter - she killed a grouse and some ducks with a rifle-shotgun combination.She also killed a squirel with a shovel.IIRC she also caught a fish ?

Bubbanumber1 · Jul 22, 2009

texastonydobbs said:
to me I think the train was kinda staged/fake,I understand the railroad being the life line for remote locations,I think the RR ran east & west & just happen to be traveling in the correct direction and stop at a depot where family & friends were fresh as daisy waiting... all their struggles every episode and the end came together to easy just my view of the show.

The rail line runs between Anchorage and Fairbanks, North/South but there is a small cutoff to Talkeetna. Not sure if they upped the train schedule to meet it or even had a special train, thats very possible.

I don't see it as staged so much but its open to interpretation. Much of what went on is nothing I would have done and Im sure others feel the same way. It was total amateur hour from the very start.

Everybody has to know this adventure was heavily supported and I suspect they had a licensed hunting guide the entire time just off camera in case they got to looking good for the local bears. They also had a full medical team on call, medical on the ground, camera crew, and the owls only know how many people standing around just off camera.

Their progression was heavily monitored so it would have been pretty easy to predict when they were coming out to hit the rail line. Since Talkeetna had hotels and air service that was their base camp for the crews and where the family waited the last couple days for them to come out.

Just in the last couple weeks another lower 48 kid died up in the Brooks Range. They were trying to cross a river and he went under and was never seen till they found him miles down stream. Unrelated but I also read where somebody on a motorcycle hit a moose, ouch.

Chinpo · Jul 22, 2009

I found the fact that the train, which apparently ran that line VERY infrequently was pretty staged. The narrator was saying that they might have had to camp next to the tracks to wait for it for a few days. Then, lo and behold, it comes chugging along an hour later.

ChadHahn · Jul 22, 2009

DV Magazine had an article about the series. They also did two about Les Stroud. They said that there were a few teams of camera people that would take turns being with the people. The majority of the technical staff was off site.

An interesting thing the article said was that they would not interfere with the people but if they went in the wrong direction for more then a few miles someone would hint that maybe they needed to check the map.

Here is a link to the article Alaska Experiment

Chad