(upbeat music) - [Male Announcer] Support for Wild Nevada Memories is provided by the William N. Pennington Foundation.

- [Female Announcer] Millie Hopper and Millard Reed.

- [Male Announcer] Gail and John Sande.

- [Female Announcer] Margaret and Charles Burback.

- [Male Announcer] And by individual members.

(upbeat music) - [Dave] It's been 20 years since "Wild Nevada" first appeared on public television.

Over the years, many people have asked what's it like to travel around and make the show?

So let's celebrate the 20th anniversary by reliving one of our favorite adventures, and sharing some Wild Nevada Memories.

(upbeat country music) Hi, I'm Dave Santina.

- And I'm Chris Orr and this time on "Wild Nevada," we're taking you river to river.

It's really hard to paddle to stay in place when you're on a river and there's a little bit of a current.

- We couldn't record audio while we're in kayaks on the water, so we recorded our voices later, and we had to loop it.

You record your voice in sync with your lips while watching yourself on the screen.

We're beginning this time with a beautiful view behind us of the Carson Valley.

And if you look down there you can see winding through there, that's the Carson River.

- And this trip actually takes us from one river to another.

And our destination for tomorrow is just east of here, the Walker River, home to a brand new state park.

- Yeah, we're looking forward to seeing that, but our first stop today, it's right down over there near Nevada's first settlement.

Tucked into the east side of Carson Valley at the foot of the Sierra, is Genoa.

It's been here since 1851 and still feels like a throwback to an earlier time.

The deer like it too.

You can usually spot a few as you drive slowly through town.

(calm country music) - [Chris] Just east of Genoa is the River Fork Ranch, a nature preserve operated by the Nature Conservancy.

Mickey Hazelwood, is their Eastern Sierra Nevada program director.

- Mickey Hazelwood is the name that to me says country music superstar, right?

Shouldn't Mickey be out on stage somewhere, in a big hat playing a guitar?

- Well, this was originally the old ranch house and our longtime supporters Art and Joanne Hall had the great idea of creating an interpretive center, a visitor center, here at the River Fork Ranch preserve.

A lot of the materials in here are recycled from structures on the old ranch and other buildings in the area.

So a lot of the wood is reuse, repurpose.

- It reminded me of my grandpa's ranch and how cool it was that they were able to save pieces of the old ranch house an old ranch, and repurpose it.

- Keeps the ranch vibe about the place while updating it.

- We were joking around when we saw these taxidermy birds that if we didn't get the chance to get footage of any live birds outside, we'll just double up on footage of the animals inside the exhibit.

- From then of course the scrub jays love to yell at me.

So much fun to look at it.

I loved the bird.

I get it from my mom and my sister, they're both avid birders, and I take such a joy in watching them come and go in my yard.

I love going to places like River Fork Ranch, and being able to watch the birds.

- Irrigated Pasture lands function much as the historic wetlands here did in the first place.

That they still provide the same type of bird habitat.

So this is a place where ranching and conservation are very compatible.

It's a really neat landscape and really neat interactions between historic land uses and ecological purposes.

- Really fascinating.

So what can we see out here?

Can you take us around?

- Sure, let's go take a look.

- Cool.

- Lincoln is not far from Genoa there.

We see a lot of deer when we're over there, but do they come out this far?

- Yeah, we have a lot of deer on the property.

And as a matter of fact, it's probably worth taking a peek underneath the deck during the heat of the day.

We often have deer coming in bed down under the deck here seeking a little a shelter, yeah.

- And you've got some milkweed in here.

Anytime I can foster a dandelion or a milkweed plant probably to the chagrin of some of my neighbors, I absolutely will.

(laughing) So easy for most people to be able to come out and enjoy.

- Yeah, relatively flat, and not much up or down on this.

- You know, this valLey was so wide open and beautiful.

One of our goals is to capture it in as many different ways to show our viewers what we're experiencing personally.

- We joined forces with the Nevada Museum of Art and their Center for Art and Environment.

We created an inset floodplain in this area to encourage more frequent flooding of this zone.

But this structure that you see, this woven willow structure, is obviously, an artistic form of something that has a real function.

So when floodwaters enter this area, this structure actually directs the flow, slows it down even more in this area where you can see that's kind of, the outside band there, which is what we refer to as a cut bank on a stream.

- Okay.

- So that's where you get most of your erosive forces.

So this structure, while being pretty, also serves a very real function in reducing erosion in that area.

- There were fish that kept coming up to the surface and feeding.

And I kept seeing them and every time I spun my camera around to get a shot of the fish surfacing, they wouldn't come up, but as soon as my camera went away, they would come back up again.

- And the irrigated pastures that are used for grazing cows, serve a very similar function as the wetlands that were here historically did.

- Coming from a family with ranching in our background, when he starts talking about irrigation, and floodplains, and pastures, it's right up my alley.

(laughing) It's all conversations that I have grown up listening to.

- So you know, these systems, these river systems in the Carson valley, evolve flooding every spring.

And allowing that flooding to happen, is actually beneficial to the native vegetation, which is of course, beneficial to the habitat and for the animals that depend on it.

- And that's probably why this valley has so much more wildlife that still exists and is flourishing.

- Absolutely, one of the jobs of water is to carry sediment.

And when it deposits that across the landscape that is nutrient rich and it provides nutrients and water for the plants, it's like fertilizing and irrigating all at the same time.

- This was a really hot day and the cameras were getting hot, like they physically got hot.

So we had to cover them, we'd throw a jacket or we just stand in front of it.

Sometimes I would just stand in front of it so that the sunlight would hit me and shade the camera.

- One of the things that makes this area unique is that we're really right on the transition between two eco regions.

We're standing in the great basin, you get right there and you enter the Sierra Nevada.

And so, there's a lot of movement of animal species in between these two landscapes, particularly seasonally.

Pretty magical place.

- On that part of the trail, we started getting swarmed by mosquitoes and our audio technician, Joey, he was just covered in blood spatters from all the spots that he was swatting mosquitoes on the legs, it looks like something out of a horror movie by the time it was all over with.

- And I feel guilty about that because I forgot to tell him to wear long pants.

So sorry, Joey.

I hope you've healed, it's only been a couple of years.

- Yeah so, this is the confluence of the east and west forks of the Carson river, the namesake of River Fork Ranch, pretty special spot where the rivers come together.

- And this is really a life source for so much of Northern Nevada.

- [Chris] Yeah, there's so many rivers that flow off the west slope of the Sierra Nevada, we have the Truckee, Carson, and Walker on the east slope and they truly are just like you said, the lifeblood of Northern Nevada.

- [Dave] We have a short drive, less than six miles along state route 206 and highway 395 into Minden.

This is the home of the Bentley Heritage Estate Distillery and Public House, a historic site that has been given a new life.

- As we arrive, we're greeted by Tom Morgan.

- Good afternoon, welcome to Bentley Heritage.

- Thank you.

- My name is Tom.

- Nice to meet you, Tom.

- Nice to meet you.

- Hi there.

- Chris, nice to meet you.

- Tom was retired from the Douglas County school system.

And he was an administrator, and I always thought he was such a pleasant guy.

I was like I don't think I would mind being called into Tom's office when I was in school.

- [Tom] It was so successful, there was a spur of the Carson Railroad that came right outside in that bed.

- [Chris] So this went from being a grain mill now to, kind of, distilling things, a little different fashion.

- [Tom] Yeah, exactly.

Processing the grains a little bit differently now.

- Yeah, so when was it turned into a distillery?

What was the story there?

- So it's been under construction for five years before that there was a year of design that happened and we've been going ever since.

- We're fired up to see it.

- Yeah, well I'm actually very fired up to taste it too.

(laughing) - I can't wait to do both with y'all.

- Wait till the end.

Wait till the end.

- Tom was the perfect guide for this, and he took us on his full tour.

- And he introduced all of this and we sat outside for a chunk of time, and then they took us across to this piece of burning man art that they had built that was really cool.

It looked like a submarine that was above the ground, and they let us walk through it and take photos.

And we shot all of this for the show, and realized at some point there's way more than we're gonna be able to use.

So we just captured everything and we ended up taking what we thought made the most sense in a short segment.

Beautiful.

- [Chris] What a building.

So cool.

- One of my favorite movies growing up as a kid was Willy Wonka's "Chocolate Factory."

And as soon as I stepped inside this building with my camera, I felt like I was back inside that old movie that I'd watched as a kid.

- [Tom] And when you are a distiller and you are an owner, that next shape and the line arm angle matter.

If your line arms pointed up, you're going to get a different flavor profile than if it's pointed parallel or pointed down.

So that line arm shape really matters to the distillers when they're using the spirit.

Now this is a pot still, and when it's functioning as a pot still, you're gonna heat your fluid, it's gonna distill there, and it's gonna come out.

So, and by the way, our alcohol has to get to 95% alcohol by volume before we proof it back down to make our VOD get 40% ABV, and then we can use that as our neutral spirit for our gins.

- I learned more about spirits on this trip than I think I have known my whole life.

- [Dave] The distillery is one part of the impressive Bentley operation at Minden, which includes the ranch where the grain is grown, and the Malt house where it's milled, and then delivered to the distillery.

This combined with the nearby cattle ranch gives Bentley it's mantra.

Steaks and spirits.

- Such a cool looking piece of equipment.

- Yeah.

- So, this structure right here that I have my hand on is called the plinth.

P-L-I-N-T-H, plinth.

And the Bentley's are so interested in that artistic appeal, that they had a 3D model of this built before they put a shovel in the ground to make sure they'd be very happy with it.

Fermentation takes 10 days.

We're gonna add a yeast, the yeast is gonna work on it, the by-product is gonna be CO2 and alcohol.

From there, when it's done being fermented, it's gonna go right here to the head frame still out of Butte, Montana.

That is a continuous still.

That still can manage all 5,000 gallons of this fermentation tank in one day.

Goes in and out of the 10 to one ratio, 5,000 gallons in, 500 gallons out.

- Our host, Tom there, he was moving fast.

So me and the other videographer Tim had branched off where I follow Dave and Chris and Tom, while Tim was capturing the B-roll.

- Martin decided he was gonna put his camera on his shoulder, so he could walk around a little bit and get a little bit more of the immediacy of the tour and feel like you were in with us, standing there, experiencing this all, and it was also a lot more mobile that way.

There's a real emphasis on style.

And some of these spaces feel as much like art exhibits as they do distilling equipment.

At the end of the tour comes the payoff.

Tasting time.

Yeah, it's got a nice flavor.

Gin and vodka never been things I drink, alone, or rather by themselves.

Alone is maybe the wrong choice of words.

But yeah, it's good.

(Chris laughing) It is good.

- [Chris] It's wonderful to see a place with such a legacy be revitalized in a way that acknowledges its history, while transforming into an entirely new enterprise.

We tried to be very good about making sure that anybody who was driving, behaved, and didn't partake in the spirits.

- I was the one driving the vehicle.

So I think I better go back down to that place, when I get a chance.

- [Dave] In the morning, we're out early heading south on route 208 and East Walker road, to the brand new Walker River State Recreation Area.

We've been looking forward to this.

- [Chris] Randy Denter is the park supervisor and he's waiting to welcome us.

- Good morning.

- Good morning.

- Normally, we don't get a chance to go to a location before we do the show and scouted it ahead, but this was close enough that we were able to go and scout this spot.

We got to meet Randy in advance.

We got to see where we were gonna go, see the kayaks, understand how it was gonna work out.

I think it made a better show.

- [Randy] So the visitor center was the original ranch house.

We've converted it into the visitor center.

You walk down the halls and you'll see the big open wide halls.

Those were art galleries almost.

The people that owned it before had art on the walls.

And before we painted some of the walls, you could see the old outline where they had a big piece of work up on the wall.

It's suited for a visitor center right now because we have maps up there, we have a lot of things you can check out in there.

- And I imagine really, it's a destination.

You can come anytime of year and really enjoy the beauty of it.

- Yes, some of the facilities we have will accommodate the all year round camping experience.

We have full hookups, so if you have, you wanna come in the middle of the summertime, when it's really, really warm, you can turn your air conditioner on.

If you have a nice RV with one of those, fall and spring, when it's really nice out, we have the primitive campground or river bend campground.

- The sunflowers were just pass their peak.

So I definitely wanna see them at their peak one of these years.

- Well, I know there's what they call water trail.

I've seen the maps inside the visitor center there.

- We are gonna follow that trail today.

- It was another hot day.

I remember putting the camera in the shade of the truck nearby there, just to keep it out of the sunlight, because again, hot, sun, and a camera, are not friends.

- We have big plans to expand.

So if you look at a map of the park, we extend along the east Walker.

We have parcels all along here, we wanna connect them at some point.

- This was one of those decision-making times where we're had to figure out how we're gonna get the shots of them entering the water.

So we decided to stick Go Pros up on the front of the kayaks for both of them to get some kind of unique angles of the moment that they actually hit the water.

- A lot of it is just about steering today.

We're not trying to propel ourselves downstream because it's already taking care of it.

The biggest challenges we have today will be just the overhanging trees.

- Overhanging trees are a challenge.

Keep that in mind.

- [Randy] Here we go.

So your kayak might rub a little bit here in the shallow water.

- [Chris] Okay.

- [Randy] It's okay.

Just try to keep your nose pointed down.

(Chris laughing) - [Chris] Well, I did that wrong.

- [Randy] Turn around, there you go.

(Chris laughing) - Oh, I definitely look like the rookie that I am in this kayak.

- [Randy] Paddle on the other one.

- [Dave] Okay there?

- [Randy] Paddle, paddle, paddle that way.

Other side, other side.

- Other side.

- [Dave] There you go.

It'll spin you back.

- [Randy] I'm right here by you.

- [Dave] I'm coming.

- [Randy] No don't paddle, do your brake.

Just put it in there.

Break on the other side, just break.

So break is just like that, good.

- I was in the production vehicle, speeding down the banks of this river and jumping out and grabbing shots whenever I could.

- [Chris] The cottonwoods, and the cat tails, it's a beautiful stretch.

- [Randy] It's a really nice stretch.

Really peaceful, you see a lot of wildlife here.

- I took that shot of that dragonfly, on my boat on my kayak.

(laughing) I was so excited.

- [Chris] The current is not too difficult, and with the easy pace we're keeping, I'm able to get a feel for the kayak and the river.

What a great way to see the area.

- Meanwhile, I feel like I got this kayaking thing down.

I mean, the water is doing most of the work anyway, I just got to steer a little bit.

And what was the one thing Randy said, we gotta look out for?

Overhanging something.

Oh, right.

(intense music) (water bubbling) (Dave laughing) That's what I get for not paying attention.

Yeah, I deserved it.

I really did.

I was watching down the river, watching Chris, because earlier she had spun around, it looked like she was doing it again.

But while I'm watching all of that, I'm drifting off to the left, ignoring all the rules.

Thanks for letting us stop for a second so I can dry off, a little bit, a little soggy, but you know what?

I consider that a public service.

Remember, don't get happy.

When you think you got it figured out, you might not.

- The Go Pro got dislodged from the kayak and went floating down the river, and nobody knew and I happened to be filming downstream and I turned around and I saw the Go Pro floating by downstream and we jumped in and grabbed it really quick.

- So we're looking at all, maybe Cottonwood take out something about the area.

And we had a staff member at the time say, "Hey, why don't we just name is Skull Rock?"

Because there's a rock right behind us, that looks just like a skull.

- So what you don't see on camera, is I did go in the water as well, the ranger that was helping us was launching me off a good little drop back into the river and kind of did it sideways.

- You have sort of a training course right here.

Starting from Skull Rock.

- [Randy] Yes.

- [Dave] Alright, so back in and down the road here, huh?

- [Randy] That's the plan.

- [Dave] Okay, let's go.

- [Chris] Let's do it!

- While our drone pilot Gwen was flying the drone up to get shots, I had to act as a spotter as well to kind of let her know when a hawk was swooping by, cause I guess those Hawks will come attack the drones.

- [Chris] Accidental dunkings aside, the experience really makes you feel connected to nature.

- I had no idea how much challenge it was for the cameras until we were finished and I heard from Martin all about him driving and jumping out.

- And on one of those occasions, I jumped out with my camera to grab a shot and I forgot to put the vehicle in park.

Luckily, we had our other crew member Gwen in the front seat and she was able to jump in and put it into park before the truck kept driving down the road.

- We're currently working though to extend our trip here, another two miles.

- Two miles.

So if you put in where we started today, you'd go a total of about eight?

- Eight miles, yeah.

- Okay, and then what's your dream for the future?

- Dream, we're talking big dreams.

- What would you like this to ultimately be?

- I want this to be a multi-day kayaking trip.

So you start way over by Bridgeport, you kayak, you get to the flying dam once that opens up, you camp there.

In the lodging we have there, you boat back in the next day, you go again to the next cabins or the lodging we have at Rafter Seven.

You take out, you have a nice comfortable bed to sleep in.

That's my big dream.

- So now, this did not happen right after the kayak, in reality, because it was getting cloudy and we thought it might rain, then we were afraid to take a chance of rain hitting a camera.

We actually left, went home and then came back a few days later to record this.

It looks seamless.

It looks like the same day, but it's actually a different day.

- [Randy] We're building a trail right now.

Complete loop will be about 12 miles.

- Oh, that'll be a nice day's work, really?

I mean to be able to do 12 miles in a day.

- That's your day.

That's like six days for me.

Is there a stopping point every mile?

- Something you have to remember though, this is a multi-use.

So if you don't wanna walk it, grab your horse.

- I also don't have a horse.

How about a mountain bike?

- Mountain bike would be perfect, yeah.

- I could do the mountain bike.

Alright.

Alright.

- We're shooting toward what we call the overlook right now.

It's the one mountain that's got like a Z on top above the whole Pitchfork ranch unit.

So you'll be able to see the whole campground from up there and everything below.

Got a great view.

- Sounds fantastic.

When it's all done.

How long will it take to get, to build the trail to the top?

- We'll be here probably many months doing it.

- So good that you have volunteer help from time to time.

- Yeah, we love our volunteers.

- Well, we are here.

We're kind of volunteers.

You wanna.. to help a little?

- Hey, I love using trails.

So I think it's only fair that I put a little time in building it.

- [Randy] I like that, and I brought tools for you guys.

- Oh, you knew!

- I was hoping.

- He had a secret plan the whole time.

- I'm going with this one.

It looks dangerous.

I was excited to try to use the Pulaski because I have friends who are usual users of the Pulaski, firefighter and I thought, yeah, it's a good chance for me to try to use this tool, and see if I know what I'm doing.

Well, I don't know what I'm doing.

(laughing) - We're trying to follow that route, even grade all the way up.

Also when you're out hiking, you hate those steep sections.

- Oh, and that's a great example of the drone upping our production value as it hovered above the trail to give that first person perspective.

- But they're designed for a purpose, right?

- Exactly, yeah, definitely, you'll see though at some point in the future, we'll have a few switchback scissors, one steep section we can't go straight up with.

- Okay.

And you need to teach us how to do it because I'm holding the tool that I have never touched in my life.

- Both tools are ran similarly, hands out together with them, and you're just gonna be going down and pulling towards you.

At this point, you're not whacking down hard 'cause that's gonna hurt your hands, but you're to set it down and it's almost like a rake.

You're pulling it back towards you.

- Okay, so she's chopping up, and I'm raking pretty much.

- Yep.

Yeah, I like the McLeod to begin with to pull all the big stuff right off the top.

- Okay.

- And then we follow behind that and we, the Pulaski will help get down deep and get some bigger rocks out.

- Okay, so where do you want me to start, right there?

- Right there.

- So just right here, just hit and drag.

- Yep.

- You're not kidding about it getting deep on your upper body.

- See there you go.

- Wow.

- It's a lot of those big rocks you can leave under... - Whoa!

Look what's under here.

I immediately have more respect for trail builders.

Man, these tools wear you out, they're heavier than you think, and I'm weaker than I think.

- Even though we only worked for a little while on the trail.

My hands hurt after just carrying and using that thing.

- We wanted to get some closeups of the shovels hitting the rocks and dirt, but we didn't want to risk damaging our camera lenses.

So what we did was stood way back and dropped our cameras low and we're able to use those really nice zoom lenses that we have on our cameras.

- So this will eventually go up this slope, and then that very peak at the back, that's where it's gonna end up?

- [Randy] On the backside of that, yes.

It goes even higher past that peak.

- [Dave] Oh wow.

It'd be fun to see from up there, what's it gonna look like?

- Let's go check it out.

- Oh, we can go look it?

All right, can we take a break from carrying our tools?

- Yes, we can leave these right here.

(upbeat country music) - It's a lot harder without a trail.

Somebody should dig one here or something.

- The drone footage adds to the show beautifully.

It's really pretty.

- It gives an epic feel to what is really just three people walking up a hill.

I can see the visitor center from here and then this big lush green field.

- [Randy] So these are all the alfalfa fields, we're still in active ranching right now.

- [Chris] But it's gorgeous that you get such a panoramic, not only the park, but the valley, and the landscape beyond.

It's really nice.

- [Randy] It captures a lot.

The park itself, you're looking at almost 50 miles long.

You cannot do it all in one day.

- [Chris] I'm looking forward to coming back and getting to see more of it.

I think it definitely, we've just scratched the edge of it.

- You definitely have.

- Yeah, well thank you for showing us as much as we've seen and maybe we'll see you again.

- [Randy] I hope so.

- We took a couple photographs while we were up there on that cliff and on those rocks, and I've used those photos in a lot of our publicity materials.

We've seen older historic buildings that are being repurposed for modern use.

It's great to see.

- Very cool.

For more on this trip or any of our Wild Nevadas, go to our website and you can learn more about it.

Thanks for coming along with us this time.

And until we see you again, hopefully you enjoy your own Wild Nevada adventures.

- We'll see you next time.

- Well we figured hey, why not just have that drone do a big spinning POV of Dave and Chris from that mountain?

And we gave it a few different tries and it really came out wonderfully.

(upbeat country music) - Tim, and Martin making beautiful pictures, here at Walker river.

This water is pretty calm.

However, shouldn't take it for granted because if you do, you might tip your kayak over, fall in, scratch your arm up a little bit.

I mean, I don't know.

I don't know how I know that.

I'm not saying why I know that, I'm just saying that you should be careful.

(upbeat country music) (upbeat music) - [Male Announcer] Support for Wild Nevada Memories is provided by the William N. Pennington Foundation.

- [Female Announcer] Millie Hopper and Millard Reed.

- [Male Announcer] Gail and John Sande.

- [Female Announcer] Margaret and Charles Burback.

- [Male Announcer] And by individual members.

(upbeat music)