In this Hotch Pod episode, Safety and Security Officer Dave Paton shares his unique journey from nature conservationist to music performer and U.S. Whitewater Team competitor. He discusses his expertise in wild mushrooms, his family’s folk music legacy, and his deep connection with wildlife and outdoor adventures. Through stories of campus encounters and his YouTube channel, Whitewater and Wild Mushrooms, Paton reveals his passion for educating and inspiring others.
Hi, I’ m Taya. And I’ m Dwyer, and welcome to The Hotchpot. Today we’ re talking with Dave Payton, Safety and Security Officer at Hotchkiss. We hadn’ t known Dave Payton before today, but he’ s genuinely one of the coolest people I’ ve ever met. He’ s an expert on mushrooms, a professional kayaker, an incredible musician, and an animal lover. You know him, you love him, and you’ re about to get to know him better. We hope you enjoy.
Welcome, Dave Payton. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast, and we’ re excited to talk to you today. To start us off, could you give us a brief outline of what you do at Hotchkiss, what your role is here? Okay, yeah. Well, thanks for having me. I’ m honored. I work here as a Safety and Security Officer. I started about seven years ago, I believe, and I’ ve been full-time for five years now. And I never actually considered it a job. I never considered this the type of job I would take. I worked for 20 years or more at the Sharon Audubon Center, the nature center nearby here, as the caretaker. But I, you know, I was looking for a new job, and my eldest daughter actually called me and said, Dad, Hotchkiss is hiring security officers.
You could do that. And I thought about it, and I said, yeah, you know, I probably could. That sounded like something interesting, and I’ ve actually found it to be a very interesting and gratifying job. You know, I’ m a fan. I like the responsibility that we have and the respect that we get because of the responsibility. Can you tell us where you’ re from and where you grew up? Well, my parents moved to Sharon, right next door here, when I was 10. But I was born in England, and my parents traveled around for the whole first year of my life. They’ re Americans, but they were traveling abroad. And they actually are, they were, I should say, because they’ re both passed away now. But they were folk singers.
And for the whole first year of my life, we traveled around England and the Highlands of Scotland, collecting folk songs and going to, you know, dances and traditional music concerts and venues. And so I was very much in the folk music scene my whole life, and that’ s how I ended up also being a musician myself. But then my parents moved to Vermont, started a record company called Folk Legacy Records, which they ran for over 50 years. And put out lots of albums, several of them I’ m on or are actually my albums. And from Vermont, they moved here in 1968 to be closer to New York City for their business. And I ve been in this area basically ever since. Can you tell us about what I did at the Audubon Society?
Well, my job was called caretaker. So basically, I did everything. I, you know, maintenance of the ground: the lawns, the trail system, repairing plumbing, electrical, carpentry. Also helping set up for special events and just basically being there to support whatever was going on. Can you tell us, I mean, you said that you were on some of the records that your parents created, right? Yeah. Can you tell us about my own journey in music? And do I do folk music myself? I do, yeah. Well, let’s see. When I was 13 years old, I started playing with other instruments. A little bit, you know, when I was young, the dulcimer. When I was like five or six years old, I was playing a little bit. And the tin whistle and things like that.
But when I was 13, I started playing this concertina that my mom and dad have. I’ m not sure if you know what a concertina is. Imagine the smallest version of the accordion family. So essentially the pirate accordion. As SpongeBob played the concertina. I don’ t know if you knew that. I probably knew it on SpongeBob. I didn’ t know it was called a concertina. And it’ s actually pretty popular on TikTok now. Oh, wow. And some of these video games. But whatever. I started playing that and I just really got into it. And I kept playing. And by the time I was a teenager, I was, you know, later on; by the time I was 20, I was actually recording with some top musicians from Scotland and Irish musicians and stuff.
And so, you know, I got pretty good at it and just kept doing it. And I’ ve been playing. I’ ve been playing concerts with different bands and playing on albums as a side guy; or, like I said, I have a couple albums of my own. Sure. You know, fun. With friends playing with me. Are those on Spotify? Can students listen to them? No, they can be found on YouTube. Like every album that goes out gets mirrored onto YouTube. So, you can find all the tracks there. But also when my mom passed away, we sold the record company. It’ s called the Smithsonian Institution, and they put it out on the Smithsonian Folkways record label. So, they’ re available there. If someone Googles Smithsonian record’ and then your name, will they find it?
I think so, yeah. I will be doing that to them. What was that other instrument you mentioned? The dulcimer? Oh, the dulcimer, yeah. Actually, I play it professionally in my band. I play the concertina, and I also play this thing called the hammered dulcimer, which is a— It’ s a big trapezoid-shaped instrument made out of wood with piano strings like on it, and you play it with two hammers. You’ ve probably seen them. Actually, there are versions of that instrument from all over the world, from Europe, from the Middle East, from China. Very common and very ancient type of instrument. Do you play live music around the area? Mm-hmm, yeah, yeah. Actually, on Sundays, most Sundays, I work here until 4 and drive right down to Kent, Connecticut.
There’ s a pub down there called the Bulls Bridge Inn, and I host an Irish music jam session, essentially. And from 5 to 8, people come from all over the place, really good players from as far as an hour or more away, and we just sit around a table and play music. And, you know, it’ s like the old Irish jigs and reels, and very high-quality musicians come to it. It’ s a lot of fun. And we have guest singers who will get up and sing a song, and we’ ve been doing that for a long time. I also, I do play the contra-dance here at Hotchkiss. You’ ve been to the contradance, right? Well, I’ ve been doing that for over, I don’ t know, 30 years or something.
So I’ m kind of the band master. What instrument do you play in the band? Both, the concertina and the hammered dulcimer. Well, okay, I’ ll pay attention next year. Yeah, I’ m never in contra-dance. Cool. What drew you to those instruments specifically? I’ m not really sure. My parents had instruments. They had instruments of all kinds everywhere. And just something about the concertina, I enjoyed it. And then a few years later, when I picked up the hammered dulcimer and started trying that out, it was just you could make the most beautiful, spacey kind of sounds just by hitting the strings randomly. And then I, you know, I just kept practicing and started learning the tunes that I already knew, transferring them over to that instrument.
Do you ever deal with sheet music, or is it all? I can read music, you know. I mean, I’ m not like, we have one guy who comes to our session who also plays classical and Irish, and you can put a tune in front of him, and he plays it like he’ s always known it. But, and, you know, in the traditional music world, people usually learn them by ear, and some can’ t read music at all. So it’ s kind of just an extra benefit if you can, because you can share tunes. We have a woman who is retired, and she also plays concertina, and she plays the tin whistle. She does, at the end of each one of our sessions, she mails out a list of all the tunes played that night, and if there’ s new ones that people want to learn, she’ ll send out sheet music for them, which she can just create herself really quickly.
And I do that too. I have software, just free software, that I use to write out sheet music to tunes of my own that I’ ve written, because I do write instrumental tunes, and about 10, 15 years ago, I started writing actual songs, like country songs, bluegrass songs, Irish-style songs. It’ s fun. What do you think is your biggest musical inspiration, and who are some of your favorite musicians? Oh, gosh. Well, some of the great Irish bands that I fell in love with, you know, way back, the Bothy Band, the Chieftains was one of the first groups I heard. When I was just 13 years old, I started listening to my mom and dad’ s giant record collection. And then the album of the Chieftains, who are, you know, very, very well-known, Irish group from a long time ago.
And they played almost, like, classical versions of the Irish music. And I just, something about it, I said, holy cow, that is, like, amazing. I want to learn to play that. Only years later did my parents remind me that when I was a baby, they took me to see some of the most famous Irish musicians in London and all around, you know, the Highlands, where there was Celtic music everywhere, you know. And we also play at local clubs. Local festivals. We’ ll be at the, this one called the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival in the end of July. That is, we’ ll be playing for the Contra Dance stage there. But a lot of our stuff is, you know, private weddings or private parties. And you have a fixed group of people that you play with?
I have the Irish music group, which is a loose gathering of folks, and I will hire individuals from there for things. But I also have my band called Bog Hollow, which is more American music. You know, we’ ve got a couple guys that play fiddles, mandolin, banjo, and the stand-up bass, and the guitar. And we, you know, add vocals, play music that’ s sort of reminiscent of bluegrass, but it’ s like the older version of it, you know. Yeah, that’ s really cool. We’ ll switch directions a little bit. We were told that you are an expert on mushrooms. So can you tell us how you got into that passion, and what do you like so much about mushrooms?
When I was, when we first moved to Sharon when I was 10, we started going to summer camps at the Audubon Center where I ended up working years later. And I don’ t know, I was just fascinated by mushrooms. We’ d be hiking through the woods with the naturalist leaders that were there, and we’ d see. I remember we saw this big white, beautiful white mushroom, and they said, ‘ Yeah, that is a deadly Amanita mushroom.’ Like, one bite can kill you. And we’ re like, ‘ wow, that’ s awesome.’ And just thought that was so fascinating. I never considered wanting to harvest mushrooms to eat, because, you know, I mean, most people are taught by their parents that wild mushrooms are poisonous, and it’ s true, some are, but there’ s many that are not.
So, I started just learning more and more about them, but when I worked at the Audubon Center, it was this one year we had an intern there who picked a giant puffball. I don’ t know if you’ ve ever seen one, but a puffball the size of a basketball, just a white, beautiful puffball mushroom out of a lawn, and he brought it in and he sliced it up and then breaded it and put on Italian sauce and Parmesan and, you know, mozzarella, and made puffball Parmesan for dinner, and oh my gosh, I said at this point, I’ ve got to learn more about this. So I did, I just slowly but surely started learning. Somebody asked me at a program recently, because I do the mushroom programs at, like, nature centers, and I did one at the library, and somebody asked how many wild mushrooms,
you know, could you go out and pick, then know that they’ re edible, and I said, you know, maybe 40 or 50, and then when I got home, I started thinking about it and jotting down the list, and I got to, like, 55. And I said, you know, if there’ s one species that I would say that is edible, I know exactly what it is. And if you can’ t recognize it, you won’ t eat it? Absolutely not. They say, when in doubt, throw it out. Yeah. But because there are thousands and thousands of species. I don’ I pretend to know anywhere near all of them, but I know a lot, and I know a lot of the ones that you really need to be careful of, the deadly dozen, as they say.
There’ s ones that’ ll definitely make you very sick, or without a liver transplant, it can definitely kill you. But it’ s not a thrill-seeking sport. You know, you go out, and you’ re safely harvesting something you know is safe. And you’ re confident that you’ ll, like, eat mushrooms you find in the forest? Absolutely, yeah. And I have a friend with a farm stand, and she’ ll sell them at the farm stand when I have abundance. Different restaurants will buy wild mushrooms from people because they’ re, you know, the chefs really love certain kinds that we get around here, especially in the fall. There. S one called the Hen of the Woods. It’ s a big, frilly, coral-like structure. And in Japan, it’ s called Maitake, which means the dancing mushroom.
And it’ s supposedly named that because when they find one, they dance with joy because they’ re just so delicious and very nutritious, too. A lot of people don’ t realize mushrooms have a lot of benefits for our health. Is that your favorite mushroom? That is one of my favorites. The morels, which come out in the spring, but they’ re really hard to find. They’ re super delicious. There’ s a number of ones, but that Maitake, or Hen of the Woods, as we call it, are definitely one of my favorites. They have a really, they have a unique flavor. You can cook them almost any way. And you can also put them in a plastic bag, squeeze the air out, and freeze them raw.
You don’ t have to dehydrate them or cook them in order to, you know, so you can fill your freezer up and then all winter long, pull them out and pop them in a stew or whatever you’ re making. Well, I think I’ ve always been a little bit scared of mushrooms when my dad cooks them or I see them in the dining hall. But I think from now on, I’ ll be more open-minded about them. It’ s funny, my youngest of my three daughters always hated mushrooms. Just the smell of them, the taste of them. She hadn’t. I’ d even let her dehydrate mushrooms in the house. I’ d have to do it in the barn because the smell would just drive her crazy.
But now she’ s mid-twenties and she was working as a landscaper a few years ago, and they found some wine cap mushrooms and one of the people she was working with said, ‘ Oh, those are wine cap mushrooms growing there in those woodchips.’ And so she took them home and tried them, and she and her boyfriend both really liked them. She says, ‘ Dad, I think I like mushrooms now.’ So that made me happy. What’ s the difference to the standard smaller white store-bought mushrooms to mushrooms you’ ll find in the woods? Yeah, good question. There are ones that are very closely related to the little button mushrooms. That’ s Agaricus, the genus that they’ re in.
So there’ s this one called the meadow mushroom, which you find actually around campus here and in lawns all over the place in the summer. And it’ s also an Agaricus, just a different kind, a little bit bigger. And it has a very similar mushroom flavor, but it’ s also a little bit more robust and more delicious. If you like mushrooms, meadow mushrooms are really great. How many mushroom species are there, and how much do we really know about mushrooms? Very good question. I D say from what I’ ve read, there’ s approximately 10,000 known species in North America. A lot. And most scientists think that maybe half have been identified. So there could be ones, it’ s like when they say, ‘ Is this mushroom totally safe?’ Well, I’ ll say there’ s no known poisonous lookalikes.
But honestly, there could be one that nobody’ s ever really identified that looks very much like it. So it’ s the kind of thing where there are certain ones that are safe. You call them foolproof, like the giant puffball, the morel mushroom, the hen of the woods that we talked about before. They’ re pretty much 100% foolproof. But again, that’ s a misnomer too. I like to use the term fool- resisting. Because foolproof means that you know everything about them. For example, the morel mushroom, very popular culinary mushroom, toxic raw. And if you look up morel mushroom poisoning, there’ s a lot of stories in the news right now about several poisonings that have occurred recently.
This guy in New York, who owned a sushi restaurant somewhere, I think, I can’ t remember, Utah or somewhere, he got a hold of a whole bunch of morels. Nobody ever told him that they have to be cooked or they’ re toxic. And so he marinated them, but didn’ t do it in any heat. And then he put them into a hand-rolled sushi of some sort, a special mushroom roll. And, you know, dozens of people were sickened by it. And two, I think, people with already underlying health problems died. Whoa. Yeah. Yeah. So that’ s good to identify. You got to know what you’ re doing. Mushrooms are intense. Yeah. But it’ s the same with anything. I mean, you don’ t see people eating raw potatoes. They make you sick.
Yeah. And you don’ t see people making salad from the leaves of a tomato or a potato because those are highly toxic. Mm-hmm. I didn’ t know that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of the plants that we eat are only partially edible. You eat the tomato, but the plant itself is toxic. Same with eggplants. What’ s the role of mushrooms in the ecosystem? How do they interact? Excellent question. Yeah. I remember growing up thinking that there was trees and there was animals, and that was the main thing. And then there was the fungal world, which, you know, was just not really that important. Well, maybe they break down, you know, dead trees into soil, and, oh, that’ s what they do. They break down leaves and trees and everything into soil.
Without them, there would be no life at all because everything revolves on that cycle of plants making food, plants dying, animals are consumers. But the fungal world is vitally important to the whole system. They also actually, some of them aren’ t decomposers or parasites. Some of them live only in a symbiotic relationship with plants, often trees. And so any big tree in the forest will have a number of different mushrooms all around it. Now, not the mushroom itself, because that’ s the fruiting body, but the mycelium, which is the living organism all through the soil. And what it will do is it will connect with the roots of the tree in what they call a mycorrhizal relationship. Myco meaning the mushroom, rhizal meaning the rhizomes of the tree roots.
And the mushroom can get minerals from the soil and give them to the tree that the tree couldn’ t easily get otherwise. In return, the tree feeds the mushrooms a sugary solution with nutrition. And that is, it’ s just a symbiotic relationship that’ s vital to the health of the forest. Another interesting thing that, a lot of mushrooms, like the morel mushrooms or the oyster mushrooms, which are many different wild kinds and cultivated kinds. Even though, like say a morel mushroom is in a relationship with a tree and the tree is feeding it, it still needs more nitrogen. Can To get enough nitrogen without trapping and consuming small animals. So, it actually is partially carnivorous. The mushroom mycelium will actually put out a, a scent, an attractant.
And then these little tiny worms called nematodes and other little tiny creatures called springtails will be attracted and they’ ll come and then they’ ll get somehow trapped or killed by the mycelium and then consumed. Sometimes, with little spikes that they get stuck on, or sometimes some species do it where they have an attractant and then when they sense that the animal is coming close, they hit it with an anesthetist and then they can grow right inside of it and consume it. Wow. Did the trees and the mushrooms have to evolve together to be able to have that symbiotic relationship? Absolutely. Yeah, I think so. How would that have started? Good question. One of the things that, another thing that I’ ve read only recently and started to learn about is that in the beginning there was just sort of like one kind of creature, right?
That everything branched off. So these very early primitive creatures eventually became the plant kingdom and the fungal kingdom. The animal kingdom isn’t. It’ s going to come until millions or a billion years later branched off from the fungal kingdom. So where plants make food with photosynthesis, they’ re producers. The fungal kingdom and the animal kingdom are where all the consumers, so really we’ re related to fungi a lot more closely than fungi are related to plants. Because they have to find food. When they find food, they have to create the right enzymes or whatever to digest it just like we do with our stomach. But we take the food inside of us but they digest it externally. They just went with a different life tactic. That’ s a lot.
I’ ll have to Google a lot more on mushrooms tonight. Yeah. My ancestor is a musher. Yeah. Crazy to think about. If you go back far enough, Yeah. Should we talk a little bit about one of your other many passions which is whitewater kayaking, right? Sure. Yep. So where do you do it around the area? There’ s actually good rapids right here on the Housatonic. It’ s where I first started canoeing. Right in Falls Village are some pretty fun rapids when the water’ s high enough. And then down in Kent, right near the Bullsbridge Inn, where we play Irish music, is what we call the Bullsbridge Gorge. It’ s a class four whitewater trip that actually I hadn’ t been to in a few years. I went just a few weeks ago.
I was a little scared, but I got through it fine. It’ s big drops, fun stuff. I started; it was interesting because it was at the Audubon Center when we were going to camp there that one of the guys who was leading the thing, we rented canoes and we went down the Housatonic River down the easy section in canoes and learned whitewater kayaking for the first time there. And I just really got into it and started doing it more. And then I remember seeing the 1972 Olympics when whitewater racing was in the Olympics for the first time. And actually an American won a bronze medal in that. And he ended up moving to this area, Jamie McEwen, and his sons, his kids went to Hotchkiss.
And he kind of became the mentor of a lot of us who were starting to get into kayak racing at that time. And so by the mid-80s, by like 1983, I actually made the U. S. whitewater team and got to race in the World Championships in Italy, and then in ‘ 85, raced in the World Championships in Germany. And then one more time in ‘ 89, I made the team to race in the Worlds when they were in Western Maryland on the Savage River, the first time they were in the United States. So, you know, for about a decade, I was a serious whitewater racer. And, you know, I don’ t know if you’ re familiar with whitewater slalom.
It’ s where they Re, you know, you’ re going through like an obstacle course of poles hanging down over the rapids. A man-made obstacle course? Yeah, well, the poles are hung from wires hanging over. But it was always done on natural rivers. Now, the sport of slalom is almost always done at the highest level anyway in man-made whitewater courses, which are different. They have a different feel. You know, there’ s more reverberations and it’ s kind of a different sport now. Although the place I raced in Augsburg, Germany, was a man-made course, the same one that they used for the Olympics in 1972. And that was pretty challenging. The water was different than a regular river. Do you see the course before you start racing? Yes.
The way it works at that level of slalom is you, first of all, you practice on practice courses for like a whole week. But then you don’ t know what the actual course, where the gates are going to be. And then they set the course and everybody walks and looks and looks and looks, and then you get like one practice run. And you watch everybody else’ s practice run. If you had trouble at a certain spot, you watch; see what other guys did there that worked better. And then typically the way the racing goes, you get two runs. I think now it s switched to where you just get one run in the finals. You do or die. When I did it, it was two runs and only your best run counted.
So you could totally, you know, flip and swim one run and then the next run have a clean run and win a medal or something, you know. And while you were waiting, whitewater kayaking professionally, were you doing other stuff for the seniors? Working to support myself, yeah. I worked as a land surveyor for a while and always doing music jobs. I worked at the pottery down in Cornwall Bridge called the Cornwall Bridge Pottery. And, you know, because, you know, we weren’ t wealthy, so my parents couldn’ Just, you know, say, here, go trains all the time. And so we would work, we would race the local races and then, you know, raise money. And we got some money from the United States team and from the Olympic Committee for the traveling to Europe and stuff.
But mostly it was, you know, it’ s amateur competition and we spent a lot; spent everything we made doing it. Yeah. You worked at a pottery place? Yeah. I wasn’ t actually a potter, but I was working helping load and unload this giant wood-fired Korean-style kiln they have there. And is that near you? It’ s near here. It’ s in Cornwall Bridge. Yeah. Not far at all; it’ s a very cool place. Well, had you ever thought about starting a whitewater kayaking team at Hotchkiss? You know, people have inquired about that. We still do have down by the lake a bunch of the boats because when Jamie McEwen was here, his sons, Devin, who turned out to be an Olympian too, and they did have a whitewater program there.
It’ s, you know, it’ s something that people have thought of, but for me, I’ m just so busy. I’ m not sure I would have time, and it also is tricky trying to work it into my schedule. I know we have some of our officers, our coaches, and it A real challenge to schedule that and get it all worked out with human resources and just, you know, make it work. Yeah. Can you, if you don’ t mind me asking, can you tell us how you lost your fingers? Oh, right. I was born without them. You were born without them? Yep. Oh, wow. Yep. And how does that affect whitewater kayaking at all? Nope. No, it doesn’ t.
I got a strong grip with that hand, and also with the instruments I play, it just, you know, it worked out ways that it doesn’ t affect them either. Because you just hold the hammer. Well, the hammer also, yeah. The concertina, you use two fingers on each side, or three, but I just use two on each side. It’ s all you need. And it actually has sort of streamlined my playing and improved it, I think. I developed a style that people admire and is very much my own style that works well. Can you explain what your fingers look like for the listeners? Oh, yeah. I just have no pinky. Well, I have a little tiny pinky and no ring finger on my right hand. Born without them.
Is your right hand your dominant hand or is your left hand? No, I’ m left-handed. All right. And that’ s not just because of that. I’ m left-eyed, left-handed, left-footed. Yeah. Yeah, I throw, shoot a bow, left-handed. Yeah. Should we switch to wildlife? Yeah. This is Dr. Fisher, who recommended you to us, someone who would be super interesting to interview. Said we should ask you about your appreciation of wildlife. And for the listeners, Dave walked in with a cardboard box. And can you explain what was in the cardboard box and the story behind it? Well, I was just walking over here. From the security office to do this interview. And sure enough, there’ s a small, probably, what, 10-inch long snapping turtle right out in the driveway between here and security.
And I’ m there, oh, dang, it’ s going to get run over by a car. So I flagged down a friend and she came over and stood guard while I ran back to get a cardboard box and a snow shovel. And I just scooped the little turtle in the box and I’ ve got him right here. I’ m going to take him down to the lake and let him go afterwards. And that’ s something I always do. If I see a turtle in the road, I stop. And I’ ll go right out and stop, stop other cars, make sure he doesn’ t get hit. For a big snapping turtle, you don’ t want to try to pick them up with your hands. You know, if it’ s a painted turtle, you just pick them up.
Make sure to wash your hands though because turtles have salmonella on them. So, you definitely don’ t want to get scratched by one either. But a big snapping turtle, it’ s super handy if you happen to have a kayak paddle in your car. You can pick them up, scoop them off the road in the direction he was going. Yeah. She usually, because they come out to lay their eggs. And if that turtle wants to go across that way, you want to take it that way because it’ s still going to turn around and go back. So they come out of the lakes, the swamps, lay their eggs and then they have to go back. And these snapping turtles live in the Hostia Lake? Oh, absolutely. Yeah, I saw one one time.
I was down on the dock at night by the boathouse and I shined my flashlight and I saw a giant snapping turtle swimming along the bottom and there was like a deflated beach ball or something on the bottom, this blue plastic thing. And the turtle comes up and goes chomp, takes a bite of it and then goes, ‘ That’ s no good.’ And then he just swims out. Have hosts’ students ever been bitten? No, not that I know of. But there are, there are plenty of big snapping turtles in there, I know that for sure. Well, this turtle has been very well behaved throughout the boathouse. Yeah, yeah, he’ s not scratching or trying to get out. When I closed the box it got dark and he calmed down.
Yeah, he was, he was upset before we started. Now he seems fine. She. I’ m sorry, she. Probably, yeah. Also rattlesnakes. We have rattlesnakes around here and sometimes you’ ll see them in the road and you stop and oh man, they – I usually try to get a very long stick. Paddle again. Yeah, don’ t use a canoe paddle. That’ s a little too close. What interactions have you had with the bears in the area? Oh my goodness. Just last week I was the one that got the call that there was a bear in the tree at Tinker. Did you hear about this? Yeah, it was in DS. So, for four hours I was stationed there.
We combed them out, combed it off, so that no people would come, but everybody wanted to come and see them, so I made sure I was trying to convince people to go away. And I was on the phone with the bear biologist at the State Department of Environmental Protection, and she’ s someone who I’ ve talked to before when we had a problem bear last year that had tags. So I was asking her advice, and she said, ‘ At you know, you should really actually go in and make a lot of noise. You get an air horn or something, and you know, haze the bears, make them feel less comfortable up there, and they’ ll probably leave earlier.’ So it was from like eight o’ clock to almost 11 o’ clock.
Clock, we waited, and then my supervisor said, ‘ Yeah, Dave, I think we should do that hazing thing that she said.’ So I drove my truck right under the tree, got out, honked the horn, hit the air horn, yelled, ‘ Get out of here!’ And the mama bear was not super impressed with me at that point. An hour later, they started climbing down and, of course, made one more move towards the dumpster mess to get some more barbecue there, but then they left. I do find it funny that a lot of times to hear some of the emails about bears being in the area and say exactly where they are; a decent amount of kids will run exactly to where the bears have been found. Right.
You know, they are really fun to watch but they are potentially dangerous too, so we really need to try to make people understand that we’ ve got to leave them totally alone. Also, we’ ve really got to learn to keep our garbage away from them being able to get it. We need to get locks on these dumpsters, all of them. I don’ t know much about bears, so can you tell us what type of bears are we encountering here? Oh, these are the black bear. These are the black bear? Called the black bear, yeah. They’ re common all over the United States. You know, the grizzly bears or the bigger versions of grizzly, the Alaskan brown bears and everything are all out west and they’ re definitely bigger, they Re definitely meaner, but black bears can be dangerous too.
You know, we’ ve got to understand that. And what’ s the best advice if someone does find themselves close to a black bear? Just, I think, just back away. Do not run because they are like any big, they’ re omnivores but they’ re also carnivores and they’ re also what you call opportunistic predators. You know, they will kill an animal and eat it if they see the opportunity. So, you know, you’ re supposed to back away. You know, let yourself be known. They’ ll usually run away, but you know, just leave quietly or. Has it always been a problem of hot-tested and scone towards the bears? You know, I think when I was a kid, there weren’ t that many bears in this area. Their population has really increased, I’ m quite sure.
So, I think it’ s becoming more of a problem with just more bears being around. Do the bears ever hunt people after hibernation? I don’ t think so. The few times – and there are bear attacks, but the few times that there have been bear attacks, it’ s just an aberration. It’ s maybe a bear that is, that is ill, old, and really starving or is somehow, you know, mostly it’ s where they feel threatened. If they, if they feel really scared sometimes they will lash out and attack if they have cubs. That Why it was pretty exciting getting out of the truck with the air horn right underneath a mama bear with cubs, you know. Were they scared?
Because they can’ t, not really, because I was standing with the truck door open ready to jump right back in but they can come down out of that tree fast. So, you know, I made a video of, of that whole bear in the tree thing here. Oh, really? Yeah, if you go on YouTube and look up bears in a tree at a private school, boom, you’ ll find it. And I, I, I checked with the communications department and I showed them the video and they said, no problem, you can keep it up on YouTube. It didn’t. t say Hotchkiss School or anything like that. I wanted to keep it generic. Yeah. I knew that would be important. But, yeah, just less than a year ago I started a YouTube channel.
A friend wanted me to start doing some whitewater videos because she was worried about me every time I went whitewater kayaking and so I, you know, she says, get a GoPro and then you can show me the video and I can see if you’ re safe or whatever, you know. So, so I started GoPro -ing, you know, putting the camera on my helmet and shooting whitewater videos and I’ ve got a trout fishing video and I’ ve got mushroom hunting videos and what’ s your account name? My channel is called, this is, nobody else has this one, it’ s called Whitewater and Wild Mushrooms. I guess, yeah. Type that in. I will be tonight. And they all have soundtracks from my different recordings. Oh, that’ s so cool.
I’ m really excited actually. My chemistry test might have to wait. I might have to watch some of these videos tonight. Combination of all three disciplines. Well, I think this is a cool thing you guys are doing these podcasts. I actually, actually haven’ t taken the time to listen to any of the past ones, but now that I’ m doing this one, I’ m gonna look back and check out some of the other ones, too. Good, I’ m glad I asked that question. We really appreciate that. Yeah, thank you so much for coming on. This was super interesting and I genuinely will watch the YouTube videos, listen to your music, and I’ m going to Google a lot about mushrooms tonight. We hope everyone checks out Whitewater Rafting and Wild Mushrooms. Whitewater and Wild Mushrooms. Whitewater and Wild Mushrooms. Thank you so much for being here and thank you guys and have a great summer, huh? Yeah, thank you. Thank you.