Meet Rick Halladay and his friendly crew of 3 dogs and 1 cat - the man who survived three Winter months without food in one of the harshest regions in Canada, the Yukon.
Rick and his lovely pets, Coco the cat and Sparky the dog with Silvia, Fabio, Cloe and Keith (from the right)
At the age of twenty four year old he set out for an expedition to set up trapping lines for lynx, wolves, foxes and other fur animals in a wilderness area south of Atlin in British Columbia, more than 100 miles from any uninhabited area.
He was meant to go with another man who would teach him more about hunting, but the guy had a bad drinking problem and was selling their food to get alcohol so Rick decided to go alone by airplane and his 7 dogs in the middle of the Canadian Winter.
He had only one walled tent and food for the duration of his trip. Unfortunately the plane delivering his food supplies crashed and could not pick him up at the designated date so he was left for three months with no food. He hunted to survive and he made it home to tell his story.
Rick lives in Carcross in the Yukon
After this adventure and many more he met his first wife at twenty seven year old and started working as a hunting guide for thirty years all over Canada and Europe. Among his many jobs he also worked along the Chilkoot Trail, one of the most iconic multi-day hike between Alaska and Yukon, for five years, maintaining the track, and after that he worked for the White Pass and Yukon Route as a maintenance technician and then as a ticket seller for almost twenty years.
Thanks to his travels he could always find a story about every country for each passenger he met. When we meet him for the first time, he immediately connects with us with his hunting story in Italy where he taught a guy named Silvio and his two daughters to hunt - although he has been there for only two weeks he remembers some Italian words used to communicate with Silvio as only his daughters could speak English.
Lupo and Lola, Rick's Maremma sheepdogs
He named his two beautiful Maremma Sheepdogs with Italian names, Lupo and Lola and Keith is feeding them in the weekend, together with Rick’s gorgeous cat, Coco, and a funny Yorkshire, Sparky, who are keeping him company in the house.
He is now retired and owns a farm of Icelandic sheep out Carcross but he is now too old to take care of the farm so his neighbours are running it for him. He sells the sheepskins at Whitehorse at local markets for $175 a piece, a reasonable price for this rare and beautiful skins!
Rick's wooden cabin in Carcross, Yukon
Listening to Rick’s past and hunting stories takes you back in time to another way of life, more connected to nature – and leave you wondering whether you would have survived three months without food into the wild?
Rick's yorkshire, Sparky, taking cuddles from Fabio in Rick's cabin
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