Manhunter

I live and have always lived in the lower forty-eight states.  For that matter, I've never been west of Kansas City.  Perhas for that reason, I've always been fascinated with the outdoors and specifically the Northwest.  I've done a fair -- my girl would say unfair -- share of reading on the region and want to go there someday for an extended visit.  Were circumstances to permit, I might move there if the conditions were right.

In the meantime, two television shows in this vein have captivated my interest.  The first is a Canadian production called Manhunter, which is largely shot in Canada but due to its popularity makes occasional forays into the States.  The premise is that two people -- known as the Prey -- are dropped in the middle of the Canadian wilderness with nothing more than a map and whatever they can bring with them and start about two miles away from a professional tracker, the Manhunter, originally Terry Grant, who would be teamed with a sidekick who knew the regional terrain.  The Prey are on foot, Mantracker and his guide on horses.   A flare is shot to begin the game, and the Prey have forty-eight hours to get to a designated point known only to them.  Mantracker has to follow the Prey based only on using their tracks and any visual sightings he may obtain.

Some of the Prey have been idiots.  Statistics show that teams only win about twenty percent of the time.  Individuals may win about thirty percent of the time.  The only prize for those that beat the Mantracker is bragging rights.  The terrain varies, but it is always rugged.  It would seem that the Mantracker, in addition to his skills and experience, has a distinct advantage being on a horse, but there are times when that is a huge disadvantage, especially when it comes to muskeg or rocky ground.  The editing heightens the viewing enjoyment, but the concept alone is worth tuning in to see. 

The other show is of recent vintage.  Yukon Men deals with the community of Tanana about sixty miles south of the Arctic Circle in Alaska.  It focuses largely on the men, fathers and sons, and the challenges they fact eking out a living in the wilderness.  Again, the editing lends to the excitement for the viewers, but what these people face on a daily basis amazes me.  Unlike Mantracker, which only has rain and perhaps incipient snow as its inclement weather, Yukon Men revels in snow in all its stages.  The primary fight is snow:  Living in it, hunting in it, guarding against its effects, predicting it melt, preparing for its return.  Add to that the rough terrain and it's nothing short of miraculous that people lived in such wilderness before the combustion engine and rifle were invented.

Manhunter is contrived to the extent that the rules fit the show into a manageable timeframe.  Unless they're doing reshoots, Yukon Men's only artificiality is in the editing.  Both are reality shows, but Mantracker is much different than the rest of cable television reality shows in that there is a purpose beyond the depiction of what tracking is all about.

Both shows have the ability to transfix me.  Had Mantracker been around when I was younger I might have tried out for the show.  I'm not sure how long I could have tried Yukon Men, though.  I know I would have liked to try.

(c) 2012 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles