When you strip away all the sound effects and other dazzling production flourishes of "Into the Mild" (for which Mark made his first foray into sound editing), what you're left with is basically a love story.
No, it's not a story of love between a man and the outdoors. Nor is it a story of love between a man who hates the outdoors and woman who doesn't. And, sorry, it's not a story of love between two guys with baby strollers. It's more like a story of love between two guys (with baby strollers) and a microphone, carried out on a park bench, on a weekday afternoon, somewhere along the Millennium Trail in Whitehorse, Yukon.
Yes, both James and Mark love the microphone. And as they passed it back and forth, voices gently wooing, hearts on sleeves, their threesome would have been making radio magic—had the recording not run on so long that most of it inevitably wound up on the editing room floor. As a consolation, we're now making Internet magic by presenting the more or less complete conversation between Mark and James.
You may realize, after listening to the extended interview and outtakes, that much of what you heard in "Into the Mild" was false... inaccurate... contrived. Indeed, the only true things about this segment are that James McCullough really does hate being in the wilderness, and that he and Mark actually walked the Millennium Trail one sunny afternoon in late May. But that's about as far as it goes.
If, for example, you got the impression that Mark and James' hike was a "hike" (i.e. leisurely stroll), where the last thing they'd ever have to do was "rope themselves together," that's only because the script called for this ironic approach. The reality was much, much different.
The experience James and Mark shared that day was actually a harrowing affair, beginning with the sow and two cubs that chased the pair across the Rotary Suspension Bridge. Somehow, they managed to escape this situation without discharging their bear spray, which was fortunate, because it came in handy when they—and their baby strollers—later came under savage attack by a group of teenage boys at the skate park by the Robert Campbell Bridge. This scuffle eventually sent James scurrying into the bush where he became disoriented. Fearful for James' life, not to mention the potential legal consequences of his demise, Mark managed to build a signal fire to alert Search & Rescue, which soon arrived and began a grid search of the entire area. Miraculously, James had managed to dig himself a shelter and survive for more than one hour by eating the trash deposited in the woods around the trail by students from F.H. Collins. Given the abundance of this resource, authorities estimated James probably could have survived in the wilderness for about 15 years, but he seemed to appreciate the rescue more than the dietary reassurance.
So, that's just a limited glimpse into the real-life drama that was intentionally left out of the story in order to preserve the illusion that Mark and James are really just a couple of big sissies.
Now, if you suddenly find yourself craving some sort of antidote to the anti-wilderness ethic, have a listen to the musically-embellished full-length interview with James' partner, Glenda Koh.
