WHETHER YOU’RE A FAN or not, it’s undeniable that “The Legend of Mick Dodge” has become a reality TV hit on the National Geographic Channel.
And now Pat Neal — Peninsula Daily News’ “wilderness gossip columnist,” salmon and steelhead fishing guide and the “mayor of Oil City” — has joined him on Episode 5 — titled “Food Run” — for the show’s Season 2.
Episode five with Mick and Pat originally aired nationwide Tuesday and repeated Thursday on the NatGeo channel on the Port Angeles-Sequim-Port Townsend areas’ Wave Broadband standard cable network.
“It was the most fun I’ve ever had,” Neal said Thursday of appearing on the show.
“I laughed until my guts hurt. These are the funniest bunch of people I’ve ever been around, and the photographers are awesome.
“They are arguably the best in the world.”
Set in West End
The NatGeo show takes place largely in the area of the Hoh Rain Forest and the city of Forks.
“For decades, legendary wild-man Mick Dodge has lived an unusual life, relying on natural resources as much as he can to survive,” according to a promotion for Episode 5.
“But Mick doesn’t shop in an ordinary store for common items.
“He scours the rivers, oceans, homesteads and any other place he can think of, in hopes of getting his hands on the sustenance he needs . . .”
And, in a brief video promoting the 25-minute show — it’s posted below — “Mick ventures into Oil City to meet up with the mayor [Pat Neal] and ask him for some help fishing . . .”
(And if you know where Oil City is located, you’re a true expert on the North Olympic Peninsula.)
Neal said those working on the show appreciated the beauty of the North Olympic Peninsula.
Neal does not have TV or the Internet and so can’t watch the show.
“All I can say is, these people are my friends. They are really cool,” Neal said.
Neal’s friends in the Hoh River area thought highly of the show and “thought it was cool,” he said.
He also likes working with Dodge.
“I think he has a really good message and ethic and philosophy,” Neal said. “He’s funny as heck.”
Neal’s column is in the print edition and eEdition of the PDN every Wednesday.
We’ve posted some of the promotional photos of Mick and Pat from Episode 5 in the photo box above.
Check out more photos and videos at http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/the-legend-of-mick-dodge/episodes/food-run/video/.
You can read more about “The Legend” himself — according to NatGeo, he “leads a barefoot subsistence lifestyle in the Hoh Rain Forest” — by searching “Mick Dodge” in the PDN’s online news story archives.
Pat Neal’s column is in the print edition and electronic eEdition of the PDN every Wednesday.
Here’s the promo video from “Food Run” (also at YouTube’s http://youtu.be/VpJ_YlAHiUg ):
