Juneau Hidden History Facebook<\/a> page,\u201d Weed said.<\/p>\nInitially, Weed wanted to use the hikes as research for a book. While the grant for his book fell through, interest in the Facebook group grew.<\/p>\n
McCabe and Weed \u2014 who started the group \u2014 soon received a request from Taylor to join in on the hikes and exploration. DiPietro has been a member for the last two years. The group sets up hikes around Juneau while guiding those in attendance on the different historical and environmental landmarks on the journey.<\/p>\n
There is also a fifth member of the group,Weed\u2019s dog \u201cA dog named Kat\u201d or just \u201cKat\u201d for short. Kat is treated just like one of the members on the show. A GoPro is attached to her head and she films her hikes just like the others.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is not another show that really treats a dog like a real cast member,\u201d Weed said. \u201cShe goes into smaller tunnels and barks to help keep the wildlife away.\u201d<\/p>\n
The group has now grown to nearly 8,000 members over about five years. While not everyone who is a member on the Facebook page actually joins in on the hikes, those who do, have found more than mines.<\/p>\n
\u201cI met my wife, Ildi, at a Thanksgiving potluck for Juneau\u2019s Hidden History members,\u201d McCabe said. \u201cBrian married us exactly a year later. I took Ildi to the Jeff & Russel mine on our first date. JHH has changed our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNone of us would have ever met if it wasn\u2019t for the group,\u201d Weed added.<\/p>\n
As response from fellow hikers grew, so too did the interest in the group from television production companies. However, at first there just did not seem like there was going to be a match.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey always asked us \u2018How much drama is in the group?\u2019\u201d Weed said. \u201cThey would ask if we would see anything spooky in the caves. If they were asking questions like that, we knew they were not what we wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finally, a production company came along with nearly the same ideas as the group.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe told them we did not want to be another Alaska reality show,\u201d Weed said.<\/p>\n
The group said current and former Alaska reality shows shine a bad light on the state. The idea with \u201cAlaska Treasure Hunters\u201d \u2014 considered a \u201cdocu-follow\u201d \u2014 is to give people a real look at what they do, without made-up drama.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a part in the first episode where I get stuck, so I say \u2018I\u2019m stuck,\u2019\u201d Weed said. \u201cAnd that was it. It was not played up.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of those real moments also happens when the group goes exploring and DiPietro, who was handpicked by the producers based on background in engineering, science and math, finds a petroglyph \u2014 a prehistoric rock carving \u2014 on one of the group\u2019s hikes and his reaction on the episode is filmed in the moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really did just find it on the show,\u201d DiPietro said.<\/p>\n
The show, the group hopes, will act as a showcase of all the hidden wonders of Alaska. While, the premier episode, \u201cFinding the Lost Rocker Mine,\u201d is the only one filmed, Weed said he has plenty of ideas if the show is picked up by the network.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to show what Alaska is really all about,\u201d Weed said. \u201cWe want to hike all over Alaska and find things that very few people know about.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to show epic Alaska,\u201d DiPietro added.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n <\/p>\n
\u2022 Contact reporter Gregory Philson at gphilson@juneauempire.com or call at 523-2265. Follow him on Twitter at @GTPhilson.<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Brian Weed was just looking to find people with similar interests in hiking and exploring mine tunnels in Alaska. What he got, along with Joe McCabe, Greg Taylor and Adam DiPietro, is a television pilot, \u201cAlaska Treasure Hunters\u201d airing 10 p.m. Wednesday on Travel Channel. \u201cIt can really be hard when you are a middle-aged […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":431,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-2646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/431"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2646\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2646"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=2646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}