David Ellison and Matthew Klumpenhouwer never really believed their application to appear on the television series Mantracker would amount to anything.
Respectively known as “Rusty” and “Klumpy,” the lifelong friends waited for over a year to hear if their video application – three times the suggested length and sent in on a whim simply because they enjoyed the show – would be accepted.
Klumpenhouwer, who now lives in Perth County but resided in Palmerston at the time, says show officials called to invite them on last May and offered only three weeks notice – but he still accepted the invitation on the spot.
“I didn’t even call Rusty to see if he was interested,” Klumpenhouwer said with a laugh. “I didn’t even ask my wife.”
Ellison, who lives with his family on a farm on the west side of Mapleton Township, says the reaction of their families and friends to the News was “mixed,” but most embraced the idea.
“Both our wives knew it wasn’t an opportunity that comes around every day,” said Ellison.
So the pair flew out to Colorado and spent several days filming the hour-long episode for season six of Mantracker, which features real-life cowboy and tracker Terry Grant hunting his “prey” – pairs of Canadians trying to make it on foot to a finish line, usually about 40 kilometres away, before Grant captures them.
And on May 22 at 9pm, almost one year exactly after the episode was filmed, it will air on the Ontario Life Network (OLN).
Of course, Ellison and Klumpenhouwer are sworn to secrecy about the outcome of the show, but they make no bones about how difficult it was.
“It was a lot more dangerous than we thought it would be,” Klumpenhouwer said, noting a scar on his arm from trying to traverse the rocky terrain and cliffs in Delores Canyon. “We never thought we’d put our lives in danger like we did.”
But that’s all part of the fun, adds his partner.
“We did everything we possibly could to win,” Ellison said. “We left it all out there.”
Klumpenhouwer, who acknowledged he is the less “athletic” of the pair, said he prepared physically through a “crash diet” and intense physical regimen.
Ellison watched dozens of Mantracker episodes and made notes about where previous contestants had gone wrong. And the pair ran from Palmerston to Harriston to “see where [they] were at” and to “get the blisters out of the way” after purchasing new footwear.
“It broke our spirits too, I think,” Ellison said with a laugh.
But in the end, it was all worth it. Both men count the experience as a very positive one and, whether they wanted it or not, they have become local celebrities of sorts, as the News has spread in their local communities and online through sites like Facebook.
“Every time I go to the feed store or the hardware store, people ask me about it,” Klumpenhouwer said.
One of the most common questions, of course, is how the pair fared.
“We’ll let the audience decide,” Ellison said, adding the goal was to come within 3km of the finish before getting caught. “It should be worth the watch.”
Asked how the experience affected their friendship, both Klumpenhouwer and Ellison joke around at first, then they look at each other in acknowledgement of a certain tiff at 2am one night during the filming.
“We had one tense moment,” Klumpenhouwer said, though they now laugh it off.
“We gelled well together from start to finish,” Ellison added. “At the end of the day, I think it solidified our relationship even more.”
For more information on OLN or the Mantracker series, visit oln.ca. To view Ellison and Klumpenhouwer’s application video, visit youtube.com and search “Mantracker farmers Klumpy and Rusty.”
