Jaret Owens inventor of the BINO CHEST PACK grew up during the 1950’s learning to hunt and fish in the back country surrounding the small town of Ojai, California. Jaret is a successful hunting and fishing guide for over 40 years, leading his clients where the big game and big adventure can still be found in the ALASKAN BACK COUNTRY.
With sun roughened skin as a testament to the outdoor life he relishes, Jaret took up guide work because it allowed him to pay for college at Brigham Young University. He majored in Recreation and minored in Wildlife. He led tours during hunting season and earned enough to go back to school in the off season.
Jaret also spent time in his early 20’s as a forest service firefighter, but always preferred working as a big game guide.
After school he continued to lead tours to Alaska, as well as on Santa Cruz Island off the Pacific coast of Southern California. Jaret remembers himself as a young upstart when he tracked down Francis Gherini, an Oxnard lawyer who was one of the two land owners on Santa Cruz Island, to ask for his permission for hunting trips.
“I told him he was in the hunting business whether he knew it or not and that people were hunting on his land and he might as well make money off it,” Jaret remembers. “I approached Gherini because I wanted to do it the right way and ask his permission.” Jaret was in business with Gherini, a man he called his second father and good friend, until Gherini’s death. Their Santa Cruz Island business also attracted kayakers and campers during its 13 year history.
In those last few years “I earned the ire of some,” said Jaret, referring to his battle with Gherini’s heirs and the park service. Eventually the business was closed down, “but I feel I was a good steward of the land. We kept the sheep and boar population in check and respected the land.” The park service along with The Nature Conservancy now owns the island. In an odd twist of fate Jaret was chosen to work with the eight New Zealand hunters hired to eradicate the non-native wild boars in 2008. The targeted boars were the offspring of the ones that Jaret’s clients would have paid $1000 a head to hunt several years earlier.
In the last few years Jaret has resumed guiding Alaskan hunting trips for friends and family. During his years on the island, he had become too busy to continue his trips to Alaska. The Alaskan scenery is rough and breathtaking with the terrain making it a challenge to get in and out. Jaret knows his business and has PHOTOS of moose, bear, sheep, caribou and wolves that show the variety of the hunting Alaska encompasses. The sport is getting more expensive and is out of the reach of many. He still has some longtime buddies that he has been hunting and diving with for over 30 years. One of his friends is Peter Pulitzer, the grandson to the late founder of the Pulitzer Prize. “The guy is amazing. He is 79 years old, and has two stainless-steel knees,” said Jaret who admires him more for his stamina than his name. “And he still has no problem keeping up with me. In fact, he leaves me behind in the water when we're spearfishing! ”
