A rancher from the B.C. Interior is featured in a new episode of the popular TV series Highway Thru Hell after a chance encounter on a Cariboo highway.
Juri Agapow of Hanceville, an hour west of Williams Lake, said he has not seen the episode yet as he doesn't have a TV, but has heard from others who watched it Tuesday, Jan. 28.
“This morning I wake up and I look at my phone and I have all these text messages, phone messages and Facebook messages,” he told the Tribune Wednesday, Jan. 29. “I couldn’t find it online but somebody sent me a little few seconds video of the actual TV program.”
Agapow ranches in Hanceville but also has a satellite ranch at Marguerite, 58 km north of Williams Lake where 65 of their cattle were wintering.
On Monday, Jan. 14, 2024 he drove his Ford F350 with a trailer to north of Prince George to pick up some hay for the cattle at Marguerite.
While driving back along the West Fraser Road he came into a snowfall warning so he stopped and put on his chains.
"Going up that nasty new hill, It has a 13 per cent grade, my truck started to stall out and I was sliding backwards."
He managed to get the truck to a standstill, but said he could not get it going again.
When a young man stopped to help Agapow asked him to call a tow truck.
After two hours of waiting for the tow truck, some vans and pickup trucks suddenly showed up with the film crew from Highway Thru Hell.
"They started filming and one guy came up to me said ‘just act normal’ and told me this is what they do for the show. It wasn't planned. I had no idea this would happen."
Afterwards Agapow was asked if he would be willing to let the scene be in the show, to which he agreed and signed a waiver.
Eventually his truck and trailer were towed over the steep sections of the West Fraser Road to a spot where he could resume the drive to Marguerite.
Normally he wouldn’t venture out to drive when the weather is bad, he said, but with the drought in 2023 there was a feed shortage and he had no choice.
Agapow goes barefoot full-time, but as it was -20*C that day he did put on his emergency boots to go outside, but once he was back in his truck, he took the boots off.
He said viewers shouldn’t be surprised if he is depicted barefoot in the show.
“I’m a little bit weird that way, but it’s been years of going barefoot. It’s a lifestyle thing.”
Born in Switzerland, Agapow and his wife own the Hanceville Cattle Company and are active members of the Canadian Rangers Bella Coola Chilcotin Patrol.
Even though it was so unexpected, he said his TV appearance is a rare opportunity to showcase a local guy.
“It’s funny how it all went," he added. "They were filming another episode and I just happened to be there.”