David Young on “Alone” Season 13, the Bowmaker Gone by Day 3

TLDR: David Young, 31, from Spokane, Washington, is a former wildlife biologist turned project manager and the founder of Big Rock Bows, a traditional bowmaking school on a 3,500-acre ranch south of Spokane.

He tapped out on Day 3 of Alone Season 13, the first contestant to leave, citing overwhelming homesickness and inability to manage separation from his wife Katie and their two young daughters.

He has made no public statements about his departure since returning home.

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David Young arrived at the Alone Season 13 drop with credentials that looked genuinely strong on paper. A wildlife biologist who had worked with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.

A professional bowmaker who builds traditional longbows by hand on a ranch adjoining thousands of acres of public wilderness.

A man who had worked alongside Alone Season 8 champion Clay Hayes and understood survival in the Pacific Northwest on a level most people never achieve.

He was also the father of two very young daughters who had just married his wife Katie a year earlier. That combination, it turned out, was not compatible with the Richardson Mountains on Day 3.

How He Got There

Young grew up in Spokane as a skateboarder.

His life changed direction at fifteen when his mother married a passionate outdoorsman and the family relocated to a rural area.

Under his stepfather’s mentorship he developed a passion for hunting, fishing, and primitive wilderness survival that would eventually define his professional identity.

He trained as a mechanic before pursuing wildlife biology, working seasonally for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, where he met Clay Hayes, the traditional bowhunter who would win Season 8 of Alone in 2022.

That connection introduced him to serious traditional archery and the bowmaking discipline that eventually became his business.

He later secured a permanent position as base biologist at Fairchild Air Force Base near Spokane, managing environmental compliance and monitoring wildlife populations on the military land.

In 2020 he left biology to join his stepfather’s hotel renovation company as a project manager, and founded Big Rock Bows on his family’s property 15 miles south of Spokane.

Big Rock Bows

Big Rock Bows is a traditional bowmaking school operating on Big Rock Ranch, which adjoins 3,500 acres of public wilderness with a life-size 25-target 3D archery course.

Young teaches students to build traditional bows from scratch using hand tools, from roughed-out hickory and white oak blanks through to custom handle wraps, inlays, and protective snakeskin or rawhide backings.

His workshops range from a two-day backed board bow course for $500, including ranch lunches and access to the archery course, to a five-day residential program for $2,200 with lodging in old west cabins and tepees and airport transfers from Spokane International.

He brought a self-crafted traditional bow and arrows to Season 13, the natural output of someone who has spent years building the tools before learning to hunt with them.

The Day 3 Exit

Young tapped out on Day 3, making him the first contestant eliminated from Season 13. His stated reason was homesickness, an overwhelming longing for his wife and daughters that made it impossible to focus on the daily physical demands of wilderness survival.

His departure generated significant discussion among Alone viewers, some of it critical of the casting decision and some of it more sympathetic.

The pattern he exemplified is well-documented in the franchise: contestants with very young children at home are statistically more vulnerable to early emotional exit, because the cognitive weight of having left a partner to manage infants or toddlers alone transforms domestic anxiety into an insurmountable psychological barrier once the physical discomfort of the wilderness begins to amplify it.

The phenomenon has been called “drop shock” within the Alone community, the acute psychological overwhelm that occurs when the extraction team drives away and the absolute silence of isolation descends for the first time.

For contestants who can manage that first wave, the experience tends to stabilize. For those who cannot, Day 3 is often where it ends.

Young’s most notable gear choice was his bow and arrows, which he crafted himself from wood before the competition.

A professional bowyer bringing his own handmade equipment is the kind of detail that reads well in a cast bio and reflects genuine commitment to traditional archery.

He also brought a tarp with intent to construct a wilderness kayak, a strategy widely criticized by analysts as an ambitious secondary project that would have consumed energy better spent on shelter and food.

He has given no post-show interviews and made no public statements about his departure. His social media activity remains focused entirely on Big Rock Bows.

Unlike contestants such as Dave Booth, whose Day 4 exit generated significant viewer controversy, Young’s early departure has been met with more sympathy than criticism, the prevailing view being that he was honest about what mattered most to him and made the only decision that made sense given that.

For the full Season 13 cast and what happened to everyone else, see our Season 13 hub.

David Young and Alone Season 13: Frequently Asked Questions