The Shape of Waterfowl
I am only at the start of my second season as a waterfowler. This affords me leeway in folly, and wonder in discovery. It is truly a great time to exist, as I know enough to be able to go but still feel the need to learn. Though, like most hunting, I have no doubt it will be easy to learn and impossible to master. I still find myself fascinated by the art behind a good decoy spread, and an art it is. There are rules, yes, but they can all be broken. No two landscapes are ever going to be similar enough for a person to be able to share more than an outline. All I know is birds like to land into the wind, they don’t like to land over top of decoys, and do your best to place decoys four to six feet apart. The rest is experience and imagination that just can’t find its way into words, or so I get the impression.
My primary focus has been geese, they provide more meat, they prefer the open farm fields of Alberta, as opposed to ducks who prefer swamps. The biggest and most important factor is that geese are what my friends chase, and they have all the gear to do it. I just have to show up. Amazing the guided hunting trip a case of beer will get you in some parts.
My most recent trip brought a strange memory back to me. I have hunted a wide range of animals and as a result, have shot a lot of animals. Only geese have reminded me of a story I read in elementary school. I was in the blind with Tyler and his girlfriend, Kendra, when a lone goose flew close enough for a shot. In my hour of amateurism, I stood up and took a shot, spooking another, larger, bunch on the way in. It was a selfish maneuver and inexperience was my accomplice, it was a lesson in communication. My 10 gauge split the cool morning air and hit its mark. The goose instantly, mid-air, curled its wings in, locked its neck down, and fell to the ground like a feathered cannonball. At that moment all I could remember was sitting in my 5th-grade classroom hearing the teacher read ” He neither stirred nor fell, but every line of his body had altered.” I searched around recently and found it is from “Shooting an Elephant” By George Orwell an anti-imperialism essay that’s worth a read. At the time of reading that story, I thought it a touch silly and perhaps a case of the author dramatizing. Animals almost always react to being hit, but I have never seen such a fast, dramatic, and all-encompassing change. Maybe only some animals do it, or maybe only some people see it. So I have to ask myself, is it me or the goose?
Of my total of 2 trips this season (there are many more on the way, don’t worry). We were in no danger of limiting out, by which I mean we did not come close to getting the maximum daily amount allowed by law. Limiting is always the goal and certainly a feather in the hat of any hunter. We did, however, get enough for me to test goose meat in my burger recipe. They work great if you just substitute ground goose for venison or if you are extra sensitive to that gamey taste or are cooking for someone who is… picky. Just up the bacon to cut down that wild flavour. I made a YouTube video chronicling my first goose burger attempt. If you want to see some footage from last year’s hunting, look here.
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Erin’s Cafe
Erin had a brief break between classes (shes headed for her CPA in September, so send some good vibes), so we decided to take a long weekend off of work and head into the mountains, along with our dog, Jasper.
Start of the hike
One of my favorite restaurants is Erin’s Cafe. It’s a bit hard to get to and its always moving around, but the food and the atmosphere are hard to beat. The Chef is cute too. This time, I was informed the Cafe would be popping up in Willmore Wilderness Park. We drove there and started hiking in, our first meal was lunch, a light snack, if you will, of dried fruits, nuts, and a hint of chocolate (regular trail mix with the addition of almonds and dried apricots), our lunch dessert was chocolate drizzled over nougat and peanuts in bar form (snickers) it was delicious. The hike in was fraught with rain and river crossings, the deepest being somewhere just below knee height which did require me to carry my dear companion, Jasper. He was less than impressed with the idea. I, on the other hand, was really enjoying myself, I had never really hiked in a heavy rain before and found that it was not the hindrance I thought it would be. Turns out having a good raincoat and rain cover for your pack works as well as advertised. We also got very lucky and didn’t have to set up our tent in the rain as it died down just before we got to our campsite.
River crossing fun. Seriously though, this is my favourite picture of myself.
Jasper wasn’t big on the rain.
At the end of our 20km hike in, we set up our hotel room (tent) and I watched the expert chef prepare the first supper of the trip, a single course meal of Rotini with fettuccine sauce and summer sausage. Literally just boiled noodles, with a pack of knorr soup mix and some cubed summer sausage, it was good but made me… flatulent. After supper entertainment was conversation around a campfire. The sky was overcast and threatening to start raining again, we laid our gear out to try and dry it a bit, but shortly after supper, it started to rain. We retreated to our tent, read our books and went to sleep. Jasper curled up in Erin’s sleeping bag with her.
Our campsite
Making a fire
Day two, breakfast was a medley of fruit, granola, milk, and some hints of chocolate. It was granola cereal with dried fruit, chocolate chips, and dehydrated milk (it works great, just add water and go). We then proceeded to hike up a mountain on the south side of the pass. On top of the mountain, we found some sheep sign (poop) but no sheep. We were fortunate enough to spot a ptarmigan, it was the first time I had seen one. Once on top of the mountain, I glassed around and we decided to go down and back up the next one to have a look around. Besides the view, it seems all there was to see was a curious marmot. We stopped for a repeat of lunch, complete with another snickers bar, and then headed back to our base camp. On the route back we spotted 7 marmots in a group, two of whom were wrestling each other, must have been brothers. Once back at camp I looked at the menu and ordered the garlic mashed potatoes with summer sausage with an extra dash of olive oil. It was powdered garlic mashed potatoes that Erin made, she then added a bit of olive oil for calories, some Parmesan cheese and again some summer sausage, it is one the best meals I have ever eaten… it is very likely my hunger made me bias. The day concluded with us sitting around a campfire. I took an occasional break to look at the mountains with my binoculars in a vain attempt to see wildlife. That night I decided to try and let Jasper cuddle up with me. It turns out we are both too fat to share a sleeping bag. I ended up stuck on my left side all night, I barely slept and awoke with a sore shoulder.
Attempting to dry our gear before heading out.
Jasper looked chilly so we put Erin’s bandanna on him.
Erin having a nap after our trail lunch
That Island in the middle is our campsite
Me glassing for sheep
Alpine flowers
there was still snow in many places
Jasper tired out from a long day
Supper. Dehydrated garlic mash potatoes are the best ever.
Dis mine
Cozy
Day 3, we looked for a trail up a mountain on the north side of the pass but were unsuccessful. We instead did a lengthy walk through the valley. It was a nice and gentle walk on a nice wide trail. Which was just too simple for Erin and I so we attempted to blaze a trail through the bush… It didn’t go well, but Erin did find a huge morel mushroom. We gave up on blazing the trail and headed back to our base camp, the way we came in. We made it back to camp and for supper enjoyed conchiglie pasta noodles with an amazing cheddar sauce and just a hint of summer sausage… We just packed in some macaroni and cheese and added the remainder of our cubed summer sausage. For dessert, in honor of Erin’s late grandfathers birthday, we had a lavacake and shot of whiskey. The lava cake was just a dehydrated one from the camping store and we packed in my flask. It was all quite good. We then had another campfire and sat around a chatted. I filled up our water bottles from the stream and then we went to bed.
Jasper borrowed my jacket
Lots of animal tracks
Erin Climbing
Found this at a campsite
Giant morel in July
Erin Climbing
Erin Climbing
me, from Erin’s climbing spot
our trail
one of the many campsites
mid-hike nap
tired and cuddly
family portrait
Mac and cheese is already dehydrated so it only make sense to bring it hiking
no time for pictures when you’re eating cake
scenery
Day 4, the last day, we got up a little bit earlier than usual and packed up our camp. We more or less retraced our trail in, this time the weather was amazing and the barefoot river crossings were more refreshing than torturous. That said, I found that the blisters I had started to develop at the end of day 3 were starting to really ripen during the walk out. We stopped along the trail around 9 am for some breakfast as I prefer not to eat immediately after waking up, I find it upsets my stomach. On the last, and widest river crossing, I decided to just let my boots soak, they were already quite soggy as I had to cross the rivers barefoot and my feet didn’t dry completely before putting my boots back on, so over time they got wet. This decision was likely a mistake as my now sopping wet boots really made my blisters come to life. Blisters are a rarity for me, typically my feet are very forgiving. On one of our stops, Erin was kind enough to bandage my foot for me… Hey, this cafe has a nurse too!… wait, I hope she washes her hands before preparing food. We finally limped our way to the trail-head, Jasper immediately ran under the car to get in the shade. Erin and I changed out of our sweaty clothes and I began working the water pump in the parking lot, after a few minutes I started to think maybe it’s just decorative, as nothing was happening. A stroke before my surrender, I heard that unmistakable sound of water coming up the well. It was ice cold, I pumped it while Erin splashed some on her face, then we switched.. it may be the most refreshing experience of my life, that ice cold well water helped peel the layers of sunscreen and bug spray off my sweaty face. Glad I didn’t give up on pumping.
Our campsite had a “green thrown” (open air outhouse)
Breakfast
The crossings were much nicer on the hike out
We loaded our gear and our dog into the hot car, rolled the windows down and headed out. Erin had to drive because I was too burnt out and my feet hurt. We stopped for pizza on the way home and it was everything I thought it would be. Erin calculated all our walking, we did 72km total those four days… no wonder Jasper was so tired out, what a trooper.
Posted in Hiking, How-To, Photo Drop, Recipewith no comments yet.
Venison Burgers
For years my family has been indulging my unhealthy fantasies of someday becoming a professional hunter, chef, and writer (see Steven Rinella and his extensive collection of hunting and cooking books along with a TV show that features both). So it seems every birthday and Christmas I am given a wild game cookbook from someone. They are fantastic and I use them all the time but one problem they all seem to have, is that no one seems to know how to make a good burger. They all say the same thing, take the ground meat and shape it into patties and cook in the oven. To me thats the same as boiling a steak (no, I’m not talking about Sous-Vide), sure you can do it and its technically edible but you are really missing out. So here is my version of a proper venison burger. Please note that this recipe works well with any red meat. My dad showed me how to make these burgers years ago with beef, from there I made some adjustments, its a simple recipe to remember and I have used it while travelling to make friends more than once. Cooking on a barbecue works best, but I have baked them in an oven and a fried them on a stove top and they were just fine. I have never fed these burgers to someone and not had them seem overjoyed by them… unlike a few recipes of mine that I am still tweaking… thank you, Erin, for your patience.
The ingredients are all pretty forgiving and interchangeable with anything similar, its a hard recipe to mess up as long as you do not over spice it, that can make it salty.. but even then you can just drown it in ketchup. So you have no reason not to try this recipe.
You will need:
- 1 lb of ground venison (or any other red meat)
- 1/4 lb of bacon (this is not required if you are using a fattier meat such as beef)
- tortilla chips (tortilla chips work best but any kind of cracker, chip, croutons or shredded bread works)
- 1/2 of a medium sized onion
- one egg
- steak spice
- the softest buns you can find (I usually go with kaiser or onion buns)
- all the regular fixings for burgers: ketchup, mustard, relish, pickles, lettuce, onions, tomato etc
Step 1. Chop the bacon into as small of bits as possible usually about 1/4 to 1/2 inch squares. Typically I use the fattiest pieces of bacon from the pack, the purpose of the bacon is to add a bit of fat and grease to the venison for taste, texture, and making them hold together. Throw the chopped bacon in a large bowl with the full pound of venison. You can skip the bacon in the mix if you are using beef. I usually buy a full pound of bacon so that the remainder can be fried and used to top the burgers afterwards.
Chopped Bacon
Step 2. Finely chop the 1/2 of the onion and add it to the bowl with the meat. I usually buy a whole onion and use half for in the burgers and then slice the other half to go on the burgers after the fact.
Chopped onions
Step 3. Add an egg and a handful of tortilla chips to the bowl with the meat and onion. The egg and the chips work to hold the burger together, the chips also add a bit of flavour. This is also where I add some steak spice, make sure to use just a little as the chips make it salty and cooking the spices in the burgers really strengthens their flavour.
All the ingredients in the bowl
Step 4. Now mix all the ingredients with your hands, try to beak down the chips as much as possible and make sure all the other ingredients are evenly distributed
After mixing
Step 5. Form the meat into equal sized patties, I usually make 6 so that it lines up with the number of buns I buy but the size isn’t super important as long as they are all close to the same size. Make sure to pack them as tight as you can.
Formed into patties
Step 6. Place the burgers on the barbecue on medium heat. With my grill I find I have to flip them after about ten to fifteen minutes, they change colour a bit and the exposed chips will start to burn a little. Try to flip them only once or twice. After about 15 minutes on each side (every grill is different so dont hold me to this time) cut one in half and make sure it is cooked all the way through, typically that means no pink in the middle, however the bacon adds a bit of pink so go by texture and evenness of overall colour.. This is also the time to toast the buns and place some cheese on the burger so it melts nicely.
On the grill
Step 7. Take the burgers off of the grill and let them cool for about five minutes (lets all be honest, I often skip this). Then put the patty on a bun top it with bacon and all the other fixings. Enjoy!
Finished product, some squeezing required
Step 8. Tell everyone where you go this great recipe!
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