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.
Posted in How-To, Hunting, Recipe, Videowith no comments yet.
From Colombia With Love
It’s been a while since I posted something and even longer since I gave an update of my trip, here’s some of what Erin and I have been up to since you last heard from us. I also have a video for you all to check out (link at the end). It’s a little rough, feel free to give me some feedback on it.
“Feel the fear and do it anyway” – Unknown
When Erin and I left New York for Ecuador, the airline wouldn’t let us on to the plane without some proof that we intended to leave the country. Many countries have this “onward ticket” rule, but it generally seems to be only sporadically enforced. In a panic, we booked a bus ticket from Quito, Ecuador to Bogotá, Colombia, just so they would let us on the plane. Once in Ecuador, we took a closer look at the ticket and realized we had signed ourselves up for a 30 hour bus ride. Great.
We contacted the company to see about a refund, but the best they would do was let us change the dates on the tickets. So, two days after the home invasion, we packed some snacks into our new daypack, and climbed aboard. The ride wasn’t actually too terrible, just long. The real excitement was at the Colombian border when we were informed that, as Canadians we are required to pay a “reciprocity fee” of $160,000 pesos (roughly $50 USD) to get in. We weren’t sure we had enough money, and the closest ATM was 7 km back, in town. We emptied all our pockets, pulled out our emergency stash, counted up all of our change, and we had just enough to pay our fees. We had about $4 left when it was all said and done. Good think we brought our own food for the bus trip, because we had no money left to buy dinner or lunch when the bus stopped for breaks.
Bogota Bound
Eventually we made it to Bogotá, the capital city of Colombia. Bogota is a huge city. To put it in perspective, there are more people living in Bogotá then in the whole province of Alberta. We stayed at a hostel in the old part of the city (La Candelaria), and, for the most part we just wandered around and took in the sights. We went to the Museo Del Oro (Gold Museum), which featured a lot of indigenous and pre-colombian gold works and sculptures, – all owned by the bank, oddly enough. The bank started the museum after finding a particularly beautiful piece, and deciding maybe they shouldn’t be melting down all this ancient artwork. We also did a bicycle tour of the city, it seems on every block in Bogotá someone important has been assassinated. I’m glad things have calmed down lately, because it is a beautiful, chaotic city and certainly worth seeing.
The Piece That Started The Collection
Ready to Ride
From Bogotá, we took a short ride on the bus to Zipaquira. We spent a single night in a very run down and poorly kept hostel, and saw the Salt Cathedral in the morning. It’s a salt mine carved into a cathedral complete with some very impressive sculptures.
Salt Cathedral
Next up was the picturesque colonial town of Villa De Leyva, where we spent a few days relaxing. One day, Erin and I decided to do a hike up one of the small mountains nearby. At first I wasn’t sure we were even on a trail, but eventually we saw some other footprints and were reassured. After the first forty five minutes in the heat and high altitude, I was worried I wouldn’t make it to the top. After the second forty five minutes, I was worried I wouldn’t make it home alive. Erin just rolled her eyes at my bellyaching, and kept on climbing.
Just Leave Me Here to Die
Eventually, the trail stopped leading upward and levelled off. Suddenly the trail was leading between fields of grazing sheep and cows, and small houses dotted the landscape on the sides of the mountains. We stopped and had some lunch (fresh baked bread and gingerale). As we headed back down, I was looking out at the houses and I realized something. There were no cars or motorcycles, these people commuted to town via the trail that I barely survived. Suddenly I felt a little silly and plenty weak. On our way down, my theory was confirmed as we passed several groups of people, many walking and some riding donkeys laden down with supplies. One man we passed was talking on a cell phone while riding a donkey up the hill, it was just an interesting sight to see.
Life At High Altitudes
View From The Top
Donkeys and Mobile Phones
The day after our hike we decided to rent some mountain bikes and do a self guided tour to a local park with a few nice waterfalls. We biked up hill the whole way there along a gravel road. We arrived at the park, paid our fees, and hiked down into the valley to see the waterfalls. We passed a few people on the trails but didn’t see anyone at the waterfall. We sat on a rock at the bottom and had some lunch and then we climbed up the slippery rock to the top of the falls, which was really just some water trickling down the rocks, as it had been very dry lately.
Thundering Waterfall
Not Much Water Falling
After taking some photos and admiring the scenery we came down and grabbed our gear. Before we could leave a local man explained in Spanish that there was a nicer, larger waterfall further down the trail. He was pretty adamant and got us to follow him, until we saw a sign that clearly denoted the end of the trail. He waved his hand in a “ah its nothing” fashion and kept walking, we went a little further and then Erin said “I’ll wait here.” We were both a bit concerned that it might be a set up, trap, or ambush of sorts. My Spanish wasn’t good enough to give and excuse not to follow him also I was aware that my paranoia was still a little high from the previous weeks excitement in Quito. After a bit more following we showed up at a really big waterfall, and I was quite relieved. We felt bad for being suspicious of him. Erin and I headed back to the park entrance, grabbed a lemon aid, and headed back towards town. On the way, we made one more stop near a small pond and had a light snack before finishing our tour.
From Villa De Leyva, we made our way to San Gil, the adventure capital of Colombia. We stayed at a nice hostel run by an Australian man who organized activities with other local businesses. I signed up for kayaking course and was up bright and early the next morning ready to go. Unfortunately, they had forgotten about me. Erin had left before I was supposed to be picked up so while she was off exploring nearby towns with new friends, I sat in my room, grumpy that I had been forgotten. Oh well, I needed the rest and relaxation. That evening I mentioned to the owner what happened and he immediately called the company and confirmed I would be picked up for classes the following day.
There Was a Parade in Town For Some Reason
The next morning, they called the company to re-confirm. Sure enough, they showed up this time. The first day, I was told, would be in a pool working on basic skills. I expected a normal swimming pool, but we actually went to a local waterfall that had been dammed up down stream to create a semi natural pool. The class consisted of myself and one other traveller who was staying at the same hostel. We worked on basic paddling and maneuvering and then started to work on eskimo rolls. An eskimo roll is the ability to roll a kayak from upside down to right side up using a lot of hip and a bit of paddle… and from what I could tell, a bit of magic. By the end of the first day I was sore, tired, and still unable to do the roll.
Erin Abseiled this Waterfall While I Kayaked
On the second day of kayaking lessons, we were taken for a trip down the river over some light rapids. It was pretty exciting. I had to bail out of my kayak more than once, and be rescued by the instructor. After the first crash it was a lot less frightening. My classmate had a few spills that day too, but he had figured out the eskimo roll on the first day, so he was a little ahead of me. Throughout the day, we stopped along the shore a few times to go over more techniques and practice our eskimo rolls. I was still having trouble with it. Eventually, we were on a nice slow and deep patch of river. JD, my classmate, did an eskimo roll at the teachers request. Then the instructor looked at me and said “Ok, this is it Tyson, you’re going to do and eskimo roll right here, right now. Go for it!”
I assumed the position, rolled under, and sat for a moment, I regrouped mentally, loosed and tightened my grip on the paddle, and visualized what I wanted to happen. I thrust my right hip “up” and my left knee “down” and popped out of the water like a cork. I had done it. I looked around, amazed as both my companions cheered and clapped. For the first few seconds I didn’t believe I had done it myself. As we neared the end of our route, the instructor told us there was a huge wave just before where we get out of the river, and he wanted us to hit it head on. I was happy to oblige, worst case I crash into water and sure enough, thats what happened. I went straight up the side of that wave, went right upside down, and couldn’t roll out of it, so I had to eject from the kayak and swim to shore… how embarrassing. We were then told that the following day we would hit some harder rapids and do a longer trip.
Erin Whitewater Rafting While I Practiced Eskimo Rolls
The next morning my stomach was in my throat. I was very nervous about hitting bigger rapids. The instructor assured me I would be fine. Worst case, I have to get rescued. I decided to bring my action camera and get some footage. The three of us headed down the river, and more than once I was tossed from the kayak and had to be saved. We then met up with another instructor and a student on his second day. We did some more work on our rolls, and I was introduced to the kayak equivalent of water boarding. The instructor flipped my kayak and then I had to roll to correct it, at which point he would flip it again as fast as he could, over and over until I couldn’t roll anymore. I did six and got it on film. Later on down the river on calm flat water without someone flipping me upside down, I was able to do eight rolls in a row unassisted. It was an amazing feeling of accomplishment.
We finished out the trip and had a few more crashes along the way. When we finally made it to land, we were offered a second run on the river, we both declined. JD had hurt his shoulder in a crash and I was so tired I was worried it would be a safety concern. I had also taken a good bump to the rib cage, courtesy of a large rock, during one of my rescues. So I headed back to the hostel to recover before taking an overnight bus to the Caribbean coast, but I’ll tell you about that in my next story.
Heres the youtube video of my trip down the river.
Posted in Travel, Videowith 4 comments.
My First Mountain Bike
If you don’t feel like getting the full story, click here to jump straight to the video on youtube.
Erin and I are slowly starting to plan a trip that will take us across (or maybe around?) South America. So currently this means me reading through the guide book trying to get a vague overview of where I would like to go. I’ve noticed a pattern, its seems that most South American towns offer; ruins, churches, mountain biking, and depending on proximity to water, surfing. I intend to see a lot of the ruins, some of the churches, and attempt to surf. Trust me, you’ll hear all about it on the blog. I also want to try mountain biking. I figure, since I live in a great part of the world for mountain biking, I may as well try my hand at learning it here so as to make it more fun when I go there. Also I Just wanted to start mountain biking, so I’m going to use the trip as an excuse to take it up. Unfortunately, to my knowledge, there are no surfing opportunities in Alberta, so that’ll have to wait until I get there.
So I set off looking at various mountain bikes, their styles, and types of riding. I also watched a lot of youtube. When it was all said and done I walked into the local bike shop and asked for the cheapest model I could get away with. I had the option of grey or orange. I went with orange, and for about $600 I was out the door with a new bike and a helmet… always wear a helmet!
The first day I had it, a friend and I went for a ride in the Edmonton River Valley me on my new fancy bike and him on the old mountain bike I received as a birthday gift almost a decade ago. I was quickly made aware that this bike was superior to any other bikes I had owned, of course for that price it better be. I was also reminded that I am rather out of shape. After a few hours we decided to call it a day and head home. A few hours rest later, I decided to go out for another ride, this time to my dads shop for a visit, about half hour each way. Erin accompanied me since I am hesitant to ride on the roads.
First Day Out
For nearly a week I have been riding my bike every day, for about two hours a day. Often just to visit my dad but also a time or two to the river valley again, I was quite surprised at how many trails are actually down there.
End Of This Trail
Almost Looks Like We’re Not In The Middle Of A City
A few days ago my brother and I decided to go to my dad’s house for some fishing. I decided to bring my new mountain bike because there are a lot of quad trails around his house and I know at least one of them would be a lot of excitement on a mountain bike, especially for an amateur. So we loaded our fishing gear and my bike and headed off.
Only Way I Could Think Of That Wouldn’t Scratch It
The first day we were there I talked my dad and brother into giving me a ride to the top of the trail I had in mind, its just barely out of my riding distance. They had some audible doubts about how much fun it would be for me to ride it, and naturally had some suggestions “Buddy, you want us to build a jump at the bottom?” I wish they were kidding. I eventually got there, got the camera rolling, and hurled myself down the trail as best I could. I quickly learned that mountain biking is more fun than I had thought and also that mud is way harder to deal with than I had expected. If you watch you can see me almost crash on a few of the wet spots. You can see the video HERE on my youtube channel. I look forward to honing my skills and seeing more trails, then maybe once I’ve gotten better at it I can do another video of the run and see how much of a difference skill and experience make, my guess is a lot.
The next day was filled with fishing. My brother was on fire, catching more walleye than I had seen in the past year. I on the other hand was having an off day, and only wrangled in two small pike. I did however witness, the biggest pike I’ve seen in that lake, follow my hook through the crystal clear water. Unfortunately for me, he didn’t bite that floating hook and everyone else was on the other side of the boat. No catch and no witnesses means only one thing… I have to go back and catch it. No, I will not tell you where on the lake I spotted it, but dont worry I’ll post a lot of pictures when I get it. The only photo I managed to take on the second day of our trip to the lake was of my dad determining whether or not his cat likes the kayak.
I Guess The Cat Doesn’t Like The Kayak
Shortly after this photo was taken the cat jumped off the kayak and swam the 10 feet to shore. This also adds to my theory that: the shortest distance between two points is a swimming cat.
Posted in Fishing, Mountain Biking, Videowith 2 comments.
Fishing On a Whim
This past summer Erin and I had gone on a camping trip to the Pembina River with some friends. As some of you may or may not know the big draw with the Pembina River is that you can rent tubes and lazily float down it. This was our plan, one of our friends had been kind enough to bring her camper so we could all just sleep in there. We parked at a campsite at the top of a hill which was pretty far from the river, in fact all weekend the weather had been so poor we had only looked at the river… from a distance… during a break from the rain. It was a rainy weekend that was only salvaged by good food and good company, honestly with my grumpy disposition I didn’t play much of a hand in either.
We planned on tubing down the river on the last day if the weather was good. It was not, so we decided to pack it in and head home early. Erin and I had driven ourselves there and at the turn to come onto highway 16, Erin was driving I dared her to drive us to Jasper for a day of hiking. She called me on it and we drove towards the mountains and then changed our minds as we remembered we had none of our hiking gear… So sadly we headed toward the city. On the way the weather broke and it was starting to get nice out, then we saw the sign for Wabamun Lake and decided to try out Erin’s new fishing gear and her new inflatable Kayak. I’m the old school kind of guy that just doesn’t trust anything inflatable, so it took a bit of convincing on Erin’s part.
We pumped up the boat, threw it in the water and set off on its maiden voyage, fishing gear in hand. I gotta say, that little inflatable kayak impressed me, I didn’t expect it to be able to support two people, in fact I vaguely recall telling Erin I thought it was a silly purchase. It not only held both of us with fishing gear it felt more stable than my old fiberglass canoe, I made the mistake of saying this when Erin could hear me, naturally her victory was rubbed in… Also in classic Erin fashion she out-fished me nearly to the point of embarrassment. It was madness just pike after pike. I do take some comfort in knowing that it was with a rod and hook that I had selected and purchased for her, but it did still hurt the ol pride a bit.
Check out the video here on my youtube channel
Posted in Fishing, Videowith no comments yet.
Treed
I am still pretty new to bear hunting, I get the basic concept, but its still pretty new and exciting to me. This past week my dads neighbor asked me if I wanted to come with him to his bear bait. I of course said “yes” and promptly headed to his nearby house via my dads side-by-side ATV. As I pulled up I noticed that Ken, the neighbor, had a trailer hooked to his quad which had in it three large pails and a fifty pound sack of oats. I was now starting to have suspicions of why a young guy like me was invited to “come see” the bear bait. Work or not I was still interested. I followed Ken down a long dirt trail, we then hopped off of our ATV’s, he loaded an old defender shotgun and I geared up with my bow just in case I saw something. We first hauled the pails in and Ken filled the drum with old grease and nasty old food. We then walked the short jaunt back to the quads to grab the sack of oats for me to carry in. Ken did offer to carry it if I got tired, but I’m too bull headed to accept help. We filled the barrel and this time remembered the key for the trail camera, only to discover that the camera had failed to take any pictures.
Ken then looked at me and said “Wanna sit for a half hour?” I jumped at that chance. We climbed up the tree stand at about 7:45 pm and sat for about fifteen minuted before we heard some crunching behind us. I slowly looked over my right shoulder and saw a nice black bear walking towards us. Ken saw it too and we gave each other a bit of a grin and looked back at the bear walking towards the bucket left right under our stand then gave each other another smile, but a bit more nervous this time. The bear walked right between the tree and the ladder for our stand and began chewing on and playing with a green bucket we had used to transport old grease for bait, after about five minuted of chewing and playing the bear decided it was his now and promptly took it with him in the wilderness.
Ken and I had a great laugh at watching the lime green bucket disappear into the woods and trust me there are few thing that make as much noise as an empty plastic container brushing against trees. We sat and waited for a bit longer when suddenly an adorable little cinnamon coloured bear appeared at the bait and simply started eating, the cinnamon bear must have been a little smarter since he made it all the way to the bait.
The little cinnamon bear didn’t do much exciting, just had a bit to eat. It was about this time that the bucket thief came back to see what else there was to play with and sure enough he found the rope hanging from our tree stand. He bopped it a few times and then began to climb the tree, I had to think fast to try and remember if bears are good climbers, as best I can recall there are a few pictures online of bears inside tree stands. I opted to let Ken know there was a situation on my side of the stand. We immediately stood up and yelled at him which spooked him back about ten meters for about five minutes then he came back and started batting around branches and logs. He did a half hearted bluff charge towards the tree so Ken decided to show me just how amazingly loud that little defender shotgun is… Once my ears quit ringing I told him how impressed I was with the noise. Sadly the bear was barely phased (haha puns are fun) by the thunderous sound.
The cinnamon bear near the bait had somewhat retreated into the woods and the black bear simply seemed to lose interest in us. The cinnamon bear resumed eating and the black bear slowly worked its way toward the bait and eventually evicted the cinnamon bear. That black bear proceeded to stuff his face at the bait for nearly an hour. It was starting to get dark so Ken and I began yelling at the bear and waving our arms etc. According to Ken, who is quite knowledgeable about bears, they usually get scared and leave once they realize you’re human. This bear.. not so much, we would yell, it would look at us, and then keep eating. We fired some buckshot in its general direction, again to try and scare it off so we could leave, it stood up, looked at us, and resumed eating. We were stuck in a tree with a shotgun and a bow and it was getting dark, yet somehow all we could do was laugh hysterically… or nervously at the situation.
I was debating shooting the bear, I had the tag, it would have been completely legal, but it was a small bear and I wasn’t fully prepped at home to deal with skinning and processing a bear. That said I do think a bear that isn’t afraid of gunfire and yelling might represent a threat to quaders and hikers in the area. We debating the pros and cons of shooting the adorable little bear, and yes the fact that bears are pretty cute came into play. Our eventual plan boiled down to me going first out of the stand while he covered me with the shotgun at which point he would lower it down to me and climb down himself.
Just as we began to execute this plan the bear decided he was full and wandered away… good! Problem solved. I climbed down, knocked an arrow into my bow just in case, and Ken climbed down and loaded his shotgun as fast as he could. Once on the ground I noticed that both the bears we had seen that day were in sight and withing about a forty yard radius, luckily they still seemed pretty disinterested in us. We walked back to the quads and headed for home. By the time it was all said and done we had made it out of the tree stand a little after ten pm, meaning our half hour stretched to the neighborhood of 2.5 hours. But hey… It was totally worth it. I was also very disappointed to find that my video camera hadn’t been recording audio, its still new to me and honestly I dont think it has that function.
Posted in Archery, Hunting, Videowith 1 comment.
YouTube Channel!
Hey, I know I usually do a nice long story on Thursdays but today I was busy… Busy starting a YouTube Channel for the few videos I have and for all the videos to come! Come check out my channel HERE and the latest video HERE don’t forget to like, share, subscribe, and comment.
For those of you who have been reading along to my previous posts you will see the truck from “Unnamed Lakes” mountains from “One Does Not Simply Walk Into Tongariro” scenery from “Fiji Time” and even a bit of “Crypt Lake“. This video as well as a few others I will post, are from a time when the idea of a blog or a YouTube channel were just a day dream that I didn’t take seriously. On this new channel I have also put up the old video I posted called “Pike On The Fly“.
Posted in Fishing, Hiking, Hunting, Travel, Videowith no comments yet.
Pike On The Fly
Posted in Fishing, Videowith no comments yet.