EatWild Podcast

EatWild 38 - Counting to 10 - A moose hunting story

I set out on an elk hunting trip with good pals Will, Ben, Tome and Tom.  Our plan was to float down the river, camp on the riverbank, and hunt elk for the week. Elk hunting was pretty slow and I was getting discouraged when things took a big turn.  I was set up calling for Elk, I heard a crunch, and an unexpected critter showed up. 

In some parts of BC, we have an open moose season, but you can only harvest immature bulls that have 2 points or less, or mature bulls that have 3 points on their brow palm or a total of 10 points on one antler. Confusing? Absolutely! Then try and count those points while a moose popping in and out of view in the willows and thick timber.  In this episode, I talk about counting points in the field and building the confidence to pull the trigger. 

EatWild 37 - Reflecting on our 3 sheep 2 elk hunting adventure - Managing expectations

This is the wrap-up episode of our adventure hunt podcast planning series.  Celina, Jenny and I are on the road on our way back from our packrafting hunting adventure.  Sadly we are not coming home with an animal from the trip.  We worked hard, we learned a ton, built new skills, and had so much fun.  So does all that make up for not coming home with an animal? We discuss our evolving expectations and reflect on our experience from the trip. We recorded this in the truck while on the road so the audio quality kinda sucks, but the conversation is great. Thanks for listening.  

EatWild 36 - 150 kms of wilderness river paddling- What we learned

We are joined by Christy Long to debrief our packrafting adventures on the river.  Christy is a whitewater paddling guide. She supported Jenny, Celina, and me with paddling training ahead of our trip.  On our trip, as we looked over some tricky water ahead, we would ask our selves: "What would Christy say?" Now we get to ask.  So enjoy! 

We used Alpacka Forager rafts on this trip. 

EatWild 35 - The grind of sheep country - Adventure hunt E4

Jenny, Celina and I are waiting out a rainstorm in sheep country.  We are 5 days into our adventure hunt.  We have left the rafts on the river and fought our way up the mountains into sheep habitat.  In this podcast, we talk about the challenges and some tricks for getting from the river or the road up into the alpine country. Good terrain and forest cover assessment can make or break a successful ascent up the mountain.  Hope you enjoy it!

 

 

EatWild 34 - Backpacking food - keeping it light and gourmet with West Coast Kitchen

Join for episode 4 of our expedition hunting planning series. In this episode, we are talking backpacking food for a 12-day backpack-packrafting hunting expedition. We have invited Penny from West Coast Kitchen to hang out with us and talk about how to keep food light and gourmet. 

 

Celina, Jenny and I are on our way into the mountain and we are counting ounces to keep our weight down, but we still need to max out calories to keep up climbing mountains.  

 

Specifically, we talk about:

How do we keep it light and taste? 

How many calories do I need to bring?

How much should my food weigh per day? 

Breakfast packing tips?

Lunch favourites?

Dinner plans?

Favourite lightweight snacks?

 

Thanks for joining us Penny! https://westcoastkitchen.ca/

 

Dylan Eyers,
Owner/Operator

www.eatwild.ca   

 

Instagram  I  Podcast  I  YouTube

EatWild 33 - Packrafting with Thor Tingey of Alpacka Rafts

In this episode, we're joined by Thor Tingey of Alpacka Raft. Jennie P, Celina and I are doing our research on how to best prepare for a 12-day packrafting wilderness adventure.  So we thought we would invite the expert on all things packrafting.  We had a ton of fun hanging out with Thor as he shares the origin story of the packraft, a few adventures, and everything we need to know to prepare and plan for our adventure.  

 

Specifically, we discuss how durable these boats are, and what types of repairs we can plan for?  How much weight can we load into these boats, and how best to load the weight? What should we bring in a repair kit? 

 

Thank you Thor!

 

www.alpackaraft.com

 

Dylan Eyers,
Owner/Operator

www.eatwild.ca   

 

Instagram  I  Podcast  I  YouTube

EatWild Podcast 32 - Sheep and Sheep Hunting with Mike Bridger

Wildlife biologist Mike Bridger joins us in this episode to talk about planning for a sheep hunt in Northern BC. As a Provincial biologist for the Northern BC, Mike gets the privilege of overseeing the management of wildlife in the remnant wilderness of North America. All nine big game species thrive in this area and Mike's job is to keep an eye on things. He pretty much has the coolest job in North America.  Mike is passionate about his work managing Stone's Sheep, and he is a self-described elk hunting fanatic. 

 

Celina, Jenny and I are continuing our podcast series planning for our sheep and elk hunting expedition into Northern BC. One of the most important parts of a successful hunt is doing the research on the species that you plan to hunt. We have the opportunity to ask Mike about planning our adventure and how to go about hunting Sheep in Northern BC. 

 

This is a fun episode, I hope you enjoy it.  

 

Thank you Mike for hanging out with us. @bc_bridger

 

Ageing sheep link: https://wildsheepsociety.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Understanding-Sheep-Aging-Andrew-Walker.pdf

 

 

 

Dylan Eyers,
Owner/Operator

www.eatwild.ca   

 

 

EatWild 31 - Adventure hunt planning - Packrafting for sheep and elk - Part 1

I'm getting excited! Safe and successful hunts start with research, planning, practice and gearing up with the right equipment for the trip. It takes time and commitment to pull it all together, but for me, it might be the best part of the trip.  

Jenny P, Celina and I are in the process of putting together what will be an adventure of a lifetime. We are planning to fly packrafts into the Northern Rockies and drift down 100 kms of river through spectacular sheep, elk and moose country.

Join us for the next series of podcasts as we put together our plan for a safe and successful hunt. We will be inviting experts on packrafting, wildlife biologists, and safety and gear experts as we research and get equipped for this adventure. 

And we will have a bit of fun too.

https://www.alpackaraft.com/rafting/

Thank you Jenny P and Celina for doing this! 

Please share and enjoy the podcast.

Dylan 

EatWild 30 - Dylan's first bear hunt - Tips and tricks of the road hunter

EatWild 30 - Dylan's first bear hunt - Tips and tricks of the road hunter 

In this episode, I'm hanging out with my hunting partner Jenny P. She's taking me along on a bear hunt. As I learned, bear hunting includes a lot of Truck Huntin'.  Jenny is a bit of a pro-truck-hunter, so we thought it might be fun to break down the tips and tricks of the road hunter.  Along the way,  we recap our hunting adventure and my first ever bear hunting experience. 

 

I have struggled with the idea of hunting bear.  I've had long relationships with black bears. As a park ranger, I've befriended many black bears over the years. I grew up eating moose and deer, so bear meat was unfamiliar.  In recent years, I have been exposed to the culinary opportunities of black bear meat. Jenny P and Chef Mark Perrier have prepared numerous exquisite meals with bear meat. Bear meat has a greater fat content than ungulate meat that allows for some new recipe ideas and cooking techniques that the lean ungulate meat will not allow for. 

 

From a wildlife management perspective, hunting black bears is a sensible way to put meat in your freezer.  Black bear populations are thriving in BC, which affords hunters the opportunity for a hunt with a high probability of success while ensuring the long term sustainability of the black bear population.  

 

Even knowing that black bear makes for a sustainable and ethical source of meat for the freezer, I am still challenged by the idea of bear hunting.  We tell the whole story in the podcast.  I hope you enjoy it!  

 

For more information on black bears and black bear hunting, I recommend that you check out Hunter Conservations Podcast on the future of black bear hunting in BC.  

 

Please comment and share this podcast!

 

Thanks! 

 

Dylan Eyers,
Owner/Operator

www.eatwild.ca   

 

Instagram: Eatwild  I   Facebook: EatWild   I   YouTube: EatWildDylan

EatWild Podcast 29 - The Bison hide - Hide tanning with Mara Cur

"Wow...how do I take care of this amazing hide?" That's what I needed to know when I walked up on the dead Bison in the snow.  Fortunately, my friend Mara was expecting this call from me. 

 

In this episode, I’m joined by Mara Cur of Crow's Nest Wildcraft, a hide tanner, land tender, and community herbalist and teacher. Mara and I connected a while back to offer a hide tanning workshop with the EatWild community.  On that call standing over the massive Bison, Mara walked me through the important steps of taking care of the hide. I have since dropped off the Bison hide with Mara, and we talked about the steps in the hide's journey from the Peace, to it eventually laying around my home in Vancouver.  Join us as we chat about how to take care of a hide in the field, natural smoked tanning methods, and staying connected with the wildcraft and harvesting community during these strange days. 

Mara offers hide tanning workshops, herbal medicine workshops and recently introduced the Limina wild skills webinar series, centred on healing through backcountry and ancestral skills.

 

https://www.crowsnestwildcraft.com/workshops/

 

Find Mara here: https://www.instagram.com/woodland.cur/

 

Please share, review, and thanks for listening! 

 

Dylan Eyers,
Owner/Operator

www.eatwild.ca