Moosecumentary (Part 3, The Materiel)

Materiel: n. "the aggregate of things used or needed in any business, undertaking, or operation"

Over the years since we have been hunting, our materiel has evolved, advanced, enlarged, accumulated, adapted, and quite simply become more accommodating to our aging bodies.

To give you an idea, that first year we hunted together I had moved from BC, land of lotuses and rain, to Northern Alberta. The only boots I had were rubber. So they were the boots I took when we left to hunt that last week of September, 1989.

The three of us slept in a 3-man nylon tent with our boots outside because there was no room inside. There was no room for anything besides us in the tent. And when we got up in the morning, the boots were frozen and putting on frozen boots is not fun. My feet stayed numb till noon. We had to light a fire every morning after we got up to try to get warm.

We each took two 2-litre bottles of water for the week and if remember correctly, a two litre bottle full of pancake batter. That was for our drinking and cooking. For the week. We must have had other food...but the pancake batter is what sticks.

In the years that followed we stayed in a camper, then a tent trailer, and eventually the wall tent that we have now.

(more pics and content to come... stay tuned)

Moosecumentary (Part 2 -- The Machines)

I know this seems like an odd thing to blog about... like, who writes about their machines, ATVs, but it is part of the whole history and experience of our moose hunts. So they have to go into this Moosecumentary.

As mentioned in part 1, Reg, Tom, and I started hunting together about 22 years ago. They both had three-wheeled ATV trikes and they were the usual vehicle of choice for hunters. The first year I went with them I had no ATV, so Reg, who actually had two, loaned me one of his, a 1983 200cc Yamaha trike. Tom had a similar machine. IN those early days, everything was pretty primitive. We slept in an unheated tent, and when it snowed, were cold for a week.

I used Reg's extra trike that for a couple years until I bought a 250cc Polaris 4-wheel quad. Of the three machines, this was the most comfortable and powerful. The beauty of the Polaris was -- 4 wheels and no clutch making it more stable than the tippy trikes. Because of the tippyness, we used to tip over all the time. And they had no suspension so our backs perpetually ached from bouncing through the muskeg.

I had the Polaris until someone stole it, rode it into the bush and left it. The police eventually found it and phoned me with good news and bad news. The good news was they had found my quad. The bad news was they found it when a D-9 bulldozer clearing brush backed over it. When I got it back it was about 2 feet high.

The flattening precipitated the purchase of a used 1994 350 Honda Fourtrax, seen here. Tom had bought a new 400 Yamaha Grizzly and Reg continued to ride his little 200 Honda trike. We came realize during those years that Reg's success in riding up to game was due to the fact that his trike made less noise than our bigger machines.

In 1996, because of work I moved away from Fort McMurray, Alberta where we all lived, out to B.C. It was traumatic and teary. When the hunt ended that year I thought it would be my last...ever, with these guys. So I sold my quad to Reg, and said good bye to moose hunting with them.

Over the months that followed I started thinking, "Why do I have to quit going for the annual hunt?" Many people spend a week of vacation and spend way more than I do for a week of hunting. So I decided I could keep going. Sure it meant a 15 hour one-way drive, but it was worth it.

So I purchased my 1998 Honda 450 Fourtrax 4-wheel drive quad, nicknamed Emma, and a trailer, which I have used ever since. She's reliable, sturdy, and gets me out of some pretty messy places.

Tom went on to buy a Yamaha Rhino, which we nicknamed "The Popemobile" due to the plexiglass additions and then a another Yamaha Grizzly 500. Reg eventually bought a newer Honda Fourtrax. Gary started out with a Honda 300 Fourtrax but eventually bought his brother's Honda.

The point of this blog I guess is to say that as we evolved our hunting skills and personally grew up, so did our machines. Metaphorically, they were a reflection of the men who rode them.

What the future looks like for us or our machines, we have no idea.