August’s Woman of the Wild-Darla Kaarre

August 11, 2010 by Terri Lee Pocernich
Filed under News, Women of the Wild

I grew up a native Montanan…fourth generation in a family line of outdoor people…forest service packers, ranchers, homesteaders, outfitters etc. My mom and dad are outfitters and I spent alot of time growing up in that business. The family all hunted…I took hunter’s safety as a kid and back in those days you could take a pocket knife to school in your pocket.

I had mine in my pocket so could take it to hunter’s safety class at night (I was in sixth grade) and show it off and let everyone know that since I owned a knife I could survive in the woods. Well I lost it that day somewhere on the playground and never had another pocket knife till I was well into my thirties. So even though I grew up with hunters all around me and worked in the outfitting business cooking for hunting camps and even helping drag game out of the field, I never hunted.

I went off to college, got a bachelor’s and masters degree in education, found this wonderful man to marry, had children and when the only boy got his first hunting license in Wisconsin (lived in the mid west for about 20 years) then my husband Marty really got into hunting. So Randy (son) and Marty would hunt every year and get deer for me. I love venison! I loved ‘cutting up meat’ and putting it in the freezer…but still never hunted.

About nine years ago my family and I moved back out to Montana…the northwest corner…back to my home stomping grounds. I finally decided after the first year back that I would like to try my hand at this hunting business! So I borrowed a gun that was given to my mom by my great uncle ( a nice wood stock pretty looking 308). I didn’t know one gun from another at that point and still don’t know much, but am learning as I get more into hunting. So eight falls ago I borrowed that gun and haven’t yet returned it and have now carried it many many miles up and down mountains and through woods. The first year that I picked up the gun from my mom and dad’s house, I asked dad if I could hunt along the creek on his property back down to my house. He said sure. About 15 minutes later, down off the hill came a nice doe…it was early doe season so I took my first shot.

I hit her and watched where she ran and waited the allotted time and then went to find her. Followed the tracks and blood trails. Retraced and started over and turned over every scenario in my mind. Never did find her…went up to dad’s since it was dark. He said he would go with me first thing in the morning. He did and we found her a few hours later…about a mile and a half away on a circuitous route. I learned so much from my dad that day. I had such a valuable resource around me, all those years of growing up and no interest back then.

That day turned out to be an education about being in the woods. The doe was great food for scavengers that year but not so good for my freezer. Dad encouraged me and told me similar stories from his lifetime hunting experiences. I hunted the rest of the season and got nothing. So I kept trying through the years and learning more each year.

I missed a nice buck at about 40 yards…even after a smart hunting strategy and waiting patiently for him to get close enough and not see or smell me. Sat in the snow and cried about that one and was never going to hunt again. My husband, son and Dad kept encouraging me. Spent more seasons loving the ‘hunt’ and the whole being in the woods and observing animals and their behavior scene.

Each year I would learn some valuable lesson to apply the next year. I could sit still enough that a coyote sniffing out something got within seven feet of me and finally I said ‘well hello there’ as that close was beginning to feel just a bit close. There was the time my son took me hunting in the early years of my new passion and we had a buck standing looking at us for ‘hours’ and any one other than the inexperienced mom would have gotten off a good clean shot. I couldn’t find the deer in the rifle scope so couldn’t shoot. The deer got tired of waiting for me to shoot it so finally it wandered away much to the incredulity of my son. “Mom you could have just pointed and shot and not missed that one it was so close.”

I’ve provided many funny mom hunting stories. I have my favorite ‘angel deer’ that flew through the thick woods miraculously because it was so thick and dark and his rack was so huge there was no way he could leap as far and as long as he did through the woods and find a path out without getting entangled…but he did of course! There was the doe I shot and stunned and who laid on the ground for most of the waiting time and just before I was to approach to make sure she was meat for the freezer jumped up and ran off like nothing had ever happened. My dad and I again spent a day looking for her. Never found her nor any blood trail expect two spots right where she dropped when I stunned her.

My ‘failures’ to put meat in my freezer were disappointing but kept me motivated also to keep learning and trying. So finally after six or so ‘unsuccessful’ seasons of hunting I shot my first deer last fall…a nice muley that I hiked miles and miles up in the mountains to get. He was so big we couldn’t drag him off the mountain. We had to field dress him and back pack him out of the woods. Good thing we did…a grizzly was eating his rib cage when we went back the next day to check out if the rest of the deer were still in the same area.

We had more tags to fill! My husband was with me the day of my first hunting success….he did all the cutting up for packing out and all that. I helped where needed. It was all a spiritual experience for me…the hunt, the shooting, the waiting, the butchering, the gratitude for it all. But even more exciting for me was that four days later while hunting completely on my own, I successfully filled my doe tag after doing things ‘right’ and figured out how to gut her out and all that. I had to get my dad to come with his truck to haul her home and he said to me in his quiet voice…”You’re getting to be quite the huntress!’ For my 76 year old dad, my getting deer and carrying on his life joys was one of the coolest things for him. So, having spent years learning some about hunting, I finally had a ‘successful’ season last fall. I was able to put my first package of meat in the freezer that was identified as “Darla’s muley backstraps–nov ’09″. We mark all our meat by who gets it, where and when. It makes for great meal time stories and we are reminded of where our food comes from and for what cost. One of the funnest moments of last year’s hunt was taking a picture of the first package of meat to go in the freezer with my name on it!

I’m looking forward to this fall and hunting season and have been checking out the deer habits in the area and have my licenses all ready…my son in law got me a new scope…my son got me a real hunting knife after learning that I gutted my doe with a Finnish fillet knife. I will still use the same family rifle but I may need to get my own hunting clothes…I’ve been borrowing my son’s while he has been four years in the Marines. He returns this September 13…in time for early season wilderness hunting! So Camp Wild Girl’s show me your stuff for women’s wear!!

So that is my hunting story…my youngest daughter Elly (10 in a few days) enjoys joining me in the hungt and will be able to start hunting in two years if she so chooses. She is a great outdoors girl. She lead a hike of 18 people to the top of a mountain lookout yesterday here in our corner of God’s country. In addition to hunting, I love being involved in passing on the wonders of the outdoor world by running an outdoor ministry. So yesterday we finished off an outdoor retreat by hiking to the lookout and viewing the wonders of the mountains with a 360 degree view. We are a non profit ministry that believes that we can live out and pass on spiritual principles in the outdoors. We believe that challenge, growth and renewal happen through adventure in the world God provided for us to enjoy. We do children, youth, family, women, and men’s adventure retreats. We do hunting and fishing retreats. We go hiking, rafting, horseback riding, rock climbing, study, site seeing, camping, backpacking, and other outdoor activities. Each experience is used to teach spiritual principles. Each retreat is custom designed to meet the needs of the group that joins us. Growing up in the outfitting business, getting into education and marrying a pastor, have all come together to create a ministry that brings growth and renewal to lots of people…whether they are participants or whether they find a job in which they come out to help at a retreat. If you’d like to find out about our ministry go to athelasoutdoor.org. You can also find us on facebook at Athelas Outdoor Ministry, Inc.

Tags: Atheleas Outdoor Ministry, camo, Darla, deer hunting, hunting, Karre, ladies hunting, lady hunter, Montana, Mule Deer, WI, Woman Hunter, woman of the wild, women hunters, women hunting

New twist-”Shed” Hunting Contest!

March 7, 2010 by Terri Lee Pocernich
Filed under Featured Item, News

6 Comments

Can’t get out of the house to go shed hunting? We are putting a new twist on “Shed Hunting”. Each day you can try and locate our “Shed” . (It is not the one on the front in the Sharp-Hill advertisement or the one in this post!). It is somewhere within our site and will change daily. Send us an e-mail to shedhunt@campwildgirls.com with your name, date and location of the shed for that day and your name will be placed in the drawing for a monthly prize. You can enter once a day with the correct location of the shed. The March prize is a choice between either of the “Camo is the new Pink” shirts or the “Camp Counselor” t-shirt. Our great friends at Stedi Stock (Awesome product!) have also donated one of their Stedi Stocks for a second drawing! Happy Hunting!