A Wild Goose Chase

A couple weeks ago, I went out on a new adventure to meet new lady friends, enjoy the outdoors, and hopefully, bring home a goose. If you know me, you know that any time I’m presented with an opportunity to learn a new outdoor skill, I jump at the chance. So when a friend of mine messaged me on Facebook, offering me the opportunity to go on a beginner’s goose hunt, I couldn’t wait to go. 

But for all the excitement, I was also a bit nervous. Leading up to the January weekend, the weather report for South Dakota said that temperatures would be dropping—it was about to get pretty cold. It’s not that I have an aversion to cold weather, I’ve hunted before. But the idea of sitting in the middle of nowhere, in sub-zero temps, freezing my butt off wasn’t exactly what I had in mind for a relaxing weekend. Nevertheless, I committed to going, and tried to remain pretty upbeat. 

The area we were planning to hunt was a bit of a drive, a few hours west of where I live in Sioux Falls. Since the hunt was scheduled to start early in the morning, I drove a little over halfway to my final destination and stayed at my friend Kathryn’s house.

I met Kathryn at a conference for outdoors women last summer. She and her husband Travis, along with their two dogs, Zane and Cirq live in a cozy red house right overlooking the Missouri River. She let me stay in the guest room, and that night we exchanged stories of our favorite camping trips, and what it was like to move to South Dakota from out of state. Kathryn is exactly the kind of friend you want to try new things with. She’s resourceful and honest, and has a go-with-the-flow attitude that I can’t help but admire. Despite not being incredibly close before this trip, Kat’s hospitality was more than generous—it was the epitome of “Midwest Nice”, and I was grateful for every minute of it. 

The following morning, Kat and I were up early, fumbling in the dark to dress in layers and load our packs into the truck. After a quick stop at the gas station and filling our thermoses with hot chocolate, we were on our way. Kat drove us out to Pierre, and we met up with the rest of the group. 6 of us in total, were accompanied by other experienced outdoorsmen, and SD Game, Fish & Parks staff. 

If you’ve never hunted geese before, it’s quite an interesting experience, lemme tell ya. We drove out to a field of public land and started setting up decoys. Decoys are exactly what they sound like, they’re fake plastic geese that make the other birds look down and think, “Hey, look, it’s more of us! I think I see my buddy Greg. We should fly down and check it out.”

If you’re familiar with hunting at all, you know you have to conceal yourself to draw the animals closer to you. Often, this concealment comes in the form of a blind, a small building or tent-like structure that’s covered to blend in with its surroundings. However, instead of using a traditional blind, we hunted from a pit in the ground. Yes, you read that right. A wood framed pit, built into the ground, with a bench for each hunter to sit and just enough room to spare for your shotgun. I’m not sure about you, but I’ve spent most of my life above ground, and I really enjoy it that way. I’ve never really woken up and thought to myself, “Wow, I really wish I spent more time underground, like some kind of mole-person”. Yet, here I was, in a field in the middle of nowhere, cold, and desperately  wanting a goose. In that moment, if our guides told me that the best way to call in geese was to dress up as one, I probably would have done that too.

Our group hunkered down in the pits and finally, in the late afternoon, the birds started moving. It was a really interesting pattern to watch--seeing the flocks in the distance move together. As the afternoon wore on, we saw dozens more, but they were rather unimpressed by our decoy display and flew on past. We did our best to call them in, but as it turns out, calling is a practiced talent, and not just the loud squawking that Kat and I were doing. Long story short, we did not get a goose that day. And honestly, Kat and I were both pretty bummed out about it. On the drive home though, we started talking.

I’ve been on a handful of hunts, and I’ve never been successful--in the sense that I’ve never actually harvested anything. I guess some people would consider me unsuccessful, or not a real hunter. But even though I never brought home a dead bird, I always seem to learn something entirely different. I’ve learned that comparing my successes with successful hunters who’ve hunted for YEARS is a ridiculously silly thing to do. And I’ve also been reminded, every time I’ve returned empty handed, that the real reason we hunt is to bond with friends and enjoy God’s creation. No, I didn’t get a bird, but I did see a gorgeous sunset and I got to make new friends. We shared stories and laughed a lot and survived the cold. Heck, for me, that was an accomplishment on its own. Hunting always reminds me that it’s way more about the process than the result, and honestly, I hate that sometimes. But it’s true.

So next year when goose season comes around again, I look forward to meeting up with Kat, and sharing a pit in the middle of nowhere. Maybe we’ll actually bag a bird, and maybe not. What I do know though, is that we’ll grow a friendship and get to spend time outside, and that’s good enough for me.

-Hannah Elise