Most of you now know I spent ten days in the heart of the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness of Idaho on my elk hunt this year. I want to share the images from that trip with you in this space and if you’d like to read a bit about it, you can proceed to the Danner blog where an essay about the trip is currently published and I have some of my field notes and images in a secondary post over on the Western Rise blog. Additionally, if you are following my Instagram account, I have posted portions of my field notes from the trip in conjunction with a few images from the trip in my feed.
I photographed this hunt in an official capacity for both Danner as well as Seek Outside and it was so much fun to blend work with play with the insanity of a backcountry high hunt. I’m still very happy with my work from this trip (so are those companies) (yay!).
This is one of the most amazing trips Robert and I have ever taken together. I hope you feel the wildness while you sift through these images.
Also, I am aware that many of you do not hunt and probably wonder things about hunting all the time! I encourage you to ask any questions you might have in my comment space! One of the reasons I photograph and share stories about hunting big game and upland is because it’s what I have always done here — lived my life with conviction and shared what I am learning. Also, I feel we live in a political and social atmosphere that is anti-omnivore, anti-firearm and anti-hunting. I share because I want people to know the truth — that there is a way to take life, so that you can live, that is full of beauty, respect, love and holiness. I am interested in clearing up any confusion there may be on the matter by educating folks as best as I can. I am interested in changing hearts and minds on the matter. It will be my pleasure to answer your questions as best as I can as well as bust any myths you may have been fooled into believing. Inform yourself and the make up your own mind on the matter! In the meanwhile, let me answer any questions you may have on how hunting legally works, how to get tags, general rules and regulations…ask away!
As always, huge thanks and love to Robert, for doing such a great job of teaching me how to hunt and how to hunt well (and there’s still so much to learn).
Lastly, please note:
There are a few images of a dead animal in this blog post since I had a successful deer hunt instead of a successful elk hunt — I feel these are beautiful, truthful images which is why I have shared them here. My goal is not to offend your senses. We hunt to eat. If you are intolerant of firearms, omnivores and the practice of harvesting wild, clean meat from wild, clean lands please do not leave me nasty, judgmental comments in my comment section in an attempt to publicly shame me for my life choices. Instead, please feel free to send me a respectful, intelligent email regarding your concerns on the matter:
thenoisyplume@gmail.com
Thank you kindly.
Congratulations on a successful hunt! Your pictures are just absolutely s.t.u.n.n.i.n.g. Every single one is perfection.
Thank you!
this is real.
*you* are real.
[a word which came to mind :: unction.]
I’m trying. I’m trying to get back, back to the root of it all.
And that’s a beautiful word…
Hello Jillian,
How beautifully this is written and photographed. You provided such thoughtful and true dialogue to try and help people understand the life you have chosen to live, and I salute you. Growing up in the south eastern corner of British Columbia to an hunting outfitter family, I understand this life well. May you have such a wonderful winter doing what you love.
Xo
Dagmar
Thank you Dagmar! Always love to see you here!!!
I look forward to your images every time. Learning to hunt to feed myself feels like the next step I would like to take. Clicking over to see these images and to read your words- congratulations on the work!!
I encourage you in that direction. Grow a garden. Know your meat. Fill your pantry with home canned goods. Ferment your own kraut. Brew your own kombucha. It’s the way!!!
Love having you here, Eileen!
Jillian – I’m up to my eyeballs in deer this year, so favorite deer-cookin’ recipes? GO!
Allie! Hi!
You know, we like to keep it pretty simple. We butchered my deer mostly into steak, fajita steak and roasts. Here are our top two recipes we like to use:
1. Grilled backstrap cut into thin strips over greens with toasted walnuts, artichoke hearts, fresh organic garden carrots from Fred Meyer (they actually taste like REAL garden carrots),and halved and roasted brusselsprouts. If we’re really hungry, we also roast up a cubed sweet potato to go on top. It’s scrumptious. I also like to whip up a really simple balsamic vinaigrette in the Vitamix: olive oil, balsamic, 5 or 6 garlic cloves, fresh ground pepper and a little oregano.
2. We love a simple, slow cooked roast. Sear the meat at a high temperature. Toss it in the crock pot with some red wine and rosemary sprigs and let it cook a few hours. Add in chunks of onion, sweet potato, carrots, stewed tomatoes, celery, towards the end of the cooking time (I don’t like it when my veggies are turned to mush). Serve with horseradish.
I also like to use game for fajitas….
We’ve been eating wild meat for so long that I actually experience reverse-gaminess when I eat domestic meats. We simply substitute wild meat in for whatever we would use domestic meats for.
Last night we had chukar and quail Pad Thai Noodles. It was amazing. As always!
Bravo! What a satisfying adventure. I can’t think of a more beautiful, ethical, healthful way to obtain protein 🙂
I’d have to agree with you, Lyd. It’s right for us! XX
Thank you for sharing your experience/photos with us!
My pleasure!
Hi Jillian, I’ve been following you for a couple of months now. I look everyday first thing in my feeds for a +1 next to your blog title. I grew up in NJ and unfortunately I didn’t have access to farms and lacked awareness about where my food came from. I live in the Netherlands now. Farming is very important here. There are a lot of farms here where you can buy direct. You can see how the animals are raised, ask questions about how they’re slaughtered, if they’re bio, etc… You can drive to dairy farms, and with your own bottle, “tank up” on fresh milk. I have never been so in touch with where my food comes from. It’s rewarding and it is more difficult at the same time. These cows are cute! They’re real characters! But if I’m going to eat meat, I want to buy as much as possible from farms instead of supermarkets. Food awareness and supporting local farming have become very important to me. I am very intrigued by the idea of hunting but I’m not sure if I could keep my emotions in check. Do you have any thoughts on that? Is it something you get used to quickly?
What I miss here though, is the wilderness. I think you’d wilt here in the endlessly flat country – but we have loads of beautiful birds 🙂
This past summer I took a motorcycle trip through the alps. The landscape was stunning; glaciers, head-high snow drifts along the passes, all new to me. It was really at that time that I realized the thing that stops me from going out into the mountains on foot is fear. Fear of heights, fear of meeting a dangerous animal. Have you ever encountered a wolf, bear, big cat? What do you do?
The first time I read your blog, I cried. Your writing, your photography, and your spirit filled me with some kind of deep sadness and inspiration at the same time. I’m not sure how to explain that in words! It was right after my alps trip, and I’d just returned to work, sitting at my desk beneath fluorescent lighting… I felt like something was amiss for me, and finding you online confirmed.
I want to conquer my fears and backpack in the wilderness. I want to slow down, breathe in fresh air and process my surroundings with a kind of awareness that I can only now begin to reach towards. In the end, I quit my job to pursue my hobbies (jewelry and upholstery) and to take a stab at rewriting my life and my future so I feel like the life I have lived is full of riches and fulfillment of the soul. I wanted to thank you for being so inspiring and sharing yourself with the world, because really you have changed my life, or at least I can say you have been one of the catalysts. Thank you!
Have you seen this? https://youtu.be/HdqVF7-8wng
Shannon!!!
Thank you for this huge, beautiful note. I know it took a while to write and I just want to let you know how much I appreciate it.
First of all, I want to tell you how much I admire you for supporting your local farms in the Netherlands. Good for you. I can’t do cow dairy and just started getting all my goat cheese and goat milk from a girl down the river and it’s SO fun popping by her place, seeing the animals, chatting with her and grabbing a bag of provisions. I know you feel the same things when you go by the farms there for your milk and meats.
About keeping my emotions in check while hunting, well, I don’t. I do practice shooting a lot so that when I go to take my shot, I am very calm and methodical and almost reliant on muscle memory while I prepare to pull the trigger. I feel sad every time I kill something so that I can eat it. THESE ARE BEAUTIFUL CREATURES!!!! But I also feel really, deeply grateful. I feel so grateful it’s almost like a beautiful wound in my heart. I feel provided for by nature and God. I feel amazed by the beauty of the creature I have harvested. I feel proud for doing a good, clean job of killing it. I feel happy and relieved to know that I have my food. I sink my hands into the fur and feathers of these critters and just feel really amazing…I feel a little sad, too, and if I didn’t, I would be worried for my soul.
It’s good to feel it all. When you are hunting, you will feel it all.
I had a few moments on our hunting trip in the Frank when I was painfully aware of the shortness of my lifespan, of the lifespan of everything, the elk, the trees, the birds, the grass…how our physical bodies are locked up in the shifting patterns and loops of energy and molecules and atoms in this beautiful universe of ours. I saw the big picture. I saw the souls eternal. I saw the way everything is meant to suffer, a little, because it’s the way towards grace and beauty. And me, taking a deer off a mountain top so I could eat it and have it’s nutrients and muscle and fat and atoms and molecules be a part of my body seemed really cosmic on a subatomic level…and really holy, too.
About fear and being out solo in a wild place: I am in the habit of showing no mercy to my fear. And it’s when I have been most scared out there, that I have felt most alive. These bodies of ours won’t last forever. I want to do all the living I can. So I go.
I love that you are rewriting life. What an inspiration you are, for me, too! Thank you so much for being here!
Love,
Jillian
Jillian and Shannon, thank you both for being so candid, and true, about your feelings. I can relate to all of this, and I have often thought about the delicate balance between sadness and gratitude, which is found (I think) in the ‘holy’ dimension you describe, Jillian.
And this awareness of the sacred aspect of all life, so that we are on the same level as every being (including trees and mountains), is what your blog is all about, somehow (isn’t it?).
Being in tune – in every aspect of our lives – with our deepest values, being aligned with our souls, this is the most precious thing. You constantly remind me of this. Thank you.
Have I told you lately that I love your soul?
No. I love yours too! XX
I got completely lost in the magic of your photos. As usual what you share is poetry and pure beauty!
https://pandaonavespa.wordpress.com/
You are too kind, lovely lady. X
Beautiful! I have friends who hunt the Frank Church – actually fly in somewhere. Congrats on your successful (deer) hunt. Looks like you may have had to pack it out a ways? My grandson got his first deer this year and has traded me a bit for some home-grown grass fed beef — both yummy.
Well that’s just what we did! We chartered a flight on a Cessna out of McCall and flew into a remote airstrip in the heart of the Frank Church. I shot my deer up at 9000ft, about ten miles from that airstrip…so yes, there was a really big pack out and then we flew out, with the deer, from the remote airstrip. It was pretty awesome.
Jillian … everything about this post is pure magic! What an incredible adventure! You are so truly inspiring 🙂 Oh, and by the way, that adorable tuque you’re wearing – who knit it for you? It’s perfect! XX
My friend out East made that for me! Isn’t it amazing???
Thank you! Thank you for the poetry, the beauty, thank you for the REAL.
It’s so refreshing to read your lines, which are full of clarity, wisdom and respect.
LOVE this space!
Bless you for feeling so. Thank you for being here!
You know, I was with you through that whole trip….
The teepee looks like a little dream! Looked so pretty and peaceful with that nice layer of snow on it. Just the way I imagined it to be.
Mayfly coffee, eh? Going to look that stuff up!
And finally, were those purple gloves warm? I have a hard time finding GLOVES where my fingers won’t numb up. Know what I mean?
What a trip! What a success story. Filled me up. 🙂
That tipi is amazing…the little wood stove breaks down into pieces and packs flat. I mean…it’s just an incredible thing. I can’t imagine what the trip would have been like without our tent and stove. COLLLLLLLLLLLLLLD!!!
Those gloves aren’t really warm. No. Well, it really depends on the weather. If it’s cold, I usually have to wear a glove with an over mitt and keep my hands in my pockets when I am not using them. I just cannot keep warmth in my fingers!!! It’s the absolute WORST when we are bird hunting. I mean, total agony.
The best mitten I have ever owned (and I still buy a pair every time I am home in Saskatoon) is the classic ranch mitten from Peavy Mart, up in Canada. They are shearling lined leather mitts. Nothing compares. And they’re only about $14. 🙂 I first fell in love with them while riding the school bus in Manitoba…Kindergarten through to grade four…all the kids on our route had these mittens and I thought the leather looked so beautiful and they seemed so warm and I just had these little insulated nylon mitts that weren’t farmy at all…
Go to your ranching supply and get something that WORKS. Your hands are too precious.
…meant to add I am able to fit a glove liner inside my Peavy Mart mitts…for extra cold days…
Your photography is stunning….so beautifully raw and tangible in it’s realism. It’s no wonder these companies adore your work as much as I.
Oh, bless you!
XX
I mostly delete the Danner emails in my inbox – love the boots, but since they are so good, I don’t need to buy them often – but I see the word ELK and it immediately registers as something I MUST read. Wow…what a great 15 minutes of my day I just spent mentally freeing myself from my mundane staff job here in DC. Thanks for liberating my senses! Glad to see you are still young and checking off bucket list items. Had a miss on some running cows in CO this season…but can’t wait to get back there next Fall. Great writing and great shots…you are a gifted human being…keep it up! PS – My first season was in ID (won the lottery) but didn’t harvest a bull…passed a big spike a 5 yards who fed up to me. I will keep trying…part of me doesn’t want to harvest anything because it keeps me excited and coming back for more. A SMALL part of me! ;] I think you know what I mean…
HA!!! I am sure Danner would be delighted to read that! It’s so true.
Oh man…what’s a person got to do to get their elk??? I’ll keep trying, too, and in the meanwhile, I am so GRATEFUL to have a deer in the freezer this year.
Thanks for being here!
I’m not a religious person, but I see God in everything you show us. Your art, your point of view, your food.
You are incredible and don’t let a single person tell you otherwise.
<3
Zorah, I do not think I am deserving of such a beautiful statement but I’m going to do my best to live up to it. Thank you.
Love,
J
Dearest Jillian,
I’ve followed you since 2008 from the deserts of Arizona to Idaho and to Methow Valley. Always an adventure and always from a background deeply different from my own. No matter how distant or dream like your adventures seemed to me, your posts always had a welcome, friendly tone to them and this post is no exception. I love that you’re willing to share and willing to dialogue, even with such a touchy subject as hunting and firearms. Thank you for creating a space I know many will feel welcome in sharing their thoughts in.
xx
Cathy
Cathy,
Thank you for interpreting the intentions of this blog post correctly. And yes, talking about hunting and firearms and FOOD is touchy, indeed, and I’m not afraid to go there, even if my intentions are misunderstood or rejected by a few.
Thank you for sticking with me for so long. Sometimes when I sit down to write a blog post, I wonder if you are still out there. I love knowing that you are.
XX
Just keep doing what you are doing. You are a true inspiration. Btw, my wife & I are eating well this year with a freezer full of cow elk & a muley buck! Cheers!
Thank you, Jeff.
And doesn’t it seem like from year to year, it can be feast or famine when it comes to the freezer contents?
Thanks for living so rich, alongside me and mine.
X
This post speaks to me on so many levels Jillian! I grew up in a town where the youngest of souls know of Danner because their dads use them for work/play. You knew if it was hunting season, hunter or not, because the guys were up before dark getting their coffee at the gas station, and if they were lucky they would later be heading down the hills with food for their family. Keys to logging roads are coveted items in that little town. My ex used to take me bow hunting, and the best parts of that relationship that I like to remember are those early mornings above the clouds, as you show in your pictures….you take me back:) One of the most amazing experiences that I’ve ever had was on an elk hunt where the elk couldn’t see me & was running straight toward me, I made myself look as big as I could & it dashed into the trees never to be seen again; hearing the sticks crack under their hooves is the sweetest music! Oh, I could go on & on about how soothing it is to the soul to be out there…..but, I don’t have to because it’s obvious that you get to feel it too!!!! I respect how much soul you put into hunting, how much respect you have for the circle of life, and it reminds me to snap out of the “modern” day snafu that so many of us are currently caught up in. As I learn more about how the body works, I find it entertaining in the fact that the body needs meat, and if it doesn’t get meat, one of the implications is becoming deficient in B vitamins….the very thing we need for proper brain function! Hahahaha!!! Anyway, keep doin’ the dang thang girlfriend!
Good Grief! I think one of the reasons I love the winter season so much is because of how grateful it makes me feel. Thankful that I can explore the outdoors, freeze my fingers and toes and come home to a warm home with hot running water. Thanks for making me think this morning! And selfishly, I’m so delighted to see how well those colors in that hat photographed! I knit it up over the course of a few long flights – and fluorescents do nothing for that gold like fresh sunlight does! Hugs! xo
Simply beautiful. I grew up in rural Maine where hunting and fishing are a part of life. I live in Southern California now and have had many debates with my city slicker friends over how I believe hunting is culturally important and an act of respect and stewardship to our natural resources. They just don’t get it, that’s ok I love them nonetheless. It is nice though to know there are like-minded folk out there. I told my husband about your blog, he has a crush on the Frank Church Wilderness and hopefully we will be visiting it someday.
Hi there!
I am brand new to your blog and have the best afternoon paging back through the archives. Your photos are haunting and so, so beautiful. There is a kind of aura that surrounds them which I can’t quite explain.
I love your lifestyle and think that if we all had to find/hunt and gather to survive there would be far more appreciation for the bounty of this good earth. And of course far less waste!
Thank you for being so honest and true to your way of life and inspiring me to really think about how I shop and plan my meals, even if that wasn’t your intention.
Caroline
I just came across your post today. My husband and I will be spending 12 days in the Frank Church Wilderness. This will be my first ever hunt/pack in. We’re really excited! Thank you for sharing your stunning photos, and I can’t wait to experience it for myself in October.
Best wishes,
Steph