[pct-l] Hunting and Fishing

[Webmail dcooper]

Eric is exactly right. As part of the North American Divide Expedition
'80-'85 we hiked through northern BC, Yukon, NW Territories and the Brooks
Range out to Wales and the Bering Strait. In those areas at that time
subsistence hunting and fishing was legal. However, after careful thought,
you very quckly discover that after the harvest of a fish, bird or mammal
you have a cleaning, dressing, and eating issue all of which really need to
happen immediately and close to water (you don't want to carry fresh meat
and don't want to go around smelling like it either). Then imagine the time
and effort involved with hunting along with weight of the equipment. (I
forgot how many Snickers bars equals 5 rounds of ammo and a firearm but it
was enough for us to forget carrying regardless of Brown bear issue.)
Fishing was better but the best thing the Athabaskans taught us was how to
catch Sockeye by the tail in a stream during spawning season. ( Stand in
the stream real still and wait for them to swim between your legs then
quickly grab it, drag it to the shore and have your partner ready with a
club to smack it...clean and eat the whole thing there.) Ptarmigan are
easier and quicker but really require a firearm. We did have a French
priest show us how to club and cook a porcupine, a full days effort (the
meat was out of this world!...or so we thought at that time but then we
used to get cubes of bear fat from the natives to make gravey...now that
was truly awesome!...at the time...lol) Eric is much less wordy than me and
straight to the point and oh so right. If you want, carry some fish line
and a Roostertail and have some fun. That is my experience.
Coop


On Tuesday, July 24, 2012, Eric Lee wrote:

> Daniel wrote:
> >
> I was considering hunting/fishing/foraging to accent my food supply while
> thru-hiking but am concerned with the legality of it all. Do I need
> permits?
> Is it illegal? I want to bring a fishing rod and sling shot and kill/eat
> everything I find.
> >
>
> You'll almost certainly burn more time and energy collecting food along the
> trail than you would if you just put the equivalent amount of extra
> calories
> in your food bag at your last resupply stop and carried it.  It's something
> you might do strictly for the novelty factor (be aware of hunting/fishing
> regulations) but it's probably not a viable strategy for increasing the
> odds
> of finishing your thru-hike.
>
> Eric
>
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