Local women and their love of the hunt
BY TIFFANY MCLELLAND
Goeking didn’t become a hunter until the age of 24, after six years of practicing vegetarianism.
Walking into a party with a black eye, Sara Goeking was approached by a woman who took her aside and said, “You don’t have to put up with that.” After 45 minutes of trying to explain to the well-meaning woman that she wasn’t being abused, Goeking went back to the party. A family member cracked up laughing upon seeing her face and asked, “Did you get it?” Goeking smiled and nodded yes. They were familiar with the circular black eye a hunter earns from the recoil of a rifle scope.
Sara Goeking didn’t grow up watching her dad go hunting in the fall, she instead grew up on a family farm helping her grandmother prepare their chickens for dinner. She never dreamed of becoming Artemis—she grew up to become a research scientist who studies forests and hydrology in Logan, Utah. Goeking didn’t become a hunter until the age of 24, after six years of practicing vegetarianism.
A starving college student, she checked a book out of the Utah State University library on how to properly dress big game in the field and carry it out, then put in for a pronghorn tag. She’d set off in her rental car, an Oldsmobile Cutlass Sierra, because her own car had broken down. She was grateful to have that first hunt all to herself. It was at that point she had a decision to make, “I am either going to go back to being a vegetarian and never eat meat again, or this is the way I’m going to eat meat.”
Laura Eakin did grow up with her dad as a hunter and now her husband hunts too. She recalled teasing her husband after he returned from a hunt, “Oh did you take your bow for a long walk in the woods, you didn’t shoot anything.” He would say, “But it was great. It was peaceful.” She confessed she finds peace sitting at home reading a good book, not sitting in the middle of the woods with all the bugs. She finally realized “If I can’t stop him from coming home at dark-thirty, I might as well go out with him and see what it’s all about.”
Initially, hunting was a nightmare for Eakin. The first time she decided to join her husband traipsing through the mountains she ended up losing two toenails because her feet slammed into the front of her shoes as she hiked downhill. On her second hunt, she and her husband got food poisoning and were laid up in bed for three days. Once they pulled themselves up, they tried to salvage their hunting trip; they took their bows and headed up a tree stand to wait. A storm blew in, shaking the tree and tossing the cookies she’d brought over the edge. Some friends told her they start to struggle on about the tenth day of the hunt, Eakin admits she starts about ten minutes in.
Eakin produced a podcast, “The Hunting Widow”, for about two and a half years. She interviewed over 100 women asking how they got into the hunting industry. She wasn’t a hunter at this point, she admitted she was more of a gatherer than a hunter to her interviewees. She’d stay back at camp and make sure there was a warm fire for the hunters’ return. After about a year she realized, “I have the grit to do this. I can pull myself together and do this.” Eakin felt the support from her budding community as she decided to take her bow out into the wild. “The support I got was by finding like-minded individuals in the industry. A lot of my archery friends who participate in hunting. Allthe women I spoke to on my podcast.I was able to create new friendships that I still hold dear to this day.”
She was able to experience a good hunt. It helped her have more respect for the sport and what it has to offer families. “I got to be a part of taking care of my own family. Every time I pulled meat from the freezer I was like, I did this. I am feeding my family. This isn’t my favorite way to do it, but I get it now.”
Goeking and Eakin are both proponents of building a strong community around hunting. They gave some advice for future hunters. Eakin’s advice is to go as a spectator the first couple of times while you’re learning how to stalk and shoot— shadowing an experienced hunter could help harness your expectations so it’s a more enjoyable time.
Goeking talked about being comfortable in the forest. Go out often get comfortable mountaineering so you don’t get lost. Get comfortable with the changing weather patterns and how to be prepared for them. And don’t be afraid to go by yourself! If you can get off the trail, sit and just watch your surroundings, it will help you get comfortable being there. It’s also a great way to find places to hunt when you’re ready. And lastly, “draw on people in the community that are willing to help you. That might be family or friends, you can look on social media and find groups to join.”
Eakin said her favorite interview was from a vegetarian who took up hunting so she could ethically source her own food. I wonder if she knows Goeking. From the sounds of it, they would be fast friends with a lot to talk about. In Eakin’s own words, “I love the community around hunting. When people sit down and share their story, their experience, I absolutely love that part.”