Waterhen, Manitoba Canada - October 2002

George Durden had invited me to accompany him and his friend Ron Cleveland on a hunting trip in Waterhen Manitoba as guests of their good friend Clarence Popowich. Waterhen is a small village about four hours north of Winnepeg between Lakes Winnepeg and Manitoba. It's not hard to get there, just head due north from Winnepeg for three hours on the straightest, flattest highway you can find and keep going until you notice that the surrounding scenery has changed from rolling farms to open isolated forest. Just when you felt you couldn't go any further north without hitting a polar bear, turn left on a dirt road and follow the dancing Aurora Borealis west towards a blinking radiotower in the distance. We managed our first kill of the hunt - a stray snowgoose sitting in the middle of the road that surprised us in our headlights as we careened along in the dark. After we collected our wits and pulled the seatcushions out of our asses we realized that the only casualty of the collision was the goose.... !

The village of Waterhen is comprised of primarily one general store (complete with gas pumps), a postoffice, a town hall, and a school that services the surrounding hundred miles or so. Clarence is a town elder and avid hunter who alternates his time between driving the school bus (his route makes the Land Rover Camel Trophy look like a trip to the corner store, in terrain and weather that would pound a Explorer to bits!) and ice fishing on the big lakes in winter. We planned on hunting ducks locally, traveling to area farmlands to hunt snowgeese, and mostly to get away from civilization and relax! We stayed with him at his house on the Waterhen river.

The days began with an early morning hunt either in the fields or nearby on the river. Did I mention how cold it is at 6 AM in central Manitoba? We used decoys and one of George's Motoducks and waited against the bank for dawn. The Sunrise was spectacular in the frosty air, and the decoys did their share of luring in passing ducks

After lunch and perhaps a little nap we'd head into the fields for geese. We saw a few birds here and there.....

Thousands of them.....but the flocks were too big and wary to decoy. The farmers were extremely friendly and a simple knock on their door and asking nicely was enough to get permission!

Evenings were spent back at the house, where we shot a couple more ducks from Clarence's back yard as they flew up the river. The scenery was breathtaking....!

Unfortunately, the same could have been said of the hunter, who undertook a vow to swear off pansy things like personal hygiene, fresh clothes, and vegetables during this period of bonding.....

Of course, we made sure that we had packed our rental Envoy with enough of the three B's (booze, beer, and beef) to last us ........

Seriously, we did manage to shoot some birds...

By the end of the hunt we had collected quite a few birds!
Some were pretty stiff from the Canadian freeze and we didn't relish the idea of cleaning them all.
But first we had to take the customary He-Man pictures.....

Hey man, how're we going to get these birds all home? Clarence shows us how a real woodsman can clean a bird in 30 seconds flat.....much to Ron's disgust!

Duck tartar, anyone?

We had a great time, thanks to Clarence and his generous hospitality, and we left with enough memories and meat to last us for another year.  Ron and George flew back to Jacksonville, but I had one more stop left in Canada before returning home.