There are those of us consumed by what we call the sporting traditions.
For us, holding a beautifully figured walnut stock on a fine side-by-side engenders as much, if a different emotion, as holding the one we love. We cherish them both and without them our lives would be much the lesser. For us, a bamboo rod is a work of art but, when bent with the weight of a fish, a masterpiece. For us, the frozen poise of a great pointer is admirable, the courage of a magnificent retriever through frozen rivers heroic, the flight of the wild game bird and the leap of a wild rainbow heart-stopping.
They are traditions, for they have been with us for generations. Born of the necessity to provide sustenance in the primeval forest, the desire to hunt and fish has evolved from necessity to inclination, but for the true sportsman, the desire is in the experience, not the result. The passion is in finding ourselves in our quarry’s environs and not in our own, for we have failed miserably there. For the true sportsman, the wilderness is life and the loss of it crushing. For the creatures we hunt, their sacrifice is further life for they feed and sustains us, but we have obligation in every death of our creation to honor them for their sacrifice and protect and preserve their habitats that they can thrive in perpetuity. This is the mission in the heart of a true sportsman.
It is the great sporting lodges that preserve these traditions. As the world grows smaller and the wilderness shrinks, the sporting lodges become more and more important in preserving these wilderness areas and the wild environs in which our beloved prey thrive. Whether finding oneself in a DeHaviland Beaver dropping into an Alaskan lake or on horseback high in the River of No Return Wilderness, there is solitude and a soulful peace that one cannot find in any other way. Watching a river full of bright spawning salmon and understanding the epic journey they have taken, the end of which you are witnessing, gives us an understanding of our true insignificance, but at the same time inspires us to be significant in trying to preserve these last great places.
The lodge experience is one of great friendship and shared passion, for those who frequent these lodges all share the belief that there is no better place one can be, and these shared passions are most frequently expressed over a magnificent meal at the end of the day. Here the adventures and wondrous experiences are shared with those who most appreciate them. Here the quarry is honored and thanked through its consumption and the great satisfaction it brings is.
This book is dedicated to the lodges that preserve these sporting traditions, these habitats, these last vestiges of the true wilderness experience, and share them with all who visit.