A Surprise Hunting Trip with Cam Hanes

I’m eating lunch between meetings when I get a text from Cam Hanes, a professional bow hunter, ultra-runner, and overall famous dude.

“Can you get here by Saturday? Let’s go buck hunting. The season ends in five days. Let’s get you a Blacktail.”

I wanted to go, but I had a wedding the day the season ended. If I sent it, took a redeye, and ensured I was back in time for wedding festivities, I would only be in Oregon for two full days. Struggling to see how it was possible, I pushed back.

“ UGH, no!! I have a wedding that weekend!! I would need to be back by the 8th.”

“We can do that.”

Without another thought, I booked the cheapest and most miserable overnight flight to Eugene, OR, and the next thing I knew, I was on my way to hunt with possibly the best bow hunter of our time. I couldn’t believe my luck. I couldn’t believe my life. How did this happen, and how did I get so lucky?

Hunting is quite controversial, especially within the running community. I understand why- I was against hunting for many years, thinking the hunt was simply and entirely for sport. It is hard to have respect for something inherently violent, and my impression was that hunters glorified that violence.

However, around 2013, while living in Winter Park, CO, as a vegetarian, my friend (and someone who kindly let me sleep in his shop when the nights were too cold to sleep in my car) challenged my why behind vegetarianism. He was a bow hunter and hadn’t bought store-bought meat in years. As we chatted, he told me that hunting brings in hundreds of millions of dollars yearly for habitat maintenance and management, wildlife rehabilitation programs, scientific research and surveys, and other conservation efforts. This money comes from taxes on firearms and ammunition, hunting licenses, land stamps, and other required hunting fees. We chatted about how hunting can prevent the spread of disease in wildlife and how legal hunting practices benefit area ecosystems and habitats.

I was intrigued, and after finding out I had celiac disease a few years later, forcing me to reintroduce meat. I was determined to learn more about where my meat came from before buying and exploring hunting as a way of providing for myself.

Since then, I have been a fan of hunting. I truly believe that, when done right, it is the better way to eat meat. In learning about hunting, I have also realized how disconnected I’d been from the food I eat, which led to more waste and supporting industries with unsustainable practices or cruel treatment of their animals. I played around with shooting and cooking small game like squirrels, helped friends back out elk in Colorado, and let them clean the meat in my garage, diligently watching and peppering my generous friends with questions. Slowly, I was exposed to a hunting culture that was contrary to my previous beliefs. Killing an animal was hard for everyone. It means something to take a life, and within my community, that was never taken lightly.

It was important for me to experience that weight. I eat meat, and I felt I needed to understand to my bones what it meant to take a life for food, whether it be by my hands or another.

I shot a buck with Cam, nearly 20 inches wide, bringing home ninety pounds of meat. I was thoughtful and cautious when I took my shot. The most important thing to me was that the animal did not suffer. I wouldn’t take a shot if I wasn’t sure, and I was thankful he went down on impact. The weight of taking a life brought me to tears, and I was grateful that Cam took us through prayer, thanking the animal for his sacrifice with a moment of silence because I had no words. We honored the animal and his life by taking all of the meat, and that wouldn’t have happened without Cam and his friend Kevin, who expertly cleaned the meat, leaving nothing edible behind. I felt immense respect for that buck as I packed him out a steep ridge line, spending much of the time buckling under the weight of the heavy pack, traversing the hills that made him lean and strong.

I understand why people disagree with hunting. I understand why they might be repulsed at the idea of taking a life. It isn’t easy - and I think that is the point. The heaviness of killing an animal is a reality check. It simplifies life down to our most basic needs, and throughout human history, hunting has been THE means of survival in many communities.

When I buy meat at a grocery store, it’s difficult for me to understand where my meal comes from. The full life that was lived so that I could have a burger for dinner. It makes it just a little bit easier to let the leftovers go to waste or to ignore the blaring truth that something died so that I could live. But taking a life with my own hands brings the value of ALL life into stark perspective.

This was an experience of a lifetime, to say the least. I am grateful and beyond honored Cam took me out to hunt Blacktail. I am in awe that I have ninety pounds of meat in my freezer. This was an experience I will continue to learn and grow from. To hear more about this experience, check out this episode of Cam’s Podcast, or, super cool, I got a shoutout on the Joe Rogan Podcast with Cam. Check it out here! Cam tells the story of our hunt around the two-hour mark.

While no glasses were worn during this hunting trip because it literally POURED rain the entire time, I want to give a very special shoutout to Method Seven Trail, who is sponsoring this blog! I gave Cam a pair of Silvertons in July, and they have been all over his social media since. He wears them all the time, just because he likes them. Stay tuned for some top-secret collaborations coming your way. Shhhh

The Silverton, our newest frames and the first official Ultra Trail product, is out and has been a huge success, loved by badasses like Amanda Basham and Dean Karnasas. Check them out here, and use Silverton75 at checkout for $75 off