The bones of an Admiralty Island deer that someone placed at the base of a tree. (Mary Catharine Martin | For the Juneau Empire)

The bones of an Admiralty Island deer that someone placed at the base of a tree. (Mary Catharine Martin | For the Juneau Empire)

Off the Beaten Path: The meditative quality of butchering deer meat

  • By Bjorn Dihle For the Juneau Empire
  • Wednesday, August 22, 2018 9:04pm
  • Neighbors

A stiff southeasterly set the dark, wet woods of Douglas Island whispering.

My dog Fen trotted ahead as we walked to the base of a mountain. My pack was filled with scraps of a deer I’d killed the previous evening — fat and blood-shot meat and testicles.

The last part of every hunt involves returning parts of the animal I don’t use to the woods.

A day before I’d shot the deer, a tourist had asked me if I was hunter. I nodded and, to be polite, asked the man if he was too. He told me he was an animal lover, that hunting was barbaric and using a rifle was cheating. He compared hunting deer to shooting cows. I shrugged and mumbled something about loving animals too.

That day with Fen, I walked off the main trail and into a series of meadows. Rain clouds shrouded all but the lower ramparts of the mountain. It had been such a dry summer that I was happy for the deluge. Salmon were finally able to move upstream and give their spawn and flesh back to the woods. I could smell the deer I’d killed. My hands, even after several washings, would smell like its flesh for at least the day to come.

I’d waited 20 minutes for a clean broadside shot on the deer. A good kill, proper field dressing and care means all the difference between gamey and delicious eats. At dusk I’d hoisted two bags of meat — one for the heart and quarter, with evidence of sex attached, and the other with the rest of the meat — over a branch so that it would be well out of the reach of bears.

That night I lay in my tent reading Nick Jan’s book “The Grizzly Maze.” It’s about Timothy Treadwell and his friend Annie Huguenard getting eaten by a bear out on the Alaska Peninsula. It’s a really good book but a poor choice of reading material considering I was on Admiralty Island. When I got to the gory details I had to put it down. I’d seen one bear on the hike up to the alpine — I’d roused it from its bed at 40 yards. It walked off without ever looking at me. I know of no creature more impressive than a big brown bear, especially when encountered in old-growth forest.

I lay awake late into the night listening to the wind and thinking about being meat. I hope that when I die, something will eat me and my remains will be left deep in the woods. I wondered if I should write it in a will.

In the morning I hauled the deer off the mountain and, after getting home, began processing. There’s a sort of meditative quality to butchering. Separate steaks and roast, then cut sinew, fat and gristle from each piece. After wrapping each chunk in butcher paper and labeling date and year, I go through scraps and lower quality chunks that will be grinded into burger. I’m less discriminatory with burger, but I still make sure there’s nothing blood-shot or any sizable chunks of fat attached.

Fen ran circles around me as I walked across a muskeg. I pushed through berry bushes to a fringe of conifers. I picked a twisted hemlock to leave the deer remains at the base of. I inadvertently put a foot through a hole surrounded by roots. It seemed like a good of place as any, so I dumped the scraps in. I said my last apology and thanks and began the trek back to the road.

At home I sliced the deer’s heart in thin strips and brushed them with sesame oil, turmeric and salty seasoning. Then I sat down to dinner as a mega cruise ship motored down Gastineau Channel and waterfalls cascaded down the gray mountainside.


• Bjorn Dihle is a Juneau writer and is the author of “Haunted Inside Passage: Ghosts, Legends and Mysteries of Southeast Alaska” and “Never Cry Halibut: and Other Alaska Fishing and Hunting Tales.” You can contact or follow him at facebook.com/BjornDihleauthor. “Off the Beaten Path” appears in Outdoors every other Friday.


Italian sausage and burger made from the scraps and lower quality cuts of a deer taken this August. (Bjorn Dihle | For the Juneau Empire)

Italian sausage and burger made from the scraps and lower quality cuts of a deer taken this August. (Bjorn Dihle | For the Juneau Empire)

More in Neighbors

t
Recognitions for the week of March 19

Juneau students earn academic honors

This photo shows AWARE’s 2023 Women of Distinction (left to right) Kate Wolfe, Jennifer Brown, LaRae Jones and Susan Bell. (Courtesy Photo)
Thank you letter for the week of March 19, 2023

Thank you, merci, danke, gracias, gunalchéesh.

During winter 2022-23, contractors replace the awning structure on the 1904-1913 Valentine Building. The historic building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. Its location at the corner of Front and Seward streets is also within Juneau’s Downtown Historic District. (Laurie Craig / For the DBA)
Rooted in Community: The historic Valentine Building and the Findley Family

Many shops have occupied the Seward Street storefronts while Juneau Drug anchors the corner space.

Rotary Club of Juneau recently announced recipients of Annual Vocational Service Awards. They were Marjorie Menzies, Marc Wheeler,The Financial Reality Fairs’ Sponsors and Organizers,The Teal Street Center and Juneau’s Legislative Delegation  (Sen. Jesse Kiehl, Rep. Sara Hannan and Rep. Andi Story. (Courtesy Photo)
Rotary Club of Juneau presents Annual Vocational Service Awards

Each year, the Rotary Club of Juneau’s Vocational Service Awards, honor businesses,… Continue reading

Jane Hale (Courtesy Photo)
Coming Out: A brief desultory digression

Wisdom in Willie and Waylon and veritable virtue in Virgil.

"Bald pride abounds," writes Geoff Kirsch. "In fact, a Bald Men Club of Japan holds an annual Bald Man Competition. In this Olympic-style international tournament, two men stick suction cups to their heads, attached to a single red rope, and then attempt to pull off their opponent’s cup, tug-of-war style. Better start training for next year; I wonder what the rules say about Spider Tack…" (Unsplash /  Chalo Garcia)
Slack Tide: The good, the bald and the ugly

A look at merely a few benefits of being bald…

Laura Rorem (Courtesy Photo)
Living & Growing: Finding strength in vulnerability

Vulnerability is at the heart of being human.

Matthew Schwarting, a Montessori Borealis Public School seventh grader, recently won the Juneau School District's spelling bee. (Courtesy Photo)
7th grader maneuvers into top spot at spelling bee

The Juneau School District recently held its annual district spelling bee.

Alaskan Brewing Co. staff presents a check to Southeast Alaska Food Bank director Chris Schapp on Tuesday as part of the company’s “Cheers to the Southeast Alaska Food Bank!” celebration. The evening also celebrated the selection of Alaskan Brewing Co. next year recipient SEADOGS. (Courtesy Photo / Erin Youngstrom)
Alaskan Brewing Co. selects 2023 nonprofit partner, donates $8,000 to food bank

Tasting Room event celebrates 2022 donation to Southeast Food Bank.

Jonson Kuhn / Juneau Empire File 
A long line of residents stand with bags in hand, digging through scarce supplies on a rainy Tuesday afternoon in Juneau at the Southeast Alaska Food Bank. Next Saturday, Juneau’s Rotary clubs are teaming up to help collect food for the food bank.
Rotary clubs team up to fight hunger

Next Saturday, the Juneau-Gastineau and Glacier Valley Rotary clubs will join forces… Continue reading

Adam Bauer
Living & Growing: Faith and addressing climate change

It is an honor to live in this homeland of the Áak’w… Continue reading

spelling bee
Slack Tide: Bee-ing and nothingness

It’s hip to bee square.