Oh, Montana!

I’m excited to share the pictures with you from my Montana Adventure Getaway in September… there were so many wonderful ladies there! Plus some lovely people from the New York Times… be sure to check out T Magazine this Sunday for the full spread.

Montana is one of the most beautiful places. If you have never been you must! In fact, come to one of my Adventure Getaways!

I would say the theme for the weekend was falcons. With really awesome helmets.

With leather tassels on them.

Because… in addition to fly fishing, clay shooting, hunting, horseback riding, ATV riding, cooking classes and all of our other shenanigans… we did falconry for the first time.

At first, when I had to take a lot of photos with them I wasn’t so sure since these are wild, wild birds… they look like they’re from the stone age really. Pretty epic and beautiful creatures.

But then we took out the Harris Hawks and I worked with them and got a lot more comfortable.

Then I put on my badass leather glove and became a bit more fearless… because that’s what the Girl Hunter Adventure Getaway is all about… unraveling, stepping outside your comfort zone, and being fearless. It’s girl power at its finest because we all encourage each other as we do new things.

For example, new for me was kissing a Harris Hawk.

Or trying to…

He was being shy.

But we got used to each other and soon…

We started flying together. Like really flying…

And then sometimes I’d let him go to do his thing… his thing is the same as mine… getting food from nature. What makes the falcons and hawks come back is the knowledge that if they bring you food, you’ll give them food. It’s a relationship of trust that you build and they will bring you your dinner. Quite different than using a gun to hunt and a really magical experience. Nature is so amazing.

There were two Harris Hawks. They took turns. And were very serious.

I decided me and my buddy had the same profile. What do you think? Or maybe we were just becoming so symbiotic that we were just moving and looking and making the same expressions by the end of it. Kind of like how people look like their dogs sometimes.

We were besties by the end of it.

And we ran away together and I’m writing you from a tree now.

Okay just kidding.

Me and the ladies ate some amazing meals. And had some fabulous gift bags… this watch is from our sponsor Deer Gear and it is gorgeous.

Our meals were amazing… here is just what our dinners entailed:

Friday

Confit of Duck Rillette over Parmesan Tuile and Balsamic Candied Shallots
Curried Sweet Potato Veloute
Three-way Beets and Amalthia Dairy Goat’s Cheese
Chokecherry Sorbet
Dueling Pork Wild Boar Roulade and Braised Pork Belly over Apple-Kraut and Smoked Honey
Espresso Panna Cotta with Transformed Hazelnut Butter and Almond Wafer

Saturday

Housemade Elk and Dried Cherry Sausage with Pickled Radishes and Spicey Remoulade
Celery Root and Truffle Bisque
Seared Quail over Quinoa with Savory Huckleberries
Huckleberry  Sorbet
Roasted Bison Eye of Rib over Confit of Potato Caramelized Onions with Cinnamon Demi Glaze
Gran Marnier Marinated Plantains over Carmelized Pineapple and Coffee Ice Cream

It was delectable.

We also had a custom hat fitting session with Stetson, another sponsor.

The hats were AMAZING. Just amazing.

We posed in our picks before dinner.

And even fly fished in them.

The streams in Montana are some of the best in the country to fly fish. Just magical and meditative.

And then of course we hunted. That was a wonderful lady who experienced her very first harvest with me. I was so honored.

Montana really is big sky country.

Everything is just epic.

Then I showed my new lady friend how to clean her very first bird. Like so…

Then I smeared the blood on her face because it is what you do when someone experiences their first hunt. We’re very tribal us ladies at the Adventure Getaway.

And my New York Times photographer friend got up close and personal to document it all.

And because I see everything through the lens of food, I then taught them how to cook it all. Because that is what it’s all about.

There were other activities during the weekend that were special too… some ladies had never been on a horse and were pretty nervous…

But they got the hang of it and were beautiful and fearless.

(Red flannel shirt photos by Marla Meridith Photography)

We even wore our Stetson hats…

We also went 10,000 feet into the mountains on our ATVs. The views were breathtaking.

We danced with bears.

Got warm by the fire.

Laughed over breakfast all groggy from the laughter and gallivanting the night before.

It was a beautiful, beautiful time with beautiful, beautiful women.

I hope to meet more of you soon. The next one will be at Primland, where HBO will be joining us to film. See you there!