Riding along with a traditional Métis trapper will transform your understanding of what it means to be connected to the land.
“Seeing it in person, there’s a lot more respect and appreciation on the trapper’s end than people might conceive,” says Derek Shackleton, who, with his girlfriend Cate, spent a day out on the trapline with longtime trapper Paul Padlesky recently.
Rediscovering that connection is part of what has inspired programs like “Tales from the Metis Trapline” now being offered at Métis Crossing https://goeastofedmonton.com/blogs/show_entry/13239/Tales-From-the-Trapline-Winter-Experience
For those who have experienced that, or have a taste for going deeper onto the land, Paul’s Winefred Lake Outfitters is offering another way to experience trapping, at his claim out at Winefred Lake.
Want to learn more about trapping in Alberta? Head on over to ZenSeekers for the full story. https://www.zenseekers.com/story/trapper-paul-carries-traditions-his-heritage
A day in the life, as it were, and it looks something like this.
Departing in the early morning from the log cabins Paul Padlesky built by hand, the sun glints across the snow-covered lake. In the cover of some trees we stop next to a beaver lodge and Paul sets to work.
In just minutes, he drills and chops out a hole in the frozen ice, makes a brace out of two branches, ties them with wire and secures a box snare to the brace, which he lowers into the hole he’s just made.
Padlesky’s family has been trapping in Alberta ever since, living simply off the land, without taking more than the land could offer. Now, he’s sharing that experience with others, trying to share that heritage.
“We’re losing that connection to our elders. I worry about that. When they’re gone, when I’m gone, who’s going to continue?”
“What I’m trying to do is show people a real-life experience, so that people have an understanding that it’s not about killing animals, it’s about the heritage, the tradition of it, and the balance of managing wildlife,” says Paul. “It’s the feeling of being connected to the land, to nature itself, just being a part of it.
When You Go
Lac La Biche County will help you plan a #TakeItToTheLake adventure you won’t forget!
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Connect to the land in a way you will remember for a long time coming, go experience Winefred Lake Outfitters.
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Want to learn more about trapping in Alberta? Head on over to ZenSeekers for the full story. https://www.zenseekers.com/story/trapper-paul-carries-traditions-his-heritage
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