LAKE METIGOSHE STATE PARK - The weather was excellent and the setting ideal for a Becoming an Outdoors-Woman workshop held here Jan. 22-24. Participants chose activities from a variety of options during the event.
"We've got cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, tracking, pine needle basket making, darkhouse spearfishing and outdoor game cooking," said Nancy Boldt, BOW coordinator for the North Dakota Game and Fish Department.
Ideal weather draped over the region for the event, making all outdoors activities very pleasant. Temperatures reached into the upper 20s under clear skies on Saturday during the workshop. Many ice fishermen could be seen outside of shelters on nearby Lake Metigoshe.
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Kim Fundingsland/MDN
Nearly 60 women participated in a two-day Becoming An Outdoors-Woman workshop conducted by the North Dakota Game and Fish Department. The event was held at Lake Metigoshe State Park.
"We've got a beautiful, beautiful day with fresh snow and lots of sunshine. It's perfect for outdoor activities," said Boldt.
A total of 56 women were registered for the event, making it one of the largest turnouts ever for a wintertime session of one of the workshops.
"The winter one has really grown. This is the first time we've really tried staying in the dorms, too," said Boldt.
The facilities at Lake Metigoshe State Park are ideally suited for the workshop. Meals were served in the large dining hall on the park grounds. Saturday's noon meal consisted of fresh-baked bread bowls filled with a soup of choice.
Some of the noon diners had just returned from cooking elsewhere. They participated in an outdoor cooking class conducted by Darren Mehs of Hatton and John Gorman of Larimore. The cooking and food preparation session was held at the park's White Pelican cabin.
"We showed the girls how to make some sausage and taught them some outdoor fire-building skills, and a little bit of wilderness survival," explained Mehs.
"We showed them basic fire-building, making coffee and a few other outdoor camp skills," Gorman added. "They made breakfast sausage. They fixed it, cooked it and did everything. All we did was supply some instruction."
One of the purposes of the outdoor cooking skills session was to take some of the apprehension out of how to prepare fresh wild game. Each participant took home about four pounds of fresh country sausage that they prepared from scratch and some new ideas about wild game preparation and outdoor cooking.