Eskridge/Baker/Sponheim Hunting Season Is All-Hands-On Deck Event

For generations, hunting season has been an all-hands-on-deck event for the Eskridge family. Donn Eskridge grew up hunting pheasant, duck, fur, and deer in his home state of Iowa. His wife, Vicki (Reimers), grew up hunting elk, deer, rabbits, and upland birds with her family in the mountains of Wyoming. After meeting and marrying in Montana, they packed up our brothers, John Baker, Clayton Eskridge, and on all their adventures. Pheasant hunting in eastern Montana, deer and antelope hunting in the Crane and Savage area, elk hunting at Fort Peck and Ennis, Moose hunting in western Montana, bear hunting in Canada, and Clayton and Donn even have successfully hunted caribou in Alaska.

From the preparation to the hunt to the processing of game after, many of the family take their turn. Donn and Vicki took pride in never leaving their children behind or out of the action. Weekends find the family gathering to sight in firearms and bows, cleaning pheasants, packing for trips to the cabin they rent for elk hunting in Ennis, or butchering the latest family deer. John's stepson with his wife Crys Baker, Lane and Bryce Wold, enjoy hunting as well and make it out a few times each season. Crys has hunted in the past but describes herself as a retired hunter. Clayton's wife, Ashley, hunts, as do both her and Crys's fathers. Donn and Vicki's other six grandchildren, Maverick, Brynlee, Tillie, Anniston, Delaney, and Oren are too young to hunt yet but enjoy coming along and helping watch for the perfect deer from the blind or carry pheasants. Multiple uncles, cousins, in-laws and close friends are often involved in adventures as well.

Family members of another sort are an important piece in the hunting puzzle, and you won't catch Donn without a Labrador Retriever in his life. Trapper is his current partner, a fox red after several loyal black Labs. Trapper loves to accompany John, Lane, and Clayton on their pheasant hunts as well.

My husband, Scott Sponheim, has his black Labrador, Rip, and I have a young German Shorthaired Pointer, Covey. A decade of working for our childhood neighbor, Chris Eckhoff, original owner of Upland Kennels, left me with a love for Pointers, much to my father's chagrin.

Hunting is the tradition, but it evolves a bit every year for the Eskridge/Baker/Sponheim families. Some years have found them setting up a canvas wall tent in 4 feet of snow at 2 a.m. at a public trail head favored by elk hunters. Others they have spent on cots in a horse trailer, warmed by a kerosene stove. Several members have taken up bow hunting as well as partaking in rifle season. Hunting-related hobbies spill into their off-season lives. John enjoys tanning his own hides, and my husband loves collecting and creating with sheds.

Despite many successful hunts, at the core a deep love for nature and time spent in the outdoors is the ultimate prize for Donn and Vicki's hunting family. John and his wife have yet to harvest their own elk but treasure our memories of watching spikes in the rut or riding a horse down the mountain by moonlight. The true trophy lies in the experiences found in nature's wilder places and often in simply observing animals on their turf.