#438 Organic Venison Rocks – Stephanie Vu

WTR 438SV | Eating Organic

 

Have you ever wondered where the meat on your plate comes from? That was the same question Stephanie Vu asked herself when deciding if she should start eating organic food. Stephanie is a patent attorney by profession and a newbie hunter who started hunting in 2017 during the archery season. Not belonging to a hunting family nor had access to mentors, she mainly used Facebook and Google as resources. Eventually, Stephanie found Shield Mountain Outdoors where she became part of its Field Team. With the group, she was able to learn what it means to hunt and how to become a better hunter.

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE:

Organic Venison Rocks – Stephanie Vu

We’re staying in Colorado and we’re going to meet up with Stephanie Vu. Stephanie is a lady that wanted to know where her meat came from. She was a vegan and she said, “What’s this whole story?” She started hunting. People on Facebook, Instagram and other social media channels helped the young lady to find out what hunting is and what it isn’t. She gets along with Steve Walls from Shield Mountain. Steve and his crew were instrumental in helping her understand the ins and outs of hunting. She took to the woods and she didn’t harvest anything, but she learned some lessons. One thing about Stephanie is she’s bagged, as they say out in Colorado, nineteen of the fourteeners. She’s in good shape and she’s got drive and passion. She wants to learn how to hunt. A lot of people have stepped up and said, “We’ll help you along the way.” Sit back, relax, enjoy Stephanie Vu.

I’m with Stephanie Vu. She’s a young huntress that has journeyed into the world of elk in Colorado. More important than that, she’s one fine lady. She’s an attorney and has a handle on social media called @ColoBreeze. Stephanie, welcome to the show.

Thanks for having me.

I’m excited to have you because we met up on social media and you said, “I don’t hunt much.” I said, “You hunt though?” You said, “I’m starting.” What a wonderful gal to have on the show because a lot of gals out there are wondering, “How do I get started in hunting?” Let’s start right there. How did you get started in the outdoors?

I’ve wanted to hunt before, but I was honestly afraid of guns and bows. I didn’t think it was something I could do, but I’ve always wanted to know where my meat comes from. That was important to me. I thought it was important as a way of respect to the animal to know exactly where it comes from and be a part of that process. A couple of years ago, I signed up for the biathlon rifle safety class. When I was cross country skiing, I saw someone with the biathlon rifle and I thought that it looks cool. I thought that I would try it out. I didn’t realize that it was a real .22 rifles that we would be shooting in the class.

In the morning, there’s a safety class. Halfway through, I thought, “Why are they talking about this like it’s a real gun?” It dawned on me that I would be shooting a rifle in the afternoon. In the afternoon, we went out to the range. I shot my first and it was not a big deal. It was a lot of fun, especially once I started hitting the targets. From there, it progressed and I started shooting shotguns. My fiancé, now husband, wanted to bow hunt. That sounded interesting and I thought, “I could do this now.” Before I didn’t think I could hunt because I never shot anything and now that I had done it, I thought, “Now’s the time to get started. Let’s do this.” That’s how I entered into it.

Your husband was a hunter but nobody else was, so you got into biathlon. Did you meet any hunters in that group?

It is very important as a way of respect to the animal to know exactly where it comes from and be a part of that process. Share on X

My husband doesn’t hunt so we are learning together. It was mostly me learning all of it and teaching him. In biathlon, there was one person that I did meet towards the end of the season and that was the first season that I did. He definitely helped a lot. He told me to sign up for a hunter education class. That was another way that I hopped in. I met him and another guy that bow hunts. They were both encouraging and told me to practice a lot. They also offered any help that they could to me. I definitely met a couple of people in that biathlon community.

How about social networks? Did you get any help there?

Definitely. Alex and I didn’t know anyone that hunted nearby. We have a couple of friends back in Texas that hunt but we didn’t have anyone here, especially for elk. I turned to Google and Facebook groups and they’ve been a big help. On Facebook, that’s where I met Steve Wall who has been such a great mentor to me. He’s taught me a lot about elk and he’s been encouraging. It was one of his emails where he said, “You could hunt safely if you practice every day.”

I took that and ran with it. I practice almost every day with my bow. I started at a twenty-pound draw weight and ended up at a 49-pound draw weight in about three months. I learned everything I could about elk before going on my first time. The Facebook groups helped. There’s Colorado Elk Hunting that’s helped and also Colorado Bow Hunters Association was another one. I found Colorado Women Who Hunt, which I started getting involved with them. It’s been nice to have that group of other women that hunt that I could ask questions to.

The point is, for the readers, there are a lot of people that are more willing to come alongside you. You have to reach out though. Stephanie decided to touch base with people. People aren’t going to come to you if you sit there and go, “Nobody’s helping me.” Help yourself. What are your thoughts on that?

I remember reading on a lot of the posts and most people will say, “Have a unit picked out and have questions.” I didn’t have a chance to, but I went to go talk to CPW and have all my stuff ready. It was a lot of work trying to narrow down units, but I would create spreadsheets and try to figure out what unit I wanted to be based on the type of hunt I wanted. It’s definitely a lot of help when you have a lot of groundwork done before you start reaching out and asking questions.

What type of bow do you shoot?

I have a Diamond SB-1 Edge. It’s a beginner-friendly bow. You can set the draw weight from 7 to 70 and you can also change the drawing. I forget what the range is on the drawing but it’s big.

WTR 438SV | Eating Organic

What type of broadheads?

I have Muzzy so they’re Trocars and MX ones. I like the way the MX one flies a little better. It flies more like my field tips. They’re also the first two broadheads I ever bought. I was at Cabela’s with four different ones in my hand and I had no idea what to get. Someone there helped me out and said that these work for the Trocars and the MX ones.

Tell us a little bit about your elk hunt over Labor Day. You went to a couple of different places and one place wasn’t so good but the next place you get into some sign. Tell us about that.

Over Labor Day weekend, we hunted in two different areas. The first area was around Craig in Hayden. There were more juniper, sagebrush and lower elevation. The second place we hunted was in Rabbit Ears Pass which is higher up, closer to 9,000 or 10,000 with aspen and spruce and a lot of marshy lake areas. They were both areas that we had scouted a couple of weekends beforehand. In the Rabbit Ears Pass area, we had scouted about a couple of miles off the road. Through scouting, I learned so much about my boundaries as a new hunter and it forced me to think a lot more about where I can go and what my capabilities are.

We went out a few miles from Rabbit Ears scouting and we found a cow, some moose, a bear, turkey and lots of things. Where we found that elk was about three miles deep. It was tough to get back there with all that down trees and up and down. It made me think if I can hunt back here for my first time. I was thinking about spoilage, how hot it was and having to get it out. When we hunted at Rabbit Ears Pass over Labor Day weekend, we didn’t go as far. We tried to stay closer to the road, maybe about 1 or 2 miles off the road. We found a lot of fresh stuff about two miles off the road, but we couldn’t find the elk themselves. It was exciting to find signs of them, which is cool because I wasn’t expecting much from my first hunt. That was exciting.

We talked about you and your husband being hikers and you bag some fourteeners. You do that off trails, but elk will sometimes walk up a trail. Most of the time they’re where they want to be. How does that work?

When my husband and I first moved to Colorado a few years ago, I was into hiking and then he eventually, got into hiking with me. I’ve done nineteen fourteeners and my husband has done about fifteen. They’re physically and they’re mentally tough. Some of them, especially once you get into more Class 3, it’s a lot of fun and it’s physically tough. With that background coming into hunting, it was a lot of fun because I was so used to having a peak and that was my goal. I was going to get to the end, turn around and go back to the car. With hunting, we were wandering around, looking for a sign. We look at the map and think, “I want to check out this area,” or, “I want to check out this spot.”

It was different. It’s cool. I’ve definitely observed a lot more when walking. Even when I’m hiking, I observe a lot more by looking. I wonder what’s been around here or what would come around here? With hunting, I feel that I’m a lot more immersed in the woods, which is cool. It’s different and we learned the hard way. I thought, “I hike fourteeners, I can hike five miles off the road through the woods.” That was not the case. Bushwhacking versus hiking on a trail are two completely different things to me. It was a lot tougher than I thought. In my mind on Rabbit Ears, I was like, “We’re going to go 5 or 7 miles off the road. It’s going to be no problem.” It was tough.

Scouting teaches so much about your boundaries as a new hunter, forcing you to think where you can go and what your capabilities are. Share on X

It’s tough for us all. Cameron Hanes is hunting and he’s left his journal. It’s hard for Cameron Hanes. It’s hard for anybody. We’re not living it. With the best shape you’re in, maybe the further and deeper but when you start crawling across those match sticks, crossways and you’ve got to go through a field for half a mile. You go, “Why am I doing this?” When you get to that aspen patch up on that hillside or the wallow or whatever, it’s a workout and people don’t understand that. In my world or the whitetail world, some guys will go after it and get deep but most of us don’t have to because we’re hunting in farms. We know what’s on the farm. I challenge everybody to come out. They talk about these mudders and the Spartans climbing and roping. Go elk hunting with one good elk hunter for ten days. Let’s see if you end up standing. I laugh at that because many people go, “You’re only going elk hunting.” If you do it hard, it’s a lot of work. There’s no secret to that.

On Rabbit Ears Pass, we found a nice game trail that was practically a small hiking trail, we were going to try and catch it on the way back out. When we couldn’t find it, we were so sad because it was easy hiking on that nice game trail. When we finally found it, we marked it up on our map to make sure we knew exactly where it was next time we come out. It was luxury hiking on this game trail.

Let’s talk about that because some people don’t realize that elks are habitual. They’re not like whitetail deer. They have trails from here to there, from bedding to feeding and bedding for food. Let’s talk about why game trails existed and how big they are.

They’re substantial. I didn’t realize that they would be all over the place or as defined as they were when we found them. There were a couple of game trails where we were able to find some elk droppings and tracks. We would track all of that until it fizzled out. I’ve gone to a couple of clinics that Colorado Parks and Wildlife had put on, which had been great and helpful. They targeted new elk hunters or hunters in general. It has been great. One of the things they taught us was that the elk generally have their spot where they want to feed and water. They have their daytime bedding or coverage in the thick timber. During the day, sometimes they might have to come down and eat again.

I forget how big it was. They said maybe a mile and a couple of miles that they travel between throughout the day and at night. You can figure out where they’re going, you can set up well on them. One of the things that they told us to look for was an established game trail. There were some spots where it’s a highway of elk and they all know about this easy passageway, especially traveling in through the aspen. It’s not as thick but it still gets some coverage.

We talked about why you’re hunting. Could you explain to the readers why you chose to be a huntress?

It started a while ago for me. I was a vegetarian for about two years because I wanted to know exactly where my meat came from. It was frustrating not being able to figure out where it came from. Eventually, I want it to be a part of the process. I wanted to take responsibility for taking my own animal. To me, it was the most respectful way that I could eat my meat. That was how I came about wanting to hunt. It was a matter of learning how to shoot a gun. Before, I was afraid of guns. I didn’t think I could do it. Once I got into biathlon, that open the floodgates for me.

What about the goal that you and your husband talked about? It’s not only about bagging a fourteener, but it’s hunting an animal and taking that animal so you could eat it.

WTR 438SV | Eating Organic

With fourteeners, the goal is always getting to the top of the peak. It’s a lot different when the goal is trying to get an elk. It’s so much more immersive to me because I’m learning all about the elk. I’m trying to learn as much as I can about them, their home, their habitat, about how they act and how they react. I didn’t realize when there’s a full moon that they would be out and about at night and less active during the day. The goal of trying to get an elk has been immersive. It’s a completely different challenge for me. It’s been great and it’s a tough challenge trying to find them and figuring out where they are. Through that, it has forced us to slow down in the woods and look around us.

I joked that on fourteeners and before I started hunting, I was horribly impatient in the woods. I have to go and go. I like to be on the move. I like to go somewhere. I like to get to the peak and I can come down. We’re always moving. We got to go and we have to get it done. With hunting, it’s forced me to slow down, look around me and literally smell things around me. I’m trying to smell where the elk are or what’s around me. That’s been a good lesson from me and something I’ve learned through hunting, especially with elk is to slow down and look at everything. Try to be part of the woods and think like an elk.

That’s a lot of good wisdom. Some people want to get to that next ridge where they’d be better served putting their butt down and glassing that next ridge to see what’s moving. Rather than getting over there and hope to see, because with the glass and optics we have now, you can literally see miles. You can see an elk that’s way big enough to show up. I’m not talking about bunnies or even coyotes. You’d still see them, but elk are big enough that you can see them a long way away. If you know where they are, you can plan a lot better rather than putting miles and miles on your boots, which I’ve done in my early years. I can’t do that anymore. I don’t want to do that anymore. I’ll get as high as I can.

I’m going elk hunting for the last part of the season. I’ve got a 12,000-foot ridge that I’ll be up in. I won’t have elk in the morning unless somebody gets stupid and comes right up and settle beside me. None the case, I’ll know exactly where they’re bedded and I’ll be there between them and food or water or wallows by mid-afternoon. My odds have increased tremendously because I know where the elk are. Can anything happen? Yes. The winds can change and hunters can come through. There are a gazillion things that can happen, but I’ve narrowed it down to where “That’s where they are. That’s where they’re bedding,” because you watched them until they don’t move anymore. You map it, GPS it or however you want to do it and then you start narrowing it down.

One thing that’s happened to me hunting that way was all of a sudden, I’ll run into another herd of elk. If I was slow enough, I might have an opportunity to call them. Hopefully, I don’t fuss them which I don’t want to do. There’s a lot of dynamics that go into that. That’s what I tell younger hunters. You can go ten miles and you can come back, “I had a great walk.” “How many elks did you see?” “I heard some.” We’re elk hunting. We’re not hearing hunting. At the end of the day, that’s the goal. Let’s talk about community acceptance and how you’ve been accepted in the hunting community.

The community has been great. In the beginning, I was hesitant to start hunting. I was thinking, “What do other hunters going to think of me? I never hunted before. I don’t have a background. My family doesn’t hunt. I don’t know anyone that hunts except for a couple of friends at home. I was nervous to enter into the community. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how helpful people are especially with elk calling, learning how to shoot a bow and learning how to get out there. People have been tremendously helpful, especially when I reach out with more specific questions. For me, I learned a lot better when I’m doing it.

For me, it was important to get boots on the ground, walk around scouting and getting real hands-on. The amount of people that have been helpful with pointing me in the direction of where to go look and what I should be looking for has been great. Steve even went over on Labor Day weekend. Steve Walls and his family lives up in Craig and he came out with me one morning to help me hunt. That blew me away that someone who has years of bowhunting experience and has his own company making elk calls would be willing to take me out and show me how it’s done one Saturday morning. That was cool and I feel that most people I’ve met have been like that. They’re always willing to help. It seems people are excited to see new hunters, especially new women hunters in the field. I’ve been lucky and thankful that everyone has been helpful to me. I definitely would not be as far as I am in my experience as I would be without all that help.

Let’s give a shout out for Steve, his name, his company and how you can get ahold of him.

Preparation is an important aspect of hunting anything because aside from the physical, it presents mental challenges as well. Share on X

Steve Walls is in Craig, Colorado. He owns and runs Shield Mountain Outdoors Elk Calls. They make elk calls and they make predator calls too. You can find them on Instagram, Facebook, and his website. His Facebook is Shield Mountain Outdoors as well as his website at www.ShieldMountainOutdoors.com His Instagram is a little different, it’s SMO ElkCalls. Steve Walls and his family have been super helpful. They hand-make the elk calls in Colorado. They were the first calls I had. I tried out several different other calls after that and came back to them because their calls are comfortable in my mouth. Steve has been helpful. I’m on his field staff team but even before that, I would message him being like, “I have no idea what I’m doing. It’s making squeaky noises. What do I do?”

Do you have your call with you?

They’re at home. I used to carry them in my purse, but I took them out for hunting. They’re in my backpack. There might be one in my car, but it will take me a while to get it.

The elk calling is a science in itself. You create a language because some of my calls sound like nothing you’ll hear on radio, TV, YouTube. I’ve called a hundred of elk in. I had a lot of close encounters with a lot of elk using my own voice. That’s the only thing I’d say about elk hunting is to find your own voice and stick with it. Make it your own voice and you’ll know what I mean once you start doing it. Stephanie has her own voice. She says, “It sounds squeaky and it sounds this. It doesn’t sound like you do.” You’re not supposed to because elk don’t sound like every other elk. They all have their own voice. Once you realize that, you’re going to be a lot more successful in my opinion. Let’s talk about the mental part of hunting in itself, not only elk hunting but the hunting experience and what you mentally have to go through. I know you’re a trained attorney and you have a lot of stress in your life. You have to be on your game all the time. The mental toughness is there. What about hunting?

Hunting has presented its own set of mental challenges. Since I have not yet had a chance to shoot anything out there, but I’ve read a lot about target panic and the mental aspect of steadying your shot, especially when there is a humongous elk in front of you not that far, especially with bow hunting. I’ve definitely prepared myself a lot for that moment. Whether I’m prepared enough or not, we’ll find out. It’s an important aspect of hunting anything. That takes time to sit through and mentally think like, “If an elk comes in, I know my set up and trust myself. Knock, pull back, anchor, make sure all of my stuff is there.” I go through this setup.

I took a biathlon clinic with a guy that was on the national biathlon team. One of the things that he stressed was visualizing. Visualizing your moment when you come into the range, you come down and you shoot your five targets. In biathlon, there are five targets. He emphasized mentally going through that over and over and always mentally thinking about it in a positive way. He’s like, “Never think I’m going to miss one and hit four. You always think you’re going to hit all five.” That’s something that I’ve taken with me that I can apply in hunting as well. I visualize my shot, visualize the way the elk’s going to come in and visualize releasing. I’m not thinking that I might miss, but think it’s going to hit what I wanted to hit and learning how to trust myself.

Through muscle memory, that will happen. There’s no question about it because as soon as you draw, anchor, it’s gone. There’s no question where that arrow is. Things can happen, things that you’d never saw can be there. The wind switches and he’d twitch a little bit. That’s hunting. That’s the reality of hunting. You do everything perfect and still doesn’t work out. It doesn’t mean you didn’t do a good job. Not at all. You did everything right, but some other things came to play and that’s the way it is. Everybody will miss and everybody will hit high or hit low, from Jim Shockey all the way down to Bruce Hutcheon, that’s the bottom of the pack.

It’s true. You think about all these guys and gal and you hear about them. Tiffany or whoever, you can track some of the great gals I know in town, Lisa Thompson and Donnelle Johnson from Hunt Data. They hunt hard and they’re great hunters, but stuff happens. That’s the biggest thing that I would like to share with you. You can do it everything right, have the positive affirmation and know exactly what a bull’s going to come in, you know your shooting lane and everything. You come back, you shoot and it doesn’t happen for whatever reason. That’s hunting. A lot of people say, “I missed, I didn’t do this right.” You did everything right. Somethings happened and you’ve got to accept that because it’s a fluid thing out there. There are no set rules.

WTR 438SV | Eating Organic

I wish they were like in biathlon there are five targets and they’re not going to move. They’re there, so it’s all on you. I get that part of it but when you put one target that weighs 800 to 900 pounds and he’s between two aspen trees, wind filtering a little bit and there’s some brush that you don’t see at 300 feet per second and you’re done. It goes underneath and you go, “What the heck happened there?” You go pick up your arrow. There’s no blood, there’s nothing and the bull’s gone. You go, “How did I miss?” You go back and do the forensics and go, “I killed the twig.” I’ve killed tree and I’m not proud of it. I would share it if there’s somebody new in the business. Even though it’s positive, everything’s going to happen. There are some times that are not going to come together. Nothing that you did was wrong. You did everything right. That’s hunting.

That’s something that I’ll have to learn through experience. When that happens and I’ve done everything I could, either I hit a twig or I wounded animal it’s okay. Mentally, I’m going to have to learn to forgive myself and realize that this is hunting and there are things that are completely out of my control that I would have to learn to accept.

I can think of one place in New Mexico. It wasn’t quite primeval, but I screamed because I hit him too high and we couldn’t find it. The guy’s looking at me and I was like, “Whatever.” Everything was right then it wasn’t right.

As a new hunter, it’s another one of those things that is eye-opening to me. I’m learning that I could do everything perfectly and sometimes it’s not going to happen.

When you get there, having this discussion and I talked to other people about it and to say, “How do you handle that?” It does happen. Prepare yourself for that moment. It’s someplace down the road. You might shoot five animals perfectly, you’re double lugging them and they’re down, they’re dead and everything’s cool. When you come to the 6th one and something doesn’t go right and you go, “What’s up with me?” Absolutely, nothing. We want to take ethical shots. I’m putting all that stuff away where you know you’re going to hammer that sucker and it doesn’t happen. Let’s move around and talk about the facts of hunting in Colorado for women. Where do you think that is?

We’re doing a pretty good job here so far. I would love to see more women hunt. None of my close friends hunt but having me being their friend, as one of their first friend hunting is helpful. Colorado has a fair amount of women hunters. There’s the Facebook group, Colorado Women Who Hunt where I am new to it so I haven’t met a lot of people. It seems there are a lot of great girls in there that have experience and has the same background as me. They never hunted before. They taught themselves or learned within the past few years.

That group has been nice. I’m looking forward to being more involved with them and going on hunts with them. In Colorado, CPW has been doing a lot of outreach, trying to get more women into hunting. They have clinics that are women only. At least for me, sometimes I think I’m tough and I don’t care but it is a little intimidating coming into a room where I am the only woman and thinking, “Are people looking at me and thinking, ‘What is she doing here? Why is she hunting?’” It’s been helpful to have someone like my husband who’s willing to learn how to hunt. He comes to all these things with me. CPW has a lot of stuff going on.

A lot of my friends we’re not okay with hunting, they didn’t want to see it and didn’t like it. Seeing me get into it and see that I’m practicing a lot. It’s not only, “I want to go kill things. I’m bloodthirsty.” They see me that I am practicing a lot. I’m trying to respect the hunt and the animal. For them, it’s opening their eyes a little bit that this isn’t something that I’m just doing for fun and going like, “I’m going to go kill something.” It’s more than that. It’s getting out into the woods. It’s being a part of the woods, conservation and that’s a big deal. It’s something I take seriously.

When you make a mistake, you need to learn to forgive yourself and realize that some things are completely out of your control. Share on X

Thanks for that. We’re at the time of the show where you get a chance to give some shout outs. We’ve already given one to Steve Walls. We took care of Steve pretty good. I’m going to give him a shout out to goHunt Insider. You said you were a member. Utilize goHunt Insider for the best research in the West. Go ahead, Stephanie. Talk about friends, neighbors, and people that helped you along the way.

I would love to get a shout out to my husband, Alex, whom we joke is my personal photographer because all of the pictures of me on Instagram are taken by him unless it’s a self-timer. A shout out to him who’s also been extremely supportive. He has been there for me, taught me, encourage me to learn how to shoot a bow, comes out with me to the carport every night to shoot, and has always been there for me. Shout out to him. Scott Smith, who is also part of the field staff for Shield Mountain Outdoors. He has been active in our Facebook group and posts all of these tips about how to shoot better and different habits to pick up on to become a better shooter. I take all of his suggestions, write them down and use them. That’s helped me become a better shooter for sure. A shout out to him and I’m glad he’s around to mentor me in my shooting.

Anybody else?

There’s a couple of attorneys and partners that hunt and they’ve been also supportive and excited for me. One of them has been helpful in trying to get me into a deer and antelope hunts. I haven’t gone on any yet because of the timing has been bad but he’s been supportive and excited that I’m getting into hunting. Wade Johnson here at my firm, he’s been excited. Russ Manning at another firm that I used to work for. They both were very supportive and excited for me.

Stephanie Vu, it has been a pleasure to have you on the show and sharing some insights both from the top of the fourteeners and better yet in the nasty stuff where bull elk and cow elk hang. I can’t wait to see where your hunting career goes. You’ve got a great legal career. Your hunting career, I look forward to seeing that continue to develop and you continue to get more and more confidence and experience and get your first bull.

Thanks for having me.

Important links:

About Stephanie Vu

WTR 438SV | Eating OrganicHi, I’m Stephanie Vu!

I’m new to hunting and the 2017 archery season will be my first season. I’m still trying to figure out pretty much everything, but I’ve got a great group of people that are teaching and sharing their wisdom with me. I am part of the Shield Mountain Outdoor Field Team, a group I’m incredibly thankful to be a part of who have not only taught me to how call elk and shoot a bow, but are also teaching me what it means to hunt.

Stephanie began hunting to understand where the meat on her plate comes from. As a new hunter and bowhunter, she is immensely enjoying the journey to learning everything there is to know about hunting and the animals she pursues.

Whether it’s trying to learn how to cow call or learning how to scout an area, she enjoys the challenge and the people she meets along the way.

Without a hunting family or hunting mentors, google and Facebook groups were her greatest resources. She is a part of the Field Team for Shield Mountain Outdoors, where the group has helped mentor and taught her how to become a better hunter. Stephanie enjoys challenges and the journey and looks forward to this lifelong journey.