High Sierra Topix

I've always wondered if they were tasty...

according to the DFG surveys, there are people who hunt and supposedly eat them. I'd think they'd taste like a big squirrel.

That reminds me of what my son has remarked on more than one occasion when backpacking out of Mineral King - "I wonder what marmot tastes like". It must be his mother's side showing through (filipinos often think in terms of food. When I was at Steinhart Aquarium in Golden Gate Park with my sister-in-law, she spent the whole time thinking about how to best cook each of the many different fish there.)

The only time that I remember having to guard our camp was at Barrett Lakes. It was a a long time ago...August after the big winter of '82-'83. A lot of snow still up there. And it rained every day, so when the sun did come out, our camp looked a bit like a yard sale, with things drying out.

Over the ridge here, well up into Little Lakes Valley, the varmints are lurking, waiting for you to pee. (Had the deer and mountain sheep run over after you peed in Olympic National Park a few years ago. They didn't care if they were just one foot away from you...)

I feel fortunate that, as far as I remember at this moment, the only thing I had a varmint chew up was a sock.

My husband keeps threatening to make a marmot version of a coonskin hat.

There are some smart buggers on top of Mt Hoffman. One will sit there and do the cute little marmot routine, but he's just there to distract you while his partner in crime steals cookies from the pack you still have on your shoulders.

Not that that has happened to me or anything.

Toss up between Mineral King where they chewed the insulation lining out of our hood and kept grabbing our gallon zip locs filled with goodies (pre bearikade) at Mosquito Lakes and pulling them into cracks....and Tablelands. Pretty bold at Tablelands.
I still like em, it's their home.

rlown wrote:according to the DFG surveys, there are people who hunt and supposedly eat them. I'd think they'd taste like a big squirrel.

What does a squirrel taste like?

Let's just say they taste a LOT better than rabbit, and I like rabbit as well.

Bon Appetite Q & Rlown: http://www.hcn.org/issues/361/17432" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Skunk, Chipmunk, Squirrels and others are popular on dinner tables in the
southeast (West Virgina, North Carolina) and in the deep South.

the main problem with that marmot recipe is it ruins a perfectly good marmot pelt, and I'm not really adept at juggling orange-hot rocks.

I'd cook a marmot like I cook a squirrel:

My recipe is similar to what i do for trout below fire line. You skin the critter (no blowtorch necessary), you stuff your herbs, veggies, fruits into the cavity, oil, salt and pepper said critter, wrap it up in foil and cook it in the coals, turning after the first 9 mins. When you start to smell it ~18 mins, it's done. Squirrel that is, not Marmot.