(as published in the Mountain Gazette, April 18, 2013) Once again I’m writing from the road – an all too often occurrence. It’s a bit more of a challenge writing about the outdoors when you are in the city and you don’t have the great outdoors staring you in the face like you do back in Vermont. So here I sit, surrounded by my outdoor reading material, lugged all the way from Vermont for writing inspiration – a Ruffed Grouse Society…
View from St. Joseph’s Church Saturday I decided to take a drive up to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. It has probably been 15 years since I’ve been up that way. Saturday was forecast to be a nice spring day, high around 70 and lots of sun. Harpers Ferry sits on a point of land at the confluence of the Potomac and the Shenandoah Rivers. It is a place steeped in history. It was visited by George Washington, when he was…
(as published in the Mountain Gazette, April 4, 2013) A couple weeks ago I was traveling down to Washington, DC for business. Like all Vermonters, I’m often stopped on the street when traveling out-of-state and asked about our well-managed state government…sorry, I forgot this is a non-fiction column. I can truthfully say that I am often asked about Vermont and the quality of life we enjoy, but too often take for granted. I know I certainly miss the mountain views,…
As I mentioned in a recent post, I’ve been trying out a Bushnell® HD Trophy Cam game camera, provided courtesy of Bushnell®. This is the first game camera I have used and I am very impressed with the quality of the pictures over varying conditions. I am also impressed with how sensitive the camera is to movement. A small Red Squirrel climbing a tree triggers the camera, as does a dove landing under the feeder. Snow and wind doesn’t seem…
Mountain Gazette, March 7, 2013 edition, p. 10. click here for the Mountain Gazette Bob Howe (right) at Yankee Sportsman’s Classic One of the seminar speakers I was fortunate enough to hear speak at the 2013 Yankee Sportsman’s Classic in Essex Junction back in January was Bob Howe. Bob is a Registered Maine Master Guide with a lodge in Pleasant Ridge Plantation, Maine, who started hunting and trapping at age 10. Bob spoke about hunting coyotes and snowshoe hare, the…
Frozen pond off the Long Trail One of my New Year’s resolutions was to get outside more during the off season, both to scout and to get some exercise. The last couple of weekends I’ve headed out snowshoeing up to Vermont’s Long Trail on Mount Mansfield. Yesterday I snowshoed up the Nebraska Notch trail to its intersection with the Long Trail, then took the Long Trail south. It was mid-twenties with wind gusts up to almost 5 mph (thanks to…
Leo and Brian at the show This past January at the Yankee Sportsman’s Classic, I spent quite a bit of time talking with Brian Bouchard and Leo LaBonte. Brian is the owner of Fields Bay Outfitters and Leo is both a guide and an award winning decoy carver. I will state up front that I am not a duck or goose hunter. My friends will state that I am not a deer hunter either, but the difference is that I do hunt…
Back in the mists of time, the ancients would sometimes change their names following some momentous event – Anakin Skywalker to Darth Vader, “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.” In the bible, God would occasionally change a person’s name (and who’d argue) – Abram to Abraham, Jacob to Israel, Simon to Peter. This custom continues in modern times. For example, it is still customary for those elected to the Papacy to take a name, other than their birth name, to…
I met Bob Howe at the Yankee Sportsman’s Classic back in January. Bob is Registered Maine Master Guide, the owner of Pine Grove Lodge, and was a seminar speaker on hunting snowshoe rabbit (hare) and coyotes. Bob starts his seminars by stating that he “just does this for a living, but doesn’t have all the answers.” He may not have all the answers, but I haven’t thought of the questions that he can’t answer. Of course, being mildly ADD, I couldn’t get…
Off-Season Scouting Deer season and partridge season are over so it seems appropriate thatthoughts should turn to next year. Do you hunt the same spots again or strikeout and look for some new, and hopefully more productive, locales? Your answerwill likely depend upon your past success. However, even if you’ve enjoyed success, there are no guarantees nextseason. Land may be logged off, posted, or otherwise altered to the determentof your hunting. It is always good to have an eye open for…