The second day of the archery season brought clouds and a threat of rain. As I eased up the trail along a high mountain lake a shower caused me to seek shelter under an immense fir. Waiting out the rain, I began to have some real doubts about this season. Yesterday morning a [...]
It’s my goal to become as familiar as possible with the lives of the flora and fauna in my eco-region. There is an excess of 3,500 plants in the California Floristic Province, so it is unlikely I will know them all in my lifetime. Likewise, the kingdom Fungi holds a great diversity and [...]
It was just going to be “filling the freezer” to help us get through the rest of the New Zealand COVID-19 lockdown, which prohibited leaving your house except for limited grocery shopping and was enforced by police stops along roadways. Hunting was banned on public land because of the fear that the virus [...]
Desert is not wasteland. Desert is a space of light where cactus gardens grow on the expansive slopes and the horizon flows into the sky. Deeply incised gulches wander amid stands of juniper and around solid pillows of granite. Raptors soar with proficiency and grace, their eyes searching for elusive cottontails hidden in [...]
My good buddy John lives just over the hill in Rapid City, South Dakota, and let me tell you, he makes the best canned venison I've ever tried. One of these days I'm going to beat that recipe out of him, I swear. That stuff is so practical. It can be made into [...]
In 1955, Roy Hoff, the editor of Archery Magazine, took a trip to the Alaska tundra. It was the kind of expedition every bowhunter dreams of—pursuing big game in Alaska, a place which he describes as “that fabulous wonderland where wildlife is so plentiful that to bag a few nice trophies is as [...]
Call me Ishmael is the first line of the iconic writing of Herman Melville's classic novel Moby Dick. The story of my search for big fish began when I was but nine or ten years old. Fishing for carp with my brother was always interesting. Especially, the day he baited his hook, loaded down with a heavy [...]
When it comes to hunting pronghorn antelope, it’s all about their eyes. After seven failed stalks, I’ll admit I was feeling whipped. There’s no sure-fire way of overcoming a pronghorn’s superior vision, at least not in mid-August, before the mating season. During the rut, a crazed buck may run in to a decoy [...]
I have often been asked the question, whether through direct or indirect means, “Why do you hunt?” It's a poignant yet perplexing question to answer. I liken it to describing the color purple to someone who has never seen the color in their life. Impossible, right? Yet if someone has seen something like [...]
Standing on the edge of the morning woods, I hesitated to step into the darkness. I listened for any sound and urged myself to walk into that seemingly black abyss and head to my tree stand. I don’t know if I am the only one who feels this way, but walking into the [...]
