During our summer trip to the Ozarks, Van and I decided to dedicate a full day to running 4x4 trails in the eastern portion of the forest. We pondered over our Ozark National Forest map and eventually decided to explore the northern portion of the Illinois Bayou valley.
Read MoreMy friend, JK Young, filmed this short video a couple of years ago. We had a discussion about eating beaver meat and Jeff thought it would make for an entertaining short film. Beaver season was still in full swing, but all the other trapping seasons had come to a close in Pennsylvania. I had hung most of my traps up for the season, but we decided to make 4 sets along a local stream.
Read MoreI think Van would agree with me, Big Piney Creek is one of those rivers that you could float over and over again without getting sick of it. Granted, I think we hit the river when the conditions were just right. If the water had been lower, we would have had to carry the raft for 7 miles. If the river had been higher, this novice oarsman would have been a little sketched-out.
Read MoreToday I'd like to talk to you about the Indel B TV-41 12-volt fridge. Before I go into the specifics, I'd like to talk about some of the advantages and disadvantages of running a 12-volt fridge and why I decided to go this route instead of a standard cooler. I think probably the biggest reason for me was that I had too many soggy sandwiches over too many camping trips while using a regular cooler and having to deal with the whole ice situation. Here is a short video on some of the ins-and-outs of running my 12-volt fridge, the Indel B TV-41.
Read MoreBack in 2015 I was fed up with running a fairly homogenous serious of tubs and bags in the back of my truck when going on adventures. I had grown quite weary of having to unpack my truck bed every time in order to find one piece of gear. I never could re-pack the bed the same way twice. After some research, I had decided that a drawer system might be something for me.
Read MorePittsburgh Steve lay under the RT 366 bridge where it spanned the San Gabriel River. His back was flat on the cool earth and he gazed up at the underbelly of the bridge. The night air was alive with sounds. the rushing water of the San Gabriel and the sounds of insects soothed him. Pittsburgh Steve had a small fire crackling beside him. A catfish was simmering in a pot on the fire...
Read MoreWhile thumbing through an issue of Southwest Fly Fishing, I saw an article about a small creek east of Houston called Village Creek. At the office, the following day, I gave the article to my friend Alex, who read it eagerly. We both decided that this little creek, in the eastern Pineywoods of Texas, absolutely needed its local fish population terrorized by two guys and a dog. Alex and I loaded up the inflatable Flycraft drift boat Friday morning and before the sun rose over I-10, we were heading down the highway eastward.
Read MoreIn the predawn darkness, the headlights of the Tacoma revealed a substantially washed-out section of dirt road. I switched the truck over to 4-wheel drive, and began driving forward over the unconsolidated sand and washed-out road. I continued on, carefully navigating around large logs and debris that had been deposited onto the road from the periodic flooding. In the past year, the Neches River had flooded much of the low-lying ground around Davy Crockett National Forest. The road abruptly came to a dead end and the headlights from the truck illuminated the moist green leaves of the forest.
Read More...My eyes caught something moving high on the bank and I watched as two more stray dogs emerged from the tree line. The two dogs plodded into the shallow water to join their companion. There they all stood for a brief minute, looking upstream at us, then they trotted out of the water and climbed the opposite bank. We were relieved that the strays had little interest in us and we climbed back into the boat and shoved off. We had drifted downstream about 10 yards when a fourth stray dog, this one being much larger and wilder looking, came running down the bank into the water. Its yellow fur was matted with mud in several places. The dog paused for a brief moment as it caught sight of us...
Read MoreOne of the streams that I managed to fish this summer was Minister Creek. Ellen and I were camping with some friends over the weekend of Summer Solstice. Our campsite was positioned close to the confluence of Minister Creek and the much larger, Tionesta Creek. The weather was perfect. Early one morning, I headed out to fish the lower portion of Minister Creek.
Read MoreAs soon as I realized that the first weekend in June was free from any prior obligations, I immediately called up my two buddies from college. My hope was that they’d have an interest in backpacking into a small freestone stream to fish for native brook trout. As I suspected, both were more than happy to make the drive to northwest PA from the Cleveland area.
Read MoreMuskrats make a great meal. The meat is soft and dark. The taste is very mild. There isn’t really a gamey taste to the meat. The muskrat rear-legs resemble that of buffalo chicken wings and can be prepared to resemble such. The following quick recipe is the way that Ellen and I have prepared our Muskrat Wings.
Read MoreGame animals not only provide pelts and meat, but they can also provide great home decoration. Recently I decided to clean and preserve a beaver skull from a 51 pounder that was caught this year. Cleaning skulls for presentation is really pretty easy. You just need to set aside some time to do it. The next time you have a memorable catch or hunt, consider preserving the animal’s skull for a great looking decorative piece.
Read MoreWhen I was about 12 years old I had the opportunity to talk to an old-timer who everyone called Rabbit. Rabbit and I started talking one afternoon because I brought in a couple of muskrats that I was going to sell to my local fur buyer. Rabbit told me, in his raspy voice, “Use your boot and make a shelf for your trap on the side of the bank. Take an apple and pin it to the bank just above the trap. An apple’s like candy to dem muskrats.”
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