The Outdoors

[onlinebiker]

13 days till opening of firearm deer season.

My SO and my sister each have 2 tags. I have 6.

Shit's gonna die!

Guess you don’t have to buy meat from the supermarket for a while with all that venison.

Quite true. Went through 6 deer last year. This year i am not gutting anything. Just caping and taking the backstraps and rear haunches. The rest is pretty much good for hamburger - and we just bought a bunch of cheap home grown beef burger from a buddy of mine. It will save me a BUNCH of work...

[Sal]

This morning I bought these hiking shoes. I didn't have any beforehand, as I had worn out the last pair of hiking shoes, and instead of just buying new ones, I bought some cheap skechers. They're weren't fit for hiking, only for walking on pavement and (mostly) flat surfaces. The skechers didn't last that long, and decided last night to buy new shoes after the holes in the padding became too big to ignore, besides, it wouldn't take that much tear to get holes in the soles as well.




A tad expensive, but well worth it.

https://ca.ecco.com/en/ecco-men-xpeditio...02072.html

I'm looking forward to the next time the hiking community I'm a member of plans their next trip, it's been too long thanks to the fucking COVID-19 bullshit. There's a limit on how many are allowed, so I won't make it if I hesitate when they announce the next trip.

[brewer]

There's outdoors and then......... outdoors.

[arewethereyet]

I was too sick this summer to get in our pool so my outdoors experience this year has been the vast stretch of the wide open spaces between my house and my car...and occasionally my car and the grocery store, pharmacy, or doctor's office.

Never was the outdoorsy type anyway unless there's a beach involved.

[Foxaèr]

I’m only the outdoors type when I’m going from one place to another.

[zebo-the-fat]

I was too sick this summer to get in our pool so my outdoors experience this year has been the vast stretch of the wide open spaces between my house and my car...and occasionally my car and the grocery store, pharmacy, or doctor's office.

Never was the outdoorsy type anyway unless there's a beach involved.

Just sitting on a beach bores me silly... i need to do something!

[arewethereyet]

I was too sick this summer to get in our pool so my outdoors experience this year has been the vast stretch of the wide open spaces between my house and my car...and occasionally my car and the grocery store, pharmacy, or doctor's office.

Never was the outdoorsy type anyway unless there's a beach involved.

Just sitting on a beach bores me silly... i need to do something!

I'm not one to just sit on the beach, I love to be in the ocean.

[Rhizomorph13]

I love the beach. I fly two-line stunt kites and love to hit the many breweries on the Oregon Coast. Yachats, Bouy, Seaside, Fort George, and even Rogue. I miss when I could just go without worrying about Covid.

[Ranjr]

I grew up on a farm in an area of the Natural State called the Ark-La-Tex.  One set of grandparents had a cabin and acreage in the Boston Mountains, where they escaped the summer heat.  The others had a fishing camp on Lake D'arbonne, where they eventually retired.  I love plants, animals, water, forests and open sky.  The water is up and the sun is out this week.  I can't wait til Thursday, when I'm getting out.  Here's a story to pass the time. 

In late February 2018, the water level at Ponca was perfect.  The sun burned away the fog as I unloaded and launched for a float to Kyles Landing.  Where is everyone?  I thought.  No outfitters or day trippers like me.  Perfect.  

By the 3rd mile, I had taken off my jacket.  Approaching Big Bluff, I heard a hoop and a holler.  I looked high on the face of the Bluff, thinking there must be a hiker on the Goat Trail.  Couldn't spot anyone.  After rounding the bend, I heard it again, this time spotting a camper on the rock bar across from the bluff.  "You just missed the eggs."  He said.  I held up the oatmeal stout that was near gone, and said, "Thanks, but I had breakfast."  

He said, "Can you do me a favor?"  I laid the paddle across my lap, thinking, uh-oh this guy needs help.  Here goes my day.  I said, "Sure, what's up?"  He said, "Well, if you're taking out today, can you call my wife?  I don't want to leave.  I'm staying another night."  I laughed.  I got it.  I've been there.

The water was moving, so I was drifting by quickly.  I turned to hear his number and tap it into my phone.  "What your name?"  "Her name?"  "No yours."  "Alex."  "I didn't know your name was Alex."

I rode along enjoying the day, taking a run up Hemmed-In Hollow and many pictures.  Visibility was sweet with the leaves down.  Eagles were busy.  One speckled juvenile helped an adult pair ready their next.  

The quick water got me to Kyles Landing thirty minutes early.  Waiting for my son pick me up, I visited with a guy who rode up on a 4-wheeler.  There was no one else at the landing or the camp ground.  This guy was from Chicago.  He had retired to some acreage on the edge of the national forest after a tour in Iraq.  He said he enlisted and served in his fifties.  I'd never heard of such a thing, much less considered it.  He said when he got back, he couldn't live in or around the city.  That's how he came to the Natural State.  We had a nice conversation.  It was interesting hearing his take on the locals who, after 50 years, still grouse about the feds claiming the river and much of the land around it.

My boy, ever punctual, arrived, and we loaded the boat and gear on the truck.  I turned to see if I'd left anything by the river, and there was Alex.  I said, "Hey, you change your mind?"  He said, "Yeah, my son has a spelling bee tomorrow.  I want to be there."  I helped him tote gear up to the road.  He said, "Thanks all the same for offering to call my wife."

I said, "To be honest, Alex.  I wasn't going to call your wife.  I was going to have my girlfriend call her."  "Wow.  That's perfect."  That was not the last time I ran across Alex on the river.

[Sal]

^great story. Although I don't know what it looks like there, except from some googled stock nature images, the nature there sounds real nice.

I was too sick this summer to get in our pool so my outdoors experience this year has been the vast stretch of the wide open spaces between my house and my car...and occasionally my car and the grocery store, pharmacy, or doctor's office.

Never was the outdoorsy type anyway unless there's a beach involved.

Just sitting on a beach bores me silly... i need to do something!

Same feeling here. I don't mind that much being at the beach, but all the sand annoys me walking on beaches. I do pass the tiny beaches here, but I would rather go to a dock with a fishing rod and gear and just relax watching the coast and ocean (except if I wanted to really fish, I'd go on a fishing trip with a cod fishing rod with an angling boat, and just enjoy the time in the sleepy fjords; I hate fishing in open ocean, because I way too easily get seasickness). I do like watching the coastal sea breaking waves on beaches, the sound and scenery is pure therapy, just not while standing on the beach itself.