A New Hobby

The winter of 2006 was the most boring I have ever endured. My family usually gets out on the sleds or snowmobiles and we have even been snowboarding on the mountain in recent years, but '06 was altogether different. No one had any snowmobiles, and no snowboards, so all my wife and I seemed to do for fun was watch movies. I enjoy a good movie, but that winter was just flat boring.

This winter, again due to my good buddy Kirk, I found a new hobby, ice fishing. I had never been ice fishing until earlier this winter, and actually the first time I went I was not that impressed. Kirk took me out to Mantua Lake and we didn't catch a thing, plus it was cold, windy and fairly miserable. Well, the next trip redeemed Kirk and his crazy idea. We started going to a local place called Porcupine, and just like other fishing I had done, or hunting as well, I got that adrenaline rush and feel in love with a new hobby.


Though it can get fairly extreme at times, especially when Kirk drags me out for a midnight ice fishing attempt. Again my wife and all others I know view it as stupid, it is incredibly fun and my son, Dane has gone out with me a few times. He likes it quite well, and of course loved that he caught the bigger fish that day.

The first trip to Porcupine was earlier in the season and being out on the ice was still a bit sketchy to me. Early in the year the ice was about 5 or 6 inches thick which is plenty to fish on, but out in the middle the ice was crystal clear, and when the snow was cleared from a good area it was as if we were standing on a pain of glass about 3 inches thick. That was a bit scary to me and just overall creepy the way it made you feel peering down, deep into the water, know that it was hundreds of feet deep, and all you stand on is a nearly invisible sheet of ice. Truly the closest thing I think I will get to walking on water.

The ice fishing season is almost over. The temperature is getting quite warm, though it is still fairly cold at nights. In fact we went ice fishing this morning up to Porcupine and the ice was over two and a half feet thick, which burns the arms hand drilling the fishing holes through ice that thick. It is plenty deep to fish on for quite a while, the problem is the edge melts enough that it becomes impossible to get out onto the ice. That's okay though, its almost mountain bike season and I need to get in shape.

Adrenaline, Gunpowder, and Feathers

The fall and winter of 2007 has been much different from any other that I have experienced. I have had the opportunity only a handful of times to hunt waterfowl. Those few times I have hunted were with my cousins in Star Valley Wyoming, who have always been big hunters. Here in Utah I had never been able to get into the birds or even know where to start really. This year however I of course hooked up with my good friend Kirk, and he has lead me to yet another addicting hobby.

Though Kirk is even fairly new to the game, he does have a decent boat and gets out on it as often as he can. Here in Cache Valley there are some wetland areas that make for some great waterfowl habitat and thus some good waterfowl hunting. The area we typically hunt is the Cutler Marsh and all this season we made it out at least once a week if not more. It is impossible for me to explain to my wife and many others I know that it is actually fun to get up at 5:00AM, dress in everything warm I can find, boat around in the dark until we can set up the decoys, park ourselves as well hidden in the cattails as we can get, and then blow on duck calls for the rest of the morning. All this while fighting the extreme cold and trying to avoid falling in the water.

It is a bit nuts for sure, but many hunters can attest to the adrenaline that flows through your veins when those birds cup their wings and make their approach towards your decoys. My heart thumps in my chest so hard that I have to calm myself and focus, so that if in fact they do come in to us I can at least attempt to down them with my shotgun. The duck calling and the aim with the gun are arguably the most important parts of duck hunting, but as Kirk would agree my areas that need to most attention. After I shoot my gun three times and not bring down any birds I cannot even recall taking aim or even remember what actually goes through my head when I am shooting, all I know is that it was incredibly fun and sometimes I can bag a bird or two.

I cant wait until next season! We bought a MOJO duck and plan on adding to our spread some geese or other hunting items to make it even better. There is so much to learn and experience, I look forward to taking my boys out someday and teaching them how to hunt and love the outdoors.

Kirk and I with our days bounty.

Horses in the High Uintahs

I was recently invited to go on a camping and fishing trip with my friend, Kirk and his father in law. They were headed into the Uintah mountains, a place that I had never been, but heard much about being the location of the tallest mountain in Utah, King's Peak.

Our trip began much different than I had anticipated and I knew I was in for one stupendous weekend when we finally headed up the trail with only a couple of hours of light left in the day. Getting ourselves and the horses ready was a lot of work. Once on the trail we only had some real fun things happen. The pack horse had a panic attack throwing and trampling all of our gear until it was scattered all over in the woods. In all of the chaos and panic the lead horse took off on its own down the trail, leaving Kirk and I chasing after it on our own out of control horses. We did finally make it to a respectable camp spot for the night after repacking the horses and building up our courage again to get going again. Kirk and I both are quite far from horse folk.

The rest of the weekend went much better than the first day of adventures. We were able to catch many Brook trout in the high alpine lakes and even enjoyed some fine dining while roughing it in the outdoors.

The Uintah mountains are extremely pretty and full of great scenery that is unique from other mountains in and around the Utah area. I was taken back by the beauty that I had lived so close to for most of my life, but had never enjoyed until this weekend. I look forward to returning to this high mountain trails, though I hope to experience them in a much more foot to trail way, rather than hoof to trail.