Our Outdoors: Late Season Haunts
Our Outdoors: Late Season Haunts By Nick Simonson While much of pheasant country remains free and clear of snow cover at the moment, it’s likely that at some point in the back stretch of the season we’ll be looking at a white Christmas and a frosty finish to the upland hunting calendar. Even when there isn’t snow on the ground, these chilly and often windy days of the final month force pheasants into the deepest cover, and finding them can produce some amazing shooting gallery style moments where dozens of birds get up at once. Knowing where to look for […]
Our Outdoors: Doe Fever
Our Outdoors: Doe Fever By Nick Simonson The first morning of muzzleloader season arrived clear, cold, and calm. With just the faintest bit of dawn edging over the eastern hills, I ventured down to the southernmost stretch of a favorite piece of public access land and followed the flags along the hillside break to the final mark on my GPS. The grass coming up from the cottonwood stand on the riverbank was well-traveled and along the way I noted sign and scat in the beam of my headlamp that suggested heavy doe traffic, perfect for the antlerless whitetail tag I […]
Our Outdoors: What I’d Hoped For
Our Outdoors: What I’d Hoped For By Nick Simonson I can still hear the whisper from my left and sense Gene leaning in as the deer emerged in the first tree line below our position on the top of the hillside along the Sheyenne River valley one temperate November evening in 2008. It’s a moment I relive each time I’m in the field this time of year and a bobbing set of antlers appears above a pair of dark, wary eyes on a deer. “Nick…there’s a buck…” It was a moment that changed my life and my mentor helped ignite […]
Our Outdoors: The Weight of the Wait
Our Outdoors: The Weight of the Wait By Nick Simonson With the anchor-like weight of a deer tag becoming more and more tangible in the right leg pocket of my camouflage hunting pants and that heft spurring much of my recent outdoor activity, I catch myself thinking ahead, beyond the quiet morning sits and windy sneaks through the countryside as I wait for a buck – at this time, I’d take any buck – to magically appear in front of me. As I do, I listen to the winged world around me as chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers and other birds of […]
Our Outdoors: Slow Morning
Our Outdoors: Slow Morning By Nick Simonson Those days when overcast conditions settle in well before dawn provide a unique time to be outdoors, particularly during deer season. The lack of the pinks and oranges streaking overhead from the eastern horizon and lighting up the sky early makes the anticipation of first legal light even more excruciating, despite the moment being governed by the time on my watch and not by what can be seen on the landscape. The dim grey of a foggy dawn, with clouds hanging so low you can’t tell where the sky ends and the land […]
Our Outdoors: The Most Important Season
Our Outdoors: The Most Important Season By Nick Simonson Don your blaze orange, secure your tag, check your scope one more time and stuff a package of handwarmers in your vest pocket because the big day is just about here. Firearms deer season starts this weekend and you don’t want to miss out on the excitement that comes with “the grandaddy of them all” when it comes to hunting. No matter how you do it, in a group of family and friends, pushing hard through a cattail slough driving bucks and does to the end of a draw, or sitting […]
Our Outdoors: The Scent of Faith
Our Outdoors: The Scent of Faith By Nick Simonson I often wonder what it’s like, to smell a million times more than what is humanly possible. When my lab lifts his nose to the northwest gusts and cocks his head ever so slightly before upping his pace into the breezes, I try to box the experience into something my limited senses can comprehend. Sometimes I think it’s as if he picks up the scent of a covey of grouse or a running rooster many yards up as some strange undercurrent in the flow of the wind, the way I detect […]
Our Outdoors: Vote Like Your Hunting & Fishing Depends on It
Our Outdoors: Vote Like Your Hunting & Fishing Depends on It By Nick Simonson Some hunting seasons bring snow, cold, winds and inhospitable conditions which we as hunters prepare for in order to pursue an oft-anticipated portion of our year, and in the end find success in the field through our efforts. These efforts may start way back in spring or summer, getting into shape through a workout regimen, sighting in a new rifle, or logging countless rounds of trap, skeet or sporting clays to feel comfortable with our physical abilities and shooting skills. The purchase of gear, particularly that […]
Our Outdoors: Musts for Gusts
Our Outdoors: Musts for Gusts By Nick Simonson Beyond the usual celebration of dog and bird and of field boots and swinging shotguns, this year’s pheasant opener was highlighted by another frequent autumn occurrence in the upper Midwest: gusty conditions. In the gales that topped forty miles per hour on one stretch of my first weekend walks, the pines around me in the tree belt howled in a way that made me nervous that branches would start falling at any moment. More than a couple of times I had to adjust the Velcro strap on my already-turned-backwards blaze orange hat […]
