Our Outdoors: Blue’s Clues
By Nick Simonson The calm blue-green waters of the Gulf of Mexico shimmered under the sun as the first mullet flopped up and splashed back down on the late-morning surface. From my spot in the lounger underneath the multi-hued beach umbrella, I watched with interest as small baitfish in the shallows splashed the surface and the larger mullet kept up their graceless water ballet. Waiting for my family as I secured our beachhead on the white sand for the day, my fly rod and polarized sunglasses remained up at the resort, and I felt the phantom limb tingle of their […]
Our Outdoors: Breaking Down & Building Up
Nick Simonson The spike buck sat in the crosshairs of my scope for a few seconds after he had arched back and forth in front of my hillside position for five minutes, nervously eyeing my outline broken only by the small bushes that conveniently grew between us before finally giving up on his quest to figure me out. He had made his way halfway down the hill, past the next stand of buffaloberries and out into the open, giving me a chance to raise my gun and follow him. In those moments, I brushed aside the thought of the slight […]
Our Outdoors: How It Happened
Nick Simonson “How did this happen,” my panicked brain thought as I sat speared to the ground by the deep-welled eyes staring back at me from 20 yards away, their blackness lightened only by the twinkle of the last rays of the late afternoon sun shining down from over the bluff behind me. Seated against a backdrop of the leafless buffaloberry bushes with my heart bulging into my throat, my grip tightened around the equally black synthetic stock of my rifle as if that would somehow lift the gun to my shoulder without spooking the mule deer buck that had […]
Our Outdoors: A World In Motion
Nick Simonson It’s almost like a switch turns off in my brain the second I settle in for a still hunt for deer, as was the case this opening weekend of the firearms season. The rammy, caffeine-fueled fidgeter checks out and some zen-like observer of the world settles down in place of my usual self anytime a bow or firearm is in hand and the idea of a big buck fuels all concentration on the sounds and sights around me. Perhaps zen-like is a bit of an exaggeration, but I’m certainly not physically and mentally turned up to 11 during […]
Our Outdoors: Stop Trying
Nick Simonson “Stop trying to hit me…and hit me.” Morpheus’ command to Neo while sparring in a digitally generated kung-fu dojo in the genre-bending movie (and body-bending, as parodied in so many subsequent films) The Matrix, sums up my thoughts on shooting. Morpheus’ encouragement for Neo to stop thinking about everything and simply execute his attack often rings in my ears after a slide of bad shooting behind the trap house or in the field and echoes after connecting on what seems like a particularly difficult shot, putting a bird down for my dog to retrieve in the moment where […]
Our Outdoors: Swamping It
The roaring winds of Saturday dipped only slightly on Sunday morning as we made our way into the field to close out a weekend of pheasant hunting. Along with the slight decrease in the northwest gusts came a drop in temperature and the dashboard readout on the truck posted 22 degrees. It was the first cold-feeling day of the fall in my opinion, even with the snow at mid-month which, now two weeks behind us, seemed like a bad dream. The occasional flake that drifted down and was whipped by the wind across the red hood of the truck, however, […]
Our Outdoors: What a Finish
By Nick Simonson On the backside of the first hill which dropped off sharply into the drain leading to the large slough at the end of the waterfowl production area, my lab Ole lit up with the hint of something carried by the northwest winds. As he advanced on the invisible trail through the short grasses under the gray sky, his tail wiggled wildly and I suspected something was up. I did my best to get my legs to believe what my eyes were seeing, but I was still a good thirty yards behind my dog when another thirty yards […]
Our Outdoors: Mentoring Memories
By Nick Simonson As a hunter who started on his own at the age of 22, I was non-traditional to say the least, and my trip up the learning curve was about ten years behind those young people around me in my hunter’s education class that summer. In the process though, I was mentored by a number of people – close friends, members of my local wildlife club, and extended family– who took the time to take me into the field, and for their help I remain thankful. Their encouragement, insight and pointers on not just the shot and the […]
Our Outdoors: There Is No Substitute
By Nick Simonson The sensations experienced and the understanding gained from a hunt or fishing trip are rewards all their own. Whether the challenge of meeting the rising landscape or braving the heat, cold, wind, rain or snow ends with a punched tag, a missed shot, a landed fish or a lost lunker, there is no substitute – whether in practice or on the page – for the adventure and memories made in the field, forest, streams and lakes open to all of us. Run and Walk It doesn’t take much sun in early autumn to heat things up. Under […]
