Wow! It’s already August. I don’t know about you but my life has been passing by in a blur lately. I’ve been flying out for three weeks and home for one week this year and I don’t hardly know what season it is, much less what month it is. With that said, let’s plan out our month so we don’t wake up and see snow outside the window and wonder what happened to our summer.
OK, I’m super busy right now. We just finished my daughter’s wedding, redid the floors throughout the whole house, I have to get in all of my July invoices and I just flew back home Friday. It is Monday and I have to get in this week’s article right fast. What should I do? I’ll tell you what I need to do! I’m going to get this article finished then I’m going to go grab Orin & Josiah and go crappie fishing. Whew! That decision took a lot of stress off of me. Now I can get my focal point on the far wall and breathe deeply. No wait, that’s the Lamaze recommendations when you’re having a baby. But men have a lower pain tolerance; it is almost that painful having not been able to fish for three weeks.
I think we’ll fish until midnight, put ice on the fish and then fillet them in the morning. If the fishing is still good then I think I’ll go fishing twice more this week.
Oh, but the huckleberries ought to be out by now. You don’t want to miss the huckleberry season. That’d be a colossal mistake. Huckleberries are the best berries in the world. If you’ve never picked them you have to go. They make the best ice cream in the world. Make sure to wear a pistol in case you run into an aggressive bear. I remember one year there was a cute little fuzz ball cub about 14-inches long eating them by me. I saw him and figured it was time to scatter.
Katy starts school in a couple of weeks. We need to take one last camping trip, don’t we? Think I’ll try to do a low-profile camping trip. Maybe just go to the mountains and throw up a tent by a river and burn some steaks over a fire. Or maybe I can talk her into camping on a lake and us crappie fish for a couple of days.
Or something I’ve been wanting to do for a couple of years is to go get a room at the Big Creek Lodge in Yellow Pine. The original lodge burned down years ago but they rebuilt another one. That’d be fun to go stay there and hike and pick berries.
After the floor was laid in my office, I spent two days getting my office back in order. I ran across a business card that I’d picked up at the Great Northwest Outdoor Expo from the Thousand Springs Boat Tours. I don’t know for sure what all they do but it sounds like they cruise by a lot of springs and have an onboard lunch or dinner. That should be a fun date. I’ve got to check that out.
My four-wheeler has been in the shop. I think the bears poured sugar water in the gas tank to keep me from being up in the mountains chasing them. Pretty ungrateful huh, seeing how many hundreds of pounds of bait I feed them every year.
But despite the bears (there are haters everywhere, you can’t let them bother you) with the heat pounding us like it is, Katy wants to go up high where it’s a little cooler and do some trail riding. Hmm, not a bad option anytime a good-looking girl wants to go four wheeling with you.
And lest I give you a big list of outdoor things to do and you get sidetracked don’t forget, it is backpacking season. I haven’t got to go yet. I just got me and Kolby some new Alps Mountaineering day packs and HybridLight flashlights I want us to test out. Oh, then Kolby and I also have some Danner and La Crosse boots that we’re dying to go backpacking in. Backpacking is a big daddy/daughter event every summer.
What’s more fun than to hit a wilderness with a backpack on your shoulders? You can momentarily forget about the skyrocketing inflation, installing new flooring in your house, $5/gallon gas and whatever else is bothering you. Set up a camp and take off on day hikes and view awesome country. Build a fire at dusk and cook dinner over it and then watch the stars. And finally crawl off to your tent dead tired.
Gee, I’ve got to get in gear. This is quite a list of activities that I have to get accomplished before summer is over. Luckily we have Global Warming so summer should last until December this year so I’ll be able to fit it all in.
Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana. He also writes for various outdoors magazines and teaches outdoors seminars at stores like Cabela’s, Sportsman’s Warehouse and Bass Pro Shop. He can be reached via email at smileya7@aol.com.
