While conducting seminars at the Dallas Safari Club Expo last year, between seminars I was walking the aisles at the show and noticed a booth that had some stout looking straps called ShockStraps. Everyone in the outdoor world uses straps, don’t they? Whether it’s strapping down our four-wheelers, snowmobiles, boats or a load of firewood.

My wife calls me the eternal tightwad. I tell her I’m not tight, I’m just thrifty, but I learned a long time ago that you don’t want to scrimp on the quality of your straps. Too much bad stuff can happen if they malfunction. What if a load of firewood or a four-wheeler flipped out of the back of your truck into oncoming traffic? Someone is going to get hurt or die. You don’t want that. So don’t buy cheap straps.

When I saw the ShockStrap booth and looked at their product, I knew that I had found the ultimate strap. Over the years, I’ve gravitated from buying cheap gear to better/more durable gear. Not only does cheap gear not last, it will also malfunction and leave you stranded.

I don’t know how many times I’ve lost a strap while hauling my four-wheeler. I always strap it down with four straps but nearly always lose one so I got in the habit of tying the tail off to the trailer.

ShockStrap incorporated what they call a safety strap, which helps tie your load down tight. It has two purposes:

• If an accident happens and the ShockStrap breaks, the Safety Strap will keep the tie in place.
• The Safety Strap acts as a limiter so you don’t over tighten and warp what you’re securing.

The breaking strength is over 3,000 pounds. The military-grade ratchet has an outside release for ease of use even with gloves on. It is bolted on so you can replace it in the future if you wear out your straps. I like this feature. On many of the cheaper straps, it is a race to see if the straps or the ratchet part wears out first. It also has a two-year warranty, which is higher than any other tie downs that I have ever purchased.

On the end of the tail of the strap past the hook is a loop. This lets you use the soft loop when the hook won’t fit around your desired tie off point so that you can wrap the strap around a corner post or piece of equipment and place the loop in the hook to tie it off. Ingenious idea. The hooks also have retention clips to keep the hooks from coming off.

The ShockStrap maintains constant pressure on the strap so when hitting bumps or having side pressure applied to it. You won’t be pulling over every 50 miles to retighten your straps.

Amazingly for a heavy-duty tie down made in America, the MSRP is only $45.99.

For more information, visit shockstrap.com.

Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana.

I have attended numerous gun shows and never seen a hint of all of the mayhem and wickedness that some claim is happening at them. I just see a lot of older people, young kids, etc., having a good time. So, from my naive perspective, let’s look at what to expect when you go to a local gun show. But realize every gun show will have its own flavor.

I never thought about it until just now, but I don’t think that I’ve ever actually bought a gun at a gun show. I’ve sold some guns but never bought one so I guess, really, I just go to buy accessories and cool stuff. As I’m typing this article, I’m visiting South Dakota. I noticed that there was a gun show going on in the town that I am staying in so me and a buddy decided to hit it. It was not unlike most shows.

FORMAT

Vendors will rent tables to set up their wares. They can rent from one table on up to I guess as many as they want, but usually it will be one to three with a handful of the bigger vendors renting four to maybe six.

There will be a handful of vendors selling new guns. More than likely these will be a local gun dealer.

Then there will be quite a few tables with used guns. These are set up by guys that appear to hit all of the local gun shows. If you talk to them it sounds like they hit the Nampa, Caldwell, Marshing, Ontario, La Grande and Pendleton shows. To me, it seems like a lot of this group do gun shows almost as a hobby.

I don’t really see them selling too much. I think they like to hang around that group of people and hope to make enough to support their lifestyle.

Then there will be a few that specialize in brass. Most of these guys are into shooting and not really hunting. They just love to shoot, tweak their rifles and spend a lot of time at the gun range. This explains why gun shows can have a semi-high attendance even during hunting season when normal people ought to be up in the mountains hunting!

I couldn’t believe it but at a meeting at the SHOT Show last week, one of the speakers said that shooting is the No. 2 sport in America, ahead of golf.

KNIVES

And of course knives are always a big item. I write a weekly knife product review for AmmolandShootingSportsNews, which is the largest Outdoor website in America so as you can imagine, I love knives. Yes, half of the knife tables will have cheap imports but there will also usually be a few quality knives at every show.

And there will be a few tables with some old-school knives. I never tire at looking at them — like the old Case leather handle knives, etc. I met a guy last year in La Grande and he had a table full of knives made in Finland. The sheaths were made of reindeer leather and some of the handles out of their antlers. It’s always cool to find some new twist like this. I got a few and am testing them and will do some product reviews on them sometime in the future. It’s fun to find something new like that.

Then something that is cool to the old timers is that there is always two to three tables that have some World War II knives, bayonets (If you’re young and don’t know what a bayonet is, it is a knife that can be attached to the muzzle of your rifle for hand-to-hand combat in the trenches), rifles and pistols.

Some guy here today had a whole table of German Lugers which was cool. I’d love to own one of them. And while on old military gear, there will be one to two guys that has some old military clothing for sale.

AMMO

There will be a lot of ammo for sale. At every gun show I can find at least a few vendors that have a good deal on ammo. So, I always end up buying a few boxes to go plink with. If you’re looking to buy in bulk, a gun show is a good place to check out.

So, as we wrap up, if you’re in town when one of the (semi) local gun shows is going on, you might want to check one out. Who knows, you might become a gun show groupie!

Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana.

Last week we tackled part 1 of varmint hunting. This week, I want to follow up with part 2.

Varmint hunting has a cult-like following so I won’t be able to do it justice in two short articles, but hopefully it’s enough info to help get you jump started. This week, let’s try to cover the loose ends.

Last week, I briefly said that night hunting was magical, and it is. That’s a varmint’s primo feeding time.

If you plan on hunting varmints at night in multiple states, check each state’s regs as they can vary wildly.

There are a million options now for lights. In the old days, we’d call and then the spotter would run a strong flashlight/spotlight beam in a circle around your feet and try to pick up the glint of any approaching eyes. You can also run it on the skyline.

If there are any eyes, the shooter gets ready and then tells the light man to drop the light. You’ll have a couple seconds to take a shot before he bolts. Bobcats will many times close their eyes and you can lose them.

Years ago, hunters discovered that a red or green light is not as visible to animals so many started using colored spotting lights. Which is why SneakyHunter BootLamps uses colored lights on their BootLamps.

There is now available a plethora of lights for spotlighting. Most are some variation of a flashlight that attaches to your rifle or shotgun. Some have a cord with a button and some you just have to hit the switch just like on any flashlight.

Some of the coolest ones are the Crimson Trace laser lights. I’ve got a few of them and if I remember correctly, the beam can reach out something like 200 to 250 yards. CT sells 50 percent of all laser sights sold.

The best way to mount your night lighting system is to use a Picatinny rail — which most ARs have and you can add on additional ones.

But the most awesome way to hunt at night is with thermal-imaging gear. Last spring, Texas Outdoor Journal publisher Bill Olson and I hog hunted with Clifford of Third Coast Thermal in Texas.

I’m sure that you have watched sniper war movies where the sniper is looking through a thermal imaging scope and it looks like the terrorists are green goblins coming in. That is exactly how it is. There are two kinds of night lighting that most people clump in this family. They are actually different, though.

You have thermal imaging that picks up heat, and light-gathering scopes that pick up all of the light.

Here’s the cool thing that I love about thermal imaging. I dropped two hogs back to back and even with them laying in some semi-tall grass, I could see them because of their body heat. I put down the rifle and picked up my Riton Optics binoculars and even though they were out by a Slow Glow lighting system, I couldn’t see them due to them being in the grass but with the thermal imaging I could.

If you have the money, thermal imaging is awesome.

Clifford loaned me one of his .308s with a suppressor, which allowed for fast follow-up shots. That kind of hunting could quickly become addictive.

If you want to get a super-cool pelt, then you need to harvest a bobcat. Their pelts are strikingly beautiful. Calling at night is the best time to call cats, but on a trip once, Bill and I called in two cats in the daylight and only one at night. So you can for sure call them in the day; it’s just usually better at night.

Cats like a lot of busy noises like chirping birds. They also like a lot of busy movement light a waggler type of attractant decoy. You don’t have to worry about covering your smell like you do when calling coyotes but you do need to conceal your movement.

Another fun animal to call is raccoons. They’ll usually come in pretty easy and many times multiple ones at once. A .22 mag works fine on them. I want to take my Henry’s lever action .22 mag spotlighting some night. That’d be cool. And foxes come in easily as well.

So just because we’re in the dead of winter it doesn’t mean that all is lost in the hunting world. In fact, right now is primo varmint-hunting time. Get out and have a little fun and at the same time help the antelope, deer and elk herds.

Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana.

It’s winter so you might as well put away your rifles and curl up and die. All is lost, right? No! One of the finest hunting opportunities is in full blast right now. You may ask what? Varmint hunting! Varmint hunting can provide for some fast pace shooting. If you’ve never done it, you need to.

You may ask, where should I hunt them? One time I was driving to Boise to conduct a varmint hunting seminar at Cabela’s. As I was about to get on the freeway, I looked off to my right and there was a coyote working a fence line right in town. Unbelievable.

So to answer your question as to where to find them — almost anywhere. I’ve always said if the communists dropped an H-bomb on America, the only two things that would survive (and probably thrive) are cockroaches and coyotes.

Yes, you can occasionally pick up a coyote just driving around, but we want to talk about targeting them. To really be efficient you need an electronic call. You can set one out 40 yards from you and run it by a remote control. That way when they come in, they’re focused on the call and not you.

You also need to use decoys. They hear a lot of commotion, come running in and then whoa! Something is weird. They don’t see any other animals. You’ll want to use an electronic waggler type of decoy. It is basically a wire that flips around with a white rag tied to the end of it. They work great. I also like to use a coyote and rabbit decoy from Montana Decoys. You might also want to use a deer or antelope decoy since both are around the Limon area. I’d recommend tying a small rag on their tail to look like a tail moving in the wind.

You’ll need somewhere to hide. You can duck behind a fence row, brush pile or a lot of times I’ll carry a piece of camo’d burlap and lay it over two sage bushes. Or I also like the Ameristep Throwdown blinds. They set up in a C-shape and are super lightweight.

Coyotes will always approach and then circle downwind so you’ll want to use a cover scent. My brother-in-law carries a roll of toilet paper in a coffee can soaked in skunk scent and sets it downwind of us. All I can say is you better make sure that it is downwind!

What kind of guns should you use? In the old days you wanted a bolt action .223 but now, AR .223’s are super popular. And for good reason. They allow you to take fast follow up shots. A lot of times more than one will come in.

If there are two or more of us, I make someone carry a shotgun. Get a Trulock full choke and use HEVI-Shot Dead Coyote loads. Years ago, their marketing manager told me that she rolled a coyote DOA at 70 yards. After using them, I don’t doubt it. They are deadly.

Everyone is on a budget so if you can’t afford an electronic call, hand calls still work, too. Sixty years ago that is all that we had.

It works best to call early morning and at dusk but night hunting is magical. We’ll talk about that next week. So don’t set around shelling out your hard earned money for counseling fees because it is winter and you’re depressed. Grab your rifle and a call and go whack some coyotes! They have some cool pelts and you’ll help the antelope and deer herds.

Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana.

After all the hunting seasons are closed, what’s a guy to do? Sit around and drink lattes and get fat? No! The show season is upon us, so get out and hit some of the outdoor shows.

I like going to outdoor shows for a lot of reasons, besides the obvious reason that it’s usually cold and the weather is miserable by then and I’m bored stiff. Here’s a few other reasons that I enjoy them.

SEMINARS

I love hitting the shows and attending the seminars. At every seminar I’ve ever attended, I’ve learned something. And the bigger the show, usually the better the speakers. Although I must throw out a disclaimer. Sometimes at smaller shows you’ll have a gung-ho young local guy and he’ll share everything that he knows and not hold back like some of the older dogs do.

And of course in January and February, I’ll be conducting a lot of seminars at the shows. January will be a busy month for me. The first week, I had two seminars at the Dallas Safari Club Convention and Sporting Expo. Jan. 20-24 is the SHOT Show, which is the largest outdoor show in the world (I’ll write an article on that show in the near future) and I’ll have three seminars there. On Feb. 6, the Safari Club International Convention in Reno kicks off, and I’ll have four seminars there. So I’ll be swamped.

NEW GEAR

If you are in need of new gear, hit the shows. Many times, manufacturers will have booths set up and be offering show specials. Plus, you’ll see a lot of new gear not offered in the big-box stores. I see a lot of creative hunters/fishermen that invented new little knickknacks and are trying to make a go of it. You’ll see gear you’ve never seen before.

A buddy told me that to get your product into Cabela’s, you have to let them list it on their internet sales for two years. Then if it does good, they’ll offer it in the store. Gee, you could have a great product and go broke before you ever got to put it in front of a customer. That’s where shows have helped jump start many struggling little companies. So you’re likely to see gear you’ve never seen before. That’s where I met SneakyHunter BootLamps.

GEAR

Then in addition to all the new products discussed above, there’ll also be a lot of booths with old gear. By old I don’t mean old, but rather what you will find in the stores. There may be show specials. For instance, if you’re in the market for a backpack, this may be a good spot to find one.

But please look around. People drive me nuts with their impulsive shopping habits. I remember one year I had eight seminars at a show. A buddy of mine worked for Blacks Creek Guide Gear, which is one of the top backpack companies in the country, and they had a booth in back. I don’t know how many people I saw that walked in the front door and walked straight to the first booth and bought a backpack. I know for sure that Robert had much better packs in back. Look around before you buy.

GUIDES

If you’ve been wanting to hire a guide to hunt or fish this is a great place to meet them. At the Boise show, I see some of the guides that I know from up in Alaska.

And if you want to go on an exotic safari, SCI and DSC are the two shows to hit. You can sign up for all manner of big game, bird hunting or fishing adventures. It’s almost painful to walk the aisles and see all of the cool hunts they are offering if you’re on a peon’s salary.

Most of the time, you can tell by talking to a guide if he is any good or not. But for sure, check references. You don’t want to waste 10 days and $25,000 on a bad deal.

And to get even deeper, you need to determine if their set-up is for you. You need to be honest with yourself. What is your main goal? To some people, it is important that they are back to the lodge by dusk and served a great dinner cooked by a chef and to sit around the proverbial camp fire and drink until midnight.

To other outdoorsmen, the whole objective is to hit it hardcore and be successful. Different guides specialize in different flavors. Make sure you pick the right flavor or you’ll be disappointed.

Be crystal clear on what is provided and what isn’t. Do they handle the shipping back of your trophies? Get all of the necessary tags, etc.? There can be a lot of hidden costs that they take for granted that you never knew about.

And you even have a gun show in La Grande in February. I always find stuff I can’t live without at every gun show I hit. Don’t you? Let the shows begin!

Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana.

This article is going to be geared toward the ice fisherman with no knowledge to help you jump into it. To begin, if you aren’t geared for the cold you won’t even get a hook below the ice. I remember one ice fishing trip to a high mountain lake in Colorado that was rough. We took out before daylight and drug everything out on the ice. My buddy had a collapsible hut he was setting up. Before he could drive down the 1st stake a big mountain wind kicked up and he would of taken off across the lake but we all grabbed the sides while he was stuck inside.

In the meantime, unnoticed, our 5-gallon buckets with all of our gear had blown all the way across the lake. The only thing that saved them from being blown out of Colorado was a barbed wire fence on the other side of the lake. A little humorous-A company had given me a big sausage tray for Christmas. Scattered all the way across the lake were slices of sausage and frozen cherry tomatoes.

If you’re new to ice fishing then you probably won’t have a hut so take a 5-gallon bucket to carry your gear and a chair. Wear base layers, your warmest boots, gloves, etc. Take hand warmers.

I’ve never fallen through the ice but am always nervous about it. I carry all of my gear out in a sled, which can also be used to get someone out of a hole. It disperses your weight. Take a thick rope so you can throw it to someone. Tie a foot-long stick to the end so you can throw it out to them and they have something to grab.

P.S. When you throw it, don’t hit them in the head! Take a thermos of hot coffee and food to keep you warm.

WHERE TO FISH?

You don’t want to just randomly go out on a lake and drill a hole and set there all day. You don’t fish like that in your boat do you? When fishing in a boat or on foot you can easily move around. Not so with ice fishing, every time you move, you have to drill new holes. So do your research on the lake before you go and see where the hotspots are. Or, like all fishing, follow the crowds.

GEAR

To begin, you probably don’t want to invest in a power auger so buy a decent hand auger but if you get into ice fishing, you’ll want a gas auger. Before drilling, kick all the snow away. You’ll want a dipper so you can dip out the crushed ice and also to keep the hole from freezing up. If you discover the ice is less than 4-inches thick — SCATTER!

One time on a little sandhills lake in Nebraska Mike Helzer, my pastor’s kid and I were slaughtering the fish. The only problem, the snow was melting on top and we were standing in slushy water. If we got a hit and all three of us ran to the hole the sheet of ice would start dropping down and water would run out of the hole. Not smart. That would be the time to leave!

For rods, you’ll want something short. There are the old tip-up rods and they also make miniature rod/reel combos for ice fishing. You need to get some actual ice fishing set-ups and not try to use your regular rods. They’re too long to function.

So what lures/bait do you use? Like all fishing it varies lake to lake and hour to hour but here are some popular set-ups. They make little ice fishing jigs that everyone uses. In the old days we’d hook on a wax worm and drop it down and fish it a foot off the bottom. Now I use regular earth worms. You can also jig little Kast masters.

To help prompt a bite and to help them find your jig use scents. I use Pautzke Fireballs. Fish don’t feed in the winter as much or as aggressively as they do in the summer so you need every help you can get.

Due to the cold-water fish will be slower moving so don’t work your jig as fast as normal. A lot of the fishing is on the bottom but still, you need to work the water column to determine where the school is. If you’ve ever fished high mountain lakes in the summer then you’ve noticed that trout cruise the bank in search of food, they almost look like a shark on patrol. So I picture them moving around like that under the ice.

Perch though, they’re a big-time schooling fish so you need to find a school. I’ve seen them in shallow water in the summer where if you drop your bait there will be 15 to 20 small ones hitting it. So I usually fish for perch down right off the bottom.

The good deal about ice fishing, you don’t have to worry about your catch spoiling, just throw them in a pile of snow as you catch them. They are being drug out of cold, crystal-clear water so they should be superb eating. Have fun and be safe out there.

Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana.

I’d been traveling and upon arriving back home I sat down to catch up on reading my pile of newspapers. Right on the front page of one of the newspapers was a notice of a national emergency (well, kind of an emergency)! It sounds like the crows had migrated in big time over in the Nampa/Caldwell area. While they might not quite as plentiful over in the Pocatello area, you might still be able to kick up enough to make it fun. Besides, it’s winter. What are you doing to do? Sit in the house and rot?

But before you think you can just run out blasting and be successful, beware: Crows have to be close to the smartest birds in the world, but if you do it right you can shoot large numbers of them with the proper set-up. Here’s how I like to do it. If you can find a thick clump of cedar trees not over 10 to 15 feet tall, that’s perfect. If you’re in a grove of trees too tall, the crows will almost be out of range when the come gliding in.

Your tendency is to set up where you can see what is coming. Don’t do that. You want to be buried right in the midst of the brush. If they come flying in and see you, then they’ll flare off and spook. You have to be totally hidden. If you don’t have perfect cover then at least get in under the shadows.

You’ll want to use an electronic call. Set it a little bit away from you so when they come in, they’re not focusing right on you. You’ll want a call with a remote control. That way you can change sounds without running out to switch the call every time.

I always start off with a hawk fighting crow call or an owl fighting crow call. Then you can switch it up some: wounded crow call, crows fighting call, etc. Many times, you hear them coming but just as many times they’ll glide in silently. You’ve got to always be ready. After the shot, they’ll hit the after burners and dip and dive outta there.

You’ll want to be camo’d to the max. Use a face mask or net to conceal your shiny face. Since your hands are the source of 90 percent of your movement make sure and wear camo gloves or at least the old Army wool gloves. Wear camo on top for sure, and pants as well don’t hurt.

Just like on all calling, decoys help immensely. I like to have one if not two Mojo decoys. They’re the ones that have the battery-operated rotating wings. Set them up out in the open and the Mojo boys tell me they work better if they’re set up higher off the ground. Use stationary crow decoys as well if you have some, and an owl or hawk decoy will be good, too.

Also use an attractor decoy. You ask what? Yep. I started noticing a few years ago that right at daylight every morning while calling coyotes that crows are the first varmint to show up. It took a minute or two to register but then it hit me. Why not use a waggler type of attractant decoy on crows? They come in all the time to them while I’m coyote hunting.

On good hunts, it can be fast and furious, so I like using a semi-automatic 12-gauge with a modified Trulock choke and 6-shot. Crows are not good neighbors. They harass a lot of game birds and eat the eggs of ground birds (quail, sage grouse etc.), so it does the environment good to thin them out. Have fun.

Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana.

In case you haven’t looked out your window, summer is waning. There are a lot of signs. It’s getting light later and later and dark earlier and earlier. And from the sounds of groaning around my house, school must have started. (My youngest daughter is in college and my wife is a school teacher.)

But despite all of the signs of impending doom, we still have a few weeks left for some prime backpacking. I know that I ought to be up in the mountains archery elk and deer hunting, but I find myself doing backcountry fly fishing trips later and later every year.

How can you not love late summer/early fall backpacking and fly fishing trips? Everyone else is focused on hunting and you’ll most likely have the woods to yourself. The rivers have dropped down and are easier to wade. The fish are congregated in holes. The fish have been feeding all summer and are big. To sum it up: It’s all good!

If you love to fly fish, then you need to start backpacking. It allows you to get farther away from people, so of course the fish are larger and there are more of them. You have the world pretty much to yourself, and the scenery is beautiful.

So what does it take? Here are a few basics. I still use an old school Kelty frame backpack. But you’ll also want to take along a daypack to carry your water, snacks, lunch and rain gear for your day hikes.

I take a light-weight sleeping bag due to the mild weather I’ll encounter, but I also throw in some base layers to sleep in. I just discovered a super compact and light-weight pad by Klymit and started using it this year.

For cooking gear, I take a small aluminum coffee pot and an old Army mess kit or Boy Scout kit. I do 99 percent of my cooking over an open fire but if there is a fire ban, I take a Camp Chef backpacking stove.

For meals, I eat flavored oatmeal for breakfast and make PBJ sandwiches for lunch. Take some Lipton tea to flavor your water, and I use motel packs for coffee. They’re light-weight and free. Then for dinner, I splurge and buy some MRE backpacking type of meals. I just discovered a new company named Bushkas Kitchen, which has a variety of freeze-dried meals. I’m going to be testing these out next week.

Take a flashlight, and I just discovered SneakyHunter Bootlamps, which will be great for hiking in the dark. I’ve done it quite a few times, but it’s not real fun hiking in by yourself in the dark. Once on a 3-mile hike in, my light went out 500 yards down the trail.

Always take a pistol. There are just too many wolves, bears, cougars and moose not to. 

For fly fishing, I don’t pack in waders. They’re too bulky and heavy. I just wear some Chaco sandals or hiking boots. Although with the slippery rocks, you could justify wearing some wading boots. I wear some nylon shorts that will dry out fast.

This time of year, I expect to catch some lunker bull trout, so I’ll be throwing some black bead head wooly buggers. I’ll also use Elk Hair Caddis for the late evening hatch.

Writing this article has me excited. I’m ready to go. Usually my daughter goes with me but as mentioned above, she has already started school. Ugh. I also had a cow fall on me three weeks ago and crack my knee cap and break a rib. But a guy has to do what a guy has to do, and the show must go on, so I’ve gotta go.

If you see me gimping along, stop and carry my pack for a couple of miles. If this works, I may milk it for a while.

Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana.

Last week, my wife, Katy, and I ran over to northwest Colorado to check out the Wild Skies Flat Tops Cabin, which is a couple of hours southeast of Craig. If you want to be off the grid, you ought to check them out. They do have Wi-Fi, but everything is solar charged. There are no electrical lines running back there.

Thirty years ago, I blackpowder hunted a lot north of there but never in this particular area. Proprietors’ Chip and Lisa Bennet claim that the Flat Tops are home to the largest herd of elk in America. I’m trying to figure out how I can go back archery elk hunting in a couple of weeks, but I have gotten slammed with projects worse than ever. It’s a scary world when you have a hard time fitting in an elk hunt!

When Katy and I arrived, we were greeted by Lisa and her family. They have three delightful, well-mannered kids who were a joy to be around. We unloaded and then sat around the table strategizing for a bit. Then I whipped out some rib-eyes that I’d brought, and we grilled them with corn on the cob, and Lisa heated up a pan of yams. We had a great meal and a pleasant evening.

Their family is very much into working with ways to preserve the wild mustangs, and they shared a lot of those ideas with us. Lisa is in hopes that Bass Pro Shops will build a store in Craig and preserve the local museum and incorporate it with a mustang project.

It soon got dark and they had to head home and back to their lives. The next morning, Katy and I dropped down to the river below the cabin. Even though it is a pretty large river, like a lot of mountain creeks and rivers, it was brushy and you had to mainly fish the holes. I was wanting to teach Katy how to fly fish, but it would have been a tough river to learn on.

So we soon decided to hike up the mountain and look for signs of elk. We hiked around a while and then decided to go exploring. We headed up the road through the Routt National Forest, and I assume towards the Flat Tops, but I didn’t have a map so I’m not sure.

We had a great day just being together in the high country. I’ve been gone a lot lately, and it looks like it’s going to get worse, so it was good to get away with my little bride. We didn’t get to stay near as long as we would have liked to have.

I had ordered some Bushka’s Kitchen freeze-dried meals for lunches while we were hiking, but they didn’t make it in before we left. I’ve got a backpacking trip lined up in a few weeks, so we’ll test them out then. It’s good to see another backpacking meal company hit the market.

There are a lot of high mountain lakes, rivers and creeks I’d like to have fished. To adequately fish the high mountain lakes, you need a canoe or small jon boat. Or what else works great are float tubes. It is hard to wade a lot of the lakes because they have a soft silty bottom and you sink down pretty deep before you can get out very far.

Then there are a million trails to hike, mountains to scout and all of the high mountain adventures to hit. I took my Riton Optics binoculars and got to do a little glassing but not near as much as I wanted to. I was hoping to be able to do some serious scouting for elk but we just ran out of time.

If you want to take your family on a getaway to a super nice lodge you ought to check out Wild Skies. More information can be found at wildskies.com. The Flat Tops Cabin can sleep up to 14 people. It’d be a great cabin for family vacations, snowmobiling, fishing or elk hunting. It is a super nice cabin and a great place to use as a base camp.

To elk hunt, it would be a self-guided hunt. I think the smart thing would be to do a family vacation in July or August and combine it as an elk scouting trip. Then run back to elk hunt.

Well, our time soon ran out, and we loaded up and had to run over to Malad and visit Ron and Betsy Spomer for a few days on their Dancing Springs Ranch. That was a fun, kicked-back time to see our old friends. We did some shooting, filming and doodling. Then it was time to head back home and pound on the keyboard and crank out some articles. Don’t let the summer slip away before you do one more backcountry trip.

Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana.