Mountaineer Chronicles

Fall will quickly be upon us here in Mountain State. For most, this means the return of WVU football, changing leaves, cooler temps, and the quickly approaching fall hunting seasons. To me, all of these are a welcome change. The sweltering heat of summer and I do not get along well.  Who doesn't love college football?  For many outdoorsmen and women, the thought of a brisk October evening perched high in a tree waiting on a whitetail buck while orange and yellow leaves softly drop to the forest floor below is a special experience for which they long all summer.  I'm no stranger to the allure of fall. Crunchy leaves, back yard bonfires on cool evening, and that distinct smell of early evenings... Who, besides me, is ready for fall?

I've started to realize that sometimes with my somewhat limited time to get outside, either for fishing, hunting, hiking, or sightseeing, I get in too much of a rush to see everything , and therefore overlook whats in front of me. I try to just cram two or threes days worth into just one day. All too much, I get too hung up on maximizing the efficiency of my time fishing. Efficiency when it comes to fishing is the number of fish caught per hour, or if targeting big fish, it could be the total inches of fish caught per hour. Sometimes it can even be about just covering as much water as possible. All of these metrics of fishing success or efficiency again cause me to rush. Places like this are too special to rush through Even when hunting, I get caught up in this mode. In order to explore as much territory as possible, I've found myself rushing through cover while stillhunting, which usually just leads to spooked quarry. This rush, either while hunting or fishing, ultimat

Most all of us make resolutions or goals at each New Year. Some think it is silly, but our human nature sees the New Year as a time of renewal, and as such I feel it is a good time to refocus our personal efforts, whether or not you want to call them "resolutions". I, along with my wife, have made a list of some things we want to accomplish in our personal and spiritual lives, but those goals are personal, and wouldn't be all that interesting to share anyway. That said, I'm going to share a handful of outdoor activity related goals down here. I know most of these are of little real consequence, but are things I want to accomplish this year nonetheless. Here goes: Fishing Goals: Catch a fish in every month of the year (this is usually tough for me because I get so focused on hunting in the fall). In WV, catch one new species of fish (northern pike, hybrid striper, tiger musky), and/or a species I haven't caught in a few years at least (flathead catfish, m

I didn't keep that great of a log, but to the best of my recollection, I fished on about 20 different days in 2013. That certainly isn't a ton of time compared to some, but is quite a lot for others. Some of my trips were all day, some were not much more than an hour. Overall I didn't catch anything enormous, but I think I did well considering. Here are some highlights from the year. First fish of the year and the only one I ate First trout of the year - gotta start somewhere First and largest brown of the year - early March, Savage River I always spend a lot of time after these guys each year For better or worse, a lot of my small stream brook trout fishing is with this guy Sometimes those rough fish can be pretty - this is a spawning male striped shiner from NF at Seneca Rocks I lucked into several slab crappies like this from the Mon Of course fishing the Mon, you'll catch some sauger too This monster redbreast sunfish came from De

Well it's mid-January. When I leave for work in the morning, its dark. When I get home from work its dark. This is the time of year when cabin fever can set in. Big time. Here in WV, the winters certainly aren't cold enough to preclude all outdoor recreation, but the conditions certainly aren't optimal. Given my limited time to "do" outdoorsy stuff because of other commitments, limited finances, and limited vacation time, I've been opting to save a lot of my excursions for when weather conditions are more optimal. Sometimes regardless of the weather, a hike through the snow can be fun! That gives me lots of indoor time this time of year. Traditional flyfishing wisdom says I should be tying flies to stock up for the upcoming spring hatches. I do tie some of my own flies, but I'm not good enough or efficient enough to tie all of what I need. Maybe I need to just get back at the tying bench and rekindle my desire to pump out some flies. A few asso

Well its been quite a while since my last post, but that is mainly because I've been using as much spare time as possible to put a few deer in the freezer. Frustration and bad luck has been the theme of my hunting season for most of the year. I am participating in the Morgantown urban archery season, which started in early September. The purpose of this season is mainly population control, so each hunter is required to take a doe before harvesting a buck. I wholeheartedly agree that this is a necessary and useful regulation for this hunt, but even though I persevered and put in plenty of stand time, I was unable to harvest a doe. I missed out on a few early opportunities to take a doe in October, but otherwise I just was not seeing many, if any, deer within range. The major kick in the pants came the second week of November when I had to watch as this guy fed within 10 yards of me for about 10 minutes. I was in the tree just above watching as the trailcam snapped this picture, an

Pretty much all deer hunters have heard the old saying "once a spike, always a spike." This phrase was (and is) thrown around by folks who believe that when a buck has small antlers, it will stay like that its entire life, and is mainly attributed to poor genetics. This phrase has been widely disproved in recent years as many studies have shown that the majority of bucks killed are quite young, and that the vast majority of spikes are in their first year of antler growth.  The point of this post is not to start a debate on buck harvest ideologies, but rather to show definitive proof that spikes don't always stay spikes. I posted this picture in my last blog, and its a picture I took from my treestand last year of a small spike (approximately 6-7" high) I saw last year several times.  You can't really tell from this picture, but this guy had a very gimpy back leg.  It looked as though he was hit by a car, which possibly broke his leg and caused it to heal in a

I've been slacking on writing any blog entries for a few months.  My last entry was about WV day, and its now early September, but I've gotten re-inspired to post.  Its mostly due to my cousin who has started a blog herself, and her entries have inspired me to write again.  She writes about running, family, faith, and "frilly dresses." If that interests you check out her blog here . Onto the topic I want to write about....Fall.  It is certainly my favorite season of the year. Fall in Mountaineer territory is a gorgeous site with mountains ablaze with the red, orange, and yellow of the changing leaves. A view of the fall colors on upper Shaver's Fork in WV I know many people love the warm weather of summer, but the crisp temps, lower humidity, and clear blue skies are in my opinion the perfect weather combination - not too cold to be a nuisance, but not so hot to make it unbearable. Along with the change of weather comes many other welcome changes for me.

As of yesterday, West Virginia, the great state I have called my home my entire life, turned 149 years old. I've had the privilege to explore and travel over almost all of this state.  I've explored the history of Harper's Ferry and the secluded wilderness of Monongahela National Forest. I've visited the exhibition coal mine in Beckley and have whitewater rafted the Cheat River. I've attended WVU football games with 65,000 other passionate fans and have had moments alone in the woods where it was just nature, God and me. I've dapped small flies in tiny mountain streams to catch brook trout, and have used large surf rods on our big rivers to tangle with heavy catfish. I feel truly blessed to call myself a native West Virginian and to still call this wonderfully diverse state my home. It really is almost heaven, and there is no place I would rather call home. Happy Birthday West Virginia! Montani semper liberi

This will be a blog about different activities I enjoy, and others may find interesting: fishing, hunting, foraging, gardening, cooking and sports, among others. All of these activities are enjoyable to me and could be classified as recreation, but a few have really become a way of life for me, and my passion for them I hope to convey to others. I have a strong commitment to my God, family, church, and country, and as such, those convictions will be conveyed through many of my posts as well. I look forward to sharing some of my favorite things with others through this blog.