Another year gone by already and what a year it was. I spent a lot of this year dealing with a relapse of SIBO and some other health issues but still managed to get outside every single day, got in a lot of hunting and fishing and had quite a few good trips locally, to the LA area and to British Columbia. So much, in fact, I couldn’t even really get it all in the picture grid.
The year started out cold and snowy, so snowy in fact we were pretty much housebound most of February which worked out since I was in the heat of a big security update for the project I was working on. I spent a lot of time shoveling the drive and coding while Catherine, Lira and I did all our “hiking” around town in a lot of snow.
We did some late season bird hunting in January and again in March but the red meat freezer was still on the empty side so in March I headed to Texas for a short trip in search of an Axis deer to help with the meat crisis we were barreling towards. The trip was fun even if we only saw whitetail deer and one brief glimpse of an Axis doe with fawn and now I too can remember the Alamo. The lack of success, however, put me into serious rationing mode on our meat supply to try and make the elk and venison last until fall.
Luckily the spring had a few trips to Cooke Canyon to get some more pheasant in the freezer as well as good trout fishing at Lake Alice and a bunch of foraging so we were eating well.
In April I took a trip with my friend Mark to the Big K Ranch in Oregon for a cast & blast trip for spring chinook and turkey. It was a great trip and I got my first Rio Grand turkey the first morning and the next day Mark got a nice chinook and I got a steelhead which had to be released. Coming home with some turkey and salmon was great.
Later that month we bought a trailer, a Forest River No Boundaries 16.7, and took our first trip up to Deception Pass State Park where we hiked in the park as well as some old growth forest over near Rockport. It was a great shakedown trip for the camper and, of course, we picked the hardest site to back up into for the first trip out. At least I got better at backing up as the year went on.
In early May we took the NoBo over to Riverside State Park outside of Spokane where I did some unsuccessful turkey hunting and we hiked a lot of the trails at the park. This was a great trip since the area was in full spring bloom. I returned on my own a few weeks later and finally sealed the deal on a pair of Merriam’s turkeys.
Late May had me visiting Los Angeles for Cadence’s middle school graduation. Kristen and I did some hikes in the Verdugo Mountains, went to Hollywood and I got to see the Netflix offices.
Summer brought tenkara fishing, the Backcountry Hunters and Anglers Hike to Hunt Challenge and a few camping trips. Catherine, Lira and I went up to the Teanaway with the NoBo for a few days and we did three days worth of nice hikes in the area. We will be back for sure, there are too many hikes still left to do. I returned a few weeks later with Lira for a day of tenkara in the Teanaway. I ended up finishing Hike to Hunt with 350 miles of hiking in two months and raised $350 for public lands.
In August we had our triplet visit and Marshall tagged along. We went camping at Moran State Park for several days which was definitely an adventure with three 11 year olds and a crazy labradoodle. The kids swam in the lake every day, I fished some and we all did some nice hikes in the park.
After the triplets left Catherine and I headed up to Whistler, British Columbia for a several day hiking trip through REI Adventures. Initially we had planned on going to Alaska but a SIBO relapse in June made us rethink being so remote and we switched the trip to be closer and shorter. This was an awesome trip, the hikes were spectacular and the guides and group we had were great. I wasn’t too crazy about the chair lift ride to the summit but was sure glad I did it since the hiking in the alpine on Whistler was amazing.
Early September had me back in Los Angeles for a week to watch Cadence while Kristen was at a conference. It was a fun trip, I visited the Museum of Weed and Griffith Observatory, had lunch with Dr. Keller and did a ton of hiking in the Verdugos every morning.
As soon as I returned from LA hunting season was in full swing. Lira and I had been doing some grouse hunting locally and then I took off for early muzzleloader season at the Little Pend Oreille Wildlife Refuge where I had planned to hunt whitetail and turkeys. Unfortunately I came up empty on both. Those turkeys and bucks sure know where the refuge boundaries are and where the No Hunt Zone is at in the refuge, I never saw a buck or a bird in an area where I could legally go after them. Still, it was a great trip to another area I want to go back to in the future.
October brought lots of bird hunting. Lira and I chased pheasants and chukar on both the wet and dry side of the state. I was having a tough season, lots of birds with no possible shot opportunity and quite a few missed birds. Still, we got some pheasant and chukar to help stock up the fish and fowl freezer. We took one cast & blast trip in the NoBo and managed a nice trout in the Yakima as well as a chukar.
By November our meat crisis was becoming very real. We had been rationing elk and venison most of the year and I’d just cut up the last roast into steaks. After striking out in early muzzleloader season all my hopes were resting on Montana. Chris and I took off for Dillon with buck tags in our pockets and plans to get a few doe tags each in hopes of filling up the freezer. Luckily the plan worked, Chris got his first deer and we each tagged a buck and two does in three days. Butchering six deer in a few days was a lot of work but worth it for sure and I got my first whitetail deer. Now I just have a blacktail left to tag.
I worked up until August this year again for App47 and got a bunch of security work done. In August I took off for a few months and decided not to go back to work immediately. In part it was just being too busy with hunting season but also dealing with this SIBO relapse which would just not go away. After my third month of herbal treatment I finally got the numbers down to something manageable and regained the weight I’d lost earlier in the year. I can tell that SIBO is just going to be a recurring thing with me, hopefully it goes away for a few years again.
I also took up guitar this fall after my September trip to LA where I played Kristen’s classical guitar every day. I bought myself a Taylor 214ce-DLX for my birthday and have been playing daily since then. I also bought a Kala baritone uke to travel with and practice on when not at home since the baritone and guitar are tuned the same and I’m not mixed up by having to change chords like I did with my concert uke.
In November I finally bought a bow and started practicing archery almost daily. I’m not sure I’ll ever big game hunt with the thing but I enjoy learning a new skill. I decided not to break the bank on a bow but wanted one that was going to be sufficient for hunting so ended up with a Mission Switch with the bowhunter package.
Overall a very full year. I managed to get out hunting or fishing 117 days this year which is the second most I’ve ever gotten out and I hunted and fished in 4 states in 2019 (Washington, Oregon, Texas and Montana). Somehow I’ve also hiked, walked or run over 3000 miles this year which is a somewhat crazy amount of activity. I blame it on Lira who needs out at least once a day. I got back into running late in the year and hope to do some events again in 2020.
I’m planning 2020 now. I would really like to get out turkey hunting more in the spring and have trips already planned for Washington, Oregon and Iowa and am thinking of adding in Texas or California. I would like to go after a blacktail deer and have my first archery hunt next year to round out my big game hunting experiences. We are also planning Camp Triplet for the summer and looking at more adventures with the NoBo next year.