Palouse Outdoors – Boot Leather Wins Wild Birds
Originally Published in The Waitsburg Times, November 2nd, 2023. It’s an utter fact, proven time and again, particularly in a state like Washington: wild birds in the vest are won with “boot leather,” so to speak. Even in a spectacular wild bird year, by December, pheasants are scarce in the public covers of the Palouse. … Read more Palouse Outdoors – Boot Leather Wins Wild Birds
Covers Magazine – Grouse Camp Revival
Covers – Summer 2023 Edition Middle age, the sequential loss of close friends and my dad and being far removed from my hometown, and missing family traditions had compounded into depression and anxiety. The ruffed grouse season opener came and went with little notice; something I had eagerly awaited in years past. The hunt itself … Read more Covers Magazine – Grouse Camp Revival
Upland Pursuits – The Wild Turkey Conservation Success Story
Published April 15th, 2023 in the La Grande Observer One rainy fall morning, I found myself sitting quietly in an old hay shack on the edge of an alfalfa field. My friend Dan sat to my right. A calico barn cat desperate for friendship perched upon a hay bale to my left. As dawn cracked, … Read more Upland Pursuits – The Wild Turkey Conservation Success Story
Palouse Outdoors – A Fine Morning for Waterfowl
As I neared the river, a fog bank appeared on the horizon – an impenetrable wall set along the highway corridor. It was disheartening to watch a beautiful January day disappear in the rearview as the sun-shrouding humidity swallowed me whole, but the foggy conditions were arguably better for jump-shooting waterfowl. Sunlight glinting from gun … Read more Palouse Outdoors – A Fine Morning for Waterfowl
Pheasants Forever Journal – Women on the Wing Soars in Washington State
Published in the Pheasants Forever Journal Winter 2023 edition. In 2022, Blue Mountain Pheasants Forever, Chapter #258, started a Women on the Wing program to diversify the Chapter’s outreach and opportunities. The initiate was wildly successful and contributed to the Chapter winning the Pheasants Forever National Award for Education and Outreach. I am extremely proud … Read more Pheasants Forever Journal – Women on the Wing Soars in Washington State
Harvesting Nature Magazine – Continuing the Collared Dove Tradition
“I pulled the stock and barrels of the sleek Ruger “Red Label” twelve-gauge over/under from the green, leather-lined canvas case. It had been a little over a year since the fine double gun had seen the light of day, and nearly two years since it saw an upland bird season. It was odd to see … Read more Harvesting Nature Magazine – Continuing the Collared Dove Tradition
Steppe Outside – The Beauty of Winter on the Palouse
Published December 2022 in the Walla Walla Union Bulletin. “Still and sunny are rarely simultaneous conditions that present a coveted winter morning in the Walla Walla Valley. Freezing fog often forms thorny ice spikes on the grasses and broken-down fencerows, and limits visibility to feet at times. When enshrouded in fog, the landscape feels like … Read more Steppe Outside – The Beauty of Winter on the Palouse
Harvesting Nature Magazine – Seep Lakes Rainbows
The warm rays of the early March sun cast across my shoulders, combating the fifty-something degree water that encapsulated my lower body. The drag on my five-weight fly reel zinged against the heavy pressure of a desert rainbow making haste for the opposite end of the small lake. Among the shoreline reeds, red-winged blackbirds cackled … Read more Harvesting Nature Magazine – Seep Lakes Rainbows
Backcountry Journal – Modest Land Mule Deer
Published in the Backcountry Journal, Fall 2021 Edition “The meager acreage is nothing special, absurdly steep and completely land-locked, save for a river crossing. Scarcely worth the effort for a half-day hunt among the larger state and federal tracts with easier access in the region… This superlative morning of my 30 years pursuing deer, we … Read more Backcountry Journal – Modest Land Mule Deer
Upland Pursuits – The Caddis Revolution
Published in the East Oregonian, July 16th 2021 If you’re a fly-fisherman, think back on your first trout on the fly. Can you remember it? Turns out I cannot, but I do recall my teenage years spent trying to crack the code on mountain brook trout in Appalachia. While my casting skill left much to … Read more Upland Pursuits – The Caddis Revolution
Harvesting Nature – The Phenological Calendar of Kokanee
The Phenological Calendar of Kokanee – Harvesting Nature Whether you realize it or not, most outdoor enthusiasts are phenological scientists. You may never have published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal or even considered proper phenology as practical in everyday life. Maybe you’ve never even heard of phenology. But if you appreciate the outdoors or even … Read more Harvesting Nature – The Phenological Calendar of Kokanee
Upland Pursuits: A Brief History of the H&R Topper Model 158
You recognize the name, but shrug with indifference at its mention. In mint condition, their shotguns compare not to the finer side-by-sides of the past. They sell for pennies on the dollar relative to the spendy, yet (occasionally) affordable names like Fox and L.C. Smith, and may as well be a door prize for simply … Read more Upland Pursuits: A Brief History of the H&R Topper Model 158
Palouse Outdoors – Restoring an Heirloom
I don’t know when dad purchased the gun or from whom or where, but one of its few outings captured on film was in 1981. Dad had hunted a gray squirrel on his parent’s farm in what used to be the middle-of-nowhere Appalachia. The Herrington and Richardson Topper Model 158 (H&R) was the shotgun built … Read more Palouse Outdoors – Restoring an Heirloom
Upland Pursuits – Status and Conservation of Oregon’s Mountain Quail
“…the covey scurried across the trail ahead and levitated above the sage, sailing elegantly into the safety of a nearby snarl. Mountain quail. “Read more Upland Pursuits – Status and Conservation of Oregon’s Mountain Quail
Upland Pursuits: No Shortage of Good Days
“Any day catching wild trout on the fly is a good day” I said to my buddy Jim as we traversed a bedrock cascade on one of our favorite mountain trout streams. It had been a couple years since I visited my Virginia home town, so we capitalized on my impromptu June arrival to carry … Read more Upland Pursuits: No Shortage of Good Days
Walla Walla Union Bulletin – Tenkara Angling for Mountain Trout
The sun sets early in the deep canyons of Kelly Creek in the Idaho wilderness; the opulent evening glow casting an amber hue upon considerable granite outcrops and emerald pools below. Rugged ridges and peaks reach skyward looming over the river, defying its brazen attempts to break free of their control. Diminutive yellow stoneflies flitter … Read more Walla Walla Union Bulletin – Tenkara Angling for Mountain Trout
CZ Bobwhite G2 – A Side-by-Side Shotgun for Practical Upland Bird Hunters
UPDATE – I purchased my CZ Bobwhite in 2019 and stand by my earlier perspective on this affordable little upland double. The finish is fading on the barrels near the action and the bottom corners of the box. Otherwise, it’s exactly the same gun it was when I bought it. At just $650, this sleek … Read more CZ Bobwhite G2 – A Side-by-Side Shotgun for Practical Upland Bird Hunters
Palouse Outdoors – The Autumn Stream Palette
Published October 3rd, 2019, The Waitsburg Times Fall is undoubtedly the most anticipated and contested season of the year, and rightfully so in both regards. The fat days of summer are quickly drawing to a close at our latitude, even more dramatically in climates further north. Darkness cloaks our early waking hours and morning routines, … Read more Palouse Outdoors – The Autumn Stream Palette
Strung Magazine – From Raghorns to Riches
An special draw elk hunt in Idaho’s Unit 37, Big Lost Wilderness, gave us four seasons with warm summer sun, firgid winter temps, gale-force winds, snow and fog, forty-five miles of steep mountain terrain, botched stalks, and sleepless nights. What we took from it? Incredible scenery, solitude, mental and physical health, and in the end, … Read more Strung Magazine – From Raghorns to Riches
Pheasant Hunting the Walla Walla Valley Uplands
Published in the Union Bulletin, September 23rd, 2018. I sat alone in the gray calm of dawn, gazing contently across my food plot. A few wary whitetails snagged a snack on their morning commute. Steam curled up from a hot cup of coffee, tickling the hairs on my face and nose as I sipped in … Read more Pheasant Hunting the Walla Walla Valley Uplands
The Pointing Dog Journal – Yuba
The story that kicked off my professional writing career involves my Llewellin setter, Laurel Mountain’s Yuba, who is equally responsible for my love affair with upland bird hunting. Her first rooster will never be forgotten! Yuba at 1 year old with her first pheasant – a late-season wild Palouse rooster
Palouse Upland Media 