The Religion of the Outdoors

As much as I want to avoid it, I’m sure this blog entry is going to offend someone. I want to make this perfectly clear to all that read this; the views are mine exclusively and are not meant to offend anyone. I do not preach my views to others and likewise I don’t want your views preached to me. In my eyes Religion is PERSONAL; it means something different to each person…even those of the same faith do not look at it the same way.

A quick background on my religious upbringing, I was basically brought up in a Christian home. Religion wasn’t something that was forced on my brothers and I, we were left to make decisions for ourselves when it came to choose what we believed in. I dabbled in different faiths before choosing to solely believe in science even though there were plenty of questions that it couldn’t answer. The one underlying theme in the major religions that never could grasp was that you basically worshipped one day a week…and in some religions you could be the biggest ass in the world for six days but as long as you said you were sorry, all was forgiven. I didn’t get it and I still don’t.

I was given a book called The Tracker by Tom Brown Jr. and I found it fascinating. This book wasn’t a religious book by any means; it was about a man that grew up not too far from my own hometown and his amazing abilities to track wildlife. He grew up in the pine barrens of New Jersey and was “tutored” by an Apace elder in his youth. I put parenthesis around the word “tutored” because the Native American way of teaching is far different than the schoolhouse teaching that most of us are use to. I was completely captivated by the book and the stories that he told in it. I have to admit though, as much as I enjoyed the stories I was also very skeptical of the talents he professed to have…I believed it to be somewhat fictionalized to make for a better story. Regardless of it being non-fiction or fiction, I knew I found an author that I wanted to read more of.

As I continued to read more books written by him he delved deeper into Native American spirituality and philosophy. I was completely entranced in the way they related to the natural world around them and for once I found something that made sense to me. Finally there was something I could understand and relate to! My own beliefs centered on the idea that all things had a “life force” that flowed through us and this point of view was very similar to Native American beliefs. Another similarity I was drawn to was the fact that they worshiped seven days a week and not one…apparently the Native Americans also had difficulty understanding the concept of only worshipping one day a week.

Tom Brown Jr. operates a Tracker School (www.trackerschool.com) that delves into the many teachings that he had received as a child: tracking, survival, philosophy, healing, teaching, and others. All students of his must take an initial Standard Course before choosing which of the many courses of study to go down. My best friends took the Standard Class and came back with some amazing stories that wetted my appetite to attend myself. I will not divulge much of what went on in the class but it is something that will forever change the way you view the outdoors.

I finally attended the class in August 2000 and it was incredible. I still had a deep seeded skepticism over everything this man said he could do and I was extremely curious to see him work his magic in front of me. The school site was at a farm that Tom owned and classes were held inside the barn and out on the grounds. After my arrival I started to observe all of the other students and I was amazed at the cross section of people that were there: hippies, military, hunters, vegans, elementary school teachers, nature lovers, grandmothers, foreigners. I was shocked at all the different backgrounds but we all had one thing in common, we found something in Tom’s writing that drew us all together. Never was there any kind of conflict between the wildly different personnel, we all respected each other’s differences and actually spent time learning from each other…honestly, it was nice to see what this world could be if we all could come to some sort of harmonious acceptance of each other.

As I said before, I still was very skeptical of his talents and it didn’t help things when he showed up the first morning of class and told us about everything that had happened on his front lawn the night before while we were sleeping. He did this from observing the animal tracks he saw from walking about 80 yards from his house to the barn…I was unconvinced! I thought to myself that there is no way a man could tell that much detail from just walking to the barn…besides, he had a lawn full of grass! There is no way he could see anything there…right? I still was very enthused about being there and as the days moved along he and his instructors taught us the basics of tracking as well as other primitive skills. As I started to learn about tracking I started to believe a little more of his stories but I still couldn’t believe all of his wild claims…until we actually went out tracking. All the students formed a line and we were walked out one of the many trails into the woods that were on his property. After walking a little bit we were told to stop and turn around and then the real lesson began. The last person in line was shown an animal track in the forest loam (not sand or mud) and every little detail of it was explained to them. At that point it was the student’s responsibility to explain everything about the track to the other 90+ students as they came by…meanwhile the instructors had another track for the next in line. Every one of us had a track pointed out to us and we explained that track to the rest of the students…all I can say is it was magical! The closest I can come to explaining it is with those “magic eye” pictures when all of a sudden your eyes adjust and a three dimensional picture comes out…that’s tracking! We looked at tracks from everything from crickets and mice all the way up to coyotes and deer. My own personal viewpoint of my abilities in nature changed in an instant…I use to think I was pretty observant but after this exercise I realized that I was a blind elephant stomping through the woods. The other thing I learned from this was that Tom Brown Jr. wasn’t exaggerating his abilities…if anything, he was toning them down to just what we “common folk” could see and understand.

I reluctantly left that school at the end of the week with my head in the clouds; every trip into the woods would be different from this point out. I came home to try to convey the experience to my wife and she couldn’t relate in the least. I turned to my best friends to discuss the different things I had learned at the school and since they had attended the school as well, we all we’re able to relate our combined experiences. I found myself on a path back to nature however it also was a path away from my wife.

Note: If any of my friends would like to read The Tracker, please let me know! I would be happy to ensure that you get a copy of it.

Next week: Endings and Beginnings

Underway, Shift Colors!

Towards the end of my high school experience, I spent every chance I could chasing fish. I was a kid who was painfully shy around most people but get me on the water and a new persona emerged, confident and somewhat cocky. I excelled at trout fishing and I rarely met anyone I felt knew more than me. I fell into a “meat hog” stage where I harvested as many trout as I could until one day I realized that I had far too many fish in the freezer and it was time for a change…enter catch and release fishing! To be quite honest, catch and release fishing made me even cockier because I watched all these “lesser fishermen” struggle to catch a few trout, meanwhile I would be catching as many as 40 a day!

All good things come to an end and the “real world” was quickly approaching. My mother sat me down and attempted to motivate me towards buckling down and taking school serious so I would go to college. She offered me three choices for the following year:

1. Go to college and they would only pay for “A’s” and “B’s”
2. Get a job but I had to move out of the house when I turned 18
3. Join the military

Well, Mom’s ultimatum backfired on her. I knew I wasn’t mature enough to handle college; I wasn’t a bad student but I definitely wasn’t a good student either. If a subject interested me I tended to do very well, if not I would usually skate by with minimum effort exerted. Going to work wasn’t an option either! I knew I wasn’t ready to be a bill paying adult yet, I was still a kid! I chose the last choice and my mother was distraught! I enlisted in the Navy’s delayed entry program while I still was in high school and reported to boot camp three months after graduating.

The Navy was an eye opening experience for me and meeting people from all over the country was exciting. I still was a pretty quiet kid but boot camp has a way of bringing you out of your shell some. I finally started to buckle down somewhat and fishing became my outlet for stress relief; I started to care less about the results and more about the experience of being outside. I reported to Pensacola Florida for my basic “A” school, a Mecca for a myriad of saltwater species. I expanded my saltwater fishing experiences as I chased after cobia, spanish mackerel, king mackerel, pompano, redfish, and speckled trout…oh yeah; I finally started chasing after girls as well! They were never as easy to catch as the fish and at times I had some difficult decisions on whether I would chase them or fish during the weekend.

When I reported to my first ship stationed out of Norfolk Virginia I found that I really excelled at my job. I had very good mentors that grilled me mercilessly to know my job inside and out and I relished the challenge. I spent 18 months learning how to operate my gear on the USS Virginia before returning to Pensacola for a year of technical training. Just prior to my return I was promoted and I arrived back in Pensacola somewhat cocky and arrogant. For the first time in my life I had people who wanted to know me because of my success and I definitely took advantage of it. I can’t say that I’m proud of the way I behaved then…in fact, looking back now I think I was a major ass! The one thing about me that didn’t change was my love for getting outside and I spent more hours than I can count angling for fish…and girls, and I actually had a decent success rate with both.

At the end of my technical training I reported to a training detachment for the USS Kitty Hawk in Norfolk Virginia. I arrived there with all intentions of continuing my haughty ways and set my sights on an attractive girl I knew from being stationed there before. It’s funny the curve balls life throws your way when you least expect it, I had no intention of getting into a “real relationship” but somehow I fell into one. My outdoor pursuits waned some as most of my free time was dedicated to someone that was exactly the opposite of me in every way, though I didn’t think so then. A short 2 ½ years later I was “caught” and married at the ripe old age of 23. Married life required me to actually earn money to support my “family” so instead of leaving the Navy at the end of my enlistment and going to college I chose to reenlist.

During this timeframe I did start a new outdoor pursuit that was completely foreign to me; a coworker introduced me to bass fishing; more specifically, tournament bass fishing. For a cocky young man that loved to fish, this was absolutely addicting! I was able to take an outdoor pursuit that I loved and also compete in it as well…what a rush! Tournament bass fishing was unlike anything I had ever done before, instead of taking fish for the table a great deal of effort and care was spent ensuring that the bass remained alive in aerated livewells. If a fish died you were penalized severely and in a sport that is determined by ounces, this could be very costly. Bass fishing came pretty easy to me due to my intensive background in angling for other species. There were different techniques and tackle I had to learn but overall the switch to pursuing a new species wasn’t difficult. My interest in tournament bass fishing peaked soon after I was married as I found myself in a relationship that I honestly didn’t know what I was doing in. All of our differences that I thought were exciting before we were married were magnified into major relationship issues afterwards. My solution to these issues was to do what I always did when I was stressed; I headed to the water as much as possible. I purchased a boat and threw myself into the sport and as has always been the case when it came to fishing, I became very good, very quickly!

I had two people that really influenced how I fished for bass; one fished by total instinct and the other fished logically. My friend DJ would fish where and what felt right to him and disregarded what bass fishing experts would do in the same conditions. My friend Curt on the other hand, was an engineer by trade and he looked at logical seasonal patterns and patterned his techniques and locations based on that. I fell right in the middle of both of them, I would fish logically when it suited me and at other times I would do what felt right. The truly interesting thing was that all of us were successful in the local tournaments even though we had very different approaches. I also managed to acquire some sponsors after a good friend that I had taken in as my own protégé to the sport made some timely phone calls to a regional distributor and we both lucked into some entry level deals.

As much as I love this sport I can honestly say now that it was addicting to me and as with all addictions, ultimately destructive in nature. I no longer had a relief from my normal day-to-day stressors and the sheer amount of tournaments that I was competing in became additional stress. I poured my money into new and better tackle, gas for my boat, better boating equipment, and a countless other expenses (creating even more stress). I definitely used this obsession as an escape from my marriage since early on I realized I wasn’t getting what I needed and honestly, for the first time in my life my relationship with nature was disconnected as well. I stopped enjoying all the “little things” that my outdoor pursuits had always given me and somewhat resented having to go fishing every weekend. The Navy eventually gave me the break from fishing and my marriage that I desperately needed by deploying me three times in a five year period. It was during this time that I was introduced to something that would start the change in the way I viewed the outdoors.

Next week: The Religion of the Outdoors

A modern day man reconnected with nature and our primitive past through bow hunting.

How does a man that was born and raised in the suburbs of Philadelphia decide to take up bow hunting at the age of 37? The journey was interesting to say the least but when I finally reached this destination I realized that I found something much more; I found I had awakened a part of me I never knew I had. A long-suppressed past of human interaction with nature emerged and my personal relationship with the natural world was forever changed.

I intend to update this blog weekly depending on my work schedule and of course, my hunting schedule. I’ll plan to guide you through my upbringing and initial introduction to the wild world around us, all the way up to the present with my current hunting trips. You’ll be privy to all of my preparations for a future adventure in the mountains of Colorado next September. I won’t sugar coat anything at all, every high and low I experience associated with hunting will be written about…including my thoughts on controversial topics. So let's get this blog started!

Havertown Pennsylvania is a wonderful place to grow up for the stereotypical suburban upbringing…plenty of parks and playgrounds to keep kids active outside. My days were filled with playing sports at school and plenty of childhood games in our neighborhood at home. I learned to love being outside and I preferred it over any indoor pursuits. The only thing that my neighborhood was really lacking was any true outdoor pursuit such as hunting and fishing. I realize now that I was extremely lucky, I had grandparents that lived in an adjoining township that had a one acre shallow pond behind their house. I absolutely loved going there; I would spend my days fishing for bluegills, bullheads, and carp. When I would tire of fishing there was always the creek that fed and drained the pond to explore…chasing frogs and snakes along the creek was always a thrill for me. I don’t think I could spend more than 15 minutes at my grandparent’s place before I would be covered in mud; Grammy’s mud room was aptly named!

Spending time at my Grandparent’s home also had some other added benefits; my Grammy was absolutely enthralled with watching deer. Quite often we would head out for a drive through Ridley Creek State Park at dusk to see the abundant deer and other wildlife that inhabited it. On most evenings we would see dozens of deer and rabbits; occasionally we would get lucky and spy a red fox hunting grasshoppers in the high grass. I loved these drives and I became quite adept at spying wildlife because of them.

As I grew older my fishing pursuits became more fine-tuned…I still loved playing around the pond but I had graduated to chasing trout in one of the local streams. I caught my first trout at age 13 and by the time I turned 16 I was an expert! I knew that creek’s pools and undercut banks like the back of my hand. Little Darby Creek was a stocked creek that would receive heavy loads of fish in the spring and it would be heavily pressured through April and May. I would continue to catch trout through the middle of the hottest summer days when most adult fisherman would tell me that I was foolish because “all the trout had already been caught “. I never did let on to them the success I had, I would just smile and tell them they were probably right but I’m going to give it a try anyway. My Grandparents fully supported my hobby (obsession) but they definitely installed some very important values that have stayed with me. When I caught my first trout and brought it home, I was required to clean the fish myself and my Grammy immediately cooked it for me. My Grandparents wanted me to fully understand that I was responsible for the life that I took and that was fine as long as I respected the animal by using it for food and not wasting its precious flesh. This lesson and value has stayed with me throughout my life and I will not take any animal that I don't intend on eating (or provide food for another).

I was also fortunate to have my other Grandparents living in Sea Isle City at the New Jersey shore. My summer days there were spent getting up early, wolfing down some food and running back to Pier 88 where I would spend the day fishing and catching minnows to sell to the pier and my own use. Sometimes I would run home for lunch but more often than not I was happy just to spend the entire day there fishing. I never really caught any big fish, mostly little snapper blues and occasionally a nice flounder. I was at home on the pier and loved the adventure that each day there brought and I would reluctantly be rounded up for dinner. Usually after dinner I would head back to the pier again so I could fish for the little blues that would gather under the lights. I dreamed of a day that I would own a boat so I could explore the bay and ocean to catch more (and bigger) fish. Occasionally I would get an invitation to fish out of my neighbor’s boat with him and that was always a special joy. It’s funny to me now but when most teenage boys were busy chasing girls, I was busy chasing fish (sad but true).

By now you’re probably wondering why I’m talking about fishing so much if this is a blog about hunting, correct? Well this is when I started to learn about hunting through magazines such as Outdoor Life, Field & Stream, and Sports Afield. I would purchase these magazines to learn the latest and greatest on trout and saltwater fishing but they also would carry plenty of articles on hunting. After I read and reread all of the fishing articles I would reluctantly read the hunting stories. I never understood how someone could kill something as beautiful as a deer but I was still strangely fascinated by the stories. I knew that my Pop Pop (Grandfather) said that he went hunting but he never did return with anything. I think it was his way of hanging out with his best friend away from their wives but I can’t say for sure...I’m not so sure that they even brought their rifles, more likely it was golf clubs! Anyway, I never had anyone that could positively influence me towards hunting in my family. A couple of my parent’s friends hunted but my mother would never allow her oldest son to take part in such a “barbaric sport” and quite frankly, I don’t think I was ready for it anyway.

I never realized it at the time but fishing really is just a different extension of hunting. Some animal rights groups actually find fishing to be more offensive than hunting because it is something that can be done for pure sport vice obtaining food. I definitely do not take this point of view and I highly encourage parents to get their kids involved with fishing even if they themselves were not exposed to it growing up. It is a good clean outdoor pastime that does not have to be difficult to do, for less than 10 dollars a parent can equip their child with all the utensils they need to have a great time. Most sportsmen I know will go out of their way to help a parent select the equipment needed and even tell them where they can go catch a mess of bluegills. I have never met a child that didn’t squeal with delight when they caught their first fish (and second and third)! I truly believe that a child that learns to love the outdoors is far better off than one than one that loves video games.

Next week: Underway, shift colors!