Waterproofing the New Year

It's that time of year again to ponder resolutions for the new year.  You could lose that last stubborn 50 pounds, cut back on buying hunting and fishing toys, or you could do something really meaningful and make a pledge to keep your feet dry and your hunting boots looking great.  While losing a few pounds and buying fewer toys might sound more responsible, you have a much better chance of sticking to a resolution of keeping your feet dry and your hunting boots looking great.

While most of the boots I buy are advertised as waterproof - due to a GORE-TEX liner, I always treat the leather. Occasionally, the manufacturer will recommend a very specific type of leather treatment.  For example, L.L.Bean recommends a beeswax treatment (Sno-Seal™) for the leather uppers of its famous Maine Hunting Shoe.

The original tin (now empty) of Bear Grease

Growing up we used Bear Grease exclusively to treat and waterproof our leather boots.  In fact, when my younger brother first came home from the hospital, my dad put a coat of Bear Grease on him to keep him soft and supple.  Mom was a bit upset at first, but the waterproofing hardly changed little brother's appearance at all.  He was, however, a bit more difficult to hold on to in the bath.

Interestingly, nowhere does it say that Bear Grease is, in fact, that, Bear Grease.  It is the trade name, but I wonder if there was any bear grease in the product?  It was manufactured in Detroit, Michigan and it did look like grease...of the mechanical kind.  Was this a Motown by-product and not the byproduct of Ursus Americanus?  Who knows.  We had this tin (first photo) in our house for years.  Whenever we got new leather boots, we knew to Bear Grease them.  We didn't even know there were other waterproofing treatments available at the time.

BearGuard, wild beeswax and bear fat (grease sounds better)

In my search to find whether Bear Grease was (still) available as a leather treatment, I came across Foggy Mountain BearGuard (www.bootgrease.com).  The name implies that the product guards bears, perhaps even waterproofing them.  However, the product, a combination of beeswax and bear fat, is used to treat leather.  For the record, I think "grease" sounds loads better than "fat."

We had a nice wind storm around the holidays and lost power for several hours.  Once I fired up the wood stove I thought it would be a good time to test out BearGuard.  I warmed my boots, warmed the BearGuard, applied the BearGuard, then wiped off any excess.  I waterproofed my Irish Setter Wingshooter boots first.  Those came out pretty well, so I started on my Cabela's deer hunting boots (below).  Bear Guard does darken the leather on lighter colored boots, but it cleans them up nice.

Boots before and after BearGuard

My daughter said that the BearGuard cleans them up too well and they lose their tough-looking patina.  OK, she didn't use the word "patina," but I knew that was what she meant.

What waterproofing/leather treatment do you use on your leather products?  I read that animal oils and fats can rot boots.  However, further reading indicates that poor leather care, not natural oils rots the leather.  There are similar myths about beeswax allowing leather to breath more than animal oils/grease/fat.  The bottom line is no leather waterproofer allows leather to breath...otherwise it wouldn't work as a waterproofer.  I'd appreciate your thoughts and comments.  (Even if you choose to leave a comment anonymously, which is the most convenient for most people, please sign off on your comment with your first name so I know to whom I'm replying.)

Happy days afield and best of luck with your New Year's resolutions, whatever they may be.

The winter solstice:

A. The shortest day of the year
B. The longest night of the year
C. The Mayan end of the world
D. Time to plan a fishing trip

Me and Dad at Libby's a few years back

Forget that it is the shortest day of the year or the darkest day. Forget that some think the Mayans predicted that the world will end today. Let's be honest, can you think of a better time to start planning a late-spring fishing trip? Yes, the correct answer is D.  Thoughts of standing in a clear mountain river with the sun warming up the day, eager trout taking your poorly cast fly, enjoying the day with family...you get the idea...warm and idyllic. This seems a lot better than perpetual darkness or the end-time. Come on, you can't have the end-time right before Christmas. You'd never know whether you got the rod or reel, hunting jacket, pocket knife, or SmartWool socks you wanted.

I started planning for the annual fishing trip that my brothers and I take with our dad. OK, it's not always every year, but we try. We are looking for a motel and trying to nail down prospective dates between children graduating from college and work commitments.

brother Jim at Bog River Falls

Last year we fished the West Branch of the Ausable River in New York. It was our first time on the river and we were guided by our cousin Jim Boucher (pronounced Bushey). This was confusing since my brother's name is also Jim (last name Boushie, pronounced Bushey). Hence all fishing stories reference "cousin" Jim and/or "brother" Jim. We had a great time. One reason may have been that we actually caught a fair number of fish. A fair number of fish for us was some fish, any fish. We even caught some smallmouth bass over on Tupper Lake. Pretty astounding for our group.

Dad and cousin Jim on Ausable (real fish)

We hope to catch even more fish this year. We are also hoping brother Kirk can come, that our waders don't leak, that no one's reel breaks, and that only an acceptable number of flies and lures are lost.

I wish you and your families a very merry Christmas and happy, healthy New Year.  Happy days afield.

Mountain Gazette, December 20, 2012 edition, page 11

I contacted Brenda Boutin, owner of the Mountain Gazette, back in November with the idea of writing a recurring feature that focuses on outdoor news (broadly defined).  The idea is to try to capture all the local scenery that makes up what it is to hunt, fish, and enjoy the outdoors in Vermont.  I'll be reporting on local hunting and fishing news for Bolton, Cambridge, Jericho, Underhill, Westford, and Jeffersonville.  This will include interviews with outdoorsman and women, hunting and fishing insights, hunting and camp stories (some real), gun dog stories, game reports, and a smorgasbord of hunting and fishing stuff – whatever is in season.

This year I had my first deer hunting trifecta.  To most interpretations that would be getting a deer during each of bow, rifle, and muzzleloader seasons.  That didn’t happen.  My personal trifecta was not getting deer in Vermont, New York, or New Hampshire.  It takes a nice investment in out-of-state licenses and some planning to get skunked in three different states in the same year.  I’m proud to say I was up for the challenge and was not found wanting…I guess I was found wanting.  On the positive side, I was able to hunt with many fine people – my dad and his good friend Dick in New York; my friends Jim and Paul here in Vermont; and my brother, cousin, and brother’s friend Gary in New Hampshire.  It is great to get a deer, but it is also a lot of fun to get outside with family and friends or to have the opportunity to introduce or reintroduce people to the outdoor sports.

Fortunately many of the hunters in Vermont fared better than I did.  There are two big game reporting stations in our readership area, Jericho General Store and Cambridge Village Market.  Mel Mitchel, owner of the Jericho General Store, reports that the number of deer reported this year was up over last year, with a total of 412 deer reported in 2012.  The breakdown is 119 deer taken by bow, 36 deer taken during youth weekend, 181 deer taken during rifle season, and 76 taken by muzzleloader.  The largest deer reported was a 192 pounder taken during rifle season.  At the time this article goes to press, I am waiting to hear from Bruce MacMillan, owner of Cambridge Village Market.  I will include the information I receive from Bruce in a future column.  In addition, I still hope to hear from our local game wardens to get an informal report of notable deer season events… the good, the bad, and the just plain interesting.

My takeaway from deer season this year is that a GPS can save you from a lot of extra walking, but only if it doesn’t quit on you.  Second, always be ready for your GPS to quit on you and know how to use a compass.  And lastly, thanks L.L.Bean for exchanging my dead GPS for a brand new one.

Looking ahead to 2013, it would be great to match up some willing landowners and youth hunters looking for a chance to bag their first deer.  If you are fortunate enough to have some property that holds some deer and would be willing to let some young hunter hunt there, send me an e-mail and we can try to match up some opportunities.

There are some upcoming outdoor events on the calendar.  The 21st Yankee Sportsman’s Classic is scheduled for January 18th through 20th.  While the event is great if you want to book a trip, they also have many useful seminars on hunting and fishing.  It is a nice diversion between seasons and you always bump into good folks you know.  The Central Vermont Chapter of Trout Unlimited is having its annual banquet on March 23rd.  The guest speaker will be Lauri Simon, the Executive Director for Casting for Recovery – an organization that provides an opportunity for women whose lives have been affected by breast cancer to gather in a natural setting, learn the sport of fly fishing, and address quality of life and survivorship issues while gaining support from others in similar circumstances (http://castingforrecovery.org/wordpress/home/).  For information about Trout Unlimited meetings and other events, please go to http://www.vttu.org/.

If you have any information that you think is newsworthy or a hunting or fishing story that you just want to tell, please contact the Mountain Gazette.  You can also contact me directly through e-mail or by commenting on my blog.  I can be reached at Kristopher@SportingAfield.net or visit www.sportingafield.blogspot.com.   I promise not to give away a favorite hunting spot or fishing hole...but I am certainly willing to accept an invitation if one is offered. As my friends will attest, I am guaranteed to leave game in the field.  And please, send me a photo or two if you have them.  Happy days afield.

When "way points" go away

As I wrote in a previous blog post, my "anniversary" DeLorme GPS met an untimely and inconvenient death.  With its passing went the passing of all my treasured way points - those points of interest where a partridge was flushed, where I found a deer scrape, where Adirondack trail heads or rendezvous points were, and so on.

A new GPS means new way points.  The first way point for my new Garmin etrex 20 was my home.  I'm not sure why I even have that flagged since I have not yet been unable to find my own house.  In fact, my only real concern is finding my truck at the end of a day.  I'm usually good about hitting the relevant logging road, it's the question of which way to turn down the road that is the problem.  A wrong answer can mean miles of extra walking...usually in the dark.

With the new Garmin BaseCamp software I purchased with the GPS I am hopeful that I can now have all my way points backed up on my computer.

I went for a 3.4 mile hike up Flynn Hill today to see if I could find a deer scrape that I noticed when hunting earlier in the year.  (Flynn Hill is in the foreground of this picture taken from Jim's dooryard.)  I found the scrape, but it appeared that an angry buck had broken off the overhanging branches.  I also noticed two hunting stands nearby.  It may or may not be a good area to hunt, but it seems to be overcrowded.  The hike provided a perfect opportunity to put my new Garmin etrex 20 GPS through its paces.  So far, so good.  I've been impressed with the features, the ease of accessing the features, and the battery life.

I'd rate my hike a success, and if Jim every needs to know where his house is, it has been flagged.

I'm starting on my next article for the Mountain Gazette, since it appears that my first installment has not been rejected.  Now that deer season is over, I thought it would be interesting to write about how to go about scouting new hunting areas for next year.  If you have any thoughts on the topic I'd love to hear from you.  You can comment to this blog post or e-mail me at kristopher@sportingafield.net.

Hunting gear and other weighty topics

I'm always interested in what different hunters conclude is essential hunting gear.  Essential being defined as essential enough to carry on your person all day long.

I drove to New Hampshire last Friday to visit my brother Kirk and to hunt the last weekend of rifle season.  If there is anyone who enjoys new hunting toys as much as I do, it is Kirk.  We were joined at Kirk's by his friend Gary.  One of the first orders of business was to see who had what.  Gary, who hadn't hunted since he was about 13, won the category of newest stuff.  He arrived with bag upon bag of clothing and gear from Cabela's (located not too far from his home in Connecticut).  Gary had a couple new hats, new gloves, new coat, new pants, new boots, new remote-controlled electronic foot warmers, new thermos....  You get the idea.  Two things Gary lacked where a rifle (he was borrowing one of Kirk's) and a hunting knife (he also borrowed one from Kirk).  I know that by next year he'll have his own gun and a hunting knife or two.

Gary's remote-controlled foot warmers were the most exotic gear anyone had.  Total gear, including rifles, carried into the field weighed between 23 and 29 pounds.  At 29 pounds of gear, Kirk won.  But to be fair, Kirk was traveling light.  He has shaved pounds off the amount he carried several years ago when he got back into hunting.  It is funny how after carrying a lot of gear around for a day or so causes you to reassess what is really necessary.

Leon Leonwood Karma Restored - I like to carry a GPS into the woods.  However, I only find a GPS worth carrying when it actually works.  When a GPS works, it is useful in marking way points and buck scrapes, and it leads me directly back to where I parked.  That said, I rely primarily on my compass when I'm in the woods.  My GPS rests in my pocket waiting to show me the most direct route back to my car at the end of a hunt.

My DeLorme Earthmate PN-20 GPS died my last weekend of hunting.  In the immortal words of Dr. Bell, "that was unfortunate."  I had purchased the DeLorme GPS at L.L.Bean in Freeport, Maine, the summer of 2009 when my wife and I were on vacation celebrating our 25th anniversary.  So clearly, this GPS had emotional value.

The good news was that I was passing the L.L.Bean store in West Lebanon, NH on my way back from Kirk's.  It seemed like a good opportunity to test Bean's return policy (a policy I questioned since my less-than-satisfactory experience returning some leaky waders earlier this year).

I stopped in the store and the sales associate looked at my DeLorme GPS, took the batteries out and gave them back to me, then gave me a credit of $299.  The credit was given because the unit was discontinued and the newer unit was out of stock.  I thought why replace the GPS that died with another GPS of the same manufacturer?  So I decided to get a Garmin etrex 20 which retailed for about $199.  Since L.L.Bean only had the display unit, they took 10 percent off.  I also got a $10 gift certificate for my purchase.  I felt pretty good about how I had been treated.  Good Karma restored.

Above is a picture of my new Garmin etrex 20.  I took this picture to show that the etrex actually is able to pick up 7 satellites from inside the house.  This was something that my DeLorme GPS could not do.  To be honest, I'm not old enough yet to need a GPS inside my house, but it was an interesting experiment.  So far I've been very pleased with the etrex.  The menu is very straight forward and all features seem easy to access.  If it only showed where the deer were.

Four Guys...and no deer

This past Sunday I completed my first trifecta...three states, no deer, and one year.  Despite the lack of meat in the freezer I had a good time.  I had an opportunity to hunt with my dad, my brother, my cousin, and several friends in 2012.  That is a successful year by any measure.

The picture to the left of my cousin Mike, brother Kirk, me, and friend Gary was taken at the base of Bear Hill in Hillsborough, NH.  This was taken last Sunday using a small tripod mounted on the hood of my truck.  Sunday was the dry day.

Personally, if I'm not going to see or shoot any deer, I prefer to enjoy that experience in pleasant weather.  There is nothing so uncomfortable and demoralizing as facing deer rejection while being wet and cold.

The picture to the right is of a beaver pond in Bear Brook State Park in New Hampshire, where we hunted last Saturday.  I think the picture captures to bright, sunny, optimistic spirit of the hunt that day.  Did I mention it poured?

If we had hunted a third day I know Gary would have had new hunting clothes or gear to try out.  Cabela's heartily endorsed us four getting together for what we (and Cabela's) hope(s) is the first of many hunting weekends together.

On an unrelated topic, I submitted my first installment of Sporting Afield - Outdoor Report to the Mountain Gazette today.  I will post a link when the paper comes out.

Chester gets a job

Stopped by the Jericho General Store this morning and caught Mel teaching his English Setter pup, Chester, to work the cash register. He rang up my sale fine, but he had a heck of time making correct change!

One more day until I head to New Hampshire for the last weekend of rifle season. I'm sure there will be stories to tell...some real. I am mostly packed - I still have everything out from muzzleloader season here in Vermont (much to my wife's dismay).

I'm hoping we get out in the woods early on Saturday. There is no telling how crowded the area will be where we want to hunt since it is relatively close to Manchester. If the woods become too crowded we can hunt closer to Hillsborough in the afternoon. You'll read all about it in the coming days.

I'm right here. Where are you?

After a couple days of hunting with my muzzleloader (Thompson/Center Triumph) in the hills of Underhill, I decided it was time to spend a day in the office...to work on my blog. The photo was taken yesterday just below the top of a local hill. Extra credit if you can identify it. (Jim and Paul are not eligible for this contest with no prize.)

I was hunting with Jim and Paul (those not eligible), who both had doe tags (only relevant if they had shot a deer). We were hoping to push deer to each other as we moved through the woods. We were hunting land that Jim has hunted for decades - certainly long before I moved back to Vermont, so he knows the landscape quite well. Jim would call periodically on his cell phone to see where everyone was. Whenever he'd call to ask where I was, I answered the only honest way I could think of, "I'm right here," I'd say; "where are you?" I didn't see Jim the rest of the day.

We saw lots of sign and a possible bear denning site. Jim and Paul were too cowardly to venture a poke inside while I provided backup security. They don't make men like they used to. In hindsight, I just should have dared them to do it. After all, it is all in the presentation of the challenge.

I leave Friday to head over to New Hampshire to probably not shoot any deer with my brother Kirk, cousin Mike, and Kirk's friend Gary. We are hunting Bear Brook State Park Saturday and somewhere around Hillsborough on Sunday. It will be the last weekend of rifle season in the Granite State.

After the hunt on Saturday, I plan on taking an inventory of what everyone lugged into the woods - with extra points for total cumulative weight. It is always interesting, at least to me, to see what each person views as an essential piece of hunting gear. When I was hunting in the Adirondacks this past October with my dad and his friend Dick, we were comparing hunting knives. Dick commented on the extra weight of my knife, which I'm proud to say is a Case with 4 interchangeable blades, compared to his single-blade knife. What amused me about his comment was not the ounces I could save with a smaller knife, but the amount of additional gear I could carry if I shed a needed 20 or so pounds. Speaking of hunting gear...while I am not certain, there seems to be an inverse relationship between hunting success and the total number of batteries carried afield (excluding, perhaps, batteries in watches). Saturday's inventory will include a battery count.

Tonight I'm heading to the Central Vermont Chapter of Trout Unlimited meeting over in South Burlington at the Best Western hotel in the Windjammer conference room. The meeting starts at 7PM and the speaker will be "the insighful and always entertaining" Bob Shannon, the owner of the Flyrod Shop in Stowe. As always they will have bucket raffle prizes and complimentary refreshments.

Happy days afield.

Thanksgiving Day Deer

Back in "the day" you might hear about a buddy getting a deer from the buddy himself, or another friend, or down at the general store, or at the check-in station (often the same place as the general store). Nothing is so simple today. I was down in Connecticut, celebrating Thanksgiving with family, when my daughter told me my friend Jim back in Underhill got a buck. My daughter, Maddie, had just received a "tweet" (from Twitter) from Jim's daughter - with a happy picture of Jim attached. News travels very fast these days. Now to be politically correct, Jim's daughter's photo didn't show Jim's deer, only Jim sitting down with a BIG smile on his face.

Here is a picture of Jim's buck that he was smiling about. I stopped up to take a look at the deer on Sunday and to ask Jim about the particulars. He shot the deer in Underhill, around 7 AM on Thanksgiving morning. He was a nice 6 pointer and weighted in at 166 pounds (the deer, although that could probably apply to Jim too...though not the 6 points). Jim said he was waiting for some deer to move through a ledge cut he had scouted. Sure enough he saw a big doe start through the cut, followed by a smaller doe. Immediately after the does passed through, along came the buck. I think Jim said it was about a 50 yard shot. He dropped it with a couple shots from his Ruger Model 77 30-06 with a 3x to 9x Leupold scope.

To the right is a picture of Jim being supervised in his barn by his Lab Abby. Jim said he always wanted to get a deer on Thanksgiving Day. Just another blessing to be thankful for, living here in Vermont. And while news may not travel like it used to, nothing changes the shear excitement of hunting or filling your tag.

Congrats Jim and good luck during muzzle-loader season!

I'll work on the formatting in future posts. I'm still trying to figure this damn thing out!

Hunting Stories...everyone has one

My wife, Karen, and I just returned from a lovely Thanksgiving celebration at my brother's house in Connecticut. I told my family that I was writing a hunting and fishing blog and would be writing an outdoor column for the Mountain Gazette. That was the cue needed for the "did I ever tell you about the time" stories to begin. My first editorial comment was, "I can't write about that, that was illegal!" To which the storyteller responded, "yeah, don't write about that."

That is the beauty of hunting stories...everyone has one - even if it isn't their own. I just talked to my buddy Jim tonight who shot a buck up in Underhill on Thanksgiving Day. I know there will be a story connected to the deer when I stop by to admire Jim's buck. No one has more hunting stories than my cousin Sonny. Sonny has spent a lifetime hunting in the Adirondack mountains around Tupper Lake. Sonny deserves his own blog post and will get one in the near future.

Speaking of hunting stories; send me yours. You can contact me at Kristopher@SportingAfield.net. If you have a good story about hunting maybe you'll read about yourself in the Mountain Gazette. Also send me any hunting or fishing news you think worthy of print. I want to make my column "Sporting Afield Outdoor Report" as useful and interesting as possible. All story embellishments will be kept strictly confidential, although the readers are smart enough to know that no one gets a 200-yard shot at a running deer in the Vermont woods.

First blog post for Sporting Afield

Wow, my first blog post for this blog. I'm sure this is the road to fame and fortune.  We'll call this my background blog post.

I grew up in Vermont reading Ranger Rick magazine, learning the fine art of woodcraft from the alpha males in my family - such as the never-fail way to start fires with petroleum products, and roaming the hills with family and friends. Now, I'm like an aged version of Ranger Rick, with much more fur, who developed a predatory instinct unfit for a children's magazine. I've been described as an outdoorsman with more enthusiasm than skill. I have certainly experienced less success using more techniques and gear than your average hunter or fisherman.

The intent of this blog is to capture all the local scenery that makes up what it is to hunt, fish, and enjoy the outdoors in Vermont. I'll be reporting on local hunting and fishing news for Bolton, Cambridge, Jericho, Underhill, Westford, and Jeffersonville, Vermont. My blog posts will include interviews with outdoorsman and women, hunting and fishing insights, hunting and camp stories (some real), gun dog stories, game reports, perhaps some product reviews, and a smorgasbord of hunting and fishing stuff – whatever is in season.

What will make this a great blog is to hear from you. If you have any information or story that you think is newsworthy or you just want to tell, please comment on my blog or send me an e-mail. And please, send me a photo or two if you have them. I promise not to give away a favorite hunting spot or fishing hole...but I am certainly willing to accept an invitation if one is offered. I am guaranteed to leave game in the field.

Let the mixed metaphors and trite outdoor expressions begin!

I spoke with Mel at Jericho General Store today and he said he has already checked in about 140 deer, up from last year. The largest deer so far was just under 200 pounds.