Mountaineer Chronicles

I feel like people either love or hate this guy. There is no middle ground for the most part. Personally, I like the guy. The only problem I have is when he shows up late and then won't leave. As long as he's punctual I have no problem. I mention him because he's doing what he does this week.

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

For those not familiar, in September of 2009, an invasive, toxic algae bloom occurred that killed 99% of all fish in my local smallmouth and musky creek: Dunkard Creek. The saltwater algae was only able to thrive because of the excessively high conductivity and chlorides being discharged from the Blacksville #2 mine (and possibly other sources). Since then, Consol, the mine operator, was fined heavily by the WVDEP and USEPA, and was also required as part of the settlement to build a multi-million dollar treatment system to ensure future water quality protection.   Its been about 3 years now since the fish kill, and knowing that the toxic conditions were not long-lived, even though they were quite bad, I was expecting that many fish were starting to repopulate naturally from the unaffected tributaries. Evan Fedorko and I had heard reports of the bass and musky fishery returning to Dunkard from other sources, and Evan asked me if I wanted to accompany him on a evening trip. Sinc

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