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Life Lists
Jon and I have been here before—heavy legs and burning lungs. We’ve circled this peak, crossing boulder field after boulder field. It’s taken nearly four hours to complete the circuit around this 12,000-foot Uinta peak. I’m drained. Ida’s standard Lab trot has surrendered to a nearby amble. But then I see it—for most, it would…
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Escape Velocity
I’ve been feeling uneasy. It’s been this way, more or less, for over a year. I went into last upland season feeling rushed and underprepared. It didn’t really pan out that way; things went fine. But in my head I always felt a half-click off. I’ve been battling, trying to get through it, pin point…
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Rio Flufferbunny
It was fall when she came to us on a plane from New Mexico, all legs and ears and sharp puppy teeth. She pointed from the womb — butterflies, song birds, turtles, tufts of grass stirred by a breeze — nothing was safe from…
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Unspoken Alliances
A number of years ago I was riding shotgun pre-dawn on opening day in Kansas. My buddy was behind the wheel as we chugged coffee fixating down the narrow tunnel of light cast on gravel. Most of the time upland hunters don’t have to contend with the early rise routine of other hunting disciplines. But…
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Hunting the Polar Vortex
The first half of the 2014 Upland Season is over and it’s been a whirlwind of travel all across the country. But this last trip to South Dakota hunting in brutally cold conditions was a great reminder that some of the best memories afield come from facing adversity and overcoming.
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Way Upland Season II Episode 3
Faced with crazy hot weather and very little surface water, we’re lucky to run into some horseback riders on this trail who share info and h20. The Maah Daah Hey is taking its toll and doubts begin to set in, distances are longer than we’ve planned and the dogs are using more water than we…
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Way Upland Season II Episode 7
Back on the trail at sunrise to try and beat the crazy heat. The quicksand that Roosevelt talks about in his biography, we find it. We also break down all our gear, share what we are using as we cross the Little Missouri National Grassland. Please subscribe to catch all the upcoming episodes AND live…
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A Labs First Day Afield
“No, I don’t think you understand, he has NO prior hunting experience…only obedience training.” I wrote to Brian, my new upland hunting buddy. The early morning email asking for my young lab and me to attend an upland hunt had caught me by surprise, putting a nice end to a long workweek. “Kali, it doesn’t…
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Lost……again
“I am lost” “Going to shoot. Let me know if you can hear it.” “Hear it?” “I was 50 yards from the truck.” It’s my hunting buddy’s first foray into the realm of the Ruffed Grouse. We’ve hunted a few days now, but this is the first overcast day in an area previously unexplored. It…
