your outdoor future

[trout whisperer]

There’s a place if you get the chance next Saturday I would really like some of you outdoors folks to spend some time. Not that there entirely disguised, but it could be called the local vets hospital, senior center, senior adult retirement facility, or perhaps nursing home, but I bet if you can find a remote lake you may be able to find one of these places.

Take a box of flies, or maybe your big lake tackle box. Any assortment of photos from recent days a field are sure to get pawed over if you have some.  Where your fishing vest or hunting coat as the season affords even in this winter weather. 

Just park in the parking lot like it’s a public access or a trail head for hiking.  Just for the record most of them are. Then you just walk into the place and introduce yourself to the nearest warden and tell them what you’re up to.

You may make the nurse or care giver a bit nervous until they figure out you’re not a woods terrorist, that perhaps your lost, or finally that your just there to visit with someone who cant gun the big fields anymore. Someone who really has hung up there waders but still vividly recalls the sights and sounds of duck marsh.

Sneak along the corridors like your looking for a brown trout hiding in an under cut bank.  You just watch what comes two wheelin out some of those doors. Now don’t go setting the hook to hard, and Let who ever decides to speak with you, do most of the talking for a change.

If you have a favorite or lucky hunting cap, maybe a map of some trip you just thought about taking, have that tucked under your arm like the daily newspaper. Spend half as much time with just one of these folks as you did last week at the hobby of your choice.

See some of us, like me, been feeling awful lucky of late with the time spent outdoors. And some of us here like me, while I pay for my licenses are feeling abit guilty about not quite giving enough back.

I can’t hike old Mr. or Mrs. ninety four year old around the woods today, I bet when I get that old I won’t be able to hike me around either.  But I also hold with I’m gonna love it just the same. So I figure the next best thing is maybe I bring some of it to them. Ya never know, maybe someday it will come to me. The trout whisperer

[sandmannd]

Great post. Doing something like that is a great idea. I have taken one of my cats (he's a unique giant cat) to some of the homes and have taken my little daughter to some and it really brightens their days. My dad is in his mid 70's and can't go as much anymore but loves the stories and I'll send him pictures when I get them.

I would say that if you can make the time for this, do it. It's very rewarding to make an impact on these folk's lives.