WHY DO YOU ENJOY IT?

The Goose Mafia's latest guest blogger is a friend of mine, Brian King.  A litte bit about Brian:

"I was born in Michigan and grew up in West Virginia. I began hunting and fishing at a very young age. My grandfather introduced me to shooting and reloading. For that matter, my hunting and fishing influences came from him, too. As a kid, I spent a lot of time target shooting and hunting on my grandparent's farm. I come from a large family that enjoys the outdoors. 

After getting my degree, I joined the U.S. Air Force. I served stateside, in South Korea, and a tour in Desert Storm. 

I enjoy many outdoor activities including hunting, shooting, fishing, archery, ATV's, camping, and photography. My military and civilian careers have provided me extensive training in a variety of weapons. I've also spent the last dozen or so years being involved with horses."

You can follow Brian and all his antics at www.heybjk.com, where his blog is appropriately titled: Thoughts from the woods, water, and wherever."  Because folks, there isn't a corner of "wherever" this boy hasn't written about!  From hunting to fishing, product reviews and insights, to just loving life and being a great dad...this blog covers it all! 

WHY DO YOU ENJOY IT?

Have you ever really thought about why you enjoy the outdoors? People will often say, well, I like to hunt or I like to fish. That's okay, but why do you like to hunt or fish? Are those the only reasons you enjoy spending time in the outdoors?

I hunt and fish and have been doing so since I was a little kid. They are avenues that allow me to spend time outdoors, but not the sole reasons I enjoy it. Let me give you a couple of examples from my personal experience.

My grandparents used to own a cabin in northern Michigan and it was a place we visited many times over the years. One year in particular my best friend made the trip with us. We - my friend, my brother, and I - decided one morning to float a smallish river that was a short drive from the cabin. My grandfather drove us to the river where we launched our inner-tubes and he was going to pick us up a few hours later down river.

We had been lazily floating along with the river to ourselves for a while. As we rounded one particular bend in the river, we came upon a cabin. Standing at the water's edge was an old man. He was literally inches from the river just peering into the water as if transfixed by something. Ordinarily, a scene like this would be nothing special to remember. In this case, however, the old man was wearing nothing but his flip-flops. At first sight of this old fella standing at the river's edge in all his glory, we started laughing despite our best attempts to remain quiet. Our laughter startled him and that's when he realized for the first time that he had company. He turned around and began shuffling as fast as he could back toward the cabin. Much to our chagrin, we were treated to displays of both sides. As slow as he was going doing the flip-flop shuffle, we were past the cabin and out of view before he made it back to the door. I'm quite certain that was not the first time he had stood naked at the river. Normally, he probably didn't have visitors to worry about. We nicknamed him the "Running Man" and laughed about that the rest of the trip!

Another event took place during a bear hunt in West Virginia. Again, it was my best friend and I. We were hunting in some mountains and had parked our vehicle along a river. To get to where we wanted to hunt we had to cross the river. It was flowing quite fast, but we finally managed to wade across. After hunting for several hours, we made our way back to the river. It had rained most of the afternoon and, when we got back, we discovered the river had risen considerably. It was so high, in fact, that we were unable to cross it again. There were large chunks of ice in the current as well.

To make a long story short, we were essentially stranded with very little food and were ill-prepared to deal with the cold and rain. We decided to make our way down river and hope to find a way to cross, but ultimately we were "rescued" by some locals who noticed our foolish dilemma.

The first story had nothing to do with hunting or fishing. It's about creating memories. That little float trip with my brother and best friend is something I always have and always will remember. It was enjoyable because of the company and the fun that resulted from Running Man. That was a unique event. It will never be repeated.

The second story involved hunting, but we didn't kill anything. We ended up in a serious and fairly dangerous situation. Again, it was an event that created a memory I'll never forget. I didn't necessarily enjoy it at the time, but I'm glad it happened.

I enjoy lots of outdoor activities. It's not always about the activities themselves, though. What I enjoy about the outdoors is the memories created that cannot be made anywhere else. If I was a guy who spent all my time sitting inside playing video games I would have missed out on so many wonderful events that are now memories I carry with me. It's a connection with the outside and spending time in the woods or on the water making those special memories.

Maybe you enjoy lying in a goose blind listening to the geese honk as they get closer and closer anticipating that moment when you'll bring the shotgun up and fire. For some of you, it may be getting into a tree stand before light and listening in the silence for that tell-tale rustle of leaves that whisper "deer". Or maybe you enjoy throwing that top water lure out onto the glass-like surface of a still lake and waiting for the explosive strike from below. For others, it may be walking the fields waiting for your faithful dogs to flush the pheasants.

It really doesn't matter what particular activity or activities you enjoy. What is important are the memories made during those times spent outdoors. I'll be creating new memories now as I teach my young daughter how to hunt and fish. We'll share time in the coming years that will create memories no one else will have. And that's why I enjoy the outdoors - to be able to look back with a sense of fulfillment that comes from nowhere else.

~Brian King

I'd like to thank Brian for being my guest blogger, and especially for choosing this topic.  It got me reminiscing about all my favorite outdoor moments, and surprisingly, he's right. Most of them don't actually involve the "reason" for the outing. It's all the fun, unexpected moments in between you and your destination that stay with you.

This past gun deer season, I sat with my sister all of opening day.  I can honestly say, that if I were a serious hunter, I'd have thrown her out of my deer stand by 7:00 am!  We had SO much fun, laughing, joking, feeding the birds and dodging their air attacks...  We sat from 5:00 am to almost 5:00 pm and never left.  The day seemed short in retrospect...it's rare that she and I get to spend so much time together without an interuption of some kind.  Whether it be other people, the phone, chores, work, pets...this was nothing more than she and I, a big wooded box in the sky, some granola and a gun.  I am actually snickering to myself while writing this, because I'm pretty sure there very well could have been deer around us, but we were too caught up in our own little world to notice anything until we heard a nearby "wha-wham" and even then, we'd just peek around, listen for a few moments and if there were no rustling of hooves...it was back to the party!  Opening day is my favorite day...I might even rename it "Sister's Day", because there's NO hunting going on in my neck of the woods!

Thanks Brian...you rocked the Mafia's blog!