Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Hank D Thoreau]

I did some searching and did not find any threads about outdoor activities folks here are engaged in. What do you like to do when you are not grilling?

Anyone hike, bike, ski, paddle, climb, surf, hunt, fish, play in the local softball or soccer league, etc.?

Grilling is an excellent way to produce healthy meals and can play an important role in a healthy life style, and help improve performance.

I have been a rock and mountain climber since I was a teenager. I am old now but still climbing and hiking. I am also a competition archer.

Those are the main things but I also like to kayak and bike when I have time, but extra time is in short supply. Maybe there will be time in a couple of years when I retire.

Grilling is a big part of helping to keep me fit, obviously, more pleasurable than the gym. At least the eating part.

And for the sake of full disclosure, my favorite barbecue is beef ribs cut from the rib roast with about 2 inches of meat on the bone.

That may not be the healthiest of barbecued foods, but we all need our luxuries every now and then.

[Kristin Meredith]

Gardening, walking the puppy, and logging.  Those seem to be my main outdoor activities anymore.

[Canadian John]

Gardening, walking the puppy, and logging.  Those seem to be my main outdoor activities anymore.

"Logging" as in felling trees or bookwork?

[Kristin Meredith]

Gardening, walking the puppy, and logging.  Those seem to be my main outdoor activities anymore.

"Logging" as in felling trees or bookwork?

Felling trees, stripping the branches, cutting into rounds, splitting and stacking.  We have a wood burning fireplace and we use about 5 cords a winter.  Our uncles own about 20 acres basically adjoining my land with trees in various stages of growth.  We have been cleaning up the woods for the past 5 years -- probably only done about 2 acres to date. Accomplishing 2 goals at once -- getting firewood and making the woods more "park like" and pretty.

Bent fells the trees and does most of the stripping.  I now have my little 10 inch electric saw and can help clean up the smaller branches.  I usually haul all the branches to the burn pile and stack the rounds.  Then I help with the splitting and stacking in our pile up close to the house.

This year has been horrible though. So wet that we have not been down to cut trees.  We were able to bring some of the already downed trees up and Bentley has been doing 99% of the splitting and stacking in the last several weeks -- it has just been too wet, cold and muddy for me.  I am a "fair weather" logger!!!

We normally do the majority of the work in the cooler months -- Oct to March.  But just too wet and muddy this year.  It will make for a very unpleasant logging season to be out working from May to Sept that is for sure!

[Hank D Thoreau]

gtsum2,

What type of bow do you shoot when you bow hunt? Do you shoot in 3D tournaments? My main focus is field archery but I shoot a lot of 3D's for practice.

I shoot a World Archery legal barebow recurve. 27 inch Bernardini Luxor with extra long Border HEX6 limbs. That gives me a massive 74 inch bow to match my 32 inch draw length which works well for the shooting method I use called stringwalking.

I also used my physics background to get into bow testing and have set up a test lab at my house.

[RWhyman]

Back country RV dry camping, hiking, biking, both road and mountain, golf on occasion, use to home brew a lot, spent a lot of years running whitewater in a raft until a hand issue put that on hold. I can't hold an oar very well anymore. Many multi day trips around the western US including a 18 day trip down the Grand Canyon. Idaho rivers are really great.
I visit a lot of breweries locally and when we travel. Living in Colorado, there are more breweries than I can get to, but I try.
Hoping to retire in a couple of years to allow more time for all of the above.

[Hank D Thoreau]

...Many multi day trips around the western US including a 18 day trip down the Grand Canyon. Idaho rivers are really great.

Were you a guide or did you manage to get a permit for a private trip down the Grand Canyon? My wife and I really enjoy white water rafting (paddle style) and are planning our next multi-day trip. We go with guide services. Looking at either the Snake or Salmon Rivers. Do you have a recommendation for 3 to 4 days?

[cookingjnj]

My avatar probably gives it away.  My other hobby besides grilling/cooking is riding my bicycle.  I have a road bike and try to put 75-100 miles a week.  We usually also ride a couple of sponsored events every year ranging from 45 miles to 101 miles.  As I have gotten older, I tend to only ride when the weather is good, meaning not to hot and not too cold, and not purposely riding in the rain anymore.  I have been lazy (for a few reasons) the past few months and have not been on the bike since October.  Gotta get my xxx back in gear (no pun intended).

[Jimsbarbecue]

Camping ,photography, shotgun sporting clays

[RWhyman]

...Many multi day trips around the western US including a 18 day trip down the Grand Canyon. Idaho rivers are really great.

Were you a guide or did you manage to get a permit for a private trip down the Grand Canyon? My wife and I really enjoy white water rafting (paddle style) and are planning our next multi-day trip. We go with guide services. Looking at either the Snake or Salmon Rivers. Do you have a recommendation for 3 to 4 days?

I had a friend get a permit on the Grand, so I went on their permit.
I have most experience on the Main and Middle Fork of the Salmon, so I would recommend either of them. The Middle Fork at high water is about as thrilling as it gets, but you really have to have all your ducks in a row. Things can go south quickly. I always think more days is better.

[litzerski]

I'm an avid shooter and compete at sporting clays.  I currently don't have a bird dog, but try to go wingshooting as often as possible.

[okie smokie]

Golf with retired friends.  2 or 3 times a week.  Various public courses.  Usually lunch before (winter) or after (summer).  Sometimes we (some of us) play in foul weather.  Rest of the time I am the fixit guy for our house. Try to avoid the easy chair except for naps.

[silverbullet]

Spending time in our Hot tub, Motorcycling. Both my Bride & I ride our own. We used to travel. quite a bit with our camper, This upcoming season will be our first as a permanent/seasonal campers at our favorite campground.Will be bringing the GMG DC to the campground. We bought a new camper for our site & cannot wait for the snow to melt!

I have my own home gym to keep in shape.

[jgrayson]

I tend to have a lot of hobbies to keep me busy.  Here are some of my favorites:

Rugby - I played on a travelling men's team for several years.  The team is in the Annapolis, Maryland area and we travelled extensively through the mid-Atlantic area playing teams in other cities and some tournaments.  We even travelled internationally to play in other countries.  One of my first seasons we placed 2nd at the national tournament.  These days my two sons are playing for a youth team in Washington, DC.  I am now an assistant coach for the youth team.  The older boys team won their age groups champion at the tournament last August.

Revolutionary War Reenacting - I've been doing this off and on for about 25 years.  Most of the time I've been with artillery units (American and British), and I did infantry for a few years before I wised up and returned to artillery.  Before getting married and having kids I had time to attend battle events once or twice a month.  Now I'm averaging once or twice a year.  When the kids are old enough they want to join the unit, and then I will get more active again.

Home Improvement - I've already stripped our house down to it's skeleton and then rebuilt the whole inside (plumbing, electric, HVAC, kitchen, bathrooms, etc).  Now it's upkeep projects, furniture building, and projects for the kids school.

Outdoorsy stuff - snowboarding, skateboarding, hiking, backpacking, fishing, and camping to fill weekend days when nothing is planned.  I don't like to give the kids whole days to stare at TV and iPads so weekends and other days off have some time for nonsense, but then we other things to do to get out of the house.

[Hank D Thoreau]

There are a lot of folks here that are very active. That is great. I will add a bit more about what I do since I only provided a brief introduction for the post.

I have been a technical rock climber and mountain climber for most of my life, starting at age eleven, when I climbed my first mountain. I am what is referred to as a traditional free climber which means I climb large rocks, hundreds of feet high rather than shorter climbs done by boulders and sport climbers.

I have also instructed climbing over the years. I met my future wife in a climbing club in college. So climbing has been very good to me. She also ran a backpacking program with me in the Sierra's for four summers.

I like to apply my climbing skills to other activities. I have done some technical spelunking and plan to do some canyoneering this year.

I also like other outdoor sports, some which I have done many times, and others that I have only touched on a few times, for the experience.

Of the former, I spend most time on training as a competitive archer. I compete in the barebow division for World Archery, and a different type of barebow division for the National Field Archery Association. I shoot bows that are essentially Olympic style recurves without the sights, stabilizers and draw check devices that make them easier to shoot.

Over the past few years I have started taking up kayaking more seriously and have done a couple of multi-day (5 and 3) paddles. I also like white water rafting.

With all this, the most difficult things I have tried are golfing (15 years of lessons with no aptitude but a competitive son) and skiing, where I have failed on both the water and the slopes.

I was at least somewhat decent on cross country skis where I have climbed 13 and 11 thousand foot mountains.

I am currently in therapy for a frozen shoulder from climbing, which means that I am neither climbing or training for archery. I substituted that obsession for hiking and am currently in the prep stage for the notorious day hike up Rabbit Peak at 23 miles and 8,300 feet of elevation gain, all trailess desert climbing. I figured at my age I better do it soon while I am in good hiking shape.