Buck Fever

Some time in the middle of August the air begins to change just enough that you can smell Autumn in it. Though it's too hot to be hunting, I can feel that it's getting close and my every thought (well...almost) turns to being in the back-country. I begin to visualise sitting next to a quiet spring watching the chipmunks and hoping 'the big one' will walk by. (the big deer....not chipmunk....although i've seen some pretty hefty chipmunks around, lol)

Traditionally, buck fever is what happens when you get so excited about the deer standing in front of you, that you're shaking too bad to make the shot, or something goes wrong...like you forget to load the gun, or your arrow falls off the rest when you pull back your bow....and the deer bounces away while you stand there with your head hung low in shame. It's an adrenalin rush that's so extreme that you lose all site of everything you should be focusing on.

I can say that I've truly had this type of buck fever once, and to this day.....my husband will not let me live it down. I was hunting with a muzzleloader. I had a decent buck at about 50 yards, and shot. I hit him, but he didn't go immediately down, and my husband is in the background telling me to hurry and reload. So...I put a cap on the gun pulled the trigger again. The problem was, for those who are not muzzleloader hunters...I forgot to put the powder and bullet in the gun, so basically....I was shooting a cap gun at the deer. The cap went off and I stood there in sort of a duhhh moment, hurried and reloaded my gun complete with powder and bullet this time, and got one more into him so he didn't go far. In my defense...it was my first hunt with a muzzleloader....I think I prefer a rifle.

Buck fever these days is more of a state of mind for me. When Fall is in the air, hunting is all I can think about. I close my eyes and see big bucks standing on a ridgeline or in the trees. I go to sleep dreaming of bull elk bugling in the distance, and I can't wait to be out for a few days just enjoying the fresh air. With hunting season in full swing already, someone call a doctor....I've got it bad!

Summer Water Fun

It's no secret that one of my favorite past times is summer water sports. There are many to choose from, from float tubing on a quiet little reservoir, fly fishing a small creek, and river fishing for salmon, to some of the more active sports such as being flung behind a speed boat on an innertube in hopes that you survive, or cruising wildly on a waverunner.

My favorite, however, would have to be wakeboarding. Being in my 40s, three children later, I'm no spring chicken, consequently, a graceful wakeboarder....I also am not. (I have video proof of this, which I am not inclined to share) None the less, I keep going back for more because it makes my children laugh when I crash, and it's pretty good excercise when I manage to not. You know the old saying, 'The family that plays together, stays together'....and play we do!

So here's my intro on getting into wakeboarding. The boat is a bit of a necessity, obviously. A rental is an option. One that has a lot of power is a plus, not because you need to go fast, but because the more power it has at take-off, the quicker you come up out of the water and the less work it is as the skier. A 350 inboard/outboard usually does the job, and the prop that you put on the motor plays a part too. You can spend $100,000 on a fancy wakeboard boat with heaters and showers and fancy paint jobs, or you can buy an old 20ft,73' Fiber Form with trim tabs for a couple thousand and throw in a big fluffy towel. The difference is mostly the respect you get on the boat ramp, which....if you're there to have fun, doesn't matter. You can laugh your way all the way to the bank. I have skied behind both....and for those of us that are less than amateures, there is not a $98,000 difference in the wake the boat throws. But if you have the funds and the time to make it worth the money, spend away.                                    

                                   

You can spend several thousand dollars on a wakeboard, or you can start out reasonabley under $300. I have a nice board that seems to be easy for any rider that was under $200 for the boots and the board. I AM a bargain shopper and I love sales!!

Next you have the option of a wakeboard tower. Though not necessary, this gives you an additional edge when coming out of the water because the rope is anchored 4 or 5 feet higher than if it were just anchored to the boat itself. It also helps with putting a little more air under your board when jumping, which in turn gives you more room and time for trickages.

The rope would have to be the next option to make a difference. A longer rope tends to have more give, which is not necessarily a good thing for wakeboarding, where as a short rope gets you closer to the boat, closer to the bigger wake it throws, and more air as well. A comfortable handle is a must.

The last key ingredient would be the a driver that has the feel of pulling and knows how to handle the boat when pulling someone out of the water. Your driver could make the difference between popping right up, or swallowing several fish in the process. Water skiers tend to like more speed than wakeboarders. My son, for instance, has managed to do a 360 degree jump this summer, but insists that his father pull him at only 8 or 10 mph. Most wakeboarders prefer 15 - 20 mph. My personal feeling is.....it hurts a lot when you crash at 20 mph, so I like to go 12 mph....plus I'm old...and there's a longer recovery time for injuries. We try to please the skier, because we're all there to have fun, not get hurt, so the speed is a personal preference thing. We spend about 7 or 8 days a year wakeboarding because there are too many other fun things to fit in during the summer. We're not experts by any means, we know just enough to make it fun!