While children can slow you down, they do not have to stop you from enjoying a little “mother nature”!

In fact, introducing our children to the outdoors should be one of you fondest memories of spending time together.  There is a great book titled “Last Child in the Woods” written by Richard Louv. In this book Richard states that the lack of nature in the lives children is directly related to some of the most disturbing childhood trends, such as obesity, attention disorders, and depression.

So if you and your spouse stay adventurous, more than likely you kids will to. You should try to do outdoor activities as a family and one-on-one with your kids, when possible.

Below are a few points my wife and I would like to share with you. Some we feel we figured out on our own, others were referred to us via friends, family and social networking!

Always Have Snacks

Our son Ciro is very much like his Mom’s side of the family. Meaning, that hunger can come up quick, fast and you better be prepared! The family joke is that if you wait too long to feed them, they start to turn into “Regan” from the Exorcist. J  So, we always have snacks for the whole family.  We will have GORP, deer jerky, deer sticks and Ciro’s favorite Mum-Mums!

Car Travel Distractions

We noticed early-on that Ciro did not like to restrained, so we knew that long car rides would be tough. On our most recent trip we paid the extra $10/day to get a DVD player.  This was a huge benefit for us as he could watch his favorite DVDs.  Now we also brought along his favorite stuffed animal and blanket to assist in keeping him content or to comfort himself! 

Get Sleep

There is nothing worse than a tired, cranky car load of people!  So, don’t stay up late and get some much needed rest. Remember…vacation is to unwind, not burnout on top of work. Once you get the child down you and your spouse could talk about the next day’s plans or just read a book. Then, lights out!

Prepare For Air Travel

This starts with the purchase of your tickets. We highly recommend getting the whole row of seats at the bulkhead of the plane. This will provide ample leg room and room for you “little monkey” to climb over you and your spouse during the trip. This is a much better alternative than having your child run up and down the aisle of the plane for the duration of the trip and be “That Family!” The trade-off is that with no seats in front of you, there is no under seat storage and everything you will need for child will have to be put in the storage above the seats and cannot be accessed during take-off or landing. 

Purchase Good Kids’ Gear

We purchased a BOB stroller, which are awesome, but we do not take it on airline trips as it is too large. In its place we purchased a very light-weight flat folding stroller that allows for some storage and the child to lay flat if needed.  The other piece of gear that I like is the Kelty Child Carrier, this makes it much easier for everyone and Ciro loves to have his Sherpa (Me) carry him around! You don’t have to buy brand new gear, check eBay, Craigslist, yard sales or some local consignment sales. Don’t skimp on your kids gear, cause if the kids are uncomfortable, nobody is having a good time.

Take Your Time

Again, this is your time with your family, enjoy it! Remember with kids you’ll need to stop often, especially if they’re walking, they will stop and inspect every stick and overturned stone along the way. 

Patience goes a long way – the time that you take spending outdoors with your kids will be rewarded in the long run.  Chances are they will want to spend time outdoors more often as they mature.  And as they get older, you can plan to do more exciting and memorable trips as a family.

For those of you who haven’t caught Full Moon Production’s (FMP) latest movie – PROOF, you need to watch the trailer below.  For ordering, click the link to access the FMP store. I recommend the “DVD 3 Pack” as all 3 of their videos are a must have!!! 

Check out this very cool, quick clip of the Sitka team testing out one of their new jackets against high winds!

Read the full article here.

Archwood Flextrek 37 Trillion

ZXYVR/M-Series

Magnum Package

Endorsed by world renowned Steve Climber

This pack everything you’ll need in the backcountry, except for your chiropractor!

Sitka’s Core Zip-T was recently tested by BackPackGearTest.org. Back Pack Gear Test does an impressive job at putting a product through the paces.

It was impressive to see how the Zip-T handled the 6 months of abuse with glowing praise, for both the hunter and recreational outdoors person.

Read the review here.

Jonathan thought that he would share just a few of the review’s on Cabela’s website, where the Ascent Pants are seeing an average rating of 4.6 out of 5.

These pants are awesome! As used the for more than a week strait in North-West Montana last elk season and through my deer season in Virginia.

Read the full article here.

Another very useful from South Cox on the all important “Water Filters” selection for backcountry hunting.

As promised I’m going to tell you about the water filters I was at the Outdoor Retailers Show.  The first one is from MSR.  The filter is smaller and lighter than any others that I’ve tried and it blows the doors off of the competition in speed.  The Hyperflow Pump is what they are calling it and it weighs just 7.8 oz.  It is hard to expect great performance when you are getting such a compact, lightweight unit, but the manufacturer boasts 2.75 liters per minute!  That is almost 3 times the speed of most of the filters out there.  I tried it at the show and was surprised at how little effort it required to use.  Also, a great boon to it’s design is that it is field serviceable; no disposable cartridge to plug halfway through your trip.  It takes a couple of minutes to disassemble the pump to backflush the system, but the inconvenience is well worth the benefit.  I’ve had my disposable filter pump leave me high and dry when filtering murky water. 

Read the full article here.

 I am not sure which part was cooler, the infra red camera footage or seeing the vest in action!  Although this was a hack job of filming, it gives you an idea of the heat that the new Ardica enabled Sitka Dutch Oven vest puts out. The video captures some images with a FLIR (forward looking infra red) camera. Built to survey heat loss in buildings or leaks that are unseen by the naked eye, this $40k camera was very a blast to use.

I cannot wait for these items to be released!

Watch the video here.

Another very useful from South Cox on the all important “backpacking stoves” selection for backcountry hunting.

Adding extra weight to your pack is something we all try to avoid.  If a piece of equipment can be omitted from your pack and it doesn’t affect the outcome of your hunt, then it takes a pretty strong argument to carry the extra weight.  For some, the stove is one of those items.  Many make the argument that they’d rather just eat MRE’s and ditch the stove.  While I’d agree that we’re hardly out there trying to have a resort experience, keeping your body fueled is a very crucial part to your success in the field.  I’ve written more in depth about the weight trade-off for MRE’s vs. [[freeze dried]] in past issues of Eastmans’, and Cam Hanes included a couple of those pieces in his book Backcountry Bowhunting.  The jist of it is, you can carry heavier food (MRE’s), or carry a stove and lighter freeze dried food and oatmeal.  If you have ever lived off of MRE’s for a week, you’ll certainly feel for our troops.  While some of them aren’t bad at all, the diet gets old pretty quickly.  A hot meal from the wide variety of freeze dried meals available, plus the bonus of coffee or hot chocolate in the morning pretty well seals the deal for most of us backcountry hunters. 

Read the full article here.

Another very useful from South Cox on the all important “sleeping bag” selection for backcountry hunting.

One of the bulkiest items on your gear list for a bivy hunt is probably your sleeping bag. If it has not been replaced in the last couple of years, chances are you cannot only shave off some weight, but also significantly reduce the bulk. Almost all of the major sleeping bag manufacturers are offering sub 2 pound 3 season down bags now. Some have reduced the weight down to as little as a single pound and can be stuffed into a sack half the size of a nerf football. For my early season hunts in August and the first week of September I like a bag rated at about 30-35 degrees. Any later in the high country and you are increasingly flirting with the chances of sub-freezing temperatures. For those hunts I drop down to a 20 degree rating. Some of my favorite bags are from Western Mountaineering, Marmot, Mountain Hardware and Feathered Friends.

Read the full article here.

Over the years I have read a lot of books, magazine articles and forums on elk hunting. I have also watched waayyy too many TV shows and DVDs, according to my wife. Elk hunting is becoming a passion of mine and I try to gain as much information that I can. This book will reside e right next to my other 2 favorite books Backcountry Bowhunting by Cameron Hanes and Bugling for Elk by Dwight Schuh. Now, if I could just get them both to sign my books for me!

Well after a horrific week at work, I finally was able to finish my first reading of ElkNut’s Playbook today. I say first, because this book will be a resource for me in the off-season of hunting and a book that I will take to every elk camp. Even after just one read my mind is racing and tracing! I would read a chapter and immediately apply it to my last elk hunt, its setups and situations that I was in.

The Playbook has a ton of useful information, possible more than all of the above mentioned, combined. In fact, you will be amazed at the amount of info in just first few pages! The book is designed to be an easy reference guide, not necessarily a “How-to!”Now I know why he has a DVD titled “Worse than Wolves!”

As you can see in the photo, the size of the book is great for putting in your pack or even a cargo pocket on your pant! 

There are even sections in the book for you to write notes in, without having to write it sideways or in small print. It is also spiral bound so that it easy to keep open. The cover is 110# weight paper & the pages are 80#. The inside pages are all done out of heavy duty gloss material to resist moisture much more so than conventional paper. The cover is also done with this gloss & an added UV coating is on the outside covers for extra durability & weather resistant. This provides some durability of the book, while still keeping “pack worthy!”

In case some of you die-hard Elk Species Hunters were asking yourself, does this Playbook focus just on Rocky Mountain Elk and that terrain?  Well, Paul states that there is absolutely no difference in Elk Vocalization between the different Elk Species!  Whether it’s Rosie’s, Rockies, Manitoba or Tule elk all speak the same exact language & respond likewise!  Where many hunters get the notion that Rosie’s are more difficult to call to is because of the areas they hunt. Hunt less hunted areas away from roads & you’ll find plenty of vocal Rosie’s. The same applies to the Rocky Mountain species. If you hunt heavily hunted areas you will be hunting very educated elk that are called to daily & aren’t readily responding to most human calls. The better you are the better your chances. This is why adapting to your hunting area is so important. Not, just making a few elk sounds & hoping for the best! Use of sounds & technique of use is highly needed for success in such areas. Anyone can call to elk that are rarely ever harassed as is the case on most TV programs!

After reading ElkNut’s Playbook, I believe that anyone who wants to start elk hunting or would like to increase their potential to be a more successful elk hunter should get purchase this book and his DVDs. I read a post a while back on Paul and one of the users wrote: “If I was an elk, I would go to the Humane Society to see if they could get all of ElkNut’s stuff banned!”

With ElkNut’s Playbook, you can stop educating the elk and start educating yourself!

Unfortunately, I will have to wait until 2010 to put this awesome tool to use!

The coolest part about this book is that I purchased one for my 1 yr old son and had Paul sign it. While my wife Amy and I were showing the book to Ciro he pointed to the elk and said his very first word “ELK!” Amy looked at me and said, “Did he just say what I think he said?” Amy showed the book to Ciro one more time, he pointed to the elk on the cover and said, “Elk” again! So, while he first words were not “Mommy” or “Daddy” we are still very thrilled on his choice! Maybe Paul could assist Ciro in calling in some bulls for his Daddy in a few years!!!

**For those of who do not have any of ElkNut’s DVDs, this is as good a time as any. He currently has them at a reduced rate until Monday March 23rd, sorry for the short notice! 

You can purchase the book and DVDs here! 

Sitka Gear is aware that a lot of people are wondering where and when they can buy the new Sitka gear in the new Gore™ OPTIFADE™ visual concealment (aka camouflage pattern).

Unfortunately, their website isn’t ready to go yet, so they would like to use their blog to give you the information you need.

Read the entire article here.

I was highly impressed with Sitka gear on my elk hunt last season.  I currently have the complete 2008 line of clothing, minus the Celcius Layer.  I was able to layer up and down easily thoughout my days in the backcountry chasing elk. We had weather ranging from rain to snow to 80+ degree days. So, I always had the complete layering system, including the DownPour rain gear with me all day, every day.

I have talked with Jason several times on the phone and stopped in their offices to meet with a few of their team in 2007.  I am really looking forward to this year’s Optifade / Celcius Gear. But, I will have to make due with this interview that was done at the RMEF Elk Camp in Texas.

Interview with Jonathan Hart

People who know me, know how much I am impressed with Mystery Ranch’s gear and customer service.  I have talked with Mark several times and cannot wait to step foot in their showroom this summer!  It will be one of my highlights of the trip.

So, in the meantime here is an  interview that was done at the RMEF Elk Camp in Texas.

Interview with Mark Seacat

When I have some free-time from studying or getting too far in the weeds at work, I enjoy reading outdoor blogs and following a few forums.  I used to follow and post on about a dozen different outdoor forums. I have narrowed that list down to about a half-dozen forums and one podcast.

I added the BowCast podcast because; I can listen to it while working out. In my opinion this is a great podcast as the guys who moderate this site Aneal Roney and Anthony Dixon of Full Moon Productions are true bowhunters. They discuss everything from bow & arrow tuning, practicing, fiteness, backcounty gear to my most recent favorite post (I asked for a while back) how to paint-up!

They call their forum the “New School Archer Community” and it is as just for joining the forum, you will receive a document on “How to Increase your effective range by 20 yards.” And it works, as I am regularly shooting out to 60yds (with good accuracy).

Through this forum, I came across a member’s blog called “Fred’s Hunting Blog!”  Fred lives in the game rich and beautiful state of Montana. He is fairly new to the bowhunting world, but I won’t hold that against him! As he has been bitten by the “bowhunting bug” as he states on his blog.  He posts awesome photos of his trips into the wild with his trusty pals Ted and Finn. He also has posted some great photos of him preparing the game meat that he has harvested. Give both sites a look as I am sure you will enjoy them both!