The Outdoor Scene

I am a soul hunter.

When things come together and I punch my tag, the feeling of accomplishment is intoxicating. When they don’t, I’m not disappointed because it’s the experience that makes me happy. I love the peaceful feeling I get when hunting. Yet I know at any moment I might glimpse a buck with a candelabra rack, triggering an exquisite adrenalin rush.

To be honest, I am grateful hunting is not a competitive endeavor because that would spoil its magical healing powers. Besides us soul hunters have more important things to consider than whether our buck has longer G-2s than someone else’s.

While I head afield with the goal of seeing and taking a deer, turkey or whatever it is I’m chasing, being a soul hunter means my attention is apt to wander. One minute I’m like the front side of a mullet, all business as I comb the woods for the flick of a tail or an ear. And the next I’m distracted by how the sun makes the dew sparkle like millions of Swarovski Crystals. Closing my eyes isn’t a great technique for spotting game but you can’t beat it for inhaling the spicy, sweet smell of decaying leaves or listening to the urgent calls of a pileated woodpecker.

While I’m not some whacked-out earth momma, in 2010 I’ll be seeking my own brand of Nirvana as a soul hunter. With just a few tweaks, hunting can nourish my spirit better than a massage or bubble bath ever could. Though my resolutions are simple, in my opinion they are critical to attaining this highest state of consciousness.

Steps to a Soul Hunter’s Nirvana

-After a cold morning waiting for critters to show up, those first rays of sunlight can put me to sleep faster than Ambien taken with a shot of tequila. I’ve tried to fight it. But why? If a buck shows up and I’m napping, I’ll never know. So there is nothing to fret about other than the pain from my head snapping around like a flag in a stiff breeze. I’ll be one step closer to Nirvana when I listen to my body and get one of those neck-stabilizing pillows.

- It’s important to distance myself from those who measure their self-esteem by turkey spur length, the inside spread on a whitetail’s rack or the number of animals they’ve killed. There’s nothing wrong with knowing the numbers behind your success. But there’s no room for those who want to shift hunting from the spiritual realm to a basketball game. It’s pure buzz kill for a soul hunter.

-Hunting in 30-degree weather is not a problem for me. However, when temps dip below that, I begin to whimper especially when my foot warmers fail, which they invariably do. Why? The hand warmers stay hot for hours. So one of my goals for 2010 is to find a product that warms my feet and doesn’t tear up my socks when I peel it off.

-Losing a few pounds would mean that when I wriggle out my cold weather hunting pants, the waist band wouldn’t be indelibly etched onto my skin. Plus, the ability to breathe deeply would help me control those occasional flare-ups of buck fever.

- I vow to never forget my Hunt Comfort cushion when I head afield, especially if there’s a long wait involved. I received a complimentary Fatboy Lite a year ago and believe they’re the best thing to happen to derrières since Spanx. Sitting in a ladder stand without one causes a serious condition known as “posterior paralysis,” which is marked by pain, numbness and sometimes a waffle pattern on your bum.

-I’ll also never give up my Gor-Tex woodsman hat with Thinsulate no matter how much people make fun of me. Yes, it’s too big for my head and makes me look like the female version of Elmer Fudd. But its soft warmth makes my detour to dorkyville well worth it.

- Most importantly, this year I plan to worry less about self-inflicted work deadlines, folding laundry or dusty baseboards and instead spend that time hunting. I’m old enough to realize enjoying life is more important than a clean house or even a fat bank balance. So in 2010, I intend to play outdoors even more with the people I care about most. I hope you do, too.

What do you resolve to do in 2010?

Let me know. Leave a comment here or you can find me at: Facebook.com/tammy.sapp2 and Twitter @TammyDianeSapp.

So baby let’s sell your diamond ring
Buy some boots and faded jeans and go away
This coat and tie is choking me
In your high society you cry all day
We’ve been so busy keepin’ up with the Jones
Four-car garage and we’re still building on
Maybe it’s time we got back to the basics of love

-Luckenbach Texas (Back to the Basics of Love) Waylon Jennings, 1977

Waylon’s powerful baritone in this anthem to the simple life is as unforgettable as the hard economic times the country faced in the late ‘70s. For those of us old enough to remember, getting back to the basics was more of a necessity than a choice for many Americans.

And now, more than 30 years later, here we go again. This country’s economic woes hang over us like the cloud that floated over Pigpen’s head in Charlie Brown. Skillful, dedicated workers are laid off, houses are lost and lives, if not ruined, are horribly disrupted.

Unless you’re a believer in the apocalypse, you can trace the history of the world as a series of bad times followed by good times. The Dark Ages and the Renaissance. The American Civil War and the Reconstruction Era. Through it all, humans have thrived when they could and endured when they had to.

Some say we wouldn’t know or appreciate prosperity without hardship. In fact, if there’s a bright spot, coping with adversity can bring out people’s better qualities. Entrepreneurship takes off. Thriftiness becomes admirable. And there’s a new yearning and appreciation for the simpler things in life. The love of our friends and family. The feeling of being connected to nature. Traits that will help us regain our foothold in our quest for success.

We’re already seeing signs that this idea of getting back to the basics is catching on. There’s an Allstate Commercial where Dennis Haysbert reminds us America has endured 12 recessions since the Great Depression.  Haysbert’s voiceover “After the fear subsides …people start enjoying the small things in life” is underscored by photos of families enjoying a home cooked meal and young boys shooting hoops in the driveway. I don’t usually rave on commercials, but this one is spectacularly done because it recognizes the pendulum effect of our economy and reminds us of our resilience.

A 2009 TripAdvisor travel survey verifies that this return to the basics is not just something you’ll see in a commercial. One of the primary trends identified is people are planning to enjoy the outdoors. A whopping 73 percent of respondents said they plan to visit a national park while 53 percent plan to go hiking.

Camping is also on America’s agenda this year as attendance and sales were up at recent RV shows in Michigan, Maryland, Utah and Florida. It’s a buyer’s market now and even with the cost of an RV, camping is still 27 to 61 percent less expensive than other types of vacations.

News such as this begs the question, will more people also hunt?  A reference to a study in the book “The Future of Hunting and Shooting Sports” suggests there’s a correlation between new housing starts and license sales. The study looked at 43 variables including economic data and found that as new housing starts increased, the sale of hunting licenses decreased. This could be the result of a couple of different factors: urbanization takes away hunting land or access to it and/or increased construction activity leaves less time for hunting (another part of the study found many hunters are in the construction business).

Doesn’t it stand to reason that if housing starts decrease then hunting and fishing license sales will increase? While researchers may not have the answer to that one yet, it sounds logical. And hopefully it would have a snowball effect as men (who make up the majority of hunters and anglers), would introduce their wives, girlfriends, sons and daughters to the woods and waters.

Hunting and fishing are great back-to-the-basics activities because not only will you enjoy the time spent outdoors, you can fill your freezer with healthy, nutritious meat that any locavore would love.

That reminds me of another classic country song by Hank Williams, Jr. Released in 1981, “Country Boy Can Survive” is an ode to survival and self sufficiency that rose to the top of the charts when times were tough in America. For many, the message still resonates today.

And we can skin a buck; we can run a trot-line
And a country boy can survive

Come to think of it, so can a country girl.

This is a difficult period for many Americans. But have faith. Plant a garden this spring. Go turkey hunting. Enjoy a picnic at a nearby state park. Watch the birds at your feeder. Catch a fish. And live like you mean it.

Some 15 or 20 years ago, when I worked for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, the agency hired its first female game warden. At the time, I was banging out magazine copy and probably the bravest thing I had done was edit out unnecessary commas. So I was in awe of this woman who had the moxie to walk up to a pickup in the dark and question its gun toting occupants. I wanted to interrogate her in the worst way, to find out what made her tick. Now, many years and commas later, I got my chance to talk to a woman who has made a career choice the average person can’t even comprehend.

Jasmine Grossnickle, a wildlife officer for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, is one of four female officers working afield in the Buckeye State. This Ohio native has two years of experience under her belt and a passion for her job that’s evident, even over the phone.

She admits, though, that she really didn’t expect to go in that direction. Armed with a wildlife management degree from Ohio State University and a history of enjoying fishing, hiking and camping with her family, Jasmine thought she was destined to be a wild manager. However, a job search led her to wildlife law enforcement instead, a decision she’s glad she made.

I’ve always wondered what it takes to be a wildlife officer, and what Jasmine outlined did not sound like a walk in the park. First, there’s 16 rigorous weeks in the classroom learning the legal aspects of the job such as search and seizure, Miranda rights and more. That’s followed up by nine weeks of specialized wildlife training, which Jasmine told me is what she really looked forward to. She especially enjoyed the training stations set up that simulated a fishing, hunting or trapping scenario that the students had to treat like an actual field contact. After their approach and contact, the senior officers would critique their performance. There was also a challenging physical fitness schedule with one example being early wake up calls so the students could begin the day on a dead run.

Today, her schedule still includes insanely early mornings, late nights and weekends - whatever it takes to protect the wildlife resource from poachers and serve the residents of her county. But that’s what Jasmine said she loves, the chance to work outside and the job’s unpredictability. Every day is a surprise that unfolds when she checks her messages. Depending on the time of year, she may be out of the house before dawn checking waterfowl hunters or hitting the woods in the middle of the night to follow up on spotlighting complaints. No two days are the same. She also said she enjoys opportunities to teach at Passport to Fishing events and then seeing a young person she mentored fishing just a few weeks later.

I had to ask Jasmine about how she deals with the scary unknown. Handling a belligerent contact in the field, especially alone, would shake most people’s confidence. Jasmine admitted that the potential danger is a downside of her job. However, when she feels like the situation might get thorny, she contacts the county dispatch or a fellow game warden with her location. And she pointed out that she’s properly trained and equipped to deal with those kinds of situations and stays on her guard. To date, she’s not encountered anything too hair raising.

Jasmine also had great advice for women who are considering a wildlife officer career. First, a candidate needs to not only have a strong interest in the outdoors but a wildlife or law enforcement degree to back it up. And if you’re the type of person who can make contact with people and not be intimidated, this job will be a better fit. She said it’s an extremely competitive career path, though. Out of the hundreds of candidates who apply, only a handful are hired. While the hiring process is long and arduous, you can more successfully navigate it if you have an insider’s perspective. That’s why Jasmine recommends trying to first get a seasonal position or internship with the agency and learn as much as you can.

Being a wildlife officer is no job for a cupcake. I’m thankful for those special few who love being outside rain or shine and yearn for the excitement, danger and fulfillment their job brings. For me, though, I think I’ll just stick to doing battle with punctuation.