Outdoors Question of the Week

Part of the reason I live back in the pucker brush is that I like dandelions. They just pop up yellow amongst all the green. Free yard ornaments to me. When I was a prisoner of city living many years ago quite a few neighbors told me they were urban blight.

It’s difficult for me to pick on flowers or weeds. It’s just how you chose to see them. I get itchy around poison ivy so I’m no better to be sure. So to avoid the complaining on there part, I moved my part away from urban. I'm not anti social, I’m just pro dandelion.

So last night my daughter and I are out strolling what we call a dog. Up the road is a wet ditch. Marsh marigolds to the fancy, just cowslips to the locals in there brightest yellow and water logged stems so emergent; we had to pluck a handful. Living in town no one ever complained about marsh marigolds, but I suspect Wetland dandelions in a soggy bottomed ditch wouldn’t go over well in suburbia.

Real close to my home I can go canoeing. With gas prices I plan on doing more canoeing. The neat part is for once, I am ahead of the rough rapids downstream on this issue. I have been paddling for years. I go places where all you can do is paddle. Some of those places have marsh marigolds and not one living soul who complain about dandelions.

All winter had a guy emailing back and forth about when to go trout fishing and trying to adjust his work schedule and what trip would best fit his needs. What about weather, bait, the drive, do we camp, my truck, his truck, one canoe or two kayaks. He was worried. We tossed ideas off each other and finally landed on a quick trip canoeing with his preferred dates.

We pull up to the public access about the same time a large storm cloud did. He wanted to wait out the cloud burst and I said no problem. It poured, it quit, and we pushed off. Rounding and island I had to aim the canoe into some very big waves. Before I could shake a stick, two big waves crashed over the bow soaking him, his Rain coat on but unzipped.

Things were fine when we avoided water from the sky. Water from the lake was bad. I think I should have charged him by the hour and put on my psychologists hat. Two waves washed over him and the stuff started to gush out of him. I am not trained to professionally handle my own stress, much less anyone else’s. I listened. I learned. I think I even tried to empathize for about a lake and half. Water is water to me.

We got some fish. Gale force winds. I tried to serve a bag lunch on a lee point. Wouldn’t you know I picked the wrong cheese? For me it was just another day in paradise, he thought it was a living hell. He was wet. The paddling was hard work and the lunch was cold. When we got back to my yard I picked him a dandelion, I didn’t think he could handle a cowslip.

The trout whisperer

Inside the Mind of a Guide

Living the Dream in God's Country - Superior National Forest

Join author, professional guide, and master storyteller, Karl "Trout Whisperer" Seckinger, as he takes you on a 20 year, mystical journey into the Superior National Forest.

On this CD, Trout Whisperer's unique manner of storytelling, and digital sound effects, will transport you on a journey that will place you in the heart of the 'super natural forest' that is known as the Superior National Forest.

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