stanley

Once again this year, the kids and I had a great time on our annual camping trip to Southern Utah. Each summer I meet an old college friend or two and their kids for the camp-out. The crowd varies a bit from year to year, but we always have a good time! My oldest could not make it this year, but there were still plenty of folks! This year we had 4 dads and 11 kids along. LOTS of fun!! I hope you enjoy the pics! S. Greta catching some cool wind just outside of Kanab!! Ruby keeping watch while the girls explore the shore.... Always a few critters around..... Some of the crew out exploring the lake! As always, we caught plenty of fish!! Lots of BB gun shooting!! Check-out that log that the girls got for the fire!!!!! Lots of marshmallow roasting happened shortly after this!!! Greta carving her marshmallow stick!! Watch your fingers G!!!! Kids had fun exploring Mamoth Cave! Greta got to drive the boat! While I fished..... Kids & dogs sleeping-in on the last morning....

You two are LOVING it!!!!! Congrats on the tag, and good job booking with Duwane!! It's going to be a BIG BUCK party!!!!! S.

Better slow it down a bit Amanda!!! So were you able to sweet talk your way out of any tickets, or did you actually get two of them?? Glad you made it home safe & sound.... S.

Outstanding Allen & Chef!!!!!!!!!!!!!! S.

LOL on Paul's eating!! He must have a hollow leg.... Like many folks, I've been to a few of these kind of things over the years. This one was great!! Eddy, Chris, and Co. did an amazing job of running the show!! The great food, good crowd, and the incredible spirit of the event, made this banquet stand-out! Kudos to those who pulled this off! S. PS: Great to see familiar faces and meet some new ones as well!

Can't believe that I missed this Amanda!!!!! Looks like an AWESOME time!!!!! S. PS: Woody, Dewane, and friends are planning a Hunger Education Campout up close to Mormon lake in early August. I'll try to confirm details with him and hopefully post here.....

Spent last weekend in 36A with my oldest son (Erik) and some friends. There were two old child-hood friends from here in AZ, and a good old college buddy who came down from Salt Lake City to join in the fun & help glass. Myself, Erik, and one of my buds had the tags. No, we didn't get a deer but we had a great time as always. Zero for three!!! We glassed-up deer and javelina each day, and saw several bucks. Erik took a couple of shots at one of the bucks on Saturday morning, but it was a bit long (300 yds or so) for him and he missed clean twice. After two misses, he stopped shooting and let the buck move on (which at that point was just kind of standing there wondering why rocks & sand were getting kicked into his belly...) so we could try to get closer a different day. He only has a 6X scope on the .308 he uses, and it just isn't quite enough magnification at that distance. I'm going to fix that for next year! The weekend was spent glassing, hiking, trying to stalk bucks, visiting with old friends, etc. A GREAT time!!!! We'll be back down there next weekend for the junior hunt. My two youngest have tags, and Erik has a javelina tag. Guarranteed good time!! S. Erik glassing on Saturday evening with the "new" 15s! (picked them-up gently used here in the cw.com classifieds! Absolutely LOVE them!!) Spotted some deer & pigs! Javelina.... Look close and you'll see two little babies on the right! Erik got a kick out of those little suckers.... Talking about the day's hunt while cooking dinner! HUGE T-bones, spuds, and veggies over a mesquite fire! YUM!!! Erik and I on the last night. He's only 15 and almost as big as me..... We'll get em' next year buddy!!!!

Hey Amanda! Count me in for a seat at the table again this year please! It was a great time!! S.

Wow! Great post!!!! Nothing like family & friends along with hunting/camping/outdoors!!!!!!!! Thanks for sharing! S.

It's been a few years, but it seems like I remember the access being easier towards the dam. I don't know if you could take an ATV (not even sure if it would be legal, because there is a gate across the road.....), but as I recall the hike to the lake was definitely easier at the dam. You're basically hiking down a two-track road, as opposed to a 'switch-back' type of a hiking trail. The last time I was there, there were several little alumimum boats by the dam. I was thinking that if you had wheels, that it would not be too hard to man-handle a boat down the two-track to the water by the dam. A kayak would not be a problem at all for that access point..... S. PS: The last time I was there, I was fly-fishing out of a float-tube. It was the middle of a HOT July day, and the wind kicked-up big time!! Well, the cicadas (locust) were buzzing thick in the trees and started to get blown down onto the water. This started a FEEDING FRENZY of brown trout who couldn't get enough of those cicadas! We spent two hours casting big black wooly worms & buggers and caught & released a couple of dozen fat brown trout each!!!! Amazing thing to find ourselves in the middle of.... Not many fishing days like that....

Nice pics Amanda!!!!! S.

Wow TJ....... Yes, you're toast! S.

And the same here also.... Congrats to all that drew tags! My kids will be back in the draw next year! I really DO like the way NM handles their drawing system.... S.

Thanks for the post Doug! Always a topic of interest this time of year.... S.

Cool!!!! Is there fishing going on in Lower Lake Mary??? Any little pike or rainbows down there this summer???? Just cuious... S.

TOTAL class act!!! Galarraga made a comment something to the effect of '.... I'll have the tape to show my son someday, and that's what matters....'. S.

Yea, I wasn't necessarily trying to imply anything with my original question either. Simple observation.... BTW, I've seen muleys with similar configurations in the mountains just 60-70 miles east of Phx. S.

I've got the Browning take-down semi auto. I love it, and the kids REALLY love it!! S.

Terry, yes, respect for sure! Opinions are like.... well, you know the rest! I have mine and you have yours friend! COUESAZ, I hear you. I really do! I just have a hard time with 'arm chair quarterbacking' in general. Kind of a personal hang-up of mine I suppose... Regarding what you said about Lark's opinion, well I suppose you're right that he is likely not far from the truth. He rarely is, and I mean that.... Rag Horn, no doubt it would be different if is was a Mexican Gray.... S. PS Terry, I'm keeping my fingers crossed on some NM youth antelope tags for the kids. Sincere thanks for your help there!!

Wow!!!!! Nice buck! Whitetail genes in that rack somewhere along the way maybe????? Maybe Jim H. will comment?? Thanks for sharing! S.

I'm going from pop-up camper back to tent camping, and I've pretty much made up my mind on the 12X12 Ultimate Alaknak. There was an Alaknak for sale here a few months ago, but I wasn't ready then.... Anyway, virtually all of the reviews I've read, and I've read quite a few, are generally positive. The one common theme in the negative category is the propencity for condensation build-up. Anyone else have feedback on the Alaknak? http ://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/template...box.jsp.form23 S.

Glad to see yet another positive review on the Alaknak bdrew!! The turkey hunt was great (no birds killed, but the kids had a GREAT time!)! The tent performed very nice! Lots of room and VERY easy to set-up! In fact, when we arrived I realized that I did NOT have the instructions to set it up. We were able to figure it out intuitively fairly easily, and had it set-up within 20-30 mins. I also purchased the Cabela's 'bunk' cot set. Great for the kids, and makes it that much easier to sleep four in the tent! Next stop is the Rim in a couple of weeks, then our annual 6 day family camping trip to So. Utah at the end of June! Kudos to Cabelas for making a great tent! S.

Sad indeed. God bless his wife and small children. S. http://www.azfamily.com/news/local/Phoenix...g-94916484.html

Nice job Quinton!!!!! Thanks for sharing! S.

With all due respect to Lark, Amanda, Terry, and others...... Armchair quarter-backing is easy IMO. The guys had a decision to make, and they made it. I'm personally not going to second guess the decision because I wasn't there and do NOT know all of the facts. Terry, nit-picking on the wording of 'animal' because they didn't write 'domestic animal' is a bit weak at this point. You knew what they meant, right??? Again, only IMO... (which I absolutely know doesn't mean much.... ) But; 'should have never happended.... '?? Really??? How do you really know what should or should not have happend? You weren't there. S.