Pennsylvania Game News - January 2012 - 49

IS THIS BULL ELK in velvet growing his antlers for your epic Pennsylvania hunt? Going after him next fall would be a rare sporting adventure, but you can make hunts for the “usual” game species more adventurous by introducing ambitious goals to fulfill.

the Northeast mountains 4,000 or more feet tall. We’re excited about getting their approval and our member numbers, which are assigned consecutively as climbers finish. So far, only 642 people have become official “111ers.” That’s not many people and a lot of mountains. To finish up, we climbed 20 peaks in three weeks last fall, including taking time out for hurricanes. Friends have been asking what our next epic adventure will be. “We’re going to walk America’s hundred flattest beaches,” my husband quips, still nursing tired legs. Even so, he knows our push-to-completion was worth it. With the start of a new year, why not plan your own outdoor epic for 2012? Or at least get a multi-year epic started? All major undertakings begin with a single step, and this will be your journey worth making. The best pastimes, they say, require more work than your job; that’s what makes them so satisfying. Hunters know how true this is, so they’ll be glad to hear they have many options for major sporting exploits. Some, like our hiking trips, involve going far from home. A friend just returned from an archery bear and deer hunt in New Brunswick, Canada, where he shot a bruin with his bow. Another has traveled several times to the Far North, to hunt caribou with his rifle. He brought home antlers, meat, photos and
JANUARY 2012

tales of breathtaking hunts on the tundra. Two other hunters we know are planning Bob Steiner their second wolf hunting trip. Is traveling away from Pennsylvania required to have an epic adventure? I don’t believe so. I think you can have an amazing outdoor experience or accomplish an ambitious recreation goal right here at home. Pennsylvania has lots of wild country that I’ll bet you haven’t visited, and it’s there waiting. If you, too, like to hike, the state has its own mega-paths: sections of the Appalachian Trail and the North Country Trail, and the entire Mid State Trail. Shorter adventures can be had by foot-traveling all of the Loyalsock Trail, Donut Hole Trail, West Rim Trail, Susquehannock Trail and more. The Keystone Trails Association has seven awards for hiking accomplishments, including the State Forest Trails Award. Offered in cooperation with DCNR, applicants must have hiked all 798 miles of trails in the Pennsylvania State Forest system. That sounds like plenty of epic to me! As a hunter, what epics are available to you? The Game Commission has provided a multitude of opportunities; you just have to pick your own or develop one from a type of hunting you already do. The commission’s website and the Hunting & Trapping Digest can give you ideas, if you don’t already have something in mind. Some Pennsylvania hunts are obviously epic. We don’t have wolves or caribou here,
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Pennsylvania Game News - January 2012

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