Outdoor

Having read an introductory piece on shed hunting, I thought it only natural to do a follow-up. I haven't actually been shed hunting on the Sun River WMA in many years.  May 15th usually finds me in a different and far more remote area of Montana on that particular day.  I'm usually carrying my bow or a rifle and looking for a spring bear, a shed antler or two, and enjoying the solitude of not running into people at every corner. The forecast for the 15th called for rain...lots of rain!  I know my way around the game range pretty well, and I honestly didn't think many people would brave the nasty weather, so I figured I'd give it a shot.  I was out of town before 5 am and the rain and fog started about half way to Augusta. Shed Hunting in Sun River, America: The Pre-Game My first stop was the east entrance, although it was not... Read more

First Family Activity this Father's Day? Prairie Dog Hunting. Last month I took my daughter, Lauren, out to our friend's ranch to shoot prairie dogs.  The morning started off perfect with a few clouds and very little wind.  She was shooting my new Savage 17 HMR, while I was alternating between my .223 and .22-250; we were racking up the kills between the two of us. Early in the afternoon, the clouds rolled in and the wind picked up, which was creating problems with the light bullets, and also sending the prairie dogs for the cover of their holes.  So we decided to take my chocolate lab, Justice, for a walk up the mountain and look for a few "shed" elk antlers. Want another great activity for Father's Day? We left the truck in the prairie dog town and headed toward the base of the mountains, which is typically a good transit... Read more

As we celebrate Earth Day by planting trees in a local area affected by last year's massive wildfire, we are quickly reminded how it has only been seven months since fires were engulfing the Methow valley-Carlton Complex. In July 2014 lightning strikes sparked four wildfires across a rather large area that would very quickly merge into the largest wildfire in Washington State history.  Leaving in its wake 256,108 acres of burnt land and destroying 300 homes. At one point there were over 3,000 firefighters actively working to contain the fire.  The National Guard was even called in to help efforts. I remember riding the bus to work and seeing convoys of military Humvees with Red Cross painted on them, driving through downtown like a parade.  People would, including myself, stare in speechless terror as they start to realize that this f... Read more

Last Friday our Firearms Dept. Lead in Sandpoint, Tanner Van Pelt, held a customer appreciation day in the form of a long range shoot.  The shoot was invite only and took place in Clark Fork Idaho, on the Ruen Ranch, with targets out to 1050 yards and shooting out to 1350 yards. We had steel targets at 100, 200, 500, 700, 820, 900, 950, & 1050 yards. 15-20 people showed up for our first ever shoot and there was lots of excitement to get underway.  There were a few shooters shooting .45-90 sharps out to 900 yards with peep sights and several guys showed up with .338 Lapuas testing their skill at the furthest targets. The shoot turned out to be a huge success and everyone had a great time. Thank you Tanner and Ruen Drilling for hosting such a great event. Read more

It starts like this: we were going to be out on the boat in the middle of a lake with absolutely no cover. The night before our trip I decided that I needed some kind of rain gear so that I wouldn't be completely miserable if it did rain. I talked with some of our clothing sales people at North 40, and they were talking up Frogg Toggs like it was the-be-all-end-all of anything rain gear saying how lightweight they were and how breathable they were and, "Oh yes, they are completely waterproof." You can check out our selection of Frogg Toggs online here. Well, what got me wasn't the fact that they are completely water proof but that they are breathable. I remember the days of the vinyl rain "slickers" and how they might keep the water off of you, but you're no better off because you are trapped inside of a plastic bubble sweating as much... Read more

I was privileged to field test a pair of MSR Evo snowshoes last week on an overnight hike to Tiffany Mountain, elevation 8200 in a sub-range at the eastern edge of the North Cascades about 25 linear miles northwest of Omak. I got a ride from Omak and began my walk up the North Fork of Salmon Creek from the mountain hamlet of Conconully. Low clouds and fog which overhung the Okanogan, seemingly for weeks, gave way to sunshine at Conconully, elevation 2300. I changed into a new pair of Merrell snowboots that were on clearance at North 40, and donned the Evo snowshoes at the Tiffany Lake Trail #373 trailhead, elevation 4800, a mile or so beyond Salmon Meadows, at about 2PM. The snow was paltry, maybe two feet, and was very rotten, making for some deep postholing and slow progress. I have snowshoed for about 25 years, usually several times ... Read more

Snow, snow, snow around here.  I normally take the week off between Christmas and New Years to spend some time with my family and do some winter fishing, however this year a "White Christmas" went a little longer than anticipated.  Actually a lot longer, as in: about 18" of snow with temps hovering around zero most of the week. I was plenty busy pushing my Yo-ho snow shovel around most days. This is the snow shovel you'll want in your arsenal when the work gets serious.  In between snowstorms the boys and I found some time to go play in the snow with an Otter sled and the new GoPro Hero 4 Black. January sees these Otter sleds in our stores mainly for calving and ranch work. These sleds are big and the edges tall, making them ideal downhill sleds that are stable.  Most runs we were coming down the hill faster and went further than... Read more

The story of Glacial Lake, Missoula and the ancient flood that forever changed the landscape of the Pacific Northwest has always intrigued me. This landscape feature is in one of the areas we serve at North 40 Outfitters, so I figured I'd go learn about it, and see for myself. Several thousand years ago, a finger of glacial ice moved through near present day Lake Pend Oreille damming the Clark Fork River and creating Glacial Lake Missoula. Imagine a giant buildup of ice creating a glacial lake the size of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario combined. The pressure on the ice continued to rise until the water level reached its maximum elevation of 4,200 feet causing the ice dam to fail, exploding the water downstream at a rate of 10 times the combined flow of all the current rivers in the world, moving at speeds up to 50 mph on its 430 mile journey... Read more

Who is the YETI cooler NOT for? Me. Full disclosure: I don't own a Yeti cooler, probably for the same reason a lot of people don't... the price tag. But check out their marketing (the video below)--it's incredible, and I watch all of their new short film releases regularly. So why don't I own a Yeti? Yeti coolers are designed for serious outdoor enthusiasts, guides, backpacking families and just all-around outdoors people... and while I'd like to consider myself "a serious Montana outdoors-man," the truth is--I have two kids, one is just turning 6 and one is recently 3. Our "outdoor trips" consist of single day outings to accessible, fishy water where my kids can wear their life jackets, throw some flies around... and I can sneak down river a few hundred yards and try desperately to catch fish before my youngest comes and throws tiny,... Read more