Commercialization of Hunting Leads to Increased Lease Prices

Taking advantage of our God given natural resources in Texas seems to be only for the rich and well to do now days.  I'm referring to deer hunting or for that matter any type of hunting in Texas.  The cost of a deer lease has skyrocketed in the last 10 to 15 years, or so it seems.  I've been looking for a place to hunt for me and my two sons the past couple of years.  Right off the bat, I'm sure you can see my problem.  Three guns for a lease.  Open the check book.

 Land owners have changed the way they charge for leases.  Used to, you could find a land owner who wanted to lease his property for hunting, negotiate a price for the lease and then split the cost of the lease between the number of people who will hunt on it.  The landowners have caught on and determined that they can make a lot more money charging by the gun rather than a flat rate for the lease.  Who can blame them?  After all it's all about the almighty dollar now days. This has lead to skyrocketing costs for hunting leases.  But then again, if someone is willing to pay the money, why not charge it. 

Whether you want to deer hunt, dove hunt, quail hunt or hog hunt you better be ready to open your wallet.  I attribute some of the increased costs of hunting to the increased commercialization of hunting that has taken place over the last several years.   Take for instance all of the hunting shows on television now a days.  Have they done justice to the sport of hunting?  I think not.  While they are enjoyable to watch, most of them are just a disguise to sale a product.  They do nothing more than create a market for their products.   This commercialization has, in my opinion, led to the high cost of hunting products and hunting leases.

As long as we are willing to pay the prices the landowners want to charge, the cost has nowhere to go but up.  At what point will people say we just can't afford it anymore?  When we as hunters realize we don't have to have the newest food plot seed, the newest strongest doe urine that drives bucks wild, scent blocking clothing, heaters for our stands, or camo that truly makes us invisible, the commercialization of hunting will slowly subside and prices I believe will realign themselves.

Hopefully, the time will come when hunting is again affordable for the normal person and we can continue to pass on the joys of hunting to our children and grandchildren.

Boy Scouts of America High Adventure Trip To Northern Tier Canoe Base in Canada

A couple of summers ago, my son and I took a trip to Northern Tier Canoe Base in Bissett, Manitoba, Canada.  It was the trip of a lifetime for both of us.  We canoed over 80 miles in ten days.  Outfitting ourselves for this trip took months of research and planning.  The following will include an explanation of the planning process for the trip itself including the gear we outfitted ourselves with for the trip.

Our troop had previously taken a trip to Northern Tier and canoed the boundry waters.  We decided to venture a littel further north and take the canoe trip out of Bissett.  One thing different about this trip than the other canoe trips at Northern Tier is the fact that you have to take a float plane from Bissett to reach the Boy Scouts canoe cache located on the appropriately named Scout Lake.  The flight from Bissett to Scout Lake is about thirty to forty minutes long. 

The float planes are not opperated by the Boy Scouts of America, so you have to reserve your own float plane to make the short trip to Scout Lake.   We charterd our float plane through Blue Water Aviation.  They fly hundreds of scouts each summer to Scout Lake and pick them up for the trip back to Bissett when their days on the water have concluded.  Because a lot of their business in June, July and August is dedicated to shuttling scouts, we found them to be very accomadating. 

If you decide to make the trip into Canada, you are now required to have a valid U.S. Passport.  You'll want to make sure everyone in the crew takes care of this early as it can sometimes take a couple of months to have a passport issued.  One things for sure, if you don't have a passport, you don't go on the trip. 

Since our troop is located in Texas, driving was not an option.  We flew from Houston to Minniapolis/St. Paul and caught a connecting flight to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.  We spent the night in Winnipeg at a local hotel and then caught a shuttle the next morning for the three hour driver to Bissett where the Canoe Base is located.  When making arrangements for the shuttle service, shop around because prices vary.  Make sure you coordinate your departure time from Winnipeg with the check in time at the base so you are not late.  Also, keep in mind your return flight schedule and make sure you coordinate your departure time from the base to Winnipeg so you have plenty of time to catch your flight back home.   So, when making flight arrangements for your trip and reservations for the shuttle, make sure your have plenty of time for both. 

Once we had our trip booked with the BSA Canoe Base, we made all of our travel arrangements, flights, shuttle, and hotel reservations.  It's best to make all of these arrangements as early as possible so you don't have to worry about any conflicts with any of these three critical components of your trip. 

The next thing we focused on was the gear for the trip.  You need to keep in mind when planning what gear to take that it is critical that you only take what is necessary and the necessary gear is the right gear.  Each scouts gear for the trip, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, clothing and personal items should all be able to fit into a five gallon bucket.  So you know right off the bat that some of the sleeping bags that some scouts have are going to be way too bulky for this trip.  I found this to be the most labor intensive part of the trip for me as I like to research everything before I make a purchase.

Welcome

Welcome to Outdoor Adventures My Way.  I started this blog to provide information on various outdoor activities I have been involved in to share my experiences and knowledge with you.  Each time I have planned  a trip, whether it be hunting, fishing, canoeing, hiking or camping, I find myself spending countless hours researching gear that I need to outfit myself with to ensure I have an enjoyable time.  It would have been nice to find one place where I could have gone to find all the gear I would need for a particular trip with someone who had actually used the gear and knew what gear was needed, how it performed and what wasn't a necessity.   Hopefully you will find the information I provide useful.