Some good reading 
to combat cabin fever

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Wow! This exceptionally wacky Northern Illinois weather has kept an awful lot of outdoorsmen inside the comfort of their abodes lately.

I am getting a little buggy from being housebound more often than I prefer. I am leafing through my hunting and fishing magazines for the second and third times.

I also am giving my Tivo a heavy workout, recording outdoors programs to watch to try to keep my sanity. I have been voraciously reading the stack of hunting and fishing books that have been piling up on my nightstand.

Here are a few gems that I’d like to share.

Acclaimed outdoor writer Mark Strand penned, “Paint the Next Sunrise – A Future for Hunting and Fishing.” Strand has been writing since 1977, and claims that his “remaining years will be dedicated to helping newcomers become active anglers, hunters and recreational shooters.”

Strand says that “Paint the Next Sunrise” “is destined to shape the national debate about the future of hunting and fishing in America.” It is a very quick read at 62 pages, but extremely important to those of us that believe that passing down a love of our sports to the next generation is of the utmost importance.

He writes about how he got into these sports and what it is about them that makes them so important to him. He also writes about the importance of these sports.

He talks about some people’s desire to hunt, shoot and fish. He discusses the problems facing the future of our sports, and offers suggestions on how to overcome these challenges.

He explains the importance and methods to help bring youngsters out of the video game world and into a much more exciting world awaiting them in the wild. It is very well written.

The book ties into a plan Strand has for a mentoring program “The School of Outdoor Sports.” He also has a Web site about the plan at www.learnoutdoor sports.com.

“Paint the Next Sunrise” costs $12.95 and is available at bookstores.

Amy Racina is a hard-core outdoorswoman. Her book, “Angels in the Wilderness,” begins: “August 4, 2003 – So this is how it ends. The thought resounds through my shaken body. I have not blacked out: I remember the seconds of the free-fall with brutal clarity. I took a single step, just one more step in hundreds of thousands of steady paces along the trail. Suddenly, without warning, I was falling. I saw the harsh slab of rock rushing up toward me from sixty feet below. There was no bouncing, no sliding, no scrambling. No trees reached out their branches to offer me a handhold. No cushioning undergrowth slowed my plunge. There was no way to stop my descent, nothing to grab onto, no time to shift position, no action that could alter my fate as I plummeted through the air. This was it, I was going to die.”

That certainly hooked me. I was dying to read about how Amy was able to find her way back to safety on two shattered legs. I think you will, also.

“Angels in the Wilderness” is $15.95 and available at bookstores.

“Primal Dreams,” a DVD is one of the best hunting videos that I have ever seen. Mike, Mark and David Mitten produced a masterpiece that I have written about. It’s not about kill-shots. The Mittens captured the essence of what bow hunting is all about.

This is a video that you can show someone who does not hunt, and they will come away with an understanding of why you do it.

Mike Mitten, from Beach Park, has taken the passion for hunting he showed in the video and put it in a book. “One With the Wilderness – Passions of a Solo Bowhunter” is a must-read for anyone with a love for hunting, a fervor for outdoors recreation or anybody who loves a good outdoor read.

It won’t make you run down to the archery shop for a set of equipment, but it will definitely make you understand why your friends live and breathe for everything that hunting is.

Mike talks about stalking bear, deer, caribou, hogs, moose, etc., across the U.S. As important as the hunting are Mitten’s descriptions of the beauty and wonder of the natural wonders he encounters.

His remembrances of the people he encounters that make the hunting experience all the more rich are as meaningful and important as any animal he encounters.

I call this book a masterpiece. Is Mike Mitten the next Hemingway? Probably not. Is he a skillful writer who allows all that is in his heart to flow out onto the printed page? Yes, definitely. This 51-year old man, who shoots a traditional longbow, not a modern compound bow, is a writer who is very special.

“One With the Wilderness – Passions of a Solo Bowhunter,” is available for $38 at Brothers of the Bow, PO Box 234, Libertyville, Iowa, 52567, on the Web at www.brothersofthebow.com, or by contacting Mike Mitten at mittenm@comcast.net or by calling 641-693-9100.

SBlt Northwest Herald outdoors columnist Steve Sarley can be reached at sarfishing@yahoo.com.

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