Friends of Camp Wild Girls help out Drury’s Outdoor Catch a Dream Hunt

Friend’s of Camp Wild Girls  help out at Drury’s Outdoor Catch a Dream Hunt. This hunt is for terminally ill children.

Mary, Tanya and Amber Poppe along with Missy Benik cooked the Celebration dinner for the participants and their families. “We have now been invited back yearly as part of the Catch a Dream Hunt team and looking forward to next year already!” states Mary.

Thanks so all who help with the event this year. I have had the pleasure of participating last year and loved it!

Camp Wild Girls “Sticks” it out!

By popular demand we now have our new Camp Wild Girls decals. The first on sports a black border and the other surrounded with a camo border and our saying “Hunting and Fishing Resources for Women of the Wild”. Both are 8 inches wide from the back of the fletchings to the tip of the arrow. The camo version in 3.8″ high with the black border version coming in at 3.25 inches high. Check out the Camp Store to find all our logo items!

July’s Woman of the Wild-Katherine Browne

I didn’t grow up in hunting family but my family and I have always shared a passion for the outdoors.  As a child my parents would take us fishing for pumpkin seeds and small mouth bass on the lake across the street from our house.  We used bobbers and worms and I used to get so excited when my bobber starting dipping and would scream and laugh when I hooked a fish. I loved it.  I   have always really enjoyed fishing. I derive the same giddy pleasure from catching a fish now as I did when I was a little girl. However I’ve upgraded from bait fishing to flyfishing.   My fiancée Eric Grand taught me how to flyfish and along with falconry flyfishing is my greatest passion in life.  Currently I am the only female flyfishing guide at Willowfly Anglers in Almont CO.

I love flyfishing because it is incredibly dynamic. Every aspect is dynamic from movement of the line, to the timing of your cast, to the placement and presentation of your flys on a moving river. Everything is in motion, and timing is everything. The river is constantly moving, constantly changing. Fish move, their feeding habits change, the insect populations are constantly rotating through their lifecycles on different timetables. You are continually solving a puzzle and by the time you have solved it that puzzle has changed!  It’s the most natural form of fishing because you are showing the fish exactly what they want to eat naturally in the same way they want to eat it.  This past year I founded and became president of a women’s flyfishing club in the Gunnison Valley named the Fishin’ Chicks.  We are a chapter of Colorado Woman Flyfishers but since Gunnison Valley Chapter of Colorado Woman Flyfishers was a bit long winded we voted on a nickname.  I was pushing for the Damsel Flys but I was outvoted.

My other greatest passion in life is falconry.  Falconry is the art of hunting game with a trained raptor. It is one of the oldest sports known to man, originating in the Far East around 4000 B.C. Many falconers describe falconry as a life style rather than a hobby because of the daily time commitment and devotion this sport requires.  Many people ask me how I first got interested in falconry when we talk about the sport.  I have always been very interested in birds of prey. When I was a child I took classes at a nature center that often had talks on birds of prey. I was absolutely enthralled from the first time I got up close to one of these majestic animals. When I was working abroad in Costa Rica with a captive breeding program for macaws, one of my close friends and research partners had a friend that was a falconer back in England. I think this was the moment the seed to become a falconer was planted. Before that point, I was totally unaware that people were still practicing falconry. When I returned to the States, I was flipping through the channels one day and came across a program where two men were rabbit hawking with a red-tailed hawk and at that moment I thought, “If they can do it, I can do it.” After that, I began ravenously consuming all the literature I could find about falconry. It was still a couple years before I had a place to build a hawk house (AKA a mews) and had the time to commit to the sport. When I moved to Oregon, I was able to find a sponsor and become an apprentice falconer. As an apprentice falconer, you, are required to have a sponsor your first two years, take a test on falconry, falconry regulations and raptor biology, and have your facility inspected by the state. After passing my test, I trapped my first red-tailed hawk, Artemus.  Since then I have trapped and flown two red-tailed hawks and an American kestrel.  This year I hope to trap a goshawk or a prairie falcon so I can hunt ducks, grouse, pheasant, and quail, in addition to cottontails and jack rabbits.

Falconry is different from conventional hunting because a rabbit can’t see a bullet coming, but has been hunted everyday for thousands of years by hawks and knows what to do when a hawk appears. That’s what makes it one of the most natural forms of hunting. Falconers are more observers of what goes on everyday in the wild than a gun hunter. It is like an advanced form of bird watching. As a falconer you get to see things most people will never see in a lifetime. Also unlike a weapon you have limited control of the bird.  Unlike a gun or a bow and arrow, a bird of prey has a mind of it’s own. Finally, falconry is more about the flight and the chase than the capture of the quarry. There is often cause to cheer the rabbit when it gets away and outsmarts the hawk.

So far I have only kept each bird until spring, trapping it in fall or winter then releasing it when the ground is clear of snow and small prey is readily available. Trapping a raptor and using it for a passage falconry bird dramatically increases its chances of survival. Seventy to eighty percent of wild red-tailed hawks die during their first year of life. A red-tailed hawk flown by a falconer has a mortality rate of less than 5%. This increased in survival applies to all birds used in falconry. Each subsequent year a bird of prey survives into adulthood their survival rate increases as do their chances of producing the next generation. Furthermore the falconer introduces the red-tail to larger prey such as rabbits and squirrels that are available during the winter when smaller prey is scarce. This is incredibly important to the bird’s future success in the wild during a time of year when the mortality rate of raptors and most animals is at its highest. I plan on keeping a bird for more than one season in the future because the longer you have a bird the better falconry bird it can become. However, I have never liked the idea of keeping a wild thing forever.

Beyond flyfishing and falconry I love doing pretty much anything in the outdoors. In the winter I enjoy, ice fishing, snowboarding, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing.  Year round I hike, camp and hunt and in the summer I spend as much time on the river as possible, white water rafting, floating and fishing. In addition to guiding flyfishing I work for Prόis Hunting Apparel, a women’s hunting and field apparel company, as their Dealer Relations and Pro-Staff Coordinator.  I love working for Prόis.  Kirstie Pike is the best boss I have ever had and I am so passionate about the apparel we make.  Prόis makes the most technical woman’s hunting gear available with incredible fit and the most technical fabrics and technologies available.  It is so important to do something you love and I am very happy to say I have achieved that goal on all fronts.

Tiffany, Colorado – 06/19/10 – Colorado

Aztec, New Mexico – 08/21/10 – New Mexico – New Mexico

Coffeeville, Kansas – 06/27/10 – Kansas – Kansas

Kicking Beards II for Kicking Bear Kicks Back!

When I won the spot at the Kicking Beards 2 Pro/Am event in Kansas, I really didn’t have a clue what it was about. I thought it looked like a good organization to donate to and if I should win, it would be fun to go turkey hunting. Boy I had no clue what I was getting into.

First of all getting to “hang out” with the awesome Pros that were there was an absolute hoot. Guys like Heath Painter, and his camera man Chris Dyer a.k.a. “Catfish” a.k.a. “Flathead” who hosted in my first turkey kill, Mike Miller a.k.a. the “Assassin” who called in and filmed my second pinch, Tom King, Trevon Stoltzfus, Jimmy Big Time, J.T. Harden, Ryan Litwin, Casey and Chris Keefer, Matt Burtin and David Langston just to name a few. Meeting new friends like Thad Pool, Jodi Smith, Doug Gilmore, Maria Dupertuis, Durk Stark and the other winners and volunteers, well that in itself was more than worth the donation. I know I am going to ruin a bunch of macho egos, but you couldn’t find a bigger hearted, giving group of people that like to have fun. Add in Kevin Blake Weldon, who put on a concert, and the Locked Horn Outfitter owners Jared and Lizzie Crider and things were rocking.

We put down 25 turkeys total and I shot my first and 2^nd turkeys on film. I hunted hard and made great contacts, but that was not what I really want to tell you about today.

I want to help get the word out about Kicking Bear One on One. This program was started by Ray Howell whose dad abandoned him, as a young child. Ray proceeded in life getting into trouble and eventually someone took the time and introduced him to hunting. It changed his life.

Ray has a much higher calling in life. There is a love for people that simply oozes from his gentle giant. You feel it the first time you are near him. Ray started Kicking Bear to give kids the chance to be mentored in hunting and hopefully change their lives for the better also. My favorite movie is Pay it Forward and that is exactly how Ray Howell lives his life. In the movie each person had to pay a kindness forward to 3 people, Ray has long surpassed that number. His program is one that will continue to breed a “pay it forward” attitude, while changing, and in some cases healing, the lives of not only our youth, but the people that surround them.

The following is the philosophy behind the Kicking Bear program.

Impacting the children of tomorrow… Showing youth a better way of life while providing them with a weekend of fun to experience new things and meet new friends.

Nothing we do is as important as the impact that we have on the youth community.

1. 1. Engaging activities develop values, skills and relationships. Activities are not seen as ends in themselves, but as vehicles for creating values, building skills and solidifying peer and adult relationships. An engaging activity is one that holds the youth’s attention, awakens their imagination, and inspires them to want to learn more.
2. 2. All youth have equal rights to be accepted, respected and valued by others. Youth are viewed as individuals to be developed, not problems to be solved.
3. 3. Youth should be involved in decision-making and program design. If children get to choose how, when, in what and with whom to be engaged, they are far more likely to enjoy themselves and behave cooperatively.
4. 4. When we listen for understanding everyone learns — youth and adults alike. We are constantly able to learn from the youth as well as each other. Everyone is a learner.

Kicking Bear also follows up by providing free hunting and fishing experiences for kids that cannot afford it. That pretty much says it all.

I went to Kicking Beards thinking about what I could do for myself. I left Kicking Beards thinking about what I could do for others. I had someone that taught me in the beginning (thanks dad) and there are so many kids, (and adults) out there whose lives could be changed by having a mentor.

Kicking Bear holds camps all across the country at no cost to the kids. Please take the time to find out more about the Kicking Bear program and how you can help. Volunteer your time, donate your resources, or simply put out the word. No gift to this program will go unused. If someone taught you, please “pay it forward” it could change a life.

For more information about the Kicking Bear Program click here.

PRÓIS HUNTING AND FIELD APPAREL PARTNERS WITH CAMP WILD GIRLS TO LAUNCH EXCITING NEW HOME HUNTING PARTY PROGRAM

Check Out Camp Wild Girls’ New Logo Wear!

Check out all the new additions to our Camp Store!

New in 2010~ Camp Wild Girls “Hunting Parties”

Well it’s official. To kick off the New Year we are going to start having Camp Wild Girls “Hunting Parties” featuring Prois Hunting Apparel.

What is a “hunting party” you might be asking yourself? Well remember all those home parties that you didn’t really want to go to because they didn’t have anything you really wanted to buy? Well we are going to change all that. As one gal put it “Oh it is like tupper**** party only for kick @$$ chicks!” Exactly my friend!

You will  now be able to try on all the Prois Hunting apparel, and Camp Wild Girls clothing in the comfort of your own house or maybe a friends. It will be  getting a bunch of “wild” gals together for a wild  kinda time!

If you have an interest in attending, or throwing a party or possibly even becoming a rep, please contact me at party@campwildgirls.com. Please be patient until we can get to your area since this is a very new program.

Jan 2010′s “Woman of the Wild”-Kim Pezzeminti

Kim Pezzeminti, explorer, huntress and creator of things.

“Woman of the Wild” could not be a more perfect description for this explorer!  As a young girl, I would create some of the most amazing places in the wild of the outdoors.  The most memorable is of my playhouse underneath a GREAT big maple tree!  The dirt floor was swept daily and the luscious and green moss became the carpeted areas of this delectable place.  I served mud pies topped with the flowers of the Forsythia bush.  My Grandmother Ruby would always be there to assist in my projects.  I credit her for blessing me with creativity.  She taught be how to see pictures in the clouds and how to make something out of nothing. (Which by the way has been a wonderful trait to have through my adult years!)

My Mother and Father are also very instrumental in the development of my creativity Through many years of camping, seeing, doing and just sharing added the element of honesty and integrity.  My Dad would take me fishing atop Mowbry Mountain near Chattanooga, Tennessee.  I caught my first 3 pound bass on a Zebco 202 rod and reel and I was hooked.  I began to scream to my Dad across the pond…”Daddy, Daddy, Daddy” as I drug the most incredible, awesome fish ashore.  Daddy came just a running and was so proud of me!  I went home, took my hands up to my Mom’s nose and said smell…I caught a fish!

As I grew and developed into a woman, all of these experiences and skills would ultimately become the foundation for my work world success.  After spending almost 20 years in the tile industry, I found it ironic that I was selling “baked dirt” for a living. (Hmmm, thank you mud pie).  I was able to work with ceramic engineers from France, Italy and Spain to take clays, silica sand and glazes to make beautiful tiles for homes and buildings around the world.  This job also enabled me to travel where I was constantly in sensory overload!  As this Tennessee girl traveled to the West, it was if she had found her home.  Wyoming became the place that every chance I got, I would go there, place my feet into the vast forests and just be on cloud nine.  The grand mountains would bring my creativity out like flowing lava from a volcano!  I spent several summers in the Teton National Forest on Horseback and I never returned the same person.  I am so thankful for these days in the woods.

As I traveled, I became the Platinum Princess on Delta Airlines.  Spending over 200 nights a year in a hotel was quite and experience.  I never knew what I would receive from all these frequent flyer miles but I found out a little over four years ago…the award was my darling and precious soul mate.  As we sat side by side on a flight from Las Vegas to Atlanta (thank you Delta) we talked about deer hunting, which I had never done, but my Dad loved to deer and turkey hunt.  I told him about the back strap my Dad cooked every Christmas morning.  Needless to say, this was love at first flight!

We married 2 years later on the Bell Tower of the Hotel Colorado ( Interestingly, this hotel became the White House of President Teddy Roosevelt, while he bear hunted…I think I must have felt his love of the West) then we jumped in our jeans and headed Elk Hunting for our Honeymoon.  My hunting buddy taught me to shoot my first gun and ultimately harvesting my first deer.  We make being in the WILD a priority for our extra curricular activities.  I escorted my husband on this 50^th birthday celebration to Namibia, Africa where I watched my mentor focus and harvest.  We have Elk Hunted together in Colorado and Wyoming.  Our most favorite place is our hunting camp in Georgia where we work on the many aspects of the Whitetail Deer.  Living now in Merritt Island, Florida, we are anxious to someday find a little cabin hidden in the woods where I can sit on my porch and listen to the creatures sing their songs.

Once again my experiences would take hold of my creativity and I from this my company Doeville would be born.   This is a place for women to come and capture items created by women and made in the USA.  The products and artists are a direct result of my many years of traveling and meeting people all over the world.  Our tag line is “Accessorize Your Spirit” which is what the places in the wild have done for my spirit!

My message to all women is to explore, not only places but also within you.  There are many treasures to be found!

December’s “Woman of the Wild”-Holly Heyser

Holly A. Heyser, hunting blogger and college lecturer

I am pretty much the last person anyone – including myself – would have expected to take up hunting. I was born in Southern California and have spent all of my adult life in urban areas. After college, I spent 19 years as a newspaper reporter and editor (Orange County Register, San Jose Mercury News, St. Paul Pioneer Press, Virginian-Pilot, Sacramento Bee) before leaving the business in 2006 to teach journalism at my alma mater, California State University, Sacramento. Reporter. Professor.

Urbanite. Not someone you think of as a gunner.

But I have always craved unusual experiences, and hunting started worming its way into my realm of possibility back when I was in my late 30s. I was living in St. Paul, Minnesota, with my boyfriend Hank Shaw, and we were both working for the St. Paul Pioneer Press. We had befriended the hunting and fishing writer there – Chris Niskanen – and what he did was really piquing Hank’s interest. One day Hank announced that he wanted to take up hunting. “That’s fine,” I said. He’s a cook, so I knew he’d eat what he’d kill, which was my threshold of acceptance for hunting.

 He was really getting into it, spending a lot of time out in the woods, and pretty soon he started asking if I’d like to join him. I didn’t, because I was busy training for marathons at that point, and I rightfully concluded that I couldn’t fit two activities that intense into my weekends. But a couple years later we moved to Sacramento, and I stopped running, and I finally said I was ready to join him. My first hunt was a pheasant hunt, but what really grabbed me was duck hunting. Half of the ducks in the Pacific Flyway spend their winter in the Sacramento Valley about an hour north of us, and the duck hunting can be amazing. I will hunt anything that I’m willing to eat – pheasants, turkeys, wild boar, deer – but there’s just something about ducks. They’re fast, the marshy terrain is challenging and the worse the weather, the better the hunting. I love a challenge. And ducks taste divine. Duck is by far my favorite meat, followed closely by wild boar.

I very quickly dedicated myself to my new pursuit. I had just started my teaching job and was overjoyed when I realized my winter break covered the last six weeks of duck season, so when Hank was working, I’d drive up to one of my favorite wildlife refuges and head out into the marsh myself, determined to teach myself how to actually hit these birds. (Three years later, I’m sorta kinda getting the hang of it.)

 A year to the day after I fired my shotgun for the first time ever, I started a blog about hunting, NorCal Cazadora (www.norcalcazadora.com). NorCal stands for Northern California, and “cazadora” is Spanish for huntress. I figured no one would care what a novice hunter had to say, but boy was I wrong. I quickly found that even the most veteran hunters enjoyed the frustration-filled tales of trying to learn how to do this hunting stuff right. Since, then, I’ve expanded a bit and have begun writing for magazines including California Waterfowl, Delta Waterfowl and Turkey Country, and I’ve done quite a few hunting stories for the Sacramento Bee, which has shown amazing openness to hunting.

I’ve also taken up photography, and do a lot of food photos for my boyfriend, who started a blog shortly after I did – Hunter Angler Gardener Cook (www.honest-food.net) – and writes for a variety of food magazines. I’ll be doing photography for his upcoming book as well.

Writing and photography has opened many doors. I’ve begun doing a lot of volunteer work for California Waterfowl, which graciously honored me with its Artemis Award this year. And I’ve made friends all over the country and world, which means if I can afford a plane ticket someplace, I could probably find someone to hunt with there. I feel incredibly blessed.

Probably the biggest blessing, though, is having been able to enter the hunting world in the first place. I was not naïve about where food came from before I started hunting – I spent some time in the country as a kid, and my family raised a lot of animals for meat. But participating in food, nature and the cycle of life at this level has been a revelation, and it has improved both what I eat and how much I appreciate it exponentially. So many things had to fall into place to get me here: meeting Hank, moving to Minnesota, befriending Chris. There are any number of different choices I could have made that would have put me on a different path. But I got lucky, and I’m incredibly grateful for that.

Camp Wild Girls Isn’t What I thought!

The Humorous Jody Narantic aka “The Hunter’s Wife” and her take on Camp Wild Girls!

You know when you run an outdoor site and you start making friends with outdoor people that you have nothing in common with except maybe cupcakes? Well when I first started a friendship with Terri Lee Pocernich of Camp Wild Girls I have to say her little outdoor camp isn’t what I thought it was. continued

Battle of the B.O.W. joins the Sportsman’s Channel on Dec. 29th 2009

Well it is finally official. The “Battle of the B.O.W.” contest on www.Wisconsinoutdoorsnetwork.com will be aired on the Sportsman’s Channel in Dec 29th at 7:30 p.m. CT. We will be filming our hunts starting Saturday the 12th of Sept. up to the start of the rifle season in November.

10 teams from Wisconsin will share their stories and hunts for 13 wks. Fans will be asked to vote for the Team they like the best on www.Wisconsinoutdoorsnetwork.com.

Terri Lee Pocernich of CampWildGirls.com and Kale Williamson will be representing “Team HuntingLife.com”. Both are on the HuntingLife Pro Staff and looking forward to battling it out with a great group of guys and 1 other gal.

Hunting season will be a little different having 2 people in the stand this year. We have been working hard to get all of the stands into the trees. We have done a lot of scouting and think we are on to some great bucks.

The show will air on Tuesday nights at 8:30, Friday mornings at 6:00 and Sunday nights at 4:30 ET. Please join us on our journey through the “Battle of the B.O.W.” I’m sure it will be quite entertaining!

New women’s hunting gear takes extreme measures against cold

Coming to our Camp Store Soon!

The experts at Próis® Hunting Apparel create every detail of their high performance clothing lines to provide the ultimate in comfort and utility. Let’s face it – if you’re a serious hunter, at some point you’re going to be out in the cold. Now you won’t have to feel the bite of Mother Nature’s chilly teeth during long hours in a blind or stand, or while trekking across icy terrain – thanks to new Próis Xtreme™ pants.

These ultra-tough, super-heavyweight pants are precisely designed to stand up to extremely cold conditions. They’re constructed with a 100 percent polyester 8000/5000 waterproof, breathable shell – it’s whisper soft and silent, insulated with an industry-leading 200 Gram 3M Thinsulate, and lined with sleek nylon tricot – so while you might be braving the elements, your mind will be on the game, not on your goosebumps.

These custom designed pants feature an elastic waistline with an additional elastic drawstring and cordlock to keep them right where you want them. Próis Xtreme Pants are built for long days in the field, with roomy cargo pockets complete with pillow top enclosures, along with 9″ boot zippers to make them as easy to get in and out of as they are to wear for hours on end.

Próis designs are specifically created to meet the needs of serious women hunters – so every detail, from the incredible fit to the extremely durable, high performance fabrics and styles – anticipate the conditions you’ll face in the field. These unique pants come in Realtree AP HD® and Advantage Max-1 HD® in sizes from XS through XL – so a wide range of hunters can fit into them, and then slip into the background while waiting for the moment of truth. The Próis Xtreme Pants are available as of August 2009 and, like all Próis gear, they are proudly manufactured in the U.S.A.

For more information about the Próis Xtreme Pants or any of Próis’ innovative line of serious, high performance hunting apparel for women, contact: Próis Hunting Apparel, 28001-B US Highway 50, Gunnison, CO 81230 • (970) 641-3355 • Or visit www.proishunting.com.

See the original article at CampWildGirls.com

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