New Years Resolutions 2018

Most people make New Years Resolutions they plan on keeping but never do really anything about.  I’ve given some thought and have several goals for 2018, some are more ambitious than others – but all are achievable.

• Donate more than money to causes I believe in.  I’m a member of the Ruffed Grouse Society, Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, and Pheasants Forever.  Until recently I’ve donated my money and sometimes my platform — just as an individual discussing issues with others.  I’m looking forward to sending in my PA Grouse Collaborator information and working with the RGS on drummer counts as well as habitat improvement projects, and hopefully I can get a chance to work with BHA Capital this year working pint nights and lobbying our congress critters down in DC.
• Buy the best quality gear I can afford.  This one should go without saying, but I’ve fallen victim over the last couple years of buying a ton of cheap knock-off UnderArmour at my local TJ Maxx and Marshalls, which was great for me while that was all I could afford.  Now I’m to the point in my hunting career where small amounts of the best quality stuff I can afford is probably better than having a huge closet full of mediocre kit that I just layer until it’s good enough; somehow I still manage to get cold in the layers.  I’m leery about pulling the trigger on something like a $400 tripod to go glassing for western game, but it should be the last tripod I ever buy and it’s made in the USA, a cause I believe deeply in.
• Kayak More.  Over the last two years I’ve done less and less.  That’s not OK to me.  I’ve put on more kilometers in the last years on my Concept2 than on my actual kayak.  This spring and summer we’ll get the boats on the water and go nuts in the Chesapeake.
• Scouting as exercise.  I usually throw on my hunting backpack when the weather is nice and I’m the psychopath that walks around with bricks in his bag.  I hike with my dog throughout the neighborhood, but on weekends I take to Southern MD’s public lands to hike the trails and sometimes go looking for sign.  It’s too easy, but we’ll be doing more of it.  Especially to trim up the little ones for Field Trial and Hunt Test season, and me because I could afford to probably eat less pork rinds.
• Finally get pulled kicking and screaming into the 1950’s and invest in trail cameras.  But I’m likely going cellular.
• Do a DIY Western Hunt.  My friends and I are planning a pronghorn hunt out west, this ought to be awesome.

All progress is incremental, and most of these are just promises of progress and not of specific achievements.  What are your goals for 2018?  I’d love to hear via Twitter @APTOutdoors or on Facebook.