Cliff Bars, Luna Bars Recalled

Have you heard about the Cliff Bar recall yet? In January, the company that makes Cliff Bars and Luna bars recalled some products because of the distant possibility they might have had some of that contaminated peanut product from the plant in Georgia. So far, none of the recalled product has tested postive for salmonella or any other nasties. Anyway, in case you're concerned, here's a list of the recalled products, straight from Cliff Bar's website:

In the U.S, the following products with BEST BY or SELL BY dates within the ranges below, all sizes and packages, are included in the initial and expanded recall.
CLIF BAR Chocolate Chip Peanut Crunch 09OCT08 to 31DEC09
CLIF BAR Crunchy Peanut Butter 09OCT08 to 31DEC09
CLIF BAR Peanut Toffee Buzz 09OCT08 to 31DEC09
CLIF Builder’s Peanut Butter 20SEP08 to 31DEC09
CLIF Kid Organic ZBaR Peanut Butter 21OCT08 to 31DEC09
LUNA Nutz Over Chocolate 28OCT08 to 31DEC09
LUNA Peanut Butter Cookie 28OCT08 to 31DEC09
MOJO Honey Roasted Peanut 01SEP07 to 31OCT09
MOJO Mixed Nuts 01SEP07 to 31OCT09
MOJO Mountain Mix 01SEP07 to 31OCT09
MOJO Peanut Butter Pretzel 01SEP07 to 31OCT09
MOJO Dipped Chocolate Peanut 01SEP07 to 31OCT09
MOJO Dipped Peanut Butter and Jelly 01SEP07 to 31OCT09
MOJO Dipped Fruit and Nut 01SEP07 to 31OCT09

Waiting for Spring

Spring is on the way! Robins are back in the neighborhoods, and meadowlarks have returned to the meadows. People all over the area are thinking about warm weather pursuits. Ice fishermen are asking about open water on lakes like Conestoga, Branched Oak, Czechland, and others. The Omaha Hiking Club and the Sierra Club have hikes and backpacking trips planned. The Great Nebraska Mushroom Festival is right around the corner.

What are YOU most looking forward to for spring? Is it hiking? Morel mushroom hunting? Camping? Boating? Personally, I'm dying to get out in my canoe, and those reports from the fishermen of open water have me dreaming of early spring paddling. I'm also wanting to do some geocaching - it's been a long time since I found some caches. And of course, warmer water will mean more of my fellow scuba divers willing to join me in the underwater realm.

It hasn't been that tough of a winter, really, just a couple of extreme cold snaps and a few nuisance snows, with a bit of ice thrown in earlier in the season. All the same, I'm looking forward to the easier life in general of warmer weather. Come on, Spring!

Top 10 Reasons to Go Hiking in Winter

1. No crowds. You'll have the trails, the campsites, and the views all to yourself.
2. No bugs. Mosquitoes and ticks are long gone. You can leave the DEET at home.
3. No poison ivy or nettles. Poison ivy vines snaking up trees retain the Evil Plant Oil year-round, but you won't have to worry about brushing against those leaves.
4. Different scenery. Snow, ice formations along creek edges, and woods with no leaves all create new and different scenes than you see in the summer.
5. Photographic opportunities. See number 4.
6. Good food. You can pack food for snacks or meals that would spoil in the summertime heat.
7. Hike off-trail if there's snow. Deep snow cover means you won't make new trails or ruts, so you can get off trail and navigate through the woods to places you might not get to visit in the summertime.
8. Prevent cabin fever. Get a regular dose of the sun's vitamin D and keep your mood up all winter long.
9. Fitness. Hiking, hiking through snow, snowshoeing, and cross country skiing are all great exercise. Forget the stuffy gym and enjoy the invigorating fresh air of the winter woods and fields.
10. Be a real outdoors-person. Getting outside year-round gives you a unique perspective and education on what the natural world is like all year long.

Bonus reason:
11. Learn new things. Winter is a great time to learn animal tracking, especially the morning after a fresh snowfall. See the wing marks where a hawk or owl swooped down for a tasty mouse breakfast. Find where a deer spent the night.

Things to Do in Nebraska

Looking for things to do in Nebraska? Check out the Visit Nebraska website! You'll find links to all sorts of activities, and you can even search for activities by region, date, and category! Just click here to view the Visit Nebraska website.

Bike Trail Extension Not to Happen?

An article posted by Lincoln Green Scene says it looks like the popular Mopac bike path will not be extended to join the Lied bridge over the Platte River as originally anticipated. Check out the story and sign a petition to have the trail extended by clicking the following link:
http://www.lincolngreenscene.com/group/bikes/forum/topics/forwarded-mopac-trail

The Great Nebraska Mushroom Festival

It's single-digit temps and snow outside here, but it won't be long before the snow is gone and the woods begin to turn green again. And then, they'll appear, but they won't be obvious.

Morel mushrooms, the delectable little edibles so sought after by mushroom hunters everywhere, are the focus of The Great Nebraska Mushroom Festival in Peru, Nebraska. Held the last full weekend in April, last year's festival drew folks from as close as Peru and as far as Colorado. This year's festival is the event's second year, and a good crowd of fungus hunters is anticipated.

For more information, please visit the website of NebraskaTheGoodLife.com or VisitNebraska.org. And be sure to mark your calendars!

Should Alcohol Be Allowed in Nebraska State Parks?

A bill before the legislature right now proposes allowing alcoholic beverages in Nebraska State Parks. Two sides of the issue are the difficulty of enforcement vs. the possibility of attracting more vacationers to our state parks.

Anyone who spends time in Nebraska's state parks during the summer camping season knows that, in spite of the ban, there's plenty of alcohol to be found there. A walk along a lake shoreline will reveal more beer cans and bottles than you can count. Stroll through a camping area and take a peek at the beverages held by the folks in the lawn chairs. Law or no law, there's alcohol in Nebraska's state parks now.

So should alcohol be legalized? Many who oppose the legalization of alcohol cite the wild and raucous state of Lake Mac back when alcohol was allowed. Those looking for a quiet, restful camping experience worry that all-night drinking parties will destroy the peace and serenity of the parks. Visions of cans and bottles thrown everywhere or left in fire pits, drunks tearing through the campgrounds at all hours, drunk boaters, jet skiers, and water skiers - all this may keep some non-drinking campers out of the parks, leaving them to the party crowd.

On the pro side, having a beer or two with the brats and burgers cooked over an open fire doesn't equate to a drunken rampage through the park. Law enforcement need not peer suspiciously into every single campsite; they would only need to focus on obvious bad behavior.

What do YOU think? Should alcohol be allowed? What pros and cons to you see? How do other states, those that allow alcohol, handle it? What could be done to prevent those who've had one too many from driving a boat or jet ski? Chime in and let's hear what you have to say!

Podcast with Recycled Fish

Explore-Nebraska.com has a new podcast with Teeg Stouffer of Recycled Fish! Teeg (think T.J. pronounced "teeg") is an enthusiastic advocate for stewardship of our outdoor resources. He loves to fish and practices catch-and-release fishing because, as he puts it, everybody wants to catch more and bigger fish!

One thing everyone can do to be a good steward of our outdoor resources, Teeg points out, is to take kids fishing. It gets them involved in the outdoors and teaches them a valuable and fun skill. And, while you're out, take a break from the watery action for Trash Patrol. Make it a game - see who can pick up the most trash. It is, as Teeg says, all a part of the fun and adventure of being outdoors!

You can listen to the podcast, which is sponsored by Canfield's Sporting Goods in Omaha, by clicking here.

Disc Golf Today

Lincoln's main disc golf course is at Max Roper park, just off I-80 in northwest Lincoln. I went out there for a quick round this chilly, blustery afternoon. It had been awhile. My throws were okay, but the course has changed since I first started going out there. Many, many trees have been cut, including those making the most fun hole on the course - a narrow path through the air between dense tree cover over a creek. Hit a tree, wade the creek to retrieve your disc. Those trees have been cut, so the hole isn't challenging at all anymore. Bummer.

If you're not familiar with disc golf (aka "Frisbee golf"), it's where you throw a disc (Frisbee is a brand name) from a cement tee to a basket. As in regular golf, the fewer throws it takes, the lower your score. A sign at the tee for each hole tells the par for each course and the distance to the hole.

One of my favorite holes on this course is this long downhill. As you can see on the sign, the minimum distance for this hole (they occasionally move the basket) is over 400 yards. I like this hole because, when conditions are just right and my game is on, I can get really, really long throws from the top of the hill and down near this basket. My best disc golf throws have happened on this hole.

If you're interested in trying disc golf, all you need is a disc or two, some comfortable shoes, and time to spend on the course. A great local place to buy discs is Canfield's Sporting Goods in Omaha. They carry a very nice selection of Innova discs. To play, just throw from the cement tee without stepping off the end. Your next throw must be from where your disc landed, and you can't step past it when you throw.

Discs include putters, middle distance, and long distance drivers. They're designed to be very aerodynamic, except for the putters. They're shaped much like a discus; you wouldn't want to try to play catch with these discs.

If you really get into disc golf, you can check out the PDGA - Professional Disc Golf Association. There are disc golf courses, many of them PDGA listed, all over the United States. Nebraska has multiple disc golf courses, including those in Lincoln, Omaha, Norfolk, Beatrice, and others. Check out http://www.nebdisc.com/ for a listing of courses and schedules of disc golf events.

New Place to Get Outdoors in Nebraska

The Sunday, January 18th Lincoln Journal Star reports that the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission has purchased 900 acres of land in Scotts Bluff County. The land, located about eight miles southwest of the city of Scottsbluff, is good habitat for elk and bighorn sheep. The area is called Montz Point Wildlife Management Area (WMA). The area will be open to hunting, hiking, and wildlife viewing.

Local Scuba Dive Shop Has a New Blog

Husker Divers, a dive shop in Lincoln, Nebraska, has a brand new blog. You can find it at huskerdivers.blogspot.com. Check it out!

Great Outdoor Adventure Books

I love to read. Ever since I was a little kid I've loved books. My tastes run to nonfiction, but some fiction, namely classics (i.e. Charles Dickens, Jack London), historical fiction, and some military thrillers (Tom Clancy's first few years' books were some of my favorites). In the past few years I've come across several very enjoyable outdoor adventure books. They're either true or based on true stories. Some of these books I've read several times, and I've found that a couple of them, especially, are perfect for reading inside on cold, bleak, snowy winter days.

Two of my favorites, pictured here, are Indian Creek Chronicles and North to the Night. North to the Night, especially, captures my imagination. It's about a man's winter spent above the Arctic Circle in his boat. He and his wife live on the boat year-round, and he decides to spend an entire winter, with its 24 hours of darkness, polar bears hunting him, and completely frozen world, locked in the sea ice. He has to burn fuel to operate a heater just to give himself enough space to eat and sleep inside his boat - the rest of the boat's interior is a block of ice.



Two more books I enjoy are The Last River and Skeletons on the Zahara. The Skeletons book is based on a true story. It's about some merchant seamen who embark on a trade voyage and are captured and enslaved in the desert in Africa. The story of their ordeal makes a very compelling read.


The Last River is the story of the first descent by kayak of the Tsangpo River. Some of the events of the story are debated among the extreme paddling crowd, but the account of the logistics and effort put forth by the team, including all the challenges of various kinds, is interesting.


Finally, In the Land of White Death details the odyssey of a crew of Russian explorers who were trapped too far north on their 19th century voyage. Another book based on a true event, the story of the men's challenges and the ways they overcame them makes for a great read.

If you enjoy the outdoors, adventure, and/or tales of human effort against the most difficult of odds, these books are all great reads.

Antler Shed Hunting

February and March are the key months to hunt for shed whitetail deer antlers in this area, but some outdoorsmen are finding them now (even in late December). Hunting for "sheds," as they're called, is a favorite passtime of mine, and it makes me look forward to February every year.

There are all sorts of uses for shed antlers. People make knife handles, drawer pulls, buttons, game pieces, ceiling fan chain pulls, and any number of other things out of antlers. I want to learn to make antler whistles. I've got some directions; it's just a matter of finding the time to learn and practice.

Antlers can be tough to find, especially when you're just starting out. In the photo on the right, can you see the antler? Look just a bit left of the tall grass in the center of the pic. See the single white tine sticking up? Sometimes that's all you'll see. You have to train your eye to look for that shape.

The 8-point antler above was a super fun find. It was found near a flood-control lake, lying in grass maybe 75 yards from a huge house. The 8 points on one antler meant this antler came from a big buck. We looked until it began to get dark and couldn't find the other one. I can't wait to return to that area and see if I can find one or both of this bruiser buck's antlers this season!

Twitter

I follow a few folks on Twitter, including Husker Divers, a dive shop in Lincoln, Nebraska (Twitter name huskerdiver) and Canfield's Sporting Goods, a mom-and-pop outdoor sporting goods store in Omaha, Nebraska (Twitter name canfields). Husker Divers is a fantastic dive shop, and Canfield's has backpacking, camping, fishing, footwear, workwear, and all sorts of other fun stuff for outdoorsy people. Check them out at www.twitter.com! I also follow ExploreNebraska on Twitter. There's a great website and forum on www.explore-nebraska.com. I hope to see you there!

Much to Do Outside in Nebraska

I grew up in Nebraska, so I suppose I've taken its outdoor charms for granted. We moved around a lot as I was growing up, so I was blessed with being able to live in various parts of the state and see the variety of landscapes and natural features. On vacations, we often stayed right here in Nebraska, so I was able to see even more of this great chunk of the heartland.

From the sandhills to the river valleys, the forests of the eastern end of the state to the buttes and bluffs of the west, Nebraska's natural features are, perhaps, more subtle than oceans and mountains. Yet they're diverse and beautiful and profoundly worthy of exploration and study.

Come along with me and explore what's outside in Nebraska!