Allen Outside: North Georgia

   Getting My Feet Wet with Tenkara Notes on choosing a first tenkara rod for North Georgia backcountry fishing. Written for hunters, hikers, and anyone who's crossed a stream on a trail and thought "I wish I had a rod." Not written for fly fishing people — they already know this stuff. Carrying a spinning rod into a trailhead is friction. You either plan a fishing trip or you don't fish. I wanted something that lived under the truck seat, was always there, and didn't require a decision to bring it. A lot of bushcrafters end up here through catch and cook videos — wondering how to reliably put fish in the pan without a full fishing setup. A hand reel works and is worth starting with, but you'll consistently want just a bit more reach. Tenkara is just as portable and more capable: still no reel, still fits in a pocket, but enough rod and line to fish real water. A rod, a line, a few flies. No reel. No running line. Cast by feel, land the fish by hand. Developed...

  How Birds Live to Talk About It Most mornings I walk my kids to school. Ten minutes, same route, same trees, same stretch of sky. We talk about everything, but mostly the plants and animals we see along the way. The birds became part of that conversation several years ago — my kids have been to Craig Caudill's nature observation classes with me, so we're not starting from scratch on the walk. We're comparing notes. It's ten minutes where nobody is looking at a screen. I've come to think of it as the most useful part of the day. The forest isn't quiet. You are the noise. When most people walk into the woods, they notice how quiet it is. That silence feels like the natural state. It isn't. What you're hearing is a broadcast interruption. The birds went quiet because you showed up. Jon Young, in  What the Robin Knows , describes what he calls the "language of the birds" — five distinct vocalizations that function less like music and more like a ...