Outdoors with Don Q: Late winter offers lots of opportunities for staying busy

If you're not into traditional winter sports such as ice fishing, ice skating, downhill skiing, snowboarding, cross country skiing, snowshoeing or snowmobiling, there is not a lot to do in late winter...for most people.

Some choose to stare out the window, complain about the snow, ice, frost and darkness of wintertime and stay glued to their TV sets. However, there are plenty of activities to take your mind off our cold weather, dark mornings and evenings, if you would like to do so.

With that as a short introduction, here are some Don Q suggestions for enjoying yourself or keeping busy at this time of the year.

Hosting a game feed at your home:
If you're an outdoor person, you probably have some fish or wild game in your freezer that needs to be used before it becomes freezer-burned.
What better way to use it than to have an enjoyable evening, hosting a pot luck dinner with other outdoor persons. And, if they don't have any fish or game, they can always find some kind (rabbit, duck, goose) at our local markets. At game feeds through the years, I have eaten a wide range of foods that have included antelope, bear, caribou, moose, wild pig, and even rattlesnake.

Photographing mule deer in Carson City:
Elaine and I like to drive around and take photos (lots of photos) of the deer in our neighborhoods and along our city streets and nearby roads.
We have found the best time to see the deer is from 1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Our favorite deer-spotting locations are:
01. In the residential area just east of the Governor's Mansion.
02. Where Kings Street turns into the King's Canyon Road.
03. Along Ormsby Boulevard.

Taking Amtrak to and from Sacramento:
A great weekend trip is the train ride from the Reno Station, through the Sierra Nevada and over Donner Summit.
It is a leisurely 5-hour ride and be sure to get seats in the observation car.

Once you have arrived in Sacramento, do as we do, take the short walk from the train station to the nearby Holiday Inn Hotel for an overnight stay. After checking into the hotel, it is an even shorter walk to spend the afternoon visiting and seeing all the sights and activities in Old Sacramento.

Trout fishing at Topaz Lake:
It is a short drive from Carson City and you don't even need a boat. Most of the shore fishermen will be spincasting small lures or fishing on the bottom with nightcrawlers or some kind of Power Bait.
You can fish anywhere around or on the water at Topaz Lake with either a Nevada or a California fishing license.
And, as an extra bonus, on your way to go fishing, stop at the Topaz Lodge Restaurant for an outstanding breakfast of steak and eggs. It's great!

Watching for hawks and bald eagles in Carson Valley:
This is that special time of the year when those birds congregate in Carson Valley, which makes for some great sightings and/or photography.

My personal all-time, one-day record for most hawks sighted is the year when I counted a total of 83 on power poles, trees and fence posts, along U.S. 395, Nevada S.R. 88 and California S.R. 88.
This is also when bald eagles gather to eat the afterbirth of the many calves being born in the fields along U.S. 395. Just look for lots of parked cars.

Finally:
If none of those activities interest you, here are some other suggestions for staying occupied while waiting for the return of the warmth of summer:
1. Get rid of all of last year's unneeded bills, receipts, social correspondence, birthday cards, Christmas cards, newspapers, magazines, etc.
2. Go out to lunch or dinner, once a week, with relatives or close friends.
3. Host a weekly lunch and card game with relatives or close friends.
4. See a movie at the movie house, once a week.
5. Sort and organize all of last year's photographs.
6. Update your calendar for special birthdays and anniversaries to remember.
7. On nice days, take a leisurely walk in the neighborhood in the afternoons.

Bet Your Favorite Pigeon
Bet your favorite pigeon that he can't tell you about one of my in-house activities that I really enjoy during the entire year.
If he grins and says, "Don and Barry Drury of Watson Lake, Yukon love to talk to and tease each other daily on Skype on their computers," he has been personally involved in some of those face-to-face conversations.

— Don Quilici is the Outdoor editor for Carson Now. He can be reached at donquilici@hotmail.com