Cold weather fun

The weatherman says the mercury may dip below 32 degrees tonight, so that's why I'm headed home to gather my camping gear for a cookout in the woods. After 18 years on the outdoors beat, I've come to learn that you can't let little things like wind, rain and sub-freezing temperatures derail a good adventure.

I've got a trunkful of wood, my wool Boy Scout shirt and a Lodge cast iron kettle to cook some fish chili over an open fire beneath the oaks at the Fort DeSoto group campground. Ranger Jim Wilson said we should be protected from the wind but added that it might be a tad chilly.

But adverse weather conditions usually make for a better story, as you will learn, if you put this blog on your 'Favorites' list. I've made a resolution this year to do at least one thing outdoors every day, rain or shine.

Some days we may be fishing, other days we may be backpacking through a pine flatwoods or canoeing down a river. Florida has so many outdoor possibilities that the only problem I have is narrowing down my choices because, unfortunately, I can only do one thing at a time.

Tomorrow morning when you wake up and feel that cold air bite as you walk barefoot across your frozen driveway to pick up you newspaper, think of me. I'll be at Upham Beach with my 10-foot Donald Takayama surfboard picking off some choice waves with the other graybeards and silverbacks.

Sound crazy? Perhaps. But hey, that's my life. Welcome to the Wild Side.

(Pictured: Casey LaLomia builds a fire after setting up camp on a spoil island at the conclusion of day two of a three-day kayak trip in January. Times photo - Douglas R. Clifford. Click to enlarge.)