outdoors

Dale Bowman biography

Outdoors columnist Dale Bowman began his reporting career as a correspondent covering state government for WTAJ-TV in 1982. While in graduate school in 1984, he …

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Even running is going to dogs

The most layabout mutt is a better-built endurance athlete than the most finely tuned distance runner. ‘‘With the proper training, a dog in every case will be able to outperform any human,’’ said Dr. Brian Zanghi, a research nutritionist at Nestlé Purina Pet Care. Even …

  • Pre-tournament fishing outing a net loss, even with good muskie

    COOK, Minn. — As muskies go on Lake Vermilion, a 37-incher is nothing much. Unless it comes with a story. What is life well-lived without a fish story, especially one that includes a camera and a Beckman net sinking into the deep? I thought the …Read More

  • A romantic, a boat and the perfect proposal

    Guys like Capt. Rob Newsome make it tough on the rest of the male gender. He’s a well-built, good-looking guy; even more, he has a romantic heart fit for a sonnet. I’m talking a marriage proposal down on a knee in an impossibly perfect setting. …Read More

  • Wheelchair field filled with intrigue

    Paths change with spinal injuries. Then again, sometimes paths twist around afterward. Take Bob Swanson, who had athletic connections to Adam Finney and Geoff Kent before a snowmobile accident changed his direction. Swanson will race his first Bank of America Chicago Marathon on Oct. 13 …Read More

  • How great thy art

    F ish silhouettes are interspersed with the drawings Larry Green made of his arm during hours of dialysis. The sketch books are not ghoulish, just a fascinating juxtaposition. They mirror the complexity of Green himself. Or humans in general. This weekend I spent time with …Read More

  • Chicago Half Marathon: Irishman, Roselle woman tops in South Side race

    A local flavor hung with the humidity Sunday morning for the 17th annual Chicago Half Marathon on the South Side. Thomas Frazer, 31, an Irishman transplanted to Lake Forest, repeated as the men’s champion, while Lindsay Flanagan, 22, of Roselle, made her first half marathon …Read More

    • A rescue that works out owl right

    Great horned owls are tuft guys with a soft heart. There’s a fierceness in their faces, between the yellow eyes and the earlike tufts, yet a vulnerability, too. The vulnerability is accented when the nocturnal bird is seen in daylight. At night, their hoots are …

    Blancarte’s loss is a win

    Change came in a big way for Miguel Blancarte Jr. And the 26-year-old from Little Village is running with it. On Sunday, he’ll run his second half-marathon. Thousands of others will also run the 17th annual Chicago Half Marathon and the Hyundai Hope On Wheels …

    American idyll: Town pond provides perfect endingto another summer

    Annual cicadas raised a racket Sunday at sunset as I cast my way around the town pond. Everybody should have that local spot to fish for a half-hour or an hour to clear their heads. The town pond is mine. It’s where I can think …

  • One big mess and one big cleanup for IDNR this summer

    Two actions this summer make Labor Day weekend a good time to reflect on the job done by Marc Miller, director of the Illinois Department of Nature Resources. The implementation of the Water Usage Stamp, which began July 1, was a mess, while the signing …Read More

  • Dove season just around the corner

    I put grilled dove breasts, wrapped in bacon with twin slivers of jalapenos, with quail and deer backstraps as the best eating of our local game. Some things don’t change. When it comes to doves, some things do change. Dove hunting opens Sunday in Illinois …Read More

  • Matt Mullady planning outdoor show on banks of Kankakee River

    KANKAKEE — When an osprey comes hunting the same water you are setting up to fish, you have an inkling it is the right spot. That’s what happened earlier this month, shortly after veteran Kankakee River guide Matt Mullady launched me and his son Mick …Read More

  • BOWMAN: A week of outdoor oddities

    A wild week in Chicago outdoors began with a snake and a tropical fish Thursday. As a bonus, tack on an eel caught Saturday from the Kankakee River. A big snake climbing the door of his apartment building on West Huron naturally caught Dan Kobel’s …Read More

  • If adults show willingness to perform outdoor activities, kids likely will follow suit

    Our two youngest kids found a sand sculpture of a turtle at the tail end of a sandbar last month after waters finally had receded enough to allow for wading in the Kankakee River. The designer crafted the turtle, more the whopping size of a …Read More

  • Ben Collins has home-course advantage in triathlon

    Ben Collins is a little different. Not many elite triathletes or runners have made Chicago their home. Colorado is preferred, and Collins did his stint there. But last summer, days before the Life Time Tri Chicago, Collins moved to the city with his girlfriend, who …Read More

    • Squirrel season gives eager hunters chance to get lay of land

    BEAVERVILLE, Ill. — Thick, patchy fog slowed my drive on the opening day of squirrel season. The slower pace seemed apt for a throwback form of hunting. The predawn was cool enough to build a soaking dew and cool enough to keep mosquitoes down. It …

    15 years strong for Marquette Park Match Fishing League

    Down in ‘‘The Hole,’’ Mr. D.’s woodworking shop in the basement of the Marquette Park fieldhouse, stacks of wooden fishing rods were tied together Monday by the colors of their handles — hot pink, red, blue, green and purple. There’s fishing history at Marquette Park, …

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