MULHERIN: For want of winter; When weather disappoints, curl up with these outdoorsy reads | Sports

There’s some ice, but it didn’t set up well in the first place and our temperatures haven’t helped much since. The walking isn’t great and the fishing isn’t much better.

There’s some snow on the ground, too, but it’s crunchy and icy and too loud for fun squirrel or rabbit hunting. It’s also too sparse for skiing and too shallow for snowshoeing.

What, then, do you do with your outdoors time?

For me, it’s been hiking and working in the basement on my solo canoe that needs some gelcoat work. There’s also been some paddling on the Pere Marquette River.

But with our daylight still below 10 hours a day, there’s not much time for outdoors play after work.

So I’ve been reading some old favorites and some new-to-me books.

What follows are some winter reading suggestions for those who love the outdoors. Most of these books can be found through the Mason County District Library or on mel.org, the interlibrary loan website. Some are also available through “Libby,” the interlibrary digital reading app. For help with your accounts on the sites and apps, contact your local librarian.

When you’re waiting for spring, you want some mental imagery. For me, nothing compares to the works of three writers with Michigan ties: Ernest Hemingway, John Voelker (aka Robert Traver) and Jerry Dennis.

Hemingway’s “Nick Adams Stories,” is a delight. It’s not just how he captures (and romanticizes) the Fox River in his story “Big Two-Hearted River,” it’s how he crafts where Nick Adams is in his life when he returns from World War I and finds his way across fire-scarred country to the river. His writing is punchy but evocative — easy to read and easy to love.

Voelker’s books “Trout Madness,” “Trout Magic,” and “Danny and the Boys” are the U.P. at its best. While he’s got every bit of the descriptive talents of Hemingway, there’s no sugar-coating of the experiences — in fact, the opposite. Voelker spells out his troubles with finding cagey brook trout in great detail, perhaps to dissaude people from following in his footsteps and desecrating his favorite sacred wilds.

Finally, Jerry Dennis’ books “The River Home” and “A Place on the Water” are collections of stories that appeared in magazines, but have timeless qualities to them. He captures the spirit of Northern Michigan in recounting his youth spent around Traverse City and his travels as a young man chasing trout and adventure. One of the gems is his visit with the aforementioned Voelker shortly before the man’s death. Dennis’ other books are certainly entertaining, but the two mentioned here are the kind that sustain me through the dark days of winter.

If you read through all of these and still need some inspiration for trout or fly fishing, try John Gierach’s books that are centered mostly in the West.

Finally, I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t recommend a muskie fishing book, so I’ll suggest again that people read “The Greatest Musky Stories Ever Told,” a collection edited by Jim Saric and Steve Heiting of Musky Hunter Magazine.

I spend more time writing about other people’s hunting than I do my own anymore, and when I crack a book to do some reading about hunting, I want some instruction.

I haven’t found anything better than “Bowhunting Pressured Whitetails” by John and Chris Eberhard for this. Whether you’re a bowhunter or a rifle hunter, this book teaches you respect for the senses and habits of mature bucks. It’s the kind of book where you read it once and say, “There’s no way I could do all that!” But then you implement some of their suggestions and have some success, and then you’re on your way.

I hadn’t bowhunted in a couple years and was planning on getting out in fall of 2020. Unfortunately, a calf injury sidelined me for the archery season, but you can bet I’ll be reading this again and getting ready for the fall of 2021.

When I do have a thirst for some stories, I enjoy the “Michigan Buck Tales” series by Richard P. Smith. Richard hunts down the best bucks taken in the state and relays the stories of the hunters who took them.

All through my 40s I struggled to do any “unplugged” camping because I needed a CPAP for my apnea. I still do, but I’ve resolved this year to get my weight back down and have a new sleep study so I can do some wilderness tripping. I don’t know where I’ll go. Possibly the Sylvania Wilderness in the Western U.P., possibly Craig Lake State Park southwest of Marquette, possibly some expedition down a lengthy river. I’ve even been trying to get some friends together to consider paddle up the Au Sable and down the Manistee to cross the state. I’m not sure what year that would happen, if ever, but it’s been done by others before and I can’t think of anything more “Michigan” than a trip like that.

Regardless of whether you canoe or kayak or just camp, there are tips in “Expedition Canoeing” by Cliff Jacobson that will help you along. Tips on choosing a boat, rigging a boat, packing light and more are within its pages. The book is interspersed with stories from various trips that Jacobson or his panel of experts have taken over the years. Most of these are extreme trips from Arctic watersheds, but the lessons they learned can assist you in your planning for even a weekend paddle-camping trip.

Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t again mention Jerry Dennis and the late Craig Date for their work “Canoeing Michigan Rivers.” If you want to understand where we live is special from a paddling standpoint, give this book a read. We see the big flotillas of canoes on the upper and lower Pere Marquette River here and we know people love that river, but within 45 minutes are several other world-class floats that have a more solitary appeal.

If you want to know another reason our area is special, pick up “North Country Cache” by Joan Young. Joan was a co-worker for many years, and she takes you along on her adventures on the 4,600-mile North Country Trail, a national scenic trail that winds through Newaygo, Lake, Mason and Manistee counties locally on its way from North Dakota to Vermont. My kids and I put a few miles on this trail this year before I was derailed by my calf injury. We have hiked everything from 56th Avenue to the Manistee River for a total of just over 53 miles. It wasn’t the 100 we hoped for, but we enjoyed every mile.

I’ve also been working my way through Dave Canterbury’s “Bushcraft 101” for more than a year now. It’s like a college textbook for the institutional outdoors knowledge we’ve forgotten — knots, fire-making and survival. We’ve had some failed attempts at making bow-drill fires and practiced with our magnesium-block fire starters. It turns out that fire is pretty hard to make when you don’t have your handy-dandy wand lighter and some dry tinder.

In the same vein, the “Field and Stream Total Outdoorsman Manual” is a book that covers all the bases when it comes to the outdoors — whether you’re after information for fishing, hunting, game preparation, camping, hiking, canoeing or navigating, there’s information for you in a graphical format. The book was designed by magazine editors, so the layouts are visually pleasing. It’s a nice book just to flip through to find things you didn’t know that you didn’t know.

Wait, that’s not a book! No, you’re right, but it’s a weakness of mine. Several of my winter lunches and evenings have been taken up by the YouTube adventures of Justin Barbour, who crossed both Newfoundland and Labrador with his trusty Cape Shore Water Dog, “Saku” and by Jim Baird, “Adventurer.” These are two guys after my own heart — they chucked it all and went fishing. If you love giant brook trout, whitewater and wilderness, these are two channels you have to check out.

If you don’t know what a “bugshirt” is, you’re about to find out!

Luckily, we don’t have to worry about those for another four months or so!