With extremely high hopes and a couple very strong opportunities for successful hunts in place for 2010 and 2011, it might be difficult to understand why I spent a big chunk of today thinking about hunts roughly a dozen or so years away.

While flinging a few arrows at the target with a couple of hunting buddies, conversation stumbled upon taking our kids hunting. Jason, whose target we were trying to wear out, has a little girl just a few months older than Sara. We chatted about buying our little girls youth bows and letting them shoot with their daddies. Those days will be here much quicker than that first hunt. But I look forward, with great anticipation, to hopefully sharing the woods with my little girl. Jeff, our third shooter tonight, has a boy who is within a few years of his first hunts.

I do not plan to pressure Sara (yes, she does already have the lifetime license which is more pressure than I’d like to put on her), but my hope is that she will see just how much passion I have from enjoying all of the fantastic things that hunting provides. My dad never pressured me once, but he was able to help me develop an unmatched enthusiasm for the outdoors.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m about as excited for hunting the 2010-2011 season as I have been in many seasons. But I can’t help but imagine how awesome it will be to share the woods and waters with Sara when we get the chance to do that in a few years!