Like a lot of folks, my love of the outdoors began when I was a young man just getting into hunting and fishing. Needless to say, over the years, I became very involved in outdoor activities and little did I know that I would one day look back and realize that I basically made my living off the outdoors as a wildlife artist and illustrator, writer, and at one time a TV co-host on an outdoor show. Hunting and fishing remain a vital part of my and my family’s lives and be assured because the hunting seasons are starting to wind down, our pursuit of the outdoors will continue, and that includes fishing all winter as well.

Even after the hunting seasons end for the year, there are still plenty of outdoor activities available. Pennsylvania is blessed with a good amount of public land in the form of State Game Lands, state-owned forest land, parks, and lakes. Many of these areas offer great hiking trails, boating and fishing, picnic areas, and great wildlife viewing opportunities.

As an example, here’s some of what’s available here in Northcentral Pennsylvania.

Let’s start with Elk State Forest. If you’ve never seen a wild elk, you don’t know what you are missing, and the chances of spotting elk in Pennsylvania’s elk range are excellent. One of the best spots to check is the Winslow Hill area near Benezette.

If you like the big woods and you want to hike or cross-country ski without seeing anybody, you may want to hit someplace like Sinnemahoning State Park. In addition to a great lake and great trout streams, there are also vast amounts of wooded mountains where you can spot bald eagles, turkeys, deer, bears, and an abundance of other wildlife. One of my favorite activities in my early fishing days was to hike the mountain streams in this area in search of native trout and the opportunity to spot rattlesnakes; I was seldom disappointed.

Sproul State Forest near Renovo contains 278,000 acres and 400 miles of mountain streams, and 450 miles of foot trails; a great place to get away from it all and to maybe see a bear, bobcat, turkey, grouse, coyote, deer, and a lot of other wildlife not to mention some beautiful tree-covered mountains.

Bucktail State Park offers a scenic drive if hiking is not on your list; this is a great drive to put on next year’s fall foliage jaunt.

Susquehanna State Park near Coudersport offers 264,000 acres and 500 miles of foot trails. Part of the well-known Susquehanna Trail system can be found here, and some of the biggest virgin trees left in Pennsylvania can be found here.

The Tioga State Forest is another vast area worth exploring; this might be a good place to try out those snowshoes you are getting for Christmas.

You may also want to check out Pine Creek Gorge Natural Area; the gorge stretches 18 miles, and the depth exceeds 1,000 feet in some places. Some of my earliest trout ventures took place on this outstanding creek and gorge.

I have barely scratched the surface when it comes to enjoying our local parks, public lands, and lakes. You can bet I’ll be hitting some like Hills Creek State Park and Rose Valley Lake for some of my earliest ice-fishing ventures and who knows, maybe even Cowanesque Lake or the Tioga-Hammond Lakes to the north near the New York border. You can bet that my ice-fishing buddies and I will be putting our share of time in at Bald Eagle State Park all winter long as well.

If you want to know more about the public lands available to you throughout the state, a good source is a book titled Pennsylvania Wildlife: A Viewer’s Guide by Kathy and Hal Korber. The book was published by Northwoods Publications, Inc. in Lemoyne, Pennsylvania.

Now get out there and enjoy the great outdoors hiking, fishing, bird-watching, and oh, yeah — shoveling snow!