Down The Trail Outdoors… Before kids, before anyone thought about legacy. It was just a name my buddy came up with because he grew up hunting “down the trail” behind his childhood home. I’ve now been hunting that same stretch of ground in the Kawartha Lakes for over 15 years with him and so it just made sense.
There were plenty of laughs tied to it that made it stick. Scott is famously impatient—especially during turkey season—always wanting to run and gun or reap anything we saw. One morning we started calling it “Crawling Down The Trail Outdoors” after he crawled about 150 yards at this turkey. After that it became a regular phrase in our group.
Over time, though, the name took on more meaning.
That same trail still runs through our hunts. It’s where my family lives now. The woods and fields that we’ve spent years figuring out are the same places our kids are starting to learn in.
Down The Trail Outdoors isn’t about chasing trends or reviewing every piece of new gear that drops. It’s about documenting what actually works for us, the hunts that test us, and the moments that stick.
I remember the details better when I write them down—the setups that paid off, the birds that made us work for it, the mistakes that turned into lessons. Add in the photos and videos, and those hunts don’t just live in memory anymore.
Now the difference is this: we’re not just hunting those trails ourselves. We’re bringing our kids along. They’re learning the same ground, hearing the same early morning gobbles, and walking the same paths we did.
This site is a way to keep track of it all—the strategy, the stories, and the seasons—from the Kawartha Lakes woods and fields.
Still down the trail…
Just a few more footsteps behind us now.