Outdoors
Rec
B
Saturday, February 26, 2022
The Observer & Baker City Herald
Sonoran
sojourn
“¿A dónde vas?” he said.
“Perdóname,” I bleated, “mi
Español es no bueno.”
He nodded.
I had carefully rehearsed the
phrase over and over as I moved
towards the ﬂ ashing lights, and
now I delivered my line as if on
cue: “Voy a pescar con mis amigos
en Puerto Peñasco por tres días.”
Onward
My headlights peeled away
LUKE
the consummate blackness of
OVGARD
the worn pavement as I made my
CAUGHT OVGARD
way to the Airbnb I’d booked in
Puerto Peñasco with my friends,
ull from some roadside
the Moores.
Chris and his boys, Carson and
adobada sopes I’d
Braeden, were frequent visitors
purchased in a tiny town
to this little town dubbed “Arizo-
na’s Beach,” and I was
and eaten outdoors
venturing into Mexico
in the 115-degree
for the ﬁ rst time to
heat, the meat sweats
ﬁ sh with them for a
long weekend, hoping
hit me. Soon after, I
they’d share some of
was pounding cold
the secrets to their
drinks left and right
pioneered success in
the area.
as I headed east into
It was too late to
the desert.
wet a line that night,
I had been warned
but we were up ﬁ rst
about police corruption
thing the next morning
in Sonora. As I slowed
for a boat we’d rented,
for the turn that would
and I could scarcely
put me onto the ﬁ nal
contain my excitement.
leg of a remote desert
Our guide spoke very
highway between
little English which
Luke Ovgard/Contributed Photo
Guadalupe Victoria
was perfect because
The striped mullet is one of the world’s most common ﬁ shes, found we spoke very little
and my destination,
in fresh and saltwater environments worldwide in warm climates.
Puerto Peñasco, the
Spanish. Regard-
The author caught a few in the Puerto Peñasco Harbor.
ﬂ ashing lights in the
less, we managed to
distance made me a bit
get out and face the
apprehensive.
high winds to catch
Isolated hardly felt
some ﬁ sh. Chris and
The stopped vehicle looked sketchy enough Braeden took sea-
adequate to describe
the barely main-
sick early, and after
in the ﬂ ickering wash of the spasming red
tained desert roads
ﬁ ghting through it for
and blue lights from the police cruiser.
that were mostly paved
hours, Chris decided to
but rarely signed and
head back to shore —
never painted between
a few pounds lighter.
the Calexico/Mexicali border
The boys and I managed to add
Crap. Should’ve been para, not
crossing and my destination atop
dozens of ﬁ sh, representing sev-
por.
the Sea of Cortez.
eral new species, which made
Regardless, he got it and
The stopped vehicle looked
the queasiness that much more
shined a light through my open
sketchy enough in the ﬂ ick-
acceptable to me, but Braeden
window into the cab. I had a
ering wash of the spasming
stack of ﬁ shing rods, a cooler and continued to chum the waters in
red and blue lights from the
between catches.
enough corroborating evidence
police cruiser. Seeing my cau-
Our trip ended, and we were
that he nodded. He asked for my
tious approach, the oﬃ cer
insurance. I’d purchased Mexican pleased to ﬁ nd solid footing
moved slowly into the inter-
again. We continued ﬁ shing in the
auto insurance to cover my days-
section and motioned for me to
harbor, and it was late afternoon
long venture into the country,
stop. A bit apprehensive, I rolled
when I had another run-in with
and I handed it to the oﬃ cer. He
down my passenger window and
the policia.
nodded again and let me go. No
attempted to discuss my plans en
tickets, no bribes. I was pleasantly
See, Sojourn/Page B2
roto Español.
surprised.
F
Luke Ovgard/Contributed Photo
The Americanized name for Puerto Peñasco is Rocky Point, so named for this rocky peninsula where the author ﬁ shed.
Tom Claycomb/Contributed Photo
Here are the Clamtainer Ammo Buddy boxes that I’ve started us-
ing. Notice how the 9 mm box is already getting torn after one trip.
Tips for ﬂ ying
with ﬁ rearms
TOM
CLAYCOMB
BASE CAMP
Can you ﬂ y with a gun?
Yes, but there are rules
and regulations that you
must follow. Some set by
the government and some
by each individual air-
line. We’ll cover some of
the regulations but ﬁ rst,
if you’re new to the gun
world you may ask the
question why would you
want to ﬂ y with a gun?
I see three reasons right
oﬀ :
• You’re ﬂ ying some-
where to hunt.
• You’re a competitive
shooter and ﬂ ying to a
match.
• We live in a dan-
gerous world and you
want to have a gun for
self-protection.
It doesn’t matter what
the reason, the rules are
the same. When you get to
the ticket counter you have
to declare that you have
a ﬁ rearm. They will ask
you if it is unloaded and
locked in a hard container.
They will then have you
sign and date an orange
Declaration card which is
later taped to the gun box.
In Boise you will then be
directed to go down to the
left to the have TSA check
it out.
The ﬁ rearm must be
locked in a hard-sided
container. Many pis-
tols come with a trav-
eling case. For riﬂ es you
will have to buy one. For-
ty-some ears ago Frontier
Airlines would rent you
a case for $20. The ﬁ rst
time I ﬂ ew with a riﬂ e I
was headed to Texas for a
deer hunt. The ticket lady
told me that if I didn’t
bring it back that they’d
keep my $20. She said if I
wanted to keep it, she’d go
get me a new one in a box.
Now, there are a
plethora of guns cases to
choose from. Most are
lined with foam to protect
your scoped riﬂ es. These
types of gun cases work
ﬁ ne but all that you can
ﬁ t into them is your guns
and maybe a knife or two.
So you’re paying the air-
line for one bag that has
only your guns in it.
Seven years ago I dis-
covered a gun case made
by Explorer that had no
inner foam. They utilize
a canvas carrying case.
At ﬁ rst, I didn’t like it. I
thought, that’s stupid, it
won’t protect my scope.
But I used it on a trip to
Alaska for a brown bear
and duck hunt and fell in
love with it. Here’s why:
When you go on a
hunt, you have to take a
ton of gear. Clothing —
pants, shirts, base layers,
coats, gloves etc. etc.
Then your guns, ammo,
optics, knives, camera,
maybe waders and the
list goes on and on. With
my foamless case I could
lay shirts/pants on the
bottom, lay the canvas
case on top with the guns
in it and then lay more
clothes on top. Wow. This
was almost like having an
extra bag of clothes. Plus,
I could put my binocu-
lars in the case and they’d
be padded.
I fell in love with this
concept of luggage. It is
the only one like it that
I’ve seen on the market.
But what if you already
own an expensive gun
case and can’t (or don’t
want to) buy another one?
It just hit me while I’m
sitting here typing but I
guess you could remove
the foam from your
existing case and be set.
That’s better than ﬂ ying a
luggage half full of foam
around the country!
So, if you go the above
route, I’d recommend get-
ting a canvas gun case to
put your gun in to stick
in the case. Plus, you can
carry your gun around
in the canvas case when
hunting. For a pistol you
can lock it in a smaller
case and put in your
unlocked suit case.
Some gun cases have
holes for two locks. My
Explorer case has holes
for six locks which is
a pain because Delta
requires you to have a
lock in every hole. You
don’t want a real long-
necked lock because a
thief may be able to pop
open the closures on the
gun case and be able to
stick his hand into your
case and pull some-
thing out (Plus TSA will
ding you).
On the other hand, I
like longer-necked locks
to ensure that they can
be locked. To alleviate
any problems with TSA I
carry a baggie of washers.
I put a few on the back-
side of the neck of the
lock and then lock the
lock in place. Then, even
if a thief opens the clasps
on the case, he cannot
pry open the top. I started
doing this years ago.
I always carry one or
two extra locks in case
one malfunctions, which
would be a disaster. I’ve
never had a problem
until the other day. TSA
wanted to open my case to
inspect it upon arriving at
their booth and for some
reason the key wouldn’t
work. No biggie. I let
them cut the lock since I
had an extra one.
See, Firearms/Page B2