Looking forward to upcoming outdoors shows while recovering from surgery

Let’s catch up on a few items of interest before I discuss knee replacement surgery. First, the Mat-Su Valley Outdoorsman Show is scheduled to be held at the Curtis Menard Center in Wasilla starting Friday, March 22, and running through the weekend. This is traditionally the first outdoors show of the season and usually has lots of good stuff to learn, see, and do.

The Great Alaskan Sportsman Show kicks off in Anchorage at both the Sullivan and Ben Boeke Arenas starting Thursday, April 4 and runs through Sunday, April 7. This has traditionally been the big sportsman’s show in Alaska and should be just as exciting as always.

Prior to getting all enthused about booking outdoor trips and buying the best new gear, you can spend some time learning about how Alaska’s fishing regulations are developed and how you, specifically, can introduce and influence a regulation change. On Wednesday, March 13, 2019, the Alaska Board of Fisheries Executive Director, Glenn Haight, will present a seminar on how you can influence fishing regulations. The seminar runs from 6 until 8 pm in the conference room of the William Jack Hernandez Sport Fish Hatchery, located at 941 North Reeve Boulevard in Anchorage.

Some of the topics to be discussed include how the Alaska Regulatory process works and how an individual can submit proposals to the Board of Fisheries to change things like bag and possession limits, methods and means for fishing and other regulatory items you may feel need to be addressed. You could also pick up a few tips on how to increase your effectiveness in influencing regulations that have a direct impact on your outdoor activities.

While this seminar is geared toward sport fishing, the process for changing hunting and trapping regulations is basically the same, as is for changing commercial fishing regulations. This is a free event, but advanced registration is required because space is limited. To sign up, contact the Anchorage Sport Fish Information Center at (907) 267-2218. I’ve attended this seminar before, and I would highly recommend it for learning how to be effective at a BOF meeting. Tell Glenn I sent you!

Armed with this new knowledge, you should be able to write and submit any fisheries proposals you are thinking about in time to make the April 10th submittal deadline for next year’s Upper Cook Inlet board meeting. Check the BOF website on the ADF&G homepage to get dates, times, and materials which will be discussed. If you can attend to observe the board process in action, the BOF is holding a meeting from March 9 – 12 at the Anchorage Sheraton Hotel. While the bulk of the meeting concerns areas other than our own, there will be a few out-of-cycle proposals which are scheduled to come up which might hold some interest for folks from this area.

Some of this information you may have already seen or read about. I’ve been out of touch for the last week recovering from having my right knee replaced. Boy, is that ever an experience I could live without doing again!

I was told that knee replacements can be very painful, and I was expecting that. However, the first three days post-surgery exceeded even my expectations! I’ve had both my right shoulder and my right knee replaced now. While I wouldn’t do either one just for fun, the shoulder was not as bad as I had been led to believe. I think I was thinking the same thing would happen with the knee. It didn’t!

The good news is that, in both cases, the surgeons were quite pleased at the surgical outcomes, and, assuming the knee heals like the shoulder did, I will be happy too.

There are several differences in why the joints hurt, or not post-surgically, as the case might be. A big one is that the shoulder is not a weight-bearing joint and the knee is. That explains why physical therapy is required to regain full range of motion for the knee while just using my shoulder like I normally would, until it started to hurt and then stopping, was all the “therapy” I needed to get that joint fully functional again.

I’ll let you go early since I hear my pain pill calling and my knee is desperate to answer. As things heal and my mobility returns, I plan to get out and about to comment on more interesting topics.