Best outdoors memory from 2022?

I have a bunch of great memories from this year.. starting with my 1st coues deer hunt (tagged a nice one) with some great friends.. it ranks up there, but one of my kids getting a deer always beats my trips, even if my kid is almost 30 lol...

I actually think the best thing that happened this year was a purchase we made... a little cabin on 30 acres that butts right up to 1.1M acres of state and the Okanogan NF....will putting this in a "family trust" where my kids and grandkids will always have a great place to meet up and hunt together as a family.
Totally, totally awesome sir...well done!! The best to you for many more hunting memories with loved ones to come in your future!
 
Grunted a good buck to 33 yds from across neighbors corn field. Stuck him and watched him go down. Got to celebrate with my two boys and close friends.
 
My best of 2022 for me was catching 786 fish on a fly rod on one river and catching several personal bests for me in this state. Can’t wait until April when I’ll be fishing darn near every night after work this spring! I even got some fish biologists hooked on going out for a day of fly fishing and stream surveying!
 

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Woke up at 2am, drove 4 hours, hiked 6 miles, climbed 1200', and got this guy. Came down in the dark, drove home, and my head finally hit the pillow at 2am the next day.

Hardest 24 hours I have had in a loooong time! Definitely type 2 fun.
 

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What is the one thing from your time spent in the outdoors in 2022 that sticks out in your memory the most? Something accomplished, something you were a part of, or maybe just a sight that you wont forget.
My wife caught her first fish! A monster sheepshead out of lake ontario! Great memory and loved seeing her face when we hauled it in the net!
 
It was a good year. Watching a bobcat while waiting for elk, finding my first elk shed, or hiking with my kids are all high on the list.
 
Walked a quarter mile barefoot through the woods shirtless because my dumb ass buddy and my dumb ass thought it’d be fun to swim to an island in the middle of a lake in Yosemite Wilderness. Straight up thought I was going to drown. Started to swim back, breathed water again then found a way around that was safer and didn’t involve much swimming. Cut my knees up sliding on rocks and my feet from the obvious, but I made it home to see the kids.

Coincidentally my wife said that’s the least ripe my sleeping bag has ever been after a trip.
 

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Mine would be taking my son on his first hunt out west in Montana in November. He has been wanting to go with me for several years and we decided to buy him a mule deer hunt where I just tag along. He killed a nice muley buck on the first morning and he was tickled to death. It was worth every penny and I hope it will be the first of many western hunts in his lifetime.

For me personally, it would probably be having several cow and calf elk within arm's reach of me during the opening week of bow season in CO. I didn't get a bull this year but having such close encounters with these elk was very cool. The wind was perfect and they never knew I was there even at a distance of 3 feet.
 
I know it's just a deer and it may not be the biggest one in the woods, but my wife hunts are hard as I do, and she finally got a good Georgia buck after years of hunting. It's almost a terrible law of averages for her as she spends as much time in the woods as me and just never has had a shot at a good one. This year she got this great buck, and I was so very happy for her. It's at the taxidermists right now and it should be done in 3 weeks.

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All the time I spent whitetail hunting with my wife. It was her first season. We had some close calls during archery season. Rifle season she finally shot a small doe. She made an awesome shot at about 100 yards with only a few minutes of legal light left. I think I was more excited than she was.
 
After building our house for the past year and a half, the 2021 season was nothing due to my construction attempts and my expectations for this season were very, very low. No prep and with the new house, wasn't totally setup with everything yet. Still actually finishing things now, over the winter. Not to mention couldn't find my crap - still in boxes. Did manage to get out this archery season and boy was I surprised. I was running calculations in my head and I was literally within archery range of an elk better than 80% of my trips out this year. Way, way, way better percentage than I could ever hope for. Did not kill one but that's because I didn't like any of the setups that were presented but boy, I can't complain about the quantity of elk I had near me this year. That's actually more fun than taking one for a victory ride sometimes. Sure hope everyone else had an awesome year! I'm excited for next year. Plan to it hard.
 
after waterfowl hunting for about 6 years, I've only seen one banded bird harvested (hunting with a friend and we both shot at the same time, I told him he could have the bird since it would be his first mallard, and then found out it was banded). The first bird I shot this season was a banded goose, The second bird I shot this season was a banded mallard. I have no idea how it worked out that way, but I had the absolute best possible start to my 22 duck season.
 
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