About John

John Holyoke

John Holyoke

I grew up tromping around the fields and woods of Maine, and as the Bangor Daily News Outdoors Editor, I get paid to do the same thing today. The difference: Now I have the chance to share stories with thousands of readers who appreciate the state’s traditional outdoor pursuits.

Since becoming the BDN’s outdoor columnist in 2002, I’ve been welcomed into homes and hunting camps, swapped flies (and lies) with fly fishermen on many of the state’s famous rivers, and have spent countless hours driving on remote dirt roads, in search of a new tale to tell, a new adventure to share, a new memory to be savored.

I don’t pretend to have all the answers, but I’ve learned it’s not hard to find plenty of others who are more than willing to tell you exactly what you ought to be doing, where you ought to be doing it, and how much you’ve yet to learn.

That’s not me.

Instead, I see my job as one that has many moving parts. Sometimes I’m a tour guide. Sometimes I’m a hunter, or an angler, or a hiker or a runner. Sometimes I’m just an average Mainer, spending time outdoors, trying to figure out where all the deer went. Sometimes I’m an antagonist, taking aim at ill-advised fish and game laws, or at those who take our natural resources for granted. Sometimes I poke a little fun at myself.

But mostly, I’m a story-teller. Since 1993, in one form or another, I’ve been sharing those stories with readers of the BDN.

Story-telling, of course, is a two-way street. Every teller needs a listener, or in this case, a reader. And the best tellers seem as eager to listen to someone else’s tale as they are to share their own.

That’s where you all come in. And that’s what Out There is all about.

Belly on up to the wood stove for a bit. Read. React. Tell me what you’re thinking.

And I’ll do the same.