*Updated Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2004.

Welcome.

I'm the Dale Bowman of DaleBowman.com. Let me introduce myself. I'm the long-time, award-winning outdoor writer for the Chicago Sun-Times. My outdoor columns appear every Wednesday and Sunday. An extreme-sports column appears most Fridays.

My writing almost exclusively focuses on the urban/suburban outdoors of the Chicago area. I fully appreciate how ``urban/suburban outdoors'' seems like an oxymoron. I embrace that clash and use it to drive my writing. My work has appeared in several dozen newspapers and magazines, ranging from traditional outdoor magazines such as Outdoor Life and Sports Afield to alternative press such as the Chicago Reader.

``Bowman's Outdoor Line'' on ``Outdoors with Mike Norris'' airs on 1280-AM at 3-4 p.m. Thursdays. I'm a regular on ``The Fishing Line and Outdoor Show'' on WCSJ-FM (103.1), WCSJ-AM (1550), WSPY- 107.1 and WSQR-AM 1560 from 6:30-7:30 p.m. Wednesdays.

Outdoor writing is not just my work, but my life.My wife and I were married at Illinois' second most popular state park, Starved Rock.Our family vacations almost exclusively in outdoor settings.I am a member of Illinois' 30-30 club with a muskie estimated at 34 pounds from Kinkaid Lake with Chad Cain in 2000 and a 30-pound flathead catfish from the Rock River with Todd Carlander in 2003. Deer hunting is my favorite pursuit, though the only trophy buck I ever had a chance to take, I missed cleanly.

Birding nibbles away bigger and bigger chunks of my time. We are up to four feeders at our house. I've started taking trips to watch eagles and hawks. Because of a growing family, backpacking has taken a back burner. But unofficially I was the first to thru-hike the 250-mile Tuscarora/Big Blue Trail in the eastern United States in the early 1980's. I've completed about half the Appalachian Trail.

The site is a work in progress, or work will progress as we get to it. We thank Mike Arndt, a hunting and fishing companion for helping set it up.

Come in and enjoy.