I just got a note from W. Watson Martin, whose canoe got pinched from his backyard on Roanoke Ave., just upstream from the Memorial Bridge on the Roanoke River.

No, the kids weren’t in it!

Watson is ticked, and I don’t blame him. He’s offering a $200 reward for information that gets his boat back. Here’s his description:

“This Old Town Canoe was STOLEN on 5/16/13 from 1601 Roanoke Ave SW near Memorial Bridge along with two black and grey paddles. It’s missing the seat backs because they’re in my house; seats have notches to accommodate them. It also has a white, after-market drink holder screwed to the left of the rear cross bar. It’s a 2011 Guide 158. I live just upstream from Memorial Bridge and think the thief floated down to Wasena with it or took it upstream to Bridge Street in the Norwich neighborhood. Chain was cut. It’s under investigation. Contact me with any tips. Thanks! I hate a thief.”

Someone knows who stole this boat. If you have info, send it to me and I’ll forward to Watson.

If you’re a regular here you already know what I am about to tell you: There’s a new look to this blog. We are also in the process of launching a completely redesigned Roanoke.com, too.

Click HERE to check out the beta site for the Outdoors portal.

The site remake has been a massive undertaking. There will still be some glitches. If you find one, or if you have any feedback, you can go HERE to submit it. Or you can click on the yellow “feedback” tab you see over on the right.

Speaking of feedback, I learned this morning about two glitches in my note in today’s Roanoke Times column about this weekend’s Roanoke Boat Show. It turns out that not all dealers from last year are back, but the show website wasn’t updated to reflect the departure of Ace Marine until today. Also, the Free Friday promotion is in its third year, not second as I wrote. Time flies, huh?

Click HERE for the Laker’s full boat show tab.

Pete Eshelman, director of outdoor branding for the Roanoke Regional Partnership, posted this shot on his Facebook wall this morning. Those of you who have been to the Roanoke River this week, be it to fish (it was stocked with trout early this week) or to use the Greenway, have seen this.

The trees along the river bank are filled with trash as a result of the recent flood. I am not a supporter of plastic grocery bag bans, but when you see something like this you get a good idea just what a mess bags and other plastic trash can make when the items are not recycled or properly disposed of.

Anyway, Pete tagged me in his post and said, “How about a blog posting on this?” I am going to do him one better.

I have a story to write this morning. When I’m done I’m headed to the river with my waders, my extendable pole trimmer (to reach into the trees) and some garbage bags.

I won’t be able to do much on my own, but a little is better than nothing. This is too ugly to put up with until Clean Valley Day later this spring.

I would like to invite anyone who isn’t busy this afternoon to join me for a couple hours. I will bring the Gatorade.

Rendezvous time is 1330 (that’s 1:30 p.m. for you non-military types) in the parking lot behind the Ramada Inn on Franklin Road.

For those who can’t make it today I think there might be some more clean-ups planned for this weekend. You can likely find the info on the Roanoke Outside Facebook page.

Hope to see at least a couple of you this afternoon!

Officials in Bristol have announced that Cabela’s will anchor a shopping development in the city.

According to a city press release, construction on the store could start as soon as next summer, with a target opening date of October 2014.

The nearest Cabela’s is a store that just opened in  Charleston, W. Va., about three hours from Roanoke.

There are two Bass Pro Shops super stores within three hours of Roanoke, one near Charlotte and another in Richmond.

Bristol officials are counting on the Cabela’s location to be more than just a big retail store, but for it to be a tourist draw.

That the stores will draw big tourist crowds is often cited by Cabela’s and Bass Pro leaders as they seek store locations, with their decisions often hinging on generous  financial incentive packages. However, some analyses, including one  cited in this recent article,  dispute the idea that  public investment in the large stores is a wise investment.

Here’s the full release from Bristol:

Bristol Virginia Lures Cabela’s To The Falls

BRISTOL, VA – The City of Bristol, Virginia has lured an important anchor store to a new retail tourism site located on 140 acres within the city’s limits. City officials announced today that signed documents are in hand from outdoor outfitter giant, Cabela’s, who will be the first of two anchor stores at The Falls. With 38 retail stores worldwide, the Bristol store will be the first Cabela’s in Virginia.

“Cabela’s has a deep customer base not only in and around Bristol but across the region, people who share our passion for the Great Outdoors,” said Tommy Millner, Cabela’s Chief Executive Officer. “These outdoorsmen and women have supported Cabela’s for a long time, shopped with us via our catalog and online, so it was time to bring them the unique Cabela’s retail experience.”
Read more »

For those who didn’t see my column in Sunday’s Roanoke Times, I wrote about Dargan Coggeshall’s mission to gain support — including financial support — to help his defense against a lawsuit.

Coggeshall is being sued for trespassing on the Jackson River while he was fishing a section of the river that, according to maps produced by the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, is open to fishing.

Because of space consideration I couldn’t get too deep into the background. But I covered the basics of the case in depth for this Roanoke Times story, which ran a year ago.

Does anyone care to predict how this will turn out?

We are in the process of overhauling Roanoke.com, and we’ve been reaching out to readers for feedback on what they’d like to see with the new site. We even have a blog, The Refresh RT blog, to keep readers in the loop.

So, let me pose that question to you all: How can we improve the Outdoors content on Roanoke.com? What are we doing well? What can we do better? What else would you like to see? Are there other outdoors sites we should look at for ideas?

Be blunt and honest. Your input will make a difference.

First, some basic background on what we have now.

–Outdoors stories and columns that appear in The Roanoke Times comprise part of our online Outdoors package. I write nearly all of these.  Read more »

When I got to Roanoke 14 years ago and my then-boss laid out some of my job responsibilities, one of the things he mentioned was the annual boat show at the Roanoke Civic Center.

I’d need to preview it and cover it, he said. And then he said that I could count on a winter storm hitting that weekend.

Several shows since then have fallen on snowy, icy weekends. But it’s been rare. This one, which runs today through Sunday, will escape the weather curse, too. At least the snow curse.

In fact, it’s crazy balmy out there right now. My thermometer is reading 70 degrees. After that one-day snow early this week, our non-winter continues.

Some boat dealers have said they actually don’t like great weather during the show weekend. That’s because some people may chose to do outdoor activities — maybe even actual boating — instead of attending the show. They like the weather kind of in the middle. Not too bad, but not too good.

It looks like that’s what we’ll get, with a front rolling in bringing cooler temps over the weekend. And the wind we’re already seeing certainly rules out boating for most of us.

While working on the piece I had on today’s Outdoors page in The Roanoke Times, I got a preview of the show. It has about 200 boats and personal watercraft, covering all ends of the boating spectrum and many of them drool-worthy. I’ll try to do some follow-up coverage on some of the cooler new boats and gear on here.

Today is Free Friday, with no admission fee for anyone. I plan to take advantage of it and take the kids over this afternoon.

If you see a tall, bald, skinny guy trying to wrangle twin 10-year-olds who are jumping from boat to boat — they really love pontoons and cabin cruisers — say “hello.”

As expected, a seven-person subcommittee in Virginia’s House of Delegates voted this morning to table SB 464, the bill that would have allowed Sunday hunting — with restrictions — in Virginia.

The vote was 4-3.

I just got back from a fun two hours at the Y with my kids. I just popped a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. It’s delicious. And bitter. Which seems appropriate. The bitter part, I mean. Anyway, now is not the time for me to get wordy.

To those who worked hard to try to get fair treatment for the feared, misunderstood minority that are hunters, I say “Prost!”

And that’s all from me tonight.

As I wrote about in my column yesterday in The Roanoke Times, the Cape Hatteras National Seashore implements its new beach driving plan today.

Among the highlights (or lowlights, depending on your perspective) are access fees that range from $50 for a week to $120 for a year, as well as various permanent and seasonal closures.

There’s a coded map on the park’s website, and that will give you an idea where you’ll be access and drive on the beach, and when. Another option is to use Google Earth to access a map showing up-to-date access and closures.

Even though the Outer Banks is six hours (or more) from the Roanoke area, it remains a popular vacation destination, and a favorite among surf fishermen. Many are bummed, to put it lightly, about this plan.

I have not been to the Outer Banks since this whole thing blew up a few years ago and, while I’ve read a lot about the situation, I really want more insight and information.

For those of you who do get down there to fish, what impact do you see the new plan having? Is it better or worse than the interim plan that was in place for the past three years? Is there a different approach that would meet legal requirements (for dealing with endangered species such as the piping plover, the bird responsible for much of this hubub) while still providing a more reasonable level of beach access for drivers?

Of course I also welcome input from those who support the closures, or even feel like this plan doesn’t go far enough.

Rumors started floating around a couple weeks ago that Sportsman’s Warehouse would be reopening its Roanoke location.

Those rumors were confirmed when the company recently added Roanoke to its map of store locations. Karen Seaman, the company’s chief marketing officer, left no doubt.

“We are returning to the area this spring and looking forward to reopening our store in Roanoke,” she wrote to me in an email earlier today.

According to the company’s website, the store, which is on Ferncliff Avenue near the Hersberger Road and I-581 interchange, will open on April 16, with a grand opening celebration on April 28.

I’m trying to connect with Seaman by phone for more details.

The Roanoke store was one of 23 the company closed in 2009 as part of  Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. Fifteen stores were sold to a Canadian company. A cash investment from a venture capital company helped the company get back on its feet, and Sportsman’s Warehouse emerged from Chapter 11 in August of 2009.

Since word of the return of Sportman’s Warehouse has started getting around, I’ve heard from several people who were enthusiastic about the news. Even though the Roanoke store was open for less than two years, the store earned plenty of devoted fans.