OUTDOORS

BETSY CLAYTON
boatingbybetsy@yahoo.com

Each time my dad pays bills or reads documents in the den at his Oregon home, he glances at the same, framed snapshot. It's me with him on a trail, my arm thrown around his shoulders. We're wearing baseball caps, sweaty Tshirts and big smiles.

"It's of you two in the mangroves - you have been hiking in Florida," my mom wrote in a recent e-mail. "He keeps that one where he can see it every time he sits down to his desk."

My desk at work is cluttered with outdoorsy images of dad and me - George with a huge salmon, George life-jacketedup in a boat.

There also are the frames of my husband with our daughter. The one of Stan holding Junco on his hip after a walk along the shore of a lake in the Rockies is what I see each time I sit down.

My world is surrounded by fatherdaughter outdoors photos. This Father's Day I'll be thinking about how many great outdoors memories I owe to the two men of my life.

It's not like I was born an outdoorswoman.

Camping trips on the Deschutes River with my grandparents usually resulted in my 3-year-old demand to be clean. I'd sit in the pan we'd use to wash dishes, surrounded by warm soapy water, trying to get the Central Oregon dust off.

COURTESY PHOTO George Clayton of Eugene, Ore., (left) and daughter Betsy Clayton share a hike in 1995 - one of many during their 35-plus years of father-daughter outdoors experiences. I attribute this to my mother's genes. Rachel was a city girl. She loves to tell and retell the washtub story.

Fortunately, by age 6, I'd morphed. (This about two years after mom quit camping or fishing altogether.)

I recall a morning trip to a freshwater pond stocked with rainbow trout. I could do the catching fine, but I protested when dad said it was time to bonk the trout on the head with a rock so the fish didn't gasp for air for five painful minutes in the creel.

Back home, with the trout hanging on my finger for the obligatory photo, I announced I was no longer going fishing with dad.

That didn't last.

Especially when in college I met my future husband, Stan, who grew up catching salmon on the Columbia River. When he wasn't fishing, he was thinking about fishing. Now dad and I had a third angler for our outings.

Add to the mix boating, bird watching, bicycling and paddling, and the picture of my life is complete.

Complete, and continuing, thanks to Stan being a great outdoors dad to Junco, who now is 9.

There are plenty of photos to show it. Like the one when Junco was 6 and skippering our 20-foot powerboat, not noticing that Stan's left hand was only an inch or two from the wheel in case she suddenly stopped driving and started pointing at birds.

I'll never get all the photos organized in a gallery on the Macintosh or in albums or scrapbooks. They'll just pile up, each one set in some beautiful outdoors place with a grinning gal and guy.

Dad's 70 now - just celebrated that birthday last Sunday - and the photos from our May tarpon trip to mark the big 7-0 are still in the digital camera.

Maybe this weekend, Stan and I will download them and e-mail them off.

What better way to celebrate Father's Day when I'm here in Florida and he's on the West Coast than by sharing a snapshot from a fishing trip we took together?

- Betsy Clayton is a freelancer based on Pine Island and also is Lee County Parks & Recreation's waterways coordinator. Contact her at boatingbybetsy@yahoo.com

Five ideas for an outdoorsy Father's Day:

>>Watch sunrise: With an open horizon, east-facing vista, daybreak is a magical moment - especially when holding a loved-one's hand. Plan to be up and at 'em before 6:30 a.m. Sunday.

>>Wet a line: Get a bait bucket full of shrimp and go to the Fort Myers Beach Pier, Sanibel Pier or the Matlacha Bridge.

>>Go paddling: Use the day as an excuse to hose off the canoe that's been leaning against the side of the house for years. Or visit a park or outfitter that rents kayaks. A two-hour morning paddle is a soothing way to spend time with dad.

>>Go native: Take time Saturday to visit one of Southwest Florida's native plant nurseries, then plant butterfly- and bird-friendly plants and trees with dad on Sunday.

>>Walk a swamp: Sounds insane during wet season, doesn't it? But several nearby swamps with boardwalks offer lush, green walks that will be something to remember with dad in years to come.