On the heels of a successful first-year effort, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and the Indiana Natural Resources Foundation have announced the second annual Hoosier Outdoor Experience will be Sept. 18-19, 2010 at Fort Harrison State Park, Indianapolis.

The inaugural “Experience” last weekend at Fort Harrison drew 13,300 attendees for the event, which included a one-day program for selected elementary school students followed by two days of free activities for the general public.

“It was a slam dunk,” DNR Director Robert E. Carter Jr. said. “Our first Hoosier Outdoor Experience did everything we expected it to do. We were able to introduce the DNR and its programs to thousands of new park visitors and at the same time introduce those people to a wide range of recreational opportunities.”

Unlike at traditional trade shows, visitors to the Hoosier Outdoor Experience were able to enjoy hands-on participation in nearly 50 outdoor activities. Some of the more popular events were trap shooting, archery, mountain biking, canoeing and kayaking, bow fishing, building wildlife boxes, and riding off-road vehicles.

“It was gratifying to see 18 months of planning finally play out, but even more rewarding to see the countless happy faces experiencing many of the weekend activities for the first time,” said Amanda Wuestefield, Hoosier Heritage Outdoor Coordinator and the lead organizer for the Experience. “We expect next year’s event to be even bigger.”

The Hoosier Outdoor Experience was presented by the Department of Natural Resources and the Indiana Natural Resources Foundation with support from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust; Ball Brothers Foundation; WXIN-Fox 59, Indianapolis; and numerous other sponsors. Sponsorship information for the 2010 Hoosier Outdoor Experience can be obtained from Indiana Natural Resources Foundation executive director Bourke Patton; call (317) 234-5447 or e-mail bpatton@dnr.IN.gov.

Photo galleries from this year’s Hoosier Outdoor Experience are posted on Facebook at www.facebook.com/hoosieroutdoorexperience, and a multimedia slideshow of School Day can be viewed at www.IN.gov/dnr/5664.htm.

The Experience was all about providing you with these experiences you have always wanted to try. With these new outdoor skills and interests, I hope you plan on stopping by your local DNR property this year and put to use your new skills.

I hope you had fun at the Hoosier Outdoor Experience, because I sure did.

I gave it a shot today and mounted one of these familiar contraptions and made my way around the obstacle course. I made my way through all the teeter toter looking obstacles and rocks they have strategically place on the course. Now the course is not long at all. But, after one pass around I was huffing and puffing. I am not that out of shape, but the simple little course took a lot out of me.

The second go around, because I was winded, was a tad bit more difficult. It’s hard to keep pedaling to make it over a teeter toter when all you want to do is coast. The key to getting over the obstacles is keep pedaling.

My favorite part about biking is the coasting. I like gravity to do its thing. I didn’t find that today. You definitely aren’t going to find coasting in a hard-core mountain bikers vocabulary.

Little girls with guns, that's what Hoosier Outdoor Experience is all about

Fans got the chance to shoot Turkeys (balloons) out of a blind using air soft guns.

The adults pull the horses, the horses carry the kids.

The author, posing for the camera, instead of paddling.

At the Hoosier Outdoor Experience, fans have a chance to kayak or canoe, and the tour guides are staff from DNR’s division of Outdoor Recreation.

Going out in groups of seven canoes and kayaks our tour guides led us on the about a mile trip, full of raging rapids and fallen trees.

A couple of occasions we did get stuck and needed to push off with our paddles to get unstuck. All along the course are rocks and trees that at times provide the paddlers a very narrow course to get through. If you are not lined up correctly, getting through without running into a tree or getting stuck is not easy.

At one point on the trip we had to avoid a truck. Yes, a truck in the water. It’s mostly under the water, with only the top 3 feet of the cab visible. Nobody knows how it got into the creek, but I am sure the driver has one heck of a story.

It all begins with a quick tutorial on the weapon with a volunteer at the shooting station. Then when it comes time to fire, the volunteer controls the launcher that is next to the station that fires orange clays. Once ready the volunteer presses a button that sends the clay flying, at the point it’s time to aim and pull the trigger.

I missed on my first three attempts, but connected on my fourth and final shot. I am pretty sure the little girl who shot next to me hit two of her targets.

To show you how popular the shotgun range is, they went through more than 4,000 shotgun rounds on Saturday.

The mountain biking course set up is incredible. It consists of obstacles even an expert would be scared of. (end of exageration) For each obstacle there is a safety volunteer to catch any rider that is about to fall off their bike. The obstacles are pretty intimidating to see, when the riders approach, they slow down when they should be speeding up. The obstacles include a teeter-toter looking ramp and certain planks of wood tilted all different directions.

Kayaking and canoe is another popular stop at the HOEX. Fall creek runs through the park and riders listen to a tutorial on the different strokes they’ll use to paddle the just under a mile.

Fall creek is a slow moving easy to navigate waterway, so whether you have paddled or not, it is fun more than it is strenuous.

Tomorrow, we’ll all be out here again. So don’t feel like you’ve missed anything, if you didn’t get a chance to come Saturday.

I hope to take my shot to the shotgun range. Look for my posting on that experience tomorrow.

Yes, he's shooting into water. How do you catch your fish?

This is how you combine danger with safety.

Entering the canoe is not easy. Thank you Mr. Volunteer for making it easier.

If fake animals could choose where to live, in front of this archer is not high on the list.

Some of those activities to try this weekend include, geocaching, mountain biking, bowfishing and horse back riding.

There are numerous other activities to try, whether you are an outdoor novice or an expert, I am sure there is something here you haven’t experienced before.

Many of the kids needed a few chances before they started to get the hang of it. There were a lot of arrows stuck in the ground in front of the targets. The experts provided tips and good advice for the youngsters. After a while, the kids started to get the hang of it and were consistently hitting the target with velocity.

Next door to the archery range is the air rifle range. Before the students fire, they are given a tutorial about firearm safety and about the rifles they are about to use. Sitting down with an instructor next to each shooter, the rifle is positioned on a rest. They are shooting at small metal targets hanging about 15 feet away. When the pellets hit the target you hear a ping sound. When a dozen kids are hitting the targets, the consistent pinging sounds like music.

If you haven’t been to the lake at Fort Harrison, (I haven’t until today) it’s is a good size lake with plenty of areas for the kids to fish. Some of the kids were on the bank fishing some were out on the pier. The lake itself is more or less surrounded by woods. It is hard to believe when you’re on the lake that you are in the heart of the city.

With the rain and a little help with Beemoths, the kids had no trouble catching some and fish and enjoying themselves.

The third graders come from city schools and don’t have many chances to come and experience nature right in the heart of Indianapolis.

So far the kids are having a great time, even in the rain. This weekend many more people will be out here to have a great time as well. The best part of Hoosier Outdoor Experience is that everything is provided at the park. So leave the fishing rod or the bow at home, we have it all. And probably the best part of Hoosier Outdoor Experience is that it’s free, don’t want to forget that.