Anderson Outdoors

712 S. Commerce

Kilgore, Texas

(903)218-0506

About Anderson Outdoors

Anderson Outdoors primary goal is to help others enjoy the outdoors as much as we do. 

Kilgore, Texas is not really known for impressive mountains or raging rapids, but it does have other opportunities for outdoor adventures.  We want to help you discover and enjoy these activities.

With Anderson Outdoors we strive for the perfect trip.  Whether it is a hiking trip in the Ozarks that we are hosting in-house or a guided trip to fish for Bull Reds out of Port O'Connor, you can be sure that you will get the very best.

Thomas Anderson

I have enjoyed the outdoors all my life.  I grew up hunting and fishing with my grandfather.  My tather and I would go on camping and backpacking trips nearly every month throughout my teen years.  During these same years I got my SCUBA certification and also picked up climbing.  As I got to college, other matters took priority over these activities but I always dreamed of a way to integrate them into a career.  I want to help others to have a positive and safe experience so that they will enjoy the outdoors and not be imtimitdated by it.  This is what me finally decide I had to find a way to do it...

On one backpacking trip, I ran into a beginning hiker who was in real trouble.  It was her first camping experience, and she had "bitten off way more than she could chew".  Recently she had gone through some tough personal issues and this was something she had to do to prove to herself she could.  She had set out on a Friday night, with good advice from experienced campers about where to go and what to take.  A friend, who "knew what they were doing because they had done Mt. Ranier in the 70's", had loaned her a backpack and some other gear and she had set out.  Note that she mentioned most of that gear had been with her friend on the 1970's Ranier expedition.  The trip she decided to tackle was and out and back to Hemmed-In Hollow on the Buffalo River in Arkansas.  This trip started at a place called Compton Trailhead and decended a very steep incline for about a mile.  When we ran into her the next morning, she semmed really stressed.  While we were talking to her, she questioned us about trail options and casually mentioned that she was out of water. I sensed something was really not just right and we continued to talk to her a while longer.  We discovered that the decent had taken her about 4 hours the previous afternoon.  Apparently, setting up the tent and getting through the night went fairly uneventfully, at least compared to what she was envisioning now when faced with a VERY steep climb back out of the valley with no water.  She was literally in tears, and probably having one of the scariest experiences I can imagine.  We had luckily packed extra water and gave her 3 liters.  We also counseled her about heading away from this path for what she thought might be an easier route as it was 5 times longer and had a similar ascent at the very end.   We also counseled her to just take her time and stick to the path.  It was a very travelled path and if she did get in trouble one of the other hikers would definitely be able to get her assistance.  Both my friend and I were thinking, without saying it, that we should probably help pack her out.  But, as I mentioned before this was a trip that meant a lot to her to complete on her own.  While we had been talking to her, another hiker had come through and joined in the conversation.  From him we learned that he would be going back up the same hill later that afternoon.  He promised to watch for her and if her car was still at the trailhead when he arrived, he woudl call for help.  This assurance helped our decision that the right thing to do was give her encouragement, a prayer for her safety and let her complete her pilgrimage.  It was this decision that made me cetain I wanted to do something to help others like her and prevent this type of experience.

 

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