Woman holding turkey, duck, fish, and deer

Ashley Herceg

Hey y’all! I’m Ash — a Northeast Pennsylvania girl who recently traded the hardwoods for the wide-open skies of Southwest Montana.

My love for the outdoors started very young, shaped by long days in the woods alongside my father and grandpa. Growing up in the PA Wilds, autumn meant chasing whitetails through golden timber and spring meant waking before dawn to hunt turkeys with my sister and brothers. Those early mornings built something in me that no classroom ever could.

In college, fishing pulled me in a new direction — and I followed it everywhere. I’ve drifted across Oklahoma lakes chasing paddlefish bigger than me, stood chest-deep in muddy Illinois waters wrestling catfish bare-handed, waded icy New York streams for steelhead, and bowfished Maryland’s warm waters under a summer moon. Now, I’m learning to read the cold, clear currents of Montana’s rivers with a fly rod in hand. Every trip has been its own education.

But if you ask me what makes my soul come alive, it’s spring gobbler season. There is nothing quite like standing in the timber before first light, when the world is still and dark and full of possibility. The sky slowly bleeds from black to silver, the earth stirs awake around you, and then — out of the silence — comes that crack of thunder from a longbeard perched high in the canopy. My heart still leaps every single time. My greatest hunting memories live in those May mornings, walking the ridges with my Dad — my best friend and the man who inspired every step I’ve taken in the outdoors. He didn’t just teach me how to hunt; he taught me how to appreciate every moment spent in the wild, and I carry that with me everywhere I go.

My True North has always been this: say yes to new experiences and carry something meaningful away from each one. Every hunt teaches you patience. Every fish humbles you. Every season reminds you how much there is still to learn. The outdoors became my sanctuary, a place where my faith deepens, where the noise of life fades, and where I find myself most fully alive.