Allie Black and Dent Stallworth, along with Girl, their faithful black lab, set out on an adventure in February of this year. Stemming from their shared passion for travel, coupled with Dent’s passion for turkey hunting, ‘Hunter and Hoops’ was born. Their goal was to hit some of Allie’s bucket list travel destinations and then turkey hunt any and everywhere they could. Here is the story of their experience!
What is Hunter and Hoops and how did it start?
AB: “Hunter and Hoops was a way Dent and I could share both our travels, and our turkey season, with family and friends. It originally was going to just be an Instagram, but I had lots of family wanting to hear daily updates, so I created hunterandhoops.com as well. The name ‘Hunter and Hoops’ sparked a year ago when we were deer hunting and I was wearing hoop earrings (a staple I have worn since I got my ears pierced as a little girl). If you know me, I always have hoops in. I sent a Snapchat to my college friends while we were hunting and got a response of #hoopsonthehunt. Hunter and Hoops stemmed from that when we were brainstorming with my college girls one weekend, Hunter and Hoops just stuck. We really decided to do the travels when we went to Montana in October 2020. We fell in love with the west, and I have always wanted to live in an RV. It didn’t take much to convince Dent when my uncle offered to sell us his Rpod for a great deal. We bought it from him in December and had only spent one night in it, in my parent’s driveway, before we took off February 26th. I chose that date to give me one month of travel before turkey hunting started. It was a tight month, but by the grace of God we got everything on my checklist done: Sedona, Horseshoe Bend, Antelope Canyon/Buckskin Gulch, Zion, Vegas, Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Sequoia, Lake Tahoe.”
DS: “Hunter and Hoops was just kind of something we started to share our experiences with camper life, travels, and hunting. When Allie first started deer hunting with me last year, she would always wear big hoop earrings (not on purpose just her style). One of her friends started saying #hoopsonthehunt whenever she would come out with me, so it just became a joke between us and all of her friends. When we started bouncing around ideas for an Instagram name with her friends, they had the idea of calling it Hunter and Hoops and it stuck.”
What was the best memory?
AB: “I have so many favorite memories. Travel-wise, I loved our time kayaking Horseshoe Bend then ending our day watching the sunset from above. It was altogether just a perfect day. My favorite hunting memory was honestly anytime Dent was able to get a turkey with me. One that stands out was Idaho. We hunted/hiked over 6 miles chasing turkeys up and down snowy mountains only to get close and hear a gunshot from another hunter. 30 minutes later we were sitting down trying to plan our next move when Dent told me not to move. I thought he heard a mountain lion behind us, so of course, I had to look. As I turn around, I see a gobbler walking up. Dent rolls over and jumps up and was able to get him as he was running away. It was an “everything can change in a minute” situation. We were both so excited! Other great memories include taco night at the campground near the bottom of Horseshoe Bend, eating white chicken chili at a campground in Washington, having a snowball fight in Sequoia National Park, eating sandwiches with Doritos overlooking a beautiful waterfall in Yosemite National Park. We met a sweet family on our hike in Sedona and walk all the way back to the car with their hilarious 6 and 8-year-old sons. Riding 4 wheelers in Sedona and making friends with a couple from San Diego, waking up to our first snow at our campground at the Grand Canyon, finding a huge elk shed in the mountains in Idaho, killing my first turkey in California, all of my morning walks at the campgrounds with Girl, skiing at Lake Tahoe, our afternoon in San Francisco and driving through Napa Valley, we even saw a gobbler in the vineyards, throwing the football at campgrounds with Dent, staying at a couples house in Rhode Island, who we met at a campground in New Mexico and having taco night with their son while we camped in their driveway, Minneapolis birthday weekend at a hotel with my mom, meeting up with friends along the trip.”
DS: “When I try to think of the best memory, so many things pop into my head. We did so many bucket list type adventures the first month of the trip, they are just things we’ll never forget: walking under the giant redwoods in sequoia national park, kayaking in horseshoe bend, riding four-wheelers through the desserts in Sedona, looking over the Grand Canyon, skiing Lake Tahoe, all the amazing hikes: Zion, Yosemite, Arches, the list goes on and on… As far as the hunting goes, I have great memories from each and every state we went to that I’ll hold onto forever. I met so many nice people along the way and was lucky enough to find a good gobbling turkey in every state we went to besides Vermont. Sounds cliche to say, but we literally made a lifetime of memories in three months.”
What was the best turkey hunt?
AB: “I have to say, Montana. Dent was able to get one in 30 minutes of entering the state and I got one the same weekend. The land was beautiful and there were a lot of turkeys.”
DS: “Another question that’s nearly impossible to answer. This spring was full of awesome hunts. 18 out of the 19 states we hunted were states we had never hunted before so this made each turkey just a little more special. Seeing Allie kill her first bird in California was probably the most special for me. She hunted really hard with me last season and we had a ton of close calls and a few misses but couldn’t ever get it done. So being able to share that with her and for her to actually be able to understand what turkey hunting is and how challenging it could be was pretty incredible. One of the most surreal hunts for me this spring was in Washington. Washington was the 25th state for me on my quest for the U.S. Super Slam. The feeling of reaching the halfway mark of my super slam over 2400 miles from where my obsession for turkey hunting first began was unbelievable and it left me pretty emotional after the hunt was over. The best gobbling hunt of the year and probably my life took place in North Dakota. There were 10 or 12 gobblers roosted within 150 yards of each other and there was never a period of more than 5-10 seconds that we didn’t hear a gobble from the time they started gobbling until they flew down.”
What was the worst turkey hunt?
AB: “I didn’t like hunting South Dakota and thankfully I only spent an afternoon with Dent there. It was hot, a ton of ticks, and bugs. Dent tricked me the next morning when he showed up around lunch saying he didn’t get one. I opened a Snapchat about 30 minutes after he had gotten back, and it was a video of him and a turkey. I don’t think I could’ve smiled bigger knowing I didn’t have to ever go back there.”
DS: “To me, there’s really no such thing as a bad turkey hunt unless there’s an accident that leaves somebody injured or something. So, fortunately, I would say we did not have any bad turkey hunts this year. We had our fair share of misses, hung up turkeys, hunter interference, and other factors that come with every turkey season, but honestly, things went about as good as they could’ve possibly gone for us all spring.”
What was the worst part about camper life?
AB: “I love everything about the camper life but the small kitchen, not a lot of storage for my clothes, and the amount of hot water we have would be my three low points. When we shower in the camper, we turn the water on to rinse off, turn it off, soap up, then turn the water back on and rise off. I miss being able to just stand in the hot water. And having to do and pay for laundry at campgrounds.”
DS: “Being completely new to campers, I was very uptight the whole first month of the trip. I was worried about something going wrong on the camper or having truck issues. To my relief, we really never had issues and adjusted to camper life very quickly. I lived in my truck all of the last spring when I was hunting, so actually having a bed, toilet, shower, sink, etc. was a huge upgrade even if it is a tight space. I would say the worst part about camper life was just that it limited our mobility some. Last year when I was in my truck, I had the freedom to go and park wherever I felt comfortable to sleep for the night, which most of the time was a very short distance from where I planned to hunt. With the camper, we wanted to make sure it was always in a very safe place, especially if Allie was going to be staying there while I was out hunting. We would spend a good bit of time researching campgrounds or areas before we arrived, and sometimes we would get there and not feel comfortable, so we’d have to move locations. Once we found a good, safe place in an area, we usually didn’t want to move. So, instead of just driving until I found turkeys or a good place to hunt in a state like I did last year, I had to do a little more research beforehand as to what part of the state I wanted to hunt and try to scout and find turkeys within a 30-minute radius of where the camper was parked. It also obviously hurts your gas mileage and takes some extra time to set up and take down at each stop, but all in all, it was absolutely perfect for our trip and there’s no way we could’ve done what we did without it.”
Favorite state/campsite?
AB: “This is a tough question! I loved Utah, everything about it. I loved our campsite near Horseshoe Bend overlooking the Colorado River. My second favorite would be Washington, camping on a beautiful river.”
DS: “Every state we went to this year I would like to visit again. It is hard to pick a favorite because we never spent more than three or four days in any one state. Probably my favorite camping spot this year was in Idaho. We were parked off of a road on the side of a mountain and there was a huge valley below us that rose into another long chain of snowcapped mountains on the other side. This was on National Forest land, so we were able to just leave out hunting on foot from our camper. We also had some friends there that had brought a camper as well, so it was pretty cool to sit around the fire, eat dinner, and share stories with them in such a beautiful place.”
Least favorite state/campsite?
AB: “Worst campsites were probably our first two- Monroe, LA & Waco, TX. They weren’t in great locations and not the nicest. All of the campsites out west weren’t bad. My least favorite state: didn’t have great vibes in New Mexico and didn’t love the Dakota’s, there’s just nothing there.”
DS: “As I mentioned, I would like to visit every state we went to again at some point but if I had to pick a least favorite it would be California. California was beautiful and loaded with turkeys, but several factors made the hunting tough. The WMA’s I originally planned to hunt were closed to permit only the first 7 days of the season, so those weren’t an option for us while we were there. A lot of the other public land was landlocked by private land or very hard to access. I knocked on several doors there to try and gain permission on private land but was turned down each time. After an hour and a half of talking to one guy, he finally gave us permission to cross his land to access the public ground, but still wouldn’t give us permission to hunt his land. Probably the worst campground we stayed at was early in the trip at Waco, TX. The main reason for this was just that we didn’t feel safe there. Maybe, it was just because we were still a little uptight, but we both agreed we wouldn’t go back there. Also, it didn’t help that bathrooms were very nasty too.”
After some time reflecting, what did you learn? Any life lessons? Hunting-related or otherwise.
AB: “I’ve learned so much, but mostly that life is way too short to not go and do the things you dream of now. Dent and I have grown so much as individuals and together. We learned how to truly trust and rely on each other in every situation and how we can survive in different environments. Dent had never really camped before, so I am so proud of all he has learned and how he was able to take care of us the whole trip. I’ve also learned that this lifestyle is something I want to continue. We will always have a camper of some sort to be able to drop everything and go somewhere when we want to. We have met some incredible people who live life on the road, and they are some of the happiest people I’ve ever met. I thank God for this opportunity and owe it all to Him. Hunting wise I have learned a ton. We spent long drives listening to podcasts on calling, hunting techniques, statistics, etc. I’ve learned a lot following Dent, watching him study maps and land. Together we have learned the struggles of managing a social media account on top of it all of travels and hunting. We have both, from the start, wanted to use Hunter and Hoops to hopefully inspire others to travel and that anyone can truly do this, while also remaining humble in all of the turkey hunting success. Through Hunter and Hoops Dent has been able to connect to hunters around the country and make lifelong friendships. It has been an awesome outlet for him to be able to use H&H to share his struggles and success and relate to other hunters.”
DS: “This trip was a huge learning experience for both of us. I think it taught both of us so much about ourselves and each other. We learned how to lean and depend on each other and both found our roles as to what we could do best to keep everything running smoothly. One thing we’ve both come to realize in the last couple of years is just how short life is. Living on the road and traveling like this is something we’ve both dreamed of doing. This taught us that really all it takes is a leap of faith to make your dreams become reality.”
As you can see, Allie and Dent made the most of these last three months. Many of us can dream of taking a trip like this, and they made it a reality. To keep up with their travels follow them on Instagram @hunterandhoops!
