Dave Baker

Contributing Writer

The surface temperature peaked near 100 degrees as Dave Baker jackhammered the stubborn brick wall of a live manhole underneath a street in Lexington. Salt stains from sweat ringed his shirt. The sewage stench? Dizzying. That day, Dave decided to switch his major at the University of Kentucky from undecided to journalism. He’d rather write for a living.

Dave went on to work for daily newspapers in Somerset, Harlan, and Frankfort before landing at Kentucky Fish and Wildlife to serve as editor for the department’s magazine, Kentucky Afield. It proved a great fit for a farm boy who spent his teen years hunting and fishing out his back door. Dave began writing the Great Outdoors column in 2003 with an inaugural piece on winter trout fishing.