Bow hunter –  er huntress — extraordinaire Keli Van Cleave will be going after turkeys this week in the Wall area. And she’s bringing a camera crew. Keli is involved in Outdoor Channel programs such as “Addicted to the Outdoors.”  When she’s not on a hunting trip or a video shoot, she hangs her hat in Colorado.

Last year, Keli and her sister teamed up to win the Drury Outdoors “Bow Madness” competition, which also aired on the Outdoor Channel. She called the team Pink Outdoors – and when Keli talks about pink bows, she not wrapping packages or tying her hair. She hunts with a custom pink PSE Bow Madness bow. And yes, even her arrows are pink.

Despite cold temperatures, they had a blast hunting in South Dakota, Keli told me in a telephone interview. “Some of the ranchers said they couldn’t imagine men hunting in that cold, let alone two women,” she said.

The video of the sisters hunting turkeys near Rosebud earned more online and text votes than any of the other 11 teams in the “American Idol”-style competition. They were the first female hunters to compete and win.  The prize was a $40,000 custom motorcycle.

“Bow Madness” is the reason Keli is returning to South Dakota. She and her crew will be shooting footage of her turkey hunt in the Wall area.

Keli said she likes turkey hunting in South Dakota because she favors small-town hospitality, big turkeys and the state’s more liberal bag limit of two birds. The bag limit is important when filming a hunt, because it gives the crew a better chance to get good footage.

“Your birds are bigger than anywhere else, and we get to keep two of them,” she said.

This time Keli is hunting on her own. But her father, Terry Van Cleave, will be her videographer. They have to submit their footage by May 1, and the program begins running on the Outdoor Channel the first Sunday in July.

The crew is staying at Frontier Cabins near Wall, and whenever she travels Keli likes to meet local folks and help bring recognition to hunting opportunities in small towns. They will also attend the Wall Badlands Area Chamber of Commerce banquet on Friday night.

About that motorcycle she and Kaleigh won during last year’s competition, who gets the bike? “Neither one of us can take it off the kickstand, so I don’t know if we’ll keep it,” she said with a chuckle.