I can’t get enough of the Great Outdoors.

If you are of similar mind, this is a place to pose questions or settle into a long fireside palaver of your experiences.

This blog starts in July of 2008 as I ready myself for my first ever trip to Isle Royale National Park. I plan to spend 7 days and 6 nights on the Island, backpacking the eastern third with my 17-year old son. We plan to cover a little over 40 miles with packs on our backs during that time. There will no doubt be a few more miles in dayhikes and explorations from base camp.

This trip is over 30 years in the making. I attended college at Michigan Tech (Houghton, MI) in the early to mid 70s. But even though I was a Forestry major, I never ended up visiting the Island. I could have gone in late summer before classes began, or late spring after classes ended. I was even up at Tech for Forestry Summer Camp and could easily have gone at its beginning or end. But it never happened. I found myself either short of time, money or both. After moving back downstate after college, life wrapped its tentacles around me and the possibility of an Isle Royale trip became more remote with each passing year. Job…marriage…kids….disabilities…. each contributed to the distance and difficulty of getting back up to this mysterious Island. Not having gone when I had the chance has been one of my biggest outdoor regrets of my life.

But things have come full circle now. The kids are older. I get more vacation time these days. And I’m not poverty-stricken any more.

The time is right, and Isle Royale is on the horizon….waiting for me.