June is for the cottonwoods

Greetings and happy Thursday, This past weekend, I strapped my kayak to the top of my station wagon's roof rack and printed out a map of Horicon Marsh State Wildlife Area. Horicon Marsh, a 33,000-acre freshwater marsh located in the central part of Wisconsin, is a wildlife refuge for migratory birds (like Canadian…

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The COVID-19 slowdown

This virus isn't completely stopping our lives, it's just changing some of it. Greetings, how are you holding up?  I truly hope you're staying positive. This is a hard time for us right now. An unexpected, unplanned, and difficult phase to be stuck in. There's a lot of panic, frustration, fear, and sadn…

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Reconnecting with the hemlocks: A solo backpacking trip through Newport State Park

After many months, I finally was able to schedule a solo backpacking trip!  It felt so good, so purposeful, so fulfilling to be spending a couple days in the wilderness, especially again at my favorite state park in Wisconsin: Newport. This park is truly special to me, a place with many adventures and memories. I first…

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The National Park Service offers free admission on these days for 2020

Edward Abbey preached something so very true in his esteemed autobiography  Desert Solitaire:  "Wilderness. The word itself is music."  It's time to start planning out adventures to our public lands. With the arrival of a new year, the National Park Service recently announced which days all 419 units of th…

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