May 7th, 2009
by vmichael.
Well, it certainly was a busy Spring. Between coming back to Illinois from Arizona, replacing our floors, unpacking, a photo shoot in Texarkana, TX, unpacking more, building and planting our raised bed garden and adding our rain collection barrel, I was actually able to pull off a Spring Kayak to launch the season. What a great launch it turned out to be, too. I had a TON of help!
This event coincides and introduces the Get Out ‘n Do It Meetup Group. The Meetup Group will offer free outings, such as this, to introduce people to various outdoor activities before investing in longer trips or expensive gear.
My wife, Rachael, deserves major props for helping me with last minute details and helping me load and unload the trailer. I know I would not have been able to this myself. I also owe thanks to Mike McGreevy and Bruce and Stacy Jones for allowing me to use their extra boats, allowing me to provide more attendees with a chance to get out on the water sooner! Continue reading →
Posted in: Illinois, lakes, paddling.
Mar 7th, 2009
by vmichael.
I felt slight pause about our backpacking trip into the Sycamore Canyon Wilderness. This wilderness is nothing like the Midwest. Even in the milder temperatures of late Winter, the dry air and the terrain still find a way to take their toll. The lesson is basically to research and prepare yourself for the environment. Like all trips, water was most important for this 3 day excursion because of the unsure state of the creek. Living pretty close by, basically under 2 hours and downhill from the snowy Flagstaff peaks, I was pretty confident that the recent snow melt was still feeding the creeks. If the creek wasn’t running, I had read of some pretty reliable springs in the canyon. Worst case, we were prepared with some extra water and the notion that we might need to cut our trip short. Continue reading →
Posted in: Arizona, backpacking, camping, hiking.
Feb 27th, 2009
by vmichael.
The weekend has finally arrived! Rachael and I are picking up our friends from the airport in Phoenix tonight and we are heading out bright and early in the morning to one of the Sycamore Canyon trailheads to experience and epic trip. We have not done as much this winter in Arizona as last, which is disappointment. Now, late February and we have some catching up to do. It helps that the winter weather is waning. We were, however, able to paddle Lake Pleasant and I was able to spend 10 days in Flagstaff for my WFR, so it was not a total bust.
Stay tuned for the update on this Sycamore Canyon trip.
Posted in: Arizona, backpacking, camping, hiking.
Jan 18th, 2009
by vmichael.
On January 10, 2009 I became a certified Wilderness First Responder!
I took the 9 day NOLS/WMI class in Flagstaff, Arizona.
I recommend NOLS for any outdoor leadership training. In particular, the Wilderness Medicine Institute cirriculum. The instructors were nice, knowledgeable and taught well. I appreciated their focus and ability to keep things serious while doing exercises and scenarios. Wilderness medicine is indeed a serious business.
Cheers!
Posted in: Arizona, medical, survival.
Oct 23rd, 2008
by vmichael.
This was my first backpacking trip and my last hurrah for the midwest. What a way to do it, too. Spectacular! It couldn’t have happened at a better time nor a better place nor with better people. I also learned a lot about sensible packing for a multi-day backpacking trip - the hard way.
I’m not sure of the peak time for Autumn foliage color change near Grand Rapids, Michigan, but we HAD to have hit it just right. I can’t imagine the colors being more brilliant. As you can see by the photos, the blue-green river and the evergreen trees provided a superb contrast to the yellow, orange, pink and red. All of that scenery was a morning surprise the day after we arrived. We arrived at the trailhead around 10:00 PM and though the moon was out, its light wasn’t enough to see the colors. Chad, Mike and I decided we would be hiking a couple of hours in the darkness to make camp for the first night. For me, this was quite an interesting experience. A heavier than then necessary pack, darkness, unknown terrain - it was fun. We finally made camp around 1:00 AM. We woke to quite a lot of traffic…Mt. Bikers and hikers. I’m not sure if we were beyond the required 200 feet from the trail, but we were seeing and being seen, no doubt. Continue reading →
Posted in: Michigan, backpacking, camping, hiking.
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