Specialist on Viking's Expedition Ships

The last 8 months have been quite a ride. Early in 2022, I accepted a position with Viking Expeditions as a Specialist. They were bringing their new expedition ship, the Octantis, to the Great Lakes and they needed a Great Lakes expert.

Enter...ME.

I spent the spring-summer-and fall jumping on and off the ship, giving lectures about our Great Lakes to Viking guests, and learning all about life on a ship. 

It was an amazing season on the Great Lakes and I had a blast answering questions about and explaining the workings of our amazing Great Lakes.

I was on the ship as it exited the Great Lakes out the St. Lawrence River, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, then the North Atlantic. It was amazing to travel with these waters as they transitioned from fresh to brackish to salt water.

Late last year, I had a wonderful reunion with hikers I had met on Isle Royale (and who are now excellent friends). We hiked some of my favorite trails in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

Then, at the end of 2022, I joined Viking's newest Expedition ship, Polaris....

IN ANTARCTICA.

Many more adventures await. 

Soon, I'll join Polaris to sail the Chilean fjords for six weeks. 

Yay!

Learn more about Viking Expeditions HERE.

Moosewatch 2022

 Loreen Niewenhuis is an author, adventurer, and dynamic speaker. 

She has completed a trilogy of 1,000-mile journeys exploring the Great Lakes and has authored three books about these adventures. 

To learn more go to 

http://www.laketrek.com/

I was thrilled to return to Isle Royale to lead another team of women hikers on a Moosewatch Expedition.

My team has a rainy start to the week

This fox visited our first camp

Our second moose skull still had antlers attached!

Team (April, Allison, Liana) still smiling after a couple days in the rain

Moose near our camp on Feldtman Lake

Rainbow Cove

Final campsite

Hauling in the antlered skull

The team returns with 7 skulls total

All participants for this expedition

It was an amazing week on this wild island. I'm honored to be a team leader for this citizen scientist-driven study.

Winter Hiking

I went out to the lakeshore today to hike my trail for the Friends of Sleeping Bear Dunes. This volunteer organization does important work to help maintain and improve the gorgeous National Lakeshore. Volunteers do a variety of tasks, including:

• Adopt-An-Access Point (Accessibility)
• Adopt-A-Beach
• Adopt-A-River
• Adopt-A-Trail 
• BARK Rangers
• PSAR Log
• Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail – Trail Ambassadors
• Track Chair Report
• Administrative Projects

I have been a volunteer trail hiker for a couple of years now. I periodically hike the Bay View/Farms Loop trail and report on any down trees or other conditions on the trail.

Chilly, but gorgeous hike

Panoramic of the overlook

I'm not sure what made this tiny little trail in the snow

Lake Michigan from the trail

I love getting out on the snowy trails. 

Moosewatch 2021 Part 3

Loreen Niewenhuis is an author, adventurer, and dynamic speaker. 

She has completed a trilogy of 1,000-mile journeys exploring the Great Lakes and has authored three books about these adventures. 

To learn more about her work, or to engage her as a speaker, go to 

http://www.laketrek.com/great-lakes-speaker/

You don't have to hike far on Isle Royale before you come upon balsam fir trees that look like the photos below:

This tree is the primary food source for moose in the winter. As you can imagine, as the moose population expands, the competition for balsam branches increases.

A prolonged winter can also decrease the chances of a moose making it to spring.

On this year's Moosewatch, my team recovered bones from 8 moose, a few of which were showing signs of starvation.

Scientists have been studying the interaction of moose and wolves on Isle Royale for 63 years now. The most recent annual report can be found here.

And here's a sunset from Isle Royale.

 

Moosewatch 2021 PART 2

Loreen Niewenhuis is an author, adventurer, and dynamic speaker. 

She has completed a trilogy of 1,000-mile journeys exploring the Great Lakes and has authored three books about these adventures. 

To learn more about her work, or to engage her as a speaker, go to 

http://www.laketrek.com/great-lakes-speaker/

The primary goal of a Moosewatch Expedition on Isle Royale is to gather data on moose bones in the field and to bring some of the bones back for study. 

Since the study was suspended due to Covid last year and since additional wolves were relocated to the island, we expected to find more moose bones. 

And we were not disappointed.

With each find, we searched the area for all the bones we could find, recorded which ones were present, inspected bones for signs of pathology (e.g. arthritis, healed breaks -- these bones would also be recovered for study), recorded data on location of find and condition of bones. Then, we would pack up the skull, mandibles, and a rear metatarsal. This last bone grows to its full length in the first year of a moose's life, so measuring it gives a wealth of information on how that first year went for the moose (e.g. was food abundant/scarce?).

Our last find was on the hike in to Windigo to meet up with other teams and deliver our bones. This moose was killed a few weeks ago, so we smelled it before we found it.

Every bone was present except for one scapula.

Fox love to run around with the bones, so it was probably carted off by a fox.

Here's my team, 

the second all-women Moosewatch Team:

(L>R: April, Joceline, Zan, and Julie)

 

Moosewatch 2021 PART 1

 

Loreen Niewenhuis is an author, adventurer, and dynamic speaker. 

She has completed a trilogy of 1,000-mile journeys exploring the Great Lakes and has authored three books about these adventures. 

To learn more about her work, or to engage her as a speaker, go to 

http://www.laketrek.com/great-lakes-speaker/

I just completed my SIXTH Moosewatch Expedition collecting bones on Isle Royale for the Moose/Wolf Study. This is the longest-running predator/prey study ever done (at over 60 years).

Along the way in our searching for bones, we also gather data on other wildlife and also take measurements and locations of shed moose antlers.

My team came across 22 sheds ranging from massive to tiny:

Julie shows off the range of our finds:

April shows off our tiny find:

Joceline discovered an ancient antler: 

Sometimes...antlers are still attached to a massive, buried skull:

More to follow on this amazing expedition...

Invasive Plants

 

Loreen Niewenhuis is an author, adventurer, and dynamic speaker. 

She has completed a trilogy of 1,000-mile journeys exploring the Great Lakes and has authored three books about these adventures. 

To learn more about her work, or to engage her as a speaker, go to 

http://www.laketrek.com/great-lakes-speaker/

I like to volunteer to maintain or improve the trails that I hike near my home in Traverse City. Sure, I always pick up trash when I hike, but I also actively search for opportunities to work on these trails. One time I even got to help put in a new trail in one of Leelanau Conservancy's properties. 

This week, I joined with volunteers to help remove the invasive garlic mustard plant from Clay Cliffs Natural Area. This is one of my favorite trails within the Leelanau Conservancy.

Since it had rained the night before, pulling up these invasive plants was pretty easy and we cleared large patches of it.

Here are some photos from the work day:

Go HERE to view a tutorial on how to identify and remove invasive garlic mustard plants.