The 1,000-Mile Great Lakes Adventures: Great Lakes expert

Showing posts with label Great Lakes expert. Show all posts

Sunday, August 30, 2020

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/

While the moose and wolves on Isle Royale capture most of the attention of visitors, there are other creatures living there.

If we exclude bats, there are only 11 mammals on the island:

moose, wolves, beaver, muskrat, otter, fox, short-tailed weasel, red squirrel, deer mouse, snowshoe rabbit, marten

Pretty sure this is an otter (above and video below)

Master engineer, the beaver.

The most vocal resident on the island, the red squirrel.

Me and my hiking pals (April, Zan and Julie)

We found this recently killed bunny along the trail. Note the blood on the leaf.

We didn't see any fox this year, though they left scat along many of the trails we hiked.

Saturday, August 8, 2020

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 continue to paddle the inland lakes in the Traverse City area. These lakes funnel water to nearby Lake Michigan. The health of these smaller lakes impacts the health of our Great Lakes.

This week I paddled Green Lake and nearby Duck Lake. In between these lakes is Interlochen Center for the Arts and Interlochen State park.

'Interlochen' means 'between the lakes.'

These two lakes are quite large and semi-developed along the edge.

There is plenty of room for loons and ducks to paddle, for blue heron to fish along the edges and for turtles to paddle the depths.

Here are some photos:

Wednesday, August 15, 2018

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

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

A 1,000-Mile Walk on the Beach [A Heartland Indie Bestseller]

A 1,000-Mile Great Lakes Walk [Winner of the Great Lakes Great Reads Award]

A 1,000-Mile Great Lakes Island Adventure [Long-listed for the Chautauqua Prize]

To learn more about her work, or to engage her as a speaker, go to http://www.laketrek.com/great-lakes-speaker/

I've had a busy year of speaking engagements so far. And I'm looking forward to the events and travels into the fall.

Cool sculpture at the library

Thanks to the Morton Township Library for engaging me to present my Isle Royale presentation earlier this month.

And thanks to the full house of people who came to learn more about this fascinating wilderness island.

I have many more engagements coming up including giving a talk at the Tedx Kalamazoo event.

See more events HERE.

Friday, March 16, 2018

oreen Niewenhuis is an author, adventurer, and Great Lakes speaker. She has completed a trilogy of 1,000-mile adventures exploring the Great Lakes and has written three books about the Great Lakes [A 1,000-Mile Walk on the Beach a Heartland Indie Bestseller, A 1,000-Mile Great Lakes Walk winner of the Great Lakes Great Reads Award, and A 1,000-Mile Great Lakes Island Adventure]. To learn more about her work, or to book her as a speaker, go to http://LakeTrek.com

Today is the 9th anniversary of my
first 1,000-mile hike.
Lake Michigan has been my favorite place my entire life, and in 2009 I decided to get to know it by walking all the way around it. It was my way of internalizing this special place, to record it in my muscles and bones.

Here are some photos from this amazing journey.