Lake Trek as Quest...

I'd like to thank Kathy Drue for her blog review of my book.

She illuminates the quest aspect of my adventure:

"Her heart called her on
a Big Quest,
and she didn’t refuse
its calling."

She had some lovely thoughts on answering the call of the quest for all of us.

You can read the entire review here: http://upwoods.wordpress.com/

Cabin Fever Event at McLean & Eakin

There was a packed house at McLean & Eakin this week to hear all about my book! Thank you to everyone who came out on this cold evening and for sharing your stories of Lake Michigan.

A huge thanks to Jessilyn and the entire staff at McLean & Eakin for hosting this Cabin Fever event. I am honored to be part of your winter line-up.

What a great audience with great questions. And one woman, Mary, even brought me a beautiful pair of mittens she made to "keep your hands warm when you hike." How lovely!

I have a jam-packed book tour developing. Check the sidebar for details and locations. I hope to see you along the way!

The formal BOOK LAUNCH will be at BRILLIANT BOOKS of Suttons Bay, Friday, March 11 at 7pm.

Please note that reservations are recommended.

The Sleeping Bear

One of the questions people ask when they hear that I walked all the way around Lake Michigan is:

What was your favorite part?

While it's difficult to choose only one, I did fall in love with one stretch of Lake Michigan all over again: Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.




This park preserves 35 miles of lakeshore and the two large islands just offshore.

This is a place I return to in my mind...and I'll get back there soon to explore this national treasure.

The North and South Manitou Islands are just offshore.

The barns below are also part of the park.

Did You Know...

…the French explorer Jean Nicolet was the first European to travel the Great Lakes.

…the name Michigan is probably from the Ojibwa word michigami meaning “great water.”

...the Great Lakes are relatively young, geologically speaking, around 10,000 years old.

...the state fossil of Michigan -- the petoskey stone (in photo below) -- is a fossilized coral that thrived much earlier. They populated the inland sea that covered much of this region in the Devonian Period over 350 million years ago.

Beginning of Book Tour

Invasive Species

The Asian carp is the 'poster child' of invasive species, but do you know that there are over 150 non-native species already established in the Great Lakes? From bivalves from Russia, to plants from Europe, to fresh water-tolerant species from the Atlantic, our Great Lakes are already populated with invasives that continually weaken and erode the ecosystem.

The Asian carp is a big and current threat. It has been making its way to the Great Lakes for many years and is now very near Lake Michigan.

A permanent solution IS possible.

Tom Kelly, Executive Director of the Inland Seas Education Center in Suttons Bay, Michigan, presented his recommendations at the recent US Army Corps of Engineers and Mississippi River Interbasin Study meeting in Traverse City.

See his recommendations here:

http://schoolship.blogspot.com/2011/01/tom-kellys-comments-to-glmris-scoping.html

FROOO------ZENNNNNN!

Did You Know...

…the Great Lakes are called “The Third Coast” and “Inland Seas.”

This coastline stretches over 10,000 miles. The state of Michigan, alone, has over 3,000 miles of shoreline.

… Lake Michigan is the only Great Lake completely within US borders. We share the other four Great Lakes with Canada.

Forming laws or guidelines governing the lakes is a complex undertaking involving eight states and Canada. The GREAT LAKES WATER COMPACT is a complex agreement between all parties (and ratified by Congress) governing how water may be used from the Great Lakes.

…the Great Lakes contain 20% of the world’s fresh surface water, and 95% of the US’s.

It is important that we preserve and protect this important resource.

To the LAKE!!

I took my book out to see the LAKE this week!

I'd been away from Lake Michigan for too long. Several trips were scuttled by heavy snows or thwarted by other happenings.

It was so good to see the lake, to view the shelf ice reaching out from the shore, to see where the waves have stacked up broken chunks of ice to form these temporary hillocks and mounds on the surface of the lake.






I climbed one of these formations just to give some scale in the photo. While standing there, I noticed a large crack near my foot that was slowly opening and closing as the water pulsed beneath the layers of ice.

Yikes!





























The lake has many moods and I am drawn to the frozen, quiet force of it in the winter.
These photos are of the Black River heading out to the lake, its surface covered with pancake ice.














Speaking of Black River, I'll be at South Haven's BLACK RIVER BOOKS on Saturday, May 28 from 1-4 signing books.










And I'll be at Buffalo Books in New Buffalo the Thursday before (May 26th) to do a reading/signing. Hope to see you along the way! Check the sidebar here for my developing Book Tour.

The book will be available everywhere
March 1 !!!
(Ask for it at your local indie bookstore.)