Running Down a Dream

Wednesday September 16 I left Bayfield, WI and headed east for Michigan. To my knowledge I’ve never stepped foot into Michigan before and couldn’t be more excited to check out the upper peninsula which contains some of the oldest rocks in North America. My first stop in the U.P. was the Porcupine Mountains. I had decided to explore and camp near the NE entrance on the shore of Lake Superior and near the cities of White Pine and Silver City. The cross country ski trails doubled as mtb trails so I wanted to explore those, do some hiking, paddle boarding and more beach combing. The Porcupines were recommended by several others I had met along the way, and now I could see why. I arrived at Union Bay camp midafternoon, set up camp, the flies were horrible which got me motivated to start moving, so I took the Salsa Blackborow for a ride in the mountains. I started easy and rode some wide trails between the main road and beach of Lake Superior, to my amazement did not see anyone on this loop...

It’s been a solid month since I was in Alaska, but still seems like just yesterday. I love that place and cannot wait to go back. So what have I been up to..more adventuring of course! And reading, training for races, and putting together photo books of my recent adventures, more on this in another post. There was a transition week after returning to the lower 48 which included time in the rock shop, a wedding on the Yellowstone river, and visiting family and friends in the Red River Valley. On Thursday September 10 I began a journey to explore the Lake Superior shoreline, first in WI then into the U.P. of MI... getting a late start out of Grand Forks I did not quite make it to the big lake on Day 1, but rather decided to stay at Amnicon Falls St Park in WI, which was recommended from a WI native I met in AK. It was quite late when I arrived so started a fire in the rain, had a few brews and fell asleep. The next day I rode bike down to the waterfalls and checked out the area. Little ...

I booked my trip to Juneau on a whim after finding a cheap ticket, it had been 3 years since I had been to the last frontier and I was eager to go back. With a friend living there I had a home base and was excited to go adventuring! It was a full day of travel from Billings, MT thus arriving late in Juneau I did not get to see much that night. The next day (Aug 19) I was lead to a nearby trailhead for Thunder Mt (apparently its name comes from the avalanches in the winter sounding like thunder), it was raining (not surprised since it is the rainforest!) Actually it looked like I was headed through a jungle walking on large wooden planks, but that didn’t last long, I crossed a small creek and the trail went straight up, over roots, mud bogs, rocks thus entering the never-ending muskeg. At that moment I was happy to have a nice rain jacket on, gortex shoes, gaiters, and trekking poles. I could check my steps with the poles before plunging knee deep into a mud bog, or scurry across a wet...