Sunday, August 6, 2006

Another wild one While I'm on the subject of wilderness adventure and growth through testing oneself in the wild, I recently met another outfitter who leads wilderness trips, Chris Heeter. I met Chris at the Midwest Renewable Energy and Sustainable Living Fair in Custer, Wisconsin. She had a booth there to promote her adventure travel business. Chris runs The Wild Institute, which, according to her Web site, "brings women closer to the deep wisdom of nature." For more than 20 years, she has taken women sea kayaking, whitewater canoeing and dogsledding in wilderness areas in Minnesota, Canada, Utah and beyond. She also offers custom trips, so if there's an adventure you've been dreaming about but don't know how to make it happen, contact Chris. Later... While I'm on the subject of wilderness adventure and growth through testing oneself in the wild, I recently met another outfitter who leads wilderness trips, Chris Heeter. I met Chris at the Midwest Renewable Energy and Sustainable Living Fair in Custer, Wisconsin. She had a booth there to promote her adventure travel business. Chris runs The Wild Institute, which, according to her Web site, "brings women closer to the deep wisdom of nature." For more than 20 years, she has taken women sea kayaking, whitewater canoeing and dogsledding in wilderness areas in Minnesota, Canada, Utah and beyond. She also offers custom trips, so if there's an adventure you've been dreaming about but don't know how to make it happen, contact Chris. Later... 4:29:12 PM    comment []

Adventure Out is making waves in California! Hey, gang, in case you missed the one comment I got on a recent blog post, check out this website. Commenter Cliff Hodges runs Adventure Out, an outdoor adventure school in northern California. He commented on my post about the Wheelin' Sportsmen event coming up next weekend here in Wisconsin. I checked out his website and found it quite interesting. On his Media page, I found this article by my friend Tom Stienstra, who writes for the San Francisco Chronicle and also has outdoor shows on radio and TV in the SF Bay Area. Here's what Cliff said in Tom's article about his business: "We want to make a difference with people," he said. "Women, men, kids. We can help all of them. We can help people achieve their wildest adventures where they challenge their limits." He said the company's safety record was perfect, that is, "no accidents." Among the events Adventure Out is doing or has done this summer are a Billabong Surf Camp and a Wilderness Survival Skills program, which offers one-day clinics and week-long excursions. In his survival skills workshops, Hodges says he's trying to recreate what it might have been like to live among native Californians. Sounds something like Tom Brown's Tracker School survival skills program. Friends of mine are graduates of Tom's school and speak very highly of his programs. I wish Cliff the best in his endeavors. Sounds like he's doing worthwhile work! Later... 3:49:37 PM    comment []

Harry Michaels doesn't miss a trick When I made my weekly trip to our town recycling center recently, manager Harry Michaels asked me if I still had the rope he had given me. I pulled it out of the plastic milk crate that serves as a catch-all in the back of my Explorer and held it up. "Want it back?" I asked. "No, no, I just wondered if you still have it," he said with a smile, as he grabbed a bag of newspapers from my truck. I never know what Harry is going to do, but it's usually something funny. The week before, as I was leaving the center after unloading my trash and recyclables, he handed me a 2-foot length of 3/8-inch diameter rope. "What's this for?" I asked. "For your turkey," he replied. I must have looked puzzled, as I had no clue what he was talking about. "Last week on your TV show, you shot a turkey but you didn't have a piece of string to tie the tag on with," he explained. "Now you'll have one next time!" The rope he gave me was stout enough to hang a turkey and much too thick for tying a carcass tag on its leg. I got the joke and thanked him. Now I've got to find a way to work that piece of rope into a TV segment. I might even say where I got it. On second thought, that's probably a bad idea. No telling what Harry would give me after he saw that show! Later... 2:29:35 PM    comment []