Lose the Smart Phone & Hit the Trail

Posted on April 19th, 2012

Editor’s Note: Don’t forget on Tuesday, April 24, Jim DuFresne will be giving his presentation Michigan’s Top Ten Backpacking Treks at 7 p.m. at Backcountry North, 2820 N. US-31 South in Traverse City. Advance registration for the show is required and can be made by calling Backcountry Nort… read more

Time To Give Back To Trails

Posted on January 7th, 2012

Editor’s Note: This blog entry by Jim DuFresne was suppose to appear just before Christmas but technical difficulties prevented us from posting it until now. By Jim DuFresne Jim DuFresne This is the time of the year when we often pause to reflect, remember and give thanks. Despite thes… read more

Driving Father Jack’s Buick

Posted on November 8th, 2011

I’m driving a new car. No, let me re-phrase that; I’m driving a newer car. I picked up a Saturn Vue that is three-years old and has 43,000 miles on it. It’s high tech. For the first time I can use my IPod in my vehicle. It has remote start for those mornings when the windows are all frosted up and during… read more

Pondering Life & Death on the Trail

Posted on September 21st, 2011

On the day of Greg Hokans’ funeral I was hiking in Emmet County, recording trails for MichiganTrailMaps.com and enjoying a beautiful September day in northern Michigan. At the Elk Rapids Library that evening, my Internet connection when I’m in this corner of the state, somebody emailed me con… read more

Lessons From Alaska’s Chilkoot Trail

Posted on July 12th, 2011

You’ll learn a lot hiking the Chilkoot Trail. You get a history lesson on the Chilkoot and a sense of the feverous attraction gold can have on men. You learn a little about personal perseverance as you struggle over the Chilkoot Pass on a rainy morning when the clouds are so low and so thick you have to p… read more

Reaching the Top of an Alaskan Mountain

Posted on June 9th, 2011

Editor’s Note: Jim DuFresne, the main contributor to MichiganTrailMaps.com, made it to Alaska and sent in his first blog entry. In Los Angeles, you cruise the Sunset Strip; in Paris, you stroll the Champs-Elyse’es; and in Anchorage, you climb Flattop Mountain. This is the first mountain… read more

Prepping for the Hiking Season

Posted on May 10th, 2011

Editor’s Note: Jim DuFresne, the main contributor at MichiganTrailMaps.com, is headed for Alaska this summer and will be spending more than a month in Southeast Alaska exploring the region’s wonderful trail system. He promises to blog about his walks beginning in mid-June. We’re goi… read more

Upper Bushman Lake: A Place To Escape

Posted on December 31st, 2010

The only thing you can be sure of in life – beyond death and taxes – is that the amount of undeveloped land in the world, places without the heavy footprint of man, will never increase. Jim DuFresne It will only shrink. As our population grows and our needs for fuel, food and housing increases, natur… read more

A Tree in the Middle of the Trail: The Need to Support MI State Forests

Posted on November 9th, 2010

A day after the Great Lakes Cyclone, when winds were hitting 60 mph and stronger, I was in the Pigeon River Country State Forest following the 10-Mile Loop of the Shingle Mill Pathway for http://www.MichiganTrailMaps.com. It was still windy, but otherwise the afternoon was cool, clear and crisp, t… read more

The World in a Kelty Backpack

Posted on October 5th, 2010

When I dropped my daughter off at the airport and pulled her suitcase out of the trunk , I knew the weight of it even without a scale, a hair under 50 pounds. Jessica was moving to Argentina and needed to take part of her life with her but was too cost conscious (fiscally responsible?) to allow the airlin… read more

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