Hiking, web development, best practices, and general awesomeness
It was late afternoon as I walked away from my parked car on the Northwestern Road. The air was cool and damp from the morning's rains, keeping the normally pervasive black flies and mosquitoes to a background detail. Several logging roads branch north from the Northwestern Road here before it…
A bent blue gate marked the beginning of my afternoon hike. I had just drove down the confusing Holyoke Trail, northwest of Marquette, and was itching to get started. Stepping around the game I set off north along the two-track, wondering what this hike would have in store for me. I knew there were…
Sometimes I miss the good spots on a hike. I often head into an area with little more than a topographic map and a rudimentary understanding of the area. Depending on how the hike goes my rough plans can change rapidly to avoid rough sections or check out an interesting side destination, but many…
I was only a few months into my waterfall adventures in the summer of 2008 when I learned some distressing news. A dear friend of mine was leaving Houghton for the summer, someone I had hoped to spend a lot of time with and who meant a lot to me. At that time I was searching for some waterfalls in…
Sometimes things go wrong. I have been very fortunate over the years considering the number of adventures and idiotic ideas I've had, but sometimes bad things can and do happen. Among the problems that have cropped up during hikes I've had to deal with car problems, injuries, exhaustion, and…
It was so, so early in the morning. I watched sunrise try to seep over Ives Hill in the east but got impatient and headed downhill before the rays touched my chilly outcropping. There was a long hike in front of me and I didn't want to waste time, especially on a lazy sun. Most of this hike would be…
Dull grey seeped into my tent signalling a long-awaited end to a miserable, sleepless night. I scrambled around in the frigid air, pulling on stiff clothes and grabbing prepared gear in a rush to start moving on a long hike. My campsite was less than ideal even though I had took pains to pick the…
Far from my usual haunts in the Huron Mountains, Wolf Mountain rises 1,826 feet and is the highest point in Gogebic County. Emily and I drove north along a forest road off of US-2, bumping up and down on the rough two-track past Little Presque River through thick, green woods. It was a short drive,…
As the Lake Superior shoreline stretches north from Big Bay two named features, Black Rock and Salmon Trout Point, make a bitter stand against the pounding waves. The shore here is mostly composed of straight, towering sandstone cliffs with the exception of these two basaltic outcroppings which…
Throughout my hiking adventures I've occasionally bumped into different animals. It's always exciting to meet a pack of wolves, grouse, deer, or even have a thrilling encounter with a mother bear and cub. There are a few other animals that I've been hoping to bump into that are a bit more rare in…