Michael Janke

Chasing Fresh Air and Sunshine

  • … to the Sea

    … to the Sea

    It would be a shame to cross half the country, camp within an hour-and-a-half of the ocean and not get our feet wet. So we did. Edisto Beach State Park, on the Atlantic south of Charleston, is  on an ‘island’ of sorts, surrounded by salt marshes. It’s somewhat quiet in winter and out of the…

  • Congaree

    Congaree

    We’ve spent the last few days camping in Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina. Part of my half-thought out plan for this trip was to check out one of the few National Parks in the Eastern US, Congaree National Park. The park preserves thousands of acres of hardwood bottomlands, some of which are old growth. In…

  • Trail of Tears

    Trail of Tears

    Or … how ’bout y’all start heading west. To Oklahoma. On foot. We’re back on the road, this time heading generally southeast, a first for us. We’ve been west many times, but to the east/souteast only once – the Everglades. We’ve never set foot in the Carolinas, the Virginias or Alabama, for example. Part of…

  • You know you are in Ely when …

    You know you are in Ely when …

    The twenty-six mile marathon is also a twenty-six mile portage. Ely Minnesota is a gateway to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, where outfitting and guiding is a significant contribution to the local economy. It makes sense then, that the annual Ely Marathon has a ‘Portage’ class where runners portage their canoes (I. E. run…

  • Revisiting the BWCA, Minnesota’s Wilderness

    Revisiting the BWCA, Minnesota’s Wilderness

    Minnesota is home to a million-acre tract of undeveloped, protected wilderness area called the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. It’s located along 150 miles of the US-Canada border, adjacent to the even more-remote Quetico wilderness area in Canada. Travel is by canoe, portaging between lakes & camping in designated lakeside campsites. The BWCA is a…

  • … All Summer Long

    … All Summer Long

    The summer went fast, as it always does. Working in the locomotive shop at the railroad museum made it go way faster. The Minnesota Transportation Museum runs a tourist train on Saturdays and Sundays (the Osceola & St. Croix Valley Railway) and owns the Jackson Street Roundhouse in St. Paul Minnesota, where they maintain static…

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