An Outdoorsman's Journal

This Happened to Me

Hello friends,

   I started writing this column back in 1989 for The Poynette Press. In 1992 I self-syndicated and by ‘96 “An Outdoorsman's Journal” was being published in 35 papers each week in Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. By the year 2000 it had reached its peak of 72, that number has settled down to 60 which is in most part due to 2 papers merging into 1. These days I write for 60 and am thankful for this wonderful of life.
              A month ago I wrote to you about how I realized back in ‘92, if I was going to make a career out of this I was going to have to step up my winter type of stories and I did exactly that.
                This week I am laid up after a medical operation that I knew was coming, I should only be down a week. Simply put, due to long term exposure to the sun, I had a rather unique treatment for precancer, skin cancer that has me unable to go outside for a few days.
                        Back in the winter of ‘94 a retired game warden out of Solon Springs gave me the idea to go around the entire state of Wisconsin by way of silent sports. As you will read, some of those trips were a bit challenging. I did the east, the west and the north, not the south as it would include massive trespassing.
   First trip "Lake Superior on the ice from Superior to Saxon Harbor," February ‘95!
                   I have always kind of bungled my way into things and this journey was no exception. My plan, park my truck somewhere in Superior, hook my golden retriever Star to her Otter Sled, pull an Otter Sled myself and hike to Saxon Harbor that I believe was about 170 ice miles away.

            Star’s, 8 week old pup Pearl would be our 3rd companion and for the most part she rode in Star’s sled. No clue, total fool, no tent, 18 nights on the ice would best sum up the most dangerous trip of my life and that is when my readers realized that simply put "MGW is not a normal human being." Just the fact that was the first winter in forever that there was ice the entire route was magical. On sleeping every night without a tent, first I shoveled snow walls to block the wind, then I laid a double layered tarp on the ice, then a foam pad, then my double sleeping bag and then more of the tarp over the pups and I.
                  I went through the ice twice on that journey and got myself out. The pups and I learned to jump leads, which are open water cracks in the ice. I would have Star wait 50 yards behind and I would run pulling my sled, jump and never failed. It stressed my brain but there was always the victory.
               Star never failed, with her pup in her sled and a 50 yard gallop she accomplished her mission.
                  The following year I took on the entire St. Croix river which was roughly a 10 day trip loaded with horrible ice, deep forests and an I can do this attitude that was exactly 169 miles. Bad ice due to deep current and starting the journey too late in the winter, was almost a constant issue. One morning I woke up sleeping on the ice and I noticed all night the sound of the current was much stronger than when I first hit the sleeping bags the night before. Inches from my sleeping bag a hole the size of a Volkswagen had opened up and it truly was an insane experience removing myself from that zone and not going through the deep, dark and very cold hole!
            Lake Michigan from Manitowoc to Deaths Door about 1998, the north tip of the Door County peninsula on the ice. All told I think there were at least a dozen expeditions when the pups and I were dropped off at Manitowoc by my good buddy Jeff Moll. It was a long way home, which was Deaths Door and my old and very beat-up "Chevy Hotel!" A side note on the literally probably 250 of these expeditions over the last 37 winters. Back in the early days, my truck or Jeep Eagle would not start at the end of the trip. I learned before even turning the key to put my Peak 1 single burner cook stove under the engine, put my sleeping bags over the hood and then load my gear while "I warmed up the engine," this never failed.
         Shove ice on the west shore of the Door County peninsula was a killer for man and beast to negotiate while pulling a fully loaded sled up it. By this time Pearl was also pulling a sled, and I had what is probably the longest term injury of my life. I just about made it to the top of a maybe 15-foot "vertical" chunk of shove ice when I slipped hard and fell on my left side and right where my hip socket is I happened to have a Carmex "lip balm" container in my pocket. That ceramic container was like getting shot with a 50-calibur bullet and the pain was immense.
              As always, I manned up and made it to "Old Blue" and made my way home to what at the time was a simple and beautiful 5 acre piece of land and a house that I had purchased for $10,000 back in ‘94.

You have one shot to live until your heart quits beating, are you satisfied with where you’re at?

Sunset

p.s The following July I started at Deaths Door headed towards Washington Island in my canoe with Pearl and Star. I got a late start, was paddling in the dark and got caught by a nasty storm. My canoe submerged with its gear and crew, thankfully I was only about 1000-yards from shore and the storm blew us to land.