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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780981516127 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Flying Fish Graphics |
| Publication date: | 09/05/2012 |
| Edition description: | 1 |
| Pages: | 232 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.50(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Isle Royale National Park
Michigan
Our 100-passenger ferry is rocking me like a drunken sailor, so I keep my eyes closed during most of this three-hour ride. Never expect Lake Superior to behave, but putting up with impudence sometimes yields exquisite rewards.
Isle Royale National Park is an archipelago of 400-some islands, the longest of which is 45 miles. Backpackers and kayakers can roam for days and not repeat their route. The worlds longest-running predator-prey research project, involving moose and wolves, began here more than 50 years ago. Day visits to Isle Royales Rock Harbor are possible but illogical. Why endure the six-hour boat ride, with only two or three hours to explore? Ferries cruise roundtrip daily. Four-person seaplane service from Houghton, Michigan, cuts the trip to the park to 35 minutes but is more expensive than the ferry ride.
You dont go to Isle Royale unless youre committed to being there, concludes Phyllis Green, superintendent. Her park is one of the least visited in the National Park Service.
Isle Royale gets about as many visitors in a year (16,000) as the Grand Canyon averages on a summer day, but the average Isle Royale stay is four days, compared with about six hours at the Grand Canyon. One out of four who visit Isle Royale will return another time, and this ratio of repeat business is one of the highest among national parks. Youll see kayaks and canoes, but not autos, bicycles or pets. Only 17 types of mammals make Isle Royale their home, says ranger Mark Kudrav. Mosquitoes and black flies irritate in swarms until late July, but Lyme disease and poison ivy are not a problem. Ticks threaten the health of moose but not humans.
Most visitors come to backpack and camp; some will hire a water taxi to take them miles away and then hike back to Rock Harbor. A popular starting point, Chippewa Harbor, is a 12-mile walk. The trek back can be tranquil or arduous, depending upon weather and a hikers preparedness. Camping is rustic. A few campsites have three-sided shelters, to screen out insects and wildlife. Bring your own tent and gear for wilderness camping. The less adventurous bring their own provisions and rent one of 20 roomy housekeeping cottages with kitchenettes. Rock Harbor Lodge accommodates still others in 60 motel rooms; you can add hearty meals to the daily rate. A snack bar cooks up lighter fare; all menus depend on provisions delivered by ferry.
Most people find theres more to do than they expected, says Kim Alexander, lodge manager. Park rangers organize hikes and evening talks about the islands history or habitat.
The first time you see visitors, theyre backpackers, he says. Then that 50-pound pack gets heavy and they come as lodge guests during their next visit.
A few miles away, at Edisen Island, Leslie Mattson shares his love for commercial fishing with the occasional visitor; he and his wife, Donna, maintain a small home at waters edge. A short hike uphill leads to the parks oldest lighthouse, built in 1855. Head in another direction, and youll find the headquarters for the predator-prey research.
Excursion boats also take the curious toward Lookout Louise, where on a clear day youll see Canada. At Hidden Lake, hear the birds sing and watch for moose at the shoreline. Wild orchids and roses dot the landscape in summer.
The waters surrounding Isle Royale have been the site of 10 major shipwrecks. Scuba diving is a popular sport; wetsuits or drysuits are a must in the 45-degree water.
The ferry ride back to Copper Harbor is smooth and beguiling, just the opposite of how this trip began. Lake Superior changes that fast. The park is open from mid-April to late October. Campsite reservations are not accepted for groups of fewer than seven; its first-come first-served.
Isle Royale National Park
800 E. Lakeshore Drive
Houghton, Michigan
www.nps.gov/isro 906-482-0984
Rock Harbor Lodge, the only motel and cottage accommodations on the island, is open from late May to early September. Reservations are necessary.
www.isleroyaleresort.com 906-337-4993
The Isle Royale Queen IVs three-hour ferry rides from Copper Harbor, Michigan, run from mid-May to late September. Ferry service also departs from Houghton, Michigan (a six-hour trip), and Grand Portage, Minnesota (three hours, but to Windigo, which is at the opposite end from Rock Harbor). Reservations are necessary.
www.isleroyale.com 906-289-4437
North House Folk School
Grand Marais, Minnesota
Forty miles south of the Canadian border, a Minnesota village of 1,400 overlooks a shore of near-paradise.
Were a long way from everywhere, observes Greg Wright, and most people who stay for more than a vacation dont come here by accident.
It is the same with many of the students at his North House Folk School, where traditional northern crafts and ways of life are taught. Students leave with more than wall hangings and harbor photography.
Imagine thinking like an Inuit when building your own kayak or sculpting art from sandstone. Weave strips of bark into baskets, shoes, hatsor make a birch bark canoe. Make mukluks from moose hide and canvas, or drums from cedar and rawhide.
Learn blacksmithing, bladesmithing and flintknapping. Make sausage, a wood stove, yurt or earthen oven. Become a student of solar power or herbal health care. Wood turningusing a lathe to shape wood into a bowlis a Scandinavian-inspired process taught here. A fall class focuses on wild rice, from harvesting to hulling.
Many of the classes celebrate cultural traditions, the things that bind us together over time, says Greg, the nonprofit schools executive director. Teachers find joy in creating with their hands and connecting with the northern landscape.
The school emerged from a community already rich in the arts. About 13,000 people from 36 states and three foreign countries found their way to North House in 2009.
Most instruction occurs in warehouses built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. When the buildings became eyesores, they were given to the community. Then came proposals to level the property and build condos, open a museum or transform the structures into artists studios. The folk school idea was floated and received a six-month trial run. They hoped for 100 students and got 200, Greg explains. Now the campus also includes converted fishing buildings and harbor docks.
The folk school philosophy emphasizes learning and creating, not grades or competition. Tuition reductions are possible, in exchange for labor. Students arrange their own meals and lodging. Choices include campsites, cottages, motels, bed-and-breakfast inns.
Craft and wood-fired baking demos, Norwegian fjord horse-and-cart lessons and sailing lessons on a 50-foot traditionally rigged schooner occur at least weekly during summer and early autumn.
North House Folk School
500 Highway 61 West
Grand Marais, Minnesota
www.northhouse.org
888-387-9762
Red Stag Supper Club Minneapolis, Minnesota
News, to me: Energy and water account for 30 to 40 percent of the average restaurants operating budget. Reduce these expenses, and its good business as well as good for the planet.
Red Stag Supper Club, the first LEED-certified restaurant in Minnesota, cuts energy bills in half and saves 70 percent on its water bill because of an eco-savvy design in a former industrial warehouse in its northeast Minneapolis neighborhood. Seating cushions are stuffed with ribbons of tape from many, many discarded cassettes. Dining tables are doors recycled from a condo project. The marble bar comes from a hotel. Corn is a key ingredient in the carpeting.
Supper club, in this location, is more about bringing people together for interaction and community than big-as-your-plate steaks served after an hours wait for a table, says Lauren Schuppe, Red Stag manager (but she adds that owner Kim Bartmann, a Wisconsin native, has fond memories of traditional, rural supper club fare).
At the Red Stag, chefs will make their own sausage, pickle 50 pounds of ramps and boil down bushels of homegrown heirloom tomatoes so that a rich and locally sourced pasta sauce is available in the dead of winter. A majority of the menus ingredients come from within 60 miles of the restaurant.
Corned beef hash arrives with parsnips and carrots. An herbal hollandaise sauce transforms poached eggs into a clever Green Eggs and (smoked) Ham. Sometimes ingredients deviate from whats local, and results are extraordinary: Consider the chunks of lobster and avocado in the house egg salad sandwich.
Cheap Date night, on Tuesdays, means a couple can order two entr?, dessert and a bottle of wine for $32. A block party in August draws together the music of local bands, roller skaters and hula hoop contestants. Red Stag Supper Club
509 First Avenue NE
Minneapolis, Minnesota
www.redstagsupperclub.com
612-767-7766
Green arts in the neighborhood:The neighborhood enjoys a flourishing arts district whose anchor is Casket Arts, a coalition of 100 artists and art-related businesses. Open studio and gallery tours occur monthly, from 5 to 9 p.m. on the first Thursday. Much of the studio space fills a former casket factory, at 681 Seventeenth Avenue NE.
More at www.casketarts.com.
Table of Contents
IntroductionIllinois
Chicago
Dana Hotel
Hotel Felix, Frontera Grill
Kendall College
Lurie Garden and Millennium Park
Shedd Aquarium
Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum
Architectural Artifacts
Green City Market
Bobby's Bike Hike
Green Chicago Restaurant Co-op
Collinsville
Cahokia Mounds
Effingham
Firefly Grill
Gilman
Heartland Spay
Murphysboro
Green Retreat
Rockford
Anderson Japanese Gardens
Cliffbreakers
Western Springs
Vie Restaurant
More Green Places to Visit
Arthur
Yoder's Kitchen
Bolingbrook
Hidden Oaks Nature Center
Champaign
Prairie Fruits Farm
Chillicothe
Three Sisters Folk Art School
Eldred
Buffdale Vacation Farm
Glenview
Kohl Children's Museum
Kanakee
Bradley House
Makanda
Giant City Lodge
Naperville
Hotel Arista
Normal
Children's Discovery Museum
North Aurora
Oberweis Dairy
Wilmington
Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie
Iowa
Decorah
Fern Hollow Cabin
Waterloo Workshop
Seed Savers Exchange
Des Moines
Iowa State Fair
Dubuque
National Mississippi River Museum
Fairfield
The Raj
Iowa City
Devotay
Moravia
Honey Creek State Park Resort
Prairie City
Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge
More Green Places to Visit
Ames
Reiman Gardens
Coon Rapids
Whiterock Conservancy
Dubuque
Our Lady of the Mississippi Abbey
Harpers Ferry
Effigy Mounds National Monument
Hiawatha
Prairiewoods Franciscan Spirituality Center
Mason City
Park Inn Hotel
Peosta
New Melleray Abbey
Templeton
Templeton Rye
Woodward
Picket Fence Creamery
Michigan
Ann Arbor
Zingerman's
Boyne City
Lavender Hill Farm
Cross Village
Legs Inn
Grand Rapids
Grand Rapids Art Museum
Green Well
Millennium Park
Holland
CityFlats Hotel
Isle Royale National Park
Rock Harbor Lodge
Isle Royale Queen IV
Macinac Island
Grand Hotel
Windermere Hotel
Manistee
Douglas Valley Vineyard Estates
Petoskey
American Spoon
Thompsonville
Michigan Legacy Art Park
Traverse City
Village at Grand Traverse CCommons
Watersmeet
Sylvania Wilderness
Land O'Lakes, Wisconsin
Gateway Lodge
Watervliet
Ronora Lodge and Retreat Center
More Green Places to Visit
Ann Arbor
MiSo House
Boyne Falls
Boyne Resorts
Carleton
Calder Dairy and Farms
Dearborn
Ford Rouge Factory Tour
Glen Arbor
Cherry Republic
Grand Rapids
Meijer Sculpture Garden
Harbert
Snooty Fox
Harbor Springs
Pond Hill Farm
Muskegon
Mia and Grace Bakery and Bistro
Ontonogan
Porcupine Mountain Folk School
Rochester
Mind, Body and Spirits
St. Joseph
Curious Kids' Discovery Zone
Suttons Bay
Black Star Farms
Thompsonville
Crystal Mountain Resort
Traverse City
Moomers
The Cooks' House
Michigan Food Festivals
Minnesota
Duluth
Solglimt Lakeshore B&B
More Green Places to Visit
Great Lakes Aquarium
Northern Waters Smokehaus
Ely
International Wolf Center
North American Bear Center
Grand Marais
Angry Trout Cafe
Naniboujou Lodge
North House Folk School
Lanesboro
Commonweal Theatre Company
Eagle Bluff Environmental Learning Center
National Trout Learning Center
Minneapolis
Mill City Museum
Red Stag Supper Club
Casket Arts
Target Field
St. Paul
Trotter's Cafe
Montevideo
Moonstone Farm
New Ulm
Putting Green Environmental Park
Ogema
Minwanjige Cafe
Wabasha
National Eagle Center
More Green Places to Visit
Franconia
Franconia Sculpture Park
North Branch
Women's Environmental Institute
Red Wing
Hobgoblin Music
White Earth Lake
New Horizon Resort
Wisconsin
Door County
Baileys Harbor
Ridges Sanctuary
Rock Island State Park
More Green Places to Visit
Ellison Bay
The Clearing
Baileys Harbor
Blacksmith Inn B&B
Baraboo
Leopold Legacy Center
International Crane Foundation
Bayfield
Pinehurst Inn
Cashton
Growers Produce Auction
Gordon
Down to Earth Tours
Hollandale
Grandview
Outsider Art in Wisconsin
Horicon
Horicon Boat Tours
Horicon Marsh Bird Festival & Education Center
Madison
First Unitarian Society
Monona Terrace
Graze
Merchant
Underground Kitchen
Madison Children's Museum
Bean Sprouts
Middleton
Holy Wisdom Monastery
Milwaukee
Braise on the Go
Learn Great Foods
Indian Summer Festival
Oneida Harvest and Husking Bee
Lakefront Brewery
More Green Places to Visit
Great Lakes Distillery
Growing Power
Schlitz Audubon Center
Iron Horse Hotel
Nelson
The Stone Barn
Plain
Cedar Grove Cheese
Potosi
National Brewery Museum
Rhinelander
Woodwind Health Spa
Stevens Point
Becoming an Outdoors Woman
Prairie Chicken Festival
Milladore
Mead Wildlife Center
Superior
Bay Produce
Waterloo
Trek Bicycles
West Bend
Wellspring
More Green Places to Visit
Travel Green Wisconsin
Amherst
Artha Sustainability Center
Browntown
Inn Serendipity
Madison
Arbor House
New Auburn
Jack's Lake B&B
Burlington
Shrooms Kitchen
Columbus
Sassy Cow Creamery
Fond du Lac
Kelly Country Creamery
Lake Mills
Aztalan State Park
Maiden Rock
Journey Inn
Mineral Point
Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen
Woodlanders Gathering
Mountain
Spur of the Moment
Mt. Cavalry
Dandelion Festival
Racine
Fortaleza Hall
Trego
Namekagon Waters Retreat
Washburn
Tetzner Dairy Products
Westby
Hidden Springs B&B
Four More Green Cities
Indianapolis, Indiana
White River State Park
100 Acres
R Bistro
University Place Hotel
Kansas City, Missouri
Steamboat Arabia
Powell Gardens
St. Louis
City Museum
Missouri Botanical Garden
Schlafly's Bottleworks
McMurphy's Grill
City Seeds Urban Farm
Nebraska City, Nebraska
Lied Lodge
Index
Photo and Text Credits
Interviews
I like a good challenge, but the notion of producing a book about Midwest ecotourism seemed paralyzing for quite a while. Where to begin? What to include? Whose criteria rule?
Ecotourism standards change, enthusiasm mushrooms and expectations increase as I write this. LEED certification, for example, isnt just about buildings anymore. Now this internationally respected benchmark extends to neighborhoods.
The addition of in-room recycling bins in hotels and menus with locally grown foods in restaurants no longer are avant-garde moves, but neither should the value of these efforts be diminished. Its all goodtiny steps to multi-million dollar investments.
Going green suggests a respect for nature, selfless choices, environment above ego. How our endeavors play out continue to surprise and delight us. Were green with envy and hope about the various projects that compete for attention.
So many paths are new, with myriad ways to measure progress. A nod from the U.S. Green Building Council is one measurement of eco-progressiveness, but other efforts count, too. That includes reusing whats old instead of discarding it.
I admire developers who refurbish old buildings for creative purposes instead of simply demolishing them. The same goes for the rural innkeeper who lovingly shares simple, off-the-grid lodgingand the upscale B&B owner who agonizes about the eco-impact of the tiniest details of business.
As with my previous books, Sidetracked in Wisconsin and Hungry for Wisconsin, I consider the best mix of content to be eclectic. Low-budget to luxury projects, in rural to densely populated areas, make the cut in four categories: food/drink, lodging/retreats, nature/wildlife, the old and the new. Eco features will be evident to the average traveler.
I try to not brag too much about my beloved Madison, home to fervent food activists, a maze of bike trails and a progressive bike-sharing system, mandatory plastic bag recycling and the nations largest producer-only farmers market (all vendors also are the producers of what is sold).
Ill mention, but not dwell on, the fact that ideas and action about conservation certainly arent new in my home state of Wisconsin, thanks to native sons Aldo Leopold, John Muir, Gaylord Nelson and other trailblazers.
What I present in Sidetracked in the Midwest is a range of possibilities, examples of people who are running with inventive ideas that involve many types of businesses. — From the Author