Leg 1: Sam
Father of our two children, also my husband. We started backpacking together as teenagers through parent-approved church camps. We were married by the minister who led the trips we hiked on the North Country and Ice Age trails in Northern Wisconsin and Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan. Inspired by Anne LaBastille's books, we hiked a section of the Lake Placid-Northville trail in upstate New York, which we now will be revisiting a portion of by canoe. With the kids, we've paddled the Buffalo River in Arkansas, the Jacks Forks River in Missouri and the Namekagon River in Wisconsin in addition to numerous trips to Michigan's Sylvania Wilderness, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) and Quetico in Canada. In 1987, we served as seasonal forest service volunteers for the Wenanchee National Forest and lived at the end of the Icicle Trail in a CCC-built cabin 16 miles out of Leavenworth, Washington.
Leg 2: Beckie
Our paths crossed at First United Methodist Church as well as at our daughter's horse back riding lessons. As the girls got older, we began to share mother-daughter canoe trips. Highlights include playing nightly games of "hearts," having a black bear wander through our camp on the Namekagon River that neither Beckie or I noticed because we were deep in conversation ("Mom, there's a bear. There's a bear. PEOPLE! THERE'S A BEAR!"), and of course, naked canoeing which the girls need to explain. Becky also regularly kayaks in the bay of Green Bay and Lake Michigan from her cottage in Door County.
Leg 3: Linda
I first met Linda when she showed up to an artist-in-residence committee meeting at our children's grade school. We've kept in touch after she moved with her family to Chicago. Among other incredible things, Linda is the Director of Education Programs at Global Alliance for Africa. She successfully recruited me to travel as part of a group of artists to Arusha, Tanzania, Africa, in 2006 that helped organize the first arts camp program. She has since returned dozens of times, helping to build libraries and develop a therapeutic arts program for AIDS orphans through the organization. In January, she will be climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro with her two sons. She has completed at least two 500-mile AIDS Rides and commutes by bike to downtown Chicago from her west central suburb.
Leg 4: Joyce
Another friend who also showed up at that infamous artist-in-residence committee meeting at Aldo Leopold Community School, Joyce is a professional artist (YIPES!) and fellow traveler. She has kayaked and canoed most of her adult life--including Lake Superior and on the Au Train River in Michigan where she shares a cabin with her husband. In October 2007, Joyce hiked the 500 mile Camino de Santiago in Spain.
Leg 5: Kacia
My daughter who has been forced by birth to camp and canoe with her family. Our first mother-daughter outing was a short backpack camping trip when she was four to Rock Island State Park off the tip of Door County, Wisc. We've since paddled the Namekagon, St. Croix and Manitowish Rivers in Wisconsin and numerous BWCA trips. During her teenage years, we teamed up with Beckie (see above) and her daughter, Claire for joint trips.
Leg 6: Kay
After both being ditched by our first semester dorm assignments, we fortuitously became roommates second semester at UW-Stevens Point. We kept in touch after I transferred to UW-Milwaukee. After a 10-year hiatus, I impulsively called Kay to join me canoeing in Sylvania Wilderness over Labor Day weekend, when my family didn't want to go. It was memorable for two reasons: 1) We got along great after 10 years and 2) It was the same weekend Princess Di was killed. We've done at least three BWCA trips together since that fateful Labor Day weekend. Kay lives in Northern Wisconsin and paddles a blue canoe.
