Tales from the Cabin

When I was a child, my dad allowed me to steer the family boat for the first time. The lesson I learned from that day set the course for how I would navigate life. It’s a philosophy I try to embrace whether I’m working on a project at home, spending a few days on a hiking trail, or traveling the highways and backroads to see something new. 

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You never know when fate will intervene. Sometimes an opportunity will literally walk through the door. That’s what happened to me on a late fall evening. It was a moment that led me to find out about a man who’s story I felt I got to just before it was too late to tell it.

The post “The Book I Was Meant to Write” appeared first on Tales from the Cabin.

In the 1910s, a vast Indiana marshland known as “Limberlost” was dredged and drained to provide access for the timber and oil industries and to create more farmland. At the time, not many people were considering the effect that practically eliminating a 13,000 acre marsh would have. A local author, who had written several books about Limberlost, tried to make her voice heard. Yet, her concerns were largely ignored.

One hundred years later, a farmer who was dealing with consistency losing crops to wet soil and/or flooding, unearthed a nugget that jumpstarted an effort to reclaim parts of the wetland. It’s an uplifting tale about how we can repair landscapes through building consensus and diligently working toward shared, realistic goals.

The post A Century Later, An Indiana Marshland is Restored appeared first on Tales from the Cabin.

Grandma Gatewood was an Appalachian Trail pioneer. In 1955, at age 67, she set off to escape an abusive relationship and blazed a path that inspires women to this day. 

A new project seeks to create two bronze statues of Grandma Gatewood. one at her gravesite and one adjacent to the Appalachian Trail.

I interviewed renowned sculptor, Bridgette Mongeon, whose work appears at the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame®, in numerous other celebrated public spaces, and at private gravesites about her initiative and the importance of honoring Grandma Gatewood as a way to keep her legacy strong.

Learn more about the project online

Visit the Go Fund Me page

See Bridgette Mongeon’s sculpting process and portfolio

 Photo of Emma “Grandma” Gatewood by Stratness – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27551090

The post Grandma Gatewood’s Life and Legacy appeared first on Tales from the Cabin.

You don’t have to quit your day job to hike the Appalachian Trail — unless you want to :)

I spent 28 years hiking the 2,100-mile trail with my friend, Wayne and I learned a ton about trip planning and preparation. Here are some things to think about if you’d like to visit part of the storied trail yourself.

Appalachian Odyssey: A 28-year hike on America’s Trail

Suggested Section Hikes by State

My Guide to Loop Hikes and Shuttles

Appalachian Trail Conservancy Shuttle Provider and Transportation Information

How to Stay on the Trail and What to do if you get off it

How to Buy Hiking Boots

The post How to Section Hike the Appalachian Trail appeared first on Tales from the Cabin.

I am always intrigued by the question of whether a conservationist’s love of nature came from the environment they grew up in, the influence of parents and/or other mentors, or both. To find out, I prefer to visit the places they were raised and where they practiced their craft. Tracing Aldo Leopold’s roots was something I had yearned to do for many years and I finally got to it. As always, I was grateful for the opportunity.

If you’d like to take a deeper dive into Leopold’s life, accomplishments , and legacy, please check out my full-length documentary film Aldo Leopold – Birth of the Land Ethic by clicking here. 

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In 2024, he is practically unknown — a man who considered himself an abject failure toiling in the shadows of America’s greatest triumph of its day. Yet, Steele MacKaye’s greatest “failure” spawned a number of things that are familiar and inspirational touchstones for millions of people worldwide. Things he never got to see because he was felled by his own shame.

The post Steele’s Legacies appeared first on Tales from the Cabin.

In 1983, I set out with a few friends to hike the Pacific Crest Trail. It’s hard to believe now, but it was a time when fewer than 15 people completed the trail each year. In the ’70s and ’80s, when the trail through southern California wasn’t traversing mountains on well-established tread, it dropped into desert terrain, where dirt roads, known as “Jeep Roads” became the norm.

Water sources were always a challenge, but the Mojave Desert area raised the level of uncertainty and danger. This is the story of how we came perilously close to suffering heat stroke or worse and gained a valuable lesson in relying too heavily on “known sources of information” where the margin of error was close to zero.

The post No Water — In the worst possible place appeared first on Tales from the Cabin.

In 1912, a young man in his early 20’s named Ernest Oberholtzer and his friend Billy McGee, who was in his 50’s, set off on a 2,000-mile trip through uncharted waters in a canoe. Their goal was to reach Hudson Bay and make it back home before winter set in. Defying the elements, incredible navigational challenges, and almost certain death, they limped back home barely making it before the northern Minnesota winter took hold. More than fifty years later, “Ober” realized his dream of making it back to the place that was at once the high point and low point of his amazing adventure. It’s quite the story.

The post Ernest Oberholtzer’s True North – Chapter 3 appeared first on Tales from the Cabin.

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When my hiking buddy and I set out for a four-day hiking adventure on the Appalachian Trail in Vermont, we discovered that mother nature had much more in store for us than we could have imagined. Eleven days later, I limped back to Maine with a new appreciation for perseverance and just how much damage a determined porcupine can do.

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The post Tales from the Cabin, Chapter 2 — The Porcupine appeared first on Tales from the Cabin.