It's About Time to Work on North Country Quest

Here's the deal- The book North Country Cache tells the stories of my first 2300 miles of hiking on the North Country Trail. I've always said that there was going to be a sequel with the final 2100 miles, called North Country Quest. I even have several chapters all done. (Each hike is a separate essay, with some continuity between, but they can almost stand on their own)

But some things happened this past fall, things that made me angry with the trail people and very hurt. For quite a while I wasn't sure that I was going to be able to continue to be involved with the trail. That was pretty tough sledding, since the trail has been just about the biggest thing in my life for 20 years. (Behind faith and family)

I seem to be coming to grips with all of that. Finally.

Yesterday, I needed a piece of info for the article I was writing. I couldn't find it anywhere, but I was pretty sure it was in one of the chapters for NCQ that I had done. So I went to open that file. I couldn't find it! Now this was serious. It was a long chapter, covering one of the longest hikes we did in a continuous piece, and I was happy with what I had written (as far as I could remember).

PANIC. The computer that the NCQ chapters is on had crashed once, maybe twice since I had written "A is for Asphalt" (the title of that chapter). So I went hunting. Couldn't find a paper copy... not good- always make a paper copy in case of total electronic meltdown. Couldn't find that I had put those chapters on a CD. Wow...

So I hunted through my email files, knowing that I had sent it to Marie, my hiking buddy. I found it! Whew.

The bottom line is that I need to start working on this project with some diligence. I may actually be ready to do so.

Here is the opening of "A is for Asphalt:"

Marie and I are trudging down the Ohio road. It's the next-to-the-last day of this hike, but despite being mid-summer it's the first of our days together which has been uncomfortably hot. Not only is it hot, but
this section of road is almost boring. For the first time we can see more than a few hundred feet of the road ahead. As we have walked farther and farther north the terrain has flattened a bit, and the valleys are wider. We can sometimes see a half-mile ahead before the road crests or curves out of sight in front of us.

Glancing down at the sticky black surface beneath our boots I notice the letter "A" has been spray-painted on its surface. "A is for asphalt," I quip. "B is for bulldozer," Marie counters. We continue through an alphabet "for boys," and discover that we've walked almost two miles by the time we arrive at "zipper front fly."

"Shall we try it for girls?" We seem to have a lot more trouble filling a list between "apron" and "zip-loc bags." This time we've filled almost an hour and three more miles have slipped beneath our feet. Plus we've had a good laugh at ourselves for degenerating into stereotypes we don't believe in.

Your National Forests Article

Well, I certainly can't say I was early, but I turned in the article for Your National Forests magazine. It was due by the end of the month, and I made it.

It took me three tries. Having 2000 words might sound like a lot, but when one has to describe a 4400-mile trail to people who may never have heard of it, it's not very many. I wrote a whole lot of the article, read it over and decided that it was so boring I wouldn't even finish it if I saw it in print.

Then I tried to fix it. I pulled it apart and tried to insert some better pieces. No better. However, I did like my opening.

Finally, I inserted a story, and moved the drier parts nearer the end. That was better. Of course I had to include info about the National Forests, and the trail goes through 10 of them!

Anyway, it's done and sent. Writing often means re-writing and re-writing and struggling over pace and wording to make factual information more interesting. Hopefully, I've succeeded.

It begins:

Don't you wish there was a trail that wandered across the upper United States, connecting National Forests and other protected wild areas? It could be laid out in such a way that hikers could walk to some of the most scenic places in the northeast. Don't you wish...

Adventure Loop Guide

Went out for a hike again today to check out another section of the Adventure Loop. I think I've found a good route from Black Lake to the North Country Trail.

Wrote it up the the guidebook draft.

Program for West Michigan Ikes

This evening I gave my program, "The North Country Trail and the Kitchen Sink," at the Annual Fish and Game Dinner of the Dwight Lydell chapter of the Izaak Walton League. It was well-received, but the group was smaller than they expected.

I'm posing with Fred Eyer (treasurer) and Georgia Donovan (president). It's one of those pictures that doesn't really say much, but at least we are all smiling.

I sold one book. I was hoping for two, but for the size of the group, even one is good, particularly since this group's primary focus is fishing, not hiking.

I've been trying to apply the theory to my life that you shouldn't ever leave a program without making a contact to book another one. Didn't succeed in pulling that off tonight, but Georgia is a live wire- she might recommend me to someone else. One big problem is that my good printer died over a month ago. I hooked up my old printer, to limp along, but I'm out of business cards, and program flyers. Other things that require quality printing are low too, but I still don't have the cash to replace the good printer. It's a problem!

Hey! If you'd like to book a great program, check out my offerings at Joan Young's Program Info

Working on Article for Your National Forests

Nothing completed to report, but I'm working on the article that I need to have done by the end of the month for Your National Forests magazine.

West Side Gang- Writers' Group

Tonight was the twice-a-month meeting of the local writer's group, the "West Side Gang." I've been going long enough to be no longer exactly a newbie. Most of the people brought poems tonight. There was one prose vignette, and Ellen had a chapter from her novella. Nine writers came, and seven of us brought things to read.

I took "Now Then When," the poem that popped into my head, mostly last Tuesday night.

Most of the group, and particularly the facilitators are very fond of unstructured, stream of consciousness poetry. I'm not opposed to that, but I like the challenge of making words fit into the structure of a meter and form and still have it be meaningful and readable without being "sing song." However, "Now Then When" is less structured than most of my poems, and it was well-received. I think it needs a couple of tweaks yet: there are two parts that don't work as well with the theme and symbolism, for me, as I want them to.

I'm hopeful that there will be a call for more poems for the Elements of Life anthology, and if so, I plan to submit this. (from Twin Trinity Media).

Ludington Daily News Column- April 2011

Finished and turned in my Get Off the Couch column for April. The title is "Not Just Any Old Sand Dune"

It begins:

Where in the Great Lakes region can you find seven concurrent miles of undeveloped public beach? Let’s see... there is the combined length of the Ludington State Park, Nordhouse Dunes, and the Lake Michigan Recreation Area. There is the... can’t think of anywhere else? That’s because there isn’t another such place. Our local resources are unique and of outstanding quality.

Although this column is seldom difficult to write, I'm always glad when I get another one successfully turned in.

These columns are not available on-line, unless you subscribe to the Ludington Daily News. One collection of columns is currently available as an e-book, called Get Off the Couch with Joan, at Smashwords.