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888-BIG LAKE
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Full Circle
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Full Circle Superior is a six-month expedition during
which Kate Crowley and Mike Link will walk as close as possible to the
shore of Lake Superior by trail, beach or road for a rare experience of
Lake Superior and to publicize their concerns about protecting this
Lake, the Great Lakes and fresh water.
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The results of this playful musing evolved into a real plan and a real expedition that will begin on the morning of April 29, 2010 - our 24th anniversary - on the waterfront at Canal Park.
It is called Full Circle Superior, not only because we plan to circumnavigate the lake, but because in some ways it represents how our lives have come full circle, too.
Twenty-five years ago we fell in love on and with the Lake. In fact, we wrote an article for this very same magazine in 1986, “Wedding With A Ketch.”
We
were
married on a sailboat that Mike captained for three years, at
the dock on Madeline Island. Since then we have led adults, college and
high school students on ecological learning adventures along the Lake
Superior shores and on its islands.Now we plan to experience the Lake in a way we never have before. So how does one plan for a hike that will cover 1,800-plus miles and may take six months to complete?
Our goal is to stay as close to the shore as possible, and we’ve discovered that trying to find the trails or roads closest to the shoreline is challenging. We use maps and people from each region for our resources.
A trip like this requires sponsorship and financial support. Lake Superior Magazine is one such sponsor, as are Granite Gear in Two Harbors, Minnesota, Lake Superior Trading Post in Grand Marais, Minnesota, and Piragis Outfitters in Ely, Minnesota. Most donations we’ve received so far are gear and equipment. We have set a financial goal of $30,000 - based on living expenses, a stipend for our support person and the cost of renting a Class C RV if we cannot find someone willing to loan or donate one for the trip. These are difficult times to raise funds for expeditions, but we are committed and will find a way to do the trip with or without that funding.
There will be times when we will backpack through national parks, both in the United States and Canada, and we will camp out, carrying all our gear with us. The RV is needed for lodging on most nights and as a ‘base camp’ for the research and education component of the trip. (This is not an extreme sport exercise for us, but a personal journey.) Amanda Hakala, our support person, will handle logistics and make presentations in parks along the way.
Kate
Crowley
and Mike Link are authors of multiple travel books,
including a recent regional series for grandparents and on Apostle
Islands National Lakeshore and Minnesota’s North Shore and Isle Royale.
Photo by Jennifer JohansenAs two people in our 60s, the weight of a backpack and just the distance we plan to walk raise concerns for our physical beings. One of the trip’s goals is to see just what a walk of this scope will do to our bodies. We believe we will be healthier and more fit at the end, but we’re not sure. We have both seen our physicians and told them of our plans. Mike has a knee that will probably cause him pain on the trip, but he is doing lots of special exercises to strengthen it.
We are both spending a great deal of time preparing physically, walking daily from 2 to 14 miles, and doing yoga and other forms of stretching and strength training to prepare our joints and muscles for walking an average of 15 miles per day.
| Mike set a goal for
himself to walk 1,800 miles before we begin the
actual hike and as of late January he had reached 1,500. His Keen
walking shoes are nearing replacement. Our shoes and socks are keys to
our success, and we continue to review liners, socks, styles of shoes
and question whether conditions will demand a few pair or many
different shoes in our support wagon. Because we are naturalists interested not just in adventure and discovery, but in educating others, we decided that another component of this expedition should be research. Who better to record the flora and fauna that exists around the lake at this point in time than those walking through it? |
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For
this research of observation to happen, we set out to contact
institutions of higher learning all around the lake. Currently, we have
affiliated with the University of Minnesota Duluth (Minnesota Sea
Grant, Lake Superior Streams and the Natural Resources Research
Institute), Great Lakes Aquarium in Duluth, Michigan Technological
University’s Center For Water and Society in Houghton, the Invasive
Species Research Institution at Algoma University in Sault Ste. Marie,
Ontario, and North House Folk School in Grand Marais, Minnesota.As naturalists and educators, our love for the Lake is personal and profound. We know all too well the potential for the disruption and despoilment it faces in our increasingly populated and industrialized world. We became grandparents about the time this idea for Full Circle formed, and our concern for the future was heightened by this change in status.
We not only want our children to inherit a healthy environment, we want the generations that follow them to have the same. We hope to share our personal observations and the data we gather with the many people we meet on this walk and in the talks we will give. We want to share and discover ways in which they can become more involved with protecting this vast freshwater sea. This is our inspiration as well as our responsibility.
So, are we crazy? Some of our friends think so, but we don’t.
Will it be very difficult? Yes.
Will we make it all the way?
Stay tuned.
Feedback: reader@lakesuperior.com
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