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      What a difference a month makes!   Early October may bring shirt-sleeve afternoons, bumblebees nectaring on lingering coneflowers, a lone hummingbird drinking sugar-water before heading south, and hillsides of still-green oaks. Chicken-of-the-woods fungi thrive on a decaying oak stump, and pure-white puffballs sprout seemingly overnight on the forest floor.   By mid-month, […]

  “There is magic in the feel of a paddle and the movement of a canoe, a magic compounded of distance, adventure, solitude, and peace. The way of a canoe is the way of the wilderness and of a freedom almost forgotten.” Sigurd F. Olson From The Singing Wilderness, “The way of a canoe”  

Fifteen miles off the Canadian shore of Lake Superior looms Isle Royale – a beautiful, 133,000-acre, one-billion-year-old hunk of rock that’s defined by contradictions.   A National Park since 1940, it’s on the “bucket list” for countless travelers – but still remains one of the least visited sites in the 390-park system.   Ninety-nine per-cent

Little town – BIG Welcome! Massage? I needed that!   Liquid refreshments   Entertainment Boogeyin’ Rumbers Turkey River hospitality   Iowa evening It’s full moon week Another great day on the Turkey      

Foggy, breakfast at the church (more good food!), no hurry, beautiful morning, wide valley, loafing on the sandbar

Rain (and lightning!) delay, soggy but undaunted, church bells, on the Turkey at last, sweeper surprise, majestic Motor Mill, Gary & the river barometer, bald eagles, Garber welcome, delicious church dinner, volleyball, ZZZZZs  

Checkin’ in (all 184-plus paddlers!) – Camping in Founders Park – kiddie choo-choo train – boats on the riverbank – free sweet corn – barbequed chicken – music – ear plugs.

This year’s Great River Rumble will paddle 106 miles in seven days, departing Elkader on the Turkey River on July 26, and arriving at Savanna, Ill., on the Mississippi, on Aug. 1. We greeted the paddlers in Elkader, and will follow them part-way down the Turkey River, posting occasional photos and comments. Official registration numbers

It’s not just the Independence Day fireworks that set early July ablaze. Our prairie glows in the morning light. Dew sparkles on the drooping petals of purple coneflowers. Bumblebees probe the golden blossoms of St. John’s wort. Clusters of butterfly milkweeds wave their orange greeting to the sky, attempting to lure an increasingly rare monarch

  With temperatures in the 80s and the dew point pushing 70, we wimpy humans may retreat to the cool of an air-conditioned house. But birds have a better way.   A steady stream of feathered bathers took dips and drinks in our backyard pool on a recent sweltering afternoon. And what entertainment for us,