My first backpacking trip was in Spring, 1977.  I was a junior in high school and not yet 17 years old.  Even though it was only for a long weekend, it changed my life in many ways.  The main one being the love of backpacking.  The feeling of carrying everything you need to survive with on your back and walking down a trail to somewhere you can get to in no other way is something you can never forget and, possibly, a feeling you never can explain.  You have to do it to know it.
             In the last few years, I've done most of my long backpacking trips at Isle Royale National Park in Michigan.  Isle Royale
is an island that lies in Lake Superior near Thunder Bay, Ontario.  I've created a separate site with pictures, information, links and just about anything you would want to know about the park.  It is at www.isleroyale.info
    I've been going to Bruce Trail for weekend and winter trips for the past couple of years since it is only 3 hours from my house.  You can walk a relatively short distance and be along the cliffs of the beautiful and crystal clear Georgian Bay.  Eventually, I will put up some of my pictures and more information.
    My newest plan is to go to Denali National Park in Alaska.  I've been trying to get a trip together since 1999 but, it has never worked out.  I'm always left without a partner and, I don't think it's the kind of trip to do "solo".  My newest attempt is going to be fall, 2003.  If you've ever been there and have information you think I could use or, would be interested in going on a 3-4 week trip there, e-mail me and let me know!
    What follows is a list of places I have been backpacking to.  Some of them have links to details and some just describe the trip.  I hope to have links on them all someday but, for now, this is it.  If you want info on any one that doesn't have a link just give me a yell.

 May?, 1977 - Bruce Trail near Tobermory, Ontario, Canada
    That first trip was to the Bruce Trail near Tobermory, Ontario. I went with Marc DeLuca ("Marc with a C"), a friend from school. We drove up on a friday, spent the night in the car and walked back saturday.  We spent saturday night in the back country and walked out to the car on sunday.  It was a very quick trip but, memorable.

June, 1978 - Gunnison area in Colorado
    The next trip was to Colorado in June, 1978 right after graduation from high school.  I went with my two best friends high school, Rick Magnan and Kevin Bednarowski.  We "borrowed" Rick's Dad's Ford Torino station wagon and headed for Colorado Springs. For 2? weeks..

August, 1979 - Seeney National Wildlife Refuge, Upper Peninsula, Michigan
    My next trip was another short trip to Seeney National Wildlife Refuge in the Upper Peninsula in August, 1979.  It was my first ever "solo" trip.  A monumental occasion (I believe).  If you've never been solo in a strange place overnight, I don't think you will ever understand the feeling of a "solo" trip.  I was dropped off on the highway at, what looked to be a trail and I just started walking.  I had never even looked at a map of the area and I had no idea where I was heading, I was just going to walk down the road and see where it led.  I spent the night out there then, walked back to the road to get picked up.

July and August, 1983 - Montana, Washington State, California
    On June 30, 1983 Me and my best friend, Rick Magnan left Sterling Heights, Michigan in my Ford Fiesta and headed for the Mackinaw Bridge.  We had our backpacks and gear crammed in the back seat and nowhere to be until August.  We made decisions based on the weather and where we wanted to go at the moment.  The only plan we had was heading north and backpacking.  It was the greatest summer of my life!  These are the places we ended up going:
Grand Sable Dunes, Pictured Rocks National Seashore, Upper Peninsula, Michigan
?
Gallatin National Forest, Montana
Yellowstone National Park, ?
Bob Marshall Wilderness Area, Montana
Mt. Rainier National Park
Mt. St. Helens
Olympic National Park
Redwood National Park
Yosemite National Park

Life and a Family
    In between these dates I traded my backpack for a lovely wife and two beautiful daughters.  I do not regret the trade whatsoever but, as soon as it was possible to backpack again, I began to hit the trail...

Isle Royale National Park or "back on the trail again"
    I had read about Isle Royale National park in various places and I was intrigued with going to an island in Lake Superior only accessible by boat and, most importantly, was a total wilderness.  It lived up to every expectation.  Little did I know, it would become a big part of my life and, I would be going back many times.  I have set up a separate site for information and trips to Isle Royale at: www.isleroyale.info.  It contains most everything you could want to know about the park and going there.  What it doesn't contain, it has links to or, a forum to ask someone.

September, 1996 - Isle Royale National Park, Michigan
    My first trip to the island was with Bob Kuras.  It was an exploratory trip to see what was there.  We spent 8 days on the island.  We took a boat from Houghton, Michigan to Rock Harbor.  We then walked the Rock Harbor trail and up the Indian Portage Trail to McCargoe Cove.  We took the Voyageur II back to Rock Harbor and took a float plane from there back to Houghton.

September, 1998 - "The Minong Ridge", Isle Royale National Park, Michigan
    This trip I went with Bob Kuras, Roger Kuras (Bob's Dad), Steve Bauer and Brian Evans.  We spent 8 or 10 days on the island.  We took the boat from Grand Portage to McCargoe Cove.  We then hiked the Minong Ridge to Windigo and took the boat back to Grand Portage.

April, 1999 - Lake Superior Provincial Park near Wah-Wah, Ontario, Canada
    This was more of a fishing trip than a backpacking trip.  We walked down a trail from Gargaguon Bay (sp?) camping area about 9 miles with canoes then bushwhacked back to a bunch of lakes.  We set up camp near one of the lakes and spent 4 days canoeing, exploring and fishing several lakes in the area.

September, 1999 - "The Greenstone Ridge", Isle Royale National Park, Michigan
    This trip I went with Brian Evans and we spent 8 days on the island.  We took the boat from Copper Harbor, Michigan to Rock Harbor.  We walked the Greenstone Ridge Trail to Windigo and took the Voyageur II back to Rock Harbor.  We then took the boat back to Copper Harbor.

April, 2000 - Bruce Trail near Tobermory, Ontario, Canada
    This was my first time on "The Bruce" since my very first backpacking trip.  I went with Bob Kuras, Brendan Kuras (Bob's son) and Christine Tremblay (My Daughter).  We spent 4 days on the trail. We hiked from a parking area to "High Dump" campground then to "Storm Haven' campground then to "Cypress Lake" campground.

September, 2000 - "The Feldtmann Ridge", Isle Royale National Park
    This trip I went with my Dad, Michael J. Tremblay and Roger Kuras.  It was my Dad's first ever backpacking trip and Roger's second (the first being with me in 1998).  We walked the Feldtmann Ridge trail from Windigo to Island Mine then the Greenstone back to Windigo.

November, 2000 - Bruce Trail near Tobermory, Ontario, Canada
    This was my first "solo" trip to the Bruce Trail and, my first "solo" trip since 1979.  It was also the first time I hiked in deep snow with snowshoes.  It was only a four day trip and didn't cover a lot of miles but, it was truly a milestone in my backpacking life.  Such "desolate beauty" and peace.

April, 2001 - Bruce Trail near Tobermory, Ontario, Canada

May, 2001 - "The Feldtmann Ridge", Isle Royale National Park, Michigan
    This was my first "solo" trip to Isle Royale and, my first spring trip.  I took the first boat out of Grand Portage, Minnesota for the year and hiked the Feldtmann Ridge and Ishpheming trail.

August, 2001 - Bruce Trail near Tobermory, Ontario, Canada
    This trip I went with my daughter, Jessica.  We left on a friday and Bob Kuras and his son, Aaron met us at the backcountry campground on saturday.  We walked from Cypress Lake head of trails to Storm Haven campground.  It was both Jessica and Aaron's first backpacking trip.

September, 2001 - Isle Royale National Park, Michigan
    This trip spent the first week with Michael J. Tremblay (my Dad), Bob Kuras and Roger Kuras (Bob's Dad).  We took the boat from Grand Portage to Rock Harbor and hiked the Greenstone Ridge trail.  The second week, I got resupplied by the Voyageur and they took it back to Grand Portage.  Brian Evans came over and I spent the next week with him hiking the Monong Ridge trail, the Indian Portage trail to Chippewa Harbor then, back up along Rock Harbor to Daisy Farm where we caught the boat back to Grand Portage.

May, 2002 - Isle Royale National Park, Michigan
    This trip we took the first boat of the year from Grand Portage to Rock Harbor.  I went with Bob Kuras and Roger Kuras.  We hiked the entire Rock Harbor trail then, down to Chippewa Harbor where we caught the Voyageur back to Grand Portage.