• Left of East- An Introduction

    In the summer of 2013, I embarked on a solo backpacking adventure across Northern Michigan. With no one to talk to along the way, my journal became a powerful and necessary companion. I wrote journal nearly every day, sometimes many times a day, to capture the events and insights of my time on the trail […]

  • One Cry Fix All

    My submission to The Moth Detroit StorySLAM topic: “Blood Sweat and Tears” When you go through a difficult time in your life, your body naturally deals with it by going into shock. This is a beautiful response because it allows you to go on with your life and get through every day when you’re not […]

  • A Real New Yorker

    They say you’re not a real New Yorker until you’ve cried in public.

  • CH@NGE

    The mathematical symbol for change is a neat little triangle Δ. I can remember drawing it on my notebook with a pencil. The teacher told us what it meant, and we took her work for it, but I wondered why, if we were describing change, did my pencil end up back where it started. There has […]

  • Light on Blight

    I grew up in a sweet, serene, safe community: a bastion of purity in small-town Michigan. We had no world-class issues. The police blotter in the local paper was comedically innocent: “raccoon topples garbage can,” “local man double-parks van.” But not too far away, trouble loomed large. Detroit, with its towering tombs was a shame to […]

  • On Solitude

    People, like deer and celebrities, tend to cluster amongst themselves. Anytime you should encounter a sitcom star, be still! Lower your gaze. Chances are good that his Emmy-winning girlfriend and the whole supporting cast will come trundling after.

Day 30: Lakenenland to Marquette

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marquetteapproachI got up bright and early and made my way into Marquette. It’s amazing how different the miles seem to me when I’m close to civilization. It’s just so much more interesting when the scenery changes, the approach to Marquette was beautiful. I went 15 miles today, on the low end but nothing to sniff at, but because I was in a city, It almost feels like they don’t “count.” It’s Sunday so I have to wait till tomorrow to pick up my mail. I am anxious to get going.

I went to the library to figure out just what the hell my course will be. I’m actually approaching the point where I will have to deviate from the North Country Trail because it heads west into Wisconsin and I’m heading north up the Keweenaw Peninsula. I didn’t bother looking into the details before I left because I didn’t have time and didn’t know if I’d make it this far anyway. It’s exciting that the time has come. Continue reading →

Day 29: Lakenenland

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lakenenlandI am in the home of Tom Lakenen, having just showered, cleaned my clothes and rested in a bonafide Yooper sauna (cue choir of angels). Amazing!

I was ready to set up camp yesterday when a truck drove up. I was worried that the driver would yell at me for trespassing and I didn’t love the idea of him seeing where I slept so I was pleasantly surprised when he and his wife gave me some helpful advice. They said that in just 2 more miles was a place called Lakenenland, with metal sculptures and campsites. So I push on and found this incredible, weird, hippy white trash place that is having music festival today. That extra distance also made yesterday my longest day of hiking time-wise, though not the longest distance. I did make it 26 miles though so I have another marathon under my belt!  Continue reading →

Day 27: Pictured Rocks hideaway to Big Buck Creek

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yoopers

Last night I made out with a really hot guy. It was exciting, it was great. Suddenly he was cuming on my face- what the hell? It didn’t make sense, our bodies weren’t even oriented in a way that would make such a thing possible and our actions weren’t “advanced” enough to make such a thing possible.  hadn’t progressed that far yet anyway. I woke from a dream a stared into the darkness through the mesh film of my tent as light rain sprinkling down on me. Yup.

It was a difficult night of sleep. The noise of swarming mosquitos only inches from my face kept me up awhile. I tried to focus on the sound of the waves. When I eventually woke up in the morning, I was shocked to see multiple boats going by, including a tourist cruise ship not far from where I was sleeping! I thought I was being so stealthy by sleeping here but I guess I avoided the rangers but not everyone else. Ooops! I could imagine the passengers on board pointing to my disheveled figure on the shore and snapping pictures of the feral girl.

Continue reading →

Day 26: Something-Mile Beach to Pictured Rocks hideaway

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picturedrocks-duneMy day today began on the beach, where I thought the trail was. Before long my path was blocked by a river, which forced me upstream to cross it, and there I found a beautiful, well-marked, well-groomed trail. I wonder how many miles of it I have obliviously skipped over. I wonder how far I wouldn’t gone if it weren’t for that river! t guess I’m just used to the trail being hard to follow so I didn’t think too much about following the beach. That, and I was trying to zone-out/crank-out the miles. That, and I don’t have a map (I actually avoided writing that in my own journal until now because I’m annoyed with myself). The whole day was filled with gorgeous scenery.

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Postscript: Big City, Small World

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vanYes, I recovered from that very compelling fantasy about apprehending the bad guys. But that doesn’t exactly mean that I was avoiding it. Yesterday on a bike ride near-but-n0t-at the scene of the crime, I saw that sinister gold van. Whatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhathwhat? WHAT?! For the second time in a week, I stared dumbly at the parking lot in front of me, unable to process what I was seeing. I hadn’t actually seen the van at the time of the theft but there is no mistaking a “gold van with black flames on the back.” This was it.

Continue reading →

Day 25: Grand Marais to Something-Mile Beach

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Screen Shot 2014-07-30 at 12.36.54 PMThe beach is swarming with flies. A couple-seconds of rest and then BAM! twenty of them land on me. I’ve hardly been able to rest all day because of them which is especially frustrating since my shin is still really painful. At one point, I tried to out-run the flies, that didn’t work. Then, in desperation, I picked up two handfuls of stones from the beach and released them while I spun around like a low-grade machine gun. That didn’t work either. A new  threat to my wellbeing on this trail- insect induced insanity! But at last it was time to set up my tent, no flies inside, and I am calm. Continue reading →

Day 24: Muscullunge State Park to Grand Marais

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photo 1I think I’m in a toxic relationship with the trail. It treats me so badly but I take it back every time! Even when I manage to stay on the trail it is often poorly marked, grown over, blocked by fallen trees. And every time I lose the trail, I curse it and get mad at it and resent it. But of course, when I see that first blue blaze again after being lost, I am flooded with relief and appreciation. I regret every negative thought I ever had about it. I didn’t mean it! Things will be different this time! Then I turn on myself- how much of my blundering is my fault? I am candidly looking at myself and wondering if I actually have common sense. Being out here alone, it’s hard to know if the trail is objectively difficult or if I am just being an idiot. Continue reading →

You Robbed the Right Girl

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Screen Shot 2014-07-29 at 2.02.26 AM

Every time I play soccer, I have to do a handstand. The combination of competition and a field of grass makes me overflow with excitement so I send myself upside-down to tip a little out, to commemorate the joy. Soccer just makes me happy. So the first thing I did when I moved to Detroit last October was join a soccer team. Actually, I joined three teams — only one of them lasted through the winter.

I am a proud member of Roosevelt Parks soccer team. Our soccer season is a veritable tour of the best of Detroit: we practice at old Tiger’s Stadium, we play pick-up beside the beautiful abandoned train station, we scrimmage on Belle Isle, and play our games at Fort Wayne with freighters slowing inching by along the Detroit River.

Soccer has been the most unexpected and rewarding part of my new life in this city. Unexpected because I honestly didn’t even know if Detroit had a recreational soccer league when I moved here — I thought I might start one myself. Unexpected because it not only exists, it thrives — Detroit City Football League is a finely-tuned community soccer machine. Unexpected because I not only met my teammates, I met dozens of people on other teams as well. Rewarding because I fucking love every minute of it.

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Day 23: Lake Superior near Two Hearted River to Muscullunge State Park

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Last night is the most scared I have been in a long time. Here’s what happened:

It doesn’t happen very often that the weather, bugs, and geography align in such a way that I can sleep under the open sky. Last night looked like it might be that kind of night. I set out my sleeping bag on my tarp next to the fire and tried to sleep. There were no trees above to block the heat radiating out into the night sky, nothing to blunt the wind blowing in from Lake Superior and it got progressively colder.

I laid my sleeping bag on the tarp to sleep. It was too cold for that so I set up my tent. Still too cold so I added the rain fly. Then it actually started raining. It didn’t help that I didn’t have my long underwear. All night I was cold, half-awake half-asleep trying to push though it. I’m not sure when but at some point, I realized I was wet. Continue reading →

Day 22: Paradise to Lake Superior near Two Hearted River

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beachA lot to think about today. I am sitting by only the second campfire I have made on this trip. I am on beach along the Lake Superior shore. I am totally alone and it is truly beautiful. Yesterday I suffered a major setback. I tend to worry about food and water and insects and getting lost but I should be focused on another threat- I am a worthy adversary to myself. Continue reading →