Imagine you're a middle-aged man who just discovered that the "golden years" you've heard about aren't necessarily that "golden" after all-and, worse yet, aren't guaranteed. The sudden loss of both parents provided the author proof positive that life IS unfair. His personal countdown clock began ticking all the louder with both of his parents gone. The author suddenly understood the importance and the urgency of enjoying life all along the way. So what did he do with his new perspective on life? Buy a Ferrari? Run with the bulls? Start doing sit ups and wearing tight shirts in an attempt to look young again? No, he didn't. Your humble author re-prioritized his Bucket List by putting a decades long dream at the top-- riding a bicycle from one side of America to the other. Armed with a burning desire to ride a really long way on a bicycle, he mounted up and pedaled onward across the United States as a newly minted orphan. Along the way he met new people, saw new places, and discovered a hidden strength masked by his grief. He also discovered a nearly endless parade of characters that together underscored how terrific it is to be above ground and riding a bike. There is fun and adventure to be had when you're cruising across the country, and the daily dose of random was just what the doctor ordered. "Take two wheels and call me in the morning." Since the whole thing-the bike trip, life-is all just a tad absurd in the first place, why not name your bike The Fun Mover and write a book about the stars of the show--the people met along the way? Middle-aged guy gets off couch and rides bike in the face of pending death. Adventure and hilarity ensues. Bike travel can be grueling, physically and mentally. The loss of your parents can be devastating. And getting older ain't no picnic. But obstacles can be overcome and goals can be reached if you keep trying and just keep pedaling.

In Wood Hicks and Bark Peelers, Ronald E. Ostman and Harry Littell draw on the stunning documentary photography of William T. Clarke to tell the story of Pennsylvania’s lumber heyday, a time when loggers serving the needs of a rapidly growing and globalizing country forever altered the dense forests of the state’s northern tier. Discovered in a shed in upstate New York and a barn in Pennsylvania after decades of obscurity, Clarke’s photographs offer an unprecedented view of the logging, lumbering, and wood industries during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They show the great forests in the process of coming down and the trains that hauled away the felled trees and trimmed logs. And they show the workers—cruisers, jobbers, skidders, teamsters, carpenters, swampers, wood hicks, and bark peelers—their camps and workplaces, their families, their communities. The work was demanding and dangerous; the work sites and housing were unsanitary and unsavory. The changes the newly industrialized logging business wrought were immensely important to the nation’s growth at the same time that they were fantastically—and tragically—transformative of the landscape. An extraordinary look at a little-known photographer’s work and the people and industry he documented, this book reveals, in sharp detail, the history of the third phase of lumber in America.

The events in these true tales of the canoe country of northern Minnesota and Ontario were compiled over the authors lifetime of experience in the woods. Working with Boy Scouts and, in his later years, with employees, friends, family, and folks from his church, the author has led perhaps over five hundred people on trips into the Boundary Waters. The experiences on these trips over the past fifty years have provided a wealth of material that the author has crafted into enjoyable stories. Some of the stories are educational, many are hilarious, more than a few are inspirational, all of them are entertaining. Each story stands alone, but the book is best read from the beginning. Words followed by asterisks are defined in a glossary for readers unfamiliar with canoeing or the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. After reading this book, the author hopes you will be better informed about the lake country, you will have a greater appreciation for the wilderness, and you might even be encouraged to take a canoe trip to see Gods country for yourself. If this happens, then the author has succeeded in his purpose.

The classic and gorgeous accounts of two legendary naturalists' journeys through summer and winter in the north country--in two new stand-alone paperback editions When Canoe Country and Snowshoe Country were first published, in 1938 and 1944, respectively, readers were charmed by their enchanting portrayal of the wilderness of northern Minnesota. Florence Page Jaques and her husband, Francis Lee Jaques, became celebrated champions of the Boundary Waters and its majestic environs. Now, these classic books are both back in print as paperback editions. A well-traveled New York sophisticate, Florence Page Jaques fell in love with northern Minnesota during her first trips to the region, and she recounted those early experiences in Canoe Country and Snowshoe Country. She writes of the excitement of traveling by foot, canoe, snowshoe, and dogsled. Weeks of solitude canoeing through the Boundary Waters are interrupted by encounters with the denizens of the north country. In these two volumes, her vivid stories are matched by her famous husband's spectacular drawings; Francis Lee Jaques captures the delicate power of Minnesota's seasons, from the cascading falls of summer to the frozen lakes of winter.