By Mary Fairchild “Mary Reaching”; picture by Andy Petefish “To me, climbing lifts my spirits more than any other activity… When I climb the tower and I get up on top there, I’m fully engaged with nature, and I’m actually feeling it and touching it and wedging my body into it.” Andy Petefish, Devils Tower, Wyoming…
Search Results for: climbing
Wagons West: Kepler, Stemple and Fransen Genealogy
By Mary Fairchild The unique stories of our ancestors open up our knowledge of history with greater detail in rich and heart-warming ways. Please enjoy my latest compilation of ancestor letters, notes, and photographs that I have been graciously supplied with. A special thanks to my sister-in-law, Kathy Nicholls, who spent countless hours making copies with me…
Willow Creek/Faith/Politics
Willow Creek Community Church Exposes Summer Notes: Dave Dummitt Picks Up Bill Hybels’ Mantle at Willow Creek Community Church to Promote Peter Drucker’s “Next Society” (July 2022) Nancy Ortberg Speaks at Willow Creek: Bill Hybels’ Women Unveil Deep Ecumenism (May 2013) Willow Creek Community Church 2013: Cool Global Engagement Strategy (C.Peter Wagerner’s Apostolic Churches; Dominion Theology; May 2013)…
International Sea Kayak Guide Snubs Registered Maine Guides: American Canoe Association’s Cover-up
By Mary Fairchild This was my favorite play area from my 2011 guided Coastal Maine trip (2011 report). The sea kayaking community needs, perhaps most of all, to guard against any shift from safety to one of recognition and getting paid. Known as “Ocean Camp Maine,” my second guided trip to Maine, September 2013, was set up quite differently…
Kayaking the Apostle Islands: Kennedys, Native Americans, Religion, and Myth
By Mary Fairchild Paddling around Eagle Island, 2009; the island is protected by Critical Species Natural Area. Last fall, on September 24th, Chequamegon Bay JFK Day marked Kennedy’s visit to the Apostle Islands area thirty years ago (Sept. 24, 1963). Chequamegon was applied to the region by traders and missionaries which derives from a Chippewa(Ojibwe) word, shagwaumikong, meaning soft beaver dam….
Boat Registration in Illinois: Chicago Style
By Mary Fairchild At the CASKA gathering last night, held at Chicago’s Jackson Park Yacht Club, I had a chance to catch up with Gary Steinbauer. Gary and I attended some of our first kayaking with the club together in 201l. We’ve both paddled not only Lake Michigan, but the whitewater park in Yorkville which had just opened in 2011. Taking…