Really, it’s true: springtime is only weeks away, and now is the time to begin planning a weekend trip to get out of the city and into the sunshine. This summer thousands of people each weekend will fill up their cooler and flock to the eroding Indiana Sand Dunes or to consumer-heaven Six Flags Great America. Apart from being over-crowded, exhausting, and just plain annoying, these places and others promote wasteful values and do little to educate or protect the environment and wildlife. So in the spirit of health, education, and fun, here is a list of alternative local destinations that are unique, beneficial, and, best of all, mostly undiscovered.
First, instead of staying at an extravagant resort, try Arbor House, An Environmental Inn, a true alternative for those interested in preservation. Arbor House is a bed and breakfast run by a friendly couple, John and Cathie Imes. Their goal is to use resources wisely and to educate the public about urban ecology. To this end, they use only non-toxic, recycled products, natural unbleached linens, biodegradable cleaners, and energy efficient lighting. Breakfast comes with fresh herbs from the pesticide-free garden, and organic fruits and vegetables, and is always vegetarian-friendly. I imagine it’s a bit like living at Whole Foods. The house is directly across the street from the University of Wisconsin Arboretum. Bring your sneakers because the Arboretum is one of the largest in the country, a 1280-acre park with nature trails, swimming, the works. John and Cathie provide mountain bikes free-of-charge and they also have canoes, kayaks, and binoculars for bird watching. The Inn itself is worth seeing. It is made up of two structures, an historic building — one of the oldest homes in Madison — and a modernized Annex. John and Cathie will explain how the two structures combine the best use of resources of both the past and the present. The Inn’s combination of pampering and education has won numerous awards, including one from The Boston Society of Architects. Visit their web site or call Cathie at 608-238-2981. And while you’re in Madison, stop at the Mimosa Community Bookstore at 212 N. Henry Street for books on animal rights, the environment, and vegetarian cooking. Also try Savory Thymes, a reportedly yummy and nearly-vegan restaurant at 1146 Williamson Street.
Are B&B’s a bit expensive for your budget? Pull out the tent, but forget those cramped and littered campgrounds that show no respect for the nature they claim to promote. Newport State Park in Wisconsin is a healthy alternative. The park is located at the tip of Door County near Gills Rock and is one of the few parks that offers a true backpacking experience. The park is 2,400 acres and has eleven miles along the shoreline of Lake Michigan. There are 16 campsites. Each one can’t be seen from any other one and each one requires a hike in of up to a mile and a half! Try finding that at Devil’s Lake! Two large beach areas are open to the public so you may risk contact with civilization, but there is a more secluded beach area if you are willing to hike down the shoreline. The price is a reasonable ten to twelve dollars a night. Call 920-854-2500 for reservations.
Another camping option near Newport is Rock Island State Park, an actual island with nine miles of hiking and no vehicles. It’s more expensive and more difficult to get to, but worth a look. Just getting there is an adventure: first take the ferry from Northport on the mainland to Washington Island, then leave your car and take a passenger ferry to Rock Island. There are 40 campsites total on the island, but try to get one of the five that you backpack out to. Call the same Newport number for reservations.
If you want to get off the beach and into the water, this year try a completely unique water experience. Tom Kelly of the Inland Seas Education Association heads a waterlife study and conservation project. The goal of the project is to teach about the Great Lakes, their islands, history, and ecology, while having fun sailing and learning hands-on navigational techniques. Kelly and his crew offer excursions on Lake Michigan ranging from a day to overnight for adults, and a day to a month for kids and teenagers. The Gull Island tour for adults should not be missed. Gull Island is home to more nesting gulls and cormorants than anywhere else in North America. Dr. Scharf, an ornithologist who has studied the island for 25 years comes along and talks to the crowd about the birds, the island’s ecological history, and the effects of toxins on the wildlife.
You don’t disembark on this fragile island. You sail around it, watch the thousands of birds alighting and soaring. You have lunch on the schooner to guitar or fiddle music. This tour will only be offered on May 29 (for $65), so sign up soon—I’ll see you there! Another full-day, lunch-included tour goes to Power Island, a wilderness island. On this tour, passengers do disembark, then hike around the island and learn about post-glacial geology and ecology and the history of Grand Traverse Bay. Variations of this tour will be offered on July 27 and August 14. If you’re daring, try the navigational and sailing instruction voyage, an overnight trip on August 5 and 6. You’ll get to sleep on the boat. Tom Kelly also arranges summer internships for college students on his schooners, volunteer opportunities for adults, and many programs for kids. All trips sail from Suttons Bay and Traverse City on Grand Traverse Bay, Michigan. Call Tom for details at 616-271-3077 or visit their web site.
If boats make you queasy, try the Center for American Archeology in Kampville, Illinois. Sandwiched between the Illinois and Mississippi River, this ongoing archeological dig discovers and explores one of the most active and complex time periods in North American prehistory, the Woodland Period, which lasted from 50 B.C. to A.D. 250. The Center is committed to teaching archeological dopes like myself about excavation, prehistory, and early environmental adaptations. To this end, they host a variety of residence programs lasting from two days to two weeks for all age groups, levels of education, experience, and interest. The basic program includes hands-on excavation in the field by day, lectures on archeological method and theory and special workshops by night. In other words, you sit in the sandbox for a week with your little pail and shovel. Variations on the program include intensive workshops in ceramics, stone-tool making, archeological illustration, excavating for seniors, and more. Program fees include room and board and run an impossibly low $350 or so for a week. The Center also holds an Archeology Day on Saturday, July 24 with excavations, lectures, and workshops for $10, a terrific alternative to the mind-numbing, obligatory Six-Flags jaunt. For a program schedule, call 618-653-4316 or check out the Center’s web site.
Have you considered birding, but, like me, have no idea where to begin? How about the Horicon, just an hour away from Milwaukee? This beautiful, 3200-acre marshy park will sponsor the Horicon Marsh Bird Festival, May 6-9. It also hosts free public programs on glacial geology, local endangered wildlife and ecology; and bird-banding demonstrations, and bird-watching field trips. Free introductory birding classes will be offered Saturday, May 8 and Sunday, May 9. You can stay in the park’s inexpensive campgrounds: remember to bring your binoculars! For more information, call the kind and helpful Bill Volkert, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Naturalist and Educator at 920-387-7877.
If you’re looking for something a bit more exclusive but still reasonably priced, look up Dave Fallow in Madison, Wisconsin. Fallow is a private birder for hire. He takes small groups for half-day excursions to wildlife refuges, state parks, and other good bird habitats. Sometimes he does camping trips to places like Crex Meadows Wildlife Area or Wyalusing State Park in Wisconsin. He points out birds both visually and by song and talks about them and their habitats. For more money, he is available for individual hire and for longer, farther-away excursions; he’s been hired for trips as far away as Texas and Florida. Best of all, he does imitations of bird song, including the scarlet tanager, the field sparrow and the barred owl. Second best of all, he is fascinating to talk to. His phone number is 608-249-3843 and his e-mail address is dfallow@yahoo.com. Tell him I say hello.
If you have a bit more time, Whitefish Point Bird Observatory in northeast Michigan is one of the most important migration spots in North American. And it’s one of the most beautiful, too, with beaches, dunes, woodlands, and bogs. The observatory’s mission is to study birds of the Great Lakes and to preserve them and their environment. The observatory counts literally hundreds of thousands of birds each spring and fall, including red-throated loons, broad-winged hawks, saw-whet owls and dozens more I’ve never even heard of. The observatory offers identification workshops, birding excursions, slide shows and banding demonstrations. Take a week, rent a cabin, change your life. The best times to go are April/May or September/October. For information, call 906-492-3596.
For something a bit closer to home, try Anderson Gardens in Rockford, Illinois. Designed by landscape architect Hoichi Kurisu, these Japanese gardens cover four and a half acres and are guaranteed to transport your body and ease your mind. The gardens are a fairyland of ponds and waterfalls, little bridges, flowers and trees, stones and colorful leaves, authentic Japanese architecture and lanterns. The goal of the gardens is to create a calming and soothing environment through the use of beauty and the sound of trickling water. Be sure to allow at least two hours to see everything. The gardens are open from May 1 to October 31, for a reasonable $4, and May 8th is the popular annual tea ceremony in honor of spring. Call 815-877-2525 for more information. While you’re in Rockford, stop to eat at Keedi’s, a family restaurant with a surprisingly large vegetarian menu. Call for directions, 815-877-5715.
Here’s your chance to make your get- away not only from the city but from your past patterns. So go ahead. Use a day, a weekend, a week, even, to open your eyes, mind, and heart; to recommit to education and global health. You can seek adventure. You can take risks. This year, when you think vacation, think renewal. Think spirit. Think life.