WELCOME TO BOREAL B[L]OG!
Welcome! You will find pictures and descriptions of wonderful boreal (and austral) wilderness places, like ANWR, Arrigetch Peaks and Alaska’s Alatna and Noatak Rivers. I am on an odyssey to see all 56 national parks in the 50 states. These are the crown jewels of America; seeing them has been well worth it. Young bull moose on Isle Royale above right;
Dall sheep below left; further below is Wheeler Peak in Nevada’s Great Basin National Park; to the right is a wolverine in ANWR.
I have taken 59 canoe trips into the Boundary Waters/Quetico since 1981; pictures of some of the more recent trips are included. I’ve stopped taking pictures other than wildlife and special scenery, because after a while, water is water! The photo below is a September sunset on Lake Insula in the Boundary Waters Canoe
Area Wilderness. I cannot deny the oddity of my calling this a Boreal Blog/Bog (that’s why there are brackets around the “l”) when I live in Tucson, part of the Sonoran Desert. My heart is “Up North,” ever since I was a camp counselor in Ontario in the mid-1960s, taking 25 canoe trips all over Algonquin Park, which is a couple of hours north of Toronto. 
I’m also a freelance writer, emphasis usually on the first syllable,
but 
honestly, I do get some of my work published. My best writing is A Wise Owl, which appeared in the journal Neurology. It’s not technical. I even got interviewed afterwards in Neurology Today. Code Team, which is on the same post, shows a side of a doctor you won’t believe! I was an astronomy columnist for the Arizona Daily STAR for 20 years, and I have included two Focal Point columns I wrote for Sky and Telescope. I’m an invited columnist for the Pima County Medical Society’s Sombrero, and the writings are sorted by year under Reality Check. As you will discover, I don’t hold back much. A lot of my writing comes from my trips, and frankly my ideas appear spontaneously, when I’m not thinking about it. I experience something and later say, “there’s an article.” Of course, when one has a wolf in his campsite, ten trail miles from the nearest other person (see Thump), the story writes itself. When I flunked my first English paper in college (deservedly), I never thought I would write as much as I did. Practice sure hasn’t made me perfect, but it has improved my skills.
I am an addicted eclipse chaser, having taken 20 eclipse trips all over the world. Why do I chase eclipses? Read the post!! See a brief video of one! See a video of the latest eclipse 11 July 2010 from Argentina!
I’ve seen 12 total, 5 annular, and skunked on 3, in Iceland, clouds in South Africa and Cabo San Lucas. I show both total and annular eclipses; for more information, see Jay Anderson’s Web page. Jay and his wife Judy live in Winnipeg and are good friends. Jay is a retired meteorologist and does climate analysis and predictions for the events. Eclipses are one of the most beautiful sights in nature, and contrary to what some may think, the mathematics and geometry that explain them are equally as beautiful!
I am a volunteer math tutor (soon to be an official substitute!) in two high schools and for Literacy Volunteers, and I have a page how I do mental arithmetic, since I work with numbers almost as easily as I breathe. I volunteer at Rowe Sanctuary in Nebraska helping get people out to see the Sandhill Crane migration on the Platte River. The Sandhill Crane migration is one of the two great North American migrations. The other is the Porcupine Caribou migration in Canada/Alaska. I’ve seen both in the same year. I’m really blessed with good fortune. Here’s two shots from Nebraska:
This is my first blog, but hey, I’m an old guy and I spend as much time as I can in places where electronic devices read “No Service” and if you tune a radio, it just keeps going ad infinitum. Out in Sig Olson’s “back of beyond,” you don’t sit at a computer, you sit on a rock, a log, the good earth, and take in nature. At least I do!
Enjoy! I hope you have the good fortune to have adventures in the wilderness that I’ve had! There will be both a total eclipse in the US in 2017 and an annular eclipse reaching the west coast and in as far east as Lubbock , TX, in 2012, 3 weeks before the last transit of Venus until the 22nd century! The link will lead to the exact map.
All my pictures are currently being loaded on to photobucket, so if you want to see more than there are on the blog, log on and look! NOTE: I welcome comments, but due to comment spam, any comment on this introductory post will be considered spam unless there are specific references to something written in this post.
Mike Smith
October 3, 2009 at 06:31 |
Really nice posts. I will be checking back here regularly.
October 4, 2009 at 08:45 |
Thank you so much! I have added a section on eclipse chasing with some great shots and interesting links. If you want to read about a different side of medicine, check out A Wise Owl and Code Team. You can get them from the Neurology (non-technical) link or from the introduction.
October 5, 2009 at 14:20 |
Really well-done. Eclectic site that takes me to places I’ll never glimpse.
October 9, 2009 at 14:53 |
Great site Mike! Lots of good reading and great photos! Keep them coming! Now I know it IS possible to teach an old dog new tricks!
November 5, 2009 at 15:37 |
Mike, I just checked out your Blog! Love the photos…hope to see you in Eugene sometime.
February 1, 2010 at 06:55 |
I am very late with my compliments, but most sincerely impressed that I have a cousin who has accomplished all the above and much more! I wish I could go to those places, do those things…perhaps in another life!
Now I must be content with watching French deer eating my garden plants and an occasional boar galloping by..
May 28, 2010 at 23:01 |
Just wanted to say thanks for sharing!
July 17, 2010 at 16:57 |
You’ll find some good hikes up at Glacier Point that would be excellent for the kids. The Taft point hike was a favorite of mine when I was a kid. One can find also some nice hikes in Toulomne meadows. By the Tioga entrance there is a trail (Gaylor lakes I think) Wonderful Higher country lakes. You possibly can also do the mist trail inside the valley for waterfall views up Yosemite falls. I’m terrible about names of trails-I’ve been hiking them all my life, but do not use the correct names!
July 17, 2010 at 19:00 |
Yosemite is a hiker’s paradise. I did 60 + miles and none was in the Valley or further north due to snow. It and Kings Canyon need a revisit.
February 4, 2011 at 00:41 |
This photos are amazing Mike,thank you for sharing them,am still waiting for more.
June 25, 2011 at 16:03 |
Re: Horse Sense, … I’ve enjoyed your columns in the Sombrero for years. As a retired Radiation Oncologist I appreciate the way way both physicians and patients view “data.” I tried to tell patients not only the absolute risk, but also how many people had to be treated to see one “cure.” Therefore, an absolute 10% improvement with treatment translates into one additional cure for every 10 patients treated. Then add in side effects and complications and patients can then make their decision. Not an easy conversation and, too often, it nevers occurs in the time and detail required.
Recommended reading by Nortin Hadler, a physiciand friend from North Carolina. “Worried Sick”, ” Stabbed in the Back” and “The Last Well Person.” He’s very much into data as you are. Also, very disliked by much of mainstream medicine’s gurus.
Keep up the good work Mike., Ed
August 3, 2011 at 12:14 |
Great trip and wonderful story — as usual! Congrats on learning German and for thinking there is more you can learn.
August 27, 2011 at 21:53 |
Hi Mr. Smith, once i finished reading this stuff i thought how informative and interesting it was, that was enough on its own but you also added pictures so that doubles my interest. the sceneries you’ve been to are really amazing and breath taking. waiting for more, Lizi.
September 12, 2011 at 10:54 |
Amazing view of a solar eclipse. nice trip! and I liked the photos:)
October 19, 2011 at 17:33 |
hello..dear Mike ..it`s my pleasure to know about you and your lovely amazing tripe…
November 12, 2011 at 21:28 |
Greetings to YOU. You sound very busy at enjoying what you do.
The pictures are wonderful. Wish I was there! Denise Helmkay
November 14, 2011 at 18:49 |
I have had decent health and good fortune. I try to make things happen and balance dreams with reality. I’d like another trip to the Bob Marshall Gates of the Arctic and maybe one more time in ANWR. Still gotta do N. Saskatchewan and get back to Pathfinder in Algonquin Park. Damn, there are a lot of nice places out there. See Great Basin NP, if you can. It’s a jewel.
November 29, 2011 at 21:43 |
Have you seen the cedar canoes built at Swan Lake, Montana by Tim Morley? I know your canoe experiences are numerous and these are really a masters work.
November 30, 2011 at 18:55 |
I will take a look. The Hurleys from southern Ontario make wonderful canoes. I canoed with them 45 years ago and hope to get back up to Algonquin one more time, which would be a bonus. Can’t believe I last wore red there in ’67.
December 11, 2011 at 20:01 |
“Can’t believe I last wore red there in ’67.” ???
December 11, 2011 at 20:02 |
Read Wearing Red.
December 13, 2011 at 21:10 |
OK I give up! I have been unsuccessful at locating your “Read Wearing Red” reference.
December 14, 2011 at 04:53 |
http://michaelspinnersmith.com/2010/01/07/wearing-red/
December 14, 2011 at 18:34 |
Thank YOU for clearing that up. Reading that was a fun reminiscence even tho it isn’t my own. Also, Thank YOU for your veteran participation.
December 18, 2011 at 15:00 |
Where are you going next??
December 18, 2011 at 19:44 |
Want to see the Bob Marshall Gates, but hard to find a trip to do it. May go to ANWR and do the Colleen over the Divide to the Kongakut. May be a bit easier than I want. N. Saskatchewan’s Churchill River also needs to be done. If not this year, next, if I still can.
January 2, 2012 at 16:55 |
Happy New Year! On the less astronomical side; since you have been all over the world and many of those places have Yeti/Sasquatch folklore, have you looked at any of the sites yourself?
January 2, 2012 at 17:48 |
No I haven’t. Too much else to do. Strong claims require strong evidence. Now that we have digital cameras, the evidence for such a find is going to have to be even stronger. In studying medical errors, I’ve been amazed at how our brains can fool us.