West End News: September 6

Noah Horak is a native son of Tofte. His parents are Jan and Kathy Horak, who own Cobblestone Cabins. Noah, who is 28, quit his job as an electrical engineer several months ago and is riding his motorcycle around the world for at least the next two years.  He spent the first few months exploring Canada, Alaska, and the western United States.  He was home in Tofte for the month of July, then headed for Europe.

 

After being in Europe for just a short time, his motorcycle was stolen, in broad daylight, in Dublin, Ireland.  What could have been a disastrous ending to his adventure turned into a real blessing when he was adopted by the motorcycle community in Dublin.  He was not only given outstanding hospitality, but they arranged for a replacement cycle and gave him shop space to put it into condition to continue his trip.  They also pulled out all the stops to find his stolen cycle, and eventually the bike was located and recovered.

 

Noah is now back on the road, currently in Scotland where he reports great scenery, friendly people and good trout fishing.  He is writing a blog and posting many spectacular pictures documenting his adventure.  You can find it by googling "rtw with noah," as in “round the world with Noah."  It’s clear from his blog posts that Noah’s outgoing and friendly personality is serving him well in his travels. The only really bad part of this story is how jealous I feel every time I read his blog…

 

Speaking of big adventures, Dave and Amy Freeman, from Lutsen have just passed a major milestone on their epic journey around North America.  Dave and Amy technically live in Lutsen, but in reality, they live on the trail, while they complete a 12,000 mile trip by kayak, canoe and dogsled through the U.S. and Canada.  They started out from Seattle in 2010, traveled by kayak to Alaska, hiked over the mountains, paddled a canoe up the Yukon River – yes, you heard that correctly, they paddled upstream on the Yukon - then dog sledded across the Northwest Territories and canoed from Great Slave Lake to Grand Portage.  That would be enough for most people, but Dave and Amy headed east down the Great Lakes in kayaks this spring and just this week they entered the Atlantic Ocean between Maine and New Brunswick.  They have turned south and will wind up in Key West, Florida eight months from now.

 

This is not vacation for them.  They do it as part of a web based curriculum that they offer to schools all across the country.  They now have hundreds of thousands of students that follow their travels in real time.  The students become quite involved in the trip and learn a variety of valuable lessons along the way.  Right now, the trip is scheduled to end in Key West, but the last time I talked to them, they were toying with the idea of continuing around the Gulf of Mexico and on down to Central and South America, with the possibility of ending up back in Seattle a few years from now.  You can follow Dave and Amy’s adventure online at www.wildernessclassroom.com.  Again, the sin of jealousy arises every time I read their blog, but it doesn’t stop me from enjoying their adventures vicariously.

 

For those of us holding down the fort here in the West End, there is a wonderful opportunity to pursue higher education without having to travel outside the county.  Cook County Higher Education, based in Grand Marais, has been quietly helping people achieve their dreams by going to college right here in Cook County.  In the last fifteen years, more than 500 people have completed college degrees or certifications through this innovative program.  The wonderful staff at Cook County Higher Ed will help you form your education plan and will support and encourage you while you complete your studies.  They charge nothing for their services, as they are a non-profit supported by public funds as well as considerable foundation and private support.

 

I especially encourage any West End residents who would like to go, or go back to college, to check out Cook County Higher Education.  They are especially skilled at helping people who have been out of school for a long time, or people who didn’t have a good experience with school in the past. They will do whatever it takes to make sure that you are successful.  There are many other interesting things happening there, but they are too numerous to mention here.  You can find them on the web by searching Cook County Higher Education, or call them at 387-3411.

 

The recent holiday weekend was noteworthy for its great weather and great fishing.  The weather was essentially perfect, which usually isn’t good for fishing, but contrary to tradition, fishing was excellent.  In the more than 50 years that I’ve been in the Cook County tourism business, I’ve never seen a holiday weekend that was so ideal.  It’s so unusual, that it makes me worry that it might be the first sign of the coming apocalypse.  Mark my words, within the month it will be raining frogs around here.   Or maybe we just get lucky once and awhile.