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This is what's new on my web site since you were here last:

October 1, 2013

It has been a long time in the making, but I finally posted the trip journal from my 2012 Porcupine Mountains hike. If you've never hiked at this State Park before, then I hope you feel like you are walking the trails with me and that it piques your interest to try it for yourself one day. If you've already been there, then hopefully it brings back good memories.

August 20, 2012

I finally got back in the writing mood and completed my 2011 Isle Royale hike. The complete journal and photos have been posted in the backpacking section of my site.

January 12, 2012

Wow! I had hoped to have my Grand Island trip report posted sooner than four and a half months after the hike, but these things take me a while to complete. Now that this one is behind me, I'll begin working on the 2011 Isle Royale trip with my son. Hopefully, it will go quicker, but I'm already having my doubts. Stay tuned...

June 1, 2011

This month brings with it 62 additional skunk saves and testimonials, a new mystery site and the following Isle Royale links: one weather link, two new photo sites, three more books, four miscellaneous sites, six news articles, 23 new personal pages and a whopping 41 new videos.

April 15, 2011

Well, the reason this month's update is so late is because I had a complete hard drive failure and I have been spending a lot of my free computer time working on getting everything back up and running. I had much of my stuff backed up, but not everything. So, I spent quite a bit of time attempting to recover bits and pieces of data from my dead hard drive. Fortunately, I was able to get my info back, but the hard rive was a complete loss. Afterwards, I installed a new hard drive, re-installed Windows and most of my program. I'm just thankful that I'm almost back to where I was before the crash. Hopefully, next month will be on time again.

February 5, 2011

Wow! After a record-setting eight months I finally completed my May 2010 Isle Royale trip journal. I have just been so busy that I haven't had all the extra time necessary to do a project like this. At least it is now finished. If you have been patiently waiting to read this most recent trip, then I hope it was well worth the wait. Enjoy.

November 1, 2010

Well, I've been back from Isle Royale now for several months and the progress on the latest trip report has been slow, to say the least. I am, however, making some progress at a relatively steady pace now so hopefully it will not be too much longer. This update brings along a new mystery site and 34 new Isle Royale links between the Photos and Personal Site pages. Enjoy.

May 1, 2010

It has been quite a while since there was a major update, so here it is. I added a slideshow to my Backpacking page. The slideshow is comprised of various photos from some of my hiking trips. By clicking on any of the pictures you will be taken to the first page of that year's trip report. I also added 42 new Isle Royale links across the various categories on my site, including one new book. There's a lot of new info out there so check it out. And, finally, there were two additional skunk saves and testimonials in the last month.

December 1, 2009

The December 2009 update includes a new Mystery Site, several new Isle Royale links and two more skunk saves Have a great Christmas everyone.

September 16, 2009

Just added the trip report for my North Country Trail / Manistee River Trail hiking trip from May 2009.

September 1, 2009

This month I added links on the following pages: Isle Royale Photos, Videos, News and Personal Sites. There were also seven new skunks saves, including, if you can believe it, a horse save! I'm still working on the trip journal for the Manistee River Trail / North Country Trail Loop hike that I did with my son back in May. Hopefully, it will be done soon. As usual, there is also a new Mystery Site. Enjoy.

May 1, 2009

Well, it's been another pretty productive month. I received two more skunk save emails, and I added two more programs to the free desktop software page. In addition, I added five more Isle Royale articles, thirty more I.R. videos and five new Isle Royale books.

April 1, 2009

I actually had a little free time to work on my site this month which allowed me to update quite a few pages. I added several programs to the free desktop software page, a new mystery site, eight new skunk save emails and numerous new Isle Royale links. I also discovered that I was collecting quite a few Isle Royale video links so I separated them out and put them on their own page. I also cleared out some dead Isle Royale links on the Personal Sites page.

December 22, 2008

I finally completed my Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail trip journal. If you are interested in reading it head on over the the backpacking page and click on the link.

December 1, 2008

Added during this update: A new mystery site, 18 additional skunk saves (bringing the total to an even 200) and 48 new Isle Royale links. The new links are on the following pages: Personal Web Sites, Official Information, Moose and Wolf Info, Photo Sites, Transportation, Isle Royale In The News and Maps & Books. I'm making progress on my Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail trip and hope to have it completed and on my site in the near future.

October 1, 2008

I really haven't made much progress on my latest trip report. I've been very busy at work and at home and have not had any time to work on it. Hopefully, by this time next month I will have a bit more free time and will be able to do more work on it. This month's update brings four new free software titles (check out page 11 of the Desktop Software), I also added an additioanl nine skunk saves. The other addition is the return of my style switcher. By clicking on the link on my Style Switcher page you can change the appearance of my site. You just have to make sure that you have cookies enabled on your browser, or just enable your browser to accept cookies from my site if you closely monitor the cookies on your computer. I do not keep personal information, the cookie only keeps track of the style you have chosen so it stays the same across all the pages of my site duringn your visit.

September 1, 2008

Wow, this was a big update! There are a total of 48 new Isle Royale links, 17 new skunk saves and a new mystery site as well. The new trip journal (Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail) has taken a sudden slow-down but I hope to continue working on it again over the next several weeks. If all goes well I would also like to add a few more free software titles and some Firefox extensions next month.

July 1, 2008

The Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail journal is not complete yet but, I'm actually making good progress. I already have all my photos selected and processed for the site and I am done with the first day and started on the second. I have to complete all the writing and then do all my proofreading and make the changes. I'm much further along at this point than I was last year on the Isle Royale journal. This month's update includes eight new skunk saves and comments, several more Isle Royale links and of course, a new mystery site.

June 1, 2008

It is now June 1 and I have recently returned from my annual hiking trip. This year we hiked a portion of the Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail which is located in southwestern Pennsylvania. It was a good trip and I will soon begin working on the trip journal. I hope this year's journal doesn't take me as long to complete as last year's. In this update I have included 23 new Isle Royale links (19 Personal and 4 News). I also added two additional skunk saves and their comments. This update also contains updates to all my previous hiking journals. Recently, while reading a couple pages, I noticed some mispelled words and some funky grammar. I realize that it probably didn't annoy everyone but I'm quite sure that any teachers and language majors had a fun time with a few pages so I went through the entire site and cleaned up the text. Finally, I added a new Mystery Site just in time for the upcoming 4th of July holiday.

December 1, 2007

Well, just in time for the Christmas giving season I have gathered another 11 free software titles to pass on to you. There are also another seven new skunk saves and comments, there are six new news articles about Isle Royale and a bunch more links to personal Isle Royale sites. Actually, many of those links are to videos that people have taken on thier hiking trips. One last thing, there's a new Mystery Site with a wintery theme.

October 1, 2007

This month I added a couple links to Isle Royale news articles and a personal website. There are also two additional skunk saves/testimonials. And, for anyone still patiently waiting for my latest trip journal, I left a small teaser on the Backpacking page...

September 1, 2007

This last month was somewhat odd in terms of skunk testimonials. I received eight responses from various people and four of those were double saves for a total of 12 more happy dogs and grateful owners. I also added several new Isle Royale links on these pages: Photos, Official Sites, Personal and In The News. There are also seven new Firefox extensions and, last but not least, a new Mystery Site of the Month. I am still working on my 2007 Isle Royale trip journal so please be patient if you are waiting to read it -- I am making progress.

August 1, 2007

With this update I have added a whole bunch of skunk odor testimonials and quite a few Isle Royale links (Personal pages, News and Photos). I also am working on completing the trip report for my last hiking trip which I hope to have completed in a month or two. Stay tuned if you're interested in it. I also have quite a few new programs for the free software list and more Firefox add-ons coming with the next update.

May 1, 2007

Well, I managed to find a little more time for another update. I added two new skunk testimonials and another 19 new Isle Royale links on the following pages: In The News, Moose & Wolves, Official Sites, Personal Sites. I have also updated the prices and schedules of the Isle Royale transportation companies. As is normally the case with the first of the month (although I usually don't list it here) I have added a new Mystery Site link. At the end of the month my buddy and I will be heading off for another hiking trip on Isle Royale. This year we will be leaving from Copper Harbor, Michigan. We plan to visit Rock Harbor, Three Mile, Lane Cove, Lookout Louise and Scoville Point. Trip reports usually take me a while to write, proof read and add pictures but, hopefully I can have it done and posted within a couple months after I return.

April 2, 2007

There has not been an update on my site for quite a while, aside from the monthly Mystery Site additions. However, I managed to find a little spare time for some free software programs and an update to the skunk testimonials. Stay tuned because there will be a few more Firefox extensions added in the near future as well. And for you Isle Royale fans, there is quite a list of new sites to add when I have time.

November 11, 2006

Welcome to version 3.0 of my website. This update brings another major redesign of the site. I wanted to clean up the general look of all the pages and make the site navigation a little easier to read, access and use. I also removed a couple pages and added a new one. The new page is what I call the Mystery Site of the Month. It will be an interesting site but you will have no idea what it is until you click on the link and visit the site. I also added a Cluster Map icon to the home page. It gives a graphical representation of where all the visitors to my site have come from. Check it out near the bottom of the home page. I have also added another 11 skunk odor testimonials and added a total of 11 more Isle Royale websites between the following pages: In The News, Photos, Personal Sites and Official Sites. I also added a nice photo display technique for all the photos in my hiking journals. I think it's a pretty cool look -- check it out. One thing I have come to realize/learn is that Firefox and Internet Explorer do not display CSS the same way and desiging pages that display properly for both browsers is quite a pain and a little difficult for me at this point. The good news is, if you are viewing this site with Firefox then it should look very good. If you are using Internet Explorer, it will look better than the previous design but will have a couple cosmetic abnormalities which are due to the fact that I.E. does not render CSS code according to the standard. I will be attempting to fix this in the future so stay tuned. I just didn't know how long it will take and I wanted to get the new site posted as soon as possible.

August 3, 2006

It has been exactly four months since my last update which means there has been quite a bit of stuff added. There are now 9 more dog 'saves', numerous Isle Royale news articles, peronal sites, photo sites, 'official' site links and an updated transportation link. In addition, there are 18 new links to free desktop software and a few more photos added to my photo gallery. To see the newest pictures, just click on the link at the top of my phot page.

April 3, 2006

This was a major update which brought about the following changes: 8 more links to Isle Royale articles, 6 new Isle Royale photo sites, 1 new link to wolf information, 1 new personal Isle Royale journal and a couple new links on the Isle Royale weather page. There are also 6 new titles in the desktop software section (STOIK Video Converter, FireAnt, Democracy Player, Partition Logic, mp3DirectCut, HashOnClick), 2 new Firefox extensions (ForecastFox, MozBackup), and a new category on my Links page with a bunch of photography sites and photo blogs. I continue to get comments from people who have used the skunk remedy with good results so there is one more testimonial as well. There are also 2 new pages of family pictures and, finally, I scoured my site to remove the dead links. Enjoy.

February 19, 2006

I received an email from Maya Ofek who said she was starting a new hiking forum and wondered if I would add a link to my site so I put a link to her site on my Backpacking Links page. I also added five new skunk testimonials, three new links to Isle Royale news articles, five new free desktop software links and a new category on the free software page for my favorite Firefox extensions.

November 17, 2005

Added 3 new pages of family pictures, 7 more Isle Royale news articles, 2 new skunk testimonials, added 2 new programs to the desktop software list and removed quite a few dead links.

October 29, 2005

Minor update this time with only 8 new desktop programs to the freeware list.

October 2, 2005

Today I have added 9 more skunk testimonials, one of which was a cat, 10 new personal Isle Royale sites, 8 more Isle Royale News articles, 1 new Isle Royale photo site, and 12 new software titles for your PC, many of which are geared toward digital camera owners.

August 27, 2005

Added three new desktop programs, more skunk testimonials and, finally, the trip log for my 2005 Isle Royale Hiking trip. Every year when I work on the trip logs I get a hint of what it must be like to work for a newspaper and have deadlines. Even though I don't have someone putting pressure on me to meet a certain schedule, I do impose my own sort of deadlines and it's annoying when it takes longer than expected. Another addition to my site is an RSS feed. If you don't know what that is then check out my very brief RSS informational page. Basically it will allow surfers to "subscribe" to my update page to receive notice of updates to my site. I have additional updates for my site but decided to at least get my hiking trip on the internet since it has now been three months since the trip and I will update the rest at a future date. One final note. I recently purchased a Canon G6 digital camera. I took the camera with me on my hiking trip and have used those pictures on my site. The quality if the photos is much better than before. For anyone who is interested in the EXIF information of my photos you can view some of the data by using the FxIF (Firefox exIF) extension if you run the Firefox web browser.

March 26, 2005

This update brings the following additions: six new skunk comments, 21 new desktop software titles, 1 Pocket PC game, three new Isle Royale photos links, four personal Isle Royale sites, one new link to an Isle Royale news article and a hiking tip sent by a visitor.

February 23, 2005

This update brings about a major change in my site. I have redesigned my site with CSS code and have removed the layouts that used "Tables". CSS allows pages to load quicker, plus you can do some pretty cool tricks with it allowing for more freedom and interesting designs. I also removed the Change Detection code and the scrolling side menu. I received several complaints that Change Detection was notifying poeple too many times, sometimes as much as a couple times a day, or else, not at all and the side menu took more effort to change/update than the normal hyperlinks. I added a hiking tip from a visitor, added a section to my links page for Cascading Style Sheets, there are 7 new skunk comments and 48 new Isle Royale links as follows: In The News (7), Personal (11), Moose & Wolves (4), Photo Sites (4), Official, Gov't & Misc Sites (9) and Maps & Books (13).

November 15, 2004

This update brings 14 new Isle Royale links, a couple more hiking links, two more skunk save comments, 15 new titles on the free desktop software pages, 1 new PPC game and 11 new quotes added to the random quote generator on the home page.

October 10, 2004

Fixed numerous broken and redirected links. Added information to the bottom of every page that indicates when a page was last updated. Think of it like the "freshness date" on a package of food. Additional links and free software are on the agenda for the next update.

August 27, 2004

First off, I have recently converted all the pages on my site to PHP files so please update your bookmarks to reflect the new URL (the pages no longer end in .html). Second, for those who have been here before, I discovered a problem with the style switcher code (Skin My Site) after it was uploaded to the web. Oddly, it worked well on my home PC, but as soon as the files were pulled to my computer from the internet it failed to work. I have have since replced the JavaScript code with some PHP so it is now cross-browser, cross-platform compatible and will work on computers that have JavaScripting disabled. Other additions to my site include numerous more testimonials from users of the skunk odor remedy, the trip journal for my last hiking trip to the Porcupine Mountains, updated Isle Royale links, a random quote generator (on the home page), three more pages of family photos, a site map and a privacy policy.

April 6, 2004

I've been hard at work adding and updating. First off, I fixed the problem that users of Mozilla have when viewing my pages which contain centered tables. Second, I added a style switcher which will allow visitors to change the style sheet used to display pages on my site; it's pretty cool -- check it out under "Skin My Site". Lastly, there are numerous additions: 37 new free desktop software links, 5 new Pocket PC applications, 4 new wallpaper sites (on links page), 7 Isle Royale news links, 2 Isle Royale photos sites, 2 new personal Isle Royale sites and several new testimonials for the skunk odor remedy.

February 24, 2004

Added two new pages to my site; a packing list and a page of hiking tips. Also added links to eight new Isle Royale books, nine I.R. news articles, five new I.R. weather sites and 16 personal I.R. sites. Several dead links were also removed. The next update will contain links to a lot more free software.

January 23, 2004

I just finished updating my entire web site to incorporate the use of Cascading Style Sheets. It was a major undertaking but it will give me much more flexibility in design/layout, allow me to make site-wide changes much quicker and will bring the site up-to-date with the lastest standards. I also revised the wording on some of the pages to make them easier to read and added META tags in hopes of ranking higher in the search engines. Content-wise there are numerous new Isle Royale links and quite a few dead links were removed. I also changed the background image to make the pages a little brighter.

December 1, 2003

Added 15 programs to desktop software, 7 to PPC applications and 7 to PPC games. Also made the move to a new hosting company, YourNetTeam.com. This time there are no banners or ads to interfere with the pages.

November 4, 2003

Completed the trip log for my May 2003 Isle Royale trip. I also added a new 'gadget' to my site. For anyone who would like to be notified when my site changes, simply enter your email address in the box near the top of my home page. Whenever a change is made you will be sent an email. This should be especially nice for my friends and family members. If it's annoying to get email from me everytime I add a new trip log or update the family pictures, just don't submit your email address. This way only the people who want to be notified will get an email.

October 1, 2003

Added 21 links to the free software list (Desktop).

September 28, 2003

If you are reading this then everything has worked the way I had hoped. I had to move this site to a new hosting company because the site was larger than Yahoo's size limitations. I now have 30MB of free space at Brinkster. Along with the move I added 5 new pages of pictures to the family pictures pages, added several more Isle Royale web sites links and finally uploaded the trip journal from my North Manitou Island backpacking trip in September 2002. Enjoy!

July 22, 2003

I have added 13 new files to the free desktop software list and 10 to the Pocket PC applications list. There are a handful of new links to various 3D wallpaper sites on my links page. There are two new pictures on my photo page and way too many new Isle Royale links to list.

July 9, 2003

For all our family and friends, this update is for you. It has been a long time since I updated the family pictures section. It was my next goal after finishing the Isle Royale 2001 trip journal. Now I can say that my goal has been met. I'll try to keep up with the updates on a more regular basis.

June 16, 2003

Added 7 programs to the desktop software list and 4 to the Pocket PC applications list.

May 22, 2003

Added navigation links to the bottoms of all the web pages for browsers that don't recognize the DHTML side menu. Finally uploaded the trip journal from my Isle Royale hike in September 2001. Fixed 12 bad links in the free software section and removed four links to programs that are no longer available.

May 3, 2003

Added 7 new programs to the Pocket PC games list. I also finished my journal for the 2001 Isle Royale trip. Now it's time to proof-read, scan the pictures and upload everything.

February 11, 2003

Added 7 new programs to the desktop software list. Updates are slow-going since I'm back to work now and busy at home. Still working on the 2001 hiking trip.

December 26, 2002

Added 10 new programs to the desktop software list and removed one which is no longer free. Still working on the journal for my 2001 Isle Royale hike -- it's almost half done.

October 25, 2002

Today I added two new sections -- Free Pocket PC Applications and Free Pocket PC Games. There are 18 programs in the applications section. I currently have only three games in the games section but I plan to add many more when time permits.

October 22, 2002

It has been a long time since my first trip journal was put up on this site. I have since been on three other hikes, none of which have been posted or even worked on. Today I finally completed the journal from my Tahquamenon Falls and Pictured Rocks hike (August 2000) and I am already in the process of writing about my second trip to Isle Royale in September 2001.

October 10, 2002

Updated the 'Skunk Odor' page to include comments from people who've used the remedy. Also scanned and resized photos to use in my on-line Pictured Rocks hiking trip journal. Now it's time to begin writing.

October 7, 2002

Unfortunately, after my last hiking trip I fell and broke my right wrist. I am now off from work for 6-8 weeks while it heals. However, I now have a lot of time to work on updating my web site. I am currently working on my August 2000 Pictured Rocks hike. I added 13 new files to the free software list. I also decided to add links, at some point, to my favorite free Pocket PC games and applications.

August 29, 2002

Well, just as I was getting back on track with the updates to my web site I suffered a major setback. In late June I had a catastrophic hard drive failure and lost everything on the hard drive, including ALL my web page files. I had just scanned all the pictures for my Pictured Rocks trip and had most of the journal written out. I have had to log into my account and pull all the files off the server one at a time. I am still in the process of recovering my files and hopefully then I can start work on my trip journals.

June 5, 2002

Added four files to the list of free software and removed one which is no longer being offered without charge.

June 4, 2002

Finished work on the new side navigation menu. I started working on it a couple weeks ago because I wanted easier access to the pages on my site and it will be easier for me to add new categories in the future. Besides, I think it's downright cool!

June 3, 2002

I decided to add a 'What's New' page to my site. This will make it easier for visitors to see what I've added or changed since their last visit. Also added a new counter since the other company pulled the plug without notice.