2023

Online via Zoom

In spring 2022, Sue Wittkop did another bike and barge trip with Bike Planet Tours. It was eight days through four countries (Germany, Austria, Slovakia, and Hungary) on a Danube River cruise.  Join her for stories and pictures of national parks, castles, beautiful villages, and great cities!

Sue has been a Rover since 2011, but a traveler for decades. She’s been on approximately 20 bicycling vacations both domestic and international. This is her second trip with Bike Planet Tours, the first being a tulips and windmill tour in Holland.

Hybrid program
In person at Westwood Nature Center and also being presented over Zoom

We all want to do better when it comes to taking care of the environment. But with everything else in life that has to be managed, sometimes the task of being environmentally responsible feels too overwhelming. This presentation will cover my slow, but steady efforts toward generating less waste and using fewer single-use plastic products in our house. I’ll be sharing my tips and tricks and hopefully learning a few of yours. Presented by Megan C.

Online via Zoom

Just 30 miles east of Portland, the Columbia River Gorge offers amazing views, hiking, mountain bike trails, and more than 90 waterfalls! The Rovers have heard about many exotic, faraway trips, but the Columbia River Gorge presents itself as a readily accessible, outdoor lovers’ paradise.

Ron is a very recent transplant to Minnesota, having grown up and lived on the west coast for his entire life.  He is an avid hiker, camper and year-round outdoor enthusiast. Ron has spent the last 30 years in the Pacific Northwest and spent many of those years hiking and exploring in the gorge.  He will share some of his thoughts, experiences and lessons from this amazing place.

• Online via Zoom

Scott Beauchamp has worked as the Manager of Public Affairs for the Saint Paul Area Chamber of Commerce, as Communications Director for the Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters, and as a freelance Strategic Communications Consultant. As an award-winning public speaker, Scott has written, co-authored, or edited, numerous successful speeches for politicians, business leaders, and other influencers.

Online via Zoom

Karen has thrilled us with her adventures at a lighthouse, in an empty Oregon beach, and at Arches National Park. Her most recent adventure as a volunteer Ranger was at Hawaii’s Volcanoes National Park. It was an assignment filled with erupting volcanoes, earthquakes, a rockslide, living in a rain forest, hiking, enjoying the flora and fauna and oh yeah, working the job she was assigned to do. She will share with us pictures and videos of the two volcanoes that erupted during her time there, lava in all its forms, beautiful ferns, flowers and birds.

When she retired, Karen decided to see the country by volunteering at different National Parks. She will discuss how you too can volunteer at a federal agency and have your own adventures.

Hybrid — In-person & Zoom

Tune in before the presentation for the Minnesota Rovers Annual Meeting where we will announce the results of the Board of Directors election.

Are you considering purchasing a kayak and wondering about all those different kinds of boats: long or short, plastic or fiberglass, sit on top or sit in? Or maybe you have already done some kayaking and are considering moving to try whitewater, or kayaking on big water, or kayak camping and expeditions. Then this presentation is for you. It is an overview of different types of kayaks, their purposes and pluses and minuses, as well as ways to take the next step beyond just flatwater day paddling on lakes or calm rivers.

This summer I plan to do a series on beginning sea kayak camping, teaching rescues, strokes, packing a kayak, and culminating in a kayak camping trip at Voyageurs National Park. But I will direct members to places to get more training or experiences with skilled paddlers and coaches in a variety of kayak types beyond basic flatwater paddling.

Fran has been a Rover since 2007 and is a self-diagnosed kayakaholic. She has a British Canoeing Union 3 star award in coastal kayaking and a Paddle Canada Level 2. She has camped out of a sea kayak for up to 10 days at a time in Canada, the US, Mexico, and New Zealand. She has had training in whitewater paddling and in 2014 spent a week whitewater rafting and camping on the Salmon River in Idaho.

Online via Zoom

This whirlwind seminar focuses on camping tricks that only the experts know—practical things you won’t find in ordinary camping books or videos.  Learn how to clear silty water and purify it; stormproof your tent, bug-proof your body and camp; choose edged tools and make fire in the rain; cook with “cozies”; stay dry in rain while wearing ultra-light rain clothes; inexpensively waterproof your sleeping bag; sleep comfortably on a bad site and more. Based on Cliff’s newly revised book, “CAMPING’S TOP SECRETS, 5th Edition.

Plan to attend this presentation. It will be recorded and posted on the Minnesota Rover YouTube site, but only for 30 days.

Zoom Presentation

See how fellow Rover Greg Sumner  was able to do a no-build minivan trip to  AZ & NM  for 6 weeks in Jan/Feb 2022.  He attended the Rubber Tramp Rendezvous (as seen in Nomadland) and with the skills he learned and friendships he made, he boondocked most nights on public land or other camo camping situations.

Greg has been enjoying the outdoors his entire life. He  grew up in Northfield MN with parents that loved the BWCA and canoe racing. Currently he  lives in Duluth enjoying hiking, biking, canoeing, sailing, climbing & camping..

Zoom Presentation

Beavers are important prey for wolves throughout the boreal ecosystem…but how on earth do wolves catch these semi-aquatic rodents that spend very little time on land? People have assumed that beavers must be easy prey for wolves to kill but that is almost certainly not true. For the past 8 years, the Voyageurs Wolf Project (VWP) has been studying how wolves hunt and kill beavers. Join Dr. Tom Gable to learn about what the Voyageurs Wolf Project has revealed about how, where, and when wolves choose to ambush beavers, and how beavers avoid fatal encounters with wolves!

Tom is the project lead for the Voyageurs Wolf Project and he recently completed his Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota. He has been studying wolves in the Greater Voyageurs Ecosystem since 2014 when he started his Master’s at Northern Michigan University. Gable is particularly fascinated by wolf-beaver interactions and his graduate work was focused on trying to understand this predator-prey dynamic. Much of Gable’s early interest in wolves stemmed from encountering wolf tracks, kills, and the occasional wolf while exploring the wild places around his family’s cabin just outside of Killarney Provincial Park, Ontario during the winter.

In winter, the stories left by our non-human neighbors are visible in the snow. With time and attention, we can learn to read the snow like we read the morning newspaper: What happened here? Who did that? How does this affect me? Learn where to look, questions to ask, and how to identify the tracks you find on your next adventure, whether in your backyard, nearby park, or the BWCA.

Kirsten Welge is a volunteer with the Minnesota Wildlife Tracking Project, and has led teams for wildlife track surveys and trailing practice since 2016. She holds a Level III in Wildlife Track & Sign Identification and Trailing through Cybertracker International, and is certified as a forest bathing guide. Through her business, Natural Awareness LLC, she guides experiences to help others relax and thrive through connection with themselves and the natural world.

Join intrepid and curious desert lovers as they find surprises, raves, and the surreal in the spectacular high desert of Mojave National Preserve in Southern California and Steens Mountain in southeast Oregon’s Basin and Range. These two unique trips took place in March 2021 and July 2022.

Glenda Marsh has lived and explored in CA and the west for over 30 years in all seasons and all corners. She is a retired environmental scientist and avid outdoorswoman and naturalist. Her family roots are in the Door County Peninsula in Wisconsin and she has enjoyed many years of outdoor experiences in the beautiful upper Midwest and looks forward to more.