superior reads
Highlen pens page-turner for two-track wanderers
A
Review by Victor Volkman planned, although a few perhaps end s I read John Highlen’s new wetter than planned. To be book Touching the Wild fair, he does detail some U.P., I became more and adrenaline-rushing close more interested in the coincidences encounters with moose and of our respective lives. Both bear along the way. The most Highlen and I were students at embarrassing mishap would Michigan Tech in the late 1980s be a spectacular wipeout when and had a reverence for the he and his future wife crossbeauty of the Copper Country. country ski up to the top of Because he was a Brockway Mountain and back Mechanical Engineer and I down again. was in Computer Science, it’s Highlen’s book is not just unlikely we would’ve ever personal recollection, but also crossed paths unless it were chock full of ideas for your next passing in the Student Union great U.P. outdoor adventure or perhaps I might’ve handed beyond the well-trodden familiar him a greenbar printout places, including such diverse sites over the counter of the as Rock River Canyon Wilderness, EECS (pronounced “eeks”) Crisp Point, Big Island Lake underground computer Wilderness, Lake Fanny Hooe, Batch Station where I McCormick Wilderness, just to worked part-time until as name a few. The stories are enlivened late as 4 a.m. with pen-and-ink drawings by Julie That’s where the Highlen, the author’s spouse. similarities end, as The book closes with a chapter Highlen was a member of on the importance of conservation the Ridge Roamers outdoors club and s o m e and how we all have a role to play my outdoor experience would consist of these passages in preserving the delicate natural of a few trips to the well-groomed hint: heritage of the U.P, regardless of campus cross-country ski trails and a “Paddling in Superior, I feel part of how it has been scarred by logging of handful of summer beach outings. its immensity. I feel fluid, like part of centuries past. He implores the reader In his opening line, Highlen states the water. I feel freedom of mind, like to find some kind of conservation that in the U.P., “no matter where you a burden has been lifted and I should activity that sparks their passion and are, you’re usually not more than a be thinking deep, flowing thoughts, just get involved. few minutes away from experiencing but it’s usually a relatively short stay Perhaps the oldest cliché in the nature’s wildness—maybe not and those thoughts remained just book reviewer’s handbook is the pure wilderness, but wildness.” As out of reach. Sometimes it feels like deathless phrase “could not put this someone who repeatedly got lost in there’s too much to take in and pon- book down,” but I’ll take the bait here. my Orienteering class at MTU with der, and my mind can’t open up fast I took Touching The Wild U.P. on the help of a compass and map, I can enough or big enough to hold it all.” vacation with me for an autumn week vouch for that personally. I’ll be the first to admit I’m not a at a beachside cottage on Cathead Bay Coincidences aside, John Highlen competent fisherman, even though in Leelanau County. I read almost the is a consummate outdoorsman as I fished enough as a lad to catch the whole book in one lovely Sunday reflected in his memoir of hiking, odd pike and panfish. And I couldn’t afternoon, so I think I can honestly say backpacking, fishing, canoeing, tell a brook trout from a rainbow trout it was a read I couldn’t put down.If ice climbing, cross-country skiing, even if it bit me. However, Highlen you’ve ever wandered a back-country hunting and, yes, even maple- narrates his fishing adventures (both two-track in search of a reported but sugaring on his 80-acre abode outside hit and miss) with a play-by-play unlisted waterfall or simply enjoy Deerton in Alger County. You can add commentary that had me on the edge paddling the many streams of the U.P, log cabin builder to that list, as one of my seat, and I learned a thing or you’ll find a lot to enjoy in Highlen’s chapter details his quest to build the two about fly fishing as well. With Touching the Wild U.P. family camp using timber felled near his engineer’s mind, he recounts fish MM his downstate home, then cut, finished sightings down to the inch. and assembled in his barn before As a devotee of outdoor adventure About the Author: Victor R. Volkman it was hauled up north on a friend’s genre, I was sort of hoping for a Jack is a graduate of Michigan Technologiflatbed tractor-trailer rig. London Call of the Wild moment, cal University (class of ’86) and is the But Highlen is even more than perhaps getting seriously lost, injured, current president of the U.P. Publishactions can describe, as his prose waxes taken by a surprise Mother Superior ers and Authors Association (UPPAA). lyrical in places; I would not hesitate storm or pursued by wild beasts. He is senior editor at Modern History to brand him as an outdoor poet as Most of Highlen’s adventures end as Press, publisher of the U.P. Reader. Send Upper Peninsulat-related book review suggestions to victor@LHPress.com Books submitted for review can be sent to: MM Book Reviews, 5145 Pontiac Trail, Ann Arbor, MI 48105
December 2021
Marquette Monthly
67
