One more about Jeff Ryan

Oberhotlzer's house on Mallard Island, MN.

We are so lucky to have three great hikers/speakers joining us at the festival. I just wrote about one of them, Jeff Ryan, but had to add this post after discovering his Voices of the Wilderness series.

Jeff's recent piece on Ernest Oberhotlzer was both fascinating and heartwarming. I love the theme of the piece: "The path we’re meant to take may be different than we’d imagined." That was certainly true of Oberhotlzer who thought he would be remembered for the tale of his extraordinary 1912 canoe trip. Instead, Oberhotlzer's legacy is one of conservation—of keeping the land he loved in a natural state for future adventurers to discover for themselves. 

Jeff has posted a whole series of these tales—articles and video documentaries— about people who spent their lives advocating for the wild places we all enjoy. Voices of the Wilderness is produced through the support of the National Conservation Training Center, home of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and many of the archival materials shown in the series.

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