Hey everyone I said I’d be posting here more often and I meant it. 🙂
I was very fortunate to spend the last few days in Glacier National Park and the Flathead Lake area. I met with friends, filmed grizzlies, and went swimming!
I’m lucky to be in Montana. I’m also working hard on several writing projects. In the meantime, check out how AMAZING this water is on Flathead Lake. And yes, I jumped in.
So, there’s a lot going on. Novels, film, photography, social. I’m working hard on several really cool projects.
My official Facebook now has a fan subscription option, which has been amazing. I’ve featured a new Yellowstone photo series, “Land of the Log Walkers” and it’s been neat to see how the fan subscription works.
I recently licensed one of my moose images to a paddle company. Check out the final product. Proud of this one, and love how the antlers come off the paddle.
This is Hamilton, a rescue dog of a friend in Colorado. And the car is my new subaru Forester adventure car, which I’m excited about. 32mpg highway, AWD, 8.7 inches of clearance.
This is an image of comet NEOWISE over Grand Teton National Park from a week ago. Truly one of the most unique moments of my life. The comet won’t return for another 7,000 years. This was such a moving scene for me to witness. Worth the effort.
Last week in Yellowstone I had a beach to myself. Think Wrigley would approve of the new adventure car?
I had a cool date recently at the oldest hotel in Denver, the Oxford. Super vintage.
Brynne.
And finally, I shaved my beard. It’s hot and it’s summer so off it goes. Taken in Grand Teton.
Love you all. Hope you and yours are safe and healthy.
Best,
– Michael
Last night I was graciously invited by Facebook to their Fan Subscription program. It’s an invite-only program for popular influencers, so I’m kinda honored and a little shocked.
It’s been a crazy last two years! I’m still trying to wrap my head around things, and this is definitely one of them. Everything just keeps moving forward, growing, and evolving and it’s pretty cool.
At the top of my official Facebook Page, you’ll now find a “Become A Supporter” button. If you choose to support the page, the monthly recurring subscription is $4.99
Here’s what you’ll get:
1. A supporter badge on all your comments.
2. Twenty posts a month specifically for fan subscribers, and no one else.
3. Discounts on short stories, prints, and E-books.
4. Exclusive behind-the-scenes, unfiltered content of my adventures and writing news.
Yours truly in Grand Teton National Park three weeks ago (and showerless for three days, haha).
I shouldn’t have survived.
On May 23rd, while heading from Yellowstone Park to Jackson for a date, I hit a giant elk and destroyed the most reliable,tough car I’ve ever had. The elk was so massive that I saw no sky behind it.
The windshield shattered, the radiator cracked, the engine bent and smoked, spewing fluid onto the Thule and breaking that, too.
The hood saved my life.
Upon hitting the elk, I thought its back legs were going to crash through the windshield and kill me. But the hood crumpled into a shield, blocking the elk. And saving my life.
Wrigley’s collar was still wrapped around the rearview mirror…right where the hood acted as a shield and the glass stopped shattering.
I’m sore and a little beat up. And I shouldn’t be alive. But someone was watching out for me. I still see the impact in my mind, can feel it, can smell the steaming coolant.
Ten days later, I’m still a little shaken. And I feel so LUCKY to be alive. And yesterday, I bought a new Subaru Forester in beautiful Whitefish, Montana. There’s been so much death and destruction lately. And for me personally, I’ve never been big on couches and walls. I put myself out into the world, and these are the kinds of dangers that result from that.
It’s been a long time since I posted here, thanks to a growing audience on my Facebook. But I hope to post here more often. I’ll be working the national parks and forests until late October, filming wildlife and focusing on writing projects.
Thanks everyone for sticking by me. I appreciate you all.
Goodbye to my Crosstrek, which *not once* left me stranded in 130,000 miles despite being used for much, much more than going to Costco. It took a thousand pound elk to stop that car.
Best,
– Michael
The Crosstrek at the collision center. Note Wrigley’s collar.
There is no goodbye.
Missoula. The Hollywood Hills. Santa Monica. Shasta-Trinity National Forest. Six Rivers NF. Klamath NF. Redwood National Park. Mt. Shasta Wilderness. The Hollywood Loews. Willamete NF. Deschutes NF. Colville NF. Idaho Panhandle NF. The Davenport Grand (haha). Lolo NF. Flathead NF. Bitterroot NF. The Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness. Rogue River-Siskiyou NF. Flathead Lake. The Pacific Ocean. Lake Couer D’ALene, The National Bison Range. The Mission Mountains. Glacier National Park. And campgrounds, parks, trails, and roadways too numerous to mention.
We saw moose, wolves, grizzlies, elk, bison, walruses, seals, eagles, foxes, black bears, owls, chipmunks, waterfalls, peaks, endless forests and glorious sunsets. We were free. Each morning brimming with possibilities.
20,000 miles in 8 months, together. Somehow, we wrote the perfect ending even though I never saw it coming. You never showed me even the slightest symptom my friend, until twelve days before you left my side.
–
Last week, Wrigley died peacefully on my lap as I pet him and told him I loved him.
He went out on top.
12.5 years ago, I adopted Wrigley with my friend Sarah from the Chicago pound. Strangely, he’d been left alone in a large metal cage in the pit bull section. He had numerous infections, and would throw himself at the cage bars when we walked past, purring intensely. When Sarah and I walked away from his cage, he’d make sure we heard him. He never gave up on us. He chose us.
Many of you have seen him adventuring with me on social media, and he’s gained quite a following. The thing is, Wrigley didn’t have an owner, and I didn’t own him. He and I simply had a 12 year bromance.
He displayed a level of beauty, awareness, and intelligence I have yet to see matched by another animal. He was a beast, too! More like a lynx.
I’m in shock at how fast all this happened.
Thank you all for the kind words of love, support, and encouragement regarding this situation. Wrigley was there for the creation of all my novels…there for all the cool stuff…there for the adventure. There by my side, always.
But most of all, above everything else, Wrigley was an original. And his loss is a void that simply can’t be filled.
I still see him out of the corner of my eye, still expect him to come running when I emerge from the shower, still expect to see him happily putting his paws on the center console and staring at the highway with big eyes as if to say, “where to next? This is fun!”.
He *fascinated* me. He was a light that people were drawn to. When I took him on walks, people immediately approached, their faces filled with wonder. “He’s so huge and handsome” and “his eyes are amazing” were the compliments he received the most. That’s just the effect he had. He was a joy.
I hope I had that effect on him.
Before leaving on this crazy adventure, Wrigley would sometimes “yowl” in my Missoula house during the early morning hours. After researching this behavior on the internet, I found that yowling means a cat is bored.
Wrigley didn’t yowl once in the last eight months.
Last September, Wrigley and I drove Going to the Sun Road in Glacier National Park at 1am. We had the park to ourselves. As we climbed the winding road to Logan Pass, the roadside trees kneeled in the wind as leaves pirouetted in the headlights. I parked at Logan Pass and got out, fighting the wind as I opened the door. I slung Wrigley over my shoulder and we looked towards the sky. To the west, lightning flashed across the horizon, illuminating nearby peaks. To the east, the sky remained clear and braced with shimmering stars. We stood there in the night, feeling the wind, watching the universe, hearing the distant rumble of thunder.
My travels will never be the same…will never be as joyful. Nor will my writing days.
But I know Wrigley would want me to try.
I won’t say goodbye, my friend. There’s no such thing. We are all one in the end.
Wrigley adventuring in Northern California, March. That’s 14,000 foot Mount Shasta behind him.
