"Truly it may be said that the outside of a mountain is good for the inside of a man." ~George Wherry, Alpine Notes and the Climbing Foot, 1896
Adventures with Mountain Mike
A collection of photos, reflections & stories
Origin of "Mountain Mike"
Outdoor Adventure & Tripping Director
The summer of 1977 is when Phantom Lake YMCA Camp became a part of my life. Little did I know at the time that I would be spending my next 19 summers there. That first summer I was a "green" camp counselor. The nickname "Mountain Mike" came to be during my second summer when I was granted the monumental task of directing the camp's Outdoor Adventure (Nature) program. This was a "last minute" "promotion" during Staff Orientation the week prior to the start of Boys Camp. My great friend and the person who introduced me to Phantom, "Dirty Harry," had a nickname and it lent nicely with the activity he directed, riflery. To go along with my new activity it just made sense that I needed a nickname. A good nickname could go a long ways with promoting an activity that was not the most popular of activities at the time. I came up with a list of a few names. Dirty Harry helped take a poll of the staff and "Mountain Mike" came out on top. I incorporated the name with my program announcements to the campers. You would see me wearing a red & black checkered flannel shirt with a brown fake fur vest all over camp. In a nutshell (ha ha), through this activity I connected with the campers in a powerful way and the name stuck. Outdoor Adventure during Boys Camp was so successful the camp director, Sir G, and program director, Riley, invited me to stay for Girls Camp to continue running the activity. I happily said, "yes!" and enjoyed sharing the wonders of nature with 100s of more campers. Adding fuel to the longevity & "stickivity" of the nickname was my growth as a storyteller and the outrageous bear stories I was very happy to share around a campfire.
Outdoor Adventure (Nature)
Tripping Director & Canoe Trips
During Boys Camp Staff Orientation in 1978 an invitation to run Outdoor Adventure was made to the staff. I was encouraged by my fellow Civil War Unit counselor buddies Dave Olsen and Dirty Harry to step forward and so I did. They each ran an activity (Dave led archery and DH led riflery). Of course, I had to run an activity, too! Well, no one else offered to run the program, so I got the gig. This was a big step for me. The activity was one the camp director, Sir G, favored and wanted it to succeed. He and the program director, Riley, took a chance on me and with their support and the help of the rest of the camp staff Outdoor Adventure took off. Campers and I could be found all across camp picking berries, catching frogs, cooking food over an open campfire, searching for the elusive carmelous findus, stargazing, launching hand-made hot air balloons and more! Outdoor Adventure's most popular activities were fishing and the fabled Swamp Hike. One of my most favorite memories of camp occurred while leading a bunch of campers on a critter hunt. We came across a bunch of grass (garter) snakes along the edge of the "swamp" near archery. We attempted to catch them and excitedly called out, "Snakes!". This caught the attention of the archery director, Dave O. and he immediately ran over to see what all the excitement was about. I looked over at archery and saw several campers had their bows up. Dave came over by me and I asked him, "Who's watching the campers at archery?" The look on his face was priceless!
I knew I wanted to be the Tripping Director during my second summer at Phantom. The first overnight canoe trip I helped coordinate was during Girls Camp in 1978 when I directed outdoor adventure. I believe it had been several years since camp had anyone go on an overnight canoe trip. The Adventure Unit (oldest girls) counselors brought the idea for the trip to the PD, Riley Cooper. Riley tapped me and Jeff Harrits to assist. We were happy to help make it happen and a few days later down the nearby Fox River we all went. Looking back I grin and shake my head at how we transported the campers, counselors and canoes. We loaded everyone, the gear, supplies & probably ten 17 ft canoes sardine-like in the camp bus (the rear seats were removed). We launched at the Hwy ES bridge just outside of Mukwonago. After about a 5 hour paddle we camped at the Village Park in Big Bend. The next day we continued on to Waterford and pulled out above the dam returning to camp via the camp bus in time for a late lunch. The trip was a grand success. When I was the Tripping Director (1980 & '81) I led variations of this trip each session during boys & girls camp. My favorite canoe trip was going down the Mukwonago River from the bridge on Beulah Road and back to camp. We'd bike to the bridge taking Hwy J to Beulah Rd (aka Marsh Rd). This was my favorite road in the area. The canoes and gear were transported via a pick-up & trailer to the launch area. The truck would take the bikes back to camp. All and all, two great trips in one!
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Bike and Other Trips
Deja vu!
Phantom Adventure Camping (PAC)
In the '80s the area around Phantom Lake, particularly to the west, was still mostly farmland and the traffic on the roads was light - it was great for bicycling. I had several favorite loops I would take campers on that offered picturesque scenery and ideal spots to stop for a snack. Most of these trips were six to ten miles long (To catch a glimpse of some of the roads we biked check out the Four Finger Productions short film, The Biker from June 1985). One fun short loop was biking around Upper Phantom Lake - we carried our bikes across the channel. The longest bike trips I remember leading were a boys camp overnight to White-water Lake State Park and rides to Paradise Springs near Eagle, WI. In the late '80s when I was the PD I continued to lead trips. Triathlons that combined a swim across the lake & back (aka the Chuck Tuna Swim), a 10-20 mile bike ride & a 1.5 mile run were a favorite. In the early '90s we started a mountain bike program that included trips to the Kettle Moraine State Forest. Other favorite trips included MFS (snorkeling) on Lower Phantom Lake and picnics at Paradise Springs (via the camp bus) where you could take a dip in water from a natural spring that gushes 30K gallons of water an hour at a consent chilly 47 degrees! It was here during the summer of 1979 at Paradise Springs that I led a girls' unit on a hike back to the spring house, but ventured down a different path than usual to used up some extra time only to overshoot the path that would have taken us over to the spring house. Instead we entered the back property of Camp Keshena, a Milwaukee Y Day Camp at that time, and "enjoyed" an extra long hike. It was this "incident" that spurred the creation of the song, I think by "Brownie," "If you Trust Mike Rule Clap Your Hands." I can honestly say we were never lost!
A program we created in the '90s was Phantom Adventure Camping (PAC). This included trips that expanded upon the skills learned at Phantom. Trips were one to two weeks in length and ventured to beautiful locations such as the Michigan U.P. (Porcupine Mountains and Sylvania Wilderness), the Boundary Waters in northern Minnesota, west to the Big Horn Mountains in Wyoming and southeast to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The first PAC trip took place over spring break in 1991 and went to Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado. I think the drive there took 30 hours. Our timing couldn't have been better and we enjoyed fantastic weather. As much as I liked going to the Rockies I felt the drive was too long for a week-long trip. Subsequent spring break trips went to the Smoky Mtns. The location was ten hours closer, "checked all the boxes," offered the opportunity for whitewater rafting and, bonus, stopping at Mammoth Cave was an option that we took advantage of a couple of times. I was fortunate to go on this trip in 1992, '93, '94, '95, 2000 (a joint PLYC & Camp Benson trip) and 2003 (just Camp Benson with co-pilot Steve Hill).
The PAC program grew and within a few years we had multiple summer backpack & canoe trips to choose from. Examples of a beginner PAC trip included a 5-day paddle down the lower section of the Wisconsin River or backpacking the Superior Hiking Trail overlooking Lake Superior in Minnesota. Advanced-level trips were longer and went to more distant destinations such as the backpacking trip to the Big Horn Mountains in Wyoming and canoeing in BWCAW.
"Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves"
