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Category: Outdoor

Getting outside in Door County is a must! While you can always explore a trail or lake shore on your own, the calendar is dotted with guided hikes, wildlife tours, bird watching treks, and cross-country skiing meetups. Find a group bicycle ride, a naturalist session, or paddleboard tour and explore Door County’s natural wonders.

  • Weather Wizard: Fish Karma

    To introduce someone to fishing is always an exciting undertaking. Sharing your passion and, in turn, having a shared adventure is one of life’s great pleasures. Last week, on a cool crisp fall morning, I had such an opportunity. I would be joining both a newbie, and a veteran angler. The instructions for the novice […]

  • An Icy Resolve for Whitefish

    On a bitterly cold morning last February, I strolled onto the ice off Frank E. Murphy Park in Egg Harbor to check out a couple of ice shanties that were about a quarter-mile offshore. I was hoping to find someone inside the shanties for a story we have been talking about doing for this publication […]

  • Reaching for the Sky: Photographer Denny Moutray

    For Gills Rock photographer Denny Moutray, “the thrill of the hunt” drives him to pick up his camera. As he has been coming to the Door Peninsula since 1970, he has shot much of the area’s flora and fauna, the shoreline and the forests, the orchards and old buildings. Now looking for new frontiers, “I […]

  • The Winter Whitefish Economy

    The University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute has some great information on whitefish on its webpage, but it comes to an abrupt and ultimately unsatisfying end with this sole “Fun Fact:”  “There is a popular ice sport fishery for lake whitefish in Green Bay.” Hmmm. No links to anything to prove such a sweeping statement. […]

  • History and Future of the Lake Whitefish

    It was 1857 when a few New Englanders wanted a taste of lake whitefish. Carl Miller and Henry Brown went to Lake Ontario and took male and female whitefish out of fisherman’s nets. They impregnated an estimated one million eggs and brought them back to Lake Saltonstall in Connecticut. The next year, they brought 10 […]

  • Roy and Charlotte Lukes: Owls from the Arctic

    Editor’s note:  While Roy Lukes died at the age of 86 on June 26, 2016, his nature articles will continue to live on in Door County Living with the help of Roy’s wife, Charlotte, who has agreed to continue providing work from Roy’s extensive archives. For that reason, the article includes both their names. When […]

  • Len Villano, Tony Esposito

    Black Hawk in Baileys Harbor: Hockey Legend Tony Esposito

    The average little boy in the U.S. is probably tossing a baseball with his dad or big brother by age three, so he’ll be ready for T-ball the next year. The timeline is pretty much the same north of the border, except that the sport (and the season it’s played) is different. In Sault Ste. […]

  • Trail Expansion at Crossroads at Big Creek

    During this unusually balmy November, it’s hard to even think about winter, but it will come. Once there’s enough snow, the designated ski trails at Crossroads at Big Creek Preserve will be groomed for classical and skate skiing. Trails will not be groomed at The Cove and Ida Bay preserves, but those trails are open […]

  • Christmas by the Bay, Old Timey Folk & More Weekend Plans

    Start your holiday season with a visit to Sturgeon Bay for this weekend’s Christmas by the Bay! Carry that holiday joy through the rest of the weekend with local arts and crafts, music and a late-autumn hike. Friday, November 18 Celebrate the Holiday Season Sturgeon Bay hosts its annual Christmas by the Bay this weekend, […]

  • Peninsula State Park Superintendent Bruns Resigns

    Kelli Bruns, Peninsula State Park Superintendent since September of 2011, has resigned. Bruns is taking a position with the Minnesota Division of Parks and Trails at Fort Snelling in the Twin Cities area. She expects to leave after the holidays. Erin Brown, superintendent of Potawatomi State Park in Sturgeon Bay, will step in to offer […]

  • Roy & Charlotte Lukes: Gold in the Swamps

      Typical of the oaks, there is a red oak near our front yard that is tenaciously hanging on to its leaves. I look at one leaf being spun around by the wind and wonder how long it can be subjected to such constant stress before it finally comes loose and falls to the ground. […]

  • Weather Wizard: Dark So Soon?

    Autumn is tricky. Some years you get a long, colorful, three act show: multiple Sunday drives, apple orchard trips, and Halloweens with no coat over your costume. These years give you the illusion of time, order, and make you forget what humidity ever was. Eventually, these blissful weekends of jeans and cotton sweaters are shadowed […]

  • Christmas by the Bay Events Return to Sturgeon Bay

    Come to Sturgeon Bay for sparkling, holiday fun Nov. 18-20. Sturgeon Bay Visitor Center (SBVC) turns on the holiday charm during the annual Christmas by the Bay celebration with a weekend of family friendly activities. Join friends and neighbors at the tree lighting ceremony Nov. 18, 6-8 pm, at the Clock Tower on Third Avenue. […]

  • Great Lakes/Great Books Announces 2017 Book List

    Write On, Door County is partnering with the Door County Maritime Museum to present Great Lakes/Great Books, a monthly book club featuring books with a Great Lakes focus. Books of fiction, nonfiction and poetry that have the Great Lakes as subject matter or as settings will be discussed with a facilitator from Write On. The […]

  • Rib Fest, Tree Lighting & More Weekend Plans

    Whoever said Door County is slowing down hasn’t seen this weekend’s events calendar! Celebrate veterans with a free performance by the U.S. Air Force Band, loosen your belt for the 8th Annual Rib Fest, or head over to Ellison Bay for the first Christmas tree lighting of the season in Door! Friday, November 11 A […]

  • Roy & Charlotte Lukes: Juncos, Welcome Visitors

      Wherever there’s a promise of something so simple and generally unwanted as weed seeds, there in November you’ll find the juncos. Like little gray ghosts with white bottoms, they have filtered into the state, staying to the brushy roadsides and the shrubby edges of woods. Were it not for their flashy white “taillights,” most […]

  • Weather Wizard: Lake Michigan Surfing

    With all modesty, I’ve posted many surfing pictures of myself on social media over the last few years. The picture posted from late October with a headline simply reading “Lake Michigan, October 26th,” seemed to garner an unusually high number of comments: “You’re crazy,” “Brrr…,” and my favorite, “So cool, pun intended, but why?” It’s […]

  • Two Door County Nonprofits Receive Cellcom Green Gifts

    Cellcom has put recycled cell phones to work for the local community. The local wireless company has selected 22 nonprofits to receive $37,800 in Green Gifts, which uses money generated from its handset recycling program to annually fund green nonprofit initiatives. Two Door County nonprofits benefitted from the program, Crossroads at Big Creek and Open […]

  • Framed: Jack O’Lantern Days 2016

    Costumed revelers took over Fish Creek during last weekend’s Jack O’Lantern Days. Photo by Len Villano.

  • Baseball: America’s ‘Beautiful Game’

    By the time you read this baseball will have a new World Series champion. The Chicago Cubs and the Cleveland Indians are tied with three wins apiece as I write this, and game seven on Wednesday night promises to be historic, regardless of who wins. The Indians have not won a World Series since 1948, […]