Outdoor Adventures Movingly Chronicled in Sand, Stars, Wind, and Water: Field Notes from Up North
In 2011, Good Morning America viewers voted Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore the “Most Beautiful Place in America.” Long before that recognition occurred, Tim Mulherin, author of Sand, Stars, Wind, and Water: Field Notes from Up North, had been exploring the region – including Leelanau and Grand Traverse counties and other points north – as a frequent visitor. His writing tells of his love of the area and its people, and serves as an encouragement to visitors to respect this national treasure.
As well, the book is a meditation on an enduring decades-long friendship that developed through countless outdoor diversions: hiking and cross-country skiing on woodland trails, dune climbing, trout fishing, sailing across Lake Michigan to camp on South Manitou and Garden islands, kayaking crystalline waters of local lakes and rivers, driving scenic M-22, and savoring downtime on Lake Michigan beaches. It’s also a commentary on invasive species – both aquatic and human.
Anyone who has visited this special place – or plans to – as well as local natives and transplants will find Mulherin’s writing a thoughtful and amusing representation of what being “Up North” is really all about.
Praise for Tim's Essays
“Some can visit a place a thousand times and never get to know it, while others go deeper, beyond the tourist lookouts and marked trails, until they’ve learned the place by heart. Tim Mulherin is one of the latter. He ‘gets’ northwest lower Michigan, and his book is a rich and entertaining celebration of it.” – Jerry Dennis, author of The Living Great Lakes and Up North in Michigan: A Portrait of Place in Four Seasons
“Tim Mulherin takes us on a memorable walk through one of the most beautiful places in America, a place he cherishes and honors with acute observation. In telling his tales of Leelanau, he gets the biggest issue of all – the need to live with respect for the water and all living things. In accessible prose he teaches, delights, and entertains. – Dave Dempsey, author of The Heart of the Lakes: Freshwater in the Past, Present, and Future of Southeast Michigan and Great Lakes for Sale
“In this next best thing to an actual visit, readers will find good company. Tim Mulherin’s amiable, intelligent, affectionate essays evoke the pleasure and interest to be found Up North as it is now, tourist throngs and quagga mussels notwithstanding. In Sand, Stars, Wind, and Water: Field Notes from Up North, Mulherin, a Hoosier visitor, offers a personal, intently observed collection of experiences in a place that so many, however long they may stay, do love.” – Stephanie Mills, author of Tough Little Beauties and Epicurean Simplicity
“Tim Mulherin’s love of the place is expressed in just the right way: by writing to the senses. I’d been there often, decades ago, but as I read, I returned, feeling the sun-hot sand and the water-cooled breeze, smelling fish cooking over a driftwood fire, hearing mosquitoes whine outside the sleeping bag on Manitou Island, feeling my legs pumping to get me to the top of Sleeping Bear Dune without stopping, squinting at that glittering road of afternoon light stretched across Lake Michigan. I read his words, breathe deep, and I’m there again.”
– James Alexander Thom, author of Follow the River and Panther in the Sky
“To read Tim Mulherin is to be informed, entertained, and challenged. It’s rare that one book can do all that, but Sand, Stars, Wind, and Water: Field Notes from Up North achieves all three and more. – Philip Gulley, author of the Porch Talk and Harmony series
“Anyone who’s ever had a face-to-face connection with nature, or a passing interest in the Lake Michigan wilds on the Leelanau Peninsula, will relish Tim Mulherin’s Sand, Stars, Wind, and Water: Field Notes from Up North. With captivating use of word and language – and an engaging blend of personal recollections – Mulherin brings readers up close and personal with the region’s people, places, and nature, from Sleeping Bear Dunes through Leland, past Lake Leelanau to Traverse City. Whether he’s recounting tales about bobcat cubs, Petoskey stones, or the invasive Asian carp, Mulherin’s love of place resounds through every syllable.” – Steven Higgs, author of A Guide to Natural Areas of Southern Indiana and A Guide to Natural Areas of Northern Indiana
“‘We are born to love the planet,’ so says Tim Mulherin, and I agree with him. Indulge yourself in a little northern Michigan planet love with this vibrant collection of essays.” – Heather Shumaker, author of Saving Arcadia: A Story of Conservation and Community in the Great Lakes