Seeing Ryeman's recent post reminded me of something I've been meaning to do for a while... Who knows, this might be even better.

To make a short story long, somewhere on QJ is a form where visitors can submit links to other sites that they feel would interest fellow BW/Q travelers. Unfortunately every one of the submissions I've received from it to date are strictly commercial (come hither) sites. Not exactly what I had in mind for QJ.

This site's main purpose is to conjure memories and to learn by sharing. Very different from making a buck by crowding the place I love most by inviting an even larger number of people to visit. (at least in my mind) That little corner of the world is suppose to be our little secret. QJ does not, I hope, invite more people to go, ideally it helps those that will anyway, go smarter; and those who can't, remember past trips.

With that in mind, here are a few ~personal sites I can think of off the top of my head that I think are worth a look if you haven't visited before.

http://www.cjnetworks.com/~ryeman/
http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/Rapids/8585/choice.html
http://www.execpc.com/~jhegyi/canoe.html
http://www.lhrimages.com/pictures/
http://www.rook.org/earl/bwca/

They represent a whole lot of time and effort, and are based on a similar passion. Yours to enjoy if you haven't already.

There are many others hidden somewhere in my bookmarks. Most are intended for each author's family and friends. My memory is bad and my bookmarks are way out of control. If you have a site that falls into that category, please excuse me and post 'em here with my thanks. Even if their not your personal sites but you think other QJ visitors would like to see them - post the URL and a little description. This is a cautious invitation. Use your brain. Be assured if I feel they cross my selfish line, (third paragraph) or are otherwise obviously inappropriate, they'll quietly disappear.

Sites posted don't need to be strictly BW/Q either. http://www.spaceweather.com/ is a good example of what one individual's particular point of skew can contribute. Everyone may not be impressed with your links, but a few will be forever grateful for your insight.

While double-checking the above links I was amazed at how totally different; how individual (personal) they were. I thought it funny since that's roughly how I imagine most of you... individuals who don't quite fit into anyone's cookie cutter. Judging by a normal site's stats, I swear QJ visitors don't have jobs... lives. People repeatedly spend hours at a time poking around.

If you really have some time to kill the MNDNR is a great resource. Start here. (it's storm damage satellite maps) http://www.ra.dnr.state.mn.us/bwca/sdav/bwca_tmc_init.html

I heard my first black capped chickadee singing yesterday. It won't be long 'till ice out - time to exercise a little longer/harder, continue planning, start packing,... if you're anything at all like me your journey has already begun.

Posted by db on April 06, 2001 at 17:30