You're here: MibSAR :: Michael Neiger's Bio

Michael Neiger's Biography

Personal

Professional

Media Inquires & Reality TV

Search and Rescue Publications Education

Facebook & Blog

Teaching

Wilderness Expeditions

Speaking Gear Field-Testing Favorites: Kit, Skills, Wildlife
  Donations  

It is life near the bone,
where it is the sweetest.

-- Henry D. Thoreau, 1817-1862
Walden: Conclusion, 1856

 


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Personal

 
 

Michael Neiger
Marquette, Michigan

Forty-below standing temps (not windchill) frost-up Michael's timber wolf fur ruff on a 120-mile solo ski expedition to the Arctic Ocean in Canada

  Seek not the wilderness trip of a lifetime,
but a lifetime of wilderness tripping.

-- Michael's credo

Michael Neiger lives along the south shore of Lake Superior in Marquette, Michigan.

He was born in Petoskey, Michigan in 1953, and has two brothers and one sister

Before he moved to Marquette with his family in 1959, he lived in Pellston, Michigan, just south of the Mackinac Bridge..

When he's not in the bush on a wilderness expedition or SAR mission, he enjoys blogging, brushing up on his bush skills, working on his kit, pouring over detailed quads and satellite images in anticipation of an upcoming expedition or mission, and staying in deployment-ready physical and mental condition.

Michael Neiger's favorite gym to pump iron in is Joe's Gym -- a.k.a. 'The Strength of the North' -- in Marquette, Michigan

Michael enjoys long-distance endurance workouts and has completed a number marathons and ultra-marathons in the Midwest.

 

His longest footrace to-date was a 100-kilometer (62-mile) race from Gaylord to Mackinaw City in Michigan's Northern Lower Peninsula.

His current workout regimen includes a lot of cross training. Six days a week, you'll likely find him running in the dirt or cross-training in Northern Michigan University's (NMU) Physical Education Instructional Facility (PEIF):

  • Swimming a mile in the pool
  • Pumping iron and core strengthening in the weight room
  • Spinning intervals on a stationary bike
  • Cranking an arm-leg aerobic trainer
  • Working a rowing machine

Michael Neiger working his way up the Kennicott Glacier, on his way to the old, abandoned, Kennicott Copper Mine in the Alaskan bush.

Remember that one man [woman] is much the same as another,
and that he [she] is best who is trained in the severest school.

-- Thucydides, Greek General, 460-400 B.C. History of the Peloponnesian War

 


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Professional

 
 

Michigan Department of State Police (MSP) patch

   
 
  Michael working an all-nighter at an exhumation crime scene. (Photo by his unflappable partner, D/Sgt. Tom Heslip)
   
 
  The Crime Laboratory Update, founded and edited by Michael Neiger
   

Michael Neiger served 26 years as an enlisted officer with the Michigan Department of State Police (MSP).

As a State Police Trooper, he was stationed at the Manistique Post in Manistique, Michigan as well as the Metro-Detroit Freeway Post in downtown Detroit, Michigan.

As a Det./Sgt., he was stationed at two forensic crime labs in the Metro-Detroit area as well as a forensic crime lab in Marquette, Michigan.

His career with the Michigan State Police was spent documenting, processing, and analyzing physical evidence, either in a forensic laboratory setting or out in the field, while investigating major crime scenes involving:

  • Multiple-victim murders,
  • Shootings,
  • Stabbings,
  • Bank robberies,
  • Hostage situations,
  • Kidnappings,
  • Extortions,
  • Bombings,
  • Public corruption,
  • Rapes,
  • Assaults,
  • Counterfeiting,
  • Smuggling,
  • Burglaries,
  • Thefts,
  • and Prison crimes.

Michael's work product -- physical evidence; digital evidence; detailed evidence-analysis reports; comprehensive crime scene reports; photographs; crime scene drawings; notes, sketches, and drawings; and expert-witness testimony -- has been admitted into evidence in 100s of felony prosecutions in a wide range of court systems including:

  • US Federal Court,
  • Michigan Circuit Court,
  • Michigan District Court,
  • Michigan Probate Court,
  • Wayne County Recorders Court,
  • and the Canadian Provincial Court.

Michael Neiger alongside his Michigan State Police patrol car, which is equipped with a push-bar to quickly clear disabled or wrecked vehicles and trucks from Metro Detroit's clogged freeways.

 

When you're receiving flak,
you're probably over the target.

-- Anonymous

 


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Media & Reality TV Inquiries

Note to reality TV producers: Michael Neiger does not participate in shows chasing down conspiracy theories, UFOs, aliens, holes in the earth swallowing up missing persons, Big Foot, and other similar programming, even at $30,000 for 8 weeks of filming.

He can be contacted via email at mneiger@hotmail.com.

 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   

Michael Neiger has worked with select magazine and book authors, news reporters, investigative journalists, reality TV producers, and networks in the United States, Canada, and Europe that have demonstrated a passion for advocating on behalf of the missing and the murdered, including:

  • Crime Watch Daily with Chris Hansen,
  • A+E's Crime & Investigation Channel,
  • ABC 20/20
  • Snapped,
  • Oxygen Network,
  • Discovery Network,
  • ID: Investigation Discovery,
  • Netflix,
  • NBC Fear Factor,
  • DPI Productions,
  • Punched Productions,
  • 9 &10 News (CBS),
  • WJMN (CBS),
  • Mining Journal (Marquette, Michigan),
  • Back Roads Entertainment,
  • Detroit Free Press (Detroit, Michigan),
  • Lark Productions,
  • TV 6 (NBC),
  • Maverick TV,
  • Prometheus Entertainment,
  • Double Act Productions,
  • Mining Gazette (Houghton, Michigan),
  • Brian Catalina Entertainment,
  • JWM Productions,
  • Pitch 5 Productions,
  • 44 Blue Productions,
  • Magilla TV,
  • WBUP (ABC),
  • M. William Phelps,
  • Recoil OffGrid Magazine
  • Society Magazine (Paris, France)
  • AGC Studios,
  • First Look TV
  • MEL Magazine (Los Angeles, California),
  • Brave Planet Films (Boulder, Colorado)
  • Home Box Office (HBO)
   
 
  The 2020 The Cold Vanish, by critically acclaimed author and journalist Jon Billman, takes an in-depth look at the people who vanish in the wilderness without a trace, and those eccentric, determined characters who try to find them. One chapter in this book is dedicated to Michael Neiger's long-term-missing (LTM) investigative work, and another chapter delves into one of his long-running LTM cases: the mysterious disappearance of Michael Linklater, a Cree trapper who went missing on the muskeg along the Arctic Ocean coast in 2003.
   
 
  The 2018 Where Monsters Hide: Sex, Murder, and Madness in the Midwest book, by New York Times best-selling investigative reporter and star of Investigation Discovery’s "Dark Minds" M. William Phelps, chronicles the 2014 Chris Regan murder and dismemberment investigation, including Michael Neiger's role in helping unwind and solve this serial-killer case, one of his signature cases.
   
 
  The 2018 Cold From The Inside book, by true-crime author MJ Dulmage, looks at the 2014 murder and dismemberment of Chris Regan in Iron River, Michigan, and includes Michael Neiger's role in helping unwind and solve this serial-killer case, one of his signature cases.
   
 
  The 2013 issue of Explore Magazine featured Vanishing Point, an investigation by Michael Neiger in remote Canadian bush
   
 
  The 2012 and 2016 issues of Explore Magazine featured Missing In Temagami: An Unsolved Myster, and Requiem for Daniel Trask: After 3.5 Years of Searching, the Mysterious Case of a Missing Man in Northern Ontario is Finally Solved, a years long investigation by Michael Neiger in remote Canadian bush
   
 
  Michael Neiger contributed material to Outside Magazine for the 2017 Outside Exclusive entitled Lost in the Wild: How 1,600 People Went Missing Without a Trace.
   
 
  Missing 411 Canada: Unexplained Disappearances, by David Paulides, features several of Michael investigations
   
 
  Missing 411 North America and Beyond: Stories of People Who Have Disappeared in Remote Locations of North America and Five Other Countries, features several of Michael investigations
   

Michael's investigations of unsolved long-term-missing cases and cold-case homicides has been covered by New York publishing houses and national magazines.

His work on long-term-missing cases in the remote bush of the United States and Canada is covered in detail in critically acclaimed author and journalist Jon Billman's 2020 book entitled, The Cold Vanish.

Billman dedicates a chapter to Michael's long-term-missing (LTM) work, and another chapter to one of his intriguing investigations, the mysterious disappearance of Michael Linklater, a Cree trapper who went missing in 2003 on the muskeg near the coast of the Arctic Ocean.

Michael contributed material to a 2018 book about one his signature cases -- the Kelly Cochran serial-killer investigation. Entitled, Where Monsters Hide: Sex, Murder, and Madness in the Midwest, it was authored by M. William Phelps, a New York Times bestselling investigative journalist, author of over 30 books, and star of Investigation Discovery’s "Dark Minds."

He also contributed material to true-crime author MJ Dulmage's 2018 book -- Cold From The Inside -- detailing the 2014 murder and dismemberment of Chris Regan in Iron River, Michigan.

In 2017, Michael contributed material to Outside Magazine for an Outside Exclusive entitled Lost in the Wild: How 1,600 People Went Missing Without a Trace.

His cases have also been featured on the Missing 911 Project — videos and books — by David Paulides

Those who can,
...do.
Those who can do more,
...volunteer.

-- Anonymous

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Search and Rescue

 
 

Michigan Backcountry Search and Rescue (MibSAR)
Long Range Special Operations Group (LRSOG)

   
 
  The National Association for Search and Rescue (NASAR)
   
 
  Wilderness Medical Associates International (WMAI)
   

Michael Neiger has multiple certifications from the National Association for Search and Rescue (NASAR), including the SAR Tech I and Crew Leader certifications -- the top, two, field-deployable, search-and-rescue certifications offered by NASAR.

He is currently the Lead Investigator with Michigan Backcountry Search and Rescue's (MibSAR's) Long Range Special Operations Group (LRSOG), which is based in Marquette, Michigan.

Through his SOG, Michael investigates long-term-missing (LTM) cases and cold-case homicides in the bush between the Upper Great Lakes and the Arctic Ocean in Canada.

He is certified in Wilderness First Aid (WFA) by Wilderness Medical Associates International (WMAI) in Portland, Maine.

Because the search must continue,
...so loved ones aren't left behind.

-- Team MibSAR's credo

 

Michael is the author of the Missing-Person Sourcebook: Strategies & Tactics for Finding Your Missing or Murdered Loved One From the World’s Top Experts, an exhaustive, 22-chapter, how-to E-book for families with missing or murdered loved ones.

Missing-Person Sourcebook: Strategies & Tactics for Finding Your Missing or Murdered Loved One From the World’s Top Experts, edited by Michael Neiger, Michigan Backcountry Search and Rescue (MibSAR), Revised & Expanded 2021
 

 

 

 

 
 

A poster designed and printed by Michael Neiger on an FBI bank robbery case in the Western Upper Peninsula of Michigan

   
 
  A poster designed by Michael Neiger for the Ada Quintal case in the Northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan
In support of criminal investigations, he designs social-media-friendly wanted posters as well as builds and hosts investigative websites.

Similarly, in support of long-term-missing cases, Michael designs social-media-friendly missing-person posters as well as builds and hosts investigative websites.

  • More of Michael's posters and websites

All of his searches, investigations, consults, investigative or missing-person websites and posters, consults, and work products are free of charge to families of victims and law enforcement agencies, as are his wilderness skills classes and wilderness trips.

 
 
 

 

 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
Michael is, or has been, affiliated with the following professional organizations:
  • National Association for Search and Rescue (NASAR),
  • National Association of Law Enforcement Trackers (NALET)
  • International Society of Professional Trackers (ISPT),
  • International Homicide Investigators Association (IHIA),
  • International Crime Scene Investigation Association (ICSIA),
  • International Association of Cold Case Investigators (IACCI),
  • American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS),
  • and International Association for Identification (IAI).

Since founding MibSAR in 2008, he has organized and led 100s of search-and-rescue operations and criminal investigations for victim's families as well as:

  • City law enforcement agencies,
  • Township law enforcement agencies,
  • County sheriff's,
  • the Michigan State Police (MSP),
  • the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI),
  • the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF),
  • and The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) in Canada.

Some people dream of worthy accomplishments,
others stay awake and do them.

-- Anonymous


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Publications

 
  The Michigan State Police (MSP) Crime Laboratory Update, founded and edited by Michael Neiger
   
 
  Missing-Person Sourcebook: Strategies & Tactics for Finding Your Missing or Murdered Loved One From the World’s Top Experts, edited by Michael Neiger, Michigan Backcountry Search and Rescue (MibSAR), Revised & Expanded 2021
   
 
  Michael Neiger contributed technical land navigation narrative and graphics to Eduardo Abril de Fontcuberta's 2017 sniper training manual entitled 100-Plus Sniper Exercises: Long-Range, Close-Range, Complex, and Nonshooting Training for the Professional Sniper and Competitive Shooter.
   
 
  Michael Neiger contributed U.S. Ranger pace-counting-bead material to Valerio Romano's and Martina Sartorifor's 2019 book entitled Ranger Beads.
   

Michael enjoys writing and research. During his career with the Michigan State Police, Michael founded and edited the Crime Laboratory Update (CLU)

A forensic-oriented print publication, it was read by 100s of prosecutors, medical examiners, law enforcement administrators, criminal justice professors, detectives, federal agents, and officers across northern Michigan.

He authored the Missing-Person Sourcebook: Strategies & Tactics for Finding Your Missing or Murdered Loved One From the World’s Top Experts, an exhaustive, 22-chapter, how-to E-book for families with missing or murdered loved ones.

Michael has contributed technical land navigation narrative and graphics -- from his exhaustive primers on the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) coordinate system and Map Datums -- to Eduardo Abril de Fontcuberta's 2017 sniper training manual entitled 100-Plus Sniper Exercises: Long-Range, Close-Range, Complex, and Nonshooting Training for the Professional Sniper and Competitive Shooter.

Eduardo trains NATO Special Forces sniper instructors and is co-author of the Spanish-language version of The Ultimate Sniper: An Advanced Training Manual for Military and Police Snipers.

Michael also contributed U.S. Ranger pace-counting-bead material to Valerio Romano's and Martina Sartorifor's 2019 book entitled Ranger Beads.

 

   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   

A prolific freelance writer, his wilderness-skills columns and outdoor-related articles have been published in a wide variety of publications including the:

  • Detroit Free Press (Detroit, Michigan),
  • Michigan Out-of-Doors (Lansing, Michigan),
  • Marquette Monthly (Marquette, Michigan),
  • Silent Sports (Green Bay, Wisconsin),
  • Mining Journal (Marquette, Michigan),
  • Upper Michigan Outdoor Journal (Escanaba, Michigan),
  • Solar Ray (Redford, Michigan),
  • The Mackinac (Lansing, Michigan)
  • and The Muir View (Madison, Wisconsin).
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   

Michael also writes detailed, map-based, guidebooks, and has published several national park and state park books:

  • Exploring Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore — East,
  • Exploring Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore — West,
  • Exploring Grand Island National Recreation,
  • Exploring Tahquame-non Falls State Park,
  • Exploring Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore — South,
  • Exploring Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore — North,
  • Exploring Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park (fieldwork and mapping completed),
  • Exploring Seney National Wildlife Refuge (fieldwork and mapping underway),
  • Exploring the Algoma Central Railway (fieldwork and mapping completed).

His Upper Great Lakes-area hiking guidebooks are available on Amazon.

Wisdom has two parts:
having a lot to say, and not saying it.

-- Anonymous

 


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Education

 
 

Northern Michigan University (NMU)
Marquette, Michigan

   
 
  Wayne State University (WSU)
Detroit, Michigan

Michael Neiger graduated from Marquette Senior High School in Marquette, Michigan.

He completed his undergraduate studies at Northern Michigan University (NMU) in Marquette, Michigan, where he received his A.S. and B.S. degrees.

Michael completed his graduate work at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, where he received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees.

 

 

 

In the school of the woods there is no graduation day.
-- Horace Kephart, 1917

 


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Facebook

 
  Michael Neiger's Facebook page
   

Michael Neiger is on Facebook.

To learn more about Team MibSAR and it's on-going search-and-rescue operations, murder investigations, blog posts, Canadian training expeditions, free wilderness skills classes and trips, and services available free of charge to family's of the missing and murdered, follow him on Facebook.

Blog

 
  Michael Neiger's "Spec Ops Blog," an international special operations blog for SAR operators worldwide
   

Michael Neiger also authors the Spec Ops Blog, an international special operations blog for SAR operators across the globe.

 

Great minds discuss ideas.
Average minds discuss events.
Small minds discuss people.

-- Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, 1884-1962
Civil rights advocate, author, speaker, politician, activist, humanitarian, & diplomat Wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt

 


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Instruction

 
  Michael Neiger teaches an annual 3-day wilderness land navigation class for Woodsmoke Expeditions and Michigan Backcountry Search and Rescue.
   
 
  Michael Neiger teaches an annual 2-day wilderness survival class for Woodsmoke Expeditions and Michigan Backcountry Search and Rescue.
   
 
  Michael creating fire-by-friction with a bow, drill, socket, hearth, and tinder, all of which were gathered and fashioned in the bush, on a canoe trip down the Fox River, south of Seney, Michigan.
   
 
  A brush hut constructed in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan on one of Michael's wilderness trips
   

Michael Neiger teaches annual 3-day wilderness land navigation classes and 2-day winter wilderness survival classes for Woodsmoke Expeditions and Michigan Backcountry Search and Rescue.

He has also taught survival and winter camping classes for the:

  • Boy Scouts of America,
  • Northern Michigan University (NMU),
  • School for Outdoor Leadership, Adventure, and Recreation (SOLAR),
  • the Marquette County Sheriffs Office (MCSO's) Special Operations Division,
  • and the City of Marquette's Peter White Public Library (PWPL)

He's helped train and outfit members of two North Pole expeditions, and l teaches free, periodic, wilderness skills classes through the City of Marquette's Peter White Public Library (PWPL) as well as to groups across the Upper Peninsula. To learn more about his free classes, visit Team MibSAR's Free Wilderness Skills Classes webpage and Facebook page.

Learn as if you were going to live forever.
Live as if you were going to die tomorrow.

-- Anonymous

 


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Wilderness Expeditions

 
  Michael is certified as a Level 1 Professional Guide with the Wilderness Guides Association (WGA)
   
 
  Michael is certified as an OLT 101 trip leader with the Sierra Club
   
 
  Michael learned many of his wilderness skills early in life with his brother Dave at his dad's log cabin on Long Lake in Ontario, Canada. (Pastel by his sister, Susan Neiger Roubal)
   
 
  Michael Neiger working the Canadian Bush with a map and compass
   
 
  Twin moose calves on one of Michael's paddling trips down a Canadian river
   
 
  Michael swimming across a pond with his rucksack
   
 
  Woodsmoke Expeditions
   

Michael Neiger was introduced to the bush and wilderness tripping as a young boy by his parents, Arthur and Virginia, who were avid, outdoors-oriented individuals.

Thanks to his upbringing, he enjoys wilderness trips and expeditions in Michigan, Canada, and Alaska.

Since 1984, Michael has organized and led 100's of backpacking, canoing, mountain biking, skiing, snowshoeing, winter-camping, and caving trips and expeditions in the bush between the Upper Great Lakes and the Arctic Ocean in Canada. Along the way, he has accumulated 1,000s of bag nights.

He has paddled solo along a 360-mile route from the Lake Superior area to the Arctic Ocean in Canada.

Michael has paddled dozens of other remote Canadian rivers as well as the remote north shore of Lake Superior twice.

In addition to skiing solo -- without resupply or support -- along a 120-mile route from the end of the northernmost plowed road in Ontario, Canada to Lower Hudson Bay on the Arctic Ocean, he has completed five other expeditions to the Arctic Ocean on either skis or snowshoes as of 2019.

Michael is certified as a Level 1 Professional Guide with the Wilderness Guides Association (WGA).

He is also certified as an OLT 101 trip leader with the Sierra Club.

To learn more about Michael's trips and expeditions, visit Woodsmoke Expeditions' webpage and Facebook page.

   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   

His wilderness trips and expeditions have been featured by a number of media outlets:

  • Detroit Free Press (Detroit, Michigan),
  • Michigan Out-of-Doors (Lansing, Michigan),
  • Grand Rapids Press (Grand Rapids, Michigan),
  • Marquette Monthly (Marquette, Michigan,
  • and WLUC TV-6 (NBC).

 

The best way to convince people to defend the wild areas is to take them out and let them see wild splendor for themselves.
-- John Muir 1838-1914
Also known as the Father of the National Parks, Muir was an influential Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, glaciologist, and early advocate for the preservation of wilderness in the United States of America.

 


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Speaking

 
  CanoeCopia at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, Wisconsin
   
 
 

Midwest Mountaineering Outdoor Adventure Expo at University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota

   
 
  Quiet Adventures Symposium at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan
   
 
  The Winter Camping Symposium at the YMCA's Camp Miller in Sturgeon Lake, Minnesota
   
 
  Pigeon River Country Discovery Center, Pigeon River Country State Forest, Vandebilt, Michigan
   
 
  Hartwick Pines State Park, Visitor Center Auditorium, Grayling, Michigan
   
 
  The USFS Clear Lake Education Center in Shingleton, Michigan
   
 
  The Upper Peninsula Environmental Coalition
   
 
  The Northern Center for Lifelong Learning at Northern Michigan University, Marquette, Michigan
   
 
  Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park Folk School, Ontonagon, Michigan
   

Michael Neiger has spoken at numerous symposiums, epxos, and education centers:

  • Canoe-Copia at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, Wisconsin
  • Midwest Mountain-eering Outdoor Adventure Expo at University of Minnesota in Minne-apolis, Minnesota
  • Quiet Adventures Symposium at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan
  • The Winter Camping Symposium at the YMCA's Camp Miller in Sturgeon Lake, Minnesota
  • Pigeon River Country Discovery Center, Pigeon River Country State Forest, Vandebilt, Michigan
  • Hartwick Pines State Park, Visitor Center Auditorium, Grayling, Michigan
  • The USFS Clear Lake Education Center in Shingleton, Michigan
  • The Upper Peninsula Environ-mental Coalition
  • The Northern Center for Lifelong Learning at Northern Michigan University
  • Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park Folk School

 

 

It is every man’s obligation
to put back into the world
at least the equivalent of
what he takes out of it.

-- Albert Einstein, 1879-1955, German-born, Nobel Prize-winning American theoretical physicist who developed the general theory of relativity, and is regarded as the most famous scientist in human history


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Favorites: Skills, Kit, & Wildlife

There's no such thing as bad weather,
only wrong clothes.

-- Anonymous

Campfire: Seminole

A 2-day perpetual fire and billy tripod Michael used when a big blow delayed paddling along the north shore of Lake Superior in Canada.
 

 

Snowshelter: Trench with improv roof 

A snow trench Michael constructed with block walls and bough roof.
 

 

Activity: Long-range, off-trail land navigation and shed collecting

Michael with a moose shovel (shed) found in the Canadian bush, east of the Agawa Canyon, on the way to the seldom-visited Austin Lake Fire Tower
 
An elk shed Michael found on a paddling trip down a Michigan river

 

Expedition rucksack: Heavily-retroed Lowe Alpine Expedition

One of Michael's custom-made expedition rucks.
 

 

Expedition shelter: 10' by 10' sil-nylon tarp

Michael's handmade explorer-style tarp bivy shelter
 

 

Water treatment: Portable Aqua iodine tablets

Summer expedition bedrolll: Plus-20 North Face Cat's Meow in bug bivouac sack

Michael's summer bivy system
 
Synthetic underwear: Patagonia Capilene

Bush cargo pants: RailRiders VersaTac Pants

RailRiders VersaTac Pants (the Ultra-Light version is Michael's favorite for hot weather)
 

 

3-season recon stove: Esbit NATO pocket stove with hexamine solid-fuel tablets

Biting-insect repellent: Muskol 100% DEET, permethrin, & a Native-American smudge

Michael smudging in the Canadian bush during a river canoe trip
 

 

Lock-blade folder: Swiss Army Outrider pocket knife

Big-bellied bowie knife: Marine Raider Bowie

Michael's 15-inch Marine Raider Bowie
 

 

Expeditioning boots: All-leather Asolo TPS 520 GV evo

All-leather off-trail hiking boots by Asolo
 

 

Big-bore tactical sidearm: Glock .40 caliber 

Glock .40-caliber Model 22 pistol
 

 

Foul-weather rain gear: North Face Gore-tex
Winter expedition stove: MSR XGK-II shakerjet

Arctic expedition over-suit: NOLS North Ridge Expedition parka and pants

Michael's original Fat Suit, from NOLS.
 

 

Arctic expedition wind suit: U.S. Military Extended Cold Weather Clothing System (ECWCS) GEN II PCU shell parka and shell pants

Michael's US Military ECWCS expeditioning shell system
 

 

Winter expedition footwear: Handmade mukluks with 18 mm wool felt liners

Michael's hand-made, moose-hide mukluks with breathable nylon uppers, 18-mm double felt liners, and 18-mm double felt insoles
 

 

Expedition snowshoes: 12" by 60 " Alaskan style

Michael's Alaskan high-float expedition snowshoes
 

 

Winter expedition bedroll: Minus-40 North Face Dark Star with over-bag in a bivouac sack

Michael's arctic bivy system
 

 

Baseplate compass: Silva 54 Combi

Michael's prism-sighting Silva compass
 

 

Wrist compass: Custom-made, wrist-mounted Sunnto baseplate compass

Michael's custom wrist-mounted compass
 

 

SERE compass: Francis Barker Model 1605 NATO SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape) brass-and-glass button compass

Michael's favorite SERE button compass
 

 

Pacing system: U.S. Army Ranger pace-counting beads

Michael's custom-made U.S. Army Ranger pacing beads
 

 

Expeditioning canoe: 14' Mohawk Odyssey

Michael's 14' Mohawk Odyssey going up a Canadian river.
 

 

Flat-water paddle: 50" Barton carbon fiber bent-shaft
Heavy-water paddle: 58" Bob Foote

Fish: Brook trout

Michael with a freshly-caught brook trout on a paddling trip down a Canadian river
 

 

Raptor: Bald eagle

Predator: Timber wolf

A timber wolf that visited Michael's bivy site during a Canadian paddling trip along the North Shore of Lake Superior
 

 

Big-game: Moose

A moose in velvet on one of Michael's canoe trips in the Canadian bush.

 

 

Bush pastel: Miners Castle
Lake Superior Shoreline pastel by Susan Neiger Roubal, Michael's wonderfully-talented sister.
 
Nature never deceives us;
it is always we who deceive ourselves.

-- Jean J. Rousseau, 1712-1778, Emile, 1762

 


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Donations

 

Michael Neiger DOES NOT collect rewards and DOES NOT accept donations for his work -- if you want to support the search-and-rescue community, please donate to your local, regional, national, or international SAR team, or to Team MibSAR's home team: the Marquette County Search and Rescue (MCSAR) unit at the Marquette County Sheriff's Office (MCSO):




People who say it cannot be done,
should not interrupt those who are doing it.

-- Author unknown




If you've been able to read this
Web page...
thank a Teacher;
If you've been able to read this
Web page in English...
thank a Veteran
.
-- Author unknown


Copyright © 1984-2020 by Michael A. Neiger

Contact Michael Neiger via e-mail at mneiger@hotmail.com

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