My Story

My name is Forest and I started the Hemlocks & Loons YouTube channel to share my outdoor adventures in the Northwoods of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota. The main focus of the channel is canoeing and canoe camping. I additionally share other camping trips, hiking, knots, gear, planning, and more.

I grew up in the city but family camping trips and Boy Scouts invited me into the outdoors and grew a passion that would be further grown through college. I attended an outdoor oriented college and took a semester long (88 days) National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) course.

I choose a career in natural resources and found that I had lost my want and need for recreational time in the outdoors due to the fact that I was spending so much time in the outdoors at work. My work has transitioned to more of an office job and I found that I wanted to spend more of my personal time outdoors. 

I purchased a new Northstar, Northwind Solo canoe in early March 0f 2022. It took nearly 2 months for the ice to melt and for me to finally get the boat into the water. I decided to take my old GoPro camera and my cell phone and filmed that first adventure. I originally edited and posted the video for friends and family to see. 

As I looked to YouTube for additional ideas of places to explore, I found that there was a lack of videos that covered the areas that I wanted to visit. So I decided that I would share the adventures that I took and the skills that I have learned.

If you have not yet visited my channel, please visit it here and consider subscribing.