University of Minnesota – Duluth students in David Beard’s Minnesota Writers class interviewed local writers and wrote spotlight articles that we will showcase in the coming months.

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There is nothing quite like the absolutely engulfing nature of the endless trees and crystal-clear lakes that make up Minnesota’s Boundary Waters. The Boundary Waters Canoe Area encapsulates the essence of a Minnesotan getaway. It’s the kind of place that would make a professor leave their job of 15 years, and that’s exactly what Professor Shane Semmler did when he moved from the University of South Dakota and came to the University of Minnesota Duluth. In fact, his love for the Boundary Waters drove all of his major career decisions. But it wasn’t always like this.

In his youth, Shane was fairly disconnected from the outdoors, only seeing it as another place to hang out with his friends. But when college rolled around, he went on a trip to the Great Smoky Mountains that would alter the course of his life. Though he’d seen pictures of the place before, nothing could recreate the awe he felt when he explored those mountains in-person, with the fog rolling in to make the world feel dense and unknowable one moment, then the fog rolling out to reveal countless sweeping hills. It was this moment that sparked his love for the outdoors. He immediately bought a backpacking guide, read it three times over, highlighted and annotated it, and within six months he was on a solo backpacking trip for the first time in his life. The three days he spent backpacking instantly became some of the favorite days of his life, and gave him the push he needed to propel him into a life of outdoor adventure.

Shane soon found himself going on countless trips, jumping at every opportunity he could to journey across more stretches of endless nature. He took more trips outdoors, hiking, canoeing, and camping. Though uncertainty still crept in his mind (whether he was truly a qualified backpacker), he continued to challenge himself.

The most important trip Shane had in his outdoor career was in this phase of his life. While still figuring out his limits, he decided to test his limits to the full extent and paddle 1,000 miles with a buddy of his. This was only his third canoe trip. Immersing himself in this journey for weeks on end is where he found his real calling in the outdoors: paddling.

Though Shane taught at the University of South Dakota as an associate professor, he couldn’t resist the pull of Minnesota. The pristine waters and endless woods, especially in the boundary waters, are perfect enough for the paddling he wants to do that he left his job of 15 years for a more freeing teaching job at the University of Minnesota Duluth, which gives him even more time to pursue his paddling over the summer when he isn’t actively working.

Shane’s love for the Boundary Waters extends beyond fulfilling his personal passions. He has always wanted to create art related to his hobby, and through his YouTube channel, he is able to share this passion with the world. His channel acts as a reflection of his teaching style. His most successful and personal favorite video, “Did Vikings Visit America?”, leads with a prompt, followed by a question, research, and then personally exploring the area to discover more about the question he proposed. His video ideas serve as justification for learning more about the Boundary Waters so he can educate himself and the greater world in an easily accessible format that will outlast him.

After making over a dozen videos, Shane now has his sights set on writing a book about a new concept he calls “thru paddling”, which combines thru hiking with canoeing. His goal is to give advice for thru paddling the Boundary Waters Canoe Area while also documenting his journey of doing just that, which will be accompanied by complementary videos to show what the adventure looks like in-person. He has wanted to paddle through the 1.1 million acre area for a long time now, and having a book and videos to record his journey has finally justified the idea enough for him to fully pursue it.

Personally, I fell in love with northern Minnesota the moment I first saw Duluth, and one of the major reasons I chose to pursue a degree in Duluth was because of the bountiful nature and extensive outdoor opportunities. Similarly to Shane, I had very little prior experience with hiking, backpacking, or anything of the sort before college, but Shane reassures me that experience is entirely unnecessary.

“Just go for it, man. Just do it.” Shane barely knew how to backpack before he committed to soloing the Smoky Mountains for three days. He didn’t know if he could do 1,000 miles by canoe on his third trip. What mattered was that he pushed himself to do more than he knew he could, and those experiences ended up not only providing him the skills needed to go on more outdoor adventures, but also became the most fulfilling experiences he had.

Shane is right. I didn’t think I could hike 30 miles in a single day, but just like him, I pushed myself further than I ever thought I was capable of, and created one of the most fulfilling experiences of my life. Whether it’s trying to immerse yourself in the vast world of the outdoors, starting a YouTube channel to share your passion with the world, or trying to complete the incredibly lengthy process of writing a book, Shane himself puts it best: “You’ll find that you’re much more capable than you think you can be.”

Kevin Beyer grew up in Lakeville, Minnesota, alongside his three awesome siblings. He can be found either hiking the scenic trails of the North Shore, or furiously coding his next video game behind his laptop screen. He is famous among his peers for Lasso Legends, his first finished small game, for its intuitive mechanics and short development time. He is also known for the two-player combat spaceship game Space Strikers, the tactical strategy crossover game Cardiators, and the fast-paced duel game Space Fighter III Third Strike. His most notable work, Reign of The Only One, was his first publicly accessible video game, featuring his unique take on turn-based combat that he forged from years of experience with his siblings;  it was created in just three weeks. He is currently working on Lasso Legends 2, his most ambitious project yet, taking the original Lasso Legends and turning it into a full-fledged store-page game. His games bring people in his life together, and the ones he creates in the rest of his career will hopefully bring other people around the world together, too.