BIG, BIG WATER 07/19/2010
 
We have big water in Michigan and our state has the most big water coastline than any of our other 49 states, including Alaska, Florida and California.  Our water is sweet!  No, really.  The great lakes used to be nicknamed "Sweetwater Seas" because they are fresh water and not salty.  We have no salt and no dangerous sea creatures or oil leaks.  We have great water for exploring, tour kayaking, boating, island adventures, kite boarding and other beach activities. 

Michigan has great wilderness areas with tons of preserved state and federal land for you to enjoy.  Our mountain bike trails are amazing and the inland lakes and rivers provide another option for enjoying rafting, kayaking or even whitewater adventures.

When parts of our country are suffering from stifling heat for the remainder of the summer and early fall, Michigan enjoys 80 degree temps in the day and down to the 60's in the evening.  Great sleeping weather!  If it rains or storms here, we use the time to unwind and relax as we watch the rain come in over the lake.  Read a book or take a nap and get ready for your next big adventure in our pristine environment.  We have it all, and especially the Big, Big Water.
 
 
Our Alpena, Michigan Thunder Hub is now open and it represents more than just a new business start-up.  For decades the northeast part of the lower pennisula of Michigan has been promoting themselves as a great escape and an untapped market for people wanting to get away and see things that are just not found anywhere else.  This area has geological wonders and contains hundreds of shipwrecks from long ago, both in shallow waters and in deep waters so that viewing can occur from the surface of the water in kayaks or while snorkeling, and as a scuba diving adventure for the deeper vessels.  

Our great state has much to offer, and this part of Michigan deserves recognition for being a focal point for adventure travellers who are looking for something new.  Our economy is a working class economy, and our tourism and natural resources provide a great way to help dig us out of a sluggish transition period.  Historically, Michigan's natural resources, it's minerals, forests and waterways provided our country the ability to become great, with the industrial revolution, manufacturing infrastructure, lumber to build housing for the poineers and upstart towns in early America. 

We can only apologize for the havoc that white settlers wreaked upon the native dwellers of this country.  the death and destruction is not soomething to be proud of.  We continue to reach out and mend fences and share our cultures for a better future.  Our native American brothers and sisters are important to us in Michigan, and our diverse cultures truly make Michigan a comfortable destination for any nationality or skin color.  We are proud and culturally diverse due to our working class history.

 If you want to do something special, come here and enjoy what we have to offer.  Let us treat you to a great time and help us in the process.

Everyone desrves the experience!   
 
 
I am looking forward to getting started in Alpena and Mackinac Island this June of 2010.  I have been working hard to get our shipwreck kayak tours put together so we can offer 7 to 10 scheduled departures per day this summer, departing from Alpena to our launch spots for glass bottom kayak tours of shipwrecks in shallow and very clear water.

I will be visiting Mackinac Island in the next few weeks to look at launch locations for Island Kayak tours and am excited to establish a Green Planet Extreme location on one of Michigan's most noted destinations. 

I just returned (last night) from a great family vacation to Mexico where we stayed at an all inclusive resort on the Mayan Riviera in Playa Del Carmen.  It was my first experience at an all-incusive (Sandos Caracol) and it was awesome. 

The older kids and I (5 of us) booked and went on an extreme adventure in the jungle.  We had to use ATV's to go over 7 kilometers into the jungle and do some jumping off cliffs into sink holes with caves. The jump was 32 feet and the water was pristine.  The sink hole goes down over 180 feet and scuba tours are also offered.  After our first jumping adventure, we went to our next stop to jump about 15 feet into another cave where we were able to zip line and swim around looking at the great cave structure.  The underground river and cave system in the Mayan area goes for over 50 kilometers and remains mostly unexplored.  WIthin 10 kilometers there is a Mayan village where there are no cars and the people are waiting for a road to be constructed so they can more easily get to their jobs.

We stopped at another "bat cave" and we able to view vampire bats in flight and have some awesome photos taken.  This stop also included a visit to a hut set up by some locals who let the kids play with a 5 month old raccoon type of animal and hold a boa constrictor snake around their necks and take some photos.  They explained that the snake had recently shed its skin so it wasn;t aggressive.  That was good to know.

Overall, I made some great connections in Mexico, both with guests from Canada and with Adventure Tour guides who reside in Mexico and have been guiding for a great number of years.  They want to visit Michigan next year on vacation and I offered to show them some great adventures in our home state. 

I believe that making connections like this is more important than anything that can be done over the internet.  Making friends and offering personal services is the best way to promote our state and the adventures that can be experienced.  Carlos our guide was very interested in experiencing our winter adventures such as igloo making and winter camping, winter rafting and snow shoeing.

As I continue to set up our adventures I will keep in mind that there are people all over the world who want to experience what Michigan has to offer.  Making their experience enjoyable is my goal and hopefully it will be rewarded by some people who are then willing to promote our adventures verbally to others.  Customer satisfaction and excellent experiences is the winning combination. 


 

 



 
 
 
This past week we at Green Planet Extreme helped to raise money for a variety of charities at Reno's Fire and Ice Fest in East Lansing. The charities included the Mid-Michigan Food Bank, the Red Cross, Operation Homefront and the Humane Society. The giving by our community was truly a great inspiration to me personally and gave us all a chance to come together to have some fun and contribute to great organizations.

We were extremely priviledged to give away 2 of our Bike-Row-Brew adventures and 2 of our Spank-Straddle-Pump packages as well. The priviledge was ours since it really helps to promote our business.  Much thanks to the awesome wait staff, bartenders and kitchen staff at Reno's for kicking some tail and working real hard. Jessie and her great team of General Managers, including Stephanie, who manages the East Lansing Reno's, made this event run like a top and should recieve recognition for their efforts.

Green living must include giving to others.  If people on earth were observed by a higher power, I would want the observation to be about our giving to others, not an observation of our explosions, nuclear or otherwise, as we angage in ongoing border conflicts. 

Also, our working class is under attack and it is real for those who are dealing with it.  Our working class have dealt with job loss, job reductions and complete upheaval of families and children.  I believe that the right way is NOT to go after the people who provide the services and work for our cities, townships, counties, communities, schools and state.  Just as is the case in the business world, in order to make a profit or be efficient, you need to cultivate a team to accomplish your objectives.  Cutting and slashing the police, firefighters, teachers, secretaries, cooks, cleaners, bus drivers, claims processers, grounds workers, parks workers and others not mentioned is not the way to recovery or success! 

Real reform must come from reversing the tax burden on the working class, reversing the tax cuts for the wealthy and extremely walthy, reversing the public perception of our service workers, reversing the way our working people are treated, reversing the ongoing disruptiveness of our funding system.  Wouldn't it be nice to mandate that schools, public safety entities and public health services be funded automatically at a guaranteed amount every year unless changed by a constitutional ammendment?  WE the people can make that happen with the right leadership and initiative.  For me, it is very tiresome to see schools and public services hang in the balance every year of every budget cycle.  The current regressive system is not good for kids, families or communities.

There, I got that off my chest.  I am sticking to it.  I believe in it.  I live it.  I work in it.  I want to change it.  Want to help?     

Kevin M. Karpinski, Owner & Operator
Green Planet Extreme Adventure Tours 
 
 
"Green" seems to be the catch phrase to pay attention to lately and everyone is using it to further their cause and make a good marketing impression. I want to explain to everyone that we are very serious about our role as stewards of our environment. We can all do a better job of re-using and re-cycling, and sometimes the recycling can even create a larger carbon footprint because what we are using is not as efficient as a more costly solution.  

An example is the use of gasoline vehicles. We are going to be operating used vehicles for shuttling equipment and supplies to and from the camps and trailheads. For this use, we will purchase carbon credits. For the transportation needs of our customers, we will be scheduling and using existing ground transportation services, many of whom are using clean fuels and higher gas mileage motor coaches. Indian Trails Motor Coach is the oldest motor coach business in the United States and they have three locations in Michigan. We will be using them for our transportation needs.

So, what does green tea have to do with this? I want to make a concious effort to drink and eat healthier, including having green tea. I want to be reponsible with our resources and try to recycle more and move to cleaner fuels when our economic situation as a business allows us to do so. This is important enough to me to keep communicating to you. Take care and go green....or at least try harder!

Kevin Karpinski

"Karpi-Diem"
 
 
I first began looking for a way to provide some work for my kids as they got older and went off to college, which will happen for my oldest beginning next school year in 2010.  Once I did the research and found some great areas to explore it all started to come together.  I know what our natural resources are all about here in Michigan.  All that you have to do is look at our geographical area and see the water ways, islands, shoreline and big, big water.  

I have been working on launching this business for the past 2 to 2-1/2 years by building up some partnerships and contacts throughout the state.  We have great people here and many of them have experienced the downturn in the economy more than once.  It seems sometimes that we in Michigan have been in a recession for the past 25-30 years with the loss of manufacturing jobs as industriies have whithered away and as many have movwed away in search of cheaper labor.  

What we know and what many do not see looking from the outside is our natural wonders and tremendous parks systems and trails.  Many seem to view Michigan with a horde of cars buzzing around polluting and destroying our environment.  That is the furthest from the truth.  Our image has been under repair for some time now and it is a goal of mine to contiinue promoting our state and the great adventure travel destination that is virtually untapped.  If you like adventure travel and want a new experience in a pristine environment, come to Michigan and book your adventure with Green Planet Extreme.  We are Michigan sons and daughters who want to share what we have and help our people recover from some pretty tough times. 

We are getting closer to December 21, 2012, when the Mayan calendar ends.  Some say it will be the end of the world, but I say that it will be about a renewal and the beginning of a new cycle.  We are trying to get a head start with the renewal part since we in Michigan always seem to be at the head of the table when the economy tanks.

So, whether we have only 2 years to enjoy life or if we will go through a renewal, why not enjoy your time right now.  Living is good.

We hope to see you soon.  Come shred your adventure with us!  

Kevin Karpinski, Co-Owner & Operations Dude
GREEN PLANET EXTREME ADVENTURE TOURS






 
 
CARBON CREDITS 12/31/2009
 
We at Green Planet Extreme Adventure Tours will be operating our business in the most efficient and eco-friendly way. Part of our challenge as we do so is that we will be using some gasoline operated vehicles until we can rotate them out of service and replace them with bio fuel or hybrid-electric vehicles that will leave less of a carbon footprint.  We will be purchasing Carbon Credits on the Chicago Exchange for each gasoline vehicle that we operate and we estimate our carbon credit cost per vehicle to be $300-$350 per year. 

We will be able to operate with a neutral carbon footprint with an ultimate goal to be operating with a positive credit regarding our environmental impact. We hope that you will recognize our efforts and help us maintain our pristine environment for all to enjoy.

Kevin Karpinski
"Karpi-Diem"  
 
 
As our economy is on the rebound just like our land mass (see the Geology page on this site), we are moving ahead to offer great adventure tour packages and are partnering with other great lake states to offer a variety of great tours around our greatest natural resource.  Partnering with Canada will come along this year as we look to offer dual country tours and experiences.

We have an abundance of ripped adventures waiting for you....climbing, ice climbing, winter rafting, mountain biking, kayaking, kite boarding and more.  Our wineries in the western coast wine country and statewide micro brews rival the best in the world.  We are excited about our beach to beach coastal kayak adventures.  If culture is your deal, follow the path of the underground railroad on a bike tour.  If eco-tourism is what you want, come and test the water on Lake Michigan on a university research vessel and check out an astronomy club at night on the property of the only waste water treatment facility that uses a natural process and the land itself as the filtering process before sending it back to the watershed.  The nation's longest trail, the North Country Trail has it's longest segment found in Michigan.  Take a one-way hut to hut mountain bike adventure on the North Country Trail.  We are waiting to show you a great time!.
 
First Post! 11/14/2009
 
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