ABOUT

Hello! My name is Benjamin Schleicher – Author and Photographer of this page. I am happy you’ve made it here! Let me tell you a little about myself:

WHERE I’M FROM: I was born and raised in the flatlands of North Dakota. Though it’s far from holding an abundance of outdoor recreation, I was fortunate to have a father regularly show me the great outdoors growing up. I often say the place I fell in love with the outdoors was the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness of Northern Minnesota – a place where we’ve help our annual canoe camping trips since I was 4 years old. Today, while our annual trips have become less frequent, the cry of the loons still rings in my ears, the morning choir of chickadees is still my favorite song, the crackle of an evening campfire still burns hot in my soul, and my love for the outdoors still grows.

WHERE I’VE GONE: After high school, my heart longed for tall mountains and a new adventure. West to Montana I went. With a spirit of adventure at the helm, my free-time soon became occupied with backcountry skiing, fly fishing, canoeing, hiking, trail running, backpacking or a good ol’ fashion rocky mountain climbing. My jobs have evolved further away from my college studies of Psychology and further into the outdoors.

MY PHOTOGRAPHY: In part, I picked up photography during our camping trips as I would always steal my Dad’s camera. I loved the feeling of. When high school came around I finally got my first camera. Today my photography is simply a documentation OF my adventures AND the people I share them with, the landscape I find myself in, and the mountain critters I befriend along the way. I don’t get paid for any of it, nor am I trying to (though it would be neat), I simply just love the art of photography.

MY WRITING: I simply love to write and always have. One could say my inspiration came from reading a Sigurd F. Olson book in elementary school - Listening Point. Sigurd, like many, have been totally captivated by the pristine nature of the Boundary Waters and the depth and passion to which he writes about such a place is a testament to that. I remember sitting in my desk being drawn in by his words, taken back in time to riding in the the canoe and enjoying the quiet peace. It inspired me at a young age to emulate a similar depth and passion in my own writing, to write out of my hearts longing – which longed for the outside – and to describe with conviction the way in which these beautiful places transformed me.

THIS BLOG: Through pictures and writings, this blog will document various adventures had in the mountains, the beautiful things witnessed along the way, and is a place where ponderings, meditations, and thoughts about what it means to live on this planet are shared.

Cheers!