Kayaking Michigan’s Pictured Rocks: The Story Behind Paddling Michigan

Bill Duckwall: 00:00:00

Well, we've always had challenges finding people.

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Because we, we employ almost a

hundred people in the summer.

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And, Munising is a town of 2, 000 people.

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it's hard to find You know, a

hundred, a hundred kayak guides.

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I mean, these are like lifeguard people.

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They're not, they're not just

your average Joe off the street.

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But it's, that's the hardest part

over here is just finding the people.

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you just have to do what

you have to do to get 'em

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Cliff Duvernois (2): Hello everyone,

and welcome back to Total Michigan,

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where we interview ordinary Michiganders

doing some pretty extraordinary things.

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I'm your host Cliff DuVernois.

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Speaking of extraordinary I

am still on my trip around the

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upper peninsula of Michigan.

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I swear to God.

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This is God's country.

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One of the things that I love

to do in my free time is kayak.

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And I knew that no tour of the UP

would be complete without talking to

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one of the owners of probably one of

the best kayaking experiences that

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any of us could ever hope to have.

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And with that being said, today I'm

talking with Bill Duckwall, owner of

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Paddling Michigan, based out of Munising.

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Bill, how are you?

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Bill Duckwall: Just fine.

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Good morning Cliff.

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Cliff Duvernois (2): Cliff.

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Good morning.

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So tell us, what is Paddling Michigan?

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Bill Duckwall: Paddling Michigan

is, is an adventure company

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based In Munising Michigan.

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We offer kayaking tours, along

with lodging, boat cruises,

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canoe trips, and a restaurant.

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we offer a package for every,

everybody comes up here wants

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to do some kind of adventure.

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They've got to sleep at night.

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And, and they got to eat something.

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we try to provide packages

where they can do all of that.

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Or they can do it individually.

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They don't have to do, do

it all together with us.

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So, we're, uh, owned as Paddling Michigan.

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And that's our website, paddelingmichigan.

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com.

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That's who we are.

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Cliff Duvernois (2): Nice.

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And when we're talking about the kayak

tours, just to make sure that we're

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making this clear for the audience.

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We're actually talking about going out to.

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Bill Duckwall: Pictured Rocks

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Pictured Rocks.

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Cliff Duvernois (2): Yes.

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Oh my goodness.

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Everybody and their brother

seems to be talking about this.

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So you've really tapped

into something here.

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Bill Duckwall: Yeah, we have.

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I mean, we've been, pretty lucky.

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When we started doing this.

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There wasn't a lot of people doing

Pictured Rocks then on any great scale.

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it's something that we

started and it, and it grew.

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And, it's, it's a

beautiful place to kayak.

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It's like going to paddling through

Utah or something out there with

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the red rocks and, caves and

waterfalls and some wildlife.

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And it's just a really great adventure.

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Cliff Duvernois (2): Why don't

you tell us where are you from?

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Where did you grow up?

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Bill Duckwall: I grew

up in Northern Indiana.

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But I came up here in 1983.

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Okay.

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And I came up, I was a commercial pilot.

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And I came up with a small airline that

started up here in Marquette and then

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was purchased by a bit larger commercial

airline that I ended up flying for.

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that, that's how I got up here.

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But I've always owned businesses.

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even with almost 30 years in

the, as a commercial pilot, I

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owned businesses on the side.

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My grandfather was one of the first

automobile dealers in the United States.

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Knew Henry Ford, was in Indianapolis,

Indiana, selling Model T Fords.

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And, and my dad was a

farm equipment dealer.

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And, uh, I just continued that on.

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I always liked it.

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And even while I was flying

as a commercial pilot, I had a

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lot of time off that I could do

small businesses on the side.

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So, when I retired from that,

and I had to retire at the

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age of 60, because I'm 81 now.

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But that's when I really got

going with paddling Michigan.

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Basically, it's all been

done in my retirement years.

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Of course, I couldn't do, all of it.

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I've had great staff.

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I've had a great general manager

named Greg Scott that's been

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with me, for about 15 years now.

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We've been able to hire the right people

and come up with the right products.

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And, uh, was just kind of the

guy behind the scenes, really.

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Dealing with the capital type

expenditures and things like that.

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Greg ran the business more, but I still

like it, and I like to, keep active in it.

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I think it's good for my brain.

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You know, it keeps me

challenges every day,

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every day.

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And, uh, I continue to keep going.

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Cliff Duvernois (2): you mentioned

before that it was really when

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you had retired from being in the

airlines that you really started

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focusing more on Paddling Michigan.

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So my first question to you

would be, where did the idea

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come from for paddling Michigan?

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Bill Duckwall: Well, this

is quite a story here.

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But, but it's, it's kind of a neat one.

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Okay.

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While I was still flying, I owned a

fishing charter company in Marquette.

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And we took people out fishing.

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to, to a place called Standard

Rock, 50 miles out in Lake Superior.

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But we would get often

impacted by weather, okay?

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So we had clients would come up

from downstate and from a distance.

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They couldn't always go on the

day they planned and everything.

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So I maintained a fleet of small

boats and canoes that they could

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use and take out, there, and then we

also rented those on the side, too.

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Okay.

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I believe it was like in 2003,

I can't remember exactly, it

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was just right after I retired.

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Um, We had a big flood northwest of

Marquette, at a place called Silver Lake.

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And that flood took out several

dams on the Dead River that ran

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like 25 miles down into Marquette.

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those, created a lot of damage.

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I mean, they lost pontoons.

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There, there were logs, trees

actually floating out in the

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Lake Superior and so forth.

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about two weeks after that flood,

I had a company call me from,

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they had seen our website, okay?

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Yeah, they'd seen our website.

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And they saw that we rented canoes.

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and needed, they needed to come out

and do a survey of, the waters and the

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damage that it caused and everything.

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And so the gentleman, said,

well, I'm gonna be there in

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two weeks and I need 20 canoes.

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Well, I only had two canoes.

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Okay, so Yeah, and he said what

do you you take American Express?

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I said, yeah, and he said well, here's

my numbers We'll be there in two.

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Here's my number.

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We'll be there in two weeks

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So yeah, I know so So we went

out and we bought 20 canoes.

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We cleaned out every place in

the UP that was selling canoes.

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And we bought them.

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And they came.

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rented them, and everything went fine.

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And then it was all over.

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They cleaned up and did

their surveys and everything.

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And we had 20 canoes sitting there that

we had try to figure out what we're going

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to sell these or we're going to rent

or what we're going to do with them.

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Cliff Duvernois (2): Right.

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Bill Duckwall: And, uh, we had a gentleman

work, working for us that was a kayaker.

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And he said, we really should,

you should try Pictured Rocks.

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A few people are doing that over there.

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Well, we knew we couldn't do

pictured rocks in, in canoes.

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They're just not made for it.

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So.

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we traded those canoes,

okay, for some kayaks.

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And that's when we started

kayaking Pictured Rocks.

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And we drove people over.

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We had a little place in Marquette.

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We drove people over and

started kayaking there.

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You know, that was about the same

time that, kayaking was coming

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on, especially as a women's sport,

with health and things like that.

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it was, uh, perfect storm came

together with this whole thing.

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And it all came together,

so we, started that.

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And it just grew and grew, and then, we

realized, people needed places to stay.

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And that's when we got, and we thought

that most people that are kayakers

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would probably, Not like to stay

at, they'd probably rather stay in a

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campground or like a tent or a yurt.

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So they can camp and have a

campfire and enjoy the outdoors.

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As opposed to just staying in

a motel or a hotel somewhere.

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So that's why we got into that,

slowly built that business up.

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and Ended up doing that in a restaurant.

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and then along the line we added

a cruise around, a dinner boat

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cruise around Grand Island.

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you know, which we run

two trips a day on that.

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I've been lucky.

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I've been very lucky.

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I've been, had the right

people at the right time.

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And that's what it is.

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It's luck having the right

people at the right time.

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And I've made lots of bad decisions.

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But I've made lots of good decisions.

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so that's capitalism.

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That's the United States.

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Cliff Duvernois (2): That's the United

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Bill Duckwall: it is.

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Cliff Duvernois (2): What I would

like to do is I'd like to talk

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about maybe like one or two of the

key challenges that you had when

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you were building this business up.

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Bill Duckwall: Well, we've always

had challenges finding people.

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Because we, we employ almost a

hundred people in the summer.

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A hundred people with our

kayak guys and everything.

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And, Munising is a town of 2, 000 people.

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it's hard to find You know, a

hundred, a hundred kayak guides.

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I mean, these are like lifeguard people.

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They're not, they're not just

your average Joe off the street.

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I mean, they, they have to

have some swimming ability

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and, and everything like that.

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So we, what's helped us there is Northern

Michigan University in Marquette.

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And that's where we get most

of our kayak guides from.

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Okay.

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And then, for other, other jobs, we

use a lot of work campers that come in.

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They have RVs.

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They come work for us in the summer

at our campgrounds and everything.

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And we, and then we hire, always

hire, uh, a cadre of, girls from

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Jamaica to work in our restaurant.

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You know, a lot.

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And along with locals, too.

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But it's, that's the hardest part

over here is just finding the people.

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You know, so you just have to do

what you have to do to get 'em

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Cliff Duvernois (2): to get them.

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You talked about going to Northern

Michigan to find kayak guides.

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Where did you get that idea from?

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Or was it just somebody just

showed up here and said, Hey, I

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got a bunch of buddies over there

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Bill Duckwall: Well, Northern

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Cliff Duvernois (2): too.

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Bill Duckwall: has an outdoor rec

degree, outdoor rec, where they train.

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people.

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A lot of them will take, get a

degree in that and go work for the

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park service, you know, National

Park Service and things like that.

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These are, they're,

these are outdoor people.

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You know, and they live up here.

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we bus them.

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We, or we transport them from Marquette.

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They don't have to drive over here.

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It's about 45 miles.

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And so we were lucky.

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I mean, we couldn't do it.

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I don't think we could be

anywhere near the size we are.

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If we didn't have that.

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Cliff Duvernois (2): that.

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But that's just to think about that for

a second, because when I think about

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taking a kayak tour and the people that

are going out, I would not think that

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there's 100 people working behind the

scenes to be able to make this happen.

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Bill Duckwall: Yep.

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Cliff Duvernois (2): Have you ever had a

business where you had this many people

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Bill Duckwall: no, not at all.

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Not at all.

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That's why I have to have help, you know.

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Greg Scott, throw it back on Greg.

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He's the guy that makes it all.

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He's the guy that makes it run.

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And then we have some sub

managers under Greg, too.

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Miles Glendening is our kayak manager.

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Rob Stibbs is our maintenance manager.

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Cause we have like 25

vehicles, and two boats.

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And, and, uh, so Rob keeps busy on

that and everything and it's, it's,

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you gotta have the right people.

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Cliff Duvernois (2): For our

audience, we're going to take a

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quick break and thank our sponsors.

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When we come back, we're going to talk to

Bill a lot more about Paddling Michigan.

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Also what you can expect

when you come here.

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We'll see after the break.

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Are you enjoying this episode?

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Well, I can tell you

there's a lot more to come.

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Hello everyone and welcome back to

Total Michigan where we interview

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ordinary Michiganders doing some

pretty extraordinary things.

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I'm your host Cliff DuVernois.

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Today we're talking with Bill

Duckwall, owner of Paddling Michigan.

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And Bill one of the things that I

was looking at on your website that

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kind of caught my eye and I gotta

ask you about this because it's

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something I just don't see every day.

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But up there near the top of your website

you got Uncle Ducky So talk to us.

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What is Uncle Ducky?

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Where did that come from?

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Bill Duckwall: Well, you know, our

company name is Uncle Ducky Outdoors, LLC.

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Okay, that's where that came.

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So where did Uncle Ducky come from?

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When I first moved up to Marquette

to work for this small airline,

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I was about 40 years old then.

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But most of the young pilots working

there and the flight attendants that

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I worked with and everything were

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