After writing guidebooks for nearly 45 years, Jim DuFresne decided to hang up his hat and retire across Grand Traverse Bay in Elk Rapids. He sat down with the Leelanau Enterprise to talk about his career, writing process, and one of the bestselling guidebooks for Leelanau County.
As part of his retirement, DuFresne sold the publishing rights to “The Trails of M-22: 48 of the Most Beautiful Paths Along Michigan’s Most Beautiful Highway” to the Traverse City-based publisher Mission Point Press.
With Mission Point printing a new, third edition of his “Trails of M-22” book this year, DuFresne’s guide to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and other public lands in Leelanau County looks poised to continue guiding hikers for years to come.
“That book on M-22 does phenomenally well,” DuFresne said. “It outsells just about everything I’ve done.”
DuFresne has spent “pretty much (his) whole life writing about trails.” He grew up south of Detroit and studied journalism at Michigan State University in Lansing. His first job out of college took him all the way to Juno, Alaska, where he worked as a sportswriter. But he found his true calling when he became the main contributor to the newspaper’s “outdoors” section.
“Up there, it was a mind-blowing experience. Juno has a phenomenal trail system in the mountains and glaciers,” DuFresne said. “Juno is also interesting because you can’t drive there; it’s totally isolated.”
When he decided that he wanted to start writing about nature full-time. DuFresne left his journalism career behind. By the 1980s, he was writing travel guides for Lonely Planet, a major publisher in the genre. Guidebook writing took DuFresne to the other side of the world in New Zeeland, but eventually, he returned to Michigan and started a family.
He continued writing guidebooks after returning to the Great Lakes state, though. His bibliography soon included Michigan-based titles like “50 Hikes in Michigan,” “Backpacking in Michigan,” “Isle Royale National Park: Foot Trails and Water Routes,” “Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park,” and, of course, “Trails of M-22.”
DuFresne said that he’s motivated by exploring beautiful, natural areas and helping make them more accessible to other people who appreciate the outdoors. Although he’s happy about the path he’s chosen in life, he admits that it wasn’t an easy one.
“I eventually made my way back to Michigan. It’s been pretty good. But it (writing guidebooks) is a tough way to make a living; you have to really hustle, and you have to repurpose content” DuFresne said.
Writing a travel guide sometimes involves coming up with a good pitch; a book idea that publishers will believe is financially viable and maybe convince them to underwrite some costs of writing it. While visiting the family cottage in Elk Rapids, DuFresne came up with the idea for “Trails of M-22” and pitched the concept to Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy.
“I said to them, ‘we should do this guidebook on M-22.’ It goes through great areas, and everybody sort of narrows it down to the Sleeping Bear Dunes – which is a phenomenal park, I love it – but the conservancies have great trails too,” DuFresne said.
“So, my pitch was to do a guidebook that includes Sleeping Bear Dunes, but all your trails that are close to M-22 and the Leelanau Conservancy’s, and that way, someone will buy it – probably because of Sleeping Bear Dunes, but they’ll also read about your trails eventually,” he continued.
The Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy went for DuFresne’s pitch. It proved to be a recipe for success, as there were numerous preserves and parks to write about and an ample market for readership.
Not only are Leelanau and Grand Traverse counties filled with beautiful sites along Lake Michigan and Grand Traverse Bay, but Northern Michigan attracts hikers who are willing to explore past the well-known Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and onto lesserknown locations off the beaten path.
When asked why he chose to retire here out of all the places he’s explored over his career, DuFresne said: “I just wanted to spend my time up here. Northern Michigan is an incredible place.”
