{"id":1,"date":"2022-01-31T21:40:11","date_gmt":"2022-01-31T21:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/j347mcclanenoffke\/?p=1"},"modified":"2022-01-31T22:11:40","modified_gmt":"2022-01-31T22:11:40","slug":"hello-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/j347mcclanenoffke\/2022\/01\/31\/hello-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Hello to the Blogging World!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Being that this is my very first blog post, I feel that it is only appropriate for me to introduce myself. My name is McClane Noffke and I am originally from <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.holmenwi.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Holmen, WI<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. During my childhood and adolescence, I spent the majority of my time reading, drawing, or playing outside. My grandmother would take me to the library anytime I went to visit her and she would always buy me books she saw at thrift stores or yard sales. As for my love of art, my parents were keen on displaying my art on the fridge weekly or buying me a big corkboard for my room, so that I could tack my drawings to the wall. And as for my love of the outdoors, I would spend hours upon hours in the sandbox, on the swings, or in the garden with my mom. Summertime weekends were spent swimming, canoeing, or tubing on the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mississippi_River\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mississippi River<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. And wintertime weekends were spent sledding down the big hill in the backyard with my two older siblings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As I grew older and entered high school my joy of reading, drawing, and playing outside evolved. My reading level grew higher and more intense. My love of drawing turned into painting and then ultimately shifted into a completely different art form: music. I put forth a majority of my free time in high school playing the flute in various ensembles: concert bands, pep bands, marching bands, and even solo performances. But during the times I was not reading or practicing my latest sheet music, I was outside. I found that I enjoyed hiking the most and bought myself a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/dnr.wisconsin.gov\/topic\/parks\/admission\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">WI state park pass<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. With this pass, my family, friends, and I were able to drive to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/dnr.wisconsin.gov\/topic\/parks\/perrot\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Perrot State Park<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> every weekend to hike different trails. I found a lot of hidden gems on these weekends: the<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/dnr.wi.gov\/topic\/Lands\/naturalareas\/index.asp?SNA=553\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Holland Sand Prairie<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.holmenwi.com\/halfwaycreektrail\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Halfway Creek Trail<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cityoflacrosse.org\/your-government\/departments\/parks-recreation-forestry\/outdoor-recreation\/trails\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hixon Forest<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/explorelacrosse.com\/project\/grandad-bluff-la-crosse\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Grandad Bluff<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fws.gov\/refuges\/trails\/refuge.cfm?orgcode=32578\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Trempealeau Nature Reserve trails<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Summertime weekends were still spent on the river swimming, canoeing, and tubing. And winter weekends were spent trying to snowshoe at the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.norskedalen.org\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Norskedalen Nature Trails<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, or they were spent reading books and practicing music.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My love of all these activities was carried with me as I set off to college. My fondness for reading has helped make those textbook chapters bearable and my enjoyment of music led to my enrollment in the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uww.edu\/coac\/academics\/music\/ensembles\/marchingband\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">University\u2019s marching band<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, pep band, and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uww.edu\/coac\/academics\/music\/ensembles\/communityband\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">concert bands<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. And as for my devotion to the outdoors, I have begun to budget what little money I make so I am able to travel to places outside of Wisconsin during the warmer months. During the summer of 2019, I spent a week in Arizona where my family and I hiked to the bottom of the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nps.gov\/grca\/index.htm\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Grand Canyon <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and camped out overnight, walked through <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.antelopecanyon.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Antelope Canyon<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and hiked along the creeks in <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nps.gov\/zion\/index.htm\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Zion<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. In the summer of 2021 I was able to spend a week in Utah where I hiked through <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nps.gov\/zion\/planyourvisit\/thenarrows.htm\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Narrows<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nps.gov\/zion\/planyourvisit\/angels-landing-hiking-permits.htm\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Angel\u2019s Landing<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in Zion, sand sledding and <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.coralpinkatvtours.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ATV riding at the Coral Pink Sand Dunes<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, viewing <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.alltrails.com\/trail\/us\/utah\/dinosaur-tracks-trail\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">dinosaur tracks in Kanab<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, hiking among the hoodoos at <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nps.gov\/brca\/index.htm\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bryce Canyon<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and swimming in the waterfall at the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/utah.com\/hiking\/calf-creek-falls-lower\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lower Calf Creek Falls<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. And while I do not yet have plans for the summer of 2022, I have had my eye on a few parks in Montana.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But until then, I will be spending my time reading textbooks for classes, playing music for the pep band, and waiting for the warmer weather.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So now that you know a little bit more about me, I hope that you enjoy reading and interacting with the rest of my blog posts. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Being that this is my very first blog post, I feel that it is only appropriate for me to introduce myself. My name is McClane Noffke and I am originally from Holmen, WI. During my childhood and adolescence, I spent the majority of my time reading, drawing, or playing outside. My grandmother would take me [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12233,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/j347mcclanenoffke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/j347mcclanenoffke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/j347mcclanenoffke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/j347mcclanenoffke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12233"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/j347mcclanenoffke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/j347mcclanenoffke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/j347mcclanenoffke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions\/14"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/j347mcclanenoffke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/j347mcclanenoffke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/j347mcclanenoffke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}