Tom Funke's Travelouge
Choose your adventure!
Podcast
Michigan Trails Report & Tom's Trail Tales
YouTube
Tom Funke's Travelouge
Substack
Mostly Travel
& some politics
Michigan Trails Report
Hiking and Travel with Tom Funke
Tom Funke's
Personal Page
Do you eBird?
North Country Trail
Owner/operator of the Germfask Hostel!
My Story
I was born in Muskegon, Michigan, USA. I bounced around as a child from Muskegon, to Muskegon Heights, Cadillac, Grand Rapids, Portage, then settled in Bangor, where I graduated from High School.
I attended Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo) and earned a BS with a double major in Biology and Environmental Studies. I started my career working in the fruit fields, then pizza factory before I graduated high school.
Before my first day of classes at WMU, I took a job at Taco Grande & six years later, I had made lifelong friends and I knew the ins and outs of customer service working for Nancy & Bob Ketteman.
My first job in my field was at Binder Park Zoo, in Battle Creek, where I started as an education intern in 1989. I left in 2007 as the Director of Conservation Education.
During my tenure, I took a sabbatical to hike across Michigan' s Upper Peninsula. I have continued my quest of hiking the entire North Country Trail, having hiked over 2000 miles. In the process, I have written two book, "50 Hikes in Michigan's Upper Peninsula" & "50 Hikes on the North Country Trail in Michigan & Wisconsin".
My next adventure was Michigan Audubon's first Conservation Director, where I worked until 2014. In the meantime, I started my outfitting business, Trailspotters. I left the Audubon gig in 2014 to pursue the business full time.
Everything was going well until the government shutdowns of 2020. As a precaution, I took a job with Amazon at their Grand Rapids Distribution Center as the future looked uncertain. I am very glad I did, as, I was prohibited from running the business on state and federal lands until mid-summer. There was no point in running the business that year.
In the fall, a former employee and colleauge contacted me about working for him in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, for SeaWorld AbuDhabi.
And, after some time, the job offer, a bunch of paperwork, I found myself in Abu Dhabi in December 2021.
I currently reside in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
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