Press Release is sent out to Michigan media outlets

A moving exploration of Michigan’s Two Hearted River  blends scientific facts with a family’s heartful journey 

August 15, 2024 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Bob Otwell, otwell.tc@gmail.com

Traverse City, Michigan—Strong analytical skills, logical reasoning, practicality. Those are  personality traits often associated with engineers. Author Bob Otwell, a retired civil engineer,  deploys them all in The Real Two Hearted: Life, Love, and Lore Along Michigan’s Most Iconic  River. Additionally, his personal anecdotes create a “sweet spot,” a captivating blend of  indisputable facts with the power of a memoir.  

Living in Traverse City, Michigan, Otwell is no stranger to the allure of Northern Michigan’s  rivers, lakes, and streams. But the state’s Upper Peninsula (UP) delivers a whole other level of  unimaginable splendor. With decades of experience in water hydrology and environmental  investigations, Otwell introduces The Real Two Hearted readers to remote, wild lands, and he  shares strategies for their care and preservation.  

While discovering truths about the watershed’s past, present, and future, readers also learn  about the true heart of the Two Hearted River, and the hold that it’s had on his family for  decades. “My family has always enjoyed the UP and we were first looking to buy land or build  a cabin. We were mostly looking in the Eastern UP because it’s closer to Traverse City. We had  never been on the Two Hearted River but saw an ad for a cabin and checked it out. From that  point, weeklong and weekend visits for paddling, hiking, and mountain biking were typical.  Eventually as my children grew older and left Michigan for a bit, their visits to the cabin were  rare though my wife and I still went frequently. Now two of my daughters are back in Traverse  City and visit regularly along with their own children.”  

It’s easy to understand the allure of the camp. Colorful characters such as Fred “Boggy”  Young, the first owner and cabin namesake, share The Real Two Hearted’s pages with  anecdotes from the Otwell family’s Boggy’s Camp Journal. Those entries, penned by his  children when they learned to write, join Boggy’s passages to present an engaging and  educational perspective on this remote wonderland. 

In almost two hundred pages, readers will appreciate the broad presentation of the river’s  history and science supported by an original map, photos, anecdotes, and data.

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The Real Two Hearted is published by Mission Point Press of Traverse City, Michigan. The  softcover edition retails for $16.95, and the hardcover edition for $24.95. Copies are available  in bookstores and online. For more information or to arrange for signings or events, contact the  author at otwell.tc@gmail.com or visit realtwohearted.com. 

About the author 

Bob Otwell is a retired consulting civil engineer with decades of experience in groundwater and  surface water hydrology and environmental science. In 1988, he founded Otwell Mawby P.C., a  Traverse City, MI-based consulting engineering company. Subsequently, he worked for the  TART Trails advocacy organization. He has served on the board of directors of FLOW (For Love  of Water), a Great Lakes law and water policy organization, and on the Traverse City Planning  Commission. He holds degrees from Michigan State University (a BS and PhD in civil  engineering), and an MS from the University of Michigan. 

Bob lives in Traverse City with his wife, Laura. They have three grown children and four  grandchildren. Bob and Laura reap the benefits of an active transportation lifestyle, and they  advocate for the same. They stay engaged in their community and enjoy camping, cycling,  hiking, and cross-country skiing around the region’s beautiful lakes, hills, and forests.