Dan Ellens

Dan Ellens is an outdoor enthusiast who spends about 200 days a year living in his hand-built off-grid treehouse in the Michigan forest, with oil lamps, wood stove heat, and hand pumped water. He is retired from a full career in industry and international business, where he worked for a single Material Handling company from start to finish. He currently promotes restoration of natural and agricultural land, self-reliant lifestyles, and outward-bound activities. As a teen, Ellens pedaled...See more

Dan Ellens is an outdoor enthusiast who spends about 200 days a year living in his hand-built off-grid treehouse in the Michigan forest, with oil lamps, wood stove heat, and hand pumped water. He is retired from a full career in industry and international business, where he worked for a single Material Handling company from start to finish. He currently promotes restoration of natural and agricultural land, self-reliant lifestyles, and outward-bound activities. As a teen, Ellens pedaled thousands of miles by bike through the backroads of Michigan. In one trip, at sixteen years old, he was away from home on his bike with his younger brother and two friends for 23 days, circumnavigating Michigan's lower peninsula and riding well into its upper peninsula. As an adult, Ellens has trekked in mountain ranges of North America, Europe, Africa, Eurasia, and Japan. He has lived in Germany and India but has always considered Michigan home. Upon retirement Ellens turned his attention to his lifelong hobbies, including carpentry, drawing, carving, reading, and outdoor recreation. See less