Again I had a great time in Minnesota’s only national park (Isle Royale is part of Michigan apparently even though it is right off our shore).
This time there was a lot more wildlife around: pelicans, loons, eagles, green frogs, wood frogs, leopard frogs, crayfish, northern pikes, bass, sculpin, and chickadees. Going there in an especially dry August last year made the place seem a little barren. But this time around everything was still wet and alive before turning in the for the winter of the place (already Crane Lake has temperatures in the 40’s at night).
My friends and I saw a double rainbow and I had an unexpected blueberry harvest and ate some prickly gooseberries. We saw a couple of meteors and watched a dry lightning storm march across the sky nearby (but not over us).
There is something about the smell of the north woods that you don’t get in the leafy southern parts of Minnesota. It is a really dry smell of pine mingled with mineral smells and the smell of slow decomposition. Even up there, though, there are a lot of aspens and birches among the evergreens. They say there will be even more as the climate warms.
I had a lot of time to reflect while on the water and I realized that a vacation is not an escape, but something that improves you and that you keep with you for the rest of the year. It is something I will carry within me even when I feel harassed and insulted by other circumstances. This winter, when scraping frost off my windshield or trying to spit out the taste of vehicle exhaust while cycling in the city, deep down I will remain up there, sprawled on an ancient rock in the mild sunshine overlooking the water where the lichen-covered birches are.
pseudoisaac 