This will be random reports from our cabin weekend. Not in order of importance or time. We had three events gathered up into one weekend: a walk in the woods, a wedding, a visit with friends at the cabin. First I’ll tell you about the hike.
When we started out from the cabin; I had no idea what I was in for. We walked miles of woods trails and then no woods trail up hill down dale, through aspen regrowth and grassy meadows. We thrashed through, over and under deadfalls and blow over and along ridges of birch, yellow birch, popular, and spruce. There were small streams and swamp grasses and tag alder to clamber over, hummock to hummock. Our goal was to find the Superior hiking trail from our side by the Split Rock River. We weren’t going to hike the Superior Trail; Elv just wanted to see if we could get there feasibly by hiking on trails and through the woods. It took us the better part of four hours and we covered about five miles. Never did see the Trail; but we sat on the rocks of the split Rock River and saw on our phone maps that the trail crossed the river just two bends down river. Close enough.
At first I was grateful for my tough leather Eastland shoes. They keep my feet dry and are sure on any terrain. But they’re heavy and by the time we hit the good trail on our way back, I was happy to carry them in my hand when I could.
The woods flowers are everywhere in yellow, white and purple already. I remembered again that I need to carry my press with me on these excursions.
We were glad for the little cooling breezes along the way. I learned that a small pack with only a bottle of water, a can of mosquito spray, and my phone can get heavy after awhile. I need to do this more, evidently.
Elv kept us on target with his phone, so we didn’t’t get lost, but I feel that he could be less intent on staying the course regardless of the brush and rugged going. Sometimes after getting snagged one more time, skirt and hair, I would find my own way for a few minutes. Denim is highly recommended here after. If I wasn’t such a chicken about hiking through bear country, it would be fun to use my own phone map and see which of us would get in first, each on our own. But he carries the gun or the bear spray and I’m generally quite happy to stay with him. Besides, I’m still working on spending as much time with him as possible, ever since I married him over forty years ago. So it’s through all the hikes with him, for me.
There was blood root, the yellow flowers of it were done, along one of the little tributaries we crossed. I hated to trudge through it, but by the time we were here I was happy to not break what little momentum I could maintain.
I was surprised to see bunch berry flowers already.
At first as we started out; we talked about our nice time with friends over the weekend, but soon we were kept busy with navigating and keeping on.
Elv and I were pretty exhausted when we got back from our foray through the boonies, but only in the body. By heart it was rejuvenating. We’ve learned that listening well takes practice and requires stamina that only comes from quiet places and simple hard work. Our walk through the woods provided this perfectly.
The minister who peached Gill’s wedding sermon used her full name, so that each time he addressed the couple he said, “Gillian and Cory.” It made me wish we’d always called her Gillian. Gillian and Cory are both middle aged, so besides the usual beauty of a wedding there was a specialness of these two getting married.
And leave it to Gill and Cory to know how to pull together such a mix of cultures and history in people for their guests. It truly made us smile.
Kjelgaard managed two meetings with a porcupine in less than 24 hours. Elv is finishing up the first event of twenty quills from that nose.
Until next time.
Stone House Scribblings 