The air smelled sweet and felt brisk as I poked my head out of the sleeping bag. Memories flooded in as the cold and empty fireplace came into focus. I repeated the exercise of years ago, stuffing the burn box with twigs and wood, lighting a match, and willing the fire to catch quickly to warm the cabin. The routine was the same, but the times had certainly changed.
On this occasion a motorcycle waited inside its trailer for me to unleash it for the first time this year. I had come to the cabin to do the maintenance work, but it could be said that I really came (at BFF Randy's suggestion) to take a ride through the Chequamegon National Forest in northwest Wisconsin as a warm up run for the new season.
With home-builder Randy's help, we jacked the corner of the cabin to bring the foundation back to level. Windows and doors creaked back into position, and the sink reseated itself in it's cabinet. The doors opened freely again, which they hadn't done in years. I also took the opportunity with the generator to vacuum some dirt and cobwebs from the crevices, and clean out some of the cabinets of foodstuffs that had been around for perhaps a bit too long.
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| Giving me great confidence |
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| A new corner foundation |
But back to the ulterior motive.... fortunately, it warmed from near freezing to 60 degrees fairly quickly. Our trip through the forest started with the familiar route on a forest road to Delta, Wisconsin, home to our favorite breakfast haunt in the middle of nowhere - the very remote Delta Diner. Disappointedly, it happened to be closed that day, but that was a good launch point from which to explore new and different (for me) corners of the forest. A big surprise for me was how big the forest is, and how much the landscape, lakes, and forest reminded me of the Boundary Waters canoe area. It has all the look and feel of the wilderness, if not for all the cabins, lodges, and conveniences of small towns.
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| Randy's leary of the worry lines on this rock - some of Earth's oldest fossils (the surface of the rock, that is, not Randy...) |
Aside from a minor spill in the sand to remind me I'm still a bit of a novice, the ride was refreshing and baiting. A return to Michigan's U.P. (to take up where we left off last year), and Minnesota's Arrowhead region are on the docket for this year. Can't wait.
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