This was in the annual “Best of” flyer in the Duluth News Tribune today. The BWCA is a million acres with restricted access to motorized vehicles, even the trail clearing people can’t use chainsaws or 4-wheelers. I’m not sure if anyone organized this or it just happened, but I love it.
I had a friend who’d love talking about canoeing up in the Boundary Waters - since then always wanted to visit sometime, but that on never happened.
Though I do understand what you are referring to. This one’s dear to my heart:
Ajay Goel – Yosemite splendour
Oh course, doesn’t need to be that spectacular,
here’s were some real spiritual magic happened for me,
particularly early mornings,
though moon-lite bootlegged rides on the Curry Co and YNP horses being pastured out there, was perhaps less worshipful, oh but what fun for an escapee of the big city trap who’d found a home.
Wawona Meadow, YNP, California
Come to think of it, it was my friend the Ranger Naturalist Mike Fink, same guy who introduced me to those early walks out in that meadows, who also told me those stories about the Boundary Waters.
I do want to get to Yosemite. We could do an exchange some day.
“Yo-semite”? Is that the National Park for Jewish “Rocky” fans?
There’s only one quote from the one English class I took in college back in 1994, and it applies perfectly to this thread:
One impulse from a vernal wood
May teach you more of man,
Of moral evil and of good,
Than all the sages can.
-Tables Turned
-William Wordsworth
I have no idea why it has been burned into my brain all these years, but I am grateful that it is because I say it quietly to myself when I see something cool out in nature.
Here it is in it’s full glory:
Tables Turned (William Wordsworth)
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- Up! up! my Friend, and quit your books;
- Or surely you'll grow double:
- Up! up! my Friend, and clear your looks;
- Why all this toil and trouble?
- The sun above the mountain's head,
- A freshening lustre mellow
- Through all the long green fields has spread,
- His first sweet evening yellow.
- Books! 'tis a dull and endless strife:
- Come, hear the woodland linnet,
- How sweet his music! on my life,
- There's more of wisdom in it.
- And hark! how blithe the throstle sings!
- He, too, is no mean preacher:
- Come forth into the light of things,
- Let Nature be your teacher.
- She has a world of ready wealth,
- Our minds and hearts to bless—
- Spontaneous wisdom breathed by health,
- Truth breathed by cheerfulness.
- One impulse from a vernal wood
- May teach you more of man,
- Of moral evil and of good,
- Than all the sages can.
- Sweet is the lore which Nature brings;
- Our meddling intellect
- Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things:—
- We murder to dissect.
- Enough of Science and of Art;
- Close up those barren leaves;
- Come forth, and bring with you a heart
- That watches and receives.
My god that guy could write.
Nice. Thanks for adding it to this thread.
Another simple place to worship nature is free to access, and can be accessed anytime you want, anywhere you are - just look at your fingertip with its intricate finger print. Imagine all the millions of years of nature that went into that! Actually way more than went into a simple mountain. (But those Boundary Waters look great too.)
BWCA is amazing. I would suggest a minimum 4 night stay. Be sure to get in past at least one major portage to avoid the party crowd. Use a shuttle to zip through the first layer of lakes that allow motors. And, it’s not just canoeing, if you prefer hikes.
Or, too old for that, there are parks and resorts right on the edge.
Or, if you are looking for a wilderness experience with a micro brew at the end, try the Superior Hiking Trail sections right within Duluth. My wife and I are attempting to complete every section, from the WI border, up through Duluth, on to Canada. We’ve done quite a few “North Shore” sections, but they did a lot of extending to the south, we started over from mile 0 last year.
Nah, I think the Ozarks is the best place to worship nature. The music sucks, but the views are AWESOME! Especially when you are actually there. I miss it, but parts of where I live now reminds me of the Ozarks. I’ve seen the Blue Ridge Mountains too and they remind of the Ozark Mountains also. That said, there are many places in the Ozark mountains that just take your breath away with all their awesomeness:
