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(late, but a continued transcript of my journal when I backpacked the great lakes over the summer)
Yesterday popped 2cmx1cmx1cm blister on pinky toe. Fluid clear (no infection). Tx w sterile needle, antibac, knuckle bandage. Removed ankle and calf bandages, scabs transparent and intact.
Today purchased tubes bactiraicin, hydrocortizone, as well as tablets lactase and antacid.
To do: Inventory first aid kit and new purchased materals. Restock first aid kit and write wish list.
Physical: Doing pretty good today. Monitoring hot spots and spending schedules shoes-off time. Kayaked today. need to take pain meds and massage today. Warmth is nice, maybe island air cut the humidity some.
Emotional: Feeling PISSED but just passively, so knowing now to act on it. I think some time of not being overly social/caretaking may be good for me, and that's time on the guitar or maybe I can go kayaking tonight. It's weird knowing that right-wind rednecks will just do their own thing around here, versus feeling so actively unsafe at home. Nice to pass through + time to move out! // I'm really sick of tolerating some of the richppl bullshit I hear. Is a discussion on adversity really the right time to brag about your entitlement? Fuck. Also sick of nobody staying on time, but that's a patience I can stretch for miles. // Missing home. Missing THEM and my HOUSEMATES and my CAT. I think I'm hangry actually
Went to a museum. Were these birch bark artifacts donated or stolen? I want to see the inside of the Chippewa Language Bible. // Rock pockmarks are from elemental distribution irregularities and expressed vulnerability to rainfall via "pocks" of calcite erosion. // How were the birch bark baskets made? Gotta reread the Braiding Sweetgrass chapters about birch basketry and Nanabozho.
Back to emotional: People are so selfish I want to EXPLODE. Also I'm starting to approach the point of getting uncomfortable w alcohol - I'm cool with having a drink but not being around very drunk people. I'll breach the convo myself but I'm not feeling great about frequently getting drunk and people not cleaning. I was okay with this trip being dry... We agreed to all meet up again in 20 minutes so I came back in 20 mins. Everyone stayed out for hours and got food, and I'm just hangry!! I want to go do science and be on the water and ask questions about plants and no small talk! I'm all out of social juice. I'm an adult, I'll have a snack.
Naturalism: The Eastern Pondhawk (Erythemis simplicicollis), on marina shore by campsite. 2 in long blue male dfly with green face. Male blue, female green with black striped abdomen. Likes gentle water, associated with lily pads and duckweed. Any interaction with Frog Bit? Blue dasher very siilar but range isn't in Drummond; Their faces are white and females are metallic gold. Update: was actually bluet (enallgna civile) damselfly...
Blue Darner (Aeshna spp) are darners with two white thoracic stripes, about three inches long. Many common throughout whole UP. Males generally active most/all of the day. Differentiation difficult without catch, see p 32/33 of book for variety.
Reflection: Three Shores CISMA showed us today the invasive Wild Parsnip, which is blistering via oil. Blah blah health invasion. But what I noticed was that the wild parsnip grew together with yarrow - feverfew. How likely of nature it is to grow a poison with the medicine.
Next time we visit an herbal store, I need lemon balm tea.
Naturalism: Eastern Candelwax Lichen (Antiana acrescens): Foliose, cedars; Common tree fire dot (calopalaca holocarpa): .5mm reddish dots crustose; Banasa Stinkbug (banasa dimidiata): Yellow head, green thx/ab, likes berries; Lotus cerniculata: Yellow pea flowers, clover-y leaves; Trifolium repens: white/pink pea flowers, creeping
When the glaciers made the alvar, the bedrock remained
Memories of animals pressed in the plain
Do you wonder what it all was, what it's once been
But what would you do to start over again
When the juniper met spruce they fought to no end
A foot or two of soil on which they could stand
Peering in the aster grow and multiply
Before my eyes, diversifying
Over again
Setup Backpacking 4 Days
Tent, pad, pillow, bag
Tank, tee, long-sl, 1x pants, 3x under, 2x sock, hat, buff, coats
Kit, screen, spray
Cook kit
some food
Bottle, light, mp3, watch, journal, pencils, meds
[supplemental note: we all did a 20-minute meditation and reflection on whitefish point, and all of us got heat exhaustion from it]
Whitefish Point: The lake feels all-encompassing, like a sponge to my background thoughts. It's just the lake. I need no Rusalki, no sirens to draw me in. My skin is darker and my beard is longer; I am 17 days older than when I left: My priorities feel a little different now. I have proof of where I feel better - in or out of artificial spaces. I think about drinking water and less about celebrity. I only had 121 sons and I listen to about seven of them. Maybe all the rest of it is swirling to the depths of gichi gami. Was the Fitz a warning? That taking from the earth like that would be our ruin?
[Location change from Whitefish Pt to Pictured Rocks]
Kailani called me yesterday - I hadn't heard from them since... September? I sent them a photo of Lake Michigan. The call was on accident, they said they'd remove my contact. How beautifully ironic that they called when I had just a moment of service. THe nature of our friendship demands that we can't keep in touch. I asked them to stay well and they said they would. // MEANWHILE, WET RAT MUPPET RIDES AGAIN, BABY! It's starting to dump. There is a moat outside my tent and I hope it doesn't reach my backpack. My backpack is turned stuff side down with a raincover on (so raincov touches the ground). It seems like my in-tent essentials are my sleep gear, my shoes, my light, and my journal/pen. Even my rain jacket is zipped up and tied to a tree. At least it's not too buggy so I can open up and check on the flood sitch. I'm situated on an unhelpful mix of sand and duff. Eventually I'll have to go to sleep and just pray it'll work out. Oh shit my wallet with my vax card is still in my backpack. Oh well... Update: Thunder is NOT less scary the second time around and now I'm in the middle of nowhere in a tent all by myself! I mean, it's that others are in pairs but I am still socially recharging. Evventualyl I'll just have to close my eyes and hope I don't flood.
MY TENT IS IN THE MIDDLE OF A MINI FLOODPLAIN KILL ME. There is water under my backpack, but the rain cover seems to hold up. There's water under my tent, so I'm crossing my fingers that MSR made something I can live with. Can't open fly anymore to assess bc of flies. Tent bag and sleeping pad bag filled with water. Drained and set atop backpack island. I've got no one to pray to, so I'll just count hours and raindrops. At some point I've got to just sleep and wait.
Long hike today. I think I could happily look at trees and rocks FOREVER. I just love walking and I love it HERE. Am I used to the humidity? I loved the cold and wind this morning. OH, re last night - backpack shell worked GREAT. Current at Coves CG, 2 mi from Beaver Creek CG (7mi from dropoff). Sitting in tent with no pants on, as an excuse to myself to have some alone time. I snapped at Al when they defended C's decision to burn some paper with literature on it, even when I said it would make me profoundly uncomfortable. C also burned the photocopy of A's children, and seeing that made me feel sick. One day I'll be better and not react or not care at all, but for now I feel super sick.
Today there will be no time. Weird. I have a watch tan.
Half hour reflection: I'm recovering from seeing a fed as I write this. My soul feels outside my body, but the roots of this spruce hold me together, along with the dune. A little red ant crosses over lichen patches on the tree's bark. Is that thunder? IN the storm, the spruce will hold this sand in place. The little red ant commutes back home. The branches and needles shield me from the sun. A ladybug with no spots clambers over the shrubs beneath the trunk, that only grow in its shade. The very top casts a shadow over a fallen birch (a warning to me for sitting so close to the edge)> The roots of the tree form a thin mat for walking veiled by sad; any break would send one into a slipstream of dune. A gruff white man with a gun cannot govern which trees break off the dune and which get profiled by a wary student. I can see ... This tree governs the flow, decides who joins the river and who sinks just short of the lake. Here is the real law enforcement, though no law that I could read; Here is the real highway, but for no car I can build; Here is the patchwork collaboration of no craft that I could muster; Here is the spruce overlooking Lake Superior, taker of man. I am rooted like the spruce and my blood flows back and forth from my heart like the tide. If Newton decrees equal force on either party, then the spruce holds my hand back as the sun considers setting.
P.S. someone's fucking hoarding toilet paper. we are OUT of toilet paper. I know C brought a personal TP roll and she's not looking to share. Here's the thing: Sharing our TP means that your friends are happy since they can shit. If you want to get to the takeout point without someone getting poop cramps while their backpack compresses their insides, sharing like a third of your Charmin bullcrap will help that happen. PLUS YOU CAN JUST STEAL A ROLL FROM THE AIRBNB. IT'S NOT THAT HARD TO BE A DECENT FUCKING HUMAN. I'm not that mean but I do want to say "if you don't share your TP I will shit within 15 feet of your tent and not dig a hole.
I think I'm a fan of being a little dirty. I loved washing my face in the river and now sitting in the dirt. Bugs don't freak me out anymore. I can wipe dirt off. I wade without fear and climb with confidence. I don't want to leave.
[ ending this week's transcriptions early because there were SO many words. the entries do continue to be long though. ]