UpNorthDayLast
Aug. 22nd, 2025 07:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ismoI have Fallen Silent because, after a promising start on Monday, the wifi mysteriously disappeared entirely and did not come back until today. Tuesday it rained a lot, just about all over the state, and we just hung out around our own area. When the rain stopped, we drove hopefully to a gas station that promised groceries. Not exactly true, but we got some chips, hot dog buns, and a container of ice cream that didn't melt before we got it home. Wednesday, the weather was nice and we were out a good deal of the time, but also spent a lot of time with GingerBeard and Baharat. They cooked us some steak, and we brought over our ice cream and strawberries. Thursday, we went to Rockport, where there's an old quarry, as well as another spectacular overlook of Lake Huron. We saw people going in with buckets and rock hammers to look for fossils. We just hiked through and enjoyed the views.
The quarry was eerie, hard to describe. You might picture a big, rectangular hole in the ground, but it was not that. It was acres of shattered shale and limestone, ending in a small cliff far off on the other side. Saplings of white cedar, birch, and juniper were beginning to pierce the cracks in the stone. The stone was once loaded into ships at the half-ruined jetty that can still be seen, and taken across the lake to building sites all over the upper midwest. One of the last projects that used this stone was the caissons for the Mackinac Bridge. It is silent, so silent that the tap of a hammer can be heard at a great distance. The sky was an astonishing shade of blue, and the northern light was so intense that it made every leaf and rock fragment seem to glow from within, an unearthly light. We walked for a long time along the edge of the quarry, and then turned off into the woods. It was only as we entered a beautiful cedar forest, paved with rusty-colored moss and bearberry, that it occurred to me that there might be BEARS. However, we didn't see any. We returned to the parking area just as the Sparrowhawk reached the limit of his window of possibility, sat on a bench overlooking the waves, and shared a sandwich and a big drink of water.
Yesterday, we considered other places to go, but we were honestly pretty tired after the long walk, and took some time to rest up. GingerBeard invited us over again, and we shared our hamburgers and various salads and had a long talk afterwards. Today, we stayed in the area again, walked around and had a long, delicious swim in Long Lake. There's a lot to be said for inland lakes, though they are a bit tame compared to the big ones. We found a pair of flip flops in the Lost and Found that fit the Sparrowhawk well enough to spare him the purgatory of ouching over the pebbled shore before he got to the sandy part. We had a lot of fun in the water, and watching all the kids play on the beach. We stopped by the GingerBeard residence as they were packing up to leave early, and shared a final chat. Then we ate our leftover--and still delicious--spaghetti sauce, and returned to the shore to sit in a rustic swing and enjoy the lapping of the water, the scent of many little wildflowers, the sky and the clouds, and the seabirds soaring past. We've done a little tidying of the premises, and will complete our packing up and leave tomorrow morning.
The quarry was eerie, hard to describe. You might picture a big, rectangular hole in the ground, but it was not that. It was acres of shattered shale and limestone, ending in a small cliff far off on the other side. Saplings of white cedar, birch, and juniper were beginning to pierce the cracks in the stone. The stone was once loaded into ships at the half-ruined jetty that can still be seen, and taken across the lake to building sites all over the upper midwest. One of the last projects that used this stone was the caissons for the Mackinac Bridge. It is silent, so silent that the tap of a hammer can be heard at a great distance. The sky was an astonishing shade of blue, and the northern light was so intense that it made every leaf and rock fragment seem to glow from within, an unearthly light. We walked for a long time along the edge of the quarry, and then turned off into the woods. It was only as we entered a beautiful cedar forest, paved with rusty-colored moss and bearberry, that it occurred to me that there might be BEARS. However, we didn't see any. We returned to the parking area just as the Sparrowhawk reached the limit of his window of possibility, sat on a bench overlooking the waves, and shared a sandwich and a big drink of water.
Yesterday, we considered other places to go, but we were honestly pretty tired after the long walk, and took some time to rest up. GingerBeard invited us over again, and we shared our hamburgers and various salads and had a long talk afterwards. Today, we stayed in the area again, walked around and had a long, delicious swim in Long Lake. There's a lot to be said for inland lakes, though they are a bit tame compared to the big ones. We found a pair of flip flops in the Lost and Found that fit the Sparrowhawk well enough to spare him the purgatory of ouching over the pebbled shore before he got to the sandy part. We had a lot of fun in the water, and watching all the kids play on the beach. We stopped by the GingerBeard residence as they were packing up to leave early, and shared a final chat. Then we ate our leftover--and still delicious--spaghetti sauce, and returned to the shore to sit in a rustic swing and enjoy the lapping of the water, the scent of many little wildflowers, the sky and the clouds, and the seabirds soaring past. We've done a little tidying of the premises, and will complete our packing up and leave tomorrow morning.
no subject
Date: 2025-08-24 01:08 am (UTC)