Lake Superior

Lake Superior
Marquette, MI

Yesterday's calm shades of blue gave way to this morning's cold wind and shades of gray.

The alteration in the lake was striking.  Yesterday, I could sense the power beneath the calm.  Today, the power was naked, in-your-face, don't-mess-with-me, awe-inspiring.  Invigorating. 

Just down the road is the Painted Rocks National Seashore.  As I walked the well-groomed, wide gravel path to Miner's Falls, I was struck, as I often am in such settings, by how little I know.

Computers, I can make my way around.  But put me in a more elemental setting, without markers and warning signs, and I'd be dead in a week.  I have NO idea how to survive in the wilderness and I have great respect for those who lived there before the Europeans decimated their ranks.  They could not only find their way around, they managed to live off the land.  (not well; their lives were short and hugely uncomfortable by my standards, but they did it!)

Miners Falls
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

My path this morning led to this gem of a waterfall.  (Gem, that is, if you're not cruising happily in a canoe down the stream up top...)

I wished I could have gotten closer - but given the many visitors to the site, and the fragility of the local environment, you are restricted to the beaten path.  (And something tells me the currents near that inviting-looking pool at the base of the falls make it not nearly as fun to wade in as it looks from above.)