Shakedown

This trip Up North is as much a shakedown cruise as it is a photo/drawing/painting-recon & nostalgia journey. As such I was in no hurry this morning to do anything but enjoy the Northwoods with all my senses.  I awoke at half past eight to the sound of Loons, and breakfasted while the "unofficial State Bird," swarmed on the other side of the mosquito netting covering my windows.  Breakfast over, and a bit of repellant applied to areas of exposed skin, and I'm out for a few photos.  The biting insects are very interested, but bemused by the chemical defenses, successfully rendering there assaults useless ... OK, three got through all day, but their success was ruined when they were swatted flat upon discovery.   There are wild strawberry blossoms, and violets in the grass, and unidentified blossoms on some of the bushes.  A few butterflies flit here and there; a hummingbird buzzez by, and inspects my red brake light ... as taken in by it as are their cousins in Oregon; a skein of geese flying north passes by in the distance, too far to identify, and are gone before my binoculars can be readied ... probably Canada Geese by their sound. 

     The View from my Campsite on Harriet Lake, Superior National Forest.

Beaver lodge below my campsite.

The meadow from my campsite.     

The shakedown then begins with organizing my truck and equipment a bit, moving this here and that there, burning some waste paper so as not to let it accrue, and oh! ... the cup holders need organizing (I keep small objects in them) ... and, oh my! ... they need cleaning ... and while I'm at it the floor on the driver's side needs sweeping out ... oh, good grief! ... now that I've moved the tools from under the seat, I see that I must brush under there ... can't reach ... maybe if I move the seat forward and approach it from the back ... just move a couple of things wedged back there ... bow saw; extra mosquito netting, paracord 550 ... oh Hell, what are all these peanuts and old potato chips, doing under there ... didn't realize that I had spilled that many nuts that time; but I never spilled a bag of chips ... how does that amount  get down there ... one at a time! ... there's a penny! ... there's a dime!  Lucky for me that the passenger side floors are usually covered with equipment ... and I don't eat on that side! ... so now that equipment is organized, food containers organized and extra food found space for, and driver's side floors brushed out, front and back, I can get to the windshield (windscreen, to you British Possums, who might be reading this), which I had planned to get seen to today ... that done, and ... what?!!! It's 16:30 already ... and so, to the boat landing, and the vault loo there ... a few more photos on the way back ... I see that two other campsites are taken, so there will be neighbors tonight, albeit 400 yards distant ... this is a nicely dispersed, National Forest Campground, with only five or six sites very spread out.  And now … for supper! Good thing I have taken this shakedown cruise, before heading West in a couple of weeks.  And after writing a blog post, to be posted when I am able, I head for bed ... 11:30 this night … noting distant lightening off to the east tonight, as I do so … my first day on Harriet Lake, Superior National Forest.

     Evening Cloud over Harriet Lake. These clouds probably were the source of the light show in the east later on.

Closer shot of the eastern cloud.

 Evening Moon.                                          

This was a hand held shot with my image stabilized 1200 mm zoom lens. I am astonished at the outcome, even as I realize it would best be taken on a tripod,  A new bridge camera; a type I did not know existed a couple of months ago.