Peace and Upheaval

This trip to the lake had a mixture of peace and quiet and chaos and upheaval.  I finally got to the Douglas Lodge in Itasca State Park for a chocolate malt (served in the tin!)

We went in the Kayak and saw that the baby loon is now a teenager.  Won't be long and it will be on it's own since the parents leave for the south before the youngin's do.

The lake was like glass with the sky to match.

With all the rain we have been having the little brook in Itasca was singing its happy song.

But Thursday night at 1:00am the quiet was broken with a massive storm.  We came back to the lake that day and saw damage in Bagley and south to Itasca Park.  Fortunately our campground was spared.  But this is the entrance to the stairway that leads to the lake near the lodge.

Beautiful Red and White Pines were down and snapped like match sticks.

This one in the yard of the Douglas Lodge will no longer welcome visitors to Minnesota's #1 State Park as it had for decades. 

This little bridge leads to cabins from the lodge area.  Our Mack and Ellie have walked (I mean run) down it in the past. 

What kind of wind can make a tree this size twist and crumple to the ground in seconds? 

How would you have liked to be sleeping in this cabin when the wind blew this tree through the roof?

So what's the big deal... others will grow back.  Tis true, but not in my lifetime or yours.  Some of these giants were going on two hundred years old.  Joyce Kilmer's poem says what I was thinking:

I THINK that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the sweet earth's flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,	5
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.	10
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

I THINK that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.

  

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the sweet earth's flowing breast;

  

A tree that looks at God all day,

         5

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

  

A tree that may in summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair;

  

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

  10

  

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God can make a tree.

Some trees that didn't come down will have to be taken down, like this one leaning over the road and already tagged to come down.

We were happy to see that our favorite pedestrian bridge escaped damage.

A quick hike to the Old Settler's Cabin built by the CCC boys made me wonder if it had escaped unscathed.  It did escape with just a ding in the overhang of the roof; easily repaired. 

On the way home the force of the wind can be seen south of Bagley.  Many trees snapped in half by the power of the wind. 

Across the street from those trees this farmer's machine shed took a hit.  Though the damage in the lake area is extensive no one was hurt.  Unfortunately, this same storm traveled 200 miles NE to the Boundary Waters area and a Boy Scout and Volunteer from Texas were killed by falling trees. A sad ending to a week of peace and chaos.

Summer transitions

July 10 was our last Sunday with our congregation in Detroit Lakes where I have been filling in for 13 months.  They have a new pastor and so I am "retired" once again.

Our rascals went back to Texas... boo hoo.  I wanted to get a picture before they left.  It started out pretty well..

But can you get the idea that it deteriorated rather quickly? 

So let's try it without the hats...

Here is an example of why I hate being at the lake during storms.

This giant white pine several hundred years old went down in Itasca park right over the steps that lead from the Douglas Lodge to the boat dock. Imagine the forces that could twist this tree and bring it down.

How many storms had this giant survived only to finally succumb during this one in July? Fortunately, it came down in the night when no one was walking the steps.  Transitions go on in nature and in life. 

50th Anniversary Memories - June 2016