Home Is the Eldest Son

Oldest son Muir (23 yrs old) relaxing at home. Not quite used to our brand of spring compared to Florida.
Muir's trailer and truck camper that brought up one load to Michigan. His Toyota 4X4 is the second load in a few weeks.


04-14-06 Bloomin’ Spring
The goldfinches are getting their nesting plumage and Muir, our first-born has come and gone on his freighting back to home base. For some days prior to his arrival Lynn and I had been getting the room at the top of the stairs ready for him and when his imminent arrival was a day earlier than usual, I finished painting and Lynn did an all-nighter getting his room ready. Muir arrived here Sunday, April 2 and was able to bring up his new Ford truck with our camper loaded with stuff, and towing his utility trailer filled with his motorcycle, tools, and plastic take-down storage shed.
While we had snow (and on Sunday, late afternoon), he and his mother went out to the Pilgrim River on a snowshoe jaunt. He was well-pleased with his new Red Feather "Powder" snowshoes, though it was hardly powder snow but consolidated crust and slush that we traipsed around on the week + that he was here. He had gotten the snowshoes on a half priced sale through Sierra Trading Post deal and said that he had always wanted red Feather snowshoes since we had gone out to Michael Schwei and Raven’s Headwaters Environmental Center log cabin out by Misery Bay. This was when Muir was in 9th grade; we went there to make a pair of snowshoes. Mike and Raven had commented that when they thought of the modern snowshoes that Redfeathers were their choice, though they only wished they had the money to get a couple of pair of the aluminum shoes. At least that's Muir's remembrance; I just remember raven being quite traditional in her preferences for snowshoes.
Muir had maps of geocaches that he had downloaded and was intending to find them with brother Matt, but time limitations for both of them, and Matt’s reluctance to thrash through the woods to find the geocaches left only one searched for by the time Muir left.
I went out with Muir to Churning Rapids with our snowshoes to find the one that was deep in the woods. We went bushwhacking going south out from Kinzel’s place (Christenson Rd.), following our GPS receivers rather than the 2-track that I’m sure the person putting in the geocache had used. Rough going and Muir was going too fast, falling on his snowshoes and on a rushing quest. The day was sunny and warm and we worked our way along a ridge and over creeks until we came out at the 2-track and then went in the woods again. Eventually we arrived at the original place where the geocache had been placed, which was the lookout tower and found a second set of coordinates for the changed position of the cache. We went again through the woods to the second place, but down by the rushing creek the snow was deep and maybe that stopped us from finding the cache. But it was a great day to be out and his snowshoes got a workout, not to mention us. He was surprised that he would get as much use out of the new purchase as he did, visiting so late. We put about 5 miles on our snowshoes that day.
Last Friday, the 7th we headed up to Copper Harbor to do some crust skiing. Muir was using skis and boots that I had purchased years ago from a MTU graduate who was selling the virtually unused gear prior to going to a city without snow. We stopped in to see Sam Raymond, who had out a pair of back country telemark boots and skis that Muir could borrow, but Muir thanked him and said that the gear he had was adequate. We first went across from the Keweenaw Mtn Lodge driveway at a new Michigan Nature Association area and followed an old logging road through areas beginning to melt and forming pot holes and over streams flowing snowmelt. In most cases we could cross at areas that were snow covered over logs or other snow bridges that were nearly ready to collapse. We ended up having lunch at a cedar blowdown off the trail and then headed back the way we had come and then to the end of US 41 and out to Horse Shoe Harbor. The road-trail to the turnoff was ½ snow covered and the other ½ sand. Muir went up in the woods just off the road so that he didn’t have to take off his skis and walk. The day was a bit windy and the sun was beaming down. After going out to the sanctuary (Nature Conservancy, Mary MacDonald Preserve) we went back up the trail to where I had camped a couple weeks before. No trace of my old camp, it melted away with the snow. We stopped long enough to eat Cliff Bars that Muir had in his fanny pack. We had been having to ski around a couple of 4-wheeler ruts that had created deep ruts from a single 4-wheeler on the main trail and on the way back I had commented to Muir that it seemed that the same guy had come after us because there were new tracks over the old. As we were almost back a rummy-looking guy drove by us on his way back to Copper Harbor.
We saw bear tracks, one set each on the MNA trail near a roiling stream and a second set crossing the trail ½ mile or so before the Horse Shoe Harbor trail.
I thought that my digital camera was broken (again!) When I tried to take a picture of Muir and it didn’t turn on. I tried a second set of batteries and it still wouldn’t turn on. What I didn’t realize was that both sets of NIMH batteries were discharged, so got no pics of our ski trip.
Muir left Tuesday evening and after that we were mostly getting ready for him to go - getting the storage shed up, packing, getting Dixie, Muir’s bulldog, accommodations ready for her to stay with us ( Muir took the bus back to Florida), and making plans for his return in early May.
The snow banks remain, but spring is definitely here now. Migratory birds are back and a little rain and lots of sun are sending down light for the crocuses and bulb flowers to bloom. Maple syrup is about through and we already sampled the Santiford’s syrup from this year.
I put on much longer roof rack bars on my Geo Tracker for accommodation of 2 canoes and so am ready today for one Wildfire solo for the first paddle of the year 2006. I still have to final sand and finish varnish and oil the basswood paddle that I carved this year and another cherry paddle is in the works for this spring. Also have to get rolling on my second cover for the composite Wildfire now that I inherited Lynn’s old 2 speed sewing machine and put money into getting it adjusted for sewing heavy fabric. All of this doesn’t account for my training for guiding kayak trips this Summer as well as having to take renewal course work for first aid training, which sounds like it will be a hassle to keep my WFR without going through the 2 week course all over again. Such is my life as spring progresses.