North Woods River Runner: Immersion

The Transparent Waters Of A Wisconsin Trout Stream
An Adventure From: Monday, August 24, 2020

Breathless is the air. Stagnant. I can feel the heat inside and out and yet throughout today I have been totally immersed within the nature surrounding me. For several hours this morning I was fortunate to have waded a Wisconsin trout stream and it’s cool, clear waters. And for several of those hours I actually managed to wear a long sleeve shirt. It’s a shirt from a small country store that’s nestled in the valley and community I grew up in, beside the white cedar swamps of a blue river trout stream further Up North and on the Eastern side of Lake Michigan. It’s a connection.

Now I sit in my camp chair with a book in my hand beneath towering white pines, their needles without a quiver in the unwavering heat. It’s what remains of a once planted grove. Yet beneath their lofty branches is the thick brush of maples, oaks, and wild, young, white pines now taller than me. The first time that I came to these woods beside this creek, the sapling conifers were only knee high. How magnificently these trees are able to leach the nutrients necessary to grow from this sandy, acidic soil. While finishing chapters from Sigurd Olson’s book, Listening Point, a doe stuck her head out of the thicket and into an overgrown lane. Although she could not smell me, she watched me stock still for several minutes; only the occasional twitch of her tail and ears gave her away, a reaction to the flies. Once she deemed me as non threatening, she turned and disappeared, immersing herself into the wall of plant life.

It was at this time that I pulled out my journal; the paper and pen my means of capturing moments. Although today’s cloud cover is thin, a few light sprinkles have occasionally spit down, and I pulled my chair under the open hatch of my Jeep. Earlier, following a packed lunch that I had brought along in a cooler, I had opened the back of the Jeep and lowered the windows before taking a short nap. Even in the thick air I was able to close my eyes long enough to take the edge of sleepiness off and revive my senses. The culminating activity, before I put my waders and boots back on, will be to swim and immerse myself within the creek. Its spring fed waters will cool and cleanse me enough to have one more go at the stream’s wary trout before nightfall.

Today, in addition to immersing with the air and water, is the immersion of time spent without restraints for one last summer day. While it’s been a difficult last couple of months for associating with people and building relationships throughout social distancing, I have honestly got to say that I have thoroughly enjoyed every second of the summer. It’s the first time in decades that I haven’t had to take a class, or lead a camp, or prepare lessons. After teaching through this past spring and it’s remote e-Learning, I put every aspect of that experience in a box and crammed it towards the back of the top shelf in my brain. It felt good. It was refreshing! In its place I ran, I worked outside and inside of our home, I spent time with my family, and I read several books. I immersed myself into other things for once.

And with that immersion I am now ready. Ready for what exactly, I’m not quite sure. Teaching school will look much different than what I’ve grown accustomed to for the last three plus decades. And while the unknown can be scary, beginning tomorrow it will be time for me to take that box full of school experiences back down from that top shelf in my brain and begin to sift and sort through it to see what I can use. I’ve literally left it up there for as long as I possibly could, and it felt great.

They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, and perhaps it does. Whatever I do, I strive to do it well; it’s how I’m designed I suppose. And so as a light breeze begins to stir out of the west and the sun finds a small seam to shine down through the thin layer of clouds, after this summer I’ll be ready to teach again and find the energy to make a difference. But before I do, I still have this afternoon to finish strong with some unfinished business. It’s time to go jump in the creek and immerse myself in the refreshing waters of the creek!

See you along The Way...