Heading for Heaven on Earth
Its still over three weeks away, but when I know I will be leaving for Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, it really is hard to think of anything else. Crossing the bridge and leaving all the nonsense behind, where everything slows down to the point where it really does feel like heaven on earth.
Kicking back, thinking of new ways to tackle the pike and muskie lakes, or finessing the inland lake walleye, and yes those 4 lb smallies right off our dock. Enjoying a fish fry in the evening, sitting around the fire pit after the meal with a cold beer. Cruising the lake on the party barge and heading out to Big Bay de Noc in the morning.
Where I had my first deer hunt, with a spotlight with all my other cousins as children after eating somores. Where grandma would call me in for lunch and me saying in just a bit, only 20 more rock bass to make a 100 for the morning, all caught on a rubber balloon strips. Where dad and the uncles would come back from Lake Michigan with 40″ pike, and me waiting until I was old enough to go with them. Stories of the cabin where they had to row across the lake each morning to the spring to bring back the eggs and milk for breakfast. Where my name is under grandpa’s on the wall, where we are the only two people to catch brook trout in the lake, 20 yrs apart. Where dad and the uncles were driving back from deer hunting all day, only to have a deer jump from one ridge, land on the car and jump to the other side of the cutout on the road. Where I kept my cousin Nan in the van, so she wouldn’t get out to play with the bear cub on the side of the road, having to explain the whole angry “mother complex” adult she-bears have. Where we played hide and go seek, kick the can and went sniping in the national forest around the campground. Where the bear rug we played on back home came from, as it charged dad one hunting season.
Its not just heaven to me, its like a place of legend and lore, mythical and yet mystical. Its roots, and where some of my greatest moments as a child, and adult took place. Its Grandma’s Cabin, Pike Lake, and Camp Echo.