The Woods are Lovely, Dark & Deep
“Umbrella” taken 9/21/22, Pictured Rocks Trail
There is a holy smell that trickles along the trail of Pictured Rocks.
(there are actually several trails in this beautiful place but we went through the middle with the 6 mile round trip because we had Finnegan with us:
A raven greets you noisily from the road and you walk through silver birches to sugar maples to great oaks as the trail winds further ahead of you. There’s a hint of woodsmoke on the air - maybe it’s from the beach beckoning you with the sound of her surf. Sunshine dapples everything around you and the world underfoot is buttoned with mushrooms over a thick carpet of last year’s leaves. The puppy stands to alert at the top of the hill, straining against the leash, on point and ready to chase the chipmunk that dashed within his periphery, but this is their woods, so you hold him back, make him sit (which he does because he’s a good boy) and hold back a grin as he nibbles the treat out of your fingers. You get closer to the shore and breathe in pine and the promise of winter’s chill just around the corner. And then you see it
Painted Shores.
The beauty of the trees just turning as the waves crash against the cliffs.
This is heaven.
And you linger as long as you can before the first raindrops start to spatter .
The raven greets you on the way back And you greet him back. Because this is their woods after all. And you smile and breathe in deeply the smells of smoke and cypress and pine and birch and get back on the road again.
There is just nothing like the smell of silver birches in the UP.
