Off to Voelker country. Well, actually quite aways north of there but in the same spirit anyways….

I’m bugging out for a week tomorrow. Gone Sunday through next Saturday with my friend Dave off to the Upper Peninsula of MI to an unnamed collection of remote inland lakes in the Huron Mountains. Kayaking in with a weeks worth of dry food, whiskey and shelter hoping to fill the gap with the catch of the day.

I’m waiting to get the signed prints and books back from Jim Westergard and all existing studio orders and jobs are caught up. Dave and I have been trying to get away for years and now we have the opportunity and we’re taking it.

I hate to write this when so many of you are experiencing extreme heat but it is paradise here at home at the moment. The river outside my doors is spring fed and warms to a lovely 56 degrees with the solar gain from upstream beaver ponds. Instant cooling power with multiple dips all day long (and night) and 10 degrees cooler than the village outside our valley. This is what we wait for in February when it’s been 20 below for a few days and the stove just seems to eat wood. So it’s with some little hesitation that I leave it now and head a days north into the thick of legendary black fly swarms and securing food against black bears and dodging moose. Now, with kids and a busy press schedule, I don’t get away like I used to and it’s been years since I’ve gone into the real backcountry. This time I’ve conceded to taking along  a really nice sleeping pad, comfort has snuck into weight, space and efficiency somehow.

Food for the soul and much needed nourishment for my own art, I’m taking a small sketchbook I made up and some pencils, charcoal and such. All the better to get back to “the work at hand” upon my return.