The Calm before The Storm

 

I spent the afternoon in the woods yesterday. And what a beautiful day it was to do that. Sunny skies, brisk temps in the mid 20's with a light breeze. I spent a couple of hours hiking through some really dense forest looking for what is fast becoming, in my mind at least, a mythical pine tree that one of my uncles told me about a few years ago. He told me roughly where it is, or at least, his memory of where it is. He said the base of this giant pine tree has a natural hollowed-out area that you can stand inside of. Hard to believe, as there are few trees large enough in northern Minnesota anymore for that to be possible.  But, this area has several old-growth pines that were somehow missed or left when the rest of the area was logged. 

At any rate, I did find at least 8 or 9 of these old-growth pines, but the mythical hollowed-out tree eluded me once again. I have tried a couple of other times to find it, also without success. I'm starting to think that I may never find it. And that's okay. If, by chance, I happen to come across it some day, it will be a happy surprise. While I was hoping to be successful in finding it today, the outing was a success nonetheless. For I did find plenty of beauty in the forest, as is always the case. 

Back to the title of this image. Its no surprise that this winter has been lame at best, as far as winters go. We have had virtually no snow pack at all, and the temperatures have been very mild. It is the least snowiest winter in my memory, hot on the heels of two of the snowiest winters we've ever had. That being said, if the hype is to be believed, we are set over the next few days to receive one heck of a winter storm. Forecasters are calling for anywhere from 12 to 20 inches of snow and 50 MPH winds. Hard to believe as I sat on the banks of the Pigeon River, listening to the ice boom and crack as the sun dropped below the tree line. But, as is often the case, storms are often preceded by moments such as this. Moments of relative silence before chaos settles in for a few days.