Star Trails

So……yesterday, one of my good friends, Lisa Blade, invited/challenged me to post a picture a day for a week taken from the “Doghouse”

And, seeing as how her 55th birthday party is this weekend, and seeing as how this will serve as a “cost effective” gift, here we go.

Lisa has never been to my “Doghouse” though. If she had visited there, she would have noticed that the only view I have from the “Doghouse” is of our septic system mound.

But……in order to fulfill the challenge, I’ve determined that it would be better to post some of my “favorite views”. So, here we go. Instead of a “View From the Doghouse”, these posts will be titled, “Off The Leash” Or…..Draggin’ Around a 4X5 View Camera.

All the pics you will see in the next seven days were taken with my 4X5 view camera.

Enjoy!

Happy 55th Lisa!

Star Trails……

This photo was taken a few years ago on a Boundary Waters trip. The camera was set up to point at the North Star. If you think about the rotation of the earth, which causes the stars to appear to rotate, I think, and you think of the rotation in terms of the face of a clock with 24 hours on it, you can calculate the approximate exposure time by measuring the star trails.

Every year, we travel to the Boundary Waters during the fall. It’s been the same group of men, give or take, for over fifteen years. We’ve lost a few of our companions to moves, old age, and yes, even death.

As we age, the trips have become less strenuous. It used to be nothing to think of carrying a canoe and gear over a 186 rod portage which is approx 3/5’s of a mile, to get to the next lake. Add a camera box that weighs over 50lbs and you’d better prepare to take some heat from you companions.

On this evening, we were sitting by the campfire listening to wolves howling, very close to our camp. The site was on a point of land with water on three sides.

Boundary Waters campfires are generally small. They are limited in size by the amount of wood you can cut, split and haul by hand.

That small fire leaves you surrounded by stars. The darkness and the crisp air make the stars seem to dance as you look at them through the rising smoke of a campfire. And star’s appearance in the Boundary Waters have a different dimension than those you see through the city lights.

They take on a personality. Some have different colors. There are large stars, small stars, stars that flicker, and stars that beam. Some of the stars that cannot be distinguished by themselves glow in unison with other smaller stars and we call that, the Milky Way.

Just knowing that the star light that we saw that night had probably been travelling towards our campsite for around 27,000 light years leaves you with a sense of awe.

Imagine the solitude of a beam of light that has travelled for 27,000 light years. Imagine the worlds it has seen and passed by in order that we might have been blessed by it on a fall night in the Boundary Waters. On that night, for that moment, a bit of star light arrived and blessed us with its presence.

We travelled for two days and that star light had travelled for 27,000 light years in order that we might meet at a campsite on a point of rocks near the water’s edge.

For just a few minutes, we welcomed it, got to know it, and soaked in its blessing. It passed though us and into our hearts. For those who travelled on that trip, it is still there in our hearts and we are better for having been there.

That small group of men still pack canoes and take trips into the wild. And we all bring that star light from 27,000 light years away with us each and every time.

Until we paddle together again…..

I’m off to the doghouse now….