I’m not sure what happened to May. It was my birthday, and then Easter, and then all of a sudden I inhaled and exhaled and I was done with school. Then Colorado, then Lake Superior, and today I started my internship at Target. Unreal.
I promised Colorado updates and photos, and I’m trying to put together my thoughts about the past week or so…it all sort of blended together into one big dream. I’m not sure if I mentioned this, but my first day in Colorado I split my knee open doing some yoga (I’m an idiot and was doing forearm scorpion on 5 hours of sleep), so that took care of any intense hiking we were going to do. INSTEAD, I just ate a lot and hung out with my parents and did some simple yoga 🙂
After spending lots of time resting and getting some fresh mountain air, we got back to Minneapolis pretty late on Tuesday night, at which point I frantically threw a bunch of clothes and my hammock in my hiking pack and packed up my car with my guitar and yoga mat. I left at the crack of dawn on Wednesday morning, picked up a friend of a friend of a friend in Duluth and we met up with a friend of a friend (who is also good friends with the kid I picked up in Duluth, confusing, I know) and had lunch with him before going our separate ways for the day. The kid we met for lunch in Tofte works at a canoe outfitter at Sawbill, which is about 25 minutes West of Tofte, and the two of them had some chores to get done during the day, which turned out to be sunny and beautiful.
Meanwhile, I got my solo vibes going after checking in at my hotel. I stayed at Bluefin Bay, which sits right on the Lake and was pretty quiet during my time there. Naturally, I took out my guitar and yoga mat, walked to the rocks, and nestled myself onto a giant warm patch of rock to lie down and take a nap/sing to myself/serenade the Lake. It was easily the most relaxed I have felt all semester, and maybe even all year. In fact, the whole time I was up North, I really had no concerns at all, and it was beautiful. I knew that it was my last hoorah before starting my internship, and I wanted to make the most of that solo time. I spent the whole day just taking in the suns strong rays, which I ended up paying for in the form of a nasty sunburn under my eyes, and doing plenty of gentle yoga. What I didn’t realize, until I sat down for dinner at the Grille by myself, was that I had an audience for all of my gentle yoga, including when I fell flat on my back or my face multiple times. An interesting impression to make, but a story to tell for everyone else. So really, they should be thanking me. amirite? 🙂
I had a fancy solo dinner, wine and all, and got a few troubled looks from the older folks in the restaurant, who perhaps thought I had been stood up or ditched by someone, when in reality, I was having a beautiful, peaceful time staring out the window at the lake and doodling in my sketchbook. I called the boys to see if they wanted to join me for some singing and chatting by the fire pit that Bluefin lit up after dinner, and they showed up a few hours later – we ended up drinking some home brew, sharing stories and singing (well, I sang) around the fire until the late hours of the night/early hours of the morning until we all started to crash a little bit.
Dirk, my new friend from Duluth, wasn’t feelin’ the sleeping-on-the-floor life, and no matter how many times I said I had no problem with sleeping on the floor, his European self couldn’t stand to let a lady sleep on the floor. SO, Dirk drove back to Sawbill super late, and Nils camped out with me at Bluefin – we got somewhere around 3 hours of sleep before we woke up around 5am and couldn’t go back to sleep so naturally decided to get up and try to get ready for the day. Since Nils knows the area pretty well, he took me and my yoga mat on a short (but vertical) hike to the top of this hill where we could see pretty much all of Northern Minnesota, or at least it felt that way. We did some sun salutations up there (literally saluting the sun), some breathing exercises that I carry with me, and headed back down the hill and off to Sawbill Canoe Outfitters, where we met up with Dirk and eventually took quite a long nap before heading out on a short 6ish hour canoe paddle around the Kelso River with the boys – we brought our freeze-dried dinner and ate along the trail, and it was really my first time using portages and carrying the canoe and whatnot, so I was learning something new every minute. The sounds of the loons and the glassy view of the water around us was something that I cannot put into words…just beautiful.
We headed back, played some night games with the Sawbill crew, and then camped out in the woods just beyond the canoe landing. Nils and I pulled back half of the tent cover so that we could look at the stars, and I literally fell asleep under the stars. How many times can you say you’ve done that? And been able to see every. Single. Star. In the black sky.
There are so, so many things I learned from this little time away. Where to begin? I didn’t bring my camera with me, and for once in my life, I think I’m actually okay with that. I learned that part of the reason we struggle to live in the present is because we spend so long trying to document things that we don’t even realize what’s right in front of us. I learned that silence is okay, even when you’re with other people. I learned that there are still really, really beautiful people in the world. I learned that there are still people that care about deeper conversations and staying in the present, and being adaptable to change. Lastly, I learned that as much as I see myself as a city girl, I can ALWAYS benefit from some time with nature. And we all can.
So get out there. Be brave. Take a solo trip for no reason other than to take a solo trip. Be okay with taking an extra day and camping out an extra night. Make new friends. Take advantage of new opportunities, and all opportunities. Build connections. Live your life.
I haven’t stopped thinking about this trip, and it was almost 3 weeks ago already. Updates on the internship soon.
Love y’all,
Z
Welcome To My Humble Abroad 
Great post!