It’s all in the perspective.  I had lunch with a friend recently.  It had been a couple years since we’d gotten together, and in the meantime she has fallen in love with the North Shore.  While she had always been a year-round runner, and did some cross-country skiing, she didn’t consider herself an outdoors person.  But that has changed!  I was amazed to hear her excitement over camping in the early spring and late fall, hiking the trails and staying in a remote cabin mid-winter.  She’s already anxious to get up there again.

It made me reflect on my own love affair with the North Shore.  Some of my earliest memories include picnicking on “The Rocks” and dipping our toes into the chilly water.  My family’s interaction with the shore was more limited to car trips to visit parks or ski at Lutsen.  It took my high school girlfriend to introduce me to camping at Gooseberry Falls before I really engaged with the outdoors.  But that was a wonderful beginning.  From there, I embraced hiking, backpacking, canoeing and cross-country skiing.  I learned to get closer to nature and experience the shore first-hand.  I expanded the seasons for my visits and discovered the many different faces of Lake Superior’s shoreline during the freezing months.

Hearing my friend’s enthusiasm made me realize what a rich cache of experiences I have with the North Shore.  We are so fortunate to have this rich wilderness area right in our back yard.  Sometimes it takes hearing it from someone else’s point of view to help us remember that.