#And so it begins..............

I live in one of the most beautiful places in the world! It's a fairly remote area that is surrounded by water except for a
small piece of land that borders Wisconsin for approximately 200 miles. Any guesses? 3% of the states population lives here while we hold almost 30% of its land! To put that in perspective, Rhode Island is 48 miles from north to south and 37 miles from east to west. Here, we are 125 miles at the widest from N to S and 320 miles from E to W....that would be 2.5 Rhode Island's north to south or 8.5 going East to West and its mostly woods, lakes, rivers and streams. There is a saying here that if you ever got lost in the woods, you would be okay because you were never more than 5 miles from any natural source of water.


Word of advice to the tourists, backpackers, hikers, rock climbers, adventure seekers, hunters, fishermen, or boaters, whether seasoned or not: always pay attention, watch the weather, be prepared and ALWAYS tell someone when you expect to be back, even if its the front desk clerk at the motel you are staying at. Trust me on this!! Every year and every season we lose tourists due to ignorance.

As a child, I knew I lived "Someplace Special" but it wasn't until I was in my mid twenties did I realize how special that place really was. I recently moved back after spending time in the midwest central US and then in Texas. The lack of good natural lakes that were refreshing and cold was a serious damper on my mental happiness. I never knew how much something that you took for granted years ago, would actually turn into that one thing that really brought you back and signified home. She is a beast, a bitch and she never gives up her dead. But you treat her with the utmost respect and listen to her warnings, she will be good to you.
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This land gives some of the best gifts to us as well, besides the amazing hunting and fishing we have here, we have wonderful land for growing crops, however you do need to know what you are doing for this because we have a short season most years and crops tend to not like cold weather. We have minerals and metals that the earth has given us. We are sustained on tourism, logging, and mining here. Without these three things, we would be even more desolate. Copper is abundant from mining days past. The old tailings are now used in making gravel for the roadways, and on unpaved roads you can find copper on the road. There is gold and silver, as well as word of diamonds, but to my knowledge none found that were very large and not something that is readily available. One of the best gifts we have here is rocks. Yes that is correct.....rocks! While most people don't think much of rocks unless its in a store window and some 20+something is following it up with "BLING!" the bling we have here is absolutely amazing! Lake Superior Agates, malachite, thompsonite, prehnite, jaspellite, quartz in many various forms, and many more. Me and my fellow rock-lovers are called rockhounds. Show us an eye agate in one hand and a diamond in the other, we will be pining over that agate! Sometimes you find a small rock that looks like an agate but you can't tell, or it doesn't have any eyes or banding....doesn't matter. It's in my bag heading home with me.


This is one of those places where you have to be able to adjust to the multitude of weather shifts, but for some, this a perfect place to just come and "breathe." I look forward to learning more and seeing what everyone else has to say !
Let me know if you can guess where I am from!! A big Thanks to @JuniusMaltby for letting me know about this site! Have a great day and Do Good Always! !