Notes From the Field -- Along Our Way Through August...

Eleven days on the road, better than 2,500 miles. Four states and a big assed strip of Canada, twice.

Nearly 600 exposures captured on film. And with the Toy Canon? Who the Hell knows. A whole bunch. What matters with the Canon is that what was needed, I got.

And thinking about all of it during every mile, nearly every minute of every long day, you get to feeling like maybe you're really doing something.

Then one evening just after sunset at a remote harbor on the big lake, I meet guy who's six, maybe eight days away from home, depending on whether or not he gets "blowed in". The uncertain schedule is 'cause he's circumnavigating Superior alone while riding atop a piece of canvas stretched between the two hulls of a catamaran sailboat not appreciably bigger than my Outback. Two packs to sustain him: one tightly strapped to each slender hull along with a small guitar, well secured.

Just a guy with barely a boat and even when at full sail, hardly an infinitesimal speck upon the vast expanse of wild water.

Just imagine venturing much beyond here with little more than moxy to keep you afloat...

Curiously complimentary to that, below I offer an image of little fish feeding in the warm, late summer current of the Presque Isle River. For whatever reason, these were unusually brazen. Hanging close to the shadow cast by a bridge but otherwise out and about in the day, cruising the inside edge of waving water grass.

I love to see fish do their thing in the water. They're relentless predators, acutely aware of their surroundings and singular opportunists -- always taking full advantage of whatever the river happens to bring their way, lest tomorrow it bring too little to survive.

On my last day in the field before heading home, I spent quite the while atop the bridge leaning over watching these little fish dart back and forth, to and fro. Midday light perfectly obscured my looming presence so I too might do some gathering, all the time casting no shadow of mine upon the water.

And for a blessed couple of minutes standing beneath the sun I knew nothing but these small fish and was with them immersed in the constant current that carries treasure to us all...