"no one will ever domesticate the clouds, or put the seasons on a six foot retractable leash..."
St. Croix State Park, Two Rivers Canoe Campsite
Hinckley, MN
Reviewed October 2nd, 2005
You can travel on foot or by paddle to the most remote corner of Minnesota's largest state park. On a fine Fall afternoon we went in a caravan of old friends and new. Smoked fish was eaten but not by the vegans, on paper plates, on the back of my truck's gate lowered. Sandhill cranes flocked overhead, southbound for Florida while a marsh hawk buzzed the kettle river, its tank-like body bearing the markings of winged carnivore at the edge of summer's surplus. The season of growth and warmth passed us like a slow moving barge on the Mississippi. It went on, it went on, it went on like it would not stop. At last the stern came into view, with raised flag of saffron maple leaves, fiery oak. Led away steadfast and deliberate, this ship followed softly fading navigation lights of goldenrod and rusted bluestem, through third eye camera lens to be etched in deep, another notch in memory sticks as it flees our slippery hands.
If nothing else, we can at least take heart that no one will ever domesticate the clouds, or put the seasons on a six foot retractable leash or design a psychiatric evaluation that gets inside a loon's mind.
Through sun beam forests, amidst the souls of tall pine we did travel to the most remote corner of a park. After ten minutes times ten did we come to a place, a point of land with small islands and stones and grass, a place the map calls Two Rivers. Sat we at a table there, while finding feathers and making study of the circumference of trees with their chains of crimson creeper and bitter ivy entwined. Some found silence. I found a path sprouting forth through the used up grass and discarded leaves. The path seemed lost, yet it found its way to a place. At its terminus, a rare find, an open air one holer wooden box latrine from the bygone days of organic backcountry restroom design.
Unsheathed cheeks at rest on this crap hole would feel no shame but find a ready friend with a stable frame.
- Justin Teerlinck
RESTROOM RATING: 6