Robert Pirsig:

Mountains should be climbed with as little effort as possible and without desire. The reality of your own nature should determine the speed. If you become restless, speed up. If you become winded, slow down. You climb the mountain in an equilibrium between restlessness and exhaustion. Then, when you are no longer thinking ahead, each footstep isn’t just a means to an an end but a unique event in itself. This leaf has jagged edges. This rock looks loose. From this place the snow is less visible, even though closer. These are things you should notice anyway. To live only for some future goal is shallow. It’s the sides of the mountain that sustain life, not the top. Here’s where things grow.

Part three of three. North of Two Harbors along the Superior Hiking trail. As these things go, no trip is complete without running into a series of old family friends, mentors, or your odd UMD Bulldog Hockey player out for some “cross-training” or pure enjoyment.

Saturday – another postcard perfect autumn day. October gets off to a great start on the Superior Hiking Trail and the Sawmill Creek Dome boulders.

Friday, as the sun set on our property north of Duluth, Minnesota.

The heat is lingering over Washington, DC – Mother Nature bears down over our politics, forcing leaders to sweat out the details and come to a solution over the debt ceiling.

Thus, an overdue ode to cooler waters and calmer spaces.

Photos taken near Crookston, Minn. earlier this month in the heart of the Red River Valley.