An evening on Fall Lake

Written by Corey Kelly, photographer and guest blogger:

My first night in the Boundary Waters was spent on Fall Lake. In the refuge of one of its sandy shores, blanketed by fur trees, our group made camp and got to know each other. Per Lundmark, a Wilderness Inquiry guide and poetry aficionado, shared with us a poem by Walt Whitman, I Sing the Body Electric:

I have perceiv’d that to be with those I like is enough,
To stop in company with the rest at evening is enough,
To be surrounded by beautiful, curious, breathing, laughing flesh is enough,
To pass among them or touch any one, or rest my arm ever so lightly round his or her neck for a moment, what is this then?
I do not ask any more delight, I swim in it as in a sea.

As he read it out loud I do believe that Walt Whitman’s words hung in the mist, floated on the water and rested in my ears for the entirety of our trip. “… to be with those I like is enough…” The clear glassy waters, the long and harmonic song of a loon and the flood of sunlight over tree tops all reminded me of this. My time in the Boundary Waters was made sweeter by the individuals that were exploring it with me. Even in a remote wilderness setting, a shared experience is a cherished one.

— Corey Kelly