I just returned from a week-long hiking trip to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Five friends and I covered 35 miles of the North Country Trail through Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and marched around the entirety of the adjacent Grand Island. For a place that will soon be covered by snow and ice, it was vibrant and teaming with life. There are few places on earth as special as this. The sound of the worlds largest body of freshwater was constant in our ears. I will let the pictures do the talking on this post, but as I put one foot in front of the other all week, I was continuously reminded of this line from one of my favorite poets: "I hear a thousand miles of hungry static and the old clear water eating rocks" – Leonard Cohen