I'm not so sure which emotional state is going ot take over after what I recently witnessed. Is it anger, disillusion or utter sadness? I''ll let the sadness sink in as it seems the deepest for myself and, for those in the future who will not experience the beauty and solitude of the Nemadji Forest in central Minnesota.
Its been almost forty(40)years since my first visit and not until today has the forest ever really changed. An unremarkable little forest of pine and birch, interspersed with dams and ponds, provided by beaver and muskrat, now had a goddamn hiway runnin thru it!. The deer were there, as well as wolves, (which we saw waltz into the woods only a few yards in front of us this very day) yet the sighting of wild animals was always minimal. Even the birds were few and far between. The greatest asset this forest possessed was its solitude, its lack of human beings and their noisy activities. There really wasn't much to do here for the "average American". Ah yes, the masses and their loud machines be it motorboats (only very small lakes in this very small forest), snowmobiles (not much contour and to few bars for the white boys) and as for winter... the ATVS weren't allowed(although they were present frequently in the summer and fall). Here was a location filled with peace and quiet and an adventurers spirit only one hndred and thirty (130) miles away from Minneapolis, MN. It was a soft, quiet, birch wood burning kinda place. AAAAHhhhhhhh... the birch smelled so damn good and it felt great not to hear humanity for a few days or even weeks and especially after one "walked in" from the madness. You begin your hike in and the face muscles loosened as your lungs filled with fresh air and, even HOPE was restored. And now those days are gone forever and, I guess this roads been like this for a while now(meaning it wasn't recently carved out of the forest), but its NEW to me since I haven't been here for several years.
Every inch of land must be used for progress. Progress for the dominators who truly relish in the carnage of their profit machines until it seems they can do no more.
Why not leave this lil piece of worth LESS(far less) forest alone you motherfuckers!
My editor, and dear friend Karl, was going along with me to wlak in with me to see "the cabin". The one I had written and talked about so much, so endearingly and so respectfully. It was located on the east side of this forest near the Gandy Dancer trail which is obviously an old railroad track being gandy dancers worked the rail lines...right? It was a half day stroll to the Nickerson bar if you're inclined to measure in those terms... of which I am quite proud to say... YES, I know these measurements! Where was I? ....ah yes, the gandy Dancer... bet you didn't know that bit of knowledge. The beauty of going there had been the "walking into" the cabin while gradually stepping away from humankind (never did like religions mankind label, or was it science?) After a few miles we would find the trailhead that leads to the cabin and, here is where absolute silence would greet us along with an old primitive log cabin that had seen generations come and go. Ministers using it from many years ago and then the owners moving the entire cabin through the forest to where it stands today. Its still standing, but will soon be shaken down by the rumbling machines of stupidity.
Well, it seems A.C. Gerard had built this for a few preachers who mission it was ..here we go... it was their "mission" back there in about 1912 to treat people to a break from...religion! Yeehaw..... we get a repreive from all the tall tales and..... no, that ain't why he did it. Sorry man, I can't help taking jabs at exposing the fables of the worlds so called great religions. So where was I? The mission camp as it was called (and which is still posted on the front door) was owned by the Gerard family and one of the boys was Tom aka Big G. A very dear friend, Tom invited us to the cabin almost 40 years ago and it may well be the most influential moment in ALL of my life. (the next one will be graduating from an english class.. I realize my grammars ridiculous) Anywho... gradually, over decades, the city boy came to understand the crystal clear message of Mother Nature and, to discard the obvious lies that humankind had foisted upon me. So... damn, I am getting caught up in this story..drifting a bit... and you'd think I was smoking pot ... but I'm not... So Karl and I approached the entrance to the wood trail that leads to the cabin. We were coming in from the gandy dancer trail as there is more than one way to get into the cabin and what a hike it was. Karl would later tell me that the forest appeared just as I described it. Plenty of snow left on the ground, being it was late in the year, and the Sunny day gave us temperatures in the 40s with a soft warmer breeze. We had to hike in about 4 miles and lucky for us the trail had not turned to mush under each step for we would have easily doubled our efforts walking in. Occasional breaks where complete silence overtook our senses... so dam beautiful. We packed enough for a three day trip and anticipated altering our state of mind via forest solitude and "Nature made" mood altering substance(s). Everything was going great and it was just so beautiful until we came upon a larger than normal dark opening at the trailhead. Here between the white ground and birch trees were huge tire tracks going in and out heading southward and into the forest heading WEST, on its way to the cabin. An immediate sickening in my stomach and one of them angry ...YOU motherfuckers!, took over my mellow "wonder of nature" mindset. "Goddamn I hope this road doesn't go to far into the forest", but I knew almost immediately that it ran across the beaver pond(s) by virtue of the roads positioning. As we entered the path heading west we went across the 1/4 mile of a beavers pond. These incredible creatures was being run through by fucking semis! On each side of "their" ponds were wide, almost impenetrable, dam walls which were now camouflaged by snow banks and grey shadows. We glanced across the pond and its stark brown filthy man made road... this is hard to write about man... f'n pisses me off so... anywho, across the pond sat a road grader! Behind the yellow Deere tractor(yes, Deere do make very lare tracks in the woods) the once single file walking path that lead to the cabin was now a a semi truck lumber road. The forest and all its inhabitants now had a new neighbor(actually a new boss) ... the new forest road.
Imagine an area of several acres filled with birch tree light no matter the cloud cover or time of day. This is how one would begin walking the last mile ot the cabin... pure extacy with perpetual natural light on a very small and little used path, now had its sides littered with dead, and dying, upended light sources. their roots splayed out as they had been truly fucked by the park service and their clients. This is carnage and yet we accept many more levels of magnitude of this shit across the planet! Once life giving trees were now laying in the snow irrepairbly harmed as they had to give it up up to the dominion machine. The same machine which Ishmael taught me to call Mother Culture(the antithesis of Mother Nature). The mill owners road grader had effortlessly shoved them aside to fall and await their slow deat. Am i to dramatic? Ampify this scene a million fold, and getting worse, and you will know why I am so deeply affected. But this was MY forest. MY getaway! we walked by the trees an I did not give thanks being so filled with anger... so filled with hate.
Once beautiful life giving entities with their sturdy proud root systems, now decimated by our Perverted government and its perverted forest management. Lets not forget the perverted greedy business owners and its employees and... their teacher... their guide... THE perverted culture which was taking advantage of even the Nemadji Forest. All of them fucking our planet... to death! Fucking themselves to death while blind dominion worked its magic.
There was of course frozen water and mud mud mud... meaning this road cold only be used during the coldest months unless, unless you DIDN'T GIVE A SHIT and really wanted to destroy all of it and ... maybe they did mean to use it all year. Time will tell for these ignorant sawmill owners and the short sighted, more than likely, low on funding forest managers, as to the extent of this... progress? The pulp is worth little and the jobs are short lived and low paying. Idigress.... How much land, solitude and beauty will be chewed up during this worldwide recession (depression) or what I call " Cultural transition". Thisis a game changing moment in humanities history and the sweet lil gorging citizens of the good ol US of A are at the regressive core. How much more of Nature (our life support systems)will go for less than nothing to earn the rich MORE money? A shitload man! Fuck Fuck Fuck...Thanks a lot you worthless followers of dominion... thanks alot for foisting your temporary life destroying dominion over more of Nature(our life support systems!).
Ripping apart this littel forest as you grant a few humans another reprieve in the job market, while decades(no, generations) of enjoyment would be had by... ALL LIFE! YEAH...BEAVERS ENJOY SHIT TOO. I know this first hand boys nad girls..hahahahha.... So THEY fanangle another government deal, albeit a small one, but I truly believe this was a rare piece of Minnesota. THEY get the funds in the bank and, its ALL temporary, for I believe Nature has had enough of this species assault on her. The culture of humanity thtaa pervades this globe has NO understanding of the Laws of Nature. The immutable laws which preside over us and give to us ALL that we have ever had. But why worry? How or why should THEY worry when their god wil give them a BETTER place after they have destroyed heaven right here. East and West alike treat this planet as less than their heavens... NO damn wonder, right?
Stupid arrogant humans!
Oh well, its gone now and anyone can literally drive right up to the cabin as the road runs a few yards from its entrance. What was once an adventure and a "get away", because it was inaccessible to those not willing to embrace it, was now a few minutes away and open to all. Hey, c'mon in and start revving up your engines... blasting your sickening bass rap shit music, start stealing anything and everything you can and... destroying and.....goddamn it! Karl and I knew it was all over when one of the truck drivers actually blew his horn at us. R U kindding me dude? What the fuck do you think we're doing here in he middle of the forest???.... awaiting your fucking diesel hornblow? Yup, we have our arms up in the air, half cocked, like children on the freeway overpass, just waiting for a trucker to blast the shit out of his our airspace. We were so hoping you'd blow your horn and add to the rumble of your 100,000 lbs piece of shit rumblin, rattling truck! In the midst of this solitude.... Oh wait a second.... I get it now... he's telling us that its THEIR forest now.
Excuse me. I will leave now.
When I got home a few days later I picked up a paper to notice one of the property owners, the Son of the original owner(A.C.) had passed. Big Gs Father Jerry, had died. The Gerards introduced me to this forest, and the cabin, so long ago. An era gone by. I'd like to do something about it NOW, but what? Paul McCartney had a prophetic tune in his first solo album. A line went like this "To many people pulled and pushed around ...to many reaching for that piece of cake". Yup, 40 years ago he wrote that lil tune when I began to come up to the cabin, and even then tere were to many people. So long ago and yet the cabin and the Nemadji forest had avoided losing its character until recently only because it was so unremarkable... it was so worthLESS to those who could do what they wanted... until, some fools could make a couple bucks in a time when a couple bucks was better than nothing.
goddamn it all.
