Over the Labor Day weekend, the Family Evil took our annual long weekend up at Lake Itasca, the Headwaters of the Mississippi River. It's a lovely break: no tv, no computers, no phone. We stay in the historic Douglas Lodge, which also means no cooking, no cleaning, no dishes, and maid service. That is MY kind of roughing it.
One of the first things we do is hike the 3/4 of a mile to the Old Timer's Cabin--a cabin built by the CCC during the Depression, back when trees were really trees. The entire cabin is build of 16 logs: logs so thick that a mere four of them stand up a good 12 feet.
To get to the Cabin, one walks a path through a bog. Now, I only know it is a bog because there are a lot of signs along the path saying "this is a bog." It doesn't look particularly wet or swampy to me, but lord knows that I am not much of an outdoorsy type--bogs not figuring much into my studies of evil. In actuality, it looks like the currently neglected gardens at Chez Evil, where whatever is strong enough to survive takes over, but for the purposes of my outdoors experiences, I am prepared to accept that it is, in fact, a bog.
Bogs are, apparently, fairly fragile ecosystems. Who knew? They are a source of sphagnum moss, which is itself very impressionable. Signs declare that a single footprint in the moss will last an entire summer.
To which, my legal hindbrain spoke up. "Well, since it is Sunday, and tomorrow is Labor Day, summer ends tomorrow. So a footprint now wouldn't be that big of a deal. It will last the entire summer--until tomorrow."
Fortunately, my more socially appropriate and evolved brain remained in charge, and told that legal hindbrain "Just shut up."
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