Recombobulation Area - a photo on Flickriver

            Airports these days have designated areas to regather one’s belongings and wits after security check-ins. Such areas also exist in nature, but on a grander and primal scale. Rishabh and I were at such a recombobulation area the other month, where deep time is trapped in delicate fibers of life on Isle Royale islands. 

Isle Royale is a remote archipelago of 400+ islands surrounded by cold waters of Lake Superior. Indigenous Ojibwe refer to Isle Royale as Minong, ‘the good place’. Minong punctuates the otherwise endless lake as parallel chains of fringing, fingerlike promontories (islands). The bedrock, made of thick layers of flood basalt from old lava flows and sedimentary rocks, is tiled southeast, scooping as a syncline to form the Lake Superior basin. The jutting end of the basin (fold), that sticks out of water as islands of Isle Royale, was clawed and sculped by icy gnawing of four glacier periods, the recent one being only 12,000 years ago. Today, most of the island landmass is verdant with hardy plants. But the shorelines, which hold little water due to their inclination, are rocky and bare. As if, the land bares itself on these shores to be caressed eternally by lapping waves of the motherly lake.

On this day, we came across the above view during our hike back from the Scoville Point on the Stoll Memorial Trail. The legion of clouds was scattered that late afternoon as if it lacked leadership to form organized battlelines. The sun made its way through cracks in this porous army and set up theatrical lightning for an aboriginal play to unveil. We took our seats. Unlike their oceanic counterparts, waves of Lake Superior were unrushed and attended the rocks tenderly. These rocks have been forever in melee with elements; broiled in summers and frost-bitten in atrocious northerly winters. At first glance, these battled-hardened rocks appeared heavily amygdaloidal (rock cavities filled with different minerals to form dotted patterns). A patient inspection however, revealed them as homestead for an ancient pioneer couple, the lichen. 

There were lichens of many colors that painted these shores in multi-chrome. Lichens are colorful beings after all. The alga in the lichen is the sorcerer alchemist who converts air and light into sugar, whereas the fungus dissolves rocks to nourish the partnership with essential salts and minerals. Interdependence. Scientist have noted that the algae and fungi do not engage each other in laboratories when conditions are of abundance. But when resources become limiting and food becomes scarce, they rely on each other, enter a primordial partnership, and behave as a single entity, the lichen. To live on, interdependence supersedes independence. I leaned in close. These inclined rocks cannot hold rainwater, but they hold life. Frail actors of fragile life here dissolve in each other and create a sum that is bigger than the parts. Recombobulation! 

It was time to head back. The only restaurant here served dinner until 7:00pm and we were an hour away. Gathering my gear and thoughts, I smiled. Until the glaciers come again in an inevitable future ice age, the order of things outside and within felt harmoniously reoriented here in Minong, the recombobulation place.

Taken on: June 9, 2023

Tags:

IsleRoyale

IsleRoyaleNationalPark

Minong

Ramen Saha

LakeSuperior

Long exposure

NeutralDensityFilter

UNESCO-InternationalBiosphereReserve

KeweenawCounty

Michigan

Daylight « less

Sets appears in: • National Parks – USA • 2023 – Ten Moments more » • Elements – Earth • Elements – Aether • Elements – Water « less

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, f/14.0, 15 sec, 24mm, ISO 250 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 5D Mark IV
Lens:	EF24-70mm f/2.8L II USM
Aperture:	f/14.0
Exposure Time:	15
Focal Length:	24mm
ISO:	250
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	Adobe Photoshop 21.2 (Macintosh)
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