Island Return

14 September 2007

Dear Friends and Allies:

I have completed both the paddling, and the more dangerous 1,700 drive home to Austin, Texas and am safe at home. Unpacking and the transition are my challenges now.

My big lessons from 21 days with the wild are to go slow, pay attention, and wait for the moment. Lessons learned through the practice of a hundred rituals of gathering water, lighting fire, making food, creating shelter, and then breaking it all down again and stowing it in the boat. Where a single forgetful or inattentive moment easily results in the loss of a vital supply or piece of equipment without backup.

I practiced these lessons in a thousand footfalls on rocky trails and wet, slick rocks getting into and out of my boat. One twist of an ankle would leave me in pain and far from help.

But most particularly I paddled the lessons in thousands of strokes. Pull too hard and I've a shoulder injury. A misjudgment of wind and wave conditions at a point, fail to notice that particularly big waves curl over a hidden rock and I find myself in paddling conditions to challenge my skills. Even in a calm sea, an overeager or misguided pull on the blades could tip me into the icy water with a risk of hypothermia and death.

The possibility of capsize without recovery was my constant companion. Carlos Casteneda referred to keeping Death on your left shoulder. I embarked on the journey neither wanting nor expecting to die. But I was willing to risk it and when I anti that poker chip into the game, it is a good one regardless of the outcome.

I offer thanks from the very depths of my heart and a deep bow to all of you who kept me in your thoughts and prayers, to those of you who sent letters, Mary Oliver poetry, cookies, dried beef jerky, noodle dinners, instant mashed potatoes, a bees wax candle, snack bars, a bag of cookie crumbs (Isle Royale tradition - we eat them with a spoon!). And 3 cotton swabs, which gave me both a laugh and provoked much thought. For what purpose and why 3?

I also offer humble gratitude to all of you who answered phones, wrote e-mail, planted gardens, sat on cushions, and generally kept this precious world going as best we can.

With much love,
Juniper Lauren

P.S. I won't send any more e-mails about the trip. You are kind to read this much. I will be posting excerpts from my diary on this blog: IsleRoyaleJourney.blogspot.com. Any of you with additional capacity for nerdy trip details, nature narrative, or philosophical ramblings please check it out. I'll get some photos up.

I hope that fellow journeyers might add their contributions to the blog. Journeyers is a broad term and an island is a state of mind. JL