to the superior trail!

my cool friend becky hjellming invited me to go hiking/camping with her along the superior trail up north for a weekend and i held an inner dialogue (that i vocalized with holl and coral, too hah!) for a couple days that looked something like this: "um, is the pope catholic?  that sounds amazing, alexi, and you always say how much you want to do that!" and "but i'm a noobie noob noob and don't know what i'm doing and don't have any of the gear!"  thankfully, i came to my senses and after warning becky of my noobie-ness, oh boy what an adventure!  the most wonderful... challenging & breathtaking & teaching & gratitude!  we also met the coolest people while we were out there, like 67-year-old chuck on day sixteen of his hike alone, with a son and daughter living in eau claire and a wife who dropped him off in duluth for his adventure, and joe & pat who lead a Bible study group for "young people" haha!  and the guy who hates the cities with his son "nathaniel river" who didn't talk, and that loud couple with their teenage son who did not know where they were at all haha!  it's good stuff out there, friends.

and some photos because i am alexi (:

^^ night 1, we set up camp really close to here.  oh my stars, isn't that a sight for beauty-loving eyes?!

^^ becky's in this one, so it's different! haha

let me tell you what, becky is wonder woman!  she really is.  she knew what to bring and how to filter our water & throw a bear bag onto a tree limb, and where to buy dehydrated meals and which trails to take.  i mean, seriously so cool.  such respect for people like her, who live life so FULL.  i learned so much from her!

^^ this right here was the most rewarding swim!  we had hiked almost eight miles and were sweating like we had already been swimmin haha, so floating in this spot was top notch.  i kept thinking how rewarding it was that we were swimming where it was only accessible by hike!  just untouched beauty!

^^ our trusty little home for two nights!  kept us dry after a wild (LOUD) thunderstorm on night #1

you know all of those pinteresty quotes about how much the human soul needs untouched nature to revive?  it's all true.  every word.

^^ this was on our last day, our final destination was this waterfall in tettegouche state park after we had hiked about ten miles, and we sat at the top of this big beautiful thing in awed silence and ate our little lunches in satisfying exhaustion.  oh, the beauty.

heights of love and depths of peace... all weekend.

it might sound kinda odd, but my favorite part about this trip was the gratitude it brought.  and the simplicity of having everything we needed right on our backs.  while we were out there, becky made the comment that it was so much more rewarding drinking water we had worked to get, to seek out and filter into our waterbottles.  and it's true!  when i got home, i felt like buddy the elf watching the water flow from the sink at the touch of a knob! haha!  and i felt so deeply satisfied to be so safe and warm in a cushy bed with clean feet.  it's the little things, folks, that are actually the huge things.