My daily sighting for a bitter cold Saturday in an unusually bleak suburban nature preserve: Coyote scat on the trail. That was it. But I enjoyed my hike because, today, the place had a quiet inactivity that reminded me of authentic wilderness.

I first noticed this deep quiet when visiting the woodlands of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Along narrow U.S. 2 in the western part of the U.P. near Lake Gogebic, there are endless trees. You could get lost in them forever. There are wolf packs, plenty of bears and almost certainly Eastern cougars. Bald Eagles and Ospreys are pretty common; so are Pileated Woodpeckers.

But when I first hiked around up there, I saw none of them. Ironic. Because in a few acres near Chicago there’s much to be seen. I guess this is easy to explain. In vast wild land, animals can disperse and be scarce.

The impression you get in authentic wilderness, whether it’s the U.P., Yellowstone, Muir Woods in northern California, the Grand Canyon or the Everglades…. is one of ear-shattering quiet, a feeling of “nothing happening.” But if you’re patient, if you wait by a stream and hang around all day, you’ll see wildlife. You’ll get ticks inside your clothes, but that’s the price you pay.

In the U.P. I saw two Bald Eagles working on a nest. I saw porcupines close enough not to touch. And although I never saw bears I did see garbage cans they messed with near my little motel. I saw Pileated Woodpeckers and a red fox that was more silver than red. Foxes near Chicago are just as much fox I guess, but the U.P.’s fox seemed more rugged.

Anyway, today in the cold suburban woods, there was that same “nothing happening” thing going on, the same deep uncompromising quiet. It was like being a thousand miles from home. Felt good and wild. That was worth noting; that was a pretty okay daily sighting.

That, and the coyote scat. I was glad I saw the scat because when my wife asked “what did you see today,” I couldn’t answer, “I didn’t see shit.” Because, I did.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 6th, 2009 at 12:26 am and is filed under "Daily Sightings" A Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.