In Search of Trillium

Today I am hiking an ATV trail in Sawyer County, just south of the Chippewa Flowage, in northern Wisconsin. It is just me and my dog. The forest surrounding us is a deciduous mix of hard and soft trees, interspersed with patches of white and red pine. It is early and the sun is just starting to stream through the upper canopy.

My attention however is not towards the sky, but instead towards the forest floor. My eye is in search of the wild and fragile trillium. Today they are sparse, much more difficult to find than I expected. At times I come across small patches, but nothing like I have encountered in the past.

Many times in my life I have been lucky enough to stumble upon large patches of these inspiring flowers. The most memorable happened seven years ago on the Memorial Day weekend my wife and I got engaged. We were camped near Crandon, WI. and our campground was flush with trillium. On Saturday of that weekend we were met with a late May snowstorm. As depressing as it was for us, for the lively and vibrant trillium it appeared to be devastating. Bent over with the weight of a heavy spring-time snowstorm, I still recall Carri commenting how sad and dramatic those trillium looked. However the next morning we awoke to sparkling sunshine and terrific warmth. Not only were our spirits high, we were also inspired by the trillium dancing happily in that fresh sunshine. By the way they sparkled that morning, who could tell that only the day before they were cowering under the weight of cold, wet snow. Their toughness, oh so apparent then, has forever stayed with me.

This beautiful and simple white flower is unarguably my favorite. Although my wife and I have three small clumps of trillium growing in our poorly managed garden, it is the trillium of northern Wisconsin that always catch my heart.

Me a blogger?

This all seems a bit strange to me. Maybe even a bit self-indulgent. For the life of me I could not imagine anyone else being interested in what I have to say. I am simply this small spot on the world wide web, and I live a relatively simple and anonymous life.

I have been inspired by my long-lost friend Robb Kloss. I met Robb on the basketball courts in Madison, WI. We were both university students and found our games compatible (I was a pass first shoot second point guard, and he was a natural scorer who was always ready to catch and shoot). Eventually we became friends off the court. A few years after graduation we met back up again in Minneapolis and continued to play hoops and socialize together. But then life drifted us apart, until recently.

Robb met and married a woman from New Zealand and moved to the other side of the equator. I did see Robb at his Wisconsin wedding reception, and he did track me down a few years ago (via e-mail), however there has been virtually no contact since we left Minneapolis. Two weeks ago Robb sent me another e-mail, but this time he included his blog address: http://ruahineramblings.blogspot.com/ . We've reconnected. I've learned a bit about his wife, his boys, his life, and his venture as an expatriate.

So although I've contemplated writing a blog for a few years now, Robb has inspired me to give this whole self-indulgent fantasy a shot.