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(Editor’s Note: W. William “Rudy” Rudolph delights in the splendor of a Fall woods on the Old Mission Peninsula and elsewhere from his formative years. Photos by Rudy…jb)
I love Fall! I especially love Fall in Old Mission, with the maples in full splendor, the air crisp and pungent with the smell of new fallen leaves. On a sunny day in mid to late October, the Old Mission landscape seems to come alive with a painted brilliance unsurpassed by anything a mere human artist could imagine, let alone produce.
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Every maple seems to have its own “color character.” Some are deep red, some are golden, as if touched with an elfin wand, like something out of a Tolkien landscape. The rarest and most impressive are those trees which present the most vivid continuum, in each leaf, from red to orange to yellow. These are the most spectacular of trees with their crown of glory splashed across the azure blue of a bright, fall sky. Oh, yes, I love Fall.
Growing up in northern Wisconsin, my father and I would go each fall weekend into the woods. Our quest was the wily ruffed grouse, a truly legendary bird of uncanny ability to flush from cover with a startling explosion of loudly beating feathers and then, magically, insert between itself and the hunter, the dense foliage of a spruce or cedar. All this in less time than it took for the alert nimrod to snatch shotgun to shoulder and swing in frantic pursuit, only to face an impenetrable wall of dense foliage, listening in vain to the beat of grouse wings making a rapid, and safe, retreat into the densest cover. As often as not, this young hunter would be defeated in his immediate quest, but it was never the success of the hunt so much as the pleasure of being in a fall woods, in companion with my father, that brought joy to my heart.
Later, studying forestry at Michigan Sate University (Go Spartans), I worked summers for Kimberly-Clark Corporation, timber cruising across northern Minnesota, Wisconsin and the U.P. (heh!). The fall trimester after my sophomore year, K-C needed someone to mark timber for selective cutting in a hardwood forest near Marenisco, Michigan, and it was attractive to me, so I signed on. The woods in the western half of the Upper Peninsula was a typical northern hardwood blend of maple, oak, beech, yellow birch and pine. With a few hemlock thrown in for good measure. It was very similar to the few mature woods still extant on the Old Mission Peninsula.
What a joy each day to leave the boarding house with a thick beef sandwich and thermos of piping hot coffee, and spend the entire day waking transects in the fall forest, judging which trees to selectively harvest and send on to the sawmill and which to nurture to keep the forest sustainable and healthy. Forty acres would be covered each day. A really good day would be one in which the drumming beat of a male ruffed grouse would fill the air with its thrumming sound. If I was really lucky I could get close enough to see him. Those grouse were safe enough, as the young forester was armed only with his paint gun. Goodness, I love Fall!
Now, blessed to live on the Old Mission Peninsula and have access to the hardwood forests at the north end of the Peninsula, a walk in the fall woods brings back so many wonderful memories. The same crisp fall air, the same pungent smell of wet fallen leaves. The same excitement when, walking beside Bagley Pond, a brace of Teal or Mallards explode out of the pond under frantically beating wings. The busy scurrying of squirrels of all persuasions – black, gray, fox and piney – putting up winter stores, reminds me of winter to come. The rat-tat-tat of a Downey Woodpecker or the thunk-thunk-thunk of a Pileated underlies the rustle of falling leaves, like a timpani underlies the magic of a symphony orchestra. Even the sight of deep woods mushrooms peaking out from under a bed of new fallen leaves brings delight to the senses. I love Fall!
SUPPORT YOUR INDEPENDENT LOCAL NEWSPAPER: I started Old Mission Gazette in 2015 because I felt a calling to provide the Old Mission Peninsula community with local news. After decades of writing for newspapers and magazines like the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Family Circle and Ladies' Home Journal, I really just wanted to write about my own community where I grew up on a cherry farm and raised my own family. So I started my own newspaper.
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Thanks Rudy for lovely photos and writing! I liked it and …..I’m smiling. We are blessed to live in this beautiful place.
Where in Northern Wisconsin did you grow up? I lived in Minocqua….
Hi Pam;
Minoqua/Rhinelander area is beautiful. You were lucky to live there. I actually went to school in Appleton which is not exactly “north” but my Dad was a hunter and fisherman so we spent a lot of time in the Pembine/Peshtigo area. We fished trout in the spring and summer, mostly on the Pike River and tributaries feeding it. In the fall and winter we hunted state lands in that area. Our family carved out a campsite on county grounds just south of Dunbar Wisc where we spent two weeks tent camping each summer. This was all cut over pine forests and had been burned in the early 1900’s. In the fifties and early sixties, the wild blueberries grew there in profusion. We used to collect pails full to can and freeze for the winter.
Good memories.
Rudy
On
Rudy
Enjoyed traveling thru time with you. Your writing painted pictures! Thanks for the journey. Ely was our family destination for many years.
Phyllis (Johnson) Cooley
6th OMP Gen
[…] The Splendor of a Fall Woods on the Old Mission Peninsula […]
Thank you Rudy! You are a brilliant writer as well as photographer!