Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
A journey of the spirit through four seasons, Paul Gruchow’s Boundary Waters is an ecstatic contemplation of nature and our place in it from a writer of great poise and power. The Boundary Waters—straddling the border between northern Minnesota and Ontario—is a vast network of forest and thousands of lakes, isolated and pristine. It is to this landscape that Gruchow turns in an attempt to better define himself and his place in nature.
Boundary Waters begins with “Summer: The Grace of the Wild,” in which Gruchow describes (according to the canonical hours) a single day in the woods, marrying the practical matters of the trail and the canoe paddle to the spiritual quest that drives us to the solitude of nature. “Fall: Walking the Border” is an account of hiking the famous Gunflint Trail that not only describes the lush scenery but contemplates the richness of our natural heritage and our need to share its treasures with others.
In “Winter: By the Light of the Winter Moon” Gruchow returns to the north woods, this time in the silent depths of a Minnesota winter, with a group of students to contemplate the vivid meaning of Thoreau’s Walden. Boundary Waters concludes with a journey to one of America’s most isolated, yet stunning, national parks, Isle Royale in Lake Superior, where wolf packs roam through the night and Gruchow confronts directly the complex issues of conservation versus development.
As he did in Grass Roots: The Universe of Home, Paul Gruchow again demonstrates that he can explore the relationship of person to place magnificently, illuminating not only our lands, but our souls.