This is the first image I will present to you. Though many of you have seen it before, it seems appropriate that this be the cornerstone of my new photo project with WTIP, and I hope you enjoy it. It’s one of my most beloved subjects.

The Gunflint Pines, as they are commonly called, are sentinels in this northern corner of the world. They stand tall, alongside the Gunflint Trail just a few miles from Grand Marais marking ones passage into the wild places of beyond and welcoming one back to town and the Big Lake.

The late Anishinabe spiritual leader Walter Bresette once told me, “The Anishinabe called them ‘The Grandfathers, The Old Ones, The Pines.’ We believe that they are living spirits and that we need to grieve for them as they pass on.”