Life is so very short. I am reminded of this upon reading in James 4 this morning.

“Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” James 4:13-15

We are up in the Michigan Upper Peninsula at the moment just waiting on the color to really take off.

Our first week up here, beginning the 27th was spent on a farm in Pelkie. They own about 120 acres or so. It’s also a Disc (frisbee) golf course with 36 holes across the landscape.

While there, I was asked if I would be willing to provide for them some drone footage by doing what are called hole flyovers. These are videos the owner can use to narrate each hole in a video. The videos will help the competitors know and understand their upcoming course challenges.

They hosted an actual leg of a tournament while we were there so not only was I able to do hole fly overs across the landscape I was able to get action footage of the players playing from my drone in the air.

The weather was cooperating and overall it was a great time.

At the time of this writing, we are now in a town very near the Porcupine mountain state park. The colors inland in the area are at or past peak, however, the shoreline all along Lake Superior is still very, very green. So now, we wait. Two of the most significant locations to film for us while here in our plan are Copper Peak, the Presque Inlet, and the Brockway mountain overlook.

Copper Peak, as it turned out two nights ago cooperated nicely for us. While it was horribly windy, I was able to not only gather excellent drone footage video wise, but also took a few rather lovely panoramic photographs of the area. You can see from the colors, it’s a peak and quite beautiful there. It’s interesting how only a few miles can change the landscape.

Presque inlet is very close in proximity to Copper Peak. Copper Peak is simply in land a little, maybe 5 to 8 miles. The colors are exploding there while the majority of the forest is still green at Presque and Brockway Mountain near Copper Harbor. Well, take that back. The southern side of Brockway is near peak, while the northern side is still green. I’m wanting that northern side to cooperate with me color wise.

At any rate, this demonstrates James’ wisdom. You can plan, but it isn’t always going to go our (my) way.

Most of our lives, we may try and plan, but in truth, like in chasing these leaf changes, we are left to guess, chance, and then only can roll with it as it happens. The leaf chasing, like life, happens in short streaks over which we have very little control. This gives me cause to really do my level best to make dang sure I am living at my maximum capacity each day, for I am but only a breath on this earth and then my days are done.

So now, we wait. We sit and wait. Do videos, produce them, post them…while we wait on the colors we want to see lite up.

As of now…we head to the Rapid River Truck trail. We are left only with the option to drive the 145 miles or so there today to get the video and photography I have been hoping to gather.

Watch for photos soon. I am confident this area is fully colored and at “peak”.

rob out