After climbing a 40-plus inch bank of snow on the Tahqua Trail roadside in Tahquamenon Falls State Park Friday, I plunged through 30-inches of recently fallen snow and deeper drifts seeking a nearby section of the North Country Trail I knew had been hiked 24 hours earlier.

Three North Country Trail Association local chapter members had posted they took turns breaking the trail on their traditional New Year’s Day hike, so I knew if I found their path I would also find easier going than snowshoeing in so much fresh snow.

Since that section of the North Country Trail runs along the north shore of the Tahquamenon River, frozen over now, their path was easy to find. Soon I was paying more attention to the white winter wonderland of a forest blanketed in snow than concentrating on breaking my own path. In a world of white, gray and black tones, the NCT’s blue blazes on trees marking the trail provided the only color accents.

No Hollywood fantasy film of deep winter in a northern forest matches the actual beauty of those towering white pine, Eastern hemlocks, massive oaks and other trees bearing white pillows of cotton ball snow.

The quiet couldn’t be missed, either.

After a few days of brisk, biting wind the quiet and the calm was startling. 16 degrees Fahrenheit felt surprisingly comfortable without a 20-mph wind blowing.

I snowshoed slowly, often stopping to photograph or just look about me. This was winter, real winter, in Upper Peninsula, Michigan. It tests you and requires you respect it by dressing properly, taking proper precautions and working a bit to engage it. The reward is found in beauty that photos don’t completely capture, a quiet that is not easily found, and in a vitality brought on by breathing cold, clean air while exerting oneself.

I love that world.

Earlier Friday morning, the television brought scenes from another world: smoke arising over a Venezuelan compound in Caracas where U.S. Military had swept in and captured Venezuela’s president/dictator Nicolás Maduro in a daring raid supposedly over alleged drug crimes. Or was it a thirst to control Venezuela’s oil? Officially it was the former, but President Trump mostly was excited about gaining control of the oil.

I’ll shed no tears for Maduro. He put himself above his nation and the people he was supposed to serve. Almost all observers called the 2024 election Maduro claims to have won a sham. Millions of Venezuelans are pleased he’s gone.

What’s less clear, is what the U.S. role will be going forward or whether the drug charges, legitimate or not, are just cover for an oil grab. Also unclear is whether, the Trump administration will seek to nurture a rebirth of democracy there or be content to cow the entrenched Maduro administration to do Trump’s bidding and be allowed to stay. Trump rejected talking to opposition leader Maria Corina Machad saying she had little popular support. Many observers say that is an inaccurate assessment. At least one reports surfaced suggesting that Machad lost Trump’s backing when she accepted the Nobel Peace Prize Trump covets rather than turn it down since it didn’t go to him. One can only hope that isn’t the case.

This is the geo-political world we live in today. Nothing quiet, pure or inspiring about it.

Saturday, Brenda, I and a few siblings walked a trail to the Upper Tahquamenon Falls overlooks as snow befitting a snow globe softly fell in the mature woods 15 or more miles from where I snowshoed Friday. This trail was hard-packed from all the visitors. Still, the quiet couldn’t be ignored. Visitors were enthralled by the snow-covered scenes. Even the root beer-colored falls were subdued in the snowy silence. From the most-distant overlook open at this time of year, only a hint of bronze could be seen through falling snow. No one complained.

The natural world is not always one of peace and beauty. It, too, can be violent, harsh and unforgiving. Its perils are sometimes difficult to discern. One can pay a dear price for carelessness.

That’s also true in the geopolitical world. Time will tell if the Maduro capture and intents and actions of the Trump administration prove beneficial overall or unleash unanticipated, unforeseen or ignored potential consequences. Like that Friday snowshoe, our nation and its leaders may have to trod in unbroken territory. Each step could prove a struggle before a safe path is reached.

I don’t know the answers to the many lingering questions about what comes next.

Thankfully, I do know where I can escape to this winter to take in nature’s beauty in a setting that frees the mind to wonder at a world both beautiful and perilous.

In both nature and geopolitics, it pays to watch one’s step.