Question Answered

Beaver shot

Day 4 (6/27/12)

If a tree falls in a forest… So today Eileen and I had got up kind of early for us, had breakfast, and headed out for Mauthe Lake. When we got there it seemed pretty much deserted. Even the little booth for collecting money was empty and locked. We decided to pay on our way out and headed down to the boat launch. We had the lake to ourselves. It isn’t often or never that we are the only ones on the lake so we headed for our favorite part, the river. Unfortunately, there was not an overabundance of wildlife but it was still very peaceful. We worked our way up river and under the bridge, still no sign of people or wildlife. It was on our way back down that things started getting more interesting. First of all, the wind that we knew was coming started. We had seen on the weather channel that it was going to be windy and had actually thought about not going out. This year it seems like every time we have a chance to get out kayaking the wind is blowing. So as we started back down river against the wind we heard a load crashing in the woods as, we guessed but did not see, an old dead tree fell to the forest floor. Eileen looked at me and said exactly what was going through my mind, “well I guess we now know the answer”. We continued down the river a little further to where I saw a beaver with a mouth full of reeds swimming up river towards us. I slowly turned on the video camera but because the sun was at my back wasn’t sure if I was actually filming it or not. I thought sure that he would see us and dive but perhaps because of his precious cargo he continued making his way up river right past the prow of my boat. He then swam over to a brushy area along the bank, dove, and never appeared again. He seemed rather small as beavers go but industrious. When we made it out of the mouth of the river my fears were realized. The wind was blowing directly from the direction that we had to go to get back to our Yak hauler. By now people could be seen at the beach and running around on shore. When we finally made it back we loaded up, stop and paid for our stickers and were off. We took a different way home than usual and came across the Beachwood cheese factory. We had seen a article on T.V. about it so we decided to stop and try the wares. 

More of the Beav

Right before he dove

Against the Wind

Fairies at Gerber Lake

Waiting for a fairy

Day 3 (6/20/12)

We checked the weather forecast as soon as we got up and it was going to be another hot and windy day. Any other day we may have reconsidered our plans to go out kayaking but today Eileen was on a mission. She had spent the last week making little fairy houses and environments. It had all started when we became captivated with the wonderful little environments that you can find inside of an old stump or piece of drift wood. Although we could and have photographed these environments, how much cooler would they be with fairies living there? It has always been a slight problem that on some lakes while I am fishing, if the wildlife is uncooperative, Eileen has nothing to do. Unfortunately we have been to all the local lakes enough now that there is little left to explore so Eileen needed something to keep it fresh. Fairies were just the answer. As I said, she had been working hard constructing little structures that could be used in her environments. She loaded everything into a box and set out to build little fairy homesteads. While I was fishing, not very successfully, she would find new sites to settle and photograph. She did have one little house tumble into the water but that sort of thing is going to happen. As I mentioned it was hot and windy. Not often is it so hot that while you are on the water that you are sweating bullets but it was one of those days. The wind also made it a little hard to stay in one place but all in all it was a very fun and fruitful day. Eileen may actually start a blog of her own documenting her villages and she has all kinds of plans for new houses and paraphernalia.  

Eileen setting up a Homestead

The house that tumbled to the sea

Anybody Home?

Gnarly Build

Driftwood Heights

Blue Dragon

Fishies

More Fishies

Me fishing

Another Day at Gerber Lake

Gerber Lake

Day 2 (6/13/12)

We had been planning on going to Mauthe Lake Camping sometime this week but when I came home from school Tuesday and there was a dumpster in the driveway and the shingles were being torn off the roof we realized that was out of the question. Apparently the roofers had to change their plans and showed up early. We are glad to get it done but we won’t be doing any camping. They said they had to finish another job on Wednesday so they would not be back until Thursday. Eileen and I decided to take advantage of their absent and at least take a trip to Gerber Lake. Once again wind was a bit of an issue but as long as you stayed close to the trees it wasn’t too bad. I managed to get a little fishing done while Eileen explored. It is fun seeing how the lake changes from one year to the next. The biggest noticeable change was to the “Lady of the Lake” an old root cluster that looks like a female form. This year her once sleek body was starting to flake and peal. Gerber is surrounded with natural sculptures made from windfalls making it one of the more interesting lakes we go to. After checking out all the old haunts we headed home.

Some of the wildlife

One of the many sculptures

Turtle

Lady of the Lake