Put a map in front of me and I'm happy for hours.
Considering my love of maps it's surprising that it took me so long to realize that on the way back from my parents-in-law's place, if I don't go too directly, takes me to (or within sight of) five lakes.
They're all small lakes varying in size from 9 to 19 acres with a max. depth of around 20'. With Lake Superior (20,288,000 acres and max. depth of 1,333') less than 30 miles away they're pretty small potatoes - but they're also quite lovely. These are all seepage lakes in the sandy soil so they don't have streams flowing in or out.
John and I took off for a ride and by the time we got to the second lake he thought it was about time to head for home while I continued on to our place.
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| As far as I know there's no road/trail down to the lake...which is really quite intriguing. It seems like everything these days has to be accessible by a motor vehicle and when they're not it piques my curiosity. |
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| On a day like this (mostly sunny, warm, and oh-by-the-way the saturday before memorial day) I'm sure the beaches on the Big Lake were busy. Not so much here. |
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| The managers of the CNNF love to log. I understand that it's their job and national forests are tasked with this. I just like big old trees and it bums me out that when I ride (or hike through) a nice stand of old trees in the CNNF I know that before too many years go by they're probably going to get the ax. And to be fair there actually are a number of places with decent-sized trees that have been there for a while. But there is also a lot of weedy regrowth where they've cut things down and the pioneer species is aspen - and so there are a zillion 2" diameter aspen in a year or two - almost a monoculture. |
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| I came to this lake a few years back to do some fishing with my friend Bill Heart. At that point it was a short drive from the main road on a closely wooded two track and the lake was ringed with nice trees. Now that two track is mostly open and the ring of trees is mostly gone. Maybe there's some regulation that they can't cut right down to the water but the hillsides above the lake were sure cut. |
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| A few weeks back I got a Spot GPS tracker. The thing has a GPS unit it it and four buttons. One tells your specified recipients that you're OK. Another notifies them that you need help, and another notifies emergency services that your life is in danger and they should come and get you. (The fourth one is the On/Off switch). Anyway that's a little background about how I came upon this scene: I was riding along a paved connector road when I saw a little unlabeled two track leading off into the woods. I'm curious by nature but being a family man I hesitate a bit to go off into the woods by myself where chances of anyone finding me, if things go south, are slim - my family needs me to be around. But with the Spot I tend to go for it more. And that's how I ended up riding my bike down a crumbling, overgrown stretch of what I presume to be the old road bed. I had ridden by this stretch dozens of times and despite this stretch being close, and running parallel, to the present road I have never even had an inkling that this old roadbed is here. |
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