A casual mid-August on the lake

Dwight Peck's personal website

Summer 2019

A photographic record of whatever leapt out at us

You may not find this terribly rewarding unless you're included here, so this is a good time for casual and random browsers to turn back before they get too caught up in the sweep and majesty of the proceedings and can't let go.

A casual mid-August on the lake (and another bagarre félin)

A full moon over the lake, 14 August 2019

A leisurely excursion to the south, 15 August 2019

This is the straight stretch from the main lake to Tigertail and the southern bays (see map below)

A curious mix of fading green and terminal brown

Coming up on the Tigertail Point, with its undercut shoreline

We'll let our guide carry on as we march up to see the new sign.

A good place to beach the bike and scramble ashore

An attractive new sign some 60m up the hill -- the members of a family trust that owned nearly all of the undeveloped land around the lake recently donated all but their private plots to a conservation and forest management group, the Northwoods Land Trust.

We'll hurry back down and catch up with our colleague.

A patient hydrobike

Climb back aboard

The undercut shoreline

Our guide is cruising the shore of nearby Pink Island, seeking the elusive mushrooms.

Across the bay, we're passing Chase Island, with its own share of shoreline boulders.

Chase Island, now with its own . . .

. . . polite sign from the Yawkey Forest Reserve, indicating no public access ashore for the protection of the wildlife habitat.

Back under the bridge and circumhydrobiking the shores of the 'South Bay' (see map below), we're still recording the present state of the far-leaning trees.

Their own compulsive yearning for more sunlight than their neighbors are getting, and the shoreline undercut by persistent wave action, are dooming them over a certain length of time.

The perilous quest for more sunlight

An old log that's been lying half out of the water for so long that it's acquired its own new vegetation

Back out into the South Bay

A familiar landmark skeleton tree

The highway bridge over the entrance to the South Bay

You can't hear yourself think around here.

Passing Chase Island again and turning north

At the entrance to the main part of the lake, that's so-called 'Beaver Island', more colloquially known as Ryden's Island after its owners, where formerly there must have been a cabin but now there's only a broken dock, a picnic table, and a campfire pit.

Ryden's Island, with 'Crescent Island' (aka Raymond's Island) behind, facing north

Onto the main lake and looking east, that's George Island and Baby Leigh, some 600m to the east.

A perennial stand of grass on the rocky reef -- Adjidaumo in the background

The goose family cruising the shoreline

Another day (16 August 2019), another elaborate vacation family residence in the 'Indian Bay' (South Shore Drive Bay); that's just the boathouse.

A casualty of last summer's lightning strikes (les coups de foudre)

Best avoided whenever possible

A few more erratics under the lightning tree

Along the southern shore of the lake, in search of mushrooms, we're passing more trees in various stages of their slow deaths.

Past battles lost

The first half of the summer has been almost totally mushroomless around the lake, but they're coming in now, and will soon become a flood (if that's the right word).

Another glacial outlier

And a really big one

Best to leave it where it is

Nothing a good coat of paint couldn't fix

A tree balancing on its own roots

The woodpeckers have been at work on this one.

The woodpeckers have had a field day on this one.

Another revegetated tree-corpse

Approaching the main lake again from the south . . .

. . . with both adults and the juvenile camped out along the western shore.

Passing 'Beaver Island' again and picking up speed to blast us over the rocky sandbar on the left

To a serious hydrobiker, that's cheating.

He's a fisherman, actually, pressing the family into service to tow him up to a spot near the Mussent Point boathouse.

Another intense interaction between the cats

Encore une bagarre félin: Choupette starts it off by coming in low on a sleeping Melvin, 18 August 2019 in the morning.

Melvin tries evasion but gets dragged down into the middle of it.

Melvin is not always as enthusiastic as Choupette is about these brief bursts of primordial instinct and energy, but . . .

. . . Choupette often cannot be denied her fun.

The best defense is a vigorous offense.

Somehow, they never, ever hurt each other.

Eventually they'll tire.

Our strange tree near the boathouse

It would probably have lots of sad stories to tell.

Another old wreck from some years ago -- came down with a crash at midnight.

Uh oh, look what the cat dragged in. Himself!

Mea culpa. Melvin evidently followed me into the boathouse for a canoe paddle and got the door shut on him and, after doubtless shouting for help for some hours, decided he had to swim for the shore.

Nothing a brisk rubdown won't fix.

The Lake in the Wisconsin Northwoods

Mussent Point is at no. 12.