Ashland on the way home, then back on the lake (with ducks)

Dwight Peck's personal website

Summer 2022

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.

Ashland on the way home, then back on the lake (with ducks)

We've been to see Duluth (in Minnesota), definitely worth a visit (especially if you've got the hotel on Marriott credit card rewards), and now we're going back to the lake in Wisconsin.

We're leaving Minnesota Point, downtown Duluth, 30 June 2022, and we're really going to miss that Aerial Lift Bridge at Canal Park.

Performative art

Perfect for a Shirley Jackson film set

More performance art, this one a little less flamboyant, along the Major Bong Memorial Hwy (aka US Rte 2)

We're passing through Ashland, Wisconsin, at the foot of Chequamegon Bay (a city clearly serious about its fish)

Home of the best wall murals . . .

. . . celebrating moments and themes from the city's history. More and more towns seems to be doing this, including in our town of Staunton, Virginia, but seldom as thoroughly and as well as here: it's called the 'Ashland Mural Walk'.

Like this one (from our visit in 2014; some more mural photos from a 2012 visit)

We're looking for a nicely framed photo of that beautiful flag, looking out over Chequamegon Bay -- we'll pause for a few seconds and try again.

There we are.

Though Ashland is probably best known for its generous multiplicity of wonderful murals all over the downtown -- this one is at Main and 4th St. W -- it's also noteworthy as the home of the fraternal order of the 'Knights of Liberty', which excelled during World War I at tarring and feathering German immigrants suspected of pro-German sympathies.

We've just been celebrating a very good lunch at the Second Street Bistro, but the photo is unusable (blurry). That's just two blocks from this fine establishment, the shoreside Hotel Chequamegon, where we stayed a few years ago during our study trip to visit the 'The Kakagon and Bad River Sloughs', a newly designated Ramsar Wetland of International Importance of the reservation of the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa.

The Bad River Band also operates its own lodge and casino, about 10 miles east of Ashland; coming up soon, after . . .

. . . we cross the Bad River itsownself.

Here's the Bad River Lodge and Casino in Odanah. We won't stop in for a look; to be honest, gaming got somehow left off our long list of vices. But from what we understood from our previous visit to the reservation, the casino and restaurant, etc., provide valuable resources for the development of economic and cultural programmes on the reservation.

Looks like a vicious attack on Hurley (like the Prohibition days, but with helicopters)

A match made in heaven

We're home, and Melvin hasn't forgiven us for having left the cats behind.

Another old friend waiting for us (and we didn't even bring along a dead fish for him)

A dead fish may just have been spotted.

Choupette about to catch Melvin in an unguarded moment

A quick Get Re-acquainted journey through the canal

This is the relatively debris-free 180m trajet from the entrance to the mid-lake

There is no inclination to step ashore for further investigations.

The lush vegetation of the mid-lake

We're looking, as usual, to photograph turtles sunning on the former-trees, but none so far this year.

Nature's wreckage, no surprises anymore

That's the entrance to the 400m second half of the canal.

Here we go -- this part of the canal isn't a 'walk in the park'. Or . . . umm . . . it's pretty crowded with more damaged nature, a lot of it submerged.

Even here! The track behind the weathered old flag is for snowmobiles coming through the canal, in winter obviously, because . . .

. . . they seem not to be able to get through the culvert, and need to go up to the roadway and down the other side.

The second part of the canal is, as mentioned, brutally debris-strewn, but we won't dwell on today's sorry experiences at this time.

At least we've got to the far end with no casualties, and we get to make the acquaintance of . . .

. . . one of the locals.

The return trip, brimming with frustration, disentanglements, and delays

Here's one now.

Safely back to the mid-lake. The entire canal from lake to mid-lake to farther lake, extends about 720m (2,362 feet, ca. half a mile).

Choppy waters going back north

Meeting with friends (including one wife) on pedalboards

Pedalboarders in conversation on the far side

Pedalboarder approaching the boathouse at Mussent Point

In fact, a general gathering of pals by the boathouse

The summer reading room at Mussent Point

Another memento mori, as if another one were needed

More conversations on the lake (with total strangers, in fact, but amiable)

A productive spot for chanterelle after rain, and a dedicated mushroom collector moving in promptly.

A congregation of ducks in the far northernmost cove

The family being conducted to safety from our presence, in a stately and dignified manner

Cleverly circling around behind us

Accelerated shore erosion these days (wake boats!)

Keeping an eye on the fast-moving clouds, because . . .

. . . you never know. Awkward weather events don't always call ahead.

The dreaded invasive weed purple loosestrife, the cursed Lythrum salicaria. It's popping up all round the lake now, beginning in mid-July, and we're already way behind on yanking them out. Those little purple 'flower spikes' must be disposed of mercilessly -- 'Depending on location, plants may go to seed as early as late July. Each mature plant can produce up to 2.7 million seeds annually [Yikes!].' (Source)

New dock arrangements -- readying the fleet for Oscar's visit

A Secchi disc reading for turbidity (Cousin Rob got a 20-foot score earlier in the summer; after the advent of the summer skiboats, this one came out to 15-feet.) (Wake boats!)

Oscar has come to join the informal Afternoon Hydrobike Society.

Kristin's cottage from the hydrobike dock at Mussent Point

Cousin Rob rounding Mussent Point more or less on schedule . . .

. . . to perform some minor repairs on the bikes.

Frog Bay in its overgrown glory, 17 July 2022

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