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 birthday party and a batch of Pinus resinosa
First, a brief collection of ghost trees on the lake
It's hard to select a few amongst so many.
Even under the highway bridge
At the entrance to the back bay of the South Bay
The southern wreckage of Chase Island
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And a recent entry, on the little beach of Pink
Passing Kim Schmutzler in the late afternoon, 25 July 2024
Choupette and Vaughan preparing to play ball, but . . .
. . . Choupette's idea of playing has more to do with hunting prey.
A nearby dock barely surviving over a couple of generations, and a family of ducks on a log.
It's time to resume their patrol, or did we frighten them?
It will probably hold the boat for a few more summers, but humans will need to think twice.
More victims of the Northwoods' tough winters
Just near that shaky dock, farther along to the point sticking out into North Bay (map below at no. 6), with . . .
. . . the skeletal remains of a lightning strike from a few years ago, and the cottage owner's small secondary dock.
Some of that fallen tree seems to have been intended as firewood, eventually.
The Mussent Point shoreward side, from Kristin's cottage
A July birthday celebration for Joellen
Attended by four generations
Who's the least impressed participant?
Another fine old tree slowly degreening from the assaults of Time (and bugs) (and woodpeckers)
A little red pine promontory
This is a 70 meter (230 foot) spit of land jutting out into the strait leading from the main lake, in the background, into Tomahawk Bay, seen from Cousin Rob's and Elke's dock (no. 48 below).
Twice before, we've ventured onto it for a lark, and this likely-looking spot on the left turned out to be an especially bad idea -- submerged propeller grabbers and over-the-ankle mud slops, just to spend five minutes looking at 'red pine' trees.
So now we're seeking a better plan. That's not it.
That part's too overgrown at the shoreline.
We once counted 12 ducks sitting side by side on that thing, a few years before it submerged itself.
No luck so far
That's our little promontory, end-on.
More promising, but . . .
. . . too crowded with ankle-scratchy greenery
There it is. Perfect.
An odd formation -- 70m long, ±3m wide, maybe a meter above the water level: what's it doing here? How did it form, and how has it lasted so long? Intrigued passersby would really like to know.
-- Wait here. (The propeller guard's planted in the rocky bottom.)
We've been informed that these are 'red pines' (Pinus resinosa), which are known to be able to hang on for over 500 years.
Some growing straight up, some not so much
Not all of them live for 500 years, of course.
There's even what looks to be a sort of trail amongst the trees.
Definitely a trail. But why? To where?
At the mainland end of it, the trail is less obvious, but . . .
. . . still perceptible. At the far end of that lane, it starts up for the bluffs that sit about 12m (40ft) above the shoreline leading round to Sandy Beach (called 'Manila Bay', for some reason, on the antiquated map below).
That's all good; we've seen what we wanted to see. Back to the bike now.
No room for a trail this far along.
(We were told yesterday, a month later, that two otters were seen playing energetically about that morning, right about here.)
'Okay, let's go home, plastic friend.'
(Mussent Point is a bit more than one mile to the north.)
Guest cats -- Choupette's half-siblings are staying with us whilst their family is on the road.
They tend to do almost everything together, even yawning.
Neither one will move until the other one does.
Choupette's noticed the open suitcase and, as usual, knows what that means.
Next stop, back to Lake Superior for a few days.
The Lake in the Wisconsin Northwoods
Mussent Point is at no. 12.
Next up: Another brief sojourn on Lake Superior with a stop-in at Houghton, UP
Dwight Peck's personal website
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All rights reserved, all wrongs avenged. Posted 27 August 2024. 
