Christmas is not just a Day on the Calendar

I love Christmas time.  I take Christmas music in my car and start to play it the day after Thanksgiving.  That’s saying something as my music of choice is classic rock ‘n roll.  I shop for Christmas all year long.  When I hear one of my family members say they would like something, I save it in my memory and then when I come across that item, I buy it, even if it is April.  I love to bake Christmas cookies, cakes and pies and getting together with family is fun-mostly, there is always that one family member.  But you determine to tolerate him/her for the day because, well, they are family.

Flexibility has had to join the Christmas spirit as well.  Since my son works for a TV station, he  often has to work on Christmas Day.  I know people in the medical profession, police, firemen, and the armed forces to name a few often need to work on Christmas as well.  It becomes difficult as well when family lives out of state.  Because of this, our family had Christmas in Battle Creek at my sister’s which was a somewhat middle ground meeting place for my father and me at Elk Lake and my son and his wife in Louisville, Kentucky.  We really only had the chance to spend one day together.  It was fun as it was a white Christmas, cold outside, but warm inside.  It was fun to talk to my family in person instead of texting, calling or even facetiming. Everyone left the next day to return to their homes, and once everyone had texted that they were safely home, we all sighed a sigh of relief and crashed in our own beds.

My family’s Christmas is over for this year. It wasn’t about the presents, it was about spending time together, seeing each other, joking at the dinner table, and spending time with Mom at the home, even though she had no idea who we were.  Christmas, though very different from years past, was good because of the love we share for each other and because of the love God has shown us by sending His son for us.

I wish all of you a special, safe, peaceful, joyful and merry Christmas!

                                                 Nat King Cole sings Christmas Song

Unplugging the Family

Do the Millennials spend as much time outside as people in their 50’s and 60’s?  Timothy Egan (2016) discussed that the younger generation is predicted to not visit the National Parks like the Baby Boomer generation.  In an article in the October edition of National Geographic Magazine, Egan talked with Jonathan Jarvis, the director of the National Park Service, who stated, “Young people are more separated from the natural world than perhaps any generation before them (Egan, 2016, 38).”  One of the reasons he gives is that they are distracted by technology more than ever before.  This is not just a National Park issue.  For Elk Lake and Northern Michigan in general, the same problem exists.  Many Millennials are too busy staying up to date on social media to stop, put down the phone, and breathe in the experience that nature provides.

So how do we help our children appreciate nature and all it has to offer?  For beginners, have a time each evening, or at the very least, once a week where the electronic devices go up and you do something together as a family.  This may be working on the house together, playing games, talking, singing, dancing and various other activities.  Be creative! If you have time, go on a short vacation, up North to Elk Lake and the region is an excellent place to unplug.

Elk Lake is a great place for families.  Whether you want to rent a cottage hotel or you like to camp, this is the place to make unforgettable memories.  Even though getting internet connection is no problem, you’ll want to have a put the phones and tablets up rule because family fun on the lake is way better. 

During the summer, there is nothing better than swimming in the lake and playing in the waves.  If you have small children, Elk is a good place to teach the little ones to swim.  In most places, the lake gets deep gradually so you don’t have to worry about any sudden drops in depth.  This way the children can play with their toys on the beach or in shallow water, without the parents worrying.

For older children, there is kayaking, wakeboarding, paddle boarding, fishing and hiking.  Boating on the lake is a must and gives everyone in the family time to talk and just be together.  This is the time you can connect with your children.

In the fall, hiking in the myriad of parks around the lake is fun and absolutely gorgeous as the trees peak in color.  The cooler temperatures make hiking comfortable.  Be sure to layer clothing as you tend to get hotter the longer the hike.  A good place to go is the Sand Lake Quiet Area.  There is also backcountry camping there as well.  Another place to camp is right on the lake down Park Road.  Here there is a campground, hiking trails and a boat ramp.

During the winter, skiing and snowboarding are in order at the several resorts nearby.  You can visit Nub’s Nob, Boyne Mountain and Crystal Mountain just to name a few spots.  Once the lakes freeze over safely, there is ice fishing and of course one of my favorites, ice-skating.  My grandmother lived on a lake in the southern part of Michigan.  It froze over every winter.  This is where my sister and I learned how to ice-skate.  It was such fun to have the whole family out on the lake, bundled up and skating together-even grandma.

This year with all the snow so far, Elk Lake or Traverse City would be a fantastic spot to have a White Christmas.  In fact, the snow has been falling the past couple of days.  It is a wintry wonderland with the trees snow-covered, the hills bleached white with new-fallen snow and the lake slowing down as it gets ready to freeze.

I encourage all to have a family time when being unplugged is looked upon as fun and memorable.  After all, seeing nature online is not actually experiencing it.  In fact it pales in comparison.  Teach your children that nature needs to be experienced in person, and not just documented on electronic devices.  A healthy natural experience is a legacy that we can leave the younger generations.

Egan, T. with Egan, C. 2016. Unplugging the Selfie Generation. National

     Geographic, Oct. 2016., Vol. 230, N. 4, National Geographic Society.   

The Veterans of Elk Lake

Since the nation is celebrating Veterans Day today, I thought I too would celebrate the veterans of Elk Lake – the Elk Lake lake trout.  Please don’t think I’m being flippant. I am very grateful to our men and women in service past and present who have served and are currently serving our nation.  A big resounding “Thank You” and “Bless You” and your families.  But let’s talk about the trout who seems to be the veteran species of Elk Lake.

I had no idea that Elk Lake has its own special trout until I read the article by Kentz (2016).  According to him, the lake trout in Elk are a bit different from trout in the rest of the Great Lakes.  It seems that most trout spawn on rocky reefs at about 20-30 feet deep.  However, our own trout spawn in much deeper water where there are no reefs.  In fact, they tend to live deeper than most trout at about 100 feet.  They also don’t seem to wander into Lake Skegemog. (For those who are not familiar with these lakes, Lake Skegemog is connected to Elk but is a much shallower lake.)

All this tracking of the Elk Lake lake trout is due to a $5,000.00 grant by the Elk-Skegemog Lakes Association.  They have funded a Michigan Department of Natural Resources biologist, Jory Jonas, and a graduate student who have tagged several hundred trout in the Lake. Seven of the trout also have acoustic tracking devices implanted.  They have also set up receivers around the lake which help track these fish.  You gotta love technology.

So how long ago did we know about these trout?  According to the ESLA online newsletter (2016) It was about five years ago when Jory was doing a large survey of fish in Elk Lake that he discovered this “remnant” trout as he calls it.  This is because, after having genetic analysis from these fish sent out for testing, the results showed that they were closer to the genotypes of trout from Lake Superior rather than the trout that have been planted in the Great Lakes and Elk Lake in the 1980’s.  In fact, the trout planted in Elk, have all disappeared, and the trout planted in the Great Lakes seems to not reproduce in the wild.  This is what makes the current study of the Elk Lake lake trout so vital.  It is the only trout in the lake that has reproduced successfully in the wild.  In fact, no trout has been planted in Elk for over 30 years. 

According to Jonas, possibly the Elk Lake lake trout has been isolated since the dam between Grand Traverse Bay and Elk Lake has been in service since  the 1860’s.  This dam has kept the “Remnant” trout isolated from other trout in Lake Michigan for over 100 years while it has also kept out or at least slowed down the onset of invasive species that seem to be inhibiting the trout in Lake Michigan such as the sea lamprey. 

So let’s celebrate our own veterans, the Elk Lake lake trout today.  I look forward to the ongoing study, especially since the trout seem to inhabit the central western side of the lake, which is where I live. Happy Veteran’s Day!

Elk-Skegemog Lakes Association. 2016. Online Newsletter. Retrieved on      Nov.11, 2016 from http://www.elk-skegemog.org/elk-lake-remnant-trout/

Kentz, Ken. 2016. DNR Lake Trout Study Update in Elk-Skegemog Lakes

Association Newsletter, October 2016.

Hope

The weather lately has been well, let’s be honest, a bit dismal.  Every morning I check the weather report on my phone and it has been consistently stating that Williamsburg has a 20% chance of rain.  Which basically means, it should be a pretty nice day.  The only problem with that is that we have had cloudy conditions and gotten some rain every day.  I checked, we are not in a rain forest.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining, in fact, the overcast skies have shown me when the sun does break through the clouds, it is even more brilliant.  I have always thought that when the trees are in their showy parade of colors, they are the most awesome when the sun shines on them, but the background is clouds.  There is just something about the contrast that showcases all the colors and the scene becomes a kaleidoscope.  (A few days after I wrote this, The Weather Channel published a video which showed that on average, November is the cloudiest month for upper Lower Michigan.  Ahhh, well that explains it.)

            Add to the scene a rainbow, and a miracle has occurred.  A rainbow has always symbolized hope for me.  I think it is because it shows that God hasn’t forgotten us.  It shows that His nature and science has produced something special that isn’t a common-day occurrence.  This particular rainbow presented itself as ending on Skeegamog point.  I was not the only one who stopped to take a picture and linger to watch it before it faded.  My neighbors’ son also took a picture of it and sent it to his mom.  A couple stood at the end of the road where they had parked their car and were standing arm-in-arm simply taking in the sight.  Cars had pulled over to the side of the road so that the driver could experience the rainbow as well as the passengers.  It was an awesome sight.

            As I think back at the rainbows I have seen in my life, the majority of them have been here in Michigan.  This is probably because the weather can change very quickly around the lakes.  However, this also makes me think that Michigan is a state of hope.  I know that Michigan has been hit very hard by the latest financial woes.  Those who have experienced it first-hand, know that I’m not trivializing it.  It just seems to me that people who live in Michigan are hardy people who love nature and are no strangers to getting knocked down and knowing how to brush themselves off and get back up.  That’s what a rainbow symbolizes.  It only appears after a storm.  It shows that there is beauty and magic after the storm.

 

 

Tunnel of Trees

            Where do you go for a day trip when you already live in a vacation destination?  This time of year, head up north of Petoskey to M119 and the Tunnel of Trees.  From Elk Rapids, this is about a six to seven hour round trip if you only stop a couple of times to shop.  This trip is fantastic for experiencing the fall colors along the shore of Lake Michigan.  Head north on 31 and then pick up M119 at Petoskey as you go around Little Traverse Bay.  Starting at Harbor Springs drive the 20 miles of the Tunnel of Trees to Cross Village.  You will be on visual overload before you finish this drive. 
Along the way there are many farm markets to buy apples, cider, baked goods and whatever you would like to munch on while driving.  Be sure to gas up at Harbor Springs if you didn’t start out with a full tank when you left home.  Then be amazed at the myriad of colors that you will be surrounded with.  For me, the trees that are the orangish, redish with a hint of yellow are the most spectacular because of their depth of color.  Even Crayola can’t manufacture this color in all their repertoire of crayons. 
The entire drive is not under a tunnel of trees, but rather opens up in places to sprawling orchards and farms.  There is even a one-room school house surrounded by Nature’s brush of fall colors.  Then of course, when you look to the west, Lake Michigan looms as blue as ever.  The contrast between the sapphire of the ocean-like Lake with the yellows, reds and oranges of the trees is awesomely breath-taking.
Once you arrive in Cross Village, there isn’t much to see.  This time of year, The Legs Inn, known for its good food and unique atmosphere is closed.  The Old World Café was open, but we didn’t stop to eat.  (We had packed a lunch and ate it in Charlevoix overlooking Lake Michigan.)  We did stop at the “General Store” which is really a gas station and a convenience store.  They had the usual along with a much needed bathroom – which by the way, was clean.
We opted to return home by going back through the Tunnel of Trees.  This was a good decision as the sun had shifted and it was like looking at the sky through a sunlit stain glass window.  It was a riot of colors.  On the way home we also decided to treat ourselves to a little bit of Kilwin’s sweets---always delicious! 
All in all, this is a great little day trip to take when the sun is out and the temperatures are mild.  Go with the mindset of meandering along without a care in the world, and being bathed in Nature’s colors.

              

           

            

           

           

                          

Around Elk Lake: Rose-colored Glasses

Around Elk Lake: Rose-colored Glasses: In my life, I have moved more than 30 times.  And no, my family was not in the military.  It has just been my fate.  I haven't minded, a...

Rose-colored Glasses

In my life, I have moved more than 30 times.  And no, my family was not in the military.  It has just been my fate.  I haven't minded, as I have been fortunate to live in interesting places from Bucyrus, OH to Jingzhou, China.  When you move to a new place, you tend to see everything through rose-colored glasses.  Even though I'm now living full-time at our family's house on Elk Lake, this is the first time that I have seen the trees turn colors up here.  It may just be this year, but compared to other places I have lived, the colors are so vivid.  I'm trying not to see everything through rose-colored glasses, but I'm just in awe of the beauty.  If you are reading this and have lived up here all year, can you please let me know if every Fall is this beautiful? 
I would love to see pictures that readers have taken around Elk Lake this Fall.  If you have some to share, please post them in the comment section.  I have added a few pictures that I took while wandering around Bunker Hill Rd. in Williamsburg last week, when the trees were just starting to change.  I thought the colors were vivid then, but they are even more spectacular now, even if I am looking at them through rose-colored glasses.

The Last Swim

Last Wednesday I went swimming.  I'm sure it was the last swim of the year.  Oh sure, I'll continue to swim indoors, but it's not the same.  There's just something special about the first and last lake swim of the year.  The first swim is filled with excitement, anticipation and steel willpower to swim in the cold early summer water of the lake.  The last swim is also cold, but yet languid as you swim along, reflecting on the summer and seeing the trees tinged with golds and reds.  It  is a time to cherish the ability and opportunity to swim in such a beautiful, clear lake.
There have been all kinds of activities going on around the lake, but this past week I wanted to spend on the water. In the mornings I have watched the common mergansers preen near my shore, and the mallards swimming by, still in a family.  I have watched the Canada geese fly over in a V and honking, and heard the loons (but still have not seen them).  The wind has picked up and the birches in front are waving their yellow leaves.  Autumn is here. 

For many people, Fall is a busy season as the children have homework and after school activities.  It is a time when routines are back in place and we go through our day working, going to the grocery store, going home, making sure homework is done, watching a bit of t.v., maybe reading before going to bed, and then getting up the next day to do the same thing all over again.  If you live on the lake, take an extra long minute between the craziness to enjoy the call of the loons and the crispness of the wind.

Acme Fall Festival 2016

Who knew a fall festival could be educational?  When I decided to go the Acme Fall Festival, I expected the usual craft and food booths, a play area for the children and the tractor and car shows.  However, when I got off the tractor wagon that met us in the parking area and took us to where the events were at Fairfield's, the first thing I saw was a rather large gathering of onlookers and a woman holding a bird on stage.  I didn't know what kind because I was just walking onto the scene. 

This woman was come to find out, Rebecca Lessard, founder and director of Wings of Wonder, a sanctuary dedicated to saving, rehabilitating and releasing back into the wild (if possible), raptors of all kinds.  She soon replaced the first bird with Doolin, a human printed turkey vulture.  I was mesmerized as Rebecca held this huge raptor on her arm and continued educating us about what type of bird is considered a raptor, their habitats and habits.  I must confess I lost focus for a minute as I was contemplating how heavy Doolin was, and how well-behaved he was throughout the presentation.

 

Rebecca Lessard with Doolin the turkey vulture

The climax of the presentation came when Rebecca released a rehabilitated red tailed hawk back into the wild.  As the hawk sought refuge in the nearby trees, I wished him well in his life as nature intended.

Releasing the red tailed hawk



Headed for the trees

        
The rest of the festival was pretty much as I'd expected.  I did stop by the Yuba Historical Society's booth and learn about the restoration of the school house.  All in all it was a beautifully perfect day to wander around the festival.  I encourage everyone to com out for next year's festival.  It was definitely worth the donation cost.
 
*Check out Wings of Wonder at www.wingsofwonder.org

Compassion

This post isn't actually about Elk Lake, it's about getting to Elk Lake.  I was down state at my sister's in Battle Creek.  Yesterday I was travelling on 37 N on my way back up to the lake.  I suddenly heard a noise like I ran over something and it hit the bottom of the car.  I looked in my rearview mirror and didn't see anything, so I kept going.  The car was not acting right, and the driving was feeling a bit "squishy".  I pulled over onto a side road, stopped the car and got out to look.  I had a flat tire on the passenger's rear side.

Well, I pulled out my little overnight bag, and pulled up the bottom of the trunk.  I got out the donut tire and the jack.  Then I looked for the tire iron.  It was no where in sight.  I looked all through the trunk and it did not magically appear.  Hmmph!  I sat down, called my sister.  She said she knew a towing service that could come out and change the tire, but it would be a bit of a wait. 

I got out a book to read while I was waiting.  Lo and behold, a good Samaritan stopped and said he could help change the tire.  I explained that a tow truck was on the way.  He said, "Don't do that, it'll cost you money."  So I called my sister back and told her to cancel the truck.  The man used his jack and tire iron that happened to fit my car.  He had the tire changed and the donut on within 10 minutes.  I thanked him, and want to thank him again for his kindness.  I pray that his kindness to me comes back to him when he needs it.

So I continued north on 37 to Hastings where this gentleman told me there was a place that worked on tires.  I GPS'd tire places in Hastings when I got there and went to the one with 5 stars.  I drove in and walked in.  The girl behind the desk was on the phone and didn't acknowledge that I even stepped into the shop.  I patiently waited for her to finish her phone call.  I told her the situation - that I had a flat tire that needed repaired, or to buy a new tire so that I could continue my drive home.  It was about 12:20.  She said all her guys were at lunch.  I asked what time they returned.  She said 1:00.  I then asked if they could take a look at the tire then.  She told me that she didn't know because they already had two appointments at 1:00.  Since I was receiving no compassion for my plight, just a 'too bad for you' attitude, I walked out.

I then called Tires 'n' Such.  They said they could get me in right a way.  I GPSed it and drove to the shop.  It was nothing to look at, in fact, I do believe I heard banjos playing.  However, I was taught, don't judge a book by its cover.  I walked in and the man behind the counter old me to drive my car around to the back.  The young man met me and immediately fixed my tire, and put air in my donut tire. The tire was plugged and back on my car within 15 minutes,  He was friendly and efficient.  Thanks to Tires 'n' Such for helping out someone who was in a pickle.

I appreciate the compassion for a traveler who had car trouble.

Why write about Elk Lake?

So why write about Elk Lake?  My family has owned a cottage on the lake for 28 years.  How do I know exactly 28 years?  Because my parents bought it the year my son was born.

I have spent most of my summers, or parts of summers at the cottage.  It has been a place of rest, relaxation and rejuvenation. The one rule that we have always instituted at the cottage is that no one has to do anything they don't want to do.  If you don't want to eat the fresh brussel sprouts that were bought at the Elk Rapids Farmer's Market, you don't have to.  I have always liked this rule (though I do like to eat the fresh brussel sprouts).

Recently, I have changed professions from a college professor and director to a freelance writer and editor.  I have had enough concerning university politics and moved to our cottage as a permanent resident. I have written for the past 30 years in my profession, and am now enjoying writing what I want to - which means for this blog, anything that has to do with Elk Lake.  I want to share my observations as this transition to permanent resident goes along.

Already, the Lake is calming down as many of the summer residents are closing up their cottages, dry docking their boats and pulling in their docks.  The water is still warm enough to swim in, so when the weather permits, I'm still swimming along the western shore.  The children's voices have silenced as they have returned to school.  The sounds of the lake are only those of the waves and the seagulls .  As I swim, my mind wanders and my soul is renewed.

The nights are now cooling off, making sleeping with the windows open very comfortable.  The leaves of the maples are just slightly tinged with color.  Summer is trying to hold off Fall, but Fall is pushing to overcome it.  Already, I have spent a longer time at the cottage than any year previous.

So the adventure begins...