This has been a summer to remember, over two months of 70° weather stimulated a bumper crop of Fireweed, huge garden vegetables, lush flowering perennials, and daily fun on the lake. This is a rare moment of total quiet during late evening around 10:00PM. Our lake is blessed with quiet hours from 11:00PM until 8:00AM. Most mornings are perfect with flat calm a kayak or canoe, a small fishing boat or a solo paddle board being the only users. The fun doesn’t start till nearly noon when kids arrive towed behind speeding boats on every conceivable floating device imaginable, I’ve learned to ignore children’s high pitched screams of joy and excitement initially thinking they were cries for help. Every now and then a jet ski will carve S-turns across the shimmering surface, creating the much sought after wake for water skiers. All day long dedicated fishermen anchor in deep coves reeling in an assortment of Rainblow Trout, Grayling, and Arctic Char. Our dock extends into a shallow water cove with excellent feed for ducks, Loons, and Red-necked Grebes. It is a productive nesting ground for waterfowl, and the same birds return year after year. Many are so comfortable with us that they barely move away when we are nearby. Life on an Alaska lake is never dull, visits by moose and red fox are always a surprise and highly enjoyed except when moose decide to walk across a newly planted garden leaving deep post holes wherever they stepped. Our lakeside faces the setting sun, and I’ve spent many evenings soaking up the last warm rays on the patio recliner sipping a drink or sitting, camera in hand on the iron benches at the end of the dock, waiting for a colorful sunset. The Fireweed is reaching the top, this signals six weeks until winter frosts. Sometimes we’ve had errant frosts as early as Labor Day only to have an indian summer in October. Who knows? Every year is different and always lovely at the lake.
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