Kiddy Pioneers of the Lake - Part One

Every year my family would rent a cabin at my uncle's resort in northwestern Minnesota. Stoney Point resort had five cabins, one large swimming dock, a fish-cleaning house, and an assortment of wooden boats. Block Lake wasn't very large (about 260 acres) and not very deep (23 feet at most) but it was our lake. The cabins were on the north side of the lake. I can't remember if we had our vacation in July or August but I do know we went the same week every year. Other vacationers took the same week and we could expect to see them. My Uncle Joe, his wife Evelyn and their five boys would be there too. One summer, when I was about ten years old, my cousins Danny and Donny and I decided to walk all the way around the lake. To us this seemed very momentous. We had never walked around the lake before. We had walked to the dam and back. We had walked to the other cabins and back. But we had never hiked the whole lake. We had never heard of anyone doing that before. We weren't sure if we could finish the hike in one day or if we'd have to spend a night in the woods before we got home. This was new territory for us. We were going to be pioneers of the lake. We told our parents about our plan because we needed supplies and permission. I packed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in a bag with an apple. Aunt Evelyn packed what I thought was a nicer bag of supplies with Fritos corn chips, sandwiches, Hostess cupcakes and Freezies. Freezies are intensely flavored juices packed in a plastic tube and frozen. I think of Evelyn every time I see a Freezie because she was still offering and I was still accepting them 30 years later. I carried the bag and we started our trek, unsure of what day we would return. We planned to go counter clockwise on the lake so the hard part would be over with first. The second half of our journey would be on gravel road. We left the cabins and walked down the driveway to the gravel county road. Turning left we walked for a couple blocks passing corn fields and sheep pastures belonging to our Uncle Leo, owner of the resort. We took another left on the road to the dam. This dam road wasn't really a road; more of a dirt path for tires with grass growing in the middle. The sun was shining and the walking was easy so far. Dragonflies and grasshoppers clung to the grasses at our sides. Swallows swooped in the skies above us. We reached the dam on the east end of the lake. The lake level was low at this time of the year and no water flowed over the dam. The cement dam had a three foot iron gate on top. We stood on the concrete and held onto the iron gate as we side-stepped across. Cattails crowded this end of the lake and we couldn't see above them. In the slough on the other side of the dam we could see several northern pike swimming. Our eyes widened to see such big northerns. One of them looked to be at least a four pounder. The fish had probably been carried over the dam in the spring and couldn't get back into the lake. We agreed it would be a shame to let it go to waste. We decided to come back and get it another day. Although it was probably only 8 o'clock, we thought we would eat some of our lunch now. That way we wouldn't have to carry it and we would need our strength. The easy walking was over. (to be continued)