FAVORITE MEMORIES 2

This was taken on a beautiful summer evening near Bay View Lodge on the main bay of Presque Isle Lake. 

The Mississippi River has giant Asian Carp that jump out of the water when they're disturbed by boats. That's nothing. Up here the fish are so big they get stuck jumping into trees. 

Many of the local economies are based on tourism so the towns are big on branding themselves to attract visitors. It seems like they all want to be the world capital of something. Boulder Junction proclaims itself to be the Musky Capital of the World. 

Park Falls proclaims itself to be the Ruffed Grouse Capital of the World. 

Woodruff claims to have the world's largest penny.

I'm not sure who arbitrates such claims but I suspect Boulder Junction's Musky claim might be challenged by other towns. Park Falls and Woodruff's claims are probably safe.  

I didn't know fish could get mad but this was one angy bass. Just look at his expression.

One day I was exercising on the lower level of our house when this curious Doe came to the door and just stood there staring at me. She was less then 10' from me.

Over the years we've caught several strange "fish."

My friend Steve and I were out fishing when he managed to catch this umbrella. It put up quite a fight. On our way in that evening we saw Marty, the local DNR guy, who was doing creel surveys. He wanted to know what we 'd caught and Steve said 6 bass, some crappie, a few small northerns and an umbrella and he held it up. Marty without missing a beat said "so were you fishing for umbrellas?"

A couple years later Steve and I were again out fishing when I managed to catch a pair of swim trunks. They also put up quite a fight. A lenghty discussion ensued about whether umbrellas or swim trunks are more difficult to land.

Of course our wise guy friends and relatives had to throw in their 2 cents. One suggestion was that we mount both of them and hang them on our living room wall as a conversation starter. YUCK!

Another suggestion was to deep fat fry them. DOUBLE YUCK!   

It was easy to imagine the umbrella blowing off a boat and ending up in the lake. What the circumstances were with the swim trunks are more mysterious.

We get hoards of flying squirrels on our bird feeders in the evening. They are very cute. The name flying squirrel is misleading, they don't really fly, it would better be described as gliding. A friend has told me that he has had them land on him several times. Once they jump if you walk into the area where they're going they don't have a way to change direction.  

There are lots of these little wetland areas. This one is in the Van Vliet Hemlocks. During the early summer they can be a problem because they give mosquitoes a place to breed, but once the dragonflies hatch they take care of the mosquitoes pretty quickly. 

Squirrels don't kiss but it sure looks like that's what they're doing.

Any time we get a sunny day, the turtles will be out sunning themselves on the logs.

On land herons look very awkward. 

But in the air they are quite graceful.

This was the first year we had been in Presque Isle over July 4th so we went to the town's celebration. The parade went about 3 blocks (which is all of "downtown") and consisted of the local fire truck honking its horn and kids on all manner of bikes, hot wheels, wagons, skateboards, etc. following behind it. There was one guy with a guitar and amplifier playing country music and a couple men with grills making burgers and hot dogs. You could get a burger, bag of chips, and soda for $5 and all the proceeds went to the local Lion's Club. Later in the day they shot off fireworks over the walleye rearing ponds. The experience was unlike anything you would find in a city. It felt very intimate and genuine.