At the condominium association near us, Traver Creek forms a pond. By the pond is a sign that says, NO RECREATIONAL USE. The dog and I frequently stroll through the area and, up till now, the sign has done its work: people have stayed off the pond. This winter, there must have been a scofflaw–it would only have taken one—who left footprints on the snowy ice. Then the masses descended. Now scarcely any unmarked ice remains. Skates, boots, skis, and a stroller have left evidence of gleeful recreational use.
We took off for Zukey Lake Tavern late Tuesday afternoon. We hadn’t been anywhere in so long, and I wanted to see what was happening on lake ice while there was still light. There are mostly skate prints on the ponds near us, but Whitmore Lake and Buck Lake sported ice fishing shelters and lots of vehicle tracks. Buck Lake is close enough to M-36 that we could see clearly that, whatever the vehicles had been, they’d been driven recreationally. The tire tracks didn’t just go from shore to shelter, they also gallivanted around the circumference of the lake.
I asked the friendly couple next to us at the restaurant if they’d ever driven a car on lake ice. They both admitted they had, but not for a long time. “You need three feet of ice for cars,” the man said. “We don’t get that kind of ice anymore.” “Besides,” the lady added, “I like my car too much.” I mentioned the vehicle tracks on Buck Lake. “Those are four-wheelers,” she told us. “Do they float?” I asked. She answered succinctly. “No.”
At about dusk, a woman from the group of diners on the other side of us announced there were herons out on Zukey Lake. We looked out the window. Some of the birds were still in the air. They didn’t fly like herons, with their necks pulled back. They flew with their necks extended, like cranes. Besides that, herons fish for a living, vamoosing in the winter to places where the water is liquid. Also, herons don’t tend to flock unless they’re migrating or nesting. It would be exceedingly odd to see a group of them socializing, in the middle of a frozen lake, in Michigan in February. On the other hand, sandhill cranes do hang out together. A few stick around for the winter, and it is not unknown for them to venture out on ice. Maybe they just wanted an outing before they went back to their sanctuary. I know we did, before we went back to ours.
Major snow arrived Wednesday, as predicted. Both my husband and I enjoy shoveling. It’s peaceful and satisfying and often social. Last night, it was even educational. I looked up while working my way toward John and Sarah’s to find John working his way toward our house. The path I had shoveled was not the same width as John’s. “This is like a New Yorker cartoon I once saw, of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific turning out to have different gauges,” I said. “Or like Russian trains now,” John countered. Upon further query, he explained that the former Russian federation built their railroads to a different gauge than that of the countries around them to thwart invasion. Fortunately for those who use our sidewalks, our difference in gauge was remedied with a few strokes of our shovels—no three-hour change of wheel trucks required at the border.
Rascal has his own preferred activity in snow. He pushes his face through it like a vacuum cleaner. A friend of ours who hunts tells us that the dog does this because snow holds scents, and vacuuming his head through it gives him a snootful. That may well be the case. Our dog is smallish and hasn’t much nose to speak of. I suspect, however, that snow vacuuming has a pleasure component as well. I think he tunnels through the snow with his face because it’s fun. Other neighborhood dogs like to roll and wiggle in snow, and they certainly look like they’re having fun.
Lucky thing for the dog and for us, it looks like we’ll be able to enjoy snow activities again in the near future. It’s snowing some more. We’re due for a few inches, on top of what arrived yesterday. The wind’s picked up, though. That changes things. It may be that, until the snow stops falling, we’ll limit our enjoyment of it to looking at it through the windows. The trees are laden and gorgeous. Michigan is a winter wonderland, excellent for recreational use.
4 February 2022