The Mermaid

Karen misses swimming in 4-Mile Lake, Wisconsin, where she spent summers during her childhood years.  She misses it a lot.  And so, this past August, on a muggy (mid-60s) afternoon during a visit by her cousin Connie from Iowa, Karen, Connie and Don hiked up an alder-lined, barricaded gravel road ending at Petersburg's back-up water reservoir.  Karen, her brow revealing beads of moisture, lamented how she wished she could plunge in that lake like she did back at 4 Mile.  "Oh how I wish."    

Reaching the end of the road, Karen disappeared, wandering down to the shore of this wild lake surrounded by virgin spruce and hemlock forest and subalpine mountains.   Not a soul appeared in sight...no one...just the lake, the forested mountains and us.  There, ignoring the no trespassing signs, like the uninhibited child that still lives within, Karen succumbed.  She stripped and plunged in -- Yes, skinny dipping in the town's back-up drinking water supply while Connie and Don, still on the road, thought she was off taking photos.  Finally, refreshed, Karen emerged to bask on a rock and let the sun perform the duties of a plush cotton towel.

And that's when the entire Petersburg high school cross-country track team on a training run crested the last rise in the road above the reservoir to view a 76-year-old version of a scene reminiscent of Denmark's mermaid on a rock.  Karen knew she had been caught when shortly afterwards the cross-country coach came breathlessly running up to ask, "is everything OK?"  Then, spying Karen, dressed by that time except for her dripping hair and sans socks, shoes, and appearing quite refreshed, he grinned.

Now the other character in this saga, Cousin Connie, delights in the variety of trails  around Petersburg, but not the lack of rest room facilities.  She asked. "Would it be safe to pee in the woods?"  "Sure," I assured her, "as long as you get well off the trail and behind a tree."  And so, the day before Connie's visit ended, sure enough, the urge struck.  Checking up and down the trail she determined she was alone,  like at the reservoir, not a soul in sight or within earshot.  Connie stepped off the trail but failed to fully heed the terms of my advice -- well off the trail, behind a tree.  Need I tell you what happened next?  Remember that high school cross-country team and their training runs?  Yep!

That team had quite a summer.

Alas, Karen accidentally deleted her photos of the reservoir that day so instead I'm including some of her favorite images from the past.  Also, included are a couple of photos Karen took of other swimmers in the reservoir.  

The scene of the "crime"

A Sitka black-tailed deer "guards" the entrance gate

 of the road leading to the reservoir.

Alders line the access road to the reservoir...

as well as lupine, here seen blooming in the spring.

Another view of the reservoir in the spring.

Other swimmers in the reservoir, ring-neck ducks with the drake

revealing how the species got it's name.  

I still wonder why they weren't called ring-billed ducks.

Another shot of the drake ring-neck duck.

Oh dear, a Vancouver Canada Goose on the reservoir needs some grooming.

Away from the reservoir, surely no one would see someone off the trail here.

Other walkers on Petersburg's trail system.