Touring the Lake

We played truant today -- the weather was fantastic, and snow conditions were the same, and I hadn't been down the lake on a snowmobile in what felt like forever.

Here's the thing about winter -- it changes everything. It's a whole different world out there. If you think you know the lake, you need to see it from out on the ice.

With the leaves off the trees, you can see the bones of the land, the shapes of the hills... where there are evergreens that screen cottages from view -- a feature that protects the fragile shorelines as well as the vistas on the lake.

Other places show us where there are hardwoods that expose everything to the casual observer - and sadly some of the construction is just not that pretty, with too much clearing between buildings and lake, or monstrous boathouses. Or just places where old planning practices permitted boathouses to be packed in side by side like sardines in a tin. Hopefully the craze of 'bigger is better' has passed... the planning practices certainly have altered! and here endeth that sermon...

This vista is looking towards Dorset from the end of Bigwin Island. Come summer, it's a wall of greens... but this time of year, you can see right through the forest to the land below.

Everything looks a little different, a little magical, dressed in winter white. If you've never seen the lake this way, you really owe it to yourself to come back in the winter.