Nancy was at the Springsyde dock today, for the Association's AGM. This boathouse is over 100 years old, and anchors a most unusual community.
When the lake steamers plied Peninsula Lake, mail would be taken daily to the North Portage terminal of the Portage Flyer railway. These cottages, strung like pearls along the eastern shore of the lake, had that post office for an address. The cottagers would walk along the shore to the Post Office, or go by boat from this boathouse which was communally built.
The path created is now part of a collective easement involving almost 40 properties, granting all those property owners the right to walk along the shorefront. The dock is used for the annual Regatta, the yearly Marathon Swim out to the Island and back, a meeting place -- and this autumn the site of a wedding.
The path and the dock have created an interesting, eclectic community that gives flavour to Pen Lake and defines the lake's history.
This morning, as we watched sailboats head out for a sailing race, a row boat go sculling past, and a group of fishermen try their luck on this lake, a loon swam by, right at the edge of the dock, to salute those fine folks who take care of the Springsyde community, and encourage them to continue this tradition for the next 100 years.
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