Fall

September 17th through 23rd, 2018

Lake Lucerne
Last week was composed of two parts separated by a wall of water. The first half was hot. It was filled with swimming, skiing, diving, and wondering how long this would last. The latter half was Fall and the wondering was over.
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Lake Lucerne
On the North end of the lake, one of our favorite summertime activities is chipping golf balls from the shore into a bucket on a raft. Points are also awarded for balls that miss the bucket, but stick on the top.
Lake Lucerne
The water was warm enough for divers to gather the one or two balls that somehow missed the bucket or did not come to rest on the raft.
Lake Lucerne
Looking back at it, "one or two" may be a low estimate of the number of golf balls that plopped into the lake.
Lake Lucerne
The 2018 exodus of boats and lifts from the lake to the land continued during both the hot and cool parts of last week.
Lake Lucerne
There was a bit more eagle activity over the water during the warm part of last week.
Lake Lucerne
The wall of water that parsed last week was predicted at one point to be as much as three inches. After the wet passed, the reality was short of one inch. That's enough to slow the lake level decline, but not enough to raise it.
Lake Lucerne
Some on Knott Lane are not taking any chances with the still high water levesl and are apparently converting cabins into boat houses.
Lake Lucerne
The normal late season quiet was disturbed much of last week as professional hole diggers practiced their craft up and down the roads on the North end of the lake. Some were deep, some were deeper, most were marked, and all uncovered some sort of pipe or cable at the bottom.
Lake Lucerne
Fall has arrived to the northwoods. It's rare to have astronomical and meteorological autumn materialize with such synchronicity. As the lake temperature rapidly declines, watch for boat and lift pulling to accelerate. There will still be those that refuse to bow to the new, colder reality and will continue to ski and shiver under the increasingly colorful trees, but they are becoming an endangered species. Watch for their extinction in the upcoming weeks.


-Nemo's shivering.