A Little Cool, Extremely Wet

The elements that made up last week were many and diverse. There were a few grains of sun, a somewhat smaller amount of warmth, several chunks of autumn cool, and copious amounts of rain. More boats came out for the Winter, few swam, nobody skied.

The rain came in two large chunks at the start and at the end of the week with a few smaller pieces wedged in between. Over three inches total has pushed the lake level up, but it's still about 2.5 inches under the records of July and August.

All the soggy has made lawn mowing particularly challenging. Timing is everything. You want to wait until just before the next storm to allow lawn lakes to recede as much as possible. Some of those lawn lakes have acquired names and there's talk of fish stocking and buoys. In the end, no mowers were lost. SCUBA gear and a safety stop were not required (yet).

All the moist has produced a bumper crop of frogs. They're pretty much everywhere at dusk.

Popping up all around those frogs were a veritable fungi fest of 'shrooms.

Campfires were fewer last week. All the rain has made them soggy and hard to light.

During the few times of full sun, it became apparent that peak color may be earlier rather than later this year..

Though not as numerous as frogs or fungi, local chipmunks were more active than is normal last week.

At times, the lake was angry, but there were more than a few flat hours. Surprisingly, nobody skied.

The Golfo season is winding down as evidenced by chippers getting more accurate and divers getting more wet suity.

Last week, the lake temperature fell to 62°F. That's considered to be the minimum temperature for water play by our experts. It's also in that range where the donning of a wet suit for golfo goes from shameful to prudent. The forecast is for a brief oasis of warm before the inevitable frost. This will raise the lake temperature a bit, but the water should be well into the 50s°F as the fall colors peak in two weeks. It's best not to think of it as cold but instead as extraordinarily refreshing.

-Nemo will ski, ~~shiver~~ be extraordinarily refreshed.

A Little Cool, Extremely Wet

September 9th through 15th, 2019