“It was coming all along.”
– Maggie Rogers, It Was Coming All Along
I was three months old the first time I was in a boat. I rocked along in the waves as my parents fished on Leech Lake in Northern Minnesota. Thus began a lifelong love of lakes, which is etched in some of my earliest memories.
As a kid, after the four-hour drive to the cabin, we would open the car door and breathe in the smell of fresh pine needles as the sun hit our faces. My brother and I would put on our swimsuits immediately and dive off the dock into the water with goggles to observe the underwater neighborhood. I can still picture it: tall plants forming the underwater forest, tiny water bugs taking refuge in this forest, and a school of minnows swimming by. The lake was always teeming with life. In the evening the crayfish would come out for their nightly battles. By morning, we’d see the remnants of those battles, lone claws, and dead bodies, strewn across the sand.
After my grandparents retired, the cabin became their summer home. My brother and I would get to stay there for a whole week with just our grandparents. Every morning my grandpa would walk out on the deck and announce, “It’s another beeeee-autiful day at Leech Lake!”. This declaration would set the tone of the day. We’d eat meals on the deck and spend the whole day in our swimsuits.
As we grew older, we would walk down the shoreline to visit friends. We’d play games, make up dances on the deck, waterski, fish, and sit at the campfire all night laughing and telling stories. We’d hear a protective loon parent call in the night, warning off any who dare come near her nest. The night sky was bright with infinite stars. The cabin was a retreat from busy life at home. A place to just be at ease and feel the space.
These early experiences instilled in me a hunger to take care of lakes, which led me to study lakes in school. In fact, that hunger took me all the way to a career as a lake biologist. Now, I get to use my love of lakes to instill appreciation and stewardship in others. I get to see in other lake residents the dedication and commitment they have to the lake they grew up on.
I have been to the lake every summer since that first time. It is my mental and spiritual retreat, my place of renewal. Not much can top the feelings of boating across a glassy surface, sitting on the dock in contemplation, or observing our resident eagle return each year to the same tree to nest. It is here that I feel at one with nature and with myself.
To me a lake is so much more than a basin of water, jumping into a lake is like a friendly hug. The cool water against my skin allows the day’s concerns to sink into the soft sediments.
I believe that going to the cabin is more than being near a lake. It’s sitting with the family at the campfire, telling stories and laughing without a care in the world. It’s a place where the lake is a family member and in on all the stories, absorbing them into its vast depths.
This blog contains my reflections, hopes, and experiences through the lens of lakes, lake management, and the outdoors. These are my confessions as a lake lover.
Moriya Rufer is a water quality professional with 20 years experience working with lakes in northern Minnesota.
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