Big Lake Excursion, Day 2

Such a hot day! We decided not to go out to survey on the water after the scheduled plant paddle put on by the Lake Stewards of Maine due to the extreme temperatures expected. There was a good turnout from the community for this event, but even by 11 am, we were melting in our kayaks. Standing around talking to people was taxing and required extra sun protection!

We enjoyed admiring this 'ballsy' tree on our way to the community hall,

where we assembled to categorize and identify some of the plants we'd collected during our plant paddle.

We had a planning meeting in the A/C, and sorted through some plant samples left over from the morning's event.

Then, oh joy! We swam in the gorgeous lake, reveling in the feeling of having heat sucked from our overheated bodies.

Big Lake Excursion, Day 1

Our first day on Big Lake was hot, and visibility was very, very poor as you can see from these photos - a floating midden of mayfly exoskeletons combined with swirling pollen grains coated the water's surface. These are not decaying fleshy bodies, so there was no odor.

It was quite a beautiful patterned effect,

and created an amazing textured surface that looked like a Monet! 

Dale had the best viewing of all of us since he was snorkeling (black shape protruding from the water) and didn't have to deal with the surface 'skin' of discarded insect sheaths.

 

Taking a break on the pontoon, with our patient captain and his assistant. They were the support crew who ferried us and our kayaks to remote locations so we could put more time and effort into surveying for invasives. It made a huge difference.

The wild expanses here are breathtaking - so much unspoiled shoreline, with tons of interesting plants and habitats, and very few boats to disturb the tranquility.

I love the patterns the floating, ribbony leaves of Sparganium fluctuans (floating bur-reed) make on the water's surface - different and intriguing every time.

They were flowering for us, too!

Shattering Heat

What a dramatic sight greeted us on our arrival home from Big Lake ... one of our interior, double paned glass "walls" had shattered in place whilst we were away!

It was bulging outwards into our sunroom, but the internal pane was still intact!

We can only presume it couldn't take the extreme heat - the heat index was between 100 and 110°F according to records for the area.

It took 2.5 hours to prep the area, break the glass, and clear it all up - it was quite a procedure as it broke outwards onto our enclosed sunroom which has open wood slats so glass had fallen through into the basement below.

Despite the inconvenience and energy it sucked up, the effect of shattered glass was quite beautiful, really.

Big and Beautiful

Wow, Big Lake in Washington county, Maine, you are B I G and beautiful!

We spent 5 days around its shore to help monitor the extent of invasive variable milfoil and we got to enrich our own outdoor experience at the same time. Isn't this exquisite?

Such gorgeous big skies!

Big Lake, big sky

The peacefulness is unmatched