Lowell Lake – a spectacular Summer Solstice

Friday June 21, 2013
Site 27, Winhall Brook COE Campground
South Londonderry, Vermont

 

You meet the nicest people at campgrounds.  

Our neighbors Tom and Diane from Massachusetts have come to Winhall often and they save us a lot of investigative time by suggesting things they’ve enjoyed seeing and doing here.   Most of the things we do for the next several days were suggestions they made to us.  And I was so busy listening and thanking them that over the course of the 3 days they were here I never once got their picture.   I’m really sorry about that.  One of the biggest drawbacks of doing a post after the fact by even a day or two is that some things you discover you don’t have, you cannot get.

Tom and Diane tell us about Lowell Lake.  We decide to celebrate the Summer Solstice with a paddle there.

 

 

 

Lowell Lake is a natural lake, undeveloped with no facilities.

 

No camping, no restrooms.   It is actually a State Park and I hope they don’t do anything to change it.  The park was created in 1981 when the state purchased 207 acres from the estate of Arline Weiss Gardner on the southern end of Lowell Lake.  The area included the dam, a cemetery and what they called an “informal car top boat launch”.   This is all here today along with a very small parking lot for those boat top cars.  A perfect lake in my opinion, natural and no motors.

 

 

In 1996 an additional 154 acres were purchased which included a former summer camp with a rustic lodge and numerous lakeside cabins, two islands and a residential structure used now as a caretaker’s residence.  Now there’s a job I might like to have.   The property includes some significant wetlands.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On a board in the parking lot they explain that there is a plan to rehabilitate and use the lodge and cabins but that has clearly not happened so far and they are falling into disrepair.  But if it does happen it will really change the character of this beautiful totally natural spot.

There is also a loop trail of 3.5 miles that circles the lake and from which you can visit the summer camp buildings and the revolutionary war era cemetery.

 

 

 

But we are here to kayak and experience the lake.

 

We tend to paddle around the edges of the lake to see what’s going on in that zone between two habitats.   What we find here is that this lake should be called Beaver Lake.  All day long we never saw one of them but their lodges are all over.  7 in all.  A couple are clearly old but the others look  like they might well be housing beaver families.   The architects have a variety of styles.  Don’t you think at least one of these guys would want to come out and slap his tail at us for noseying around so much??

 

 

 

 

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We spend the entire day here just drifting along by the banks discovering one thing after another.

 

The lodge and cabins from the camp.   One cabin has a green roof.  Not exactly the kind currently being designed but it’s pretty none the less.

 

 

 

 

  

 

We are really surprised at the absence of waterfowl on the lake.  True we are not there in the early morning or the early evening.  David hears a loon call but we never see him.  This cormorant is definitely king of the rock here.   No one else around but us paddlers.

 

 

 

Today may be the first official day of summer but many of the flowers we see are those of early to mid spring in Virginia.   

 

Mountain Laurel by the water reminds me of Ohiopyle.  This time VERY pink.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blue flag is abundant.

 

    

 

Not everything is happening along the shoreline.  Some of it is happening on top of my boat.  Apparently these lovers think it is still spring too.   I’ve never seen a chain this long.   Usually only two.

 

 

 

The banjo frogs are serenading us.  I can’t find them but this green frog poses for me instead.  Look at the size of those ears.  All the better to hear you with my dear.

 

 

 

In all this wonder, the huge highlight of this day for me is when we see these flowers. 

 

I’ve been trying forever to see pitcher plants and today they are waving their amazing flowery flags.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These two guys better be careful how closely they explore.

 

 

Once we’d spotted them with their flowers, we began seeing them everywhere with and without the blossoms.   Notice the other carnivorous plant at the base of the pitcher below.

 

Again once I’d seen the Venus flytrap they too were everywhere in huge clumps. 

 

   Growing on fallen logs.

 

 

Look who else has found them.  Clearly too large to be in danger of being trapped.  I didn’t see these blue damselflies until I was putting this post together.   What a surprise!

 

 

 

 

 

This has been a really exciting day for me.  I am definitely a happy camper.   But it’s not over yet.

 

 

David’s more of a tree man so he hangs out underneath this giant hemlock while I take just a ridiculous number of pictures of pitchers and their flowers and the Venus fly traps.

  

 

 

 

 

Can you help me identify either of these beauties?

 

  These little pink bells are thick along the shore in some sections of the lake.  

**update thanks to Sue Malone I now know the little bells are Twinflower.  And thanks to Jan Goldfield who identified the white flower as Arrow Arum.   I do have THE very best readers!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is beauty everywhere I look.

 

 

 

 

 

Just can’t get enough of these.  All too quickly the flowers will be gone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The clouds and the grasses are stunning.   This day is just marvelous all day long.   Everywhere I look is beauty.  I spend a lot of time just laughing out loud at my great good fortune on this special day.

 

 

 

 

Doesn’t this guy look like he’s telling me to buzz off?  If I used Picasa and learned my lessons at Rick’s IT school, I could have given him a thought bubble.

 

 

 

What a spectacular paddle this was.  It really does seem to me that I have the most wonderful experiences on the Solstices and Equinoxes.   They are special days for me and this certainly was one.

And this is only part of this Solstice day but clearly the later afternoon will have to wait for another post.

I hope you had a spectacular Summer Solstice day too.

 

THE END