Woods & Water by Dick Herfindahl

 

The one thing I like about summer is it gives folks a chance to be outdoors and enjoy a cookout and if it’s not too terribly hot, even a campfire. I really like campfires in the fall and spring when the evenings are cool and the air is a little on the crisp side. When I am at the cabin in late fall and the wood stove is making the cabin nice and cozy, I love the smell of the wood burning in the stove that fills the air as I step outside. This is one of my favorite smells, ranking right up there with freshly mown hay, bacon and newborn puppies.

When I had a camper at Best Point on Tetonka Lake by Waterville, a group of us would gather around a campfire at night to make s’mores, have a few beverages and swap tales. Once in a while, hot dogs were also on the menu. There is nothing better than hot dogs roasted over an open fire. There are parts of having a permanent campsite close by that I miss, but most of all it is sitting around the campfire with friends that I really miss. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t trade my cabin in the north woods for that campsite, but I do cherish the memories of what once were.

Over the eight years we had a camper at Best Point, I got to meet some nice folks and also some unique individuals. I had a friend who I will call Larry who liked to partake of a few spirits. On one occasion he and a friend of his who was a fairly large individual had gone out for an evening of fishing. At about dusk I heard the roar of a boat motor laboring to push his pontoon onto the lift. At first I had thought that he was struggling to get on the lift because of his friend’s size. As I approached the lift he was gunning it for all it was worth and all at once his friend hollered “stop” and when he had shut it down his friend held up Larry’s trolling motor which had been mounted on the front of the boat. It was now in two pieces and I really had a hard time stifling my laugh as Larry, blurry eyed, stared in amazement at what had just transpired.

There was another time when this group of folks who were staying in one of the cabins had brought their makeshift bass boat to the lake. The guy had a 12-ft. fishing boat and he had mounted two captain’s chairs in it, which he had pulled out of an old van. The skipper of the boat was fairly small in stature and his friend was a very large individual. They headed out for a day of fishing with the big guy in the front and the skipper in the back. They were fishing amongst a group of other boats in what must have been the “hot spot” and after a while someone in a speed boat went roaring past them sending a big wake towards them. As the first wave hit the front went up in the air then down with the wave, as it went down the big guy fell out of the boat, and when he did the front went straight up in the air and the stern of the boat went under the water sending it straight down to the bottom of the lake. The other boaters went to pluck the unlucky fishermen out of the water. Unfortunately, the big guy was actually too big to pluck so they had to drag him to shore while he held on to the side of his rescuers boat.

In 1997 I had just bought a brand new Lund fishing boat, I was really proud of my new boat which, at the time, had all of the bells and whistles. On my first trip to the campground with my new boat I discovered that all of the dock spaces were taken, so I decided to pull it up on the shore for the night. I had secured the anchor rope to a tree so it wouldn’t drift off during the night. That night a storm went through, but I slept comfortably knowing that my boat was secure. When I walked down to check on it, there it was beached sideways and half full of water. I had to have help pushing it off of the beach and had to run the bilge pump just to get enough water out to even move. Not a good beginning to sharing my life with my Lund.

This wasn’t the only instance I’ve had with my boat. There was the time when I had forgotten to put the plug in and as I pulled away from shore I noticed water coming in. Not good! My wife and grandson Dylan were along and he still brings that up more times than I would care to be reminded of it. I had to run the bilge pump until I could get it to plane off. I could then pull the plug intentionally to suck the rest of the water out.

There was another time when my grandson Trevor and I were at a lake with a long, steep incline at the access. As we were launching, Trevor asked if I had put the plug in. After my last episode I was a little paranoid, so I pulled the trailer up to check it. Unfortunately, Trevor had already unhooked it so I dropped that boat right on the concrete ramp. Trevor looked at me and asked what we were going to do? I said that we will just crank it back on, not knowing if that would work or not. To my amazement it did work and we were soon fishing and laughing about it. I did have to get a little JD Weld to patch up a couple of cracks but all-in-all I was darned lucky.

These were just a few of the happenings that I have witnessed or been a part of that you could classify under “you just can’t make this stuff up.”

I am planning another few days at the cabin in the near future and this time I will be going solo. I don’t mind going to the cabin alone because there is always something to do and I really have no agenda when I am there. This time I do plan on hitting at least one or two other lakes for a little fishing.

Until next time: enjoy the summer weather and take advantage of all of the beautiful parks and lakes that we have to enjoy in our area.

Please remember to keep our troops in your prayers. We must not let ourselves forget those who are still putting themselves in harm’s way so we can enjoy all of the wonderful freedoms we have today.