“It’s quite a thing, returning to a place that not long ago gave peace, and now surges with raw energy” – Ed Lehming

Those who have been following along over the past few weeks may recall the image that I titled “Solitude”. It featured a long curving beach, serene blue skies, and a gentle ripple on the water. I returned there yesterday with my daughter, her husband, and three of our grandsons.

I had been telling them about this wonderful place and sharing photos from my visit a few weeks before. It was a bit of an unsettled day, but we wanted to go fishing and get the boys out of the house to blow off some energy. This seemed like a great place, despite the threat of showers and what seemed, at least in town, to be just a “breezy” day. As we drove towards this spot, we noticed that the lake was looking pretty angry but continued along, knowing that this cove was a bit sheltered and we could fish at a pond adjacent to the beach.

When we arrived, the once idyllic beach looked like this. Despite being sheltered, the water was still being churned, and waves crashed violently on the shore. The boys had never seen the lake like this and thought it was “cool.” The raw energy of the lake was hard to ignore. Still, we were a bit sheltered, and as my son-in-law and I fished, the boys spent time collecting rocks higher up on the beach. This lasted for the better part of an hour, and we noticed the wind was picking up and the sky threatened rain. We looked across the bay and could see squalls forming and heading our way, so we decided to pack it in. As we were packing up the last of our gear, the island about half a mile from the shore literally disappeared from sight as the squall line hit it. We knew we were in trouble, and less than a quarter of the way back to the car, the skies opened up, rain and hail soaked us, all driven by gale-force winds that nearly blew us off our feet. This lasted almost all the way to the car, and just as it started, it ended. We were all soaked to the skin, and the kids were scared, having never been out in weather like this before.

As we dried off, sharing the one dry towel remaining, we all had a good laugh at our misfortune and wrote it up as yet another family memory. My one regret is that I did not stop to take a photo across to the “disappeared” island or video our scramble along the shore back to the car. It will only be a memory to us now.

iPhone 17 Pro Max
Main Camera — 100 mm
1/485 sec, ƒ/2.8 ISO 50