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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 19, 2020)
8 Wednesday, August 19, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon Cooler high country recreation eation at Big Lake By Craig F. Eisenbeis Correspondent Big Lake and I have a relationship that goes back more than 60 years. So, on one of our recent 90+ degree days, when my hiking buddy suggested water sports at Big Lake, rather than a hot, dusty trail, it wasn9t a hard sell. Actually, we had con- sidered the possibility on a weekend a couple of weeks earlier but were repelled by the great hordes of people crowding the lake. Having roundly rejected the idea on that occasion, we thought a midweek visit might be a more reasonable choice 4 and we were quite right! Unlike the day of our aborted weekend visit, we encountered very little traf- fic and unlimited parking spaces. We pulled in at the day use area and parked mere feet from the lake itself. After trundling our kayaks to the water9s edge, a quick look- around revealed that water- craft traffic was also pretty light on the lake. In our cor- ner of the lake, we saw one ski boat, one jet ski, and one powered fishing boat; other than that, the rest of the water traffic was of the hand-pow- ered variety. After visiting some other lakes, it always surprises me to find Big Lake so clear. There are places where the bottom looks just a couple of feet away, yet you can9t reach it with a fully extended kayak paddle. As soon as we were on the water, I started remi- niscing about my own history with Big Lake. Starting clear back when NEW ARTIST SHOWING I was in grade school, my family and another family of lifelong friends spent every Fourth of July at Big Lake. When we started this tradi- tion, there was only an unin- viting, rutted, one lane dirt track into the place; and we didn9t see many people, at all. On one of those trips in the 1950s, we arrived ahead of time to secure our cus- tomary camping spot; and I remember when we rounded a curve and came nose-to- nose with another car on its way out. Since it would take some planning to get by each other on the narrow road, my dad got out to discuss it and dis- covered that the other car was driven by a college fra- ternity brother of his. They had kids my age, and we all knew each other. Since there was no other traffic, we all got out of the cars and chat- ted in the middle of the road. The boy my age told me how much fun they9d had at the lake and mentioned that, since nobody was around, they had all been swimming in the nude. Naturally, I was shocked. Years later, as a teenager, I bought my own boat. It was a tiny, aged, 12-foot runabout, with an old (even then) 35 horsepower Evinrude out- board that was capable of towing skiers. Our friends had a big, fancy 18-foot inboard-outboard named <Happy Daze= that far out- classed my pathetic little pride and joy. I got the last laugh, though, when their high-class boat broke down and I towed them back to the campsite. In college, before spring term finals, I remember driv- ing up from Corvallis over campground snow to get into Big Lake. I camped there in seclusion for a couple of days to study in the deserted for- est. It wasn9t much more than a year later that I proposed to my wife on the trail from Big Lake to the Patjens Lakes, after having known her for just a few weeks. That was 52 years ago. So, yes, Big Lake and I have a long history. Not surprisingly, as I paddled the lake in the ever-present shadow of Mt. Washington, I had a lot of memories to look back upon& far more than The Nugget9s editor will allow me to relate here. Suffice it to say, last week, on a warm cloud- less day, Big Lake was pretty much the way it always has been, albeit with a few more people. So, after some relax- ing kayaking and swimming, I paused and spent some time reading a book in the shade of Big Lake9s familiar out- door world. The temperature was perfect beside the lake, PHOTO BY CRAIG F. EISENBEIS Kayakers relax on Big Lake under sunny skies in the shadow of a very barren Mt. Washington. in contrast to a much hotter Sisters, which I returned to a couple of hours later. At this point in time, I would certainly recommend against water recreation at Big Lake on a busy summer weekend; but it was a very pleasant experience on a qui- eter weekday. As it was in the last century, the water is still clean and clear and quite a nice temperature for swim- ming, especially for a high mountain lake. The people we saw were friendly and, with a little care, social distancing is really not a problem. I did notice that personal flotation device requirements on small craft were not uniformly adhered to. Considering that there have already been drownings on the Deschutes River and in Scout Lake this year, lack of compliance is a See BIG LAKE on page 11 P Painted a i n t e d L Lady a d y Antiques 541.904.0066 141 E. 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