Picture Post: Lake Pactola

The last night I was in the Hills with my family, my brother and I went to have a look at Lake Pactola and a few other places.

I only took pictures from Pactola because my dad said he wanted to see if the water was any lower than it had been last time we were there a year before, more or less. We'll get to better views of that in a bit, but these first couple were from an overlook on the way to a boat ramp on the lake.

I remember it being on the way to a boat ramp because on the way in, there was a crew checking boats on the way out for the invasive species from that one sign in the previous post I made about this trip. I hadn't realized it was that much of a problem until I saw the crew here.

This next place is one I could have sworn I'd done pictures of in previous years, but I couldn't find any, even after looking through posts from as far back as I've had a smartphone to work with. This is the upstream end of the lake, from what I can tell, farthest from the dam. This part has been shallow at best for as long as I can remember, but this is as bad as I can remember it:

And no, it's not just because I got my little bro in that first picture, either. The last time I remember being there and having something like a chance to take a picture, there was more water and a few cows, or “slow deer”, as I've heard them called. But not this year. It's a ways down from the last few years.

This next place I have done before. The only pictures I've got are from 2019, put up in early 2020. I was sure I'd had more recent ones like this, but apparently not. All I'll say about this first one is that it's bad framing on my part. Hadn't intended for the left edge to be like that, but I'm not very good at photo editing. Beyond that, all I'll say is that the water's way down from where it was in 2019. Compared to the third picture in this post from January, 2020, the water's way down.

The picnic table in the upper right corner is much farther away from the water than it was in 2019. These next couple pictures are of the same bay we were fishing in three, four years ago now. A little hard to tell from these ones, but the water's down there, too.

The water was low enough this year for a sandbar to be showing that I don't recall having seen at the end of that point before, or at least not for a long time. Goes to show how dry it's been here in the upper midwest the last few years.

After I got that last shot, I went to use the outhouse before we went on our way. As I was headed there, I saw these big birds:

I'm sure I knew there were Canada geese out there like this, but this is the first time I can remember getting a picture. I also had a video of them strolling along the beach there, which I'm sure made my dad's day a tiny bit better when I showed him.

But yeah, this'll pretty much wrap up this year for sure. Don't know if I'll be doing many, if any, more of these trips out west now that my dad's gone. Much as I enjoyed them, it's not something I can really afford to do on my own, at least not as regularly as I've been for quite a long time, and I'm not sure how often my mom, brother and sister-in-law will be doing these things. Maybe there'll be other adventures like this that will be more within my budget and schedule. I can't promise anything one way or the other. Only time will tell, though.

Whatever the future holds, I'll see you soon. Until then, safe travels.