Living near water

Sunset on Middle Jefferson

Earlier this week I walked a favorite trail. Nine Mile Creek in suburban Minneapolis stretches through a quiet valley surrounded by nice homes. The portion I most enjoy follows a creek from a small park to the Minnesota River - about two and a half miles each way. What I like most about the park and the walk is that it follows a lovely creek nearly the entire distance. (see below)

There is something about being near natural water sources that has alway appealed to me. Since moving to Minnesota in the late 1980s, I have lived in lake homes for all but five years. My townhouse I purchased for retirement living has a pond outside its back door. 

I owe my love of lake life to a trip my family took to Minnesota from Iowa when I was a kid. We visited former neighbors who had a farm in the western part of the state. What I loved about the farm was that it sat on one of Minnesota’s 10,000 (some say 15,000) lakes. Just behind the barn was a dock and boat with enough horsepower to pull a water skier. While I had enjoyed swimming in lakes and gravel pits in Iowa, I had never considered actually living on a lake. After this trip, I had a life goal. I wanted to be able to walk out of my house and jump off a dock.

Memories of living on the shallow, mud bottom lake of Middle Jefferson are among my favorites. Pelicans, seasonal loons, geese, egrets, ducks, and herons were common. Muskrats played on the shore in the cattails. Turtles laid eggs in the lawn. Sunsets were lovely viewed from the screen porch and, after a long day of work, restorative.

Among the best memories are those that were made with my kids and the grandkids. Cruising and tubing in the pontoon boat. Surviving trips to Dinosaur Island and past the Pirate’s Tree*. Swimming off the boat. Cross country skiing and snowshoeing on the lake in the winter was great. Snowmobile tracks made good skiing trails. The slope down to the lake was a great sledding hill.

In my travels, I often seek out waterways to hike and bike. The Great Glenn Way in Scotland. The coast of Portugal. Havasu Creek in Arizona. The Blue Lagoon on Malta’s Comino Island. Isle Royale in Lake Superior. The Mekong and Danube rivers. The Superior Hiking Trail on Minnesota’s North Shore. The water helped make the adventures memorable.

While I wish my current residential pond was larger and didn’t occasionally dry up during droughts, I am fortunate to be living in a place where it is virtually impossible to walk without circling a lake or following a creek. My nearest city park has miles of hiking trails leading past wildlife filled ponds. I don’t need to go far to satisfy my love of water.

While I hope it won’t happen for a few years, I have my “senior living” apartment building already chosen. It sits on a small lake around which there are walking and biking paths. Surprised?

* A small island sat near my home.  It was where dinosaurs lived. Thankfully they couldn’t swim and in the winter when the lake iced over, they hibernated. We were safe. The Pirates tree sat near a small passage from Middle Jefferson to Big Jefferson Lake. From its branches, pirates would drop and seize unsuspecting pontoon boats. We were very lucky that the pirates were alway on coffee breaks when we passed through.

Morning on Nine Mile Creek