Eagle Lake Foundation

When I left today I did not intend to go to Eagle Lake, but when driving past I thought I'd pull in to the boat launch and maybe take a photo. This is one of those places that is absurdly busy in the summertime, with the parking lots full of people coming to bike the carriage roads and cars parked all over both sides of the road. Even in winter it gets a lot of use from people hiking and skiing. So I was surprised to find the launch almost totally deserted. A couple of ice shanties were far out on the lake and I could see someone walking on the ice in the distance. Another surprise was that the carriage roads were almost completely free of snow and ice. I changed my plans and decided to hike along the east side of the lake and scoot down to the old stone foundation, a place I hadn't been to for at least a few years.

Curiously, this foundation is from a house that was begun in 1909 but never completed. Some influential people worried that development along the lake would threaten the town water supply, raised a fuss, and eventually legislation was passed protecting the entire shoreline. It is now part of the park. 

It was hard to pick a photo from this excursion. The flat light on the ice with the mountains across the lake half covered in fog made for some rewarding scenes on such a grey day. I've decided to hedge my bets and include a shot that gives a sense of both the ruins and the lake. Which probably doesn't do justice to either. It took some careful work to get this image, as it was taken from some rocks sticking out of the thin ice near shore. Not that it was actually dangerous, but it would have been a real drag to get wet on such a cold day.

After getting back to the car I went to the hardware store and bought a mop. Sometimes it feels odd to move so quickly from the sublime to the mundane.