Life With Buddy, a Continuing Saga 06/01/08: Photo Essay, State Lake

Today, continuing our day tour of local sources of calming natural beauty, we will go to a small lake, high in the Blue Hills above the river valley, and Rocky Ford, that you have already seen, below Tuttle Creek Reservoir, with the ignominious name of Pottowatomie County State Lake number two. Here we see a glimpse of it from the gravel road that approaches it, off of highway 24.



   This road may be one of the highest points for quite a ways around, and I couldn't help but snap a few shots from it's lofty perch. Looking back at the road we came up on, it all looks rather flat.



Still, you can see a hint of the lower areas you have just come from. Those elevators, barely discernable in the center of that shot, are along the highway we have just left for these hills from the valley of one of the other rivers that intersect here. In this shot, the original valley is spread out below, and the opposite hills that bracket the valley tell you why these are called the Blue Hills. Obviously they aren't blue, till you look upon them from this distance, and the humidity inherent in Kansas, and river valleys in general, give them a decidedly blue hue.



The small city of Manhattan Kansas, where I grew up, is layed out in this valley, and stretches into the hills beyond, and was the main reason the dam was built. Severe flooding problems had plagued the town's history until Tuttle Creek was built in the early sixties. Most notably, in 1952, the river had pretty much erased most of the lower parts of Manhattan, including the downtown area, and I think helped spur it's growth into the hills beyond. These days, "The Little Apple" has no issues with flooding, and it has allowed this university (KSU) town to thrive. Here's another shot showing that panorama.



In larger size, it's possible to see a little of the buildings that approach the Manhattan area, but none of these shots allow for a good look, because of that haze of humidity and the blue that hides most detail. If I haven't mentioned this before, there are actually three rivers that intersect here, and three distinct river valleys. The Blue, the Kaw, and the Kansas rivers have formed this area, and it's natural bounty is indebted to them all. In the junction of those hills, below, is Manhattan, and the rise to the right, has the word Manhattan in large white letters, but with a large water tower above exclaiming the town's alter moniker of the "Little Apple".



In a little pocket in these hills, is the earthen dam that forms the beautiful lake that stretches behind it.



This is what passes for a boat ramp area, primitive but functional.



Most of the amenities here are a little less civilized than those of the dam, but then, there are no multi-million dollar concerts held here, and the crowds that flock here are a little less musically inclined, and a lot more lunker bass focused, though the crappie, the channel cat, and the bluegill enamoured also have cause to enjoy this lake.

   Before Tuttle Creek existed, in the early days of our move to Manhattan, where my father was employed originally as an assistant professor of Agronomy, he satiated his fishing jones, and we got to tag along, at this beautiful lake. This is the lake where he untangled endless fouled lines for four boys just learning the ropes of the fishing experience. This is the lake where he spent a lot more time baiting our hooks, and almost none his own, and this is the lake at which my love for fishing, and the natural beauty of Kansas was first formed. Thanks, dad. This little lake will always have meaning to me, for just those reasons, and are why, probably, I wanted to include it in these photo essays.

    I've spent, though, many a sleepless night trying to get a rock out of my hip, at the campgounds under the trees shown below that pretty much encompass all of the Western and Northern shores of this lake. Air matresses, in my day, never held up through a whole night.



While we were here, I noticed a large oak tree, that kind of made me wonder if all those acorns on the ground were really how they procreate. I know in my head that they make seed (acorns) and grow from there, but this tree makes you wonder.



I don't know what caused this, and I'm not going to speculate either. The images it pulls up in my mind are rather strange, and somehow eerie. Another view.



I can tell you, though, I, and my breathren, spent countless hours exploring those woods, gathering (and eating, lol) wild gooseberries and others, transforming ourselves to nobel savages, and cowboy heroes, becoming Cortez, or another of the great explorers, discovering the new world. It was a completely delightful fantasy world. But let's travel to the other end of this lake, where these two views are of the creek that feeds it.





You might recognize that littlest of Cortez's in the lower right, lol. He was in hog heaven here. Masky faced varmint tracks were everywhere, and I'm sure that scent was just the start of abundent sniffage that made this heaven on earth for the Budster. This whole area, where creek meets lake, is a marsh, covered in cattails, red winged blackbirds, etc. and my view of Buddy was generally this one, as he tried to wander off, wherever possible, to escape "humun" command.



Here he stalks a dangerous lion, of a decidely dandy persuasion.



And the caption to this would be "Aw dad, Stick arouund?, you never let me have any fun!"



This one's caption, though it's hard to see the silly grin, at this size, is simply, happy dog.



I tried hard to get a good shot of our friend Mr. Redwinged Blackbird, who's song virtually fills the air in this marsh, but though he patiently sat still for a fairly long period of time to have his photo taken, the wind, and the cattails, did not. It is possible to get a grasp of their coloring though, in this embarrassingly blurred shot.



This is a view to the right of the lake, or the north shore as it lays here, showing one of the many fishing jetties they have installed, for the benefit of the shore fishermen. They give those without the benefit of boatage access to the deeper waters offshore.



This shot is of the larger lake, and gives some idea of the size, and beauty of it. There's another jetty to the upper right in this photo. I really wish I could make these all full screen.



To the left we see the Eastern shores, and the area that the brothers and I have often fished. There is no road, and access is strictly by hoof, across the dam, to the spillway, and beyond, but it's worth it. This is the spot that in the Spring, when the temperature gets right, some of the best lunker bass fishing open to the public, in Kansas, is to be had. When they spawn on the gentle grade from this shore, they're much less into guarded behavior, and much more into "kill whatever that is that's swimming through my spawn site". We would wade out to our necks, sometimes, depending on lake level, for better access, and I have many fond memories of battles with the bass populations there.



I noticed, on the walk back to the car, a plant I'd never seen before, that was growing on the opposite shore, with interesting brown and yellow bracts. At first, from a distance, I thought it was sumac heads forming, but the leaves were totally wrong. I am frustrated by this small format, as detail is hard to see, but maybe if you blow them up.....





They really were quite pretty, though you might not be able to appreciate that here. All good things must come to an end, though, and as we set out to leave our little photo journey, we came upon this guy, standing out on one of those jettys, and if I didn't know better, I'd say he looks awful familiar. You think he was stalking us?



He seemed rather camera shy, though, and wouldn't turn his head to even look at us.



He obviously knew we were there, though, and soon flew the coop. Unfortunately, this, my friends, is what happens when you get so excited you are finally going to get a great shot of a Blue Heron flying, that you punch that shutter button a little too hard....sigh.


Well, after that, we pursued that most elusive of Kansas wildlife, the aluminum can, all the way out of the lake area, and on toward the three acre rancho, but those pictures are hardly worth sharing, lol, so I think for today, I'll close our little photo jaunt. We hope you have enjoyed these glimpses of ol' dad and Buddy's stompage grounds, and we'll just say, Till next time, Ron and Buddy.

Link to updated Ron & Buddy materials. They're all in here, from the beginning, sagas, poems, etc. All about the Budster, in many varied and interesting reflections... or whatever they're calling rants, in polite circles, these days.

Link to all poetry by Ron W. on Gather

Link to new groupies site - Go here and join, for email notifications of new Saga publishoscity. Don't miss these important literary nuggets, or you'll end up like Buddy,.... denuggified without even knowing about it.......