The Life of a Pond

I watch the seasons flow over my favorite "home pond."  Locked in ice and snow in January, budding with new life in May, basking in the heat of August, and today in the middle of October decked out in golds and reds, my pond lives through the seasons.

But ponds also die, and my pond is showing signs of age.

Ponds die when they fill in with silt. Many beaver ponds meet this end eventually. Each spring high water washes silt into the pond. In the still water of the pond, the silt settles to the bottom, and  over the years the pond fills in and becomes a meadow with but a small stream winding  through it. A favorite pond on Loop Loop Creek has disappeared like this in the last forty years.

Ponds die when the outlet stream cuts down through the earth that dams the pond and drains it. The pond I visit each year to fish in the spring and fall will one day suffer this fate.

Other ponds, like the pond in the picture, that have no strong stream bringing in silt or outlet stream cutting down through the dam, will still die. This pond is gradually being choked with vegetation. The growth of each new year dies in the winter and falls to the bottom. One day this pond will be a marsh and then a meadow.

So I catch my pond on a beautiful day in October in the autumn of life. Like me, it is enjoying these warm days and brilliant colors of the season. And like me, it waits for what is ahead, unafraid, just waiting.

What a Difference

What a difference a year makes. This pictures was taken very near to the same date as the picture on an earlier blog two years earlier. Does this presage an early spring? I am ready for it.

     I am hoping to get to a new pond this spring, Haven Lake, just above the Skokomish River. Pictures on the web are few, but what I've seen is intriguing.

Ponding

I can't believe it's been two years since I last posted on "Ponds." Looking back I note I did not get to all the ponds on my wish list, but I did visit a few. Caught some fish as well.

     My favorite pond is Stump Lake. Yes, I know it is a "lake." But it is smaller than the somewhat more famous Walden Pond, so I don't apologize.

     I try to get to Stump Lake a couple of times a year. Whether spring or fall, it is a symphony of nature. Bald eagles glide over the lake searching for an unwary fish. Ducks of many varieties, well, duck for a meal along the water edge. Beaver glide silently, often close by my canoe, and then out of some nervous habit slap the water and are gone.

      And, of course, there are fish. Some of them are surprisingly large, for such a small lake, and beautiful. They dimple the mirror like surface on a quiet spring evening and are alone worth the trip, but I leave them where I have found them.

     Fall brings crazy color. Few places in western Washington are as beautiful.

     And the name? The stumps. I don't know if they are the remnants of a drowned forest or the castoffs of a old logging operation. Whichever, they populate the lake and provide habitat for the trout.

     The interesting thing is that there is another pond, "Spider Lake," no more than two dozen miles away as the eagle flies that is another drowned forest.

     But Spider will have to wait. Next to Stump Lake my favorite pond is Prices Lake. The scenery is better than the fishing, but if you can latch onto one of the wild cutthroat that own this lake it is worth the hike.

     It takes a raft or float tube to enjoy the pond, but it is an easy one or two block hike. Go in the summer when the water lilies are in bloom.

     Happy ponding until next time.