While my access to some of the points is limited, I’m doing the best I can to reach as many as possible. I had a little bike trouble Friday and ended up driving my car to the same points I planned to visit on my ride. This image is probably the best view of Point 11. I love how it seems to promise that there is much more beauty down the hill to the bank.
However, as lovely as the water is, Point 11 itself is rather uninspiring at this low water level. The rocky formations disappear just below the normal waterline. What’s left is just a long, flat rock and sandy beach with a little bit of gravel. Where I’m standing for this photo is just sand. There’s no cool splashing sound as the waves roll in, just a faint wash that is almost inaudible. Point 11 is not among the pretty ones.
Next door at Point 12, it’s a beautiful rocky shore quite far out into the water. Not only were the waves washing noisily onto the rocks, but there were little pockets that had worn away and made unique popping sounds in the surging water. Point 12 is one of the cool ones that draw a lot of visitors, as evidenced by the mass of carvings on the exposed soft sandstone formations.
Farther east and jutting farther out into the lake is Point 13, another rocky beauty (that’s Point 12 in the background). All three of these points together (11-13) are under a recovery plan. That means no wheels off the paved surfaces; feet only. That means the equestrians can ride on the existing woodland trails, but no bicycles or other wheeled transportation. These three were pretty badly shredded back in the old days when motocross bikes were allowed over the whole lake area.
For now, I had to skip around Points 14-18 and rode today out to Point 19. The road running out to the fishing dock has a couple of deep silt pockets that required I dismount and walk my bike. The fishing dock itself is at this moment down quite low and resting almost on the sandy bottom. However, it was a marvelous prayer chapel, with the shade and cool breeze off the water. It’s not actually out on the point itself, but back inland a ways.
If you are hardy rider, you can find a gap between the trees and a dirt berm that protects the shoreline from motor vehicles, and make your way over a few other obstacles to the old shore trail. It will allow you out on the actual point itself. As you can see in this image, it is quite rocky, with some nifty places you can hop to where rocky formations jut up from the water offshore. Like the other rocky points, it made that beautiful, almost hypnotic washing sound that makes me think of Eternity. My prayer time here was long and quiet.
