Lake Whatcom
Lake Whatcom is located twenty minutes south of Western Washington University, a four year university in Bellingham Washington, USA. It is a large lake, with forest hills surrounding the lake on all sides. It is a beautiful blue green lake with one island on the south end of it. Every season brings out a different color along the lake. In the fall, the red and yellow leaves turn the hills to a glowing color. In the winter, the hills surrounding the lake are white capped with a fresh dusting of the snow. And in the spring and summer, blue skies and vibrant trees bring drastic contrast to the lake. The lake creates a perfect reflection of the surrounding hills and sky. In the hills surrounding the lake, there are houses scattered with there boats lying in front of them waiting to go out. As you scan your eyes across the lake you might see a few kayaks, or sailboats. In the morning you might catch a glimpse of a few rowing boats gliding across the glassy lake.
Lake Whatcom was discovered and first settled in 1850 by the Saquatch tribe. It became increasingly popular later on once people discovered the logging and mining opportunities around the lake (An Historical Geography of the Settlement Around Lake Whatcom Prior to 1920). In 1946 J.H. Bloedel donated 12.5 acres to the city that would eventually become Bloedel Donovan Park. In 1962 water was diverted from the Middle Fork of Nooksack River, one of the tributaries to Lake Whatcom to supply water to a paper mill on the Bellingham waterfront (Ghost Towns of Lake Whatcom).
Lake Whatcom is a magnificent place where a wide variety of people can enjoy it all. Lake Whatcom is a very large lake so that means that there are a lot of different activities that can happen. If a person came to Lake Whatcom they would first be astonished by the incredible beauty. There is a big park where anybody can go to hang out and go fishing and or swimming. If you are feeling more adventurous, you can go on the water and do a bunch of different activities. For example, you could go kayaking, rowing, waterskiing or just cruse around on a motor boat and enjoy the view. The Lake gives a person on a given day so many options for what they could do on or off the lake. In the morning, the rowing team goes out at the crack of dawn. Rowing along, before most people even wake up. Once the sun rises, the lake becomes alive with people going kayaking and fishing. There is also many trail networks that are all around the lake. Western Washington University offers many different ways for students and community members to enjoy the lake. Western Washington has a rowing, waterskiing, and sailing team that anybody can join.
I do have a bias because I go out on it every morning at five. I am on the rowing team which means I see the lake when nobody else does, in complete darkness. The lake is such a special place for the crew team. It is an amazing resource that not many other teams of our size get to experience. Rowing at five in the morning, you cannot see, so your other senses increase. The water splashing on you from the oar in front of you, freezing our hands to the oar. The complete silence other then the methodic almost robotic sound of the oars and slides moving back and forth. Rowing and Lake Whatcom cannot be defined in one word, which is what makes these things so great.
Lake Whatcom proximity to Bellingham also makes it a very desirable place to spend time after school or work. Only about twenty minutes from downtown Bellingham, anybody can escape from the cramped city life to a peaceful lake in very little time. This also makes it a very desirable place to live. With houses lining the shoreline almost the entire circumference of the lake.
Lake Whatcom can be called so many different things. A home for the people who live along its shores with their motor boats. For a fisherman and recreational kayaker or standup paddler, it is a relaxing place to get away from other people and worries for a little while. For a rower, it is still seen as a beautiful place to go to but, instead workout and train and work with the lake to accomplish a goal. Lake Whatcom is a very difficult place to put a single definition and I don’t think that it has to either. Lake Whatcom does not have a single point of interest, but instead a wide variety of activities that you can do and enjoy the outdoors.
Works Sited
Ghost Towns of Lake Whatcom, 1982. Elaine Zobrist (Resource Directory Citation ID EZ)
An Historical Geography of the Settlement Around Lake Whatcom Prior to 1920, Technical Report 21, Institute for Freshwater Studies. (Resource Directory Citation ID WW4)
Western Washington Rowing on Lake Whatcom, www.wwucrew.com
Lake Whatcom from above, http://thecrossingguide.com/the-great-park/
Lake Whatcom sunset, https://www.flickr.com/photos/tiinagill/2629331106