baker lake 2015: part two

The water in Baker Lake is indescribably gorgeous. It's the brightest shade of teal you'll ever see and the sun reflecting off the calm water summons you to jump in. Taking the boat out in the morning is unbelievably rewarding, especially when we get to go to our favorite rope swing afterwards. After one swing each, six boys swam over to us (the boys from the day before). They introduced themselves officially; their names were Gunner, Henry, Moses, Elijah, Riordan, and Nate. We just started talking.

We were with them for hours.

Gunner effortlessly climbing 20 feet up the tree to unhook the rope with the other five boys screaming the Tarzan theme song. Ryan paddling over with a football to throw for us to catch mid-air. No matter what we were doing, it felt like we'd been friends forever. I didn't feel an ounce of the sadness I felt the day before. We went back down to the beach as the sun was setting and the sky was turning lilac and got in the water and talked until our arms were tired from chucking rocks against the log boom and our lips were matching the color of the sky.

After convincing our grandparents to let us have a later curfew, we changed into our shorts and sweatshirts and made a beach bonfire. The sky was inconceivably clear and there were more stars than I'd ever seen in my entire life. The ten of us sat around our fire we made on the beach that felt like ours. We told jokes and ghost stories, and looking back we couldn't have been more cliché, but back then it felt like we were infinite.

our beach bonfire

The next morning, we packed up as fast as we could. It was our last day. We'd planned to eat breakfast with the guys at 7, but our grandparents didn't let us leave until 10, which caused the guys to complain about our evident tardiness. At 10:10, Gunner, Henry, Moses, Riordan, Madison, Morgan, and I sauntered through the warm sand and sharp rocks in between our toes and duck dove underneath the lane rope for the swimming area. Madison and Gunner kept swimming to the logs by the island, whereas the rest of us beached out on the seventh log (the most stable to balance with the five of us). We had so much fun.

We dove for crushed beer cans. Got sunburnt to the point we turned bright red. Screamed at Madison and Gunner. Moses told me all about his, Henry, and Elijah's family, and I told him all about Madison, Morgan and I's. We laughed the entire time. Stumbled over each other to get to the island. Skipped giant, un-skippable rocks. Discussed things like how jet-skis would be better off being called 'boatercycles'. 

Eventually, we were forced to swim back, since Grama and Bapa were getting impatient and couldn't wait any longer to leave. I walked back across the logs with Moses swimming underneath me. We put our clothes back on over our wet bathing suits and scraped our ankles on twigs and shrubs on the trail back to the motorhome. We exchanged numbers and promised to come back at the same time again next year and watched Gunner's cow towel disappear around the corner.

Baker Lake is special. It's a place we've always been able to go to to forget all of our problems and responsibilities for a while. It's a place to go to refresh and re-vamp yourself. Sitting on the island, I realized I had never been more at peace. Baker Lake 2015 will forever be one of my favorite memories, and I am unbelievably ecstatic too see my cousins and new friends and return to our secret little corner of the world again.