Keyes Point - Lake Clark

My sister and I wait in excited anticipation for summer, and it’s not only because summer brings about the end of a school year. Every year during the summer my dad takes us to our cabin at Lake Clark. Even though it’s a trip we do every year and it’s become an expected thing, we will never take the trips for granted. Not only do we get to spend time away from the bustling and stressful city life, but we get to do so in a wonderful and incredible place such as Lake Clark. The air is always clean and smells of the earthy freshness that would naturally come along with an unimproved environment. The sounds are simply peaceful, there are no passing cars, honking horns, loud strangers, sirens or anything of the sort. When you look around there are no skyscrapers or highways, only the relaxing mountains and undeveloped scenery stretching out for what could be interpreted as forever.

But, of course, there are times when we don’t feel like relaxing and watching the clouds drift by. The urge to go out and have fun poses no problem, the answer is simple. Whenever we want to go on a hike, or trail blaze if you will, we simply pack a picnic lunch and walk out the door. When at Lake Clark the wilderness is, conveniently, our backyard. We don’t need to worry about driving to our destination, we only waltz out our door and ask each other witch direction we wish to explore.

There are times when we don’t feel up to hiking either, but again, not a problem. My sister has a certain favorite thing to do whenever we visit Lake Clark, and that would be berry picking. The Lake Clark area is host to salmonberries, cranberries, crowberries, rose hips, and of course blueberries. On some days we’ll head out to one of our many secret blueberry spots and fill up our containers in a matter of hours. But, that’s just some days. On any other berry picking day we walk a few feet in any direction and find ourselves in patches so thick of blueberries that we’re reluctant to sit down in fear of staining our clothing blue. After filling up our containers we head back to our cabin and begin to cook. We make blueberry pancakes, scones, cereal, oatmeal, and my personal favorite: blueberry breakfast tort. And after all our cooking we have leftover berries to freeze and use another time.

Another fantastically fun thing we do together is going fishing. There are so many different kinds of fish that it’s just amazing. We each have our favorite spot.

Even on crummy days when it seems like it’s raining sideways I love watching the clouds twist around the mountain peaks and curl over the tops. The best part of these days is sitting by the wood stove, listening to the waves crashing on the beach and reading a good book, drifting off to an imaginary place. I love our cabin time.

Written By Christina Galvez

Age 14

Fall 2010