Conestoga Lake

I was working not far from my house today, and had to drive past the lake to get where I was working.

Now, Conestoga Lake is not a beautiful lake, at least not by Ontario standards. There are much prettier lakes up north, but for where it is here in SW Ontario, it's not too bad at all. For me, it holds tonnes of memories.

I've spent almost every summer of my life on or around the lake. When I was about 6 til 12, I went to camp every summer at CBC, and after I grew out of the camp scene I started working at the Conestoga Lake Conservation Area, who's entrance is about 500m from my house.

I worked at the mini golf at the lake, and then the concession stand making french fries and burgers. When I wasn't working at the lake, I was hanging out with people I'd met while working. We used to swim in the "cove" (the left most 'dent' at the bottom of the lake in the picture above) and hang out with the kids we called the Trailer Trash (this being because they lived in the trailer park). I swam across the lake once that summer, from the swimming area (right most dent) to the point in the middle where our friend's cottage was.

The summer I was 18 I spent nearly every day at that cottage. Bailey and I would lay on the dock, take the paddle boat out, go tubing with random people we met. At night there would be parties at the cottage. Almost every weekend was spent drinking at the cottage.

In the fall, the lake recedes and gets much shallower. A number of times Bailey and I would go adventuring along the shore, picking up random treasures... usually things lost from boats over the course of the summer. A number of islands appear as the water goes down, and getting over to the islands were always great fun. One of the islands was right in front of our friend's cottage, and so we'd take the canoe over and explore over there.

A couple of years ago, a tornado went through the area I live, about a km away from my house, and it went right across the lake. Only a few of the cottages were seriously damaged, though sadly, our party cottage was one of them! But it wasn't really our's anymore anyway, it had been sold the summer before. There is still extensive damage to the area, and once wooded areas still look like they have been clear cut.

I'm sad that I'm leaving this summer to go to Ottawa, as I generally spend countless hours biking the trails that surround the lake. In the winter the snowmobiles go through the conservation area and in the summer the trails are great for biking. I'm going to miss laying on the boat, going tubing and visiting the various people's cottages that I know around the lake.

You'd never really think that one body of water would be so impactful, but it is.