The sun rises over Muskegon County’s White Lake on August 1, 2008

Marker number seven on Muskegon County’s White Lake on the morning of June 27, 2008

The sun rises over Muskegon County’s White Lake on the morning of June 27, 2008.

The morning view from a kayak heading in from the channel on Muskegon County’s White Lake.

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The sunrise is reflected off the hull of a kayak heading across Muskegon County’s White Lake.

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From a sunrise paddle on Muskegon County’s White Lake.

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As is normal for our weekend mornings, Chris once again decided that life is far too short to spend too much time getting too much sleep – especially if there is a possibility that someone might be irritated and irrigated into taking her out for a hike.

With the (very) early start, we made it to the big lake in time to catch the setting of last night’s beautiful full moon.

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Don’t let those small speckles in the photo trick you into cleaning either your glasses or your monitor. They are the navigation lights of just a few of the many boats fishing off the channel this morning. So many, in fact, that it seemed as if the stars were testing the startling new concept of shining both above and below the horizon.

And not all of the fishing action was off-shore. While the boaters were out chasing their salmon, both the north and south walls of the channel were filled with anglers hoping to add perch onto tonight’s menu.

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If you walk the beach even occasionally, you realize that this size of crowd isn’t normal, but then neither are the number of perch. The schools are so inordinately large that most of the fishermen are simply doing a quick visual reconnaissance over the wall before dropping their lines right into the middle of a lot of fish. Not quite as easy as dragging them from a barrel, but it could be worse!

Lest anyone think that this sums up the pre-dawn (!) action, at this same time, on the eastern end of the wall, the crew of the dredging ship, Carol Ann, was heading out. Their work is the reason for the large black pipe that you will find stretched across the south wall. It will be moving sand from the bottom of the waterway onto the beach.

Chris was surprisingly unimpressed by all the early AM activity and insisted on heading home for breakfast. Said insistence being equivalent to a wave insisting on going ashore, we departed. Shortly after leaving the channel, the sun finally showed up and seemed no more moved than Chris by all of the action.

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This morning’s sunrise over White Lake seemed more dramatic than usual. It was almost as if the sun couldn’t get any closer.

Happy Solstice!

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Sunrise from Muskegon County’s White Lake channel on September 29, 2007.

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The White Lake channel marker on the morning of July 23, 2006