The Little Island on Harper Lake

Mike and I were visiting friends on Harper Lake last summer and asked to borrow their motorboat. We set out to troll around the two islands on that lake. Mike favored the much larger island high was very dense in forest. I favored the much smaller scrub island which was longer than it was wide.

I could see myself stretching out on a hammock there for that is about as much as one could do on such a small tract of land.  I wonder if each of those islands are privately owned and, if so, what their owners plan on doing with them? 

Mike found the fishing good in the shallow water around those two islands.  I also wonder if they have given names to them such as the ones Dave tells us about on nearby Big Bass Lake?  If anyone knows among our readership leave a comment and let me know. 

The Mystique of Harper Lake’s Two Islands

Harper Lake is another lake with multiple islands. In fact, they have twin islands, of a sort, similar to the twin islands on Big Bass Lake known as Turtle and Four Winds Islands. However the islands on Harper Lake are quite different from one another even though they are close together in proximity. There is a rather big island right next to a much smaller one.

Dave Norris told me that the difference would be between Four Winds Island and Haunted Island on Big Bass Lake. I have rowed a boat between the two islands and the water is very shallow in that area. The big island on Harper Lake is rather dense forest and somewhat swampy. The little island looks habitable for tent camping unless privately owned.

Maybe someone that lives on Harper Lake could provide me with more information about these two islands such as do they have names for them? Or are they privately owned? Has anyone had the opportunity to explore the bigger island and could a house fit there?

I’d be interested in the answers to some of those questions so leave me a comment.

The Rainbow Connection

I once stayed at the Harper Lake Resort and enjoyed boating on that lake.  It was another lake that had more than one island to it (Big Bass Lake has five) and I took my boat around each.  Later that day it rained pretty hard and soon thereafter a beautiful rainbow appeared over the lake seemingly almost touching Big Bass Lake Road in the distance.  Or was it Big Bass Lake itself?

I say that because two days later another rainbow, even more wonderous than the first, was displayed over Big Bass Lake when I went there to swim.  As the dark clouds cleared the area this rainbow appeared and danced upon the waters of Big Bass Lake in all her majesty.  What a couple of days that was!

4th of July Special- Part Four

Well, with the Big Bass Lake 4th of July history for this year, the yellow plane thought it prudent to take off and visit that “other” parade over at Harper Lake. You know, the inferior parade. The yellow plane thought that he would bop over and pay his respect. So he left the spacious Big Bass Lake behind and headed over to nearby Harper Lake.

Upon landing, he saw a rather unique parade about to take place.

Yet this parade looked more like bumper boats going at each other in the less than spacious Harper Lake. The yellow plane just barely had enough room to land but now, since he was already here, why not participate in this parade as well.

His main task was on not getting hit by the other boats in the parade and that was no small task.

Well, it was time to leave Harper Lake but something was horribly wrong! After one attempt, the yellow plane did not have enough room to take off! “You mean I might have to stay here forever?” That though was enough to inspire him to try again and, yes, this time he lifted off leaving Harper Lake far behind.

As he glanced about at spacious Big Bass Lake below him, he was overheard to say, “Home sweet home at good old spacious Big Bass Lake”. Of course, the moral to this story is, “Bloom where you are planted!” Or, “There’s no place like home!”

Albino Deer Near Harper Lake

Don Clodfelter was able to snap this photograph of two albino deer near Big Bass Lake Road and Harper Lake.   Deer hunters are scouring the woods to find the elusive buck, but a lucky hunter may end up with a rare sight, an albino deer.

Native American cultures view the deer as a favorable sign for the tribe or the earth, and regard the color white as a sign of purity and healing.  “The albino was sent by the creator,” said Hannahville Indian Community cultural director and spiritual leader Earl Meshigaud of Wilson. “The spiritual leader of the tribe would determine if the change was with earth or the village, but it’s a positive message.”

The all-white, pink-eyed deer – which are illegal to hunt – are born only about one in 30,000 births, depending on how many deer in the area have the dominant genes for albinism. They lack pigments that color eyes, hair and skin.

In addition, predators are able to hunt them more easily than other prey because they don’t have their natural camouflage. Hunters also accidentally or purposefully shoot them.

“Albino deer in suburbs usually have a higher survival rate because there is less hunting and natural predation. In northern Michigan and  the Upper  Peninsula, you are less likely to see an albino because of hunting and predation,” said Department of Natural Resources (DNR) wildlife research specialist Brent Rudolph.

Bloggers share their photos of albino deer on the Web. Reports of sightings have come from all over Michigan, from Saline to Cheboygan County.

Spotters even use motion-detection trail cams to detect deer the elusive albino. Many sites have photos, video and illustrations of the deer.

“If the albino makes it past the fawn stage and first year, they can survive as well as any other deer,” said Rudolph. “But that is not favorable due to their coloration.”

To find out if an albino deer has been seen nearby call the local DNR field office, because the DNR doesn’t track those statistics said Rudolph.

DNR wildlife technician Valerie Frauley, based in Lansing, said that killing a deer with an all-white coat or an albino deer in Michigan is illegal.

The difference between an all-white deer and an albino deer is the eyes. All-white deer’s eyes are black and the albino’s eyes are pink. It is legal to hunt piebald deer, which have spots of white fur on their brown coats.

The fine for killing an albino or all-white deer varies from $200-$1,000. In addition, the courts will determine the value of the dead deer, which the hunter must pay. Poachers also lose their hunting privileges for three years.

The only other states with laws against hunting albino deer are Illinois, Iowa,Tennessee, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

 

The Harper Lake Large Island

Dave Norris’ favorite lake, Big Bass Lake, happens to have five islands within its boundaries. In the remainder of Lake County, Michigan, only two other lakes have islands those being Elbow and Harper lakes. And here is one of the two islands on Harper Lake.

The island itself is rather large but nothing is built upon it. As I understand it, the island is largely overgrown and somewhat marshy in spots. I don’t believe that any structure is found on that island. In the aerial picture below you can observe Big Bass Lake Road snaking through the Manistee National Forest which surrounds Harper Lake. 

Harper Lake does have an active resort on it at the far side of the lake from the island. From most spots at the resort you can take in this island in the distance, but the second island is hidden. I’ve only been boating on Harper Lake once and that was for a fishing excursion and I hardly even noticed this island at the time. My eyes were more for the fish I was going to catch that day.

Anyone out there know any more about this particular island on Harper Lake? Leave us a comment about it if you do.