Man Vs. Beast

The trails that wrap the shorelines of Durand and Eastman Lake are some of the prettiest trails in the park. Most days you won’t see a soul and that only heightens the suspense when do cross paths with someone, usually a birder or their nemesis, the dog walker, sometimes a couple of lovers or urban fishermen with makeshift poles and drywall buckets.

Just before I took this shot we came across a couple, maybe twenty-five or so. The guy had his phone thrust forward framing a selfie with him and his girl in the woods. A sad little boy, maybe five or six, was standing behind them, left out of the shot. And the woman was holding onto a leash with a muscular, gray colored dog at the other end. The path here is narrow and the dog looked aggressive. We backed up into the woods to let them pass, just a few feet from us. The girl was holding the leash with both hands and as the guy asked her, “Do you have him?”

I love this little concrete structure on the west side of Eastman Lake. It is stately in all seasons and maintains its dignity even when assaulted by graffiti. It appears permanently boarded up now but I remember crawling inside. It might have been used as a pump house at one time because the lake levels are managed. It astounded me when I heard that these lakes were manmade a hundred years ago. How could man make something so beautiful?

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