McHenry County Blog

Spring had just begun to pop my daffodils when summer came.

It was delightful driving around my neighbor after attending the First United Methodist Church of Crystal Lake.  Newcomers call it “The Gates.”  That’s probably a real estate salesperson’s moniker for what is about a 400-home subdivision called Country Club Additions.

Taking home one of the two friends who slept over Saturday night, we found this toilet-papered home at the intersection of Broadway and Melrose Lane (Gate 10).

The flowering trees have not yet popped, but some teens gave two decorations of a different nature when they TPed them. Blowing in the wind.

Two fishermen were out trolling in front of CCAPOA’s Gate 7 Beach.

The swimming bouys are not yet up and boats are not anchored, so it was easy to fish this close to Crystal Lake's shoreline.

Two bicyclers had stopped to sun themselves on the beached raft.

Beats getting a sandy back and the view is hard to beat.

A power boat was being launched at the Gate 7 ramp.

"Keys Time " was being launched at the property owners' boat ramp. Any of the 400+ homeowners have the right to launh their boats at the ramp, if they join CCAPOA and buy a boat key.

Since my Class of 1960 high school classmate Mike Firth’s family lived at this home two lots from the boat launching, these scilla have probably been multiplying. I’m been trying to make the land next to Lake Avenue look like this. Maybe 50 years from now it will.

Scillia brighten this lawn on Lake Short Drive in Lakewood.

Both Gate 3 swings were filled with families enjoying the 87-degree day weather.

Gate 3 has a great view of the Crystal Lake Park District's Main Beach House.

Others were walking their dogs.

Gate 21 proven irresistable to this woman who was walking her dog.

Other neighbors were out raking leaves One said she really disliked having to put them in bags, a view I whole heartedly share.

This man has a higher tech solution to putting his leaves in bags. Guess when one lives in an oak-hickory forest, getting rid of leaves is a necessary evil.

This little pooch had just finished romping in Crystal Lake.

This little dog went swimming or at least wading at Gate 13 Beach.

Other dog walkers were at the Gate 13 Beach. In the background, a lake front property owner’s pier has been pulled from shore by the melting ice.

So, if you haven't taken your pier in before the lake froze, how do you retireve it when it ends up out in the lake?

My neighbor has drainage problems which he was trying to fix by digging a ditch toward the dry well in front of his home.

Hostas cover the corner every fall.

Some daffodils on Lake Avenue have made their appearance. The tree house can be seen behind the fence.

In the southeast nook next to the sun porch, the daffodils really made their presence known today. Last night there was only one blooming.

This is what happens when one does not divide and transplant daffodils.

The clouds are rolling in, so it’s time to plant those bulbs I didn’t get in last December that are sprouting the in garage. Maybe I can salvage them.

A snow covered view of the Crystal Lake Main Beach from Lakewood's Gate 3 (used to be) Beach.

If winter could talk, it might be asking,

“Miss me yet?”

The view from Gate 3 without snow and ice.

My answer:

“Nope.”

Yesterday about 7:20 I drove on Lakewood’s South Shore Drive to Andy’s Family Restaurant for my Walk to Emmaus reunion group.

I saw women practicing rowing on the quiet waters off of Beach 7.

Off Gate 3 Beach were two fishermen casting.

Two reasons besides the water itself I like living near Crystal Lake.

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Men’s and women’s Walks to Emmaus are coming up. There are basically short courses in Christianity. They run from Thursday night to late Sunday afternoon.

In Barrington a Men’s Walk will be held June 11-14 and a Women’s Walk June 18-21.

In Plano there will be a Men’s Walk from Sept. 17-20, followed by a Women’s Walk from October 1-4.

Drop me a line, if you are interested. The email button is on the lower right hand side of the page.

Other articles about Walks to Emmaus:

From ”Head to Heart”

When God’s Messenger Came To My Door (As a Carpenter, No Less)

Of Jonah and God

Weekend at Resurrection Center

The Carpenter’s Helpers

“Detention for Jesus” – Making High School Kids Strong for Christ

Hannah Beardsley Middle School Principal Ron Ludwig Reaches Out to Fellow Christians to Help Crystal Lake Kids

Message of the Day – A “De Colores” Bumper Sticker

This banner can be found in Mary Collins’ front yard across from Gate 3 Beach (sic) in Lakewood.

It says,

There’s a flag painted on the side of a home below.

Last Saturday, March 14th, I captured the last ice on Crystal Lake.

Naturally, it was in the shade on the South side of the lake.

The lake was as pure as it ever gets.

No muddy bottom stirred up by the motor boats.

And, there was no need for the “No Swimming” sign erected a couple of years ago at CCAPOA’s Gate 3 Beach in Lakewood. That’s the beach where trailer boaters decided additional boat slips were more important than continuing to let little kids have a small beach at which to swim.

Later the same day, this woman walking her black dog stopped to enjoy the view.

Taken last Saturday, this view of the Main Beach House as seen through the new swing at Gate 3 Beach in Lakewood.

Oops, no longer a beach, no swimming allowed starting last year.

Nice view across the snow anyway.

And no indication that there was a golf tournament—the Doc Haznow Chili Open—the weekend before last.

Taken last Saturday, this view of the Main Beach House as seen through the new swing at Gate 3 Beach in Lakewood.

Oops, no longer a beach, no swimming allowed starting last year.

Nice view across the snow anyway.

And no indication that there was a golf tournament—the Doc Haznow Chili Open—the weekend before last.

These two ducks at Lakewood’s Gate 3 Beach were driving for food on a delightful 80-degree day this week.

These two ducks at Lakewood’s Gate 3 Beach were driving for food on a delightful 80-degree day this week.

Through a hard fought court suit, the Crystal Lake Park District established that it owns most of the bottom of Crystal Lake.

It seems that one of my photos of just installed boat piers may have stimulated discussion concerning park district liability, not to mention other questions about piers, rafts and buoys that rest on that park district property.

Not that the Gate 9 pier you see above is new, but the park district doesn’t have an inventory of what rests on its lake bottom.

When folks noticed that more boats were at the Gate 3 pier, they thought it was new this year. Some research revealed that the Country Club Property Owners Association expanded to the east of the old pier last year.

I talked to park district Executive Director Kirk Reimer. He was concerned about liability. That seems like a reasonable concern. I doubt owners of piers, rafts and buoys have park district taxpayers protected by their insurance policies.

The park board began discussion of the subject at its last meeting and it seems likely to be on the May 15th agenda as well.

“It seems that every year there are more boats moored on the lake,” Reimer observed. “The board is looking at who’s doing what.

“Right now someone could pop a marina in there.”

I’m not sure that is the case, since a commercial establishment would require zoning from Lakewood or Crystal Lake. The chance is zero that Lakewood would allow a business on a lake lot and I think the last commercial establishment on the North Shore was a bar that is now a home site.

There was a bar on the North Shore when we moved here in 1958. I came back from some early morning West End fishing and found a dead guy washed up at the Main Beach boat ramp. He apparently fell out of a row boat owned by the guy with the park district concession on the way back from the bar where the two were drinking. The concessionaire didn’t realized his buddy was missing. I believe the lot now has a home on it.

In any event, regulation of the use of the lake bottom is now in play.

Reimer mentioned one of the topics could be length and size of piers.

“There needs to be some kind of a permitting process,” he told me.

This spring the park board has been publicly chaffing at its lack of vote on the Lake Management Committee. Park Board President Mike Zellman made the pitch to the Crystal Lake Council.

For a decade of so, regulation of use of the lake has been governed by an intergovernmental agreement between the Village of Lakewood and the City of Crystal Lake.

Most on the Crystal Lake City Council saw no problem with adding the park board, but the Lakewood Village Board apparently thought there was no reason to give up the power it now has to protect its South Shore constituents’ rights to use their five beaches and the lake surface, where police power is exerted by the two municipalities.

Most of Crystal Lake is actually located within the boundaries Village of Lakewood, as you can see from the above map. You can see that most of the lake that can be used for water skiing or tubing is within the boundaries of Lakewood.

Lakewood now polices the lake.

This makes logistical sense since the Lakewood Village Hall is on the lake front next to West Beach.

There have been complaints, however, that the patrol issued only warning tickets last year. Surely, some of the offenses were worthy of a citation, the argument goes.

Lakewood residents foresee a 2-1 vote situation where the control is by the two other governments, the vast majority of whose residents never use the lake. They remember the multi-decade effort by park board members to ban power boats from Crystal Lake.

When it became obvious during last August’s flooding that boat wakes were harming lake front property, especially on the North Shore, it was the park district that took the initiative to ask the Crystal Lake City Council and the Lakewood Village Board to issue a “no wake” rule.

Reimer pointed out that the park district got the complaints, but had no power to remedy the problem.

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CCAPOA’s Gate 9 pier can be seen on top. Gate 3′s pier is seen empty right after installation in 2008 and full during the flooding in August 2007. I’m told the
concrete structures in the foreground were part of the ice house operation. Below is Crystal Lake Park Board President Mike Zellman urging the Crystal Lake City Council to talk about adding the park district to the Joint Lake Management Committee. Below is a map of Crystal Lake, the lake, showing only the northernmost and eastern section right in front of the Main Beach actually being in the City of Crystal Lake. At the bottom are pictures of the Lakewood Village Hall and the patrol boat on one of the days last August when Crystal Lake was so high. All pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them. The bottom picture was taken May 6, 2008, the day the temperature was over 80 degrees. The boat and skier are in front of the Main Beach Park nearer than not to the outlet.