Green Lake: Field Notes

Touch: The lake is dry, but moist just beneath, and in the middle the mud is deep. On top of the mud is a layer of white powdery stuff, the consistency powdered sugar perhaps, or maybe salt mixed with ash. There is a wet clumpy form that resembles moss or fungus in patches all across, and a crusty dry form, almost like corral, but brittle. The lake itself has layers, dig deep and you’ll find mud, slick against the powder-dry fingers that touch them.

Layers down, layers in and out as well. The edge is dry, hard not brittle, like soft ceramic tiles. Further in you begin to sink, maybe three inches into the crust. It feels spongy like wet felt to walk on but not touch.

Smell: The smell is distinct but hard to describe. There is a clayish damp sour smell, like plaster perhaps with a hint of plant decay, or grout mixed with seaweed that’s sat in the sun, or shrimp that’s just been shelled. It’s not a bad smell, just interesting. It’s a thick white smell

Sight: The lake itself isn’t very green. Looking from the North East a 100 feet from the lake’s edge I can see that the right side is covered in a layer of white, resembling, or a t least reminding me of salt flats. From my perspective the left side is a visible puddle of water, apparently the lowest part of the lake. All across it’s also reminiscent of snow, footprints scattered across the surface forming odd patterns all across.

Taste: It tastes like baking soda, sharp on the surface, flatter the deeper I dig. The taste stays in my mouth long after I’ve spit it out, still present the following morning when I wake up.

Sound: Silence. An occasional bird chirp, an amplified voice of a far off student.

 

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