In the fall of 2008, the city of Southfield opened a 50-acre nature preserve called Carpenter Lake. This is located along the Ravines Branch of the Rouge River, near 10 Mile and Inkster roads. I was interested to explore this as a place to hike and because I was not familiar with a lake near 10 Mile and was curious to see what it looked like.
I hiked on the well-marked trail and it took a while to get to the lake, which was down toward 9 Mile. When I saw it, I realized this was a lake where my friends and I hung out as preteens in the early 1960s. Only we knew it simply as “the ravines.” It actually is an impoundment on the Rouge River and not a natural lake.
Across more than 40 years came memories of wintertime duck hunting with bow and arrow near the dam forming the lake. Early Saturday morning, three or four of us would set out to hike three miles over snow-covered streets to get there. We were careful to keep our bows unstrung and slung from our shoulders, which was our (questionable) understanding of the legal manner to transport such hunting weapons.
Below the dam on the frozen lake, the Rouge River resumed in a pool of open water usually holding several dozen ducks. The ducks were reluctant to fly away from the pool because, in this pre-global warming time, there were few other stretches of the Rouge or other nearby water that were not frozen over.
When we reached the woods on the east side of the open water, we’d string the bows, notch arrows, and creep through the trees to get as close as we could to the ducks. When a hush fell across the entire flock, we knew they were about to flee, so we’d let fly with the arrows. Even though there might be 50 ducks jammed together in a small area, it was true what they said: you need to pick out an individual target in the flock to get anything.
We almost always got one duck and sometimes two. It then was a production to retrieve the bird and our errant arrows from the water using long branches without falling in. Further, we needed to hurry, because there was a house atop the hill on the other side, and we were sure the owners would call police if they saw what we were up to.
Then it was back deep into the woods for lunch. We gathered wood for a fire and plucked and gutted the duck using snow to wipe it clean. We put the duck on an improvised spit over the fire and unpacked various side dishes smuggled from home – bread, apples, salt and pepper, Twinkies, cookies, pop. As the duck cooked, we sliced off slabs to make sandwiches, beginning with the outer layer (and biggest kid) first and progressing in slices closer to the bone as they cooked. When the duck was gone, we polished off the dessert items. Heaven! Still among the best meals I’ve ever had.
Then it was time to hike the miles back home as shadows grew across the winter landscape. Arriving home near the end of the afternoon, I’d answer any questions as to how I spent my day with “Oh, me and my friends got some lunch.”
Celebrating 25 Years 