WaterSki Magazine

WATERSKI Magazine
2001-06-14 15:00:00 | 70 views |
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As you leave the Minneapolis metro area heading northwest on I-94, you suddenly find yourself in no man's land. For the next 160 miles you travel through one gigantic field of unidentifiable growth, all of it deer crossing. You make great time all the way to Dalton – about 60 miles from Fargo, North Dakota – where you start to see lakes abutting both sides of the highway. You exit onto County Road 35 wanting to ask someone for directions. But there's no store and no gas station, just fresh air. You turn west on the desolate county two-laner. A couple miles later, out of the clear blue yonder, water is upon you, practically licking your hubcaps on both sides. This is Ten Mile Lake.

“There aren't many people this way,” says Mike Schultz, who co-founded the Upper Midwest Ski Club on Ten Mile Lake in the mid-1980s. “We've always come here because you can actually ski and relax at the same time, which isn't possible on most lakes.”

And Otter Tail County – home of Ten Mile – has plenty of them. Of Minnesota's 10,000 lakes, more than 10 percent are within the county, 1,048 to be exact. That makes Otter Tail arguably the most lake-heavy county in the nation. Ten Mile, which got its name from its distance to the nearest Indian trading post, stands out from the rest.

Because there is only a smattering of homes, and one public launch on the south end, the lake is solitary. Barefooting is the favorite pastime on the northwest side, where high banks up to the road block breezes. The best time in midsummer is 8 or 9 p.m., when the water completely flattens as the sun takes a slow drop.

“You have all that perfect water for a couple hours,” explains Schultz, “and nobody is out here to take any of it from you.” – Robert Stephens