Relaxing on the Reservoir OR Basking in the Boat

A few weeks ago, we took a bit of a trip down to Lake Monroe for Father's Day with my father-in-law. He's always been a fan of the lake, and honestly, I can see why.

After all, there's water and trees and stuff.

The lake is a popular vacation recreation location (and other words ending in "tion"), partially because it's next to Indiana's only Federal Wilderness Area. (The rest are all state parks.)

Let's do a quick visual tour:

We started at the state park-run boat rental. Please note we decided to go for the fishing boat rather than the large party-boat.

As you can see, we opted for the highest quality craft on the lake.
Note that we didn't choose the one with duck tape holding parts of it together.

It's also worth noting that I did none of the boat driving on this trip. This is partially because my father-in-law enjoys driving the boat, and partially because even on a lake I'm a total landlubber.

Fortunately the clouds cooperated dramatically for pictures.

Since the Lake Monroe shore isn't privately owned, you can pretty much beach wherever you want, which is a novelty for me. The last time I was out on a lake in a boat was Lake Tahoe something like 15 years ago, and that lakeshore is a privately owned as you can get.

Our sturdy vessel and secluded beach...

This meant that if you were willing to deal with a slightly rocky beach, you could easily find a place with no one else hanging around.

Which, of course, we totally did.

Not to mention a secluded swimming spot.

Is this a cove? A small bay? Whatever it is, we were the only ones there.

I was surprised at how easy it was to access a bit of wilderness and forest life.

BAM. Access.

Also, I was surprised how different it is to swim in a lake out here compared to, say, lakes of the rocky Sierra Nevadas or the Pacific Ocean. Once past the shore rocks, the bottom of the lake had a thoroughly muddy texture which I really wasn't used to.

Anyway, after a bit of sun and tooling around...

Pictured: Tooling.

...We headed back to shore. All in all, a good relaxing and enjoyable day.

Then I decided to find out what the heck the deal was with Lake Monroe, and the story behind it, which was actually pretty interesting.

So I'll start with a name drop:

President James Monroe, a distant ancestor of mine.

Dude look just like me, right?

Since a lot of Indiana was settled in the early 1800s, when he was president, I assumed the lake had been named after him.

And it was. Sort of.

The lake is in Monroe County, and parts of Brown County, but mostly Monroe County. That county was, in fact, settled when James was president, and thus named after him. (We're family, so I get to call him James.)

Fast forward about 140 years, long after Jim (again, family) has gone from leader to legacy. Bloomington and Monroe County need water and a lake seems like a pretty good idea, so they start making a reservoir in 1960. Which explains the muddy, thick, "was totally farmland" bottom of the lake.

But rather than call it something like Salt Creek Reservoir, they decided to give it a little more dignity, and went with Lake Monroe.

To be fair, it's pretty frikkin huge...
...What exactly is the Reservoir/Lake size cutoff?

So the lake is named after the county which is named after Jimbo. (That's probably too far, even for family.)

But regardless, the lake is pretty cool, provides a bunch of water for the area, and has a large state park and federal wilderness area next to it.

Which isn't a bad feat for a president 140 years after he left office.