The Forest Lake

This is a small lake in the hills behind our house.  Walking up to it used to be one of my favourite trips. There was a good path all the way up to the lake and it took about 45 minutes to get up there.
Ten years ago in December Storm Ivar blasted through and all the forest around that path was brought down. I blipped the destruction on the last day of 2013.
It took about 18 months before the felled forest was removed and I found the path was obliterated. I could still get up there but instead of striding along I had to thread my way through a fairly destroyed landscape.  Today I thought I'd take a walk up there and see if any sort of natural path had appeared.
It hadn't! Instead the valley was filled with 3 meter high birches which it was impossible to get through. (Nature fills the gaps in very quickly!)
So instead I walked the ridges alongside the valley. The forest is much more open there and the trees grow in a very thin soil. Strangely, despite being apparently more exposed, they were not affected to any great extent by the storm. It was a very good walk, weaving through the trees over moss and undergrowth, coming across surprise views to the distant horizon, and even finding a few short stretches of path, where the deer and elk regularly move. I was walking where very few people walk and I felt I could easily come across some wildlife. I kept my camera at the ready but saw nothing other than birds.
Eventually I glimpsed the lake through the trees and dropped down to a small path made by those who fish the lake. (There's a fireplace to grill your catch, there was a short rod left on the bench, large fish were jumping, and all ironically next to a large "No Fishing" notice! See extra.)
I thought about swimming, but also considered how every biting insect would descend on me as I dried off and got dressed after I'd swam.
I walked home using another path on the far side of the lake. It was longer, involved a long road section, and was boring but it was quicker!
Once home I gathered some clean clothes and Jan and I drove to our local swimming lake for a quick cool down. It was really delicious swimming and a breeze kept the insects away.
I hadn't seen any wildlife on my walk but late in the evening Jan spotted a hare loping about in "our" field outside the house. We don't see many hares here so it was a bit of a novelty and we can hope it's the start of a trend...