I went for a walk out to Picnic Point for the first time since moving to Madison. It’s sort of a Madison landmark, so I’m a little embarrassed it took me this long to finally visit it,  but I don’t go to the university campus that much, so I’m going to use that as my excuse.

Picnic Point is a little spit of land on the west end of the campus that sticks out about a quarter mile into Lake Mendota. There are trails running up both sides and across the peninsula, fire rings where people can do what you would expect people to do in a place called Picnic Point, and way out on the end there’s a beach where boaters tie up to pass the afternoon.

Near the middle of the peninsula I found an iron water pump, the kind that used to be in every state park and rest stop in Wisconsin. I haven’t seen one in years, but then I haven’t been to a state park in years. Maybe they’re still all over the place.

These pumps have a bubbler hanging off the side; working the pump arm up and down a dozen or so times filled a reservoir that kept the bubbler going so you could stop pumping and enjoy a long, cool drink of crisp, clear well water.

There was also a spout under the reservoir where you could fill up a bucket or a water jug. Pulling up a knob on the reservoir would divert the water from the bubbler to the spout, but we discovered that if we put a hand over the spout when we pulled up on the knob, the bubbler turned into a water cannon, shooting a spout into the air. The harder and faster we pumped on the handle, the higher the spout went. Unfortunately, the pump I found on Picnic Point was locked up, so I didn’t get to see if I could still make it do that.