I usually visit the UW-Madison arboretum every weekend, even if it’s for a short walk, and when I go, I like to stop by Big Spring and watch the water flow for a little while. It’s calming in a way that I don’t completely understand but I enjoy nonetheless.

Today I visited Big Spring in a novel way, at least for me: by paddling across Lake Wingra in my kayak. Well, by paddling around Lake Wingra, to be entirely accurate. And I had a little trouble finding the right inlet to the spring. I paddled up one long, narrow inlet that suddenly deadended in a field of reeds. There must have been a spring back there, too, but it wasn’t the spring I was looking for.

The inlet to Big Spring was a little further on, and rather obvious. If I’d come to it first by paddling clockwise around the lake, I wouldn’t have had any trouble at all.