The lake life

Published by The Boston Globe

The sun has just moved out from behind the clouds, and families who want to beat the Sunday crowd have already set up camp at the dozens of picnic tables surrounding the lake.

Colorful hammocks sway between the trees. Folding chairs, bags of charcoal, and towers of food will sustain families for the entire day.

A little boy stands at the edge of the lake near his family’s picnic area, whacking the water’s surface with a lime-green foam noodle.

“Brian! Don’t scare them!’’ shouts Fahely Nunez, 11. She tries to coax Brian Ramerez, 6, into the water, but he’s too afraid of the fish.

Stretching 5 miles from Wayland south to Natick, , the three ponds that make up Lake Cochituate seem a world away from the bustling shopping centers along nearby Route 9. While picnickers and swimmers stick near the state beach on Middle Pond, venturesome boaters make their way to the other ponds via tunnels under the roadways.



Nunez and her family travel to Lake Cochituate from East Boston every weekend during the summer for a daylong barbecue with the Ramerez family, their friends from church. The families, originally from Brazil and El Salvador, have been coming for about five years to enjoy nature’s beauty, said Nunez.

Soon, Brian is digging in the sand with a stick as his noodle floats away.

“Go get it!’’ he yells to Nunez. A man standing at the shore offers to retrieve the pool toy, but as he tests the water’s temperature with his feet, he swears loudly and abandons the rescue effort.

At the picnicking area, Gerardo Caceres, 25, is chatting with his family and friends. Caceres, an ambulance medic, makes it to Lake Cochituate from Waltham once or twice a year, but he’s been coming since he was 14.

He met one of his best friends at the park, learned how to kayak, canoe, and swim on the lake, and almost drowned once when his canoe flipped over. Luckily, a nearby swimmer helped him get his canoe back to shore.

“People help each other here. There’s a lot of culture, different people from different countries,’’ he said. “I’ve learned a lot of things.’’

A group of middle-aged people drag kayaks to the shore. The Appalachian Mountain Club is hosting its “stroke and rescue’’ clinic, instructing 10 participants about water sport safety.

Marjorie Bannish, a 69-year-old instructor from Pittsfield, says she likes Lake Cochituate because rentals are available and the park only charges $5 a car for parking.

“When you participate in life,’’ she said, “it keeps you alive.’’

9:17 a.m. Caceres has taken out a colorful kite, but the wind isn’t strong enough for it to take flight.

Children are splashing in the shallows near the kayaks, fishing with little pink nets.

Fahely Nunez wades down the shore, keeping cool while her father walks along the sand, carrying her pink flip-flops and a Dunkin’ Donuts coffee.

9:50 a.m. Les Roun, 38, is about to set up a hammock near a few picnic tables where his family is sitting. Roun, who works for Bank of New York Mellon, said he has been coming to Cochituate for some 15 years.

It’s the closest clean lake to his home in Lynn, he said.

His daughter Angelica, who is 2 weeks old, is here for her first time.

10 a.m. A busload of choir members from Mattapan arrive, unloading tureens of food.

10:10 a.m. Two brothers are loading up a fishing boat from the public boating launch.

Bob and Al Gray have been fishing here for more than 50 years, said Al, a 61-year-old safety inspector for the MBTA from Dracut. The brothers said they like to get away to fish after a long work week.

The lake is stocked with trout, salmon, and tiger muskellunge fish, but it’s also naturally home to largemouth bass, blue heron, and cormorants, according to the Friends of Cochituate State Park.

Because of PCB contamination, state officials advise children under 12, pregnant women, and nursing mothers not to eat any fish from the lake. And no one should eat its American eels.

Bob Gray, a 53-year-old letter carrier from Billerica, said he usually throws back the fish he catches.

“Especially the bass that give a good fight,’’ he said, “because I want to catch them again.’’

Down the shore past the kayak house, two women relax in lounge chairs at the water’s edge, wearing big, floppy hats to block the sun from their eyes. Lillian Raley, 84, said she and her friend come twice a week to sit by their favorite tree, enjoying its shade but also catching a bit of sun.

10:52 a.m. Kayakers in the safety clinic are lined up on the water, listening intently to their instructor.

Nearby, clusters of milfoil float just below the surface. The invasive weed is the biggest threat to Lake Cochituate, according to Bob Hall, president of the Friends of Cochituate. He lives along North Pond.

If milfoil is allowed to grow unchecked, he fears it could turn the lake into a swamp.

Last summer, North Lake was treated with a selective chemical to kill the milfoil, but he said the weed still invades the other two lakes.

Because the town of Natick gets water from an aquifer under the other lakes, the debate over chemical use has continued for years, said Hall. Divers suctioned some of the weed out of Middle Lake this spring.

Hall, who took his usual morning jog around the lake, often takes his boat for a ride through the three ponds, honking the boat’s horn loudly as he passes through the tunnels.

“It’s 15 minutes outside Boston, and you feel like you’re in New Hampshire,’’ he said.

11:32 a.m. A windsurfer is trying to take off from the shore near the kayak house, but his green sail keeps falling over.

11:36 a.m. The windsurfer is inching away from the shore — it looks like he could make it.

11:40 a.m. Windsurfer down.

11:41 a.m. A smoky haze has formed over a woodchip clearing in the picnic area, smelling of roasting corn on the cob and chicken.

“Hotdogs! Hamburgers! Ready!’’ shouts a woman from St. Angelica’s Church Choir in Mattapan.

Two tables covered in food — watermelon, rice, fish, steak, chicken, and salmon — will feed the 50 or so picnickers.

2:59 p.m. The Mattapan choir is singing softly, accompanied by bongos and a guitar.

The sun is behind the clouds again, but in the fields behind the picnic area, a soccer game has begun between three young men and two women. A little girl in a diaper and ponytail toddles by the tree stumps, which are serving as goal posts.

Although there are only a few games today, soccer is usually one of the most popular activities at the park, said Hall.

The Friends of Cochituate hope to raise money to install soccer and volleyball nets, along with their other efforts like restoring an old building on North Lake, said Hall.

Because of state budget cuts, the park’s regular staff members are down to three from four last year, according to a state spokeswoman, but the seasonal staff positions remained at 20.

3:14 p.m. More people are arriving, but it seems as though afternoon siesta has begun at Lake Cochituate.

A man, woman, little girl, and brown Hello Kitty doll are stretched out in a neon green- and red-striped hammock.

A few trees away, a cluster of four hammocks rock back and forth; a mother and daughter are cuddled under a blanket.

5:10 p.m. After everyone’s nap, the swimming area is hopping. A few people are knee-deep in the water, casting fishing lines. Clouds, however, loom threateningly behind the trees.

The choir’s drums can be heard in the distance.

5:27 p.m. Tiny raindrops begin to fall. The lifeguard on the beach starts asking everyone to move away from the water.

5:37 p.m. Families are breaking down tents, packing up food, and shushing crying children. Old women with rain bonnets head for their cars.

But the drum is still beating, and soccer games continue.

5:44 p.m. The rain has picked up, and most people are carrying coolers and backpacks to the parking lot.

The drum has finally stopped.

The story of the lake

Lake Cochituate means “the torrent’’ or “place of rushing water’’ in the language of the Algonquin tribe.

►History:
Cochituate became a state park in 1947. Before that, the lake was Boston’s original water supply. It is 60 feet deep and 5 miles long with 26 miles of shoreline.

►State park entrance:
43 Commonwealth Road (Route 30), Natick

►Activities offered:
swimming, boating, fishing, windsurfing, canoeing, kayaking, picnicking

►Number of visitors:
Between 175,000 and 200,000 annually

SOURCES: Cochituate State Park, the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, the Friends of Cochituate State Park