Memphre, the Lake Monster

Lake monsters are monsters that live under lakes. They are slimy creatures that are a mix between a massive snake, and a water dinosaur. There are lake monsters who live in almost every lake, the lake monsters live under rocks in the bottom of the lake, but their houses are very hard to find. Some lake monsters are small and some are big. Some look scary and some don’t. But what they all have in common is they are all mean. What that means is not that they are human eaters, but that they will make big waves or make the water cold or something like that. Lake monsters will only occasionally eat someone.

My personal encounter with a lake monster was at Lake Memphremagog, which is partly in Vermont and partly in Canada. The lake was carved by a glacier many years ago. The lake monster that lives in Memphremagog is named Memphre. Memphre is a female lake monster who is shy. She only comes out when there are not that many people around. When I encountered Memphre, I was swimming in a particular part of the lake that was 300 feet deep. The cliffs are high and steep on both sides of the water. It was a narrow part of the lake where there was not that much boat traffic so it was an easy spot for Memphre to lerk. Memphre is a calm lake monster who only changes the temperature or movement of the water with the occasional human snack. She likes to mess with people who are fishing. For example, she will either scare the fish away from the area you are fishing in, or tug slightly on your line so you think you have a fish. But she never shows herself. When you reel in the line, your hook is there but your bait is gone. Only the smartest of fishermen will know that it is Memphre because they can tell when the water slightly changes color, a common trick of hers. On the day that I encountered her, I was swimming in the water from the boat to the tube that was attached behind the boat with a long rope. As I swam toward the tube, I realized it was not getting closer, no matter how hard I swam. As I stopped and treaded water, while trying to figure out if there was a slight current carrying the tube away from me, the water temperature suddenly dropped a noticeable amount. All of a sudden, it felt like my toes were in a bucket of ice. I stopped and decided to turn around. When I looked back at the boat, it seemed even farther away then seconds before. Then I quickly turned my head and the tube was only five feet away from me. I quickly swam to the tube and caught my breath. Looking back on the event, I had no idea that it was Memphre. I thought I was just tired and had gotten too much sun. But after I heard other stories of Memphre, I definitely knew it had been her!