Here it comes...

Last year, the lake level got to 103% - it came up fast. This year, when discussing the low levels, I frequently heard, "This lake can rise a foot a day with this kind of runoff..."

I had my doubts. The Hydromet data showed that we are up .9' in the past 24 hours - close enough. Two days with warmer temps, and then the precip, and the runoff has begun in earnest. It's clear that we are going to see higher water flow before this is over.

Joan and I are scheduled to have the next two days off (our weekend); Mother Nature is supposed to rain on us, but the sun is out this morning. I'll have to drive by the marina to see what the water looks like before we head out for the day.

When the rain comes...

From a Beatles' song. With our marina bay water slowly rising, we are all in anticipation of getting to do what we came here to do. Unlike last year, where I worked a bunch of days without a day off when we first got here, they are cutting hours... I volunteered to take the day off, and the manager quickly agreed to that. Then, he took the day off, too. We have done as much of the prep work as possible, now we just need enough water to launch boats, kayaks, and canoes, and we will be plenty busy. The flow out the dam has been closed down by nearly half, the water coming into the lake is increasing... we had about a 6" rise in the lake overnight; doesn't sound like much, but the lake is 16 miles by 8 miles - that is a lot of water. I'm expecting to see similar increases the next couple weeks. Our temps in the 70s have dropped to the 50s, with light precip off and on all day. Clouds obscured the mountains.

With the rain and low visibility, there would have been little interest in boat cruises and rentals, even if we had more water. I think we may be able to get the small stuff in the water by this weekend. The rainy weather is forecast for the next 7 days... should be an interesting week.

Nice while it lasted...

We had several beautiful weather days... I actually worked up a sweat yesterday! 70s yesterday and today. And this evening, the clouds and rain moved in, with more of the same predicted for the next 7 days. The warm temps will kickstart the runoff, and the precip will accelerate it further. The lake level is up slightly, an upward trend for the last few days.

People coming to the marina are surprised that we have no water when much of the west and midwest has an abundance... it becomes clear when we explain that our low water is in anticipation of expected conditions. I think this is the start of it.

There is still much to be done here, but so much of it can't be done until we have enough water to float our docks and launch our boats. Soon... well, probably not soon enough for me to win the "boats in" pool. ;-)

Stuff to do...

My project for the day: wash the Rendezvous, clean the dock "skid marks" on her side, and get her waxed. I had two dock wranglers and a first mate working with me to get the job done. An hour and a half into that, I got a call that we were launching the rescue boat for a trip out to Elk Island to take a carpenter and two wranglers out there to check out the equipment. With the "waxing crew" hard at it on the cruise boat, we launched the small metal boat at the next marina up the lake since we still don't have enough water.

It was a beautiful day as we made the run towards Elk Island... and uneventful until the depth finder went from 70 feet to 5 feet in a heartbeat! I pulled the power off and raised the engine as I heard that most unpleasant grinding sound... yes, it was a "field test" of the new prop guard I installed yesterday... unintentional. I sent one of the stouter guys forward, and we floated off. Our landing site at Elk Island was nearly unrecognizable with the low water. With my boss eyeballing the bottom from the bow, I put the boat on the rocky shoreline. The four of them hiked up to the meal site while I stayed with the boat. My boss called it "getting paid to get a tan", but while I waited, I checked the prop and motor - the new guard did its job reasonably well. I had time to shoot some images while I waited...


There will be some repairs needed on some of our Elk Island facilities, but I would guess we are a couple weeks away from having enough water to run this in the cruise boats. The boss wanted the rescue boat at our docks, so coming back was quite a challenge... this was the same area I "poled" the depths with the kayak last week, and I know it is shallow. With two guys on the bow to look down into the water, we slowly made our way back to our docks.

From there, it was back to the cleaning and waxing - the Rendezvous is looking good!

The water level is slowly coming up (a few hundredths of a foot the past couple days), but at least it is an increasing trend.

After the work today, every muscle is achy - even my hair hurts. I am looking forward to enough water to be driving the cruise boats.

Training...

We started working with dock hands and first mates today on how to tie off the cruise boats... there are a lot of ways to tie a cleat knot, apparently, but only one of them is acceptable. We got to see many "alternatives," but in the end, they all came to understand why we tie off properly. Then, on to other useful knots on boats. I did more work on the cruise boat and added a few things to our rescue boat. Still waiting for water in the marina basin - we have an enthusiastic crew!

All's well...

Three big things to deal with on a day off: Coast Guard inspection, getting the parts shipped for the landing gear for our 5th wheel, and waiting to hear about a water project in the campground that could potentially affect us for the next month and a half. Most all of it worked out as best case scenerio: our CG inspection went well (I poured over that boat for days); after being told that parts were back-ordered on the landing gear, I called the gear manufacturer and they are sending the parts direct; and, while they will be working on the campground water, they will only turn our water off for 4 to 6 hours at a time... and that's livable, since we can go for days on our freshwater tank.

Joan only worked until 2:00... on her day off (computer training for activities). I did laundry. Good news on all of the stuff above, and just normal "takin' care of business" with the rest of it. The weather was better than predicted, but not nice enough to take the kayak out.

Now, if we can get some water in the lake, we'll be ready to get on with our season.

Going to Jackson...

The first day we both had off. Well, I had it off; Joan had to go in for a few hours this morning (manager stuff). It was time for a grocery run, so we were off to Jackson. On the way there, we took the inside loop through the park. There doesn't seem to be any change in the amount of water going through the dam, which is a bunch. Here's the dam Blonde checking it out...


A calm morning, it made for a beautiful image...


Mt. Moran...


Along the way, we passed a series of traffic jams. Around here, they are called "bear jams". Being more specific, today we went by a moose jam, a buffalo jam, and an elk jam... cars pulled mostly off the road, people leaving car doors open and engines running...


After lunch at the Cadillac Grill in Jackson, we wandered around a bit. Checked in with an RV place to see about getting our jacks repaired, bought diesel for $3.99 (52¢ per gallon less than our last fuel stop), and hit the grocery store - Smith's... good prices, excellent selection. I look forward to these weekly food excursions, especially the Devil Dogs!